Peter Benchley Ocean Award Winners Named

In 2009 I was honored to present the Benchley Youth Award to our friend Zander Srodes for his tireless work for sea turtles.

In 2014 we are thrilled that Casey Sokolovic will receive this prestigious award, presented to her at our beloved California Academy of Sciences. Go, Casey, go!

Press Advisory                              
For Immediate Release                 
Jan. 27, 2013                                

Contact: David Helvarg, Blue Frontier Campaign, 202-491-6296, 510-778-8470, Helvarg@bluefront.org
 
The seventh annual Peter Benchley Ocean Awards will take place the evening of Friday May 30, 2014 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.  This is the world’s preeminent ocean award and the only major awards program dedicated to recognizing excellence in marine conservation solutions across a wide range of categories including science, policy, media, youth, exploration and citizen activism.

Named for the author of Jaws, the awards celebrate the life and legacy of Peter Benchley who dedicated much of his life to the protection of sharks and their ocean habitat. The awards, presented by the non-profit Blue Frontier and marine conservationist Wendy Benchley, celebrate exceptional efforts leading to the protection of our ocean, coasts and the communities that depend on them.

On May 30th, each of this year’s winners will be presented with a Benchley Mantas award sculpture designed by famed marine artist Wyland.

The day after the awards there will be a Peter Benchley Seminar with speakers and panels from the awards at San Francisco’s Aquarium of the Bay at Pier 39.

This year’s winners, nominated by the marine conservation community, include:

Christopher Benchley Youth Award – Casey Sokolovic

16-year-old Casey Sokolovic is the founder of Love a Sea Turtle (L.A.S.T.).  She first became active at age 8 when her class took a field trip to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital in North Carolina.  To help out the injured and sick animals she began baking and selling turtle-shaped cookies.  Soon she was selling t-shirts and holding 5 and 10K trail runs as fundraisers.  Her efforts inspired a Fair Trade Sea Turtle coffee blend now sold nationwide with 10 percent going to the Turtle Hospital.  Casey has also created a summer camp program through the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Carolina to connect students from the watershed to the sea.  She works with other activists including 2013 winner Sean Russell and speaks about sea turtles to young people and adults across the U.S.A.

For Excellence in National Stewardship – EU Commissioner Maria Damanaki

As Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries for the European Union, Greek politician and author Maria Damanaki has initiated major and enforceable efforts to end Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing both in the EU and across the globe. She has worked to reduce bycatch (the capture and killing of non-target species of marine wildlife) and promoted sustainable fishing practices within the EU.  She has also focused on a more balanced and environmentally sustainable ‘Blue Economy’ for Europe including a recently launched action plan to facilitate the development of the renewable ocean energy sector.   

For Excellence in Science – Dr. Steve Gaines  

Steve Gaines is Dean at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara and a Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology.  For years Steve has applied his research to finding solutions to seemingly intractable problems.  His work building sustainable fisheries, effective marine reserves and ocean wilderness parks and addressing the challenges of exotic species and climate change in the ocean environment have proven vitally important to the health of our blue planet.  Equally valuable is his work building scalable solutions through partnerships among researchers, industry, non-profit groups and governments and the outstanding role he’s played in the education and mentoring of the next generation of marine scientists.   

For Excellence in Policy – Leon Panetta

The Honorable Leon Panetta was born and raised in Monterey California where he later became a member of Congress before going on to become Chief of Staff in the Clinton White House and CIA Director and Secretary of Defense under the Obama Administration.  IN 2002 and 2003 Panetta chaired the Pew Oceans Commission, the first blue ribbon panel to report on the state of our public seas in over 35 years.  That report helped inspire a federal commission to reach similar conclusions on the need to protect the health of the ocean, and also led to a U.S. National Ocean Policy now being implemented.  As a member of Congress, Panetta played a keystone role in the establishment of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the largest ocean reserve in the U.S. at the time it was established.  His love and concern for the coast and ocean and the communities that depend on them remains undiminished.

For Excellence in Media – Gabriela Cowperthwaite

First time documentary director Gabriela Cowperthwaite has created a powerful work of investigative reporting in 2013’s Blackfish.  The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and has since been broadcast on CNN, in theatrical distribution and on Netflix.  It’s caused consternation at SeaWorld Entertainment (owned by the Blackstone Group) by raising issues of worker safety, corporate duplicity and the treatment of captive whales following the death of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010, killed by an aggressive bull orca named Tilikum that had been in captivity for 30 years.  Caowperthwaite’s work has led to civic actions and protests and has informed and inspired people to act as engaged citizens.

For Excellence in Exploration - Prince Khaled bin Sultan & The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation

In 2000 his Royal Highness Prince Khaled bin Sultan of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an avid scuba diver and marine conservationist, established the Living Oceans Foundation as a non-profit research organization around the concept of “Science Without Borders.”  In the years since its major research vessel The Golden Shadow has explored many of our blue planet’s coral rich seas producing new and detailed maps of coral reef ecosystems, creating valuable new databases for science, promoting a new generation of coral researchers and newly applied sensing and mapping technologies.  As the foundation expands it will continue, through its explorations, to help governments, scientists and policy makers better understand, protect and restore these most endangered of marine habitats.

Hero of the Seas – Captain Charles Moore

Captain Charles Moore grew up in and on the Pacific Ocean sailing from a young age.  In 1997, returning from a yacht race between California and Hawaii, he veered from the usual sea route and saw an ocean he had never known. "Every time I came on deck to survey the horizon, I saw a soap bottle, bottle cap or a shard of plastic waste bobbing by. Here I was in the middle of the ocean and there was nowhere I could go to avoid the plastic..." He founded the Algalita Marine Research Institute in 1994 "to protect and restore the marine environment.”   After discovering "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch" Algalita developed protocols for monitoring marine and beach micro-plastics now in use worldwide.  His over 100,000 miles of research voyages and the media attention his published papers have generated, familiarized people worldwide with the threat of plastic waste in the ocean.   His work has helped inspire dozens of activist groups and civic movements to reduce plastic waste at its source.  His book, Plastic Ocean was published in 2010.

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41 Previous Peter Benchley Ocean Awards recipients include Presidents Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica, Anote Tong of Kiribati and Macky Sall of Senegal, U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Ed Markey, Rep. Sam Farr, Academy Award winning director Louie Psihoyos, Washington Post reporter and author Juliet Eilperin, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Geraldine Knatz, Retired Navy Captain Don Walsh, Admiral Thad Allen (USCG Ret.), and marine scientists Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Dr. Nancy Rabalais, Dr. Nancy Knowlton and Dr. Jeremy Jackson

Past Masters of Ceremony include explorers Philippe Cousteau, Sylvia Earle and syndicated cartoonist Jim Toomey.

Additional background information on the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards and Blue Frontier is available online at www.bluefront.org. To arrange interviews or for more information on the 2014 recipients and awards, contact David Helvarg.

Contact: David Helvarg – 510-778-8470 C. 202-491-6296  Helvarg@bluefront.org