Sea Heroes of the Year: Where Are They Now?
What is a Sea Hero, anyway? Each year for nearly five years, Scuba Diving readers have nominated divers who are making significant action-oriented contributions to marine conservation for our Sea Heroes awards. Oris Watches USA sponsors the awards and presents an Oris Aquis Date watch to five Sea Heroes each year, selected from your nominees. At the end of the year, a panel of Scuba Diving editors selects from among those five the Sea Hero of the Year, who receives a $5,000 cash prize from Oris Watches USA to further his or her ocean conservation eforts. How have those Oris cash awards supported the work of our Sea Heroes from 2011 through 2014? Read above — and then go to scubadiving.com/seaheroes to nominate your 2015 Sea Hero today.
Shawn Heinrichs
FILMMAKER, ACTIVIST
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Heinrichs’ 2011 Sea Hero of the Year grant was leveraged fourfold through matching grants, enabling the purchase of a full-time patrol boat in Misool, Raja Ampat, in Indonesia. In 2014 he helped to bring about the establishment of Indonesia as the world's largest manta sanctuary; contributed to two recently completed film projects,_ Racing Extinction_ and Guardians of Raja Ampat; and debuted his Tigress Shark short film that helped persuade the Australian government to rescind a shark-cull program.
Jill Heinerth
CAVE DIVER, FILMMAKER
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
The 2012 Sea Hero of the Year has traveled the world reaching out to people about her We Are Water Project in classrooms, churches and clubhouses. “The Sea Hero support has been a great help to help me reach out to others about water literacy,” says Heinerth, honored this year by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Along with Jane Goodall, the Dalai Lama and Stephen Hawking, she contributed a message about protecting water resources for future generations to the new book, Global Chorus.
Courtesy Rick MacPherson
ORGANIZER, ACTIVIST
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Our 2013 Sea Hero of the Year spent 2014 working with many island nations around the Caribbean to help demonstrate how investments in shark protection are also insurance policies on coral-reef health, citing compelling science that is beginning to demonstrate how apex reef predators like sharks can have a mitigating effect on reef health. “Decision-makers might not immediately see the value of sharks, but they can clearly understand how their economies benefit from coral-reef tourism,” MacPherson says.
Ken Nedimyer
FOUNDER
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
After receiving his Sea Hero of the Year award at the 2014 DEMA Show, Nedimyer almost immediately returned to the field in Bonaire, where more than 1,300 nursery-raised staghorn and elkhorn corals were planted, and a new nursery installed. The program Nedimyer initiated is focused on engaging dive shops and resorts throughout Bonaire to join reef-restoration efforts by planting the right corals in the right places. He plans to travel to Jamaica and Mustique to set up nurseries there early this year.
eNewsletterResolution: I will subscribe to Scuba Diving magazine. ;)
What is a Sea Hero, anyway? Each year for nearly five years, Scuba Diving readers have nominated divers who are making significant action-oriented contributions to marine conservation for our Sea Heroes awards. Oris Watches USA sponsors the awards and presents an Oris Aquis Date watch to five Sea Heroes each year, selected from your nominees. At the end of the year, a panel of Scuba Diving editors selects from among those five the Sea Hero of the Year, who receives a $5,000 cash prize from Oris Watches USA to further his or her ocean conservation eforts. How have those Oris cash awards supported the work of our Sea Heroes from 2011 through 2014? Read above — and then go to scubadiving.com/seaheroes to nominate your 2015 Sea Hero today.
