The Peter Benchley Ocean Awards are unique in acknowledging outstanding achievement across many sectors of society leading to the protection of our ocean, coasts and the communities that depend on them. The awards celebration will be held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History featuring Sant Ocean Hall on May 11, 2017 in Washington, DC.
A brief overview of the 2017 award winners’ outstanding ocean conservation accomplishments follows:
2017 Excellence in National Stewardship
Susi Pudjiastuti, Indonesian Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
Susi Pudjiastuti, the Republic of Indonesia’s Minister of Marine Affairs, was appointed by President Joko Widodo in 2014. Minister Susi has aggressively protected her nation’s economic and environmental interests by targeting the multi-billion dollar pirate fishing operations of foreign fleets. She has courageously and audaciously led the blowing up and sinking of more than 200 illegal fishing boats caught poaching— a strong deterrent to organized crime efforts that have invaded and overfished Indonesia’s biologically rich waters for years. She has been instrumental in the freeing of slave crews held on many of these foreign vessels, and she’s led the freeing of illegally trapped whale sharks. Her work has proved vital to protecting Indonesia’s unique and world-famous marine ecosystem while also providing important economic benefits and sustaining the livelihoods of tens of thousands of domestic fishermen, their families and their communities.
2017 Excellence in Science
Dr. Ben Halpern
Dr. Halpern is a Professor of Marine Ecology and Conservation Planning at UC Santa Barbara. He is renowned for research that analyzes a broad range of complex questions spanning local to global scales, spatial population dynamics, food web interactions, and conservation planning for ocean and freshwater ecosystems, with the primary goal of informing and facilitating effective ocean conservation and resource management. Specifically, he has led and participated in several groundbreaking research projects that have advanced our understanding of the state of the world’s oceans and the potential for marine reserves to improve ocean condition, including the development and mapping of cumulative impact assessments and as the lead scientist for the Ocean Health Index project.
2017 Excellence in Science
Dr. Ussif Rashid Sumaila
Dr. Sumaila is Professor and Director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia. He received his Ph.D. from Bergen University, Norway, and holds a B.Sc. with honors from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria. Dr. Sumaila is deeply interested in how economics, through integration with ecology and other disciplines, can be used to help ensure that ocean resources are sustainably managed for the benefit of both current and future generations. His key recent contributions include 1) applying game theory to fisheries; 2) rethinking the nature of the discount rates applied in marine resource valuations, and formulating a highly original alternative, i.e., “intergeneration discount rates” 3) understanding the nature, amounts and effects of government subsidies on global fisheries 4) estimating the multiple benefits that would be obtained globally by rebuilding fish stocks and setting up marine reserves, including conceiving of the High Seas as a large marine reserve. His work is highly regarded by policy makers at the highest levels, resulting in invitations to give talks at the United Nations, the White House, the U.S. Congress, the European Parliament, the African Union, the British House of Lords, and the Canadian Parliament.
2017 Excellence in Policy
US Senator, Richard Blumenthal
Senator Blumenthal is a lifelong law enforcement leader and strong proponent for consumer protections, environmental stewardship, and labor rights. He was an early and outspoken voice in calling for the designation of the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts area as a marine national monument, the first in the Atlantic, to provide refuge to a myriad of unique species, to conserve a vital and productive ecosystem, and to help fuel many parts of New England’s economy. On September 15, 2016, President Obama designated the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which protects 4,913 square miles of ocean from Maine to New York (home to 25 million people), phases out commercial fishing, and prohibits other extractive activities such as mining and drilling. He sits of the Senate Committee for Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which has jurisdiction over a wide-ranging portfolio and plays a pivotal role in American business and addressing the important issue of climate change.
2017 Excellence in Policy
US Senator, Brian Schatz
Senator Schatz grew up in Hawai‘i where he developed a true passion and reverence for the ocean. Upon taking office in 2012, he made protecting the ocean one of his top priorities. In June 2016, he sent a proposal to President Barak Obama to expand Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument ten years after President George W. Bush signed the executive order establishing its original boundaries. That expansion made it the largest permanent conservation area in the world. Senator Schatz is an active member of two Senate committees with primary jurisdiction over the oceans. As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, he has helped develop and pass legislation to address toxic algae and dead zones, pirate fishing, coral reef conservation and seafood fraud. On the Senate Appropriations Committee, he has fought to ensure funding for important initiatives to study, protect, and restore the ocean, coasts and communities that depend on them.
2017 Excellence in Media
One World One Ocean
Educating the public to the challenges our ocean planet faces is a daunting task. That is why the One World One Ocean media campaign was launched in 2011 to bring even greater focus and advocacy on behalf of the ocean through the IMAX films that MacGillivray Freeman Films has been making for over 40 years. One World One Ocean has been dedicated to supporting and extending the reach and messaging of the Ocean based IMAX documentaries and their accompanying educational programming utilized in more than 200 IMAX Science Museum Theaters and aquariums in over 30 countries. The IMAX film experience is a powerful platform for larger than life storytelling, and for many of the more than 20 million people worldwide who experience them, it is the most visceral underwater ocean experience they may ever have. One World One Ocean is committed to the long-term release of its films and outreach programming across every platform including social media. With an overarching goal of continually reminding the public that healthy oceans are essential for life on earth, their campaign goals are focused on building public awareness around three key ocean issues including getting people to eat sustainable seafood, reducing plastic pollution, and expanding ocean protected areas to at least 10 percent of the ocean.
2017 Excellence in Solutions
Rhode Island Ocean Special Area Management Planning Team & The Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Regional Planning Bodies
To fully utilize and protect the ocean requires good planning which is why this year’s Solutions Award is going to three model programs that engage a wide range of ocean stakeholders including state, federal and tribal ocean resource managers to better understand, map and make use of our public seas for all citizens. Understanding our marine ecosystems and how they function and applying that shared knowledge to permitting and planning processes allows not only for better common allocation of public waters but reduces conflicts between different users in fisheries, marine farming, shipping and ports, offshore clean energy, national defense and marine parks, wildlife and habitat. These collaborative efforts have focused on identifying and carrying out best practices for early coordination in decision-making; developing, sharing, and using new and better ocean data; and implementing interjurisdictional coordination actions that address priority opportunities and challenges in each region. Most importantly, they are enabling us for the first time ever to make smarter, better coordinated planning decisions for long-term enhancement of our shared ocean resources, including fisheries stocks, transportation channels, and the leasing, permitting and development of offshore energy projects. That is why our awardees include three widely-admired planning bodies: the ocean SAMP team in Rhode Island and two ocean policy planning bodies in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic that were established under the U.S. National Ocean Policy of 2010. Each of these three groups has produced landmark ocean plans that will benefit all users and provide excellent models for other states and regions to engage in smart ocean planning. Ultimately, they are proving that securing our ocean future in a collaborative way is not only possible, but the best way forward.
2017 Christopher Benchley Youth Award
Carter and Olivia Ries
At the very young age of 7 and 8, this Georgia based brother and sister duo were motivated to start a ‘company’ that could help protect endangered species. The sight of sea turtles covered in oil and suffering due to the BP spill drove them to tears and into action—collecting and delivering much needed supplies to animal cleaning stations down in the Gulf. It was during this ocean clean-up adventure that they learned about the devastating impacts of plastic on ocean wildlife. This inspired them to create an award winning plastic pollution curriculum that is has been adopted nationwide and is currently being tested for distribution in the UK, Australia, and South Africa. Each time Olivia and Carter learned about the fate of threatened animals they were moved by despair and dreams of keeping them safe, so the emotional response ‘OMG’ seemed to be the perfect battle cry and foundation for their organization. ‘One More Generation,’ (OMG) is a 501 c3 they formed with their dad to help protect endangered species for the next generation of children to experience. Now 14 and 16, these young activists have spent more than half their lives committed to raising awareness and making big waves of change for ocean conservation.
2017 Hero of the Seas
Robin Alden / The Penobscot East Resource Center
Robin Alden, is the Founding Executive Director of the Penobscot East Resource Center (PERC), Maine’s center for coastal fisheries based in Stonington, Maine. She co-founded the organization in 2003 with a vision of collaboration—doing the education, collaborative research and policy to bring together the knowledge and expertise of fishermen, scientists, and policy makers in the shared management of Maine’s coastal fisheries. PERC’s focus is the most fishery dependent area of New England - the 150 miles of Maine coast from the Penobscot Estuary, east to the Canada’s Maritime Provinces and it works at state, regional and national levels to achieve its goals. Robin credits the urgent threat of climate change as an ironic motivator for spurring local, state and federal regulators to adopt new, more collaborative approaches to managing fisheries that include local fisherman and their unique knowledge in making tough, informed decisions. Under Robin’s direction, PERC’s innovative approach is internationally recognized as a model for sustainable fisheries. Robin has pursued this vision throughout her career: founding a regional fisheries newspaper, founding and running Maine Fishermen’s Forum, and as Maine Commissioner of Marine Resources. She is a recipient of the White House Champion of Change for Sustainable Fisheries.
Honored for Sustained Ocean Achievement
Joshua S. Reichert and the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Ocean Group
For almost three decades, Dr. Reichert, and the Oceans Group of the Pew Charitable Trusts, have relentlessly focused their attention on pushing decision-makers to protect the world’s oceans. The Group is known for its willingness to tackle large problems, incur significant risk, and pursue bold strategies in search of solutions to some of the most urgent problems facing life in the sea. These include overfishing, the absence of adequate enforcement systems needed to deter illegal fishing; the widespread use of dirty gear, such as bottom trawls and pelagic longlines that results in the catch of fish, seabirds, turtles, marine mammals, and other ocean life that are thrown back dead or dying into the sea because they are not what fishermen are targeting. In addition, Dr. Reichert and the Pew Oceans Group have provided key leadership in a host of environmental initiatives including transitioning fisheries management from a focus on individual species to entire ecosystems in which fish and other marine life reside; creation of the world’s largest network of marine parks; as well as strengthening the system of fisheries management in the European Union, and the United States by mandating an end to overfishing.
