This will be a continuation of the same data journalism training that Gideon and SOA Ghana conducted last year, which successfully trained 15 journalists that published articles spotlighting illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing activities as well as marine pollution and its dangers to the ocean and society. This year he will do the same; conducting a training built around expert mentorship from 4 expert journalists. The ultimate objective is to influence ocean-related policy decisions by elevating ocean discussions to the top of the national agenda. The project will also deploy a digital campaign involving 10 short videos and 20 infographics to promote the articles and to educate residents across West Africa on the dangers of marine pollution, and improve practices of waste management. The digital campaign is expected to reach 100,000 people online.

Led by technicians from the Universidad de Cadiz, this project aimed to implement beach sponsorship for La Inmaculada Public School in Cadiz, where students learn about marine pollution issues through a new curated curriculum and participate in citizen science at Bahia de Cadiz Natural Park.

This project is an online ocean literacy course for teachers. 80 Brazilian public elementary school teachers received 2 months of training in ocean literacy, scientific experiments, and new pedagogical tools that they then implement in their respective classrooms. Each teacher is able to educate and impact about 30 students.

Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, is densely populated and has insufficient waste management. This group, the Seangle Movement, is a Palu-local youth movement that aims to combat plastic pollution. They do this through their Waste Education House program, which gives youth art education, recycling/upcycling education, and English language education to cohorts of 30 elementary school students per year. They also have a waste collection point, and the funds from the sale of recycled materials go toward continued educational programming.

This grant supports the work of Marulho, a for-profit social enterprise organization founded by Ocean Leader and Brazil Hub member, Beatriz Mattiuzzo, that recovers abandoned fishing nets and repurposes them into goods for sale. The outcome is to reduce ghost fishing and marine debris. Funding requested is for capacity building (new computer, improving wifi access on the remote island where located). marketing (video production equipment for social media campaign) and direct costs associated with removing debris (scuba gear).

This project led by the Mounu Ocean Academy contributes to reef monitoring and whale conservation through community education, participation, and volunteer training. A training course will be developed to teach volunteers how to conduct regular reef surveys. The data will inform citizen science initiatives such as Reef Check and Coral Watch.

This project seeks to engage wider audiences in the German-speaking world by making use of the social media graphics and material already developed by SOA, translating them into German, and engaging a social media expert to develop a sound communications strategy to engage specific target audiences.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is based in Jamaica and determines the fate of seabed mining permits for deep sea mining anywhere in the world. Khadija's project raises the voices of Caribbean youth and local awareness of the uncertainties and harm surrounding this emerging industry.

This project is solving the over-exploitation of fish populations for the production of animal feed through the use of undervalued resources such as (insects, microalgae, and undervalued native plants) for the production of fish pellets for aquaculture. Working with the Integral Cooperative of Mayan-indigenous peasants in Quixaya, Guatemala, this scalable project provided them with the tools that help achieve sustainability within their livelihoods and provides them with an economic alternative in the context of a social enterprise, making them more resilient.