Ariana

Ariana Freire (23) grew up on the Galapagos Islands and shares this biodiverse place with tourists in her work as a naturalist guide. Her passion for nature makes that she initiates beach clean-ups with tourists and studies environmental administration to contribute to healthier oceans.

Guido Leurs

Guido Leurs (27) works as a PhD candidate at the Conservation Ecology Group of the University of Groningen. With his research on sharks and rays, he seeks to advise on more effective conservation strategies and the implementation of new MPAs.

Melvin

As an explorer, diver and keynote speaker, Melvin Redeker is committed to exploring, documenting and protecting his beloved North Sea.

Hartono

Hartono is a traditional fisherman who lives on the ocean. Wanting to alter the negative changes he notices in the ocean, he is part of the Ranger Partner community and leader of sustainable fishinggroup Sanggeh Kami.

Tika

Living and working on an island, Tika has noticed the deteriorating state of the ocean. Determined to protect it, Tika works with WWF and is part of Kamelia, a community committed to making a positive change.

Tijmen

Tijmen has been travelling the world for the last couple of years. He was shocked by the amount of polluted areas he encountered Determined to make a positive change, he started the non-profit foundation ‘Trashpackers’.

Willem

Willem has dived in every continent and every ocean, but his heart belongs to the North Sea. Therefore he started dedicating his time to a Dutch non-profit organization called ‘Duik de Noordzee schoon’.

Angélica

Angélica is a former fisherwoman from Guatemala, where she lives in a small village on the Caribbean Coast with her family. Together with fellow fishermen and -women, she founded the Organización Representative del Sector Pesquero Artesanal del Caribe Guatemaltec y lago de Izabal. She has won the Peter Gladding Memorial Award for her contribution to sustainable commercial fishing.

Ayumi

Ayumi is proud and honored to be the Saba Bank National Park Officer. In that way, she can contribute to the conservation of the very first marine mammals and shark sanctuary of the Netherlands.

Shimrit

Shimrit established ECOncrete together with a colleague and she is now one of the five female awardees of the WE Empower Challenge.

Alex

Alex Antoniou lives in Colorado but was born on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean. He now devotes his time and career to Fins Attached Marine Research and Conservation.

Dorien

From a young age, Dorien has been determined to save the oceans. Nowadays she educates and informs the general public about sharks and rays at the Dutch Shark Society.

Mr Lappies

Jan was born in Johannesburg and has been a teacher his whole life. In 2002 he founded an education centre in Kommetjie, because he felt there wasn’t enough done in the educational field.

Chris

Chris Johnson coordinates WWF's Antarctic conservation program connecting science to policy outcomes such as establishing Marine Protected Areas at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

Marinela Mitro

Marinela is working for protected marine and coastal areas in her country. Marinela participated in a lot of conservation initiatives, some of them related to marine turtles, to raise awareness of marine and coastal issues in the country.

Pavs

Pavs grew up in Johannesburg (Gauteng) , she has moved to Cape Town to study Marine Biology and has lived there ever since. Pavs works for the WWF – SA’s South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI) program.

Samson

Samson works as a fisherman and as a president of the LMMA (the Locally Managed Marine Area) of Beheloke.

Jessica Hardy

Jessica is the founder of the NGO Regenerative Seas, an organization working to identify and support a network of people dedicated to finding solutions to our modern crises of climate change, non-organic wastes, nutritional security, freshwater and fair economics by promoting biodiversity and reducing our consumption of plastics.

Kalani Quiocho

Kalani Quiocho is a native son of Hawaiʻi. He is a descendent of these islands and feels a deep-rooted sense of responsibility to elevate the knowledge systems and environmental ethics of indigenous people for the benefit of humanity and the world.

Verena Schoepf

Verena is 34 years old and lives in Perth, Western Australia. Her fascination with marine life began when she was only a little girl.

Christophe

Christophe is a fisher and seaweed farmer in the village of Ankilimiova in the Southwest region of Madagascar. Together with his wife Sarah and their children he belongs to the “Vezo”, the traditional fishermen tribe on this part of the oceans.

Tommy

Tommy has been running Project Schone Schie since 2015. Project Schone Schie is a nonprofit which wants to reduce plastic litter in rivers and oceans.

Hermany

Hermany Manahadraza was born and raised in the coastal village of Anakao in southwest Madagascar and the ocean has always been a large part of his life. Hermany is now also the president of Madagascar’s network of Locally Managed Marine Areas.

Inga

Inga is an artist, art director and digital designer. She recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to help endangered penguin colonies.

Sandra

Sandra has been the planning and fundraising director of WWF Colombia for almost fourteen years. She has dedicated over twenty years of her career to a more peaceful Colombia.

Roziah

Roziah Jalalid lives on Omadal Island, Borneo, Malaysia. She’s mother of two and also Chairperson of The Women’s Association of Omadal Island (WAPO).

Fabien Cousteau

Fabien Cousteau is an aquanaut, ocean conservationist and documentary filmmaker.

Peter Thomson

Emanuel

Emanuel is the president of the Berlengas’s Barnacle Fishermen Association. Together with WWF he works closely to create a better future for the oceans.

John Tanzer

John Tanzer is most notably from 2001 onwards, he was the Executive responsible for the oversight of the spatial rezoning of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park based on the Representative Areas Program.

Alden Glinert

Alden Glinert has a background in marine science, aquarium science and environmental policy

Rindah Melsen

Rindah Melsen lives on the Solomon Islands and she’s the president of the Nusatuva Women’s Saving Club.

Tarusila Veibi

Tarusila Veibi is a conservationist with the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network (FLMMA) since 2008.

David Andrade

Daniel Andrade, a born and raised maragogipano, grew up witnessing the changes in local fishing and the transformation of the mangroves. He became a Rare Fellow in December 2014.