Boat International - February 2016

Highly commended–James Delgado

Marinearchaeologistanddirectorofmaritimeheritageforthe

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

For – helping create Marine Protected Areas around shipwrecks such asTitanic,

Mary Celesteand, most recently, for persuading the NOAA to increase the size of

theGulfoftheFarallonesNationalMarineSanctuarybymorethan250percent,and

the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary by a similar proportion

Highly commended–Lewis Pugh

Endurance swimmer, maritime lawyer, environmental campaigner and

UN Environment Programme Patron of the Oceans

For – the completion, in February 2015, of five swims in the Antarctic, where the

watertemperaturewas-1Candtheairtemperature-37C.Heusesthepublicity

he attracts to draw attention to the declining health of the world’s oceans and

to encourage nations to create Marine Protection Areas

T

he youngest and only female recipient of the RYA

YachtmasteroftheYear,awardedbyHRHthe

Princess Royal, Emily Penn describes herself as being

“dedicated to studying environmental challenges in the most

remote parts of our planet”.

As an undergraduate studying architecture at Cambridge

University she undertook an “amazing journey” across

Russia,MongoliaandChinatogettoShanghaitowrite

her dissertation on “the environment and sustainability in

architecture and eco cities”. The next year she travelled to

Australia, “hitching rides on boats”, crossing the Atlantic, the

Caribbean and Pacific, which opened her eyes to the plight of

the world ’s oceans. “I was seeing the collapse of fisheries, sea

level rise, and just could not believe what I was seeing. And not

really anything was being done about it.”

She is now director of Pangaea Exploration, an organisation

with a two-part mission: to strengthen the health of marine

life through exploration, conservation and education; and to

inspire and develop a new generation of leaders in conservation

science, communication, education, art and policy leadership.

Amongitsmainconcernsareacidification,toxinsintheocean,

pollution by plastics and the amount of floating debris in the

world ’s oceans. “Plastic is entering the ocean at prodigious

rates, carrying with it all the threats of both physical and

chemical pollution. The debris – toothbrushes, straws, toys,

bags and unrefined pre-production material called nurdles

• is accumulating all over the world ’s beaches and in great
  concentrations at sea in areas called gyres formed by the great
  oceanic currents. The Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic is
  probably the best known of these for its ability to trap ships.
  “The team is now on a mission to bring to light the much
  larger issue across the world ’s oceans. We search out areas
  with higher than normal loads of garbage, as well as trawling
  a fine mesh net and analysing the plastic content of the trawl.
  The floating plastic project also includes counting debris on
  beaches,cataloguingthetypesofplasticsandextrapolatingthe
  distance it must have travelled. With this we can estimate
  the amount of plastics covering the surface of our beaches.”
  Among the recent expeditions she skippered are two dubbed
  “eXXpeditions”. In 2014, she took a 14-woman crew across the
  North Atlantic, from Lanzarote to Martinique, on a 22 metre
  sailing boat,Sea Dragon, “specifically designed for science”, as
  part of Jimmy Cornell ’s Atlantic Odyssey. Last year they sailed
  the South Atlantic. “A team of 14 women,” she says, “scientists,
  activists, designers... but most importantly mothers, sisters,
  daughters, friends; women who hope for a healthier future.”

Winner–FitzRoyAward*

EMILY PENN

Oceans advocate, skipper and artist

For–herexpeditionsin2014and2015investigatingtheamountofplasticintheoceans

THE OCEAN AWARDS 2016

*Criteria – named after the captain of the Beagle, on which Darwin made his famous

voyage of discovery to the Galápagos. This award is for the adventurer or explorer

who achieved the most to further ocean conservation in the past 12 months

JUDGE #5 GEORGE DUFFIELD
“I’d been making a film for the BBC, where we’d seen whales and sharks and orcas and all these incredible marine animals, and I’d just completely fallen in love with the sea,
when the director Rupert Murray gave me a copy of Charles’s book, The End of the Line, about the impact of overfishing. I knew that I had to make the film,” says the award-winning
wildlife photographer and environmentalist, founder and chairman of the London-based production company Cosmic Picture.
The resulting film is Duield’s proudest achievement to date and one that left a legacy – he went on to co-found Blue Marine Foundation. “By really focusing on marine reserves,
which are, I think, self-evidently the solution to declining fish stocks, we are making a diference,” he says. “Clearly you need more areas that are safe for fish.
It’s not rocket science. This is the world’s largest solvable problem; the biggest thing we can fix without really changing society.”

http://www.boatinternational.com | February 2016