Nominate Your Ocean Hero Now
OCEANA Belize has opened up nominations for its annual Ocean Hero Awards. For the past twelve years, OCEANA Belize has been recognizing outstanding efforts in marine conservation in the country. The award ceremony is expected to take place in September of this year and now they are asking the public to nominate deserving persons who meet the criteria. Communications Officer Martinique Fabro tells us more about the award and what they are looking for in nominees.
On the Phone: Martinique Fabro, Communication Officer, OCEANA Belize
“The Ocean Hero Awards started back in 2009 as a way for Oceana and by extension the larger conservation community to recognize and also celebrate the amazing accomplishments of various individuals who have worked in advocacy, ocean conservation and education. This year we posted our call for submissions with a virtual form that you can do on Google and the link can be found on our website at oceanabelize.org and the submission period is open from now to July thirty-first. So, there is quite some time to submit your nominations. The nominations are open to individuals with interest in a variety of sectors whether it is teaching and education; project work; private or individual research; as well as on the ground conservation, restoration and rehabilitation work. We do accept nominees thirteen years and older. So, it quite a broad criteria that you can fit someone in. We currently have a very diverse pool of past winners including fisherfolk; marine biologist; a past gill-netter turned seaweed farmer the late Lowell Godfrey. We also have conservation activist the manatee man Jamal Galvez and more. To note, many of our past heroes and nominees we have had over the years are people who didn’t start where they are now or where they are when they were nominated or awarded. They have dedicated their lives to their individual fields and more often than not they have come from very humble beginnings, so if you are thinking of nominating someone and you feel they might not meet the criteria and they haven’t done enough or given enough hours or years or time to their field you would be surprised.”
The online nomination form is available at www.oceanabelize.org Nominations close on July thirty-first.
