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ISG+ Final Report: Connecting Ocean Conservation and Community Engagement at the National Aquarium

This guest post, by Gabrielle Roffe and Curtis Bennett of the National Aquarium’s Conservation Department is the last in a 3-part series on their Innovative Solutions Grants+ project. This project has addressed the issue of marine debris by implementing a new approach to community engagement, with a specific focus on building our connection with the Hispanic communities near Masonville Cove in the Chesapeake Bay. Summary This past year, as part of The Ocean Project’s Innovative Solutions Grant+ (ISG+) Program, the National Aquarium has been trying a new approach to engage the Hispanic community throughout the South Baltimore neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Curtis Bay near Masonville Cove, the Nation’s first Urban Wildlife Refuge. The National Aquarium recognizes the value of providing opportunities for a diversity of students and community members to participate in conservation efforts, and has prioritized urban conservation efforts. The goal of these community outreach efforts is to not only improve the health of the neighborhoods and the watershed but to strengthen the community’s connection to their local environment. While the National Aquarium’s earlier community engagement projects had been successful, we recognized that we were not doing as well with the Hispanic community, a growing demographic within our target neighborhoods. Thus, we developed this project focused specifically on creating new and innovative ways to engage Hispanic communities on an issue we knew from prior research was a common concern: marine debris. The goals of this project were twofold: 1) Engage members of the Hispanic community in the removal of debris 2) Cultivate community champions in order to ensure ongoing engagement In order to successfully meet these goals, we had to develop a new and innovative approach to outreach, one that focused on connecting with community pillars in order to build trusting relationships. Successes In order to build long-lasting relationships within the Hispanic community we realized the importance of going beyond just translating outreach materials and programs into Spanish. By building trusting relationships with established pillars of the Hispanic community as outlined in our last post, we were not only able to better understand the interests of the community and inspire a more committed engagement in the project, but work towards building their capacity for future programming and project opportunities. Our approach was to connect with community pillars including churches, schools and parent groups. Community pillars are the places or people, that community members already trust and are a source of comfort, guidance and leadership within the community. We realized that by successfully engaging community pillars, we would be able to build relationships with individual community members and ultimately reach more people as part of our programming. While we engaged a variety of groups as part of this project, our biggest success story was our relationship with the Hispanic congregation TAYR in Brooklyn. From the onset, TAYR showed this willingness to become involved in community stewardship projects and were eager to collaborate. Working together to develop shared goals and programming illustrated our commitment to one another mutually beneficial and partnership. We were reminded that successful community partnerships take time to develop and have to be built on the foundation of mutually beneficial goals and an environment of trust. Initially we started with a long list of community pillars that we hoped to engage. We developed relationships with a Hispanic parent group at a local elementary/middle school, ESL students at a local high school, as well as TAYR. After meeting with various groups, we decided that for this project, we would focus on the quality of the relationship with TAYR rather than quantity, thus building on this genuine commitment from TAYR and ensuring that we weren’t over-extending ourselves or our resources. It was clear from the beginning that the relationship with TAYR was going to be special. We set aside time on a regular basis for meetings with Pastor Martinez and his wife, Veronica, and quickly realized that there were mutual goals. We learned about the community service and environmental project interests of the congregation and in turn, we were able to share potential program and project opportunities, primarily focused on debris prevention. These conversations helped us to collectively develop programs and events that aligned with each other’s goals and had a positive impact on both the community and the environment. TAYR Youth Group at a debris cleanup at Masonville Cove The following is a list outlining our interactions with the TAYR congregation, including program planning, promotion and facilitation: Regular meetings with the Pastor and his wife to plan for programs Attending church services and Sunday school to promote upcoming events Watershed 101 workshop at Masonville Cove (3 participants) Community cleanup in Brooklyn (114 participants) Native Habitat Garden Installation at the Dream Center (51 participants) Pollinator planting Sunday school lesson (33 participants) Latino Conservation Week event at Masonville Cove, including a debris clean-up, fishing, nature walk, and animal encounter (43 participants) Field trip to Patuxent Research Refuge (31 participants) Masonville Cove Fall Debris Clean-Up (6 participants) Programming and event planning with TAYR was a collaborative process, as illustrated and outlined below for the Latino Conservation Week event at Masonville Cove. We pitched the idea of a local event in celebration of Latino Conservation Week to Pastor Martinez and Veronica and discussed what activities would be of interest to their congregation. For example, they mentioned their love of fishing and we made sure to incorporate a fishing station for children as part of the event. They even helped us to rename the event, “Conservando la Naturaleza.” This event reinforced messaging from prior Spring and Summer programming, including lessons about the watershed and how trash flows from the community into Masonville Cove, as well as lessons about the benefit of wildlife habitat in urban areas, drawing upon the experience of planting the pollinator garden in the community and importance of connecting those green spaces to Masonville Cove. This event tied all of the programming together, allowing the community to see firsthand the natural treasures they have been helping to protect. Families fishing at Masonville Cove at the "Conservando la Naturaleza" Event Lessons Learned Over the course of this project we learned how to truly address the needs of a community and meet them where they are, in their community. We started this project wondering how to overcome language and cultural barriers in order to effectively reach the Hispanic community where there was no prior relationship. Our solution was to try to build mutually beneficial partnerships with interested groups. We utilized a community pillar approach and ultimately decided to focus on relationship quality over quantity. By building a strong relationship with the TAYR congregation and having multiple opportunities to engage with them, we’ve developed a partnership that will continue to be fruitful moving forward. We entered this program thinking that by cultivating a community champion and recognizing them as a Shore Hero, that we would foster that deeper, long-term connection. However, we found that we did not need to focus as much on recognition and awards, that the key to building a trusting relationship was finding issues of commonality and concern, to engage people in a way that is relatable. Throughout the project there was this sense that the work and overall collective impact was the true reward, a sentiment that was regularly echoed by community members. This shared feeling really helped to foster our mutually beneficial relationship. This partnership between the National Aquarium and TAYR has been nothing short of incredible. Here is a message from TAYR, expressing what this partnership has meant to them: “Ha sido un privilegio el poder ayudar en la comunidad porque hemos visto muchas caras alegres y las personas agradecidas por mantener un ambiente limpio y saludable. Estamos agradecidos por ser parte de estos eventos y esperamos seguir ayudando en lo que sea necesario. ¡Muchas gracias!” “It has been a great privilege to have helped our community because we have seen many happy faces of people being thankful for keeping a clean and healthy environment. We {TAYR} are truly thankful to be a part of these events and hope to keep helping in any other community needs. Thank you!” Community Engagement Tips and Advice We realize that engaging a new community or audience can be time-consuming, challenging or intimidating, but there are several lessons we learned that we think can help put other aquariums and zoos in the best position to achieve success. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the community, in both the physical and social sense. Just by walking or driving through the neighborhoods, not only do you begin to develop this sense of place, but you gain a better understanding of community assets and resources. From a social perspective, getting to know the community will help you identify specific audiences and community pillars where you may have overlapping interests. As you start this process, make sure to go where people are: the churches, the schools, or even the local businesses like markets and restaurants and reach out to them in a real and authentic way and people are likely to respond positively. Remember that building trusting community relationships is a two-way street, you have to get to know the community but you also have to give the community time to get to know you. It’s important to set aside time to meet in person with representatives of these community pillars to discuss their needs and interests and outline your programmatic goals as well. And because of the time commitment involved, recognize that you may need initially to prioritize, as we did, quality over quantity. From there focus on opportunities to create mutually beneficial goals in order to create a collaborative effort. The importance of collaboration, in all phases of the programmatic process, from development to implementation, can’t be overstated. Once you’ve established partnerships with community pillars, additional opportunities can become available to build new connections with other community pillars. At the end of the day, we found that successful community engagement should focus on that human interaction, showing that you care and are available to listen and provide support. Planting native flowers with TAYR Sunday School Moving Forward For the National Aquarium, the success of this project to engage the Hispanic communities within Brooklyn and Curtis Bay can be attributed to going beyond just translating educational and outreach materials but translating our programmatic experiences to ensure that they were relatable. While this is the culmination of The Ocean Project’s ISG+ grant, this is truly just the beginning of the work that we will continue to do with Hispanic communities. Pastor Martinez is currently working with us to reach out to other Hispanic churches in the area, to vouch for our relationship so we can start building new ones and expanding our efforts. We also want to focus on capacity building throughout the community, to ensure that community groups have the ability and are ready to participate in future program and project efforts.

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2016 World Oceans Day Annual Report

For World Oceans Day 2016, celebrations were held in over 100 countries across the globe, and millions of people were reached online. Our newly released, 2016 Annual Report, highlights the growth and success of World Oceans Day this year. As we prepare for 2017, we are focusing much more not only on rallying the world in June, but also on providing ways for organizations and individuals who get involved on World Oceans Day to become more engaged in protecting and conserving our oceans throughout the year. Thank you for joining this global celebration of our oceans. We look forward growing World Oceans Day even more in 2017! Many zoos and aquariums created unique ways to celebrate World Oceans Day - have a look at the latest blog from the Seattle Aquarium on the World Oceans Day website to see all the ways they found to celebrate this special day. It's not too early to let us know that you are interested in partnering with us for World Oceans Day 2017, or if you just want to learn more about World Oceans Day please contact us: info@worldoceansday.org.  

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Thank you, President Obama, for Designating the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument!

On behalf of its network of 2,000 aquariums, zoos, museums, youth groups, and conservation organizations across all 50 states and 100 countries, The Ocean Project thanks President Obama for designating the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, and creating a lasting legacy for current and future generations of Americans. During this 100th anniversary year of the National Park Service, we thank President Obama particularly for his leadership in protecting more of our nation’s ocean than any administration in history. Using science-based decision-making, and with the input from across the country – including aquariums and zoos along with an unprecedented involvement of our youth – President Obama has become a true world leader for marine conservation, especially by creating and expanding “blue parks” that will enrich all of our lives. During his time at the helm, the President has comprehensively addressed fisheries issues, opened a new public process for establishing marine sanctuaries, established the National Ocean Policy, and promoted ocean stewardship. Notably, this designation comes following the August expansion by the President of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) in Hawaii. Credit: NOAA Oceans Explorer Program, 2013 Northeast US Canyons Expedition Science Team President Obama has added a significant victory for the health of our ocean and our planet by designating the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The first such monument designated in the Atlantic Ocean, this spectacular area contains extinct underwater volcanoes, or seamounts, that rise higher than every other mountain east of the Rockies, and canyons that are deeper than the Grand Canyon. Nearly 200 miles off the coast of Cape Cod and Rhode Island, these seamounts and canyons are teeming with ocean life, from deep-diving sperm whales and beaked whales, to dolphins, sea turtles, and also many seabirds, such as the Atlantic puffin. This most recent designation also protects the most abundant and diverse communities of deep sea corals known to exist on the Atlantic seaboard, some hundreds if not thousands of years old. Sperm whales traveling in a unit. Credit: Kelsey Stone, New England Aquarium This designation of the first marine national monument in the Atlantic adds to President Obama’s legacy of having protected more land and water than any other president, and is an action strongly supported by recent surveys. According to recent surveys conducted at a number of aquariums across the country – as part of a special partnership with SEA LIFE Trust and the 8 SEA LIFE Aquariums in North America, 97% of visitors were in favor of expanding our nation’s network of marine protected areas. Protecting our blue backyard is important to people, no matter where they live. With the growing impact of climate change and ocean acidification threatening our ocean’s – and our planet’s health – setting aside special areas in the ocean will provide some resiliency to these increasing stresses. As ocean temperatures rise and acidity threatens marine life, providing sanctuary through habitat protection from other threats helps to preserve genetic diversity, which will be vital for the ocean's inhabitants to be able to withstand more acidic and warmer conditions in the future. This designation is also supported by a growing coalition of young leaders, who have come together in Sea Youth Rise Up, a collaborative campaign between The Ocean Project, the World Oceans Day network, Big Blue & You and the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit. The effort recently brought together seven young ocean conservationists from across the United States, as well as Canada and the Bahamas, to meet with leaders in New York and Washington D.C. and share their message of the importance of protecting our ocean. Credit: NOAA Oceans Explorer Program

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ISG+ Final Report: Say #byetobags with the Saint Louis Zoo!

This guest post is submitted by Kirinne Slaughter at the Saint Louis Zoo, and is the last in a 3-part series on their Innovative Solutions Grants+ project. It is hard to believe that it has been almost a year since we began our partnership with The Ocean Project under the Innovative Solutions Grants+ Program. It has been an exciting and rewarding year for everyone involved in the project, especially our Zoo ALIVE teen volunteers as they have developed and implemented the #byetobags campaign. (See previous post). This campaign, based on the successes of the Better Bag Challenge, aimed to get Zoo visitors to make the change to reusable bags. For our innovative twist, we used social media in an attempt to amplify the effects of our on-grounds campaign. KEY FINDINGS As our data collection comes to a close with the end of our summer event season, we have concluded that social media can be an invaluable tool to increasing the effectiveness of an on-grounds campaign. Specifically, our results can be summarized into three key findings: Our on-grounds campaign confirmed the success of the public engagement model from the Better Bag Challenge. Since our first official event on April 23rd, 90% of guests that were asked during their visit to take the pledge did so, and most did so with enthusiasm! The teens approached guests who came near their activity table, connected the problem of plastics in our ocean to its impact on the animals using their own messaging (as I’ll explain later), and then asked guests to pledge to avoid disposable plastic bags in exchange for a reusable bag. And, again, a remarkable 90% of those who were asked filled out a pledge form and “signed” it by providing us with their email address.  One guest even hugged each teen, thanking them for the work they were doing. As of the end of August, 1,373 visitors pledged to switch from plastic bags to reusable bags, and 1,669 #byetobags reusable bags have been given away! To “gut check” our impact, we also tracked the taking of small and medium plastic bags in our gift shops, where bags are available upon request, and found that use was down 9% since the beginning of the year, while the sale of reusable bags had increased by 65%!  While our project can’t claim credit for all of this impact, it certainly was reassuring to see the trend moving in the right direction. Teens working Shark Week We also tried to generate pledges, and found a consistent (but comparatively low) return on investment. As a part of our project, we wanted to know if we could get people to take our pledge through social media, with no interaction on grounds and no bag in return. We embedded links to the pledge page into #byetobags social media accounts and posts we created on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram, as well as onto the Saint Louis Zoo website. While the social media platforms garnered a consistent number of pledges each week, we found that when comparing the number of pledges generated with the number of hours invested, our teens were much more effective - by our estimates more than twice as effective - in their on-grounds engagements. But, we concluded that our social media effort was still important, especially when thinking in broader terms of increasing our project’s overall reach. Of the platforms that we did use, the #byetobags Facebook page was our most successful in this regard - in spite of the teens’ initial doubts!  - growing to nearly 300 likes and a reach of over 25,000 - it proved to be a great platform to engage with individuals, including but not limited to those who completed the pledge form.  Meanwhile, Twitter was our second most successful platform, used primarily for interacting with other plastic pollution organizations, and making professional connections such as St. Louis City Recycling and Earth Share.  So having a variety of social media accounts was useful for us, as each platform can be utilized in different ways including and beyond generating pledges. We learned that those who took the pledge were willing to share their commitment with friends and family, but did not utilize the mechanisms that we created and provided to them. We created a platform with our email service provider through which we emailed every person who took the pledge, giving them the option to then share the pledge out to their friends and family by using one of our preset share buttons that would link them either to Facebook, Twitter, or their email. While we were anticipating a snowball effect, we found that this method did not see the success in which we had hoped. Only a handful of visitors - less than 5 of the nearly 1,600 pledge takers - used the social sharing options we provided to them via email, with 42 total unique social shares. Surprisingly, though, some visitors were very willing to share the pledge utilizing a different method, one that we originally did not anticipate – they copied and pasted the link to our pledge page into their own posts and used #byetobags. Our teens found more than 10 examples where visitors did this, with one person even sharing out the pledge in a Google link format she created, generating another 8 pledges. It seems our guests are willing to share the message, but we need to rethink how we help them to do it! Who takes the #byetobags pledge? As a part of our pledge form, we gave guests the option to select their age group from a drop down menu, and to answer the question, “How often do you use reusable bags?” These questions give us some insight into who is most often taking our pledge on-grounds versus who is most often taking our pledge online.  As shown in the charts, we found that on grounds the most common age group of pledge takers were 31-45 year olds, while online it was 12-18 years olds. This suggests that social media accounts can help us reach a distinct group of pledge takers, notably the youth that research tells us are so important to our missions, and who may be more likely to pledge to conservation action via the internet. Additionally, of the 1,521 total pledge takers who choose to answer the question, “How often do you use reusable bags?” 57% stated that they either “often” or “always” use reusable bags, which was notably higher than the 40% of the public reported by the grocery industry as the national average (Source: http://www.fmi.org/research-resources/u-s-grocery-shopper-trends/grocerytrends2014)  So our pledge may have been more of a reinforcement and reminder to those who already use reusable bags, with encouragement to share with others.  It will be an interesting challenge as we move forward to see how we can do better, on our own and with our guests, at reaching those who rarely or never use reusable bags. Our goal of course being that one-day, everyone will select, “always.”  #byetobags continues at the Saint Louis Zoo program Thanks to funding from a Saint Louis Zoo family donor, the #byetobags campaign will be able to continue at the Saint Louis Zoo for another year! As mentioned in the previous blog post, this campaign is the first of its kind at the Saint Louis Zoo, and the opportunity to continue will allow for further fine tuning, paving the road for the Zoo to have many more in the future. We have a number of very targeted goals for the upcoming year, including: Implementing a bag policy in the gift shops that is more in line with our #byetobags messaging. We had some initial success as noted above, and will continue working with our retail team, as well as the Business and Strategic Operations Departments at the Zoo to come up with a bag policy that works for all. We are also looking forward to pushing our message further outside the Zoo into the St. Louis community. To launch this, the #byetobags campaign is going to be the feature article in our quarterly stlzoo magazine that goes out to all 50,215 of our membership households. Additionally, our Zoo ALIVE teen volunteers are anxious to continue to spread the message to their high schools and our Young Zoo Friends board, a group of young professionals who are Zoo members, are extremely interested in the campaign and are eager to take the message back to their home companies and organizations. Finally, the Saint Louis Zoo is excited to be hosting a Youth Ocean Conservation Summit on our campus on February 11, 2017. Youth Ocean Conservation Summit is a youth-oriented conference whose goal is to educate about how to turn a conservation idea into an action project. The event will feature notable speakers and workshops that will teach young people the skills they need to start a conservation project. We are excited to be hosting the first summit in the Midwest, and are eager to feature #byetobags as an example of a youth run campaign. We are eager to see where the second year of the #byetobags campaign takes us. All departments at the Zoo have been supportive of the project and the possibilities for expansion are truly endless! Teens with Dr. Jeffrey Bonner Advice to others As we reflect back on the creation of our campaign, it is an honor for us to be able to offer advice to other institutions hoping to create similar campaigns. Guests are excited to be asked to partake in a conservation action campaign. Our results confirmed The Ocean Project’s finding that they do indeed expect, trust, and appreciate the advice that you have to offer them on how they could become part of the plastic pollution solution. Not only were our guests willing to sign a pledge, but some were willing to share that pledge with friends and family, and stay invested in a conservation action campaign on social media – we just need to give them more flexibility to share more easily and on their own terms. Use multiple social media platforms, manage each separately, and play to their strengths. Managing each separately, as opposed to making one post for all, allows you to truly tailor the post to each platform’s strengths. Allow for teens to be creative and experimental in messaging. One of the most exciting and successful parts of our campaigns was allowing the teens to experiment with the delivery of the #byetobags message. The emphasis was on connecting the requested action to its importance for the animals, but the teens also were given the ability to deliver the #byetobags message in the way that was most comfortable for them, they were more excited, and more eager to get pledges. Finally, one thing that worked out well for us was that for this project we hired a part-time campaign coordinator, funded by the ISG+ grant. Having someone completely devoted to the #byetobags campaign made communication, facilitation and advocacy about the campaign seamless, and gave the Zoo ALIVE Teen’s a great resource for the project. It also allowed for the message to spread further and faster as the campaign was not limited by staff attention or availability. Overall, this year has been amazingly rewarding. As one Zoo ALIVE teen volunteer, Kiara Hardmon states, “I am really proud to have made an impact for the environment at such a young age.” As the project continues, we are eager to allow more Zoo ALIVE teens the opportunity to work on a project that allows them to feel proud of themselves, while positively influencing the environment around them! #byetobags spreading to Africa

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Shedd Aquarium Pledges to Protect our Blue Planet Year-Round

This guest blog comes from Aislinn Gauchay, Assistant Director of Great Lakes and Sustainability at Shedd Aquarium.  Shedd Aquarium is a Supporting Partner of The Ocean Project.   Earth. The third rock from the sun. Our humble planet has many names, but what makes our Blue Planet truly unique is what covers 71 percent of our surface and without which life would not exist: water. Oceans are the heart of our planet: they shape weather and wind, are home to one million animal and plant species and are the primary source of protein for more than 2.6 billion people. Oceans serve as the foundation for a delicately balanced food web that supports all life, from the Marianas Trench to the top of Mount Everest. Our oceans and the animals that call them home are critical to sustaining life on earth, human life included. However, our relationship to and dependence upon healthy, abundant oceans is not universally acknowledged.  The most critical threats to our oceans are produced by human activity, such as overfishing, habitat degradation and pollution. More than 8 million tons of plastic trash end up in the ocean every year, including millions of disposable plastic bags and bottles. Though our oceans are often uncelebrated, there is one day out of the year where a plethora of organizations like the Ocean Project and Shedd Aquarium team up to celebrate what makes our planet blue on World Ocean’s Day. For this year’s celebration, the Ocean Project and singer Jack Johnson ignited the #WaveForChange challenge, asking people to do something to help our oceans. Shedd Aquarium’s President and CEO Dr. Bridget Coughlin took the #WaveForChange challenge on behalf of our organization and pledged to continue to reduce our plastic usage, spread the message, and encourage others to join us in making a difference. Shedd Aquarium is taking action on the issue of plastic pollution in our ocean and is constantly looking for ways to reduce our use of this seemingly omnipresent commodity in innovative ways. We started small, by providing reusable bags instead of disposable plastic bags, installing reusable water bottle refilling stations, and eliminating plastic straws onsite. Our goal is to continue this initiative at Shedd, in our community, and throughout the country. For example, during this year’s Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series event in Chicago, we worked with race organizers and sustainability partner organizations 11th Hour Racing and America’s Cup Endeavor Chicago to inform event attendees and thousands of guests visiting Chicago’s landmark Navy Pier about the impact of plastic pollution on our lakes and oceans, offering them an opportunity to pledge to reduce their household plastic use. In 2015, we extended our commitment to freshwater and marine conservation at a higher level by joining forces with two other aquariums, Monterey Bay Aquarium and National Aquarium, to form the Aquarium Conservation Partnership (ACP). As a co-founder, and thus an executive committee member, Shedd works with fellow industry leaders to advance ocean and freshwater conservation policy goals. This includes advocating for the expansion of marine protected areas and increasing protection for exploited species. At Shedd, conservation is critical to everything we do.  Whether it be sourcing only sustainable, restaurant quality seafood for our animals or pledging to reduce our use of plastic, Shedd believes we can all take steps and make a big difference toward protecting and preserving our oceans. We can do more together than alone. You can learn more about Shedd’s conservation initiatives on our website.  

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Rising Up for the Ocean

    Growing up on the coast of Florida, I had the chance to connect to unique marine environments and their inhabitants at an early age. Experiences with my family exploring Florida’s water resources, and learning more about these habitats through summer camps and education programs prompted my first interest in the wonder of the ocean. As I got older, my interest in marine science grew into an interest in ocean conservation – working with my friends and family to take action to protect the priceless marine resources of my home state. Through these early experiences I learned the importance of the ocean, how it connects people from all backgrounds on a global scale, and how it plays a key role in the existence of life on earth. At a young age I also learned the ocean is in trouble. From plastic pollution and climate change, to overfishing and habitat destruction, this priceless natural resource is threatened by the actions we take on a daily basis. Now through my work directing the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, and work with aquariums and conservation organizations on a global scale, I’ve seen the urgent need for action to address these challenges now. I’ve also seen the importance of engaging young people as leaders in the ocean conservation field, building on their passion, new ideas, and energy to build a movement to protect our blue planet. The Sea Youth Rise Up campaign, launched in the spring of 2016 as a collaborative effort between The Ocean Project, World Oceans Day network, the Big Blue & You and the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, is designed as a platform for young people to rise up for our ocean, share the important work of young conservation leaders, and inspire a global audience of young people to understand the important leadership role they play in protecting the ocean. Utilizing World Oceans Day as a rallying point, the campaign brought together seven young ocean conservationists from the United States, Canada, and the Bahamas: Ben May, Laura Johnson, Dazja Dorsey, Baylee Ritter, Simeon Bethel, Lindsy Myers, and Gabriella Schauber, for three days in New York City and Washington D.C. – allowing these incredible students to share their message of the importance of protecting our ocean with world leaders and their peers. Selected through a global video contest, as well as nominations from our Sea Youth Rise Up partner organizations, our 2016 Sea Youth Rise Up delegates arrived in New York City on June 7, 2016 and prepared for an exciting lineup of events and activities to celebrate World Oceans Day 2016. During our time in New York, Sea Youth Rise Up co-creator, Danni Washington and I joined our delegates for a Live World Oceans Day Google Hangout on Air, hosted from the New York Aquarium, where delegates had the opportunity to share their ocean conservation work and interests, the importance of youth leadership in the field of ocean conservation, and advice for other young people interested in ocean conservation who watched the broadcast from around the world in the United States, New Zealand, India, Curacao, Pakistan, Germany, Somalia, Greece, the Bahamas and Canada. A #SeaYouthRiseUp social media and Thunderclap campaign further highlighted the importance of youth leadership in ocean conservation to a global audience. Delegates also had the exciting opportunity to meet with ocean conservationist and singer/songwriter Jack Johnson, and attend the United Nations World Oceans Day reception. After a whirlwind tour through New York City, our Sea Youth Rise Up team headed out early on June 9 for our nation’s Capital where they participated in a White House Roundtable with members of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Through this unique experience, delegates had a chance to share their support for the creation of additional marine protected areas, and discuss the administration’s ocean conservation priorities. Our D.C. adventures continued with a stop at the Newseum for Capitol Hill Oceans Week, where our team members took part in a live broadcast with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and visits with staff members from Youth Service America and EarthEcho International during a wrap up picnic on national mall. We are incredibly proud and inspired by the young people who stepped up and raised their voices for the protection of our ocean through this special event. We’re also excited to continue to share their stories through the upcoming Sea Youth Rise Up short film, tracing their ocean conservation journeys and Sea Youth Rise Up experience, further calling on a global movement of young people to rise up and take on the challenges facing our planet’s marine ecosystems. A special thanks to the partners and sponsors who made this program possible – The Ocean Project, World Oceans Day network, Big Blue & You, Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, NOAA, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, the Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center network, jetBlue, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium, Youth Service America, and EarthEcho International. We are incredibly grateful for your support and belief in the power of young people to positively impact our planet. If you’d like to learn more about Sea Youth Rise Up, and the inspiring work of our 2016 delegates, be sure to check out www.seayouthriseup.com or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.   Sean Russell is the co-creator of Sea Youth Rise Up. He is the founder and director of the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, and works with SeaWorld, Mote Marine Laboratory, and conservation organizations on a global scale on youth leadership initiatives. You can follow him on twitter at @seandrussell.

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SEA LIFE Centers find public support for Marine Protected Areas

SEA LIFE Aquariums and SEA LIFE Trust wanted to know if visitors shared our interest in expanding our nation’s network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). With this in mind, we initiated in partnership with The Ocean Project a pilot project at two of our sites, Carlsbad and Orlando. We developed an exit survey with a program called iSurvey that allows for offline collection on iPads, and then site staff randomly sampled our guests about their opinions of marine protected areas, as well as their feedback on our being involved in this effort.  Guests responded well to the iPads, and we were able to collect a sample large enough to have a high degree of confidence in the results. We looked at the overall results, as well as the results for a subset of guests who participated in a voting activity (I’ll explain in more detail below), and another subset of guests who received additional interpretation. The overall response on the exit survey was overwhelmingly positive, with yet more evidence for the earlier research findings that visitors to aquariums and zoos truly do expect, trust and appreciate information about how they can help the ocean and its animals. If anyone is still asking whether or not we as aquariums and zoos “inspire” the public’s interest in addressing environmental issues, look no further than the following chart, which shows that while on site a full two-thirds indicated that they believed their actions could have a great deal of impact on environmental problems.  Moreover, we had more than 98%, yes, more than 98% of our guests agreed with the statements that “SEA LIFE Aquariums are a good source of information about ocean conservation” and “Learning how to help conserve the ocean and its animals makes for a better visit to a SEA LIFE Aquarium.”  In sum, we have access to the public when they are inspired to act, and they’re telling us that they trust our guidance and appreciate learning how to help – so let’s be bold! On the particular issue of MPAs, our guests were just as positive, with again strong agreement both for the idea of expanding our nation’s network of protected areas and for the involvement of our aquariums in that effort.  So if picking an issue on which to be bold, MPAs certainly seem like a good choice! And notably this was not a hypothetical question. During his presidency, President Obama already has shown a willingness to support marine protection by significantly expanding the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in 2014 and then announcing two completely new marine sanctuaries in October 2015 .   At the same time, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been soliciting nominations for new protected areas.  This is why at Sea Life we’ve come to see now as the right time to invite the public into this issue, document their interest, and bring it back to our policy leaders. In an interesting twist to our pilot we also aimed to test the impact of an activity, and the impact of interpretation on guest response.   A subset of guests at both sites participated in a simple voting activity, where they were handed a paper ballot, which gave basic background on the sanctuary nomination process and asked if they supported the idea, yes or no.  The voting activity was low cost and easy to implement, and guests liked it. And they certainly liked the idea of expanding the sanctuary system, with a full 94% voting in favor, and based on a related question, primarily out of concern for the animals.  Meanwhile, a separate subset of guests at our Carlsbad site received interpretation, talking with one of our educators about MPAs. The interpretation was more resource intensive, taking up a lot of staff time, but again guests liked the interactions.  But did either experience impact their response on the exit survey?  We didn’t have as much confidence in these findings due to the relatively small sample sizes, but indications were that even though the baseline of ‘visit alone’ was quite high, the response from those who participated in the voting activity or received interpretation was even higher.  Moreover, the voting exercise had the benefit of documenting public interest in the issue in a way that could be easily relayed. What’s next?  Based on the promising results of the pilot, and some timely advice from policy experts, we’re revising the approach to focus on a revamped version of the voting activity. Our goal is now to invite as many guests as possible to tell us which of four areas currently under they’d like to see protected as #blueparks.  And we’ll also be reaching out online with a presence at http://bluebackyard.org, where, in fact, you should go now to cast your vote! ~This guest post was submitted by Chris Andrews from Sea Life 

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ISG+ Update: Tasting Sustainability at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

This guest post is submitted by Debbie Colodner, Director of Conservation Education and Science from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and is the second in a 3-part series on their Innovative Solutions Grants+ project where they are partnered with Leading for Good to see if they can move the needle on sustainable seafood in Tucson, Arizona. As described previously, the Tasting Sustainability Project partners the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum with the Leading for Good Internship Program in Tucson, Arizona to test strategies for engaging local restaurants on sustainable seafood issues, and encouraging changes in their sourcing. As a secondary goal, the Museum is testing strategies for engaging young adults (millennials) in its mission and programs. We are happy to report progress on both fronts. Identifying restaurants and understanding their interests Based on their interviews, the team divided restaurants into four types (upscale, tavern, family/cultural and hip/urban), finding that at least in this small sample the upscale and hip/urban tended to be more interested in the issue.  They then developed and presented customized strategies for raising awareness and engaging customers, specifically young adult customers.  The four strategies included in-restaurant signage (table tents, posters, menus), social media campaigns, training for wait staff, and co-hosting partner events with the Desert Museum.  The team prototyped each of the strategies with “mini experiments” at four of the restaurants, learning lessons on the first three before deciding to go forward with the fourth. Signage - The feedback on the table tents/signage was that restaurant owners didn’t feel like it was their role to “educate” their customers on this issue, but rather respond to customer questions. Social media campaign – The group proposed having customers post pictures of themselves and their sustainable dishes and tagging the restaurant, but that was thought to take too much time to explain and compile into useful advertising for the restaurant. Training – The group also tried offering training for wait staff during a staff meeting, but time was very limited. The restaurant where this was prototyped, as well as one other continue to be interested in this as part of an ongoing partnership with ASDM, however. Events – The feedback was much more positive on the possibility of co-hosting events at restaurants and/or at the Museum, so the group determined that this would be the strategy they would like to test further, including social media and marketing for the events. Restaurants value the potential for increased exposure from this strategy. Next we will be testing two restaurant events and featuring sustainable seafood at World Ocean Night at the Museum (We’re compiling those results now!) Some promising results so far on our primary goal of engaging local restaurants on sustainable seafood issues:  8 of the 13 already have said they are interested in going forward and partnering in the Museum’s sustainable seafood efforts! One is already a Seafood Watch partner and 6 are interested in learning more about this possibility. Another has already explored this, but their parent company is not ready to pursue it. (The Museum is also exploring the interns’ recommendations to develop a local seafood sustainability partnership program that might be a steppingstone to a full partnership with Monterey Bay.) Two new restaurants have been recruited to offer sustainable seafood tastings at World Oceans Night, and will join two that have participated before. With respect to our secondary goal of young-adult engagement with the Museum, this project has been extremely successful with the interns themselves. The college interns showed positive change in measures of self-efficacy, became confident and competent educators around sustainable seafood issues, developed a much greater affinity for the Desert Museum, and were much more likely to recommend the Museum to their friends. What we’ve learned from this program also has helped us recruit many more “millennials” to our interpretive volunteer corps as well, with 30 of the 46 new stingray interpreters coming from this younger demographic. Our next steps: We will try to answer the following questions related to co-hosted Sustainable Seafood events: Do they increase the likelihood of action on sustainable seafood issues? Do they drive more customers to restaurants that serve sustainable seafood? Do they increase the Museum’s engagement with younger audiences?     More soon!  In the meantime, have a look at our power point presentation on our project: [pdf-embedder url="https://theoceanproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ASDM-Tasting-Sustainability-Final-Presentation-May-2016-1.pdf"]  

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ISG+ Update: Zoo-Alive teen volunteers at the Saint Louis Zoo take the #byetobags pledge and spread the word!

This guest post is submitted by Kirinne Slaughter at the Saint Louis Zoo, and is the second in a 3-part series on their Innovative Solutions Grants+ project. Since our last post, our Zoo ALIVE (ZA) teen volunteers have been hard at work helping Zoo visitors say #byetobags! Successfully building on the lessons learned from the Better Bag Challenge, our teens have developed a campaign that asks visitors to be a part of the plastic pollution solution by switching to reusable bags to help sea lions. The teens designed a reusable bag giveaway, and a pledge that states: “I pledge to switch to reusable bags in order to keep our oceans clean for sea lions & all ocean animals!” Since our official launch on April 23rd, they have asked more than 1200 people to take this pledge. As the main question under our grant, we wanted to know how effective social media was at amplifying an on-grounds conservation ask and, at the same time, how effective it could be as a standalone medium of asking people to take conservation action. Specifically, our teens wanted to know: Could they get visitors who took our pledge on-grounds to become active on #byetobags social media, and share the #byetobags pledge with friends and family? How many people could they get to take the #byetobags pledge just through discovery on social media, without the on-grounds bag offer? If people do share the pledge with their friends and family, which method of sharing do they use most? How can we measure all this? These were a lot of questions, and it took a lot of hard work to figure out a way to track the data that we needed to answer these questions. But, with the help of the Zoo’s marketing department and advertising agency, we developed an innovative online pledge taking platform that not only adds a level of sophistication to our campaign, but is the first online campaign of its kind at the Saint Louis Zoo. To properly track data in order to answer these questions, two separate pledge pages were created: one for visitors to sign if they visit a #byetobags table on-grounds, and another for people who accessed the effort through our social media streams or through the Saint Louis Zoo website. The forms are identical in almost every way, save for the fact that the on-grounds form is a ghost page, accessible only to #byetobags staff when on-grounds. Both forms require visitors to give their name, email and zip code. It also gives them the option to give their age, and answer the question, “how often do you use reusable bags?” Have you taken the #byetobags pledge? Do so now, and then help spread the word! The online pledge form can be found here. After taking the pledge, everyone, no matter which pledge form they use, receives an email thanking them for taking the pledge, and asking them to spread the word to their friends and family. The teens came up with three share options to choose from: Facebook, Twitter, and email. No matter which method they choose, an automatic message is provided for them to spread the #byetobags message. For example, if you were to choose to share via Twitter, the following message will be automatically tweeted from your account: “Keep sea lions safe from plastic bags in the ocean! Join us and take the pledge!"  The tweet contains a link back to the #byetobags online pledge page. Because these separate pledge pages generate two separate lists of people, we are able to track whether someone took the pledge on grounds, whether they found the pledge on our social media or on the Saint Louis Zoo website. Additionally, through analysis software provided through Google, Formstack and our email service provider, Sharpspring, we are able to track through which social media channel people access the pledge, and what share option people use most often when spreading the message to their friends and family. As we continue to collect data, there seems to be no limit to the number of questions we can answer with this sophisticated software. What have we found out so far? So far, since our launch on April 23rd, the Zoo ALIVE Teen volunteers have collected data that begins to shed light on their research questions: On grounds: A total of 732 on-grounds pledges have been taken! Meaning this many more reusable bags are being put to use! Additionally, across all events at which the teen volunteers were presenting #byetobags information, 90% of the people that the teens interacted with and asked to take the pledge, did so. While relatively few of these people have shared the pledge from the email that they received, our Facebook following and reach has been increasing steadily each week, with a total Facebook reach of 17,081 people! Online: We also have seen success on our online pledge, with an additional 168 pledges received with no on-grounds interactions at all, due only to presence on social media and the Saint Louis Zoo website. Since the first posting of the online pledge link on #byetobags social media on April 26th, we have averaged around three online pledges taken per day. These pledges come mostly from people responding to our posts on social media, however we do get pledge takers who stumble upon the pledge while simply navigating the Saint Louis Zoo’s website. Which share option has proved most successful so far? Facebook has been used three times as often as other share options for spreading the word about the #byetobags pledge. Anecdotally, however, our Twitter account has garnered lots of attention from other sustainability organizations, such as St. Louis County Recycling and Coast Plastics. I anticipate that our visibility and networking with these organizations will help us greatly as we continue to spread our message into the St. Louis community at large. As we continue to move forward with this campaign… Our teens are focusing on modifying our messaging to emphasize the importance of sharing the pledge with friends and family. Additionally, they will be increasing their engagement on social media in an effort to increase the number of pledges taken online, and the number of followers on our sites. Just this past week, we unveiled a #byetobags challenge that asks followers to post a photo/video with their reusable bag. With this challenge we hope to increase awareness and engagement with our campaign. As we continue to interact with visitors throughout the summer, we expect to see these numbers increase, with more and more people joining the pledge through social media, and spreading the word! The whole Zoo says #byetobags!   In addition to the primary aspect of our grant, we have also been involved in many other important parts of Zoo culture. Our gift shops have been very involved with the project. They have incorporated signs into their shops encouraging people to choose reusable bags, and ask visitors, “Do you need a bag today?” upon checkout. Additionally, our #byetobags messaging has been integrated into our Sea Lion Show. Before each show, an audio clip recorded by the Zoo ALIVE teen volunteers plays that gives an overview of the #byetobags project. During the show, the trainers explain how important reusable bags are, and give away a #byetobags reusable bag. The sea lions themselves also take part and during the show they put their “lunch” into a prop #byetobags reusable bag. https://theoceanproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/OPR-Audio-Clip-2-Final-1.mp3   Finally, we are an integral activity at our weekly summer concert series, Jungle Boogie. We have formed strong connections with visitors who attend this event each week, and they have become advocates for our project as they encourage new visitors to stop by our table. An overwhelming majority of our guests have been nothing but positive when interacting with our #byetobags table. They seem grateful for the information, and excited about receiving our help in starting to work towards more sustainable behaviors. Our next steps include continuing to work with the various departments around the Zoo and the Saint Louis community to increase the spread of our message. We will be at an increasing number of events throughout the summer, and new ZA’s have been trained and will begin working with the #byetobags campaign. Additionally, as we continue to analyze different parts of our data, we will continue to answer our research questions as to how we can most successfully amplify an on-grounds ask using social media.

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ISG+ Midterm Report: Woodland Park Zoo teens inspire peers to take a stand on climate change

This guest post by Eli Weiss of Woodland Park Zoo is the 2nd in a 3-part series on their Innovative Solutions Grants+ project, exploring how teens in the Seattle area can empower each other and their peers for action on climate change. In 2016 our focus for Seattle Youth Climate Action Network has been to build on the success of our pilot year and expand our engagement model to be inclusive and relevant for teens in the Seattle area. In year one we worked primarily with teens that were already committed through volunteer and internship programs at Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle Aquarium and Pacific Science Center. For the culminating Youth Climate Action Summit, we invited teens from other youth programs to participate and had a great response. As relayed in our last post, our primary goals for the project this year are to get more teens from across the city to join the network, and develop a more widespread and more engaging Summer Transportation Challenge. In keeping with our first goal, we have been looking to recruit teens that don’t already have a connection to Seattle Youth CAN. Noting our earlier finding that our in-person events have proven to be surprisingly successful as an engagement strategy, we have been focused on the following: Encouraging teens who are already involved to invite their peers to our events Asking other youth programs to join the network and attend and promote our events Tabling at local teen and climate change events that have been developed by others We have seen mixed results with this approach, and have continued to evolve our outreach strategy as we go. What did we do? Our teen leaders have presented at a range of youth action and climate events including; Gates Foundation’s Youth Action Summit, Museum of Flight’s NASA Climate Night, Seattle Art Museums Teen Night Out, and the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit at the Seattle Aquarium. What’s been working? One element that teens developed that has been effective for engagement at outreach events has been the “climate tree” activity which asks people to add one leaf that represents what they are doing to fight climate change and one for what they are concerned about. Since this was developed, over a hundred leaves have been added and thirty new teens have joined the network! What have been the lessons learned? Youth leaders have identified a range of barriers to participation in Seattle Youth CAN from the broader youth community including the challenge of getting reaching new teens through existing communication channels and the relevance of our events for youth who are not already passionate about climate change. We are working to address these potential barriers and continue to expand our community support and opportunities for youth and partner input on our outreach and engagement efforts. While expanding our network, we also took steps to strengthen its core. Specifically, we expanded youth leadership opportunities within the network, and in January launched the Youth Leadership Committee (YLC), a steering committee that is made up of teen representatives from each partner program. These teens meet monthly (and often more) to plan campaigns, explore new opportunities, and move broader project goals forward. In addition, each partner program has its own climate team with more youth members who in addition to the network-wide efforts are working on a on a range of institution specific projects - stay tuned! By creating new opportunities for teens to take on leadership roles, we are helping to strengthen the youth driven nature of the project and also the critical mass needed to move us forward. Then in keeping with our second goal, developing a more widespread and more engaging Transportation Challenge, the YLC is busy gearing up for another exciting summer of transportation related action. This year, teen leaders have modified the goals of the challenge: Increasing participation by expanding our network of partners and reaching more teens Engage participants in fun activities and events that help increase personal action and carbon reducing transportation choices The group is hard at work developing a new approach for engagement which they hope will be successful in getting many more youth involved in the action. The eight-week summer challenge will have weekly themes and prizes, and in-person events and contests to build excitement for getting involved and encouraging others to participate, as well as a strong social media focus through channels including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We also have launched a new blog, www.seattleyouthcan.org which is a great place for our teens to share their stories and will be a hub for the upcoming challenge. Not to forget that earlier this year, seven of our teens worked with King County Metro Transit to develop a complementary youth-targeted campaign, which will hopefully launch county wide this summer. In addition, a local website design and social media firm, www.rorymartin.com, has offered up their support to help build a more dynamic marketing and social media strategy for the campaign and will be training a team of Seattle Youth CAN teens to lead this effort. All together, we are hoping to inspire hundreds of local youth to take action during the months of July and August. We are hopeful that with more targeting outreach and communication during the challenge and a more dynamic experience for participants, that we will successfully engage a much larger group this summer both within and beyond our core network. Stay tuned for updates on our summer of learning and climate action!

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