Shark Stewards-End of Year Deliverables 2018

Produced and premiered 10-minute documentary Alice in Borneo’s Wonderland at the International Ocean Film Festival San Francisco. Hosted an expert panel on marine protected areas and sanctuaries at the Screened the film in Vancouver and in Shenzhen and entering other festivals;
Authored and submitted a 105 page comprehensive report on shark and ray catch and trade in Sabah Malaysia following five years of fieldwork including 172 fish market surveys with recommendations to reduce shark fin trade and catch in Malaysia;
Hosted a two day conference on sharks and fishing in Sabah Malaysia through our Sabah Shark protection Association with government, universities and other NGOs directed at reducing shark and ray bycatch and trade of body parts in Malaysia, June 2018;
Delivered a summary of recommendations to the new Malaysian government to stop overfishing and reduce the shark fin trade, increase marine protection and develop ecotourism;
Monitored reintroduced sharks and added 100 square meters of restored coral to the restoration project at the Tropical Restoration Conservation Centre on Pom Pom Island;
Launched a National Geographic Explorers Project with the company OpenROV using a remote operating vehicle to monitor and assess marine habitat in and outside of marine protected areas. Data is submitted to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife;
Authoring an online column with National Geographic Open Explorer with 9 posts including videos and photographs featuring our work in Borneo and California Reach over 200,000;
Hosted two regional community workshops on California marine protected areas and produced 5 short You Tube videos on MPAs;
Held 8 outreach events reaching approximately 10,000 students and general public in the San Francisco Bay Area as part of our World Oceans Day, MPA outreach and Sharktober events including California Academy of Sciences (3000) and Greater National Marine Sanctuary (1500);
Educated 350 underserved youth on ocean and bay ecosystems and conducted 11 beach cleanups at Aquatic Park with 350 volunteers for a total of 1200 volunteer Picked up and quantified 25000 cigarette butts in 2017 at Aquatic Park. Working with the City of San Francisco Department of the environment on a city campaign to prevent butt waste and the National Parks Service to make the park smoke free;
Shark Stewards was awarded the Western Regional and the National Barbara and Herbert Hartzog Award for Outstanding Volunteer service- youth group division award in Washington DC by the National Parks Service for the Aquatic Park Stewardship Program;
Participated in the Strawbucks campaign that leveraged the reduction of plastic use and straws by Developing an In and Out campaign in San Francisco to ban straws;
Actively supported the California Ban on Driftnets responsible for killing thousands of sharks, marine mammals and other marine life now signed into law prohibiting fishing using this harmful practice;
Developed the Southern California chapter with two dive clubs, and held three public events and a run 4 sharks raising $5000;
Launched the Southeast USA chapter in Florida with the film Sharkwater, to support a newly proposed state shark fin;
Hosted public chapter events in Lost Angeles, Florida, Malaysia and in Vancouver with film and action.