Thanks to the generous donation of a family fund (who wishes to remain anonymous) Shark Stewards has been awarded $10,000 in matching funds towards the Aquatic Park Stewardship program and Blue shark campaign.
Now in its 4th year, the Aquatic Park Stewards program has engaged thousands of youth and volunteers engaging in beach clean ups, community education, documentary filmmaking and habitat and species assessment for sharks and rays in San Francisco’s urban national park. Please help us reach this goal!
WHERE FUNDS GO
We will apply the funds to hire a part time female scientist, currently attending graduate school in Environmental Sciences at the University of San Francisco, to manage and grow the Aquatic Park Stewards youth education and habitat assessment program and facilitate program development in our international blue shark protection campaign.
With the funds we will:
- Develop our International Blue Shark Protection Campaign fighting the fin trade and protecting blue sharks from overfishing at CITES CoP 18.
- Increase school participation to include two more public schools, adding 700 more youth who will learn about Bay ecosystems and habitat, and engage in plastic pollution prevention;
- Make the National Park Smoke Free. After 35,000 butts picked up by youth and volunteers, we have enough data. Although clean up and more prevention is needed, this program aims to make the Park, and by association the Bay and Ocean, healthier for humans and wildlife;
- Set the precedent to other waterfront areas in the city to mitigate butt and plastic pollution;
- Produce another student produced documentary on Bay habitat and marine pollution solutions to be entered in the International Ocean Film festival. See the award winning film Hang Onto Your Butts made at the Park;
- Continue our benthic habitat assessment with the goals of restoration of eelgrass habitat in the Cove, providing critical refuge for species from Dungeness crabs to Leopard sharks.