Year End Matching Donation Campaign Met!

WE DID IT!  Thanks to generous donors our matching grant campaign was a success with a final $500 check made by a private donor December 31.

Follow our work and see the efforts to reduce ocean pollution, educate youth and save sharks supported by this grant and these donations.

[fusion_text]Thanks to a generous donor (who wishes to remain anonymous) Shark Stewards has been awarded $10,000 in matching funds towards the Aquatic Park Stewardship program and International 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. Shark Stewards is also collecting data and presentations to support increased protection for blue sharks- the most common large shark in the shark fin trade.

Shark Stewards

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:

  • 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.
  • Develop our International Blue Shark Protection Campaign fighting the fin trade and protecting blue sharks from overfishing.Shark Stewards

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