Safe Harbor

OCEAN NEWSLETTER ENVIRONMENTAL VISION GRANT

OCEAN (Outer Cape Environmental Awareness Newsletter) e-Newsletter is the self funded environmental education publication of Safe Harbor Environmental Services. OCEAN focuses on close to home issues shared by our Outer Cape Communities and broader scale Climate Related  issues. We have recently begun to offer small grants in support of individuals we feel have commitments to enhancing their own environmental vision and through them, expanding the environmental vision of our greater community.

2016 ENVIRONMENTAL VISION GRANT: Awarded to Ruth Leeney

The founder and Director of Protect Africa's Sawfishes, Ruth Leeney has been selected as the recipient of the OCEAN Environmental Newsletter 2016 Environmental Vision Grant. (https://www.facebook.com/ProtectAfricasSawfishes)

The mission statement of Protect Africa's Sawfishes is: - To work with communities, local groups and government institutions to document areas in African countries where sawfishes still live; -to document the cultural importance of sawfishes and the threats they face. - To encourage and work for the conservation of sawfishes and their habitats in African waters, through the use of education, research, communication; -collaboration with local organizations and individuals. Ruth represents the unheralded dedication, commitment and effort of so many small groups around our globe, that deserve more attention and support.

VISION GRANT UPDATE: We are proud of Ruth's Continued efforts and we are providing an additional environmental vision grant to support her work on a recent publication. 

2015 ENVIRONMENTAL VISION GRANTawarded to Tessera Knowles-Thompson.

A lot of young people bounce through our office, trying to balance the pragmatic realities of paying bills with their creative visions of continuing education in the environmental field. When always try to be supportive of creativity and education when the opportunity arises. One such opportunity produced some unusual results. Tess had just started work with us as an Intern. She had just signed up for Coastal Ecology Classes at the local College. She was also interested in a professional level course offered by The Center for Coastal Studies in Scientific Illustration but was unable to manage the cost. OCEAN Newsletter provided Tess with an ENVIRONMENTAL VISION GRANT which guaranteed her a place in the course.

MORE INFORMATION ON TESSERA'S WORK:

The piece below was Tessera's first effort in her class...

 MORE INFORMATION ON TESSERA: Tessera worked for OCEAN Newsletter as a climate change researcher in Iceland. WE had asked her to ask the oldest fishermen and farmers about changes they were noticing. Her dispatches became an article in OCEAN and is posted on this website. Tessera's art work and writing will enhance OCEAN's ability to communicate a positive message.

2014 ENVIRONMENTAL VISION GRANT: Awarded to Brigid McKenna, to assist in the completion of her Master’s Thesis: exploring acoustic social associations among North Atlantic Right Whales. OCEAN is awarding McKenna our first “Environmental Vision Grant”, in recognition of her commitment and self funded efforts to study this unique concept and bring about further understanding these endangered whales. These grants are not large but they are intended to draw additional attention and perhaps additional support. Brigid has worked with Safe Harbor's Intern Program and been a researcher for OCEAN

MORE INFORMATION ON HER THESIS: My thesis is on Associations among North Atlantic Right Whales in Cape Cod Bay, so based on sightings, data association indices are calculated annually and overall to see if individuals or certain demographics are more social than others and in what circumstances (behaviors). I am also including an entirely assumption based communicative range component to see if certain individuals are always within acoustic distance of each other. It will be submitted in August and then I will forward my findings to the NA Right Whale Consortium and possibly prepare it for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. In September I might be helping out with the New England Aquarium in the Bay of Fundy doing right whale work, and then ideally back in Provincetown in December for aerial work (hopefully).

MORE INFORMATION ON BRIGID: After graduating from Boston Latin School, she completed her undergraduate degree in biology with honors at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her internships and work in the field of marine science has allowed her to study cetaceans and pinnipeds from Cape Cod (MA) to Kona (HI), and she is currently finishing her masters degree at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. After graduating she is hoping to return to New England and continue contributing to marine mammal research through fieldwork and by possibly pursuing a PhD.

TO CONTACT BRIGID:brigidm329@aol.com