Our future is tied to the ocean. Its shared seas connect us through food, culture and sport. The home of amazing, abundant life, it’s also a powerful climate solution. Yet the practice of bottom trawling threatens to destroy this precious resource—bulldozing our ocean floor, undermining small-scale fisheries and deepening the climate crisis.
João Kopke is a Portuguese national champion in all junior categories, and left the world qualifying circuit to follow a new path in surfing, becoming a nomad of sensations: culture, people, music, nature, history and stories. Combining waves with his training in classical double bass and lyric singing, his academic background in political science and international relations, and his endless curiosity. The goal? To tell stories. To do so, João records videos, takes photographs, makes music or writes posters... His job is to produce content that wants to reach his audience in a way never seen before. All with a surfboard under his arm to guide the way.
PhD, marine biologist, CEO and co-founder Ocean Alive
2019 National Geographic Explorer, Raquel Gaspar is a marine biologist devoted to engaging local communities in ocean protection, specifically empowering women to engage in seagrass meadows conservation. She spent nearly 20 years monitoring the population of bottlenose dolphins in the Sado estuary and worked with local stakeholders as a staff member of the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve. Throughout this project, she used long-term photo ID data to model the viability of the declining dolphin population. As a response, she co-founded Ocean Alive, an NGO dedicated to protecting the seagrass meadows that support the Sado dolphins. Gaspar has used storytelling to promote ocean literacy and engage teachers and young people in ocean protection.
Hugo Vau is a nature enthusiast, intrepid traveler, professional fisherman, passionate surfer. He has transformed his passions into solid vocations, living a simple life, but at the splitting his time between his fisherman activity in the Azores, and Big Wave Surfing in Nazaré. A true advocate of living in harmony with nature and enjoying the simple things in life. Hugo is a fearless and inspiring member of the ocean community, forever encouraging people around him to celebrate and protect the wonderful world we live in. he is also an ambassador of BiodivAMP - Marine Protected Areas of Portugal.
Valentina Muñoz works at Sciaena, a Portuguese ocean conservation NGO, as a marine litter and community engagement officer. As part of her job, she participates in international networks that seek high-ambition policies to tackle ocean plastic pollution. She is also involved with the fishers community of Culatra Island, where she coordinated a project aimed to information sharing and capacity building towards a sustainable development. Last year, she participated in the collection of baseline information on the future marine protected area of community interest Pedra Do Valado (AMPIC project).
Providing tools in the form of knowledge to people, in order to make informed decisions about their actions facing environmental problems and top-down solutions is part of her contribution for ocean conservation based on social and environmental justice.
Since 2021 I'm Marine Policy Director with Seas At Risk (SAR), the European umbrella of NGOs working for a healthy ocean. Joining SAR changed my life: I discovered the wonders and vulnerability of the ocean, started diving, stopped eating animals. Before I tried to explore and implement systemic alternatives with progressive foundations (EDGE Funders Alliance) and development NGOs (CONCORD Europe). I have degrees in communication and development education, and I'm passionate about systemic change, rethinking masculinity, cycling, sauna and the ocean.
João de Macedo, began his surfing adventure by bodyboard at age seven in Praia Grande, Sintra. This passion inevitably became a career connected to the sea: he was the first Portuguese, and European, professional surfer to qualify to paddle in the WSL Big Wave Tour, which he finished in the Top 5. He graduated in Economy in the year 2000, founded 'Surf Academy' in Praia Grande and Carcavelos; In California, he was the co-founder and project manager of the World Surfing Reserves (www.worldsurfingreserves.org). João is also known for paddling the giant waves of Nazare. Recently founding 'Hope Zones Foundation', his mission is to contribute and accelerate the transformation to legally protect 30% of oceans and lands by 2030 aligned with United Nations agenda. The goal is to allow Portuguese coastal communities to prosper long term, by protecting biodiversity, reducing the extinction of species and maintain the capability of the planet to store CO2.
Born in 1968, Pedro Carmo Silva has his origins in the fishing community of Ericeira.
With a degree in Business Management, he has dedicated his professional life to banking for many years.
He is currently a City Councilman in Mafra, where, among others, he has been assigned the areas of Tourism, Sports, Sea, Beaches and Coastal Zone.
Pedro Carmo Silva has a special interest in environmental issues, namely environmental sustainability, valuation of sustainable practices in the tourism products consumed, and also the economy of the sea. He is part of the Restricted Council of the World Surfing Reserve - the 2nd Reserve distinguished globally, and the first to be distinguished in Europe.
Hope Corals created with discarded ropes and fishing cages collected on the beach. "Lizzy is a surfer and artist living in Peniche, Portugal. From the intimate connection with the ocean, the need to protect it has born. She started exploring the potentialities of marine litter as a raw material and as a tool for ocean literacy and awareness. HOPE is the agglutination of the words rope + hope. The corals are art pieces created with ropes and discarded fishing cages collected on the beach. The main idea was to recreate a healthy reef, by using the material that most harms the ocean - the equipment used by massive fishing practices. By weaving, knitting and using tapestry techniques, she transforms ropes into coral looking pieces. HOPE Corals are a hope for a more sustainable fishing practices in the future and a hope for
more marine protected areas (MPA ́s). “
Maura Francisco, 22 years old, Communication Sciences graduate from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, with a specialization in Journalism.
She is currently a reporter and content producer for the daily afternoon Talk Show Bem-Vindos on RTP Africa. And in addition, she has a very vast career in the field of journalism, having worked for several renowned media outlets such as Gerador, BANTUMEN and the magazine Visão. One of her biggest professional goals has been to bring awareness to the protection of the environment. In 2022, she was in charge of covering the second United Nations Ocean Conference, which took place in Lisbon. And as a result, she published 6 articles for the Visão Verde website.
