12 winners of The Ocean Awards

The Ocean Awards' Technology award celebrates the new technology or application thereof that has made the biggest contribution to ocean conservation in the past year. Satellite Applications Catapult won the award for its technology system Project Eyes on the Sea.

“We were looking for areas where space technology could really provide some advantage and it quickly became apparent that the maritime sector was one area where it would have a huge advantage and could be doing much more than it currently is.” So says Stuart Martin, a former vice-chair of UK Space and a council member of Eurospace and now CEO of Satellite Applications Catapult, the UK innovation and technology company created in 2013 to foster growth across the economy through the exploitation of space.

Research into which areas might benefit led to a workshop with Pew Charitable Trusts, a Philadelphia-based NGO that has campaigned to end illegal fishing. “So we started thinking how satellites could shine a light on that activity,” says Martin. The result is, in the words of one of the Ocean Awards judges, Professor Callum Roberts, “a game-changer in ocean conservation”: a pioneering technology named Eyes on the Seas that can detect illegal fishing via satellites.

As Professor Roberts explains: “One of the arguments continually laid at the foot of those campaigning for greater ocean protection is: how can you stop people from fishing in huge and remote areas? And the truth is that until now it was difficult. But with satellite surveillance and monitoring, there is no place for these boats to hide. We can watch them. We can see what they’re doing. We can identify potentially illegal behaviour patterns. We can see when they go into supposedly protected waters; when they move around in a way that suggests they are fishing. And when something signals suspicious behaviour, you can focus in on that vessel, follow it around, and when it next comes into port, you can nail it.” It is also, he points out, a much less expensive and more efficient way of patrolling the ocean than using boats.

As Martin adds: “It supports nation states, it supports enforcement agencies, fishing vessels that are trying to behave legally and the supermarkets and supply-chain companies so that they can have better assurance on where the produce they are buying comes from. We’re at the stage where we are doing live trials and will be moving to operation next year.” Industrial-scale pirate fishers won’t know they are under surveillance, but they will be.

Highly commended — Schmidt Ocean Institute

For – its project in the remote Timor Sea, where some of the healthiest coral reefs in the world continue to thrive. By combining the use of a high-performance supercomputer, the first of its kind on a research vessel, with remote-sensing technologies, it was able to examine how fine-scale oceanographic processes drive the connectivity and productivity of these reefs, so enabling a greater understanding of the ecological processes that shape coral reef communities and identifying the habitats most likely to be sensitive to disturbances such as bleaching.

Highly commended — Smartfin

For – enabling surfers to collect data to understand better the effects of climate change on coastal systems. Founded by Dr Andrew Stern, a retired neurologist, Smartfin is a surfboard fin with sensors that measures multiple ocean parameters including salinity, pH, temperature, location and wave characteristics.

The Ocean Awards' UK retailer award is given to the retailer that has done the most through corporate policy and/or public engagement to address ocean issues in the past year. Marks & Spencer won for its Forever Fish campaign, part of Plan A 2020.

“We’ve had a responsible fishing policy for the past 15 years and we’ve taken that even further with our Forever Fish campaign,” says Paul Willgoss, director of food technology at the British multinational retailer. In 2007 it launched a project called Plan A (“because there is no plan B”), subsequently relaunched as Plan A 2020, setting out a 100-point plan of environmental and ethical goals. For example, it started charging for plastic carrier bags in 2008, a full seven years before the Government introduced a compulsory charge

last October. What profits are generated from the sale of its carrier bags – the aim of the initiative is to discourage their use – are donated to the World Wildlife Fund, the Marine Conservation Society and an education programme to protect the marine environment.

Among its ethical policies is the Forever Fish campaign, which has three principal objectives: “to help to protect and save our precious sea life, oceans and beaches for future generations to enjoy; to encourage eating of lesser-known and British fish species, without compromising on quality; and to involve volunteers in cleaning our beaches and teaching their children about fish.”

To this end it organises a twice-yearly beach clean-up, encouraging volunteers to record data on the types and amounts of litter. In June 2014 the clean-up involved 8,000 volunteers clearing more than 25 tonnes of rubbish from 135 beaches and canals across the UK. The next year an even more impressive 40 tonnes of detritus was removed from 90 beaches and 42 waterways by 6,000 volunteers. Subsequent analysis revealed a 50 per cent increase year-on-year in the number of discarded wet wipes found on beaches.

In addition, M&S funds four initiatives through this campaign: the WWF Rumaki programme, which challenges unsustainable fishing practices in East Africa; a WWF project in Fiji to conserve turtles on the Great Sea Reef; the WWF’s PISCES project (PISCES stands for Partnerships Involving Stakeholders in the Celtic Sea Ecosystem); and a low-impact brown crab fishery in Orkney.

Highly commended — Sainsbury’s

For – celebrating its fourth Switch the Fish Day by giving away five tonnes of less popular types of fish in the hope that, on trying them, customers might be inspired to buy species other than the perennial bestsellers: cod, salmon, haddock, tuna and prawns. This is all part of its 20x20 Sustainability Plan, which aims to have all the fish it sells independently certified as sustainable by 2020.

Highly commended — Waitrose

For – its continued efforts, over more than 15 years, to source its seafood responsibly, using only suppliers with fisheries or farmed aquaculture operations that are responsibly managed. By 2017, it pledges, all the fish it sells will be independently certified as responsibly sourced, to assure customers that what they are buying is not at risk as a species.