SEATTLE, Wash – The Seattle Aquarium hosted its annual Ocean Honors Awards dinner in recognition of outstanding leaders in marine conservation. This year’s recipients reflect the conservation partnerships of two global partners helping to restore marine life of the Coral Triangle.
Aquarium CEO & President Bob Davidson presented Rili Djohani with the Aquarium’s prestigious Sylvia Earle Medal. In 2010, Djohani co-founded the Coral Triangle Center, a Bali-based learning center focused on strengthening local leadership, advancing community-based coastal and resource management, and innovative outreach and communication programs. Djohani customized training programs and community practices to scale conservation projects in a sustainable fashion. She works closely with partners as Mission Blue and the Seattle Aquarium to protect coastal and marine ecosystems while ensuring the region’s sustainable livelihoods. Djohani also does significant outreach engagement to build empathy for ocean conservation and the animals who call it home.
“Under her leadership in Indonesia and throughout the Coral Triangle region for the past 30 years, her work to co-create and implement community-centered marine protected areas has transformed the future of ecosystems and communities,” said Davidson. “The diversity of life is not only reflected in our one world ocean, but by the people helping to save it. The Coral Triangle Center and the Seattle Aquarium both inspire the awe and urgency of ocean conservation.”
Djohani customized training programs and community practices to scale conservation projects in a sustainable fashion. As part of her work, Djohani also does significant outreach engagement to build empathy for ocean conservation and the animals who call it home.
“I’d just like to highlight how important the Coral Triangle region is,” Djohani began. “It’s recognized as the bullseye for marine biodiversity in the world in terms of coral and reef fish diversity. It includes six countries, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. And more than 75 percent of all coral species can be found in this region. And more than 3000 species of reef fish. It’s really an incredibly important gene pool to replenish coral reefs around the globe.”
She also works closely with partners as Mission Blue and the Seattle Aquarium to protect coastal and marine ecosystems while ensuring the region’s sustainable livelihoods.
“Recognizing Indonesia is also one of the most populous countries in the world, it’s pivotal to strike a balance between environment, society, and economic growth,” Djohani said. “Whilst we were focused on the marine ecology of the underwater environment a few decades ago, we are nowadays much more holistic in our approach. Conservation is all about people and working together. No one can be left behind.”
The Seattle Aquarium Sylvia Earle Medal honors individuals whose leadership and lifetime accomplishments reflect and advance the mission of the Seattle Aquarium: Inspiring Conservation of Our Marine Environment. Formerly the Seattle Aquarium Medal, the award was renamed in 2018, after we presented Dr. Sylvia Earle with our first Seattle Aquarium Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Aquarium presented Christine Dudgeon, Ph.D., with the Seattle Aquarium’s Conservation Research Award. Dudgeon is a Research Fellow at the University of the Sunshine Coast/University of Queensland, Australia.
“Dr. Dudgeon’s insights, guidance and research were a critical part into helping us launch the first regeneration of indo-pacific leopard sharks in the marine-protected waters of Indonesia,” said Erin Meyer, Ph.D., the Aquarium’s Chief Conservation Officer. “It has been a privilege to work with her rewilding such a magnificent endangered species. This collaborative regenerative work informs our partnerships on how to successfully save more species in our one world ocean with friends across the world.”
Dr. Dudgeon has been an instrumental leader with the Seattle Aquarium and its global partners with the ReShark and StAR projects. While Dr. Dudgeon’s expertise and research spans from corals to whales, her work with sharks and rays has been instrumental in advancing the StAR project. The Seattle Aquarium is proud to be a founding member of ReShark, a first-of-its-kind global coalition working to restore threatened sharks and rays. The coalition’s inaugural project is StAR (Stegostoma tigrinum Augmentation and Recovery), which focuses on Indo-Pacific leopard sharks.
“Little did I know that 20 years ago when I started my PhD on the Indo-Pacific leopard shark, or zebra shark, as it’s also known, that this work would be foundational to what we now know as the StAR Project, a world first global collaborative innovative approach to shark conservation,” Dudgeon said. “Much of my work focuses on sharks and rays in the wild. I’m fascinated by evolutionary questions of, how did these extraordinary animals come to be and what are the contemporary processes that maintain the species and populations that we know today? But I’m passionate about translating this research into conservation and wildlife management and doing my bit for helping these animals to survive into the future.”
Dudgeon obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Queensland in 2009, focusing on the ecology of the Indo-Pacific leopard sharks. It was the first study to examine this species in the wild. She and her colleagues have expanded on this work to motivate research and conservation for the species internationally.
The Seattle Aquarium Conservation Research award honors leaders and innovators in marine conservation research. Special consideration is given for researchers working on projects in the Salish Sea or Coral Triangle, who have a special connection to the Seattle Aquarium, those with strong educational or science communication elements to their work.
About the Seattle Aquarium:
Founded in 1977, the Seattle Aquarium is a conservation organization working to regenerate the health of Earth’s one ocean. We work among global leaders to advance animal wellbeing, marine and ecosystem science, public policy, field conservation, education, and species recovery programs that benefit the ocean. Help support the Aquarium’s mission of Inspiring Conservation of Our Marine Environment.
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