Ocean.org

After taking a trip to Antarctica four years ago, Jasveen Brar realized her calling: understanding and raising awareness about humans and our polar regions. Namely, how climate change is impacting people, communities, and the ocean in those places. Not many 23-year-olds know exactly what they want to do in life, but Jasveen is paving her own path as a determined advocate and young leader, who hopes to one day specialize in issues around climate change refugees. A top 25 environmentalist under 25 in Canada, Jasveen was also selected as one of 40 youth to participate in the first year of Ocean Bridge, a youth service program focused on oceans and created by Ocean Wise. Her main message to the older generation of climate decision and policy makers? Don’t underestimate the power of young people. Dive deeper: read more about all 40 Ocean Bridge youth here. Twitter: Jasveen Brar

Orla Doherty is a producer for Blue Planet II, the groundbreaking series from BBC that takes cameras to parts of the ocean where no human, let alone a TV crew, has ever been before. In one of her episodes, The Deep, she made history by taking a submersible a kilometre below the surface to the Antarctic ocean floor. Things she witnessed while filming this episode: a fish with a transparent head, sixgill sharks feeding on a dead sperm whale, and a methane volcano eruption. In another episode she explores the dire impact humans are having on our blue planet. Ultimately, it was a dive she did at age 30 that led her here. After seeing coral for the first time, her life was forever altered and her desire to protect the ocean forever ingrained. Dive deeper: Watch the Blue Planet II prequel here. Twitter: BBC Earth and Our Blue Planet Facebook: BBC Earth Instagram: BBC Earth

Damian Foxall has sailed around the world not once, not twice, but six times with the Volvo Ocean Race. He’s a veteran of what’s known as the longest sport in the world and the pinnacle of ocean sailing, a nine-month adventure that visits six continents and crosses four oceans. He’s also a passionate environmentalist, working with the Volvo Ocean Race youth education program to teach students 6-12 about the ocean, sailing and plastic pollution. This year, some boats in the Race are helping to collect important data and sample of microplastics in the far-flung places they sail. It’s part of an ongoing effort by Damian and Volvo Ocean Race to reduce their plastic and carbon footprint while encouraging the cities and communities they visit to do the same.

After a chance encounter at a cocktail party in California, Captain Liz Clark was gifted a sailboat by a retired professor. The only catch - if you can call it that - was that he wanted to live vicariously through her as she sailed around the world. She spent more than a decade sailing and surfing her way through Central America and the Pacific Islands and doing her best to live sustainably. In a new memoir, Swell, Liz details her ocean adventures and the life lessons she learned along the way.  Through platforms like her book tour and her role as a Patagonia ambassador, she’s sharing not just the challenges she has seen from plastic pollution around the world but innovative ways to address it too.   Dive deeper: Order Liz’s book from Amazon or Patagonia.   Facebook: Liz Clark and Changing Tides Foundation Instagram: Liz Clark and Changing Tides Foundation

Two days into her role as Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, The Honourable Catherine McKenna was in Paris for the UN climate negotiations. She’s continued full-steam ahead since then to make Canada a leader in environmental policy, including changes to tackle ocean pollution. That includes a ban on microbeads, introducing an ambitious zero plastic waste charter for G7 countries and a record federal budget spend of CAD$1.3 billion on conservation (over five years). Clean waters are near and dear to her - as a mom and a lifelong swimmer who has been known to take a dip in the Arctic, she wants to ensure her children inherit a healthier planet. Catherine McKenna and Environment and Climate Change Canada Catherine McKenna and Environment and Climate Change Canada Catherine McKenna and Environment and Climate Change Canada Dive deeper: Got an idea on how to tackle the plastic problem? Visit this link to share it

Dr. Claire Simeone is the first-ever veterinarian in the TED Fellows program, a select group of rising stars in various fields from around the world. This year, she presented not only a big idea on the TED stage but also a new word: zoognosis. It refers to sharing knowledge about health between humans and animals. Case in point: Dr. Simeone discovered a gel used on humans during cardiovascular surgery can be mixed with antibiotics to treat eye ulcers in sea lions. Her work as a vet feeds into her desire to leave the world a better place for her son. She had a health scare right after he was born and it clarified for her that life is too short to not do work that really matters for our planet.

Chef Ned Bell has worked in noteworthy kitchens across Canada and regularly collaborates with other world-renowned culinary stars. Over the last 10 years he’s dedicated himself to one simple cause — sustainable seafood — in an effort to address the issue of overfishing. In 2016, he left a (very) comfortable job at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver to become executive chef of the non-profit Ocean Wise seafood program, and his peers thought he was nuts. He once rode his bike across the country to raise awareness about sustainable seafood and says he wants to do it again. He’s a risk-taker and he knows it. Ultimately, though, he wants the real payoff to be healthier oceans. Dive deeper: Check out Chef Ned's cookbook on Amazon.

When Cristina Mittermeier once searched the term “conservation photography” all she found was info about how to preserve photos for museum display. Today, she and her partner Paul Nicklen are some of the most recognizable names in the field and are regular contributors to National Geographic - the magazine and Instagram feed. Together, they’ve amassed a social media following like few other photographers out there. They co-founded the organization SeaLegacy, whose mission is to create healthy and abundant oceans and they’re using their photographic prowess to tell critical stories about ocean life. Select music by Keian Sanjari.

One of the reasons plastic is such a popular material is that it’s cheap. It’s also a key reason for why it’s wreaking havoc on our planet and especially our oceans. We simply don’t value plastic as we should, according to David Katz, CEO of The Plastic Bank, and so much of it is single-use. This is more true in the world’s poorer countries than anywhere else, where there isn’t the proper infrastructure to recycle it. So he’s paying residents in those countries to collect it and then selling it to large companies that want to be more socially responsible with their plastic use. It’s an innovative business model - one that’s making not only an environmental impact but an economic one too.

The blobfish has been described in a variety of ways, from ugly to depressed-looking to an “anthropomorphised piece of colon.” Biologist and comedian Simon Watt founded the Ugly Animal Preservation Society to lobby for the “blobby” - as he affectionately calls it - and other aesthetically challenged animals that are facing various threats. Our love for all things cute mean the more homely creatures are overlooked, even though the very thing that makes them so ugly is also often what makes them remarkable

How do you get from serving in Afghanistan to observing sea stars as they lose their limbs in B.C.’s Howe Sound? Just ask Jess Schultz. She’s a marine ecologist with Ocean Wise and has helped keep tabs on species old and new in North America’s southernmost fjord. Much of its wildlife disappeared after a copper mine fed waste into it for decades, and Jess is part of the team that’s helping revive this vital ecosystem. It’s all part of her drive to serve a purpose greater than herself, whether it’s her country or the ocean.

Our attention spans are shorter than ever so in order to get noticed, sometimes you have to do something that really makes a splash. Enter Karina Oliani, a Brazilian TV personality whose diving photos are the definition of “wow” factor. A doctor with a specialization in wilderness medicine, she has a thirst for adrenaline that has taken her up Everest (twice!) She’s also put on designer dresses and done a four-hour underwater photoshoot surrounded by sharks to raise awareness about humans illegally killing them. Next up: a photoshoot to take on plastic.

What is it about being near water that makes us so happy? Why do crashing waves have such a calming and meditative effect on our minds? Dr. Wallace J. Nichols is a marine biologist based in California. He’s a pioneer in studying the therapeutic effects of being on, above, under or near water and risked his reputation along the way because his ideas were so unconventional. J envisions a world where we might treat mental health not just with medicine but maybe a surf lesson too.