Did you know that the Aquarium supports research and conservation projects around the world through its Marine Conservation Action Fund (MCAF)?  With each of these MCAF projects, listed below, the Aquarium is helping to protect marine species, ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.




MCAF funded projects

• Protecting sea turtles and educating communities in Costa Rica
  Grantee: Didiher Chacon, WIDECAST

• Measuring an Indian Ocean reef's resilience to climate change
  Grantee: Rohan Arthur, Nature Conservation Foundation

 • Protecting Costa Rica's sea turtles
  Grantee: Sea Turtles Forever

• Studying the impact of flooding on Indus River dolphins
  Grantee: Dr. Gill Braulik, Pakistan Wetlands Program

• Satellite tagging oceanic manta rays
  Grantee: Josh Stewart, Manta Trust

• Studying and protecting manta rays in the wild
  Grantee: Daniel Fernando, Manta Trust

• Building a global strategy for manta and devil rays
  Grantee: Kerstin Forsberg, Planeta Oceano

• Acoustic tagging of sharks in the Buck Island Monument, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands
   Grantee: Greg Skomal, PhD, and Bryan DeAngelis, Atlantic White Shark Conservancy

• Leatherback turtle nesting beach monitoring and protection program, Papua, Indonesia.
   Grantee: Ricardo Tapilatu, Bird's Head Leatherback Turtle Program

• Research on the impact of shark fisheries in Peru
   Grantee: Ali Altamirano, ACOREMA

• Sea ranger community patrol program for locally-managed marine area in Indonesia.
   Grantee: Helen Newman, Sea Sanctuaries Trust

• Research and conservation of sawfish populations in Mozambique
   Grantee: Ruth Leeney, PhD, Marine Megafauna Foundation

• Collection and recycling of derelict fishing nets, Chile
   Grantee: Ben Kneppers, New Earth