LANDOVER, MD May 29th, 2014 – The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and its founder, His Royal Highness Prince Khaled bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, have been awarded a Peter Benchley award for Excellence in Ocean Exploration. The award recognizes their work exploring and creating first-ever detailed maps of some of the world’s most remote coral reef systems.
The Peter Benchley Awards are billed as the worlds’ preeminent ocean conservation awards and other winners this year are EU commissioner Maria Damanaki, The Honorable Leon Panetta, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Casey Sokolovic, Captain Charles Moore, and Dr. Steve Gaines. The award ceremony is being held at the California Academy of Science in San Francisco.
The Living Oceans Foundation is in the middle of a five year ocean research expedition called the Global Reef Expedition. Scientists on the expedition collect information about the health and status of remote coral reefs, including population and biodiversity assessments of important fish populations. The Foundation analyses the data from the expedition and gives the results to local communities. Their goal is to provide science-based solutions that will empower people to keep ocean resources healthy and sustainable.
Addressing the award ceremony by video from Saudi Arabia, Prince Khaled states “When I started the Living Oceans Foundation almost fifteen years ago it was with the idea that scientific knowledge could help us better protect our oceans” He continues “I believe that ocean exploration today gathers critical information for making wise conservation decisions for the future.”
About the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
The Khaled bin sultan Living Oceans Foundation (LOF), founded by Khaled bin Sultan, is conducting the world’s largest coral reef survey and high resolution mapping expedition, as part of its 5 year Global Reef Expedition. The Expedition is helping LOF realize its mission to provide science-based solutions to protect and restore ocean health. As part of its commitment to Science Without Borders®, Living Oceans provides its data and information to leading ocean-focused organizations, governments, scientists, and local communities so that they can use knowledge to work toward sustainable ocean protection.
