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Pew announces 2009 recipients of Distinguished Marine Conservation Fellowship

Fellows to protect ocean wildlife and habitats through research, community activism and multimedia communication

WASHINGTON – The Pew Environment Group announced today that five individuals, representing Argentina, China, France and the United States, received the distinguished 2009 Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation for their proposals to improve conservation of the marine environment. The 2009 Pew Marine Fellowships will support projects to create marine protected areas in strategic locations, reduce illegal poaching of wildlife, protect penguin populations and develop multi-media stories to garner public support for conservation in the Antarctic.

"The Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation program seeks out emerging talent and innovative thinkers who can move ocean conservation forward in bold leaps," said Joshua S. Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group. "The 2009 Fellows are focusing on global-scale solutions both through research projects and by engaging communities worldwide in their ocean conservation goals."

Below are the 2009 Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation awardees.

• Wen Bo is Pacific Environment's Beijing-based China Program co-director. His Pew Marine Fellowship project is designed to reduce poaching and illegal trade of endangered marine species in East Asia by strengthening community-based conservation efforts. He plans to help establish marine conservation grassroots groups in China, develop a network of marine conservation organizations in East Asia and train young marine conservationists to work full-time for non-governmental organizations.

• Pablo Garcia Borboroglu, Ph.D., is a researcher at the National Research Council of Argentina. Borboroglu's Pew Marine Fellowship will advance more sustainable management of marine activities that jeopardize penguin populations worldwide. Through the formation of the "International Penguin Society," he will assess the status of penguin populations, promote science-based conservation, and educate and advise governments and communities on penguin protection.

• Matthieu Le Corre, Ph.D., is a lecturer at the University of Réunion Island in Réunion, France. His Pew Marine Fellowship project will identify oceanic hotspots of biodiversity in the tropical Indian Ocean by studying seabird foraging patterns. Based on this research, he will design high-seas marine protected areas (MPAs) to reduce harmful impacts of Indian Ocean fisheries and to conserve biodiversity in the region.

• Fiorenza Micheli, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford University. Her Pew Marine Fellowship project will assess human threats to Mediterranean marine ecosystems and their cumulative impacts on deep and shallow Mediterranean reefs. Micheli plans to use this critical information to foster better management of existing marine protected areas and to help establish new MPAs in the Mediterranean.

• John Weller is a photographer and author whose work focuses on communicating the value of pristine places. With his Pew Marine Fellowship, Weller seeks to raise widespread awareness, understanding and appreciation for ocean conservation, especially of the Antarctic's Ross Sea. Working with a team of scientists and conservationists, he will create "Ocean Channels," a collection of multi-media narratives that combine marine and ecosystem research with photography, story-telling and music to illuminate features of the Ross Sea and understanding of marine ecology.

"We welcome this new class of Pew Marine Fellows," said Polita Glynn, manager of the Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation Program. "We know they will do an excellent job of carrying on the program's long tradition of advancing better stewardship of our oceans."

The Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation funds science and other projects that address critical challenges in the conservation of the sea, including communication of project information to increase awareness of global marine issues. Each Fellow receives $150,000 to conduct a three-year conservation project designed to address critical challenges to healthy oceans. Through a rigorous nomination and review process, an international committee of marine specialists selects Pew Fellows based on the strengths of their proposed projects, including their potential to protect ocean environments. Five unique and timely projects led by outstanding professionals in their fields are chosen annually.

Since 1996, the Pew Fellowship Program in Marine Conservation has awarded 110 Fellowships to individuals from 29 countries. Until January 1, 2009, the Pew Marine Fellows Program was run by the Pew Institute for Ocean Science at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The program is now managed by the Pew Environment Group, based in Washington, D.C. The Pew Environment Group plans no major changes to the program.

Photographs and more information about each of the 2009 Pew Fellows in Marine Conservation are available at http://www.pewmarinefellows.org/2009.

The Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-governmental organization that applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improving public policy, informing the public and stimulating civic life.

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