Featured: Next Generation Ocean Activists who inspire us!

As part of the mission to connect ocean changemakers, TOOL has gathered a group of young ocean activists that truly inspire us, great young voices we recommend you to follow and support.

Anne Sophie Roux is an ocean entrepreneur and activist with a background in social and political sciences. She realized that the ocean is our biggest ally to mitigate both the climate and biodiversity crisis and to adapt ourselves to their consequences As she took part in the restoration of marine habitats such as coral reefs and mangroves, she witnessed the tremendous impacts it represents for local communities She then started weaving a network of local communities restoring their coastal ecosystems and created Tēnaka with the ambition to scale these blue solutions to the climate crisis, through impact measurement tools and technologies Anne Sophie Roux was named Young Ocean Leader by the US non profit Sustainable Ocean Alliance, and became their representative for France. She is passionate about making a change for our ocean and believe restoring and preserving its ecosystems and key functions of carbon sink is the most efficient way forward. In 2024, Anne Sophie took on a new role as advisor on international negotiations on the ocean, for France´s Minister of the Sea and Biodiversity Hervé Berville.

Te Aomihia Walker is a Māori youth activist, marine biologist, fisheries advisor, Sue Taei Ocean Fellow and member of the Arctic Angels - a youth-led, intergenerational, climate action global network of women. She also sit as a trustee on the Tairawhiti Voyaging Trust to help revitalise Waka Hourua voyaging and matauranga in the Tairawhiti community, as well as the Te Hau Komaru Charitable Trust to represent Tairawhiti in national Waka Hourua kaupapa.

As a 2021 Tonganui Scholar, she attended a six-month residency in Iceland as part of the UNESCO’s GRÓ Fisheries Training programme between 2021-22. While abroad, Te Aomihia completed a research project that focused on a policy in fisheries called “landing and discards” – what fishers can return to the port and land, and what they must return to the ocean. Te Aomihia examined the activity through an indigenous lens known as ‘etuaptmumk’ or ‘two-eyed seeing’ and developed key principles for developing landings and discard policies utilising both western knowledge of conventional fisheries management and mātauranga Māori equally.

Hannah Testa - Founder of Hannah4Change, has been an environmentalist activist most of her life — all 21 years of it.  Since the age of four, Hannah has made it her mission to fight for the planet and its future.  Her passion is protecting people, animals, and the planet through education, awareness, and policy work. By the age of 10, Hannah realized that one of our biggest environmental problems is one that we can control: plastic pollution. Since then, Hannah has delivered presentations to over 30,000 children and adults across the world, including businesses and governments, on how to reduce their plastic footprint.​  She conceived and spearheaded Plastic Pollution Awareness Day in 2017 and 2018, the first event(s) of its kind and seen on national TV and 300,000 viewers of the local news in her state. Hannah also influenced Fulton County GA to pass a bill in 2019 to eliminate single-use plastics from government properties.  In 2020, Hannah was part of a small handful of advocates that introduced the federal bill, The Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act. This is considered the most comprehensive approach to plastic and packaging ever introduced in the U.S. Congress and is the product of over a year’s worth of intensive stakeholder input.

Hannah also worked with leading two non-profits to develop a school curriculum to educate students across the world on ocean health. In addition to the curriculum, an art contest that served to raise awareness on the health of our oceans raised $500,000 that was donated to ocean conservation organizations such as The Nature Conservancy.  Over 110,000 students from 45 countries participated in this program in 2018-2019 and several student-led efforts to reduce single-use plastics were launched.

Asha de Vos - is a Sri Lankan marine biologist, ocean educator and pioneer of blue whale research within the northern Indian Ocean. She is known for her Blue Whale Project. She is a Senior TED Fellow and was chosen for a BBC 100 Women award in 2018. She is a National Geographic 2016 Emerging Explorer Grantee.

Avani Awasthee is an environment crusader and the youngest Indian to have travelled to Antarctica at the age of 18. Origining from Pune, she was an Environmental Ambassador for India and was handpicked from 6000 applicants across the globe to be part of the International Antarctica Expedition in 2016.

She visited Antarctica again in 2018, but this time as a mentor for 90 people from 20 different nations. The young, passionate environmentalist won the Karmaveer Chakra Award in 2019 for her sincere efforts and contributions to the environment.

Chanté Davis is a climate storyteller from New Orleans, Louisiana. As an Ocean Hero, Chanté strives to make the movement equitable and inclusive to the historically oppressed through her One Oysean campaign.

Camille Etienne is an environmental activist and sustainability advocate known for her campaigns to protect the Earth. She has taken a pivotal role in the #LookDown project to delay deep sea mining, campaigning successfully first towards the French government, and later getting more than 20 countries onboard. In order to get her message to the masses, Camille has made several short films and documentaries. In 2023 she released her first book titled For an Ecological Uprising: Overcoming Our Collective Powerlessness.

The book discusses several ways millennials and younger audiences can take action to stop climate change.

Finlay Pringle started campaigning for the environment and the ocean at age 10.  He is passionate about the conservation of sharks and is Scotland’s junior shark ambassador. He opposes the cruel practice of shark finning for the making of shark fin soup, as well as the captivity of sharks in aquariums.

He was inspired to start campaigning at the age of 10 because he was experiencing and witnessing the impacts of plastic pollution, and climate change on marine life while snorkelling close to his home in Scotland. As shark ambassador, he speaks out and educates people on the misunderstood nature of sharks, as well as the incredibly cruel practice of shark finning.  In 2018, he called out celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls for making money off the captivity of sharks at his adventure park in Birmingham.  Fin continues to campaign to make shark fin soup illegal in the UK and to have shark finning banned.

Autum Peltier is an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) environmental activist. She has spent more than half her young life working to bring clean water to Indigenous peoples in Canada. is the Chief Water Commissioner for the Anishinabek Nation and an Indigenous Rights & Water activist whose journey for justice has made waves around the globe.

Peltier captivated the world’s attention at the age of 12 when she admonished Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, at an Assembly of First Nations event, for the choices he had made for her people and lack of support. She spoke her mind which led him to make her a promise, “I will protect the water.” It’s that promise to which she holds him accountable still today.

At 13, Peltier spoke at the UN General Assembly. Amongst many accolades she’s received the Sovereign Medal of Exceptional Volunteerism from the Governor-General of Canada and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. She’s been a featured speaker at The World Economic Forum, has been shortlisted for the International Children’s Peace Prize four times, and in 2021 was featured in Maclean’s Top 50 Canadian Power List. In 2022, Peltier was an Honorary Doctorate Inductee from Royal Roads University, received the Daniel G Hill Award from Ontario Human Rights Commission as well as the Emerging Canadian Leader Award from Public Policy Forum. Autumn’s documentary movie The Water Walker, produced by Seeing Red Six Nations, was released on HBO Canada.

Oluwaseyi Moejah is an environmentalist, action-oriented leader, global change-maker and law student, her passion lies at the intersections between environmental justice, change-making, circular economy, climate action and ocean protection. 

Oluwaseyi is the Cofounder of U-recycle Initiative and a National Geographic Young Explorer. U-recycle Initiative is an award-winning youth-led organization, focused on advancing a circular economy in Africa through reinforcing environmental sustainability, climate action and recycling culture across schools and communities. Oluwaseyi founded this organization in September 2018 after winning the 2018 TNCI Social Impact Award. 

She is devoted to collaborating with others to design and implement sustainable, deep-rooted and innovative solutions to mitigate the environmental crisis in Africa and beyond.

Eugénia Barroca

Eugénia Barroca is the Regional Representative for Lusofonia and Europe at the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA), the world's largest global network of Ocean Leaders. She is also an Ambassador for the Blue School Program and between 2019 and 2020 she was also a Young Atlantic Ambassador of Portugal, in the AANChOR project.

In 2022, she was considered “Heroine of the Ocean” by the President of the Republic Dr. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and in 2023 she joined the Reflection Group The Future Has Started in which she discusses the great national and global goals with the President of the Republic and Portuguese youth. In 2021, Eugénia provided scientific consultancy in the production of the documentary series "Rios Urbanos" about 12 Portuguese estuaries, which premiered on November 13th on RTP2. Over the last ten years, she has played an active role in several environmental volunteering projects in national and international organizations.

Penelope Lea is a Norwegian climate activist, and a strong voice in climate debate globally. She became the second youngest ambassador for UNICEF at the age of 15 in 2020. She uses her voice to advocate for better environmental solutions. She lead the Children´s Climate Panel, has served on the board of The Environmental Agents, and has been goodwill ambassador for The One Ocean Expedition

Daniel Cáceres Bartra is the young founder and leader of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance hub in Peru and co-founder of the Taking Care of the Ocean collective. Bartra has worked across many marine biodiversity and conservation projects, from working with humpback whales to registering new reefs in the North of Peru.

He also has been a vocal voice for the Peruvian ocean in both national and international policy events, participating in the annual Our Ocean conference since 2016 and presenting at conferences in most Peruvian universities. Notably, Daniel has worked In Peru to influence its congress and political candidates to incorporate an ocean agenda into national policy. He organized the first ocean hearing and youth climate summit in Peru’s Congress. In 2015, Daniel was the youngest divemaster in Peru; in 2016 he won the national Hreljac Medal for being the youth with the biggest impact on national sustainable development; and in 2017 won the Agent of Change award from the scientific University of the South.

Mya-Rose Craig, aka Birdgirl, is an environmental activist and passionate birder. She travelled to the Arctic Circle with Greenpeace to investigate climate change, staging the most northerly climate strike ever, in the Arcitc Circle. Standing alone on an Arctic ice floe, photographed with the dramatic backdrop of melting slabs of ice all around her.

When she was 14, she set up a charity, Black2Nature, that campaigns for equal access to nature and the countryside with a particular focus on minority ethnic communities. Since then, she has continued to work to encourage young people and families to enjoy the countryside through nature camps and trips as well as highlighting the importance of ethnic diversity in the conservation and environmental sectors. At 17, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Bristol in recognition of her activism, making her the youngest person in the UK to receive the award.

Riddhi Samtani is a dual-degree candidate for a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in International Affairs and Environmental Studies at Northeastern University.

Hailing from the Dutch West Indies island of Sint. Maarten, Riddhi has a unique perspective on the challenges that third world countries face in terms of environmental regulation and preservation. During her time there, she worked with the St. Maarten Pride Foundation (a local environmental NGO) and was instrumental in passing environmental legislation by voicing concerns from a youth perspective to parliament and Holland’s Royal Family.

One of the first research projects that Riddhi undertook at Northeastern, explored collecting data that indicated to climate change in her home country. Working with the St. Maarten Nature Foundation, she complied her research by conducting PADI certified scuba-diving to gather data on water toxicology, coral reefs, and marine biodiversity. Riddhi built on her scientific studies to apply her talents to real-world issues at the US Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. for six months. Her work on St. Maarten has already had a profound impact on community engagement and awareness, and it is likely that her efforts will continue to lead to innovation in environmental research and sustainability.