On World Oceans Day, Oceana honors those who have made a significant, ongoing contribution to ocean conservation. This year, hundreds were nominated, and a panel of experts selected the following finalists. Voting is now closed. Winners will be announced on June 8.

Adults (Pick One)

Jay Holcomb
Laura Medrano
Cindy and Ted Walters
Sara Bayles
J Nichols
Suzanne Thurman

Jay Holcomb

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Jay Holcomb has been the Executive Director at International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) since 1988. With more than 40 years of experience in wildlife rehabilitation, Jay has led IBRRC on over 200 oil spill responses around the world.

During the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, Jay pioneered the oiled wildlife search and rescue program. In 2000 he oversaw the care of 20,000 oiled African penguins in South Africa -- the largest oiled wildlife rescue attempt in history.

Laura Medrano

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Laura Medrano is a licensed mental health clinician and marine biologist who helps inner-city adolescents in Boston through Dive Kulture, the first program in the nation to combine scuba certification with summer jobs in conservation.

Through her therapeutic scuba training, Laura is fostering the next generation of ocean conservationists, many of whom have never been to the ocean before joining Dive Kulture.

Cindy and Ted Walter

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Husband and wife duo Ted and Cindy Walter own and operate the award-winning sustainable seafood restaurant, Passionfish, in Pacific Grove, California. They advocate for sustainable seafood through legislative advocacy, public presentations, and educational forums for culinary students, restaurateurs, and chefs.

As Monterey County's first "green" restaurant, Passionfish proves that sustainable living can be good living.

Sara Bayles

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Sara is the author of The Daily Ocean blog, which documents her experiment to see how much marine debris can be collected from her local beach in 365 non-consecutive days. For 20 minutes at a time she has taken over 450 pounds of trash off her Santa Monica beach in just over 110 days.

Through the Daily Ocean, Sara exposes our addiction to throwaway products while challenging her readers to make small shifts in their own lives.

Wallace "J." Nichols

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Dr. Wallace "J." Nichols is a Research Associate with California Academy of Sciences and an ocean activist. J. founded Ocean Revolution, an international network of young ocean advocates.

He also started the Blue Marbles Movement, a global initiative that asks participants to pass along a blue marble to someone they see caring for the oceans. So far more than 200,000 marbles have been shared.

Suzanne Thurman

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Suzanne Thurman directs the Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute, the only marine mammal stranding center in Delaware. Now 10 years old, MERR started with a single sea turtle that spent the night in Suzanne's laundry room.

Since then MERR has helped more than 1,000 stranded sea turtles, seals, dolphins and whales, and also provides free educational programs about marine life and ocean health to more than 10,000 people annually.

Photo © Kevin Fleming

Juniors (Pick One)

Ayla Besemer
Carolyn Caggia
Finatics
Bonnie Lei
Diana Gonzalez

Ayla Besemer

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Inspired by the beauty of the creatures in the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," 13-year-old Ayla Besemer and her friend Simon created "Save Our Seas," an interactive presentation kids everywhere can give that highlights ocean threats and 15 actions kids can take today.

To date, Ayla has given her "Save Our Seas" presentation to more than 1,500+ people in seven states and the Bahamas.

Carolyn Caggia

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As her Girl Scout Gold Award project, 16-year-old Carolyn Caggia is helping get sea turtles out of gillnets in North Carolina. Working with the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, Carolyn created a "Save the Sea Turtle" exhibit, which was attended by 12,000 visitors.

After it was presented to several state legislators, one representative agreed to sponsor a bill to end gillnetting in the state.

Finatics

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The Shark Finatics are a group of 26 emotionally injured students, ages 13 to 17, at Green Chimneys School in Brewster, New York, who love sharks. With the help of their teacher, Robin Culler, they have spent more than three years raising funds for shark conservation and educating hundreds of people about shark finning.

The Finatics have written letters to President Obama and Congressmen urging them to support legislation for sharks, and have even compiled a book, "Our Shark Story."

Bonnie Lei

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For the past three years, high school junior Bonnie Lei has been conducting independent research about sea slugs to create a better understanding of biodiversity conservation in the Caribbean.

She has reclassified a genus, identified a possible new species, and she even presented her research at the international American Association for the Advancement of Sciences annual meetings in 2009 and 2010. As an Earthwatch Institute Fellow, she has also studied humanity's impact on endangered otters.

Diana Gonzalez

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At her California high school, sophomore Diana Gonzalez started a group, S.T.O.P. (Save The Ocean Please) to encourage and educate others to stop the destruction of the ocean.

She has recruited 80 student members, who have participated in three beach cleanups, several ocean awareness days, and several fundraisers for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Voting is now closed. Winners will be announced June 8.