Coral Reef Competition Winner Announced, Next One Now Open for Entries

Submitted by Biosphere Expeditions

Biosphere Expeditions, the Marine Conservation Society and the Reef Check Foundation recently ran a global competition for a place on a coral reef citizen-science expedition in the Maldives, Malaysia or Musandam (Oman). Several hundred entries were received, and the winner was Kelsea Koch, from the USA, who chose the Maldives expedition as his destination.

Dr. Matthias Hammer, Executive Director of Biosphere Expeditions, said that Kelsea was selected because he was able to show most convincingly that he would be an enthusiastic and capable contributor to the expedition. \”He deserves the chance to join in as he showed real commitment to ocean conservation. It will be a life-changing experience for him,\” according to Dr. Hammer.

Kelsea said he could not \”thank you guys enough, nor fully describe how excited I am to take part in this expedition. Thank you all so much for selecting me!\”

Given the success of the competition and the number of entries received, the partners have decided to repeat the competition. For more information, please visit www.biosphere-expeditions.org/competition. The winner will once again be able to select freely from Biosphere Expeditions' reef diving expeditions to Musandam (Oman), the Maldives or Tioman Island (Malaysia).
Applications can be made one of two ways:  submission of an essay (max. 100 words) or a video clip (max. one minute).  The latter can be easily created (for example using the movie setting of your digital camera) and then uploaded to a video-sharing site such as YouTube.

Dr. Hammer says that it really is simple and not at all time-consuming to enter. \”Our competition is not a talent show event where you need to sing, dance, dress up or otherwise make a fool out of yourself. We would like to get to know you as much as possible, so just be yourself and show us how committed to ocean conservation you are!\”