Seeing great whites in their natural habitat, so different from the monsters many paint them to be, really opened my eyes to how villainized they wer… - Melissa Cristina Márquez

To protect anything, you need to care about it, and to care, you need to know that it's there. But, not everybody has had the luxury to visit the ocean, or experience what is happening in the ocean. I hope that through my initiatives I can show large audiences the great natural beauty and astonishing wildlife that our marine habitats have. The goal of my conservation career is to have people come away with an appreciation of how important our oceans are, a better understanding of how all habitats are linked, what problems the ocean faces and what we can do to help.

My advice is get good grades, follow your passions, and try to volunteer with aquariums or museums that allow you to interact with the animals.

To have a healthy planet you need a healthy ocean environment. Conserving our oceans is of vital interest not only to the diverse life that calls that ecosystem home, but to humankind. If you think about it, our economy, our food sources - heck, really our very survival - all require a healthy ocean.