Announcing the 2026 Ocean Citizen Award Winners!
Announcing the 2026 Ocean Citizen Award Winners!
Last year we ran our inaugural Ocean Citizen Award, where we supported two young people (Megan and Arwen) to further their passion for marine conservation and give them transformational opportunities.
The Ocean Citizen Award, which is generously supported by Felix Appelbe, founder of Ocean Ambassadors, is designed to support and uplift emerging voices in ocean advocacy.
We are very excited to announce 2026’s recipients: Tegan Veal and Silas Braund.
Tegen Veal
“In contrast to the ever-growing digital world, my work encapsulates the sea and all its wonders through a more sustainably driven approach.”
Tegen is a graduating artist from St Ives whose creative practice explores the relationship between coastal landscapes, community and ocean connection through analogue photographic techniques.
Her work incorporates natural materials such as seaweed, saltwater and sunlight to create tactile photographic prints. Her practice aims to promote deeper emotional and sensory connections between people and the marine environment.
“Through my creative practice and sharing my work, I can communicate the complexity of the marine environment in an engaging manner,” Tegen explained.
“My creative practice increases people’s awareness of current challenges the ocean is facing and explores how coastal communities can form positive connections to these landscapes. An element of my approach, which I feel is extremely important, is how engaging with the ocean in an intentional, immersive way can help increase our sense of connection to these places, which in turn increases our attitudes towards protecting them.”
The Ocean Citizen Award will provide funding to support Tegen’s artistic practice, covering not only materials and facilities but also the expenses associated with running a week-long exhibition to showcase her work.
Silas Braund
“Receiving an Ocean Citizen Award will empower me to share my passion for the world’s oceans and the stunning marine life therein.”
At just 16 years old, Silas has already achieved a lot on his journey into ocean advocacy and his Puffin Sailing project, which will be supported by the Ocean Citizen Award, will allow him to continue this work.
Silas is an active member of the North Devon Yacht Club, where he has already trained as an Assistant (soon to be Dinghy) Instructor and first aider. He also holds his power boat licence and is a Youth Environment Officer at the club.
With the support of the Ocean Citizen Award, Silas plans to launch Puffin Sailing, which will enable him to run sailing instruction and marine education sessions, while also promoting awareness of organisations working to protect the local marine environment.
“My aim in launching Puffin Sailing would be to offer ocean advocacy and dinghy tuition to a broad cross-section of the community; helping them to both better understand and respect the marine environment, on a local to global scale. It would also enable me to facilitate immersive marine communication workshops and short cruising experiences along our UNESCO Biosphere coastline,” Silas explained.
He added, “I am particularly keen to support inclusivity and increased accessibility, introducing the marine environment to those who might not otherwise have the confidence / opportunity.”
The Ocean Citizen Award will provide funding to support Silas to purchase the training dinghy he needs to be able to deliver a range of courses and training to the local community.
The dinghy will be used to run sailing courses incorporating the RYA Futures Lab’s focus on the GreenBlue Boating Pledge, Marine CSI and embedded sustainability practices, ultimately encouraging a new level of respect for our oceans.
Follow their adventures!
We can’t wait to see how Tegen and Silas develop their projects over the coming 12 months. We’ll be sharing updates about how they’re getting on both on our blog and on the Our Ocean Podcast.