Winter Park, Fla. — Scuba Diving magazine announces Drs. Christy and Brice Semmens are the first recipients of its 2019 Sea Hero Awards, honoring the extraordinary work done by scuba divers making a difference for our world’s oceans, reefs and marine life and sponsored by watch brand Seiko. Christy Pattengill-Semmens is director of science at Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF), and Brice is director of the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations and an associate professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. The pair has devoted fifteen years to serving as lead scientists for a successful effort that has brought together government, science and fisheries to save the Cayman Islands’ Nassau grouper, a project that could be replicated across the Caribbean.

Like most of the Caribbean, the Cayman Islands had fished all known Nassau grouper spawning aggregations to complete collapse by the turn of the millennium. However, progressive management of the species over the last 15 years, coupled with a unique research and education partnership between the Cayman Islands Department of Environment, REEF, and several academic institutions (the Grouper Moon Project), has resulted in a remarkable turn-around in the species. In just over a decade, the population of Nassau grouper on both Little Cayman and Cayman Brac has tripled. Today, Little Cayman boasts the largest remaining spawning aggregation in the world for the imperiled species. The ongoing success of the Grouper Moon Project is now more important than ever, in light of the recent uplisting of Nassau Grouper to critically endangered, according to a new assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Read the Interview: Christy and Brice Semmens Honored as Sea Heroes

“Through our work on Grouper Moon, we have demonstrated that progressive management, action-oriented research, and community outreach can foster rapid recovery for the species. The challenge now is to replicate these successes throughout the range of the species — as more and more countries take action to protect Nassau grouper (e.g. Bahamas, Turks and Caicos), the likelihood of a Caribbean-wide conservation success story grows,” Christy and Brice explain.

The Semmens are the first of six nominees to be announced for Scuba Diving’s 2019 Sea Hero Awards. Each Sea Hero receives a Seiko Prospex SRPA21 watch. In December 2019, judges will select one recipient as the Sea Hero of the Year, who will receive a $5,000 cash award from Seiko to further his or her work.

For more info on the Semmens, including a Q&A and informational video, and details on Scuba Diving’s Sea Hero Awards, visit /seaheroes.

About Seiko Corporation of America
Seiko Corporation of America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seiko Watch Corporation, which is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Seiko was founded in 1881, and is the only watch manufacturer with every watchmaking expertise, including Mechanical, Quartz, Kinetic, Spring Drive, Solar, GPS Solar and Radio Sync Solar. For more information about Seiko, visit seikousa.com.

About Scuba Diving Magazine
Scuba Diving magazine gives divers in-depth tests and reviews of gear, as well as practical advice on training, the environment, and everything from the newest emerging destinations to hidden gems in their own backyard. The magazine is published 10 times a year by Bonnier Corp., one of the largest special-interest publishing groups in the United States, serving passionate, highly engaged audiences through magazines, events, digital media and leading-edge products.