World Oceans Day is about Ocean Heroes - by @Oceana/Jon Frank

Happy World Oceans Day. There’s two big announcements to share today: (1) is that we have two new winners for Oceana’s Annual Ocean Heroes Contest and (2) is that we’re kicking off our “Be an Ocean Hero” summer pledge campaign with a pair of clean ups.

First, I’m honored to introduce our 2011 Ocean Heroes: an LA County-based marine animal rescuer named Peter Wallerstein in the adult category and an 8-year-old shark lover from Richfield, Minnesota named Sophi Bromenshenkel.

For his part, Peter has personally rescued more than 4,000 marine mammals and birds in Southern California, from whales tangled in gill netting and sea lions poisoned by acid, to stranded dolphins and emaciated sea lions. He currently leads Marine Animal Rescue, which is the only professional marine mammal rescue team in the U.S. that conducts hundreds of rescues each year.

In the junior category, Sophi gained interested in shark conservation during a fishing trip with her uncle in the Florida Keys four years ago – then last year, when she saw a pregnant bull shark left for dead on a beach near her uncle’s home, she decided to take action. Sophi started selling lemonade, hot chocolate, shark cookies and wristbands and through same savvy marketing via email and local fliers, she netted $3,500 for shark conservation that she sent to the University of Miami’s RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program in order to purchase satellite tags for shark research. (Way to go Sophi and Peter!)

The second big announcement is that we’ve kicked off our Be an Ocean Hero pledge campaign – the idea is that anyone can be an ocean hero like Peter or Sophi this summer by going to www.oceana.org/heroes and taking one of three pledges: Clean Your Local Waterways; Recycle; or Eat Sustainably. Thanks to our partnership with Nautica, we’re putting our pledge into action today as Oceana’s staff in Washington DC are joined by local volunteers to clean up the Anacostia River. Additionally, our New York City staff is joining Nautica’s staff for a clean up of the Hudson River.

I’m excited to report back soon about how much trash we pull out of the Anacostia, but be sure to look for exclusive pics too on Twitter (@oceana).