Winners

Excellens Mare Award

António Saraiva

António Saraiva knows like no one else all the functions of the business world and the associative world. He was a worker, he was the Chairman of the Workers’ Committee, he became manager, later he became entrepreneur and President of the CIP - Business Confederation of Portugal.

He was born in Beja and soon began his professional career in Lisbon, where he studied at the industrial school, before joining the largest shipyard in the country, Lisnave. The Shipbuilding industry was the first major professional school and the first major contact with the sea.

In the business world and in the associative world it has been a relentless promoter of an integrated vision of the activities of the sea, based on a strong cooperation between all the interested parties in the subject. He has always defended the strategic importance of the sea for Portugal and the World and, in recent years, as President of the Observatory of Cooperation in the Economy of the Sea, has been the face of promoting transversal cooperation and an integrated vision for activities at sea.

Valoris Mare Award

FIEC – Federação das Indústrias do Estado do Ceará

The FIEC System - Federation of Industries of the State of Ceará, chaired by Beto Studart, is made up of the SESI, the National Industrial Learning Service (SENAI), the Euvaldo Lodi Institute (IEL) and the International Business Center, present in Fortaleza and in important municipalities of the State of Ceará, Brazil.

The Federation of Industries of Ceará has been pioneer in the context of Federation of Industries. The Federation of Industries of Ceará in all its strategies, has defined a specific strategic route for the economy of the sea, which aims to signal future paths, within a time horizon until 2025. For the implementation of the strategic route of the economy of the sea, a solid technical team has been established, which has already produced the socio-economic study that characterizes the economy of the sea of the State of Ceará and the study of trends that analyzes in detail the evolution of the sea. In a very inclusive way, involving the maritime community and all relevant entities, the pioneering strategy to generate value through the sea has already begun to be implemented on the ground.

Identitas Mare Award

Heróis do Mar

The band Heróis do Mar appeared in the early 1980’s. The choice of the name “Heroes of the Sea”, taken from the first verse of the Portuguese national anthem, “A Portuguesa”, was not a mere chance, since it was intended to represent Portugal, its history and its maritimity.

Several were the records and the songs that obtained great public recognition, from “Saudade”, “Brave dance of the heroes”, “Love”, “Passion” and “The Inventor”.

In a bold way, in lyrics, musicality and visual, the project Heroes of the Sea built a cultural legacy that, being very innovative, always remained faithful to the Portuguese maritime roots, thus communicating, in a very own way, the maritime culture of Portugal.

Navigare Mare Award

PLOCAN – The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands

The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) is a Research Infrastructure (RI), created in 2007, labelled by the ICTS (Unique Scientific and Technological Infrastructure) Spanish National Roadmap, co-funded by the Economy and Competitiveness Ministry of the Spanish government and the Canary Islands government and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Operational Programme of the Canary Islands.

PLOCAN is an ocean observatory for the continuous and real-time monitoring in fields such as the study of global climate change and ocean acidification, water-column and deep-sea ecosystems, ocean biogeochemistry and geophysics.

The way PLOCAN operates is an international example of excellence in terms of cooperation between relevant players related with the sea in order to develop joint activities that add value to the ocean.

Athletice Mare Award

Tiago Pires (“Saca”)

Tiago Pires, also known as “Saca”, is a surf reference in Portugal. Tiago was the first Portuguese surfer to qualify for the World Championship Tour (WCT), the elite surfing championship where the 34 best athletes in the world compete annually, where they remained for 7 consecutive years representing and honoring the colors of Portugal.

“Saca” was born in Lisbon and began surfing at the age of 11 on the waves of Ericeira, winning, since then, several championships in Portugal and abroad. His international career of almost 20 years is full of moments of tremendous prominence.

As an elite athlete, with his great professionalism and resilience, he put Portugal on the world surfing map and changed the approach to this sport of many Portuguese youngsters, who began to believe that in surfing a professional career is possible.

Scientia Mare Award

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce that focuses on the conditions of the oceans, major waterways, and the atmosphere. NOAA’s mission spans from the surface of the sun to the depths of the ocean. The excellence of the work performed by NOAA is organized in seven areas: Weather, Climate, Satellites, Research, Marine & Aviation, Charting and Sanctuaries.

Weather: NOAA’s National Weather Service is building a Weather-Ready Nation by providing better information for better decisions to save lives and livelihoods.

Climate: From supercomputers and state-of-the-art models to observations and outlooks, provides data, tools, and information to help people understand and prepare for climate variability and change.

Satellites: Gathering data to monitor and understand our dynamic planet.

Research: NOAA Research provides the research foundation for understanding our planet and technological innovation and scientific advances that improve our lives.

Marine & Aviation: NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) administers the NOAA fleet of ships and aircraft, and trains divers to safely facilitate Earth observation.

Charting: The NOAA National Spatial Reference System - the official U.S. government source for precise latitude, longitude, and elevation measurements.

Sanctuaries: Coastal and marine places that NOAA’s National Ocean Service works to protect.

The results of NOAA’s outstanding work are causing significant advances in the understanding of the oceans with relevant impact on the sustainable development of the United States of America and the World.

Natura Mare Award

Nuno Sá

A diving course that he did, while still studying Law, changed his professional life. He realized that his vocation was linked to the sea and as soon as he finished his degree in Law, he enrolled in a course in Marine Biology at the University of the Azores.

The excellence of the marine fauna of the Azores made Nuno Sá want to capture, through photography, the beauty of the marine animals that he observed during the course of Marine Biology that he was attending. He liked both underwater photography so much that he decided to make a career as a marine animal photographer, particularly of large species, for his complete photographic unpredictability.

From the photo he migrated to the underwater video, where he recently made part of the team that filmed the iconic BBC series Blue Planet 2. Throughout his fantastic career he has made an extraordinary contribution to make people aware of the Portuguese and world natural heritage. It has achieved through the exceptional quality of its photography and vídeo to alert people to the fundamental need to preserve and enhance marine life.