What a lively and inspiring evening! If you missed out on the excitement last Saturday, 12th November, Project AWARE's Artisans of the Sea event was buzzing when three amazing marine artists stole the show.

Wyland, Rogest and Blu Rivard, not only spoke about their personal involvement in ocean protection, and their passion and support for Project AWARE Foundation, the artists also donated artwork for a silent auction in support Project AWARE's conservation campaigns. 

Wyland set up a huge blank canvas and Blu Rivard and Rogest, joined him in kicking off what turned into a giant group painting. All event attendees painted alongside the artists and what began as a lot of blobs and dots of paint, turned into an extraordinarily unique piece of art signed by all three artists. 

Project AWARE board memebers, Dr. Drew Richardson, Roger McManus, myself, Jenny  Miller Garmendia, spoke of the re-launch of our 21-year organization and the focus on two critical ocean issues - sharks in peril and marine debris. Above all we celebrated our ocean protection efforts and the volunteer divers that fuel this global movement.

We raised 85 percent towards our current fundraising goal in preparation for the launch of a matching challenge effort for 2012. We also collected many additional signatures for our CITES shark effort and the pictures say it all.