In 2012 Sigourney Grandmann contacted me at Project AWARE to say, “First thing I am going to do on my 18th Birthday is to sign the shark petition.”
On that day, Sigourney joined 135,000 divers and shark advocates to help make history and win protections for five shark species, manta rays and sawfish under CITES. Today, Sigourney is a PADI Pro, busy freelancing in Krabi, Thailand. She's answered  a new call to action for sharks and rays and you can too. It's an opportunity to help make change for vanishing sharks and rays - one that only comes along once every three years. Every voice counts and we need yours!
When it comes to protecting the ocean, community leaders are critical to influencing global change. I connected with Sigourney to find out what inspires her as an AWARE leader. Check out what she had to say below.

When the Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre (NEC) will open its doors to welcome DIVE 2014 visitors on 25 and 26 October, scuba divers will have just a few days left to speak up for imperiled shark and ray species before their fate is debated at the 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) to be held in Quito, Ecuador early November 2014.