Explore the fascinating connection between Florida manatees and powerplants. Take a deep dive into the history of Manatee Lagoon – An FPL Eco-Discovery Center®, an educational attraction located in Riviera Beach, Fla., and the adjacent Florida Power & Light Company Riviera Beach Next Generation Clean Energy Center. Learn about the role power plants play in this threatened species’ migratory habits and survival. This 45-minute event will take place on Friday, Friday 14th at 10 a.m. EST.

Fish are a major food source for other aquatic organisms, but humans as well. What can be done in order to help fish survive, thrive and still be abundant enough to feed a growing population? Philippe Cousteau hears from experts, Dr. Louise Firth, Dr. Daniel Merrifield, and Justin Ruscombe-King about the innovative work being done to help fish populations stay healthy for generations to come. Philippe visits an engineering habitat and an aquaculture farm to learn how we can take action to help save our fisheries.

Meet Ella Turns, an 8-year-old from England. Ella has taken her favorite hobby, paddleboarding, and turned it into a way to keep her local waters clean. She cleans up marine debris, including fishing nets and ropes. Ella has also created a program where local businesses have eliminated their single-use waste, like plastic bags. She leads Phillipe on a paddleboard clean up in the bay.

Meet Deep Shah, a young man who lives outside London. Deep volunteers with the organization Action for Conservation and works to empower other young people to take action for the environment. Deep shares his work with Philippe, including his recent work on an oyster bed restoration project to help provide habitat for juvenile fish and other organisms in Hampton, England.

Thomas Stamp is a marine biologist and Ph.D. student at the University of Plymouth. Tom studies how fish, specifically sea bass, move in and out of habitats during their life using acoustic telemetry. He uses this information to help fishermen and policymakers make educated choices on fishing.

Loveday Trinick is a schools officer at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, England. Loveday educates the young people who visit the aquarium about our ocean planet. Learn more about the average day of a schools officer, including leading dissections and more.

Dr. Abigail McQuatters-Gollop is an Associate professor of marine conservation at the University of Plymouth. She is also a plankton ecologist, she helps policymakers work with scientists in order to properly manage the ocean environment. Dr. McQuatters-Gollop combines her research with conservation and science communication to make a difference.

Dr. Louise Firth is an ecological engineer. She designs habitats that help organisms thrive in man-made habitats, such as sea walls. Dr. Firth does not have a typical day, she can be found lecturing, during fieldwork, engineering habitats and more.

Seafood serves as a primary source of food and protein for many people across the world, and the economies of many nations are heavily influenced by fish stocks and fisheries management. While efforts are in place to manage fisheries in many places around the world, there are still risks associated with fishing on a commercial scale. Many fishing vessels are equipped to target specific species of fish, for example, cod, but the large nets and trawls used for efficiency have a downside. This downside is called “bycatch”. Bycatch is defined as any non-targeted species that are brought in accidentally within the catch. In this lesson, students will use the engineering design process to create an alternative to modern fishing nets to try and reduce the amount of bycatch. They will also practice data collection and review.

Approximately 600,000 sea birds die each year by getting caught on hooks used in line fishing. A device called the Hookpod, invented by a UK company in Devon, has a clever solution to this problem. The fish hook is covered by a case so birds cannot get hooked. At a certain depth (below the diving depth of indigenous birds) a mechanism is triggered to release the case which floats to the surface and is retrieved to be used again. These lesson ideas provide an interesting practical idea to use a particle model to explain density and pressure in a gas. Students will then take part in a STEM design challenge to make a device to respond to a pressure change at a particular depth of water.