Sea Studios Foundation

Otter Project: Sea Studios Foundation continued the multi-year film and outreach project, "Strange Days on Planet Earth, Oceans and Fresh Water". 2013 program service activities included:(1)The film "Otter 501": SSF continued public screenings, educational speaking engagements, outreach & DVD distribution as well as finalized a distribution contract for domestic streaming rights (Hulu, etc) of the film;(2)The film "Saving Otter 501": SSF completed production of this 1 hour film which initially aired on the public television, Nature Series in October 2013. "Saving Otter 501" has been submitted for the 2014 Emmy awards and continues to be broadcast on public television. In addition, SSF entered into a contract for international distribution for "Saving Otter 501". General Project Overview: The Otter 501 films use the southern sea otter as a case study of coastal issues to indicate how changes are impacting one iconic species. This phase of the project explores the growing mystery surrounding the declining population of the sea otter. Coastal areas globally are being affected by a similar set of influences and the sea otter is a visible and charismatic character with which to illustrate the growing threat from the combined impact of human interventions in the oceans. An extensive outreach platform, including public speaking engagements, screening toolkits & materials for schools, educational resource kits, full and cut-down versions of "Otter 501" for public and informal science education institutional use were developed. Sea Studios Foundation also completed 10 mini-documentaries exploring the issues raised "beyond the film". These were utilized in the interactive educational website, "otter501webStory" as well as extensively on "Otter 501" social media sites. The mission of this project is to reach and engage the widest possible audience and educate the public about critical environmental threats to our oceans, marine life, ecological balance and health of our planet as well as affect impact with "What You Can Do" information. The sea otter portion of the project in 2013 supports previous year's activities in which the films "Dirty Secrets" and "Dangerous Catch" and related outreach were produced. "Dirty Secrets" addressed issues of marine debris and "Dangerous Catch" highlighted global impact of over-fishing.

Stock Footage and Royalties: SSF continues to distribute rights for public use of stock footage for all documentary films produced. The Foundation receives stock footage fees and royalty income from these broadcasts which is used to fund ongoing educational projects.

Shape of Life: Sea Studios Foundation continues to promote and distribute classroom materials and videos for the Shape of Life series. 2013 ongoing educational projects included distribution of a special 5 set DVD package formatted for classrooms and educators. SSF attended the 2013 Marine Educators Conference to promote availability of the materials to educators. On-line website promotion of free video resources and lesson plans is available at www.ShapeOfLife.org.