We recently connected with Shelby Thomas and have shared our conversation below.

Shelby, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

We build projects that serve the marine environment while connecting people to the ocean. These projects serve the community in many ways and help support underserved communities through resource conservation, coastal protection, community engagement and ecotourism destinations that drive economic support.

Our 1000 mermaids project, which we sculpt real people as mermaids and sink the structures as artificial reefs, has won the hearts of many Floridians. Mermaids tied into stories through many cultures and folklor, a mystical story of half human / half fish symbolizing the inherent human connection back to the ocean. Although this project has a lot of public interest with 35 mermaid sculptures deployed in the ocean and still 965 more to go. The project I am most excited about is our Mayan reef in Mexico.

Mayan Reef

We are working with a Mayan native community which helped direct the art initiative to sculpt the Kluckluan, a serpent deity that represents their wisdom and culture. This mile long reef shaped like a serpent will act as a near shore breakwater to protect against storm surge and coastal erosion, coral nursery base to restore near by reefs and is also an ecotourism draw. The artistic features highlight the rooted culture of the area and provide a new way to interreact with history on an experiential level. This is such a beautiful project to me, that ties a deeper art narrative to connect people with the ocean. This project meets direct restoration needs supporting marine life but also supports communities economically through tourism while creating a regenerative approach to restoration that can be sustained. We have already worked with the community and local nonprofits to turn several tour operators into restoration practitioners, now tourist can help outplant a coral and contribute a measurable impact to our oceans. In addition to the ecosystem and economic value this project dives deeper to bring awareness and give respect to Mayan culture, creating a beautiful story that intimately connects people in creative ways. My hope is to grow our projects to restore marine environments and coastal communities while integrating local cultures but ultimately help connect people back to the environment and create sustained change.

Shelby, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The environment is often looked at, as a resource for us to use… not to take care of. The ocean, even further removed, out of sight out of mind for many… a blanket of water that covers our blue planet. Many may feel that their individual impact must not have any effect on its health after all what is a single drop of water compared to the vast ocean. I started to see the need to deeply connect people back to nature.

I became interested in how do we shift public perception and their relationships with not only the marine environment but natural resources they interact with.

I have used art as a funding mechanism but ultimately as a deeper way to open minds, connect people and help give a new interactive perspective that can hopefully help inspire actionable change. I use art as a way to create a return on investment, for municipal agencies or coastal developers to incentivize them to invest into marine restoration. I use art to create deep impactful connections to local community and culture, as a tool to connect people more personally to marine resources. My nonprofit Ocean Rescue Alliance International (ORAI) creates impactful environmental restoration projects while making unique dive sites that all can enjoy.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

In 2018 I met an artist who initially body casted people as roman-esk figures, no head or lower body just physique. He had a client who wanted his wife sculpted as a 10ft tall mermaid to put at the end of his dock by his yacht in Miami Beach… months later the artist delivered a fully built beautiful mermaid sculpture. Returning to his client excited, the client responded with “Welp I have bad news… I am losing my house, wife, yaht and I am going to prison..” The artist shocked what should we do with this mermaid sculpture? “Just throw it in the ocean for all I care…” …..so make this an artificial reef.. This artist approached an artificial reef builder to explore its feasibility and eventually that road led to me, a coral biologist. They wanted to put coral on the statue but were turned away by many other scientists. I too explained that could not happen but perhaps we could use these sculptures to fund actual restoration work. … Further I speculated we could maybe put coral on structures if they mimicked natural reefs.

And so started my nonprofit Ocean Rescue Alliance International (ORAI), a marine conservation and restoration organization that implements innovative techniques to restore marine environments at scale.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We use art to story tell community and culture. This helps us connect to diverse audiences.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.1000mermaid.com and www.oceanrescuealliance.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1000mermaids/
• Facebook: https://www.linkedin.com/company/1000-mermaids-artificial-reef-project/
• Linkedin: https://www.instagram.com/oceanrescuealliance/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ORA_Reefs
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYGwHhsQdzwBVO5KmOdOYcQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvyzIk70_6BxMmeSykJ7HrQ

Image Credits
Making waves productions and ocean rescue alliance