A Sierra Leone-led coastal monitoring initiative has been selected by public vote as a WaveMakers Award winner at the 2026 OceanLove Innovation Awards.

The project, titled Coastal Watch Schools: Youth Drones for Sierra Leone’s Vanishing Shores, was led by applicant Abu Bakarr Bangura. The result was announced during the awards ceremony held on 11 October 2026 at AltaSea in the Port of Los Angeles, California.

The public vote was open to people attending the ceremony and to an international audience following the event through a YouTube livestream. OceanLove said the livestream reached nearly 4,000 viewers.

Proposed coastal monitoring network

The project proposes a supervised youth citizen-science network involving 10 coastal secondary schools in Sierra Leone. The plan would see each school nominate 10 students and involve two teachers.

According to the project description, participating students and teachers would receive training in coastal processes, drone safety, basic geographic information systems and evidence-based advocacy. The proposed 12-month pilot aims to conduct 40 repeat shoreline surveys and produce 10 formal evidence briefs.

The planned drone surveys would operate under licensed adult pilots and civil aviation approval. The project description links the initiative to pressures affecting Sierra Leone’s 506-kilometre Atlantic coastline, including sea-level rise, storm surges, sand mining and mangrove clearance.

It also states that homes, farmland and heritage sites have already been lost on Plantain Island, with some residents relocating.

International awards programme

The OceanLove Innovation Awards recognised winners across three categories: The Blue Circle, Living Sea and WaveMakers. The WaveMakers category focuses on educators, young people and movements that use approaches extending ocean awareness beyond the classroom.

OceanLove said it received 487 applications from 91 countries for the 2026 awards and selected 30 ideas for an intensive online bootcamp. The organisation described the response as the largest in the awards’ history. It also said half of the applications came from Africa and 73 percent from the Global South.

Alimatu Tity George, OceanLove’s Country Ambassador in Sierra Leone, helped promote the call for applications across the country.

OceanLove was launched in 2021 by Dutch social entrepreneur and Divemaster Ilco van der Linde and is co-founded by Egyptian freediver Raghda Ezzeldin. The volunteer-run non-profit operates under the slogan “Because you protect what you love.”

OceanLove says its panel-selected winning ideas receive USD 10,000 in seed funding, one year of expert coaching and global media exposure. The awards are funded by Stichting Nieuwe Waarde and the OOF Foundation.

The ceremony also featured a screening of Haagua, an Indigenous surf film by Native Like Water, and an exhibition fair involving 11 organisations and initiatives.