Smart Room Sea Shepherd

What is the Smart Room "Sea Shepherd"?

How can we preserve our oceans? What possibilities are there to protect whales, dolphins, sharks and rays from humans and to stop illegal fishing? What new tools can support and permanently facilitate the work of marine conservation campaigns? These and other questions will be addressed by the University of Potsdam's "Sea Shepherd" Smart Room, which will begin its work at the start of the 2022/23 winter semester. In this special format of the University Scholarship program, ten students from different disciplines will jointly explore the broad spectrum of methods of marine nature and species conservation.

The Smart Room, whose participants receive a university scholarship, is supported and professionally accompanied by the international marine conservation organization Sea Shepherd. The marine conservation organization has been patrolling the world's oceans for over 40 years, saving countless lives of dolphins, seals, whales, fish and more. Sea Shepherd provides fully equipped vessels, professional crews, fuel and other tools to detect and stop illegal fishing.

The University of Potsdam, together with Sea Shepherd, is organizing four training sessions for the ten students, which will be offered as workshops over the course of a year . The Smart Room will also be in cooperation with the international network of European partner universities in EDUC, in which the University of Potsdam is leading.

Why marine conservation?

In the Smart Room "Sea Shepherd", students from different disciplines, such as the Master "Ecology, Evolution and Conservation" are to face the current challenges of the marine wildlife habitat, which is changing mainly due to human activities. But it is not only the illegal killing of many marine species that poses a significant threat to flora and fauna. The increasing pollution by waste, microplastics and trawls of legal fishing also endanger the future of the oceans and seas - also in Germany.  Therefore, the declared goal must be to protect and preserve our oceans for future generations.

The Smart Room aims to sensitize students to the increasing threat to the oceans from human activity. The Smart Room offers future activists a new framework of thinking with valuable tools and instruments - with which sustainable solutions can be developed, not only in the field of ocean protection, but in nature and climate protection in general.