Carlos Mallo Molina grew up inspired by his engineer father who led port construction projects across Spain. But while working on a highway project in Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, Molina realized that a related plan to build a port in a marine protected area threatened the marine ecosystem that he had come to love. In a May Mongabay Newscast episode, Molina told host Mike DiGirolamo about his decision to quit engineering in 2018 and found the nonprofit Innoceana, which contributed to the cancellation of the proposed port. “I was a diver since I was a kid. And I think that connected me to the ocean in a very deep way,” Molina told Mongabay, adding that it was his father who encouraged his love for the ocean. When he started working in Tenerife as a civil engineer, he continued to go diving on weekends. “It [the ocean] was full of sea turtles. It was full of whales. It was full of marine life. And so, I think understanding how my impact was going to destroy actually a marine protected area … [I realized] I need to do something to change what I’m doing in the way that I can protect this ocean,” he told DiGirolamo. Molina’s activism earned him the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, but he emphasized that it was not his efforts alone that led to the cancellation of the port project. Together with biologists, underwater photographers, economists and lawyers, the community started a platform called Save Fonsalía.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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