Local student receives Nat Geo award

One Coastal teen was a recipient of the 2024 Significant Achievement Award, a National Geographic Challenge to address environmental challenges.

Demi Johnson is a student at Bayou View Middle School in Gulfport. Her submission plans to restore the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s threatened oyster reef population. Her plan is to create community oyster gardens as a way to revive the population.

Johnson cites issues such as the 2010 BP oil spill and the Bonnet Carre Spillway being opened in 2020 as reasons the oyster population has taken a hit. “My solution is to partner with educational institutions to clean up programs and teach them to grow their own off-farm oysters. I’ve already been working on that myself. I partnered with the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum to create an oyster garden off their larger pier that extends into the Mississippi Sound.”

You can click here to vote for her submission and vote for her in the People’s Choice Awards. She is only one of two students in the country who is recognized.

Voting closes Friday, May 31st at 11:59 p.m.