Grayson Schleppegrell
Charleston, SC
As a fifth-grader, Grayson emerged as a leader in a national campaign to rescue endangered swordfish populations off the eastern United States, which were threatened with commercial extinction by improperly managed mass fishing methods. He researched the problem, wrote letters to local supermarkets and restaurants, and made presentations to politicians in an effort to end two unsustainable fishing practices: not counting undersized fish thrown back into the ocean dead as part of catch limits, and using longlines with thousands of hooks. Congress ultimately voted to count all fish regardless of size, and banned or bought out longline fishing operations.