Bermuda’s efforts to secure protected status for the Sargasso Sea have been recognised with an international award.The International SeaKeepers Society has granted its 2013 SeaKeeper award to the entire Executive Committee of the Sargasso Sea Alliance.The SSA conservation initiative, aimed at making a sanctuary of the Sargasso, is led by Bermuda’s Government, and the committee includes Environment and Planning Permanent Secretary Derrick Binns.It marks a first that the SeaKeepers have awarded more than one person.Chaired by Richard Rockefeller, the SSA committee also includes David Shaw; former Director of the UK National Oceanographic Centre Howard Roe; Kristina Gjerde, Senior High Seas Policy Adviser for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and Executive Director David Freestone.The SeaKeepers are a group of entrepreneurs, yachtsmen, corporations, divers, scientists and concerned citizens.Environment Minister Sylvan Richards said Government was “absolutely thrilled” that local efforts to establish a model for protecting the high seas had been recognised.An Award Dinner is set for September 9 in San Francisco.Useful website: www.seakeepers.org.