NMEA 50th Anniversary Design Contest Winner - Savanna Finley

We're thrilled to announce that the winning design for our 50th anniversary commemorative merchandise comes from Savanna Finley, a marine science teacher and doctoral candidate in science education from Florida, whose work is rooted in exactly the kind of place-based, wonder-driven learning NMEA has championed for five decades.

Savanna's illustration traces the full arc of a watershed, from freshwater marsh to open ocean, with the estuary at its heart. Blue crabs, seagrass, a bonnethead shark, a terrapin, a speckled trout, a dragonfly, and sweeping across the top, a humpback whale and manta ray. It's a piece that rewards a long look, and one that tells a story about connection, transition, and the life that flourishes in the in-between.

Artist’s Statement:

Water does not exist in isolation. It moves, merges, and transforms as it travels from inland rivers, to marshes, to the open sea. When I heard this year's conference theme, Meeting of the Waters, I knew what I wanted to design. This piece traces the arc of the watershed as it winds toward its meeting point, following the flow from freshwater marsh to open ocean and arriving at the estuary in between.

At the center of this illustration lies a seagrass meadow, teeming with the quiet abundance that defines estuarine life — blue crabs picking their way across the bottom, a bonnethead shark gliding through the grass, a terrapin drifting past. Above, cattails and marsh grasses frame a speckled trout traveling by, while a dragonfly hovers at the water's edge — a reminder that these ecosystems sustain life far beyond the tideline. And sweeping across the top, a humpback whale and manta ray arc through the open ocean, representing the deep blue that all of this water ultimately feeds.

Estuaries are often overlooked — neither fully freshwater nor fully marine, they occupy the in-between. But it is in that in-between where so much of life begins.

As a marine science teacher and a doctoral candidate in science education, I have centered my career around helping students fall in love with these transitional spaces. My research focuses on a place-based marine science framework I am developing and studying in my classroom, where students collect and care for native estuarine organisms from their local waters, The Estuary Ambassadors. Through direct, hands-on encounters with the living estuary, the same blue crabs, the same seagrass, the same brackish world depicted here, students begin to see themselves as part of that ecosystem. Not just observers, but stewards.

Art has always been another doorway into that same mission. I draw marine life in a style that is intentionally fun and approachable — because I believe wonder should be accessible to everyone, not just those who already feel at home in the ocean. A crab is easy to overlook, even easier to fear. But rendered with a little personality and care, it becomes something worth rooting for. My goal is always to help people see the less charismatic critters,  the muddy, the spiny, the weird, the easily overlooked, through a new lens, and to walk away caring about creatures they never expected to love.

For NMEA's 50th anniversary, I wanted to honor the full story of water, and to place the estuary exactly where it belongs: at the heart of it all. Because when we learn to love the in-between, we learn to protect it. And what better place to celebrate that than at a Meeting of the Waters.

~Savanna Finley