About the Founder
Ocean Illustrated is founded by artist / conservation activist Anuar Abdullah as a fan page on www.facebook.com. The page aims to generate followers to his art and conservation activities. Anuar studies oceanography and has spent his early days in the petroleum industry. His passion with the ocean developed since he was young. Pursuing this course he later gets involved with diving and become a diving instructor. Many of today’s marine biologist, scientist and educators are his students. He developed his knowledge about the marine environment through information sharing and through his own expeditions. Anuar have taken steps to instill awareness for conservation first through his writings but as he later discovered the text alone did not create enough impact. He then took up art in 2004. His work quickly gained recognition and in 2007 his first sketchbook “Coral Reefs of the Perhentian Islands” is published. Initially his followers consist of his diver friends and communications are established through emails. Gaining popularity from his website www.anuar.net he soon realizes the importance of social networking through Facebook. He compiled all his illustrations and published them in his new fan page “Ocean Illustrated”.
Official Address
http://www.facebook.com/pages/OCEAN-ILLUSTRATED/179141638644
Contact Information
All correspondence with Ocean illustrated can be done through email at oceanillustrated@gmail.com
Background
Ocean Illustrated is a non-profit group that is created to promote the sale of art in order to help fund conservation activities. This group begins as a fan page that is actively promotes participation that leads to contribution in form of ideas, advise, critics and networking. The fan page is established in November 2009 and has since draw more than 500 fans and followers. Most fans in this page are friends or friends of friends. Now Ocean Illustrated become a page where people of common interest meet and get connected. Gaining popularity has seen Ocean Illustrated rapidly becoming part of the recreational diving community.
Activities
Art work, photographic images, books, eBooks and articles of activist Anuar Abdullah are promoted, sold, auctioned and donated for conservation purposes. In this page also where invitation, announcements, comments and opinions are shared on anything pertaining to conservation of the environment. Recruitment of members for other conservation groups and causes is established in Ocean Illustrated. This in turn makes Ocean Illustrated page as a center in the marine conservation network. Physical activities carried out for Ocean Illustrated includes Anuar’s involvement in conservation projects and his researches. His research on the marine environment is supported by many of his biologist students who now turned professionals. This collaboration opens immense possibilities in the expansion of conservation activity and makes Ocean Illustrated far reaching.
Alliances
Visitors and members of Ocean Illustrated fan page will be aware that it has now generated links to huge numbers of groups, fan pages, conservation agencies both local and international, recreational diving communities and celebrities. All of which has been directly and equally promoted through Ocean Illustrated. Issues pertaining to endangered marine species, coral reefs, forest, climate change and our children is discussed and distributed through Ocean Illustrated. Following is the list of conservation alliance networks of Ocean Illustrated.
| Group Name | Network | Causes | Size |
| Earth Hour | Global | Conservation | 909288 |
| Animal Lovers | Global | Conservation | 1587 |
| Panasonic Marine Conservation | Malaysia | Conservation | 4 |
| Set Whale Sharks Free in Dubai Aquarium | Global | Conservation | 26049 |
| Marine Conservation Cambodia | Cambodia | Conservation | 878 |
| Green Hopes Warriors | Malaysia | Conservation | 555 |
| HOPE | Malaysia | Conservation | 2659 |
| Project Tiger | Global | Conservation | 488 |
| Let’s Stop Dolphin Massacre | Global | Conservation | 478842 |
| Say No To Sharkfin Soup | Global | Conservation | 12970 |
| Inno Fisheries (Coral Farm Project) | Malaysia | Conservation | 160 |
| Stop Poisoning Ourselves with Plastic | Global | Conservation | 1368 |
| Change of Law on Shark Finning (Galapagos) | Galapagos | Conservation | 2010 |
| Appeal to rescue Lions | Africa | Conservation | 1237 |
| The Reefsponsibles | Malaysia | Conservation | 69 |
| Support Selangor No Plastic Day | Malaysia | Conservation | 4963 |
| Sugar Wreck | Malaysia | Conservation | 815 |
| Network Capacity | 1443942 |
Diving Communities
Diving communities are the largest group of people directly involved in ocean conservation. These communities promote awareness for conservation of the marine eco-system much more than other sea sports. Ocean Illustrated communicates and maintains a network that helps recruit participation of divers in its conservation projects. Following is a list of groups in the diving community that established alliance with Ocean Illustrated.
| Group Name | Network | Causes | Size |
| ScubaBuddy | Malaysia | Diving Community | 841 |
| Sea Horse Dive Center | Malaysia | Diving Community | 290 |
| Dive Jobs Worldwide | Global | Diving Community | 3767 |
| Mentari Scuba | Malaysia | Diving Community | 240 |
| Chimearas Divers | Malaysia | Diving Community | 346 |
| Scuba Jeff | Malaysia | Diving Community | 1374 |
| Fauna Reef Divers | Malaysia | Diving Community | 68 |
| Scuba Diving Lovers | Red Sea | Diving Community | 3499 |
| Asian Diver | Global | Diving Community | 149 |
| Fishermen Divers | Malaysia | Diving Community | 503 |
| Bubbles Bistro and Café | Malaysia | Diving Community | 535 |
| Dive Buddy | Malaysia | Diving Community | 1069 |
| Dive Tengara | Malaysia | Diving Community | 352 |
| Marine Monkeys | Malaysia | Diving Community | 361 |
| Stone Diver Dive Team | Malaysia | Diving Community | 258 |
| Malaysia | Diving Community | 241 | |
| ScubaFrenz | Malaysia | Diving Community | 229 |
| SeaUnta | Malaysia | Diving Community | 95 |
| Sea Divers Argentina | Global | Diving Community | 1211 |
| Universal Divers | Malaysia | Diving Community | 635 |
| AsianDiver | Malaysia | Diving Community | 325 |
| Amigo Surface Interval | Malaysia | Diving Community | 517 |
| U/W Photography & Videography | Global | Diving Community | 4017 |
| Date a Diver | Global | Diving Community | 2561 |
| Maldives Diving | Global | Diving Community | 1348 |
| 1 trilion & 1 Scuba Diver on facebook | Global | Diving Community | 607 |
| DCIM Show | Global | Diving Community | 1323 |
| AquaSport Dive Center | Malaysia | Diving Community | 193 |
| Beach Bummers United | Malaysia | Diving Community | 313 |
| Bubbles Dive resort | Malaysia | Diving Community | 851 |
| Atlantis Dive Resort | Phillipines | Diving Community | 910 |
| Naui Divers | Global | Diving Community | 3334 |
| Perhentian Dive Professionals | Malaysia | Diving Community | 39 |
| MobiDeco Enthusiast | Global | Diving Community | 152 |
| Divelah | Malaysia | Diving Community | 123 |
| Malaysian Divers | Malaysia | Diving Community | 1166 |
| MUW | Malaysia | Diving Community | 457 |
| Network Capacity | 34299 |
Total number of divers that receives updates of Ocean Illustrated activity is 34,299.
Network Capacity (in Facebook Groups)
Ocean Illustrated since it is established has generated networking with 17 conservation groups that are connected to 1,443,942 audiences. 37 diving communities are linked to Ocean Illustrated that has 34,299 members. Other communities with over a million members like academics, trades and arts are also linked to Ocean Illustrated. In total of 1,478,241 people are reached whenever an article is published on the Ocean Illustrated page.
Network Capacity (in Facebook Fan Pages)
Second area where Ocean Illustrated network link is in the Facebook that carries immense connection is the Fan pages and its followers. Considering this Ocean Illustrated itself has 593 fans. Anuar’s friends list itself is gaining popularity with over a thousand followers. 131 fan pages have already been linked to Ocean Illustrated. Impact from these connections is immense. Messages conveyed through fan pages especially those of celebrities could reach few million fans. Steps are taken to gauge the impact of this network.
