Leonardo DiCaprio's foundation gives $3m to protect sharks and other marine life

Leonardo donated $3million to advocacy group Oceana to help protect marine life.

17:14 21 February 2014

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Foundation has donated a $3million grant to advocacy group Oceana to help it promote responsible fishing and safeguard the welfare of sharks.

The recipient said that the money spearheaded by the five time Oscar nominee’s foundation will be spread over three-year period.

Chief executive Andy Sharpless said that the money will boost its efforts to win more protection for countless sharks and other marine animals and for ocean habitats in the Pacific and Arctic.

The group is working to ban drift gillnets off California's coast in order to protect dolphins, whales, turtles and other marine animals from being caught and killed as "bycatch".

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation has been donating substantial amounts of money to protect the environment and marine life. In November, it awarded another $3million grant to the World Wildlife Fund to boost a scheme to help Nepal double its wild tiger population by 2022.

The Wall Street actor said: "Time is running out for the world’s remaining 3,200 tigers, largely the result of habitat destruction and escalating illegal poaching.”