Esperance Ocean Safety & Support

Esperance Ocean Safety and Support (EOSS) is a not-for-profit community organisation founded in 2017 by local waterman Mitch Capelli, in the wake of the tragic death of teenager Laeticia Brouwer. The organisation exists to protect ocean users in the Esperance region from Great White Shark attacks through education, first aid training, research collaborations and the deployment of SMART drumline technology. It is community-led, 100% volunteer, and built on years of local knowledge from fishermen, divers and surfers who know these waters intimately.

The brief was significant. The site needed to do four jobs at once: tell the story of why EOSS exists with the gravity it deserves, convert visitors into members across three tiers, attract corporate sponsors at three sponsorship levels, and sell the Calm As trauma kit that has been purpose-built to stop people dying from shark bites. All of that had to sit alongside committee bios, partner credentials, a media library and a clear contact path for the press.

The design opens with bold ocean imagery and a confident “Protecting Lives in the Ocean” headline, immediately setting the scale of the mission. A short stats band underneath, founded in 2017, six partner organisations, 100% community led, zero dollars to anyone but the cause, gives credibility in seconds. The About section tells the founding story directly and honestly, naming Laeticia and crediting Mitch, with the five pillars of the organisation, education, training, experience, research and technology, laid out as clear icons.

Membership and sponsorship are handled with tiered pricing tables that read like a SaaS pricing page in the best possible way. Bronze, Silver and Gold memberships make individual participation easy at any budget, while Platinum, Gold and Silver sponsorship packages give corporate supporters a clear menu of benefits to choose from. The trauma kit section is its own dedicated unit, with strong messaging around “stop people dying from shark bites” that does not sanitise the purpose of the product.

The committee section gives faces and short bios for each member of the team, anchoring the organisation in real people rather than logos. A long partner band acknowledges collaborators across Department of Transport, Surf Life Saving WA, Surfing WA, Surfing Doctors, WAFIC, AIAWA and Flinders University, which is the kind of credibility that matters in a community of this kind. An embedded YouTube explainer sits alongside the kit section, and a comprehensive enquiry form handles everything from membership questions to kit orders to media requests.

The build had to honour a community that has lost people to these waters while also driving the conversions that keep the organisation alive. The site achieves both. It feels serious without being grim, it converts without being pushy, and it carries the voice of the ocean people who built it.