Project CLEO Get updates

Project CLEO: Coastal Life Education & Outreach

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Calm adventures for little ocean helpers.

Meet Cleo, a little girl with big ocean dreams, and Ellie, the leopard shark only she can understand. Every episode starts with a real question at a real beach, and ends with one small way to help.

It's low-stimulation on purpose. Gentle colors, real wave sounds, no flashing, no fast cuts. The kind of screen time that leaves kids calmer, kinder and more curious than when they started.

Watch the opening

A dance in the studio, a trail in the sand, a friend in the water. Concept animation.

  • Low-stimulation, on purpose
  • Real waves and seagulls, no loud music
  • No flashing, no fast cuts
  • For curious kids of every age

Cozy enough to watch together. Calm enough to watch on their own.

Play with Ellie Get updates
For little ones Play with Ellie Tap the floating trash to put it in Cleo's bucket, and new sea friends come to visit. Tap Ellie to say hello. No reading needed, so even the littlest ocean helpers can play. No ads, nothing to buy, no sign-in, nothing collected. Play now

Meet Cleo & Ellie

One lives on the shore. One lives in the water. They meet at the edge.

Cleo, an animated girl with two buns, standing barefoot on a sunny beach in a cream polo, navy shorts and a coral shell pouch.
Concept art

Cleo

6 years old · ballet dreamer · future ocean scientist

Cleo digs in the sand, follows tiny tracks and asks the kind of questions that make grown-ups stop and think. Her favorite words: "On this day..."

Cleo's big dreams

  • Dance ballet
  • Study the ocean at UC San Diego
  • Help save Ellie's home
Ellie, an animated young leopard shark with a sandy spotted body, swimming through sunlit water between swaying kelp.
Concept art

Ellie

A young leopard shark

Ellie's old home got too full of trash, so she found a new one near the Shores. She stayed hopeful. Cleo wants to help her, and that is how the adventure starts. Ellie is curious about people, and she thinks ballet might be swimming practice on land. When she's happy to see Cleo, she swims one slow loop.

The people who love her most: Mom, who paddleboards and says "let's find out" when she doesn't know. Dad, Cleo's biggest fan, who carries the bucket and holds her hand when the waves get big. A big sister who shows her how, and a little sister who follows her everywhere.

Big dreams are easier with a family cheering you on.

Ellie always stays in the ocean. Cleo never chases, touches or feeds her. They talk from a kind distance, the way we hope every kid meets a wild animal.

Where it happens

Every place in Project CLEO is real and you can visit it. Except one.

Cleo in a pink leotard in a sunny ballet studio. Big windows behind her look over a blue cove, a beach and a long pier. Concept art · make-believe
In the studio, Cleo leaps. In the next shot she lands in the sand at the Shores. That jump is how the show moves between her two worlds.

  • La Jolla Shores

    A wide, gentle beach in San Diego, where most adventures start.

  • The cove

    La Jolla Cove sits inside a protected marine reserve. Leopard sharks gather there every summer and fall, and most of them are moms-to-be resting in the warm, calm water.

  • Tide pools

    Little worlds between the rocks at low tide. Look closely, touch gently, leave everything where it lives.

  • The ballet studio make-believe

    A studio with a big window over the cove. It isn't real. It's where Cleo dances, and where one leap can land her in the sand.

What kids learn

Every episode follows the same calm shape, so little ones know what comes next.

  1. Notice

    Cleo spots something: a trail in the sand, a fin in the shallows, a shell that moved.

  2. Ask

    She asks Mom. Mom shares what she knows, and says so when she doesn't.

  3. "Let's find out"

    They go see for real, and Ellie shows the ocean side of it. Real places, real science.

  4. Help a little

    One small thing a family can do. Never a scary job. Caring means coming back.

Every episode ends at the water: "On this day, we learned..."

It started with one question

My daughter has loved leopard sharks for as long as she could point at the water. So one day we went looking for a documentary about them.

We found one. One. On YouTube.

We watched it together. When it ended, she looked up at me and asked:

"Mommy, what can we do to save the leopard sharks?"

I didn't have a good answer. So we're finding out, together, one episode at a time.

Now it's a whole-family project. Her dad is her biggest cheerleader. Her sisters are the first audience for every idea. And she's the one leading the way.

She dreams of dancing ballet and studying the ocean at UC San Diego someday. We want her to know her questions matter, and that her dreams are worth building something for. We'd love for your family to come with us.

We believe the ocean is a gift. Taking care of it is one way we say thank you.

From our family to yours

Why her name is Ellie

Ellie is named for Ellen Browning Scripps (1836 to 1932), who helped bring ocean science, a pier and a children's beach to La Jolla.

  • She helped found an ocean science institute in La Jolla, and helped pay for its first public aquarium.
  • The long pier you can see from the Shores carries her name.
  • She gave La Jolla the Children's Pool, so kids had a safe place to swim.
  • She helped protect Torrey Pines.

In one of the first episodes, Cleo finds out who Ellie is named after.

A tribute only. Project CLEO isn't affiliated with Scripps or UC San Diego.

Sources: City of San Diego · American Association of Immunologists

Updates for grown-ups

For parents, grandparents and teachers. We'll email when the first episode, free printables and the book are ready.

Shop, coming soon

The first two things we're making. No checkout yet. Just a heads-up when they're ready.

In the works

The Project CLEO picture book

Cleo and Ellie's first story, sized for bedtime.

In the works

The Ellie plush

Soft, sandy and spotted, with the little heart-shaped mark on her back.

Follow along @projectcleoshow

Art, real leopard shark facts and printables, made for grown-ups.