Marine Life Stratego
Marine Life Stratego
Our take on the Stratego board game, played live and outdoors. Every player secretly holds a card: a sea creature, a scuba diver or a ghost net. Tag a player from the other team, compare cards, and the higher rank wins. The first team to catch the player holding the other team’s pearl wins the game.
It is fast, loud and full of running, and it teaches how marine food chains work and how overfishing, ghost nets, protection and clean-ups change the balance.
- Players
- 15 to 60, in two teams. For bigger groups, print more cards.
- Time
- About an hour, including a short introduction
- Ages
- Any. It works for ten-year-olds and adults alike.
- You need
- A field with a centre line, one printed deck per team, and bandanas in two team colours
- Higher rank wins
Every card shows its rank, from shark (9) down to cleaner wrasse (1). When two players meet, both show their cards and the higher rank takes the other’s card. The loser fetches a new one and rejoins.
- The wrasse beats the shark
The cleaner wrasse wins against the shark by cleaning it, but it loses to every other card in the deck.
- The ghost net traps everyone
Everyone except the scuba diver, who can remove it. The net can’t tag anyone itself, so it has to wait for someone to run into it.
- Rules and activity guidePDF, 2 pages, 1.1 MB
Set-up, rules, card ranks and numbers, questions for afterwards, and a variation.
- Character slidesPDF, 16 pages, 2.1 MB
Introduce every card before you head outside: its rank, its rule and a real ocean fact.
- Printable cardsPDF, 11 A4 pages, 1.5 MB
A full 61-card deck with rank numbers. Print one deck per team.
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Bring your students to the reef
We host school groups at our base in Zamboanguita, Negros Oriental, for diving or snorkelling, beach clean-ups and tree planting alongside our conservation team. Every visit follows our child protection policy.