Industrial chemicals pollute our oceans, including our seafood. Photo: Brian J. Skerry / National Geographic Stock

Grant Recipient: Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Project Support: Assessing Modern Global Pollution of Seafood
Term: 2011/2012

In the past century, humans have put 83,000 synthetic industrial compounds into the environment. 5000 of these chemicals are high production volume chemicals, produced at volumes of thousands of metric tonnes annually. We have also dramatically changed the environmental levels of natural harmful compounds such as carbon dioxide and mercury; indeed two-thirds of the mercury in the atmosphere today is from our use of coal for energy. Many modern industrial compounds, such as pharmaceuticals, perfluorocarbons (PFC; teflon) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDE; flame retardants), are highly persistent.

The oceans are a repository for global pollutants. In turn, our own exposure to these ocean pollutants is often directly linked to our consumption of seafood. For example, elemental mercury in the atmosphere is deposited in the oceans through atmospheric processes and converted to organic mercury by microbes in sediments. Organic mercury persists, by binding to intracellular proteins, and rapidly moves up the food chain where it accumulates to high levels in long-lived fish. In turn, we humans are exposed to mercury when we eat those fish. There is urgent need to measure the scale of the ocean pollution problem and to determine the extent to which it presents a threat to human and environmental health through consumption of seafood.

Through this project, a global map of distribution of key contaminants in yellowfin tuna will be generated. These data will describe robustly whether or not 'pollution knows borders', namely whether any of the world's seafood sources are beyond the influence of chemical pollution.

Project Goal

The overall goal of this project is to estimate levels and distributions of modern industrial chemicals in the global seafood supply. The principal focus will be on one common fishery, the yellowfin tuna. Yellowfin tuna is among the most important fisheries targets worldwide, supporting fishing activities worldwide in tropical and subtropical seas. Approximately one million metric tonnes of yellowfin tuna are caught annually, making up one of the largest single-species contributions to total worldwide finfish consumption (approximately 2% of the total by yellowfin tuna alone). Yellowfin tuna tend to school in shallow waters and thus are likely to be regularly exposed to common sources of marine pollution that are concentrated in the shallow depths of the ocean.

During the first phase of the study, an unbiased chemical screen of yellowfin tuna will be conducted to identify the types and range of chemicals found in these fish. In the second phase, the study will amplify on this screen with targeted analysis of the major problem chemicals generating a large, statistically robust dataset on these common pollutants in yellowfin. They anticipate focusing on modern organic pollutants, including PBDEs, PFCs and one toxic metal, mercury. The study will explore the scope of the problem by comparing contaminant levels in fish across the globe, asking the question whether any fish, even those from the most remote areas of the planet, are free from contamination by modern chemicals.

This project will give us a better understanding of the scope of the seafood pollution, specifically focusing on identification of modern industrial chemicals. This proposal targets a gap in knowledge of how industrial chemistry influences our food supply through global marine pollution.

A Call for Support

Help is needed in collecting yellowfin tuna samples from across the globe. Do you have access to locally-caught yellowfin tuna? If so, a collection kit can be sent and you can help in expanding the map. Please contact Stuart Sandin (ssandin@ucsd.edu) or Amro Hamdoun (ahamdoun@ucsd.edu).

Resources/Media

Scripps Institution of Oceanography Website

Grant Recipient:  The Aspen Institute
Project Support:  Ocean Community Study
Term:  2011/2012

The Aspen Institute mission is to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program provides leadership and a neutral forum for improving policy making through intentional values-based dialogue in the areas of energy and environmental policy. For over 35 years, the Energy and Environment Program has directly sought to improve the quality of leadership and the formation of policy through dialogue on the environmental challenges facing societies and organizations. Through a form of intentional dialogue that fosters candid exchange among people of diverse viewpoints, the Program seeks solutions to, or seeks to better frame the questions regarding, important energy and environmental policy issues.

Study Initiative

The purpose of this initiative is threefold:  1) to develop a method for how to evaluate marine protection policy advocacy effectiveness; 2) to assess the efficacy of marine protection policies and advocacy initiatives in three defined areas; and 3) based on this research and analysis, recommend new strategies for how to significantly enhance the effectiveness of advocacy and other initiatives (e.g., science, education, communication, etc.) to improve policies related to marine protected areas, consumer awareness and overfishing.

Aspen’s focus will be on strengthening MPA policy success & MPA advocacy effectiveness through information feedback loops – self-assessment, planning and evaluation.

The research and dialogue conducted for this initiative will be used to formulate new thinking about the funding and advocacy decision making process affecting marine protection initiatives. The final report will present findings and create recommendations as to how the ocean community can be more effective as policy advocates and how it can make significant improvements in ocean conservation strategy and policy.

This project aims to develop an impartial ocean community advocacy study to assess and recommend how the ocean conservation funding and policy community can more systematically plan and evaluate their advocacy work and strategies for having greater impact on marine protection policy. The research will be organized to survey, analyze and make findings and recommendations addressing how to evaluate the effectiveness of marine protection policies; how philanthropists, the scientific community and NGO’s can improve the effectiveness of their advocacy, education and other marine protection strategies; and how to create new strategies to achieve greater progress in three key ocean conservation and policy areas:

• Creation of Marine Protected Areas (with significant spatial and temporal scale)
• Raising awareness to the problem and risks of overfishing and seafood consumption
• Fisheries reform to sustainable catches

A threshold (and independent research task to be managed by Aspen) of this inquiry requires assessing the level of past and current policy effectiveness in these areas as well.

Resources

The Aspen Institute Website

Imagine if the ocean had its own PR agency. A team of innovators born and constituted online. That’s Upwell. Amplifying stories, flying the ocean flag, and inspiring change.

Grant Recipient: Ocean Conservancy
Project Support: Upwell
Term: 2011/2012

Upwell is a social media communications project, somewhat similar to a nonprofit agency. The sole client is the ocean where the goal is to bring attention to marine conservation issues by utilizing abundant online ocean content channels in order to create awareness. Join them as they grow audiences and deepen existing audience relationships by increasing the volume, substance and relevance of ocean-related content.

The Upwell team is trained to sift through the vast amounts of real-time online conversations and content online. Their mission is to condition the climate for change. The project is incubated by Ocean Conservancy, and made possible by grants from the Waitt Foundation and other donors.

What does Upwell do?

Upwell curates and contextualizes the best ocean content online, create tools, and forge connections to help these conversations amd push past sticking points.

Upwell brings value to the professional ocean conservation sector by delivering a stream of contextualized curated content across whatever platforms the sector uses: an email newsletter, a blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, or conference presentations and webinars. They’re at home online, but also respect the power of traditional media. They strive to do the hard work of making scientific research accessible to popular audiences online and also the creative work of making sure the hook is in the story. Video is their BFF, and a compelling image is the wingman.

They run data-driven campaigns on specific issues in order to learn what works in marine conservation communications and share campaign data with the sector. When one of our experiments doesn’t deliver the expected results, they’re still thrilled to learn from that failure and will share the hard-earned lesson with the sector. They fail so that the sector can succeed.

Staff Expertise

Rachel Weidinger, Director. From the start of her marketing career at natural foods superstore Wild Oats, she has successfully engaged audiences in environmental, arts and social justice challenges. Most recently, Rachel was head of international marketing at TechSoup Global where she led outreach in collaboration with 36 NGO partners. In the past, Rachel worked with social enterprises including NTEN, the Black Rock Arts Foundation, SF Environment, Copia, and the Xtracycle Foundation. She is a frequent trainer and speaker on social media and mobile apps at conferences including SXSW Interactive, NetSquared and the Nonprofit Technology Conference. Rachel founded her own consultancy, and later was Senior Consultant and Marketing Director at Common Knowledge. Thanks to a full Harrison Scholarship, Rachel graduated from Miami University’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies with a Bachelors of Philosophy. She completed the coursework at the Ohio State University master’s program in Arts Policy and Administration.

Rachel Dearborn, Senior Account Executive. With over six years of experience agitating for social change, Rachel is intuitive and adroit at scraping the social, cultural and political landscapes for opportunity, carefully crafting outcome-oriented messaging and campaign collaterals, and using technology to strengthen networks. Rachel joined Upwell in March 2012 after nearly four years at Spitfire Strategies designing communications strategies and providing counsel, tools and training to a variety of nonprofits and foundations. Some of Rachel’s clients at Spitfire included the Irvine Foundation, California Environmental Associates, the Population Council, and the U.S. EPA. Rachel most recently worked with the Packard Foundation and the Surdna Foundation to support network-building, collaboration and coordinated communications among their environmentally-focused grantees, including WWF, Monterey Bay Aquarium, FishWise, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, Green For All, NRDC, Ceres, Energy Action Coalition and many more. Rachel also helped to spearhead Spitfire’s own social media practice, and has trained small and large nonprofits on using the web to create change. Rachel earned an English literature degree at Brown University in Providence, RI.

Resources/Media

Upwell Website
Upwell Twitter
Ocean Conservancy Website
Ocean Conservancy Facebook
Ocean Conservancy Twitter

Fish displayed on ice offered for sale at the Rialto fish market. Photo: Todd Gipstein

Grant Recipient:  Oceans 5
Project Support:  The Seafood Traceability Project
Term:  2011/2012

The Seafood Traceability Project seeks to strengthen the traceability and transparency of global fisheries regimes to combat illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing and to provide new accountability in dominant import markets, including the United States and European Union. Oceans 5 is supporting the dedicated work of four nonprofit organizations to achieve these objectives including World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace,  Oceana, and the Marine Fish Conservation Network.

Challenge

Pike Street Market, Seattle, Washington. Photo: Phil Schermeister

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is estimated to average 18 percent of the global catch. However, it is estimated to account for as much as 50 percent of the catch in several important commercial fisheries and over 30 percent in several oceanic regions. The global value of IUU is (US) $10-23 billion per year. The scale of IUU fishing creates obvious and understandable negative impacts on ocean health and coastal communities. At the same time, however, it undermines the integrity of fisheries management regimes in fundamental and profound ways. For example, fishing nations, managers, and businesses have no economic incentive to reduce catch or take costly conservation actions if IUU fishing interests will simply capture those economic benefits.

With few exceptions, seafood products are not easily traceable from the point of final sale back to their point of harvest and production. Fishing vessels and their owners are not licensed, registered or tracked systematically on a global basis.  Moreover, processing facilities typically import their catch from multiple sources or countries before re-exporting to major markets.  In most instances, if a consumer, retailer, or even a government regulator wants to know what type of fish was caught where and by whom, that information is not available.

Opportunity

Combating IUU fishing is a high and growing priority of governments, the fishing industry, and conservationists. Parties to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) recently finalized a binding new treaty defining minimum expectations for port controls on fishing vessels to reduce illegal seafood trade. The European Union recently adopted a far-reaching, anti-IUU certification scheme for imported seafood.  Large retailers, particularly those in the United States and European Union, are increasingly requiring that their seafood products are traceable.  In addition, new technologies and several for-profit companies have emerged to improve seafood traceability.

Most importantly, however, virtually all parties increasingly understand that existing seafood traceability policies, standards and mechanisms are inadequate. Oceans 5 seeks a unique opportunity to build upon emerging international requirements and expectations to define and implement a global system of seafood traceability.

Project Objectives

- Secure binding and enforceable traceability requirements for seafood sold in the U.S.;
- Improve implementation of anti-IUU fishing certification program in the EU;
- Establish an operational Global Registry of Fishing Vessels; and,
- Build government, business and public support for strengthened transparency requirements globally

About Oceans 5

Oceans 5 is a global funder’scollaborative, comprised of new and experienced philanthropists, committed to protecting the five oceans of the planet. The group collectively focuses its investments and support on large-scale, opportunistic projects and campaigns aimed at significantly expanding marine reserves and constraining overfishing.

Resources/Media

Oceans 5 Website

The oceans around Antarctica are not owned by any one nation. They are in international waters belonging to us all. They are among the most pristine waters in the world, and due to their remote location and extreme weather conditions, one of the last places on the planet largely untouched by human activity. Photo: John Weller

Grant Recipient:  Oceans 5
Project Support:  Establishing Marine Reserves in Antarctica
Term:  2011/2012

Oceans occupy more than 70 percent of our planet. According to marine scientists, however, nothing is as fundamentally damaging to marine ecosystems as overfishing. Constraining overfishing and establishing marine reserves are among the most important actions that can be taken to protect and restore the world’s oceans. These actions are the focus of Oceans 5.

An unprecedented and significant opportunity to establish large marine reserves exists in marine waters surrounding Antarctica. This opportunity is particularly unique because it involves international waters beyond the jurisdiction of any one nation. Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of ecologically important and relatively pristine ocean waters are at stake.

The Antarctic Opportunity

These waters are home to 15,500 species, many of which can be found nowhere else on Earth, including Adelie and emperor penguins, Antarctic petrals and minke whales, Ross Sea killer whales, and South Pacific Wedddell seals. Photo: John Weller

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has binding international authority in the waters of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. In 2005, CCAMLR committed to establish a network of representative marine protected areas by 2012. The Ross Sea and three large no-take reserves in East Antarctica are among eleven areas under active consideration in CCAMLR’s scientific process.

The Ross Sea is a great wilderness that few humans have seen firsthand. It provides critical habitat for hundreds of species of birds, mammals, fish, and invertebrates, including 38% of the world’s Adélie penguins and 26% of the world’s emperor penguins, Antarctic petrels, Antarctic minke whales, Arnoux’s beaked whales (found only in the Southern Ocean), killer whales, Weddell seals, crabeater seals, leopard seals, and colossal squid, among others. It is also a haven for endemic species of fish and invertebrates.

No marine system in the world remains completely undisturbed by humans. But to date, the Ross Sea has sustained less damage than almost any other open ocean ecosystem. There has been no widespread pollution; no mineral extraction (prohibited under terms of the Antarctic Treaty); its fish have not yet been depleted beyond recovery; it has not experienced large anoxic dead zones; and there is no evidence to date of alien species introductions. Importantly, it contains a full suite of top predators. With the exception of blue whales (which were killed in large numbers during the heyday of commercial whaling), the natural predators that existed in the Ross Sea before the arrival of humans are at or close to their historical levels.

Campaign Goals

This campaign will focus on communicating two principal public objectives:

1) A no-take marine reserve in the Ross Sea, including the continental slope to a depth of 3,000 meters. This would secure protection for almost 650,000 square kilometers or roughly two percent of the Southern Ocean; and,

2) Three large no-take marine reserves in East Antarctic waters and several additional areas along the Peninsula. These additional areas in East Antarctica and along the Peninsula could potentially include several hundred thousand square kilometers.

The success of this campaign should be judged as to whether it secures a no-take reserve of at least 500,000 square kilometers in the Ross Sea and at least 200,000 square kilometers in other areas by the end of 2013. Such an accomplishment would be a remarkable success for the world’s oceans. It would become the largest network of marine reserves on Earth. They would be the largest in areas beyond national jurisdiction and this will occur in one of the most unique, ecologically sensitive areas in the world.

In 1991, the international community declared a 50-year moratorium on mining and other commercial exploration on the land of Antarctica, that protection did not extend to the oceans, leaving it exposed to increasing pressure from oil and gas exploitation. Photo: John Weller

About Oceans 5

Oceans 5 is a global funder’s collaborative, comprised of new and experienced philanthropists, committed to protecting the five oceans of the planet. The group collectively focuses its investments and support on large-scale, opportunistic projects and campaigns aimed at significantly expanding marine reserves and constraining overfishing.

Resources/Media

Oceans 5 Website
Antarctic Ocean Alliance Website

While other marine ecosystems are being threatened and destroyed by development, pollution, mining, oil and gas exploitation, and overfishing, Antarctica's Ross Sea - often referred to as the "Serengeti" of the seas - remains one of the most intact ecosystems on the planet, with large populatiouns of top predators present. Photo: John Weller

New Alliance calls for unprecedented protection for Antarctica’s oceans

WASHINGTON, DC, 29 February 2012 – The Antarctic Ocean Alliance, an international collective of environmental organizations and high-profile supporters, have come together to call for the world’s largest network of marine protected areas and no-take marine reserves to be established to protect Antarctica’s Southern Ocean.

The Alliance’s public campaign “Join the Watch”, launched around the world today, is inviting a global audience to participate in the campaign and its call for Antarctic marine protection.

Alliance members and supporters include actor, activist and UN Biodiversity Ambassador Edward Norton, Oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, as well as 16 environmental and conservation organizations including Greenpeace, WWF, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Oceans 5 and Mission Blue.

The regulatory body responsible for this region – the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) – has agreed to create a network of marine protected areas in some of the ocean around Antarctica. However, CCAMLR meets with limited public participation and no media access and the Alliance believes that, without public attention during the process, only minimal protection will be achieved.

“The fate of the Antarctic marine environment is about to be decided and the world knows nothing about it,” said Alliance Campaign Director Steve Campbell. “Now is the time to protect this amazing environment but we’ll need the global public involved to make that happen.”

In agreeing to “Join the Watch”, Edward Norton said, “There’s a moment of opportunity here to apply pressure and send a signal that millions of people are watching this process and are saying, ’Don’t let us down.’”                                                                       

Antarctic waters make up almost 10% of the world’s seas and are some of the most pristine left on earth. Home to almost 10,000 unique and diverse species such as penguins, seals and whales, these waters are now at risk from the impacts of commercial fishing and climate change. The Alliance is calling for 19 critical habitats in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean to be protected, starting with the Ross Sea.

The group released a report in New Zealand today entitled: “Antarctic Ocean Legacy: A marine reserve for the Ross Sea” at a reception for Parliamentarians in Wellington. The report provides the rationale for protection of the Ross Sea region. The Antarctic Ocean Alliance proposal builds on and strengthens the current Ross Sea scenarios of the US and New Zealand governments, encompassing three additional areas with environmental features and critical habitats for the protection of this unique ocean ecosystem. If established, it would be the world’s largest fully protected marine reserve, totalling 3.6 million square kilometres.

“The waters of Antarctica have become attractive for industrial scale fishing because fish close to where people live really don’t exist in large numbers anymore,” said Dr. Sylvia Earle. “We know we have a problem, we now need to do something about it – that’s why we are calling on people to “Join the Watch” to help protect this amazing environment.”

The Alliance is launching a video today featuring interviews with Edward Norton and Sylvia Earle asking the public to sign a petition to CCAMLR calling for large-scale marine protection for Antarctica and “Join the Watch”.

CONTACT

Michael Holland, Edelman: 212 642 7760
michael.holland@edelman.com

Blair Palese, AOA: +61414659511
blair@antarcticocean.org

Conservation International expedition to Abrolhos region, Bahia, Brazil

Grant Recipient:  Conservation International
Project Support:   The Abrolhos Seascape - Expansion and Creation of New MPAs, including the largest no-take MPA in the Southern Atlantic Ocean
Term:  2009/2010 & 2011/2012

The Abrolhos Region is a coral reef hotspot located in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Bahia and Espírito Santo states in Brazil. The area comprises a mosaic of marine and coastal ecosystems and encompasses the largest reef area and the highest marine biodiversity in the Southern Atlantic, harboring a multitude of unique and threatened species. The central threats to the Abrolhos region are overfishing, illegal fishing, shrimp farming, oil and gas exploitation, climate change, and sedimentation from river runoff, which combine to imperil the very survival of this unique ecosystem. Working closely with local communities, Conservation International has played a leading role in protecting and expanding the MPA network.

Conservation Planning

Masked Booby: The Abrolhos archipelago is an important nesting ground for a number of seabirds.

Conservation International (CI) has been working closely with NGOs, communities, and the Brazilian government to understand and protect this important ecosystem and to establish an Abrolhos Seascape. The work is focused on developing a systematic conservation planning process and analyzing physical, biological, and socioeconomic data, as well as conducting a cost-benefit analysis of different conservation scenarios. Building on this work, CI proposes to create 2 new, large MPAs–a multiple-use MPA covering the entire region to provide large-scale governance and a Wildlife Refuge to protect the breeding site for humpback whales–and to expand the Abrolhos National Park to include newly discovered reefs, algae banks, and geologic formations as no-take zones. This project aims to expand the boundaries of the Abrolhos National Park by more than 10 times, which would make it the largest no-take MPA in the Southern Atlantic

In 2010, Brazil signed a commitment to protect at least 10 percent of its EEZ, or the area of the ocean under Brazil’s jurisdiction extending 200 nautical miles from its coastline, by 2020. There is an expectation that the Brazilian government will have made significant progress toward this goal by the June 2012 Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. CI aims to take advantage of this unrivaled, imminent opportunity to build upon ongoing work and processes to significantly increase the amount of marine area under protection.

Marine Conservation Model & Community Impact

The biodiversity of Abrolhos is threatened by overfishing, the negative effects of climate change, shrimp farming, and oil and gas exploitation - CI will focus on these threats. A fully functioning MPA network, integrated into a comprehensive management regime, is a strong tool for addressing these threats. Existing extractive reserves, co-managed by communities and government agencies, have produced impressive results: within multiple-use protected areas, fish abundance has increased, and a spill-over effect from no-take reserves has led to increased fish abundance in other areas; reef systems and mangroves are protected from large development projects (shrimp farming and oil and gas drilling); and social engagement has improved. The Cassurubá community asked CI to help them establish a marine extractive reserve based on the outcomes from other protected areas. CI’s continuous monitoring of marine resources and resource users, in partnership with Brazilian universities, has been a key component in measuring conservation impacts and evaluating management needs.

CI’s goal for the region is to strengthen and expand the Abrolhos MPA network into a resilient system that will be adaptively co-managed by government authorities, NGOs, and local communities to conserve biodiversity and fisheries over the long term. Through this project, CI will generate new data and from this, will re-frame the overall picture of biodiversity, marine communities, and fisheries on the Abrolhos Shelf to inform the design of the proposed expansion of the Abrolhos National Park. The synthesis will provide knowledge about key features and ecological processes that managers can use to improve park protection and enhance the sustainability of resources drawn from the Shelf ecosystem as a whole. It will also support a resilience analysis for developing a strategy of climate change adaptation in the region, where the new MPAs will be designed considering future scenarios. 

The outcome of this project will have a direct impact on 3,000 traditional fishing families in addition to 17,000 other families, who depend on the environmental services provided by the Abrolhos MPA network (fisheries, natural attraction for tourism, carbon sequestration, etc.) and indirectly derive benefits from healthy ecosystems. Accomplishing this goal for Abrolhos will also foster the development of national guidelines and provide successful case studies for promoting marine conservation in other regions along the country’s more than 8,000 km of coastline.

Underwater Wonders: Abrolhos is home to some of the world's most unique and threatened corals. Since the species have long since vanished from other parts of the region, these corals are on the front line of extinction.

Staff Expertise

Guilherme F. Dutra, M.Sc., Director of CI-Brazil’s Marine Program, leads the project. He is a biologist who has led marine conservation efforts in Abrolhos for 15 years and played a key role in creating the three marine extractive reserves in Abrolhos, strongly involving local communities in these conservation decisions. Throughout his decade and a half of work in the region, Mr. Dutra has led the implementation of 35 projects and has accumulated significant technical and management experience. He is a Pew Fellow for Marine Conservation candidate for 2012; if selected, his main goals will be to expand the Abrolhos MPA Network and to replicate its impact on a national scale.

Les Kaufman, Ph.D., CI Senior Marine Scientist and Professor in the Boston University Marine Program, will be the project’s Principal Investigator. He is an evolutionary ecologist studying basic processes that drive the creation, collapse, and conservation of aquatic species diversity on coral reefs and tropical great lakes. He is currently leading a research team that develops models of ecosystem services delivery and trade-offs in heavily populated coastal ecosystems. The models are practical tools for ecosystem-based management and marine spatial planning. Kaufman is also a Research Scholar with The New England Aquarium and Associate in Ichthyology, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, serves on the Science and Statistics Committee for the New England Fishery Management Council, and is working with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) colleagues to modernize federal ocean science. Kaufman also writes popular books, magazine articles, and television content, including multiple stints as either author or subject with NOVA and National Geographic. He was awarded the first marine Pew Fellowship in 1990 and was selected to receive the Parker-Gentry Award in Conservation Biology for 2011 from the Chicago Field Museum.

Eduardo Camargo, M.Sc., Manager of CI-Brazil’s Marine Program, will oversee project implementation. Eduardo has been in the region for nine years, previously serving as coordinator of the Humpback Whale Institute before joining CI in May 2011. He will help organize logistics and formal procedures for the field work, as well as participate in the technical planning for the marine surveys.

Make a Difference

Each of us has a role to play in ensuring the future health and well-being of all the people, animals, plants and ecosystems on the planet. Find out how Conservation International can help you Make a Difference.

About Conservation International

Conservation International (CI) builds upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration to empower societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature and the well-being of humanity. Founded in 1987, CI works at every level—from remote villages to the offices of presidents and premiers—to help move whole societies toward a smarter development path. Through science, policy and field work, they assist communities, countries and societies to protect tropical forests, lush grasslands, rivers, wetlands, abundant lakes and the sea.

Resources/Media

Conservation International Web site
Conservation International - Global Marine
Abrolhos MPA Network in Brazil
Facebook
Twitter

An archipelago of islands comprise the Bahamas; shown here, aerial of Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. Photo: Jonathan Kerr

Grant Recipient: The Nature Conservancy
Project Support: Expanding Marine Protection Across the Bahamas
Term: 2011/2012

The Bahamas is a string of nearly 700 islands stretching 100,000 square miles from the Florida Keys to Hispaniola, home to the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Bahamian islands are rich in marine life and replete with pine forests and a wealth of species found here and nowhere else on Earth.

The Nature Conservancy has been working in The Bahamas for more than 10 years with the government and a variety of partners to protect its natural resources for its people to use today and into the future. The Bahamas is now embarking on an ambitious project to build political support and garner long-term financing for protected areas across the Caribbean – The Caribbean Challenge.

The Caribbean Challenge

Marine protected areas are the cornerstone of the Caribbean Challenge, a regional effort to protect 20 percent of the Caribbean’s marine and coastal habitat by 2020. The Caribbean Challenge will transform the region’s national park system and triple the amount of protected marine and coastal habitat, including nearly 21 million acres of coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds and other important habitat. Since the launch of the project, marine protected area coverage across the Insular Caribbean has increased from 7 to nearly 10 percent.

Fish, lobster and conch populations have improved in waters outside the no-take zone and the park also provides important habitat for endangered animals. Photo: Jeff Yonover

Last year, more than 3.5 million acres (about half the size of Colorado) of new and expanded regional marine parks were added to the network. Of these, more than one million acres are part of The Bahamas’ new or expanded MPAs, the most significant being Andros Westside National Park, Conception Island and Fowl Cays National Parks and the Bimini, Berry Island and Exuma marine reserves. With the addition of Andros alone, which supports some of the highest concentrations of sea turtles and juvenile fish ever observed, The Bahamas more than doubled its marine protected areas network.

Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park draws thousands of visitors each year. Its healthy reefs and pristine beaches support thriving tourism-based businesses. Photo: Jeff Yonover

These are critical conservation gains, especially within such a short period of time. Yet, the government is reluctant to add any new MPAs until the most recently declared parks have adequate staff, boundaries marked and proper management in place. Natural resource managers also need to build the connection between MPAs and successful fisheries, as the Bimini and Berry Islands reserves are starting to do. As The Bahamas holds a leadership position within the Caribbean Challenge, its accomplishments influence the actions of the other Challenge nations. It is essential, therefore, that The Bahamas not only maintain but increase its conservation momentum.

The Opportunity

The Nature Conservancy is working with the government to make these new protected areas fully functional by employing signage, staff and infrastructure as well as implementing the science, constituency building and communication needed to continue The Bahamas’ rapid MPA expansion. To achieve these results, this project aims for the following:

1) Consolidate Management at the Recently Declared MPAs

The Conservancy has been working on Andros for many years without a physical presence, which is very inefficient. As one of the first actions, TNC will establish a formal presence in a community adjacent to the Andros MPA to build community awareness of the area’s conservation needs; develop partner skills by providing on-site experience and expertise; and implement initiatives related both to the recent Integrating Watershed and Coastal Areas Management (IWCAM) Project recommendations as well as the establishment of a coral nursery.

In Bimini (and a lesser extent South Berry) TNC will collaborate with the Department of Marine Resources to implement management plans for these two areas while working with constituents to establish stronger stewardship and outreach for effective management of the sites.

2) Expand and Secure New MPA Declarations

TNC will work with the government and the Bahamas National Trust (BNT) to create new MPAs in San Salvador, Abaco and Cay Sal Bank and, with BNT and other partners, rally support for the MPAs in the San Salvador and Abaco communities that are directly impacted. The scientific research and assessments have identified these as priority areas for conservation.

A conch shell just below the water surface at Warderick Wells Cay in the Bahamas Cays Land & Sea Park. TNC works closely with partners such as the Bahamas National Trust and the government of the Bahamas to protect the marine habitats. Photo: Mark Godfrey / TNC

Project Implementation

The project will be implemented by Eleanor Phillips, The Nature Conservancy’s Northern Caribbean Program Director. Eleanor is one of the Conservancy’s leading marine conservation practitioners and, according to Minister of the Environment Earl Deveaux, “a national treasure.” Since joining the Conservancy in 2003, Eleanor has worked from The Bahamas Program office in Nassau, leading a multidisciplinary team working in partnership with government and non-governmental organizations in The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands to achieve effective conservation of natural resources for those countries. Eleanor is leading efforts towards implementation of a Master Plan for Protected Areas for The Bahamas Protected Areas System and is charged with supporting The Bahamas towards meeting their goals in the Caribbean Challenge. Prior to joining the Conservancy, Eleanor worked for eleven years with The Bahamas Department of Fisheries, and managed two privately-owned Tilapia farms.

Eleanor Phillips, Program Director, North Caribbean Program at The Nature Conservancy, explains the importance of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in The Bahamas.

About The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. They address the most pressing conservation threats at the largest scale. TNC has protected more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide — they operate more than 100 marine conservation projects globally. TNC works in all 50 states and more than 30 countries — protecting habitats from grasslands to coral reefs, from Australia to Alaska to Zambia.

Aided by more than 700 scientists, they use science to establish conservation priorities and address environmental threats. With the support of more than a million members, the Conservancy pursues a non-confrontational, solutions-based approach to dealing with 21st century environmental challenges, with a focus on freshwater, marine, climate change, working landscapes and conservation areas.

Resources/Media

The Nature Conservancy Website
The Caribbean Challenge
Facebook
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The Mediterranean Sea is considered one of the main hot spots of biodiversity on the planet. It harbors a wide variety of endemic species, and the existence of vulnerable, threatened and endangered species in this sea has been widely proven.

Grant Recipient: Oceana
Project Support: Campaign to Extend Cabrera National Park
Term: 2011/2012

Oceana aims to expand the Marine Protected Area (MPA) of Cabrera National Park in Spain’s Balearic Islands, including development of a suitable management plan. At this time, Oceana has a significant opportunity to build on Oceana’s previous scientific research and extensive advocacy to achieve protection of the important marine area that currently lies outside of Cabrera National Park. Oceana will pursue two avenues to achieve the goal. Primarily, Oceana will ask Spain to expand the National Park boundaries. At the same time, they will also seek inclusion of the area within the EU framework of marine protected areas, to reinforce designation by Spain.

About Cabrera National Park

The Balearic Island archipelago is located in the western Mediterranean Sea off Spain’s eastern coast. The archipelago consists of three major islands (Majorca, Minorca, and Ibiza) with other small islands such as Cabrera and Formentera.

Cabrera National Park includes the Cabrera Archipelago in the Balearic Islands, Spain and is made up of 19 small islands with an area of 1,318 hectares on land, as well as a maritime area of 8,703 hectares. The Balearics are home to an astonishing system of underwater seamounts as well as one of the most important spawning grounds for Mediterranean bluefin tuna. Cabrera National Park is crucial for many migratory and sea birds, as well as important marine species. Oceana has identified a dozen ecosystems and nearly 300 species within the National Park. Long-finned pilot whales, bottlenose dolphins, corals, and even rare carnivorous sponges are endemic to this area.

However, the current size of the MPA in Cabrera National Park is not sufficient. Since 2006, Oceana has conducted over 30 submersions to document the seamounts and marine life in the area, revealing many important habitats that urgently need protection, such as thick kelp forests, extraordinary coralline formations, rich maërl beds, and gorgonian gardens. The waters are important for loggerhead sea turtles, bottlenose dolphins, striped dolphins, and pilot whales. Some of these species are threatened species included in Annexes II and IV of the Protocol of Specially Protected Areas of Importance for the Mediterranean of the Convention of Barcelona and Annex II of the Convention of Bern.

Protection Benefits

Protecting the area will preserve its biodiversity, providing much-needed protection for important seafloor habitats and seamounts, as well as for sea turtles, dolphins, and whales. Furthermore, the restrictions will facilitate possible use of the area to reintroduce the monk seal to the western Mediterranean, as discussed at a high level in the European Union. The Mediterranean monk seal is considered to be the world’s rarest pinniped and is one of the most endangered marine mammals in the world.

The Mediterranean monk seal, is listed by the IUCN as critically endangered. Photo: Hellio & Van Ingen

Tourism will benefit from the rebounding of these animals. Local fishermen will benefit from recovery of groupers and other important commercial species through protection and recovery of posidonia forests and other habitats. By enhancing the area’s productivity as a marine nursery, the expanded MPA will also yield long-term benefits for sustainable fishing outside the protected zone. Oceana’s proposed expansion will extend the marine portion of Cabrera National Park by 787 sq km, making it 9 times larger than the current surface area.

Proposed Regulations & Restrictions

Key regulations that would apply throughout the entire expanded MPA are:

- No bottom trawling or industrial purse seining
- Closed-access fisheries, limited to Mallorca vessels proving historical area fishing
- Vessel-monitoring systems installed on all fishing boats

In addition, Oceana proposes three sub-regions with differing levels of permitted uses:

- Reserve area: Virtually all uses precluded
- Moderate-se area: Artisanal fishing subject to above limits, diving & anchorage allowed
- Restricted-use area: Artisanal fishing subject to above limits, diving restricted & anchorage not allowed

Accounting for only 0.8 percent of the world’s ocean area, the Mediterranean contains 18 percent of all described marine species, of which 25 to 30 percent are found no where else in the world.

Project Implementation

This campaign will be managed from Oceana’s office in Spain. Silvia García, Marine Habitat Scientist at Oceana, will be in charge of developing the campaign as Campaign Manager, with the support of Ricardo Aguilar, Oceana’s Science and Campaign Director in Europe. Other Oceana staff supporting the campaign are Pilar Marin, Marine Habitat Scientist; María José Cornax, Fisheries Campaign Manager; and Jorge Ubero, GIS Analyst. Oceana’s Communications team in Madrid will also support the campaign via press and media work. Oceana’s campaign team has extensive experience in working on similar projects, such as the extension of the Doñana National Park, the creation of a marine corridor between Spain and France, the Seco de los Olivos Seamount project sponsored by the EU, and many other projects where their skills and expertise have combined into the most effective campaign strategies for achieving clear outcomes.

About Oceana

Oceana’s mission is to protect and restore the world’s oceans. We are a science-based, campaign-driven, global non-profit organization exclusively dedicated to this mission. Oceana was established in 2001 by a group of leading foundations that shared a vision of creating a broad-based advocacy organization to address one of the planet’s most pressing problems–the destruction of the world’s vast ocean habitats. We are focused on addressing the four main factors driving the oceans to collapse–the destruction of seafloor habitat; bycatch; overfishing caused by excessive subsidies to fishing fleets worldwide; and pollution, including increased carbon dioxide emissions that lead to climate change and ocean acidification.

Resources/Media

Oceana’s Cabrera Overview
Oceana’s Mediterranean Overview
Oceana’s Website
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Along the Gabon and Congo coasts, the world’s largest population of leatherback turtles nest and humpback whales breed in the waters. Gabon's mangroves and lagoons are among the most pristine in Africa, brimming with hippos, crocodiles, West African manatees, and tarpon. Photo: Brian Skerry

Grant Recipient: Wildlife Conservation Society
Project Support: Gabon No-take Expansion
Term: 2011/2012

For the past 25 years, WCS has worked closely with the Government of Gabon to create the country’s first national park system, designed to save the country’s magnificent tracts of intact forest and abundant wildlife. This major triumph for conservation was accomplished in 2002 with the establishment of 13 new national parks. WCS remains an active conservation and management partner throughout Gabon’s national parks’ system, the Gabon Agence National des Parcs Nationaux. One of the Gabonese national parks, Mayumba, is already entirely a marine no-take zone. Three other parks that are terrestrial in nature border the coast and have marine buffer components. WCS also works directly with the management of the coastal and marine protected area (MPA) of Concouati-Douli National Park in the Republic of Congo.

New Laws, Rigorous Limits

The Government of Gabon made history in 2002 when they placed nearly 11 percent of their land area under permanent protection. Today, led by the new President, Ali Bongo Ondimba, the commitment to conservation remains strong and there is already recognition that the existing network of marine protected areas is inadequate to preserve the country’s ocean wildlife and marine resources.

As much as 60 percent of all fishing occurring in Gabonese waters is illegal, unreported, and/or unregulated (IUU), and public discontent is growing. President Ondimba has acknowledged that this fishing generates no measurable income for the country, while displacing subsistence fishing and placing additional pressures on terrestrial sources of protein, such as bushmeat. WCS formally established its Congo Basin Coast Program in 2009 with the purpose of assisting Gabon and its immediate neighbors, Congo and Equatorial Guinea, with significant expansion of MPAs–including improved enforcement of existing parks and extensive development of no-take grounds, often referred to in the region as no-go zones.

Through decades of close collaboration and mutual trust, WCS has developed a unique relationship with the Gabonese Government. The Director of the ANPN, under the authority of the President of Gabon, has asked WCS to provide, as soon as possible, the scientific and technical expertise necessary to implement new marine conservation laws. These will call for rigorous limits on fishing and the creation of MPAs within a system of expanded national parks. It is under this authority that, WCS will develop an ambitious plan for the rapid expansion of marine protected areas in Gabon and neighboring countries over the next several years. The Gabonese President himself has publicly committed to the expansion of marine protected areas through the creation of a Presidential Coastal Task Force, and has privately requested a clear proposal highlighting how to create no-take reserves in existing protected areas and establish new protected areas.

Approach for New No-take Zones

WCS will execute this project in two overlapping phases:

1) Complete scientific assessment for no-take expansion: Needs and threats assessments, as well as the creation of a spatially-based database to guide recommendations of size and location for an expanded network of marine reserves;

2) Legal declaration of no-take protection for each new marine protected area: Government engagement and interaction at every step of the project, from initial concept endorsement through strategy validation and leadership advocacy.

WCS will work in close partnership with ANPN to meet the President’s demand for a dramatic increase, a minimum of 2,100 square kilometers, in officially declared no-take zones. This will be accomplished through a Presidential initiative for a new and expanded system of marine protected areas–justified by a science-based identification of the most important areas for designation across Gabon’s coastal waters:

- Mayumba National Park - 900 sq kilometers of expanded no-take grounds
- Loango National Park - 700 sq kilometers of new no-take grounds
- Pongara National Park - 100 sq kilometers of new no-take grounds
- Akanda National Park - 400 sq kilometers of new no-take grounds

New oil exploration efforts focus on offshore concessions, many coinciding with seasonal habitats for humpback whales and year-round habitats for other marine species. Humpback whales migrate to Gabon’s near-shore waters to breed during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. Photo: Michael Nichols

Staff Expertise

Johanna Polsenberg is the Coordinator for WCS’s Congo Basin Coast program. Before joining WCS in 2011, Johanna most recently helped organize regional recovery and restoration efforts across the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. She has nearly a decade of experience working in Washington, D.C. on environmental and energy policy as both a Senior Congressional Staffer and an advocate. Before developing a strong policy portfolio, Johanna established herself as a rigorous field scientist, working on coral reef management in the Florida Keys, Caribbean, and Indonesia, and conducting independent field studies in Australia and across the South Pacific. She earned an MBA focused on corporate strategy and sustainability from the University of Maryland, a Ph.D. on mangrove ecosystem nutrient dynamics and resiliency from Stanford University, and a B.S. in biochemistry and chemistry from the University of Vermont.

About Wildlife Conservation Society

Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society, WCS has a dual mission: education of the general public of the importance of wildlife, and implementing conservation programs in the field. WCS has played a prominent role in preserving and protecting key species, pioneering conservation studies, developing critical scientific information, and in the passage of precedent-setting legislation.

WCS is a leading conservation NGO with commitments to 74 landscapes and seascapes in Africa, Asia, Latin America, N. America, and throughout all four of the world’s oceans. Operating global conservation programs that span 60 countries, WCS scientists are noted for working with local communities, and have established an unmatched record of performance and experience in the conservation of wildlife and wild places through scientific research, training, and education. WCS works closely and collaboratively with local partners, government agencies, regional institutions, and non-governmental agencies to ensure their research results inform policy and lead to conservation impact.

Resources/Media

WCS Website
Congo Basin Coast Seascape
Facebook

The yellowtail snapper is now more abundant in the waters of the Florida Keys, thanks to protected nursery areas.

Grant Recipient: Natural Resources Defense Council
Project Support: Endangered Oceans Project
Term: 2011/2012

The Natural Resources Defense Council’s purpose is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends.

This giant clam rests undisturbed off the shores of Maug Island.

They work to restore the integrity of the elements that sustain life — air, land and water — and to defend endangered natural places.

NRDC seeks to establish sustainability and good stewardship of the Earth as central ethical imperatives of human society. NRDC affirms the integral place of human beings in the environment.

They strive to protect nature in ways that advance the long-term welfare of present and future generations.

They work to foster the fundamental right of all people to have a voice in decisions that affect their environment. We seek to break down the pattern of disproportionate environmental burdens borne by people of color and others who face social or economic inequities. Ultimately, NRDC strives to help create a new way of life for humankind, one that can be sustained indefinitely without fouling or depleting the resources that support all life on Earth.

Reviving the World’s Oceans:

Rocky reefs provide important habitat for many seaweeds, invertebrates and fish.

Powerful forces have pushed the world’s oceans to the brink of ecological collapse. NRDC believes marine vitality can be restored by ending overfishing, creating marine protected areas and improving oceans governance. By focusing on these solutions, we can achieve the broadest, most long-lasting benefits for our oceans and those who rely on the more than 2 million oceans-related jobs in America. NRDC will also combat emerging threats, such as carbon pollution that has caused ocean waters to become overly acidic and climate change that has led to ice melts which expose the Arctic Ocean to fishing, shipping, drilling, and mining.

Experts:

Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney - Most of his advocacy is focused on protecting and restoring ocean and coastal resources in the mid-Atlantic and New England regions, particularly around the NY/NJ harbor and bight. He has also worked to save the Florida Everglades for the last fifteen years. Brad is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of Law and Columbia’s School of Public Health, Division of Environmental Sciences. He has a JD and MPH from Columbia and a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University.

Michael Jasny, Senior Policy Analyst - Michael grew up in an industrialized part of New Jersey, unconcerned about environmental issues (or, indeed, nature) until he read one of John McPhee’s books on geology and had a late conversion experience. He has been to law school and graduate school, and worked in human rights law before joining NRDC. In the last few years he has focused on marine mammal conservation.

Lisa Suatoni, Senior Scientist - Has a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale University and a masters from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Lisa works with NRDC’s ocean programs to preserve and restore ocean ecosystems where she helps take scientific discoveries and turn them into laws that will protect the ocean. She is a scientist within a team of policy experts, lobbyists, and lawyers providing advice about various aspects of marine science.

David Newman, Oceans Program Attorney - First joined NRDC as a litigation fellow, working on fisheries and offshore oil and gas issues. After some time working on bioenergy issues in Kenya, he rejoined NRDC’s Ocean Program in New York in June, 2010. His current work involves using law, policy, science, and public outreach to restore the Nation’s wild fisheries to sustainable levels. David also work on issues related to sustainable seafood, marine spatial planning, and addressing the natural resource damage from the Gulf oil spill.

Ocean explorer Philippe Cousteau narrates this short video about the urgent need to protect the precious and mysterious underwater canyons and seamounts of the Atlantic Coast.

Resources/Media:

NRDC Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube

Grant Recipient:  Sargasso Sea Alliance
Project Support:  MPA Establishment and Protection of the Sargasso Sea
Term:  2010 - 2012

Launched in 2010, The Sargasso Sea Alliance is a partnership led by the Bermuda Government, in collaboration with scientists, international marine conservation groups and private donors, who all share a vision of protecting the unique and vulnerable ocean ecosystem that is the Sargasso Sea. The Alliance is funded entirely by private sector donors, including Ricardo Cisneros, Erik H. Gordon, the JM Kaplan Fund, Richard Rockefeller, David Shaw and the Waitt Foundation.

Key Objectives

To build an international partnership that will secure recognition of the ecological significance of the Sargasso Sea and the threats that it faces.

To use existing regional, sectoral and international organizations to secure a range of protective measures for all or parts of the Sargasso Sea to address key threats.

To establish a management regime for the Sargasso Sea.

To use the process as an example of what can and cannot be delivered through existing institutions in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

About the Sargasso Sea

The Sargasso Sea is the earth’s only sea without a land boundary. Without a coastline to help define its boundaries, other biological characteristics and oceanic conditions have been used over time to help define the sea’s location and extent. This extraordinary open-ocean ecosystem is bounded by currents circulating around the North Atlantic sub-tropical gyre and is unique for supporting the center of distribution and abundance for a community of continuously pelagic drift algae, the Sargasso Sea provides habitats, spawning areas, migration pathways and feeding grounds to a diverse assortment of flora and fauna, including endemic, endangered, and commercially important species.

Why Protect the Sargasso Sea?

The Sargasso Sea is a haven of biodiversity and there is growing recognition of the crucial role it plays in the wider North Atlantic ecosystem as habitat, foraging and spawning grounds, and as a migratory corridor. The Sargasso Sea supports a range of endemic species and plays a critical role in supporting the life cycle of a number of threatened and endangered species such as the Porbeagle shark, the American and the European eel, as well as billfish, tuna and several species of turtle, migratory birds and cetaceans. There is emerging recognition of the crucial role it plays in the wider ecosystem ranging from the Atlantic to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Just as the Sargasso Sea supports a number of species, it is also faced with several stressors that threaten the long-term viability and health of the ecosystem.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are not a new idea and there is growing evidence that they serve a vital role in allowing fish and corals to recover from exploitation – even providing benefits for unprotected waters outside their borders. However, the majority of existing MPAs have all been set up within the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of individual countries (200 nautical miles), or on their Continental Shelves – which can extend beyond 200 nm. There is, as yet, no global legal framework for the establishment of MPAs within the nearly 50% of the planet that lies outside these zones. These “Areas beyond National Jurisdiction” (ABNJ), are the least protected in the world.

Regional agreements for conservation including the establishment of high seas MPAs already exist in some areas, such as the Northeast Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Southern Ocean, but not in the areas covered by the Sargasso Sea.

Under international law, the high seas areas beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast are open to all. The 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention envisages six basic high seas freedoms for all states: navigation; overflight; freedom to lay submarine cables and pipelines; to construct artificial islands and other installations; freedom of fishing and of scientific research. Although the Convention does impose important duties (notably environmental protection) on those that exercise these freedoms, it is other sectoral treaty regimes that regulate a range of specific issues such as fishing, wildlife protection, shipping, and seabed mining.

Where is the Sargasso Sea?

The Sargasso Sea is a region in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by ocean currents. It is bounded on the west by the Gulf Stream; on the north, by the North Atlantic Current; on the east, by the Canary Current; and on the south, by the North Atlantic Equatorial Current. This system of currents forms the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. All the currents deposit the marine plants and garbage they carry into this sea.

The Sargasso Sea is 700 statute miles wide and 2,000 statute miles long.  The ocean water in the Sargasso Sea is distinctive for its deep blue color and exceptional clarity, with underwater visibility of up to 200 feet.

The Sargasso Sea is a large, warm, saline lens of water, which is characterized by an abundance of floating brown seaweed (Sargassum).

Resources/Media

Sargasso Sea Alliance Website
Twitter

It’s so simple...protect marine areas and the diversity, size and abundance of fish increase dramatically.

Grant Recipient: Rare Conservation
Fisheries Replenishment Zones in the Gulf of California, the Galapagos and the Mesoamerican Reef
Term: 2010 - 2013

Rare is an international conservation organization with a replicable model for community-led conservation. Rare’s mission is to conserve imperiled species and ecosystems around the world by inspiring people to care about and protect nature. Since the 1980s, Rare has specialized in training local conservation leaders to use outreach and advertising tactics to build awareness and support for conservation. Rare and its partners in more than 50 countries are committed to designing conservation programs that benefit both people and nature — ensuring that change is embraced and sustained. Rare works at the community level to address human behaviors that threaten biodiversity, such as overfishing, illegal logging, and unsustainable agriculture. 

To combat these threats, Rare identifies innovative community-based solutions that have proven successful at changing behaviors. Using its Pride campaign methodology, Rare adopts these conservation bright spots and replicates them around the globe. Pride campaigns use social marketing techniques to inspire people to take pride in their natural resources and to promote sustainable behavior change and alternative practices in communities to benefit conservation.

Conservation ultimately comes down to people – their behaviors toward nature, their beliefs about its value, and their ability to protect it without sacrificing basic life needs. And so, conservationists must become as skilled in social change as in science; as committed to community-based solutions as national and international policy-making.

Callum Roberts, marine conservationist and coral reef expert, talks to Rare’s CEO Brett Jenks about the decline of fisheries in the Philippines and how replicating marine protected areas is an effective way to reverse this crisis.

Fisheries Replenishment Zones:  Latin America

Overfishing is the principal threat to marine resources and biodiversity in the Gulf of California, the Galapagos, and the Mesoamerican Reef—where fisheries that provide livelihoods and food security are close to collapse. Although local fishers are responsible for much of the threat, they also have a strong incentive to protect their source of food and income. Fisheries management experts, scientists, governments, and NGOs agree that effectively addressing overfishing here requires the establishment and strengthening of designated, community-supported areas where fishing is strictly prohibited. A necessary complement to this approach is showing fishers how they can harvest sustainably, and giving them incentives to do so, in order to restore and maintain fish populations at healthy levels.

Rare is launching a cohort of Pride campaigns to accelerate the support and establishment of community-monitored Fisheries Replenishment Zones (FRZs). FRZs are scientifically selected areas where all fishing is suspended, either inside or outside of formally designated Marine Protected Areas. Each Pride campaign will be supported by a Pride Fellow specializing in social marketing and by at least one Fisheries Fellow specializing in community fisheries management.

Rare will train and mentor this network of Pride and Fisheries Fellows as they gain community understanding and support for rights-based management and Fishery Replenishment Zones. In total, the proposed network will comprise nine local partners in the Gulf of California, the Galapagos, and Mesoamerican Reef regions. Each campaign will target behavior change at the community level in coastal areas with populations between 5,000 and 100,000 people.

Helping communities return fisheries to a healthy status will benefit these sites of amazing biodiversity, improve human well-being (safeguarding food and livelihood sources for the future) and have global marine conservation significance.

Omar Ortiz from the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve talks about his experience partnering with Rare, and how Rare campaigns can benefit the fisheries replenishment zones in the Gulf of California.

Why FRZs?

Within designated FRZs, fish and other marine life can grow larger and reproduce more (bigger fish produce more eggs than smaller fish). FRZs give fish populations the protection they need to increase and eventually expand to areas where harvesting is permitted.  As fish populations grow, fish will spillover from the protected area and boost the yield of fishers. Additionally, currents will disperse eggs and newly hatched fish to populate other habitats.  Essentially, an FRZ acts as a ‘fish bank’ wherein the community stockpiles fish for future use, and takes only the interest for themselves. This allows the fishing communities’ core livelihood to remain intact and eventually increase. For this solution to be sustainable, local fishers must be made aware of the short- and long-term benefits of FRZs and given meaningful incentives to support and participate in their enforcement.

The larger a fish is allowed to grow, the more eggs it is able to produce. For example, one snapper weighing 24 pounds produces the same number of eggs as 250 snappers weighing 2 pounds each.

Accelerating behaviors that demonstrate community respect and support for Fisheries Replenishment Zones in the Gulf of California, the Galapagos, and the Mesoamerican Reef will fulfill one of the highest priorities in marine conservation. 

Jacques Cousteau once called the Gulf of California the “aquarium of the world”. While it represents only .008% of the world’s ocean, it is home to 900 species of fish (90 of which are endemic), and one-third of the Earth’s marine mammals.  The Gulf is also critical habitat to five species of turtles and some of the most endangered whale species--gray, humpback, blue, Bryde’s and minke. The Gulf’s deep trenches and rich seabeds are extremely valuable economically, yielding 70% of the entire fish catch by volume for all of Mexico.

Comprised of more than 60 species of coral, the Mesoamerican Reef stretches nearly 600 miles--from the Bay Islands of Honduras, north through the coasts of Guatemala and Belize, to the northern tip of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. It is the second largest reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef and the largest in the Americas. Through tourism, commercial and artisanal fishing, the Mesoamerican Reef provides livelihoods for nearly 2 million people. It is also extremely rich in biodiversity, supporting more than 500 species of fish and marine animals like manatees, whale sharks, dolphins and turtles.

Creating Power in Numbers

Each Pride campaign targets a specific site, yet Rare launches them in cohorts of 10-15 — all focused on a common issue — so that partners can share learning and serve as a network for broader change. Each year, Rare and its partners launch Pride cohorts in each of the four languages in which training is offered. The focus for each cohort is determined approximately one year in advance, at which time Rare begins recruiting partners with shared goals and capacity to participate in the three-year program.

Media/Resources

Rare Conservation Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube

The Chagos anemonefish is found only in the Chagos Archipelago. Located in the central Indian Ocean 1,000 miles south of India, the isolated Chagos Archipelago is a chain of more than 50 islands with a remarkable diversity of 220 coral species and 750 species of fish. Photo Credit: Alasdair Harris, Blue Ventures Conservation

Grant Recipient:  Pew Invironment Group
Project Support:  Global Ocean Legacy
Term:  2010 - 2012

For over two decades the Pew Environment Group has been working to address one of the seminal challenges of our time: saving the natural environment in order to protect the rich array of life it supports. Their aim is to strengthen environmental policies and practices in ways that produce significant and measurable protection for terrestrial and marine systems worldwide.

With less than one half of one percent of the world’s oceans safe from exploitation, one of Pew’s central efforts has been the establishment of marine reserves. Global Ocean Legacy, a project of the Pew Environment Group and its partners, is a global leader in advocating for the protection and conservation of some of the Earth’s most important and unspoiled marine ecosystems. Global Ocean Legacy’s singular focus is the establishment of very large, highly protected “no-take” marine reserves. And since 2005 it has helped secure the full protection of almost one million square kilometers of the world’s most spectacular seascapes, including more than half of the highly protected no-take marine reserves in the world.

Hawksbill turtle on seaward reef of Diego Garcia, Chagos Archipelago. At least 76 species listed in the IUCN's Red List of Endangered Species are found in the waters surrounding the Chagos Islands, such as Hawksbill and green turtles, bigeye tuna, thresher and blue sharks ~ Photo: Anne and Charles Sheppard

Its work with national and local governments and locally-based conservation organizations, led to the designation of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii, the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (US), and the Chagos Marine Reserve (UK) in the Indian Ocean—currently, the largest no-take marine reserve in the world.

Inspired by this success and determined to protect more of the world’s special places, Global Ocean Legacy has grown significantly over the last few years, Staffed by more than two dozen talented and dedicated conservation professionals, the project has offices around the world, including in the United States, United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, Australia, Bermuda, Chile, and Easter Island.

Currently Global Ocean Legacy is working to achieve the designation of large no-take marine reserves in the Coral Sea (Australia), the Kermadec Islands (New Zealand), Easter Island (Chile), Bermuda (UK), the Pitcairn Islands (UK), and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

Designations of these reserves would constitute the creation of the world’s first generation of great marine parks.  They would also provide ocean-scale ecosystem benefits and help conserve our global marine heritage.

Partners supporting Global Ocean Legacy include the Oak Foundation, the Robertson Foundation, the Sandler Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Lyda Hill and the Waitt Foundation, with additional support from The Tubney Charitable Trust.

Global Ocean Legacy Work

Commercial fishing around the Chagos Archipelago ended on October 31, 2010, making it the largest no-take marine reserve in the world. An estimated 60,000 sharks, an equivalent number of rays and potentially countless other species have been caught legally as by-catch in commercial fisheries each year in the Chagos, something that will be prevented as a result of the fishing ban.

Pew Environment Group Managing Director Josh Reichert discusses President George W. Bush’s designation in January, 2009 of three areas as marine national monuments. Within the areas now protected from energy extraction and commercial fishing is the Mariana trench, the deepest spot on earth.

Pew Charitable Trusts

In more than five decades as a private foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts honed an approach to social investing that emphasizes measurable results.  Initiatives in culture, education, the environment, health and human services, public policy, and religion have been among the institution’s major areas of emphasis.

In order to better carry out its core mission of serving the public interest, Pew changed its legal structure and began operating as an independent public charity in 2004.  This new status expands Pew’s ability to mobilize resources and empowers the organization to capitalize on new types of ventures and collaborations in its three broad areas of focus: (1) Informing the public on key issues and trends through independent, highly credible research and polling; (2) Advancing policy solutions on important issues facing the American public; and (3) Supporting the arts, heritage, health and well-being of our diverse citizenry and civic life, with particular emphasis on Philadelphia.

Resources/Media

Global Ocean Legacy Website
Pew Environment Group Website

Grant Recipient:  Environmental Defense Fund
Project Support:  Fisheries Restoration
Term:  2010 - 2012

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is a leading national nonprofit organization representing more than 700,000 members. Since 1967, EDF has linked science, economics and law to create innovative, equitable and cost-effective solutions to society’s most urgent environmental problems. The organization is dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including future generations. Among these rights are access to clean air and water, healthy and nourishing food, and flourishing ecosystems. Guided by science, EDF evaluates environmental problems and works to create and advocate solutions that win lasting political, economic and social support because they are nonpartisan, cost-efficient and fair. EDF believes that a sustainable environment will require economic and social systems that are equitable and just. EDF affirms their commitment to the environmental rights of the poor and people of color. As an American organization, EDF will always pay special attention to American environmental problems and to America’s role in both causing and solving global environmental problems.

Oceans Program

The goal of the Environmental Defense Fund Oceans Program is to create sustainable and healthy fisheries and to protect ocean ecosystems. The core of their overall strategy is to align fishermen’s incentives with the health of the ocean in the United States and globally, and to protect essential habitats to increase the productivity of fisheries. The Oceans team helps restore fisheries to abundance and protect important places in the ocean.

Areas of Focus:

- Make catch shares management the standard for U.S. fisheries
- Give consumers the tools to select healthy, eco-friendly seafood
- Protect important ocean habitat

Oceans Experts

Diane Regas is Associate Vice President for Programs at Environmental Defense fund where she is responsible for providing overall vision, strategy and leadership for new program development. Diane also leads a diverse team of 50 scientists, advocates and other experts as Vice President of EDF’s Oceans program. Since Diane joined EDF in 2006, the oceans team has played a key role in several important victories, which includes making the case for reforming fisheries management in the Unites States and Mexico; protecting one of the largest ocean areas in history—more than 195,000 square miles—bigger than the state of California; and providing financing to help fishermen adapt to new management regimes. Recently, Diane was appointed to the Join Initiative Leadership Council of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, a group focused on meaningful ocean policy reform. In 2009, Glamour Magazine recognized Diane as one of the “women who are changing the world,” and Working Mother magazine listed Diane in 2010 as one of 10 Most Powerful Green Moms.

Amanda Leland is Associate Vice President for Oceans.  She is responsible for leading a diverse team of 50 scientists, lawyers, and advocates for healthy and abundant oceans.  She focuses on strategies to transform resource management to achieve productive and profitable fisheries in the US. Since joining EDF in 2004, Amanda has played a key role in winning new policies and laws that promote healthy fisheries and oceans; securing new marine national monuments in the Pacific Ocean that comprise one of the world’s largest protected areas; and developing new partnerships with NGOs, academics, industry representatives, and others to advance practical solutions.

Resources/Media

Environmental Defense Fund Website
EDFish Blog
EDF Oceans Twitter
EDF Twitter

Local fisherman in Madagascar sorting through the morning's catch ~ Photo by Tara Whitty

Grant Recipient:  Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Project Support:  Artisanal Fisheries Research Network
Term:  2010 - 2012

The Artisanal Fisheries Research Network (AFRN) is a San Diego-based group of students, researchers, and faculty who study artisanal (subsistence and small-scale) fisheries around the world. Network members represent a broad range of academic disciplines – including marine biology, economics, international relations, anthropology, and geography – and are associated with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center, and San Diego State University.

Founded in January 2010, AFRN aims to serve as a hub for interdisciplinary communication and collaboration on methods for studying artisanal fisheries, and for elucidating the commonalities and differences across fisheries in different regions where our research is conducted. What unites AFRN researchers and their projects is a recognized need to study the ecological, social, economic, and cultural context of artisanal fisheries in order to move toward effective management and conservation.

Project Support

Artisanal fisheries are defined as small-scale operations that catch fish for subsistence or for local markets. Globally, these fisheries catch approximately 30 million tons of fish annually for human consumption (the same amount as commercial fisheries), and provide protein and income for an estimated 500 million people. However, these fisheries have the capacity to significantly alter marine ecosystems through overfishing and habitat damage. Nevertheless, they are also our greatest hope for achieving sustainable harvests, because they are more efficient than commercial fisheries in terms of much lower bycatch and fuel use and much greater employment.

Ayana Johnson conducting socioeconomic interviews with fishermen at a roadside fish stand in Curaçao.

Understanding and reducing the negative impacts of artisanal fisheries on the marine environment is a rapidly emerging priority for marine conservation, and is critical to both the health of marine ecosystems and the welfare of people who depend upon them. To better understand, scientists must engage in interdisciplinary research that considers each the ecological, social, economic, and cultural aspects of artisanal fisheries. Collaboration among scientists, projects, regions, and disciplines is critical if research is to contribute to effective, well-informed management.

By synthesizing the collective expertise and experience of researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and beyond, the team will develop and disseminate standardized methods to better document and understand the socioeconomic and cultural context of artisanal fisheries, with the aim of producing results that are applicable to effective management.

Small-scale fisheries provide income for many times the number of people as industrial fisheries while using far less fossil fuel. Photo: Ted Groves.

The Big Research Questions

1 )  What are the environmental impacts of artisanal fisheries and how can they be minimized?

2)  What is the socioeconomic and cultural context, and how can sustainability be incentivized?

3)  Can management guidelines be generalized instead of continuing to treat each fishery as unique?

AFRN aims to serve as a kernel of collaboration within the field of small-scale fisheries research.

  
Research Team Leaders

Stuart Sandin (Principal Investigator) is an Assistant Professor of Marine Ecology at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  Sandin and his lab group work on questions of community ecology, addressing how species-rich marine ecosystems are affected by changing climate and changing interactions with humans.  Coral reefs are a core habitat for this research, as they provide many services to the people living nearby, from fisheries productivity to tourism revenue.  The ecological research in the Sandin lab provides insights that are essential to improve management of marine ecosystems for the generations to come. 
  
  

Tara Whitty (founder and co-chair) is a biological oceanography PhD candidate at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She aims to understand ecological and sociocultural aspects of human impacts on the environment, and to work with communities in developing nations toward conservation, management, and capacity-building for research and conservation. For her dissertation, she is studying the bycatch (accidental capture) of cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises, and whales) in artisanal fisheries. Her research comprises: (1) a collaboration with the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission to develop a report on cetacean conservation in developing countries, and (2) ecological and social science fieldwork to study Irrawaddy dolphin bycatch in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. She has a bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a certificate in Environmental Studies from Princeton University, and has conducted ecological and conservation research in several tropical developing nations.
 

Ayana Johnson (co-chair) is the Director of Science and Solutions at the Waitt Foundation. Her goal is to restore the ocean to cornucopic abundance, with a particular focus on supporting sustainable use of ocean resources for the approximately 1 billion people in developing countries who depend on the ocean for the their nutrition and livelihoods. She travels the world to collect, create, curate, actualize, and amplify the best ideas in ocean conservation and blogs about it at ayanablog.com. In 2011, Ayana completed a marine biology PhD at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her research, conducted on the Caribbean islands of Curaçao and Bonaire, took a holistic approach to understanding how to sustainably manage coral reefs by incorporating ecology, economics, and sociology. This included research on trap fishing proving escape gaps can reduce fish trap bycatch by 80% without reducing catch value (that research won Rare’s Solution Search competition) and socioeconomic interviews with 400 of Curaçao and Bonaire’s fishermen and SCUBA diving instructors to understand their views on coral reef health and management options. Recently, Ayana completed a Knauss Sea Grant Fellowship focused on projects related to the National Ocean Policy and the National Shellfish Initiative.

Hannah Bassett (project coordinator and co-chair) is a Research Associate in Professor Sandin’s lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and has been involved with AFRN since it’s founding in 2010. Hannah is particularly interested in the fusion of natural and social sciences resulting in a truly whole-ecosystem approach to fisheries studies. She sees interdisciplinary research and collaboration as a necessity for working towards preservation of the world’s marine resources and is dedicated to promoting work that will best inform management efforts. In 2012, Hannah’s research will be focused on the small-scale fisheries of American Samoa in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and National Park Services. Specifically she will be assessing the need and potential for continued monitoring of American Samoa’s fisheries and the effectiveness of research methods developed by AFRN. Hannah received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of California, San Diego in 2008 and has worked in cetacean acoustic research for the past four years.

About Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Scripps Institution of Oceanography is one of the leading institutions in ocean science of the world, conducting groundbreaking research and education in physical, chemical, biological, ecological, geological, and geophysical systems of the oceans and earth. A department of UC San Diego, Scripps’ leadership in many scientific fields reflects its continuing commitment to excellence in research, modern facilities and ships, distinguished faculty, and outstanding graduate and undergraduate students.

Resources

Artisanal Fisheries Research Network Website
Scripps Institution of Oceanography Website

By leveraging growing consumer demand for sustainable seafood, and linking this demand to proven supply-side changes, this will catalyze much more rapid reform of the world's fisheries.

Grant Recipient: Bren School of Environmental Science & Mgmt
Project Support: Sustainable Fisheries Group
Term: 2010 - 2012

The Sustainable Ocean Solutions project combines three important tools for ocean sustainability - rights-based management reform, marine protected areas, and certification incentives - into novel solutions for the world’s fisheries challenges. When employed individually, these three conservation instruments can only successfully tackle a small percentage of ailing fisheries worldwide. A central challenge is to engineer fisheries management systems to facilitate synergies among these approaches, thus capitalizing on their complementary strengths while overcoming their individual weaknesses. Although the necessary elements may differ across fisheries and ecosystems, the basic insight is that by combining changes that affect the supply of fish (such as catch shares), with conservation measures (such as MPAs), and tools that change consumer demand (such as fisheries certification), fisheries, communities, and ecosystems can simultaneously prosper.

The SFG team visits fishermen selling lobster roadside in Bermuda along with Bermuda government Senior Marine Resources Officer, Tammy Trott

This project uses a two-pronged approach, focusing on (1) research and development, determining how and in what contexts to combine the sustainability tools of marine protected areas, property-rights based management, and fisheries certification, and (2) demonstration projects, strategically selected as proofs of concept, that, if successful, will be scalable across the globe. The team will use cutting-edge bioeconomic models and new assessment techniques to transform how fisheries are evaluated for sustainability certification, developing new quantitative approaches to give appropriate sustainability credit for proven management measures like MPAs and catch shares. Conversely, they will demonstrate how rights-based fisheries management and demand-side incentives can promote the implementation and expansion of MPA networks. The group will also explore how different types of rights-based management can be matched to the ecological and institutional characteristics of different fisheries. The demonstration projects will then link the research and development expertise with innovative partners who have demonstrated skills at implementing reform in national and international settings.

The SFG team and partners at TNC visit a fish market in the Lesser Sunda region of Indonesia.

This project will result in more resilient fishing communities, more sustainable fisheries, better functioning ecosystems, increased quantities and qualities of local fresh seafood, and a better alignment of demand for sustainable seafood and supply of a sustainable product. These benefits will be achieved by correctly aligning the interests of fisheries and conservation. By leveraging growing consumer demand for sustainable seafood, and linking this demand to proven supply-side changes, this will catalyze much more rapid reform of the world’s fisheries. The goal is not incremental progress. Rather, the project seeks a transformative solution for ocean sustainability that can help reverse the global tide of decline.

About the Sustainable Fisheries Group

SFG PI Robert Deacon, SFG postdoctoral researcher Jono Wilson and SFG partner Jeremy Prince on a fishing boat in Indonesia.

The Sustainable Fisheries Group (SFG), founded in 2006, is a collaboration between the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the Marine Science Institute at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). The mission of the SFG is to provide leadership to develop new science and transform it into solutions for sustainable oceans. Their work seeks to utilize market approaches to increase the ecological and economic performance of fisheries and the sustainability of coastal communities. SFG brings diverse scientific expertise and intellectual capital to key partnerships with leading conservation organizations, local NGOs, and diverse stakeholder groups to find and implement solutions to critical ocean problems. A core goal of the SFG is to make measurable progress towards reforming individual fisheries using catch share management systems, conservation measures, and demand-side incentives. SFG has been involved in, or is currently working on, a variety of on-the-ground projects around the world.

The SFG team comprises experts in a variety of disciplines including marine ecology, resource economics, fisheries science, conservation practice, science communications, and policy. Their broad expertise helps us to understand the underlying roots of a problem and build creative, multifaceted solutions.

About the Bren School of Evnironmental Science & Management

Established in 1991, the Bren School is an interdisciplinary graduate program at the University of California, Santa Barbara focused on environmental problem solving through the integration of science, management, law, economics, and policy. The mission of the Bren School is to play a leading role in researching environmental issues, training scientists and environmental management professionals, and identifying and solving environmental problems around the world. Unique in the UC system and the only program of its kind in the western United States, the Bren School is considered one of a few top graduate programs of environmental science and management in the nation. The Bren School is housed in Bren Hall, a state-of-the-art building that is the first US Green Building Council’s double-Platinum LEED™ building anywhere.

Resources/Media

Bren School Website
Sustainable Fisheries Group Website
University of California Santa Barbara Website
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Grant Recipient:  National Geographic Society
Project Support:  Mission Blue
Term:  2010/2011

Our oceans cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and we depend on it for survival. With every breath we take, every drop of water we drink, we’re connected to the ocean. It is our life support system, giving us more than half of the oxygen we breathe, regulating climate, and providing valuable resources. Mission Blue is a global call to action with a goal to raise public awareness, start conversations, and inspire people to help protect this vital natural resource.

Our planet depends on the vitality of the ocean to support and sustain it. But our ocean faces major threats: global climate change, pollution, habitat destruction, invasive species, and, not least, the dramatic decrease in ocean fish stocks now so extensive that more than 40 percent of the ocean has been severely affected and no area has been left untouched. Species are disappearing and entire ecosystems are degraded, especially those near the coasts. Consequently, humanity is losing a source of food, jobs, and critical environmental services that a healthy ocean generates. Recognizing the need for an urgent response, a new coalition of committed communities is coming together to take action.

The National Geographic Society and the Waitt Foundation along with strategic government, private, scientific, and conservation partners—including the TEDPrize, Google, and IUCN—are beginning an action-oriented marine conservation initiative. Under the banner “Mission Blue,” this global initiative is aimed at restoring health and productivity to the ocean by inspiring people to care and act, reducing the impact of fishing, and promoting the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs).

This growing, collaborative effort will promote the expansion of proven, replicable, and scalable solutions, as well as new, cutting-edge ideas from fisheries policymakers, the seafood industry, and local fishing/coastal communities.

Mission Blue Expedition: Gulf of Mexico 

As a part of Mission Blue, a team of scientists from several institutions participated in a ten-day expedition in January 2011 to explore and document several areas in the northern Gulf of Mexico east and west of the site where the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig began releasing nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf from a depth of 5,000 fee on April 20, 2010.

Deployment of Waitt Institute's dual Deepworker. National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle and ecologist Thomas Shirley describe the green "blizzard of life" that enveloped them during the dive.

The goals were to help answer questions concerning the fate and impact of spilled oil, gas, and dispersants applied during 2010, to identify areas in good condition that, if protected, can serve as sources of renewal for damaged systems, and to compare the status of key species and ecosystems with data acquired in the region starting in the 1950s.

Mission Blue Partners:

Mission Blue Supporting Sponsors:

     
Partner Project Highlights:

Through global exploration and research, many efforts are already underway to address the most challenging issues confronting our oceans today. The goal of Mission Blue and its partners is to identify threats the oceans are facing and the hope is to generate possible solutions. Located all over the world, Mission Blue partners are working to investigate, map, and conserve unique and valuable marine animals and resources.

Kingman Reef: Scientists describe it as a "time machine," an ecosystem that has survived in an almost pure state of nature ~ Photo by Brian Skerry

National Geographic Society: Pristine Seas Expeditions

National Geographic has conducted three expeditions to date: Cocos Island & Las Gemelas Seamounts (2009); southern Line Islands (2009) and the northern Line Islands (2005 & 2007). This project is a global exploration, research and conservation initiative to study the last healthy, undisturbed places in the ocean. The hope is that by carefully studying how marine ecosystems work without human interference, we can learn how to help healthy reefs thrive, unhealthy reefs recover and do a better job at preserving the ocean, which covers more than two-thirds of our planet.

Cocos National Park has the largest biomass of predators measured to date on Pacific tropical marine ecosystems ~ photo by Octavio Aburto

Cocos Island & Las Gemelas Seamounts - During September 2009, a team of scientists including National Geographic Fellow, Dr. Enric Sala, and leading marine scientists from Central America and across the globe conducted an exploratory marine expedition to Cocos Island and the submerged Gemelas Seamounts. While there, the team collaborated with local marine scientists and conservation organizations to collect data on these aquatic ecosystems in order to establish new scientific baselines for these critically important environments. The expedition team found Cocos National Park to be generally healthy and discovered an amazing ecosystem with rich biodiversity within the Gemelas Seamounts. However, while there are many groups who try to patrol the these marine protected areas (MPAs), there are more fishers than protectors and they need further support to remain vital.

Additional Partner Projects

-SeaWeb:  KidSafe Seafood
- Ocean Conservancy:  Marine Protected Areas, Yosemites of the Sea
- Environmental Defense Fund:  The Way Forward, Catch Shares
- IUCN:  Saving Western Gray Whales; Seamounts of the South West Indian Ocean

MPAs

Catch Shares

KidSafe

Grey Whales

Take Action

Learn more about how you can help make the right seafood choices and get tips on how you can help save the ocean.  The National Geographic ocean heroes will inspire and educate. Take Action Now.

About National Geographic

A valued partner of the Waitt Foundation since 2004 on a number of strategic initiatives, National Geographic Society has been inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888. It is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world with interests including geography, archaeology and natural science, and the promotion of environmental and historical conservation.

Resources/Media

National Geographic: Mission Blue Web Site

Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act ~ The End of the Line

Grant Recipient:  The Fish Film Company
Project Support:  The End of the Line Documentary
Term:  2007

Supported by the Waitt Foundation, The End of the Line is a documentary film and outreach project to raise public awareness about the threat to the world’s fish stocks. With its primary goal to change public policy in favor of sustainable fishing, the film examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna…  the devastating impact on marine life by an overpopulation of jellyfish and the profound mass starvation in a world without fish.

Responsibility, not Abstinence  

The campaign is not against eating fish, but for a responsible attitude toward the oceans with three consumer messages: 1) Ask whether fish comes from a sustainable source before buying; 2) Tell government officials to learn about and heed the warnings of scientists regarding overfishing; and, 3) Become part of the solution by joining the global campaign to create additional Marine Protected Areas so that fish stocks can replenish themselves.

According to the UNFAO, about 70% of our global fisheries are now being fished close to, already at or beyond their capacity. Photo: Bruce Sundquist

Inspired by the 2004 book by Charles Clover, The End of the Line explores the real threat that unless policies change, there will be no fish in the sea by 2048. Directed by Rupert Murray and team, and narrated by actor Ted Danson, the film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was later released  in the U.S. The film has been supported by National Geographic Society, Greenpeace, Natural Resources Defense Fund and hundreds of other local environmental, oceanographic and marine conservation groups.

Early Successes

With over 500 theatrical screenings so far, an estimated 50,000 people have already viewed The End of the Line. Plus, in addition to already having over 8,000 Facebook fans, The End of the Line episodes have been downloaded nearly 150,000 times from the Internet and over 12,000 times on mobile phones.

"As many as 90 percent of all the ocean's large fish have been fished out." ~ World Wildlife Fund

As a result of the film’s early success, an online sustainable seafood restaurant guide–Fish2fork–was launched in October 2009 with excellent initial results, including 15 top restaurants immediately removing endangered fish from their menus completely.

Also in October, The End of the Line author Charles Clover received the first Maritime Fellowship Award from Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, for his book and film. Other accomplishments include an announcement by the world’s largest caterer, Compass Catering, to only use sustainable seafood, and a commitment by the 2012 Olympics to serve only sustainable seafood at the games.

"One billion people rely on fish as an important source of protein." ~ World Wildlife Fund

Claim Your Piece of the Ocean

The ocean belongs to all of us. Pledge your support and claim your share of the sea.

About The Fish Film Company, Ltd.

An independent film made outside of the established broadcast structure and representing a new funding model, The End of the Line film was made through a specially established company known as the Fish Film Company Limited, which was supported by donations from private investors, charities and foundations such as the Waitt Foundation.

Resources/Media

End of the Line Web site
End of the Line Movie Clips
End of the Line Movie Trailer
Facebook
Twitter


End of the Line Movie Short

The conservation community is working together with members of the seafood industry to find ways to ensure that every fish has a label indicating its species name and place of origin.

Grant Recipient:  Blue Ocean Institute
Project Support:  FishPhone
Term:  2009/2010

Blue Ocean Institute’s FishPhone is a text-messaging service that instantly puts sustainable seafood information at people’s fingertips. Helping everyone make informed choices about their seafood selections, the service keeps an up-to-date list of all types of fish, from those apt to be contaminated with toxic chemicals to those endangered from overfishing.

FishPhone Text Messaging Service

To inquire about a seafood choice, individuals can simply text “30644″ with the message “FISH,” along with the name of the fish (e.g. halibut). The  service will text back an assessment and, if needed, offer alternatives for fish with environmental concerns. Fast, easy and free the FishPhone not only helps protect people, but our ocean abundance and sustainability as well.

iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users can download the FishPhone application from the iTunes store. Launched on July 6, 2010, the app brings you more than seafood rankings–it gives you wine pairings and recipes to inspire delicious ways for you to enjoy your ocean-friendly seafood.

Online Seafood Guide

And new for the 2010 summer, you can text the word BLUE to 30644 to opt-in to receive ocean-alerts, information on new seafood rankings, and cooking tips.

Blue Ocean’s Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood is available to cell phone and mobile device users at http://www.fishphone.org/.

What You Can Do

Besides using the FishPhone service, learn What You Can Do to help the environment in other ways, from supporting the expansion of marine reserves to limiting the use of plastic to getting inspired just by getting your feet wet.

Online Sushi Guide

Founded in 2003 by Dr. Carl Safina and Mercédès Lee, the Blue Ocean Institute promotes ocean sustainability through intelligent conservation of the sea’s natural resources. By studying and communicating how the oceans are changing and how everything we do—on land or sea—affects the waters, wildlife and people of our world, they hope to inspire a closer bond with nature, especially the sea. Blue Ocean develops conservation solutions that are compassionate to people, as well as ocean wildlife.

Resources/Media

Blue Ocean Institute Web site
FishPhone Information
Facebook

"Small grants connect grassroots movements to marine conservation opportunities. This is the key, as local participation is essential for successful initiatives.” Stefan Gelcich, Greengrants Advisor and Marine Biologist, Chile

Grant Recipient:  Global Greengrants Fund
Project Support:  Reviving Oceans Through Community Participation
Term:  2009/2010

The Global Greengrants Fund connects those who can offer financial support—such as the Waitt Foundation—to local conservation groups in developing countries around the world wanting to make a difference. Global Greengrants believes coastal communities have a huge stake in the health and sustainability of their lands and resources, especially since their livelihoods depend on sustainable fish stocks, sustainable tourism opportunities and clean water sources.

Oceans Under Stress

The world’s oceans and coasts are under increasing stress from rapid coastal development, over-exploitation of natural resources, loss of habitat and land-based contamination affecting water quality and marine biodiversity. Climate change is also having a significant impact on the oceans, from melting sea ice resulting in higher sea levels to less biodiversity, disappearing coral reefs and more.

"In many coastal communities, local fishers no longer catch prized barracudas and red carp. Instead they must go after smaller and less appetizing kobos (a small coastal pelagic fish) because most of the time there is nothing else." ~ World Wildlife Fund

At the same time, people around the world are increasingly dependent on these threatened resources for food, tourism, shoreline protection and numerous other ecological services. According to the United Nations Environment Program, almost half of the world’s fisheries are fully depleted and around a fifth are over-fished. About ninety percent of large predatory fish biomass has been lost since pre-industrial times and approximately thirty-five percent of mangrove forests—vital ecobridges between terrestrial and marine environments—have been lost over the past two decades.

Greengrants Newsletter

Want to know more? Subscribe to the Greengrants E-mail Newsletter with the regions and topics you’d like to know more about.

About Global Greengrants Fund

Supported by partners such as the Waitt Foundation, Global Greengrants has awarded more than 5,000 grants in 120 countries since 1993 to encourage effective resource management, proactive advocacy for healthy oceans and long-term education on the importance of protecting coastal and marine resources. Helping donors overcome the typical barriers to grassroots grant-making by identifying worthy organizations and by moving monies at a minimal cost, Global Greengrants funds local projects from $500 to $5,000 for projects such as coastal ecological habitat management, sustainable fisheries, environmental education, marine protected areas management, and toxic waste and water quality management.

Resources/Media

Global Greengrants Fund Web site
Facebook
Twitter

Two glaciers drain from opposite sides into a narrow fjord, just south of the Petermann glacier on northern Greenland. Pieces of glacier that break off become mixed with thin sea-ice in a jumble of ice fragments on the fjord's surface.

Grant Recipient:  Greenpeace
Project Support:  Polar Endgame - Campaign to Protect the Polar Oceans
Term:  2009/2010

The Waitt Foundation is helping Greenpeace fund a marine reserve in the Antarctic’s Ross Sea, as well as impose a moratorium on resource extraction in the Arctic Ocean. Covering a combined seven million km, these protections represent a major step toward the overall goal of protecting 40 percent of the world’s oceans as a network of marine reserves.

Resource Exploitation

The purest, wildest waters on earth, the polar oceans have been the last frontier for exploration. But as natural resources in the rest of the world  dwindle and sea ice continues to melt due to global warming, the valuable fish stocks, mineral deposits and oil and gas reserves have become attractive targets for exploitation. New fish stocks are vulnerable at both poles and the Arctic—with 25% of the world’s remaining fossil fuel reserves—is in imminent danger of plundering.

Evidence of bottom trawling at appx 1000' deep in the Pribilof Canyon in the Bering Sea

Marine Reserve Networks

Greenpeace and other conservation organizations fear without urgent, comprehensive protection as part of a global network of marine reserves, the polar seas will be irrevocably destroyed. While a 1959 Antarctic Treaty led to designation of Antarctica as a World Park with a 50-year prohibition on mineral exploitation as of 1991, this still offers limited protection for Antarctica-and no protection at all for the Arctic. Creating the new reserve in Antarctica and imposing resource restrictions in the Arctic are logical near-term measures toward worldwide protection of these ecosystems.

Shortraker bottomfish, chrinoids, brittle stars, basket stars, anenomes and more seen on the sea floor by a manned submersible during research of Zemchug Canyon in the Bering Sea.

Make Your Voice Count

Support Greenpeace’s plan to protect 40 percent of the world’s oceans as marine reserves by signing the Hands off! Ocean Protection Petition.

About Greenpeace

Founded in 1971, Greenpeace Fund uses peaceful, non-violent and direct confrontation to raise the level and quality of public debate on environmental problems. They seek solutions for, and promote open, informed debate about society’s environmental choices essential to a green future. Greenpeace is actively addressing the threats of global warming, destruction of ancient forests, deterioration of the oceans and nuclear disaster.

Resources/Media

Greenpeace Web site
Facebook
Twitter

Briefing 2009: Polar Oceans in Peril and a Planet at Risk (Greenpeace)

Cobia in Submerged Aquaculture Cage ~ With the increased consumer demand for seafood, governments and corporations have been turning to aquaculture (or fish farming) to keep up with the collective human appetite, and as a way to help stimulate local economies.

Grant Recipient:  Ocean Conservancy
Project Support:  Harnessing Momentum for a National Plan for U.S. Marine Aquaculture
Term:  2009/2010

The Ocean Conservancy believes aquaculture—the farming of marine and freshwater organisms such as fish, shellfish and even plants—can provide a safe, sustainable food supply as long as there are standard regulations to ensure safe and scientifically-sound production methods. The Waitt Foundation agrees and is supporting the conservancy’s efforts to educate policymakers about the value of creating a national framework to regulate aquaculture in federal waters.

Open Ocean Aquaculute Net ~ In the last few years, as more questions have been raised about the sustainability of some forms of coastal fish farming, there has been a surge of interest in the United States and elsewhere around the world to develop aquaculture operations in open ocean waters, including exposed state waters and those of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), a region of federal waters from the state boundary (usually 3 miles) out to 200 nautical miles offshore.

Global Seafood Demand

Driven by a growing global demand for seafood, aquaculture is expanding rapidly, but its growth has come with negative environmental consequences: reliance on wild fish for feed, ecosystem impacts from escaped fish, disease transmission to wild fish, habitat impacts from nutrient release and threats to human health from the use of drugs and chemicals. There is also a growing awareness of the socioeconomic impacts of industrial fish farming on traditional fishermen and coastal communities. All of these issues must be resolved if fish farming is to supplement wild fisheries and reduce, rather than exacerbate, stress on marine and freshwater ecosystems.

Offshore Aquaculture Operation ~ The regulation of the Aquaculture industry has not yet caught up. In the United States, no regulatory regime yet exists for aquaculture in the EEZ and there is much confusion about the permitting, site selection, monitoring, and impacts of offshore aquaculture.

Currently a small contributor to global aquaculture, the U.S. industry is expected to grow five-fold by 2025. Recognizing a window of opportunity to influence lawmakers before the industry becomes entrenched, the Ocean Conservancy wants Congress to develop national laws now to ensure the protection of wild fish and ocean waters. Believing a solid national vision will serve as an example for the entire world community, the conservancy opposes regional attempts to expand the network as piecemeal.

Live in the U.S.?

Help Ocean Conservancy set national standards by asking your representatives to support responsible fish farming.

About Ocean Conservancy

Taking a multipronged approach to science, communications and policy, the Ocean Conservancy has worked for more than three decades toward the goal of a wild, healthy ocean. Believing it’s time to look beneath the ocean’s surface to discover that all living things are connected to the ocean-and that going green starts with living blue-the conservancy also believes increasing public awareness about ocean issues is key to changing the way marine resources are managed.

Resources/Media

Ocean Conservancy Web site
Ocean Conservancy Web site (Aquaculture)
Facebook
Twitter

The largest, least-protected places on our planet are found in the high seas – the open ocean and deep seabed that lie seaward of individual nations’ jurisdictions. They cover about 45% of the Earth’s surface and 64% of the oceans. Belonging to no single nation, they have been neglected by all.

Grant Recipient:  Oceana
Project Support:  Ocean Policy Change in North America, Europe, and South America
Term:  2009/2010

The Waitt Foundation is helping fund an Oceana campaign to create specific policy changes in North America, Europe, Belize and Chile to address the main factors threatening ocean collapse.

Reasons for Ocean Collapse

1)  Destruction of seafloor habitat by destructive bottom trawling;

2)  Failure to set and enforce sustainable commercial fishing quotas;

3)  Overfishing caused by excessive subsidies to fishing fleets; and,

4)  Pollution, including greenhouse emissions linked to climate change and ocean acidification, and mercury pollution, which contaminates the food chain.

In 2007, Oceana surveyed parts of the Cabrera National Park in the Mediterranean. The crew found evidence that the area’s rich marine life was endangered by the impact of commercial trawlers. As a result of Oceana’s findings, the Balearic Government pledged to expand the protection of the park ~ Photo: Jellyfish, Cabrera National Park, Balearic Islands, Spain. © OCEANA / Juan Cuetos

While the problems Oceana seeks to resolve are enormous, they are made manageable by the organization’s policy of dividing the work into campaigns with specific, achievable goals. Working with traditional and non-traditional allies, Oceana’s goal is to create lasting, significant policy change to preserve the world’s oceans for the benefit of future generations.

Citizen Wavemakers

Support Oceana’s grassroots lobbying efforts by becoming a Wavemaker.

About Oceana

Oceana is the largest international organization focused on protecting and restoring the world’s oceans. Founded in 2001, their scientists work closely with teams of economists, lawyers and advocates to identify and implement a limited number of strategic campaigns where they can have a measurable impact within three to five years. Focused on reducing pollution and preventing the irreversible collapse of fish populations, marine mammals and other sea life, Oceana’s ongoing mission is to provide new hope for the oceans by achieving concrete policy victories for marine life and habitats around the world.

In 2008, Oceana began working with local communities of Tortel Cove to create a MPA in Southern Patagonia. Successful establishment would ensure long-term protection of the region’s rich biodiversity ~ Photo: Sea urchin, Tortel fjords, Patagonia. © OCEANA | Eduardo Sorensen

Resources / Media 

Oceana Web site
Oceana Web site (Preserve Special Places)
Facebook
Twitter