71% of the world’s surface needed protection. In 1999, researchers discovered that less than one-half of one percent of all resources spent by North American conservation policy groups went to ocean advocacy. No organization was focused exclusively on ocean threats on a global scale until our founders created Oceana in 2001.

OCEANA is:

MARINE-FOCUSED: Oceana is 100 percent dedicated to restoring and protecting abundant oceans.

GLOBALLY-LOCATED: Campaign teams are located in Washington, D.C; Madrid, Spain; Brussels, Belgium; Santiago, Chile; Juneau andAnchorage, Alaska; Portland, Oregon; Monterey, California; St. Petersburg, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; and New York, New York.

CAMPAIGN-DRIVEN: Our resources support a small number of strategically-chosen campaigns that achieve specific policy outcomes and helpreturn our oceans to abundant health. 

SCIENCE-BASED: Science is essential to identifying problems and finding solutions that matter, which is why Oceana’s campaigners workclosely with marine biologists and other ocean scientists.

PROBLEM

The world’s oceans are at a critical juncture and face collapse if nothing is done. Large scale industrial fishing takes too much ocean wildlife from the water. Land-based industries, meanwhile, put too many pollutants in –while too many of the laws meant to limit the destruction are ignored or selectively enforced. The result:

• Declining fisheries
• Marine habitat destruction
• Ocean pollution
• Seafood contamination

These threats loom over the Earth’s largest ecosystem, as well as the tens of millions of people who depend on the sea for a livelihood and the billion-plus people who rely on it for sustenance. 

SOLUTION

We can restore our oceans. In many cases, laws governing fishing and pollution already exist. We need to enforce them and ensure thatfishing managers vigorously implement a few commonsense principles:

• Catch only reasonable, scientifically-basedamounts of seafood.
• Fish more selectively in order to leave enough fish in the water to sustain thehealth of both the oceans and fishing communities for future generations.
• Protect ocean nurseries to produce more, not less, marine life in the future.
• Ensure the seafood we eat and the waterwe swim in are healthy for humans andother creatures.

We firmly believe that the oceans can return to their former abundance, but only if we act now. Learn more at Oceana.org.