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LATEST STORIES

Six key take-homes from the Our Ocean conference

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Rosie Chambers – Our Ocean, an annual conference initiated by former US Secretary of State John Kerry, was held in Oslo earlier this month. It was the sixth Our Ocean conference and it couldn’t have come at a more important time for the ocean. 
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Rosie Chambers works for the Marine Conservation Society as Coordinator of the Marine CoLABoration, a collaboration of organisations that work together to put value at the heart of shaping solutions for our ocean. She has an MSc in Aquatic Resource Management and has previously worked for eNGOs including the RSPB, London Wildlife Trust and ZSL. Follow the Marine CoLAB on Twitter for updates on our work and how you can get involved.

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Why we need to protect the ocean

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Richard Branson – It’s sad to think that a warmer world may be a world without Emperor penguins. These majestic animals need the sea ice for food and the ice is melting.

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How could something as simple as a rubber band impact ocean conservation?

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Alexis Valauri-Orton – At the Our Ocean Conference in 2016, The Ocean Foundation made a commitment through the International Ocean Acidification Initiative to train 50 scientists around the world to monitor ocean acidification (OA).
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Alexis Valauri-Orton manages The Ocean Foundation’s International Ocean Acidification Initiative. In her capacity as manager she leads international training workshops for scientists, policymakers, and seafood sector workers, develops low-cost systems for responding to ocean acidification, and oversees a multiyear strategy for enabling countries around the world to address ocean acidification. Beyond the ocean, Alexis’ other love is music: she plays flute, piano, and sings and regularly attends and performs at concerts around town.

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The ocean now has its own dedicated park rangers

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Wietse van der Werf – A social enterprise based in Europe is rocking the boat with a new approach that could greatly increase the level of real-time ocean protection. Starting it hasn’t been without its challenges, but the effort is now gathering momentum in some of the most unlikely quarters.
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After becoming a youth wildlife ranger at the age of nine, Wietse van der Werf was involved in various conservation campaigns from the late 1990s and ultimately crewing on multiple Antarctic expeditions before being awarded the Future for Nature Award in 2016 for his work in citizen-led conservation. Wietse was elected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2018 and has run conservation initiatives in nine countries across Europe.

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@oceanunite  Twitter Feed

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OceanUnite
oceanuniteOceanUnite@oceanunite·
16h

When scientists hear that 70–90% of #coralreefs could be gone by mid-century, they focus on the 30% that might live. Such places give #ocean ecologists hope that even as the climate warms, corals still have a fighting chance. https://buff.ly/37JO7Gw via @nature #oceanrisk

oceanuniteOceanUnite@oceanunite·
19h

Think you can talk about the severity of #climatechange without including the ocean? Think again! It’s more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, and it’s time its essential services were reflected at the global level. #OneOceanOnePlanet #COP25

karen_sackKaren Sack@karen_sack·
22h

Seychelles ocean/climate commitment to protect 30% of their waters is equivalent to an area the size of Germany #Love30x30

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Renee brings nearly a decade of internal operations experience to the Ocean Unite team. Prior to joining the team, Renee worked for eight years at The Pew Charitable Trusts where she began as an administrative assistant supporting their Shark, Tuna, and Whale conservation campaigns as well as the Senior Director of International Ocean Conservation. Particularly adept at identifying operational issues and developing methods to solve them, Renee moved into an operations role working across Pew’s international Ocean conservation projects, then all their environment conservation projects, and later the breadth of Pew’s programmatic work. She has degrees from California State University, San Bernardino, and Temple University in Philadelphia, and recently relocated from Washington, DC, to the California coast. As hard as this team works to protect our magnificent Ocean, Renee is the only person on the team who lives at the beach and relishes in enjoying the beauty of the Ocean every day.

Brittney is Ocean Unite’s digital and social media manager and is a consultant for Communications Inc. Comms Inc. is an agency which works with the not-for-profit sector, with a particular specialism in the ocean and wider environment. They are well known within the international ocean community and enjoy the trust of, and a working relationship with, most of the large international environmental NGOs and coalitions. Recognised for their ability to deliver fast, cost-effective and productive communications and campaigning, they are particularly valued for their strategic contribution based on a sound understanding of the issues, the political landscape within which the issues exist and a creative approach to bringing about change. (www.communicationsinc.co.uk)

One of the principals of Communications Inc., Sophie has nearly 20 years of experience in strategic communications. Comms Inc., is an agency which works with the not for profit sector, with a particular specialism in the ocean and wider environment. They are well known within the international ocean community and enjoy the trust of, and a working relationship with, most of the large international environmental NGOs and coalitions. Recognised for their ability to deliver fast, cost-effective and productive communications and campaigning, they are particularly valued for their strategic contribution based on a sound understanding of the issues, the political landscape within which the issues exist and a creative approach to bringing about change (www.communicationsinc.co.uk).

Nathalie has almost two decades of experience working in environmental advocacy. She worked for over 15 years for Greenpeace International, focusing mainly on biodiversity issues. For many years she worked as Senior Oceans Political Advisor focusing on international ocean governance and marine conservation. More recently she was the deputy director of the Political and Business Unit. She has wide experience of attending and leading delegations at international environmental meetings, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, and ocean-related negotiations at the UN General Assembly. When asked why she feels strongly about protecting the ocean, she says that not only is it home to the weirdest and most wonderful creatures on the planet, tomorrow’s life-saving drugs could be found at the bottom of the sea, not to mention the discovery of an anti-wrinkle cream that actually works!

Karen has over 25 years of experience working for international non-governmental organisations on environmental issues around the world with a particular focus on protecting marine biodiversity and building resilience to climate change. In 2015, Sack established Ocean Unite, co-founded by Sir Richard Branson and former Costa Rican President José María Figueres, to engage leadership voices and the business community to accelerate ocean health and resilience. Ocean Unite is committed to helping secure the strong protection of 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030. It has also developed a groundbreaking partnership with the insurance sector to address ocean risk.

She was senior director for international oceans at The Pew Charitable Trusts, where she developed their international oceans program including their ending illegal fishing strategy and initiated and was the managing partner of the Global Ocean Commission. Before that she was head of Greenpeace International’s political and business unit and head of their international oceans programme. In 2004, she was the first person from a non-governmental organization to speak at a regular session of the United Nations General Assembly, where she represented the concerns of over 60 environmental organizations from around the world over the plight of our oceans. Karen is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network. She has master’s degrees in international environmental law and in international political economy.