August's Sponsored Nonprofit: Oceana

About. Our oceans are home to most of the life on our planet and play a central role in the world’s natural systems, like regulating our climate and absorbing carbon dioxide. They also feed hundreds of millions of people and have the capacity to provide a healthy seafood meal to a billion people, every day. After a 1999 study, it was discovered that less than 0.5 percent of all resources spent by environmental nonprofit groups in the United States went to marine life conservation, and no organization was working exclusively to protect and restore the oceans on a global scale. Oceana was created to fill the gap: an international organization focused solely on oceans and marine life conservation, dedicated to achieving measurable change by conducting specific, science-based policy campaigns with fixed deadlines and articulated goals. Science-based fishery management — which establishes science-based catch limits, reduces bycatch and protects habitat — is helping the oceans rebound and recover where it is established. Oceana is dedicated to advocating for science-based fishery management and restoring the world’s oceans to what they once were. Since 2001, Oceana has won more than 225 victories and protected more than 4.5 million square miles of ocean.  From stopping bottom trawling in sensitive habitat areas to protecting sea turtles from commercial fishing gear, their victories represent a new hope for the world's oceans. Reference: https://oceana.org/

Recent Accomplishments. As you can see from just a handful of their recent accomplishments below, Oceana’s influence is truly global and incredibly important with respect to marine life conservation, supporting sustainable seafood, and reducing pollution.

• Peru’s Congress and Oceana were able to pass a new law that bans commercial fishing within 5 nautical miles of its coast, as well as redefining “artisanal fishers” to remove those fishers that use mechanized gear that is destructive to the sea floor.
• Chile successfully created a new protected marine area called the Pisagua Sea, thereby protecting over 150 different species of marine life, which will allow them to thrive and rebuild.
• The Philippines was able to launch a public database with both domestic and foreign vessels that have been flagged for fishing violations in the past. According to Oceana, publicizing this information is crucial to the efforts to curtail illegal, unsustainable, and destructive fishing throughout the world.
• Here in the US, with the help of Oceana, both Washington and Oregon passed new laws that increase the access to refillable water bottle stations, ban single use plastics for personal care products at hotels, reduce the pollution caused by foam filled floats and docks, and outlaw single-use foam food containers, respectively.

For more information on Oceana’s mission and accomplishments, visit: https://oceana.org/reports/oceana-annual-report-2023/

Why EcoBrands supports Oceana. You may remember from previous blog posts that I like to scuba dive. For me, it is another way to enjoy the peace of nature, just underwater. I was in high school when I went on my first real ocean dive with my brother and little sister in the Abaco Islands, and two experiences changed our lives forever. The first was when the divemaster motioned us to follow him through a small opening in the coral reef, which opened into a large, sunlit cavern with soft white sand at its base where we all sat or knelt down. Inside this cavern, filled with crystal clear blue water and colorful coral, were literally millions of little silver fish just sitting there suspended in the water. It didn’t take us long to see that all of these little silver fish moved in perfect unison around your hands as you moved them. Needless to say, it was totally surreal, like something out of the Matrix, and is still the most incredible thing I’ve ever experienced underwater. After we exited the coral cavern, we swam to another spot where the divemaster got our attention. To my extreme amazement, he swam over to my brother holding a giant grouper and handed this huge beautiful fish to my brother as if it was a newborn baby. After I got a picture of my brother giving it a kiss, he swam the grouper over to me and my sister for us to pet and feed. I never knew that a wild fish could be as tame as a dog! These two experiences were so profound and breathtaking that I wonder how I was able to safely maintain my breathing underwater!

Since humans live on land, it is easy for us to see and experience pollution and global warming every day. The irony is that earth is only 29% land, meaning that the overwhelming majority is water. If man is trashing our land, just imagine what is going on beneath the surface of our oceans. Microplastics, chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, dyes, oil spills, bleach, sewage being dumped or spilled into our waterways every day…the oceans unfortunately sort of represent mankind’s giant toilet. And yet, the oceans are capable of providing a sustainable source of protein for mankind. So why on earth would we let this extremely valuable resource continue to be mistreated and overfished? It is clear we need to end the abuse of our oceans, not just for experiencing its beautiful coastline and underwater sights, but also because oceans can actually provide a sustainable source of protein for humans if properly maintained. These two reasons are why EcoBrands thinks Oceana is the very best charity for ocean conservation. Thank you, Oceana!

As always, thank you sincerely for reading. We wish you all the best on your path to sustainable living, as we continue on our own!