Oceana

Description

Oceana is an international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation.

It campaigns to protect and restore the world’s oceans, running specific, targeted campaigns designed to win policy victories within three to five years. It works on overfishing, illegal fishing, habitat destruction, plastic pollution, climate change and the protection of threatened species such as sharks, sea turtles and whales. Its campaigns combine scientific research, legal action, advocacy, communications and grassroots engagement, and it conducts its own scientific expeditions to gather data supporting policy change.

Oceana operates globally, with offices in North America, Central America, South America, Europe and Asia, campaigning in countries that together control a quarter of the world’s wild fish catch. It works with scientists, economists, lawyers and policy experts, and collaborates with academic institutions, coastal communities and other partner organizations. It has secured hundreds of policy wins and says it has helped protect more than four million square miles of ocean.

The organization was founded in 2001, after research found that only a small share of environmental funding went to ocean conservation. It absorbed the Ocean Law Project in 2001 and merged with the American Oceans Campaign in 2002. A separate but affiliated Canadian organization, Oceana Canada, was established in 2015.