Oceana Magazine Winter 2023

Magazine

Defending Humboldt Inside the fight to protect an iconic ecosystem

WINTER 2023

OCEANA.ORG

A Sea of Solutions

Rock Under the Stars

To combat climate change, look to the oceans

Gladys Knight headlines the 5th annual event

Board of Directors Sam Waterston, Chair María Eugenia Girón, Vice Chair Diana Thomson, Treasurer James Sandler, Secretary Keith Addis, President Gaz Alazraki Herbert M. Bedolfe, III Ted Danson Nicholas Davis Maya Gabeira César Gaviria Loic Gouzer Jena King Ben Koerner Sara Lowell Kristian Parker, Ph.D. Daniel Pauly, Ph.D. David Rockefeller, Jr. Susan Rockefeller Lex Sant Simon Sidamon-Eristoff Rashid Sumaila, Ph.D. Valarie Van Cleave Elizabeth Wahler Jean Weiss Antha Williams

Ocean Council Susan Rockefeller, Founder Kelly Hallman, Vice Chair Dede McMahon, Vice Chair Anonymous Samantha Bass Violaine and John Bernbach Rick Burnes Vin Cipolla Barbara Cohn Ann Colley Edward Dolman Kay and Frank Fernandez Carolyn and Chris Groobey J. Stephen and Angela Kilcullen Ann Luskey Peter Neumeier Carl and Janet Nolet Ellie Phipps Price David Rockefeller, Jr. Andrew Sabin Elias Sacal Regina K. and John Scully Maria Jose Peréz Simón Sutton Stracke Mia M. Thompson David Treadway, Ph.D. Edgar and Sue Wachenheim, III Valaree Wahler David Max Williamson Raoul Witteveen Leslie Zemeckis Editorial Staff

FSC Logo

Editor Sarah Holcomb Designer Alan Po Senior Communications Manager Gillian Spolarich

Cover Photo: © Derek Blanks

Oceana Staff Andrew Sharpless Chief Executive Officer James F. Simon President Jacqueline Savitz Chief Policy Officer Kathryn Matthews, Ph.D. Chief Scientist Matthew Littlejohn Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives Joshua Laughren Senior Vice President, Oceana Canada Liesbeth van der Meer, DVM Senior Vice President, Chile Christopher Sharkey Chief Financial Officer Janelle Chanona Vice President, Belize Ademilson Zamboni, Ph.D. Vice President, Brazil Pascale Moehrle Executive Director and Vice President, Europe Renata Terrazas Vice President, Mexico Daniel Olivares Vice President, Peru Gloria Estenzo Ramos, J.D. Vice President, Philippines Hugo Tagholm Executive Director and Vice President, United Kingdom Beth Lowell Vice President, United States Nancy Golden Vice President, Global Development

Creative Director Patrick Mustain

Dustin Cranor Vice President, Global Marketing and Communications

Contributing Writer Emily Nuñez

Susan Murray Deputy Vice President, U.S. Pacific

Please Recycle.

Oceana Magazine is published by Oceana Inc. For questions or comments about this publication, please call our membership department at +1.202.833.3900 or write to Oceana’s Member Services at 1025 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036 USA. Oceana’s Privacy Policy: Your right to privacy is important to Oceana, and we are committed to maintaining your trust. Personal information (such as name, address, phone number, email) includes data that you may have provided to us when making a donation or taking action as a Wavemaker on behalf of the Oceans. This personal information is stored in a secure location. For our full privacy policy, please visit Oceana.org/privacy-policy.

Vera Coelho Deputy Vice President, Europe Kathy A. Whelpley Chief of Staff, President’s Office Michael Hirshfield, Ph.D. Senior Advisor

Features

Contents 3 | CEO Note

Many causes for celebration in Chile

4 | For the Win

Oceana celebrates new victories around the world

6 | News & Notes

New campaign tackles plastic pollution in Brazil, China’s fishing ban PR stunt, and more

© Oceana/Jose Gerstle

Defending the Humboldt Archipelago

8 | Q&A

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David Rockefeller, Jr. and Dr. Shelley Brown on Sailors for the Sea

10 | Defending the Humboldt Archipelago

A win for fishers, penguins, and Chile’s iconic Humboldt ecosystem

16 | A Sea of Climate Solutions

Ocean-based solutions are critical to averting climate catastrophe

22 | Ask Dr. Pauly

What are marine heat waves?

© Oceana/Juan Cuetos

A Sea of Climate Solutions

25 | Events

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Oceana celebrates major victories at Rock Under the Stars and the New York Gala

To help navigate Oceana’s work, look for these six icons representing its major campaigns.

Curb Pollution

Protect Habitat

Stop Overfishing

Increase Transparency

Reduce Bycatch

Protect Species

28 | Oceana’s Victories

Looking back at big wins over the last year

29 | Supporter Spotlight

Lex Sant: Helping people and the oceans goes hand-in-hand

30 | Crossword Puzzle

Put your knowledge of polar regions to the test

32 | Parting Shot

A sea lion at home in the biodiverse Humboldt Archipelago

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Your support makes an ocean of difference Please Give Generously Today A healthy, fully restored ocean could feed more than 1 billion people each day, forever.

Call us today at +1.202.833.3900, email us at info@oceana.org, visit Oceana.org/give, or use the envelope provided in this magazine to make a donation. Oceana is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization and contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

© Oceana/Juan Carlos Calvin

CEO Note

© Oceana/Danny Ocampo

Chile is such a country.

Face a map of the world and pick just one country in which to win ocean conservation victories that will inspire the world. Set your standards very high. Choose a member of the world’s 10 most important fishing nations, measured by catch size. Make sure its coastline ranks among the world’s five longest. Its biodiversity should include the blue whale, the largest animal ever to live on Earth, larger than even the greatest of the dinosaurs. Its fishing communities and its seafood industry should represent a broad cross section of the world’s commercial marine fleets, methods, and gears, from large industrial vessels dragging trawls the size of several jumbo jets, all the way to small, wooden Indigenous craft deploying a single hook on a line or a lone wader retrieving shellfish.

Success in your chosen country should prove that effectiveness in ocean conservation is globally scalable. It should be convincing even to a world-weary cynic. So, please pick a place where ocean conservation requires defeating profitable, expanding modern industries possessing powerful, wealthy friends in government. Make it a fight against industrial commercial fishing companies and global polluters including companies operating huge mines and salmon farms.

In the year 2000, less than 1% of Chile’s ocean was protected. Its major marine fisheries — hake, sardines, and anchoveta — were overfished and collapsing. Salmon farming was expanding so fast that Chile would soon produce and export more of these non-native fish than anywhere except Norway. Indigenous fishers operating out of the most remote inhabited place in the world — Rapa Nui/Easter Island — faced a growing and largely unmonitored threat of illegal fishing by foreign vessels, often from China. The lucrative terrestrial mining industry — which accounts for Chile’s top exports — was doing well, soon to flex its power by proposing to dump its waste into the sea.

Today Chile has protected 44% of its exclusive economic zone in marine protected areas (MPAs), 25% as no-take areas. Its national fishing law requires scientific quotas and rebuilding of depleted fisheries. The jack mackerel population has fully recovered. The fishery now supports annual catches of 1 million tons, up from less than a third of that size just 13 years ago. Bycatch is controlled.

Vessel tracking information for Chile’s fishing fleet is uploaded to the Global Fishing Watch map and is freely visible to the world. Chile’s remote islands are patrolled by its navy, which monitors for intrusions by foreign vessels. Industrial salmon farms must fully disclose their use of antibiotics, limit fish density in their ocean pens and pay substantial fines if they release salmon into the wild.

Dominga’s giant open pit copper mine project, a threat to about 80% of the world’s Humboldt Penguin population (whose already depleted numbers

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make the penguins vulnerable to extinction), was defeated by a unanimous vote of the nation’s Ministerial Committee. The dumping of mining waste at sea has stopped.

All seamounts are fully protected against bottom trawling. And Chile passed one of the world’s toughest laws reducing single-use plastic pollution and promoting refillable packaging.

Oceana chose Chile more than 20 years ago. Chile’s subsequent success protecting and restoring its ocean is a case in point for the world.

If you’re reading this magazine, you’re likely one of our donors and supporters. You therefore have much to celebrate. New protections in the Humboldt Archipelago, described in this issue (page 10), is another ocean success story your contributions made possible. Thank you!

As you consider your year-end giving, please be generous to Oceana.

Worldwide, in just the last 12 months, we and our allies have won 38 new policy victories that protect and restore an abundant and biodiverse ocean (see page 28). With your support, we will keep winning for the oceans and for the billions of people who depend on them.

For the Oceans,

Andrew Sharpless CEO Oceana

WINTER 2023 | Oceana.org

For the Win

Oceana and its allies achieved 10 new victories to help protect and restore the world’s oceans

Brazil’s supreme court upholds ban on bottom trawling in Rio Grande do Sul In a 9-1 vote, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court upheld a law in the state of Rio Grande do Sul that bans industrial bottom trawling, a highly destructive form of fishing that clear-cuts the seafloor. Prior to the 2018 ban, bottom trawling was depleting fish stocks, threatening marine biodiversity, and destroying habitat, all of which local communities rely on to support their livelihoods.

Oceana campaigned alongside artisanal fishers to pass this law in 2018, which safeguards more than 13,000 square kilometers (8,000 square miles). Since then, local communities have seen many fish stocks recover. The supreme court decision helps ensure the sustainable livelihoods for more than 20,000 families who depend on artisanal fishing in Rio Grande do Sul. © Oceana/Rodrigo Gorosito

Three New Victories in the Philippines Public database in the Philippines increases transparency at sea The Philippines launched the Fisheries National Administrative Register, a publicly accessible database that features information on Philippines-flagged commercial fishing vessels, including those that had violated the country’s Fisheries Code.

Philippines requires rebuilding of sardine fisheries The Philippines government is requiring all the country’s fisheries management areas to implement a national science-based plan to restore the health and abundance of sardines, a key domestic food source.

Philippines requires commercial fishing vessels to install monitoring devices A presidential order is requiring the Philippines’ vessel monitoring rules to be fully implemented, helping to prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing while deterring commercial fishing vessels from encroaching into waters reserved for artisanal fishers.

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New public database sheds light on EU fishing vessel activity The European Commission released a public database that allows anyone to search for information about European Union-flagged vessels authorized to fish outside of EU waters.

EU requires tracking systems for all its fishing vessels A new law requires all European Union fishing vessels, including 49,000 small-scale vessels, to install and use tracking systems by 2030.

Chile approves new marine protected area in iconic Humboldt Archipelago The new protected area, which measures more than 5,700 square kilometers (2,200 square miles), will safeguard one of Chile’s most biodiverse ecosystems while promoting sustainable development for local communities. Read more on page 10.

© Oceana/Pilar Marín

Three New Victories in the US New law in US state of Maine sets density limits for future salmon farms

Newly approved innovative fishing gear will reduce bycatch off US West Coast

The law establishes limits on stocking density for new marine salmon farms, making it harder for developers to build monster aquaculture operations in the state’s waters.

The United States authorized the commercial use of an innovative fishing gear called deep-set buoy gear that will protect whales, dolphins, sea turtles, and other ocean animals from becoming entangled in gear while targeting swordfish on the West Coast.

US state of Delaware reduces plastic pollution Delaware’s new law phases out single-use plastic, prohibiting food service establishments from providing items such as plastic foam food containers and plastic beverage stirrers.

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News & Notes Oceana’s UK Fisheries Audit finds cod in crisis Oceana’s latest fisheries audit in the United Kingdom, released in September 2023, found that half of the “top 10” U.K. fish populations are overfished or have been reduced to a critically low population size, including populations of the iconic British cod.

Of the 104 fish stocks analyzed in the “Taking Stock” report, over a third are being overfished and a quarter have been depleted to critically low population sizes. This is because the U.K. government regularly sets catch limits higher than scientific recommendations, Oceana’s report explained. Overfished stocks are “on course for collapse,” wrote chef and campaigner Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall in the foreword to the report. “If that is allowed to happen, the human livelihoods will go with them just as fast as the marine ecosystems the fish populations support.”

© Oceana/Juan Cuetos

Atlantic cod are among U.K. fish populations that are critically low, according to Oceana’s most recent fisheries audit.

China engages in fishing ban PR stunt

© Oceana using Global Fishing Watch data

From July to September 2023, China banned its fleets from squid fishing in the northern Indian Ocean (outlined in red) — an area where China’s fishing fleet rarely fished in 2022.

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A new Oceana analysis found that China’s self-imposed annual squid fishing bans avoid areas where their vessels actually fish — failing to address the fleet’s notorious unregulated fishing footprint on the high seas. Announced in June 2023, the country’s latest ban reportedly aimed to help rebuild the squid population in the northern Indian Ocean. However, the closure, which ran from July until September, was in an area where China’s distantwater fleet only appeared to fish a total of 21 hours in 2022. In fact, China’s three most recent selfimposed fishing bans were located in areas where its fishing vessels seldom fished in the previous years.

Oceana and its allies launch “Stop the Plastic Tsunami” campaign in Brazil

© Oceana/Hugo Lira

Oceana Board Member and big wave surfer Maya Gabeira tells the audience at the “Stop the Plastic Tsunami” campaign launch about the bill to regulate plastic and polluters in Brazil.

On Aug. 15, 2023, Oceana and more than 60 allies campaigned from the halls of Brazil’s Congress to stop the “tsunami” of plastics harming the environment and human health by building support for a new bill to regulate plastic production. Earlier the same day, Brazil’s Minister of the Environment Marina Silva and Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco endorsed the bill and committed to speed up the legislative process to pass it. “If microplastics have already reached the human heart and evidence shows that the oceans can no longer bear this type of polluting waste, we must support this bill immediately,” Silva urged. Oceana Board Member and big wave surfer Maya Gabeira testified at the gathering about her encounters with ocean plastic pollution and praised how the bill aims to hold the plastics industry accountable for its pollution.

Oceana model shows extent of plastic pollution on the seabed Oceana released an advanced computational model in May 2023 that predicts where plastic pollution travels and accumulates in the ocean, showing that plastic moves long distances, not only at the surface, but also on the seabed. Accessible through an online portal, it models more than 51 million square kilometers (nearly 19.7 million square miles) of ocean, encompassing all European waters and parts of North American waters.

Developed and validated with the support of Newcastle University and the University of Cadiz, the model accounts for factors such as ocean currents, tides, water depth, watersheds, waste management, and population density. “The model is a quantum leap in our understanding of where marine pollution is hiding,” said Jorge Blanco, Oceana’s senior geographic information systems analyst and cocreator of the model and viewer.

© Oceana

Plastic foodware, bottles, and other pollution were seen at a depth of 610 meters (over 2,000 feet) during a 2016 Oceana deep-sea expedition off the coast of Lebanon.

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Q+A The story behind

Sailors for the Sea Sailors for the Sea is powered by Oceana

David, why did you found Sailors for the Sea? Where did the idea come from?

David Rockefeller, Jr. is a lifelong sailor, conservationist, co-founder of Sailors for the Sea, and Oceana Board Member. He served on the Pew Oceans Commission and was Citizen Chair of the National Park Foundation.

Dr. Shelley Brown is the Director of Sailors for the Sea. As a scientist, educator, and sailor, she unites sailors and boaters around the world to take action to restore the health of our oceans.

DR: Twenty years ago, the Pew Oceans Commission, which I was a part of, released a report about the state of our oceans, and it wasn’t pretty. Overfishing, pollution, and habitat destruction were threatening the seas. I knew that as a sailor, I had to help. One of the biggest issues I noticed was that sailors and boaters — an amazingly talented and civic-minded group — were not taking organized action on behalf of the oceans we love.

A year later, in 2004, I co-founded Sailors for the Sea along with my friend, Dr. David Treadway, another avid sailor. In 2006, we launched our first program, Clean Regattas. This program has grown significantly, starting with just five events in New England that first year to more than 400 events worldwide in 2022 alone. It is now the world’s leading sustainability certification program for waterbased events.

In 2018, Sailors for the Sea officially became part of Oceana.

How has this benefited both Oceana’s campaigns and the work of Sailors for the Sea? DR: Joining forces with Oceana has helped to fuel Sailors for the 8

Sea’s growth and outreach abilities far beyond what we could have achieved alone. A new generation of sailors entering the sport wants to become ocean activists and they’re finding us. Today, Sailors for the Sea has more than 71,000 members, our Green Boaters, who routinely speak up for our oceans and follow our Green Boating best practices like using renewable energy and non-toxic cleaning products aboard their boats.

So far this year, these Green Boaters have taken nearly 40,000 actions, including signing petitions and reaching out to their elected officials in support of Oceana’s campaigns. This is a big win for our oceans.

Shelley, you first joined Sailors for the Sea as Education Director.

Why is science education something that you’re passionate about?

SB: During my Ph.D. program, I had the opportunity to develop outreach curricula for children and adults based on my marine microbial ecology research. I quickly realized the importance of clearly communicating science to the public and decided to make this my career — in particular, educating others about the critical issues impacting our oceans. When I first joined Sailors for the Sea, I was

responsible for creating our Green Boating Guide and developing the Kids Environmental Lesson Plans (KELP) program. Both resources are backed in scientific research and help make complex ocean health issues easily understandable.

How has KELP grown over the years, and what’s next for the program?

SB: Our KELP program was originally created for sailing instructors to use on rainy or windless days to teach young sailors about ocean health. As we created more lesson plans, we found that these hands-on KELP activities were being widely used by teachers, parents, camp counselors, and nature center educators.

In the last 10 years, KELP has been used by more than 4,700 organizations, schools, and families — reaching over 380,000 children across all 50 U.S. states, as well as 76 countries. The program currently features more than 50 free, downloadable activities that address topics including overfishing, climate change, ocean acidification, and plastic pollution.

As the program has grown, we have created an instructional video series, launched a new logo and mascot, and developed helpful assets for educators. Our goal is to bring ocean education into thousands of homes, classrooms, camps, and other organizations to activate the next generation of ocean stewards.

Why is ocean conservation education important, especially for children?

SB: How can we expect people to protect something they don’t

© Shelley Brown

Sailors for the Sea Director Dr. Shelley Brown facilitates a Kids Environmental Lesson Plan (KELP) activity. KELP has reached over 380,000 children in the last decade.

understand or experience? Around the world, research has shown that children have limited knowledge about the ocean because marine science topics are absent in most school curricula. The ocean is critical to life on our planet.

Understanding that at an early age can form personal connections with the underwater world and motivate people to protect and restore the ocean. Ocean-related educational resources can be tricky to find or access, and that’s where KELP can help.

What gives you hope for our ocean’s future?

DR: I have hope because in the last two decades both the importance of the oceans and the plight of the oceans have become so clear to the general public and to policymakers.

Sailors for the Sea and Oceana can take a lot of credit for this. I’m also optimistic because ocean science 9

has made great strides in this century, and we’re more confident than ever in the policies we need to protect and restore the oceans.

SB: I’m surrounded by people who give me hope. My colleagues across this blue planet are fighting tirelessly to pass policies to stop overfishing, reduce pollution, and protect marine habitats. Our communities of sailors and boaters are speaking out and working to protect their waterways. Children, including my own, are learning about and experiencing the wonders of the ocean. They are becoming changemakers. More people are building stronger connections to the seas. I have hope because people will protect what they know and love.

To learn more about Sailors for the Sea, visit sailorsforthesea.org.

WINTER 2023 | Oceana.org

Feature

A Place Like No Other:

Defending the Humboldt Archipelago

By Sarah Holcomb

© Oceana/Eduardo Oceana/Jose Gerstle Sorensen

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When Tania Rheinen first visited the coast along La Higuera on a typical cool, clouded morning in 2017, the white sand and cerulean water reminded her of Chile’s many other picturesque beaches — “nothing too special,” she thought. Aboard a local fisher’s boat, however, she changed her mind. “Suddenly, there were seven or so bottlenose dolphins jumping around the boat,” remembers Rheinen, who had joined Oceana as its communications director in Chile a year earlier. A family of fin whales swam by. “By that time, I was in awe.”

La Higuera is a region that belongs to the Humboldt Archipelago, where around 80% of the world’s Humboldt penguins reside, kelp forests tower like underwater castles, vast numbers of sea birds soar, and abalone and razor clams verge on endless. Before the chalky desert road to La Higuera was

Considered one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, the Humboldt Archipelago is home to around 80% of the world’s Humboldt penguins.

paved, scientific researchers and students were already trekking to document the area’s biodiversity in 2008.

Coal developers were eyeing the desert oasis, too. La Higuera falls in Chile’s “Zone 4,” a swath of the country destined for mining since the 1960s. Over the next 15 years, other developers would line up, most notably the mining company Andes Iron, which introduced its $2.5 billion plan, the Dominga port mining project, in 2013.

A group of nine fishers and locals living in La Higuera, who would be joined by Rheinen and her colleagues including legal and policy experts at Oceana, set out to protect the Humboldt Archipelago, turning the threats facing their coastal towns to a conversation heard around Chile: “¡No A Dominga!”

© Oceana/Jose Gerstle

Dolphins are frequently seen close to the coast in La Higuera.

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Feature

Magic in the water When 48-year-old Gabriel Molina began pioneering the effort to protect the Humboldt Archipelago, he didn’t have quite so many gray hairs.

Molina grew up in Vallenar, a city in Chile’s Atacama region north of the Humboldt Archipelago.

A strong swimmer by age four, Molina loved diving to experience the wonder of swimming among fish and socializing with manta rays and dolphins. And he felt a deep connection with the water itself.

Locals aren’t the only ones who sense a certain magic in these waters. Scientists discovered the Humboldt Archipelago is the site of an “upwelling,” where ocean currents thrust cool, nutrient-rich water from the ocean depths up toward the surface. The Humboldt Current, as it’s called, animates one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. The cold waters make it possible for Humboldt penguins to live on the equator year-round.

Abundant food sources attract bottlenose dolphins and blue whales close to the coast. Oceana’s scientists and photographers documented the phenomenon close-up, gathering evidence through four expeditions to protect the Archipelago’s abundant marine life.

Researchers have argued that the Archipelago needs greater protection, especially given that Humboldt penguins tend to travel, foraging up to 90 kilometers (56 miles) away from their colony.

The penguins are also sensitive to human presence — scientists found that even one person passing by at a distance significantly speeds up their heart rate.

Industrial pollution threatens to turn this famous fountain of biodiversity into a so-called

© Oceana/Jose Gerstle

An endangered species, marine otters can be found in the Humboldt Archipelago, where they build their dens.

sacrifice zone. The Dominga project promised sprawling mines that would carve out the desert, a desalination plant that could leak toxic brine into nearshore waters, and a commercial port that would surge industrial ship activity. Once one mining project arrives, others follow, says Dr. Liesbeth van der Meer, Oceana’s Senior Vice President for Chile. “And it’s not only the place that is sacrificed,” she says, “but also the people.”

As these threats emerged, folks in Punta de Choros and other towns in La Higuera began organizing, and successfully fended off the first coal mining proposal in 2010. Nine of them, including Molina, fellow fisher Rodrigo Flores, and tourism entrepreneur Rosa Rojas, founded the Movement in Defense of the Environment (MODEMA). Their goal: create a marine protected area (MPA) to definitively protect their home from future threats.

The initiative to protect the Archipelago “didn’t come from outside, but from the fishermen and those in the business of tourism, camping, diving centers, 12

restaurants,” emphasizes Tamara Gaymer, the current president of MODEMA. “All the people who live here realized that it was super important to protect this area, because their jobs depend on it.”

But the road ahead was full of division — not just external threats, but conflict within La Higuera itself. The new MPA could affect fishers’ activities, bubbling up local concerns among some. Mounting pressure from Dominga tangled the plot, as some community members accepted payments to side with the company, tearing at relationships between neighbors and families.

As years wore on, the core movement stayed steady. “Anytime we campaign for an MPA, it’s somewhere where people are strong enough and convinced enough that they want to do this,” says van der Meer. While community activists worked to win over their neighbors, the war against mining the Humboldt Archipelago was waging in the courts and the court of public opinion — and Oceana was in the middle of it.

From local to national Three years after proposing the Dominga port mining project, Andes Iron unveiled its evaluation of the project’s environmental impact on the Humboldt Archipelago. And Oceana found some suspicious omissions.

Andes Iron didn’t mention how a flood of cargo ships would affect the National Humboldt Penguin Reserve or whales’ feeding grounds, for example, and the project’s mitigation measures were lacking.

Moreover, the evaluation contained a slew of legal flaws. In October 2016, Oceana compiled an 80-page report explaining the shortfalls.

The report was “very technical,” recalls Rheinen. Determined to push the findings into the public eye, Rheinen and her team decided to launch a national communications strategy — #NoADominga (“No to Dominga”), writing up talking points, a press release, and media pitches.

The campaign had all the right ingredients to win press attention, as Rheinen saw it: sympathetic heroes, a powerful enemy, and impending environmental peril.

Soon a well-known TV journalist made the case against the Dominga port mining project to an audience of thousands across Chile. A few months later, another journalist began investigating Dominga and published a front-page story that revealed Chile’s former president Sebastián Piñera’s close ties to Andes Iron. Within hours of the article’s debut, #NoADominga was trending across social media.

“At the beginning, nobody knew about this,” says Rheinen, “now everybody knows.”

Rejected...or not?

Meanwhile, the Dominga project continued going through rounds of bureaucratic approvals and rejections. To advocates, each round felt like a football match.

And, in a clenching series of “upsets” the project was rejected at each turn.

“It was a huge shock,” van der Meer reflected afterwards. “Mining is the motor of Chile’s economy.

We have never before rejected a project, mining or otherwise, on environmental principles.” The

© Oceana/Pablo Acuña

day of the rejection in 2017, a spontaneous march celebrated the decision in La Serena, the capital of Coquimbo, drawing over 900 fishers and supporters.

Still, Andes Iron’s proposal kept coming back to life. In 2021, the government of President Piñera, in its second term, successfully appealed Dominga’s rejection, putting the project back on the table. Again, Oceana and its allies mobilized, and in January 2023 the Ministers Committee considered the Dominga port mining project once more. Their decision: a unanimous rejection.

As Andes Iron and activists continued sparring in court, organizers from La Higuera traveled to Santiago to testify on behalf of their community. But to stop the reject-and-appeal cycle, La Higuera needed to be permanently protected. With the latest appeal successfully stamped out, the window to act was now. Back in La Higuera, Molina, Gaymer, and their allies were bringing fishers from across the region together to safeguard the Humboldt Archipelago for good.

© Oceana/Pablo Acuña

In January 2023, community members from La Higuera, including Catalina Paz (left) from the village El Llano de los Choros, traveled to Santiago to protest outside the Ministry of the Environment and celebrated when the Dominga port mining project was rejected.

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Feature

An MPA is born Creating a marine protected area requires consensus — lots of it.

Even after securing support for protecting the Archipelago, many questions remained on the table.

How large should the MPA be?

Where are its boundaries drawn?

Will fishing still be allowed, and if so, what kinds of fishing?

After bouts of back-and-forth, fishers in La Higuera sat down with officials from Chile’s Ministry of the Environment to hash out a proposal for the Humboldt Archipelago’s protection, bringing to bear their knowledge of the ocean and local fisheries. “We educated ourselves to understand how ecosystems work,” Molina says, “learning the relationships of the smallest organisms to the largest whale in order to better protect [the Archipelago].”

Establishing an MPA — more specifically, a kind of MPA called a “multi-use marine coastal protected area” — would prohibit any activities that impact “objects of conservation,” says van der Meer.

Those objects of conservation include more than 120 local species in need of protection, among them

Once you build the power and the people to defeat these big projects, that’s what makes [change] permanent.

– Dr. Liesbeth van der Meer the world’s largest population of Humboldt penguins.

public support was building into a cultural tidal wave.

This mixed-use protected area, slated to cover more than 5,700 square kilometers (2,200 square miles) between Chile’s Atacama and Coquimbo regions, would keep the harmful mines and mega-ports out while encouraging sustainable, artisanal fishing and responsible tourism to continue.

Arguably the most climactic moment arrived when Chile’s current president Gabriel Boric exclaimed “¡No A Dominga!” in his first presidential speech in 2022 to millions of Chileans. “That’s when we knew we did it,” Rheinen says.

In August 2023, the MPA was approved by the Council of Ministers for Sustainability in Chile — a hard-won victory a decade in the making.

People make it permanent Four different governments assumed power in Chile since conservationists and fishers began pushing to protect the Humboldt Archipelago. And in those 13 years,

© Oceana/ Jose Gerstle

Local fishers campaigned to protect the Humboldt Archipelago and worked with officials to propose the MPA. Shown: Artisanal fishers in the village of Chungungo.

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Still, the story isn’t over. “To think that wins are forever and permanent is very naive,” says van der Meer. Since the project’s proposal predated the MPA, Andes Iron could be granted a concession, she explains. But such a scenario is looking unlikely. “Once you build the power and the people to defeat these big projects, that’s what makes [change] permanent.”

“I look at myself in the mirror and my head is white. I have been threatened with death for defending this territory many times,” says Molina. Working to protect the Archipelago is a “long, beautiful, tiring job,” Gaymer explains. “But it bore final fruit and that has kept us going. When you participate in an organization with a common goal, even if people have big differences, they manage to agree on the same objective. That has tremendous power.”

“We’ve grown as people. We have educated ourselves and that has allowed us to appreciate even more the place we have,” Molina reflects.

“Not all the gold, nor all the diamonds in the world can compare with this place.”

Gabriel Molina speaks to the press in January 2023, after the Dominga port mining project was rejected by Chile’s Ministers Committee. © Oceana/Pablo Acuña

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Feature

A Sea of Climate Solutions

By Emily Nuñez

Global investments will make offshore wind “the most important oceanclimate mitigation solution by 2030,” according to the 2023 Ocean Panelcommissioned report. © Shutterstock/Kaisn

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Global ocean surface temperatures hit record highs in 2023. Humancaused climate change is currently compounding El Niño, a natural weather pattern, to deal extra damage. Forecasts show that unmitigated warming could melt nearly all of the Arctic sea ice and harm half of the world’s coral reefs as soon as the 2030s.

The oceans are not just victims of a warming climate, but key mitigators — they have already spared humans the worst consequences of climate change, absorbing over 90% of all the excess heat trapped on Earth. Had the same energy instead gone into the atmosphere, temperatures would have already soared by almost 36°C (97°F). In turn, the oceans have become less hospitable to life.

Subjected to hotter waters, corals and many other marine species struggle to adapt. Warmer waters hold less oxygen, which can stunt the growth of fish or force them to flee to cooler regions, if they can. The effects on marine life are still not fully understood, with one 2023 study suggesting that ocean warming could even cause memory loss in damselfish, hurting their chances of survival.

While the oceans bear the brunt of climate change, recent research reveals that they also hold important solutions. Oceanbased initiatives could cut global emissions enough to get the world nearly halfway to preventing a 2°C rise in temperatures by 2050, according to a September 2023 report commissioned by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel). To keep warming under 1.5°C — a limit many scientists say is essential to prevent the breakdown of ecosystems — these solutions could close the “emissions gap” up to 35%.

Oceana contributed to this latest literature, designed to guide and galvanize policymakers. The report presents seven ocean-based solutions to curb climate change, including three that are central to Oceana’s campaigns: reducing offshore drilling, restoring and conserving important marine ecosystems, and tapping carbonsmart seafood. The research is clear: ocean-based initiatives hold enormous potential to cut emissions, protect livelihoods, and feed the world.

‘Beyond expectations’ Supported by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean and co-chaired by Norway and Palau, the Ocean Panel consists of 18 world leaders of countries that account for half of the world’s coastline and 26% of its fisheries. The first report commissioned by the Ocean Panel in 2019 outlined five climate solutions, bringing global attention to the oceans’ enormous — yet overlooked — emission-reducing potential.

The new report expanded that list and added a solution that could be the most impactful yet: stopping the expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling and gradually phasing down production of existing wells as clean energy alternatives become more widely available and demand for fossil fuels declines.

This section of the report, primarily authored by experts from Oceana, explains that offshore oil and gas production is a significant source of emissions from start to finish.

“Drilling generates [greenhouse gas] emissions throughout the entire process, starting with exploration and extraction of oil and gas from below the seafloor; through onshore emissions during energy-intensive processing and transportation; and finally, and most significantly, when the fuels are burned,” the report states.

While the risks were known, they were never quantified until Oceana published its own analysis on the subject last year, titled “Beyond Expectations: Ocean Solutions to Prevent Climate Catastrophe.”

Ocean-based initiatives could cut global emissions enough to get the world nearly halfway to preventing a 2°C rise in temperatures by 2050.

Members of the Ocean Panel Indonesia Jamaica Japan Kenya Mexico Namibia

Australia Canada Chile Fiji France Ghana

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Norway Palau Portugal Republic of Seychelles United Kingdom United States

WINTER 2023 | Oceana.org

Feature

Geers says. “It’s a matter of political will and changing business practices.”

The title references the authors’ surprise at learning just how much reductions to offshore drilling could limit global warming.

report lead authors, says these findings show that reducing offshore drilling must be “part of the solution” to climate change.

“We knew that the oil and gas piece was going to be big, but even we had not realized how big. No one had done that analysis before,” says Tess Geers, Oceana’s Research Director for Science and Strategy and a co-author of the report. “The fact that it was the biggest of all the solutions was beyond what we were expecting.”

“The analysis undertaken by Oceana demonstrates the significance in terms of emission reduction potential if we transition from offshore oil and gas to renewable energy,” says Northrop, who is also the director of the Sustainable Development Reform Hub at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

After seeing this research, the Ocean Panel Secretariat, hosted within the Ocean Program at World Resources Institute, asked Oceana to contribute its knowledge and data on the benefits of curbing offshore drilling. Using updated data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), Oceana determined that reducing offshore drilling can provide up to 18% of the emissions reductions needed to stay under a 2°C rise (or up to 14% of the reductions needed to keep warming under 1.5°C).

While nearly 30% of oil and gas production comes from offshore sources, most of that activity occurs in just a few concentrated areas. Geers notes that stopping the expansion of offshore drilling — a key campaign goal of Oceana’s in the U.S., U.K., and Belize — would not cut off current sources of fuel.

This solution is not only minimally disruptive, but also relatively quick and simple to implement because it does not require the development of new or costly technologies.

Eliza Northrop, an international environmental lawyer and one of the 2023 ocean-climate solutions

“One of the things Oceana highlights in its analysis is that there are no technological requirements for this solution,”

Stopping the expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling will also help reduce the risk of massive oil spills, like those Oceana has responded to in the Philippines, Peru, and the Gulf of Mexico, to name a few, which wreak havoc on marine ecosystems and coastal communities.

Oceana is calling on President Biden to end new leasing for offshore drilling in the United States while also urging political parties in the United Kingdom to commit to halting new offshore oil and gas development. Policies like these would move the needle closer to the emissions reductions needed to stop climate change in its tracks.

Consume and conserve The report recommends a “critical” climate change solution that aligns with Oceana’s goal to “Save the Oceans, Feed the World,” according to Geers. The report calls for a focus on sustainable ocean-based

Ocean-based climate solutions can deliver nearly half the emissions reductions needed to prevent climate catastrophe 2050 Mitigation Potential (MAX) GtCO2e/year

Maximum potential contribution of ready-to-implement ocean-based solutions to close the emissions gap in 2050 15

1.0 12

5.3 9

.10

1.5

Oceanbased tourism

Oceanbased food

6

13.8

2.0 3

3.6 0

0.29 Marine conservation and restoration

Oceanbased renewable energy

Oceanbased transport

Stopping Marine Total GtCO2e expansion carbon dioxide per year of offshore removal and oil and gas carbon capture and storage

Adapted from “The Ocean as a Solution to Climate Change: Updated Opportunities for Action” 18

47%

Percent of UNEP 2022 emissions gap to 2.0oC

foods, which can simultaneously feed populations and help to decarbonize global food systems that account for up to a third of human-caused emissions.

In 2021, an international group of 18 scientists conducted a comprehensive assessment of aquatic foods and their impact.

Wild seafood has a lower carbon footprint than red meat, cheese, and chicken CO2e Emissions of Protein Sources

gCO2 eq per gram protein

Because wild seafood has a lower carbon footprint than many sources of land-based animal protein, restoring depleted fisheries could provide the world with a steady supply of climatefriendly, nutrientpacked protein.

260 240 220 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

238 200

84

Beef

Mutton Cheese

65

Pork

43

39.5

38

Poultry

Wild Fisheries

Eggs

27

24

Milk Aquaculture

Sources: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03889-2 https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.aaq0216

When compared with other protein sources, carbon emissions associated with wild seafood are six times lower than that of beef, five times lower than that of mutton, and more than two times lower than that of cheese per kilogram produced.

Although marine fisheries contribute a nominal amount — just 4% — to the carbon footprint of global food systems, policies to make wild fisheries even more climate-friendly can go a long way, particularly in countries that depend on seafood for nutrition or jobs.

Because wild seafood has a lower carbon footprint than many sources of land-based animal protein, restoring depleted fisheries could provide the world with a steady supply of climate-friendly, nutrient-packed protein. Restoring wild fisheries also reduces emissions because less effort and fuel are needed to capture the same number of fish.

The Ocean Panel-commissioned report encourages a “wide-scale shift in global diets” that would favor seafood (as well as vegetarian options) over land-based proteins that are associated with higher

© Oceana/Mario Gomí

Focusing on climate-friendly, ocean-based protein will help decarbonize global food systems that account for up to a third of human-caused emissions.

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Feature

For climate solutions, look to the oceans:

Expanding marine conservation and restoration

Scaling offshore renewable energy

Utilizing low carbon ocean-based protein Phasing down offshore oil and gas extraction

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If world leaders are serious about tackling catastrophic climate – Dr. Kathryn Matthews change, the ocean is a clear place to start. emissions, such as beef and lamb.

Vessels that switch to less carbonintensive forms of fishing gear and fuel can also help cut emissions in wild fisheries.

Since the Ocean Panel commissioned its first oceanclimate solutions report in 2019, global interest in another solution has grown: regulating bottom trawling, a fishing method that is both destructive to marine life and to the climate. Bottom trawling involves dragging large, weighted nets across the ocean floor, killing countless marine organisms and disturbing marine sediments that can contain captured carbon.

Bottom trawling also uses more fuel than other major fishing methods.

“Bottom trawling is one of most carbon-intensive forms of fishing,” Geers explained. “If you can fish using other types of gear — less carbon-intensive forms of fishing — then that will also reduce the overall emissions of this sector.”

Oceana campaigns to end bottom trawling and preserve key marine habitats around the world, most recently winning a legal battle to uphold an industrial bottom trawling ban in Rio Grande do Sul, an important fishing state in Brazil.

The report recommended several policies that can maximize the benefits of marine conservation and restoration, including a focus on habitats that are adept

at sequestering carbon, such as mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrasses.

emissions will “subside far too slowly to avert most catastrophic impacts of climate change.”

Known as “blue carbon ecosystems,” these habitats could scrub up to 78 coal-fired power plants’ worth of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, while also helping to improve water quality, preserve biodiversity, protect coastal communities from storms and erosion, and provide them with food and stable income.

In other words, proactive measures are needed to close the emissions gap and prevent climate disaster.

In addition to the three solutions outlined above, the Ocean Panel has encouraged action and policies including decarbonizing oceanbased transport and tourism and further exploring the potential to capture and store CO2 in the seabed.

To help prevent greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere in the first place, the report also recommends scaling up ocean-based renewable energy, particularly offshore wind — a clean energy source that Oceana promotes. According to the report, global investments in this sector will make it “the most important ocean-climate mitigation solution by 2030.”

Combined, these solutions could deliver significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but only if decision-makers start implementing policies now.

No time to wait The IEA projects that global energy-related CO2 emissions will peak in 2025. While emissions are expected to taper off in the following years, the ocean-climate solutions report warns that

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Considering that few significant steps have been taken since the first ocean-climate solutions report was published in 2019, time is of the essence. “We already know that we’re way behind,” Geers says.

“If we wait until 2045, it’s too late.

Everything that we can do now — today — is essential.”

Oceana Chief Scientist Dr. Kathryn Matthews and fellow report coauthor agrees, citing the imminent need for sensible ocean-based policies that confront climate change head-on.

“The climate crisis is here, affecting all of us, and it’s getting worse,” Matthews says. “As a scientist, it’s hard to stomach inaction, especially when we have some obvious solutions at hand. If world leaders are serious about tackling catastrophic climate change, the ocean is a clear place to start.”

WINTER 2023 | Oceana.org

What are marine Ask Dr. Pauly heat waves?

Marine heat waves are what you think: periods of temperature well above the level expected for the season that last for a while. If the temperature of the water along a coast is, for example, 3–5°C (about 5–9°F) above the temperature you expect, lasting for a week or two, then you have a marine heat wave.

Dr. Daniel Pauly is the founder and principal investigator of the Sea Around Us project at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, as well as an Oceana Board Member and recipient of the 2023 Tyler Prize.

Generally, the consequences of a marine heat wave are much greater than those of a heat wave on land.

This is because most terrestrial animals — including humans — are used to experiencing a wider range of temperatures than marine animals. Also, many marine animals already live at a temperature close to the maximum they can tolerate.

But marine heat waves are not like

terrestrial heat waves. Instead, they are the marine equivalent of forest fires.

Most marine and freshwater animals breathe water, which, unlike air, contains less than 1% oxygen. That’s less oxygen than at the top of Mount Everest.

Temperature increases make this worse because warmed water contains even less dissolved oxygen than cold water (see blue line A in the figure below).

Most of these animals — including fish, lobster, and squid — can tolerate a range of temperatures, but their respiration is affected.

They need far more oxygen at high temperatures (see red line B in the

© Oceana/Carlos Minguell

Yellow goatfish, as seen on Oceana’s 2010 expedition to the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico has been experiencing a marine heat wave since February/March 2023, according to NOAA. 22 22

figure below). This is because their body temperature also increases, which leads to the proteins forming their tissues ‘denaturing’ (i.e., falling apart) and needing to be replaced.¹ So, when a marine heat wave hits, fish and other water-breathers require more oxygen, but the water around them contains less. They try to escape, as animals in a forest would flee a fire, but they can’t, and after a few hours or days, they die.

Marine heat waves are becoming more frequent. Well-documented marine heat waves hit the West Coast of the United States and Canada from late 2013 to early 2016 (the years of “The Blob,” an enormous mass of warm water)² and Western Australia from December 2020 to January 2021.³ Yet again, in June 2021,⁴ marine heat waves struck the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada, where the stench of an estimated billion decaying shore animals, notably clams, mussels, and sea stars,

Marine heat waves are a window to our future — just as forest fires are. wafted along the coast of British Columbia for days.⁵ Heat waves and low-oxygen events that kill fish are even more frequent in freshwaters, so much so that the Fish and Wildlife agencies of various U.S. states have equipped their field personnel with practical guides. These guides state that if there are large dead fish on, for example, a small lake, they presumably died of lack of oxygen, or “hypoxia” (usually caused by unseasonably high temperatures).

On the other hand, if the dead fish are mainly small, a poison, such as an insecticide, is likely responsible.⁶ The reason large, older fish and invertebrates are more susceptible to low oxygen levels is because these individuals have less gill area (i.e., respiratory area) per body weight than young, smaller ones.

So, small individuals survive longer when the oxygen declines and/or temperatures rise. Nevertheless, marine heat waves can last long enough and are sufficiently hot to render the different susceptibility levels among small and large waterbreathers irrelevant — they all will die.

Marine heat waves and their freshwater counterparts are becoming more frequent, and if our greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, they will also increase in intensity and duration. Marine heat waves are a window to our future — just as forest fires are. If we want vibrant oceans full of life, we must join the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.

200

150 A 100

50

0

B 5

10

15

20 Temperature (°C)

25

30

35

Oxygen requirements (% of value at 20°C)

Oxygen solubility (% of value at 20°C)

Increasingly warm waters mean that fish need more oxygen — and there’s less of it

Above 4-5°C (39-41°F), the oxygen dissolved in sea or freshwater decreases with rising temperature (blue line A), but the oxygen required by fish and other water-breathing animals increases (red line B). Source: Müller, J., N. Houben, and D. Pauly. 2023.

1, 6

Müller, J., N. Houben, and D. Pauly. 2023. On being the wrong size: what is the role of body size in fish kills and hypoxia exposure? Environmental Biology of Fishes, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-023-01442-w

2

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/new-marine-heatwave-emerges-west-coast-resembles-blob

3

https://climateextremes.org.au/marine-heatwave-in-western-australia-december-2020-and-january-2021/#:~:text=Temperatures%20reached%20 2%2D3%E2%88%98,fisheries%20may%20yet%20be%20felt.

4

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm6860

5

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/12/extreme-heat-baking-sea-animals-alive/620904/

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WINTER 2023 | Oceana.org

Join the Circle Be part of the ocean’s future Join the LegaSea Circle by including a gift for Oceana in your will, trust, or beneficiary designation. You can help protect and restore marine wildlife and habitats for years to come, while enjoying financial benefits for yourself or your loved ones.

© Shutterstock/ Leonardo Gonzalez

Visit Oceana.org/legasea for more information.

Email plannedgiving@oceana.org or call +1.202.833.3900.

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SPRING 2022 | Oceana.org

All photos by © Kevin Warn

Rock Under the Stars

Oceana Board Chair Sam Waterston

Sally Pressman

Ed Begley Jr.

Gladys Knight performs at Oceana’s 5th annual Rock Under the Stars Keri Selig, Oceana CEO Andrew Sharpless, Mary Steenburgen, Gladys Knight, and Oceana Board Members Ted Danson and Keith Addis

On Aug. 12, Oceana Board President Keith Addis and producer Keri Selig hosted the fifth annual Rock Under the Stars event at their home in Los Angeles to benefit Oceana’s conservation campaigns. American icon Gladys Knight headlined the event and wowed guests with hits spanning her 50-year career including “Midnight Train to Georgia.”

“What an incredible evening for an even more incredible cause,” Addis said. “It was an honor to host the legendary Gladys Knight and several celebrity chefs for a special night to support Oceana and its crucial campaigns to protect the oceans.”

Oceana CEO Andrew Sharpless delivers remarks to the audience

Guests at the event, including award-winning actors and Oceana Board Members Sam Waterston and Ted Danson, were treated to culinary delights from James Beard Award winners Suzanne Goin and Sherry Yard, and Los Angeles’ Chef of the Year Jason Neroni. Other celebrity guests included Mary Steenburgen, Woody Harrelson, Ed Begley Jr., Tommy Chong, and Sally Pressman.

This year’s event was made possible by the support of numerous corporate partners, including presenting partner Blancpain, City National Bank, HexClad, and La Crema. Since 2007, Rock Under the Stars and Oceana’s LA benefits have raised more than $6.5 million for Oceana’s campaigns.

Woody Harrelson and Oceana Board Member Ted Danson

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Shelby and Tommy Chong

WINTER 2023 | Oceana.org

Events

New York Gala

© BFA/Angela Pham

© Rob Rich

Gala co-chairs Dede McMahon, Susan Rockefeller, and Kelly Hallman

Oceana CEO Andrew Sharpless presented Leonardo DiCaprio with an award for his support in helping Oceana make fishing vessel activity public and trackable

On Sept. 19, Oceana supporters gathered at Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room for Oceana’s 10th annual New York Gala. The event raised nearly $2.8 million in support of Oceana’s global campaigns and featured esteemed speakers and attendees, including master of ceremonies Ted Danson, Oceana Board Chair Sam Waterston, gala chairs and Oceana Board Members Susan and David Rockefeller, event honoree Leonardo DiCaprio, Oceana Senior Advisor Alexandra Cousteau, and actress Christina Ochoa, among others.

The event was co-chaired by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Kelly and James Hallman, Jena King, Melony and Adam Lewis, Dede McMahon, Regina and John Scully, and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim, III. The event vice chairs included Monique Bär, Barbara Cohn, Kay and Frank Fernandez, Agnes Gund, Andrew Sabin, Gretchen and James Sandler, Nancy and Simon Sidamon-Eristoff, Jean and Tim Weiss, Linda and Larry Weiss, Leslie and Robert Zemeckis, and Mercedes Zobel.

The Gala honored Leonardo DiCaprio, whose support has been instrumental in helping Oceana make fishing vessel activity public and trackable. DiCaprio provided early funding needed to launch Global Fishing Watch, which Oceana co-founded with SkyTruth and Google in 2016. This free tool provides the first global, near real-time view of commercial fishing activity and is now mapping all industrial activities at sea.

Corporate partner attendees included Leonardo Laviola, president of Blancpain North America; Marsh and Jan Mokhtari, co-founders of Gray Whale Gin; Carmen Tal, co-founder of Moroccanoil; and Des Lintz from Anker. Additional support was provided by Conscious Step, Dropps, Naturesage, and Sand Cloud.

Blancpain returned as this year’s presenting partner and donated two of its renowned timepieces to the event auction. Other featured auction items were donated

by Aman New York, The Belize Collection, Chef Daniel Boulud, Daios Cove, Dr. Richard Firshein, Fogo Island Inn, Gurney’s Montauk Resort and Seawater Spa, Lindblad Expeditions, Maritz Global Events, Pendry Manhattan West, Ponant, The Rainbow Room, Sam Waterston, and Victoria House Resort & Spa.

The event also honored Arcadia, a leading campaign partner and charitable foundation that works to protect nature, preserve cultural heritage, and promote open access to knowledge. Since 2002, Arcadia has awarded more than $1 billion to organizations around the world and has been instrumental in Oceana’s successful campaigns to protect and restore ocean life.

Over the past 10 years, Oceana’s New York Gala has raised more than $15 million to help deliver policy victories in the U.S. and around the world. In the past year alone, Oceana has won more than 30 victories for the ocean and planet, including policies that address single-use plastics in New York City and ending the unsustainable and inhumane shark fin trade in the United States.

The night concluded with a lively dance party led by musical guest The Rakiem Walker Project and featured artist GLR¥A.

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© BFA/Angela Pham

Oceana CEO Andrew Sharpless and Oceana Board Members Susan Rockefeller, Sam Waterston, Ben Koerner, and Ted Danson

© BFA/Angela Pham

Gray Whale Gin co-founders Marsh and Jan Mokhtari

© BFA/Angela Pham

A.G. Sulzberger and Oceana President Jim Simon

© Matt Cohen

Oceana campaigners Danny Ocampo and Liza Osorio, Oceana Board Member David Rockefeller, Jr., and Oceana’s Vice President in the Philippines Gloria Ramos

© Rob Rich

Oceana Board Chair Sam Waterston delivers final remarks to guests during the gala’s live auction

© BFA/Angela Pham

Gala co-chair Dede McMahon assists during the paddle raise

© Rob Rich

Oceana Senior Advisor Alexandra Cousteau and Christina Ochoa

© Matt Cohen

Gala vice-chairs Robert and Leslie Zemeckis and Dr. Richard Firshein

© Matt Cohen

Blancpain representatives Andrew Handschin, Kathryn Stelmack, and Leonardo Laviola 27

WINTER 2023 | Oceana.org

Oceana’s victories over the last year With the help of its allies, Oceana has won 38 victories in the last 12 months U.S. state of Delaware bans plastic foam food containers, limits plastic straws

New York City limits single-use plastic utensils New Chile law increases transparency in salmon farming and reduces threats to marine life

Chile approves new marine protected area in iconic Humboldt Archipelago

Amazon publicly reports on plastic packaging footprint for the first time

Philippines requires rebuilding of sardine fisheries EU requires tracking systems for all its fishing vessels

Canada strengthens emergency measures to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales

Philippines requires commercial fishing vessels to install monitoring devices

German and Dutch marine protected areas closed to destructive fishing gear

Brazil’s Supreme Court upholds ban on bottom trawling in Rio Grande do Sul

Shark fin trade banned in the United States

Public database in the Philippines increases transparency at sea

Two largest cities in U.S. state of California ban plastic foam

New law in U.S. state of Maine sets density limits for future salmon farms

United States protects whales, dolphins, and sea turtles from deadly drift gillnets

Newly approved innovative fishing gear will reduce bycatch off U.S. West Coast

Mediterranean countries agree to mandatory disclosure of vessels allowed to fish in restricted areas

European Commission releases public database disclosing activities of EU vessels fishing outside of EU waters

Dow Jones introduces new screening requirements for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing vessels

Peru passes new law to protect its oceans and artisanal fishers

World leader in satellite communications Inmarsat stops services to IUU fishing vessels

New laws in U.S. state of Oregon prohibit plastic foam and enable refill systems

New international rule requires countries to investigate and deter companies from engaging with illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing vessels

New law in U.S. state of Washington reduces plastic waste

New rule in the United States requires seafood traceability from boat-to-plate

Mexico joins the Port State Measures Agreement to address illegal fishing

Peru protects sharks and other marine species from illegal trafficking

Brazil’s Museum of Tomorrow becomes a plastic-free zone Panama commits to reduce plastic pollution

Brazil’s leading food delivery service, iFood, commits to additional single-use plastic reductions

Deep-sea corals and seafloor habitats protected in U.S. Pacific waters

Spain penalizes fishing vessels for turning off public tracking devices

Oceana defends EU policy to rebuild fisheries from attack Chile creates a new marine protected area, Pisagua Sea

Over 14,600 square kilometers of deep-sea habitats protected from bottom fishing in the Northeast Atlantic

Chile rejects Dominga mining project, protects marine life

Marine reserve expanded in Spain’s Balearic Islands

© Oceana/Eduardo Sorensen

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Supporter Spotlight Lex Sant: Helping people and the oceans goes hand-in-hand The elements found in human blood and seawater are remarkably similar. For Lex Sant, this fact hints at a larger truth: people and nature are interdependent. As president of the Summit Foundation, Sant is focused on improving the well-being of the oceans and the many who rely on them — the same goal that drew him to join Oceana’s Board of Directors in June 2023.

Over 25 years ago, Summit adopted the Mesoamerican Reef as a conservation priority. Despite being the longest barrier reef system in the Western Hemisphere — stretching about 1,005 kilometers (625 miles) along the coasts of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico — the reef was overlooked by many philanthropy organizations. © Philip Bermingham

The Mesoamerican Reef supports the livelihoods of nearly 2 million people engaged in fishing and tourism, and protects many more from rising sea levels and severe weather. Sixty percent of Belize’s population lives along the coast. But overfishing, habitat loss, and climate change challenge the Mesoamerican Reef and the ecosystems it supports.

Oceana’s care for the nexus of ocean health and human well-being resonates with me.

When Lex Sant’s parents, Roger and Vicki Sant, founded the Summit Foundation, they took a holistic approach to environmental problems. “You can’t really address the health of the Mesoamerican Reef without also considering the well-being of the people who depend on the reef and those who live and work in the watersheds adjacent to it,” Sant said. Summit focused on gender equality in countries adjacent to the reef, recognizing that human dignity and prosperity go handin-hand with the health and abundance of the reef.

In the last five years, Lex Sant has served in that role.

“I’m very proud of the work we’ve done to refine our identity and values in a way that honors the intention with which the Foundation was created and allows those values to animate our work in the future,” said Sant.

In 2023, Sant joined Oceana’s Board of Directors, inspired by “the clarity with which Oceana establishes the goals of its global campaigns.”

The Foundation’s early work with the Mesoamerican Reef inspired it to sponsor the creation of the Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative’s Reef Health Index, which has been published roughly every two years since 2008. Aggregating scientific measurements across the entire reef to indicate its health, the Index has become central to the Summit Foundation’s work.

“Oceana seeks solutions with ambition, focus, and a necessary sense of urgency,” said Sant, “Moreover, Oceana’s care for the nexus of ocean health and human well-being resonates with me. I am excited to work together with Oceana to restore the health of the oceans and their abundance and biodiversity around the world.”

Vicki Sant led the Foundation as its president from its creation in 1991 until shortly before her death in 2018.

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WINTER 2023 | Oceana.org

Crossword Puzzle

Polar Regions Crossword Puzzle Ready to put your ocean knowledge to the test? Through the KELP program, Sailors for the Sea Powered by Oceana has distributed educational activities for kids (and conservationists of all ages) in 76 countries. Get cozy with this crossword as you explore the world’s coldest oceans and polar regions.

Across: 2. A large piece of freshwater ice that has detached from a glacier or ice sheet, and is floating in open water.

3. A slowly moving mass of ice originating from accumulation and compaction of snow on mountains or near the poles.

7. Primarily found in cold seas, this large crustacean is widely caught and sold as food.

8. Known as the coldest, driest, and windiest continent.

10. Soft, white pieces of frozen water that fall to the ground from the sky in cold weather.

12. Among Earth’s harshest biomes, this treeless ecosystem has a cold, windy climate with very little rainfall.

13. Known as the unicorn of the sea, this toothed whale possesses a large “tusk” protruding from its head.

14. A large Arctic marine mammal that has flippers, tusks, and whiskers.

16. An abundant, small crustacean that is prey to whales, seals, penguins, squid, and fish.

17. A layer of small, white ice crystals that form on the ground or other surface when the temperature falls below freezing.

18. An annual long-distance dog sled race that takes place in Alaska.

Down: 1. Aquatic, flightless birds that live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere.

4. Considered a marine mammal because they spend most of their lives on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean, this carnivorous bear has a thick layer of body fat and a water-repellant coat that insulates them from the cold air and water.

5. One of the largest species of shark that also has the longest known lifespan of all vertebrates.

6. These feathered giants have the largest wingspan of any bird and are found soaring around the Southern Ocean.

9. Sometimes referred to as a polar light, this phenomenon is a natural light display in the sky that is seen in high latitude, polar regions.

11. Living in the Arctic Ocean, this all-white marine mammal has a protruding forehead called the “melon” and is missing a dorsal fin, which allows it to move freely under ice.

15. Polar region located at the nothernmost part of Earth.

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1. Penguins; 2. Iceberg; 3. Glacier; 4. Polar bear; 5. Greenland shark; 6. Wandering albatross; 7. King crab; 8. Antarctica; 9. Aurora; 10. Snow; 11. Beluga whale; 12. Tundra; 13. Narwhal; 14. Walrus; 15. Arctic; 16. Krill; 17. Frost; 18. Iditarod

This activity was developed by:

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Read more about Sailors for the Sea on page 8.

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© Oceana/Jose Gerstle

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The South American sea lion is one of the most common species seen in the Humboldt Archipelago. Oceana’s recent victory means the Archipelago is now better protected from industrial polluters.

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Scartichthys viridis, a species of combtooth blenny, can be found in the southeast Pacific Ocean, from Peru to Chile.

©© OCEANA | Carlos Suarez Oceana/Eduardo Sorensen

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