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Oceana Staff
James F. Simon Chief Executive Officer
Kathryn Matthews, Ph.D. Chief Scientist and Senior Vice President
Liesbeth van der Meer, DVM Senior Vice President
Daniel Olivares Senior Vice President
Joshua Laughren Senior Vice President
Matthew Littlejohn Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives
Christopher Sharkey Chief Financial Officer
Janelle Chanona Vice President, Belize
Dustin Cranor Vice President, Global Marketing and Communications
Nancy Golden Vice President, Global Development
Beth Lowell Vice President, United States
Pascale Moehrle Executive Director and Vice President, Europe
I enjoy talking to the many of you, our generous supporters, who make Oceana’s policy victories possible. You teach us a lot, you ask helpful questions, and you make good suggestions. I’ve recently been reflecting on how much we agree on three core ideas.
First, thank you for recognizing the importance of the work Oceana does to protect our oceans and the life within. Work like preserving areas where fish can thrive to sustainably nourish our planet, curbing plastic pollution in the ocean, or keeping animals like whales from going extinct.
Second, we share a commitment to achieving measurable results. A case in point? Our persuading Amazon to stop using plastic air pillows in packages in North America. Oceana and our allies have passed policies around the world that, by 2033, would eliminate 1.95 million metric tons of unnecessary single-use plastic each year.
Third, we agree on the good sense of working with local communities on aligned interests, and that our shared conservation goals also advance
social justice. Our most recent habitat victory in Canada, described on page 4, illustrates all three of these points.
Oceana worked with the Haida, Nuu-chah-nulth, Pacheedaht, and Quatsino First Nations to gain protections for 93% of Canada’s known seamounts, or underwater mountains, creating the largest marine protected area (MPA) in the country. This new MPA will be co-managed by these First Nations. It also contributes to Canada’s commitment to protect 30% of its ocean by 2030 and helps ensure future generations inherit a healthy, thriving ocean.
Our focus on fish abundance also continues to pay off in the Philippines, where we’re celebrating 10 years of successful campaigns. The Philippines boasts one of the most abundant and diverse oceans on the planet. The country ranks 12th in the world for wild fish catch and is home to about 100 million people who rely on ocean fisheries.
On page 10, you can read how, after years of severe overfishing, their ocean is now on the road to recovery based on new transparency laws Oceana helped enact that track vessels’ whereabouts, in addition to bans on practices that destroy essential habitats.
Beyond the stories told in this issue are many people behind the scenes, and on our Board of Directors, who drive our success. I’m delighted to introduce you to our two newest Board Members. Patrice Etlin is a global managing partner at
Advent International and an active conservationist in Brazil. He oversees his firm’s strategic direction and investment activities in the region.
Dr. Christina Chemtai Hicks, a Professor at Lancaster University, UK, and a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, brings expertise in fisheries governance and conservation, food justice and nutrition, and the politics of finance and investment in fisheries and food systems.
We also are pleased to announce our new board leaders, elected in September: Diana Thomson of The Nikita Foundation is our Chair; María Eugenia Girón, business executive and associate professor for entrepreneurship at IE Business School, is our Vice Chair; Sara Lowell of the Marisla Foundation is our Treasurer; and James Sandler of the Sandler Foundation remains our Secretary.
When we act, we achieve real results.
Together we can save the oceans in many ways, such as protecting endangered whales and turtles, supporting thriving oceans that can feed the world, eliminating singleuse plastics, and addressing climate change.
Oceana and its allies achieved seven new victories to help protect and restore the world’s oceans
Oceana and its expedition partners documented pom pom anemones, a king crab, a sea star, and brittle stars along Canada’s seamounts in British Columbia.
Canada protects 93% of seamounts off British Columbia with support from First Nations
In June, with support from First Nations, Canada created its newest and largest marine protected area (MPA) off the West Coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The action protects 93% of Canada’s known underwater mountains, or seamounts.
The new MPA follows campaigning by Oceana Canada and its allies since 2018, including conducting a deep-sea expedition to the area in partnership with the Haida Nation, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Ocean Networks Canada. During the expedition, the team identified centuries-old forests of red tree corals and glass sponges, crucial habitats for diverse marine species including sea lilies, basket stars, octopuses, and longlived rockfish.
Named Tang. ɢwan · ḥačxʷiqak · Tsigis, the MPA is co-managed by the Haida, Nuu-chah-nulth, Pacheedaht, and Quatsino First Nations, and prevents activities such as bottom-contact fishing, dumping, and oil and gas exploration and development, safeguarding marine life and ocean ecosystems from irreparable damage. This new MPA contributes to Canada’s commitment to protect 30% of its oceans by 2030.
Four Victories to Curb Plastics in North America
E-commerce giant Amazon eliminates plastic air pillows in North America
In June, Amazon announced it will fully remove plastic air pillows from its delivery packaging in North America by the end of 2024 and replace them with 100% recycled paper filler. Air pillows are made of plastic film, which unlike its paper alternatives, is not curbside recyclable or compostable. Turn to page 18 to read more about how Oceana’s campaigning led to this important victory.
California bans thick single-use plastic grocery bags
In September, the U.S. state of California passed a law to ban all single-use plastic bags from grocery store checkouts. In 2014, the state adopted the first statewide plastic bag ban in the country, but the law did not eliminate thicker plastic film grocery bags.
EU adopts biodiversity law, new protections for marine habitats
A new biodiversity law in the European Union — the first in 30 years — passed in June and mandates marine habitat protections. The law requires EU Member States to implement restoration measures for at least 20% of EU seas by 2030, and for all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. Thanks to campaigning by Oceana and its allies, the law requires countries in the EU to find joint solutions when there is a conflict between marine restoration goals and destructive activities like bottom trawling in areas fished by neighboring countries.
New England cod nursery protected from proposed scallop dredging
In June, Oceana won protection for an important cod nursery on Georges Bank in New England. With its allies, Oceana beat back an attempt by the United States scallop fishery to open this protected area to the dragging of heavy dredges along the seafloor to catch scallops, which would damage habitat and scoop up other non-target marine life. This action preserves the area for spawning, growth, and feeding of Atlantic cod, American lobster, and Atlantic herring.
Florida prohibits balloon releases
In June, the U.S. state of Florida passed a law to ban the intentional release of balloons. Balloons and their plastic ribbons can be easily ingested by sea turtles, seabirds, and other ocean wildlife, and studies show balloons are one of the deadliest types of plastic for marine wildlife.
US
to eliminate single-use plastics across the federal government
Oceana and its allies successfully campaigned to get the United States government to go single-use plastic-free. As the world’s largest purchaser of goods and services, the U.S. government’s purchasing decisions can have a global impact. In July, the Biden administration committed to phasing out single-use plastics from the federal government’s food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027 and in all other operations by 2035.
An octopus among algae in the waters off Malta in the EU.
News & Notes
Expedition to Mexico’s Campeche Bank inspires hope for coral reefs
Oceana led a 10-day scientific expedition in June to the Gulf of Mexico’s Campeche Bank to assess the health of its coral reefs. The team, which was joined by researchers from the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and the University of Arizona, documented that the reefs were healthy overall. In an area called Cayo Nuevo, the team documented flourishing, car-sized elkhorn coral and young coral recruits.
The researchers also observed sea turtles mating and noted around 90 nesting areas of green and hawksbill turtles, indicating the area’s great environmental value to conserve at-risk species. Oceana scientists also noted that further protection of the area would benefit multiple species including groupers, snappers, lobsters, king mackerel, and octopuses, all species that support local fishers. These preliminary findings were welcome, hopeful news to the scientists, indicating the reef’s potential to
overcome negative effects from climate change, pollution, and other threats.
Dr. Mariana Reyna, Oceana’s expedition leader, noted, “We are
confident that the results of the research will provide knowledge and solid bases for decision-making aimed at protecting these sites that possess great biodiversity.”
Oceana premiered a new public service announcement (PSA) in June for National Oceans Month. The 30-second video is narrated by Dennis Haysbert, the renowned American actor and environmental advocate who notes, “…teaming up with organizations like Oceana gives me hope.”
Haysbert is a longtime Oceana supporter and has frequently attended and spoken at events for the organization, most recently the 2024 SeaChange Summer Party in Orange County, California.
In the new PSA, Haysbert encourages viewers to “Help us turn the tide. Join Oceana’s wave of ocean advocates who are making a difference in the world.”
Scan the QR code to watch the PSA.
An Oceana researcher documents the reefs of Campeche Bank in Mexico.
Dennis Haysbert lends his iconic voice to Oceana’s “Turn the Tide”
PSA
Financial Times and Oceana highlight suspicious fishing activity by EU owned boats in African waters
Oceana worked with the Financial Times (FT) on an investigative story published in August titled “The European boats fishing under a veil of secrecy.”
The article exposed that EU owned industrial fishing vessels registered under African flags are exploiting local laws, driving overfishing, and causing harm to local artisanal fishers. A Senegalese fish wholesaler said artisanal boats sometimes stay out for six days and come back empty handed. “Foreign boats take our fish,” Moustapha Gueye told the FT.
Oceana partners with Boardmasters to protect the UK’s Cornish coast
August marked Oceana’s first year as the official environmental partner of Boardmasters, a five-day surfing and music festival that has called the Cornish coast in the United Kingdom home for more than 40 years.
Big wave surf legends and environmentalists Greg Long and Laura Crane attended a kickoff event with Oceana’s Vice President Hugo Tagholm to share issues affecting the oceans and encourage attendees to take action to protect the ocean and coastlines from threats including industrial fishing and offshore oil drilling.
Andrew Topham, CEO and Founder of Boardmasters, said, “…it’s a real
Thanks to Oceana’s research, the FT found “39 industrial fishing vessels that were flagged to Gambia, Mauritania, Senegal, and Guinea-Bissau as of July this year despite having ownership or management links to European companies. Over half were licensed to bring seafood into the EU… Twenty-seven of these boats fished for an estimated total of 2,200 days across the four countries’ waters so far in 2024,” according to location data provided by Global Fishing Watch.
Researchers and advocates, including Oceana Board Member and fisheries economist Dr. Rashid Sumaila, argued that the EU should publish a register of foreignflagged fishing vessels owned by EU citizens to help combat these issues and drive greater transparency.
pleasure to be able to announce this new and exciting partnership with Oceana, which I hope will
serve the oceans and the beautiful Cornish coast through positive action and awareness.”
Oceana is now the official environmental partner of Boardmasters, a long-standing surfing and music festival along the Cornish coast in the United Kingdom.
An artisanal fisher with a traditional Senegalese fishing boat. Many local fishers from Senegal and other countries in West Africa are facing competition from industrial fishing fleets.
James Simon is Oceana’s CEO. Simon was instrumental in establishing Oceana as the world’s leading ocean conservation organization and has helped win more than 300 major policy victories to date. He also helped spearhead the organization’s international expansion.
Simon has extensive experience in policy advocacy, management, and business. Before joining Oceana, he was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company; a political appointee at the Department of Justice; a Senior Attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council; and an attorney for the City of New York.
Simon’s background has helped him to bring a business-like approach to Oceana’s mission to protect and restore the world’s oceans.
He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was an editor on the Harvard Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University.
Q&A with Oceana’s New CEO, James “Jim” Simon
You have worked at Oceana for more than 21 years, first as its president and now as CEO. What led you to dedicate your career to ocean conservation?
JS: I feel fortunate to work in ocean conservation. In the ocean — because ocean-caught fish are the last significant source of wild food — the things we do to maintain ecosystems are the same things we do to increase food abundance for people. So, we have the opportunity not just to make a global, systemic difference by protecting ecosystems and increasing fish abundance generally, but also to improve the livelihoods of coastal communities who benefit from this abundance. I’m honored to take the helm at Oceana and lead conservation efforts that provide a direct benefit to individuals, families, communities, and the ocean.
I got here from a desire to work in public interest law, specifically conservation, civil rights, and social justice. In my first job after law school, I represented the City of New York in cases on many topics, including civil rights and the environment. I was on a team that brought the largest hazardous waste case in the country at the time, which involved illegal dumping in the city’s landfills. I also worked on cases to protect the city’s watershed and ensure a safe drinking supply. One thing I did, in addition to environmental cases, was to help initiate a new program to proactively investigate racial discrimination in housing and to bring lawsuits to stop it.
From there, I was able to join the Natural Resources Defense Council
— a great group, by the way — where I led a team suing to stop corporate and government polluters around the country. Next, I had the privilege of working in the Clinton administration as a political appointee in the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. We represented the United States in cases involving the oceans, mining, oil and gas drilling, waste disposal, air pollution — just about everything you can imagine related to conservation and the environment.
After gaining experience in business and management at McKinsey & Company, I joined Oceana — then just a start-up — because I wanted to bring a business-like approach to ocean advocacy, including a focus on results and accountability.
Over the past 23 years, Oceana has won more than 300 policy victories for the oceans. What Oceana victory/ies are you most proud of?
JS: That’s like asking me to choose a favorite child (which I won’t do!). Still, a few come to mind. For example: our campaign to change the politics on offshore oil drilling in the United States. In 2008 we went from a “drill, baby, drill” mentality to a bipartisan consensus in 2020 that new offshore oil drilling should cease. We changed the politics by working with coastal businesses and communities and demonstrated that they care about the integrity of the country’s coasts.
Another victory I’m very proud of is one of our very first. We worked with Native Alaskans to protect the north Pacific Ocean surrounding
the Aleutian Islands from destructive commercial fishing. Native Alaskans sustain themselves on the animals found in that ocean and getting commercial fishing stopped in those fragile waters in 2005 was a very big win.
More recently: In Peru, we worked with artisanal fishers to protect the first five miles of the coast from industrial fishing to protect that habitat and maintain the livelihoods of small-scale fishers and their families. In Chile, we protected kelp forests and introduced new rules that will help fishers sustainably harvest kelp.
What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
JS: I grew up sailing and swimming in Long Island Sound and have had a fundamental interest in the environment since I was a kid. I still love to get on the water, now mostly in the Chesapeake Bay.
How have you seen Oceana grow over the years and, in your opinion, have its priorities evolved?
JS: When we first began, our focus was on conservation, meaning preserving habitats and animals. It wasn’t until about 2012 that we began to understand — as I’ve mentioned — how we can use the oceans not only to preserve ecosystems but also to help feed people.
Not only can the oceans be a source of food in general, but we can bring seafood to people facing food insecurity. For instance, coastal communities in Senegal, Ghana, and Malaysia. Oceana is seeking funding to start campaigns in these countries, where we would work with and for the local people to increase their access to healthy and nutritious fish.
We also now understand and really embrace that the ocean is not only a victim of climate change but also
a source for solutions to climate change. For example, if we can keep the carbon under the sea — as opposed to drilling and burning it — we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
You’re an attorney by training. Can you tell us about how Oceana uses litigation strategically to help protect the oceans?
JS: We use litigation as one of the five tools in our campaigns: science, communications, organizing, lobbying, and litigation. We look at the important change we’re campaigning to make for the ocean and who can make it — whether it’s the head of government, a government agency, the legislature — and then decide how to persuade that person or body to do the right thing. Sometimes litigation is the best way to do that. It depends on the circumstances, and we’re ready to use any or all tools in any country in which we operate.
At any given time, we have about 14 or so cases moving through the courts in countries around the world. Just as an example, we’ve won legal cases in Chile requiring transparency about the use of antibiotics in salmon farming. We just won a case in the Philippines requiring the National Commission on Solid Waste to issue a list of environmentally harmful substances that need to be banned, which should include plastics. And the list goes on.
Oceana has become increasingly globally diverse over the years. Can you share why you think that is a vital trait as the organization continues to mature? How do you intend to facilitate that diversity?
JS: Diversity is integral to Oceana’s culture and mission. Since we’re working on country-level policy
change, our teams come from at least 12 countries. We place a high value on diversity — people from different backgrounds, different racial and ethnic identities, different educational systems, and different worldviews.
In the U.S., we are working to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of our staff, not only through recruiting but also through retention, which depends on an inclusive workplace. We want all of our colleagues to feel welcome and supported, which includes fostering a culture where people can trust that they can safely raise an issue related to diversity or inclusion and that, if they do, they will be listened to with respect, an open mind, and a commitment to fairness, anti-discrimination, and antiracism.
External equity is also important to us, which is why in so many of our campaigns we fight to improve social justice for coastal communities and others.
As sea levels and global temperatures rise, so too does climate anxiety. How do you stay hopeful during these times of uncertainty?
JS: Action brings hope. The only thing to do is act.
To quote one of our Board Members, the world-class marine scientist Dr. Daniel Pauly, “the question isn’t whether you’re optimistic or pessimistic. The question is: what are you going to do about it?”
I think the best thing to do is get to work. And Oceana has a track record of getting things done. I could not be happier than to be where I am right now, with the chance to be a part of the Oceana team — staff, board, supporters, partners, and allies — making a big difference for people and for the planet.
From Brasilia to Manila
Oceana reflects on 10 years of protecting coasts, reforming fisheries laws, and forging partnerships in Brazil and the Philippines
By Emily Nuñez
A group of artisanal fishers in Santa Catarina, Brazil, catch mullet using a beach seine net. This traditional fishing method requires the community to pull the large net to shore together.
Ask Oceana’s leaders in Brazil and the Philippines how they keep winning victories for the oceans, and some patterns start to emerge.
“One of the things that Oceana has done really well in the Philippines is build a trusting relationship with small-scale fishers and show them that there is hope,” says Gloria (“Golly”) Estenzo Ramos, Oceana’s Vice President in the Philippines.
“We strengthened our engagement with artisanal fishers, whose voices had not previously been heard in Brazil,” says Dr. Ademilson Zamboni, Oceana’s Vice President in Brazil.
Understanding the importance of these partnerships — and the value of abundant oceans — helps explain why Oceana expanded to Brazil and the Philippines in 2014. Ranking 12th in the world for wild fish catch, the Philippines is home to over 100 million people who rely on marine fisheries for their food or income.
On the opposite side of the world, Brazil ranks 30th in wild fish catch and is home to 771,000 small-scale fishers, representing 71% of workers in the nation’s fishing industry.
According to Oceana CEO James Simon, ocean conservation in these two countries has an outsized impact — not just for marine life, but for the people who live and work there.
“Oceana established campaign teams in Brazil and the Philippines because we saw an opportunity to rebuild fisheries for the millions of people who rely on them for their livelihoods and — in many cases — their nutritional needs,” says Simon.
“Over the last 10 years, Oceana has fought alongside artisanal fishers in Brazil and the Philippines for policies that prioritize science-based fisheries management, tackle illegal and destructive fishing, and reduce plastic pollution in our oceans. The difference these campaigns have made for their oceans is like night and day.”
A light in the darkness
When Oceana came to Brazil a decade ago, the state of its fisheries was bleak. A lack of catch limits meant that it was always open season on fish, and many species were already showing the effects of overfishing.
“There was no data, no monitoring, no active fisheries councils, and no management plans for critical species,” says Martin Dias, Oceana’s Science Director in Brazil. “We landed here in complete darkness.”
To make a case for science-based fisheries management, Oceana campaigners knew they would have to prove its value. In 2018, the team worked with government officials to introduce a catch limit for an important fishery called tainha (mullet), then publicized its catch data in an online logbook. Two years later, the Brazilian government used Oceana’s model as the basis for its own system, making national catch data available online for the first time.
More victories followed, including catch limits for red and green lobster, which are particularly important to artisanal fishers. Oceana and its allies also restored Fisheries Management Councils that had been previously eliminated, and successfully advocated for Brazil’s industrial fishing vessel data to be made publicly available on the Global Fishing Watch map, helping to track and take down illegal fishing.
Despite greater transparency in Brazil, data is still lacking. Biological information is only known for 52% of the country’s fish stocks, according to Oceana’s 2023 Fisheries Audit, an annual report that offers the most comprehensive evaluation of fisheries management
Oceana played a key role in putting everyone together to achieve the same outcome, which is reforming the [fisheries] law and trying to find common goals.
– Martin Dias
in Brazil. Of the fisheries that have enough data available, 66% are overfished.
“We have played a major role in the fisheries agenda, but unfortunately, the situation is still dire,” Zamboni says. “Brazil does not have a robust fisheries policy, and the institutions are very fragile.”
This is partly due to high turnover as administrations change, disrupting any progress made by fisheries agencies. To address this issue, Oceana is campaigning to reform Brazil’s Fisheries Law in hopes of creating a framework that isn’t subject to the revolving door of politics.
Those reforms are currently being considered in Congress, and Dias is confident they will be successful.
Oceana has already spent 800 hours hashing out the details with artisanal and commercial fishers, scientists, and other nonprofits. Following a workshop supported by Oceana, fisherwomen and shellfish gatherers helped draft a letter to policymakers that advocated for language in the Fisheries Law that recognizes the identity and rights of women working in Brazil’s fishing industry.
“This is a huge achievement to me: getting small-scale fishers and the largest industries at the same table to agree on how a new Fisheries Law should be,” Dias says. “Oceana played a key role in putting everyone together to achieve the same outcome, which is reforming the law and trying to find common goals.”
Oceana held workshops with artisanal fishers along the coast of Brazil to discuss changes needed to the country’s Fisheries Law.
‘A long fight’
Echoing Oceana’s experience in Brazil, fisheries management in the Philippines had plenty of room for improvement in 2014. That year, the European Union warned that it would ban fish imports from the Philippines if the country didn’t address its illegal fishing problem.
Soon after, Oceana leveraged this opportunity to support an updated Fisheries Code as well as the rules and regulations that govern its implementation. The amended law and regulations cracked down on illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, but progress has not always been linear in a country where IUU fishing accounts for up to 40% of the fish caught.
One of Oceana’s earliest victories in the Philippines made it mandatory for all commercial fishing vessels entering the country’s largest marine protected area in the Tañon Strait — a place home to a wide array of corals, whales, and dolphins — to be tracked. In 2016, Oceana
championed the installation of public tracking devices on all commercial fishing vessels, now with a compliance rate of 90%.
Ramos says this action helps to detect and deter IUU fishing throughout the country, particularly in municipal waters that extend 15 kilometers (just over 9 miles) from shore.
“Overfishing and illegal fishing remain the biggest challenges in the Philippines, particularly in municipal waters that are reserved for artisanal fishers,” Ramos says. “It’s been a long fight, but we’ve managed to block every attempt to allow commercial fishing in these waters.”
Oceana has also made significant strides on the fisheries front, successfully advocating for the creation of 12 Fisheries Management Areas (FMAs) that ushered in a new era of sustainable and science-based fisheries management. This paved the way for another Oceana victory: requiring FMAs to implement
a national plan to help sardines recover.
“Sardines are one of the most important species of fish in the Philippines,” Ramos says. “The poorest eat them because they are available and cheap, but sardines are also facing an alarming decline. This management plan, if properly implemented, would restore the abundance of our sardine fishery and support those who rely on them the most.”
Oceana has also been fighting against “dump-and-fill” projects that hurt sardines and other valuable species. These land reclamation projects rely on “filling” materials — including sand, silt, and mud — that are dredged from the seabed. This process, known as seabed quarrying, can destroy vulnerable habitats and fishing grounds.
By prioritizing the health of sardines and their habitats, Oceana also hopes to support the smallscale fishers who have been so central to Oceana’s victories.
A sardine shoal in the waters of Moalboal, Cebu, in the Philippines.
Small-scale fishing, large-scale impact
The Philippines is the most fishdependent country in which Oceana currently campaigns. Though its municipal waters are reserved for small-scale fishers, illegal incursions by commercial fishers can have serious repercussions for those who rely on fish closer to shore for their food and income.
“We are considered the center of marine biodiversity in the entire world, but the fact that our smallscale fishers are among the poorest in the Philippines really shows that the benefit — the marine wealth — has not cascaded in their favor,” Ramos says.
From the beginning, Oceana has been empowering small-scale fishers to participate in decisionmaking processes that affect their livelihoods. Small-scale fishers played a key role in helping to secure the vessel monitoring requirement in the Tañon Strait,
and for many of the lawsuits filed by Oceana to fight illegal fishing, they have eagerly signed on as copetitioners.
“When we first started working on illegal fishing, the small-scale fishers told us that we touched on a subject that no other nongovernment organizations wanted to address, which was illegal fishing in the Tañon Strait,” says Danny Ocampo, Oceana’s Science Strategy and Campaign Senior Manager for the Philippines. “We still work with fisherfolk groups and networks nationwide, and they are a very important part of our campaigns.”
Likewise, one of Oceana’s most emblematic victories in Brazil could not have been won without the support of artisanal fishers, who successfully pressured politicians to approve a bottom trawling ban in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul in 2018. Bottom trawling, a destructive and indiscriminate form of fishing, was hurting the livelihoods of artisanal fishers in the region.
“Oceana helped mobilize more than 18,000 artisanal fishers who sent messages to state representatives and created decisive and, in a way, unprecedented popular pressure,” Zamboni says. “A combination of organization, mobilization, lobbying, and science resulted in the unanimous approval of the law — confirmed by the Supreme Court — that protected 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 square miles) of the ocean in Rio Grande do Sul, securing the livelihoods of more than 20,000 families.”
Research by Oceana, conducted in partnership with local universities, shows that the bottom trawling ban is already yielding results. Preliminary findings indicate that important fish species are on the road to recovery, including weakfish and whitemouth croaker.
“Yields in fisheries are increasing, and we are also seeing larger fish,” Zamboni says. “Stock assessments also indicate a sharp decline in fishing mortality. These are very clear signs that our projections were correct.”
Oceana and artisanal fishers helped ban destructive industrial bottom trawling along the coastal waters of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil in 2018.
Artisanal fishers in the Philippines help process their sardine catch, a nutritious and affordable protein source for many people in the country.
Tackling plastic pollution
While many of Oceana’s victories have focused on fisheries, campaigners in Brazil and the Philippines are also fighting against single-use plastic pollution, a newer effort for both countries.
In the Philippines, Oceana has been campaigning to include plastics on the government’s list of non-environmentally acceptable products, which would drastically limit its circulation.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s campaigners are championing a plastic reduction bill that is currently under review in Congress. The bill even received an endorsement from iFood, Brazil’s leading food delivery company and the subject of a previous Oceana campaign.
Following advocacy by Oceana and its allies, iFood agreed to remove napkins, plastic cutlery, plates, cups, and straws from 80% of its deliveries by 2025. It later
Our focus has been on holding industries accountable and pushing for stronger government action, moving the conversation away from blaming individual consumers — an argument the [plastics] industry has leaned on for decades.
– Lara Iwanicki
expanded that goal to include polystyrene foam containers and plastic sachets and bags.
Lara Iwanicki, Oceana’s Senior Manager of Advocacy and Strategy in Brazil, says these measures would eliminate 2.7 billion singleuse plastic items per year from 2025 on. Considering that none of these items are recycled in Brazil, this is a major win for the oceans.
Iwanicki has also noticed a shift in attitudes toward single-use plastics throughout Brazil. Oceana’s plastics campaign has garnered support from more than 80 diverse
organizations, including health groups, waste picker movements, and fishing communities.
“Oceana has played a crucial role in shifting this narrative,” Iwanicki says. “Our focus has been on holding industries accountable and pushing for stronger government action, moving the conversation away from blaming individual consumers — an argument the industry has leaned on for decades. This shift is central to how we’re driving the debate forward in Brazil and around the world.”
surfer Maya Gabeira spoke at an Oceana event in Brazil’s Congress during the launch of the Stop the Plastic Tsunami campaign.
We know the importance of the work that Oceana does, and that keeps us inspired. We always cling to the victories as our North Star — something that will guide us and tell us, ‘You’re doing the right thing. Stick with it’.
– Danny Ocampo
‘Our North Star’
Oceana has come a long way in Brazil and the Philippines in the last decade, from fleshing out frameworks for fisheries management, to partnering with local fishers on policies of national importance.
Despite the setbacks, Oceana continues to fight for changes that will yield abundant fisheries and cleaner coasts. Ocampo, who has encountered many challenges and industry threats while campaigning on behalf of Oceana over the years, says the wins make the work worthwhile.
“We know the importance of the work that Oceana does, and that keeps us inspired,” Ocampo says.
“We always cling to the victories as our North Star — something that will guide us and tell us, ‘You’re doing the right thing. Stick with it.’”
An artisanal fisher in the Philippines. The Philippines is home to over 100 million people who rely on marine fisheries for their food or income.
Amazon Ditches Plastic Air Pillows in North America
In a major victory for Oceana and the oceans, the world’s largest e-commerce company moves away from plastic packaging
by Emily Nuñez
For years, Amazon delivered packages with a side of plastic waste. At the company’s fulfillment centers, plastic pillows were filled with air to cushion purchases in cardboard boxes. Those packages were then shipped to the company’s huge customer base — a reported 180 million Americans are currently Amazon Prime members.
Air pillows are made from flexible plastic film, a type of plastic not accepted, as Amazon itself has noted, by most municipal curbside recycling programs in the United States. Instead, when plastic film is thrown away, it often ends up in landfills or in the environment, including the oceans, where it can injure and kill marine life. In studies of 80 marine species that died after ingesting a variety of plastic debris, flexible plastic proved to be the deadliest kind.
Oceana and its allies have been campaigning for four years to get Amazon to reduce plastic packaging, including air pillows, and in June, the company took action. Amazon announced that, for packages delivered in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, it had replaced 95% of its plastic air pillows with filler made entirely from recycled paper. Amazon said it would phase out the remaining 5% of air pillows by the end of 2024 and also committed to an even broader “multi-year effort to remove plastic delivery packaging from North America fulfillment centers.”
Amazon’s move away from plastic air pillows in North America follows the company phasing out plastic air pillows in Australia, and nearly all single-use plastic packaging
Since 2020, Oceana has released reports estimating Amazon’s plastic packaging footprint.
(including air pillows) in India and throughout Europe.
Matt Littlejohn, Oceana’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, says that according to the company’s most recent sustainability report, the U.S. and Canada accounted for more than 94% of Amazon’s global plastic packaging use in 2023. And “protective” packaging, including air
pillows, accounted for about a third of all e-commerce plastic packaging used in 2022.
Amazon announced that its decision meant it was eliminating a total of 15 billion air pillows annually. “That’s great news for the oceans,” Littlejohn adds. “An enormous amount of plastic, a type that is especially devastating to marine life, will be replaced.”
In June 2024, Amazon announced it would phase out plastic air pillows from its deliveries in North America, eliminating nearly 15 billion air pillows annually.
Exposing Amazon’s plastic problem
Oceana launched its campaign in 2020, just after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon sales and orders were growing exponentially as customers flocked online to shop. “We knew this plastic was a problem for the oceans and felt like Amazon was a company that could fix it,” Littlejohn says.
At first, Oceana appealed directly to Amazon’s customers, urging them to ask the company for a plastic-free packaging option at checkout. A petition, led by Oceana supporter Nicole Delma, garnered over 780,000 signatures.
Because Amazon’s sustainability reports did not disclose information about its plastic packaging use, Oceana took a different tactic and began to estimate the company’s
plastic footprint, calculating how much of that plastic was potentially polluting the world’s waterways and seas.
Oceana’s first report about the company’s plastic packaging footprint was released in December 2020 and relied on a mix of peerreviewed research and e-commerce packaging data to estimate the amount of plastic packaging that Amazon used in a year, as well as the share of waste that was likely to become marine plastic pollution and the impact of plastic on marine life. The report also called on the company to use its well-known innovative capabilities to move away from plastic packaging.
The first report estimated that up to 22.4 million pounds of Amazon’s plastic packaging polluted the world’s freshwater and marine ecosystems in 2019 — the equivalent of dumping a
delivery van’s worth of plastic into the world’s waterways and oceans every 70 minutes. When national media outlets started covering Oceana’s report, Amazon disputed the estimate but refused to release data backing its claim. Oceana noted Amazon’s statement about the estimate and called for the company to make its own data publicly available (and offered to use that data in future reports).
Dr. Dana Miller, Oceana’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, says, “We used science and the best available information for our reports and shared our estimates with the company. The company’s public response to the report and refusal to share its own numbers was key because it ultimately drove more media coverage and raised the question — why was Amazon refusing to be transparent about its plastic use?”
Oceana’s campaign hit an early milestone in November 2021 when Amazon announced it would replace single-use plastic packaging with paper and cardboard in Germany, one of the company’s largest markets. In addition to pressuring company executives to make these kinds of changes around the world, Oceana began directly connecting with Amazon investors and employees, many of whom were also company shareholders, and called on them to push the company to commit to plastic reductions.
Ahead of Amazon’s annual meeting in May 2022, Oceana sent a letter that urged shareholders to support a resolution, filed by Oceana ally As You Sow, calling on the company to reduce its plastic footprint by one-third. Outside Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington, Oceana canvassed and created mobile billboards, yard signs, chalk graffiti, and street posters. “We made the company’s ‘plastic problem’ and the resolution an issue for employees and shareholders,” adds Littlejohn. When it came time to vote, the results were surprising. The resolution received 48% of the support of company shareholders, exceeding expectations and nearly passing.
“We almost won outright, which had never happened before in Amazon history,” Littlejohn says. “It was clear we were on to something.”
Oceana released reports on an annual basis, with new estimates of the company’s plastic footprint, to ramp up the pressure. By the time Oceana got ready to release its third report in December
2022, Amazon, now in regular communication with Oceana, asked for a meeting and told Oceana that it was going to release a statement disclosing its plastic use.
“This new transparency was so important,” adds Miller. “The company disclosure — which came directly in response to our reports — really set the stage because Amazon was now publicly accountable for its plastic packaging footprint.”
Then, in November 2023, Amazon announced it had completed a dramatic transition away from plastic packaging in Europe. Earlier that year, the company disclosed in its annual sustainability report that its total plastic use for packages shipped from company fulfillment centers had declined by 11.6% from 2021 to 2022.
“We know that our campaign and reports played an important role in this change,” Miller says of Amazon’s decision to act in Europe and decrease its plastic packaging use. “But because the markets in Europe are not nearly as large as
the U.S., it was also easier for the company to make changes there. The key to the overall victory was getting the company to do the same in North America, which accounted for 94% of Amazon’s total plastic packaging use in 2023, according to the company’s most recent sustainability report.”
Oceana knew that Amazon had the ability to reduce plastic packaging in North America and continued to push new reports, shareholder resolutions, and other actions until change finally happened.
Littlejohn credits the “Oceana model” — along with the support of Oceana’s allies — for the campaign’s ultimate success. Oceana used data and science to write its Amazon reports, then leaned on its communications team to secure media coverage. At the grassroots and advocacy levels, Oceana engaged with Amazon customers and employees, campaigned outside of the company’s offices in Seattle, and repeatedly met with executives to make a case for plastic reductions.
Outside of Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington, Oceana put Amazon’s ‘plastic problem’ on full display, creating mobile billboards, yard signs, chalk graffiti, and street posters.
Plastic film, a thin, flexible type of plastic, is one of the deadliest types of plastic to marine life.
Oceana is now monitoring Amazon’s public reports to make sure it completely phases out plastic air pillows and transitions away from plastic packaging in its North American operations. “The company could stretch its impact further by pivoting to reusable packaging in all of its markets,” says Miller. “This would reduce singleuse packaging that has a short life span but long-term environmental consequence.”
As Oceana looks to the future, it’s applying some of the lessons learned from its Amazon campaign to a different corporate target: The Coca-Cola Company. Oceana launched a campaign in 2020 against this company to move away from single-use plastic packaging and towards reusable beverage containers. Coca-Cola is the number one plastic polluter in the world, according to the Break Free From Plastic Brand Audit. In 2022, the global beverage maker committed to making a quarter
Amazon’s ability to quickly pivot from plastic air pillows to recycled paper filler shows what large companies can achieve.
– Dr. Dana Miller
of its packaging reusable by 2030 — a move that, by Oceana’s estimates, would avoid producing the equivalent of over 100 billion 500ml single-use plastic bottles and cups.
While this would significantly reduce plastic pollution, CocaCola has not made any progress toward that goal. In 2023, the company’s reusable packaging stood at 14% for its total beverage volume, unchanged from 2022. Oceana is now pushing Coca-Cola to come up with a plan to meet its commitment.
“Coca-Cola will eventually also reduce their use of plastic packaging. They have to — our oceans are being inundated with plastic,” Miller says. “We will be persistent in pushing the company for change because we know they can do it, just as Amazon has.”
Miller explained that Amazon’s ability to quickly pivot from plastic air pillows to recycled paper filler shows what large companies can achieve. In just eight months, the company went from announcing that it would be testing paper packaging alternatives at a fulfillment center in Euclid, Ohio, to actually rolling out those changes across North America.
If Amazon can make these changes so quickly, then Coca-Cola can too, Miller said. “The most exciting thing about being a part of Oceana’s Amazon campaign is the realization that, even with a small team, you can move a company this big and powerful to do the right thing if you have strong arguments and tactics, focus on the right decisionmakers, and are backed by science,” Miller said. “It was possible for them to change their packaging strategy quickly, and they have shown others change is possible, too.”
Oceana supported a resolution at Amazon’s annual meeting that called on the company to publicly report on its plastic footprint.
Ask a Scientist
Diovanie “Diuvs” De Jesus Campaign and Science Specialist, Philippines
Diovanie “Diuvs” De Jesus started sailing with Oceana in the Philippines as a Marine Scientist and now as a Campaign and Science Specialist, providing scientific insights and strategies for campaigns. His passion for saving the oceans is matched by his love for exploring the breathtaking waters of the archipelago, where he dives into adventure and discovery.
Alvin Simon Research Scientist, Philippines
Alvin Simon is a Research Scientist for Oceana’s campaign research department in the Philippines. Prior to joining Oceana, he was a researcher under several national projects monitoring the status of coral reefs. He specializes in reef fish ecology and has worked with some of the top Filipino marine scientists.
Can you explain coral bleaching?
In July 2024, Oceana’s team documented coral bleaching in Batangas, Philippines.
Although corals may look like rocks, they are actually living organisms, engaged in a vital relationship with microscopic algae called zooxanthellae, which provide corals with food through photosynthesis and give them their vibrant colors. This intricate bond, however, is under threat. When ocean temperatures exceed their normal range — increasingly due to climate change — corals experience extreme stress and expel their zooxanthellae. This leaves them “bleached” and vulnerable, since the sugars they get from the zooxanthellae’s photosynthesis are their primary food supply. While
some corals are more resilient and can recover from bleaching, others will eventually die if stress-inducing conditions continue.
Coral reefs are the breeding and nursery grounds for a wide range of animals like the giant clam, blue swimming crab, and fish like sardine and grouper. Coral reefs are also home to manta rays, turtles, dolphins, and more — so when corals bleach, the entire ecosystem feels the impact. Bleaching events have become more frequent and severe, posing an ever-increasing threat to coral reefs.
Coral reefs are the breeding and nursery grounds for a wide range of animals like the giant clam, blue swimming crab, and fish like sardine and grouper. Coral reefs are also home to manta rays, turtles, dolphins, and more — so when corals bleach, the entire ecosystem feels the impact.
For the people of the Philippines, coral bleaching is not just an environmental issue — it’s a human one — threatening the livelihoods of millions of Filipinos who depend on healthy reefs for food and economic survival. Dying and dead reefs result in lower fish catches for artisanal fisherfolks and hurt the country’s tourism industry, which is a major economic player and highly reliant on healthy reefs. Moreover, the loss of coral reefs, which act as a natural barrier against waves, puts coastal communities at risk of storm surges and erosion.
Philippine reefs have suffered through several mass bleaching events over the years. In 1998, a global bleaching event hit one of the most important coral reefs in the country, Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park. Ninety percent of the corals turned white in Apo Island Marine Reserve in Negros Oriental, the oldest marine reserve in the country. Coral cover declined dramatically and some of the reefs never recovered.
In 2008, bleaching came to Apo Reef Natural Park, a major diving destination for tourists who come to see the reefs and the manta rays, whale sharks, and sea turtles that call it home
The coral reefs of Verde Island Passage, an epicenter of marine reef fish biodiversity, bleached in 2010. Bleaching events in 2016 and 2021 also affected areas in the Sulu Sea, Visayan Sea, Palawan, and Tawi-Tawi.
And in early 2024, marine scientists observed extensive coral damage in the West Philippines Sea, an area in contention with China and other neighboring countries, with
almost 100% of the corals dead or in different stages of dying.
Protecting corals
The frequency of coral bleaching events is alarming and made worse by the increasing climate crisis. Oceana is at the forefront of campaigns to safeguard these critical marine ecosystems.
One of our most pressing initiatives is to establish marine protected areas to create spaces where marine life are safe from overfishing and other destructive human activities. By removing these threats, we can enhance the resilience of corals in the face of climate change. Reefs protected from overfishing and other threats are more likely to recover from bleaching events, or avoid them altogether.
Oceana was invited by the Philippines government in 2016 to participate in an expedition to the Philippine Rise, a coral reef system located in deep waters. Unlike shallow reefs, the coral reefs in the Philippine Rise are remote
and inhabit cooler, deeper waters; as a result, they are protected from direct human threats and are less vulnerable to rising sea temperatures. This collaboration led to the establishment of the Philippine Rise Marine Resource Reserve in 2018. Protecting and studying this resilient area is critical and offers hope that some ecosystems can withstand the impacts of climate change.
Oceana is also campaigning to establish the Panaon Island Protected Seascape in Southern Leyte, Philippines, an area that boasts a coral cover surpassing the national average. It is part of the 50 Reefs Initiative, a global effort led by Bloomberg Philanthropies and other partners to protect the world’s most climate-resilient coral reefs.
By safeguarding vital habitats in the Philippines from illegal fishing, overfishing, plastic pollution, and unsustainable coastal development — such as ‘dump-and-fill’ projects — Oceana can ensure that marine ecosystems remain healthy and abundant into the future.
Oceana documented vibrant coral reefs in the waters of Panaon Island, a reef that has been identified as having the best chance of surviving the impacts of climate change.
SeaChange
Co-Chair Gabe Serrato-Buelna, Alexandrine WAN, Richard WAN, Christine Dela Cerna, and Phong Nguyen
Oceana Board Members Beto Bedolfe and Sara Lowell, Oceana Board Member and SeaChange Co-Chair Elizabeth Wahler, former Oceana Board Member, SeaChange Co-Founder, and event honoree Valarie Van Cleave, and Oceana Board Member Ted Danson
On Aug. 17, Oceana hosted its 17th annual SeaChange Summer Party in Laguna Beach where attendees raised over $1.6 million to support the organization’s campaigns to protect and restore the oceans in California and around the world. Award-winning actor and Oceana Board Member Ted Danson hosted the evening that honored longtime Oceana Board Member and SeaChange Co-Founder Valarie Van Cleave.
Oceana’s new CEO, James Simon, addressed the crowd for the first time after stepping into the position in July, highlighting important victories Oceana has achieved in the last year, including several wins in California to reduce whale and sea turtle entanglements in commercial fishing gear.
Oceana’s former CEO Andrew Sharpless introduced honoree Valarie Van Cleave and highlighted her dedication to ocean conservation. She started Oceana’s
campaigns to stop seafood fraud, served as chair of the organization’s Board, and co-founded the SeaChange Summer Party, which has raised over $20 million for Oceana in the past 17 years.
“I have a keen lifelong interest in the environment and a deep appreciation for those people dedicated to conserving and restoring the natural world, and that is Oceana’s sweet spot,” Van Cleave told guests.
This year’s event was made possible by Oceana Board Member and event Co-Chair Elizabeth Wahler, event Co-Chair Gabe Serrato-Buelna, Vice Chairs Jeff Blasingame and Kelly Brochu, and Chair Emeriti Karen Cahill, Ted Danson, Julie Hill, Eve Kornyei, Britt Meyer, and Valarie Van Cleave. Generous support came from numerous distinguished businesses and philanthropists, including Presenting Partner Biossance and Pacific Coast Partners the SoCal BMW Centers and Robert WAN.
“We’re here because Oceana fights for the health of our oceans, and all of the magnificent creatures that call them home,” said Wahler. Serrato-Buelna added, “In just the last year, Oceana has won victory after victory, and continues to campaign against plastic pollution, destructive fishing practices, and more.”
Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb treated guests to a private concert to wrap up the evening, performing hits including “Stay (I Missed You).”
Additional partners and sponsors included Alec’s Ice Cream, Anker, Monique Bär, Michael and Patricia Berns, Dennis and Carol Berryman, Bruce and Karen Cahill, CHANEL, Anne Earhart, Giorgio Armani Corporation, Peter and Julie Hill, LOEWE, Jacob Loveless and Kelly Brochu, Greg and Barbara MacGillivray, Robert and Britt Meyer, Moroccanoil, Nautica, Justin Pham and Bonnie Lee, Steven and Shirley Quackenbush, Gena H.
Reed, Steve and Marisa Robbins, Louis and Laura Rohl, Kaira and Harley Rouda, Fred and Wendy Salter, Gabe Serrato-Buelna and Byron Rabin, Sheets, Paquette & Wu Dental Practice, Michael and Suzie Silvers, South Coast Plaza, Jim and Julie Ann Ulcickas, Elizabeth Wahler, Valaree Wahler, Uwe Waizenegger and Valarie Van Cleave, and Tim and Jean Weiss.
Featured live auction items were donated by Robert WAN, the SoCal BMW Centers, Lindblad Expeditions, Anantara Naladhu Private Island Maldives, Your Private Africa, Andronis Luxury Suites, Gundari, Hidden Doorways, and Aqua Expeditions. Oceana’s in-kind donors for the event included Anker, Brite Ideas, Franciscan Estate, Hahn, Iron Horse Vineyards, Ketel One Vodka, Nolet’s Gin, Sand Cloud, and Signature Party Rentals.
Ocean advocates gathered for “An Evening of Jazz” at the Mastercard Midnight Theatre in New York City on Sept. 10 and raised over $1.8 million for Oceana’s campaigns. The event, presented by Blancpain, was hosted by actor and Oceana Board Member Ted Danson and featured an esteemed group of speakers, performers, and attendees, including Oceana Board Members Sam Waterston and Dr. Christina Chemtai Hicks, event Co-Chairs and Oceana Board Members Susan and David Rockefeller, new Oceana CEO James Simon, and musical guests Brian Newman and Rumer Willis.
Over the past 10 years, Oceana’s New York events have raised nearly $18 million to help deliver policy victories around the world. Danson and Waterston highlighted how Oceana achieved more than 25 victories for the oceans in the last year alone, including several to combat ocean plastic pollution.
“Plastic is wreaking havoc on our oceans and, as it breaks up into microplastics, they are getting into our bodies, including our brains, blood, and even mother’s milk,” Simon told guests. “Oceana and our allies have passed policies that by 2033 can eliminate the use of more than 2.1 million tons of single-use plastic each year.”
Dr. Christina Chemtai Hicks, a new Oceana Board Member, scientist, and Professor at the University of Lancaster in the United Kingdom, addressed the crowd
about threats facing fishers and families in West Africa, including fish becoming more expensive and scarce as well as an increased risk of micronutrient deficiency.
Oceana is currently raising funds to expand its campaigns to Ghana, Senegal, and Malaysia, three coastal nations where many local communities rely on fish and the oceans to support their livelihoods and families. Many local fish populations are now in decline because of illegal and destructive fishing, limited management capacity, and warming oceans.
“Working alongside local communities, Oceana will develop policies to slow the flow of fish out of West Africa and ensure benefits are distributed locally,” said Dr. Hicks. “This will improve fish stocks and support the livelihoods of 800 million fishery-dependent people around the world.”
The celebratory evening concluded with a performance by jazz artist Brian Newman and special guest Rumer Willis, the first time the artists have ever collaborated.
Oceana thanked its supporters for the event including Monique Bär, Tamar and Herbert M. Bedolfe III, Laura Brillembourg-Osio and Miguel Osio, Blancpain, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Deborah Buck and Miguel Oliveira, Jo Champa, Barbara Cohn, Anita Cosgrove, Deutsch Family Wine and Spirits, Kay and Frank Fernandez, Dr. Richard Firshein, Patricia García López, María Eugenia Girón, Loic and Daniela Gouzer,
Oceana Board Member and event Co-Chair Susan Rockefeller, musical guest Rumer Willis, and actress Jo Champa
Agnes Gund, Kelly and Jim Hallman, Adelaide Horton and John Fraley, Marion Hunt, Jena King, Melony and Adam Lewis, Sara and Jack Lowell, Dede McMahon, Moroccanoil, Tracy Nixon, Katie and Peter O’Neill, Kate and Kristian Parker, Susan and David Rockefeller, Andrew Sabin, Gretchen and Jim Sandler, Regina and John Scully, Maja Serdarevic and Edmond Offermann, Nancy and Simon Sidamon-Eristoff, Epp Sonin, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Elizabeth Wahler, Jennifer and Gordon Wangers, Lynn and Sam Waterston, Jean and Tim Weiss, Linda and Larry Weiss, Bettina and Raoul Witteveen, Leslie and Robert Zemeckis, and Mercedes Zobel.
Blancpain donated an exclusive shopping experience featuring timepieces from its Fifty Fathoms and Villeret collections to the event auction. Other featured auction items were donated by Aman New York, Anantara Convento di Amalfi Grand Hotel, Anantara Palazzo Naiadi Rome Hotel, Christie’s, Cobblers Cove, Dukes London, Dr. Richard Firshein, Maritz, Ponant, The Stafford London, The Ranch Hudson Valley, and Wiltons. Oceana’s in-kind donors for the event included Gray Whale Gin, Moroccanoil, Samuda, and S’well.
Oceana Board Member Ted Danson, Oceana Board Member and event Co-Chair Susan Rockefeller, and Regina Scully
Dede McMahon and Kelly Hallman
Michael Rosenfeld and Oceana Board Member Jena King
Musical guests Brian Newman and Rumer Willis
Blancpain representatives Kathryn Stelmack, Leonardo Laviola, and Zaneta Norvell
Bloomberg
Melissa Wright and Oceana CEO James Simon
Oceana Board Member Sam Waterston
Oceana’s victories over the last year
With the help of its allies, Oceana has won 21 victories in the last 12 months
U.S. state of California bans plastic bags at grocery store checkouts
United States to eliminate single-use plastics across the federal government
New England cod nursery protected from proposed scallop dredging
U.S. state of Florida bans balloon releases, protects marine life
Canada protects 93% of underwater mountains off British Columbia with support from First Nations
European Union adopts nature restoration law, including new protections for marine habitats
Amazon eliminates plastic air pillows in North America following campaigning by Oceana
Brazil establishes science-based catch limits for lobster
Oceana wins lawsuit, court requires rebuilding of collapsed U.S. Pacific sardine fishery
New law in U.S. state of Oregon safeguards marine reserves and protected areas
U.S. state of California funds ropeless fishing gear to save whales and turtles from entanglements
New law in Peru criminalizes illegal construction of fishing vessels
U.S. state of California protects endangered whales by reducing harmful fishing gear and delaying Dungeness crab season
New law in Chile will protect kelp forests and 50 other seafloor species
Mexico creates Bajos del Norte National Park, new protected area in Gulf of Mexico
Spain designates seven new marine protected areas
President Biden’s five-year plan protects U.S. waters from expanded offshore drilling
EU sets sustainable catch limits to help recover fish populations
Spain sanctions 25 fishing vessels for disabling public tracking devices
New law in Belize gives people the power to protect offshore oil moratorium
Mediterranean countries can now penalize states who fail to tackle overfishing and illegal fishing
Supporter Spotlight
Robert WAN protects the ocean’s jewels
Robert WAN is known as the “Emperor of Tahitian Pearls” for his unrelenting devotion to ocean sustainability and producing the highest quality pearls, cultivated in the pristine lagoons of Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean. He founded Robert WAN more than 50 years ago and, to this day, he still fiercely protects the lagoons where oysters grow one of the world’s most sought-after jewels.
The family business, including two of Robert WAN’s grandchildren, Alexandrine and Richard WAN, recently supported Oceana at its 17th annual SeaChange Summer Party in Laguna Beach, California, donating a precious strand of Robert WAN pearls to the event auction. Richard, who is also the commercial director for Robert WAN, shares how love and respect for the ocean was instilled in him and all the grandchildren from an early age. Now, these third-generation members are intimately involved in the family business and passionately preserve the priorities and practices of Robert WAN.
“When we were children, we spent our holidays on our grandfather’s pearl farms. We would get up in the morning and spend the whole day fishing, walking on the reef, and exploring the lagoon,” Richard says. “Sometimes we would hurt ourselves, but that’s how we learned to know the sea and, above all, respect it.”
The WAN family cares for private islands in French Polynesia where they exclusively cultivate pearl farms, carrying out the arduous tasks of caring for oyster nurseries by hand. It can take between two and five years for an oyster to naturally cultivate a pearl, beginning with collecting the spat or larva and helping baby oysters shelter from predators. Collecting can only happen twice a year, in a two-week window, and requires a very specific water temperature.
From there, the delicate baby oysters are “raised,” as workers manually clean and care for them for two to three years, ensuring the baby oysters can breathe and eat properly. At the appropriate time, a nucleus is inserted in the oyster pearl pouch and a tiny part of the black mantel from a donor oyster is grafted, thus beginning the culturing process. Again, the grafted oysters must be manually cleaned and cared for to ensure they grow properly. The process can take up to
two additional years until finally, the harvest comes… the moment of truth when the jewel is revealed.
Rising ocean temperatures and microplastic pollution are two issues of utmost concern, Richard says, to the business of caring for these sensitive oysters.
“One of our duties is to remind bigger countries that their practices have important consequences even on the other side of the world in very small islands, like Tahiti,” Richard says. “I believe Oceana can help and any victory concerning the use of plastic is already a big step for us.”
The pearl industry wields great leverage as French Polynesia’s number one export revenue and second source of GDP. Sustainable governance is critical to the social and economic life of those who inhabit the 118 islands where these pearls are cultivated.
“For me, the other grandchildren, our parents and, of course, our grandfather, the ocean is our partner. Without a healthy ocean, we have no business,” Richard says. “Oceana has a real impact in protecting our oceans through powerful action and messages. We want the Robert WAN brand to echo those messages.”
“I believe that if we can improve the oceans through the Tahitian Pearl then this fight is well worth it and one of my grandfather’s many missions will have been accomplished.”
Top: Robert WAN and Richard WAN. Bottom: One of Robert WAN’s pearl farms in French Polynesia.
Small-scale fishers in the European Union are advocating, alongside Oceana, for a fairer allocation of fishing opportunities. Neily Kavanagh, a small-scale fisher from Ireland pictured here, says, “The quota system isn’t fair; it’s a mockery of inshore fisheries in Ireland — 85% of us are inshore fishermen, but we get only 5% of the herring quota and 1% of mackerel. Big boats take the rest.”
