Partnership Highlight: Oceana
photo courtesy of Elianne Dipp @ Pixels
PARTNERSHIP HIGHLIGHT
Partnership Highlight: Oceana
The ocean is one of our diverse and vital ecosystems — and one of our most vulnerable and unprotected.
Founded in 2001, Oceana began when a study revealed that no organization was working to care for oceans on a global scale. Less than 1% of environmental nonprofit groups' resources went to ocean advocacy, even though the ocean covers more than two-thirds of our planet. Oceana emerged to drive change for our waters through concrete targets and science-backed goals.
Since then, Oceana has grown into a global force for marine conservation, restoring oceans by pushing for vital local, national, and global policies that help restore habitats and sea life populations. It has protected almost 4 million square miles within the ocean and secured more than 275 victories.
We’re proud to support Oceana and its various strategic initiatives to keep our oceans healthy and ensure that they can keep us — and future generations — healthy, too.
photo courtesy of Oceana
Changing Tides
Over the years, Oceana’s efforts have helped:
Stop the use of drift gillnets: Drift gillnets are intended to catch swordfish, but they indiscriminately entangle — and kill — everything else that they encounter, including dolphins, sharks, and turtles. Oceana helped prohibit the use of drift gillnets in favor of gear that’s less harmful to the environment and marine life. In 2022, the use of drift gillnets was banned in federal waters.
Addressing plastic pollution: Over 33 billion pounds of plastic is dumped into the oceans yearly, heating waters, threatening countless species, and destroying marine ecosystems. According to a 2016 report, there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. That’s a significant problem to tackle, but various victorious have helped reduce plastic use, including in Panama, Washington state, and New York.
Stopping the shark fin trade: In 2022, Oceana helped pass legislation that banned the buying and selling of shark fins in the United States. The shark fin trade can result in taking fins from more than 73 million sharks a year, leading to their deaths and a destructive impact on the ecosystems and tourism that depend on them.
But there’s still more to be done.
Protecting our oceans is a much larger story than what’s beneath the waves: it’s also about our future. Working together, we can help fish populations bounce back, feeding billions of people worldwide with a sustainable food source.
Our Involvement
BFF has supported Oceana for three years, contributing to their urgent efforts and legislative actions to protect the ocean, its wildlife, and our planet.
Are you working on a project that cleans, preserves, and heals our natural environments? Apply for a BFF grant today.
