Coral Gardeners
Couple of years ago, few island kids from Mo’orea, French Polynesia decided to protect their home turf. Since the foundation, the Coral Gardeners have gained mind-blowing international recognition for their incredible work. Besides the relentless coral planting, the young team offers a unique and unforgettable ecotour and coral gardening experience to the public. If this island is too far for you, consider adopting and naming your own coral to help the preservation efforts.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Although this organisation deemed to be somewhat controversial, it definitely deserves attention. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was established by Paul Watson in 1977, former Greenpeace activist. The organisation’s mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species. Sea Shepherd takes direct actions to investigate, document and even obstruct illegal high sea activities. This organisation is best known for curbing Japanese whaling activities.
Ocean Cleanup
Each year, millions of tons of plastic enters our oceans, the majority from rivers. Plastic isn’t going away by itself, in fact the natural degradation of plastic takes hundreds of years. Ocean Cleanup’s goal is to remove 90% of floating ocean plastic and curb its inflow. The organisation’s state-of-art technology moves with the currents and catches the floating garbage patches. They estimate to be able eliminate 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch every five years.
Oceana
Oceana was founded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Oak Foundation, Marisla Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund in 2001. Currently, it is the largest international advocacy organisation focused solely on ocean conservation. The organisation is dedicated to achieving measurable change by conducting specific, science-based policy campaigns with fixed deadlines and articulated goals. Since its foundation, Oceana has won more than 225 victories and protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean.
The Ocean Conservancy
Ocean Conservancy is a leading advocacy group protecting special marine habitats, fighting for the restoration of sustainable fisheries and the reduction of human impact on the marine ecosystems. Founded in 1972, Ocean Conservancy has changed names several times. With the public’s support they can be proud of many incredible achievements for whales, wildlife, local communities and for our ocean. Ocean Conservancy’s most known for their International Coastal Cleanup program.
Project Hiu
Tourism VS Shark Fishery? Project Hiu is founded by Madison Stewart, a truly inspirational initiative aiming to introduce alternative income opportunities to a shark fishing community in Indonesia. By incentivising the local community to make a living from tourism, local shark fishing activities are naturally decreasing. Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of shark fins; the shark fin industry is responsible for the death of between 88 million to 100 million sharks every year. Project Hiu might be a small start, but a significant one.
Coral Reef Alliance
The Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) NGO works together with communities to conserve and improve our coral reefs’ health and resilience. CORAL’s majority of work is done four critically-important reef regions - Fiji, Hawaii, Indonesia and Mesoamerican Region. In parallel, the alliance has been expanding the scientific understanding of how corals adapt to climate change, which plays vital role in future conservation efforts.