The document discusses several ways that the ocean is being impacted by climate change and how Ocean Conservancy is working to address these issues. It notes that the ocean absorbs half of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and more excess heat than rainforests. Ocean Conservancy is fighting to protect the Arctic, restore fisheries, protect wildlife, and ensure sound ocean management in the face of climate change impacts. It also discusses their work to reduce marine debris and protect beaches and coastal communities through annual coastal cleanups.

2. It’s time to look beneath the surface.
To see where the health of our planet really begins.

3. It’s time to recognize the source that sustains us day to day—
with the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe.

4. It’s time to discover that all living things are connected to the ocean.
To understand that going green starts with living blue.
It’s time to start a sea change.

5. TOSEETHE
OCEAN’SIMPACT
We’ve named our planet Earth—it’s where we live, where we grow much of our food
and it’s the foundation for our homes and cities. Yet 71 percent of the Earth’s surface—
and 99 percent of the planet’s living space—isn’t earth, but ocean.
populations; if the ice cap vanishes,
conservative predictions show a loss of
two-thirds of all polar bears by 2050. Even
the tiniest organisms are affected as the
ocean grows more acidic, preventing
them from flourishing and sustaining the
food chain.
The threat of climate change cuts across
all of Ocean Conservancy’s work. With
your help we will work to cool the Arctic,
restore sustainable fisheries, protect
marine wildlife, preserve natural habitats,
and ensure that our federal government
provides the sound ocean management
we need. Together our efforts will
strengthen the ocean’s ability to withstand
the stress that climate change can bring.
It’s time to take notice. Climate change
is the environmental issue of our lifetime,
and it starts with the ocean. Only Ocean
Conservancy has the strength, expertise,
and perspective to lead the fight for wild,
healthy oceans at this critical juncture.
And ocean is where the story of global
climate change begins.
Without the ocean, our weather—wind
and storm, rain and snow—would be
even more extreme and less stable. The
ocean acts as the great buffer, protecting
us from the extremes of heat and cold,
droughts and floods.
As the engine that drives our planet’s
climate, the ocean is on the front lines of
the global climate challenge. It absorbs
half of the carbon dioxide we’ve pumped
into the sky and more excess heat from
greenhouse gasses than all the rainforests
combined. Indeed, the ocean is the
unsung hero in this battle. But it’s also the
most vulnerable.
And we’ve already begun to see the
effects, including melting ice, rising
sea levels, and extreme weather events,
from Hurricane Katrina to Ike. We’ve
seen harmful changes to marine wildlife
Climate change is the environmental issue
of our lifetime, and it starts with the ocean.

6. TOCOOL
THEPLANET
Right now the warming of the Arctic—the earth’s air conditioner—is the greatest conservation
challenge we face. Home to whales, seals, polar bears and more than four million people, today
it’s warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet. The consequences are massive, accelerating
the rate of warming across the planet and threatening the way of life of the Arctic’s people.
fisheries along Alaska’s northwest coast.
And as shipping routes like the Northwest
Passage become attractive to international
commerce, we’re pressing for safeguards
to prevent oil spills and other accidents.
We’re working hand-in-hand with
representatives from Alaska Native
coastal communities—people whose
livelihoods depend on the ocean. Already
ocean-climate changes have forced
coastal village residents to abandon their
homes and to consider moving whole
communities as the ground literally erodes
from under them.
The policies and protections we put in
place in the Arctic will serve as models
as we address changes further south.
With the support of our members, we’re
ensuring a future for the Arctic’s people,
for its wildlife—and for all of us.
As the melting ice gives way to new ocean
passages, the Arctic seas become ripe for
abuse. Without responsible management,
an ocean gold rush is inevitable. Already,
oil drilling, international shipping, and
industrial fishing operations are competing
to grab these newly exposed areas. It’s
simply too much, too fast, too soon.
With nationally renowned scientists and
policy experts, Ocean Conservancy is
uniquely positioned to collaborate with
local governments and conservation
partners to confront these threats to
the Arctic. We’re fighting for a time-
out on rapid expansion, until we have
the science and the structure we
need to guide decision-making. We’re
championing oil and gas policies that
will reduce the impact on marine life and
coastal communities. We’re advocating
sustainable limits and fishing methods for
We’re working hand-in-hand with representatives
of Alaska Native coastal communities—people
whose livelihoods depend on the ocean.

7. Grocery bags… bottles… cigarette butts… straw wrappers. They don’t fall from the sky;
they’re dropped from our hands. And what’s washed up on the shore is only a fraction
of what ends up in the water.
From Bangor to Bangladesh, Ocean Conservancy leads the
world’s most astounding grassroots cleanup effort. Every year
in September, more than half a million people in nearly 100
countries remove six million pounds of trash from beaches and
waterways all over the world. For many volunteers, it’s a first
stark glimpse into the deterioration of our ocean, and often spurs
a deeper commitment to marine conservation. By cleaning up
the shorelines, concerned citizens are doing their part to help
make the ocean more resilient to the harmful effects of climate
change, pollution, overfishing, and damaged habitat.
And it all started with one person. Appalled by all the garbage
littering the Texas coast, she took action, organizing a cleanup
along miles of shoreline. Some 20 years later, our International
Coastal Cleanup (ICC) is one of the largest and most effective
volunteer-based, single-day projects in the world.
But the work doesn’t start and end in a day. It goes on all
year long. At Ocean Conservancy, we analyze the information
collected by our volunteers to produce the only global snapshot
of trash in the world’s ocean. Our reports have played a direct
role in shaping national legislation to reduce marine debris and in
helping small towns across the country create recycling programs.
Big change has to come from big places. That’s why we’re
teaming up with businesses to change practices that lead to
garbage on our beaches and waterways and to involve their
employees in cleanups. Together, our efforts mean that next year
we hope to pick up fewer pounds of garbage. With the hands-on
help of people like you, we’re restoring the health and beauty of
our beaches and waterways.
Bag leaves grocery
store, Memphis, TN
Blows off picnic
table in Overton Park
Sea turtle mistakes
bag for a jellyfish,
swallows it, and dies
Falls into a storm
drain
Flows into the
Mississippi River
Travels downstream,
to the Gulf of Mexico
Six degrees of human impact: one bag’s journey from the grocery store
TOTAKEBACK
OURBEACHES
1 2 3 4 5 6

8. endangered whales. We‘re also working
to advance technology and fishing
practices to keep vulnerable species
like dolphins and sea turtles from getting
entangled in fishing nets.
Already our partnerships with fishermen
have saved thousands of sea turtles
and other vulnerable marine animals
from accidental capture. But with your
support, we can do even more to protect
ocean wildlife. In New England, we’re
championing new ways of lobster fishing
that can prevent right whale deaths.
We’re also fighting to protect the most
vulnerable sharks in the Atlantic by
banning the practice of finning—slicing off
the shark’s fins and tossing the body back
to sea, where it dies. And we’re ensuring
a future for sea turtles by protecting their
nesting beaches, homes to thousands
of hatchlings.
TOSPEAKOUT
FORMARINE
WILDLIFE
Each year, thousands of whales, dolphins, seals, and sea turtles die as bycatch—animals
accidentally injured or killed in fishing operations. Speeding ships in some of the busiest
marine highways also pose a huge threat, making endangered whales road-kill on
water. On top of this, pollution and trash are poisoning and choking animals along our
coastlines, from New England to Hawaii.
At Ocean Conservancy, we recognize that
we’re only a small part of our planet and
that our ocean ecosystem plays a vital role
in all living things—on land and underwater.
That’s why we’ve made it our mission to
protect sea animals and the places they
live from careless human behavior. Our
very lives—and livelihoods—depend on it.
When ocean ecosystems are harmed
and wildlife populations disappear, so do
tourists, and whole coastal communities
suffer—communities whose economic
vitality relies on the joy and wonder they
experience scuba-diving or whale-watching.
At Ocean Conservancy, we’re creating
smart solutions to protect ocean wildlife
and their habitats. We’re calling for
altered shipping routes to avoid the paths
of migrating whales. And mandates for
slower ship speeds around port entrances,
reducing potentially fatal collisions with
It’s time to recognize that saving our sea
creatures is a win-win for all, making our
sea animals safer, coastal communities
stronger, and our own lives more enriched.
Our partnerships with fishermen have saved
thousands of sea turtles and other vulnerable
marine animals from accidental capture.
© Norbert Wu / Minden Pictures

9. ©StevenKazlowski/SeaPics.com
For years, news stories pitted the conservationist against the fishing industry as they
pursued competing interests: healthy marine life versus healthy economies, Mother
Nature versus market forces. But in the past few years, Ocean Conservancy and our
partners have worked together to change the storyline.
At Ocean Conservancy, we recognize
that it’s time for conservationists and
fishermen to work together. It’s in
everyone’s best interest—distributors,
retailers, fishermen and consumers—to
restore the ocean’s bounty.
Today, fish are the leading source of
protein on the planet—more than cattle and
poultry—with 100-million tons of seafood
feeding the world each year. In the last 50
years, the largest commercial fish species,
like tuna and swordfish, have been
depleted in the wild by 90 percent. And
careless regional management practices
are making it worse. The ocean’s supply
can’t keep up with our demand for wild
fish, and they’ve begun to disappear.
That’s why we’re changing the rules. We’re
working with our nation’s eight regional
fishery management councils—moving
from critic to collaborator—to improve
US fishing policies. We’re building new
economic incentives that reward fishermen
for innovative practices that protect entire
ocean ecosystems. We’re educating
seafood buyers on how to identify and
purchase sustainably harvested seafood.
And we’re shaping a shared vision for
retailers, restaurant chains, and other
seafood businesses to support good
fishing practices—so we never catch fish
faster than they can reproduce.
And from coast to coast, it’s working. Our
conservation partnerships have generated
new policies to rebuild red snapper stocks
in the Gulf of Mexico, restore flounder and
halibut in New England, and establish
other sustainable practices for wild
fisheries in the North Pacific.
With the support of partners like you,
we can create a new kind of fishing
for the future, one that delivers healthy
ecosystems, strong economies, and
vibrant coastal communities.
Fish are the leading source of protein on
the planet with 100-million tons of seafood
feeding the world each year.
TOFORGENEW
PARTNERSHIPS

10. ©AndreSeale/SeaPics.com
FORA
SUSTAINABLE
SEAFOODSUPPLY
The real challenge lies not in banning aquaculture
altogether but in finding smart solutions that deliver
a safe and environmentally-acceptable seafood supply.
Large-scale industrial fish farming causes
many of the same environmental problems
that we find in factory farming on land.
But in the ocean, it’s not so easy to put a
fence around your pasture.
In the ocean, fish are often grown in open
net pens, packed together tighter than
in nature. Like a flu-infected traveler on a
plane, when one fish gets sick, disease can
spread quickly through the captive school
and even endanger wild fish living in the
surrounding ocean. Most troubling, many
farmed fish (like salmon) consume more
wild-caught fish—ground up into fishmeal—
than they produce as farmed product,
defeating the very purpose of aquaculture.
Unless we develop strong and
enforceable regulations to control fish
farming, it will wreak havoc on our wild
fish supply. The real challenge lies not
in banning aquaculture altogether but in
“Fish farming,” or aquaculture, is one of the fastest-growing responses to our declining wild fish
supply. As one of the primary ways of putting fish on the dinner table, it now accounts for more
than 40 percent of the world’s seafood consumption. At its best, aquaculture is an affordable
and sustainable alternative to overfishing. But at its worst, it can severely harm the ocean.
finding smart solutions that deliver a safe
and environmentally-acceptable seafood
supply. Only Ocean Conservancy has the
scientific vision and the legislative muscle
to ensure that we can do both.
To do this, we’re leading the charge
to ensure that aquaculture develops
only under the strictest environmental
standards. In 2006 we broke new ground,
building a coalition of business, academic,
fishing and conservation organizations to
pass California’s open ocean aquaculture
law, the most robust in the nation. But
now, the federal government is proposing
a vast expansion of aquaculture into
waters outside of state control, which
would exempt fish farms from following
certain environmental regulations.
Ocean Conservancy is advocating for
a more thoughtful response that would
protect our fisheries and oceans from
unacceptable risks. We need your help
to take this effort nationwide, so that
state and federal policies protect our
oceans while meeting our growing
demand for seafood.

11. The ocean covers nearly 70 percent of the Earth. Beneath the
surface is another vibrant world altogether. Coral reefs teeming
with rainbows of tropical fish. Whales gathering to feed at the
edges of submarine canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon.
Volcanic seamounts, covered in ancient colonies of sea sponges,
rise thousands of feet from the ocean floor. Lush kelp forests
shelter sea otter mothers and pups. But beyond its thrill and
beauty, the ocean feeds us—seafood is an essential mainstay
of the daily diet for one-sixth of the world’s population.
While 12 percent of the land on Earth has been set aside as parks, wildlife refuges, and
wilderness areas, less than one percent of the ocean has been similarly protected. Just
like Yellowstone and Yosemite on land, we believe that our planet’s most spectacular
and ecologically important underwater treasures deserve lasting protection.
At Ocean Conservancy, with the support of members like
you, we’re making significant progress in protecting some of
the ocean’s most extraordinary places. In Florida, we helped
establish the Tortugas Ecological Reserve where depleted
lobsters and reef fish are now showing signs of recovery.
In the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, we fought to establish
and protect one of the world’s largest marine reserves. And in
California, we helped pass the landmark Marine Life Protection
Act, creating a system of marine protected areas along the
state’s coastline. Now, we’re working with fishermen, divers,
scientists and others to implement this law.
As threats to the ocean mount, it’s time to set aside more marine
protected areas and ensure they are well-managed. Preserving
these pristine places helps strengthen the ocean’s own immune
system, fortifying its ability to withstand threats like oil spills and
global warming. And the more we protect our ocean, the more
we protect our planet. Because there are some things we simply
can’t live without.
TOPROTECT
OURYOSEMITES
OFTHESEA
At Ocean Conservancy we’re making significant progress in
protecting some of the ocean’s most extraordinary places.

12. FORORDER
INTHEOCEAN
The governance structures guiding
management of the ocean are incredibly
complex: More than 45 US federal
agencies claim some control over the
ocean, to say nothing of the many state
and local governments that also play a
role. Overlapping bureaucracies and
short-sighted policies have hindered our
ability to responsibly manage the ocean
and protect its creatures. Simply put,
to make a lasting impact on the ocean,
our policy achievements require clear,
coordinated and enforceable regulations.
That’s why Ocean Conservancy is
promoting reforms in how we manage
and protect our nation’s oceans and
marine wildlife. In Massachusetts, we
teamed up in a broad-based partnership
with business and industry leaders,
conservationists, and legislators on both
sides of the aisle to develop the first-ever
Like urban sprawl, today we have marine and coastal sprawl, as the ocean faces an era of
unprecedented activity. Indeed, as each day passes, the ocean resembles more and more
the Wild West on water. Wind farms, whale watchers and shipping superhighways are each
competing to stake their claim to our ocean homestead. We need law and order to balance
and coordinate commercial and recreational activity while protecting our ocean ecosystems.
master plan for the sea. Our efforts helped
pass the state’s new Oceans Act, which
sets the standard for smart, proactive
management for other states to follow.
The ocean is our nation’s largest
public trust, and it’s the government’s
responsibility to manage it accordingly.
By educating Congress and the
administration, we’re working to make
ocean management more efficient and
effective for the good of all. With ocean
stewardship enshrined in law, we’ll be
able to encourage development where it’s
appropriate, and to discourage it when it
would cause more harm than good.
With partners like you, Ocean Conservancy
is driving the government to responsibly
manage marine resources and make smart
decisions about our shared ocean future.
Today the ocean faces an era of unprecedented
development, with the rise in marine and
coastal sprawl.

13. Ocean Conservancy is setting the ocean agenda in the halls of power.
Our 35-year legacy continues today as we translate scientific threats into
sound, practical policies that protect our oceans and improve our lives.
Our strong networks run deep across national, state and
local levels. And with the support of advocates like you,
our grassroots efforts amplify your voice across the country.
But even more, at Ocean Conservancy, we recognize
that real leadership means real cooperation—among
government, business, academia, policymakers,
conservation organizations, and citizens. That’s why we
create enterprising partnerships to solve the world’s
toughest conservation challenges. It’s the hallmark of our
work—because we know this is what it takes to achieve
important victories.
With your help, we’ll continue to create concrete solutions
that lead to lasting change. So we can all experience
the ocean—the source that sustains us day to day—for
generations to come.At Ocean Conservancy, we recognize that real leadership means
real cooperation—among government, business, academia,
policymakers, conservation organizations, and citizens.
FORBOLD
LEADERSHIP

14. WEBELIEVE It’s time to deliver balanced, science-driven solutions that work to everyone’s advantage.
To create partnerships that defy expectations and deliver results.
And to unite the best of business and government to solve our planet’s most pressing problems.
We believe it’s time to give back to our ocean, to keep it teeming with abundance.
And to leave our world better than we found it. For ourselves. And for our children.
It’s time for you to join us.
Together, we can start a sea change.
© Michio Hoshino / Minden Pictures

15. 1300 19th Street, NW, 8th Floor • Washington, DC 20036 • Toll-Free: 800.519.1541 • www.oceanconservancy.org