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Oceana’s job is to win policy changes that make the ocean more abundant and biodiverse.

We do that every year, even in a pandemic.

This annual report features our campaign teams have recently won.

These victories are, of course, shared with our allies, who often are artisanal and small-scale fishers: people who know firsthand the damage done by big industrial-scale fishing companies and polluters, and whose families rely on the food and income provided by a healthy ocean.

These victories are also shared with you: our donors, supporters, and activists.

Everything that we accomplished this year was thanks to your generosity.

Your contributions give us the independence essential to our forceful advocacy for ocean conservation.

We know that you have many other claims on your philanthropic budget and your time.

These claims multiplied as the coronavirus infected millions of people and shut down the world’s economy.

So, you deserve to know what you did for the ocean this year.

We are accountable to you for results that stop overfishing, conserve habitat, protect biodiversity, reduce pollution, and deter illegal marine activities.

The pages of this annual report show you – in vivid words and in beautiful images – ocean conservation successes.

As you will recall, a rebuilt ocean is good not just for the countless marvelous creatures who live in the sea.

It is also good for humanity and for biodiversity on the land.

Indeed, if you care about life on the land, restoring ocean abundance should be an essential part of your agenda.

An abundant ocean can provide a healthy seafood meal for a billion people, every day, forever.

Marine protein is packed with micronutrients – vitamins and minerals – that are essential to healthy mothers and babies, and to the brain development of the more than half a billion nutritionally vulnerable people in the world.

Seafood does this without the clearcutting of forests, the depletion of aquifers, and the release of massive amounts of climatechanging gasses that are the sad effects of industrial livestock production.

In short, if you care about human nutrition, global biodiversity, and climate change, then you need the oceans to be sustainably nourishing as many people as possible.

Fish populations – many now depleted – rebound when they are well managed.

Stop overfishing, protect key habitat, and reduce pollution, and many fisheries return rapidly to abundance.

Indeed, a comprehensive peerreviewed academic study published this year in a leading scientific journal found dozens of examples of rebuilt fisheries, across multiple countries and continents.

Give fish a chance – they will come back.

Oceana’s job is to push and pull policymakers to stand up to the pressure they get from the industrial fleets that want to overfish and then move on, serially depleting our oceans at global © Shutterstock/David A Litman scale.

We also confront polluters – especially oil companies and single-use plastic packagers – whose irresponsible practices are lethal to our oceans.

It’s not an easy job, and our teams of advocates have faced extra challenges under the pandemic.

We do not always win, and our job is not done.

We do, however, end this difficult year delighted to invite you to share in the pride of achievement.

It’s in the steady delivery of ocean conservation policies, documented again for you in this annual report, that we – our allies, our global board of directors, our campaign staff, and you – find our reward.

Your generosity is helping to restore an abundant ocean and to deliver a better future for hundreds of millions of poor and vulnerable people across the globe.

Oceana’s Approach Oceana’s mission is to win policy victories that restore the world’s oceans.

Because doing so will make the seas — which cover two-thirds of our planet — more abundant and biodiverse.

Healthy marine ecosystems full of wildlife support fisheries that can feed more than a billion people in a truly sustainable way.

We can preserve the oceans for future generations while protecting a critical food source — wild seafood — that requires no fresh water or arable land to produce, yields minimal greenhouse gas emissions, and provides an affordable, healthy protein to hungry people around the world.

Just for nearly 90% of the global fish catch.

We can — on a country by country basis — win policy victories that will help to restore and protect oceans worldwide.

Evidence from fisheries around the world shows that, when the right measures are put in place, fish populations bounce back.

Oceana fights for policies that are based in science and rely on five proven strategies that help restore healthy oceans.

Zebra seabreams (Diplodus cervinus) were spotted surrounding the island of El Hierro, part of Spain’s Canary Islands, during an earlier Oceana expedition.

This area later became a marine reserve following campaigning by Oceana.

Half of global fisheries are overfished, and another are fully exploited.

Implementing science-based catch limits, reducing government subsidies that encourage harmful behavior, and preventing illegal fishing will end the overfishing of our oceans.

Each year, fishing gear kills or injures millions of non-targeted animals, including sharks, whales, dolphins, fish, and sea turtles, some of which are endangered with extinction.

Reducing bycatch means improving monitoring and reporting, setting bycatch limits for fisheries, and encouraging fishers to use cleaner, safer gear.

© Oceana/David Palage Protect Habitat Stopping bottom trawling and protecting vulnerable ecosystems preserves places that are crucial to marine animals.

Oceana mounts expeditions and collects scientific data to help win protections for key ocean habitats.

© Oceana/Danny Ocampo Pollution undermines the health of ocean ecosystems.

Oceana fights offshore drilling to help prevent oil spills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Oceana also campaigns to limit marine plastic pollution and promote more plastic-free choices and zones.

© Shutterstock/BOULENGER Xavier ©Oceana/NOAA Timely and accurate data is needed to improve fishing policies, but too often decision-makers lack this information or industrial fishing interests keep it hidden from the public.

Oceana campaigns for measures that promote transparency, such as expanding boat-to-plate traceability of seafood.

Marine animals are at risk, whether it’s speeding vessels that strike endangered North Atlantic right whales or the brutal shark fin trade that profits from the deaths of up to 73 million sharks each year.

Oceana campaigns to protect vulnerable species that are threatened by destructive commercial activities.

How We Work The good news is that we can restore the oceans to their former abundance.

Over the years, Oceana and our allies have won more than continue winning on behalf of our oceans.

We are: Campaign-Driven We strategically create campaigns that make measurable progress toward our mission of protecting and restoring the oceans to former levels of abundance.

Our campaigns are specific, targeted, and designed to be won in a three to five-year timeframe.

Fact-Based Our advocacy relies on scientific research to help us understand the ocean’s problems and identify practical, effective solutions.

We conduct research on a variety of issues that affect marine environments, from illegal and destructive fishing to plastic pollution and offshore drilling.

Expedition-Powered We recognize that getting on the water – alongside scientists, divers, photographers, and campaigners – helps us bring these important marine places to life and make a stronger case for their protection.

Oceana’s expeditions have powered our campaigns and resulted in victories across the globe.

Multi-Disciplinary Oceana’s scientists work closely with our economists, lawyers, advocates, communicators, and grassroots organizers to achieve tangible results for the oceans.

Supported by Citizens and Allies Oceana has a base of over 1.2 million Wavemakers.

Our Ocean Council comprises a select group of leaders in business, policy, and philanthropy who represent and support Oceana’s efforts on the global stage.

© Oceana/Enrique Talledo Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), shown in Spain’s Canary Islands, are social animals that travel in pods.

Oceana staff are pictured during their expedition to Panaon Island in the Philippines in fall 2020.

Oceana leverages law, science, grassroots activism, lobbying, and strategic communications to win policy change around the world.

With the help of our allies, Oceana has won more than victories that restore ocean abundance since we were founded 20 years ago.

Victories © Oceana/Alex Ellis 2020-2021 This photo, taken before the pandemic, shows the moment when Ray Jacobs (left) voluntarily handed over his gillnet to Janelle Chanona, Oceana’s leader in Belize.

Also pictured is Fidel Audinett (center), a Belizean fisher who opposed gillnets.

Following campaigning by Oceana, Belize passed a nationwide ban on gillnets, which are harmful to marine life.

In a landmark decision, the Government of Belize passed legislation that banned the possession and use of gillnets in Belize’s waters.

The legislation also rendered all gillnet licenses invalid.

This historic victory highlights Belize’s leadership in preserving ocean abundance and biodiversity, and truly valuing and protecting the livelihoods of the many people who depend on the seas.

Gillnets catch and kill many of the animals that cross their path, including manatees, turtles, sharks, bonefish, and other important marine creatures.

is now protected from gillnets, bottom trawling, and offshore ocean drilling.

Oceana, Coastal Communities, and Businesses Prevent Harmful Seismic Airgun Blasting in U.S.

Oceana and a coalition of groups filed suit in U.S. federal court that successfully delayed seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean, preventing this dangerous and deadly practice from going forward as planned by the oil industry.

Seismic airguns create one of the loudest manmade sounds ever experienced in the ocean, which can injure or kill marine animals from zooplankton to critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

This victory follows campaigning by Oceana, our allies, and thousands of coastal communities and businesses.

14 The National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) issued a final rule to protect 13 coral areas.

These areas, which span from the U.S.Mexico border to the Florida Keys, include a series of deep-sea canyons, reefs, and coral areas that have been identified as important habitat for iconic species such as sharks and grouper.

This action follows campaigning by Oceana and newly protects nearly square kilometers) of coral habitat, bringing the total protected deep-sea coral areas from Rhode Island to Texas to more than 61,000 square miles (158,000 square kilometers).

Oceana has been campaigning to identify and protect deep-sea coral areas from destructive fishing methods like bottom trawling – the equivalent of clear-cutting the seafloor – and has won additional victories in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Spain’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of the expansion of Cabrera Marine National Park.

This expansion makes it the second-largest marine national park in the Mediterranean and the first one to protect deep-sea ecosystems in Spain.

Following campaigning by Oceana and our allies, including six research expeditions, the Spanish government increased the size of Cabrera National Park from (nearly 350 square miles) in February 2019.

Carbopesca, a fishermen’s association promoting the interests of longline fishing, appealed to revoke the expansion.

Oceana acted as an intervenor in the case and submitted information justifying the expansion.

In September Trump withdrew the waters off Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina from offshore oil and gas leasing for 10 years.

This was a reversal of President Trump’s previous plan to open nearly all U.S. waters to offshore drilling, threatening more than and nearly $180 billion in GDP in pursuit of only two years’ worth of oil and just over one year’s worth of gas at 2018 U.S. consumption rates.

This victory follows campaigning by Oceana, our advocacy partner Oceana Action, and our many allies.

The campaign organized opposition from coastal communities, business owners, and elected officials from both political parties.

Oceana continues to campaign for permanent federal-level protections of all U.S. waters from expanded drilling.

The Philippine government issued new rules that require vessel monitoring for all commercial fishing vessels and establish a new electronic reporting system for fisheries catch data.

This decision is a major victory for transparency in the Philippines and comes after campaigning by Oceana, local governments, and other allies.

Mandatory vessel monitoring will make it possible for the government to stop large commercial fishing boats from illegally fishing in and depleting the country’s municipal coastal waters.

These fishing grounds are reserved for small-scale fisherfolk, who rely on the ocean for their livelihoods and food security.

Oceana will continue to campaign for the government to enforce these rules and promote responsible fishing practices.

U.S. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed two bills into law to reduce plastic pollution across the state.