Director Of Policy And Legislation
CurrentI'm working on one of my passions, preserving large areas of the ocean in marine protected areas as a means of rebuilding the health of our oceans for us and our children. In 2017, Marine Conservation Institute launched the Global Ocean Refuge System (GLORES) which gives the Blue Parks Award to the best marine protected areas in the world. By 2019, the system contained 16 marine protected areas conserving marine life, conferring climate resilience to the local marine ecosystem, and, in some cases, providing sustainable seafood to nearby residents. The Blue Parks award is open to public nominations (see www.BlueParks.org) and judged by independent scientists. The award gives excellent marine protected areas special status, much like Olympic medals, Oscar (tm) awards for movies, or LEED certified buildings. We hope the market will reward creators of these excellent protected areas with international status, additional tourism revenue and development dollars. Our oceans are threatened by so many things: warming, acidification, overfishing, habitat destruction, etc. One way of protecting against the loss of entire marine ecosystems and the wildlife in them is to establish marine protected areas where some of these threats can be minimized so that the creatures have a better chance of surviving in a changing ocean. Small but effective well beyond its size, Marine Conservation Institute helped create Papahanaumokuaokea (NW Hawaiian Islands) and the Pacific Remote Islands marine national monuments. The former is one the largest, permanently protected area on Earth (land or sea) -over 3 times size of CA- and the latter is the largest network. Incredible areas of near pristine tropical ocean, atolls, reefs and wildlife in the Central Pacific. Now working on campaign to save the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument from exploitation and to strongly protect 30% of ocean (coastal and high seas) by 2030 to create healthier ocean, fight climate change.
