With the Stakes Rising, a Top Funder is Diving Deeper Into Ocean Protection Work

Fishermen set off to sea in Kerala, India. Pikoso.kz/shutterstock

Fishermen set off to sea in Kerala, India. Pikoso.kz/shutterstock

The climate crisis is slowly but steadily garnering public awareness amid increasingly destructive weather events, worldwide protests and urgent reports from the scientific community. Growing media attention toward this ballooning planetary challenge is a good thing, and we’ve also seen a gradual increase in environmental and climate-related funding. However, oceans, which are central to the planet’s climate and sustain countless marine organisms and hundreds of millions of people, are the focus of only a minuscule portion of overall giving. Meanwhile, the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report confirmed the Earth’s oceans and frozen areas are warming at unsustainable rates.

“Even though the oceans cover 70 percent of the planet and have absorbed 90 percent of the heat that has happened already from climate change, they receive well under 1 percent of global philanthropy,” Antha Williams, head of environment programs for Bloomberg Philanthropies, tells us. This funder loves data, so it’s not surprising to hear a Bloomberg leader rely on stats to drive their message home.

Bloomberg’s Vibrant Oceans Initiative is part of its environmental funding program, which addresses climate change through several avenues. Bloomberg’s ocean giving focuses largely on overfishing and destructive fishing, pollution and how these factors impact foundational species like coral, whose reefs support 25 percent of marine life.

Bloomberg isn’t alone in setting its sights on unsustainable fishing practices. As we’ve reported, these issues have attracted major philanthropists since the 1990s, including market-focused conservationists, data-driven technocrats, and more traditional research-and-advocacy environmentalists. Along with Bloomberg, influential funders in this realm include the Rockefeller, Moore, Walton and Packard foundations, as well as Dalio Philanthropies, Google and others.

The Vibrant Oceans Approach

In line with its overarching mission to “ensure better and longer lives for the greatest number of people,” Bloomberg’s ocean funding seeks to boost the health of overfished, polluted and warming ocean ecosystems and to feed the more than 3 billion people who rely on the oceans as a primary food source.

Some of Bloomberg’s ocean philanthropy methods mirror its general strategies, like cross-sector collaboration, fueling advocacy, leveraging the power of individual cities, and spreading solutions across borders. 

Bloomberg collaborates with coastal communities, local governments and small-scale fisheries to take better care of ocean resources. It funds research into coral reef conservation and supports major fishing data-share initiatives like the Global Fishing Watch (GFW), which tracks and provides information about global fishing activity in near real time for free. GFW was developed by Google, Oceana and SkyTruth. Bloomberg uses this data to help partners advocate to end overfishing, reduce pollution and protect marine habitats through policy change.

A key example comes from the Philippines, a focus country for Vibrant Oceans Phase I, which launched in 2014 with $53 million. Within the Philippines, Bloomberg partner Oceana photographed fishing boats and nets where they weren’t supposed to be, and a national media push led to more police boats and increased government involvement. Oceana sued offenders while Bloomberg partner Rare teamed up with local mayors to convince state and federal governments to fund enforcement. Bloomberg, Oceana and Rare brought together over 500 coastal mayors who worked to pass resolutions to protect marine areas and stop overfishing and pollution. Williams says Bloomberg works with many coastal communities around the world.

“[These] are a big deal because half of all the fish caught in the world are caught artisanally, from local fishers who depend on fish for their food and livelihoods… [the mayors in the Philippines] are basically working together to support policies [and] changes in local practices to protect their fisheries… Just pulling together, having that scale of support from these coastal communities in a country as important to the fishing challenge as the Philippines is a big accomplishment.”

Chile and Brazil were also focuses for the first phase of Vibrant Oceans. “We have stood alongside Chile’s leaders as that country became a global leader in ocean conservation, banning bottom trawling in 98 percent of its territory and designating huge marine parks,” Oceana CEO Andy Sharpless wrote in a blog post praising Bloomberg’s ongoing ocean funding. He also said that  Oceana campaigned for new fisheries policies in Brazil and won protections banning destructive trawling. In several key areas of Vibrant Ocean work, a 390 percent growth in coastal fish populations was observed.

“We think that working locally, you can make progress, kind of regardless of what's happening, and that's important. Particularly in these times when national governments, a lot of times, are really moving in the wrong direction on the environment,” Williams says. A case in point is the U.S.’s official exit from the Paris Climate Agreement. For the second year in a row, Michael Bloomberg announced in the spring of 2019 that he will personally provide funding ($5.5 million this year) to the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat to make up for lapsed U.S. contributions. Bloomberg also co-launched the America’s Pledge initiative with former California Governor Jerry Brown. It aims to quantify the actions of U.S. states, cities and businesses to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

And, this fall, Bloomberg is once again considering a run for president in 2020. The 77-year-old has given away more than $8 billion through his philanthropy and said he plans to give away his full fortune of about $52.4 billion.

Coral reefs are a related, central issue for Vibrant Oceans. Unsustainable fishing practices can damage reefs, equipment can harm them directly, and overfishing can upset delicate ecosystems. Warming waters and pollution from fishing and land-based sources lower the level of water quality and oxygen in oceans and cause acidification, algal blooms and dead zones, killing and threatening coral and fish. In 2017, in partnership with the Tiffany & Co. Foundation and Paul G. Allen Philanthropies, Bloomberg researched which coral reefs around the globe are the least vulnerable to climate change, with the vision of using them to repopulate neighboring reefs.

Furthering this coral restoration work will be a focus for Vibrant Oceans Phase II, which launched in 2018 with $86 million. Also in 2018, Bloomberg teamed up with Dalio’s OceanX Media to boost ocean exploration, media coverage and public awareness.

Vibrant Oceans Phase II

Bloomberg has ambitious goals for Phase II of Vibrant Oceans. It is expanding its work within and throughout 10 countries—Australia, the Bahamas, Chile, Fiji, French Polynesia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Tanzania, Peru and the U.S. These were selected because they host priority coral, are top fishing nations, or are countries that consume fish as a major food source (or all three).

Along with Oceana, OceanX Media, Global Fishing Watch, and Rare, Bloomberg will now partner with Oceans5, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Commonwealth Secretariat. This falls in line with Bloomberg’s typical style of working with global NGOs and established partners. However, Bloomberg also partners with some smaller community organizations through its extensive ocean funding, like Criobe, a French Polynesian group that works with traditional community leaders to protect local reefs, and the Bahamas National Trust, which manages marine protected areas with an emphasis on coral reefs and natural heritage.

Vibrant Oceans Phase II has three main goals: the creation of “high-impact,” science-based fisheries and marine protection policies in 10 countries; the protection of “at least” 50 reef geographies representing 75 percent of the coral species selected through research; and for 20 countries to establish “fishing activity transparency” in national waters.

“We've been working to get countries to partner with us on [GFW] to share their fishing data and use it in efforts to set and enforce policies. Panama [agreed] to provide their data… That's a big deal because it’s the largest ship registry in the world,” Williams says. All merchant vessels registered and operating under Panama’s sea jurisdiction must comply with their regulations. Williams says this is “a huge expansion of the requirements of fishing vessels to provide their information, and therefore, have less illegal fishing activity happening.”

Speaking of ocean data mapping, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation also believes data can have a major impact on ocean health. In 2015, it funded Monmouth University’s creation of the mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal, which is still active today.

Sharing Ocean Data Through the Bloomberg Terminal

At Our Ocean 2019, the sixth of these major cross-sector international ocean conferences in which governments and funders often announce new commitments to ocean stewardship, Bloomberg revealed a new ocean data-sharing initiative. It is now publishing GFW data on the Bloomberg Terminal, the famous live and interactive professional investment system, alongside other map-based and geospatial tools.

“Being able to bring information on the problem of overfishing and the behavior of particular ships and companies to industry is [really important]… By sharing information about who the bad actors are, there's a lot more that governments can do to enforce fishing [laws]. Also, public engagement can come from knowing the scope of the problem and what’s happening,” Williams says.

GFW data are shared on the Bloomberg Terminal alongside current information on climate, coral reefs and natural resources and disasters. GFW Chief Innovation Officer Paul Woods tells us the GFW team hopes the data will help businesses and governments “better assess risk, direct action to strengthen compliance or investigate suspicious behavior.” They also hope it will aid investors and businesses interested in the blue economy, allowing them to “better understand the increasing economic activity that originates at sea, in an increasingly interconnected web of transnational [activity].”

Bloomberg stated GFW data inclusion will also be useful in clarifying coral reefs’ contribution to tourism and aiding the development of insurance products for coastal infrastructure, including reefs and mangroves that act as barriers against extreme weather, along with other applications. Bloomberg Philanthropies CEO Patti Harris said the addition of GFW data will “help investors drive capital toward responsible actors.” The current Exxon trial is a clear reminder of the growing importance of environmental responsibility, due diligence, and transparency in commerce. Exxon is accused of not being forthright with its investors about how much climate change and related regulations would affect its fossil fuel business and stock.

Ocean Funding is Wide Open

Williams says that one of the goals of the Vibrant Oceans Initiative is “to draw a lot more attention and philanthropic support to the problems that face the ocean.” Philanthropy committed $234 million to new oceans-related work at Our Ocean 2019. Funders who made commitments include the Oak Foundation, Vulcan, Inc., Ocean Foundation, Waitt Foundation and others. Of course, funders also support the NGOs who participated and pledged about $40 million. Sustainable fishing received about $299 million in commitments from funders, governments and other sources. 

Overall, in 2015, philanthropy gave about $399 million in ocean-related grants. In 2016, the philanthropic sector contributed about $620 million in this area. Along with the ocean-focused philanthropies we’ve already mentioned, Marc and Lynne Benioff, Eric and Wendy Schmidt, and the Marisla Foundation are notable ocean funders, among others. Funders and nonprofits interested in learning more about the ocean funding landscape can explore FundingtheOcean.org, a resource created by the Foundation Center with support from several big ocean-givers.

Within the oceans’ myriad realms and impacts, ocean philanthropy takes diverse forms; it can address plastic pollution, protect specific species, be academic, international or grass-roots, or grow ocean grasses, which capture carbon. A recent report from the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy highlights the ocean’s importance in solving global climate change and assesses several ocean-based mitigation strategies that funders could support. These include decarbonizing marine transport with alternative fuels and energy efficiency, ocean-based renewable energy (wind, wave and tidal systems), the importance of “blue carbon” ecosystems like salt marshes, mangroves and seagrasses, and shifting human diets to lower-carbon, ocean-based food. The report found ocean-based solutions could reduce the “emissions gap” (the difference between emission predictions based on current trends and where we need to be to limit global warming) by between 21 and 25 percent by 2050.

Janis Searles Jones, CEO of the Ocean Conservancy, which has received support from Bloomberg, says, “[We] need more people thinking about ocean health, period,” and also references the 1 percent ocean funding stat. “We need more foundations to join [Bloomberg].” She also says, “Historically, ocean and climate funding has been siloed,” and encourages funders to consider how climate change and the ocean are connected.

“Take fisheries… with fish moving north as ocean water warms, we need to be thinking about what this means for ecosystems and local fishing communities. How do you conserve and manage, in this case, a literal moving target?”

And as coral reefs struggle to survive in changing seas, they could also use more philanthropic attention. A 2019 study supported by the Coral Reef Alliance found protecting a variety of reefs in various ocean conditions and temperatures to be key to supporting coral adaptation and evolution. “Together, a diversity of reef types act as stepping stones that give corals the best chance for adapting and moving as climate changes,” co-author Malin Pinsky, associate professor at Rutgers University, said.

Co-author and Coral Reef Alliance Program Director Madhavi Colton suggests funders support organizations “that are developing proven approaches to reducing local threats to reefs,” like overfishing and water pollution. He adds, “These solutions must be able to be implemented in partnership with the 275 million people who rely on coral reefs for food and income.” The Coral Reef Alliance has also received support from Bloomberg.

Basically, there’s plenty of room for more funders to get involved in ocean philanthropy and drive up support to a level that better represents the oceans’ paramount importance to us all. And when it comes to environmental conservation and the stewardship of our resilient but beleaguered planet, it’s clear there is no time to waste.

Related: