Fast-tracking solutions for a healthy ocean
The ocean sustains us, stabilizes our climate and absorbs much of the carbon and heat we produce.
Up to 70% of the oxygen we breathe comes from marine life.
Over 3 billion people rely on a healthy ocean to provide jobs and food.
If the Ocean was an economy, it would be the seventh largest in the world.
Yet we are causing widespread harm to this planetary lifeline.
Human actions have pushed species to the brink, and caused seas to warm, rise and become more acidic.
8 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the ocean every year –the equivalent of one garbage truck every minute.
Every year, 32 million metric tons of fish goes unreported, more than the weight of the entire population of the US.
We have the knowledge, power and technology to put the ocean on a path to recovery. The ocean’s power of regeneration is remarkable, if we just offer it the chance.
Who we are
The Friends of Ocean Action is a unique, informal group of 51 Ocean leaders who are fast-tracking solutions to the most pressing challenges facing the Ocean. Its members – the Friends – come from business, civil society, international organizations, science and technology.
Co-Chairs
Peter Thomson
UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean
Isabella Lövin
Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
Our mission
To use our knowledge, means and influence to help the international help community take the urgent steps needed to “conserve and sustainably use our ocean, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”
Sustainable Development Goal 14
Taking action
Working alongside the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy that brings the political will of 12 heads of government, our aim is to drive action and transformative, high-impact and scaleable initiatives in time for the proposed UN Ocean Conference in 2020. We have the following action tracks:
Plastic pollution (the Global Plastic Action Partnership)
Securing Sustainable Food from the Ocean
Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
Maritime and Shipping Sector Emissions
Ocean Data
Financing Ocean Innovation
Eliminating Harmful Fisheries Subsidies
Find out more
Our aim is to drive action and showcase high-impact, transformative and scaleable initiatives in time for the proposed UN Ocean Conference in 2020. We have eight key action tracks:
