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Oceana Receives 5 Million Dollar Grant from the Arcadia Fund
to Protect Ocean Biodiversity around the World
Funds dispersed over 5-year period will help
organization address critical seafloor habitat and
marine life protection
November
13, 2013
WASHINGTON – Oceana announced today the receipt of a grant
from UK-based Arcadia Fund. The funding of 5,000,000 US
dollars will be paid over a period of five years to support
Oceana’s campaigns to protect biodiversity in the world’s
oceans. This grant will enable Oceana to achieve its
campaign goals in habitat and marine life protection.
“Arcadia is pleased to be able to continue to fund Oceana
efforts to protect and restore the world’s oceans. We
believe it is critical for the future of our planet to
protect the biodiversity of the seas,” said Anthea Case,
Principal Adviser to the Arcadia Fund.
“Oceana’s aggressive conservation goals cannot be realized
without the generous support of groups like the Arcadia
Fund,” said Oceana CEO Andrew Sharpless. “With this help,
Oceana can win more victories in Europe, Chile and the
United States and protect thousands of miles of seafloor
habitat, expand marine reserves, and preserve habitat for
sea turtles, sea lions and other creatures. Arcadia’s
support will also support Oceana’s international expansion
into new countries like Brazil and South Asia, helping us to
gain protections for the large and incredibly productive
ocean ecosystems that are managed by these nations.”
Oceana has selected multi-year goals based, in part, on
biological importance, feasibility of success, and Oceana’s
ability to make a difference. With the five-year funding
from Arcadia, Oceana will focus on:
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Increasing by 30 percent the amount of European marine
areas that are protected by national and/or regional
governments, with a special focus on Spain, Portugal,
Italy, Malta, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Poland
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Protecting more than 50,000 square miles of U.S.
seafloor habitat, including Bering Sea canyons and skate
nurseries; critical habitat for North Pacific loggerhead
sea turtles; and habitat in the Western Aleutian Islands
to for the endangered Steller sea lions
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Closing
newly identified rich and fragile Chilean marine
habitats to bottom trawling and creating new or expanded
marine reserves in many of the rich seafloor habitats
along Chile’s long coastline, including surrounding
Easter Island and the Juan Fernández Island
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Expanding
Oceana’s campaigns to restore marine biodiversity to new
parts of Latin America and to Tropical Asia
“Restoring the health of the seas is an achievable
conservation goal,” said Oceana CEO Andy Sharpless. “Just 25
countries are responsible for managing 90% of the world’s
wild fish catch. By winning policy victories on a national
level that set scientific quotas, protect habitat and reduce
bycatch, we can make a huge difference in strengthening the
world’s oceans biodiversity by winning policy change in
these very rich and important marine ecosystems.”
This is the third significant grant that Oceana has been
awarded by Arcadia. The first was a three-year grant of
5,250,000 US dollars for core support awarded in May 2007,
followed by another three-year grant of 2,550,000 US dollars
for core support in September 2010.
In addition, Arcadia awarded Oceana 1 million US dollars
over a two-year period in November 2010 to fund improvements
in marine health in the Baltic Sea. That grant enabled
Oceana to undertake a series of investigations designed to
enlarge and improve the network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
in order to protect the ecologically important habitat of
the Baltic Sea.
In the past decade, Oceana has already won over fifty
significant victories for the seas including protecting 1.2
million square miles of ocean habitat in the Pacific,
Atlantic, and Mediterranean from destructive bottom
trawling.
Arcadia's key mission is to protect endangered culture and
nature. This includes the protection of ecosystems and
environments threatened with extinction. “Our
oceans cover 70% of the planet. They must have our support
and attention,” said Anthea Case, Principal Adviser to the
Arcadia Fund. “We are very happy to be able to work with and
help Oceana bring about real and positive change for our
seas.”
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Arcadia is
the charitable foundation of Lisbet Rausing and Peter
Baldwin. Since inception in 2001 Arcadia has awarded grants
in excess of $243 million. Arcadia works to protect
endangered culture and nature. For more information please
see www.arcadiafund.org.uk
Oceana campaigns
to protect and restore the world’s oceans. Our teams of
marine scientists, economists, lawyers, and advocates win
specific and concrete policy changes to reduce pollution and
to prevent the irreversible collapse of fish populations,
marine mammals and other sea life. Global in scope and
dedicated to conservation, Oceana has campaigners based in
North America, Europe, and South and Central
America. More than 600,000 members and
e-activists in over 150 countries have already joined
Oceana. For more information, please visit
www.oceana.org
For more information please contact:
Jessica Wiseman
202-467-1934
JWISEMAN@OCEANA.ORG
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