When the world’s first marine reserves were established in the 1920s, Jacques Cousteau was an adolescent. The deepest we could dive was about 500 ft. Humans were beginning to imagine what could be beneath the surface, what discoveries lay waiting, and what might deserve protecting.
Nearly a century later, we’ve made a lot of progress. The ocean is the center of the world economy, providing food, labor, transportation, tourism, and so much more. It has brought us promising treatments for disease, animal-inspired engineering and robotics, and even the basis for space exploration technology. Inspired by the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science—which launched a 10-year push for action in 2021—marine researchers, philanthropists, and political leaders worldwide aim to map the entire seafloor and identify 100,000 new species by 2030. And at the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) earlier this month, the global community made progress on financial commitments for preservation, support for pausing deep-sea mining, expanding marine protected areas—with French Polynesia notably vowing to protect 900,000 square kilometers of sea—and on the High Seas Treaty to protect marine life in international waters.
And yet, much remains to be discovered about our ocean and its role in sustaining all life on Earth—and much remains to be done to protect it. To build on the momentum of UNOC, ocean conservation—through robust marine protected areas and other measures—must continue to advance, alongside exploration and research. And until the next conference in 2028, while governments must lead the way, every sector of society has a role in saving the seas.
Over the past two decades, evidence has repeatedly shown that protecting the ocean supports not only the planet but also all of us who rely on it. One recent study found that protecting swaths of ocean increases catch for valuable fish, including large migratory species like bigeye and yellowfin tuna, which alone support $40 billion in global business. Another report showed that marine protected areas not only help rebuild fish stock, they also drive higher income and food security for nearby coastal communities.
Despite the evidence, and despite our advances toward better stewardship, however, we are facing strong headwinds: from reversals on protected areas to warming ocean waters.
Governments, international and civil society organizations, and philanthropies like the Schmidt Ocean Institute, Schmidt Sciences, Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy, and the Bertarelli Foundation, which we help lead, are stepping up to support ocean exploration and protection efforts—and it’s working. Public-private sector partnerships will be essential in moving the needle from ocean science to ocean action.
The waters surrounding the Galapagos Islands provide an example of what’s possible through long-term partnership across sectors. Famed for their endemic plant and animal life that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, the islands’ waters were first granted legal protection 50 years ago. Today, the reserve, managed by the Ecuadorian government in consultation with local fishers and scientists, allows for fishing and tourism while keeping stricter rules in more sensitive areas. Ecuador recently added more than 23,000 square miles to the protected waters, working in partnership with Costa Rica, Colombia, and Panama. In a deal supported by Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy through Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy and other partners, Ecuador converted $1.6 billion of its existing commercial debt into a $656 million loan that will provide $12 million in financing for marine conservation activities each year, in perpetuity. Complementing this work, the Bertarelli Philanthropy also supported the development of the Global Fishing Watch Marine Manager, which provides open-source, interactive data on the Galapagos area, and worldwide, to support conservation, policy, and research.
Indeed, scientists are still uncovering new findings around the Galapagos. The Schmidt Ocean Institute’s philanthropic research vessel Falkor (too) undertook two expeditions around the islands in 2023 and encountered two large, pristine coral reefs as well as a hydrothermal vent field—all previously unknown to humankind, all livestreamed for free on YouTube to anyone who wished to watch. As with the Global Fishing Watch Marine Manager, the livestream offers an intimate connection with the ocean for a global audience—a far cry from the days when only a few humans had the chance to explore, and at no great depth. Both the reefs and vents offer clues about the still dramatically under-researched deep sea and the role it plays in keeping the broader ocean, and indeed the entire planet, healthy.
The Galapagos aren’t the only place where marine protected areas (MPA) have benefited both people and the planet. A recent study of 59 MPAs established by California—which created a network of reserves in 1999—saw more and larger fish across the entire network, particularly in species sought by fisheries. This was true despite the MPAs being diverse in how they choose to ban or limit activities like fishing, shipping, and tourism—though stronger and longer lasting protections correlated with more significant results.
The more we explore and protect the ocean, the more we reap the benefits, whether in the form of economic returns or scientific breakthroughs. Advancing conservation—through MPAs as well as a host of complementary policies and data collection efforts—supports economies and scientific research in a virtuous cycle. The world has come a long way from just a century ago, when we could only see as far into the ocean as the sun allowed. As philanthropists, we seek to contribute to a better understanding of the ocean through science and data—the groundwork for accountability and action. We call on the policymakers, experts, and advocates—and everyone who is enthralled by the sea—to remember that the more we search and the more we find, the closer we come to a healthy ocean and a healthy planet.
Dona Bertarelli is executive chair of Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy and co-chair of the Bertarelli Foundation. Wendy Schmidt is co-founder and president of the Schmidt Ocean Institute and co-founder of Schmidt Sciences.
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