Oceanic Society

At Oceanic Society, we believe there is a need to go beyond education and awareness-building to motivate and amplify measurable behavior change to conserve the oceans. Our diverse portfolio of initiatives is geared towards bridging what we see as a large gap between awareness of marine conservation issues and tangible pro-ocean behavior.

Through our Expeditions and California Whale Watch programs, we bring people into direct contact with nature and the oceans with the goal of positively influencing their environmental behavior post-travel. We view these programs and the global network of connections they represent as invaluable platforms for testing, refining, and amplifying the results of our organization-wide “Blue Habits” initiative.

Our State of the World’s Sea Turtles (SWOT) Program acts as a convener and a unifying force in one of the most active, ardent, and conservation-focused scientific communities in the world. It aims to ultimately bring data-driven solutions to decision makers that influence major threats to ocean wildlife and ecosystems. SWOT operates on the principle that sea turtles are a charismatic species threatened by choices that we all make as individuals. They are flagships for ocean ecosystems worldwide, and powerful ambassadors for the adoption of “Blue Habits”.

Through our work, we aim to "move the needle" in ways that measurably improve ocean health and reduce the hazards that humans pose to oceans over time. Specifically, Oceanic Society works to drive engagement and activate behavior change three focus areas: pollution (plastic and toxins), climate change (carbon footprint), and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture (seafood choices).

In short, we aim to create “a more oceanic society.”

1) Connect: Connecting people to oceans through travel, and motivating personal actions to improve ocean health.

Tourism is one of the largest industries on the planet. Nature-based travel is considered the fastest-growing tourism sector and is the perfect venue for breaking down the perception of separation between people and nature, for spiking peoples' motivation to act, and for introducing behavior change ideas and interventions to receptive audiences. Through our Expeditions and California Whale Watch programs, Oceanic Society strives to facilitate meaningful, life-changing experiences for our travelers and the local communities we visit, and to simultaneously inspire and invite them to become more deeply involved in conservation after the expedition is over. The SWOT Program serves as a connector within the sea turtle community, bringing together passionate conservationists from all over the world.

2) Activate: Defining and implementing the strategy, tools, and goals to activate, sustain, and measure human behavior change.

Oceanic Society seeks to convert today's unprecedented levels of awareness into unprecedented levels of action, and to help individuals discover and adopt new habits and behaviors that support healthy oceans. We are building upon our half-century of experience by teaming up with education, marketing, social science, and behavior change experts to define the types of behaviors we hope to change, the specific audiences to target, and the methods and tools we must employ to motivate lasting pro-ocean behaviors.

3) Amplify: Leveraging and amplifying our impacts to an ever-increasing audience

Building corporate, non-profit, and tourism industry partnerships that are committed to supporting Blue Habits and conservation efforts will be integral to expanding ocean health impacts beyond Oceanic Society. Broadly, we aim to bring together relevant stakeholders, including governments, intergovernmental organizations, international financial institutions, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, academic institutions, the scientific community, the private sector, philanthropic organizations and other actors to assess challenges and opportunities in ocean conservation and behavior change.

A Legacy of Conservation - Oceanic Society is America's first ocean conservation nonprofit organization, founded in San Francisco in 1969. Our legacy is one of building public engagement to address ocean threats through effective communications strategies and nature-based tourism programs. Since our founding, we have inspired thousands of ocean advocates who shaped the ocean conservation movement that exists today.

Deep Expertise in Experiential Nature Travel - Leading nature travel worldwide for 50 years, we’ve helped to build a more oceanic society by immersing travelers in nature and helping them engage in conservation. We have strong ties to the tourism community, a network of expert naturalist guides, and credibility as a longstanding nature travel operator in dozens of destinations worldwide.

Ambitious Behavior Change Focus - With the organization’s recent shift to focus on behavior change (i.e. Blue Habits program), we have successfully completed a $250,000 Blue Habits Phase I program with leading behavioral scientists and are currently in Phase II of this work.

Global Expertise in Marine Conservation - Oceanic Society is a leader in sea turtle conservation as the conveners of the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group and the State of the World's Sea Turtles (SWOT) network; and has been a pioneer in marine mammal research and conservation since the 1960s.

Oceanic Society helped put ocean conservation on the public radar. Some of our many accomplishments include:

Creating the Oceanic Society Patrol and Farallon Patrol—The patrols were innovative programs that turned yacht owners into citizen scientists who monitored the seas and collected valuable ocean data.

Pioneering ecotourism and volunteer vacations—Our founders knew that building a “more oceanic society" would require first-hand participation by the public. They began the Oceanic Society Expeditions program in 1972, an effort we proudly continue today.

Inspiring a generation of ocean lovers through Oceans magazine—From 1974 through 1988, we published the popular Oceans magazine that was distributed to tens of thousands of people worldwide.

Leading the way in whale watching—Whale watching played an important role in helping society transition away from whaling. Among the first organizations to promote and lead whale watching trips, Oceanic Society ran our first whale watching trip in the early 1970s out of San Francisco, and soon began to offer regular whale watching trips out of Sausalito, Pillar Point, and Bodega Bay, California, and eventually to Baja California out of San Diego.

Responding to the Exxon Valdez oil spill—Our staff were instrumental in coordinating the response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill (1989) and advancing legislation that requires double hulls on oil tankers.

Co-founding the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT—Under the leadership of Chris duPont Roosevelt, Oceanic Society helped establish this top-notch educational facility, which opened in 1988 (as the Maritime Center at Norwalk).

Pushing for protection of Turneffe Atoll, Belize—We established a field station at Blackbird Caye in Turneffe Atoll, Belize in 2001 to bring a permanent environmental presence to the area, to do marine research for conservation, and to build an eco-tourism program that would demonstrate Turneffe's value as a protected area. In 2012, Turneffe Atoll was declared a marine reserve, and our work played a major role in its definition.

Advancing community conservation in Ulithi Atoll—We worked alongside the community on Falalop in Ulithi Atoll (Micronesia) in their efforts to study and conserve sea turtles (starting in 2007) and to establish a locally managed marine area (starting in 2011).

Strengthening local sea turtle conservation, globally—Through our State of the World’s Sea Turtles Program, we have been supporting local sea turtle conservation efforts worldwide by partnering with hundreds of individuals and institutions to improve sea turtle science, set priorities for research and conservation, and provide needed resources to conservation projects since 2012.

Innovating a focus on behavior change—In 2014 we launched our Blue Habits program, an innovative effort that aims to go beyond merely raising awareness to deliver measurable behavior change that positively impacts ocean health. In partnership with Stanford University, we are now