Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) activates young people, develops and implements innovative solutions, and mobilizes an ocean workforce to restore the health of the ocean in our lifetime.
Since founded by Daniela Fernandez in 2014, SOA has built the world’s largest network of young ocean leaders and supported innovative startups, nonprofits, and grassroots campaigns dedicated to solving the greatest threats facing our planet.
Two years ago at the World Economic Forum, we shared our vision with the world, and Salesforce Chair and Co-CEO Marc Benioff challenged us to accelerate 100 solutions by 2021.
Today, SOA is proud to announce that as of 2021, we have more than doubled our initial goal: we have accelerated 222 startups, nonprofits, and grassroots initiatives all over the world, each dedicated to restoring and sustaining the health of our ocean.
The Ocean Solutions Accelerator helps entrepreneurs launch for-profit ocean solutions for a sustainable blue economy by providing funding, mentorship, and other critical resources to scale their ventures and amplify their impact.
The Ocean Leadership Program (OLP) holistically supports over 6,000 global participants with the resources and networks they need to build ocean-healing solutions and to reach their full potential as ocean leaders. The OLP awards Microgrants of up to $15,000 USD to outstanding youth leaders to execute and scale their projects, and provides 72 youth-led Hubs with leadership and programmatic support.
Together, these 222 solutions for ocean restoration have touched tens of thousands of lives, restored critical marine ecosystems worldwide, invented sustainable alternatives to plastics, pioneered cutting-edge technology to illuminate the mysteries of our deepest seas and much, much more.
Each startup, nonprofit, and grassroots initiative has focused its efforts across five key areas of ocean health impact.
Learn more, and explore all 222 solutions below.
IMPACT:
15,540 metric tons of CO2 reduced, avoided, or sequestered
The fight to address climate change cannot be separated from the drive to support solutions that address carbon removal and blue carbon ecosystem development. In 2020, 31.5 gigatons of carbon (CO2) were emitted globally, with 83% of the carbon cycle circulating through the ocean. Certain marine and coastal ecosystems—like tidal marshes, mangroves, and seagrass meadows—play a critical role in this cycle by sequestering and storing what’s then known as “blue carbon.”
These ecosystems are critical to climate change mitigation. Mangroves and salt marshes, for example, remove carbon from the atmosphere at a rate 10 times greater and store five times more carbon per acre than tropical forests.
IMPACT:
1,755 metric tons of solid waste removed, upcycled, or avoided
Each year, only 9% of plastic produced ends up recycled—which results in 10 million tons of plastic dumped into our oceans every year. That’s nearly equivalent to the weight of the entire human population. These pollutants are responsible for choking marine life, destroying both marine and coastal ecosystems, and polluting our own food sources.
Today, the average person ingests over 70,000 microplastics each year (that’s 100 pieces over the course of a single meal). The solutions in this category work to reduce and eliminate items like single-use plastics. Their work in turn helps to build the circular economy, which promotes the extension of product lifecycles and aims to decrease solid waste and pollution.
IMPACT:
89,128 square meters of blue carbon ecosystems protected or restored
In addition to sustaining marine life and the communities that depend on it, coastal ecosystems account for approximately half of the total carbon sequestered in ocean sediments. These may include coral reefs, mangrove forests, kelp forests, wetlands, and seagrass beds. Together, they serve as nurseries for marine organisms and as critical areas of blue carbon capture.
However, many marine ecosystems are experiencing degradation and destruction by human activities, which not only leads to species depletion, but also releases the critically stored carbon back into the atmosphere.
Solutions in this category have monitored 150,000 kilometers of coastline for climate change adaptation planning, detected 67,000 whales to avoid marine collisions, produced 150+ ocean literacy reports and media projects, hosted 260 events with more than 30,000 youth participants, and much more.
More than 80% of our ocean is unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored. In the United States, only 35% of the ocean and coastal waters have been mapped with modern methods. In order to inform policy decisions that ensure marine and coastal ecosystem sustainability—and to empower humans worldwide to take local action to save the ocean—we need reliable data sources, mapping, and consistent analysis.
Some projects in the category of ocean literacy, data, and research focus on data collection and analysis, while other initiatives are dedicated to fostering knowledge-sharing and creating local opportunities for action. All play critical roles in leveraging knowledge and technical skills to catalyze lasting ocean impact.
Every year, 30% of commercial fish stocks are overfished, while harmful fishing practices cause over 38 million tons of bycatch (the incidental capture of a non-target species). As a result, this institutionalized overfishing has contributed to a marked decrease in recorded marine species over the last 40 years.
Sustainable protein, fisheries, and aquaculture solutions address the challenge of sustainably feeding the world's growing human population without the continued exploitation of marine habitats and species.
SOA’s solutions in this area are varied, with many developing new, innovative systems of impact tracking. One Microgrant project is developing a supply chain around selling “gourmet” sea urchins in order to quell California’s invasive purple sea urchin population explosion. Another is piloting a CSA-style delivery service in the Philippines to support seasonal, sustainably caught seafood. Our Accelerator alumni are hard at work in this area as well, developing plant-based alternatives to seafood (think kelp burgers, kelp jerky, and cell-cultured tuna), net sensors to reduce bycatch, deepwater solar irrigation for seaweed farming, and more.
Microgrant
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Peru
Ocean Data, Literacy & Research
Daniel Caceres Bartra
La Academia is an online course developed and managed by Sustainable Ocean Alliance through the SOA Hubs in Peru and Ecuador, in coordination with Hispanoamerica Hub network in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia. It educates Spanish-speaking young people interested in ocean conservation through seminars conducted by experts, multimedia educational content, and weekly assignments. This year we are expanding to three 8-week courses and 225 participants.
LEARN MOREMicrogrant
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Martinique
Ecosystem Preservation & Restoration
Frédérique Fardin
This project, led by the NGO Roots of the Sea, engages Martiniquan and Caribbean youth in the celebration of Mangrove Week by creating a mangrove tree nursery (planting 50-75 mangroves) and doing a mangrove cleanup event. They also aim to establish a mangrove network with other organizations across the Caribbean.
LEARN MOREMicrogrant
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Ghana
Blue Foods (Sustainable Protein, Fisheries & Aquaculture)
Eric Appiah Krampah
In affiliation with the African Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience at the University of Cape Coast, this program will isolate and culture local marine microalgae strains to serve as a food source for oyster larval rearing. The performance of these microalgae-fed larvae will be assessed in the laboratory and then transplanted to the field. This is being done in order to find a solution for the recent exploitation of the West African Mangrove Oyster.
LEARN MOREMicrogrant
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United States of America
Pollution Reduction & the Circular Economy
Megan Hansen
The University of Southern Mississippi Hub will conduct monthly cleanups during the academic year at polluted locations at or near bodies of water in the Hattiesburg and Mississippi Gulf Coast areas. The focus is on areas that drain into major rivers in the area. Collected waste will be tracked and reported to local interest groups.
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Startup
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Netherlands
Carbon (CO2) Reduction & Blue Carbon
Alexei Levene & William Janssen
Desolenator is pioneering low-cost, ocean-safe desalination with a technology powered 100% by solar energy, and without the use of harmful chemicals. Desolenator supports the resilience of communities and thought-leading businesses experiencing high water stress.
LEARN MOREMicrogrant
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USA
Blue Foods (Sustainable Protein, Fisheries & Aquaculture)
Janelle Gaun
Public perception of aquaculture has previously been an obstacle to implementation and survey results will inform communication and engagement strategies for Ocean Rainforest, a commercial kelp producer. Additionally, an executive summary will be created and distributed to key stakeholder and interest groups.
LEARN MOREMicrogrant
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Trinidad and Tobago
Ocean Data, Literacy & Research
Khadija Stewart
The Sea Our Seas Docuseries includes six short documentaries that highlight the oceans, marine resources, and problems and challenges facing effective ocean management in Trinidad and Tobago. The topics addressed include: fisheries, pollution, coral reefs, ghost gear, the Blue Economy, and climate change.
LEARN MOREMicrogrant
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Peru
Ocean Data, Literacy & Research
Javier Jeirzinho Valdivia De La Gala
SOA Arequipa Hub (Peru) will undertake a survey of marine macroinvertertebrates in the Arequipa region at three different underwater sites, and will catalogue and publish their findings on a website of their own making. This project will develop their skills as researchers and science writers.
LEARN MOREMicrogrant
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Spain
Pollution Reduction & the Circular Economy
Magda Cebrian
Moving Towards Zero is a global campaign that will use the Go Zero Waste app to promote challenges that can be completed to promote sustainable habits and local trade. Each action is linked to earning points, saving waste and direct rewards and incentives. The campaigns which will be launched in Spain, the US, and Canada, will be co-created with companies and governments.
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