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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Japan
Ocean Data, Literacy & Research
Yuka Kagao
The mission of SOA Hub Japan is to become the leading network for ocean youth leaders in Japan. This grant allowed them to build out their website, pitch materials, and increase their Hub Membership base. They brought on 10 members to fill leadership roles and hosted a series of webinars featuring Japanese ocean leaders. They used initial momentum to continue to grow their membership, and are now organizing a prototype of an ocean youth leadership summit & training program in Tokyo.
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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USA
Ocean Data, Literacy & Research
Stephanie Fine Sasse
Led by founder Steph Fine Sasse (33), The Plenary inspires students to become scientists through their “I am a Scientist” program, which highlights the life of an ocean-focused scientist by developing curricula and classroom materials that are disseminated within their network of 250 educators and 25,000 middle and high school students.
LEARN MOREMicrogrant
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Portugal
Ocean Data, Literacy & Research
Filipa Vieira
M do Mar is an ocean literacy project that has 3 components: Menu do Mar which works with coastal restaurants to provide ocean literacy activities for kids at restaurants, Mães do Mar, (mothers of the sea) which promotes ocean literacy through rock pool experiences at schools, and Mar Profundo, a board game about deep sea ecosystem management.
LEARN MOREMicrogrant
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Australia
Ocean Data, Literacy & Research
Heidi Dumesich
The mission of SOA Australia is to be the overarching hub to support all of the hubs across Australia as well as be their space for individuals and companies to learn about the importance of the ocean. Their first projects included webinars and online events to connect young leaders from across Australia and build the network.
LEARN MOREMicrogrant
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Ecuador
Ocean Data, Literacy & Research
Jacqueline González Garcés
This project, affiliated with SOA Chile, and led by 3 project leaders from different Latin American countries, seeks to create an interactive ebook for children and youth. The book will cover the topics learned in SOA's La Academia in an accessible way for the target audience. The ultimate goal is to change the way in which youth gain knowledge about the ocean as an ecosystem and that they understand the impact that humans have on this ecosystem.
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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.
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Startup
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France
Ocean Data, Literacy & Research
Yanis Souami
SINAY is a "plug & play" big data platform that includes an exhaustive maritime database and dedicated AI to create data-centric apps that provide actionable insights.
LEARN MOREMicrogrant
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Indonesia
Pollution Reduction & the Circular Economy
Dhani Akbar
This project partners with the local government agencies in Bintan to assess the concentration of plastic particles/fragments in sediment, as well as concentration and extent of oil pollution in Bintan island. They have also conducted a study on interrelationship between both pollutants (plastic and oil) and the local community’s perception of the problem, with an emphasis on creating post-assessment mitigation proposal.
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