Standing on the shore, many of us reflect on how small the ocean makes us feel—a vast expanse of rolling, spirited water will have that effect. Covering 71% of earth, the ocean is our planet’s most defining feature. It holds over 1.3 billion cubic kilometers of water and over 99% of the area that can be inhabited by life. So big that we often break it into its five basins—Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Artic, and Southern—it is in fact one thing, upon which all life depends. Feeling small is appropriate. Yet the powerful ocean can be impacted by human actions.
On World Oceans Day, we celebrate everything the ocean gives us—from the oxygen we breathe to the inspiration that moves poets. Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2008, World Oceans Day, which is June 8th, mobilizes conservationists of every stripe—corporations, nonprofit organizations, research institutions, citizen scientists, and governments—to celebrate the ocean and to protect it.
This year’s theme—Planet Ocean: tides are changing—calls us to urgent action. For such a crucial part of our life support system, the ocean receives a disproportionally small amount of our attention and resources. Many of us are working to change that. At Oracle, we believe companies have an important role to play in accelerating ocean conservation, and we’re investing in and working with excellent nonprofit organizations to help power their missions.
Pristine Seas: protecting the ocean one expedition at a time
In 2009, Oracle began funding National Geographic’s Pristine Seas, a project aimed at helping to establish marine reserves—free of extractive and damaging activities—where marine life thrives and produces benefits for local communities and the world. While the project has made great strides, we need to accelerate efforts as overexploitation of marine life continues and global warming turns up the heat, putting our life support system at risk.
To date, the Pristine Seas team has conducted 38 expeditions that have helped inspire the creation of 26 marine protected areas, covering more than 6.6 million square kilometers. And, just last month, Pristine Seas launched The Global Expedition, a bold new initiative spanning the next five years, focused on exploring the remote tropical Pacific. In collaboration with local governments, communities, indigenous and local peoples, and marine scientists, the expedition will support local conservation efforts in the world’s most diverse ocean ecosystem.
The Marine Mammal Center: ocean optimism is key to progress
Marine mammals are bioindicators, meaning their sickness or health reflects the state of our ecosystem. It’s important information because what makes an otter or seal sick will make a human sick too. The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC) in Sausalito, California, is dedicated to protecting marine mammals and advancing global ocean conservation through veterinary medicine, science, and education. Established 46 years ago, and supported by Oracle since 2009, it has rescued more than 24,000 marine mammals along 600 miles of California coastline and around Hawai’i.
TMMC makes an important impact by protecting species such as northern elephant seals, which are native to the California coast and were hunted nearly to extinction. Today their population stands at more than 175,000. TMMC’s hospital on the Big Island of of Hawai’I dedicated to Hawaiian monk seals is helping to turn the tide for that species. After six decades of decline, monk seals—named for their folds of skin that resemble a monk’s cowl—were teetering on the brink of extinction. Today, they number over 1,500.
The Nature Conservancy: restoring an ecosystem more productive than the Amazon
Oracle also has a long partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), whose mission is to conserve the lands and the waters on which all life depends. Oracle’s recent grants are helping to restore the kelp forests on California’s North Coast.
California kelp forests harbor more than 1,000 plant and animal species, forming an ecosystem even more productive than the Amazon rainforest. They store staggering amounts of carbon and pump about $250 million a year into the state’s economy. But global warming and other factors have caused a die-off of sunflower sea stars, a species that kelp forests rely upon to control a fierce enemy—the purple urchin. An explosion of purple urchins has put kelp forests in serious trouble. TNC is finding ways to rebalance these ecosystems, and their solutions can help not only California’s kelp forests, but also those of Australia, Norway, and Chile.
The Ocean Conservancy: calling all hands
Since 2021, Oracle Volunteers in dozens of countries have been cleaning up beaches and waterways with the Ocean Conservancy, which works with communities around the world to protect the ocean. More specifically, this means stopping millions of metric tons of plastic waste from entering the ocean every year and also ridding it of over 150 million metric tons that are already there. This important fight is data-driven. Oracle Volunteers use the Ocean Conservancy’s Clean Swell app to log what types of trash they collect and where. This feeds the Ocean Conservancy’s database, which in turn provides researchers and policymakers with insights key to solving this issue on a global scale. To date, thousands of Oracle Volunteers have prevented tons of trash from ending up in the ocean.
Planet Ocean: tides are changing
The 2023 World Oceans Day theme—Planet Ocean: tides are changing—highlights the interconnected nature of all life on earth and the fact that our actions matter. It calls upon us to get more involved, not just on June 8th, but year-round. Together, we can drive big changes, like creating more marine protected areas, saving marine mammals, and revitalizing kelp forests. Equally vital are the seemingly small changes each of us can make—by preventing plastic waste from entering our waters, rejecting ocean-harming products, voting on ocean issues, voting with our wallets, and lowering our carbon footprint—that could add up to a sea change. To learn more about how Oracle is investing in our transforming world, visit the Oracle Social Impact Report and look here.