Oceana Canada

Background

Oceana Canada, an independent charity affiliated with the international family of Oceana organizations, works to restore Canadian oceans as a source for wild-caught fish, and preserve the marine ecosystem for current and future generations. Oceana Canada will work with civil society, academics, fishers, and government to return Canada’s formerly vibrant oceans to health.

Founded in 2001, Oceana is the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation. Oceana’s offices in North America, Central America, South America, and Europe, work together on a limited number of strategic, directed campaigns to achieve measurable outcomes that will help return the world’s oceans to former levels of abundance. Oceana scientists work closely with teams of economists, lawyers, and advocates to achieve tangible results and address the most urgent problems confronting the marine environment.

Full Description

The Foundation’s grant will support Oceana Canada’s work on:

• Establishing national policies that mandate recovery plans for overfished species. Initial work will focus on a few key fisheries to demonstrate potential. Working with Canadian and international scientists, Oceana will provide the data to establish the target population of spawning fish required for effective species recovery.
• Minimizing bycatch (capture and discarding of unwanted species) in three wasteful fisheries such as Atlantic sharks, clam dredges, and Greenland halibut, by requiring limits on discards of fish and protected species.
• Protecting a specific area from destructive fishing gear, to be documented by an expedition identifying the biological value of the area as well as its vulnerability, building public support for the area’s protection.