Events

In 1972, the United States enacted a wave of landmark legislation to protect and sustain the ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes, including the amendments to the Clean Water Act, the Marine Mammal Act Protection Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, and the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act. These Acts fundamentally changed how the United States managed marine, Great Lakes, and coastal environments. In the last 50 years, the challenges impacting the health and sustainability of the planet and the communities that rely on them grew and became more complex. Climate change and climate-related impacts are fundamentally changing our ocean and Great Lakes. Coastal development places increased pressures on marine ecosystems. Multiple demands on marine and Great Lakes resources lead to challenging policy and regulatory questions for managing uses. And biodiversity loss weakens ecosystems and their ability to withstand stressors, adapt to climate change and help regulate our global climate. Capitol Hill Ocean Week will host conversations that address these challenges, as well as the common solution they all share: humanity. Convened by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation every June, CHOW brings together scientists, policymakers, scholars, businesses and conservation leaders to address pressing conservation, science, and management issues facing our oceans and Great Lakes. The conference is held in conjunction with the Foundation’s Ocean Awards Gala, which recognizes champions of marine and Great Lakes stewardship with Leadership, Lifetime Achievement, Conservation Innovation, and Sanctuary Wavemaker Awards.

The Ocean Conference, co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal, comes at a critical time as the world is seeking to address the many of the deep-rooted problems of our societies laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic and which will require major structural transformations and common shared solutions that are anchored in the SDGs. To mobilize action, the Conference will seek to propel much needed science-based innovative solutions aimed at starting a new chapter of global ocean action.

The ocean was a fundamental part of the outcomes of COP26. The Glasgow Climate Pact recognised the ocean under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and proposed annual dialogues on strengthening ocean-based action, which are due to take place before this year’s COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. It’s hoped that more will be committed to ocean climate finance and that the COP process will become “bluer”, integrating ocean action across all levels of negotiations.

The year will end with eyes on the International Conference on Marine Biodiversity, held in Auckland, New Zealand. Drawing together leading academic scientists, researchers and scholars, the conference aims to be a dynamic exchange of intellectual innovations, recent scientific findings and general opportunities and challenges within fields related to marine biodiversity. The conference could highlight science-led pathways that can complement the long-awaited Treaty for the High Seas.

IMPAC is an international forum to discuss marine protected areas (MPAs) that assists in the establishment and management of MPA networks by informing, involving, and influencing stakeholders. The congress happens every four years and brings together marine conservationists, managers, practitioners and scientists from across the world to share their experiences and knowledge of marine conservation and marine protected area establishment.