Oceana Inc.

“Board members, susan rockefeller and david rockefeller, jr., have a family relationship.”

“Information for the federal form 990 comes largely from oceana's independently audited financial statements, which consolidates oceana's activities across national boundaries. The accounting department collects this and other information needed for the federal form 990, which is reviewed and presented in draft form by a tax accounting firm. After approval by senior management, the final draft of the 990 is presented to the board for review before it is submitted to the internal revenue service.”

“Every year, oceana's officers, directors, and key employees fill out a disclosure report asking them to disclose any family or business relationships they may have with other oceana officers, directors, or key employees, as well as any financial conflicts of interest they may have. In addition, oceana's conflict of interest policy requires any director or officer who is an interested person with respect to a transaction or arrangement under consideration by the corporation to promptly disclose to the board of directors or the board's designate the existence and nature of his or her financial interest in the transaction or arrangement. If oceana is considering entering into a transaction or arrangement in which an interested person has a financial interest, the board of directors appoints a committee or subcommittee to review the transaction or arrangement. No interested person with respect to the transaction or arrangement under review will be a member of this committee or subcommittee or otherwise participate in its deliberations, except to furnish such factual information as the committee may request. If the committee finds that an interested person has a conflict of interest with respect to a proposed transaction or arrangement, the committee will obtain reliable information about the terms of comparable transactions or arrangements that are reasonably available to oceana from unrelated parties free of any conflicts of interest. After reviewing this comparability information, the committee will determine by majority vote whether the proposed transaction or arrangement is fair and reasonable to oceana and whether it would be in the oceana's best interest to enter into it on the terms proposed. If the board of directors learns that a director or officer has failed to disclose a financial interest as required by this policy, it will inform the individual and afford an opportunity for the individual to explain the alleged failure to disclose. After hearing the individual's response, the board will take appropriate action if any action is needed. As for the staff, oceana's employee manual states its conflict of interest policy enforcement rules. Employees must disclose any actual, potential, or apparent conflict of interest to the general counsel. Where appropriate, the general counsel may require suitable remedial action, such as divestiture of adverse interests, recusal from certain decisions, or other action to avoid an appearance or existence of a conflict. These reports are reviewed each year by the board's finance and audit committee.”

“Oceana's process for determining compensation of its ceo, officers, and key employees is as follows: oceana provides the finance and audit committee of the board of directors with data from multiple sources on comparable salaries in other nonprofit organizations, especially but not limited to those in the conservation field, for oceana's ceo, top management, officers, and key employees. The committee reviews these data to determine if the compensation is reasonable and that oceana has not engaged in an excess benefit transaction with any individual in a position to substantially influence the organization's affairs. The discussions are documented in the minutes. Oceana regularly conducts compensation reviews, most recently in december 2017.”

“Oceana posts annual reports, its audited financial statements, and the public disclosure copy of its irs form 990 on its website, www.oceana.org. It also shares relevant information with independent "watchdog organizations such as guidestar, charity navigator and the better business bureau to allow these organizations independent assessment of oceana's accountability and transparency. Oceana's articles of incorporation, by-laws and form 1023 are available on oceana's website and to members of the public upon written request. Oceana's articles of incorporation, as well as a certificate of good standing, are also independently available through the department of consumer and regulatory affairs for the district of columbia (where oceana, inc. Is incorporated), though there is a fee for this service.”

“Oceana was founded in 2001 by an international group of foundations. Despite repeated scientific reports of widespread fishery collapse caused by overfishing and pollution, the founders discovered that leading environmental foundations spent less than half of one percent of their resources on ocean conservation. Healthy oceans contribute significantly to feeding a growing world population, yet no international organization was working exclusively to protect and restore abundant ocean fisheries. Oceana's founders envisioned an organization dedicated solely to achieving significant improvements in ocean management through a science-based approach, using carefully chosen national campaigns with fixed deadlines and measurable goals. Today, oceana has grown from an ambitious start-up to an international organization with a record of results on four continents. Together with our allies, we have won nearly 200 significant policy victories and protected almost 9.1 million square kilometers of oceans. Oceana supports science-driven ocean management in the most productive parts of the world's oceans. Today, oceana teams are working in countries which control about a third of the world's wild ocean fisheries (by weight): the united states, the european union, belize, brazil, canada, chile, peru, mexico, and the philippines. Oceana's campaigns carry out four key strategies: -stop overfishing through science-based fishery management, and by deterring illegal fishing; -reduce bycatch, or the unintended catch of fish and marine animals; -protect habitat and the ecosystems that depend on their health, and -curb pollution, by stopping the expansion of offshore oil drilling and reducing the production of single-use plastics. Oceana's campaigns have demonstrated the effectiveness of these strategies for restoring oceans. With sound policies in place, ocean ecosystems recover, often rapidly, and abundant fisheries return, even exceeding former levels. A fully productive ocean can provide a meal a day for a billion people, forever. Oceana is working with countries to provide this bounty to their citizens. Together with our allies, we are saving the oceans to feed the world.”

“Effective june 30, 2017, oceana transferred operational control for its global fishing watchprogram to global fishing watch, inc., a newly formed 501(c)(3) organization. Global fishingwatch, inc. Operates and further develops the global fishing watch web platform. Oceana utilizes the web platform and the enhancements to further its mission.”

“Belize: the intense public outcry over the secret approval of seismic studies compelled the government officially to re-affirm that a "policy-based" moratorium was in effect. Oceana forcefully advocated that the government put its moratorium into law and in 2017 the belizean government announced its intention to introduce critical legislation to establish an indefinite moratorium on offshore oil activity. The bill was introduced in october and signed into law in december. Belize community engagement: oceana's strong social media following illustrates oceana's community reach, especially with young people in the 18- to 34-age range who are politically and socially active and can vote. Social media: oceana's current facebook following of over 20,000, significantly outpaces other ngos in belize as well as the national telecommunications company of belize. Similarly, oceana has approximately 16,000 instagram followers. Grassroots mobilization: in 2017, oceana continued to engage the local population including reef week (a week-long series of events that promote the importance of belize's reef); ocean heroes, which recognizes belizeans as protectors of belize's marine resources;, hands across the sand, and; annual wavemaker rallies. In 2017, oceana local organizers visited 246 fishing villages. Brazil: science-based recovery plans: oceana's goal in brazil is to establish a modern fisheries management system based on scientific principles. The heart of the work is oceana's campaign to require science-based recovery plans. Highlighted below are key accomplishments. -the red list is brazil's legal protection for 475 endangered fish and aquatic invertebrate species. Over the past three years, oceana has been working to safeguard these protections in the face of industry efforts to remove them. We are amicus curiae in important litigation and we are making progress in the meetings of the working group to discuss solutions for the red list. This working group is our main opportunity and strategy to push for monitoring and recovery plans, and oceana has played a major role and expended significant effort on planning the meetings and shaping the agendas. -we got the fisheries secretariat to hire consultants to work on a tuna management plan for brazil. -oceana advocacy persuaded the government to publish a regulation requiring mandatory use of circle hooks in longliners that operate in tuna fisheries to protect sea turtles and sharks. Transparency and science-based decisions on fisheries: oceans seeks to restore the scientific basis for fisheries management decisions, including reinstating landings monitoring for at least one state or fishery and national logbook and observer programs by 2020.oceana had several important successes related to ensuring public access to key data. -because of oceana, the government released all tainha logbooks from 2012 to 2016, the first time an organization other than government has had access to this information, we used the national freedom of information act to demonstrate that this information should not be kept in secret from society. -oceana also got the general ombudsman to formally declare that the fisheries secretariat must release to oceana all vms data from the following fisheries for the bottom trawling fishery, bottom longline and gillnet fisheries. -the fisheries secretariat made the fisheries general registry data (rgp) available to the public on its website. This information regards fishing fleet/vessel type and size, fishing gear, targets and secondary target species and was completely inaccessible to society since the elimination of the ministry of fisheries in 2015. -the fisheries secretariat also formally committed to reestablish the onboard observers program, which was illegally suspended by the government in 2011. This is a very important step toward our goal of restoring the scientific basis for management decisions in fisheries, including onboard observer programs. Protect tainha camp”

“Fisheries management: oceana is seeking to improve fisheries management in chile with a focus on the recovery of the common hake, jack mackerel and anchoveta fisheries, and controlling illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Following years of strong advocacy and irrefutable science, two crucial fisheries have obtained sustainable status. -jack mackerel has rapidly recovered, returning from collapse in the years that oceana has been campaigning for its scientific and appropriately precautionary management of this fishery. This fishery is managed by the southern pacific regional fishery management organization (sprfmo), where we have held observer status since 2014. We presented scientific reports on the state of the fishery in 2014 and 2015, and advocated for a more precautionary approach to setting quotas. -scientific acoustic studies show that the common hake is moving away from the collapse it experienced in 2002. Implementing the new fisheries law passed in 2013 with oceana's support, the government cut quotas for common hake by half to allow for rebuilding. Stop bottom trawling: oceana successfully persuaded the fisheries agency to announce a ban on bottom trawling in 97 percent of chile's eez. Salmon farming: -following a four-year legal battle led by oceana, the chilean supreme court ruled that the chilean salmon farming industry must disclose information about its use of antibiotics in aquaculture. Oceana has fought for transparency in the chilean salmon farming industry which has used alarming amounts of antibiotics, is a major cause of habitat degradation, and poses risks to human health. Europe: transparency: oceana aims to improve transparency and accountability in the fisheries sector in europe. -one year ahead of the deadline for this goal, oceana succeeded in getting 18 insurance companies from around the world (insurers, reinsurers, brokers and agents) to sign a statement committing to neither insure nor facilitate the insuring of illegal, unreported and unregulated (iuu) fishing vessels. This statement was co-sponsored by five of the largest, and most relevant insurers in the world: allianz agcs, axa, hanseatic underwriters, generali and the shipowners' club. In addition, eight supporting institutions (insurance associations, civil society groups, etc.) also signed the statement. -on 20 june 2017, the council of the european union, european parliament and the european commission agreed on a new legal framework for the future of external fishing fleet regulation. Oceana and its partners in the eu iuu coalition (environmental justice foundation, pew and wwf), succeeded in having all our priorities included in the revised law. The regulation will include a public database of all fishing authorizations in non-eu waters, making the eu fleet the most transparent in the world. It will also stop so-called abusive reflagging, by restricting authorizations for vessels that change flags rapidly to circumvent conservation or enforcement measures, and it will enforce eu standards for activities under private agreements. The latter will end decades of fishing without eu oversight or adherence to eu management requirements. -during the 2nd international conference of the fisheries transparency initiative (fiti) held in indonesia on april 27th, more than 200 participants from government, industry, small-scale fishing associations, civil society organizations, academia and media adopted the first fiti standard. This marks the beginning of the implementation phase of the initiative through which fiti countries will increase transparency and participation in fisheries governance for the benefit of a more sustainable management of marine fisheries. Restoring mediterranean fish stock: oceana seeks to ensure that eu fish stocks in the north and mediterranean sea are fished at sustainable levels by 2020. Also, as part of the fisheries work, oceana is campaigning for substantially eliminating iuu and destructive fishing from eu”

“Shark campaign: -because of smart, strategic advocacy by oceana, the peruvian congress ratified the fao's port state measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing agreement in june 2017. Anchoveta recovery campaign: a significant goal of oceana in peru is to improve management of anchoveta and to address the climate-related impacts on the fishery, particularly through events such as el nino. -in an important victory, oceana persuaded the peruvian government to set an anchoveta quota for the artisanal catch, which is intended for direct human consumption; previously, a quota had been established only for the larger, industrial catch intended for fish meal and fish oil reduction. With quotas for both fleets, the stock can be better managed. Transparency: oceana is campaigning to make fish stock assessments, landings, and management plans transparent to the public. -the government of peru committed to make its national vessel tracking data publicly available. The result of oceana's collaboration with the peruvian government to increase transparency of commercial fishing in peru's waters, the signed memorandum will start the process to make peru's vessel monitoring system (vms) data publicly available through global fishing watch, which provides the first global view of commercial fishing activity. Habitat protection: oceana is partnering with the peruvian government to protect the waters around mpas in the ica and piura regions through improved controls of fishing and tourism. -oceana supported the organization of a multi-sectorial workshop to work on four priority issues: a) joint enforcement protocol among several government agencies against illegal fishing and other activities within mpa waters, b) regulations for sports fishing, c) work with government agencies on legislation to enable the development and implementation of fishery management plans inside mpas, and d) revision of nautical routes to minimize the impact of large vessel traffic on the local wildlife and habitats. Philippines: oceana in the philippines is working to stop illegal fishing by commercial fishers in order to rebuild fish populations and to protect the fish catches of the small-scale fishing sector. End commercial fishing in tanon strait: oceana is seeking to prevent commercial fishing vessels from fishing in tanon strait as a key first step towards preventing illegal fishing in municipal waters nationwide. -as a result of oceana advocacy the tanon strait is the country's very first protected seascape to require vessel monitoring for all transiting commercial fishing vessels. Vessel monitoring, a key measure for effective law enforcement, will be required for all commercial fishing vessels entering the tanon strait. One of the philippines' largest marine protected areas; -oceana pushed for the appointment of the first special prosecutor to prosecute illegal commercial fishing in the tanon strait in november 2017. Protect benham rise seafloor habitat: -the biodiversity management bureau drafted a management framework for benham rise with benham bank as a protected no-take zone as key first step for eventual issuance of a presidential proclamation. -oceana pushed for the senate bill on benham rise to be anchored on a sustainable management framework that integrates strong conservation and sustainable development plans for benham bank. The marine protected areas support network and other key stakeholders issued statement of support to protect benham bank, as a result of oceana advocacy. Institutionalizing vessel monitoring mechanisms (vmm): focused on achieving evidence of "on the water" vessel monitoring for commercial vessels throughout tanon strait and other key fisheries areas by, oceana worked with the fisheries bureau to draft effective implementing rules on vessel monitoring for vessels weighing 3.1 to 30 gross tons. Ban destructive fishing gear: oceana prepared a policy brief on the biological, habitat and eco”

“Communications: accounts bring oceana's total supporter base to 3.93 million supporters worldwide. -oceana's wavemakers, facebook/twitter/instagram followers took action for oceana 8 million times. -oceana had nearly 5 million visits to its marcomm/hq websites- this includes 2.5 million visits to the main site and two million visits to its wavemaker action pages. Pr and media in 2017, oceana was widely featured in the media to raise the profile of campaigns and the organization. The stories generated a total of 9,880 press hits as of october 2017. Oceana and its leaders generated high-profile press throughout the year. We received extensive media coverage around our major events in 2017, including the september oceana new york gala, oceana's "rock under the stars" event, and oceana board member ted danson's interview with mario lopez on extra tv on october 11th, where he discussed oceana. In june, nina dobrev filmed a public service announcement in support of the shark fin trade elimination act. The psa premiered on discovery channel (during shark week) and has been viewed over 2 million times on nina's instagram account. Additional new celebrity supporters include actress model abbey lee, peruvian actress stephanie cayo and spanish actress christina ochoa. -azula.com - oceana's "buzzfeed for the oceans" - generated 3.65 million pageviews. The site's average facebook interactions per post exceeds that of treehugger, oceana, mother nature network, discovery channel and national geographic. Our engagement on twitter has increased tenfold since january, now garnering 10 interactions per tweet versus one in january. And we've increased our instagram interactions per post from 35 in january to 49 in november. Publications: oceana published 27 reports in 2017. International: save the oceans: feed the world (january 2017) this brochure outlines how saving the world's oceans can help to feed the 9 billion people projected to be on earth by 2050. United states: no more hiding at sea: transshipping exposed (february 2017): the report, which was released at the economist's world ocean summit in bali, indonesia, uses a new dataset released by global fishing watch and oceana's partner skytruth to identify likely transshipping hotspots as well as the top countries whose vessels were involved in suspected rendezvous at sea and the ports they most frequently visited. Economic impact of shark diving in florida (march 2017): the independent report, commissioned by oceana, highlights the stark contrast between the value of sharks to florida's dive industry ($221 million) and the total u.s. Shark fin export market ($1.03 million in 2015). Ecological atlas of the bering, chukchi, and beaufort seas (august 2017): this comprehensive, broad-scale atlas synthesizes data from the aleutian islands to the beaufort sea complements oceana's previous mapping projects including the bering strait marine life synthesis and the arctic marine synthesis which focused on more discrete areas. Exploring the living seafloor: southern california expedition (september 2017): this study documents the location of fragile living seafloor habitats including deepsea corals and sponges and characterizes and compares the physical and biological structure across five geographic study areas in the southern california bight. Fishing the boundaries of law: how the exclusivity clause in eu fisheries agreements was undermined (september 2017): this report highlights unlawful fishing activities, authorized by four european countries, in the waters of the gambia and equatorial guinea between april 2012 and august 2015. Fishing for answers: how marine wildlife and commercial fishing overlap (november 2017): this report shows the overlay of fishing activity with tagged blue sharks, demonstrating a cutting-edge approach to study the impacts of commercial fishing activities on marine wildlife and opening the door to inform future conservation and management efforts. Brazil: para entender”

“Anlisis inicial de la segunda temporada de pesca de anchoveta 2017 / initial analysis of the second anchovy fishing season of 2017 (november 2017) oceana considers part of its work to keep the public informed about the state of our fisheries and the possible consequences of the management decisions that are taken on them. Therefore, based on the population assessment reports recently published by imarpe, we present here our initial analysis of the second anchovy fishing season and the challenges it represents. Philippines: amended fisheries code primer (march 2017): this primer on the fisheries code, as amended, was borne out of oceana's advocacy to popularize the knowledge of and mainstream the implementation of our laws to restore the abundance of our fisheries. Policy brief on bottom trawling in the philippines (december 2017)”

“This return presents consolidated financial statements for oceana, inc. And its non-u.s. Affiliates. Oceana has field offices in spain, brazil, denmark, belgium, philippines, belize, chile and peru for the purpose of building an international movement to save the oceans through public policy advocacy, science and economics, legal action, grassroots mobilization, and public education. The operations in spain, belize, brazil, and the united kingdom follow the host country's regulations and, as a result, were incorporated as independent entities. However, these entities are dependent on oceana for funding, participate in oceana activities and decision-making, and carry out the general mission and international activities of oceana.”