Our Rationale

Although the ocean covers 71% of the earth's surface, it is an increasingly crowded place. Ocean industries of all kinds are expanding rapidly and impacts on the marine environment are expanding at an ever increasing rate and global scale - affecting endangered species, ecosystem health, critical habitats and coastal communities that depend on marine areas for food and livelihood. Conflicts in the use of ocean space and resources are on the rise among industries, and with other ocean stakeholders.

Ocean industries are being held accountable for their impacts by government, inter-governmental and non-governmental stakeholders who are pursuing increased marine environmental regulation. Private sector access to ocean resources, services and space is increasingly at risk due to the loss of the "license" to operate and the emerging ocean governance regimes. Unfortunately, there has been little or no interaction among like-minded responsible companies across the sectors to develop leadership and collaboration on ocean sustainability and engage in systematic, coordinated involvement with other ocean stakeholders.

The private sector is the primary ocean user and is best placed to develop and implement the practices needed to ensure marine ecosystem use is sustainable and an increasing number of companies and industry associations are tackling the environmental effects of their ocean activities. However, in a global, interconnected ocean "commons", the actions of one company or even an entire sector are not enough to address cumulative impacts of growing ocean use by a diverse range of industries. There is clearly a need for ocean industries to collaborate within and across sectors to address impacts, reduce conflicts, develop proactive ocean sustainability leadership and constructively engage other stakeholders.