Dear Friends,

It has been a truly amazing year and I would like to thank you for playing an important role in the growth and success of Mission Blue!

Harrison Ford recently narrated the voice of the ocean in an online video. He growls, “I am the ocean. You need me. But, I don’t need you.” If only this were true! The fact is now we are at a critical point in  time when the ocean does need us. We must wake up and understand what the ocean delivers: most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, a great sink for carbon dioxide, the majority of biodiversity — the ocean maintains a planet that works in our favor. Sadly, our collective actions — overfishing,  pollution, resource extraction — have driven this great system into a real crisis that is unfolding in this very moment in time.

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Imagine the ocean from the inside out. Not just the surface. Not just a map of the sea floor. But, picture the living ocean that covers over 70 percent of our planet. That’s where most of life on Earth is! The major divisions of animals, plants, microbes — they are all there. They literally keep us alive. Now we have to return the favor.

Mission Blue is doing essential work driving policymakers and world citizens to get behind ocean conservation and a goal of 20% ocean protection by 2020. This year, I had the honor of representing Mission Blue in Washington DC and working with Secretary John Kerry to influence US policy on the ocean. Thanks to these efforts and others, the United States is taking significant action to strengthen ocean policy and conservation. Indeed, earlier this year President Obama created the largest marine reserve in the world in US Pacific waters — that’s cause for hope!

Yet with only 3% of the global ocean protected, we have hard work ahead.

With the release of the Mission Blue film on Netflix this year, our engine of ocean optimism and engagement has reached a tipping point. The Mission Blue message of hope and action is reverberating through the  homes and hearts of a truly global audience. We are witnessing a public awakening to the dire state of our ocean — and what we can do to save it — that is propelling personal decisions and public policy. Remarkably, in 2014 Mission Blue has grown to reach over 1 million people every day with an urgent but hopeful message of ocean conservation. In 2015, we are projected to double that impact.

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On the ground, Mission Blue is actively engaging key policymakers and communities who want to protect the ocean within their jurisdiction. Earlier this year, we launched an expedition to Costa Rica that engaged local nonprofits and policy makers around fragile sea turtle populations and the  ecological importance of the Costa Rican Dome. And earlier this month, I was with the Mission Blue team in South Africa meeting with coastal communities and leaders to seed and promote an aggressive conservation regimen in six key areas off the pristine South African coast. In 2015, Mission Blue will continue our expeditions to the Sea of Cortez, the Atlantic Ocean and beyond. The ocean is vast and therefore so is the task at hand.

We are all quite literally sea creatures, as dependent on the ocean as any whale, or fish, or coral reef. I am deeply honored to be swimming alongside you as we work together to protect the ocean, Earth’s blue heart. Please consider supporting Mission Blue today by making a tax-deductible donation online at www.missionblue.org, by mailing a contribution to our offices or by clicking the big blue text on this page. Your gift of $25, $50, $100 or more will make a whale of a difference in the fight for a healthier ocean.

Keep Mission Blue Afloat!

Those in the future are depending on what we do now. As never before, and maybe never again.

Sincerely,

Founder, Mission Blue
100 Pine Street, Suite 1550
San Francisco, CA 94111