SSA Named International SeaKeepers Of Year

In recognition of its ongoing work to secure international protection for the Sargasso Sea’s unique and vulnerable open ocean ecosystem, the executive committee of the Sargasso Sea Alliance [SSA] has been named “2013 International SeaKeepers of the Year” by The International SeaKeepers Society.

This prestigious, annual award is granted to those who have made exceptional contributions to the protection of world’s oceans. Previous honorees have included Dr. Sylvia Earle, Prince Rainier of Monaco, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Mikhail Gorbachev, Walter Cronkite, and Jean Michele Cousteau.

Committee members who received the award included: David Evans Shaw, SSA founding chair and managing partner of BlackPoint Group; Dr. Richard Rockefeller, executive committee chair; Professor Howard Roe, science advisory committee chair and former director of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton; Kristina Gjerde, High Seas policy advisor for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN); Dr. Derrick Binns, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Environment and Planning, Government of Bermuda; and Dr. David Freestone, SSA executive director. The International SeaKeepers Society honored the award recipients at the 2013 Bal de la Mer event held Monday evening in San Francisco.

“We believe that a protection declaration for the Sargasso Sea can become an island of hope, inspiration and exemplary stewardship in a vast sea of perilous complacency and ominous threats.” said David Shaw. “We are grateful to the many people, organizations and nations who are working hard on solutions, and to the SeaKeepers for giving ocean protection a hopeful voice.”

Since 2010, the Sargasso Sea Alliance, in collaboration with the government of Bermuda, has been mobilizing efforts to protect the Sargasso Sea, a unique two-million-square nautical mile ecosystem in the North Atlantic.

Called by Dr. Sylvia Earle “the golden floating rainforest of the ocean,” the Sargasso Sea is named after the Sargassum [pelagic drift algae] that accumulates in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. It is the world’s only sea without coasts, and is a critical habitat for marine wildlife, including tuna, bill fish, eels, turtles, marlin and more, providing resting, feeding and breeding areas and migration paths for many species.

Because of the lack of effective governance of high seas areas, the Sargasso Sea and other oceans beyond national jurisdiction are threatened by diverse human activities including over-fishing, pollution, ship traffic, and even harvesting of Sargassum. The efforts of the Sargasso Sea Alliance are aimed at providing protections similar to those afforded to key land preserves such as Yellowstone, the Serengeti, and others worldwide.

The Sargasso Sea Alliance was formed in 2010 under the leadership of the Government of Bermuda, in collaboration with scientists, international marine conservation groups and private donors, who all share a vision of protecting this unique and vulnerable open ocean ecosystem — a two million square nautical mile ecosystem in the North Atlantic primarily located in the high seas – areas that the UN now calls areas beyond national jurisdiction.

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