Blog

World Ocean Fes­ti­val Comes to Gov­er­nors Island

May 30, 2017 8:01 pm

On June 4, 2017, the inau­gur­al World Ocean Fes­ti­val, orga­nized by The Glob­al Brain Foun­da­tion and host­ed by the City of New York, will fea­ture lead­ing marine biol­o­gists, ocean advo­cates, entre­pre­neurs, and more speak­ing at a free, pub­lic pro­gram called World Ocean Fes­ti­val Speak­er Forum spon­sored by Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey. The Fes­ti­val is an effort to bring togeth­er peo­ple and orga­ni­za­tions who care deeply about the Ocean and who will stand togeth­er for its pro­tec­tion in advance of ​“The Ocean Con­fer­ence” at the Unit­ed Nations (June 5 – 9).

The World Ocean Fes­ti­val Speak­er Forum will fea­ture inter­ac­tive pan­el dis­cus­sions about coral reefs, plas­tic pol­lu­tion, fish­ing and seafood and urban Ocean con­ser­va­tion on Sun­day, June 4, 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. East­ern Time. The pro­gram is free and open to the pub­lic at the Ocean Vil­lage exhi­bi­tion area at Pic­nic Point at the south­ern tip of Gov­er­nors Island. The pro­gram will be capped off with a clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny and awards presentation.

Curat­ed and mod­er­at­ed by Ayana Eliz­a­beth John­son, Ph.D., Founder Ocean Col­lec­tiv, the World Ocean Fes­ti­val Speak­er Forum will delve into the issues that threat­en the ocean as well as solu­tions for address­ing them in an engag­ing way. The pro­gram includes pan­el dis­cus­sions with the world’s experts on top­ics includ­ing ​“Coral Reefs and Cli­mate” (11:00 a.m.), ​“Plas­tic Pol­lu­tion” (1:30 p.m.), ​“Fish­ing and Seafood” (2:30 p.m.) and ​“Urban Ocean: Con­ser­va­tion” (3:30 p.m.). The pro­gram will include a ral­ly fea­tur­ing glob­al youth ambas­sadors for the ocean.

Fea­tured speak­ers include:

  • David Gru­ber, Marine Biol­o­gist, Emerg­ing Explor­er, Nation­al Geographic
  • Jere­my Jack­son, Ph.D., Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus, Scripps Insti­tu­tion of Oceanography
  • Jes­si­ca Har­vey, Cay­man Islands Project Man­ag­er, Guy Har­vey Foundation
  • Jon For­rest Dohlin, VP & Direc­tor, Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety & New York Aquarium
  • Judd Harn­er, Vice Pres­i­dent of Mar­ket­ing, S’well Bottle
  • Karin Strat­ton, Part­ner­ship Man­ag­er, Mon­terey Bay Aquar­i­um Seafood Watch Program
  • Lasse Gus­tavs­son, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Europe, Oceana
  • Lea D’Auriol, Founder, Ocean­ic Global
  • Dr. Lisa Emelia Svens­son, Direc­tor for Ocean, Unit­ed Nations Environment
  • Martha Jef­fries, Pro­duc­er & Direc­tor, Years of Liv­ing Dangerously
  • Matt Gove, Mid-Atlantic Pol­i­cy Man­ag­er, Surfrid­er Foundation
  • Melati Wijsen, Co-Founder, Bye Bye Plas­tic Bags
  • Miran­da Massie, Direc­tor, The Cli­mate Museum
  • Mur­ray Fish­er, Founder, Har­bor School & Bil­lion Oys­ter Project
  • Nis­han Deg­narain, Chair Oceans Com­mit­tee, World Eco­nom­ic Forum
  • Stephanie Wear, PhD., Senior Sci­en­tist & Strat­e­gy Advi­sor, The Nature Conservancy
  • Wybe Bru­ins­ma, CEO, Van de Sant
  • Youth Ambas­sadors from Sea Youth Rise Up and NYC Junior Ambassadors
  • In addi­tion to World Ocean Fes­ti­val Speak­er Forum, the World Ocean Fes­ti­val will include the first-of-its kind Ocean March parade of boats in New York Har­bor led by the his­toric John J. Har­vey fire­boat. The Fes­ti­val Vil­lage on Gov­er­nors Island will fea­ture a per­for­mance by a Fijian mil­i­tary band and awards for lumi­nar­ies in the field of ocean sci­ence, envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty, glob­al and local orga­niz­ing, and ocean advo­ca­cy. The full pro­gram of activ­i­ties can be found online at the World Ocean Fes­ti­val web­site with reg­is­tra­tion infor­ma­tion and a detailed pro­gram list­ing and speak­er bios.

The City of New York and The Glob­al Brain are joined by lead­ers in ocean con­ser­va­tion, advo­ca­cy, and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment our Found­ing Part­ners Mis­sion Blue, Ocean Elders, Ocean­ic and The Nature Con­ser­van­cy. This event is made pos­si­ble by sup­port from Found­ing Spon­sor Toy­ota USA and Nation­al Geo­graph­ic.

Core Sup­port­ers of the World Ocean Fes­ti­val include Peace Boat,Connect4Climate, Ocean Col­lec­tiv and NGO Com­mit­tee of Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment-NY. Addi­tion­al sup­port­ers include: Clas­sic Har­bor Line, Con­scious Good, Ocean Film Fes­ti­val, Style & Resilience, Ter­ra­Cy­cle, Water­keep­er Alliance, AEFo­cus, Con­nect 4 Cli­mate, NGO Com­mit­tee of Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment-NY,Met­calf Insti­tute, Sus­tain­able Ocean Alliance, We Are The Oceans, Clean Seas, Bye Bye Plas­tics, Mon­terey Bay Aquar­i­um, Nation­al Edu­ca­tors Asso­ci­a­tion, Mukaro, Rise­UP, Blue Mind, The Foun­da­tion Cen­ter, Water­front Alliance, Sailors for the Sea, The Lone­ly Whale Foun­da­tion, Sea Youth Rise Up, Guy Har­vey Ocean Foun­da­tion, Blue Ocean Net­work, Sec­ond Muse, Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­etyand NYC Junior Ambas­sadors.

The World Ocean Fes­ti­val is a pub­lic event host­ed by the City of New York and orga­nized by The Glob­al Brain Foun­da­tion to raise peo­ples’ voic­es for the preser­va­tion and sus­tain­able use of the Ocean (Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goal 14) in advance of the The Ocean Con­fer­ence at Unit­ed Nations Head­quar­ters, which aims to be the game chang­er that will reverse the decline in the health of our ocean for peo­ple, plan­et and pros­per­i­ty. For more infor­ma­tion about the World Ocean Fes­ti­val and to reg­is­ter for the Ocean March on June 4, 2017, vis­it: http://​www​.worl​do​cean​fest​.org/

Sign up for Our Newsletter