by Air supervision of workers who remove Sargassum from the banks of the beach of Playa del Carmen in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, on June 18, 2025. Credit – Elizabeth Ruiz – AFP/Getty Images
TThe most recent ocean case in the United Nations in Nice France, which together with managers from all over the world, brought us in noticeable achievements in his mission to address the increasing threats to the seas to reduce the flow of toxins into the water to new financing obligations for ocean economics. But like Peter Thomson, the United Nations’ special representative for the ocean, when the event found: “It is not so much what happens at the conference, it is what happens afterwards.”
What has to happen now? The good news is that we have many of the tools. Science and decades of experience have shown us what works. We know how to restore coral reefs, create fishing more food and income and prevent fertilizers and untreated waste water from running into the sea. This is not a crisis of complexity. It is a crisis of execution.
What is missing is a broad participation and a focus on clear, immediate and implementable steps. State, ministerial, NGO and scientist heads were shown in Nice. In order to translate ambitious commitments into permanent results, we also need more managing directors at the table. This is an ocean planet. And every company – whether it recognizes it or not – depends on the biological diversity, the food systems and shipping routes of the ocean. When the ocean fails, we all fail.
That is why the private sector has to play a role – not only as a donor or lawyer, but as partners and engines of solutions that scale. We need more public-private alliances that can help transform proven ocean solutions into real results. We have seen this work by organizations such as Friends of Ocean Action that convene managers from all areas to accelerate ocean solutions and pursue progress in global goals, as well as the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition, which works on site to protect sea ecosystems and improve water quality in one of the most vulnerable coastal regions of America.
We are also inspired by an increasing generation of ecoprene that aim to fix ocean problems and achieve profit at the same time. In the Blue Economy and Finance Forum in Monaco, which was held before the UN -Ozankonference, public and private investors promised 10 billion US dollars of New “Blue Finance” to further scale the rapidly growing marine economy. The 1000 Ocean Startups Coalition, a global network of incubators, accelerators and investors, has already collected more than $ 4 billion in capital and is halfway to finance 1,000 ocean companies that deal with marine challenges such as algae agriculture, microplastic filtration and wind farms.
Before that, we described a simple blueprint for the global recovery of the coral reefs. The same principles apply in the wider marine agenda. We believe that until the next UN -Ozanconference for 2028 progress can be made by concentrating the following 10 steps.
Strengthen US fishing by ending fishing in industrial scale
These are small fish that feed larger fish and ecosystems of the entire ocean. A handful of industrial operations made at the foot of the food chains for our US coastal economy by scooping hundreds of thousands of tons of these fish – not for food, but for meals and oil, a large part that is then exported. If you end these practices and manage feed fish at ecologically well -founded level, the food chains protect fishermen and improve the US marine resistance.
Loosen the Tijuana river crisis.
For years, billions of gallons have been poured in American waters from San Diego to damage ecosystems and undermine public health for years. The solutions, including the installation of locks to prevent wastewater overflow and greater supervision of Mexican treatment plants, are well understood. This is a test test, not a capacity.
Have the ocean polluters paid.
The old idea that “dilution is the solution to the pollution” no longer applies at a time when industrial and pharmaceutical waste exceeds our ability to recognize it. We need a new approach – one that primarily prevents pollutants from entering the ocean and making it transparent who and where. This means clear rules, public reporting and a robust principle of “polluted” to postpone the stress on those who cause the damage.
Follow a new and balanced approach for US -Marine protection areas.
Americans appreciate our national parks ashore. There is also a place for parks in the busy, working ocean. Well -designed ocean parks can support tourism, expand the geopolitical presence of the United States and increase fish stocks. But the actual work for a marine protected area begins after they have been created. We still have to invest and take care of these parks. In Papahāumumumuākea, the largest ocean park of the American, this meant public-private partnerships that ensure access to its holy places, and the financing of adjustment efforts, almost a million pounds of dangerous plastic pollution and dirt from his coral reefs.
Expand programs from the Trump government Sea shield effort.
Targeted clean -up work and reductions in plastic pollution and other debris have achieved concrete profits for US fishing, wild animals and communities that depend on clean beaches and coasts. We should authorize this mandate again and build and scale to these successes.
Restore the coastal ecosystems in America again.
Restoration efforts are required for our coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, sea grass beds, coral reefs and salt sumps as natural hurricane defense. This includes the mangrove break supported by Salesforce. They are among the most cost -effective ways to protect the ocean’s infrastructure from increasingly heavier storms.
Reduce the Golf set.
The nutrient drainage creates massive oxygen zones that suffocate the golf shower. It is equally for farmers and fishermen for reducing and sucking environmental pollution before entering rivers and oceans.
Use American innovation to deal with the need to dismantle our oceans.
By promoting entrepreneurship and technical progress, we can reduce our trust in foreign critical minerals and reserve these materials for important defense applications. This includes the support of the US laboratory programs and the innovation of the private sector to scale the use of next generation battery technologies with more easily available materials such as iron instead of cobalt. The continuing success here would reduce or eliminate the need to recover these minerals in the ocean – an activity that would have a negative impact on fishing on fishing, toxine could introduce our seafood supply and contain costly expenses from the US government.
Discuss the Sargassum crisis.
Massive algae flowers are now plagued by Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico and the US Caribbean. The coordinated clean -up work and reduction of the nutrient outflow near West Africa and the Amazon – significant Sargassum reports – are some of the most important steps that are necessary to contain this growing threat.
Stop the wastewater Kill the coral reefs in US waters.
Riffe from Florida to Hawai’i broke together because we have approved sewage pits, outdated infrastructures and uncontrolled drainage to poison the ecosystems that maintain tourism, fishing and coastal communities.
In all of these fronts we believe in a core principle: concentrate on what is accessible and measurable. With intelligent, reasonable levels, we can secure flowering oceans that maintain American jobs, coastal communities and national security and at the same time restore life on some of the most important and most splendid and magnificent ecosystems in the planet.
Contact us at letters@time.com.
