The founders of Ocean Champions are longtime ocean advocates David Wilmot, Ph.D., and Jack K. Sterne, Esq., who are also the lead authors of a groundbreaking new foundation-sponsored report, Turning the Tide: Charting a Course to Improve the Effectiveness of Public Advocacy for the Oceans.
Their in-depth effectiveness study reveals that the ocean conservation community has focused on policy rather than politics, and at a cost. Electoral politics is a fundamental aspect of our nation’s political process and the keystone to policy success, yet the ocean conservation community is not a factor in the electoral arena.
The report’s primary conclusion is that the ocean conservation community needs to “participate fully in the political process” to be more effective. Full participation means working directly to elect good candidates and defeat bad ones.