More and more cruisers are becoming interested in what they can do to help keep the ports they love to visit in the shape or better than they were found in.
Here are ten of our favorite organization helping to protect and restore the exotic, often threatened, natural environments, and observe wildlife we so love to see in port on our cruise travels.
1) The Ocean Conservancy
Ocean Conservancy works to protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges. They are a science-based, solutions-based organization working towards a healthy ocean and protecting the wildlife and communities that depend on it.
2) Canadian Whale Institute
The Canadian Whale Institute works with marine industries to mitigate the effects their activities have on whales through the development, implementation and monitoring of mutual solutions. The Canadian Whale Institute provides educational programs and resources to increase awareness and understanding of the whale’s habitat and to encourage responsible use and stewardship of the oceans.
3) Oceana
When you save the Oceans, you feed the world. Oceana works to restore the ocean, restore the world’s wild fish populations which will serve as a sustainable source of protein for people all over the globe.
4) Coral Reef Alliance
The Coral Reef Alliance works with communities to reduce direct threats to the world’s coral reefs. Coral uses science to understand how corals adapt to climate change and apply this information to give reefs the best chance to thrive for generations to come.
5) Coral Restoration Foundation
Coral Restoration Foundation claims to be the world’s largest non-profit marine-conservation organization dedicated to restoring coral reefs to a healthy state, in Florida and globally. Protecting the coral reefs’ natural recovery processes through the large-scale cultivation, out-planting, and monitoring of genetically diverse, reef-building corals.
6) Turtle Conservancy HQ
The Turtle Conservancy is our to protect one of the most threatened groups of animals on the planet. More than half of their 300+ species are threatened with extinction according to IUCN Red List criteria. Primary threats to turtles and tortoises include habitat loss and degradation, high-volume unsustainable consumptive exploitation for food and medicinal products, and illegal international pet trade.
7) The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The Nature Conservancy seeks to reconnect Americans to nature by restoring critical large landscapes. Every protected acre, every river mile restored, every species brought back from the brink, helps to build a better world.
8) The Nature Conservancy Canada
The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) works to protect Canada’s most precious natural places. Proudly Canadian, they empower people to safeguard the lands and waters that sustain life.
9) Deep Sea Conservation Coalition
The ocean depths were once considered just a setting for shipwrecks, monster squid and primordial ooze, but over past decades scientists have discovered a previously unknown wealth of biodiversity. The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) was founded in 2004 to address the issue of bottom trawling on the high seas.