While countries have now committed roughly 10% of the ocean to conservation and protection, many areas still lack effective management, enforcement, and long-term financing. With four years remaining to meet the 30×30 goal, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ investment will help governments strengthen management, accountability, international cooperation, and locally led conservation to ensure protections deliver lasting benefits for people and nature.

“Our new commitment marks the next phase of the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative,” said Patricia E. Harris, CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies. “Over the years, we have made important progress in protecting our ocean, but we still have a long way to go. We look forward to working with partners to not only improve leadership and governance on the issue but also strengthen economies and safeguard the livelihoods of the billions of people who rely on the ocean every day.”

With the High Seas Treaty now in force—a milestone nearly two decades in the making—Bloomberg Philanthropies will help partners establish the first marine protected areas created under the treaty, opening the door to large-scale protections across nearly two-thirds of the ocean for the first time. The initiative will partner with governments, local communities, and scientists to identify ecologically critical regions, shape conservation plans, and strengthen the monitoring and enforcement systems needed to sustain them.

The next phase of ocean conservation depends on countries’ ambition to implement and manage protections at scale—especially in the high seas, which make up most of the ocean but have historically lacked a legal framework for large-scale protection. To address this, Bloomberg Philanthropies will support expanded technical, legal, and policy capacity for small coastal and island nations engaging in global ocean negotiations and implementing commitments under international ocean agreements. This support will help countries advance ocean protections and manage them effectively. The initiative will also expand the use of satellite monitoring, artificial intelligence, and public data platforms to improve transparency, accountability, and decision-making across the global ocean.

Building on its longstanding work to reduce threats to climate-resilient coral reefs, the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative will now expand its focus to include restoring reefs in areas already prioritized for long-term protection. This work will explore new coral restoration approaches and pilot projects to restore reefs damaged by marine heatwaves, pollution, and severe storms. These efforts build on new findings from 50 Reefs+, which identified 165,922 square kilometers of coral reefs across 71 countries and 99 territories with the strongest potential to survive climate change and support long-term resilience.

The Bloomberg Ocean Initiative will also expand its reach into new countries, including the Marshall Islands, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, as well as other key areas critical to marine biodiversity, sustainable fisheries, and high-seas conservation. Together, these regions encompass some of the world’s most important coral reefs, tuna migration corridors, and deep-sea ecosystems, all of which are critical to biodiversity, food security, and ocean health.

To help deliver this next phase, Bloomberg Philanthropies will support a global network of partners working across science, policy, technology, conservation, and community leadership, including the Aga Khan Foundation, Blue Ventures, Campaign for Nature, Earth Insight, Global Fishing Watch, the Joint 30×30 Funding Initiative, Oceana, Oceans 5, the Ocean Climate Diplomacy Initiative, Only One, Philanthropy Asia Alliance, National Geographic Pristine Seas, Rare, SkyTruth, the 30×30 Southeast Asia Ocean Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, among other organizations around the world.

This new investment builds on more than a decade of work through the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative, which has helped drive global progress in ocean protection, including strengthening protection in 11.3 million square miles of ocean, strengthening protections for more than 70 coral reefs, and advancing 280 policies to reduce overfishing and other threats to marine ecosystems.

Recent wins include helping secure the world’s largest marine protected area in French Polynesia; supporting new protections for mangrove ecosystems along Brazil’s Amazon coast; advancing reforms to strengthen protections for the Great Barrier Reef in Australia; and helping secure Ghana’s first-ever marine protected area.

The initiative has also helped strengthen global ocean governance, transparency, and enforcement efforts, including supporting the launch of the Mombasa Declaration to advance international collaboration against illegal fishing and helping advance new protections against bottom trawling in portions of the UK’s marine protected areas.

Through a partnership with Global Fishing Watch, Bloomberg Philanthropies helped create the world’s first open-access map of the global industrial fishing fleet, using satellite imagery and AI to monitor activity across more than 291 million square kilometers of ocean, improving transparency and helping hold bad actors accountable. Bloomberg Philanthropies also helped convene governments and partners to advance the historic ratification of the High Seas Treaty, laying the foundation for the next generation of ocean protections across the high seas.

The investment brings Bloomberg Philanthropies’ total support for ocean conservation to $635 million to date. The next phase of the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative will focus on:

• Turning Commitments into Protection: Help governments create marine protected and conserved areas and advance fisheries reforms in national waters that deliver measurable benefits for biodiversity and coastal communities.
• Tracking and Exposing Ocean Activity: Scale satellite tracking, public data platforms, and AI to improve transparency, accountability, and management of fishing activity.
• Advancing High Seas Protection: Support efforts to establish the first marine protected areas under the High Seas Treaty while building the scientific, management, and monitoring systems needed to sustain them.
• Supporting Ocean Governance: Expand technical, legal, and policy capacity for small coastal and island nations to participate in global ocean negotiations, implement treaty commitments, and advance protections under the High Seas Treaty.
• Strengthening Science and Local Leadership: Fund exploration and science, support local leaders and fishing communities, and pilot efforts to regrow and restore damaged coral reef ecosystems.