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Oceans & Coasts

Keeping our marine environments healthy and strong

Roughly 70% of our planet’s surface is ocean, yet it remains less explored than the surface of Mars.

Mysterious and vast, the ocean is the lifeblood of the Earth—regulating our climate, driving weather patterns, and providing livelihoods for countless communities. Despite this critical role, the oceans are under constant threat of pollution, waste, rising sea temperatures, and destructive fishing practices. The ocean sustains our life on Earth; protecting it protects us all.

We need to stop viewing the ocean as a dumping ground and a place with limitless resources. Our ocean is being abused, disrespected and is under attack. Our ocean is calling for help.

The Cook Islands, 2019
Jacqueline Evans

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Goldman Prize Winners awarded for Oceans & Coasts

Teresa Vicente

2024 Goldman Prize Winner
Oceans & Coasts
Europe
Spain

Teresa Vicente led a historic, grassroots campaign to save the Mar Menor ecosystem—Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon—from collapse, resulting in the passage of a new law in September 2022 granting the lagoon unique legal rights. Considered to be the most important saltwater coastal lagoon in the western Mediterranean, the once pristine waters of the Mar Menor had become polluted due to mining, rampant development of urban and tourist infrastructure, and, in recent years, intensive agriculture and livestock farming.


Sinegugu Zukulu & Nonhle Mbuthuma

2024 Goldman Prize Winner
Oceans & Coasts
Africa
South Africa

In September 2022, Indigenous activists Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu stopped destructive seismic testing for oil and gas off South Africa’s Eastern Cape, in an area known as the Wild Coast. Organizing their community, Nonhle and Sinegugu secured their victory by asserting the rights of the local community to protect their marine environment. By halting oil and gas exploration in a particularly biodiverse area, they protected migratory whales, dolphins, and other wildlife from the harmful effects of seismic testing.


Profile Photo of Zafer Kizilkaya

Zafer Kizilkaya

2023 Goldman Prize Winner
Oceans & Coasts
Asia
Turkey

In collaboration with local fishing cooperatives and Turkish authorities, Zafer Kizilkaya expanded Turkey’s network of marine protected areas (MPAs) along 310 miles of the Mediterranean coast. The newly designated areas were approved by the Turkish government in August 2020 and include an expansion of the MPA network by 135 square miles (350 sq. km) of no trawling/no purse seine, and an additional 27 square miles (70 sq. km) of no fishing zones. Turkey’s marine ecosystem has been severely degraded by overfishing, illegal fishing, tourism development, and the effects of climate change—and these protected areas help mitigate these challenges.


Jacqui Evans

Jacqueline Evans

2019 Goldman Prize Winner
Oceans & Coasts
Islands & Island Nations
Cook Islands

Conservationist Jacqueline Evans led a five-year grassroots campaign to protect the Cook Islands’ stunning marine biodiversity. Because of her tireless and persistent organizing, in July 2017, the Cook Islands enacted new legislation—Marae Moana—to sustainably manage and conserve all 763,000 square miles of the country’s ocean territory, including the designation of marine protected areas (MPAs) 50 nautical miles around the islands, protecting 125,000 square miles of ocean from large-scale commercial fishing and seabed mining. This is the first Prize for the Cook Islands.


Claire Nouvian

Claire Nouvian

2018 Goldman Prize Winner
Oceans & Coasts
Europe
France

A tireless defender of the oceans and marine life, Claire Nouvian led a focused, data-driven advocacy campaign against the destructive fishing practice of deep-sea bottom trawling, successfully pressuring French supermarket giant and fleet owner Intermarché to change its fishing practices. Her coalition of advocates ultimately secured French support for a ban on deep-sea bottom trawling that led to an EU-wide ban.


Luis Jorge Rivera Herrera

Luis Jorge Rivera Herrera

2016 Goldman Prize Winner
Oceans & Coasts
Islands & Island Nations
Puerto Rico

Luis Jorge Rivera Herrera helped lead a successful campaign to establish a nature reserve in Puerto Rico’s Northeast Ecological Corridor—an important nesting ground for the endangered leatherback sea turtle—and protect the island’s natural heritage from harmful development.


Partners in Oceans & Coasts

The Goldman Prize is honored to partner with a variety of environmental organizations around the world, each of them united in the goal of protecting our planet. From our nominating partners to global organizations to grassroots NGOs led by Prize winners, they are all essential parts of the environmental community.

  • Mission Blue logo
  • Ocean Recovery Alliance logo
  • Coral Reef Alliance logo
  • Save the Waves logo
  • Turtle Island Restoration Network logo
  • BLOOM Association logo
  • Center for Rescue of Endangered Marine Species logo
  • Community of Arran Seabed Trust logo
  • Foundation for the Protection of Marine Biodiversity logo
  • Bahamas Plastic Movement logo