World Ocean Day Eve: Oceana Launches Ocean Action Month as Global Conservation Community Mobilizes for Mombasa Summit

On the eve of World Ocean Day (June 8, 2026), Oceana launched its annual Ocean Action Month campaign calling on citizens, policymakers, and businesses to commit to concrete ocean conservation actions. This year's campaign carries unusual urgency given the convergence of simultaneous ocean crises: the ongoing eastern Pacific gray whale population collapse, early-onset coral bleaching near Miami signalling another potentially catastrophic bleaching season, the Trump administration's dismantling of the Ocean Observatories Initiative, and the imminent approach of the 11th Our Ocean Conference (OOC11) in Mombasa, Kenya (June 16–18). Oceana's 2026 Ocean Action Month spotlights four priority campaigns: expanding and enforcing marine protected areas to accelerate progress toward the 30x30 target; protecting endangered and critically endangered marine species including the North Atlantic Right Whale and Rice's whale following the Gulf of Mexico ESA rollback; advancing sustainable fisheries reform; and opposing offshore oil and gas drilling expansion in marine habitats. OOC11 — the first Our Ocean Conference held in Africa — takes on added symbolic and substantive weight as Kenyan and East African coastal communities contribute their perspectives to global ocean governance. Indian Ocean coral reefs, critical to regional food security and coastal economies, face existential threats from ocean warming and bleaching. The conference's Executive Business and Investment Forum and Research Symposium (both June 14–15) will precede the main ministerial sessions (June 16–18) in Mombasa, with the global ocean conservation community converging on Kenya for what many hope will be a landmark pledging moment comparable to or exceeding the $10+ billion generated at previous OOC conferences.