To stimulate public interest in and to encourage conservation of coastal ecosystems through education programs for schools and public and private organizations.
To foster a lifelong appreciation of and sense of stewardship towards coastal ecosystems through our programs, outreach activities and membership.
To conduct research that will enable greater understanding of coastal ecosystems and to disseminate this information through scientific publications and conferences and meetings.
To provide research and educational opportunities to students wishing to pursue educational interests or careers in coastal studies.
These will be accomplished via public educational whale watch trips in the eastern NY Bight and the Great South Channel, and public educational seal observation trips to a haul-out area at Cupsogue Beach County Park in Westhampton Beach NY. We also continue this work through public lectures to groups all around NY, and through training hundreds of citizen science volunteers.
Our cetacean sightings research is available to the public through our website and via OBIS-SEAMAP, while our seal data are available via our web site. Several publications are in progress to share our work further.
We pledge to continue to work with our partners at Save the Great South Bay and Seatuck Environmental Association to address issues of climate change, nutrient loading, and other pollutants in our bays, estuaries, and other near shore waters and to continue to address these issues in all possible ways.
Progress reports
By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution
Type of commitment
NUTRIENTS
- Fertilizer use efficiency
- Wastewater treatment
PLASTICS
By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans
Type of commitment
- Marine Spatial Planning
- Ecosystem-based Adaptation
Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels
Type of commitment
- Coastal carbon sinks/blue carbon
- Terrestrial carbon sinks
- CO2 emission reductions (energy efficiency, renewable energy, etc.)
- Adaptation to more acidic ocean conditions
- Scientific research and cooperation to address ocean acidification knowledge gaps
By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information
Type of commitment
- Marine protected area with partial protection
- Multiple use marine protected area
By 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies negotiation
Type of commitment
- information relating to harmful subsidies
Enhance the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law as reflected in UNCLOS, which provides the legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources, as recalled in paragraph 158 of The Future We Want
Type of commitment
- Activities to raise awareness of the comprehensive legal and policy framework for the sustainable development of oceans and seas, in particular UNCLOS, its Implementing Agreements and other relevant ocean-related instruments and promote their effective im
- Development of necessary infrastructure and/or enforcement capabilities to comply with international law, as reflected in UNCLOS and as complemented by other ocean-related instruments
1/2018-1/2020
Through lectures to the public and to students, introduce the complex adaptive systems, tipping points, feedback loops, and sustainability, as they pertain to oceans, coastal systems, and all other systems to several thousand people per year.
11/2017-12/2019
Introduce 2000-3000 people per year to the pinnipeds of NY through educational seal observation walks and to address issues of nutrient loading, climate change, nutrient loading, water quality, and the connections between inland, coastal, nearshore and offshore systems,
7/2017-7/2019
Educate and train 70 citizen science volunteers per year to assist in recording data during whale and seal observation trips
7/2017-7/2019
Introduce the public to marine mammal and sea turtle biota of NY Bight (1500 people/year) and the Great South Channel (200/year) via whale watch excursions from Montauk NY.
Financing (in USD)
25,000 USD
Other, please specify
Contribution of time by a corps of several hundred volunteers
Staff / Technical expertise
Dr. Arthur H. (Artie) Kopelman is a population ecologist whose research interests, since 1987 include the population dynamics and feeding ecology of fin and humpback whales of New York and New England; and since 1995, the population dynamics of pinnipeds
United States of America
