A Major Utility for Ocean & Climate Communication

Mario Soares, former President of Portugal, organizes the Independent World Commission on the Ocean, comprising leaders and experts from around the globe to create an agenda for the sustainability of the world ocean.. The final outcome of this commission was a report entitled "The Ocean Our Future."

Peter Neill finds a $1 used copy of The Ocean Our Future, Report of the Independent Commission on the Future of the Oceans, in a Cambridge, Massachusetts bookstore. In it he discovers the penultimate recommendation: that there be established a web-based World Ocean Observatory “to serve as a focal point for bringing relevant information from all sources,” and “to enable those with an interest in the oceans–and their interactions with land-based activities, rivers, and coastal areas–to better articulate their concerns and express their aspirations.”

Neill conducts due diligence interviews with ocean leaders to discuss the opportunity to create the Observatory under the auspices of the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City. Encouraged, Neill begins planning to create the Observatory and to incorporate it into the future-oriented exhibits and programs of South Street Seaport. Museum Board leadership decides not to endorse the project because of its financial implications. Neill does not renew his contract as Executive Director and sets out to undertake the Observatory as an independent project.

Neill establishes the World Ocean Observatory under the interim auspices of The Open Space Institute, a national conservation organization based in New York. WorldOceanObservatory.org is created and a web-based catalog of educational resources and references begins to grow.

World Ocean Radio broadcasts its first five-minute episode on a Wednesday morning on WERU-FM Community Radio in Blue Hill, Maine USA. This is where the concept was born: an idea that was welcomed with open arms, and where every edition to date has been originally broadcast. Since that time World Ocean Radio has expanded its broadcast range, now available at more than 70 college and community radio stations around the world, and available for podcast everywhere.

The inaugural issue of World Ocean Journal is published, establishing a digital magazine dedicated to ocean culture and solutions to today’s ocean issues. Subsequent issues have included topics related to island living, fresh water, ocean and human health, ocean literacy, and profiles in ocean solutions.

The W2O writes its own bylaws and is established as an independent non-profit organization in Maine USA. W2O is organized as a governing body, an advisory board is established and a board of trustees created to oversee the organization. With the help of a group of prescient donors–private family foundations and individual supporters–W2O expands its comprehensive website and continues to build multiple communications platforms to advocate for the ocean; sharing responsible science and educational services; and building a community of Citizens of the Ocean as a constituency for ocean sustainability and conservation worldwide.

W2O joined forces with Bucksport, Maine USA to co-host the International Maritime Film Festival. Since then, the annual festival has taken place either in-person at the Alamo Theatre in Bucksport and/or online during and since the Covid pandemic. The 7th annual festival will take place in-person in September and for one month online after the in-person event. The IMFF is available for maritime museums nationally and internationally as a compendium to their winter programming.

World Ocean Radio broadcasts its 500th 5-minute episode.

World Ocean Explorer launches a first exhibit--Deep Sea--in collaboration with Schmidt Ocean Institute. A full build-out of the Explorer educational platform will include themes related to ocean issues: Polar Regions, Coral Reefs, How the Ocean Works, Maritime Work, Science at Sea, Cultural Traditions, Ocean and Human Health, and the Coastal Zone. Explorer is for students in classrooms 5-9.

W2O website received a 21st century overhaul early in the year as a way to better categorize and thematically group web-based content. Resources and programs are amplified and exchanged worldwide through relentless social media, organizational collaborations, network relationships, and educational innovations to reach, after twenty years, a global audience and constituency measured by millions of Citizens of the Ocean worldwide.

Nell Herrmann, M.A., M.S., Blue Hill Consolidated School, joins W2O team as Educator Advisor. The Explorer team presented at the National Marine Educators Conference in Boston in the summer of 2024, and the first International Teacher Cohort was held at the start of the school year. Peter Neill presented "INSERT THEME HERE" at the International Council of Maritime Museums Conference held in Rotterdam, Netherlands. 

A United Nations Ocean Decade for Sustainability Activity Endorsement was received for World Ocean Explorer at the start of the year. W2O also joined the Jena Declaration in 2025; presented in the Green Zone at the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice, France. W2O won a Unity for Humanity Social Impact Prize; World Ocean Explorer launched an update with translation into French, Portuguese, and Spanish; W2O presented at the Games for Change conference in NYC, NY and at Unite2025 in Barcelona, Spain; Baird and Associates became a first Corporate Sponsor of W2O; published "Education: A Tool for Transformational Change" in a beautiful new book, "Ocean for Life", produced by the Human Development Forum; participated in the COP30 Virtual Ocean Pavilion(Treasure Trove); Published a chapter for Springer Nature—3-Volume Ocean Decade Book Series: "Ocean Literacy: The Foundation for the Success of the Ocean Decade"; Welcomed new board member Craig Strang, who has become a World Ocean Explorer program advisor and consultant; 

Presented World Ocean Explorer public educational displays to International Council of Maritime Museums for use as a free resource; Welcomed Palymra Cove Institute Earth Observation forpublic display collaboration of World Ocean Explorer; published 800th episode of World Ocean Radio.