Recalibrating humanity’s relationship with the oceans

Established December 2022 in Amsterdam, we are a new type of ocean data and systems science not-for profit.

,

“The ocean is a mighty force, but it is also a fragile ecosystem.”

— Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Our purpose is to accelerate the adoption of truly ethical ocean guardianship: in governance and in practice. And it is way overdue.

For decades, the industrialised West has systematically abused the oceans. It has done this under the promise of the greater public good: “Better living through chemistry” as the 1935 DuPont advertising slogan claimed. And, “out of sight, out of mind” has been its operating principle as the industrial complex has wilfully and knowingly dumped unspeakable amounts of toxic waste and other harmful anthropogenic stressors into the oceans.

Our magnificent oceans are complex adaptive systems. As such, the oceans outputs are the sum of its previous and current inputs. Think about that for a moment. What goes around inevitably comes around.

And still today, the Blue Economy steams ahead, exploiting oceanic resources with little acknowledgement or consideration of this, with many players blatantly ignoring their own unilateral negative impact upon ocean ecosystems.

We can not let this keep happening. We need to drive transparency about the state of the oceans. And hold ourselves accountable.

But today’s ocean governance systems were just not built for transparency or accountability.

Current governance fails to reflect the complexity of ocean-human ecosystems in its policy, frameworks or models — including the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

SDG 14 (Life Below Water) has received the lowest investment and none of the targets that were supposed to be met in 2020 were met.

And as Ken Johnson, senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium explained, it is, “embarrassing how little data we have on oceans worldwide.” And this data is crucial to the understanding of the climate, which is of course deeply entangled with ocean systems.

Today, governance and the Blue Economy operates almost entirely upon good intentions and wishful thinking — the very same things that drove decades of “better living through chemistry.”

We see a different world. One where complexity science and systems thinking drives decision-making about the oceans. And we’re working towards it.

Our mission is to generate biogeochemical data on human-ocean ecosystems — and fast!

And we will be keeping that data in the hands of the public and the ocean ecosystems’ interest.

To get there we’re developing an entire suite of radical and innovative technologies and approaches designed to transform humanity’s relationship with the oceans once and for all.

We hope that you’ll support us.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Will Lewis

Founder, Executive Director

Will is OA’s senior scientist and technical innovation director. An applied complexity science practitioner and life-long outdoorsman, Will draws on a unique multidisciplinary background in hydrology and water quality, and environmental economics, policy and law, to solve complex data generation, analytics and modelling challenges.

Steve Seager

Strategy Director

An applied narratologist, Steve is our resident strategist and sense-maker. He is a long-time strategic adviser to global leaders with a significant history of solving complex problems across contexts. He synthesises insight from fields such as complexity science, cognitive neuroscience, literary theory, futurism and ecofeminism.

Formed in 2023, based in Amsterdam, we are a not-for-profit foundation working in ocean data, systems and complexity science.

We are a group of like-minded radical innovators, scientists, data nerds, systems thinkers and problem-solvers.

As a not-for-profit we are currently reliant on donations from individuals, family offices, corporations, governments and institutions.

Over time, by developing an ocean data-as-a-service proposition, we will become financially independent. We will continually reinvest profits to ensure truly responsible trans-generational ocean guardianship.

Ocean Analytica
Derde Helmersstraat 35-3
1054 BB Amsterdam

KVK: 88416933

Here’s what we’re currently busy with:

  • Building out our scientific advisory board, which provisionally includes some of the absolute leading lights in our sphere of operations.
  • Developing our TRL (technology readiness levels) for our first full field test in Q2 2024.
  • Looking for sponsors to finance our first two data generation projects.
  • Seeking like-minded volunteers for our Social Strike Team: citizen scientists, divers, data generators, ethnographers, social scientists, fisherfolk, coastal communities and more.

If you’re our sort of people, we’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@oceananalytica.org.

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. Dylan Evans PhD

Advisor, technical innovation and advanced mathematical and statistical methodologies

Dylan is a Welsh whole systems ecologist, ocean polymath, innovator in advanced data and statistical methodologies, and serial social entrepreneur both in the UK and worldwide.

In his volunteer work prior to his BSc in Marine Biology at Bangor University, Dylan helped establish of one of the largest community-led marine reserves in East Africa. He developed monitoring and statistical methods to help save species from extinction, and gained his PhD in Whole Systems Ecology from the University of Wales for his work as Wales Program Manager which included full program management, development of novel GIS rain tracing algorithms, low impact and real time biogeochemical analytical methods, statistics and data mining — as well as establishing research laboratories in Europe and running international cross calibration exercises.

After his PhD, Dylan went on to and manage entire island ecosystems in the Seychelles and then built an impressive 25+ year track record of designing and delivering projects and initiatives in sectors as diverse as arts and heritage, forestry, food security, and medical innovation.

As an independent consultant Dylan offers a range of strategic and bilingual project development, feasibility, support, and funding bid management services.

Here at OA, Dylan is providing robust peer review of the innovative mathematical and statistical methodologies helping drive truly ethical, data and systems based ocean governance.