Hope at OOC: How Young Ocean Leaders View Current Actions

Written by Ying Chen Lin, 2025 SOA Ocean Leaders Fellow

The 10th Our Ocean Conference (OOC) took place in Busan, South Korea, from April 28–30, 2025, bringing together over 3,300 representatives from more than 100 countries—including governments, international organizations, NGOs, and the private sector.

As OOC celebrated its 10th anniversary with the theme “Our Ocean, Our Action”, the World Resources Institute (WRI) released a milestone report highlighting the progress made over the past decade:

• Since 2014, the Our Ocean Conference has become a flagship forum for advancing action across six major ocean themes: Marine Protected Areas, Sustainable Fisheries, Marine Pollution, Climate Change, Maritime Security, and the Blue Economy. In 2025, “Digital Oceans” was added as a key action area, spotlighting the potential of technology in accelerating marine solutions.

• From 2014 to 2024, the Conference generated 2,618 commitments, representing a financial scale of $160 billion USD.

• As of January 2025, $133.4 billion USD has been mobilized for ocean action, with 43% of commitments completed and another 38% currently in progress.

The report also emphasized the importance of continued inclusion: inviting more participation from the private sector and academia, and amplifying the voices and needs of Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States, youth, women, Indigenous peoples, and local communities.

At this year’s closing ceremony, South Korea announced that the 2025 Conference had resulted in 277 new commitments with an estimated value of $9.1 billion USD and officially handed over the baton to the next host, Kenya.

Youth Voices at the Our Ocean Conference

In alignment with the main Our Ocean Conference, the Our Ocean Youth Leadership Summit (OOYLS) was co-hosted by Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA), in partnership with the Korean Ministry of Oceans & Fisheries, Korea Maritime & Ocean University, and Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy.

This year, the Summit was attended by 80 ocean leaders from 35 countries, including 40 Fellows selected for the SOA Ocean Leaders Fellowship (OLF) and 40 South Korean students.

Though Fellows had connected virtually in advance, this was the first time they met in person. Each fellow was paired one-on-one with a Korean student to foster deeper dialogue and connection. This was the first-ever intercultural exchange component of the Summit. 

In total, the 80 youth participants—international and Korean—gathered for the summit, which centered on cross-cultural exchange, capacity building, and youth-led innovation.

Below are the highlights of their joint demands across the seven thematic areas:

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

• Strengthen institutions to effectively govern and manage existing and new MPAs and fully involve local communities in decision-making for MPA creation and regulation.

Sustainable Fisheries

• Recognize, empower, and protect small-scale fishers, especially women and Indigenous communities, through GEDSI-driven regulations, capacity building, and affirmative action. 

• Strengthen monitoring, control, and enforcement against Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, with greater transparency.

Marine Pollution

• Raise awareness of false solutions—like plastics offsets and biodegradable plastics—that can worsen pollution and biodiversity loss. 

• Urge governments to educate the public and promote tangible solutions to prevent marine pollution, such as reducing single-use plastic production and improving waste management infrastructure in marine litter hotspots, especially in the Global South.

• Support a global moratorium on deep-sea mining in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) until independent scientific assessments can determine if it can be carried out without irreversible harm to marine ecosystems or ocean-dependent communities.

Climate Change

• Integrate ocean-based solutions into national climate policies by embedding marine ecosystems—like mangroves, seagrass, and kelp—and innovations into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), adaptation plans, and carbon markets. 

• Fund youth and women-led enterprises in fisheries, marine farming, and blue value chains to build climate-resilient livelihoods.

Maritime Security

• Increase funding, technology, and training to improve detection and responses to maritime threats. 

• Protect human rights at sea with clear accountability and justice for victims of maritime crimes, and protections for migrant workers.

Blue Economy

• Expand ‘blue finance’ by diversifying assets and funding streams. 

• Promote marine climate solutions like carbon capture, renewable energy, and sustainable fisheries through blue bonds, biodiversity bonds, and blended finance.

Digital Ocean

• Create funding opportunities, incubators, and mentorships for youth-driven digital ocean solutions. 

• Make marine data open source, especially for youth and communities in the Global South. 

• Expand the use of satellites, sensors, and AI to track pollution, IUU fishing, biodiversity, and climate impacts.

Youth Deliver “OUR HOPE” Declaration

At the closing ceremony of OOC, SOA Ocean Leaders Fellow Ankur Shah and South Korean student representative Jang Jemin took the stage together to present the “OUR HOPE: Holistic Ocean Pledge”, a collective youth declaration shaped through discussions among all 80 participants. 

This youth declaration will continue to evolve, led by SOA Ocean Leaders Fellows, and will be presented at the upcoming UN Ocean Conference (UNOC-3) in Nice, France, this June.

See you at the UNOC!