The Problem  

Our oceans are failing, and ocean conservation efforts are barely slowing the decline. Yet the ocean is essential to our survival, and we rely on it for health, wealth, and happiness. Human ingenuity has magnified our ability to extract value from the oceans, but that same ingenuity has not been applied to ensure that ocean ecosystems can survive the demands placed on them by seven billion people.

As our planet enters a period of accelerating human-caused change, efforts to conserve and sustain its biodiversity and ecological systems are facing never-before-seen challenges. Our human footprint has grown exponentially, while our conservation approaches and solutions have largely remained linear.

The Big Think

Challenge statements at the Oceans Big Think, November 2015.

The Big Think, in essence, is a summit of curated experts, innovators, and investors that combines the collective intelligence of public, private, and civil society leaders to create and launch an open innovation program. It serves as a problem- solving catalyst, connecting existing dots in new ways to unlock innovative answers.

Conservation X Labs and World Wildlife Fund convened a Big Think to define the oceans conservation problem space. In November 2015, the Oceans Big Think gathered 40 experts and leaders from science, innovation, conservation and policy at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to both identify a set of Grand Challenges for oceans and commit to actions to solve them. The Big Think tapped the combined collective intelligence of public, private, and civil society leaders to define the pressing oceans conservation challenges and solution constraints and served as a problem- solving catalyst, connecting existing dots in new ways to unlock innovative answers.

 

The Oceans Big Think was the first step in rethinking potential solutions and building an oceans innovation pipeline through Oceans X Labs. It served as a platform to develop and move forward with the first challenge on sustainable aquaculture. 

The Oceans Big Think helped define the ten most pressing Grand Challenges of Oceans Conservation. See The Challenges.