Objective

To protect and promote ocean biodiversity through small-scale time-sensitive community-based programs

History

The Marine Conservation Action Fund (MCAF), created in June 1999, addresses time sensitive conservation issues through financial, professional and technical assistance. MCAF provides support and collaboration to projects around the world that link local communities, help protect highly vulnerable species and habitats and promote the sustainable use of oceans. With relatively modest investment, MCAF makes big conservation gains. By supplying much-needed funding at crucial moments, MCAF support helps advance the state of our knowledge about threatened animals and ecosystems and helps put measures in place to protect them.

Examples of MCAF supported projects

  • Biological survey to provide information for the establishment of marine protected areas in Fiji
  • Community participation in Samoan National Marine Sanctuary planning workshops
  • Community-based leatherback sea turtle nest survey program in Papua New Guinea
  • Coral biodiversity and identification surveys in Indonesia
  • Creation of a digital photo-identification catalog for the southern right whale
  • DNA testing of South Pacific humpback whale populations in French Polynesia and Chile
  • Establishing a Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network
  • Establishing a monitoring program for leatherback sea turtle nests in Costa Rica
  • Exchange program for New Zealand and South American fishers to share techniques to reduce seabird bycatch
  • Fishermen information exchange in Kenya and Tanzania
  • Geological survey of a saltwater lagoon in the Azores archipelago
  • Marine mammal conservation education in Madagascar
  • Marine mammal conservation program in Central Patagonia
  • Monitoring green sea turtle nesting sites at Palmerston atoll
  • Nest surveys of the endangered white-flippered penguin in New Zealand
  • Participation in and sponsorship of Deep-Sea Fisheries: Ecology, Economics and Conservation symposium
  • Protection of glass sponge reefs in British Columbia, Canada
  • Protection of a coastal marine site in Punta Curianco, Chile
  • Release of harbor porpoises caught in fishing gear in the Bay of Fundy
  • Rescue and rehabilitation of endangered Kemps ridley, loggerhead and green sea turtles in New England
  • Rescue of oiled African penguins in South Africa
  • Research in collaboration with lobster fishermen in New England
  • Research on the habitat and behavioral ecology of endangered Antillean manatees
  • Research on the LaPlata dolphin threatened by entanglement in fishing gear
  • Research on the Southern Chilean humpback whale population as part of the Southern Humpback Whale Consortium
  • Support of the Harbor Porpoise Release Program at the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station Survey and protection of sea turtles on Bioko Island, West Africa
  • Whale watching assessments in Costa Rica

The Marine Conservation Action Fund is made possible through generous support from the Oak Foundation, the Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation, and continues through other foundation grants and individual tax deductible donations.

For more information, please contact:

mcaf@neaq.org
Marine Conservation Action Fund Coordinator
Global Marine Programs
New England Aquarium
Central Wharf
Boston, MA 02110

617-226-2122