The Ocean Race Summit Newport today celebrated Rhode Island becoming the first US state to commit to recognizing the rights of natural communities and ecosystems, and urged for global recognition of the inherent rights of the ocean.
With over 400 miles of coastline, Rhode Island is known as ‘the Ocean State.’ The resolution also recognizes the importance of Rhode Island’s blue economy and the steps the State is taking to protect its biodiversity. With this initiative, Rhode Island has become the first State in the United States to support the recognition of the Rights of Nature and Ocean Rights
The event, held during the stopover of the round-the-world sailing race, gathered together over 150 government, civil society and private sector representatives that explored the power of sports to catalyse positive change and “Shore to Sea” solutions for ocean health.
In an opening “land acknowledgment” ceremony, Director of Community Planning and Natural Resources Department and Vice-Chair of the Land & Water Resources Commission of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Indian Tribe, Dynalin Spears, said “Let us gather in deep connection to the land and the water. It is a sacred and reciprocal relationship.”
Janet Coit, Assistant Administrator, NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Department of Commerce, delivered a keynote speech in which she spoke about how climate change is affecting coastal communities and the need to use science to build resilience to these effects, protect nature and promote innovation. Warning of the grave consequences that the world faces she called for aggressive action now.
Addressing the participants, Dan McKee, Governor of Rhode Island, noted: “The purpose of the Ocean Race is to shine a spotlight on the importance of nature and the ocean, and you couldn’t have picked a better place for that. We believe that The Ocean Race helps the world and it helps the state of RI.”
Welcoming attendees to the city, Xay Khamsyvoravong, Mayor of Newport, said: “Newport’s success is directly tied to the health of our ocean, and because of that we are proud to be a voice fighting to protect its health. Newport is America’s most inspiring seaside destination and the U.S. capital of sailing.”
“The ocean is the foundation of everything we rely upon, from the fresh seafood served at our restaurants, to the waters our sailors win upon, and seas from which our Navy defends democracy and peace around the world. We’re fighting for ocean health because it is essential to our existence,” he added.
The fourth Ocean Race Summit Newport was held during The Ocean Race 2022-23 stopover in the east coast of the United States.
Few cities in the world are as closely linked to the sport of sailing as Newport, Rhode Island. Founded in 1639, Newport is situated on Aquidneck Island, a 37.8-square-mile island nestled amongst the beautiful scenery on Narragansett Bay – New England’s largest estuary – and is also bordered to the south and the Sakonnet River to the east. Newport has long been a world-class sailing venue that regularly attracts the world’s best sailors and plays host to the sport’s top tier competitions, such as the America’s Cup. Today it is also the home of the 11th Hour Racing Team.
The Newport stopover is co-hosted by Sail Newport, Rhode Island’s public sailing center, the State of Rhode Island and 11th Hour Racing, the Newport-based global sustainability organisation focused on restoring the health of the planet’s oceans.
In a video message, Sheldon Whitehouse, United States Senator for Rhode Island, said: “We must act on climate now while we still have a little time”
The first Newport stopover in The Ocean Race was hosted by Sail Newport during the 2014–15 edition and the fleet returned again for the 2017–18 race, making the 2022–23 Newport stop the city’s third consecutive participation in the around-the-world race. The 2015 stopover in Newport marked the birth of the sustainability programme for The Ocean Race, an initiative that subsequently expanded to all stopovers in the 2017–18 edition, in collaboration with 11th Hour Racing.
Since its opening on 13 May, over 10 000 people have visited Ocean Live Park, the dedicated Race village where visitors can experience the event up-close and learn about how they can contribute to protect the ocean.
In her speech, Wendy Schmidt, Philanthropist, President and Co-Founder of the
Schmidt Family Foundation and Schmidt Ocean Institute and Co-Founder of 11th Hour Racing, highlighted: “What we are doing together makes a difference, and over less than a decade, we know this is continuous change for the better. While there’s still so much to do, but, together, we have changed the conversation.”
“We are only beginning to discover the world we share with the ocean. One degree at a time, as we say at 11th Hour Racing, we can address the harmful legacy of extractive and polluting industries that have led the world to its current existential crisis, where the Earth is rapidly losing its topsoils and their fertility, the biodiversity of millions of years of evolution, the stable chemistry of its Ocean–all of which we depend on for our own survival,” she added.
The Ocean Race Summit Newport is part of a series of high-level events to promote the recognition of the inherent rights of the ocean, held in some of the stopover cities that are hosting the teams as they circumnavigate the planet during The Ocean Race 2022-23.
The Ocean Race and partners – including the Government of Cabo Verde and US-based Earth Law Center – are working to give the ocean a voice and gather global support for the adoption of a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights by 2030.
Representing Earth Law Center, Rachel Bustamante, Ocean Science & Policy Analyst, said: “Research increasingly shows that how we value and relate to the Ocean shapes how we manage human activity in the marine environment. As a member of the next generation of ocean advocates, I am encouraged by the emerging pathway of recognizing the Ocean as a living entity with inherent rights.” Ocean Rights, she added, “is a holistic approach that helps us shift our relationship with the ocean. Rather than just using resources or claiming ownership, we start to see the ocean as one connected ecosystem of our planet that we rely on and care for. So we make decisions that consider what the ocean needs and all the life that the ocean supports. This stems from the Rights of Nature movement and draws on learnings from Indigenous practices, where understandings of mutual dependence with Nature can guide our governance in a more holistic way.”
In panel 1, “Sport as a catalyst for positive change”, top athletes discussed how sports can create positive environmental change and shared what they are doing to activate their communities: panellists included one of the sailors competing in The Ocean Race – Charlie Enright, Skipper of 11th Hour Racing Team; Zandile Ndhlovu, South African Ocean Explorer, Founder of Black Mermaid Foundation, 11th Hour Racing Ambassador, alongside Jess Hotter, Freeride World Champion, Protect Our Winters Alliance athlete.
Speaking about his experience sailing from Itajaí, Brazil, to his hometown Newport the last few weeks, Enright said: “It’s great to be home here in Newport. The last leg was nerve-wrecking; however the reception arriving home was exceptional. I said to the team shortly afterward, “Remember this feeling it’s what we’re striving for until the end.”
“I was part of the first-ever Ocean Summit, and seeing the global impact and international recognition that we have made together as an organisation is truly amazing,” he added.
“Our team has sustainability at the core of all operations since our inception. We measure and track everything that we do, create or develop and share our findings openly, knowing it will aid and impact other teams and organisations. This is about solutions, finding solutions through a global campaign that can be replicated all around the world,” Enright said.
Reflecting on how to improve access to the ocean “so that more people care”, Zandile Ndhlovu said: “Sport is an incredible tool for societal change, the more we are able to create access and representation to niche sports like water facing sports, it allows a greater pool of hands to be on deck to the collective mission. We cannot protect what we do not know, have never seen or experienced.”
Referencing the effects of climate change on her home mountains in New Zealand and, as a consequence, in her sport, Freeride World Champion Jess Hotter said: “The thing that motivates me the most is people having a healthy space. Water is everything that connects us. That’s why I continue to keep fighting for it.”
Simulating climate futures
The event also featured “How to Save the World in less than Twenty Minutes”, an engaging interactive session using En-ROADS, a global climate simulator that allows you to change different variables to explore the impact that dozens of policies—such as electrifying transport, pricing carbon, and improving agricultural practices—can have on hundreds of factors like energy prices, temperature, air quality, and sea level rise. Andrew Jones, Executive Director of Climate Interactive, the US-based think tank that builds the simulation models used in the UN, US Congress, and global business, said: “Climate modelers around the world agree: it’s still possible to create a much better future for the climate, our oceans, and all the lives that depend on both.”
“Less than a mile across Newport Harbor where the Ocean Summit is being held today, a gauge that has been measuring tides for decades has confirmed that sea level has risen almost a foot in Rhode Island since 1930 and is continuing to rise at an alarming rate. This is a very direct reminder of the growing impacts and threats from climate change, and we need to continue to act now to meet these challenges,” said Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) Director Terry Gray.
“At the same time, despite strong steps already taken, we know we must do more to reduce plastic pollution in our waterways and oceans. We have all walked our beaches and coastlines or gone out on Narragansett Bay and seen the impacts firsthand, and there are deeper impacts to the ecosystem that we don’t directly see but are clearly happening. In the Ocean State, climate change and impacts of plastic pollution in our waters are not abstractions,” Narragansett Bay-born official said. “They’re real problems and they’re happening now. DEM welcomes The Ocean Race back to the site of its first The Ocean Race Summit, Fort Adams State Park. We’re thrilled to participate in this event and listen, learn, share our experiences, and network. And we are excited to lend our voice to the One Blue Voice that’s being raised to save the seas.”
Richard Brisius, Race Chairman at The Ocean Race, said: “The Ocean Race is about people, performance and purpose. Our purpose is to motivate people to do the extraordinary and help to restore Ocean Health. We are focused on driving efforts on international co-operation at scale and working towards a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights. Since the last Summit here in Newport in 2020 we have made important progress in our influence and achievements within international co-operation and global ocean policies.”
Shore-to-sea solutions for ocean health
Panel 2, “Shore to sea solutions for ocean health” highlighted how all ecosystems are interconnected: what happens on land affects the ocean, from waste to wastewater.
Prof. Maria Rosa, George & Carol Milne Assistant Professor of Biology, Connecticut College, said: “We have a responsibility to be good stewards for our oceans. They provide so many ecosystem services, and have been severely degraded by man-made impacts. We need novel solutions to restore and conserve our marine ecosystems, and make the conservation movement more equitable and accessible to all peoples.”
“Automation is what gets us in the water; it is data that will keep us there,” said Dr Dennis Yance, Co- Founder and CEO at Marauder Robotics, noting the need for real-time seafloor data in order to predict when a shift in happens in an ecosystem so that marine managers can react and do something before these systems collapse.
Lela DeVine, Youth Leadership Council and Board of Directors Member EarthEcho International, stressed the need to put youth at the forefront of these conversations and make them active change-makers. She also stressed: “I have consistently emphasised the need for scientists to take an activism lens in their work, and for everyone to understand the intrinsic rights of the ocean that are at stake.”
“For the first time ever, we have legal mechanisms to create a representative network of ecologically coherent Marine Protected Areas in the High Seas,” concluded Dr Elizabeth Mendenhall, Assistant professor at the Department of Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island,
Ocean Vital Signs Network by WHOI announced at the Summit
To contribute to better understanding of the ocean, Robert S.C. Munier, Vice President for Marine Facilities & Operations Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), announced a new tool for “a new era in ocean observation.”
“Working with partners in philanthropy, industry, and peer institutions around the globe, we aim to establish a large-scale, full-ocean-depth carbon observatory of approximately 1 million square kilometres. This network of networks, which we are calling the Ocean Vital Signs Network (OVSN) will be an ocean “internet of things” comprised of moorings, underwater robotic vehicles, floats, oceanographic sensors and communication systems. It will provide the rigorous and independent measurement, data, reporting, and verification needed to understand the efficacy of ocean-based climate solutions. It will leverage our strengths in ocean science, engineering and marine operations to illuminate the ocean’s water column, from the surface to the seafloor — and its pivotal role in our planet’s climate—as never before,” Munier explained,
Lucy Hunt, Senior Advisor Summits & Learning at The Ocean Race wrapped up the event noting that Rhode Island, “The Ocean State”, is the best flag bearer to boost national and international recognition of ocean rights. “I invite all of you to join us, stand up, speak up and unite for the recognition of the ocean’s inherent rights.”
The Ocean Race – the round-the-world sailing event known as the toughest test of a team in sport – holds these high-level Summits to promote ocean action in some of the stopover cities that will be hosting the teams as they circumnavigate the planet. The Summit’s discussions are later analysed and explored with experts in international law, policy, diplomacy and ocean science in a series of workshops called the Genova Process (named after the host city of the Grand Finale – the finish port of the Race).
The Ocean Race Summits are a key part of The Ocean Race’s multi-award winning ‘Racing with Purpose’ sustainability programme developed in collaboration with 11th Hour Racing, – the Founding Partner of the Racing with Purpose programme and a Premier Partner of The Ocean Race.
The Ocean Race started from Alicante, Spain, on 15 January 2023 and will end in Genova The Grand Finale in June 2023. It consists of seven legs with stopovers in eight cities around the world: Mindelo, Cabo Verde; Cape Town, South Africa; Itajaí, Brazil; Newport, Rhode Island, USA; Aarhus, Denmark; and The Hague, The Netherlands.
Leg 5 sees the fleet return to Europe via a double points, 3,500-nautical mile, (4,028-mile/6,482-kilometre) transatlantic dash from Newport, around the top of the British Isles, and into Denmark’s second largest city, Aarhus.
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