Marine Issues at the 2016 WCC

ANTH 392: Anthropology of Water | Digital Ethnography

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Sites Followed

a.      Marine Conservation Institute (Web)

b.      Marine Conservation Institute (Twitter)

c.      Oceana (Twitter)

d.      NOAA- Sanctuaries (Twitter)

e.      Pretoma (Facebook)

f.       GEF (Twitter)

g.      The Nature Conservancy (Twitter)

h.      WPRFMC (Facebook)

i.       Blue Solutions (Facebook)

j.       Blue Planet Society (Twitter)

k.      Earth Law Center (Twitter)

l.       Mission Blue (Facebook)

m.     Ocean Optimism (Twitter)

n.      Ocean Optimism (Blog)

o.      Okeanos - Foundation for the Sea (Facebook)

p.      Maui Ocean Center (Twitter)

q.      IUCN Global Marine Community (Facebook)

r.       Conservation International (Twitter)

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Highlighted Sites

Earth Law Center (Twitter)

I chose to follow Earth Law Center, a small organization that advocates in favor of nature’s rights, due to its presence at the WCC and its concern with indigenous rights.

Mission Blue (Facebook)

I chose to follow Mission Blue, a large global organization concerned with the ocean and Marine Protected Areas, because of its presence at the WCC and its frequent postings on marine conservation issues.

Pretoma (Facebook)

I chose to follow Pretoma, a small non-governmental organization, because of their goal of promoting marine conservation while also conducting their own research.  From this organization, I hoped to get information from a small scale organization from another country.  

GEF (Twitter)

I chose to follow GEF, the Global Environmental Facility, which is a large organization that provides funding to promote different environmental sustainability missions as well as human rights.  This organization deals with environmental, gender, and political power issues and strives to solve them as an interconnected mission.  

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Highest Activity Sites

Conservation International (Twitter)

Prior to the WCC, Conservation International had decent activity and I was hoping to gain a lot of general coverage of the WCC. During the Congress, there were very regular and significant updates, including many about marine issues that I had not anticipated.

NOAA-Sanctuaries (Twitter)

During the WCC, NOAA had very high activity on their Twitter.  From daily updates to Facebook live videos, it seemed that NOAA had a major role in the digital space during the WCC.  I expected frequent updates and that is exactly what NOAA provided.  The high quality of the content cannot be missed either.  

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Lowest Activity Sites

IUCN Global Marine Community (Facebook)

Prior to the WCC, the IUCN Global Marine Community page had a good amount of activity and I expected to find decent coverage of marine related issues at the WCC. During the Congress, however, this site only had one update and was otherwise silent.

The Nature Conservancy (Twitter)

I expected to use this site to see how prevalent marine issues were during the WCC by using this site to compare the post about marine issues verses other issues.  During the WCC, this Twitter feed was lacking in post about the congress in general.  It seemed that this organization had a high presence at the WCC, yet didn’t post about the experience.  

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Summary of WCC Activity

a.      Marine Conservation Institute (Web)

This site had moderate activity, including a few highly relevant blogposts and some interesting articles. 

b.      Marine Conservation Institute (Twitter)

This site had very high activity throughout the course of the WCC, especially significant updates about events and motions at the Congress. 

c.      Oceana (Twitter)

This site had moderate activity during the WCC, but most of the information was regarding information not from the congress.  

d.      NOAA- Sanctuaries (Twitter)

This site had very high activity and was consistently posting about relevant sessions during the WCC.  Every update dealing with the WCC was significant.

e.      Pretoma (Facebook)

This site did not post often, but when it did the information was highly relevant.

f.       GEF (Twitter)

This site posted quite often, but it usually was not relevant to marine issues at the WCC.  During the WCC there was frequent posts about their planned movements.  

g.      The Nature Conservancy (Twitter)

This site posted very rarely and almost never about the WCC.  

h.      WPRFMC (Facebook)

This site had limited posts, but seemed to be involved at the WCC.

i.       Blue Solutions (Facebook)

This site posted moderately and seemed to have quite a bit of community between other groups.  

j.       Blue Planet Society (Twitter)

This site posted quite a bit during the beginning of the WCC, but seemed to lack in posts towards the end of the WCC.  

k.      Earth Law Center (Twitter)

This site had fairly moderate activity during the course of the WCC, including interesting updates about the rights of nature and indigenous rights. 

l.       Mission Blue (Facebook)

This site had very high activity and significant coverage of events, speakers, and motions that occurred during the Congress. 

m.     Ocean Optimism (Twitter)

This site had moderate activity that did not meet the expectations I had based on prior tweets that promised frequent updates and coverage of the WCC. 

n.      Ocean Optimism (Blog)

This site had very little activity throughout the WCC, with only a few new blogposts added during the 10-day period. 

o.      Okeanos - Foundation for the Sea (Facebook)

This site had minimal activity, with many posts generally focused on its other interests and concerns, rather than the IUCN Congress. 

p.      Maui Ocean Center (Twitter)

This site had fairly moderate activity, with much of that focused on promoting it’s booth at the Congress. 

q.      IUCN Global Marine Community (Facebook)

This site had the lowest amount of activity, which defied expectations, with only one post shared during the entire 10-day period of the Congress. 

r.       Conservation International (Twitter)

This site had significant activity throughout the course of the WCC and consistently offered unique content each day. 

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https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?hl=en&hl=en&authuser=0&authuser=0&mid=1XdyQSVMIYomdahv53O0G0TF8wGk

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Strategies for the WCC

Overall, the strategies used by the organizations we followed were successful.

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Found on September 7, 2016. Marine Conservation Institute. Twitter.

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Found on September 6, 2016. Marine Conservation Institute. Twitter. 

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Found on September 8, 2016. Ocean Optimism. Twitter. 

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Found on September 10, 2016. GEF. Twitter. 

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The Politics of Translation

Organizations used different vocabulary in order to reach different audiences. 

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Found on September 8, 2016. Earth Law Center. Twitter. 

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Found on September 3, 2016. Earth Law Center. Twitter.

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World Conservation Congress Motion 53: Vote Yes to Support Protection for 30% of the Ocean

From the heat of the equator to the deep chills of the North and South poles, the ocean binds the planet together. Making up more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, it is home to innumerable species great and small and is a critical source of food that also provides tens of billions of dollars in economic benefits to countless stakeholders.

Found on September 7, 2016. Marine Conservation Institute. Twitter.

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Found on September 7, 2016. Sylvia Earle’s Twitter.

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Found on September 9, 2016. Marine Conservation Institute. Twitter.