About The TerraMar Project | TerraMar Project

We stand by those who promote awareness, transparency
and responsibility for the high seas

WHAT IS THE TERRAMAR PROJECT?

The TerraMar Project's mission is to create and empower a global community of ocean citizens. We promote awareness, responsibility and transparency of the high seas. Our web-based nonprofit empowers the global community through citizenship, education and social engagement through The TerraMar Project.

Your citizenship to TerraMar enables you to become part of the first high seas community. You are standing up for the future of 45% of our planet. The high seas are the least explored, most ignored place on earth. They may be out of sight, but should not be out of mind.

WHY CREATE THE TERRAMAR PROJECT?

The TerraMar Project is founded on the basis of the Public Trust Doctrine, it is the principle that certain resources are preserved for public use, and that the government is required to maintain them for the public's reasonable use. Simply put, our common ocean belongs to us and should be protected for generations to come.

538 A.D.
Justinian proclaimed that air, water, and sea were the common property of all.

1609
Hugo de Groot argued for liberty of the sea. He said that the liberty of the sea was a key aspect in the communications amongst peoples and nations. No one country can monopolize control over the ocean because of its immensity and lack of stability and fixed limits.

1982
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) declared that the international seabed and its mineral resources are the common heritage of all mankind. UNCLOS governs all aspects of ocean space, including the delimitation of maritime boundaries, environmental regulations, scientific research, commerce and the settlement of international disputes involving marine issues. These rules include the obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment.

The Public Trust Doctrine
Should this be a law of the sea? The Public Trust Doctrine vests the States with trust responsibility to ensure that the use of these resources promotes long-term sustainability and holds that the high seas and marin e living resources, are held in a public trust, recognizing all citizens, present and future, as being beneficiaries of the public trust, with States as trustees and international bodies having the duty to monitor and oversee the public trust. And, if they abandon this fiduciary duty, the PTD empowers the citizen beneficiaries (or representatives thereof) to seek judicial remedy.

WHAT DOES BECOMING A CITIZEN OF TERRAMAR MEAN?

We believe in the Law of the Commons. It states, “The high seas belong to all of us and should be protected for generations to come.” We’ve taken this idea one step further and are encouraging you to claim your legitimate right to the high seas. Your citizenship to TerraMar is a pledge that you will help bring awareness to your friends and family about the problems plaguing our high seas, the largest and least explored place on Earth.

Support for The TerraMar Project will assist us in building the largest high seas – ocean community and help our partners who are working to protect and change legislation in the high seas.

WHAT YOUR DONATIONS SUPPORT

Your generous donation(s) will support The TerraMar Project in the next phase of our web development. We will be extending our educational platform and adding new interactive features. We will also be offering crowd-funding, individual project based funding and major initiative funding through a highly personalized donation platform - where our citizens, partners and NGOs operating in the ocean will be able to create their own donation platforms. Educational programs, scientific research and NGO support will be the focus of our TMP Crowd Funding platform. Here is a small taste of the type of projects we will be supporting.

Ocean Scholarship
Somerville College
Oxford University

The TerraMar Project - Somerville Scholarship is aimed at encouraging the most promising young scientist to undertake study for a D.Phil. in an aspect of the ecology of the communities inhabiting the deep ocean.

Areas of particular interest include the ecology of deep-seabed communities, coupling of seabed and water column communities, the impacts of human activities in the high seas on marine ecosystems (e.g. deep-sea fisheries, deep-ocean mining), and areas related to the design and benefits of networks of protected areas in the high seas.

The studentship will be based at the University of Oxford’s Department of Zoology and Somerville College and will work within the Ocean Research and Conservation group headed by Prof. AD Rogers.

Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution
WHOI

Woods Hole Oceanographic scientists would like to learn more about our largest and most important fish; tunas, swordfish, sharks and rays. They are among the most spectacular—and endangered—species on earth.

Through Project TOTEM (Tagging of Oceanic Teleost and Elasmobranch Megafauna), these scientists aim to address the knowledge gap by developing and deploying new pop-up satellite archi val transmitting (PSAT) tags on swordfish, tunas, sharks and rays. The tags will log and then transmit data about the fishes’ location, behaviors and ocean conditions back to the labs via satellite.

MEET OUR EXPERTS IN OCEAN POLICY, SCIENCE, LAW,
GOVERNANCE AND CONSERVATION IN THE HIGH SEAS

We stand by those who promote awareness, transparency and responsibility for the high seas

MEET OUR EXPERTS IN OCEAN POLICY, SCIENCE, LAW, GOVERNANCE AND CONSERVATION IN THE HIGH SEAS

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We stand by those who promote awareness, transparency
and responsibility for the high seas

MEET OUR EXPERTS IN OCEAN POLICY, SCIENCE, LAW,
GOVERNANCE AND CONSERVATION IN THE HIGH SEAS