On June 17, 2014, Leonardo DiCaprio stepped up at the U.S. He pledged to donate $7 million through his foundation for ocean conservation over the next two years, according to TIME’s report on the event . The money was intended for groups and communities establishing marine reserves.
State Department’s “Our Ocean” conference and made a big promise.
It was a single speech on a single day, but it built on earlier giving by his foundation and showed what can happen when celebrity attention meets scientific work.
He said the Great Barrier Reef, where he first dived about 20 years ago, was by then filled with bleached coral and big dead zones. Before becoming an actor, DiCaprio wanted to be a marine biologist. He went to Cocos Island in Costa Rica and saw illegal fishing boats entering the waters of one of the few shark sanctuaries in the world.
He said it in his speech, and the TIME page includes a transcript of it. He told the audience he was fascinated by the ocean from a young age and described himself as an avid diver. Describing weak enforcement across the oceans, he put it bluntly: “It’s the Wild West on the high seas.”
On the day of his speech, it was revealed that President Obama would significantly expand marine sanctuary protections in the Pacific Ocean. He did not claim that money alone would solve the problem. You don’t have to be a celebrity or rich to care about this. Ask where your seafood comes from, follow ocean groups in your area, and listen when leaders talk about protecting the sea. But a single pledge or a single habit isn’t going to fix everything. What’s left is the hard part, which is making reserves real and keeping them enforced.
Earlier in 2014, DiCaprio’s foundation gave a $3 million grant to the ocean group Oceana, TIME notes. Because enforcement is weak and countries do not cooperate enough, in his view, fragile ocean areas are being destroyed.
DiCaprio praised the work but said governments need to do more. DiCaprio himself said more needed to be done, and the scientists say much the same about reserves.
