Monaco Ocean Week returns in March with a packed schedule of events featuring innovators, economists, scientists and its figurehead of Prince Albert all banding together for one cause: ocean preservation.  

Ocean conservation and awareness have long been embedded in the collective psyche of the Principality, starting in the late 19th century with the Explorer Prince, Prince Albert I. Today, the legacy is being carried out by his namesake, Prince Albert II, who has dedicated much of his life to the cause and has, over the years, been instrumental in influencing change and bringing awareness of the plights of the seas.   

Via the Prince Albert II Foundation, there have been several landmark actions, such as the appeal to stop the consumption of the endangered Mediterranean bluefin tuna in 2008, inciting the 2009 Monaco Declaration on Ocean Acidification and the Monaco Blue Initiative (MBI) marine conservation thinktank in 2010. In 2013, the foundation created an environmental fund to manage Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean, followed by the BeMed project, which was launched in 2015 to combat plastic pollution. 

During the Paris COP21 in 2015, the Prince Albert II Foundation played a key role with the Because the Ocean climate regulation declaration, which highlighted the importance of the ocean in climate regulation and has now been signed by 33 countries. In 2016, the Principality initiated the IPCC Special Report on oceans and the cryosphere, which was officially revealed in Monaco in September 2019.  

With so much focus going into ocean conservation, the logical next step was to create a forum for the leading marine sector stakeholders to gather together and speak about and inform others in the field of their specialities, tying the loose threads into one. This is how Monaco Ocean Week was born.   

From 20th to 26th March, Monaco Ocean Week, now in its sixth edition, will see local and international experts, scientists, business leaders, public authorities, activists and NGOs uniting for a week of discussions, recaps of last year’s successes and debates.  

Event highlights include a presentation of the recent Monaco Explorations Indian Ocean Mission, a review of the ongoing Pelagos Initiative project, a MedFund conference, and the Ocean Innovators Platform.  

A full listing of the scheduled events can be found here.  

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Photo credit: G. Luci / Monaco Ocean Week