On April 15, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society hosted a discussion at the North Capital Meridian Diplomacy Forum in Washington, DC. The session, titled “From Tides to Trade: How Ocean Conservation Strengthens North American Economic Development and Prosperity,” featured Esteban Moctezuma, Ambassador of Mexico to the United States; Pritam Singh, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society; Antonio Ortiz-Mena, President and Founder of AOM Advisors; and Shauna Hemingway, Senior Special Advisor of Business Council of Canada. More than 20 leaders from the private, public and nonprofit sectors of North America also participated in the event.
Pritam Singh outlined Sea Shepherd’s nearly 50 years of direct action to protect marine wildlife alongside governments, local communities and nonprofit organizations. This collaborative model uses Sea Shepherd vessels at sea, specialized crews and technological tools deployed to maintain a permanent presence and monitor threatened marine areas around the world.
Cooperation among stakeholders has proven to be an effective approach to ocean conservation and protection. Pritam also conveyed a message of urgency. In the case of the vaquita porpoise, an endemic species of the Upper Gulf of California in Mexico, time is of essence as it faces extinction and Sea Shepherd will remain in its habitat to protect it.
Participants agreed that ocean conservation is often overlooked in economic and trade discussions in North America, and that responsible and cooperative ocean resource use by governments, private sector and local communities promote economic and human development.
The review process of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 2026 is an occasion to tackle the challenges of marine conservation and the opportunities of fair and sustainable trade.
