OUR MISSION

About The Living Ocean

The Living Ocean is a non-profit foundation registered in the Netherlands.

Our history: love of the ocean and underwater world
After 15 years in beautiful Zanzibar, our founder Yong Mi was ready to move on and go back to Europe. She stayed in Zanzibar over the years because of her love of the ocean and the underwater world.

Even in a remote place like Zanzibar she noticed changes over the years. The first years she found an underwater paradise with many healthy corals, plenty of turtles, sharks, rays and schools of fishes. After 10 years she saw the decline in fish, corals and turtles. Earlier she saw 20-40 turtles per day. That changed to 1 turtle in 1 month after 15 years! This broke her heart. She started her journey to investigate the causes.

Working together with local communities

She found out the local community was eating turtles and poaching the eggs. Most of the community is not educated. Eating the animals and eggs is part of their survival. But they are willing to make things better. Yong Mi organised meetings with the heads of the village. They were interested when she started teaching them more about the marine life and turtles. Alongside the meetings she interviewed many fishermen in six villages. She asked them how much fish and turtles there were 15 years ago and now. Even the fishermen were wondering: ‘Where are the fish?’

Creating a future for the sea turtles

Yong Mi together with Ludovic and Laura, 2 marine biologists, started a Turtle Hatchery. In the hatchery they re-locate the eggs of the turtles to make sure they don’t get poached. Of course the local community is also involved in this project. In the end this is for their future and the next generation as well.

From idea to organization

Once back in The Netherlands Yong Mi set up a non-profit foundation. ‘The Living Ocean’ conserves, develops and protects marine ecosystems. Our goal is to support many projects in Zanzibar and in other countries all around the world.

The Living Ocean is dedicated to conservation, development and protection of marine- ecosystems and all the flora and fauna within. By supporting small, local projects and initiatives.

Working together for marine - ecosystems

Respect

Transparency

Accountability

Involving the local community is crucial for sustainable solutions. Their contribution and understanding of the importance of protecting the marine ecosystems will generate benefits in the future. Through training , education and employment The Living Ocean is changing attitudes towards conservation. The communities are becoming aware of the need to conserve these ecosystems for future generations.

As a non-profit organization, The Living Ocean deeply values the trust that has been placed in us. Partners trust us in carrying out local projects and donors trust us to use their funds to advance conservation. To safeguard this critical trust, The Living Ocean is committed to the following principles: respect, transparency and accountability.

Taking our responsibility

The Living Ocean publishes its annual accounts according to the Dutch guidelines for fund generating foundations. Our board members do not receive remuneration in any kind. Only actual expenses incurred may be reimbursed. We have the Dutch ANBI status. Please contact us if you like to take advantage of fiscal friendly donations.