The OCF builds off the success and platform of the ICCF to become the leading organizer of relationships between U.S. policymakers, conservationists, and business leaders involved in oceanic and maritime ecosystem issues. We work hard to maintain a working structure that helps our policymakers react to international ecosystem challenges and make informed decisions in allocating resources.

U.S. Congressional Briefing Series

OCF hosts educational programs with expert presenters on topics identified in response to recommendations and concerns from our advisory board and our network of oceans experts. These include a regular schedule of Congressional Member Dinner Briefings and Congressional Luncheon and Coffee Briefings for high-level staff. As relevant to the topic of education, Conservation Council members may help organize and present at briefings. We seek the most up-to-date, impartial, and coordinated information for material to present to the Congresspeople we educate.

The Oceans Caucus in the United States Senate and House of Representatives

ICCF has institutionalized its focus on the essential nature of oceans resource conservation to American national and economic security in the Oceans Caucus Foundation (OCF). The purpose of this program, which is an extension of ICCF, is to galvanize Members of Congress around maritime conservation. OCF has cultivated membership in the House and Senate Oceans Caucuses much the same way ICCF has done with the U.S. Congressional International Conservation Caucus: by focusing recruitment on key Members who will attract engagement from a broad array of their colleagues, and by ensuring the caucuses quickly become bipartisan in their membership and stay that way.

Beyond the task of bridging partisan divides on ocean resource management, OCF’s brain trust of corporate and NGO partners is pursuing an educational agenda focused on the risks posed to U.S. and international interests by illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing. Working with the leadership of the Oceans Caucus in both Congressional houses, OCF is engaged in a sustained campaign to educate Members of Congress and their staffs about the benefits of a national traceability system and international leadership to curb IUU fishing that threatens the livelihoods of American fishermen and public health.