Spotlighting Ocean Awareness Around the World

Selva Ozelli

International Tax Expert and environmentalist

By Selva Ozelli, Ambassador to Oceanic Global

Spotlighting ocean awareness remains highly active through the end of 2026. While June is celebrated for World Ocean Day, the period from September to December marks a critical window for global citizen science, marine policy, and targeted climate-ocean action. Here are some international conferences with culture events highlighting ocean protection for your review.

Coral Bleaching Awareness Month Global September 1-30, 2026

September 2026 marks a significant shift as Coral Bleaching Awareness Month. Previously held in November since its inception in 2023 three years ago, the global campaign was officially rescheduled to align with peak seasonal heat stress and the critical tracking periods when marine biologists assess reef damage. Such as in Lord Howe Island in Australia a WORLD UNESCO HERITAGE SITE which features the world's southernmost coral reef with around 90 species photographed by Ian Hutton.

Co-led by advocacy heavyweights like the Coral Reef Alliance and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), the movement aims to draw urgent attention to the 25% of all marine life that depends on coral reefs, despite these ecosystems occupying less than 1% of the ocean floor.

The "Bleach Your Logo" Visual Movement

High ocean water temperatures, pollution, disease, and overfishing cause corals to expel vital algae and turn white. The signature activation of the “Bleach Your Logo” campaign asks corporate partners, non-profits, and digital creators to desaturate or "bleach" their colorful branding across social media platforms. This striking black-and-white aesthetic serves as a digital mirror to the catastrophic loss of symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) that leaves stressed corals completely white and vulnerable to starvation. Organizations looking to participate can access toolkits and coordinate their digital alignment by visiting the Coral Reef Alliance Awareness Dashboard.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) New York, NY, USA September 8 to 28, 2026

Running parallel to the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 81), Climate Week NYC September 20–27, 2026, is the largest annual climate event of its kind, bringing together over 900 events and activities across the city – in person, hybrid and online. Each year, business leaders, political change makers, local decision takers and civil society representatives of all ages and backgrounds, from all over the world, gather to drive the transition, speed up progress, and champion change that is already happening.

Emilie McGlone, the Executive Director of Peace Boat US explained “Peace Boat US joins a global community working to protect marine biodiversity in international waters with the High Seas Alliance to bring together organizations and partners committed to strengthening ocean governance and advancing the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, also known as the High Seas Treaty.

The Friends of the Alliance support this mission through collaboration and amplifying campaigns for ocean protection building on Peace Boat US’s commitment to SDG 14: Life Below Water, youth engagement, and partnerships.
We look forward to future collaboration with the High Seas Alliance and your participation in Peace Boat US’s UNGA and CWNY programing as outlined below to help protect our oceans.”

As a committed campaigner for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Peace Boat US is hosting and collaborating on key programming focused on ocean conservation, climate action, and youth empowerment during UNGA and CWNY with their programing here for your consideration: https://peaceboat-us.org/climate-week-2026/

Another Ocean focused UNGA¹ & COP31 event you might not want to miss is in New York City is the Statue of Liberty Exhibition featuring artists Hunt Slonem and Selva Ozelli held at the National Lighthouse Museum in Staten Island, NY that runs until year end.

This exhibition is specially tied to major environmental and diplomatic milestones, such as the 250th commemoration of the founding of the United States (Semiquincentennial) and the 140th anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty and promotes climate and Ocean preservation consciousness.

The 2026 Global Ocean Development Forum Qingdao, China September 16-18, 2026

The 2026 Global Ocean Development Forum will take place in Qingdao West Coast Area, themed on "LET’S SEA OUR FUTURES – DEVELOPING A SUSTAINABLE MARINE ECONOMY FOR A THRIVING OCEAN”

“Let’s Sea our Futures” asks us to view the ocean not as an infinite, separate entity, but as our primary life-support system. To move from passive inheritors of the ocean’s generosity to active guardians of its future. To govern not just beyond our borders but beyond our blind spots, beyond the habits of taking, operating in silos.

This prominent conference with the recent entry into force of the BBNJ Agreement (High Seas Treaty) on January 17, 2026, has catalyzed this international forum to advance global marine collaboration and drive the transition toward sustainable ocean management by establishing robust blue partnerships, advancing marine science and technological innovations, accelerating green shipping transformations, and exploring ocean-based climate actions. By drawing hundreds of international delegates—including UN officials, global marine experts, scholars, industry entrepreneurs, and youth leaders—to align local coastal strategies with the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

It should be noted that China signed the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement (High Seas Treaty) on September 20, 2023, on the very first day it opened for signature, and later formally ratified the treaty in December 2025.

United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) Antalya, Turkiye November 9-20, 2026

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) is the 31st COP31 Türkiye Portal, headed by Murat Kurum, Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change of Turkiye which has a theme of “From Gobeklitepe to the Global Net Zero Emissions Goal” according to Dr Ege Yildirm an international heritage planner, ICOMOS Türkiye Climate Co-Coordinator, and prominent advocate within the Climate Heritage Network.

“The theme serves as a powerful historical and cultural bridge by invoking Göbeklitepe, a WORLD UNESCO HERITAGE SITE —recognized as the world's oldest known temple complex located in southeastern Türkiye— and connecting this archeological dawn of human civilization with the modern, urgent push for global decarbonization efforts” explained Dr. Ege Yıldırım, highlighting several key intersection points between archaeology and climate action:

Ancestral Knowledge & Adaptation: Ancient sites offer critical insights into how early human societies interacted with environmental shifts. This foundational history supports modern community-led adaptation frameworks, such as the global Heritage Adapts! campaign.
Cultural Re-centering: Placing a 12,000-year-old archaeological wonder at the center of a UN climate summit emphasizes that climate change is not merely a technical or economic issue, but a deeply existential and cultural crisis.
Sustainable Operations: The theme aligns with Türkiye’s broader COP31 Action Agenda, which focuses heavily on transitioning to circular systems, expanding zero-waste initiatives, and protecting historical and urban landscapes from climate risks.

On the theme of powerful historical and cultural bridge for COP31, I prepared two art pieces as part of my Flags of Science CCL exhibition that relate to our Oceans as well as Turkiye for the COP31 shown physically at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University which will hold an, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Open House on Saturday, October 17, 2026 from 10am to 4pm.

(UNGA Event)²

Tree of Life / Tectonic Flag CCL by Selva Ozelli

This is an oil painting of mine celebrating breakthrough scientific discoveries of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (LDEO) to earth science, concerning tectonic plates theory.

This artwork bridges the gap between ancient mythology and modern earth science by incorporating the Tree of Life symbol and the Bull of Heaven narrative from the ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 2700 BCE). The Epic of Gilgamesh -- fragments of which were found at the ancient archaeological site of Hattusa near modern-day Boğazkale, Turkiye, a WORLD UNESCO HERITAGE SITE -- accidentally mirrors the birth of modern plate tectonics theory.

In the ancient epic, the Bull of Heaven is a cosmic force of destruction whose breath and movements literally cleave the earth open, causing massive chasms and earthquakes which eventually results in Gilgamesh’s friend Enkidu’s death. [Turkiye is squeezed primarily by three major tectonic plates Eurasian Plate, Arabian Plate: Pushing northward from the southeast and south and African Plate: Pushing from the southwest and south making the region prone to frequent and devastating earthquakes.] This devastates Gilgamesh and triggers his search for immortality. Leading Gilgamesh to travel to the "mouth of the rivers" (the deep sea) to retrieve the Old Man Becomes Young Again (Tree of Life) plant from the ocean floor.

In the 1950s and 1960s, LDEO scientists Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen mapped the ocean floor and discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge—a continuous underwater mountain range where the earth's crust is continuously being reborn providing the critical empirical evidence that transformed continental drift into the modern theory of plate tectonics. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a divergent plate boundary where tectonic plates are pulling apart. Earthquakes occur when these moving sections of the Earth's crust get stuck due to friction. Stress builds up over time until the rocks suddenly fracture and slip, releasing that stored energy as seismic waves as an earthquake.

While the epic of Gilgamesh explained seismic rifts through the lens of gods and monsters, it correctly identified the ocean depths and the shaking earth as places of profound transformation and creation what we now understand through geology and plate tectonics.

Ocean Lovers - To the Core Flag CCL by Selva Ozelli

This is an oil painting honoring LDEO’s groundbreaking core research and foundational contributions to marine and Earth science. Specifically, it is inspired by the work of:

Dr. Dorothy Peteet, who utilizes sediment cores to study past climates and carbon sequestration in wetlands.

Drs. William Ryan, Walter Pitman, and Petko Dimitrov, who used deep core marine samples to propose the theory of a catastrophic Mediterranean flood called the Black Sea deluge hypothesis, a widely debated scientific theory that links a real prehistoric cataclysm to the biblical narrative of Noah’s Ark --purportedly located at Durupinar Heritage site in Mount Ararat of Turkiye -- that created the modern Black Sea.

The America at 250 exhibition at Havre de Grace Maritime Museum backed by the Spanish Consulate is also a COP31 event.