BLOOM is a non-profit organization founded in 2005, whose mission is to preserve the ocean, the climate, marine habitats and species from the root causes of their destruction: extractive activities, especially industrial fishing and oil & gas production.
In order to protect the ocean and the climate, BLOOM wages awareness and advocacy campaigns, carries out scientific research and independent investigations that highlight crucial and unaddressed issues such as the harmful public financing of the fishing sector, the bonds between destructive fishing and retailers, the pillaging of African waters by subsidized fleets from the North, the negative impact of the trawl lobby on public policies and the intrinsically fraudulent nature of industrial fishing.
Our vision is that all marine fisheries, because they capture wildlife, occur in the planet’s largest common good, and impact a suite of untargeted animals, should necessarily seek to minimize environmental impacts and maximize social benefits.
BLOOM’s actions are meant for the general public as well as policy-makers and economic stakeholders.
The state of the ocean
The ocean has been bled dry: overexploited, polluted and devastated by destructive fishing methods. It is being methodically emptied of its extraordinary resources, which were long believed to be inexhaustible and, consequently, dramatically neglected by public opinion and public powers. This is a harsh awakening: jellyfish, algae and bacteria are progressively replacing fish in marine ecosystems. The ocean can no longer provide the countless services that it has silently given us for so long: on top of providing ‘free’ food, it also absorbs CO2 and regulates our climate. We are facing a looming ecological, health and socio-economic disaster.
BLOOM’s vision
BLOOM’s vision is to resist this fate by proving that dedicated action can reverse the course of environmental and human tragedy. BLOOM gives a voice to the voiceless and aims to ensure that humanity has a future where children have food and fishers have jobs, by restoring ocean ecosystems to their full biological capacity.
BLOOM has made the strategic choice to remain small and to focus its energy and expertise on a few urgently-needed actions:
- Preserving the last intact marine environment: the deep sea,
- Safeguarding endangered species, by fighting the indifference towards the extinction of the oldest fish on our planet: sharks,
- Ensuring the survival of fishers, particularly through work on the issue of public subsidies to the fishing sector.
BLOOM’s fields of action
We do not believe in a ‘single magical action’ that would allow us to solve the problems described above. This is why our objectives are channeled into five areas of strategic action; each area interacts with each other to enhance their chances of success, visibility and effectiveness.
BLOOM’s five key strategic areas in response to the ecological and socio-economic urgency
- To change public policies
- To change private and industrial practices
- To conduct independent research
- To change consumer habits
- To educate the public, children and future decision-makers