The ORCA –Foundation – A private initiative – founded by Ocean Blue Adventures, strives, alongside government, to develop and implement realistic utilization strategies that ensure the long-term sustainability of our natural resources for the fishing and eco-tourism industries, as well as maintaining biodiversity, health and productivity of our fragile coastal and marine eco-system.

Ocean Blue Adventures (OBA) is a company started in 1996 primarily for the purpose of developing professional and responsible marine eco-tourism, based on the non-consumptive, non-invasive, sustainable utilization of our marine resources.

In 1998 Ocean Blue initiated the Qolweni Community Development Trust (QCDT) due to an understanding of the dire need for human development combined with community upliftment, and that realistic conservation can only succeed if intricately combined with both. To this end the Trust focuses all its attention and funding on realistic human development projects, such as pre-school education, arts and culture enterprises.

Together ORCA, the QCDT and OBA complete a unique, exciting, symbiotic partnership, which will ultimately benefit both, our fragile marine and coastal environment and those who depend on it.

ORCA, the QCDT and OBA are closely aligned with Coast Care Projects and the Theta Initiative, which is a further endorsement of their commitment to sustainable coastal development, as was their winning of the prestigious Green Trust Award 2001. This shows that ORCA has taken the lead in marine tourism and conservation by implementing partnerships between government, the private sector and NGOs. We believe that this is the future for our country, it’s people and environment.

VISION

To bridge the gaps created by our past and develop a united future through sustainable and realistic utilization of our marine and coastal environment, intrinsically linked to responsible socio-economic development and upliftment of especially our previously disadvantaged communities.

OBJECTIVES

• To create a model that can be used to develop and implement utilization strategies that ensure the long-term sustainability of our natural resources for the fishing and eco-tourism industries and maintain biodiversity, health and productivity of our fragile coastal and marine ecosystem.
• To alleviate coastal poverty through job creation and skills development, which will assist in maintaining the sustainability of the marine and coastal resources
• To raise public awareness and educate all communities of how the protection and sustainable utilization of our coastal and marine resources can benefit all and why maintaining coastal and marine bio-diversity is so important.
• To develop an effective partnership between the State, the private sector and the local communities. This will create a working model of how sustainable utilization, community development and conservation of our coastal and marine resources must compliment each other and foster co-responsibility.
• To maintain biodiversity, health and productivity of our marine and coastal eco-system through assisting Marine and Coastal Management (MCM), Cape Nature Conservation (CNC), South African National Parks (SANP) and South African Police Service (SAPS) in patrolling and controlling the existing coastal and marine protected areas against poaching and illegal fishing practices and thus ensuring that the use of renewable coastal and marine resources does not compromise their regenerative capacity
• To research the feasibility of a sustainably utilized marine protected area in Plettenberg Bay
• To research under-exploited coastal and marine resources, such as tourism. Develop and implement innovative, sustainable utilization strategies thereof, in order to facilitate job-creation and poverty-alleviation.

POTENTIAL

The overall project is focused at present on the Plettenberg Bay environment, but we foresee being able to transport the ‘model’ once fully developed, to many other areas on the African coastline. Thus potentially positively affecting thousands of people and large tracts of African coastline and ocean.

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