Ocean Alliance

Ocean Alliance, a recognized global leader in whale research and conservation, was founded in 1970 as the first organization to study live, free-ranging whales and today continues to run the longest continuous research program on whales. The scientists of Ocean Alliance have pioneered many of the research methodologies that are now standard in the study of marine life worldwide. 

Because studying whales also involves understanding the environment in which they live, Ocean Alliance has expanded its focus to include researching the effects of pollution on marine life. In 2005, Ocean Alliance completed the five-year voyage of the Odyssey, a ship sailed by researchers charged with the task of gathering the first-ever baseline data set of the distribution of concentrations and effects of synthetic contaminants in the world's oceans. 

"The Odyssey's trip is done and the information we've gathered is quite compelling," says Iain Kerr, Ocean Alliance's chief executive officer and captain of the Odyssey. "I would love to think that the oceans were clean and we could move on, but our research shows there is much work to be done cleaning up pollutants – even in the remotest parts of the planet."

The threat of pollution to whales, other sea animals and ultimately to humans, is why Ocean Alliance applauds Shaklee's all-natural approach and appreciates donations of Shaklee products such as cleaning supplies, nutritional supplements and personal care items. "If you're going to change people or change the world, you need to make a commitment," says Iain. "Shaklee has supported Ocean Alliance for more than 10 years, and their safe products have gone with us around the world." The Ocean Alliance team also appreciates the effectiveness of Shaklee products. In particular, vitamins were especially important for the crew when fresh fruit and vegetables were lacking on long legs of the voyage. 

Once the data gathered from the Odyssey has been analyzed, Ocean Alliance's next steps are to return to particular areas and quantify pollution's effect on animals and also on humans – many of whom rely on seafood as a primary source of protein. 

What's very interesting," says Iain, "is that we don't need any great technological fix to solve this problem. All we have to do is make small changes in our lifestyles. Our generation has a great opportunity in front of us, to remove these pollutants from our food chain."