The panelists shared stories about the mysticism of whales and our kinship with them, noting that our evolutionary relationship dates back 90 million years. Like whales, the ocean is also an ancient ancestor—but until we learn to listen to it, our attempts at protection can only go so far.

“We’re taught from an early age to listen, to hear the ocean as an ancestor and as a healer,” Edwards explained about his tribal nation, the Ngātiwai. He continued, “I think we can all play a role as guardians.”

Following the panel was a haunting, hopeful performance by musician Garth Stevenson. Under an ocean blue spotlight, Stevenson played his upright bass as a somewhat visually similar scene unfolded behind him: a video display of Garth playing his bass in a small fishing boat on the choppy waves of Baja, Mexico, part of the Dos Mares film. Behind his boat, whales rise in and out of the water, beckoned by the sound of his music. In return, they share their own language, a sort of call and response that Garth was able to capture in his musical soundtrack for the film.

As co-host Johnson described it, the next segment of the evening transformed from auditory poetry to visual poetry. Photographer and SeaLegacy co-founder Cristina Mittermeier shared images and videos documenting the ocean in all its complexity as well as its ability to inspire us.

During her subsequent talk, Mittermeier reminded the audience that the ocean is the largest, most defining ecosystem on Earth, and its creatures are allies in the fight against climate change.

“If a spaceship from another galaxy came to visit, they would look out from the atmosphere and say, this is an ocean planet,” she said. 

Mittermeier also acknowledged the realities of what our ocean planet is facing. Her photographs show the Great Barrier Reef, which has experienced 90% bleaching and 50% mortality, along with emaciated polar bears in the Arctic, which is warming at four times the rate of the rest of the world. Her wake-up call served not as a scare tactic, but as a segue into what action can and should be taken to mitigate the effects that climate change has inflicted upon the ocean.

The last part of the night’s presentations jump-started that action, beginning with Jenna DiPaolo and Nick Mallos of Ocean Conservancy, who introduced their bold initiative, Protect Where We Play. The idea behind the initiative was born during last year’s Super Bowl, when 128 million people witnessed a commercial about climate change for the first time during the event. The commercial highlighted a study on human behavior and climate change, revealing that the messages that resonate most are those that focus on protecting what we love; that same month, they launched Protect Where We Play.

Using many sports metaphors relating to our ocean: treating it like ‘home field’, recruiting players for ‘Team Ocean’, and explaining its dire circumstances as ‘the ocean losing and at the two-minute warning,’ the founders ultimately aimed to communicate that sports and entertainment can move the majority of people into action more effectively than science or statistics. Their ultimate goal is to fuel the world’s passion for concerts and football games into ocean advocacy. 

Finally, Daphne Lundi of the Urban Ocean Lab finished the evening’s presentations with a sobering telling of the dangers and possibilities of the ocean. One in 7 people lives in a coastal city, where water is encroaching on us every day due to sea level rise; the ocean also offers a third of the climate solutions we need to protect ourselves.

During a tumultuous political time for climate progress, Urban Ocean Lab focuses on amplifying who is doing climate action in this moment, while also looking at the future and creating space to think forward.

Lundi leaves the audience with her own call to action: How can we all find a way to tap into this movement and moment on a local level?

As the night drew to a close, guests gathered in the Garden Court, adorned with floral arrangements from Olivee Floral design studio, for cocktails and a private museum viewing—sharing ideas, inspiration, and the kind of kinship that makes Climate Week NYC an annual reminder that protecting our oceans is a collective journey.