The ocean covers more than 70% of the planet, produces half the oxygen and absorbs over 90% of the excess heat driving climate change. It feeds billions, is a source of life-saving medicines and holds the geological record of human civilisation, yet it remains the least explored place on Earth and one of the most threatened.

This year’s keynote speaker, Terry Garcia, has spent his international career at the frontier of ocean exploration and policy, witnessing the ocean at its most breathtaking and most vulnerable. Drawing on decades of work across exploration, conservation and policy reform, he maps the scale of the crisis and the emerging solutions through technology, investment and international cooperation, making a compelling case for individual action and cautious optimism.

Visiting Australia from Washington DC, after a career in the US Government as Deputy Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Executive Vice President of the National Geographic Society, Terry Garcia brings his life-long environmental commitment and knowledge to Sydney for the first time.