The Consultative Assembly of Parliamentarians for the Oceans (CAP-Oceans) is the premier gathering of legislators from around the world focused solely on the protection of the oceans and our fishers.

The CAP-Oceans is a realization of PGA’s Oceans Campaign for the Protection of the Oceans & Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14, established by the PGA Board in 2016 and officially launched at the first UN Oceans Conference in 2017.  CAP-Oceans presents a unique opportunity to engage parliamentarians from around the world in interactive discussion and knowledge-sharing to identify action-oriented strategies for the protection of our ocean from a human rights-based perspective.

Launched in 2019, the first CAP-Oceans was hosted by the National Assembly of Cape Verde. It provided a dedicated action platform to build on the momentum of our Oceans Campaign. Subsequent hosts of the CAP-Oceans include the Parliament of Belize, the National Assembly of Seychelles, and the Senate of Mexico.

The assembly has exchanged lessons learned and good practices by exploring a range of shared challenges relating to the oceans and fisheries, including the goal to protect at least 30 percent of the ocean by 2030 through marine protected areas; an international legal framework to protect the high seas; sustainability of small-scale fisheries; international agreements to end illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; and conservation of the deep seabed.

A Strategic Call to Action

Common aspects to the sessions of the CAP-Oceans:

• Plan of Action: Attending legislators adopt a concrete outcome document at the closing of each CAP-Oceans, which serves as a roadmap for the protection of the oceans and fishers as they engage with these topics in their home countries.
• Strategic locations: The CAP-Oceans is held in strategic locations to facilitate engagement by legislators from countries with particular involvement in specific CAP-Oceans themes (e.g. sustainable small-scale fisheries or marine protected areas).
• Representation: As the oceans span the globe, so do the solutions for its sustainable use and protections of fishers. The CAP-Oceans employs PGA’s methodology of peer-to-peer dialogue and a non-partisan approach to ensure equitable parliamentary representation from countries at various points in their own efforts to protect the oceans and fishers.<

When we had our very first Consultative Assembly of Parliamentarians on the Oceans two years ago in Cape Verde, I was so happy at the end because of this great engagement by all MPs and I called you all ocean warriors. I think today shows that we still are, and even more convinced, ocean warriors. It is important for all of us, not only as every second breath we take comes from the oceans, but as such an important resource and a global public good that is necessary to be protected.Ms. Petra Bayr, MP (Austria), PGA Executive Committee during the 2021 Second CAP-Oceans