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Elisabeth Mann Borgese and World Oceans Day

World Oceans Day and Professor Elisabeth Mann Borgese, CM, are forever linked. Called “The Mother of the Oceans”, Mann Borgese was an internationally recognized expert on maritime law, international policy, and environment protection. Her legacy is multi-dimensional, and her 1972 founding of International Ocean Institute, is now an international network of 38 Centres and/or Focal Points and an enduring gift to us and to our planet.

“The Oceans are our great laboratory for the making of a new international order, based on new forms of international cooperation and organization, on new economic theory, on a new philosophy.”

Elisabeth Mann Borgese

Each year, IOI Canada organizes the annual Elisabeth Mann Borgese Ocean Lecture as part of a series of events to mark World Oceans Day.

2019 poster: Elisabeth Mann Borgese Ocean Lecture

2019 poster: Elisabeth Mann Borgese Ocean Lecture

Mann Borgese was an outstanding leader committed to encouraging a global system of ocean governance to better the futures of all. She wrote widely about ocean governance, heritage, and its global primacy.

Three book covers


Photo of a ship

And, yes! as a German Research/Survey Vessel, ELISABETH MANN BORGESE continues ocean study. Check the ship out and see where she is working today.


2018 Deutsche Post Centenary Commemorative

Stamp with a photo of the ocean
Elisabeth Mann Borgese – Centenary Commemorative [Deutsche Post]

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