Richard Charter

Richard is a Senior Fellow with The Ocean Foundation and also serves, separately, as the Director of Friends of Coastal Coordination, a fiscally hosted project of The Ocean Foundation.  He is a specialist in advocacy on ocean protection issues, including marine spatial planning, media techniques to secure conservation outcomes, and preventing and mitigating industrial impacts on ocean ecosystems. As Co-Chair of the National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Coalition, Richard was involved in initiating and maintaining the twenty-seven-year congressional moratorium on offshore oil and gas leasing which prevented new drilling along the U.S. West Coast, the Atlantic Coast, and Florida’s Gulf Coast, as well as in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. Richard also coordinated the local government support that helped to bring about the creation of the Gulf of the Farallones, Cordell Bank, Channel Islands, and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries.