World Oceans Day appropriately demands our focus on protecting our planet’s most critical resource and we reaffirm our responsibility to ocean conservation as environmental stewards.

The United States, working domestically and with partners around the world, has taken significant action to strengthen ocean policy and conservation. Two recent examples are our work with New Zealand to establish a marine protected area in Antarctica’s Ross Sea and our partnership with Ireland and the European Union on Atlantic Ocean research.

We are committed to addressing threats including pollution, overfishing, and ocean acidification. Solving these challenges and ensuring that the legacy of our oceans is available to future generations require both global cooperation and individual action.

Today, I convened a group of high-level U.S. ocean experts to discuss the state of the world’s oceans. I asked them to identify opportunities for the United States to promote international actions to better address these issues and to move the world’s oceans toward a sustainable future.

Whether we’re talking about trade, or climate, or security, or sustainable food sources, there can be no doubt that the oceans deserve our focus. As Secretary of State, I intend to make them a top priority. This fall, I will host an international oceans conference to further explore these issues and work toward shared solutions.

We will maintain the spirit of World Oceans Day throughout the year.