Ocean Central - Ode Partners
Ocean Central
For years, information about the ocean has been fragmented, technical, and difficult to interpret. When Wave approached us in 2024, they had set an audacious goal: ocean regeneration within a human generation. Together, we created Ocean Central to help users understand the state of ocean health and how human activities are affecting it by connecting publicly available data, scientific research, and practical insights.
Wave is a collective action platform powered by the Future Investment Initiative Institute. Founded by FII Board Member H.R.H. Ambassador Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Wave is guided by its chief experts: H.R.H. Prince Sultan bin Fahd bin Salman Al Saud, Professor Carlos Duarte, and Dr. Ralph Chami.
Professor Duarte’s seminal paper, Rebuilding Marine Life, laid out a framework for restoring ocean health, but only if collective action could accelerate progress across six key areas. The science was there. What didn’t exist yet was a way to see progress, track it over time, make the information useful for decision-makers, and create accountability through data.
We started by translating the science into a structure anyone could navigate intuitively. Professor Duarte’s six recovery areas — Protect Marine Life, Protect Spaces, Restore Ecosystems, Harvest Wisely, Reduce Pollution, and Mitigate Climate Change — became the platform’s organizing logic. We called them wedges, after the Pacala-Socolow framing used in climate work, because each one represents a slice of the total effort needed. Together, they form a roadmap toward ocean recovery by 2050.
With the structure set, we turned to the visual identity and user experience. Organizing the science is not the same as making people feel it, and the platform needed to reach researchers, policymakers, and the broader public in the same breath. The design had to hold scientific authority and emotional weight at the same time.
We created a system anchored in oceanic blues punctuated by warmer tones to show off the vast marine life in the ocean. The typography and tone reads as institutional but never sterile or overly academic. The data visualization language lets every chart communicate with clarity and traceability back to its source. We also built graphical elements that animate and move, undulating and full of life like the ocean itself.
The platform’s data infrastructure became its own body of work. Our data science team led the spatial analysis behind each wedge: mapping where marine ecosystems exist today, where they have been lost, where protections do and do not reach, and where the greatest opportunities for recovery remain. The result is original analysis, openly published as part of Wave’s methodology, which anyone in the field can audit, critique, and build on.
We measure ocean health through two living indicators: the abundance of marine life and the extent of marine ecosystems. By comparing the ocean’s living systems to their historical baseline, we reveal the recovery gap and the extraordinary opportunity to restore what once thrived.
Data across the six wedges highlight the key areas of ocean health, showing where we are today and what is needed to meet global restoration targets.
We pair datasets with expert analysis, case studies showing what has worked, ideas for taking action, and interactive visualizations to help users understand pressures on the ocean and where action can make a difference.
To make ocean science more accessible to a range of audiences, we also developed an editorial strategy and content operations. Rather than emphasizing what separates our audiences, we focused on a shared question: How are we doing with ocean regeneration?
Longform reports and articles surfaced insights from the data across topics such as blue tech, climate impacts on marine ecosystems, the economics of ocean regeneration, and ocean data gaps. Going deeper into key topics helped position the brand as thought leaders at the intersection of ocean data and restoration.
Because the science behind ocean recovery is dense and often inaccessible, we built the platform’s AI companion: a chatbot grounded in IPCC reports, Duarte’s peer-reviewed body of work, and a leading oceanography textbook. It can answer questions from teachers, policymakers, and marine biologists while citing the same scientific record each time. Sources are disclosed, limitations are stated, and every response leads back to the underlying evidence.
We also developed an AI-powered newswire that surfaces credible reports related to ocean regeneration from around the world. The newswire complements the data by showing what is happening globally in real time, on the ground and in the water.
In April 2026, Ocean Central won the Webby People’s Voice Award in Sustainability & Environment. The recognition validated the approach, but more importantly, the platform has become a practical tool for researchers, educators, advocates, and decision-makers working to better understand and advance ocean regeneration.
Oceans Futures
Carbon Mapper