Nick Owens, director of Sams, next to the organisation’s new board member and Helen Mitcheson. Composite: Sams/Alamy View image in fullscreen Nick Owens, director of Sams, next to the organisation’s new board member and Helen Mitcheson. Composite: Sams/Alamy Seascape: the state of our oceans Global development Giving nature a say: why Scottish marine scientists appointed the ocean to their board As the rights of nature are increasingly being recognised, the Scottish Association for Marine Science is the latest organisation to make the ocean a trustee
About this content Isabella Kaminski Tue 14 Jul 2026 08.00 CEST Last modified on Tue 14 Jul 2026 08.01 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google I n a boardroom in an office building in Oban, a picturesque town on the west coast of Scotland , trustees attending meetings have long been able to see the breaking waves of the Atlantic through the windows. But since last month, the ocean has also been present in the room, with an unusual new initiative ensuring that it now has a say on decisions shaping the future of the 140-year-old Scottish Association for Marine Science (Sams).
Sams was set up during the Scottish Enlightenment, a time of growing interest in oceanography when nature was seen as something to be dominated and exploited.
“There was this notion for a long time that the planet was so big, that we couldn’t possibly have any impact on it,” says Nick Owens, a marine scientist and the director of Sams. “Over recent decades, we’ve become more conscious of the impact that we’re having, yet it occurred to me that our ethical decisions are almost entirely from the human perspective.”
Tapping into a growing appetite for legal recognition of the rights of nature , and inspired by the strong connection between people and the environment he saw in Indigenous cultures in North America, Owens decided he wanted to give the ocean a real voice at Sams. So the organisation made it a trustee.
When the board meets, there is now someone in the room representing the ocean and giving a view on how decisions would affect its ability to function as an ecosystem.
Sams is not the first to try out this unusual idea. In 2022, the eco beauty manufacturer Faith in Nature was the world’s first company to give nature a formal vote on corporate decisions that might affect it. Four years later, Faith in Nature’s brand director, Simeon Rose, says it has led to a mind shift throughout the company, pointing to tangible changes such as the sourcing team making a greater effort to find more ethical ingredients to present to the board as options, such as essential oil from the waste of the orange juice industry and tea tree oil from areas where koala corridors are being created.
About 25 organisations have now followed suit in Britain, France, Belgium, the US and Australia.
View image in fullscreen Neist Point on the Isle of Skye. The Atlantic Ocean that surrounds it is being given a voice at the table in Sams board meetings. Photograph: Chunyip Wong/Getty Images Although the numbers are still small, Rose sees a nascent corporate movement developing. A French Green party MP recently proposed a law that would require nature to be represented on the boards of large companies.
“There’s a real sense of community-building worldwide between interested parties and a will to figure out how we can improve this and strengthen it,” Rose says.
Sams set up a working group to explore the options. How should the ocean be repres…