Mother Ocean Fund

Mother Ocean Fund is a Key Largo organization built around getting people underwater who have been told they cannot be. It was founded by Joe Gonzalez, a disabled U.S. Navy veteran and lifelong diver, and its adaptive diver programs serve both civilian and military adaptive divers, using the water as therapy as much as recreation.

Around that sit a set of conservation initiatives: reef and beach cleanups, invasive species removal, shark tagging, and education programs, plus support for coral reef restoration and for marine mammal and reptile rescue and release. Swimming class scholarships for children at Title 1 schools are in development.

The people involved give it weight. Dan Orr, the organization’s director of safety, spent 23 years at Divers Alert Network and retired as its president, and also chaired International DAN. Michael Goldberg, director of ecological purpose, has run Key Dives in Islamorada since 2004 and has been diving professionally for more than 25 years. Paula DeSouza, director of operations, is a scuba instructor who left an IT career for the water and has logged over 4,000 dives.

The organization raises money differently from most conservation groups in the Keys. Rather than galas, it runs community music festivals and farmers markets on local beaches, which makes its fundraising something a visitor can actually turn up to.