Stanford University, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute announced last Wednesday plans to create the Center for Ocean Solutions, an organization which will aim to protect the Earth’s oceans. At the Center, marine biologists will discuss problems such as overfishing, the effects of global warming and pollution.

Funded by a $25 million gift from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and managed by Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, the Center will depart from the norm in tackling ocean problems, according to a Stanford News Service press release. The Center, which will be located in Monterey Bay near the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station, will focus on solutions to the problems affecting world oceans rather than just the problems themselves.

“The oceans urgently deserve and require our energy and focused problem solving, not only for their inherent value but also because human populations depend on healthy and functioning marine systems,” said interim director Meg Caldwell in a statement on the Center’s Web site.

According to Caldwell, the Center is “committed to applying our collective knowledge, experience and capacity for innovation to addressing the greatest challenges facing our oceans.”