This week in the Herald, I outline the likely cause of one oceans troubles, and some of their shoddy practices. I have spoken with several former crew, and others associated with OOE, and pretty much everyone is willing to talk.

One of the crew members I spoke with indicated that auctions were held on board ship to raise money for various Non-governmental organizations. She suggested It was an open secret that the NGO’s were not receiving the funds. This story was also corroborated by another crew member told me that one of the signature items available for onboard auction was a Nautical Chart of the Voyage, marked with ship’s positions and course, and then decorated with images of area wildlife. These charts typically sold in the $2000-4000usd range, and 10-12 were produced on various cruises. 

I spoke with Ron Naveen, the president of Oceanites. The organization has for the past 25 years conducted a Antarctic penguin survey, and had researchers travel aboard One Ocean ships. Ron indicated that One Ocean had been a good partner in supporting their work, and had raised money for the organization, however One Ocean was always slow to pass on funds raised, and is currently 2 years behind in remitting funds raised. 

Naveen believes the losses to Oceanites are in the 6 figures, both from funds raised but not delivered,  and from future fundraising conducted by other organizations on OOE Cruises. He has also had to find other companies to facilitate the work they do. 

John Geiger, the CEO of The Royal Canadian Geographic Society also indicated they had suffered losses, but were unable to detail what they were or the amounts as the organizations board had yet to be briefed. The Society granted the use of the RCGS honorific to OOE’s ship Resolute, in recognition of OOE’s stong support of research in polar regions. 

According to its website, OOE started the One Ocean Foundation in 2017 “to house the growing financial contributions from both passengers and One Ocean Expeditions.”  

 the One Ocean Foundation is a registered Charity in Richmond Hill Ont. Its CRA Filings list three trustees, William J Trotter , Emily R Trotter , and James D Trotter. The foundation shares an address with Wm. J. Trotter & Associates, an accounting firm. BEDI Management, which was also identified as one oceans accounting firm is also located at that address. BEDI management also showed up on credit card statements when down payments were made. 

Information posted on CRA’s website show the foundation received 25,000 in revenue in 2018  – Grieger told me transfers to their organization, when they occurred,  were in the $30-40,000 range, which suggests that the foundation was at best only receiving a portion of the funds raised.