Aquawake’s Story
A proudly Australian marine conservation organisation, working to protect our oceans through evidence-based behaviour change and sustainable tourism.
Founded in Western Australia, we work with the tourism industry, tourists, and governments across Australia, China, and the Pacific — driven by the belief that we all have a responsibility to care for the natural world we share.
Our Purpose
Marine environments are under pressure from rapidly growing tourism, but the tools to manage that pressure have not kept pace. We exist to close that gap. By running real field experiments, building evidence-based certification standards, and working directly with operators, tourists, and governments, we turn scientific proof into real conservation outcomes.
Our Approach
Australia is our home base. We launched our pilot program in Western Australia, partnering with local marine tourism operators and university researchers to test what works on the ground before we scale.
As our work matures, we will expand our footprint to include our Pacific neighbours. Pacific Island communities depend on marine tourism for their economies and face many environmental risks.
We maintain China as our target market. China's marine tourism market is one of the fastest-growing in the world, but it currently lacks credible eco-certification. Aquawake brings Australian conservation science to Chinese tourism operators and tourists.
Our Values
Shared responsibility
Evidence first
Integrity
Enthusiasm
Practicality
Empathy
Our Team
Dr Yanyan Dong
We share one ocean, one ecosystem, one future. I believe that the way we treat marine environments is a reflection of how we see ourselves in relation to the natural world.
With a passion for protecting marine environments and a background in marine conservation research, stakeholder management, project management and public sector policy, I built Aquawake to bridge the gap between science and action – giving operators, tourists and governments the evidence they need to make a real difference.
Dr David Cook
Dr David Cook is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment and Murdoch University Harry Butler Institute. He hails from Katanning in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, where as a child he developed a fascination with the natural world he has never lost. Since 2002, he has authored over 50 peer-reviewed papers in a diverse range of ecology, economics and policy journals and well over 100 cost-benefit analyses and impact assessments for different tiers of government both within Australia and overseas.