Sara Orofino

Ocean Scientist
Marine
[email protected]

Sara is an Ocean Scientist with the California Oceans Program at The Nature Conservancy. She works broadly across the Oceans Program providing scientific leadership and technical expertise to advance efforts addressing plastic and microfiber pollution, reducing unsustainable shark bycatch, and increasing the pace and scale of ecosystem restoration for coral and seagrass.    

Prior to TNC, Sara was a Project Scientist at the Environmental Markets Lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) where her research focused on using satellite technology and big data analytics to inform fisheries and protected area management. She has a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Oregon State University and a Master’s in Environmental Science and Management from UCSB.

What Sara is working on now:

Sara is currently working to develop a microfiber emissions reduction target to support the launch of an industry coalition focused on reducing microfiber emissions in textile manufacturing.


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2026 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Marine | Planning | Science | Publications & Reports

Policy is Essential to Curb Plastic Pollution: The Example of California’s Senate Bill 54

Roland Geyer, Sara Orofino, Eleanor Thomas, Darcy Bradley

California generates more landfilled plastic than any other state, making plastic pollution a mounting environmental and public health threat. To confront it, The Nature Conservancy helped pass SB 54,…

2026 | Marine | Planning | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports

Scaling Seagrass Restoration: Key Challenges and Emerging Opportunities

Grime, B.C., Madan, Y., Orofino, S., DeAngelis, B.M., Eddy, N., Bradley, D.

Seagrasses provide the foundation for one of the most biodiverse and ecologically important ecosystems on Earth, but they are being rapidly destroyed by myriad human activities. To combat these…