History
The Sea Ranger Service is the brainchild of Dutch environmental conservationist and social entrepreneur Wietse van der Werf. After having worked in environmental conservation for 25 years and being awarded the prestigious Future for Nature award for his innovative conservation efforts, he founded the Sea Ranger Service in 2016 with the 50.000 euro award money.
Inspiration for the Sea Ranger model came from the Civilian Conservation Corps; a public works programme launched by US president Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression in the 1930s. The programme resulted in 3 million unemployed young men being offered work, establishing 800 national parks and planting over 3,2 billion trees in the proces. Van der Werf set out to develop a similar model to strengthen ocean conservation.
The Sea Ranger Service was initially entirely volunteer-run and reliant on donations. A public event in August 2016 at which the mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb and the CEO of the Port of Rotterdam, Allard Castelein, speeched, marked the official start for the organisation. The first Sea Ranger Bootcamp took part in March 2018, with the first Sea Ranger vessel Tooluka, setting sail in October 2018. Since October 2019, the Sea Rangers make use of the vessel Fantastiko for their offshore work, for various governmental and commercial clients. Since April 2019 the Sea Ranger has developed a social franchising programme to scale the model internationally from 2021.
The Sea Ranger Service is inspired by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a US jobs programme initiated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. 
Founder of the Sea Ranger Service, Wietse van der Werf, won the Future for Nature Award in 2016. Using the prize money he started the Sea Ranger Service in August of that same year. 
Initial support came from the City of Rotterdam and the Port of Rotterdam. Founder of the Sea Ranger Service, Wietse van der Werf, is pictured here with the Mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb and the CEO of the Port of Rotterdam, Allard Castelein in 2016, on the deck of the Sea Ranger ship under construction. 
Ship builders were involved from the start. Here ship builder Mirko Hoette constructs the first Sea Ranger ship’s hull. 
The first Sea Ranger vessel being cleaned in the port of Maassluis, near Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 2016. 
A crowdfunding campaign was launched in 2018 to bolster the ship building work. The public was able to visit the ship under construction, which was lifted out of the water and placed on a central dock in the city centre of Rotterdam. 
The Sea Ranger Service team in april 2017. 
Sea Ranger founder Wietse van der Werf presents the Sea Ranger approach during the Our Ocean summit in Malta in 2017, in front of world leaders. 
During the first selection days in 2017 candidate Sea Rangers were selected for participation in the Sea Ranger Bootcamp that following spring. 
A team of veterans, youth workers and maritime training professionals ran the first Sea Ranger bootcamp in 2018. 
Candidate Sea Rangers in training during the first Sea Ranger Bootcamp in 2018. 
Sea survival training as part of Sea Ranger training in 2018. 
Employment agency Randstad becomes a partner of the Sea Ranger Service in 2018 and strengthens the employability perspective of the participants in the Sea Ranger programmes. 
Sea Ranger carrying out water sampling work in 2019. 
Sea Rangers carrying out underwater surveying with a ROV underwater robot. 
Sea Rangers carrying out the first plastic research work in late summer of 2018. 
Sea Rangers are awarded the Medal of Honour by the Dutch Commercial Sailing Association for their groundbreaking work in introducing sailing technology to the offshore sector.
