The TerraMar Project

The TerraMar Project was founded on September 26, 2012 at the Blue Ocean Film Festival and Conservation Conference in Monterey, California, and focused on the 64% of the ocean that lies outside any single country's jurisdiction.[6] Their mission was to create a "global ocean community" based around the idea of shared ownership of the global commons, also known as the high seas or international waters.[6]

In 2014, on behalf of the TerraMar Project, Maxwell gave a lecture at the University of Texas at Dallas and later that year, a TED talk, at TEDx Charlottesville, about the importance of ocean conservation.[7] Maxwell also spoke at the United Nations as the founder of the TerraMar Project.[8] She accompanied Stuart Beck, a 2013 TerraMar board member, to two United Nations meetings to discuss the project.[9] Maxwell presented at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik Iceland in 2013.[10] Scott Borgerson, listed on TerraMar's board of directors for 2013, appeared with Maxwell at the Arctic Circle conference.[10] In June 2014, Maxwell and Borgerson spoke at an event in Washington, DC sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, titled “Governing the Ocean Commons: Growing Challenges, New Approaches”.[11][10]

Tax documents for US organization the TerraMar Project consistently list Ghislaine Maxwell as the organization's President. Board members included Amir Dossal and the film producer Steven Haft.[12] The TerraMar Project's address was in New York City for 990 tax filings from 2012 through 2015, with later filings showing a Woburn, Massachusetts address for 2016 and 2017.[12] The New York Times reported that TerraMar gave out no money in grants between 2012 and 2017 and that it was described as having unusually high accounting and legal fees for an organization of its size.[10]

Following the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein on July 6, 2019, the TerraMar Project announced its closure six days later on July 12, 2019 via Twitter and a statement on the TerraMar Project's website.[8]

TerraMar (UK) was a separate private limited company in the United Kingdom, run by Maxwell with a similar mission to the TerraMar Project.[4] It was incorporated in August 2013 in England and Wales and remained active, with a Salisbury address, until the company was listed as officially dissolved on December 3, 2019.[4] The objects of the charity TerraMar (UK) were listed as "the conservation, protection, and improvement of the environment" and in particular "the oceans, seas, coastlines and tidal areas" including "the conservation and protection of endangered marine flora and fauna, and the education of the public in the fields of marine conservation, marine ecology and related areas".[4] TerraMar (UK) was reported by The Times to have joined the "secretive Telegram messenger app service" on August 10, 2019, the date that Epstein died in prison.[13] The application for the UK organisation to be officially closed was made on September 4, 2019, with the first notice in The London Gazette made on September 17, 2019.[14]