The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation was awarded the Foundation Spirit Award at the Third Annual Blue Frontier / Peter Benchley Awards, held at the California Academy of Sciences for the work of its Marine Conservation Initiative.

The award recognizes the outstanding work of Marine Conservation Initiative grantees and partners, who have advanced ecosystem-based Marine Spatial Planning as a new approach to ocean management that can reduce conflict and ensure conservation. The Blue Frontier/ Peter Benchley awards acknowledge outstanding achievement leading to the protection of our coasts and ocean and the communities that depend on them. The first Blue Frontier Awards were given at the 2004 Blue Vision Conference in Washington D.C. where Peter Benchley gave the Keynote speech. After his death in 2006, his wife Wendy Benchley agreed to let Blue Frontier rename the award in his honor.  Wendy has been a grass roots environmental activist for many years and she and Peter worked together for most of their 43 years of marriage on ocean conservation issues.