Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue created its first “Hope Spot” to protect marine biodiversity in the Balearic Islands, Spain.
As the world faces a battering of climate threats, the ocean remains our best ally for now. Playing a crucial role in regulating the global climate with its oxygenating capabilities and as a thermal regulator, the preservation of the ocean and its marine life is of utmost importance for the sake of the planet.
Few people have dedicated their lives to this cause. Sylvia Earle is one such person whose name is synonymous with marine preservation. The marine biologist and Rolex Testimonee since 1982, founded Mission Blue in 2009, a project that identifies particularly significant biodiversity areas called Hope Spots.
Mission Blue’s efforts go hand in hand with Rolex’s dedication to excellence, a brand that has accompanied pioneer explorers over the last half-century. As one of the longstanding partners of the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, Rolex supports Mission Blue’s goal to help protect 30 percent of the world’s seas by 2030.
Leading oceanographer and Rolex Testimonee Sylvia Earle.
“We are facing maybe the most important time in human history. We have a choice about the future, armed with technologies that did not exist until, right about now,” says Earle.
“Knowledge that has been acquired during my lifetime about the ocean, about who we are, where we come from, that perspective about the danger that we are now in, is cause for hope. Never before have we had a better chance to have a perpetual future ourselves with a planet that works in our favour. We are right on the edge of losing that opportunity.”
Earle, who has been a pioneer of ocean exploration for over five decades believes there is still hope if action can be taken urgently. “When I first began exploring the ocean, the ocean was a much healthier place. Now, about half the coral reefs globally, are gone. In some places, more than 80 to 90 percent are gone. And 90 percent of the sharks are gone. But 10 percent of the sharks and half of the coral reefs are still in pretty good shape. That is cause for hope.”
Taiano Teiho and Titouan Bernicot inspect a recently cut piece of coral. It will then be further fragmented and placed into a coral nursery.
Coral reefs make up some of the most crucial lifeforms that protect coastlines and serve as a source of life for many marine life. For Titouan Bernicot, the founder and CEO of Coral Gardeners, and a Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative partner since 2022, his mission is to save the reefs before permanent damage is done.
Since 2017, Bernicot and Coral Gardeners have planted over 100,000 corals, with 10 nursery sites across French Polynesia and Fiji growing approximately 26,000 new corals for planting. Coral Gardeners also have the largest social media presence of any reef conservation company, with over half a million followers on their Instagram account.
“Now we need to find solutions. It’s our generation of hope, of action and we can already see some good results and examples. And we’re trying to scale up coral gardening restoration all around the world with technological innovation, and we wake up every morning, thinking about what we can do more for the coral reef.” says Bernicot.
With Earle’s and Bernicot’s gathered efforts, the two initiatives aim to empower local communities to make an impact on their local marine habitats. “Mission Blue and Coral Gardeners have a lot of similarities. It’s about action, hope and people, you know, it’s not just about protecting or restoring the ocean, it’s about the people.
“Because we need ocean conservation to become a new lifestyle, we need saving the planet to be something cool, meaningful and fun, people need to be able to, with their hands, participate, we need to bridge the gap between people and the ocean and its conservation,” says Bernicot.
Meanwhile, Earle believes that it all comes down to forging a stronger relationship with nature to ensure a better future for all. “What the Coral Gardeners are doing, what Mission Blue is doing, what Rolex is doing, what everyone, everywhere should be doing, is to care for the natural world as if our lives depend on it, because they do.”
