The Ocean A-List: Meet the heroes and heroines of ocean conservation

With the ever-increasing threats facing the world's oceans, protection and conservation is a task for the many not the few and where the heroes and heroines of ocean conservation lead, the rest of us would do well to follow. By Olivia Falcon.

Cristina Mittermeier

Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen are both photographers and marine biologists who harness the power of the lens to show the real story about what’s going on underneath the ocean. In 2015 this talented duo launched SeaLegacy, a collective of highly acclaimed photographers and film-makers who share their images and films with scientists, conservationists, policymakers and selected media partners to spread their ocean-saving mission. This inspirational group of storytellers is on the front line and sees first hand the damage that is inflicted on marine life. “When there is an emergency, like an oil spill or a hurricane, we are able to deploy a team of photographers to the site immediately so that they can document the crisis and we can share the images with partners and the media,” says Mittermeier.

With a social media reach of more than 70 million and National Geographic as a partner, this group of snappers is punching well above its weight and proving that pictures speak louder than words.

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Donating his megawatt celebrity and more than $30 million to date to help advance UN climate negotiations and protect coral reefs and endangered marine life (most notably sharks and rays), Leonardo DiCaprio’s commitment to and passion for protecting our planet has galvanised everyone from politicians to millennials. As a keynote speaker at the Our Ocean Conference in Washington DC last year, DiCaprio reported on his first-hand experience of the horrors of coral bleaching. “I saw this with my own eyes while filming my new documentary Before the Flood. Marine scientist Jeremy Jackson led me underwater in a submersible to observe the reefs off the coast of the Bahamas. What I saw took my breath away – not a fish in sight, colourless, ghost-like coral, a graveyard.”

DiCaprio is also focusing on using innovative solutions. Tackling the problem of overfishing, his foundation has partnered with Google, SkyTruth and Oceana to launch Global Fishing Watch, a website that invites the public to track fishing vessels, with data collected by satellites, thus making fishing practices transparent, and politicians and fisheries accountable to us all. “I am consumed by this,” DiCaprio has said of his work to protect the planet. “There isn’t a couple of hours a day where I’m not thinking about it.”

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In the six years since BLUE began its quest to protect 10 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2020, it has inspired and united governments, scientists and celebrities to take action and raise awareness of the crisis currently facing our seas. Making waves around the globe, BLUE worked alongside the Great British Oceans coalition to persuade the government to create a blue belt of protected waters around all 14 British Overseas Territories, from Bermuda to the Pitcairn Islands. It is currently working to help St Helena and Ascension Island secure marine protected areas in their waters, too.

BLUE has joined forces with inventive campaigns such as one by Fishlove, using its striking image of Helena Bonham-Carter hugging a tuna to keep the core issues of overfishing and marine protection in the limelight. Simon Le Bon supported a 1,500km charity bike ride from London to Monaco and the charity also aims to engage the privileged few via the Blue Marine Yacht Club, which encourages superyacht owners to protect the oceans by committing to a “conservation code”. It has also partnered with Boat International for the annual Ocean Awards ceremony.

“We are excited about the year ahead and the wonderful possibilities that are opening up for us to do some great work in Antarctica after news of the landmark international agreement to create the world’s largest marine park in the Ross Sea,” says executive director Charles Clover. “We also continue to be committed to projects closer to home, where we hope to replicate the success of the sustainable fisheries programme we instigated in Lyme Bay, Dorset, in 2012 with a similar initiative in the Solent that we hope will restore the population of native oysters to the area.”

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Here’s another reason Williams can make you happy: when he’s not filling dance floors with feet pounding to his catchy tunes, he’s turning recycled ocean plastic into some pretty nifty threads. As the co-owner and (try not to smile) Head of Imagination of G-Star RAW, the pioneering Dutch denim brand, he was pivotal in the RAW For the Oceans denim collection.

This used recycled ocean plastic, integrated into a high-tech “bionic yarn” that was carefully woven into jeans making G-Star RAW one of the key fashion brands helping save the oceans. “We are not shoving it in your face,” said Williams. “If you’re wearing it, you’re supporting our issue to be sustainable – [the cause] is in the clothes.” In the three years since its launch, the project used an estimated two million reclaimed plastic bottles and almost 1,000 tonnes of plastic debris in its products. The label is following the project with a commitment to using sustainable or recycled materials.

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Since acquiring Tara, a 36 metre research schooner in 2003, Agnès B and her son, Étienne Bourgois, created Tara Expeditions. It is a project developed from their shared passion for the ocean, designed to take action, protect the environment and promote scientific research. To date, Tara has completed three major expeditions to the Arctic and Mediterranean as well as a round-the-world “oceans” voyage to study plankton and coral species. This year Tara continues with another odyssey, started last May, of nearly 54,000nm that will see her criss-crossing the Pacific from the Panama Canal to the Japanese archipelago and New Zealand to China, to study the evolution of coral reefs in response to climate change and the pressure of human activity.

“Over the years, I’ve seen Tara sail off with her captains and sailors at the helm, carrying on board our dear scientists and artists,” says Agnès B. “We now have reliable analyses concerning the contents of this vital element – the sea. So many possibilities will come from these discoveries.”

taraexpeditions.org

In an industry that operates largely on face value, La Mer has taken a deep dive into protecting the marine habitats it relies on for its Crème de la Mer anti-ageing skincare range. Championing the sustainable harvesting of sea kelp (only the top prongs are hand picked, twice a year, to keep the plant and ecosystem intact) and partnering with world-renowned oceanographers such as National Geographic Society’s explorer-in-residence Dr Sylvia Earle, La Mer is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. “The ocean is an integral part of La Mer’s brand heritage and we are always looking to expand our support of programmes that improve the health of it,” explains Sandra Main, its global brand president.

The company also established La Mer’s Blue Heart, a philanthropic effort that raises awareness with limited edition jars of face cream (released on World Oceans Day) and has partnered with charities such as Oceana in previous years to help protect more than 16.4 million square miles of diverse ocean habitats around the world.

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"For more than half a century, Blancpain has been intimately connected with the ocean,” says Blancpain’s president and CEO, Marc Hayek. “While our legendary Fifty Fathoms timepieces have played a central role, we see our mission as extending far beyond the creation of the world’s finest diving watches.” In 2014 the company launched its Ocean Commitment programme, which supports a large number of scientific endeavours including exploration initiatives, underwater photography and environmental forums. The company also launched a limited-edition Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Ocean Commitment watch and donated the proceeds of €250,000 to a range of oceanic endeavours and charities including the 2014 Gombessa Project, a marine expedition in French Polynesia. Following the success of this project, which is now studying newly observed hunting patterns of sharks, a Fifty Fathoms Ocean Commitment II watch was launched in October 2016 and proceeds from every sale will be donated to the Ocean Commitment programme.

blancpain-ocean-commitment.com

Y.CO, the luxury yacht broker and management company, is leading the charge with its CLEARWATER initiative, which will educate crew and in turn owners and charterers on reducing the environmental impact of yacht operations to protect the oceans. “We’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time,” says Hatty Campbell, who is spearheading the programme. “We manage almost 100 yachting operations around the world and I think the idea of influencing, inspiring and working with this number of yachts and crew is exciting.”

The war on plastic is the mission for 2017 as it plans to reduce the impact of plastic bottles on board the yachts it manages. Y.CO has teamed up with the creators of the documentary A Plastic Ocean to educate crew on the dangers of plastic and has partnered with the reusable, chic stainless steel water bottle company S’well. “But it’s going much, much deeper than that,” says Y.CO co-founder Charlie Birkett, who hopes crews will ask themselves “how are we as a boat going to do something that is environmentally friendly and, for example, help an island in the South Pacific?”

It was, after all, the Y.CO-managed Dragonfly that provided lifesaving relief to the outer islands of Vanuatu when Cyclone Pam struck in 2015. With plans to get scientists, charities and marine biologists on board to educate crew, and an idea to create official accreditation for those crew that go the extra mile, Y.CO is at the forefront of how the industry can show a brighter way of thinking.

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