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

"Sadly, I became connected to the ocean late in life,” says Grenier, who set up the Lonely Whale Foundation in 2015 to develop a community of ocean advocates through education and interactive social media campaigns. “I grew up in New York City but never thought of myself as living near the ocean, even though I was. When I finally learnt to scuba dive, I quickly realised how much I had been missing.” Grenier’s new passion led him to co-produce 52: the Search for the Loneliest Whale, a documentary that chronicles the quest to find the mysterious and solitary 52 hertz whale, a mammal scientists believe calls out at a frequency that no other whale can hear.

Grenier also navigated choppy waters when he was challenged last summer by Richard Branson (pictured above) to swim the Strait of Messina to raise awareness for World Oceans Day. “My training for that race took me to waterways all over the world, from the dead zone off Mississippi, to the second largest shipping port in Singapore. I’ve seen and swum through different levels of environmental degradation of our waterways.” Grenier is mindful of his own personal choices at home, too. “My house has an open door policy to my friends and family, with one exception: no plastic bags allowed! I have also committed to saying no to plastic straws and sharing their detrimental effects on our ocean with the restaurant industry.”

Education is also at the core of the Lonely Whale’s work. “We are particularly proud of our kindergarten to fifth grade marine science-based education initiative. We’ve partnered with the Academy for Global Citizenship on the southwest side of Chicago to build a unique education initiative that is rooted in empathy [co-developed with practising scientists and marine researchers, children learn about seven sea creatures and the polluting challenges they face]," he says. “The biggest threat to our oceans right now is non-action. Our oceans are resilient but only if we take collective steps towards protecting and rebuilding them. We need to protect 30 per cent of our oceans by 2030. Today, we’ve protected just three per cent. We have a long way to go but I’m ready for the challenge and the opportunity to engage a new community of environmental leaders.”

lonelywhale.org

Having led countless expeditions across six continents and produced more than 100 award-winning short films about water issues, Cousteau is dedicated to continuing the work of her renowned grandfather Jacques-Yves Cousteau and her father Philippe Cousteau Sr. In 2008 she founded Blue Legacy International with the mission of empowering people to reclaim and restore the world’s water supplies, one community at a time.

“The ocean has always been a part of my life. I was seven years old when my grandfather taught me to scuba dive in the South of France, but climate change, ocean acidification and overfishing mean the waters my grandfather introduced me to don’t exist any more. This year I’ll be filming in the Philippines, the USA and Peru, and joining Oceana for some deep-sea exploration in Canada. I have also been working on a documentary about how we can save the oceans and feed the world. Just 30 countries control 90 per cent of the world’s fisheries. If we can work with them on policy solutions that will end overfishing and expand marine protected areas, we could have an enormous impact by rebuilding populations of marine life to close to their historic levels. It’s ambitious and bold and I love it. We need big, hopeful solutions right now.”

alexandracousteau.com

On a mission to rid the world of plastic bottles, S’well founder Sarah Kauss has turned an inspired idea – reusable bottles that keep drinks cold for 24 hours and hot for 12 – into a multimillion-dollar business that has supported many eco-friendly charities including WaterAid. With approximately nine million bottles sold globally, limited edition designer collaborations with artists such as Gray Malin and Yoon Hyup, and celebrity fans like Tom Hanks, a S’well bottle has become the "it" accessory. “Prior to creating S’well, I learnt of the Pacific garbage patch, which is a patch of plastic waste in the ocean that’s something like the size of Canada and in places one mile deep,” says Kauss. “This plastic will never biodegrade. It will just become smaller bits that will eventually make their way into our food system. In creating S’well, I set out to convert the non-converted and to encourage others to stop using single-use plastic bottles. I’m so proud to have been able to turn an eco-conscious item into a fashionable one.”

swellbottle.com

"People often wonder if the inspiration behind the work of our foundation is our brand colour, Tiffany Blue, which recalls the beauty of the sea,” says Kamadoli Costa, who heads up the Tiffany & Co Foundation, a philanthropic initiative established in 2000 that is dedicated to helping preserve the world’s most treasured seascapes and landscapes. “We are, in fact, driven by something much bigger. The ocean is a critical resource for all of the world’s people and yet many are still unaware of its plight.”

The foundation awards grants to a wide range of non-profit organisations, from Sailors for the Sea, which engages sailing communities in ocean conservation with its Clean Regattas programmes, to Oceans 5 and Pew’s Global Ocean Legacy, which protect coral reefs and create new marine protected areas. The foundation also focuses on education and last year helped finance Valen’s Reef, an underwater virtual reality film that transports viewers to Bird’s Head Seascape (one of the planet’s most biodiverse reefs) in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. “We hope this will inspire younger generations to become future champions of oceans,” says Kamadoli Costa. “There has been noteworthy progress in the last few years, notably in the Coral Triangle in the western Pacific. My experiences always remind me that we are at a crucial tipping point with our oceans, but that it’s not too late.”

tiffanyandcofoundation.org

It has been just over a decade since Prince Albert II of Monaco followed in the footsteps of his great great-grandfather and visited the Arctic, reaching the North Pole to explore the effects of global warming on the weakening ice. In the aftermath of this expedition, the Prince created his eponymous foundation, which is dedicated to environmental protection and focuses specifically on projects in the Mediterranean Basin and the polar regions and on identifying the richest and most fragile areas of biodiversity in the least developed countries. These include areas such as Cambodia, where the foundation has helped to implement new initiatives to manage fisheries.

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"I had been working as the chair of the environmental committee on Mustique for four years, when I became aware that the issues facing the island were just a microcosm of the entire region,” says Adams, who set up the St Vincent and the Grenadines Preservation Fund in March 2015 with funding from many of Mustique’s homeowners.

The singer, who has been holidaying on the island since 2002, has witnessed coral bleaching, overfishing and works to protect endangered species. “I’d say the biggest threat by far to this region is overfishing. It’s done on an industrial scale, by commercial and pirate fishermen and the knock-on effects are catastrophic for local fishermen. The lack of fish is putting the reefs under stress and causes larger predators such as tiger sharks to come into shallower water when deep-sea fish are scarce. The main thing we are focusing on with the fund is the protection of turtles and whales, and educating people that killing off these rare and beautiful creatures is killing off the ecotourism that is the backbone of the future local economy.

It’s counter-intuitive to the government’s plan to develop tourism – having just spent millions developing a new airport. There needs to be a shift towards greater conservation. These islands are like the Caribbean Galápagos. They have a rich biodiversity from the seabirds, marine life and amazing leatherback turtles – there is so much to see. There are signs that there is a shift towards more conservation, and that is very encouraging.”

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"I have wanted to be a mermaid since I was a little girl,” says Christensen, who grew up in Denmark, spending summers in the family’s seaside cottage. “I have huge respect and admiration for the sea. There is hardly anything more magical; its power is infinite and ever-changing. Ocean life depends on a thriving coral reef and we are destroying it. I went to an ocean conservation gathering in the Maldives a few years back at the Six Senses Water/Wo/Men Event and we went diving to see with our own eyes how the corals had turned colourless and dusty, looking like a site after a nuclear bombing. It was heartbreaking and chilling.”

An ardent supporter of the Turtle Conservancy’s annual Turtle Ball in New York, Christensen says: “This initiative has made me realise how much our precious sea life is now hugely dependent on humans committing to conserve it.” Spending much of her free time combing beaches on both sides of the Atlantic for harmful plastic rubbish, she says: “I will bring a large bag with me and pick up whatever waste I see. I curse people who enjoy nature only to leave their waste behind. Such behaviour is atrocious.”

This pioneering charity was set up by TV producer Jo Ruxton and lawyer Sonjia Norman when Ruxton was making A Plastic Ocean. This impactful documentary film, first shown in 2016 and now on general release, is a heartfelt call to action in response to the neglectful way we dispose of plastic and the heinous effect it has on marine life and consequently human health as it enters the food chain. “I wanted the film to have a legacy,” says Ruxton. “I wanted to take it forward through education and science programmes. The film is the first of our education tools, but it’s just the beginning because there is so much work to be done.”

What started as an expedition to the Pacific garbage patch in 2009 has turned into a life’s mission to change people’s behaviour within a generation. Ruxton is working with exam boards that operate in 170 countries to get this issue into the curriculum. “Once people realise what’s going on then the right minds are going to come up with solutions… it’s the most crazy situation we’ve got ourselves into and it’s the easiest one to solve.”

plasticoceans.org

As co-chair of the Global Ocean Commission, which ran from 2013 to 2016, the former UK foreign secretary took on an unpaid role to highlight problems and promote the protection of the high seas – vast areas of ocean that make up 45 per cent of the world’s surface but lie beyond the jurisdiction of individual states. With plastic pollution, pirate fishing (often using slave labour linked to drugs and weapons smuggling) and the future risk of illegal dredging and geological mining at stake, “it’s the ecological equivalent of a financial crisis”, said Miliband. Working with former Costa Rican president José Maria Figueres and South Africa’s former finance minister Trevor Manuel, the commission set out practical proposals for action, most notably a call for an international ocean police force to prevent plunder and pillage on a massive scale. “We are living as if there are three or four planets instead of one and you can’t get away with that,” Miliband has said.

Honoured by Riverkeeper for leading the Ralph Lauren Corporation with a deep commitment to protecting the environment, the fashion mogul gave $100,000 to the New York charity. Riverkeeper has worked for 50 years to reverse the decline of the Hudson River and ensure more than nine million New Yorkers have clean, safe drinking water. Lauren landed the coveted Big Fish award at the 50th anniversary Fishermen’s Ball last May. “I’m a New Yorker. I was born here. I was married here. I raised my children here. The Hudson is my river – it’s our river,” he said.

riverkeeper.org