Rolex Testimonee David Doubilet, Pioneer Underwater Photographer

Pioneering underwater photographer and Rolex Testimonee David Doubilet is a master craftsman who combines technology and art to capture life underwater, bringing images back to the surface for those who might never see those sights with their own eyes. Entering the sea as a journalist, artist, and explorer, Doubilet documents both the beauty and the devastation in our oceans.

He believes that photography has the power to educate, illuminate, and influence change.

Doubilet is deeply concerned about the future of the oceans. “For instance, the seal pups are born on the open sea ice,” he reflects. “They live on ice and they must, without a doubt, have ice around them all the time because that’s where they were born. But with the ice depleting, the pups face a very uncertain future. The uncertain future is the fact that much of the ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is beginning to disappear in the middle of winter as the climate changes and it gets warmer and warmer. The slow disappearance of these beautiful little pups is one of the outcomes of climate change.”

When asked what sort of powerful stories he’d like to tell through his work, he says, “Right now, we're telling the most important story in the world.” Doubilet and his wife, Jennifer Hayes, are working towards a National Geographic grant named “Coral Status, the Science and the Future”. They are looking at coral worldwide to see how it’s changed, and changing. “A lot of climatologists are thinking [coral] may be one of the greatest indicators, the thermometer of the health of this planet. We’re looking at reefs that are thousands of years old, and in the last four or five years have completely died. That’s what happens when you have a warming ocean.”