PERPETUAL COMMITMENT
Rolex brings together a cast of pioneering marine scientists to tell the story of ocean conservation in the documentary film Heroes of the Ocean
THIS SPREAD CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Emma Camp, searching for resilient corals that might save the Great Barrier Reef; Angelique Pouponneau, Misson Blue Hope Spot champion for the Seychelles; Sylvia Earle on Caldesi Island in the Florida Gulf Coast Hope Spot near Dunedin where she grew up and fell in love with the ocean; Ghislain Bardout, co-founder and director of the Under The Pole expeditions suppo ed by Rolex; Marine scientist and 2019 Rolex Awards Laureate Emma Camp is working to ensure reef resilience at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
FOR NEARLY A CENTURY, Rolex has supported pioneering explorers, pushing back the boundaries of human endeavour. With the launch of the Perpetual Planet initiative in 2019, the watchmaking company has moved from championing exploration for the sake of discovery to protecting the planet by supporting individuals and organisations using science to understand the world’s environmental challenges and devise solutions that will restore balance to our ecosystems.
The Perpetual Planet initiative currently embraces Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue ‒ which Rolex has partnered since 2014 ‒ to preserve the oceans through a network of marine-protected Hope Spots; an enhanced partnership with the National Geographic Society to study the impacts of climate change; and the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, which for 45 years have been supporting exceptional individuals with innovative projects improving knowledge of our world.
In hopes of telling a more comprehensive story about the amazing work being undertaken across the planet to protect the oceans’ fragile ecosystems and support those devising solutions to Earth’s environmental
challenges, Rolex specially commissioned the BBC Studio Science Unit to produce a documentary as part of its latest Perpetual Planet initiatives.
Entitled Heroes of the Ocean and narrated by oceanographer, explorer, not to mention Rolex Testimonee and founder of Mission Blue Sylvia Earle, the documentary features the work of six marine scientists, five of whom are Rolex Award Laureates; Angélique Pouponneau, who is a Mission Blue champion for the Seychelles; and Ghislain Bardout, co-founder and Director of the Under The Pole expeditions.
Over the course of the hour-long documentary, viewers are immersed in a spectacular underwater world, discovering the challenges our oceans face today and the solutions that can be taken to make a real change.
Hopeful of change and committed to saving the planet, Sylvia Earle said, “Each of us can make a difference in inspiring others. With passion, curiosity and hope, anyone can change everything. We can create a Perpetual Planet for generations to come.”
Inspired by their dedication and life’s work, MVMT pays homage to the Heroes of the Ocean by highlighting their individual expertise and contributions in this special feature.
EMMA CAMP, UK: SUPER SURVIVOR CORALS SEED HOPE FOR WORLD’S DYING REEFS
Leading scientists have warned that the world’s coral reefs may be largely gone by the 2030s due to human activity and climate change, but marine biologist and explorer Emma Camp is determined to prove them wrong.
Exploring and studying a range of coral habitats globally, the British-born researcher has discovered several places where certain corals are managing to prosper, despite the most unfavourable conditions. She is demonstrating how these “hotspots of coral resilience” may hold the key to repopulating reefs ravaged by a warming climate, acidifying water and other human inflicted damage.
“Corals globally are dying from climate change, from more acidic oceans and waters low in oxygen. But, while we’re desperately trying to lower humanity’s carbon emissions there are very few options beyond that to try to help reefs persist,” Camp says.
Camp observed that some corals naturally live under extreme conditions ‒ more extreme than those being predicted over the next 200 years. “We are now only just discovering where they are surviving. We need to understand how they’re there and why they’re there ‒ and how we can utilise their abilities to help save coral reefs globally.”
In 2019, Camp published the first scientific study identifying two similar extreme coral habitats on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. To all appearances, they are resilient to the very conditions that humans are inflicting on the world’s reefs. By identifying similar hotspots of resilience along the 2,000km of the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral assemblage, and studying the behaviour and genetics of these ultra-tough coral survivors, Camp is unlocking new understanding on the mechanisms that support coral resilience. She is now using this knowledge to see how it can be applied to repopulate coral reefs that have been impacted by bleaching and other forms of coral death.
A Young Leader for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the 2019 Rolex Awards laureate emphasises, “Corals are not just strange and beautiful ‒ they also support hundreds of millions of human lives. I believe we need to think outside the box. We need to go back to nature and see how it has survived for so long, and use that knowledge, combined with innovation and technology, to try to conserve what we’ve got.”
CORALS GLOBALLY ARE DYING FROM CLIMATE CHANGE, FROM MORE ACIDIC OCEANS AND WATERS LOW IN OXYGEN. BUT, WHILE WE’RE DESPERATELY TRYING TO LOWER HUMANITY’S CARBON EMISSIONS THERE ARE VERY FEW OPTIONS BEYOND THAT TO TRY TO HELP REEFS PERSIST.
—EMMA CAMP