Luiz Rocha
As a child Luiz Rocha loved diving in his hometown of Brazil and at a very young age, he already decided to be a marine biologist. Two decades ago, he started diving at significant depths, mastering the advanced technical skills required for deep diving.
Rocha currently has his sights set on the Indian Ocean with his project to explore, study, protect and make known deep reefs and their multitude of inhabitants, including countless species of fish, many of them never seen before and spectacular in appearance.
The Indian Ocean project holds serious challenges for Rocha and his multinational team. Based in the Maldives, a nation eager to collaborate so it can gather information about nearby reefs, Rocha’s team is venturing into the unknown.
The presence of atolls means that mesophotic reefs are there too. As Rocha says: “Even though no one has seen them before, we know they are there.”
The Maldives also have the advantage of having facilities to cater for diving. Deep reef descents are complicated, requiring mixed-gas rebreather equipment that recycles divers’ breath after stripping out the carbon dioxide, allowing them to descend deeper.
Rocha is one of the few marine scientists capable of undertaking this demanding technical diving. Safety is a priority, so only one dive is permitted each day. He expects to find many new species of fish. In the Pacific Ocean, for example, as many as 10 new species are discovered for each hour of deep reef exploration, and he anticipates rates in the unexplored Maldives reefs to be even higher.
“The project really embodies the spirit of exploration, discovery and conservation integral to Rolex,” he says. Rocha is also optimistic that his Award will bring much more than funding — it will attract international publicity that will give him the status to interest other organisations and media, helping to build the case for deep reef protection.
Furthermore, he believes that his highly diverse team will prove to be a model for others, demonstrating “that everyone can become an ocean explorer”.