How scientists and divers safeguard
marine wildlife of Galapagos Islands,
Italy and Arctic Ocean

More than two thirds – 71 per cent – of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, with up to 80 per cent of life found in the oceans. Yet many of these countless underwater ecosystems are under threat.

One of the main challenges lies in that most of the things living in the sea lie hidden beneath the surface – out of sight and, for some people, out of mind. American author Richard Louv, in his book The Nature Principle, says: “We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. And touch. And hear.”

Scientists, marine biologists and oceanographers have long been aware of the dangers facing the ocean’s many life forms, from the smallest microscopic bacteria to the largest animal to ever live on Earth, the blue whale.

Many have been dedicating their work while exploring our oceans and seas, supported by Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative, to find solutions that will ensure more of our marine life – the plants, animals and organisms – are discovered, known about and protected for future generations.

Deep below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, between Sardinia’s east coast and the west coast of Italy’s mainland, lies the underwater valley of Caprera Canyon. Although invisible from the surface, the canyon is home to a rich biodiversity of marine wildlife that includes sperm whales – the Earth's largest living predators – fin whales and possibly the endangered Mediterranean monk seals.

“The canyon is like a feeding ground,” marine biologist Ginevra Boldrocchi says. “Submarine canyons allow upwelling of deep water and bring nutrients on the surface, supporting the ecosystem that otherwise would not exist.” She is the scientific project coordinator of One Ocean Foundation, an Italian organisation which works to accelerate solutions to ocean issues.

She says wildlife found in the waters of Caprera Canyon are not immune to the impact of problems caused by human activities. “Overfishing, noise pollution and plastics in the waters are some of the threats they face,” says Boldrocchi, who each month for the past 18 months has been sailing out to the area to collect research data.

With the support of Rolex, the foundation aims to secure protection for the region and its wildlife. “The main idea is to provide scientific evidence to allow us to get the recognition of an Important Marine Mammal Area [IMMA] to get Caprera Canyon protected,” she says.

IMMAs – an international body created by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and other institutions – can help to enforce stricter controls on fishing in the area.

To achieve that status, more insights into the canyon’s ecosystem must be discovered. To help her understand exactly what species are using the canyon and how, Boldrocchi works closely with Walter Zimmer, a bioacoustics specialist who has developed specific hydrophones – underwater microphones that can record sounds such as whale vocalisations.

He says: “The technology helps give us additional information to analyse the habitat usage, the motion and the depths of the whales.” Boldrocchi adds: “We are also collecting environmental DNA from seawater from all the species which have been passing the canyon in the past days, as well as zooplankton samples to monitor the health of the ocean’s ecosystem.”

When Sylvia Earle, a pioneering American marine biologist and oceanographer first visited the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean in 1966, she was immediately enchanted. “The land, of course, was magical but underwater, it was too,” Earle says.

Although 97 per cent of the land of the Galapagos was protected then, its surrounding waters were not. Earle chose the Galapagos Islands as one of the first Hope Spots – ecologically important ocean areas considered vital for the preservation of species, or places where communities rely on a healthy marine environment to survive – of her non-profit organisation, Mission Blue. Launched in 2009, it aims to create a global network of Hope Spots, and so far has formed more than 150 around the world.

Earle’s focus on the place garnered international attention and the establishment of the Galapagos Marine Reserve in 1998 − an area covering 133,000 sq km (53,282 sq miles) of the islands’ waters, lagoons and streams – ensuring they would be used sustainably for years to come by residents, tourists and fishermen.

Last year, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the reserve’s creation, Earle and her team kick-started an expedition to carry out further research, gathering new data which will allow conservationists to check the progress of marine life around the archipelago.

“For such a relatively small marine reserve, at the confluence of these major ocean currents, it gives us a huge variety of habitat,” says Alex Hearn, marine biologist, lead researcher and a co-Hope Spot Champion. “It has a very high level of endemism – that is, species are found here that are found nowhere else in the world.”

So far, the team’s work has seen them create a library of reference data to help future explorers successfully identify the species that they detect, discover kelp, which are typically found in coldwater regions, tag tiger sharks, survey turtle habitats, map out the foraging grounds of penguin colonies, and measure levels of microplastics. Their findings could be crucial beyond the archipelago.

“What we have here in Galapagos is a remote set of islands trying to come to the grips with the fact that we have a limited amount of space and resources for a growing population,” Hearn says. “How do we deal with that and maintain our biodiversity, which feeds us, and is a driver of our economy? I think if we can get it right here, that is a blueprint for getting it right across the planet.”

Ever heard of underwater forests made of animals? This is exactly what Ghislain Bardout and Emmanuelle Périé-Bardout, the husband-and-wife divers, conservationists, co-founders and directors of the Under the Pole underwater exploration organisation, are studying during their Deeplife expeditions across the world’s oceans.

“These are animals that have different shapes that anchor themselves to the seafloor – corals, gorgonians or sponges – and once there are enough of them, create a type of forest,” Bardout says.

“These marine forests are exactly the same as the forests we have on the surface, on land. They are three-dimensional structures that will shelter life and all together create a unique ecosystem, which is essential to shelter, to develop, to protect this life under the oceans.”

With the support of Rolex, Under The Pole’s expedition to Norway’s Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, to the north of mainland Europe, aims to find and study marine animal forests, and raise awareness of these biodiversity-rich, but unknown and fragile ecosystems.

The expedition has involved sailing amid floating sea ice, in temperatures that regularly drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit). Périé-Bardout says: “The difference here, compared to sailing in other parts of the world, is that there’s no room for errors. Each mistake can cost a lot. The expedition combines all the most difficult things you can imagine – complicated weather, isolation and ice.”

The couple and their team had to repeatedly dive into the Arctic Ocean, going much deeper than the 30-metre (100-foot) depth typical of recreational dives. “The cold is something that hurts, that wears out the equipment, that wears out the teams,” Bardout says.

However, discovering the first animal forest in the Arctic was worth the arduous adventure for both of them. Périé-Bardout says: “The idea is to make the invisible visible, and to show it to the widest possible audience, so that tomorrow we can call on civil society and decision-makers to protect these spaces which are crucial for biodiversity.”

The Arctic’s biodiversity is among the most threatened on Earth because conditions are changing rapidly, with the area warming faster than everywhere else. The floating sea ice that covers much of the Arctic Ocean has also halved in size over the past 40 years.

While there is still plenty to be done, the couple remain motivated. “What makes us want to continue these expeditions, to continue to invest totally in it, is simply that we have two children, Robin and Tom,” Périé-Bardout says. “We want to leave them a better world, a sustainable world.”

Her husband agrees. “We adults have the obligation to work for this change for future generations, to leave behind a living world for them tomorrow, so that they too have the right and the possibility to be enriched by it, to be inspired by it and to dream,” Bardout says.

This article is part of a four-episode series, Preservers of our natural world, which highlights the work of organisations and individuals supported by Rolex and its Perpetual Planet Initiative to safeguard our planet’s future for generations to come.