as long as I remember I’ve had a
fascination for our oceans whether it
was by surfing waves or seeing what lay
beneath their surface this passion for
our blue planet has dictated my whole
life so far by pursuing this passion I
managed to make a living by sharing the
oceans beauty to photography and film I
started out by wanting to show just how
beautiful our world is and highlight
underwater ecosystems just like this
coral reef here
with the hopes of educating and
inspiring people to care a little bit
more about our blue planet throughout my
question documenting these wonders of
our underwater world
I began to realize just how important
these blue parts on our globe are for
our very own survival let me give you a
few facts here all human life is
affected by our oceans they cover 71% of
the planet they feed us they help
regulate the globe’s temperature they
provide us with energy with
entertainment coral waves are continuing
to prove they’re an important source for
new medicines being developed and about
50% of the oxygen we breathe comes from
the ocean think about that when you’re
sitting here in breathing OH
they’re also one of the largest carbon
sinks on the planet and on top of all
that about 1 billion people largely
living in developing countries rely on
fish as their primary source of protein
in certain communities it’s very easy to
see their connection with the ocean and
just how big of a role it plays in their
lives
I’ve met with seaweed farmers in
Southeast Asia who after decades of
using destructive fishing methods
resorted to this more sustainable and
more profitable way of life I’ve also
seen fishermen in Tanzania will go out
and look for whale sharks not the hunt
is beautiful big fish but they’ve
realized that these whale sharks in the
schools of fish they’re after
feed on the same prey I found out it’s
not photographers it’s actually these
small little shrimps but I’ve also met a
community of Bajau or sea gypsies who
could no longer use their traditional
fishing methods as there simply wasn’t
enough fish
left in the sea where they live instead
they have to resort to compressor diving
to catch any fish at all this dangerous
practice as you can see this fishermen
do here is you know the little plastic
tube in his mouth is providing him with
air that’s supplied from the surface by
an old compressor that his wife was
operating now these compressors they
often break they’re full of fumes so you
can imagine it’s a very unhealthy and
dangerous practice and the people in his
village many of the men have had been in
accidents some have passed away some are
paralyzed so a very dangerous practiced
eke out a living so even though our
oceans are so important to us we haven’t
done very well in preserving them
overfishing a practice where we take
more fish than can possibly be
replenished happens on a daily basis
coastal pollution is creating ocean dead
zones that might never recover a
changing climate due to excessive carbon
dioxide in our atmosphere is causing sea
levels to rise in oceans to become more
acidic which directly impacts coral
reefs around the world in these coral
reef structures think about them as the
buildings in a big city like New York
for example now imagine this city
without these buildings or only damaged
buildings this is the equivalent of and
on the water scene like that
it’s kind of grim and no life left
what’s supposed to be a driving
ecosystem is just completely empty
knowing all this was happening to our
oceans I started to feel an obligation
to not only document the beauty but also
highlight the destruction of our marine
resources well this isn’t as fun and
definitely not as glamorous as
photographing pristine ecosystems or
filming charismatic marine megafauna I
found that by working together with
people that were equally passionate
about ocean conservation yet had
different skill sets than me we could
actually make a difference in conserving
this blue marble we live on making this
realization had a huge impact on my life
as a photographer and filmmaker and I
started to seek out scientists and
different conservation groups and work
together with them to shed light on the
important work they were doing kind of
creating more awareness maybe changing a
few minds here were there and I was
positively surprised to find out
big of a role these storytelling images
and video could play in all this
in 2014 I came across quite a
fascinating story I was living in the
Philippines back then and typhoon Haiyan
had just hit the country causing
widespread destruction part of my work
was covering the aftermath in order to
raise funds for the people affected by
this natural disaster when we came
across one Island it seemed that the
locals were recovering quite well on
their own terms the main reason being
was that they still had their livelihood
they might have lost their homes and
their Island was heavily affected by the
typhoon but their livelihood was intact
and here on this island called
malapascua the locals heavily depended
on the presence of treasure sharks so
divers from all over the world come here
to see these beautiful long-tailed
charismatic animals and they pay very
good money to do so you see a group of
divers and one of these sharks passing
by very close and just in case you’re
wondering this isn’t a breakfast buffet
for sharks these sharks are actually
very harmless like pretty much all
sharks and rarely take an interest in us
but tourism like this though brings in a
lot of money and for the locals in
malapascua it was more than enough to
rebuild their homes and recover from
this typhoon on their own terms
unlike some other communities that
mainly relied on fishing as a primary
source of income oddly enough though
even though these sharks were worth so
much more alive than dead they were
still fished quite heavily knowing this
was happening I started working together
with different conservation groups on
campaigns to try to get more protection
for these sharks with their help we
managed to present a story of malapascua
and sharks at the Convention on
International trade in endangered
species it’s an event where world
leaders come together and they decide on
which species will gain more or less
protection based on certain criteria
kind of like a Noah’s Ark of
conservation so this was a good success
because last year these sharks gained
more global protection and are now fully
protected in the Philippines this really
showed me that when passionate people
come together and were
on a common goal positive change is
really possible it’s not only possible
it’s very likely to happen so I’ll
continue to find those people to work
together with and do my very best in
conserving this beautiful blue planet
that we call home thank you
[Applause]
fascination for our oceans whether it
was by surfing waves or seeing what lay
beneath their surface this passion for
our blue planet has dictated my whole
life so far by pursuing this passion I
managed to make a living by sharing the
oceans beauty to photography and film I
started out by wanting to show just how
beautiful our world is and highlight
underwater ecosystems just like this
coral reef here
with the hopes of educating and
inspiring people to care a little bit
more about our blue planet throughout my
question documenting these wonders of
our underwater world
I began to realize just how important
these blue parts on our globe are for
our very own survival let me give you a
few facts here all human life is
affected by our oceans they cover 71% of
the planet they feed us they help
regulate the globe’s temperature they
provide us with energy with
entertainment coral waves are continuing
to prove they’re an important source for
new medicines being developed and about
50% of the oxygen we breathe comes from
the ocean think about that when you’re
sitting here in breathing OH
they’re also one of the largest carbon
sinks on the planet and on top of all
that about 1 billion people largely
living in developing countries rely on
fish as their primary source of protein
in certain communities it’s very easy to
see their connection with the ocean and
just how big of a role it plays in their
lives
I’ve met with seaweed farmers in
Southeast Asia who after decades of
using destructive fishing methods
resorted to this more sustainable and
more profitable way of life I’ve also
seen fishermen in Tanzania will go out
and look for whale sharks not the hunt
is beautiful big fish but they’ve
realized that these whale sharks in the
schools of fish they’re after
feed on the same prey I found out it’s
not photographers it’s actually these
small little shrimps but I’ve also met a
community of Bajau or sea gypsies who
could no longer use their traditional
fishing methods as there simply wasn’t
enough fish
left in the sea where they live instead
they have to resort to compressor diving
to catch any fish at all this dangerous
practice as you can see this fishermen
do here is you know the little plastic
tube in his mouth is providing him with
air that’s supplied from the surface by
an old compressor that his wife was
operating now these compressors they
often break they’re full of fumes so you
can imagine it’s a very unhealthy and
dangerous practice and the people in his
village many of the men have had been in
accidents some have passed away some are
paralyzed so a very dangerous practiced
eke out a living so even though our
oceans are so important to us we haven’t
done very well in preserving them
overfishing a practice where we take
more fish than can possibly be
replenished happens on a daily basis
coastal pollution is creating ocean dead
zones that might never recover a
changing climate due to excessive carbon
dioxide in our atmosphere is causing sea
levels to rise in oceans to become more
acidic which directly impacts coral
reefs around the world in these coral
reef structures think about them as the
buildings in a big city like New York
for example now imagine this city
without these buildings or only damaged
buildings this is the equivalent of and
on the water scene like that
it’s kind of grim and no life left
what’s supposed to be a driving
ecosystem is just completely empty
knowing all this was happening to our
oceans I started to feel an obligation
to not only document the beauty but also
highlight the destruction of our marine
resources well this isn’t as fun and
definitely not as glamorous as
photographing pristine ecosystems or
filming charismatic marine megafauna I
found that by working together with
people that were equally passionate
about ocean conservation yet had
different skill sets than me we could
actually make a difference in conserving
this blue marble we live on making this
realization had a huge impact on my life
as a photographer and filmmaker and I
started to seek out scientists and
different conservation groups and work
together with them to shed light on the
important work they were doing kind of
creating more awareness maybe changing a
few minds here were there and I was
positively surprised to find out
big of a role these storytelling images
and video could play in all this
in 2014 I came across quite a
fascinating story I was living in the
Philippines back then and typhoon Haiyan
had just hit the country causing
widespread destruction part of my work
was covering the aftermath in order to
raise funds for the people affected by
this natural disaster when we came
across one Island it seemed that the
locals were recovering quite well on
their own terms the main reason being
was that they still had their livelihood
they might have lost their homes and
their Island was heavily affected by the
typhoon but their livelihood was intact
and here on this island called
malapascua the locals heavily depended
on the presence of treasure sharks so
divers from all over the world come here
to see these beautiful long-tailed
charismatic animals and they pay very
good money to do so you see a group of
divers and one of these sharks passing
by very close and just in case you’re
wondering this isn’t a breakfast buffet
for sharks these sharks are actually
very harmless like pretty much all
sharks and rarely take an interest in us
but tourism like this though brings in a
lot of money and for the locals in
malapascua it was more than enough to
rebuild their homes and recover from
this typhoon on their own terms
unlike some other communities that
mainly relied on fishing as a primary
source of income oddly enough though
even though these sharks were worth so
much more alive than dead they were
still fished quite heavily knowing this
was happening I started working together
with different conservation groups on
campaigns to try to get more protection
for these sharks with their help we
managed to present a story of malapascua
and sharks at the Convention on
International trade in endangered
species it’s an event where world
leaders come together and they decide on
which species will gain more or less
protection based on certain criteria
kind of like a Noah’s Ark of
conservation so this was a good success
because last year these sharks gained
more global protection and are now fully
protected in the Philippines this really
showed me that when passionate people
come together and were
on a common goal positive change is
really possible it’s not only possible
it’s very likely to happen so I’ll
continue to find those people to work
together with and do my very best in
conserving this beautiful blue planet
that we call home thank you
[Applause]
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