Story | Connie Li Photography | Rolex
“If you can’t protect the Galápagos Islands, what part of the planet can you protect?”
Galápagos Islands
Legendary oceanographer and founder of the charity “Mission Blue”, Sylvia Earle, who made that statement, first visited the archipelago in 1966 and remarked that it was “the sharkiest, fishiest place” she’d ever seen.
A Galápagos shark patrols the reefs of the Galápagos Islands Hope Spot.
However, the need to protect the Galápagos Islands’ abundant and unique ecosystems from invasive species and increasing popularity led Earle to a powerful solution. In 2008 she founded Mission Blue to ignite change through a global network of ‘Hope Spots’ —marine-protected areas of critical vulnerability.
Sylvia Earle, Rolex Testimonee and founder of Mission Blue, dives among the reef wonders of the Galápagos Islands Hope Spot.
The Galápagos were chosen as one of Earle’s first Hope Spots in 2010 and in 2014 Rolex partnered with Mission Blue to promote marine conservation. This partnership was reinforced with the launch of the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative in 2019 which embraces an enhanced partnership with the National Geographic Society to collect climate data and Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue enterprise.
Sylvia Earle and Salome Buglass descend in the DeepSee submersible in search of deep sea kelp that may be new to science, during the Mission Blue Galápagos expedition in 2022.
Named as “First Hero for the Planet” by Time Magazine, Earle’s ground-breaking submersible expeditions with Salome Buglass of the Charles Darwin Foundation extended their explorations of the depths. Footage of lush undersea forests and teeming marine life added to growing evidence of the need for increased marine protections and in 2021, Ecuador, Panama, Colombia and Costa Rica announced the creation of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor initiative—joining together to create a fishing-free “swimway” in a critical migratory route for sharks, turtles, rays and whales.
A Galápagos marine iguana rests on shore.
A whale shark disappears into the inky blue waters of the Galápagos Islands Hope Spot. In 2022 Ecuador expanded the Galápagos Marine Reserve to the water boundaries of Costa Rica.
As Earle says, “think like an ocean”—which recognises the connectivity of ecosystems and that, for marine life, there are no boundaries.
