Think of the ocean as our global savings account -- and right now, we're only making withdrawals, not deposits.
Enric Sala shows how we can replenish our account through no-take marine reserves, with powerful ecological and economic benefits.
From CNN
When
Enric Sala dips his toes in a pool of water, he does so in the
knowledge he may well be the first man on the planet to do so.
As he lowers himself
below the surface of the ocean in his diving gear he becomes something
of a fish whisperer, an underwater pied piper.
In short, marine life
flocks to the pony-tailed Spaniard.
"It's an amazing
experience to see fish that have never seen humans," he says.
"They come
really, really close to us. That's just unthinkable where people are
fishing. Normally, we're used to them swimming away from us."
"What we're doing is hard
to do almost anywhere in the world. We're seeing large fish and sharks
in almost every dive. People could spend years in, say, the Caribbean
and see less sharks than we can in just one single dive. This latest
trip has been a really, really special experience. It's so wild and we
expected to see healthy reefs but not like this."
National Geographic Pristine Seas Expeditions | Underwater message
Sala is a novelty --
well, certainly to sea life -- with his passion for untouched waters as
National Geographic's explorer-in-residence, whose mission is to help
protect the last wild places in the ocean.
The society's "
Pristine Seas"
initiative has been set up to fend off the long-distance fishing fleets
that have started to encroach in these remote waters.
Just 2% of the world's
waters are protected, and Sala knows he has a gargantuan task ahead of
him that needs massive backing by the world's governments.
Slowly but surely he is
chipping away at ensuring a better future for the world's waters.
Of the
eight areas he has so far visited under the program, four are now
protected with a further two currently pending protection.
His most recent
expedition is to New Caledonia, an archipelago that separated from
Australia 60-85 million years ago, coming to rest 1,210 kilometers east,
and is now a special collectivity of France at the behest of Napoleon
III, who ordered his navy to take formal possession of the 18,500 km².
A day's boat ride north
from New Caledonia's most northern tip, the Waitt's Institute research
vessel has, until recently, been bobbing for the last three weeks slowly
on the water's surface.
A team of 12 people, made up of scientists,
cameramen and crew, with Sala at the epicenter as expedition leader.
Previously an academic,
he recalls: "I was studying the effects of humans on the ocean. It was
so depressing. I thought saving the ocean was a lost battle but then I
decided I wanted to be part of the solution, so we started the Pristine
Seas project.
"Now I feel like there's
hope. Now I go to these places and see what it used to be like, to see
what the future could be elsewhere with regeneration."
Sala's passion for all things underwater is addictive, he talks with a childlike enthusiasm for his current expedition.
He was a boy when first captivated by the magic of the sea, inspired by the famous former diver and explorer Jacques Cousteau.
"Since I can remember,
my dream was to be a diver on his boat but I was born too late for that.
But now I'm getting to do something similar myself. He showed us a lot
and in later years showed us what was wrong with what we were doing. I'm
trying to go one step beyond that and find solutions."
So how would his idol have perceived what Sala and his team are now doing?
"I think he would have
been proud of what we're doing," says Sala, who grew up on the Spanish
Mediterranean coast.
"If he had lived on, I think he would have done
something like this himself. But he was just an amazing man known by so
many people around the world."
Sala's current quest is
aimed at not just protecting certain waters but regenerating those that
have been fished to within an inch of their lives.
The aim is to ensure
protected areas become increasingly rich in fish and other underwater
life, thereby spilling into other waters as it becomes overly abundant,
thus in the long-term having a positive knock-on effect to fishermen.
But he and his team are
also learning about healthy coral and reef, among other things, to learn
how to help regenerate damaged varieties in other global waters.
Their days are spent diving, filming, photographing and researching.
Sala, indeed, is most at home in the ocean.
"Once in the water, all
the problems on the surface disappear," he insists.
"You're in a world
where you're in complete focus but also at peace. It's a world where you
don't feel the strong gravity from the planet, you feel like you're
flying.
"It completely changes
your perspective on the world. I think it probably helps that endorphins
are being released especially in these pristine places.
"Being able to
experience nature, and raw nature at that, first hand is like going back
in the past. On these trips, it's like I go into a time machine and go
back. It's quite spiritual."
Sharks have become
synonymous with fear in the sea, thanks in part to Steven Spielberg's
"Jaws" film with John Williams' ominous stringed musical buildup to each
unwitting victim of a shark attack.
But Sala's experience of the
underwater predators has been the complete antithesis.
"Every moment is
wonderful, like spending just one dive following clown fish for the
whole dive," he says. "All the animals are special but the most special
are sharks.
"They are just so
beautiful and elegant in the water. They're perfect in their environment
and their shape has not really changed in 300 million years.
"They are also great for
the health of the reef, and the idea that they are dangerous is wrong.
They have a bad reputation but in my five years doing this, diving
sharks, I've not had one problem. I've never once been threatened by
sharks."
His long-term aim, and
that of National Geographic, is to protect 20 seas in total. So how
exactly can you protect large swathes of water?
"It's become much easier
as governments who we've worked with pass laws limiting the areas that
can be fished," he explains.
"Obviously some of these are in remote
waters so the best way to do that is via satellite. For example in New Caledonia, we found out that the French Navy had intercepted an illegal
Chinese fishing vessel. Having a naval presence is also a great
deterrent."
Next on his tick list is
Mozambique in April.
Slowly, sea by sea he is clearing up the planet's
waters, and he is determined to continue.
