Last week One World One Ocean, a brand new effort for ocean awareness and new partner for Mission Blue, launched to the world. Started by Greg MacGillivray, Academy Award-nominated producer/director and president of MacGillivray Freeman Films, independent producer of IMAX® Theatre films, One World One Ocean (OWOO) is a multi-year, multi-platform nonprofit campaign that will harness the power of film, television and new media to inspire people around the world to join the movement to save the oceans.

2009 TED Prize winner Sylvia Earle joins their campaign as principal science adviser and key spokesperson, playing a leading role in a range of OWOO activities and content, including expeditions, blogs, multimedia and social media.

Over the next five years, One World One Ocean, in collaboration with MacGillivray Freeman will produce three 3D IMAX films, an 8-part television series, a 3D theatrical documentary and hundreds of online videos – all designed to change the way people see and value the ocean. The website will serve as the creative hub for ocean-inspired content and conversation for the campaign.

“Our actions toward the ocean in the next 10 years will define the next 10,000, and I look forward to working closely with One World One Ocean to inspire people to save the blue heart of the planet,” said Sylvia.

Check out the One World One Ocean campaign on Facebook >>>
Check out the One World One Ocean campaign on Twitter >>>

“As the ocean gives us life, we must give back — an enduring gift from us to the future.” — Sylvia Earle

Today we celebrate 2009 TED Prize winner Sylvia Earle‘s birthday by celebrating the many successes in ocean protection that took place in 2011.

Sylvia recently told us the good news: “[This year there was] a significant increase in protection by the U.K. for the Chagos Archipelago, by Chile for the waters around Sal y Gomez, by Costa Rica for the Cocos Islands in addition to greater protection for sharks in Hawaii, the Republic of Palau, Honduras and the Maldives — and more! Pacific Island nations are collaborating in an effort to greatly increase the size and scope of safe havens for ocean wildlife. Awareness is growing about the need to reform fishing policies. Momentum is growing on many fronts, from the Sargasso Sea to the Ross Sea and beyond.”

But there is plenty more to do to build on this recent success. Recently Sylvia helped launchOceanElders, a group of leaders from around the world including Ted Turner and Sir Richard Branson, who have come together to shine a global spotlight on the need for ocean conservation.

We want to know how you are helping fulfill Sylvia’s wish. Join us in a new TED Conversation to discuss what steps you are taking to protect the ocean.

You can also follow Sylvia on Facebook and Twitter.

This week Sylvia Earle and Dr. Thomas Shirley are leading an exploratory expedition to the Gulf of Mexico, around the site of last April’s BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill to document the impact of the disaster as well as determine a potential path forward for the area.

From the National Geographic blog:

“Our goal is to identify areas with potential for Gulf ecosystem recovery,” said Dr. Earle…”That is going to require protection of places healthy enough to replenish and rebuild populations. What’s happened [there] is far from over for the clams and oysters and other sea life critical to a healthy Gulf of Mexico.”

[...] The expedition team, assembled under the broad banner of the Mission Blue initiative, seeks answers to questions about the current status of key species and ecosystems. What they learn will be compared with historical data gathered in the region since the 1950s, archived at the Harte Research Institute.

Other research participants include: Edith “Edie” Widder and Brandy Nelson, Ocean Research & Conservation Association; Carl Safina, Blue Ocean Institute; Eric Hoffmayer, University of Southern Mississippi and Larry McKinney, Douglas Weaver, and Harriet Nash of the Harte Research Institute.

You can track the expedition and access updates on the Ocean in Google Earth.

2009 TED Prize winner Sylvia Earle has just been named TreeHugger’s Person of the Year for “for [her] history of contributions to environmentalism [as well as] for significant and specific accomplishments in 2010.”

Earle’s accomplishments range from diving records—she led the first team of female aquanauts, set a human depth record of 1250 feet in a JIM suit, and holds the women’s record of 3,280 feet for a solo dive in a deep submersible—to ocean engineering innovations, scientific discoveries to administrative leadership.

[...] In 2009, Sylvia Earle won the TED Prize and made a wish: That TED “would use all means at your disposal…to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.”

This year, she had the opportunity to see this dream become a reality with the launch of Mission Blue—and, with oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico for half of the year, her vision and skills were never needed more.

Read the full post here.

This past Thursday, on a perfect LA night, the TED Prize, with support from The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, hosted a gathering of TED supporters in celebration of Sylvia Earle and Mission Blue, the result of her 2009 TED Prize wish.

Musicians, conservationists, artists, actors, philanthropists gathered to hear from TED Prize Director Amy Novogratz who spoke about the initiatives that sprung from the Mission Blue Voyage (many of whose participants were at the event) and the critical work ahead to protect and restore our oceans.

“When the TED community comes together, we really can make a wish come true – one that changes the world and makes it better for generations to come,” said Amy. “For Sylvia Earle, her Mission Blue wish is helping to protect and restore our oceans. As is clear by the artists, entertainers, and conservationists who joined the Mission Blue voyage, Sylvia’s dedication is contagious. She has captured the attention of people around the world and, most importantly, their commitment to save our oceans and create Marine Protected Areas.”

Then Greg Stone, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientist for Oceans at Conservation International, spoke. Greg is leading the Pacific Seascape Initiative – one of eight initiatives born out of the voyage. Following his remarks, Oscar-winning documentarian Fisher Stevens debuted a preview of his Mission Blue documentary, which was received with enthusiastic applause and praise.

Dianna Cohen, another Mission Blue voyager, previewed the TEDx event that happened the next day to address the plastic pollution in our oceans.

To close, Anisa Kamadoli Costa, President of the Tiffany & Co Foundation, honored Dr. Sylvia Earle with a Tiffany starfish broche that she immediately pinned to her bright, ocean-blue jacket. “The Tiffany & Co. Foundation is proud to support Sylvia Earle and her Mission Blue campaign through the phenomenal reach and vision embodied in her TED Prize,” said Ms. Costa. “Since its inception, the Foundation has supported coral conservation and Dr. Earle is perhaps the best ambassador to educate the public on the vital issues facing our oceans today.”

Thank you to Belvedere Vodka for providing ‘Hope Spot’ inspired cocktails.

Photo credit: Getty Images

From the TIME story on ocean hotspots: Saya de Malha Banks

TIME magazine’s Bryan Walsh has posted a beautiful, in-depth story about Sylvia Earle and Mission Blue. Traveling from the Galapagos to the Sargasso Sea, and through oceans around the world, the profile tells Sylvia’s story as a pioneering ocean scientist — and details her lifelong quest to protect the ocean, one “hope spot” at a time.

From the story:

If her goal is audacious — we don’t even have the legal institutions yet to protect international waters — so is Earle. “I can’t think of many others who’ve been as persistent and vocal and forward-thinking on the oceans as Sylvia,” says Greg Stone, chief scientist for oceans at Conservation International. “The world is opening up to her message.” The often fractious marine-conservation movement — along with new corporate allies like Google — is making a concerted push for attention under the Mission Blue banner, focusing on reducing overfishing and expanding protection.

Read the whole story >>

Slideshow: 10 amazing ocean “hope spots” >>

Bermuda
September 2, 2010
By David Shaw

Departing Bermuda today, we are reminded of the Mark Twain comment:  “You can go to heaven. I’ll go to Bermuda.”

We raced to Bermuda just ahead of Hurricane Earl this week to celebrate another force of nature named Earle – legendary ocean explorer and 2009 TED Prize winner Dr. Sylvia Earle.  A dozen Bermudians and ocean conservationists gathered with “Her Deepness” for a birthday dinner on August 30 and for several days of exploration.  Our exploration, in this case, is a bold and unprecedented initiative; to protect the Sargasso Sea – a vast, swirling drift algae forest spread across a million square miles in the North Atlantic.  It is one of the world’s most unique ecosystems, and the group spent several days at sea getting better acquainted with it.

Richard Rockefeller and others have blogged on our experience in Bermuda and on special characteristics of the Sargasso Sea that make it such a compelling candidate for protection.

Our goal is to create a Sargasso marine protected area in two years, and the group is highly motivated to get this done.

But I share the view that this initiative has global environmental significance far beyond the reaches of the Sargasso Sea.  It can – and should – become a precedent and catalyst for establishing a much more extensive network of high seas marine protected areas around the world. “High seas” constitute the two-thirds of the world ocean area not encompassed within national Exclusive Economic Zones.

Governance mechanisms developed for the Sargasso initiative can hopefully be applied successfully to the Arctic, the South Pacific, the Southern Oceans surrounding Antarctica and other areas. To compensate for the magnitude of environmental peril facing humanity as ocean ecosystems continue to deteriorate, it seems likely that these mechanisms will need to include tough, scientifically-based and comprehensive zoning-type systems for all ocean uses and interactions around the world.

This was my second trip to Bermuda since this project launched several months ago.  It was my first exposure to Prochlorococcus, a tiny phytoplankton species apparently responsible for generating 20 percent of Earth’s oxygen.  It was my first exposure to the amazing variety of creatures living in vast floating mats of sargassum – and to the annual spectacle of coral spawning (did we really have to swim in it?).  It was my first exposure to the legendary and colorful Teddy Tucker, master diver and explorer of innumerable shipwrecks.

And it was a great opportunity for all of us to celebrate Sylvia’s birthday and her tireless efforts to save the sea.  This included performing a song I wrote with Richard to the amusement of others in a restaurant during Sylvia’s birthday dinner.  I include the song below, and just hope the event wasn’t recorded!

Sylvia Save the Sea Song

(Tune of “Let It Be”)

Composed by David Shaw
Performed by David Shaw and Richard Rockefeller August 30, 2010
On the occasion of Sylvia Earle’s 75th birthday party in Hamilton, Bermuda

When I find my tanks are short on nitrox
Her Deepness sometimes comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Save the Sea, Save the Sea

And if you want blue fin sashimi
She will never let it be!
Speaking words of wisdom
Save the Sea
Save the Sea, Save the Sea, Help Sylvia Save the Sea
Speaking Words of Wisdom, Save the Sea

She’s scuba’d Cuba, she swam Japan
She dove the Cove, she’s kissed some fish
Wearing ruby flippers
To save the sea

When Bermuda sought to save Sargasso
Who could ever disagree
She had an easy answer
Save the Sea

Save the Sea, Save the Sea, Help Sylvia Save the Sea
Speaking Words of Wisdom, Save the Sea

Save the Sea, Save the Sea, Help Sylvia Save the Sea
Speaking Words of Wisdom, Save the Sea

Now she’s become a hope spot
And is with us for a BIG birthday
Shine on aquanaut
Save the Sea

Save the Sea, Save the Sea, Help Sylvia Save the Sea
Speaking Words of Wisdom, Save the Sea