Ocean Alive Project

The project is based in 3 fundamental stages: discover, document and divulge.

 

• Discover: Living on a sail boat we have the advantage of visiting different places and staying there as long as we want (or at least the amount of time that immigration and hurricanes permit). So in each island where we arrive we try to discover interesting environmental projects related to marine life in place and record an interview with he person in charge of them. Besides to learn about the project, we always ask at the end of the interview: “what do you think we need to do to keep the ocean alive?”Until now we have discovered 22 marine life related projects in 16 islands, such as: coral restoration projects, lion fish population management, teenager engagement programs, whale diving experiences, research submarines, marine parks, turtle conservation, sharks conservation and cleaning up the ocean. We interviewed more than 30 people about their opinion to keep the ocean alive. In Bonaire we participated in a Clean Up Day promoted by a dive center and we were amazed with the results: 2,130 items collected from below the Town Pier by approximately 110 divers, in one hour. Even Bonaire being an example of a successful Marine Park, a lot of garbage remains in certain areas of the coast.  
   

• Document: Besides documenting the environmental projects we are also registering the marine life capturing underwater and coastal images in photo and video. I use an underwater German housing to film (Kinetics), and a Gopro Hero 7. Alcides uses a Canadian housing to take pictures (Aquatica). We have infrastructure on-board to edit, access internet and produce a documentary. We already have 4 Terabytes in photos and videos, and working on the edition of our first 5 documentaries for television.
   

• Divulge: We are sharing what we have discovered and documented through articles in magazines, social media for the Project Oceano Vivo and the Initiative Cook 4 Life. 
  
  We also share the project through 3 different fronts:
   

• Experience: Guests can have an opportunity to experience the life on board enjoying nature, diving and sailing in Caribbean waters. We compare our boat to planet Earth, with limited resources that must be used consciously, like water, electricity and disposal of garbage. We dive with them and emphasize the changes the ocean is suffering, bringing awareness about simple problems like plastic bags eaten by turtles, over-fishing and invasive species like the “lion fish” – that is part of the menu on-board instead of groupers and barracudas, which population in being reduced in certain islands. Almost 100 divers already have had the Ocean Eyes Experience. 
   

• Educate: We would like to develop an a virtual experience for  children to show them the marine life and to bring awareness about the problems. They are the key for the future. We are also working on a project based on videos about the marine life, its threats and the possible solutions to be used at schools as material for discussions and learning.
   

• Engage: We have more than 11.000 followers in our fanpage Ocean Vivo and we are always motivating people to be more connected to nature in their daily lives.  We must keep the ocean alive. Human survival depends on it.