Davidoff Cool Water have joined forces with National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Mission this summer to launch their “Love the Ocean” campaign. Davidoff Cool Water is the quintessential ocean fragrance, launched in 1988 it introduced a new wave of freshness to the world and is still a best seller today.

The limited edition sleeve on the Davidoff Cool Water bottles will offer a unique access code; enabling buyers to use a geo-localisation application to follow Enric Sala’s (Nat. Geo. explorer) latest expedition  to the Pitcairn Islands, online.

The Pristine Seas mission aims to work in collaboration with local communities to conserve ocean’s beauty and create protected marine areas.

From Enric Sala

“In the last 3 weeks we visited the four islands and atolls in the Pitcairn Archipelago (Pitcairn, Ducie, Henderson, and Oeno). We conducted 384 individual dives, spending a total of over 450 person-hours underwater. We counted and measured underwater 40,210 fishes, 5000 sea urchins, 6300 coral colonies, and 14,500 algae. We had a handful of sunny days and calm seas, and many days with big swells, wind and rain. We observed extraordinary things, from the pristine reef at Ducie Atoll formed by pale blue corals looking like giant roses, to the sharks moving elegantly, like synchronized swimmers, over a sandy patch at Henderson Island. We found species never reported before for the Pitcairn Islands, including algae, corals, reef fishes, and some deep sea sharks that we still need to identify. All in all, it was an extraordinary experience.

Pitcairn was rough, windy and rainy, surrounded by a halo of murky water. Yet, we saw schools of hundreds of rudderfish grazing on the rocky bottom. And we discovered a previously unreported deep coral reef. Most important, we found a welcoming community of Pitcairners who made us feel at home on that big rock in the middle of the South Pacific.

Ducie was paradise: a coral ring surrounded by crystal clear waters, luxurious coral reefs, and healthy fish communities dominated by top predators such as sharks. Ducie was the most pristine of the four islands.

Henderson was mysterious, with the edges of a green thick forest hanging from dark limestone cliffs. Underwater, we found curious sharks that followed us during our re-breather dives.

Oeno was the atoll that did not want to reveal its secrets – because of rough seas. With persistence and patience we found very abundant carnivores of small to medium sizes, including ubiquitous groupers – red and yellow, white and brown, and with all the colors of a peacock.

Now our team will spend a few months analyzing all the data we collected, selecting from the footage we took and editing a National Geographic documentary. The most fun is past, and now the tedious work of data analysis and writing begins. However, the memories of this expedition will be with us forever.

I cannot think of enough words of acknowledgement for the institutions that collaborated in this expedition and made it successful: National Geographic Society, Pew Environment Group, Spain’s National Research Council, US Geological Survey, University of Hawaii, US National Park Service, University of California Santa Barbara, and the phenomenal crew of the Claymore II, who made our work possible in safety. We are very grateful to the Pitcairners at large, who hosted us in their homes and showed to us the secrets of their island. Thanks to the Pitcairn Council and the office of the Governor of Pitcairn, Ducie, Oeno and Henderson for authorizing our stay and providing research permits. And last but not least, we are indebted to our mission partners that made the expedition possible: Blancpain and Davidoff-Cool Water.

Supporting this partnership is Hollywood actor Paul Walker, the face of Davidoff Cool Water. Paul has studied marine biology and is known for his passion for the ocean. Learn more about the Pristine Seas Mission and the partnership with National Geographic visit www.love-the-ocean.com

Davidoff Cool Water have joined forces with National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Mission this summer to launch their “Love the Ocean” campaign. Davidoff Cool Water is the quintessential ocean fragrance, launched in 1988 it introduced a new wave of freshness to the world and is still a best seller today.

The limited edition sleeve on the Davidoff Cool Water bottles will offer a unique access code; enabling buyers to use a geo-localisation application to follow Enric Sala’s (Nat. Geo. explorer) latest expedition  to the Pitcairn Islands, online.

The Pristine Seas mission aims to work in collaboration with local communities to conserve ocean’s beauty and create protected marine areas.

Enric Sala and his team of scientists have recently returned to the Southern Line Islands, a province of the Republic of Kiribati, situated 2,000 miles south of Hawaii.

The team spent six weeks visiting Flint, Vostok, Millennium, Starbuck, and Malden islands which are some of the most remote and isolated on Earth.

The scientists observed and documented water quality, fish populations, predator populations and the health and variety of the coral reef itself.

The expedition was the first study of its kind and is set to be used by researchers with the aim to create a baseline model for healthy coral reefs, to measure the effects of human activity on these ecosystems, and to devise a scheme for the preservation of degraded reefs.

The southern Line Islands are currently unprotected, and while remote, they are not safe from human impacts. Vostok, Starbuck, Millennium, and the other southern Line Islands, are home to gorgeous coral reefs that are among the most pristine on the planet. But at Malden the team found sharks with hooks hanging from their mouths and thinned shark populations at Flint.

These are the first symptoms of encroaching human pressure on this remote paradise. Sharks could be eliminated from the southern Line Islands by long-liners within months, but it would take decades for them to recover. We don’t have the luxury of losing the sharks of the southern Line Islands, like we’ve lost them almost everywhere else. Sharks are the first to disappear because of humans, and this is only the first step in a path to destruction that ends with dead corals, abundant microbes, and stinging jellyfish. Sharks and other large predators are good; they keep the reef healthy. They have to be in the ocean, not in shark-fin soup.

There is a lot of work to do, but there is hope.

Supporting this partnership is Hollywood actor Paul Walker, the face of Davidoff Cool Water. Paul has studied marine biology and is known for his passion for the ocean. Learn more about the Pristine Seas Mission and the partnership with National Geographic visit www.love-the-ocean.com

Davidoff Cool Water have joined forces with National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Mission this summer to launch their “Love the Ocean” campaign. Davidoff Cool Water is the quintessential ocean fragrance, launched in 1988 it introduced a new wave of freshness to the world and is still a best seller today.
The limited edition sleeve on the Davidoff Cool Water bottles will offer a unique access code; enabling buyers to use a geo-localisation application to follow Enric Sala’s (Nat. Geo. explorer) latest expedition  to the Pitcairn Islands, online.
The Pristine Seas mission aims to work in collaboration with local communities to conserve ocean’s beauty and create protected marine areas.
National Geographic travelled to the isolated Salas y Gómez Island, 200 miles east of Easter Island, Chile, to discover what is beneath these largely unseen waters.
The team, which consisted of 18 people, looked at everything from algae to corals to fish and sharks.
Scientists satellite-tagged sharks for long-term tracking to visualise where they go over the coming months. Robots were also used to go down hundreds of meters in the ocean to see what’s there and learn more about untouched coral reefs.
Their report highlights that both Salas y Gómez and Easter Island have one of the highest endemic fish populations for oceanic islands in the world.
“Our work in Chile provides us with considerable information in terms of understanding ocean life in the Motu Motiro Hiva Marine Park and its surroundings. It is the first quantitative study conducted in Motu Motiro Hiva and Rapa Nui, and data collected here reveal that both islands are a biodiversity hotspot for reef fish,” said Dr. Enric Sala, marine ecologist and National Geographic Ocean Fellow.

The report reveals that 77 percent of individual fish species in Easter Island and 73 percent in Salas y Gómez are endemic. The expedition also confirmed that 53 percent of the seabed in Easter Island and 44 percent in Salas y Gómez contains live corals, with an excellent conservation status, that serve as habitat for several species of fish and invertebrates. Oceana staff recently met with local decision-makers and stakeholders in Easter Island to share the report and discuss the next steps required for the protection of the marine resources of the Rapa Nui community. At the end of April, representatives from Oceana and National Geographic met with Chilean President Sebastián Piñera and shared the most relevant findings of the scientific study, expressing the need to extend the area of the Motu Motiro Hiva Marine Park.
Supporting this partnership is Hollywood actor Paul Walker, the face of Davidoff Cool Water. Paul has studied marine biology and is known for his passion for the ocean. To learn more about the Pristine Seas Mission and the partnership with National Geographic visit www.love-the-ocean.com