{"id":552387,"date":"2026-07-21T14:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/552387\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:04:13","slug":"sylvia-earle-and-titouan-bernicot-five-ways-to-save-our-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/552387\/","title":{"rendered":"Sylvia Earle and Titouan Bernicot: Five ways to save our ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex\u2019s Perpetual Planet Initiative<\/a> has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.\n<\/p>\n

Washington, DC\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Sylvia Earle has many titles: oceanographer, marine biologist and \u201cHer Deepness,\u201d to name a few. Perhaps the most endearing and characteristic of them all: \u201cOcean Sister\u201d \u2014 a nickname given by friend and marine conservation ally Titouan Bernicot.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now 90, Earle has explored the ocean and advocated for its protection for more than seven decades \u2014 from cataloging aquatic plants to pioneering deep-sea research.\n <\/p>\n

\n A trailblazer in her field, in 1979 she set a record for the deepest walk on the ocean floor in an untethered diving suit, and in 1990, she became the first female chief scientist of the NOAA (the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2009, she founded Mission Blue, a nonprofit that protects the ocean by establishing Hope Spots<\/a> \u2014 marine areas recognized for their ecological importance and championed by local communities \u2014 and empowering conservation through education.\n <\/p>\n

\n That vision has inspired and shaped the next generation of ocean advocates \u2014 including Bernicot. After witnessing the decline of the reef off his home in Mo\u2019orea, French Polynesia, he made it his life\u2019s mission to help restore the world\u2019s coral reefs.\n <\/p>\n

\"Titouan<\/p>\n

\n He founded Coral Gardeners<\/a> in 2017, and what started as a local coral-planting effort has turned into an international movement. Today, the organization has planted more than 221,000 corals across 25,100 square meters (30,019 square yards) of reef and is working toward a presence in 10 countries by 2030.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, the two Rolex Testimonees are joining forces in the fight to save our ocean. In March, they dove together in Thailand, where Coral Gardners\u2019 latest outpost is helping restore bleached reefs around the remote Koh Mak and Koh Kood islands, which Earle believes could become a Hope Spot.\n <\/p>\n

\"image<\/p>\n

For the Ocean: Sylvia Earle and Titouan Bernicot\n <\/p>\n

\"image<\/p>\n

For the Ocean: Sylvia Earle and Titouan Bernicot<\/p>\n

22:59<\/p>\n

\n The pair recently sat down together with CNN inside National Geographic\u2019s new Museum of Exploration<\/a> to discuss the state of the ocean, how technology can help it recover and why exploring and protecting marine ecosystems is important for all life on Earth.\n <\/p>\n

\n These are five ways they believe we can turn the tide and revive our ocean.\n <\/p>\n

\n With scientists anticipating a powerful Super El Ni\u00f1o<\/a> climate pattern this year, which could significantly increase ocean temperatures and put even more stress on coral reefs, Bernicot admits he\u2019s worried about what lies ahead.\n <\/p>\n

\n But instead of bracing for disaster, he said Coral Gardeners is using the event to test climate adaptation strategies. By experimenting with more heat-tolerant corals, he hopes today\u2019s challenges will help build more resilient reefs for the future and advance restoration efforts worldwide.\n <\/p>\n

\"These<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity in a way to try to improve the scientific methodology, and I think that\u2019s the only way,\u201d he told Earle.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mission Blue and Coral Gardeners, supported by the Perpetual Planet Initiative, are built around the same idea: lasting conservation begins with the people who know an ecosystem best.\n <\/p>\n

\n When Earle founded Mission Blue, the goal was to inspire people to protect the places they love. Today, the organization supports more than 170 Hope Spots across 116 countries. Earle called it \u201ca network of hope\u201d led by \u201cChampions\u201d \u2014 who are local scientists, conservationists or community leaders at the forefront of protecting their marine environment.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cChampions want to do whatever they can, either to bring back health, or to find a place that is still in great shape and say, \u2018this needs to stay this way,\u2019 and we need to protect those areas,\u201d Earle said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bernicot also believes this global issue requires local expertise. As Coral Gardners expands into other countries like Fiji and Thailand, it partners with, hires and trains locals to manage the nurseries and outplant corals.\n <\/p>\n

\n When Bernicot first began planting coral, he said officials wouldn\u2019t grant him permits. But he did it anyway: \u201cI was like, \u2018put me in jail, I don\u2019t care. I\u2019m just a kid trying to save what I love,\u201d he recounted to Earle.\n <\/p>\n

\n So when he received an unexpected call from French Polynesian President Moetai Brotherson a few months ago, he was nervous. But the president thanked him for ignoring the rules and announced the country would officially recognize coral gardener as a profession, complete with a legal framework, training academy and diploma, said Bernicot.\n <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n And Bernicot is already thinking of other ways to get people involved.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe last nine years, people were watching us restore the reef, plant corals,\u201d he said, \u201cThe next nine years, people will participate \u2014 everyone with hands can be a gardener.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n They are aiming to make kits that can be deployed all over the world wherever there\u2019s a reef in need, Bernicot explained.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cImagine if, through global collaboration with Hope Spots, with what you\u2019re doing with Coral Gardeners, we could inspire caring and making it cool to care, give people jobs to care, to make it fashionable, to make it normal to care for the ocean,\u201d Earle said to Bernicot.\n <\/p>\n

\n Coral restoration is no longer just divers planting coral by hand. Coral Gardeners has brought together engineers from Tesla and SpaceX alongside scientists from Berkeley, MIT and Stanford to develop new tools to make coral restoration faster, smarter and more scalable.\n <\/p>\n

\n From using AI to monitor reef health and track fish populations to building climate-resilient corals, CG Labs<\/a> \u2014 the organization\u2019s innovation and research arm \u2014 is helping transform restoration into a data-driven science.\n <\/p>\n

\n According to Bernicot, just 13 months after restoring reefs through breeding and planting tens of thousands of heat-resistant \u201csuper corals\u201d in Mo\u2019orea, the team recorded twice as many fish as before.\n <\/p>\n

\"Just<\/p>\n

\n Earle, too, is no stranger to leveraging technology. She has been advancing ocean exploration through DOER Marine<\/a>, where she has helped develop advanced submersibles and underwater technologies that expand scientific access to the deep sea.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is going to open a new window that we can share with the world and inspire our kids and anybody to want to see and take care of this amazing planet, this blue speck in the universe that is our only home,\u201d Earle told Bernicot.\n <\/p>\n

\n Healthy reefs depend on far more than coral alone. Earle said that fish, algae, seagrass, mangroves and countless species all play a role in keeping reefs alive.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s a lesson Bernicot says transformed his thinking: \u201cWe are not trying to restore corals, we are restoring the entire ecosystem.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n These marine ecosystems can\u2019t be viewed in isolation, either, Earle said: \u201cConnecting coral reefs with Antarctica, with the Arctic \u2026 it all ties together.\u201d Protecting one habitat ultimately means protecting them all.\n <\/p>\n

\n That ecosystem-first approach is already shaping conservation efforts in French Polynesia, a global trailblazer in ocean conservation, where there are protections in place for more than 30% of its ocean. Just this June, it announced two new Marine Protected Areas equal to the size of France.\n <\/p>\n

\n Earle and Bernicot acknowledge the ocean faces enormous challenges but they recognize that raising awareness plays a massive role in protecting it. \u201cPeople don\u2019t know why they should really care about the ocean,\u201d Earle said. \u201cThe ocean is so big, so vast \u2014 until they know that the ocean keeps all of us alive, why would you care?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Titouan<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe have a built-in life-support system called nature, mostly ocean \u2014 97% of where the water is \u2014 and no water, no life; no blue, no green,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt is about protecting reefs, it is about protecting whales, it\u2019s about protecting the ocean,\u201d Earle added. \u201cBut that means it\u2019s about protecting us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-552387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}