“Why is your company’s headquarter located up north in Montreal, Canada, if its main product lies between 23° 26′ 22″ north and 23° 26′ 22″ south of the Equator?” ... is the question I hear when telling the Beautiful Oceans story. I answer that coral reefs are important not only to people living in the tropical belt. People from all corners of the world travel to tropical destinations such as the Caribbean, the Pacific or the Red Sea to take brakes form their busy lives so as to enjoy the turquoise colours of coral reef formations.
For us, being close to customers from the North provides us with a better understanding of travellers’ needs and of what they are looking for in terms of ‘travel experience’ - and that comes handy to a company offering a range of ecotourism products focusing on the enjoyment of coral reefs.
Hard currencies for conservation My passion for diving and personal commitment to conservation triggered a career change in 2001 when I left the world of marketing and enrolled for a diploma in environmental studies. As Marine Expedition Leader at Coral Cay Conservation’s flagship site in the Philippines, I spent every day for 6 months with ecotourists who invested a significant amount of their free time, and hard currency, in hands-on coral reef conservation projects. I realized that there was a significant market opportunity and decided to set up a for-profit marine conservation organization. Beautiful Oceans was born.
Beautiful Oceans provides coral reef eco-tours with a strong educational component in the form of marine biology courses. We provide high-level in-water fun for scuba divers, snorkelers and families while, at the same time, contributing to the conservation of coral reefs, through education and carbon-offset programmes.
For a company whose success depends on healthy coral reefs, anything that threatens the very resource it depends upon may spell disaster.
Scientific surveys suggest that 20% of the reefs on Earth have been destroyed in the past few decades, while another 50% are in bad shape or verging on collapse. Our clients want to ‘live’ the corals before they become too distant, too fragile or perhaps stringently regulated as to visitor number. Climate change is one of our main causes of concern. Increases in sea surface temperatures and changes in water chemistry can cause large-scale coral bleaching, increasing the likelihood of coral death.
For a company like Beautiful Oceans, these trends are worrisome. Healthy coral reefs are, literally, the lifeblood of our organization. In fact, a large portion of the entire tourism industry operating in or around the tropical belt depends on healthy coral reefs and the diversity of organisms that can be found there. In light of this, wouldn’t it make perfect business sense for all organizations depending, to some extent, on coral reefs to take care of the very resource they draw their income from?
Inspiring people Our coral reef biology courses have been written to inspire people and to provide information that can easily be applied in-water. Our ‘citizen marine biology’ courses take great care in providing for more in-water fun to make people appreciate the beauty of coral reefs while providing an understanding of the importance of our natural world and the diversity of its living organisms. In teaching about the importance of coral reef biodiversity, knowledge transforms into respect for and, ultimately, into a desire to protect marine and coastal ecosystems. Through our courses, we try to transform scuba divers and snorkelers into environmental stewards, true citizens of Planet Earth. Our corporate philosophy is partly based on this ideal framed by Senegalese environmentalist Baba Dioum: “In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, we will understand only what we are taught”.
On each of our eco-diving and eco-snorkeling adventures, we encourage members of the local community or environmentalists to present their local cultural or environmental heritage. Sometimes, this translates into inviting guest speakers to talk about local efforts in terms of marine conservation or science highlights about reef-related environmental topics.
In an effort to make our local business partners ‘walk the talk’, we select resort operators that contribute in a meaningful manner to the local social infrastructure, the local preservation of the environment – or both. Beautiful Oceans is also part of 1% For The Planet (1), an association of businesses that adopt a principle of voluntary donations to the environment. In fact, we donate either 1% of our annual income or 10% of our profits, whichever is greater, to projects in the field of coral reef conservation.
Smelling CO2 Our company is also part of the Biodiversity and Tourism Network, a web-based platform established to foster dialogue between tourism practitioners and disseminate support for the implementation of the CBD Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism Development (2).
Although local initiatives are incredibly important to reverse the spiraling effect of decreasing coral reef biodiversity, each company can also contribute to global efforts to fight global warming. Beautiful Oceans is taking part in the Diving Carbon Offset Program developed by US-based not for profit organization Sustainable Travel International, in collaboration with Caribbean dive operators (3). This programme allows us to offset the impact each of our customers will have in terms of CO2 emissions. Our trips not only promise to be great fun for underwater photographers, divers, and snorkelers but also provide them the peace of mind as to their CO2 footprint.
I believe that it will soon become the norm for eco-tour operators to integrate carbon offset programmes into the price structure of their services – otherwise they will fail to be taken seriously by their customers.
Leaving a trail of greenhouse gases behind an eco-adventure tour just doesn’t smell right! Beautiful Oceans takes the lead within the diving industry… and invites others to follow for the sake of this beautiful planet and the diversity of the species that our health, future, as well as our whole business model — rely upon.
Stephan Becker is Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer,
Beautiful Oceans, Inc.
(1)
OnePercentForThePlanet.com (2)
Biodiversity and Tourism Netweork (3)
Sustainable Travel International