If you’ve kept up with the SeaLegacy | The Voyage series, you’ve witnessed Paul Nicklen, Cristina Mittermeier, Andy Mann and the rest of the SeaLegacy crew set sail from November 2021 to January 2023 to explore the marine habitats of southern Baja, Mexico. Throughout those episodes, they partnered with conservationists and artisanal fishing communities to create the stories for those communities that are striving to help the Gulf of California recover from stresses, overfishing and biodiversity loss. “Nature is so complex we don’t fully understand it,” says SeaLegacy’s Paul Nicklen, “but we do know that it took millions of years to arrive at this point in time where you have this intact functioning ecosystem and all we ever have to do is draw a line around it and protect it.” In this episode, watch as the expedition culminates with the crew’s ability to help make that protection a reality.

The SeaLegacy crew has dedicated over a year to filming wildlife and artisanal fishing in the Gulf of California. Watch as the expedition culminates with the crew’s ability to help make that protection a reality.

Mittermeier explains how having a deep understanding of the issues and how to solve them is the only real way to create change, and to have that understanding you have to spend time on the ground with people doing the work. She had actually studied the biodiversity of the Gulf of California before – around 30 years ago when she was in college. She calls the opportunity to return to the area on SeaLegacy 1 and to go to more remote locations a dream come true. “But the most important thing for me,” she says, “was after all these years to have the ability to help make this protection a reality.”

“Our goal in Baja was to come back and get those visuals of a very connected, rich ecosystem and arm Mario with the visuals that will allow him to go work toward the slow heavy lift process of policy and change to protect this place,” adds Nicklen.

And they did just that. The SeaLegacy crew dedicated over a year to filming all the wildlife and artisanal fishing communities they could, because they know that knowledge is everything. “It’s important to tell their story,” says Mann. “It’s important to listen to their story. The story doesn’t come from us, it comes through us. When we operate and work that way with the guidance of local stakeholders – like Frida, like Mario, like the fishing community – the stories are better for it. And that’s the single greatest asset to your story, is knowledge.”

“And that’s the single greatest asset to your story, is knowledge.” – Andy Mann

The Gulf of California is an incredibly productive place for artisanal fishing and the tourism industry, with almost 70 percent of all the fishing catch in Mexico coming from it. It’s a big economic boost for the country, and so important to protect as much as possible while we still can. With orange on its sails, a sign of help to serve as a beacon of hope, SeaLegacy 1 has carried the crew throughout the Gulf of California to create photos and videos that expand that hope. “When people come together. When people believe in a common goal. When people befriend each other, and respect each other, and listen to each other. That’s a recipe for success,” says Mann.

The photos and videos are just the beginning – next comes the real change. “It’s been great to get the footage,” says Nicklen. “It’s not going to feel nearly as good as if we have a major conservation win here that’s going to benefit everybody in Mexico.”

Join the Tide to help SeaLegacy amplify its conservation impact on the front lines and from onboard the Expedition Vessel SeaLegacy1.

See more SeaLegacy videos on the Alpha Universe YouTube Channel.