Pristine Seas
Inspiring some of the largest marine reserves in the world.
Without the ocean, life would be impossible. It provides food, livelihoods for billions of people, and regulates the climate. But the ocean is under threat from overfishing, global warming and pollution.
Yet today, only 8% of the ocean is somehow protected — and less than 3% is fully protected from fishing and other damaging activities.
Pristine Seas works with local communities, Indigenous Peoples, government and partners to protect the last wild places left, but also areas that have been somehow degraded by human activities, so they can bounce back. Marine life thrives in these marine protected areas and provides multiple benefits to people, from food and coastal protection to jobs and economic revenue.
Where we work
Since 2008, Pristine Seas has carried out 41 expeditions to over 30 places, 26 of which have since been protected, covering a total area of more than 6.6 million square kilometers.

The Global Expedition
In 2023, National Geographic Pristine Seas launched a bold new conservation effort: The Global Expedition. The Pristine Seas team of scientists, policy experts, and filmmakers, will spend the next five years exploring the tropical Pacific aboard the R/V Argo, a 130-foot customized research vessel and media center, with the goal of supporting communities and governments in their efforts to protect the ocean. The Argo is Pristine Seas’ modern-day equivalent of Jacques Cousteau’s famous ship Calypso, but with an ocean conservation purpose.
A closer look
Our team of scientists, filmmakers and policy experts have traveled across the ocean — from the poles to the tropics — to inspire the creation of marine protected areas. Take a closer look at some success stories from around the world.
Tristan da Cunha
Juan Fernández Archipelago
Revillagigedo Islands
Niue
Scientific research
Pristine Seas team members have collectively published more than 200 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals ranging from Nature, Science Advances, PLOS One and more.
Leveraging world-class expertise
Executive Director

Enric Sala
Enric Sala is a former university professor who saw himself writing the obituary of ocean life, and quit academia to become a full-time conservationist as a National Geographic Explorer in Residence. He founded and leads Pristine Seas, a project that combines exploration, research, and media to inspire country leaders to protect the last wild places in the ocean. To date, Pristine Seas has helped to create 26 of the largest marine reserves on the planet, covering an area of more than 6 million square kilometers. He has earned numerous honors for his work, including 2008 World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader, 2013 Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award, 2013 Environmental Media Association Hero Award, 2016 Russian Geographical Society Award, 2018 Heinz Award in Public Policy, 2021 Prince Albert I Grand Medal, and 2021 National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Sala earned a B.S. in Biology from the University of Barcelona and a Ph.D. in ecology from Aix-Marseille University, France.
Business Operations
Patrick Hare
Patrick Hare leads business operations, expedition logistics, and special projects for Pristine Seas. Hare has supervised and produced expeditions, media, and events for National Geographic and other organizations including Smithsonian, Discovery, PBS, the National Park Service, Vulcan, and the Sundance Institute. In 2011, he was awarded a News and Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Research for his National Geographic Channel documentary “Can the Gulf Survive?” Hare graduated from James Madison University with a degree in media arts and design and is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Sam Mandl
Sam Mandl supports expedition planning, contract management, and program logistics. He previously worked in science communication and education at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, the Blue Frontier Campaign, and the American Society for Microbiology. He graduated from Dickinson College with a bachelor’s degree in biology, and discovered his passion for environmental studies and conservation while studying abroad at the University of Queensland.
Siena Inaba
Expeditions
Mike Barnaby
Doug Simpson
Doug Simpson is a United States Coast Guard 50T captain, research diver, and ecological conservationist dedicated to working towards a more sustainable future. Doug graduated from Humboldt State University with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a minor in research and rescue diving. He worked for several years as a research diver along the California coast before joining Pristine Seas on an expedition to Tristan Da Cunha as a member of the science team. Since then he has worked in Alaska as a commercial fisherman, as a research diver in Gabon, as an environmental consultant in California, and started his own business as a whale watching sailing charter captain.
Sydney McDonald
Sydney McDonald supports the Pristine Seas executive director and the policy team. Prior to joining the National Geographic Society, she worked for Deloitte & Touche as an analyst for FEMA’s floodplain mapping program. Previously, she established foundational operations processes for the Obama and Biden post-administration offices. She has also worked for the National Aquarium and U.S. Department of the Interior. McDonald graduated from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. with a bachelor’s degree in international environmental studies, and studied social sciences at University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Paul Rose
One of the world’s most accomplished science divers, polar explorers and expedition leaders, Paul Rose helps scientists unlock and communicate global mysteries in the most remote and challenging regions of the planet. He is the expedition leader for National Geographic Pristine Seas, which has completed over 30 expeditions all over the globe. A broadcaster, published author and journalist, Rose presents BBC television programs on current affairs, science and the environment, including the highly acclaimed Oceans, Britain’s Secret Seas, Voyages of Discovery and the award winning series, The Lakes. Rose is an Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme. He is vice president of Deptherapy, a charity providing specially adapted scuba diving programs for seriously injured armed service personnel. Rose spent a decade as base commander of Rothera Research Station, Antarctica, for the British Antarctic Survey. For this he was awarded the Queen’s Polar Medal. He is a former vice president of the Royal Geographical Society, which awarded him its Founder’s Medal and Ness Award. A mountain has been named after him in Antarctica.
Ryan Jenkinson
Research
Molly Timmers
Dr. Alan Friedlander
Whitney Goodell
Enric “Kike” Ballesteros
Enric “Kike” Ballesteros has been part of the Pristine Seas team since its inception. As a field naturalist his interests are focused on marine and freshwater ecosystems. His chief responsibility on expeditions is to describe benthic assemblages, the biodiversity occurring at the bottom of the ocean. Based at the Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes in Spain, he has primarily studied the Mediterranean region. He specializes in seaweed and seagrass taxonomy and ecology and has a deep understanding of marine invertebrates. His main areas of research include habitat mapping and description, the effects of introduced species on ecosystems, seaweed ecology, and the long-term monitoring of benthic communities. He has authored several books on marine algae, mushrooms, and the biology and ecology of marine Mediterranean ecosystems. His book Marine Wildlife of the Mediterranean (2015) has been translated to Spanish, French, Turkish, Dutch, German and Catalan. He has contributed to numerous other books and more than 300 research papers.
Mike Barnaby
Juan Mayorga is a marine data scientist working to leverage emerging Earth monitoring technologies and datasets to catalyze marine conservation. Mayorga is based at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Environmental Market Solutions Lab. His work combines data science, marine ecology, economics, and conservation planning to better understand human activities at sea and distill actionable insights to advance conservation. He leads Pristine Seas’ partnership with Global Fishing Watch, an open-source technology platform that tracks industrial fishing activity with unprecedented resolution and in near-real time. By making fisheries data transparent, this collaboration has been instrumental in accelerating ocean protection since it allows us to assess the economic implications of protected areas and have transparent and well-informed decision-making processes. His most recent work involves developing a state-of-the-art conservation prioritization framework to identify the most critical places in the ocean to protect biodiversity, safeguard carbon stocks, and improve fisheries yields. Mayorga holds a master’s in environmental science and management from UC Santa Barbara.
Media
Brian Newell
Alex Verville
Manu San Félix
Manu San Félix is a marine biologist and has been a professional diver since 1981, he has conducted approximately 12,000 dives. He is an open circuit and rebreather instructor with more than 20 specialties as a dive instructor and professional skipper. During his university studies he linked science and photography to become a “biologist with a camera.” He has worked for Pristine Seas since 2009 as an underwater image director. San Félix has won Wildlife Photographer of the Year and World Festival of Underwater Pictures, two of the most prestigious underwater photography awards.
Liz Flamenbaum
Tess Goldhagen
Steve Spence
Jon Betz
Jon Betz is a cinematographer and producer specializing in science and natural history storytelling. Filming for National Geographic since 2010, Betz has covered stories in 25 countries across the globe, including subjects such as steppe wolves in Mongolia, paleontology expeditions in the Arctic, and cutting-edge health research in Madagascar. Originally trained as a biologist, Betz is passionate about the natural world and is an avid scuba diver and outdoorsman. As a cinematographer he has broad experience across diverse areas of production, from commercial and political work to feature documentaries. Always willing to push the limits to tell the most compelling and cinematic story, Betz has found himself face-to-face with tigers in India, on an island covered with snakes in northern China, wading through croc-inhabited waters in Botswana, and, of course, diving with sharks. Betz has worked as a field producer and cinematographer on five Pristine Seas expeditions since 2016. His work has also been featured by Smithsonian, Discovery, and Animal Planet.
Scott Ressler
Sam Deleon
Policy
Dan Myers
Jenny Miller
Courtney Lorey
Alex Muñoz
Alex Muñoz has led campaigns that have resulted in the creation of the seven largest fully protected marine reserves in Latin America, covering 1.2 million square kilometers of ocean. He has also led many important ocean policy changes in Chile, which touch on a diverse collection of ocean management issues: banning shark finning, fighting for protections against salmon farming and unchecked antibiotic use, legal protections against destructive fishing practices, and minimizing the impacts of coal-fired power plants on marine habitat. He also put together the first Latin American fellowship course on transparency, accountability and anti-corruption. He was named a Yale World Fellow by Yale University in 2019. Muñoz received a law degree from the University of Chile and a master’s degree in international and comparative law from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Communications
Kirsten Weymouth
Emily Kelly
Emily Pitts
Latest stories
Our impact is often featured in the news. Here are some of the most recent stories about the work the Pristine Seas team is doing around the world.




About Pristine Seas
Since 2008, Pristine Seas has helped establish 26 of the largest marine protected areas in the world, covering a total area of 6.6 million square kilometers — more than twice the size of India.
With support from
FOUNDING SPONSOR
Blancpain
FUNDING PARTNERS
Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Lindblad Expeditions–National Geographic Fund, Don Quixote Foundation, Inclusive Capital Partners Foundation, The Campbell Foundation, Waitt Foundation, Oracle, Dutch Postcode Lottery, LGT Venture Philanthropy, Philip Stephenson Foundation, Walmart Foundation, The Heinz Family Foundation, Beagle Foundation, Serventi Family Foundation, and other individual donors.
PAST FUNDERS
Allison Bennington, Brook Foundation, Jean and Steve Case, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, DAVIDOFF Cool Water, Roger and Rosemary Enrico, Helmsley Charitable Trust, Google, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Vicki and Roger Sant, and other individual donors.
Photo credits (from top of page): Manu San Félix, Ossie Michelin, SerrNovik/Getty/iStockphoto, Manu San Félix, Enric Sala, Ossie Michelin, Enric Sala (2)