Enric Sala is helping heal the ocean one marine reserve at a time

National Geographic Explorer in Residence Enric Sala isn’t a medical doctor, but he is regularly writing prescriptions. His patient? The ocean. The prescription? Marine protected areas (MPAs) — a designated safe haven for ocean life where fishing, dumping, mining and other destructive human activities are prohibited.

As news of coral bleaching, overfishing and ocean warming events dominate the headlines, the ocean needs an advocate like Sala who is working to find a cure for an ocean that, at times, can appear on its deathbed.

Since 2008, Sala has built a team of world-class scientists, filmmakers, policy professionals and communicators to form National Geographic Pristine Seas — an initiative that explores and documents marine ecosystems to help protect the world’s most vital ocean areas for the benefit of people and nature. On Pristine Seas’ expeditions, scientists and filmmakers are invited by governments to spend weeks at a time at sea, collecting hours of footage and mountains of data to submit to local government leaders so they can determine which parts of their ocean are most important to protect.

Close enough to care

A man who is equally at ease slipping on a wetsuit for a dive as he is donning a suit and tie for fundraising events or meetings with country leaders, Sala understands that to truly inspire people to enact marine protections, you have to bring people close enough to care. 

“When we take government leaders down hundreds of meters underwater in our submersible, for example, we can open a window to their world that they’ve never seen before,” Sala says. “You can see the awe and pride on their faces.”

And then, it was my turn. I had the privilege of joining the Pristine Seas team on their latest research and filmmaking expedition in Fiji. Fiji is the 10th stop on the team’s Global Expedition — a five-year voyage to the tropical Pacific to research the biodiversity of the world’s biggest ocean and provide a snapshot of its health for Pacific leaders seeking to implement marine protections.

I joined the team as they surveyed the waters of the Great Sea Reef off the northern shore of the island of Vanua Levu, Fiji. Aboard the Pristine Seas’ research vessel, the Argo, I watched as marine scientists sent specialized cameras plunging into the ocean to catch a glimpse of the creatures of the deep. A team of expert filmmakers documented their every move. 

Our Expedition leader tells me to grab a raincoat — it’s time to go out on a small boat to recover pelagic baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVs).

On the small boat, salt water slaps my face as we travel 15 minutes in search of a buoy that alerts us of where the line of five BRUVs begins. As the buoy drifts toward our reach, a scientist hands me an orange rope and tells me to pull. I pull. Slowly, the T-shaped BRUV comes into view, and I hoist it aboard. We form an assembly line: One person detaches the bait can and empties the leftovers in the ocean, another person pops the GoPro cameras out of their protective gear, a third person coils the rope neatly into a bucket. The process repeats until all of the BRUVs are out of the water, and we begin our journey back to the Argo.

Later that afternoon, scientists slot the cameras’ memory cards into their computers and begin analyzing the underwater footage from the BRUVs and the drop cameras. As they click through the clips, the search is on for new species. When researching the deep sea, it’s not unusual to see a species new to science — studies show that only .001% of the ocean has been explored by humans. However, to my untrained eye, everything looks new. I am an alien bearing witness to a beautiful new world.

The data collected from the footage will be turned into scientific reports that are shared with leaders to help them make an informed decision about protecting their ocean space. This data, paired with the deep traditional knowledge from the communities in the Pacific, helps piece together the puzzle that is the deep sea.

As the sun sets over the western horizon, I sit crisscrossed on the floor of the Argo’s salon, staring up at a TV playing underwater footage captured from the day before. Mouths agape, we watch a school of barracudas with their dagger-like teeth whip in and out of the camera frame. I take a deep breath and soak in the excitement in the room. Everyday aboard the Argo is a celebration of the ocean. 

“When you take people into the field, they invariably fall in love with the ocean,” Sala says. “If you want people to protect the ocean you must, of course, show them the scientific data. But first you must touch their hearts.”

Creating a thriving ripple effect

Perhaps MPAs’ biggest opponent is industrial fishing lobbyists keen on keeping oceans open to large-scale fishing efforts. Lobbyists argue that MPAs would hinder economic development and decrease fisheries’ productivity.

“There is this myth that we cannot protect more of the ocean because that would harm the fishing industry,” Sala said. “But the evidence shows the opposite.”

In a 2018 study, Sala and his colleague Sylvaine Giakoumi demonstrated how MPAs transform barren underwater seascapes into thriving, diverse ecosystems. Their analysis showed that fully protected areas can cause an increase in fish biomass of more than 500%. Not only do target species bounce back, but entire ecosystems are also restored within MPAs. Couple this with his landmark 2021 study Salal led with dozens of scientists that showed the best marine protection areas for maximum marine life recovery, Sala and colleagues demonstrated how strategically placed MPAs that ban fishing would actually boost the production of fish. By protecting areas from fishing, MPAs allow fish to grow larger, live longer, and reproduce more successfully. These healthy, abundant populations then "spill over" into nearby unprotected fishing grounds.

“Ocean protection and fishing have always had the same goal — more fish in the sea,” Sala says.

But there is one type of fishing that Sala says will always be destructive: bottom trawling. Shown in shocking detail in the new documentary Ocean with David Attenborough, the centuries-old fishing technique involves a ship dragging a massive net with a chain across the seabed, capturing everything in its path. The result: a trail of devastation and significant waste, as the unintended catch (called bycatch) is killed and thrown overboard. “It is hard to imagine a more wasteful way to catch fish,” Attenborough remarks in the film. 

Sala, who was an executive producer and a scientific advisor of the film, said Attenborough’s latest documentary is the most powerful piece of visual media about the ocean ever produced. Importantly, every statement in the film is backed by peer-reviewed research.

“It shows how everything in the ocean is connected. It shows a problem: how we are killing ocean life on an industrial scale, and a solution: no-take marine protected areas,” Sala shared.

A continued global effort

When Sala first founded Pristine Seas in 2008, his goal was to help create five marine protected areas. To date, Pristine Seas has inspired 30 marine protected areas, covering nearly 7 million square kilometers of ocean — an area the size of the Amazon rainforest.

“If I could go back in time and give my younger self a piece of advice, it would be to push harder,” Sala says. “It is amazing what we’ve done, but we need more. Much, much more.”

To prevent the extinction of species and the collapse of our ocean, we must protect 30% of the ocean by 2030, Sala said. Currently, only about 8% of the global ocean is under some form of protection, and less than 3% is in highly or fully protected areas. To bridge this gap, a 2025 study co-authored by Sala shows that the world needs to establish approximately 300 additional large MPAs in remote, offshore areas, and around 188,000 new small MPAs in coastal regions by 2030. Put simply: The world needs roughly 85 new MPAs created every single day until 2030 to reach the 30x30 target.

Scientific evidence shows — without a doubt — that marine protected areas preserve the marvels of the ocean while increasing the food supply, providing economic benefits, and building resilience against a changing climate. This clear and effective solution is the fuel that Sala says has kept him fighting to preserve the ocean wilderness for nearly two decades — and the fuel that will keep him going for years to come.

“The ocean provides us with the oxygen we breathe, moments of wonder, jobs, and food for people around the globe — making it essential to protect,” Sala said.

ABOUT THE WRITER
For the National Geographic Society: Kennedy Lamb is a Communications Specialist for the National Geographic Society. She harnesses her passion for science to translate complex topics into captivating stories that inspire a deeper connection to the wonders of our world.