Since 2008, Mission Blue expeditions have visited Hope Spots around the world, documenting these vibrant marine environments and engaging local stakeholders to protect them. Led by Dr. Sylvia Earle and Expeditions Director Kip Evans, these voyages explore our most critical ocean habitats and are designed to create awareness, foster partnerships and build broad public support for the creation of marine protected areas across the globe.
Expedition Program Goals
- Explore and document Hope Spots from the Arctic to the Antarctic
- Inspire action to protect these critical ocean habitats
- Magnify impact through meaningful partnerships
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Where have we been?
Micronesian Islands Hope Spot
11/01/2018 – 11/08/2018 @ 12:00 am – In June 2018, The Mission Blue team embarked on an expedition to Palau, part of the Micronesian Islands Hope Spot, to dive in the the nation’s vast protected areas to learn about the high biodiversity and threats faced by marine life. Throughout the expedition, the team met with local conservationists, political leaders and partner nonprofits to […]
Spitsbergen Island Hope Spot
06/23/2018 – 06/29/2018 @ 12:00 am – The Mission Blue Expedition Team traveled to the northernmost inhabited region on Earth to document the negative effects of climate change faced there, including rapidly melting glaciers and polluted waters. Spitsbergen Island, as part of the Svalbard Archipelago, is one of the places on Earth that perhaps faces the most extreme effects of a warming […]
Balearic Islands Hope Spot
06/28/2017 – 07/03/2017 @ – The Mission Blue team conducted an expedition to document and raise awareness around the importance of MPAs and the negative effects of overfishing, illegal anchoring, and plastic pollution in the Balearic Islands Hope Spot. The expedition was co-organized with our partners at Asociación Ondine, Drifters Project, Plastic Pollution Coalition and Bonnie Lass Charters. Finally, a very […]
Cocos Island, Costa Rica
05/23/2017 – 06/03/2017 @ – Considered to be the most beautiful island in the world by Jaques Cousteau, the island of Cocos in Costa Rica is a sight to behold. Located 350 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, lives a diversity of large pelagic species including sharks, rays, tunas, and dolphins. Sharks including hammerhead, Galápagos, silky, tiger, white […]
Costa Rica Thermal Dome
04/02/2017 – 04/07/2017 @ – High Seas Journey to the Costa Rica Thermal Dome Joining MarViva on an expedition to the Costa Rican Thermal Dome, a Mission Blue Hope Spot, we documented scientific research in the service of conservation. The Mission Blue team worked in the water and on board the two expedition vessels to document science such as the tagging and release of sharks and […]
Revillagigedo Archipelago, Mexico
01/08/2017 – 01/16/2017 @ – Most landlubbers haven’t heard of the Revillagigedo Archipelago which contains Isla Socorro. But adventurous scuba divers dream about it. The island, sometimes called Mexico’s “little Galápagos”, is a shield volcano that emerged from the ocean floor 5,000 years ago and peeked above the waves 300 miles south of Cabo San Lucas. As the largest island in the Revillagigedo Archipelago, Socorro is an open-ocean way […]
Gulf of California, Mexico
02/25/2016 – 02/28/2016 @ – In 2009, Dr. Earle named the Gulf of California one of her top “Hope Spot” locations and vowed to help bring attention and support to the region. Through expeditions in 2010, 2015 and 2016, Dr. Earle and the Mission Blue team have developed close ties to community groups and policy makers in the Gulf of […]
Balearic Islands, Spain
11/10/2015 – 11/11/2015 @ – In November 2015 Dr. Earle and the Mission Blue team visited the Balearic Islands to launch it as the first Hope Spot in the Mediterranean in partnership with Asociación Ondine and Stefan Hearst. Read more about it here. The Balearic Islands consist of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. This archipelago is strategically located in the middle […]
Cashes Ledge, Gulf of Maine, USA
08/07/2015 – 08/13/2015 @ – Called the “Yellowstone of the North Atlantic” by Dr. Sylvia Earle, Cashes Ledge is a biological hotspot in the Gulf of Maine that is home to the largest cold-water kelp forest on the Atlantic seaboard of the U.S. and provides a nursery for important New England fish species like cod, pollock, Atlantic halibut, and white […]
Cocos Island, Costa Rica
03/22/2015 – 03/30/2015 @ – Dr. Sylvia Earle and the Mission Blue expeditions team visited Cocos Island, Costa Rica in 2011 and 2015 to highlight the immense diversity and fragility of species populating the waters surrounding what Jacques Cousteau called “the most beautiful island in the world.” During the 2015 expedition in partnership with Fusion and Univision Media, the team […]
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