Building upon Blancpain’s existing partnership with the Biopixel Ocean Foundation (newly minted in 2022), this year, the Swiss luxury watchmaker has announced a redoubling of its efforts to support conservation on the Great Barrier Reef.
With the recent release of Planet Reef (watch it here on SBS), a stunning documentary series built around spectacular underwater footage from the Reef, Blancpain’s renewed support for the work of Biopixel (a homegrown production house specialising in educational films for the likes of National Geographic) is twofold.
In addition to the aforementioned focus on filmmaking, the makers of the Fifty Fathoms continue to aid in Biopixel’s documentation of reef animals – and the protection efforts most beneficial to their longevity.
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Richard Fitzpatrick, one of Biopixel’s two chief marine biologists, has been at the forefront of these innovative research activities. In cooperation with Dr. Adam Barnett (a fellow Aussie and chef-turned-scientist) the duo have been able to chart the movement patterns of marine species such as manta rays between designated protected areas and endangered zones – garnering information Biopixel uses to measure the “impact of human interaction” on these underwater animal populations.
As part of its extended partnership with Blancpain, Biopixel now enables members of the public to monitor a number of such marine animals as they travel the length of the Great Barrier Reef – notably including a pair of rare whale sharks, wryly named ‘Blancpain’ and ‘Fifty Fathoms’ respectively.
Renewed for 2023, the partnership with Biopixel falls within Blancpain’s wider ‘Ocean Commitment’ initiative. Likely the most comprehensive underwater conservation mission to be fielded by a watch brand in 2023, it has resulted in the commitment of close to $70 million over the past two decades: funds that Blancpain utilises in a range of awareness-raising, exploration and habitat-preserving projects.
To learn more about the Biopixel partnership, and a range of other regional partnerships around the globe (e.g. the Gombessa Expeditions) visit Blancpain online.
