Why I Founded OceanX

When I was a kid, I used to watch Jacques Cousteau on television. I used to also watch Sea Hunt, which was about diving. Jacques Cousteau was an explorer, and a team of explorers that took us underwater because they brought the media underwater and then they shared that with us. As a result, I got into diving. I was excited, and then I got my sons into diving. We would go together.

Then time passed, and my son went to work at National Geographic. I acquired a ship that was a research ship to work with oceanographic experts to be able to tag along. Then my son and Jim Cameron, the great film director, convinced me that we should capture what the scientists were doing underwater by putting it in the media. So that became my initiative.

We did that originally with a great ship; Alucia was what it was called. In that, we discovered the giant squid in its natural habitat, and we were the first and only to do that. We discovered lots of great things, and then we decided to have this initiative, Ocean X, for the purpose of doing that in a big way.

So we built a ship; this is a philanthropic effort. We built a ship that is the most advanced ocean exploration ship and media ship on the ocean. What we did is we went around to the best oceanographic institutes in the world, and we asked them, you know, what are your dreams? What would you most like to have? You know, the ship has got a lot of pizzazz; the lighting is cool, the angles are cool—sort of like a modern Starship Enterprise, but of the ocean.

And it is now in the process of launching Ocean Explorer, which is with National Geographic and Disney, that will show this great ocean exploration. Because our goal is to move the dial, move the needle. We expect that we will have a big impact in drawing attention to the importance of the ocean, the excitement of the ocean, and our goals are to change the whole approach to the ocean.