You are saving oceans.

For two years, Burgess’ client and company donations have been paid directly to Blue Marine Foundation to fund their marine conservation projects in yachting destinations in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. Now, as Burgess is awarded Major Partner status by the charity, we look at how your money has been saving oceans...

In 2020 Burgess made a public commitment to recognise the company's impact and work to protect the world’s oceans through a partnership with Blue Marine Foundation. The initiative has lit a fire within our company and our clients, to the extent that by 2022 Burgess achieved Major Partner status, in recognition of the funds Burgess has raised and donated to Blue Marine.

Spearheading this work is ESG Partner, Georgina Menheneott; Partner, Frederica Findlater; and Business Deveopment Manager, Anastazja Kociolkowska. They worked with Blue Marine and the Burgess senior leadership team for several years before launch, to shape a future in which the superyacht industry supports marine conservation.

‘From the beginning, Georgina spoke with such confidence that the superyacht industry could be pivotal to funding marine conservation and protecting the oceans,’ says Sara-Jane Skinner, Head of Partnerships at Blue Marine. ‘Now we are seeing that conversation starting to become normalised. Superyacht events are a good indicator of this – you will see an environmental message at every one.’

Burgess + Blue Marine

With the world’s oceans in crisis, Blue Marine has a proven track record in enabling marine conservation to happen fast and effectively. Their core mission is to achieve 30 x 30 – which is 30 percent of the world’s oceans under effective protection by 2030, and the other 70 percent managed in a responsible way.

Burgess’ company and client donations have gone to fund Blue Marine’s overarching strategies in the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans, two very popular yachting destinations. ‘The idea was to keep our contribution relevant to where our business has an impact,’ explains Menheneott. ‘The Mediterranean and Indian Ocean are also both areas where Blue Marine is particularly active.’

Burgess has also created a second funding stream in which the company offsets all staff travel, while Burgess Partners and some staff choose to offset their personal travel as well. These funds go to support Blue Marine’s own staff and operations.

Mediterranean 

In 2023 Burgess and Blue Marine are focussing on one issue in one area in the Mediterranean. ‘Right now, we are helping to fund Blue Marine in tackling illegal fishing in the Balearic Islands,’ says Menheneott. ‘It is estimated that 40 percent of the fish sold in the islands is caught illegally. The result is dangerously high levels of overfishing. The consequent destruction of bio-diversity and habitat loss is devastating and that also has a negative impact on local licensed fisher's livelihoods.’

Blue Marine can point to the success story of it's revolutionary Lyme Bay Fisheries and Conservation Reserve in Dorset, UK, and the miraculous recovery of marine life within the protected areas. By working with both scientists and local small-scale fishermen, Blue Marine developed a win-win model to enable the fishermen to thrive while becoming guardians of their fishing grounds. This blueprint can be tailored to support fishermen and fishing grounds anywhere in the world.

In the words of a Lyme Bay fisherman, ‘If Blue approach, you’d be a fool not to speak to them. Blue have done everything that we’ve asked and everything they’ve promised. It works for the eco-system beneath the waves and for that other endangered species, the fisherman.’

The Lyme Bay Fisheries and Conservation Project began in 2012. Ten years later, the revival of the seabed that had been destroyed by trawling with weighted dredges, demonstrates how quickly the marine world will recover if given a chance. It is a message of great hope.

Indian Ocean

One of the first wins for Blue Marine was in brokering a deal to create, what was then, the largest marine protected area in the world around Chagos in the Indian Ocean. This project was largely funded by a single yacht owner who had travelled the world by sea and held a firm belief in ocean conservation.

That was in 2010. Only ten years later, the Indian Ocean was in crisis again.

In 2020, Blue Marine stepped in to counter rampant overfishing in the Indian Ocean by highlighting the shocking decline of the Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna. In 2022, they published a report that revealed tuna catches needed to be cut by a third to save the yellowfin tuna stock.

In addition to this, their two-year study shone a light on the behaviour of the EU's industrial distant-water fleet, working these waters. As well as evidence that suggested the fleet has been fishing in coastal states’ waters, the fleet has also been accused of ‘going dark’ to avoid detection. The Spanish-flagged vessels studied 'went dark' by switching off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) for an average of almost three quarters of the two-year study period.

This year Blue Marine will continue to push for answers, and for a recovery plan for the tuna.

Funding

By end of 2023, Burgess will be able to say that we pay into marine conservation through Blue Marine for every bit of business we do. This is our commitment, to keep ocean protection at the heart of our business.

‘If we can drive change in-house and with our clients, then we have the opportunity to do something exciting within the wider industry,’ says Menheneott. ‘At Burgess we choose to use our business as a force for good. This industry has an impact on ocean health and it has a responsibility to do better.

'We have enormous potential to create innovative, powerful solutions bringing together the changemakers - the best minds in business, yachtsmen and women, scientists and specialists. This programme ensures that everyone involved in yachting with us at Burgess, whether it’s charter, a sale or purchase, an owner’s trip can now make a positive contribution to the future health of the oceans.

'We are acutely aware that time is running out and it’s only going to be by acting together that we can really make these changes happen.'

‘There are many ways that Burgess clients, and their companies can be involved,’ says Skinner. ‘Donating through your Burgess transactions, joining our Blue Marine Yacht Club or like Burgess have done, become a corporate partner to Blue Marine... The important message is that every pound, dollar, euro and yen counts.’