“You may never see the ocean. You may never touch the ocean. But the ocean touches you.”
With these opening words, I was irresistibly drawn into the short film “The Blue Heart”, made by National Geographic to share the lifetime passions of Dr. Sylvia Earle for the oceans and what they hold for us and why we need them. I watched this during a short breakfast presentation by La Mer, who have donated and work in a partnership with National Geographic year to year to support the next generation of ocean explorers and to celebrate World Oceans Day.
It isn’t surprising, considering that La Mer’s primary ingredient is sea kelp, which grows in the ocean. You could say they have a bit of a vested interest.
Incidentally, today June 8, is World Oceans Day – a day to recognise the importance of the sea as a vital ecosystem and to take action to preserve its delicate habitats and wildlife. We may not realise it, but a lot of what happens to the sea impacts our life.
The short film “The Blue Heart” is beautifully made and I found the video, so I’ll share it with you below. It did resonate with me and make me want to go out there and save the oceans, I can tell you. Damn! I’m suggestible 😛
For your viewing pleasure, here is “The Blue Heart” – I highly recommend watching it 🙂
Locally, La Mer also works with Reef Check, an NGO that works to conserve coral reefs in Malaysia. I found out that Malaysia is quite blessed to be part of a “Coral Triangle”, an area encompassing Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines which has the highest marine biodiversity in the world. What this also means is that we are blessed to have abundant coral reefs – up to 4,000km of them in just Malaysia alone.
However, the survival of these coral reefs are being threatened by humans and climate change so bodies like Reef Check help monitor the health, try to educate us on the importance of having healthy reefs and try to make reefs more resilient, among others.
I also learned that a lot of high value fish which live amongst the corals (groupers are a favourite delicacy) have all but disappeared and what made me pause was that the “live fish” you see swimming in the restaurant tanks might have been stunned using cyanide… which we then later ingest. Talk about a vicious circle!
I personally don’t dive, but many years ago, I went on a snorkelling trip off the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, which has some of the worlds best beaches and most beautiful coral reefs and there, I saw some of the most beautiful sights ever. A vibrantly coloured coral reef, just a short swim out from the shore, with colourful tropical fish darting in and out amongst them.
Back then, I toyed with the idea of taking up diving just so I could see more of these beautiful corals but I ended up not doing it. I don’t regret it now, but I think it would have been a nice thing to tick off my to-do list 🙂 Do we have any divers among us? 😀
La Mer launches a limited edition packaging each year for World Oceans Day for their iconic Creme de la Mer, and this year’s 100ml tub packaging comes in a frosted blue glass tub. If you are a fan of Creme de la Mer then it is probably nice to own. For me, CDLM works really well where it’s cold and dry, but not so well here, where it makes me break out. My sister however, likes it so I chalk it up to being one of “those things” 😀
Did you enjoy watching “The Blue Heart” short film? Do you dive?
I toyed with the idea of diving for a while – even put down a deposit for a course, but eventually never got round to doing it. In fact, I haven’t been snorkelling in years either! Perhaps it’s time to change that this year, and to pay a visit to our local coral reefs 🙂
“If you think of the ocean as the Blue Heart of the planet that keeps us alive, how much of your heart do you want to protect?” ~ Dr. Sylvia Earle
Paris B
La Mer Limited Edition World Oceans Day 2014 tub retails at RM1,600/100ml
Totally enjoyed the the film and in some way, has made me realised about the problems that the world is currently facing. It’s truly inspiring, in my opinion anyways, about what Sylvia E. said. Umm, never had dived before but someday want to, beautiful underwater pictures online is ‘luring’ me to haha.
But nevertheless, it came to a shocker to me that cyanide is used to stun the fish we “see” and consume in restaurants..oh dear!
On the other hand, my heart sank a little as well when I saw the price of the tub of LE moisturiser..1.6k myr.. oh my… I wonder how much of the proceeds is donated to the cause though.
That’s exactly how I feel too Robert. It’s such an inspiring film and yes when the guy from Reef Check mentioned about how these life fishes that cost a bomb in Hong Kong were stunned using cyanide, the gasp was audible! The price of RM1600 is the regular price for a 100ml tub I believe, which is I think the largest one. It’s a terribly pricey cream! They don’t donate on a tub to tub basis, but as an on-going process company to company 🙂
Great film and I shared with my friends. My takeaway from this has been something I’ve been struggling with for a while now. What companies should I be supporting with my dollars? Who are the ones responsible for contaminating, polluting and destroying the oceans? I wish the film had touched more on the second question.
As for La Mer..never tried the cream but their powder… I keep hearing so many good things about it!
Thanks for sharing it Linh and since this film is sponsored by La Mer, I think they were subtly saying “Buy our products!” Haha… It’s hard isn’t it to make reasoned environmental decisions when there is so little info out there. I have heard so much about the La Mer powder too! I’m very tempted to try it, I don’t deny 😛