If we, like the generations before us, accept the persistent decline of underwater environments there will be nothing left for us to explore, experience, and cherish. We started Project Baseline to motivate divers to refuse to accept perpetual decline as inevitable; to invest ourselves in the efforts to understand, restore, and protect the underwater places we explore; and to lend our voices and our capabilities to those efforts.

Eutrophication is the process by which aquatic ecosystems are starved of oxygen due to excessive nutrient pollution from wastewater discharges and agricultural runoff. As divers, we see firsthand how it’s killing our coral reefs, our springs, our lakes and rivers. Learn More

A third of the world is being fished at biologically unsustainable rates and we’ve lost 90% or more of the large fish that most of us want to see or at least associate with the environments we explore. Since less than 4% of the world’s marine environments carry any meaningful protections, there’s a lot of room for hope that we can reverse course and sustain healthy fish populations that will support ecosystems and economies. By recording and comparing what we see in protected and non-protected areas and working with others, Project Baseline aims to help expand the network of Marine Protected Areas and better enforce the ones we have. Learn More

As divers we spend a lot of time exploring wrecks and other forms of submerged cultural resources, most of which form artificial reefs. These features naturally degrade through time. We work to help document these features before they disappear so their stories can be told to future generations and their effect on underwater ecosystems can be better understood. Learn More