Pierre-Yves Cousteau joins speaker line-up at Eye on Earth Summit 2015

Dubai [27 Sept 2015] – Conservationist Pierre-Yves Cousteau lends his voice to Eye on Earth Summit 2015 as guest speaker. He one of the many respected sustainable development leaders to join the speaker line-up at the three-day international Summit, taking place in Abu Dhabi from 6 - 8 October. Held under the patronage of The UAE President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Summit will explore the critical need for better access to and sharing of environmental, social and economic data to support informed decision-making for sustainable development. 

As the youngest son of the legendary explorer, author and filmmaker Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Pierre-Yves has inherited his father’s passion for marine conservation. He is the founder of Cousteau Divers, a global non-profit citizen science platform of divers united to study and protect the world’s oceans and marine life.

Pierre-Yves’s most recent project Project Hermes is a revolutionary initiative helping to measure ocean temperatures worldwide at the scale of the ecosystem. Spearheaded by Cousteau Divers, the project deploys reference instruments, as well as providing training to divers on how to use the equipment, ensuring that every time a Cousteau diver enters the underwater realm, they provide vital data on how ocean temperature varies. The significance of producing a new source of scientific data such as this is ground-breaking. Project Hermes has the potential to increase understanding of the ocean at large and to improve management and conservation of its resources.

In line with the Eye on Earth Summit theme “informed decision-making for sustainable development”, Pierre-Yves will discuss the importance of accessible marine data for sustainable development and the value of harnessing citizen science to help to close the data gap. In the context of Eye on Earth’s Oceans and Blue Carbon Special Initiative, which focuses on the importance of collecting data on oceans and coastal ecosystems, the work of Cousteau Divers and Project Hermes will be hugely beneficial in providing vital knowledge and data to enhance management of marine ecosystems around the world.