From scientific expeditions to shark corridors, Sandra Bessudo transforms a remote volcanic relief into a marine conservation laboratory

View from the surface, Malpelo It may seem like nothing more than a dark, rugged, and isolated volcanic rock, emerging from the eastern Pacific hundreds of kilometers off the Colombian coast. It is precisely this stark, almost bare appearance that makes what happens beneath the water's surface all the more surprising. Around the island, in fact, the seabed rises like a submerged mountain, a seamount that concentrates currents, nutrients, migratory routes, and biological aggregations of great ecological value.

Whale sharks, groupers, hawksbill turtles, hammerhead sharks, endemic reptiles, and rare bird species make up an ecosystem that cannot be viewed solely as a natural heritage. Malpelo is also a case of conservation innovation: a place where scientific research, public governance, operational constraints, international cooperation, and environmental storytelling converge to protect a living system that is difficult to observe, costly to monitor, and vulnerable to unsustainable or illegal fishing.

The recent history of the island is decisively linked to Sandra Bessudo, diver, founder of the Fundación Malpelo and Hope Spot Champion of Mission Blue. Bessudo first explored those waters in 1987, struck by the presence of hammerhead sharks and the density of life concentrated in such a remote location. Her insight was simple but strategic: if Malpelo remained unknown, its biodiversity would be exposed to pressures difficult to control.

From that awareness, an advocacy process was born, based on signatures collected from visitors, dialogue with Colombian institutions, collaboration with scientists, and the progressive building of public consensus. The meeting with the then president of the Colombia During a dive in the Caribbean, it became a symbolic step: she managed to transform a personal experience of exploration into a concrete political request, bringing the issue of Malpelo's protection onto the state agenda.

From remote rock to conservation infrastructure

The declaration of Malpelo as a Sanctuary of Fauna and Flora, and its subsequent recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage site, are not merely administrative steps. They are an example of how a natural area can become a conservation infrastructure: a regulated, monitored, and communicated system capable of generating useful data for public decisions and making an ecosystem more visible that would otherwise remain marginalized in the environmental debate.

In 2000, Bessudo created the Malpelo Foundation to strengthen protection, research, and awareness-raising activities. The foundation has helped to continue a work that goes beyond the demarcation of a marine protected area. Protection requires surveillance, up-to-date information, relationships with authorities, engagement with the scientific community, and the ability to explain why a place far from everyday life has a tangible impact on the oceans' balance.

The symbolic dimension is important, but it is not enough. In 2022, Colombia expanded the Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary to approximately 47.000 square kilometersThis achievement has helped make the country one of the first to reach the target of the international framework on biodiversity which aims to protect the 30 percent of lands and oceans by 2030. This figure is significant because it shows how marine conservation is no longer just a defensive practice, but a territorial planning policy on an ocean scale.

Sandra Bessudo He summed up the cultural change with a sentence that well conveys the trajectory of the project:

"At first, no one knew anything about Malpelo. Now Malpelo is very important to Colombia and the government."

The transition from an unknown site to a national priority is one of the most interesting aspects of the case. Innovation, here, does not coincide with a single technological device, but with a model for organizing knowledge. Malpelo has become a hub in a broader network, in which biologists, oceanographers, divers, environmental authorities, international organizations, and private donors contribute to transforming marine observation into decision-making capacity.

Research measures what protection needs to save

Malpelo's protection is based on a key operational rule: know before you intervene. Bessudo organizes two shipments per year To the island, involving scientists with diverse expertise, from corals to oceanography. The journey takes approximately 36 hours of navigation in often choppy waters, a factor that helps us understand the logistical cost of conservation in remote areas. Each mission is an investment in data, continuity, and presence.

Once on site, research teams conduct dives, use underwater video systems to document species distribution, abundance, and health, and collect zooplankton samples to assess water quality and ecosystem status. These activities allow for the creation of time-based data series. In a marine environment, where many dynamics are invisible from the surface, the continuity of observations becomes a technical requirement, not a methodological detail.

The very management of access to the island reflects a concrete sustainability approach. Malpelo accepts only one vessel at a time, be it a research vessel or a tourist boat, and no more than 18 divers. This isn't just a measure of environmental prudence: it's a form of carrying capacity management, that is, the limit within which human experience can coexist with habitat protection.

Bessudo explains it with words that show how access control is an integral part of the model:

“Malpelo accepts only one boat at a time, whether a scientific research vessel or a tourist vessel, and no more than 18 divers.”

In terms of innovation, this approach combines research, regulation, and managed tourism. Data collection is not just used to publish studies or document the area's biological richness. It provides the Colombian government with critical conservation information, assesses whether populations are growing, identifies species that remain vulnerable, and informs new conservation decisions. After more than twenty years of expeditions, the value lies not only in the single mission, but in the cumulative archive of observations.

The model is particularly important for large apex predators. Some populations benefit from the sanctuary's protection, but others continue to face risks when they leave the protected area. Sharks, for example, do not follow administrative maps: they move between islands, seamounts, pelagic corridors, and coastal areas, crossing spaces where fishing pressure can rapidly increase.

This is how swimways move protection beyond borders

The key issue, therefore, is not just protecting Malpelo, but connecting it. In 2021, Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, and Costa Rica began linking marine protected areas through ecological corridors known as swimwaysThe idea is simple and powerful: if many species migrate between protected areas, protection must accompany their movements, rather than simply guarding individual perimeters.

This transition marks a significant evolution in marine conservation. Isolated protected areas remain crucial, but they risk becoming insufficient when species cross vast swathes of ocean. Protected corridors introduce a network logic, closer to the actual functioning of ecosystems. Malpelo, from this perspective, is not an ecological fortress separated from the rest of the eastern Pacific, but a hub connected to Cocos Islands, the Galápagos, and the northern coast of Colombia.

Bessudo herself emphasized this biological continuity, noting that sharks don't stop at Malpelo, but also reach Cocos Island and the Galápagos Islands, and then return. Some routes take them to Colombia's northern Pacific coast, where they head to give birth. Protecting only one leg of the journey, therefore, amounts to protecting a portion of these animals' biological history, but not their entire life cycle.

The challenge has both a technological and a political component. On the scientific side, monitoring, video, sampling, presence data, and information on movements are needed. On the institutional side, coordination between different countries, maritime authorities, regulatory systems, and economic interests that aren't always converging is needed. This is where the work of Mission Blue, of the Hope Spot Champion network and of the support of the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative It acts as a platform: it does not replace public governance, but helps make it more visible, informed, and cooperative.

The concept of Hope Spot, introduced by Mission Blue under the guidance of oceanographer Sylvia earle, responds precisely to this need. It identifies not only beautiful or iconic places, but ecologically important areas for the conservation of species or the survival of communities that depend on a healthy marine environment. Since 2009, the global network of Hope Spots has grown to over 160, confirming a clear trend: protecting the oceans requires understandable narratives, but also replicable operational tools.

A replicable model between science, limits and governance

The Malpelo case shows that environmental innovation doesn't always stem from increasing complexity. Sometimes it stems from the ability to establish clear boundaries. A single boat. Eighteen divers. Two scientific expeditions a year. An expanded protected area. Corridors to be built with other countries. These are rules, numbers, and procedures that make a long-term vision concrete.

For the marine conservation sector, this approach suggests at least three implications. The first concerns the value of continuous data: without repeated observations, it's difficult to determine whether a measure is working. The second concerns scale: protecting an island isn't enough if the species it seeks to protect cross the ocean. The third concerns governance: remote areas like Malpelo require stable coalitions, because no single actor can sustain monitoring, enforcement, communication, and environmental diplomacy over time.

In this sense, the Malpelo Foundation It represents an example of a bridging organization. It combines direct experience, applied science, institutional advocacy, and international cooperation. It doesn't transform conservation into an abstract message, but rather into a measurable practice: observe, document, protect, expand, connect. It's a model that can also be applied to other marine environments, especially where biodiversity is high but geographic distance makes it difficult to maintain political attention and operational resources.

However, a structural tension remains. Protected areas can help many populations grow, but they do not automatically eliminate threats that operate beyond their borders. Illegal fishing, pressure on migratory species, changes in water quality, and difficult monitoring in the open sea continue to require coordinated responses. Protection, therefore, is not a static goal: it is an adaptive process that must evolve alongside ecosystems and economic pressures.

Malpelo is now a laboratory because it forces us to think on a different scale. It's not just an island, not just a sanctuary, not just a diving destination. It's a point of intersection between biodiversity, monitoring technology, environmental diplomacy, and public responsibility. Its history demonstrates that even a seemingly barren rock can become a crucial natural infrastructure, if someone can make its value visible before its loss becomes irreversible.

The future outlook will depend on the ability to strengthen the protected corridors, maintaining ongoing scientific research, and translating data into shared decisions. This is where Sandra Bessudo's work retains its most contemporary strength: it doesn't just defend a beloved place, but proposes a method. View the ocean as a living network, measure its changes, respect its limits, and build alliances strong enough to protect what moves beyond every boundary.

The presentation of the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative's "Mission Blue: Malpelo Island Hope Spot" project

Part one of the documentary “Mission Blue: Malpelo Island Hope Spot” by Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative

The second part of the documentary “Mission Blue: Malpelo Island Hope Spot” by Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative

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