Protect the Protectors Campaign

Dear Friends and Supporters,

This Giving Tuesday, I’m writing to you with both urgency and purpose.

Over the past seven years, the Expedition Audacity Research Foundation has grown from a small educational documentary crew into a global expedition programme working across Baffin Bay, the North Atlantic, Central America, and deep into the Amazon. Our teams have partnered with Indigenous governments, scientists, and universities; documented endangered wildlife; exposed environmental crimes; and connected thousands of students to real-time exploration through our outreach and education programmes.

But this year, the realities of our work became impossible to ignore.

During a mission in the Galápagos EEZ, our vessel was boarded by armed men while documenting an illegal fishing fleet. With nothing more than a speargun, two machetes, and a fire extinguisher, our crew held off the attackers long enough to flee—only to be overtaken, rammed by steel vessels, and forced to surrender every camera and piece of evidence in exchange for their lives.

No one on board signed up for glory.

But they shouldn’t have to risk their lives with nothing but courage and a fire extinguisher.

That night changed us.

It made one truth undeniable:

If we are going to continue this work—this science, this storytelling, this defence of threatened ecosystems—we need a vessel built for the environments we operate in, and one capable of protecting the people who stand on the front line for the planet.

Today, we are formally launching our Vessel Fundraiser and sharing our Vessel Search Deck. This next flagship will not only support our science and exploration—it will provide the safety, resilience, and range required for missions that simply cannot wait.

Your support helps us secure and refit a vessel built for a new decade of global expeditions:

• expanding our science capacity
• strengthening Indigenous partnerships
• increasing our ability to document environmental crimes
• and ensuring the safety of every sailor, scientist, and storyteller who steps aboard

We do this work because the ocean is running out of time.
And because someone has to go where the problems actually are.

If you can, please stand with us this Giving Tuesday. Help us secure the vessel that will carry this mission—and the people behind it—into the next chapter.

Thank you for believing in this work, and for helping us protect what cannot protect itself.

With gratitude and determination,

Captain Red