As devotees of the ocean, we at Emperor Divers are passionate about maintaining, preserving and protecting the wonderful waters that give us so much pleasure.
That is one of the reasons it is always a pleasure to welcome our friends from Odicean back to our boats.
Odicean are a holiday company with a bit of a difference as they not only provide terrific diving experiences but look to widen the knowledge of their guests on all matters to do with marine conversation.
Officially founded in Spain just two years ago – although they had organised a few trips before that – they are run by biologists and marine educators Pol Vives, Maria Barbena and Pol Ramos.
Their objective is to highlight the need for marine conservation ‘through our expeditions and diving training’.
And, as co-founder Maria explains, the company’s origins come from a need to ensure people understand what is happening to the world’s waters.
“The three of us, we’ve grown with a huge love and respect for the oceans and we’ve also experienced a degradation of our seas year by year,” Maria says.
“We wanted to bring the ocean to people with expeditions and social media content in order to make them know, love and consequently protect all the wonders of our seas.
“We want our clients to learn of conservation and get empowered by the message of protection, so they can take action in their homes.
“So, apart from enjoying and experience unique moments underwater, we give them valuable information through our ‘sea talks’. These are small talks of around 30 minutes, each related to the marine life we can see in each destination and also related with conservation and possible solutions.
“We think our expeditions are special because: we try to make young groups (between 25- and 35-year-olds) so they can connect in values and needs – even traveling alone. We have a clear focus on conservation both in our diving expeditions, other marine experiences and in our brand communication.
“Also, we collaborate with NGOs (non-governmental organisations) on the different destinations to make people participate in citizen science projects. This means people feel really involved with science and protection. We have a big community of young divers that give them a family to keep diving together and spreading the word around.
“Our aim is to give visibility to the importance of the well-managed marine-protected areas, so there are more and more areas protected in the future.
“In terms of Odicean, we want to keep our expeditions to have a direct contact with the divers and the oceans, but our final objective is to work on audiovisual projects to spread the word globally.”
This is something Emperor Divers are very pleased to play a part in. Odicean recently joined us on Emperor Harmoni as their party explored the quite amazing Raja Ampat region and they will be back with us soon taking guests around the northern Red Sea.
It is a relationship that works very well.
Maria explains: “When we work out of our country, the aspects we appreciate the most are: professionalism, trust, comfort and safety. Emperor have all that. That’s why we love working with Emperor Divers. Our expeditions simply look easier for us to organise and coordinate, and our clients also appreciate all that.
“For me and for Odicean, working with Emperor means we have to worry less. I know they’re a group of great professionals that work hard to provide the best experience. The problem-solving processes are impeccable and that gives us a huge relief when we work in countries – like Egypt, Maldives or Indonesia – we don’t know as much about as Spain.
“Our next trips with Emperor are in December in the Red Sea.
“We’re doing the north route, focusing on reefs, wrecks and (hopefully) dolphins. Our sea talks when we do this route are an introduction to the Red Sea (curiosities and facts), corals, relationships between species and cetaceans, focusing on the Indo-Pacific dolphin.”
We look forward to welcoming them back and helping to spread the word about conversation.
If your company would like to charter one of Emperor Divers’ boats and take advantage of the fantastic customer service our teams – on and off the water – provide, please contact [email protected] to find out more.