For many superyacht owners, the ocean’s appeal dates back to childhood. It began with fishing, for example, small boat trips, diving, or simply being in and on the water. Ocean conservation often comes later. Guy Harvey understands the progression well, since his life has followed a similar path. In Guy Harvey: The Documentary, Emmy-award-winning filmmaker Nick Nanton follows the renowned marine artist, scientist, and conservationist. While it reveals Harvey’s decades of connecting artistry, marine research, education, and ocean advocacy, it does more. It gives yacht owners and their families practical ways to think about conservation—something their own yachts, crews, and voyages can support.
Nanton, a filmmaker born in Barbados and raised in the United States, thought he knew the Harvey story. Like many, he was more than familiar with the artwork and the brand. “I grew up in Florida, and so I couldn’t go a block without seeing a Guy. Harvey shirt,” he says. Nanton learned more by chance several years ago while working with Rudy Reuttiger, the subject of the 1993 movie Rudy. “He started telling me, ‘You know, Guy has a Ph.D. In marine science.’ I was like, ‘Wait, what?’” That changed everything, Nanton says, making him want to discover the man behind the art and the degree.
In spending time with Harvey, Nanton saw a person who refused to fit in one box. “Someone along the way—a teacher, a well-meaning human being who wanted Guy to succeed—probably told Guy, ‘Guy, you can’t do everything. You’ve got to choose. You want to be a scientist, or you want to be an artist,” Nanton explains. Guy Harvey: The Documentary shows how not listening allowed Harvey to build his influence. “God made Guy uniquely to fit that role,” he says, “to be able to talk about conservation and make people all across the world fall in love with species some of them will never see once in their life.”
Simultaneously, Nanton wanted to inspire kids who keep hearing they need to choose one path. “I love any time I can shine this light a little bit more,” he notes. “That spark that someone in the world is going to need to pursue their passion in the next 10 years or so.” He felt it was particularly important to get them, and other filmgoers, as excited about the ocean as they are about space. “We’re not even close to understanding what’s in the water,” he points out. “I don’t want to tell a gloom and doom story. I want to tell the truth, but I want to bring hope.”
Harvey says the documentary succeeds on that note, especially by featuring his own grown children, Jessica and Alex. Jessica is the CEO of the Guy Harvey Foundation, while Alex is the director of marketing for Guy Harvey Incorporated, which includes the artwork and apparel business. He credits Nanton with bringing them in “brilliantly,” adding that overall, “You obviously want to finish on a strong, positive note.”
For superyacht owners and their families, that note can take practical shape. According to Harvey, yacht ownership is a lot like learning to dive. “It opens you up to a completely new world, not only the surface, but below the surface,” he says. Additionally, a superyacht can go where many research vessels can’t. Consider, too, that both research vessels and access to certain waters for study can be prohibitively expensive for scientists. A yacht, Harvey says, is “a platform,” capable of sharing, chartering, or, where appropriate, donating. “Provide the platform to somebody in an area or a route or somewhere, a destination that you plan to go to, and make that known to people through a university or research entity,” he encourages.
The benefits extend further than the scientists. “Not only would it be very gratifying for the owner, it would be very interesting for the crew,” Harvey says. “There’s nothing worse than getting a big boat and not using it. The captains and crew get very frustrated with that.” Accompanying the scientists and seeing what they do serves “a huge purpose,” he asserts, “adding to collective knowledge about the ocean.” Nanton agrees that owners and their families have an exceptional chance. “Superyacht owners get the opportunity, unlike many other people, to spend prolonged periods of time on the water,” he says. “They have a living lab, if you will, that they can take other people out on.”
To that end, Guy Harvey: The Documentary might additionally be an invitation to yacht owners. “They have the opportunity to expose people to a level of the ocean that is rare,” Nanton says. “They have the opportunity to be great stewards of it.” Harvey shares that view. Even the smallest gestures are “absolutely meaningful.” Multiply that experience by millions, he says, “and you have a massive impact.”
Yachting “opens you up to a completely new world, not only the surface, but below the surface,” Harvey continues. “Having a boat or a superyacht is a means of accessing the environment, the oceanic media and going to exotic places simply because you can. The world is your oyster, literally. To have a workboat or a yacht is something you really should use to your maximum.”
“It’s like voting,” Harvey concludes. “It’s all of our collective responsibility, I say, to learn about the marine environment.”
Guy Harvey: The Documentary is currently on the festival circuit, with a streaming release expected later this year.
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