Hanli Prinsloo on Ocean Conservation and Connecting with Water

The Human Connection to Water

• 💧 Hanli Prinsloo emphasizes that our bodies are 70% water, mirroring the Earth's surface, and that we share the same salinity as the ocean.
• 🧠 She believes that we protect what we love, and this protective instinct is activated when something we cherish is threatened.

Childhood and Early Fascination

• 🌳 Prinsloo's childhood on a horse farm in South Africa was filled with outdoor adventures like riding horses, climbing trees, and catching frogs.
• 🧜‍♀️ From a young age, she harbored a desire to be a mermaid and explore the stillness of being below the surface in dams and rivers.

The Experience of Freediving

• 🤿 Freediving, the practice of swimming underwater on a single breath, became a later-life passion that fulfilled her childhood dream.
• 🐟 She describes an awe-inspiring encounter with a massive school of jackfish, feeling enveloped by a living cloud and diving into the center of the world.

Ocean Conservation and Empowerment

• 🌊 In 2010, Prinsloo co-founded the I Am Water Ocean Conservation foundation to share the ocean's wonders with more people, especially young children in South Africa.
• ✨ For many children, this experience is empowering as it's often the first time anyone in their family has connected with the ocean.

Inspiring Wildness in Children

• 🌱 Prinsloo's dream is to pass on a sense of wildness to her children, fostering appreciation for nature from small garden creatures to the majesty of kelp forests.
• 🌿 She wants them to always remember their inherent wild nature and connection to the natural world.