Take 3 For The Sea: Protecting What Is Precious
The ocean remains a defining influence on SARAH & SEBASTIAN’s design ethos. Its movement, depth and raw beauty continue to inspire our work while reinforcing our responsibility to protect it.
In 2022, we launched our philanthropic initiative, The Xanthe Project™, a long term commitment to safeguarding the marine environments that shape our designs. Through partnerships, education and direct action, the initiative supports organisations working to protect the future of our oceans.
Yet the scale of the challenge continues to grow.
Each year, millions of tonnes of plastic enter the ocean, travelling through streets, drains and waterways before reaching the sea. What disappears from view rarely disappears at all. Over time, plastic breaks down into microplastics that spread through ecosystems and threaten marine life.
The SARAH & SEBASTIAN team gathered at Coogee Beach alongside our partner Take 3 For The Sea. More than 40 volunteers came together for a morning of education and collective action.
At first glance, the coastline appeared pristine. But the closer we looked, the more we found.
Fragments of plastic caught between rocks. Cigarette butts pressed into the sand. Foam packaging scattered through the grass along the foreshore.
In just over an hour, our team removed 5,486 pieces of waste, totalling 17.5 kilograms of debris.
Among them were 2,379 cigarette butts, alongside hundreds of plastic fragments and pieces of foam insulation. Unexpected finds included an air mattress, nicotine pouches and SIM cards, fragments of everyday life that had washed ashore.
Beaches like Coogee are cleaned regularly by local councils, yet much of this debris remains hidden in plain sight.
Many pieces were partially buried in the sand or tangled within coastal vegetation. Others had already broken down into smaller fragments, almost invisible at first glance.
Plastic rarely disappears. Instead, it breaks apart, becoming smaller and more widespread over time. These particles are often mistaken for food by marine animals, causing lasting harm within marine ecosystems.
Moments like this reveal how easily everyday waste finds its way to the ocean.
Through The Xanthe Project™, SARAH & SEBASTIAN continues to support initiatives that protect and restore marine environments. The same ocean that inspires our work is the one we must continue to safeguard.
Discover more about the Xanthe Project here.
Recommended
Operation Crayweed: The Revival of Sydney’s Underwater Forests
Crayweed might not be well known, but its impact is profound. Much like forests on land, these underwater habitats support hundreds of marine species, stabilise coastal environments and absorb carbon from the atmosphere. Without them, marine biodiversity suffers and so does the broader health of our ocean. Once abundant along Sydney’s coastline, the native seaweed Phyllospora comosa disappeared in the 1980s due to pollution. For decades, the underwater landscape has remained bare where vibrant forests once flourished. This loss isn’t just ecological. It’s deeply felt by anyone who fishes, dives or enjoys seafood. Without seaweed forests, the species they shelter—such as crayfish, abalone, and countless others—vanish too. "This loss isn’t just ecological. It’s deeply felt by anyone who fishes, dives or enjoys seafood." Operation Crayweed is working to bring these forests back. Led by Professor Adriana Vergés and a team of marine scientists, it’s a hands-on effort to replant lost crayweed by hand, with the goal of restoring 70 kilometres of Sydney’s coastline. In September, the SARAH & SEBASTIAN team joined Operation Crayweed at Wylies Baths in Coogee to help restore this vital ecosystem. Working alongside the team on site, we helped prepare live crayweed to be planted in the shallows, replanting over 100 crayweeds across the day. [featured_images1] As a brand deeply connected to the ocean, we feel a responsibility to help protect its future. Kelp forests are intrinsic to the Great Southern Reef that lies at our doorstep and have long inspired our work, not only for their beauty but for their role in sustaining marine life. Seeing these ecosystems under threat only deepens our commitment. "As a brand deeply connected to the ocean, we feel a responsibility to help protect its future." Through The Xanthe Project™, we’re proud to support initiatives like Operation Crayweed, focused on tangible, long-term ecological impact.
Read the journal
Behind the Scenes: Filming Ningaloo’s Nursery
“THERE ARE EXPERIENCES THAT SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE. NINGALOO’S NURSERY WAS ONE OF THEM.” Months before we began filming, the concept for the final chapter of our Now You See Me series had already taken shape. At first, it was a story of scale and spectacle; whale sharks, manta rays, pristine coral reefs. But the more we listened, the more urgent the story became. Our filmmaker, Alice Wesley-Smith, and I spoke with scientists and conservationists who explained the interdependence of three ecosystems: Ningaloo Reef, Cape Range, and Exmouth Gulf. What stayed with me wasn’t just what had been protected, but what hadn’t. Exmouth Gulf, often referred to as Ningaloo’s nursery for its critical role in early marine life stages, remains outside the World Heritage boundaries. When we landed in Exmouth, the heat was immediate and intense. We arrived after a cyclone, in the middle of a historic marine heatwave and a mass coral bleaching event. The damage was clear. But so was the opportunity: to shine a light on a place that urgently needs protection. NINGALOO REEF Filming in remote locations always comes with its own set of challenges; equipment, logistics, finding the wildlife, dealing with weather. And that's all before you even get wet. “UNDERWATER, NINGALOO IS HYPNOTIC. IT’S ONE OF THE MOST BIODIVERSE PLACES I’VE EVER SEEN...” Kaleidoscopic coral gardens, an abundance of fish weaving through reefs, and that rare sense of being a visitor in someone else’s world. But not everything was as it should be. The coral bleaching was even more devastating than we’d expected. So much so that on a couple of dives we just couldn’t stay underwater any longer, it was too heartbreaking to witness. Still, there were moments that left me speechless. A manta ray swam beside me, mirroring my movements for what felt like minutes. Later, swimming alongside whale sharks was humbling. And exhausting. Even when they glide, they move faster than you think. THE GULF To the east, the Gulf is quieter. Less photographed. But ecologically, just as important. The palette changed, deeper greens, silty browns, thick mangrove roots. Our drone followed the winding channels of the wetlands. We waded through knee-deep shallows, tracking shovelnose rays in seagrass beds. We snorkelled through mangroves, trying not to stir the bottom and cloud the frame, holding our breath, waiting for stillness. CAPE RANGE Rising between reef and gulf, the Cape Range is the spine of the peninsula. On our first morning, we woke before dawn to visit Charles Knife Canyon for sunrise. We drove through the pitch black and parked alongside a steep gorge. As the sun came up over the horizon, we caught our first glimpse of the incredible scale of this place and raced to capture the glow of first light before the sun climbed too high. At Yardie Creek, on our last night, we hiked through fossil beds etched with coral from millions of years ago. Rock wallabies watched us from the cliffs. The past felt close here. [featured_images1] As we packed up our cameras for the final time and looked out towards the reef, I felt the weight of what we’d witnessed. Ningaloo’s Nursery is exactly that, a cradle of life. It’s where humpbacks return to raise their calves, where endangered sawfish still slip through the estuaries, where coral, mangrove, and mountain all converge. And yet, it’s not protected. “DESPITE EVERYTHING WE KNOW; THE SCIENCE, THE CULTURAL VALUE, THE IRREPLACEABLE BIODIVERSITY. EXMOUTH GULT IS STILL VULNERABLE...” To dredging, to development, to pollution. We saw firsthand what’s at stake. We felt it in the heat of the water and in the silence of dying coral. Over five films, Now You See Me has taken us across Australia’s coastlines, from southern kelp forests to tropical reefs. Each film has revealed what’s at risk. This final chapter is a call to action. If you do one thing for our oceans today, make it count. Sign our petition to strengthen Australia’s nature laws. Because places like this can’t speak for themselves. But we can.
Read the journal
NOW YOU SEE ME, Ningaloo's Nursery—A SARAH & SEBASTIAN SHORT FILM
When we started the NOW YOU SEE ME film series four years ago, we didn’t know exactly where it would take us, only that we felt a responsibility to show the fragile beauty of Australia’s marine life, and the growing threats it faces. Ningaloo’s Nursery, our final chapter, is perhaps the most emotional and confronting journey we've taken yet. We travelled to Western Australia’s remote northwest, to a place that still feels truly wild. The Ningaloo region: Cape Range, the reef, and Exmouth Gulf, holds an ancient kind of magic. It’s home to whale sharks, manta rays, dugongs, and a tapestry of life we were honoured to witness. But it’s also a region in crisis. When we arrived, the reef was in the midst of a mass coral bleaching event. We hadn’t set out to tell a climate change story, but there was no ignoring it. One day we’d dive among radiant coral gardens; the next, we’d emerge shaken from ghostly, colourless reefs. The contrast was devastating. [featured_images1] Seeing it with our own eyes made the science real. These weren’t abstract statistics or satellite photos; they were living, breathing ecosystems vanishing in front of us. And it wasn’t just the reef. Exmouth Gulf, a vital nursery for this entire marine region, remains unprotected and is facing mounting industrial pressure. It’s excluded from World Heritage status, and still treated like an expendable buffer zone. We found that heartbreaking. We madeNingaloo’s Nursery with filmmaker Alice Wesley-Smith, whose sensitivity and sharp eye helped us tell this story with both urgency and reverence. The film premiered at the State Library of NSW on the eve of World Oceans Day. It was an intimate night, filled with friends, some brilliant environmental advocates, and leading lights from the fashion and creative industry. We hoped our audience would feel what we felt: awe, grief, and a spark to act. What we’ve learnt along the way in creating these films, is that it isn’t just about awareness anymore. It’s about advocacy. And with that in mind, we’ve launched a public petition calling for stronger national nature laws and for Exmouth Gulf to be formally protected. Because it deserves more than admiration – It needs guardianship. As this film series comes to a close, what stays with us is a deepened sense of responsibility. We can’t unsee what we’ve seen. And we don’t want others to look away. Go behind the scenes of NOW YOU SEE ME Ningaloo’s Nursery here. – SARAH & SEBASTIAN
Read the journal
NZD $
USD
GBP
SGD
JPY
HKD
EUR