Our World of Oceans

For 20 years, Solvang’s Richmond Productions has refined the art of marine videography, capturing breathtaking footage both above and below the surface of the world’s oceans. Though their company covers subjects as diverse as winemaking and air quality, owners Earl and Kay Richmond have committed their formidable energies to filming, sharing and preserving the wonders of the sea.
The Richmonds have built a thriving business that produces documentary footage for high-profile broadcasters, including PBS, The Discovery Channel and National Geographic Television, to name a few. Their work has been nominated for an Emmy, and this year they won eight Telly awards, presented to honor outstanding regional television and video productions.
While doing ground-breaking commercial work, the Richmonds developed a popular program that teaches children about the ocean’s creatures and gets kids thinking about conservation. The pair has amassed the world’s largest library of blue whale footage and taken steps to save endangered marine habitats around the globe.
Recently, the Richmond’s launched Our World of Oceans, a non-profit organization charged with spreading the conservation message by educating and empowering others through inspiring presentations and gorgeous, scientifically accurate documentaries.

“We want to expand what we do in the world,” Earl explains. “Starting a non-profit allows us to partner with other people of like mind, so we can seek funding, develop more programs and have a bigger impact than we could on our own.”
The non-profit’s mandate contains several priorities, including the World of Oceans Lecture Series, a program that Earl has been bringing to schools for 15 years through the Children’s Creative Project. Each year, 10,000 students benefit from the program, a number the Richmonds hope to increase ten-fold.
“We bring in cameras and diving equipment,” Earl explains, “so kids can get a feel for what it’s like to be a media producer doing wildlife pro and a scientist dealing with conservation issues.
“We bring a down-home message,” he continues, “that they can make changes themselves just by cleaning up trash, so it doesn’t wash into the ocean. And we talk about plastics and the big issue it is in our environment.”
By the end of his presentation, Earl usually finds that 90% of the children raise their hands when asked if they might like to pursue a career in marine biology.
“It has an impact,” he says, his eyes glowing with excitement. “One, it’s live and interactive and, two, it’s not Hollywood-ized, it’s real.”
“I show them shark films,” he continues, “but it’s nothing like they see on television, because so much of that deals with the fear factor and not with this incredible creature and its role as part of the whole ecosystem.”
Also funded under the aegis of Our World of Oceans, the Blue Whale Conservation Project aims to protect the magnificent creatures, only 5% of which remain from a pre-whaling population of around 300,000. To fuel the effort, the Richmonds have enlisted the help of blue whale experts and are producing a film that documents the creatures’ habitat and demonstrates why it must be protected.
“When I get out in the water with blue whales,” Earl says, “I’m awed at how monstrously large they are, [sometimes] 90-feet long. They’re actually larger than any dinosaur that ever walked the planet.”
“And the cool thing is,” he continues, “you can go off Santa Barbara and encounter them.”

Also on the non-profit’s list is the Revillagigedo’s Biosphere Preservation Project, which focuses on an island chain off the tip of Baja California where endangered giant Pacific manta rays, humpback whales and 400-pound tunas cruise the waters.
To protect this marine sanctuary—which won’t survive unless illegal fishing stops—the Rich-monds are producing a documentary based on Earl’s experience with poachers while filming the creatures of the biosphere.
“Our team of divers came across two illegal fishing boats,” he remembers. “We captured one of them and turned it over to the Mexican Navy. As we were escorting it, I got on the roof of our ship to film their boat and I could see hundreds of shark fins.We came around the horn of the island and a Navy vessel was coming at them with machine guns drawn.
“The Navy asked us to dive on the nets the [poachers] had set. We found big-eyed thresher sharks and a dead, entangled, bottlenose dolphin. So the animals we were filming earlier in the week were being threatened by nets set right in the biosphere.”
The poachers, who had over three tons of illegal catch onboard, including eight giant Pacific manta rays, were sent to the mainland with orders not to off-load their booty, though that’s exactly what they did.
“In the absence of evidence, the Navy used our comprehensive footage to mount a case. They decided to fully prosecute the vessel,” Earl says with pride, “which puts out a red notice to other vessels not to go there.
“We’ll turn the footage into a documentary about those incredible islands,” he continues, “that shows why they’re special, why they need to be preserved.”
Enchanted as a child by “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” on television, Earl decided early on to pursue a marine-related career. He won certification as a scuba diver in high school, earned a degree in oceanography from Humboldt State University and later a degree from Brooks Institute of Photography.
“We really believe education is the key,” Earl says, “and one of the easiest and best ways to educate people is by using visuals. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a motion picture is worth even more.”
“Jacques Cousteau really impacted me,” he smiles. “That was my pivotal point as a kid, when I took an interest in the ocean. And if I can return that in some way, then that’s my whole gift back.”