A River of Discovery

When we speak of diving destinations, we rarely, if ever, picture the Amazon. The words summon visions of tangled rainforest, jaguar tracks and misted canopy—not flooded forests, schools of fish blotting out the sun or pink river dolphins curiously weaving through submerged trees. But that narrative is starting to shift.

At the heart of this movement is the groundbreaking Amazon Expedition, part of the Rolex and National Geographic Perpetual Planet launched in 2019. Designed to spotlight the Amazon River Basin as a vital, interconnected aquatic system, the expedition sent seven teams of explorers and scientists across the region—from the river’s source in the Andes, to its mouth in the Atlantic—in a landmark effort to study its biodiversity, cultural heritage and importance as the planet’s largest freshwater artery.

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Thomas Peschak’s 396-Day Journey

Documenting the entirety of the expedition was award-winning National Geographic photographer and marine biologist Thomas Peschak, who spent 396 days over two years in the field. “This was a long-term commitment to the Amazon,” Peschak recounted of his journey during our interview at the NatGeo Explorers Fest in Lima, Peru, where he revealed his images for the first time to a cohort of press and fellow explorers. “I believe in going deep,” Peschak continued, “and while maybe the audience can’t articulate why what we’re producing is so compelling, I think they know the difference between a two-year story and a two-week story.”

In the world of underwater and conservation photography, Peschak is one of the arena’s most recognized names and storytellers. From manta rays to great white sharks, his images are iconic. At the start of his career Peschak was a marine biologist, but transitioned into photojournalism after witnessing firsthand the power of images to evoke emotion and bring about social change.

Even with over twenty years of conservation photography behind him, the Amazon offered something radically new. “It’s an aquatic ecosystem the size of Australia,” he described. “A spiderweb of hundreds of giant rivers, thousands of tributaries, and tens of thousands of streams … The Amazon has been this conservation icon for decades, but the underwater component has largely been ignored.”

First Descents: Diving Where No One Has Before

“Waters don’t respect boundaries, and neither do animals,” said Peschak. A statistic stopped him in his tracks: over 400 dams had been built across the basin—with hundreds more planned. “Even as a marine specialist, I knew that dams at that scale are a death knell for biodiversity. So I decided to step away from the ocean temporarily … and explore the aquatic underworlds of the Amazon.”

Peschak hatched what he described as a “crazy plan” to follow its course west to east across South America, exploring and diving its tributaries. In Bolivia’s remote headwaters where no diver had ever gone before, the team encountered true baselines—pristine, untouched ecosystems teeming with life. With the help of a helicopter, they accessed the Eva Eva mountain region of Isiboro Sécure National Park, where even local Indigenous communities had no living memory of visiting. “We were the first people to ever dive these rivers,” noted Peschak. “Tapirs were sniffing our feet. I was diving with catfish the size of refrigerators. There were schools of pacu [freshwater piranha-like fish] so dense they were blocking out the sun.”

“I’ve seen a lot of cool, amazing things in 25 years of exploration all around the world,” he added, “but that place completely blew my mind. It was almost like being in the most pristine ocean environment you can imagine—except you’re in the Amazon.”

Responsible Tourism, Local Stewards and Lasting Impact

Despite the remoteness of many sites, Peschak believes tourism can play a critical role in conservation—if managed carefully. “These tourists become ambassadors. They become mouthpieces,” he continued. “But you need to be mindful you don’t love a place to death. The alternative is wholesale destruction.”

His storytelling philosophy is guided by this ethos. “First, someone needs to fall in love with the place. Then, once they have equity in it, you have to be honest about the challenges it faces—even if they don’t want to see it. But you can’t leave them with that, because that results in ecological fatalism. You want to always leave on a hopeful note.”

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For Peschak, that hope lies with the people who live and work in these regions—Indigenous communities and scientists dedicating their lives to protecting rivers, dolphins, and flooded forests. “If they have hope,” he said, “then so can you.” The next step, he emphasized, is ensuring the longevity of protection. “That’s where National Geographic and the Perpetual Planet Initiative come in. How do we help protect this place into perpetuity?”

As divers, we often chase wonder beneath the surface. But in an era when the narrative around ocean health is defined in terms of acidification, coral bleaching, and plastic waste, the Amazon offers a surprising and necessary counterpoint—a reminder that aquatic conservation isn’t limited solely to saltwater. What happens in remote river systems can—and does—ripple across the globe. Sometimes, the most powerful stories aren’t found in the deep blue, but in the tannin-stained waters of the world’s greatest river, where the tributaries of science, storytelling, and the spirit of exploration converge.