How To Protect The Ocean

I recently did an episode where I interviewed a great colleague and great friend, Dr. Andrew Thaler. At the end of the interview, I asked him what he was up to these days because you never know what Andrew Thaler is up to at any point and time. He let me know that he was spending his time on a climate change committee in his county. I was so proud of him because we had a similar discussion about 5...

There seems to be a resurgence of tuna fish advertising as influencers show the benefits of eating tuna and try to bust myths of mercury poisoning and overfishing if you look up government standards you will find that specific tuna is safe to eat, but are the supermarkets that sell them sourcing from the right supplier? Are they making sure the suppliers are sustainably catching tuna and treating...

You need to know what's happening in deep-sea mining, or what's not happening in deep-sea mining. I kept hearing different stories about how close deep-sea mining was to becoming a reality. At times it concerned me and at other times I was just thinking that it was never going to happen. Over the past year, things have seemed to progress and you might be seeing more stories in the media about the...

For most of my life my parents and I bought my clothes from shops in the mall in and around Toronto. We never thought of how the clothes were made and what would happen to them after I grew out of the clothes. Now that I know how wasteful my clothes are, I have been trying to find ways to buy more sustainable clothing, but I haven't had much luck finding something that I can afford or that is trul...

I posted a short video on marine mammal captivity on Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube Shorts. To be honest, it was an experiment. I knew the video would be a bit controversial as the captivity of marine mammals content always tends to be this way. My goal for the video was not to take a personal stance but to let viewers make their own decision based on the resources I suggested. I got some feedbac...

We are now in the decade of the ocean and you may or may not have heard of the term flying around that is supposed to help the oceans and lands and protect biodiversity. The term is 30 x 30. It means 196 nations have pledged to protect 30% of lands and oceans by the year 2030. It's a great goal that can help our environment and the human species from climate change, water pollution, plastic pollut...

Whale and dolphin captivity is quite a controversial issue as there are people who are advocating for the release of every captive orca, dolphin, seal, and sea lion (along with manatees) to improve their overall health and there are people who think that these animals are treated well in marine parks and offer a great way for humans to make a connection to help save marine mammals. On which side s...

There are some great people in the marine conservation world that have the potential to do some great things in the field of marine science and conservation. They are intelligent, motivated, passionate, and talented in more than just the science/policy/advocacy work. They can communicate in creative ways. Every once in a while, I have the chance to meet these individuals to speak to them about how...

Corals are facing a ton of challenges in the form of human disturbances and the potential loss of corals and coral reefs will devastate 25% of the species that depend on reefs for their survival. But there are efforts to protect and restore populations in the face of challenges such as climate change, water pollution, coastal development, and over-fishing. An organization called the Great Barrier...

Have you ever thought about whether your marine science/conservation/policy career is having the impact that you want on the ocean? For instance, I turned to podcasting about how to protect the ocean because I wanted to reach out to individual people to tell them about what is happening with the ocean and how they can help. I decided that I would stop working for the government to follow this ende...

It seems as though the media salivates any time there is a shark bite event and it's labelled as a shark attack that includes all the horrific details. The story reaffirms the fears many people have of sharks and demonizes them, but there is always a piece of the story missing that could get at the real story. For example, a recent story that is being shared is a potential white shark bite off the...

The major problem with battling overfishing on the high seas is that it is difficult to track vessels due to the lack of transparency in vessel registration. The results of a new study are hoping to change this problem by creating a global database of the global fishing fleet that can help tackle illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Analysis of the data found that 20% of high-seas f...

Sitting on a beach surrounded by sand and the ocean is probably one of the best feelings in the world. Travelers from all over the world flock to coastlines every year to lie on beaches and cool off in the adjacent ocean. However, there is nothing worse than finding litter on the beach, especially cigarette butts.  For years, people cleaning beaches have found cigarette butts were the items picked...

There is so much content out there that is better produced, better audio, better video, and better communicated than mine, but I still have a following and listeners who say they love my content. I must admit, there are times that I want to up my game and make better-produced content to try and bring in more listeners and followers; however, the reality is that I have restrictions in time, money,...

The health of ocean habitats is a delicate balance of the presence of the right species and the proper conditions. When things are out of balance the health of habitats can be at stake. Coral reef habitats act as a host for a diverse amount of species of invertebrates and vertebrates; however, the reefs are sensitive to physical and chemical changes which we often discuss on this podcast, but we r...

Now that straws are banned in most places and single-use plastics are also on their way to being banned in many places it's time to move the focus on to other items...clothing. Don't you worry because I am not talking about a ban on clothing, but a ban on throwing out clothing because it can be recycled? The State of Massachusetts has banned throwing out clothing and other textiles in the trash fo...

What would you think if I told you that conservationists and managers have improved the health of oceans and land on small islands by eradicating invasive rats? Researchers are now focusing on managing the biodiversity of the land-sea interaction on small islands to help protect biodiversity and the evidence points to success. Many of the studies focus on eradicating invasive species (such as rats...

When a government tells its people that it is opening up its coasts to oil and gas leasing like the Trump Administration did from 2016-2020, there are quite a few things that happen behind the scenes that we don't realize until it is too late and it is difficult to fix the changes (or they get ignored). For example, The Trump administration opened up a swath of habitat along the shelf break on the...

I did an interview recently on my other podcast that I cohost called Beyond Jaws with Guy Stevens who is the Founder of the Manta Trust. We talked about how he started studying manta rays after he received his Bachelor's Degree in Science. He just started studying them while working for an ecoresort in the Maldives. He used what was around him to follow his passion not knowing where it would take...

It's difficult to tell now but some of the heat waves that we have experienced over the past couple of years were thought to be impossible 50 or 60 years ago and we are now seeing natural disasters around the world that are being caused by two or more consequences from climate change (drought brought on by extreme heat waves and lack of rain for extended periods of time). The new scientific field...

Visiting Antarctica might be on your bucket list and it would be a fun thing to do, but is it in the best interest protecting its environment? That is the question that conservationists are asking after a noticeable increase in vessels visiting the most Southern continent. They are worried that too many tourists could lead to the introduction of invasive species and/or diseases like the avian flu....

It's a new year and many creator-focused businesses are gearing up and executing plans for 2023, including myself. I've made some personal resolutions and business resolutions for this podcast and my business. My goal has always been to reach more people so my plans will continue to increase my reach for the audio podcast and introduce more content for other digital platforms such as YouTube, TikT...

Are you looking to Speak Up For The Ocean in 2023? Then this episode is for you. I've been doing this podcasting thing for over 7.5 years and over that time I covered a lot of stories and I've seen various ways that people and organizations disseminate their marine conservation messages. But there is an increasing percentage of the audiences that are not listening to the messages or find the messa...

James Cameron, the famous director, was promoting his new movie, Avatar: the way of the water, which has a huge marine conservation message when he came under fire for attending one of the promotional premieres in Japan. The promotion included a dolphin show at an aquarium which infuriated many environmentalists who wanted to hear Cameron's reason for attending the premiere with a captive dolphin...

For years now marine biologists, conservationists, NGOs, and governments have been working to protect the oceans in places all over the world. It would make sense that the projects would be about working altogether, especially with the people that live along the coastal community. Unfortunately, that hasn't always happened. Coastal communities have been ignored during these projects. Luckily, ther...