How To Protect The Ocean

Dr. Naomi Rose joins me on the podcast with an interesting story that resulted in the death of a recently transferred beluga whale at Mystic Aquarium. The beluga whale named Havoc was transferred from the troublesome Marineland located in Canada.  Naomi describes how the process was flawed from the beginning including the fact that Havoc was sick before the transfer and Mystic Aquarium is known fo...

Trying to buy environmentally beneficial products is not as easy as you would think it is. Companies will always try to save money that may compromise the overall environmental benefit of the product. For example, selling vegan food in a plastic container.  Trying to navigate eco-friendly products can also become difficult because there is misleading information published by "experts" that can con...

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Chad Nelson, CEO of the Surfrider Foundation, to catch up from our last conversation on the changes and growth that the Surfrider Foundation has undergone over the past five years.  Chad and I discuss how Surfrider has not only doubled in staff but continues to grow an army of volunteers that represent the foundation well across the US and even into Canada.  We...

You would think that we would know more information about whales because they are so big; however, that is not the case. There are many information gaps in what we know about whales, especially whales that leave in extreme climates like the Arctic.  Beluga and narwhal whales are especially tricky because they live so far up north and often under the ice. Knowing where they go and why is really imp...

I am a Science Communicator. I use this podcast to communicate marine science to you and other listeners who would like to know more about how to protect the Ocean. My goal is to present accurate and real information so that you and others could learn about Oceans that may not be readily available online.  II know many colleagues who communicate science by conducting guest lectures/teachings in K-...

Ghost nets are discarded nets from fishing vessels that float around in the ocean unmonitored. The nets continue to snag fish, marine mammals, sea turtles, and seabirds that causes needless deaths every year.  There are organizations that search for Ghost Nets to retrieve and dispose of them; however, disposing of the plastic nets is not as simple as we think. The nets are often discarded in landf...

I had a great listener question that I decided to cover on the podcast because I thought it was an important topic.  @harveyperello asked: Why do we ignore ocean solutions when fighting climate change? It's a terrific question! The answer comes down to how the ocean is covered in media. You never hear about great ocean projects such as the ones that plant mangroves to combat climate change (mangro...

Discovery's Shark Week is their biggest rating week of the year and is quite the spectacle. The shows aim to inspire people to learn about sharks and understand how they work; however, is the program effective at communicating the right information?  A new scientific paper has been published to provide evidence that Shark Week has contained a lot of misinformation over the decades that they have b...

Salmon populations can't stand the heat so they may be removed from many of the waterways that they normally occupy for spawning.  Salmon are cold-water species that do not do well in warm water; therefore, freshwater rivers where the salmon spawn are not ideal habitats when they heat up due to climate change. Add human barriers such as culverts, dams, and eroding habitats which impede access to s...

Florida is in a Red Tide event two years after its last red tide event. Hundreds of ocean species are washing up along the shore dead and rotting causing health problems for people with respiratory issues and killing the tourism industry. Red tide events happen when nutrients feed a species of phytoplankton in combination with the right sea temperatures (high temps) and lack of wind. The prolifera...

There were 841 manatee deaths since January 1st of 2021, which is the largest mass mortality event since 2013 (830 deaths). The deaths were due to a lack of seagrass in their favourite eating spot, Indian Lagoon.  Seagrass is a crucial part of the manatee diet and without the presence of the ocean plant, manatees end up starving to death. It's important to maintain good water quality for optimal s...

This episode is a bit of a rant that I have been thinking about for a while. Over the past few months, I've noticed that media companies (video, audio, and written forms) have been putting out content that either ignores science or drives a wedge between science and the public.  The film Seaspiracy told the audience and non-profit organizations that worked to conserve the ocean were actually worki...

A new report written by researchers at the University of British Columbia and supported by Oceana reveals the foreign fisheries subsidies are contributing to overfishing in foreign countries.  Countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, the USA, Thailand, Taiwan, Spain, Indonesia, and Norway will pay up to 35% of their total subsidies to their distant fleets to fish within the jurisdictio...

Fishers have had to adapt to many changes over generations. Some of those changes are natural, but most are human-induced.  For one fisher in Alaska, adapting has been part of his entire life. Dune Lankard is an indigenous fisher in Alaska who has had to endure tsunamis, oil spills, the commoditization of the Indigenous way of fishing and life, and now climate change.  Dune's latest adaptation to...

Dr. David Ebert joins me on the podcast today to discuss four publications that went out in the last 5 weeks that name and describe a new shark species. These new shark species bring Dave's total described species to 50.  Dave talks about the process of naming and describing species and describes the four new shark species.  A couple of things that Dave is promoting today: 1) A new book: Sharks of...

The last episode on Climate Change might have been a bit pessimistic so I decided to share a great resource on how you can fight climate change.  The David Suzuki Foundation has been working within Canada for decades to help Canadians understand and take action on Climate Change. I read out their tips on how you can fight climate change and added some of my comments.  Link to article: https://davi...

Last week was a crazy week for the environment, to say the least. The ocean was set on fire due to a busted pipeline, a town in British Columbia ignited into flames due to a heatwave, and the Arctic ice is melting at a phenomenal rate.  All of these events are related as they either contribute to Climate Change or are one of the many consequences of climate change.  We need to act fast to reduce C...

Two experience Canadian Fisheries and Oceans scientists have revealed that data points to multiple factors that are causing the recovery of Northern Cod to move at a snail's pace and seals are not the driving force. Many fishers along the North Atlantic coast in Canada and the US think that the large population of harp seals (7.6 million) is to blame for the slow recovery. However, the blame lies...

The US Navy conducts drills in the ocean on a regular basis whether it uses sonar or detonates bombs. Unfortunately, many marine species including marine mammals, suffer from these exercises.  Sonar exercises can affect the hearing of marine mammals and disrupt their communication within a pod that is used to hunting and looking after young individuals.  Explosives are a different beast. Small to...

Does Subway use real Tuna in their Tuna sandwiches? That is the question that many headlines read throughout social media sites recently as people were sharing variations of a New York Times article along the same lines.  The purpose of the article was to test whether a lawsuit filed by some people in California about what was in the Tuna sandwich at Subway; however, the experimental design was we...

A recent article highlighted a string of containers that have fallen off of shipping vessels in recent months. Some shipping experts say that it is caused by a change in the direction of waves causing rolling pitches on the vessels.  The experts also say that taller ships with more containers stacked on top of each other are less sturdy, contributing to the increase in falling containers.  Link to...

I was in a clubhouse room run by Zakia Rashid called Blue Planet this week and there was a discussion about oil spills at sea. Not the huge oil spills that we hear about on the news, but small spills that not many people ever hear about.  I discuss why these spills happen and how certain countries are trying to do something about these spills in terms of further protection. Links: Clubhouse Blue P...

I had an audience member reach out to me this morning to ask me some advice about creating content for Science Communication (SciComm). I love chatting about SciComm so we had a great discussion.  Listen to the episode on what my advice was for her. I think it might help you if you are looking to create SciComm content yourself. Crystal's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ocean.bodhi/ Check out...

The Coelacanth is a fish that continues to surprise the scientific community. Originally thought to be extinct, the living fossil was "rediscovered" after being caught in 1938 off the coast of Africa.  The surprises continue today after scientists found out that Coelacanths don't live until 20 as originally thought. They live up to 100 years.  Listen to the episode to find out how the new lifespan...

The UK government responded to reports that 97% of their Marine Protected areas had allowed trawlers to fish in the areas where the major goals of the MPA were to protect the seabed making the MPA ineffective. The response was to add High Protected Marine Areas in a pilot scheme next year for 5 ocean areas. It sounds great, but many critiques would like to see the areas designated sooner rather th...