Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast

Today we’re talking with Dr. Alex Brylske a veteran dive industry professional, coral reef biologist and retired professor at the College of the Florida Keys.  We discuss his book, ‘Beneath The Blue Planet’ that provides an in-depth dive into all things ocean.    We’ll also get his unique perspective on the changing nature of both our endangered Ocean and the role the dive industry can and must pl...

Today we speak with Marc Yaggi, Chief Executive Officer of the Waterkeeper Alliance, the world’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of clean water.  We’ll talk about his and his organization’s history going back to exploring and protecting watersheds including the one that provides New York City with its drinking water.  We’ll review some of this boat-base...

In this episode of Rising Tide we talk with Submersible engineer and marine robotics expert Tony Lawson about the challenges faced by the deep submersibles community. He describes the challenges and wonders of building vessels designed to explore the ocean depths, their classing, industry safety record and ongoing innovations. He also speaks about his personal reaction to the “predictable” tragedy...

Hosts Natasha Benjamin and David Helvarg speak with Kassia Meador — longtime professional surfer, designer, and ocean devotee whose ecstatic longboard style has made her one of the sport's most recognizable figures. The conversation moves like a tide, pulling from her earliest saltwater memories shaped by a surfer father, to the changes she's witnessed in the ocean over decades in the water. Meado...

Today we speak with Rich German –photographer, paddle boarder, podcaster and founder of Project O. Along with thousands of hours stand up paddling with Orcas, Blue whales, dolphins and seals, Rich has been instrumental in creating blue city standards for coastal communities while also working on the establishment of a whale sanctuary in Norway plus seeking to protect a Beluga spy whale presently s...

On today’s show we speak with Rep. Jared Huffman (D – CA) whose congressional district runs up California’s coast from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border.   A long time ocean champion he talks about laws he’s helped pass to protect salmon and kelp forests, the removal of dams on the Klamath river and how offshore floating wind farms could be the greatest boom to the area’s economy since l...

On today’s show David speaks with Rob Moir, sailor, scientist and founder of the Cambridge Massachusetts based Ocean River Institute. Rob talks about his experiences as a sailor, his first encounter with a right whale and how it changed his life, and the work and meaning of Ocean River. We discuss ocean planning, the fate of whales and how what you put on your lawn could impact marine wildlife. He...

Chad Nelsen grew up where the land runs out — raised on the beaches of southern California, working as a lifeguard before turning his eye toward coastal science and eventually to the fight to save the shores that shaped him. As CEO of the Surfrider Foundation, he now leads one of the ocean's most tenacious grassroots defenders: a 50,000-member coalition of surfers and saltwater devotees waging cam...

Today we’re talking with Natasha Benjamin: Filmmaker, marine scientist, diver, surfer, Communications Director for Marine Applied Research & Exploration, and, oh yes, Associate Director at Blue Frontier. Natasha is now working on a documentary film project – Sequoias of the Sea - covering the collapse of 95% of northern California’s Kelp Forest and its impact on a fishing community where the fishe...

Join us as we talk with Greenpeace Ocean Campaign Director John Hocevar. John, who has piloted small submarines in the Arctic and Antarctic, talks about the new and historic High Seas Treaty that some 190 nations agreed to in March. It represents a 20-year battle to protect two thirds of the ocean or basically half the planet by allowing for the establishment of vast marine protected areas for oce...

In our next episode we speak with Andrew Hebard, president and CEO of Nature’s Crops International about how plant products rich in omega oils can improve your body, health and mind without damaging the ocean.

This week's guest is Linda Behnken, Executive Director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association — a woman who has hauled lines in some of the coldest, most unforgiving waters on earth for more than four decades. Behnken is not the kind of person who watches a fight from the dock. As one of the most outspoken advocates for Alaska's fishing communities and the marine ecosystems they depend on,...

This week, David Helvarg sits down with Kramer Wimberley — lead dive instructor and board member of DWP, Diving With a Purpose — a man who has made the ocean floor both a classroom and a reckoning. Through the discipline of citizen science, DWP has become a leading force in locating, surveying, and documenting the shipwrecks of the Atlantic Slave Trade, pulling history up from the dark water and h...

This week we talk with David Shiffman, a marine biologist with Arizona State University, and fun science communicator who speaks with wit and knowledge about sharks and the ocean, their evolution, strange and varied reproductive strategies and the politics of conserving them.  Hearing from a shark expert like Shiffman is its own kind of thrill.  So dive in with us on this episode of the Rising Tid...

This week we talk with Francis Lean Bu, the Executive Director of the Roatan Marine Park one of the jewels of the Mesoamerican reef off the north coast of Honduras. Along with the wonders of her island’s reef life we also learn about ongoing battles with stony coral tissue disease (divers applying antibiotics to the living reef), a training program to hunt lionfish (first you shoot the coconut) an...

This week we talk with Tre Packard: art curator, diver and Executive Director of the PangaeSeed Foundation that includes the ‘Sea Walls – Artists for the Oceans’ program.   ‘Sea Walls’ has involved hundreds of artists creating over 500 large ocean-themed murals in 19 nations. Tre talks about the role of art in marine conservation, their first mural project and its impact on a Mexican island (and o...

David Helvarg speaks with Nick Landon, a young mariner who chose to bet his future on the sea. Landon traces his path from four years at the California Maritime Academy to the working reality of life as a third mate aboard an oil tanker — the long watches, the constant decision-making, and the particular solitude of open water. He recounts the ship's stretch in dry dock in the Bahamas, where steel...

A co-founder and Executive Director of the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA), Carleen Lyden Walker talks to us about the challenges of transitioning the world’s shipping industry into an ocean and climate friendly sector of the blue economy.   Among key issues we discuss are public education about ports and shipping, decarbonizing the global fleet of 90,000 plus lar...

Undersecretary of Commerce Dr. Rick Spinrad, Administrator of  the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) talks with us about his responsibilities from the surface of the sun to the bottom of the sea. He discusses NOAA’s varied resources and people working for our public seas plus ongoing challenges including sea level rise, overfishing and ocean acidification. We also discus...

Henry David Thoreau asked the question in an 1849 book. Actually, fish are more likely to hum and croak according to Dr. Carrie Wall, NOAA Fisheries Acoustic Archivist at the University of Colorado.   Carrie not only studies and collects the sounds of fish - she knows how to imitate them. In our version of NPR’s ‘Science Friday’ we learn about ocean acoustics, human caused ocean noise and how ther...

In this episode we talk with Alexandra Morton, who’s been called the Jane Goodall of Canada. After spending years studying the language of resident Orcas along a remote stretch of British Columbia she turned her attention to the salmon farms that displaced the Orcas and harmed the wild salmon they feed on.    Morton discusses Orcas, her decades long fight with the industry and ultimately how she –...

In this episode we talk to leading ocean warrior Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. We talk about his background fighting for beavers, seals and whales and his recent break up with Sea Shepherd over its purpose and direction.   We also discuss his new Paul Watson Foundation, his biocentric religion, phytoplankton and the planet and how his time at the siege of W...

In this episode we reconnect with our friend 'Sherman’s Lagoon' creator Jim Toomey to talk about his new book, ‘Family Afloat – Two Years Sailing the World with Two Kids and Two Captains.’ Along with a bit of history of his popular shark-based cartoon strip, Jim shares some of the rollicking, inspiring and even frightening moments he and his family (and two hamsters) experienced sailing the Med, t...

In this episode David talks with renowned marine scientist Dr. Nancy Knowlton about her background, her work on coral reefs and her launching of a multi-disciplinary, solution oriented marine program at Scripps. She also talks about her expanding work on ocean and earth optimism at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and why that’s not an oxymoron but a starting point. This and more on resto...

In this episode we have a hopeful but challenging talk with Linda Hunter, founder and director of the Wild Oyster Project that’s working to restore San Francisco Bay’s once abundant oyster reefs. Linda tells us why oysters are “working class heroes” keeping estuary ecosystems healthy. We discuss the major fish-killing Algal Bloom now occurring in the bay and how her oysters are faring, plus discus...