The Sargassum Podcast

Rolando Chavez Penaherrera is the Latin American General manager for the Enviro-Clean segments of DESMI and Head of DESMI SEAWEED Division. DESMI is Danish manufacturer of pumps, pumping systems, environmental cleaning equipment and related products and services, Founded in 1834 and headquartered in Denmark, DESMI provides pumping solutions to end-markets including marine and offshore, industrial,...

Bethia Thomas is currently a postgraduate student at CERMES pursuing a PhD in Natural Resource Management. Her research seeks to venture into the novel territory of pelagic sargassum with special emphasis on a community-based participatory approach to vulnerability analysis and adaptation planning for pelagic sargassum influxes in the Eastern Caribbean, using the island of Saint Lucia as a case st...

Part of the problem with sargassum’s sudden proliferation is hard to track. Things like weather, currents, and even marine animals can make it challenging to understand where a sargassum beaching will occur and how big it might be when it does. Dr. Geoff Smith and Dr. Betsabe de la Barreda Bautista have a great solution: they’ve created a service that archives photos from satellites to create a wo...

La llegada masiva de Sargazo flotante al Caribe de Centroamérica es un evento relativamente nuevo, es por ello que conocer cómo está la situación actual de este fenómeno es muy importante para responder a ello. Cindy Fernández como investigadora en el área de Ficología, ha comenzado iniciativas para conocer más sobre estas algas en el Caribe de Costa Rica.   Cindy está trabajando la part...

Kim Baldwin is a marine ecologist who uses geospatial tools and information technology to work with people to collaboratively create comprehensive spatial information to strengthen ecosystem-based environmental management in the Caribbean, California & beyond.  She is an integral part of Marine Spatial Information Solutions, which provides a range of geospatial mapping, analysis, and trai...

Début mars 2022, le Sargassum podcast a reçu Madame Lydia Barfleur, coordinatrice du projet Sarg’coop. Docteure en droit international de l’université de la Sorbonne, Lydia Barfleur a étudié et enseigné la régionalisation économique dans la zone des Carai͏̈bes avant de coordonner Sarg’coop. Ce programme de coopération caribéenne sur les sargasses, porté par la Région Guadeloupe, mis en place à par...

Dr. Kate Mansfield is a marine scientist, a sea turtle biologist, and an associate professor at the University of Central Florida. Her research focuses on sea turtle biology, ecology, behavior, management, and conservation. Using various census and telemetry methods, Dr. Mansfield’s research interests include sea turtle and other marine vertebrate movements, migration, and habitat utilization. We...

Sargassum impacts the coastal and seaside communities of many countries, including Tobago. The piles and piles of it on the Atlantic side of the island leave an awful trace of toxins in the air that can be harmful to the population. Yet, where others only see it as a natural disaster, trained natural resource manager and researcher for the government of Tobago (and our guest for today) Avisha Bara...

Sargassum beaching events have become an international challenge that requires globally-cooperative solutions. With such pressing challenges, thankfully, come incredibly innovative solutions to sargassum overproduction and decay.  Due to climate change, there is more and more sargassum on shores, which creates trouble for marine ecosystems and coastal communities. Our guests today work to tur...

Since 2011, vast masses of the free-floating algae Sargassum have been washing ashore on Caribbean beaches – some leaving coastlines three-feet deep in seaweed. When it isn't rotting on beaches, Sargassum has incredible properties and could fuel an entire new blue economy. The Sargassum Podcast aims to cure marine science blindness by providing listeners with an in-depth look into how sargassum im...

Dr. Denise Herzing is the Founder and Research Director of the Wild Dolphin Project and has studied Atlantic spotted dolphins in the Bahamian waters for over 35 years. In addition to many scientific articles, she is the co-editor of Dolphin Communication and Cognition , author of “ Dolphin Diaries : My 25 years with Spotted Dolphins in the Bahamas ” and “ The Wild Dolphin Project (2002)” . Cassie...

Dr. Rick Lumpkin is the Director of the Physical Oceanography Division of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) research laboratory in Miami, FL: the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML). Dr. Lumpkin’s research focuses on upper ocean processes and ocean circulation. As Principal Investigator of AOML’s component of NOAA’s Global Drifter Program...

Courtney Gallaher is a jointly appointed associate professor in the Department of Geographic and Atmospheric Sciences and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Northern Illinois University. Her fields of studies include Women in science, Sustainable agriculture and food systems and Environmental management and sustainability. Emely Hernandez is a master’s student in Geographic...

VictorDavid est docteur en droit de l’environnement. Il est chargé de recherche à l’IRD (Institut de recherche pour le développement), et en poste actuellement au Campus Agro Environnemental Caraïbe en Martinique. Il est affilié à l’Unité Mixte de recherche SENS (Savoirs Environnement Sociétés) et collabore avec le LC2S (Laboratoire caribéen des sciences sociales) de l’université des Antilles. Vic...

Ard Vreugdenhill is storyteller and conservationist with Nature Connecting, an NGO.  He just finished working in Barbados. Before that, he worked for over five years for Sea Turtle Conservation in Curacao. Julieta Castro is a volunteer for Sea Turtle Conservation in Curacao and is 15 years old, our youngest podcast guest so far. Listen to the episode to hear about: Intern introduction (0:39)...

The Sargassum Podcast's Robby Thigpen interviews Darson Benet aka  Drizzle Roadrunna and his mom Ms. Mazy about the fire on Guanaja, their  family there and what they are trying to do to help. If you would like  to donate to help feed the people of Guanaja, please go to our Guanaja  After the Fire Donation page:  https://marinefrontiers.org/guanaja-a... Donation are being...

Lindsay Martin is an Ocean Policy Specialist at the National Science Foundation (NSF) who is passionate about combining research with education. She has quite literally sailed around the world and is working to make research more equitable and accessible. Amy Siuda is an Associate Professor of Marine Science at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida and former Professor and Chief Scientist at S...

Ute Marx is Professor of Medical Engineering at Pforzheim University, but she has spent some of her research time in Brisbane Australia. Her teaching focuses on the subjects of technical sales and marketing, as well as natural science subjects such as molecular biophysics and metabonomics. Her research activities focus, among other things, on the question of how metabolic products in body fluids c...

Professor Kwasi Appeaning Addo is a coastal processes specialist with vast experience in the West Africa coastal region. He is the Director of the Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies (IESS) in the University of Ghana. Recently he has focused his research on developing an integrated approach to sustainable port development, which embraces the three perspectives of engineering, ecosyste...

Sargassum Podcast Episode 33: A Different Kind of Invasion - Panel on Sargassum horneri in California  Our panel of guests today are:    Melissa Hanson   Melissa is the Co-Founder of Kelpful, a wild harvested seaweed company based in the Central Coast of California.   ֍ Learn more about Kelpful here:  https://www.kelpful.com/   Dr. Emily Ryznar Emily recently rec...

Henrique Ramos is the CEO of SeaExpert, which is a fisheries services and consultancy firm. He developed several aquaculture projects through SeaExpert, as an algae harvesting operation for the cosmetics biotech industry, as well as contributing to the world’s science on animal feed and production, leading to the Azores exporting high quality products abroad. Within SeaExpert, Henrique is also res...

Le samedi 14 août, un tremblement de terre de magnitude 7,2 a frappé Haïti, suivi lundi par la tempête tropicale Grace. Cette catastrophe a fait de nombreux morts, blessés et sans-abri. Nous avons parlé à Marc Edouin Juste de la situation en Haïti et de la façon dont nous et vous pouvez aider. Nous vous invitons à écouter et à envisager de donner des biens ou de l'argent pour les personnes touchée...

Our guest today is James Ellsmoor, who is the Founder and Director of Island Innovation, which connects rural and island locations around the world working on similar development issues. Island Innovation began with a newsletter and a series of virtual events, and has evolved into a community of over 127,000 members. He is also the co-founder of Solar Head of State, which works with governments to...

Dr. Tom Linton is an emeritus professor at Texas A&M. Tom has  studied the impacts of Sargassum on Gulf Coast beaches for decades and  was also involved in the development of the predictive model for  forecasting Sargassum landings. Brandon Hill is a coastal resources  manager for the City of Galveston and has previously worked as director  of the shoreline department...

Dr. Legena Henry is an MIT graduate, and a Mechanical Engineer, who is now the Lecturer for Renewable Energy at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, specializing in Renewable Energy and Applied Mechanics. She researches sustainable energy sources in the Caribbean, such as bio-fuel from Sargassum seaweed, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, and wave energy. Listen to the episode to learn abou...