The Ocean Connection We Are Losing, And Why It Matters

0:00 People protect what they love, and ocean conservation really starts with connection. That's what we're gonna be focusing on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast 'cause this is Oceans Day, folks. It is Oceans Day. It's a day where we take the time to celebrate this beautiful blue planet that we have. Over 71% of the ocean covers this planet. It provides oxygen for every second breath that we take. And it's time that we reflect on that and what the ocean provides us, not only from a resource perspective, but also from just a beauty perspective and a cultural perspective. I think it's something that we forget a lot of the times, whether it be the ocean, whether it be lakes, whether it be rivers.

0:42 I think it's time that we start to really value what we do in and around the ocean, and really start to talk about that and remember that when we're actually working in and around the ocean when we're talking about industries and things like that. So we're gonna talk about that on today's episode 'cause this is the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, where you get your weekday ocean news update. If you are listening to this on your favorite podcast app and you haven't followed the show yet, please follow this show. It helps us get to the top, to the top of the charts in Apple Podcasts as well as Spotify. It just helps us get there so we can get in front of more people, and people can find a resource. That's what I want to do with this podcast, is get people to find a resource for the ocean where they can learn and they can find out how they can protect the ocean better in their daily lives.

1:29 So let's get into it 'cause, like, here's the thing, is I always love Oceans Day, but every day is Oceans Day for me. We talk about it literally five days a week. And we think about the ocean each and every day. Not everybody does. You may not, and that's fine. It doesn't really matter. The fact is I used to hate Oceans Day in a way because it was just like only one day. People only look at it for one day. And then it turned into an Oceans Week 'cause there were events all week in certain spots like Washington, DC, and Toronto and all over the place. And then of course they have, like, Climate Week before that here in Toronto. Although we don't really talk a lot about the oceans, unfortunately, when we talk about climate, which is a thing that we need to do more. Which is why people should listen to this episode more, this show, especially this episode because we're talking about Oceans Day.

2:10 And you know, like, let's be honest, I saw a post on LinkedIn. Unfortunately, I can't remember who did it, but it was a friend of mine who said, "A lot of the times we focus in on what the ocean can do as a resource." What can it give us? Can it give us critical minerals? Can it give us power? Can it give us fish, like food? Can it give us security? A lot of the times we forget to talk about the cultural ties that we have to the ocean. There are a lot of coastal communities. I mean, 60% of the people on this planet live along coastlines. There is more than just using it as a resource, is that what it provides us. It provides people with culture, provides it, you know, they're in their stories from a religious aspect and a cultural aspect and historical aspect, is how we discovered different places on the planet was through the water.

2:59 It was how we discovered new medications. I know that's kind of acting as a resource, but the exploration and the beauty is the reason why we go to the beach on a vacation, because we want to go and just enjoy the calm blue water, or the calm, productive waters of the ocean. Whether you're in the tropics or whether you're in temperate or whether you're in the Arctic environments, you can enjoy the ocean. One thing that I'm doing after I record this is I'm getting ready to go to a trip to Halifax for a conference for my work at Pisces Oceans. And I'm looking forward to it. It's been a while since I've been to Halifax. My wife and I worked there when we were younger, over 20 years ago, and I did my master's out there at Acadia University.

3:39 And during that time, I got to live by the ocean for like, it was two years. It wasn't a lot of time in my life, but I got to live. It was a dream of mine to live by the ocean. And we would go down to the harbor front, and we would look at just the ocean. We would look in, we'd see the jellyfish that were around there. Let's be honest, like it's a pretty big port. The water quality has something to said, but we got to see a lot of cool things in that. We got to see whales come into the harbor. We got to see dolphins come into the harbor over that time. We got to go on the harbor, like on these boats, these sailboats that would take you around and do a harbor tour. And it was really invigorating. It was one of those things where you're just like, "I get to just sit here with my ice cream from Cowies."

4:19 That's if you know Halifax, you know Cowies. And share with at the time was my girlfriend, but was gonna be my wife, and now is wife of 21 years. And we got to sit and just chat about life and look out on the ocean And it was just this calming sensation for both of us where we just got to live and be around the ocean. You could smell the ocean. Sometimes good smells, sometimes not so good smells. There's this feeling you get when you live around the ocean. And you can tell when you meet somebody that's from a coastal area. They're a little bit more laid back, they're a little bit more nature-focused, and they enjoy the ocean. They enjoy being in nature. And I think there's a lot of people who enjoy it in different ways.

5:01 You got people who go on beach vacations or there's like fishing or there's whale watching, surfing, which I've never been good at. Scuba diving, which I do. Just working on the water, it's something I've been able to do over my lifetime. And then just simply like listening to the waves. It's really cool to just be there and just listen. Close your eyes, like maybe lie in a park that's by the ocean and just listen to the waves. Listen to those crashing up against the wall, sometimes gently, sometimes a little bit more harshly. But it's so much fun. And I think what happens is we lose sight of that. We lose sight of what the ocean brings us from a mental health aspect, what the ocean brings us from, just like a feeling of peace. Just a feeling of enjoyment.

5:43 You see people kayaking the ocean, you see people on their boats, you see people recreational fishing. It brings a lot of joy to a lot of people. And I feel like a lot of the times, even when you listen to this podcast, especially when you listen to this podcast, we talk about conservation. We talk about major issues that have been seen in and around the ocean. I had, um, a listener give some feedback on Spotify. And she loved the podcast, but she was saying, "Hey, you know what? The five episodes is a lot. It plugs up my feed." Which I'm working on that, by the way. That'll come out in probably about a week. And she was saying, "Hey, look, I love the episodes, but I can't listen to them all the time," 'cause a lot of topics are pretty heavy. And it's true. I never thought about it that way. Sometimes you lose sight of that 'cause you're trying to bring optimism, but a lot of the topics that we talk about on this episode, it can be pretty heavy.

6:25 Like, they're not something that you would just sit back and relax and listen to, although some people do, some people don't. But they're heavy topics. They're a little bit different than some of the other podcasts that are out there that are, like, maybe more popular, a little bit more relaxed that you wanna listen to. And I feel the same way. Like, when I listen to podcasts on, like, marketing and, like, entrepreneurship and all this, it's something that I like. After a while I'm like, "I need to just kind of relax and just get a podcast that's maybe talking about sports or talking about life and just lifestyles in general, and just, like, a comedy show that's not…" Like, trying to get a comedy podcast that's not male-dominated or alpha male kind of stuff, just, like, regular stuff. It's difficult to do more than you think. But we try and do that.

7:06 So, like, I had that feedback and it was great to hear because, like, people wanted to hear about this. But a lot of the topics that we talk about can be heavy. And so last week we talked about cold water species. We talked about the blue shark, the mola mola, the ocean sunfish. Talked about leatherback sea turtle. We talk about the animals that you see in tide pools, which I'm hoping to kinda do a little bit when I go to Halifax, and explore those. And I think that's something that when you're able to be there all the time, and you're able to go, like… Nova Scotia has the highest tides in the world, and if I'm able to go to the Bay of Fundy when I'm out there, which I probably won't, but I always wanna go, you just see those, when the tide recedes and you see all this open, basically mud flats. And you see all these animals kinda scurrying around or hiding under a rock, these crabs, the scallops that are underneath.

7:49 It's just so cool. It's just so cool. And you get to witness that live, right in person. So I talk about the ocean, but I grew up around Great Lakes. And not a lot of people can be by the ocean. But you can be by a river, you can be by a lake, you can be by a stream. I highly recommend that if you live by a body of water, that you make the time today, especially today on Oceans Day, to just go and enjoy. Enjoy the water, enjoy the calm, the peace, and really reflect on what you want this year to be for you and living within nature. A lot of the times, we think we are at the top of nature, and we control things. And yes, we do have a huge influence, but we're not at the top of the food chain when it comes to the planet.

8:35 Yes, we affect it and yes, we can control a lot of things, but we don't really control the weather. We don't control the climate. We can affect it, but we don't control it. We live in sort of this, like, pyramid with all the other animals, and we're part of that. And so, like, think about where our place is on this planet, and the influence that we have and the ability to protect and destroy what this planet has naturally. And it's not about manipulation for money. It's not about trying to gouge the ocean and its resources for everything that it has until we have nothing left, but we got all this money. It's about living in peace with the ocean. It's about respecting the ocean.

9:16 And I'm gonna leave you with this. I've talked about it before on the podcast, but if you're new here, you haven't heard me talk about it. I was at the World Ocean Summit in Montreal just a couple months ago. It was a huge summit. It changed my life, really. Got me a new job with Pisces Oceans, which is the sponsor of this show, but it's great. It literally changed my life. But one of the things that I heard that really changed my life is Ken Paul, who's an indigenous person who lives in Canada, and he's got a lot of work, he does a lot of work with indigenous groups as well as non-indigenous groups around the ocean. And he talked about how there's been, like, this lack of respect that we've had for the ocean, that a lot of people have for the ocean. It's just we don't respect the ocean. We just use the ocean for what we need it for. And that was really powerful for me. If we start to respect the ocean, and in every decision that we make, the ocean is part of that decision, like the health of the ocean is considered in each part of that decision, we become a better people.

10:09 We become a better species. Our planet becomes better. We are not just ripping it to shreds so that we can get an extra buck. We are taking care of it because it's taking care of us. And I think that's what I wanna leave you with today because I think it's extremely important to say, "Hey, you know what? We need to build this out as a community, and we need to have this community enjoy the ocean and respect the ocean and speak highly of it in every decision that they make." Whether it's buying something at the convenience store or bring your reusable water bottle wherever you go and grabbing that water or drinks wherever you go, that's important. Those are important decisions that we need to make in a collective.

10:51 And I think also, as you look forward, is to say, "Where's my community? Where is my community?" I was on another call a couple weeks ago where Chad Nelsen was speaking, and he's the CEO of Surfrider in the US. A great, great guy. He's been on the podcast a number of times. And something that really stood out for what he said about, just, like, the ocean in general and the community that's around the ocean is, like, a lot of the times the people, like when we go online, and I ask this question, I'm like, when we go online and we talk about the ocean, we talk about the climate, we get attacked right away, whether it be from bots or from like crazy people who come on and just be like, "Climate change isn't real.

11:32 The ocean sucks. Who cares, Mick? I don't care about a sea turtle and a plastic straw," all that blah, blah, blah. And it makes it hard to comment on things or to bring about this type of awareness in certain circles. But the community that we want, the community that we have are the people who are, care about the ocean. And that's what, you know, places like Surfrider does, is that those community, you can come there as a collective. So you come for the community, you come for the commonality of, "Hey, let's protect the ocean. I care about the environment," and then you stay for the cleanups, and you stay for the impact that you do. And I think that's what we need to find. For those of you who are listening to this episode because you're looking for that community, we can have that community here. I'd love to start that online community where we're together, and we're talking about the ocean back and forth.

12:15 I may start the conversation through this podcast, but we can have this type of community. So give me some time and we can have this community. I think it's kind of a new thing, a new year. I always like to look at the Oceans Day as a bit of a new year for me, like a new start. I have a couple of them. There's the New Year, actual physical annual January 1st New Year, there's the New Year of Oceans Day, and then of course there's the New Year I always consider as my birthday, 'cause it used to start, right, so it's September 5th. It used to start right before school, and so I used to think it was a new year. But Oceans Day has come to be like a new year, and one thing I wanna do in this new year is interact more and build this community together so that we can have this community. And I would love to do that by opening up my Patreon for this community.

12:55 So if you go to speakupforblue.com/patreon, we can have this community of fun where we get together once a month, we talk about the ocean, we can have a good time. I'm gonna put up some things right now. Go to speakupforblue.com/patreon. This is where you're gonna get the different feeds. So you're gonna get a feed where you can just get the interviews that I do, and you're gonna get a feed where you get both the interviews and the solo episodes. You'll get it through Patreon. I'll have instructions on there. That part will be for free. If you wanna join the community at large, there will be a little bit of a fee. So, it'll be a lot of fun. I can't wait to do it. But yes, you can support the podcast. A lot of people have reached out. It's like, "Andrew, I wanna support you and the podcast that you do." I do have an editor, and I do have a lot of expenses that go around it, so it'll help me pay for this and continue to have these conversations.

13:39 But if you go to speakupforblue.com/patreon, you'll be able to join the community there. That's it for today's episode. Happy Oceans Day. I wanna thank you for joining me today, the next few weeks, the next year, and then all the ones who have been with me since the beginning and your journey throughout that. I wanna thank you so much for the support. I wanna thank you so much for joining me. Looking forward to talking to you tomorrow. We're gonna talk about why protests, especially around certain things that could affect the climate, which could affect the environment, like in data centers, have been working, and why we shouldn't stop in these days when people are attacking the environment. We're gonna talk about that tomorrow. So follow this episode so you can get in touch with me tomorrow, and you can get this episode tomorrow where we talk about data centers and protests and some of the wins that we've been seeing.

14:23 All right, that's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.