Why Talking About the Ocean in Everyday Life Can Save It

1:00:00 When was the last time you heard someone in your group, within your family, within your friends, you're out at a night, they had a restaurant, at a party. When was the last time you heard conversations about the ocean? Whether it be marine protection, whether it be about surfing, whether it be about canoeing, whether it be about you just using the ocean, being around the ocean. When was that last time you were talking about the ocean with your friends and family? That's what we're gonna be talking about today and how we need to have more conversations, just general conversations about the ocean to help them in its protection. That's what we're gonna talk about on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show.

1:00:41 Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I am your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you can find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. And here on today's episode, we're gonna be switching it up a little bit. So normally for the last probably eight months or so, maybe even longer, nine months, I've been recording this podcast with video. So it's the same podcast and it's changed, that changed everything I did to change all of my processes, where I recorded, how I edited, how I did everything, because I wanted to add that YouTube element, that video element and Spotify was coming out with video.

1:01:23 Obviously YouTube was all about video and they're claiming they're the largest video podcast, or the largest podcast, you know, one million download, one billion download podcast platform, which I don't think is really that true. But regardless, I decided to switch it back a little bit for a little bit, trying something new. And the reason I'm doing that is because I find when I record with video, my ideas changed, my mannerisms, the way I speak changes, it's a lot less natural. I cut more, I edit it, I have someone actually edit it for me. And I decided for the audio podcast, I want to go back to where we began, you know, 10 years ago, going back to saying, you know what, I really enjoyed doing a podcast just with the microphone, just looking at my notes, looking at a computer screen and talking to you in your earbuds, right?

1:02:16 That's the goal. That's where a lot of you are listening to me. And I've noticed that I, I don't know, I find I'm a little better that way. I'm still going to do a podcast episode after this for YouTube, but everything else that we do on Spotify and Apple podcasts, on your favorite podcast app that you listen to this on will continue to be audio, but I'm going to just record for audio, right? You're going to get the raw kind of thoughts because that's what I love about podcasting is it's raw. It doesn't have to be perfectly edited. It doesn't have to be like an NPR or a CBC radio show in terms of the quality of that content. But I just love just riffing on a microphone and just being like, Hey, let's just talk about this stuff.

1:02:57 And so that's what we're going to do today. We're going to go back to the root, see how this goes for a little bit. And I'd love to tell, I'd love if you've been listening to this episode or this podcast for the last little bit, I'd love for you to tell me what you think of the difference. So whether it's like, you know, straight up interview or straight up solo episode, I've done video and it's been a little bit more edited or this kind of fashion, where it's a little bit more raw, but I'm talking to you personally in your earbuds, not in video. I find them a little bit more relaxed without the video. Still gonna do video on YouTube, but just, I want to hear your thoughts. So hit me up on Instagram at, at how to protect the ocean or you can email me at or Andrew at speak up for blue.com.

1:03:40 Andrew at speak up for blue.com. Or you can go to my website, just hit up the contact desk and leave me, just felt the form. Leave me a note. Love to know the difference because this is going to dictate how I do things in the future. Anyway, I always love your feedback, but let's get into the episode today. Today we're going to be talking about conversations, right? Going back to podcasting the way I used to doing a podcast where, Hey man, like we're just going to talk about stuff. We're going to talk about the ocean. I find I was doing a presentation last week in front of a school, the great nine girls in front of the girls. So freshmen for a lot of you Americans who, who don't go by grades necessarily in high school. And I was asked to come to a talk. It was a wonderful talk about climate activism.

1:04:22 It was, it was like a two week thing where they put these great nines through this two week program and they get to talk to different leaders and mentors and all that kind of stuff. And it's, it's a wonderful program. I got to speak to it because I have a friend who teaches there and they asked me to speak about my career. And the one thing I said to them, I, I had talked to a lot of people, I said, do we talk about science in society? Do we talk about, you know, the ocean in society and the role it plays in society or just like the things that are affecting us that are about the ocean? And they were like, no, we don't really, I know we live in Ontario. So oceans are not going to be a common theme because we don't live right beside an ocean, but we do live by the great lakes, the great lakes we live by. We should be talking about the great lakes more, but we don't talk about the great lakes more and we don't talk about the role that the great lakes or the oceans play in our general lives.

1:05:12 When I told some of the kids that every second breath from the ocean or every second breath we take is from the ocean. So every second breath we take is from the ocean. Imagine that people didn't know that that should be like on the tips of our tongues. Every moment that should be in drain. That should be entrenched in our minds from a young age because we depend on the ocean as a race, as a planet. We depend on the ocean. If we screw this ocean up, we only get one big ocean, right? I know there's regions, but we get one ocean and if we screw it up, we're done. That's really comes down to it. If we screw up the ocean so badly, we're done as a species.

1:05:55 It may not happen for a long time for us, but we're done if this continues to happen. And so what I want to do today is I want to say, hey, let's encourage more conversation around the ocean. It doesn't have to be about just conservation. It doesn't have to be about science, but it can be about the cool things that we all love about the ocean. I'm about, I'm getting ready. I just came back from trip and I'm also getting ready to go for another vacation to Jamaica. I can't wait. It's going to be a lot of fun, but there's a reason why we go to vacation spots where there's an ocean. We love the color blue as a species. We love being by the ocean. I love the noise of the waves hitting against the shore of the beach.

1:06:38 That is that is a calm for me. That is peaceful for me. That's like that's where I get reenergized to come back and do this podcast over and over again to do the work that I do on a day to day basis. That's what I do. And a lot of others do it as well to kind of just relax, get away from for us in Canada, the winters as we get out of this winter and we're waiting for spring. But we need the ocean. We need the ocean, even if we're on the BC coast or the Arctic coast or the or the Atlantic coast or the Gulf of Mexico coast, wherever you're at, you need the ocean. It helps rejuvenate us all, whether it's by breath or whether it's by sight and just mental health as it's huge, as huge more and more these days.

1:07:23 That's that's the best part. But I wanted to talk about some of the key benefits of talking about the ocean. Right. Because a lot of people will be like, well, what are you talking about? Are we talking about I can't do lectures or I can't do this in front of classrooms and things like that? Like you just did. No, no, we're just talking about general conversations at the dinner table. You have dinner party or you went out to a restaurant or you had a party. Are you talking about the ocean in general? Because the one thing it does do is enhance public. It enhances public awareness and education. So engaging in a type of dialogue around the marine ecosystems and conservation efforts increases the public's understanding of ocean issues. So just having a dialogue, just having a conversation, the heightened awareness can lead to more informed decisions and behaviors to support environmental sustainability.

1:08:09 Because if we're talking about more, it's on our minds more. Like, think about this. If you're on social media, right, which a lot of us are on social media, including myself, sometimes a lot of times to a detriment. But if I've got my phone in front of me and I'm doom scrolling and I'm doom scrolling and I'm doing school and I keep seeing things happen. The world is like terrible. All this stuff comes out and all this negative, negative, negative. We know these social media platforms love negativity. So I'm looking at this phone and I'm looking through like TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or whatever. It's just like just articles being shared or, you know, comments being made or things like that on politicians, you know, profiles and and posts and stuff.

1:08:50 And you just see it's negative, negative, negative, negative. Eventually, I'm going to have a negative mindset because I'm looking at all this negativity. But now imagine if we talk about the ocean, not only in a positive way, but even in the negative way that the negative things that are occurring. But we're talking about the ocean. It becomes more and more on our mind. So not just talking about the conservation issues, but talking about what we like to do in the ocean, how we interact with it, what it brings to us. So maybe some new science studies that happen. One thing that I've noticed that we could do and this is what I've been doing is I would say, hey, you know, check GPT. Tell me where the or show me the the new articles that are out, scientific articles that are that are on the ocean about the ocean.

1:09:31 You know, give me a list and they'll say, OK, summarize these. I don't have to read through them all and they'll summarize it for me. I'm like, this is perfect. Now I can tell other people about it. This is awesome. Right. And then I can write messages on and I can say, hey, if I want more information, where should I go? Where does the article say I should go? It'll give me references and stuff. It's perfect. It's awesome. We have so much technology we can get to know more about the ocean just to enhance the public awareness by talking about it. Right. Just in our own education. Now, so when people start talking about the ocean, they start getting it on their minds, getting on their minds. They start being like, oh, you know what? I would like to do more about the ocean. I like to, you know, be involved a little bit more.

1:10:13 Well, that will be promotion of citizen science initiatives. Imagine that you want to do so much about the ocean. You start volunteering with organizations on their programs where you can actually participate in the field work for their studies, whether it be universities or whether it be a coalition or an order, even nonprofit organizations or a coalition of nonprofit organizations and academia or government and so forth. And you can take part in the citizen science initiatives. So just having regular conversations about marine science can encourage that those citizen science projects to be done. And they allow individuals to contribute to scientific research, which gives them a sense of involvement and belonging and then invest in the marine conservation efforts of these projects.

1:10:57 Now, all of a sudden, you're in it, right? You've got you got you got skin in the game, as they say, right? You've already taken a bite out of it. And it's amazing to feel like having to be a part of a citizen science project is amazing. Trust me on this. So you could also influence the policy and governance of the marine environment. Because you you're talking about the ocean so much, you're starting to understand some of the key issues that are facing the ocean and some of the policies or solutions. Because once we hear a pro like a problem, we're like, hey, how do I get how do we figure out the solution? What is the solution? A lot of a lot of politicians will ask, like, you know, experts. Well, they used to anyway. I don't know about these governments these days.

1:11:39 But these as experts, they say, hey, what's the solution to this? Give us the good and the bad of these different solutions. And then we'll figure out what to do after that. So having that knowledge, you get to understand some of those policies and you get to have that dialogue where you know what you're talking about, even if it's on a scratch the surface level, you can actually talk to people about, you know, talk to officials, whether it be city councilors, whether it be Senate members, Congress people in state, provincial or federal levels. You can have those conversations as they come to your door and ask for your vote. You're like, well, while we're talking about that, let's have a conversation about the ocean. There's so many things that we can do.

1:12:19 We just don't know about the ocean. Right. Then you have the benefit of economic benefits through sustainable practices. So understanding that using sustainable practices can bring in more money. It could break it, help benefit local economies, particularly those that rely on fishing and tourism. I've talked a lot about projects that help communities or that work with communities to help them adapt to climate change for their fishing communities, to help them adapt to marine protect, installing and implementing and managing marine protected areas. All these things help them do that.

1:12:59 When I had an official from rare on organization that deals a lot with tropical systems and very small fishing villages and help some fish for longer using sustainable practices. Last time we had somebody on that, we talked about a program where it was like a climate program. So when typhoons come in to the area and destroy the marine environment and they had a marine protected area like the coast would manage, right? The coastal village would manage. Well, when that typhoon would come in, it would destroy the marine protected area. They couldn't fish in the MPA because they just, there was nothing there. It was all broken down, but they had to fish somewhere. Right. So why would they like usually you don't fish in an MPA usually fish outside, but then like, well, maybe the ones that the fish outside are gone because of the storm.

1:13:46 Even if it's temporary, you still need to feed your families. So what that what rare it is, they worked with this organization or with this like community group and they said, hey, look, how about you contribute to a savings plan, a climate savings plan in case or when the typhoon comes in, it destroys your area. You can pull from that savings plan as a community and then you can still feed your kids, send them to school, all that kind of stuff. This is in the Philippines, the way it's structured there. And so they were like, okay, yeah, this is great. Let's do this. And that happened. A typhoon comes in and destroys the marine protected area, destroys everything else. Instead of going and fishing for everything that's left and maybe even destroying the habitat even more because these natural disasters happen.

1:14:29 They're happening more often and more intensely because of climate change due to our mismanagement of climate and fossil fuels. But they still come in and they still like ruin this. They actually were able to pull from that savings plan. That banking savings plan, they were able to pay for their food, pay for their kids to go to school, all that kind of stuff. That's important to those local communities. So having the economic benefits through using sustainable practice makes sense and it works more often than not. A lot of times, though, they're new to a society so you don't know how long it's going to be, right, before it takes place, before they even implement it, even if they want to implement it.

1:15:11 Right. It takes a lot of time to change people's behaviors, a lot of patience, especially for conservationists when it comes to the environment and food. The last thing I'm going to mention is that there's cultural and recreational enrichments. So the oceans hold significant cultural and recreational value. We know this already. Conversations about marine science can deepen appreciation for these aspects, promote activities like responsible tourism and community engagement in conservation projects. Having that part of your program, whether it be for just talking about science, talking about the ocean, whether it doesn't have to be science, ocean conservation or just the ocean in general, will help all of these things.

1:15:54 From enhancing public awareness and education to promoting citizen science, citizenship science and ship, citizen science, citizen science ship. Is that how you say it? I don't know. Regardless, it's OK. We're not editing this, guys. We're not editing this. And then, of course, there's like economic benefits through sustainable practices, right? Influence on policy because you know what you're talking about. So when politicians come up and they try to BS you, if they don't want to help the environment, you can call them out on that right on your doorstep if they still come to your doorstep. And then, of course, you have cultural and recreational enrichment. It just makes us a better community to know our environment. So what I encourage everybody to do is to not only understand what's happening with your, you know, your environment, your environment. What's happening with your, you know, your ocean around you, your coast.

1:16:39 But start talking about it, talking to friends about it. Even if you don't know something like, hey, does anybody know about mangrove forests? Does anybody know about seagrass? Anybody know about salt marshes or coastal habitats and what role they play? Because we would really love to find out. I was reading this article. I was listening to this great podcast called How to Protect the Ocean. You see what I did there? And I have this information. I want to ask you questions or I want to discuss it with you. This podcast could serve as the beginning of a conversation on oceans. And you continue it with your family and friends. Doesn't matter if they're young or old or middle age, doesn't matter same age, it doesn't matter. Have these conversations with your coworkers.

1:17:21 Have this conversation with your family. Have this conversation with your friends. It's not nerdy or geeky to have these conversations. It's extremely important. And it's important that we talk about this more and more. So that's the episode for today. That is what we're talking about is talking about oceans. It's one of the reasons it's a perfect opportunity to go back to podcasting the way I used to. I'll still do videos on YouTube. Don't worry about that. But this is this I get excited. You can almost even hear it in my voice, I hope. But this is fun for me. And this works. You know, it's going to be a little extra work, but it works to do the video in that because I want to bring as many people and start that conversation off.

1:18:02 Where do you want to learn more about the ocean? Is it the science? Is it just learning about ocean animals in the ocean is in general? Is it the conservation? Is it the issues you want to know more about? Let me know what you think. I want to put a comment with it where you're listening. You're able to put a comment in the podcast. If you're listening to or go to YouTube, put a comment for the appropriate episode. I'll put the link into the episode that I put up on YouTube when it goes up. But I get hit hit me up on Instagram at how to protect the ocean. And don't forget to follow or subscribe to the channels, whichever podcast platform you're listening to. And don't forget, of course, if you want to just find out more information about the ocean, you go to speak up for blue dot com.

1:18:42 That's where you go. That's where you start. Speak up for blue dot com. Forged podcast, forward slash podcast to see everything and listen to everything that we've done on this podcast. Over almost eighteen hundred episodes. That's where we're at. We're almost eighteen hundred episodes in. Imagine that that's going to be amazing when we get to that level because I'm not stopping anytime soon. And I can't wait to be able to discuss this with you in Instagram, in the comments or however, through the website, however you want. Speak up for blue dot com forward slash podcast. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. Going back to my roots and true audio form. Thank you so much for listening to this how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

1:19:23 Thank you for listening from the true North strong and free. Enjoy your day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.