How to Save an Ocean: Recent Episodes
Big Ocean
This season on 'How to Save an Ocean', we’ll be sitting down with explorers, philanthropists, trail-blazers, and activists, asking them the all important question of 'how'. How do you get a famous scientist to write you back? Circumnavigate the globe with nothing but the stars? Unite the world's largest marine protected areas? This work won't be easy, but we invite you to come along for the adventure.
Join us in this How to Save an Ocean episode with Pelika Andrade, the founder and Executive Director of Nā Maka Onaona, a Hawaiʻi-based non-profit, and an extension agent for the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program. She has a long history working with Hawaiʻi communities as a community member, hoaʻāina (friend of the land), and researcher. For the past 15 years, Pelika has been developing alternate approaches to monitoring Hawaiʻi’s watersheds and supporting the implementation of management strategies that support ‘Āina Momona: healthy, balanced, and thriving communities. As we converse, Pelika shares insights on the interconnectedness of relationship building, preserving our oceans, and nurturing vibrant communities. The conversation illuminates the importance of inspiring reverence of nature in the next generation. Through her role at Hawaii Sea Grant, Pelika champions sustainable practices rooted in cultural knowledge and practice. Beyond her oceanic endeavors, Pelika is an adamant community builder who convenes diverse groups through innovative projects, educational workshops, and cultural celebrations. Tune in and share in Pelikaʻs unwavering dedication to unity, understanding, and amplifying the beauty of our world.
Dan Kinzer founded Pacific Blue Studios, a network of high-impact, community-driven, place-based, and youth-powered studios. The network's shared aim is to leverage biomimicry, indigenous perspective, and cutting-edge technologies as vehicles to grow, connect, and amplify a (k)new intergenerational learning ecosystem––to help realize a resilient, regenerative and inclusive future in Hawai'i around the Pacific and across our Blue Planet.
Naiʻa and Dan talk about how programs and people can cultivate a sense of kuleana around the ocean, the metaphor of voyaging, and how nuanced definitions of scale allow managers to glean wisdom from island people and community leaders. He Waʻa He moku, He Moku He Waʻa / The Canoe Is An Island, And The Island Is A Canoe.
Bonnie Kahapea is an educator, mentor, voyager, and community advocate.
While at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, Bonnieʻs passion for voyaging was ignited. She witnessed the Hōkūleʻa preparing for a voyage to Tahiti – and the pull of the ocean was undeniable. While pursuing her master's degree in transformative learning and change, Bonnie remained connected to her roots and "stayed close to the canoe." She never lost sight of her passion for voyaging.
Today, Bonnie serves as an instructor at the Kānehūnāmoku Voyaging Academy (KVA), fostering a new generation of seafarers. Her role blends sailing, traditional navigation, Hawaiian culture, and teaching, providing a unique learning environment for students participating in KVAʻs leadership and career programs.
Join us as we explore Bonnie's deep connection to the water, her experiences on the Hōkūleʻa voyaging canoe, and her commitment to perpetuating Hawaiian culture through mentorship and teaching.
Kelsey Leonard is the first Native American woman to earn a science degree from the University of Oxford, which she earned in 2012. She earned an MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management from St. Cross College, one of the thirty-eight c olleges of the University of Oxford. Her master's thesis, “Water Quality For Native Nations: Achieving A Trust Responsibility”, discusses water quality regulation and how water resources on tribal land are not protected. Kelsey Leonard is an enrolled member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation and is originally from the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in Long Island, New York. In 2010 she was the first member of the Shinnecock Nation to graduate from Harvard University. Her Harvard degree is a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Anthropology with a secondary field in Ethnic Studies.
Kelsey Leonard currently represents the Shinnecock Indian Nation as the Tribal Co-Lead on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body of the U.S. National Ocean Council. This planning body consisting of tribal, federal, and state entities is charged with guiding the protection, maintenance, and restoration of America's oceans and coasts. As a Shinnecock citizen and environmental leader, Kelsey strives to be a strong advocate for the protection of Indigenous waters through enhanced interjurisdictional coordination and meaningful consultation.
She has been recognized as a 30 under 30 world environmental leader by the North American Association for Environmental Education and a “Native American 40 Under 40” award recipient by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. Additionally, her work with Indigenous Nations to protect the Ocean received a Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Excellence in Policy Solutions.
As founder of Salted Logic, an indigenous, women-owned multi-media collective, Naiʻa leverages twenty-five years of experience in the public and private sectors to help clients reach their goals. She uses innovative media, high-impact communication products, culturally-driven design, coaching, and resilient partnerships to achieve project objectives parallel to building resilient communities and durable intergenerational learning systems.
Naiʻa splits her time as Director of Big Ocean, a network of the world's large-scale marine managed areas. Having spent more than a decade working with and for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, she leverages her relationships and partnerships to enhance ocean governance and management at scale globally.
As an artist, she excels at culturally-centered design, reimagining outdated narratives, and amplifying the voices of marginalized groups, particularly those of women and indigenous peoples. In cooperation with the Salted Logic team, she merges her communications background with her lived experience to effectively translate heritage, history, and culture for diverse audiences. When coaching or facilitating, she creates an environment of trust, a safe space that allows individuals to increase creative capacity, interconnection, and performance on their terms.
Born and raised on the southeastern shore of the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, Naiʻa graduated from Punahou School and then earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Naiʻa has also been a certified Optimize Coach (Heroic) since 2020. Naiʻa is a daughter, sister, and mother of four who loves cooking (eating), multimedia art, audiobooks, going to the beach, and international travel.
Marcus Eriksen is the co-founder of Leap Lab, as well as the Research Director and co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute. He studies the global distribution and ecological impacts of plastic marine pollution, which has included expeditions sailing through all 5 subtropical gyres, Bay of Bengal, Southern Ocean and inland lakes and rivers, recently publishing the first global estimate of all plastic of all sizes floating in the world’s oceans, totaling 270,000 metric tons from 5.25 trillion particles.
In 2013 he and colleagues published the discovery of microbeads in the Great Lakes, which became the cornerstone for a US-based campaign to eliminate plastic microbeads from cosmetics, resulting in the Microbead-Free Waters Act, which became US federal law in 2015.
Years earlier, in 2000, he traveled to Midway Atoll, finding hundreds of Laysan Albatross with plastic pouring out of their stomachs, and that experience narrowed his focus to plastics. He received his Ph.D. in Science Education from University of Southern California in 2003, months before embarking on a 2000-mile, 5-month journey down the Mississippi River on a homemade raft of plastic bottles to bring attention to this issue. Again in 2008, he rafted across the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii on JUNK, floating on 15,000 plastic bottles and a Cessina airplane fuselage as a cabin (junkraft.com). The journey, 2,600 miles in 88 days, brought attention to the work of the 5 Gyres Institute, the organization he co-founded with his wife Anna Cummins.
His first book, titled “My River Home” (Beacon Press, 2007) chronicled his Mississippi River experience paralleled with his tour as a Marine in the 1991 Gulf War. His second book, titled "JUNK RAFT: An oceanic voyage and the rising tide of activism to fight plastic pollution" (Beacon Press, 2017) tells the story of how plastic pollution at sea was discovered, the impact on people and the planet, and the growing movement to solve the problem through zero waste initiatives in the largest cities worldwide.
Aulani Wilhelm is the senior vice president for Oceans at Conservation International. Her work bridges culture, community and science to drive innovations in ocean conservation.
Aulani has played a pivotal role in shaping the emerging field of large-scale ocean conservation, leading the design and establishment of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaiʻi, and as founder of Big Ocean, a network of the world’s largest marine managed areas.
Prior to joining Conservation International, she was director of ocean initiatives for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, and a social innovation fellow at Stanford University. She founded Island Water, a social venture to provide clean water and reduce plastic pollution on islands, and the Design4Nature Collective, a network of professionals trained in design thinking who apply methods of problem-solving for nature. She holds a master’s degree from Stanford University and a bachelor’s from the University of Southern California.
Dan is a well-respected leading global expert on ocean conservation. He is currently Emeritus Marine Vice Chair of IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). He is a member of WCPA Chair’s Advisory Group, and Chairs the Hope Spot Council and is an Emeritus Board Member of Mission Blue. He is also a founding Non-Executive Board Member of the Office for Environmental Protection, established in the wake of Brexit Under the Environment Act. This new body was established in 2022 to hold UK public bodies to account on their environmental records, and to advise on the implementation of UK environmental law.
In March 2021 Dan was awarded the Fred Packard Award by IUCN and WCPA in recognition of having dedicated his life and career to conservation, and especially as an outstanding and inspiring figure in global marine protected areas, and a major contributor over many years to the work of IUCN and WCPA on marine conservation.
Prior to these appointments and up until 2022 Dan was Principal Advisor, Marine Science and Conservation for IUCN’s Global Marine and Polar Programme, and held the global honorary role as Marine Vice Chair for the World Commission on Protected Areas for 17 years, providing a world-wide lead on ocean protection.
James Ellsmoor is the founder and CEO of Island Innovation, a global network that connects island communities through digital communication and programming. Events like the Virtual Island Summit allow rural communities, organizations, and island stakeholders to connect in ways they wouldnʻt otherwise. In this conversation, Naiʻa and James talk about the unique connection between island people and the ocean, how to create virtual community, and innovation in practice. To learn more about James' work, visit https://islandinnovation.co or on Facebook, and on Twitter @IslandsInnovate or @jellsmoor
Alan Friedlander has been studying the world’s oceans for 35 years. He’s spent 10,000 hours below the surface – in Tonga, Hawaii, the Arctic. Almost anywhere with a body of water. His experiences in the Pacific led him to the University of Hawai’i where he received his Ph.D. and eventually went on to not only teach, but become Director of Fisheries Ecology Research Laboratory. Alan currently serves as the National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Chief Scientist. As a Royal Geographical Society and Explorers Club Fellow, he’s authored over 200 scientific publications on everything from coral reef community ecology to marine resource use and management. In this conversation, Nai’a and Alan discuss indigenous knowledge systems, community ocean management, and the importance of intergenerational memory.
Mark Spalding is a man of many talents – former lawyer, car enthusiast, current President of the Ocean Foundation, the list goes on. Under Mark’s leadership, the Ocean Foundation has seen astronomic growth – from a $200,000/year budget in 2003 – to a remarkable $8 million/year through strategic planning and project building. Above all, the Foundation seeks to deepen and reinforce the relationship between human beings and the ocean that surrounds them. Mark currently serves on the Sargasso Sea Commission, is an active member of the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (USA), and is the Rockefeller Climate Solutions Fund advisor and the Credit Suisse Rockefeller Ocean Engagement Fund. In this conversation, Nai’a and Mark chart their unconventional path to conservation, discuss funding at scale, diversity and equity in science, and bond over the Pacific Ocean.
Artist. Veteran. Scientist. Educator. Explorer. Author. We are all multidimensional beings, sure. But it’s fair to say that Marcus Eriksen has a few more dimensions than most. As co-founder of 5 Geyers, he’s led over 20 expeditions exploring and researching the world’s oceans. Research published by 5 Geyers, eventually led to the creation of the Microbead-Free Waters Act, signed by President Obama and passed in 2015. As the co-founder of LEAP LAB, he lectures on biophilia, and the role of art, science, and self-reliance to achieve urban resilience. In this conversation, Nai’a and Marcus discuss reconnecting with hope; scientific and artistic exploration; the impact of getting published; and the logistics of proposing at sea.
In 2012, Kelsey Leonard became the first Native American woman to earn a science degree from the University of Oxford. She currently represents the Shinnecock Indian Nation as the Tribal Co-Lead on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body of the U.S. National Ocean Council. As a Shinnecock citizen and environmental leader, Kelsey strives to be a strong advocate for the protection of Indigenous waters through enhanced interjurisdictional coordination and meaningful consultation. In this episode, Kelsey and Nai’a talk about legal personhood, cultural identity, and bridging the gap between imagination and values.
For more information about Kelsey, check out www.kelseyleonard.com
Nathan Bennett is often the lone social scientist in a room full of natural scientists. As a consultant and researcher, his work is focused on the intersectionality between people and place. In this conversation, Nathan talks about the human dimensions of conservation and points out the danger of only protecting untouched, “perfect”, and human-less spaces.
To understand and appreciate the ocean, you have to get in the water. James Nikitine has spent his career filming, exploring, and researching the ocean. His most recent venture, Blue Cradle, was an idea sparked by the pandemic. With the goal of providing the South Pacific region with sustainable research vessels that provide ongoing ocean exploration, education on marine biodiversity, ecosystems, and oceanic change, Blue Cradle has taken on the ambitious goal of filling the gap between education and access; James seeks to save the sea by building bridges between science, communications, culture, and community.
‘Aulani Wilhelm is a conservation powerhouse. In 2006, she led the designation of what is now Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. She later went on to create Big Ocean, a coalition of the world’s largest Marine Protected Areas including The Great Barrier Reef, Marianas Trench, and the Phoenix Islands. Stanford Fellow, Chair of IUCN-WCPA Large-Scale Marine Protected Area Task Force, founder of Island Water, member of the Polynesian Voyaging Society – the list truly goes on. In this conversation, Nai’a and Aulani talk about indigenous knowledge, connection to place, and what it means to answer the call of your ancestors.
Since the format of our new podcast is conversational, our guests often share personal stories and unique insights about their professional experiences as well as their personal lives and the sources of their passion. In this conversation with Dan Laffoley, we are given a window into his childhood inspirations. Did you know that Dan wrote a letter to David Attenborough? Well, he did, and much to his surprise, he got a reply. Decades later, Dan is one of the leading global experts on ocean conservation. He has initiated, developed, collaborated, and consulted on a laundry list of projects that include Google Ocean, Blue Carbon, amplifying the importance of the High Seas, and the first Marine World Heritage App. He’s also played an essential role in, in his position as WCPA Marie Chair, to support Big Ocean’s bid to develop and co-publish with IUCN, Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas: Guidelines for design and management. Dan has also authored and co-authored numerous publications, and has been an advisor for countless boards, initiatives, and even a Netflix film! We think you save an ocean by… being Dan Laffoley.
Naia Lewis is the coordinator for Big Ocean, an organization that works to support the individuals behind the management and conservation of the world's Largest Marine Protected Areas. An artist by trade, she's spent the last 15 years bringing a unique perspective to the conservation space. Turns out the two world's have more in common than you think.