Conferences can feel intimidating, expensive, and overwhelming, especially if networking doesn't come naturally to you. In this episode, Andrew shares what more than a decade of attending marine science and conservation conferences has taught him about making real connections, from picking the right event for your career stage to crafting an elevator pitch that actually works. Andrew walks through how to choose a conference that fits your specific field, why in-person events build stronger professional relationships than virtual ones, and why even seasoned scientists like Dr. David Ebert still get approached by people battling imposter syndrome. He also shares a personal story about coaching his daughter Taya through her first job fair elevator pitch, and how that same pitch helped her get remembered a year later. Whether you are a student heading to your first conference or a working professional trying to expand your network, this episode offers practical, low-pressure strategies for showing up, introducing yourself, and building the kind of relationships that shape a career in ocean science and conservation. Takeaways Research conferences that match your specific career focus before committing time and money Practice a 20 to 30 second elevator pitch until it comes out naturally In-person conferences build stronger professional relationships than virtual ones Volunteering for a conference planning committee increases visibility and connections Imposter syndrome affects everyone, including established researchers The International Marine Conservation Congress stands out for its inclusive, welcoming atmosphere Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube
Jul 24
22 min
Marineland Canada is officially closing, and this week the park began moving its remaining beluga whales out of Niagara Falls. Six belugas were flown out on a single flight this week, four to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and two to SeaWorld San Antonio, marking the start of a rescue effort that has been years in the making. Andrew walks through how the park got here, from its 1961 founding through decades of protests, whistleblower allegations, OSPCA charges, and a failed 2025 attempt to export the belugas to a Chinese aquarium. The episode traces the full timeline: the 2012 Toronto Star exposé that first exposed conditions at the park, trainer-turned-whistleblower Phil Demers and his years-long legal battle with Marineland, the 2019 passage of Canada's Free Willy Bill, and the deaths of Kiska the orca and Mary Holler, the park's last owner, which left the facility's future uncertain. Andrew also digs into why Marineland's plan to send the belugas to China was blocked and why sending them to accredited US aquariums, while still captivity, is being treated as the safer near-term option. Andrew shares his own take on the ethics of the situation, arguing that owning captive animals comes with an obligation to care for them regardless of a park's finances, and explains why release into open ocean is not a realistic option for whales that have never hunted on their own. He also covers the ongoing effort to build a whale sanctuary in Nova Scotia and the funding gap still standing in its way. Takeaways Marineland Canada is closing and moved its first six belugas to US aquariums this week The park's collapse followed over a decade of OSPCA charges, whistleblower allegations, and public protest A planned export of the belugas to a Chinese aquarium was denied by Canada's fisheries minister Belugas raised in captivity cannot be released directly into open ocean since they have never hunted on their own The Whale Sanctuary Project in Nova Scotia still lacks federal permits and full construction funding The land Marineland sits on is expected to be sold for development once the animals are relocated Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube
Jul 23
18 min
The US government is moving toward the world's first commercial deep-sea mining lease sale, and it's happening in federal waters off American Samoa. In this episode, Andrew breaks down how we got here: a California startup's 2025 request to mine polymetallic nodules, the Request for Information process that followed, and the 75,000-plus public comments that came in during the 30-day comment window, with 80 to 98% opposed to mining. Despite that opposition, and despite a standing moratorium from American Samoa's own governor, the federal government expanded the proposed mining area from 18 million to 33 million acres and pushed the lease sale forward, currently projected for August 2026. Andrew walks through who's actually bidding on this, including Impossible Metals, The Metals Company, and a handful of smaller entrants, and digs into what the peer-reviewed science says about the risks. That includes a 2025 Nature Ecology & Evolution study showing a 37% drop in seafloor animal density after a single test mining pass, a Nature study finding measurable impacts still detectable four decades after a 1970s test site, and research on the socioeconomic stakes for Pacific fisheries and tuna-dependent economies. The episode closes with the question that matters most: do American Samoans actually want this? Spoiler, no, based on every available measure of public sentiment, though the picture isn't entirely uniform. Andrew also unpacks the deeper pattern here, indigenous Pacific communities being asked to shoulder the risk of an untested industry with little say in the outcome. Takeaways: Sign a petition opposing the lease sale Follow and support Earthjustice, Greenpeace, and NRDC as they track legal action Follow Future Swell for ongoing updates If you're a US voter, remember this fight runs through the midterms Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube
Jul 22
20 min
A viral TikTok about fish aggregation devices drifting into marine protected areas got Andrew thinking about a topic he hasn't covered in a while: ghost nets. In this episode, he breaks down what ghost nets actually are, the scientific term for them (ALDFG, or abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear), and why they're a growing, well-documented problem from the ocean surface all the way down to the deep seafloor. Andrew walks through what the peer-reviewed research shows: entanglement patterns across whales, seals, sea turtles, and coral reefs, a personal diving story off Big Cayman where he watched a ghost net get cut free from a loggerhead sea turtle, and the real economic and technical challenges holding back solutions like ropeless fishing gear and biodegradable nets. He also covers where progress is actually happening, from derelict net removal programs to circular economy recycling models. This isn't a "just stop fishing" episode. Andrew makes the case that ghost nets are a solvable, adaptable problem, but one that needs more research funding, cheaper technology, and stronger enforcement to get there. Takeaways from this episode: Ghost nets (ALDFG) are found from the ocean surface to the deep seafloor, and they keep catching and killing marine life for as long as they remain in the water. The animals most affected span whales, seals, sea turtles, and coral reef species, not just fish. Solutions like ropeless gear and biodegradable nets are real and improving, but cost and fisher adoption remain the biggest barriers. Stopping fishing altogether isn't a realistic fix. The path forward is better gear design, more funding, and stronger enforcement. Listeners can support the fisheries and programs that are already investing in gear-loss prevention and removal. Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube
Jul 21
16 min
For a week straight, Andrew watched his own sky turn orange outside Toronto as smoke from nearly 900 wildfires burning across Canada, most of them following the boreal forest from the east coast to Northwestern Ontario, drifted south into the US and back again. He walks through what actually happened on the ground: which towns and First Nations were evacuated, how bad the air quality got (Toronto briefly had the worst AQI in the world), and why northwestern Ontario, not a hugely populated area but home to vulnerable First Nations communities, bore the brunt of it. Then he digs into why this keeps happening. Most of Ontario's fires this season were sparked by lightning, not arson, despite conspiracy theories claiming otherwise (arson accounts for well under a quarter of cases). An active El Nino is drying things out further, and climate change is intensifying the underlying heat and dryness that let these fires spread. Andrew also connects the dots to the ocean directly: the boreal forest is one of the planet's biggest carbon sinks, and when it burns that stored carbon heads into the atmosphere, where roughly a quarter of it eventually gets absorbed by the ocean, driving further acidification. The back half of the episode gets political. Ontario slashed its emergency firefighting budget from $271 million spent in 2025-26 down to $150 million budgeted for 2026-27, even as Premier Doug Ford defends the province's readiness. Meanwhile, US President Trump and several senators have floated tariffs and sanctions against Canada over the smoke, a move Andrew calls scientifically and diplomatically backwards given how often Canada and the US send firefighters and equipment across the border to help each other. He closes with concrete steps listeners can take, from checking air quality indexes to contacting elected officials about wildfire funding. Takeaways From the Episode Nearly 900 wildfires were burning across Canada as of July 16, most following the boreal forest belt into Northwestern Ontario. Vulnerable First Nations communities and small towns bore the brunt of evacuations, some residents had to self-evacuate by boat or air with little warning. Most fires were lightning-caused, not arson, arson accounts for well under a quarter of cases despite online conspiracy theories. Burning boreal forest releases stored carbon into the atmosphere, and roughly a quarter of human-caused CO2 emissions get absorbed by the ocean, tying wildfires directly to ocean acidification. Ontario cut its baseline emergency firefighting budget from $271 million spent to $150 million budgeted for the coming year, a proactive-versus-reactive funding problem. US tariffs and sanctions threats against Canada over the smoke ignore how often the two countries help each other fight fires, including the loss of a Canadian firefighter in Colorado this year. Individual actions still matter: check air quality indexes before extended time outdoors, follow evacuation orders immediately if you're in a fire zone, keep a 72-hour go bag ready, and contact your elected officials if wildfire underfunding frustrates you. Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube
Jul 20
24 min
If you've ever felt a hard strike, fought a fish, and reeled up nothing but a head, you already know what shark depredation feels like. In this episode, Andrew breaks down a new study that tracked shark depredation across the entire Atlantic coast, from Maine to Texas and the US Caribbean, going back a full century to figure out why it's happening more now than ever before. The study found at least 51 targeted fish stocks affected and 22 shark species involved, with bull sharks and sandbar sharks showing up most often. But the real story isn't that sharks are out of control. It's that decades of shark conservation, starting with the 1993 US shark management plan, actually worked, and a recovering shark population combined with more anglers on the water means more overlap, and more overlap means more bite-offs. Andrew unpacks the concept of "dead discards," the fish that die during depredation but never get counted in stock assessments, and why that creates a blind spot in fishery management. The episode closes with concrete, same-day actions anglers (and non-anglers) can take, from changing fishing tactics to reporting depredation events to NOAA, so both fish and shark populations can keep being managed well. Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube
Jul 17
11 min
A thousand meters down off the coast of Brazil, a deep-sea robot caught something almost no one has ever filmed alive: a giant open ocean octopus calmly eating a jellyfish. That moment, captured by the Schmidt Ocean Institute's ROV SuBastian aboard the research vessel Falkor (too), was part of a wider expedition that turned up more than two dozen species new to science, from glowing worms to glass squid to strange colonial siphonophores. The discovery points to something bigger than one expedition. The ocean's midwater, the vast zone between the sunlit surface and the seafloor, is by volume the largest living space on the planet, and we've barely looked at it. It's also doing quiet, essential work: midwater animals help drive the biological carbon pump, moving millions of tons of carbon from the surface into the deep ocean every year and helping regulate the climate we all live in. That same midwater is now facing a decision. Deep-sea mining companies want to extract metals from the seafloor below it, and the sediment plumes that the process kicks up could drift for enormous distances through this fragile, newly discovered ecosystem. The rulebook that would allow commercial mining hasn't been finished yet, and dozens of countries, including Canada and Brazil, have called for a pause. This episode breaks down what was found, why it matters, and what you can actually do about it this week. Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube
Jul 16
12 min
In 1978, an Exxon scientist asked a question in capital letters: were the oceans dissolving coral reefs? By 1982, Exxon's own scientists had the answer, in writing. So did Shell by 1986. This episode traces a newly published Oxford University study that dug through more than fourteen thousand pages of fossil fuel industry documents and found that the world's biggest oil and gas companies understood, decades before the public did, exactly how their product would wreck coral reefs. We walk through what the industry knew and when, how a funded think tank report in 2012 was built to look like an official government climate assessment while contradicting the industry's own internal science, and where coral reefs stand today after the largest global bleaching event ever recorded. Along the way, we cover the coral chemistry that makes reefs vulnerable to rising CO2, the internal Exxon and Shell documents at the center of the Oxford study, and how this paper trail is now showing up as evidence in real courtrooms, including a landmark January 2026 ruling in The Hague. This isn't a story to leave you paralyzed. It closes with four concrete actions you can take this week, from sharing what you now know to pushing the emissions lever that actually moves the needle. If you care about coral reefs, or you just want the receipts on one of the biggest corporate cover-ups tied to the ocean, this episode is for you. Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube
Jul 15
13 min
For more than a decade, almost 2,000 volunteers have walked California's beaches with clipboards, counting every swimmer, surfer, angler, and boat they see. It sounds simple, maybe even a little strange. But that pile of data, more than a million tally marks collected between 2012 and 2020, just answered a question marine scientists have debated for years: do marine protected areas actually work in the real world, not just on paper? In this episode, we walk through what researchers found when they finally pulled that decade of volunteer data together. We look at how the MPA Watch program trains everyday people to track human activity on the coast, how scientists stripped out the noise to find the real signal, and what the numbers say about compliance, recreation, and enforcement inside no-take zones. We also connect this human data to a separate decade of underwater fish surveys, and to the famous Cabo Pulmo recovery story, to show why watching people matters as much as watching fish. The takeaway is simple but important. Ocean protection does not have to mean locking people out, and it does not happen by accident. It works when people believe in it, follow it, and watch over it, and this episode gives you a few concrete ways to be one of those people, whether that means joining MPA Watch yourself, learning your local rules, or just reporting what you see. Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube
Jul 14
11 min
Right now, somewhere in the open ocean, a raft the size of a small table is drifting with no one steering it. It's called a fish aggregating device, or FAD, and the tuna industry drops thousands of them into the water every year to lure fish to the surface. A new study published in Science Advances tracked where these rafts actually end up, and the answer is unsettling: they've likely drifted through more than half of the world's marine protected areas by total area, with over 6,300 strandings recorded across 174 protected areas in 53 countries and territories. When a drifting FAD washes onto a reef, its trailing net snags and breaks coral, then breaks down into plastic pollution in the exact places set aside to stay clean. The nets keep "ghost fishing" long after anyone's watching, entangling turtles and sharks. Nearly 500 at-risk species live in the protected areas where these strandings happen, and the cleanup burden usually falls on small island communities who never saw a dollar of profit from the tuna these devices caught. Andrew breaks down what the study found, why protected areas can't defend against gear that doesn't recognize boundaries, and the one label on a can of tuna that tells you whether you're funding this problem or not. It's a same-day, ten-second habit that pushes back on the exact fishing method behind the damage. Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube
Jul 13
5 min
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