Our Ocean

The Vitamin Sea Project in action! In this episode, join Cal, Lorna and Seaful's wonderful community of volunteers and organisations on a day trip to Lundy island for one of our flagship Vitamin Sea Project activities - snorkelling in the Marine Protected Area, with Young Carers from around Devon!

Lundy is home to a population of very inquisitive grey seals, who have their pups on the protected shores each autumn.

Learn more about Lundy in our short film here: https://youtu.be/A6tYCGazFsA?si=FWcvoWLu8sBTr_pP

There's a short film of one of our Vitamin Sea Project trips to the island here: https://youtu.be/hLIg3GIbXF4?si=0FlCvCIT1rfKgQ02

And a blog here! https://seaful.org.uk/vitamin-sea-project-2026-lundy-diving/

Check out our article in the Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/13/young-carers-lundy-breathing-space-boat-trip-snorkelling

Huge thanks to everyone who made this day such a success, in particular Devon Young Carers, Lundy Diving, Easy Divers and dryrobe.

The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website.

For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website, Instagram or Facebook. For questions or suggestions, please email us - [email protected].

You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website, Instagram or Facebook.

Greencliff Farm is a rewilding haven, a connection between land and sea within the North Devon Biosphere, and bordering the dramatic South West Coast Path. This episode, based on land, might seem a little different to some of our ocean-based stories, but there is so much parallel and connection between the work being done to restore nature and biodiversity here, and that in the ocean, and our wider connection to our home planet.

It is our pleasure to share the beautiful experience of wandering through the farm and its wildlife with you, and we hope you enjoy the journey.

This episode was recorded in April 2026, when we brought together some of our lead volunteers from around the UK for our first ever volunteer gathering at Greencliff Farm, who very kindly donated their holiday accommodation to us for the weekend.

For more information about Greencliff Farm, head to https://greenclifflife.com/

The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean and empowering Ocean Citizenship. To donate, please visit our website.

For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website, Instagram or Facebook. For questions or suggestions, please email us - [email protected].

You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website, Instagram or Facebook.

For many reasons, it's not always possible to go snorkelling in the sea. But there is a really easy and accessible way to connect with nature wherever you are and whatever your age or physical ability.

Land Snorkelling is a mindful movement practice, and our wonderful volunteers Kat Lewis and Steph Jackson have developed a programme for Seaful so that we can connect even more people with nature and each other, whatever the weather! We hope that this episode inspires you to give it a go too!

This episode was recorded in April 2026 in North Devon, during Seaful's first ever volunteer gathering, and you'll hear from several of our Vitamin Sea Project volunteers in this episode. Do check out our last episode too about our phenomenal volunteers!

You don't need anything specific to go Land Snorkelling, but there are some helpful resources on our website, including a short How-To video, and some downloadable Bingo Cards which can be a fun addition to the activity!

https://seaful.org.uk/the-vitamin-sea-project/

The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website.

For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website, Instagram or Facebook. For questions or suggestions, please email us - [email protected].

You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website, Instagram or Facebook.

Released during Volunteer Week, it is our great pleasure and honour to introduce you to some of Seaful's incredible volunteers.

In this episode, we share their stories and their reasons for volunteering with Seaful - the UK charity dedicated to connecting people with our ocean, and the organisation behind the Our Ocean Podcast.

You might not realise that one of Seaful's main activities is the Vitamin Sea Project - mindful and transformative experiences of the ocean and waterways such as paddleboarding, snorkelling and rockpooling, and our amazing volunteers are integral to running these projects, embedded within communities.

This April, we brought together some of our lead volunteers from around the UK for our first ever volunteer gathering at Greencliff Farm in North Devon. This episode was recorded during that weekend.

If you're interested in volunteering with Seaful, you can get in touch or complete our volunteer form here: https://seaful.org.uk/contact/

For more information about Land Snorkelling, including a helpful video, head to our website here: https://seaful.org.uk/introducing-land-snorkeling-our-latest-vitamin-sea-activity/

Stay tuned - our next episode will be all about Land Snorkelling!

The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website.

For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website, Instagram or Facebook. For questions or suggestions, please email us - [email protected].

You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website, Instagram or Facebook.

This episode is a true immersion into a seabird city! Last summer, Our Ocean's host Cal Major had the rare opportunity to land on Bass Rock, a towering island just off the coast of North Berwick, Scotland, which is home to one of the world's largest colonies of Northern Gannets.

Surrounded by a hundred thousand of these graceful yet formidable birds, Emily Burton and Jess Thompson from the Scottish Seabird Centre describe the behaviours and adaptations of the UK's largest seabird, alongside the threats they face and the enormous impact that avian flu had on the colony's population.

To learn more about the Scottish Seabird Centre, how you can visit Bass Rock and how you can help seabirds, please visit their website here.

Here are some links to specific projects we cover in the episode:

Bass Rock Colony Counts: https://www.seabird.org/conservation/bass-rock-colony-counts

SOS Puffin: https://www.seabird.org/conservation/sos-puffin

Island Biosecurity: https://www.seabird.org/conservation/island-biosecurity

Bass Rock Breeding Success: https://www.seabird.org/conservation/bass-rock-breeding-success

This episode was recorded by Cal Major and edited by Adventurous Audio.

The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website.

For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website, Instagram or Facebook. For questions or suggestions, please email us - [email protected].

You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website, Instagram or Facebook.

Mollie Hughes is a world-record adventurer who has summited Everest twice and skied solo to the South Pole, all of which she writes about in her brilliant book, Breathe.

Mollie then returned to her original love - the ocean - to write Blue Scotland - a guide to ocean adventures in the country she is delighted to call home.

In this episode, we dip into the mindset and resilience required of Mollie's extreme expeditions, but also talk about having fun in the sea. Having been coasteering together with Mollie's company, Ocean Vertical, Cal and Mollie discuss the joy of just playing in the water, and how that can create deep connections and opportunities for education and ocean citizenship.

Huge thanks to Mollie for sharing her wisdom and joy, and to Ocean Vertical for opening up a new form of ocean exploration to us in Coasteering!

You can learn more about Mollie through her website, Instagram and Facebook!

You can find her books here:

Breathe

Blue Scotland

The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website.

For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website, Instagram or Facebook. For questions or suggestions, please email us - [email protected].

You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website, Instagram or Facebook.

What is a 'Just Transition'? It's a term that gets banded about a lot when talking about protecting areas of the ocean from certain types of destructive fishing. In fact, one of the demands of the Our Seas coalition, who we heard from in last week's episode, is 'The return of a modern seaward limit on bottom-towed fishing, via a just transition'.

Although the science shows that protecting our ocean, in particular fragile habitats, from overexploitation is essential for the recovery of fish stocks, and by extension to support local fishing fleets, there may well be people who fish in those areas currently who are displaced. How can transitioning to a better future for our seas be done in a way that is fair, who has the right to have a say, and what does the 'equitable use of our seas' actually mean.

We're delighted to be joined by Blue Marine Foundation's Joe Richards, to guide us through this nuanced subject with empathy and insight.

You can learn more about the Our Seas coalition, and sign the petition, here:

Our Seas need your help - ask your politician to protect at least 30%

Huge thanks to Highlands and Islands Environment Foundation for supporting this series.

The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website.

For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website, Instagram or Facebook. For questions or suggestions, please email us - [email protected].

You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website, Instagram or Facebook.

This episode is full of hope. 165 organisations and over 15,000 people stand together in Scotland for better protection of its inshore waters from the most damaging forms of fishing.

These people are from different backgrounds, sectors and walks of life, but they are all demanding the same thing from the Scottish government, in the name of a thriving ocean.

This is the Our Seas coalition, of which Seaful is a member. We are delighted to share the stories of several other members from an event in Holyrood, Scottish parliament, in June 2025. We'll hear from fishermen, NGOs, community groups, businesses, MSPs and children as to why this matters to them.

To learn more about the Our Seas coalition, head to ourseas.scot

Add your voice here to the call to protect at least 30% of Scotland's inshore seabed, the fragile cradle of life for our ocean.

The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website.

For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website, Instagram or Facebook. For questions or suggestions, please email us - [email protected].

You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website, Instagram or Facebook.

Wayne Peters is a self proclaimed 'Mad Scientist of Electric Boats', and his passion for creating cleaner sailing, in consideration and harmony with the very ocean which brings him so much joy, is both inspiring and infectious.

It was a pleasure to chat with Wayne on a sunny beach in North Devon in September 2025, to reminisce about an incredible challenge he took undertook to race the first electric boat in the infamous Fastnet race.

Wayne takes us on a journey through his beautiful, connecting ocean adventures, and we hope you're as inspired to experience and protect our ocean as we are after listening to our his stories.

More information about For One Ocean - an Adventure Sailing Team here.

The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website.

For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website, Instagram or Facebook. For questions or suggestions, please email us - [email protected].

You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website, Instagram or Facebook.

Youth Advocacy - what, why, when, where and how? This episode dives deep into young voices, and the positive impact, in sometimes surprising ways, that this supportive organisation, Young Sea Changers Scotland, is having both on marine policy, and on the young people involved.

What a pleasure to speak to Alan Munro, Issy Jeffrey and Louis Macmillan - to hear about their journeys into giving a voice to our ocean, and you might be pleased to hear that this doesn't just belong in parliament buildings or involve writing to elected representatives!

Here are the links to some of the things we mentioned:

Youth Manifesto For Scotland's Seas

Youth Ocean Action Fund

Scottish Elections Youth Climate Hustings

Marine Policy Jargon Buster (and other resources)

Our Seas need your help - ask your politician to protect at least 30%

The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website.

For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website, Instagram or Facebook. For questions or suggestions, please email us - [email protected].

You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website, Instagram or Facebook.