In this episode, Cat and Jingyi discuss artificial islands and their role in ocean development. They examine some of the island nations in the Pacific Ocean, such as Kiribati, that are ‘sinking’ due to sea-level-rise and explore how artificial islands might offer such places a solution to this imminent crisis.

In this episode, Lisa Campbell shares a story of sailing, science, and Sargassum. Based on a 3-day research cruise to the Sargasso Sea, the story was originally developed during a workshop with The Story Collider, a non-profit organization that “helps people of all walks of life -- from scientists to doctors to patients to engineers to teachers to firefighters -- tell their true, personal stories about science.” Not only did the workshop inspire this particular story, it motivated Lisa to think about podcasting as something she might do.

How old were you when you found out whales were mammals? It feels like an obvious fact now, but did you ever wonder who first decided to put these fish-like titans of the ocean in the same group as mice and foxes? In this episode, Brandon Gertz follows the story of how whales became mammals, from the birth of natural history over 2,000 years ago to modern genetics.

On this episode, Nora Ives sits down with faculty member Dr. Doug Nowacek to discuss his newly awarded Department of Energy funded WOW project, which stands for Wildlife and Offshore Wind. They explore some of the potential impacts of offshore wind on wildlife, mitigation measures, and goals of the WOW Project.

On this episode, Rafa Lobo introduces two new members of our team: Rebecca Horan and Junyao Gu. Junyao runs the show, exploring the ins and outs of a PhD program application process. She interviews five PhD students and our doctoral program coordinator, to learn about the biggest challenges, reasons to do it, tips for those wishing to apply, as well as some systemic inequalities inherent in the process - and how to potentially overcome them!

In this episode, former students Bo Baney, Victoria Grant, and Katie Ridgeway take on the controversial issue of wildlife poaching. Whether hunting is illegal or legal, for sport or for food, for sale or consumption, it is almost always controversial, particularly if charismatic wildlife are involved. Bo, Victoria, and Katie tackle the topic from a variety of angles, looking at history of the term ‘poaching’, changing attitudes to hunting over time, the role of social media, and the lengths to which governments and organizations will go to combat illegal practices. Part of our Conservation & Development series.

This episode features an interview with Duke Professor Martin Smith by The Doorstep, a podcast by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Hosts Nikolas K. Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin interviewed Marty in April 2021, on topics of fisheries sustainability, food security, and ocean governance generally. Their conversation ranges widely, from new policy initiatives of the Biden administration to old policy legacies of the cold war. It is 'on topic' for Seas the Day and we are grateful to The Doorstep for permission to republish it here . Regular listeners may remember Marty from episode 3 of Seas the Day, when he was interviewed by Kendall Jeffferys and Lauren Mariolis on the future of aquaculture.

The Convention of Biological Diversity is set to meet in October 2021 and will discuss adopting a new target of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030. Over the last two decades, there has been a drastic increase in the number of large-scale marine protected areas (MPAs) driven mainly by international MPA targets and a “bigger is better” approach to conservation. In this episode, Megan Swanson and Sage Riddick explore how these often remote ocean spaces can still have important social impacts by looking at two cases: the Chagos Marine Protected Area and the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

In her 2007 book: The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein explores the ways in which institutions take advantage of natural disasters to promote capitalist, neoliberal agendas, under the bill of “build back better.” To illustrate her case, Klein describes how Sri Lanka and other nations tried to use the devastation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to “build back better,” introducing that phrase into development for the first time. In this episode, Colleen Baker, Crystal Franco and Claudia Meca take a look more than 15 years after the disaster, and review what actually happened after the tsunami, how the recovery and development process worked, and whether there are ways to build back better, better.

With a focus on "Memorializing the Middle Passage on the Atlantic seabed in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction” (published in the journal of Marine Policy in October 2020), episode host, Stephanie Hillsgrove interviews two of the authors from the paper - Dr. Phillip Turner, Duke University Alumni and Dr. Cindy Van Dover, Professor of Biological Oceanography at Duke University.