SWIMMING WITH THE POD

Scott Portelli is an acclaimed wildlife and underwater photographer, and has swum with whales and other magnificent creatures of the deep in some of the world's most exotic locations, like Antarctica, Tonga, the Falkland Islands and Norway. Among many other awards, Scott was awarded Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2016, and he runs tours that you can join up with around the world to swim with whales. 

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Message from the whales - Ulrik Grahn-Olsen

Image from Scott Portelli on Instagram

During winter, you're probably familiar with human snot, but are you familiar with whale snot? Dr. Vanessa Pirotta is!

Vanessa is a marine biologist, naturalist and science communicator, and has been collecting snot from whale spouts using bespoke drones in order to understand whale health. She's collected viruses, bacteria and DNA from the snot, in a much less invasive way than other methods. She's also run whale watching tours, swum with whales in Tonga and observed them in Antarctica.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Whales - Matt Matic

Image from Scott Portelli on Instagram

Last time we talked about stingers, we learnt some valuable insights - don't wee on them! Turns out, there may be some better solutions on the horizon. Associate Professor Greg Neely, from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, has discovered an antidote to the sting of the most venomous creature on Earth -  the Australian box jellyfish.

Greg's antidote, discovered using CRISPR genome editing technology, blocks the symptoms within 15 minutes, and overlaps interestingly with research conducted into cholesterol. This means that the drug development may already be out there and we could see something in the hands of life-savers sooner rather than later.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Jellyfish - Fidser

Image from Will Fisher

Whether you are an experienced or aspiring ocean swimmer, if you are in Australia or New Zealand, you will visit oceanswims.com. Oceanswims.com handles the entries for the majority of organised swims in this part of the world, as well as being home to commentary, photos, witty banter, results and competitions.

Paul Ellercamp and Suanne Hunt are the ocean swimming doyens who run oceanswims.com and Ocean Swim Safaris, and we talked rather pleasantly over tea and macaroons about all things ocean swimming, including how the sport has grown over the last 20 years, technology changes, drafting, some of the characters of the sport, swimming around the world, and Paul's starring roll, with a former Prime Minister (another great Bob Hawke story), in the classic Australian TV soap A Country Practice.

See if you can hear the puppy sleeping in the background on Suanne's lap!

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Whale Film - James Ellercamp Music

Image from Paul on twitter

Dr Gary Greenberg is a scientist, author, teacher and photographer who combines his passion for art and science by exploring the hidden small-scale dimensions of nature. Gary has invented multiple high-definition, three-dimensional light microscopes (for which he has multiple US patents) and nowadays focuses his microscopes on common objects, such as grains of sand, flowers, and food. He's looked at sand from all round the Earth, but the funkiest sand he has examined is from the Moon. He's hoping he can get some Mars sand! You can identify a beach (or heavenly body) from its sand, which depends on the temperature, surf and erosion conditions and marine environment. 

You can see Gary's sand photography for yourself at sandgrains.com. And you might like to do some searching for the in vitro human pancreatic cancer cells he turned into the planet Kyrpton in the first Superman movie - the nuclei of the cells look like impact craters!

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Sand - Viasol

 The image is from sandgrains.com and is of sand from Maui.

Ocean pools are a delight. I love swimming in them, and they are also quite often simply beautiful places to be. Dr. Marie-Louise McDermott has written a PhD on ocean pools (Wet, wild and convivial: past, present and future contributions of Australia’s ocean pools to surf, beach, pool and body cultures and recreational coasts) and runs a fantastic website dedicated to ocean pools, All into ocean pools inc.

I had a wonderful chat with Marie-Louise about her love of ocean pools, why Australia (and Sydney in particular) has such a rich tradition of them, and their influence on Australian life.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Ocean - THBD

Image: Mona Vale Beach By Gab Scanu

Swimming caps are a large source of ocean swimming waste. Often only once used, destined for land-fill or the ocean itself, events have not got a handle on to how to appropriately use them. And despite popular belief, they do not break down in the environment in any useful timeframe. They are important facets of ocean swimming safety so that swimmers can be seen in the water and in their racing waves, but at the end of each season, even mediocre swimmers like myself end up with a bag full of caps, never to be used again.

So, what can you do? I've been collecting caps for Recap over the last few summers to give them on to good causes. One of those places they go is Reverse Garbage, an organisation that saves materials from landfill and renews their value by making them available for reuse by families, students, artists and community groups. Each year, they take about 35 thousand cubic meters of waste for reuse, saving tonnes of raw material, energy and emissions.

I spoke with Kirsten Junor, Creative Director at Reverse Garbage, about what she does with the caps, what Reverse Garbage does in general, interspersed with all sorts of reuse/recycle discussion. We recorded in the pub - surely the best way to spend an afternoon recording a podcast - so occasionally the sound quality dips.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Kalon - extenz

Things that can sting you are part of every ocean swimming experience, not matter where you are in the world.

Associate Professor Jamie Seymour, Director of the Tropical Australian Stinger Research Unit at James Cook University, studies venomous animals and has a particular interest in decreasing the envenomings of humans by jellyfish. He has some personal experience in this area too - he has been stung by Irukandji 11 times! He is a world leader in the studies of the ecology and biology of Box jellyfish (his favourite jellyfish), and his work has led to pharmaceuticals being made from animal venom.

We chatted about how to treat ocean stings (not with vinegar nor, funnily enough, urine!), habitats and the influence of climate change on the spread of stingers, stinger evolution, the difference between poison and venom, and between a toxicologist and a toxinologist, and a host of other jellyfish tangents (tentacles?).

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Addict - Peyruis

Rips claim an order of magnitude more lives than shark attacks in Australia, and are arguably the most dangerous facet of going to the beach.

Associate Professor Rob Brander, also known as Dr Rip, is a coastal geomorphologist who studies morphodynamics (hydrodynamics, sediment transport, morphology) of coastal systems, with a particular interest in rips and the safety of beachgoers. He runs a beach education program called Science of the Surf, and one of the cool things he does is publish a Rip of the month. You might like to read his book, Dr. Rip's Essential Beach Book, or check out the National Geographic documentary, Rip Current Heroes.

Coming into the summer, listen in as Rob lets you know how to spot a rip and what to do if you're caught in one.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Groove It - ZAYFALL

Shark nets are fairly common across popular Australian tourist beaches, but beyond giving swimmers a perception that they are being protected from sharks, do they actually work?

Jordan Sosnowski is the Advocacy Director for Action for Dolphins, a group that aims to stop cruelty to, and gain legal protection for, small cetaceans (dolphins and other small whales). We chatted about how shark nets probably don't work to keep sharks and swimmers apart, that shark nets have an incredible toll on marine life, that sharks don't hunt you down, that opinions on the use of shark nets are changing, and the non-lethal options that are out there.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Epic Song by BoxCat Games

Image from Sea Gazing