The Ocean Embassy

Dieter Janecek, Member of the German Parliament for the Green Party and Coordinator of Maritime Economy, joins The Ocean Embassy to discuss Germany's national strategies in this field.

We discuss what this job as coordinator entails, the importance of the maritime economy within the European Union as well as Dieter's goals in this position. One of the key points on the agenda is the impact of the climate crisis on the maritime economy, and vice versa. We specifically discuss the need for alternative fuels for shipping, port infrastructures and decarbonization of this industry.

Additionally, we discuss how Germany plans to manifest its cutting edge research role in the marine community by turning innovations into profitable climate solutions.

Remember to follow The Ocean Embassy on Steady and support us there, if you can. You also find us on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Cover art: Simon + Anna Madlener. Based on the Spilhaus world projection.

Music and Sound Effects: Lukas Bindel

Mixing: Anna Madlener

#BBNJ #UnitedNations #BBNJtreaty #HighSeasTreaty #biodiversity #environmentalDNA #ocean #climateaction #climatecrisis #unoceandecade #bluecarbon #technology #sciencecommunication #marineconservation #podcast #science #climatescience #technology

Today's guest is Laura Khatib, an ocean advocate, communicator and educator from Lebanon. Laura and I discuss the state of marine science and education in her home country, Lebanon, and more concretely in Byblos, where she currently lives.

As one of the oldest consistently inhabited places on Earth, Byblos is characterized by unique and astonishing marine archeology. Laura tells us about her work as co-founder of the NGO Guardians of the Blue, where she teaches local communities about their heritage in the Lebanese ocean. They also use citizen science methods such as ordinary photography from dives to identify and map Lebanon's marine biodiversity, and even recently discovered a new species in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time.

Remember to follow The Ocean Embassy on Steady and support us there, if you can. You also find us on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Cover art: Simon + Anna Madlener. Based on the Spilhaus world projection.

Music and Sound Effects: Lukas Bindel

Mixing: Anna Madlener

#Lebanon #Byblos #oceanliteracy #unoceandecade #ECOP #BBNJ #UnitedNations #BBNJtreaty #HighSeasTreaty #biodiversity #environmentalDNA #ocean #climateaction #climatecrisis #unoceandecade #bluecarbon #technology #sciencecommunication #marineconservation #podcast #science #climatescience #technology

Jeremy Raguain is back!

For those who remember, Jeremy was my first podcast guest. He is a policymaker from the Seychelles, recently finished his fellowship with the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), and served as a Seychellois delegate during the most recent High Seas (BBNJ) treaty negotiations.

The High Seas BBNJ Treaty — Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction — is a new treaty from the United Nations aiming to set the groundwork for international legislation on the high seas, so beyond the exclusive economic zones of nations. These waters, typically, are, as Jeremy says in the episode, "the wild wild wet," where no rules and enforcement applies. The most recent round of negotiations in March 2023 was the final one of several that didn't conclude last year, mostly due to late night disputes around the sharing and benefits from Marine Genetic Resources (MGR).

Marine Genetic Resources, the establishment, monitoring and identification of Marine Protected Areas as well as environmental impact assessments were some of the key topics discussed to be in this treaty. Moreover, a number of principles such as the precautionary principle and the common heritage of humankind were areas of debate but eventually made it into the treaty.

Most media outlets shared the wide success of the BBNJ treaty finally being "achieved" — and unless you are an expert, you will not know all the details and steps that still remain to be done to actually bring this treaty to life. You will also not hear all the details of what is going on inside these conference rooms, how treaties such as these are passed, and who is responsible for what. Jeremy shared a lot of insights during the negotiations on his social media and specifically shed light on the not-so-pretty aspects of discrimination towards countries from the Global South, who are most threatened by oceans in crisis due to the climate crisis.

In this episode, we discuss both details of the treaty's content, what certain words actually mean and what they don't, as well as what it felt like for Jeremy to negotiate at this treaty.

Remember to follow The Ocean Embassy on Steady and support us there, if you can. You also find us on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Cover art: Simon + Anna Madlener. Based on the Spilhaus world projection.

Music and Sound Effects: Lukas Bindel

Mixing: Anna Madlener

#BBNJ #UnitedNations #BBNJtreaty #HighSeasTreaty #biodiversity #environmentalDNA #ocean #climateaction #climatecrisis #unoceandecade #bluecarbon #technology #sciencecommunication #marineconservation #podcast #science #climatescience #technology

Follow the Ocean Embassy around the Ocean Visions Biennial Summit that took place from April 4-6 at the Georgia Aquarium. You will hear exclusive insights from the conference and its particular focus on ocean-based climate solutions such as ocean-based carbon removal. This is a special episode, featuring many guests and panel observations.

Ocean Visions is a non-profit organization that catalyzes innovation at the intersection of the ocean and climate crises. They facilitate multisector collaborations from within their network and beyond, working with leading research institutions, the private sector, and public-interest organizations to fully explore and advance responsible and effective ocean-based climate solutions.

[00:03:10] In the beginning of this episode, we hear from Ocean Visions cofounder and current chairman Dr. Emanuele di Lorenzo, who is also a professor at Brown University.

[00:08:00] Then, you will get to listen to some insights from the conference’s opening keynote by Dr. Julie Pullen, Partner and Chief Scientist at Propeller VC, a venture capital firm that launched last fall, specifically dedicated to funding ocean climate solutions.

[00:23:28] Working closely with research institutions, Julie’s interview then hands over to Dr. Peter deMenocal, President and Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who tells us about some of the observation capacities and gaps of carbon measurements in the ocean as well as international collaborations.

[00:32:00] Some of these collaborations are, for example, with the Ocean Frontier Institute, which led another panel where you will hear from Dr. Anya Waite, who is their CEO & Scientific Director as well as Associate Vice-President of Ocean Research at Dalhousie University.

On this panel, we will also hear from Dr. Will Burt for the first time. Will is the Chief Ocean Scientist at Planetary, a Canada-based Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement startup. He will talk more about the challenges around monitoring, reporting and verification of ocean-based carbon removal challenges in the context of a startup company trying to sell carbon credits.

[00:49:00] Alongside him, Freya Chay, Program Manager at carbon(plan) and Matt Long, cofounder of the [c]worthy initiative, discuss these challenges and opportunities around robust and fit-for-purpose MRV.

[01:20:00] With all these ocean-based solutions and interventions come ethical and societal challenges. We dive a bit deeper with this in an interview with Dr. Kilaparti Ramakrishna, Director of the Marine Policy Center, an Senior Advisor to the President on Ocean and Climate Policy at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

[01:39:00] Closing the episode, we hear from the CEO and President of the Georgia Aquarium, Dr. Brian Davis, who will tell us about the social and educational importance of aquariums in a time of oceans in crisis.

I hope you enjoy this episode!

Cover art: Simon + Anna Madlener. Based on the Spilhaus world projection.

Music and Sound Effects: Lukas Bindel

Mixing: Anna Madlener

#ocean #climateaction #climatecrisis #unoceandecade #bluecarbon #carboncapturetechnology #technology #robotics #sciencecommunication #marineconservation #podcast #science #climatescience #technology #womeninstemm #womeninscience #mcdr #marinecdr #oceancdr #mrv #monitoringreportingverification

Today's guest Emma Bolton is a marine biologist from Brighton/London and currently a research scientist at Basecamp Research. Previously, she worked for the British Antarctic Survey as a scientific diver, conducting important research under sea ice.

In this new episode, we discuss Emma's journey to become a scientific diver and her 20-month deployment on the Southern Pole. Afterwards, we talk about her important work at Basecamp Research where she collects environmental DNA to discover new species and assess biodiversity. Marine environments are particularly interesting and essential to study in this regard — find out why!

Cover art: Simon + Anna Madlener. Based on the Spilhaus world projection.

Music and Sound Effects: Lukas Bindel

Mixing: Anna Madlener

# biodiversity #environmentalDNA #scientificdiving #antarctica #ocean #climateaction #climatecrisis #unoceandecade #bluecarbon #carboncapturetechnology #technology #robotics #sciencecommunication #marineconservation #podcast #science #climatescience #technology #womeninstemm #womeninscience

First, some housekeeping – the Ocean Embassy now has a supporters' page on Steady, where you can subscribe to exclusive additional content while helping me produce the show with a small monthly contribution. It allows me to keep this advertisement free, accessible to everyone on all the platforms, while helping me produce more regularly. I’ve really noticed that it’s no small feat to produce a podcast and really want to move into a much more regular and professional production. I’d be incredibly helpful if you feel like supporting the work and sharing the podcast more widely, plus once I do have a steady support on there, I plan to produce additional, exclusive content regarding episodes and guest features. 

Now, onto our amazing guest!

Welcome to another episode with The Ocean Embassy. Today, I am welcoming Sheena Talma, a marine biologist from the Seychelles. I met Sheena at an event at MIT Media Lab, All Hands on Deck, in November 2018, where I also met my first podcast guest, Jeremy Raguain. Back then, they were both working for the Seychellois government. Those who listened to the first episode, will have learned from Jeremy how he has been working at the United Nations and Alliance of Small Island Nations to advocate for the protection of the ocean on this high international level. With Sheena, we are talking about similar work in terms of working to advocate for small island nations in the Global South. Sheena has been working with the Nekton Foundation for several years, where she accompanies scientific explorative dives to the deep sea, which means well below 200 meters. Sheena tells us about the necessity of this work, how the Nekton Foundation is working together with local governments and why human exploration is still so relevant. I hope you enjoy this episode with Sheena!

Cover art: Simon + Anna Madlener. Based on the Spilhaus world projection.

Music and Sound Effects: Lukas Bindel

Mixing: Anna Madlener

#ocean #climateaction #climatecrisis #unoceandecade #bluecarbon #carboncapturetechnology #technology #robotics #sciencecommunication #marineconservation #podcast #science #climatescience #technology #womeninstemm #womeninscience

Welcome back to the Ocean Embassy! 

It has been rather quiet on here for two months, a lot going on, but we are back with some amazing episodes in the pipeline and some exciting news.

First, some housekeeping – the Ocean Embassy now has a supporters' page on Steady, where you can subscribe to exclusive additional content while helping me produce the show with a small monthly contribution. It allows me to keep this advertisement free, accessible to everyone on all the platforms, while helping me produce more regularly. I’ve really noticed that it’s no small feat to produce a podcast and really want to move into a much more regular and professional production. I’d be incredibly helpful if you feel like supporting the work and sharing the podcast more widely, plus once I do have a steady support on there, I plan to produce additional, exclusive content regarding episodes and guest features. You’ll find the link in the shownotes and all the media channels if you want to check it out!

Now, onto our amazing guest!

Christine de Silva is a marine biologist at the University of Rhode Island and co-founder of the company Juice Robotics. I met her during a virtual meeting and was totally hooked on her idea, her passion and rigor and knew she had to come on here. With Juice Robotics, Christine aims to revolutionize and democratize deep sea technology that allows exploration of our ocean. As you heard in the intro, more than 93% of our oceans are considered deep sea. If you wonder why we need to explore these places, do keep listening because that is exactly what we’ll talk about – besides all the technical gist and general functioning of their work. I think Christine is super impressive and I love the work for several reasons, mostly because us engineers sometimes tend to overcomplicate technology, making it prohibitively expensive, and that definitely holds true for deep sea technology.

Cover art: Simon + Anna Madlener. Based on the Spilhaus world projection.

Music and Sound Effects: Lukas Bindel

Mixing: Anna Madlener

#ocean #climateaction #climatecrisis #unoceandecade #bluecarbon #carboncapturetechnology #technology #robotics #sciencecommunication #marineconservation #podcast #science #climatescience #technology #womeninstemm #womeninscience

Today we are continuing the Ocean CDR series with a really exciting topic. Ocean CDR stands for ocean-based carbon dioxide removals, which essentially represent all ocean-based methods to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and thereby help achieve the 1.5 degree goal. For context, we require carbon dioxide removal technologies because it is ismply unrealistic that we will curb our emission reduction and decarbonization of industrial processes in time to stop the worst effects of this climate crisis we are in.

CDR methods and ocean-based ones specifically are looking at pathways to learn from nature and accelerate processes that are already taking up carbon in the ocean naturally, but are either slowed down or endangered due to the current effects of global warming and the biodiversity crisis. One of these methods is Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement: alkalinity is the opposite of acidity, which some may be more familiar with, and it is one of the most essential parameters in the ocean chemical system to make space for carbon dioxide to be absorbed at surface layers. Scientists and venture companies are looking at artificially adding alkalinity to the ocean in order to remove carbon and generate carbon removal credits, which you and I could buy.

A very active scientist in this field is Dr. Lennart Bach, a marine biogeochemist - and don’t worry we will define what that is in the conversation - who studied in Kiel, Germany, where he also received his PhD followed by a PostDoc at GEOMAR Helmholtz center for ocean research. Hes now leading and building a team investigating marine CO2 removal at the university of Tasmania in Australia.

Don’t be afraid by a lot of chemistry at the beginning of this episode, which I hope we dissected well enough to be broadly understood and give you an idea and sense of this really interesting carbon removal methods that has a large potential to play a very important role in achieving the 1.5 degree goal. We talk not only about the science but also about potential side effects, how to address these, how to monitor and control what potential industrial companies are and will be doing out there in the ocean and why it is necessary to study this topic further!

I hope you enjoy yet another episode of the CDR series and feel free to comment any uncertainties, questions or suggestions for future episodes !

Also, some more housekeeping: if you like this podcast, please follow us and leave a recommendation or rating wherever you listen to this! And now, let’s talk biogeochemistry…

Cover art: Simon + Anna Madlener. Based on the Spilhaus world projection.

Music and Sound Effects: Lukas Bindel

Mixing: Anna Madlener

#ocean #climateaction #climatecrisis #unoceandecade #bluecarbon #carboncapturetechnology #technology #robotics #sciencecommunication #marineconservation #podcast #science #climatescience #technology #womeninstemm #womeninscience

On this new episode of The Ocean Embassy, I talk with Kathleen Swalling, an advocate and lawyer for the oceans for many years. She has extensive experience in designing legislation that effectively protects the ocean such as the laws that put the Great Barrier Reef under protection. We discuss how lawyers co-design Marine Protected Areas with all stakeholders involved, who those stakeholders are, and what makes laws ineffective. The aspect of legislation is very critical when we think about large scale impact of protective efforts, so I hope you enjoy this conversation! 

Cover art: Simon + Anna Madlener. Based on the Spilhaus world projection.

Music and Sound Effects: Lukas Bindel

Mixing: Anna Madlener

#ocean #climateaction #bbnj #deepseamining #climatecrisis #unoceandecade #bluecarbon #technology #robotics #sciencecommunication #marineconservation #sciencediplomacy #podcast #science #climatescience #technology #womeninstemm #womeninscience #naturebasedsolutions