The Sargassum Podcast

3’11 : La sargasse, un objet de recherche et de coopération

6’11 : Genèse, déroulement et partenaires du projet Sarg’coop

9’36 : 1erwork-package : état de la connaissance et organisation de la conférence internationale sur les sargasses en 2019 en Guadeloupe

12’37 : 2ème WP : télédétection et projet d’établissement d’un réseau caribéen pour les mesures de l’air

17’06 : 3èmeWP : communication au public avec la création d’une plateforme digitale

19’39 : 4èmeWP : les actions d’internationalisation

21’40 : Sur la Convention de Carthagène et les évolutions des stratégies des politiques environnementales

24’55 : Livre blanc sur les sargasses, enjeux et stratégies à mettre en œuvre

27’05 : Doter les sargasses d’un statut juridique international

28’30 : Partages d’expertise sur les mesures de qualité de l’air

29’03 : Articulation du local au global dans les politiques publiques

36’30 : Diffusion des résultats pour le grand public sur la plateforme digitale

39’05 : Intérêt des jeunes générations pour les problématiques environnementales

43’02 : Représentation des femmes dans la recherche environnementale

45’36 : Annonce finale

Pour en savoir plus :

Sur le projet Sargcoop : 

A propos du rapport Théophile 

Déclaration finale de la conférence internationale sur les sargasses  

Pour contacter sargacoop : [email protected]

Dr. Kate Mansfield is a marine scientist, a sea turtle biologist, and an associate professor at the University of Central Florida. Her research focuses on sea turtle biology, ecology, behavior, management, and conservation. Using various census and telemetry methods, Dr. Mansfield’s research interests include sea turtle and other marine vertebrate movements, migration, and habitat utilization.

We spoke to Kate this week about how sargassum impacts sea turtles on Atlantic coastlines throughout their life cycles, from hatching, to feeding on floating sargasm colonies, to nesting.

0:35 - Intro

1:58 - What does sargassum mean to Kate?

3:52 - What are turtle lost years? How does sargassum impact them?

8:54 - Tagging and tracking juvenile turtles

14:25 - How do turtles interact with sargassum in the water?

18:20 - What threats does sargassum pose for sea turtles?

23:11 - How long does it take for sea turtles to mature?

26:08 - What does sargassum do to turtle nests?

28:40 - Debrief

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Sargassum impacts the coastal and seaside communities of many countries, including Tobago. The piles and piles of it on the Atlantic side of the island leave an awful trace of toxins in the air that can be harmful to the population. Yet, where others only see it as a natural disaster, trained natural resource manager and researcher for the government of Tobago (and our guest for today) Avisha Baran sees it as a freely available resource.

Avisha and her husband Adrian found a way to use sargassum to make Tura Homemade, an organic fertilizer. This fertilizer provides the plants with many micronutrients with natural biotoxins to repel pests ad construct more robust crops.

Today, we'll chat about how sargassum is a resource to foster healthy, local, and sustainable agricultural production and how it fulfills a healthier lifestyle in the Caribbean.

(2:04) Tura Homemade introduction

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Sargassum beaching events have become an international challenge that requires globally-cooperative solutions. With such pressing challenges, thankfully, come incredibly innovative solutions to sargassum overproduction and decay.  Due to climate change, there is more and more sargassum on shores, which creates trouble for marine ecosystems and coastal communities. Our guests today work to turn that issue into agricultural opportunities for localized communities.  Today, we talk to Daria Parshina and Nina Bangert, who is part of Seasoilution, a social entrepreneur initiative that turns sargassum into fertilizer.

- Introduction to Daria and Nina (2:20)  

- What sargassum means for Daria and Nina (4:20)  

- How much sargassum is there in a beaching, really? (6:30)  

- How Seasoilution's product works as a biostimulant (also, what a biostimulant is) (7:15)  

- Why are petroleum-based fertilizers bad? (9:45)  

- Why should you care about local communities affected by sargassum? (10:20)  - 

- What did you learn first-hand from your trip to sargassum territory? (12:35)  - 

- Why are people from Europe concerned about the Caribbean sargassum problems? (14:24)  

- How does the interdisciplinary nature of your work affect your success? (16:24)  

- How would you encourage students to take part in the solutions to environmental issues? (19:23)  

- Wrap-up and debrief (21:05)

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Since 2011, vast masses of the free-floating algae Sargassum have been washing ashore on Caribbean beaches – some leaving coastlines three-feet deep in seaweed. When it isn't rotting on beaches, Sargassum has incredible properties and could fuel an entire new blue economy. The Sargassum Podcast aims to cure marine science blindness by providing listeners with an in-depth look into how sargassum impacts local communities, coastal biomes, and the world at large – and how we can harvest it to build a diversified blue economy.  

Join us today as we talk to Dr. Shelly-Ann Cox, an experienced ocean professional and fisheries management specialist. She holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Natural Resource Management from the UWI Cave Hill Campus, and a BSc (Hons) in Environmental and Natural Resource Management with Marine Biology from the UWI St. Augustine Campus. Shelly-Ann has ten years’ experience in applied interdisciplinary climate-related research and fisheries management research.  

Listen to The Sargassum Podcast's latest episode to hear about:  

-Introduction to Shelly-Ann Cox: 2:14

-What sargassum means for Shelly-Ann and her community: 3:40

-The impact of sargassum on dolphinfish and flying fish landings: 7:30

-Sustainable fishing, marine catching, and marine reproduction cycles: 10:30

-Fishers, sargassum, and creating tracking mechanisms for sargassum drift: 11:15

-Blue Shell Productions and fisheries management consulting: 18:10

-Blue guerrilla marketing and blue weddings: 22:55

-Offsetting carbon emissions with blue-conscious events: 29:07

-Wrap-up and debrief: 35:00 

And from our team, welcome to #SargassumSeason2!  

Learn more about Dr. Shelly-Ann Cox: 

Facebook

Linkedin

Instagram

Website

Research gate

Sargassum outlook bulletin  

We love to hear from you, feel free to drop us an email to [email protected],  Connect with us on social media: Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn

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Dr. Denise Herzing is the Founder and Research Director of the Wild Dolphin Project and has studied Atlantic spotted dolphins in the Bahamian waters for over 35 years. In addition to many scientific articles, she is the co-editor of Dolphin Communication and Cognition, author of “Dolphin Diaries: My 25 years with Spotted Dolphins in the Bahamas” and “The Wild Dolphin Project (2002)”.

Cassie Rusche spends her summers living on a boat in the Bahamas studying wild dolphins. But 10 years ago, she thought she’d be working as a pharmacist. She started University as a pre-pharmacy student. However, after just a few short months of school and working in a pharmacy, she realized it was not for her. Eventually she discovered her real passion for understanding animal behavior. So, she switched to the ecology/evolution/organismal biology concentration and has been working for the Wild Dolphin Project since her graduation.

Wild Dolphin Project is the world’s longest running underwater study of dolphins in the world. Since 1985, the team has spent months out at sea every summer, living on boats and studying two species of dolphins that live on the shallow sandbanks of the Bahamas: Atlantic spotted dolphins and Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. Researchers have made many discoveries over the years regarding aspects of social structure, paternity, habitat use, behavior, communication, and movement patterns.

Listen to the episode to hear about:

Transcript

Learn more about Dr. Denise Herzing and Cassie Rusche:

֍ Wild Dolphin Project

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Dr. Rick Lumpkin is the Director of the Physical Oceanography Division of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) research laboratory in Miami, FL: the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML). Dr. Lumpkin’s research focuses on upper ocean processes and ocean circulation. As Principal Investigator of AOML’s component of NOAA’s Global Drifter Program (GDP), he oversees a global array of ~1300 satellite-tracked drifting buoys. He also helped design ocean currents displays in the Sant Ocean Hall of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Listen to the episode to hear about:

Transcript

Learn more about Dr. Rick Lumpkin:

֍ Graphics from Johns et al. (2020)

֍ NOAA’s Global Drifter Program

֍ Rick Lumpkin, PhD, Acting Director, Physical Oceanography Division

֍ AOML’s experimental Sargassum inundation reports

֍ LinkedIn

֍ Facebook

֍ Twitter

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Can’t get enough? Become one of our patrons for as little as $1 a month. Patrons get to submit questions to us prior to the interviews that we will then ask our guests. We are grateful for each supporter and look forward to connecting with you.

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Courtney Gallaher is a jointly appointed associate professor in the Department of Geographic and Atmospheric Sciences and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Northern Illinois University. Her fields of studies include Women in science, Sustainable agriculture and food systems and Environmental management and sustainability.

Listen to the episode to hear about:

Transcript

Learn more about Courtney and Emely:

֍ LinkedIn, Emely Hernandez

֍ Courtney Gallaher, Associate Professor, Ph.D.

֍ Poster on Tourist Perception of Sargassum

֍ Paper on Tourist Perception of Sargassum

We love to hear from you, feel free to drop us an email to [email protected], and connect with us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn.

Can’t get enough? Become one of our patrons for as little as $1 a month. Patrons get to submit questions to us prior to the interviews that we will then ask our guests. We are grateful for each supporter and look forward to connecting with you.

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VictorDavid est docteur en droit de l’environnement. Il est chargé de recherche à l’IRD (Institut de recherche pour le développement), et en poste actuellement au Campus Agro Environnemental Caraïbe en Martinique. Il est affilié à l’Unité Mixte de recherche SENS (Savoirs Environnement Sociétés) et collabore avec le LC2S (Laboratoire caribéen des sciences sociales) de l’université des Antilles.

Victor David nous présente le projet CESAR dont un des volets est l'étude des enjeux du droit de l'environnement appliqué aux sargasses au niveau du bassin caribéen.

Nous avons abordé avec lui le problème du statut juridique fluctuant de la sargasse. Nous avons également parlé de l’hypothèse du changement global pour la prolifération des sargasses et d’une responsabilité qui pourrait être commune mais différenciée, ainsi que des différences en droit de l’environnement entre la Nouvelle Calédonie, où Victor David a vécu et travaillé, et la Martinique, où il habite depuis 2019.

Mise à jour : cet épisode a été enregistré en juin 2021. Nous y parlions aussi d’un amendement en lecture au Sénat, à propos du statut de catastrophe naturelle. Cet amendement a été adopté le 15 octobre 2021.

- Présentation (0’34)

- La sargasse, un objet d’étude (4’47)

- Personnalité juridique d’un fleuve en Nouvelle-Zélande (6’26)

- Vide juridique autour des sargasses (7’14)

- Les nationalités des sargasses en eaux internationales et eaux territoriales (9’01)

- Protocole de Nagoya (12’50)

- Un non-déchet (13’41)

- Les objectifs du projet ANR CESAR (15’26)

- Qui est responsable ? (20’42)

- Les méthodes de l’enquête (21’49)

- Changement global et sargasses (24’54)

- Une catastrophe naturelle ? (29’42)

- Plans communaux de sauvegarde des communes (31’45)

- Comparaison entre les Antilles et la Nouvelle-Calédonie (33’32)

- Discussion sur les enjeux de cette recherche (38’)

- Debrief (44’52)

Transcription

Pour lire plus sur le sujet :

֍ Projet CESAR

֍ Projets ANR (Agence national de la recherche) sur les sargasses

֍ L’UMR LC2S, Laboratoire caribéen des sciences sociales

֍ L’UMR SENS, Savoirs, Environnement, Sociétés

֍ Victor David sur Research gate

֍ Code de l’environnement français sur le site de Légifrance

֍ Pour contacter Victor DAVID : [email protected]

Ard Vreugdenhill is storyteller and conservationist with Nature Connecting, an NGO.  He just finished working in Barbados. Before that, he worked for over five years for Sea Turtle Conservation in Curacao. Julieta Castro is a volunteer for Sea Turtle Conservation in Curacao and is 15 years old, our youngest podcast guest so far.

Listen to the episode to hear about:

Transcript

Learn more about Ard and Julietta:

֍ Instagram

֍ LinkedIn

֍ Website

֍ News Article

֍ Media Appearance

We love to hear from you, feel free to drop us an email to [email protected], and connect with us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn.

Can’t get enough? Become one of our patrons for as little as $1 a month. Patrons get to submit questions to us prior to the interviews that we will then ask our guests. We are grateful for each supporter and look forward to connecting with you.

Like our music? This song is called Them Ah Prey by Drizzle Roadranna. Follow him on YouTube and Spotify