The Sargassum Podcast

Florence Ménez est titulaire d’un PhD en anthropologie culturelle et sociale (EHESS, Paris) et d’un PhD en Histoire sociale européenne contemporaine (Université Ca’Foscari, Venise). Elle est coordinatrice du projet de recherche-action SaRiMed (2021-2023), concernant les impacts sanitaires des sargasses en Martinique et à Marie-Galante (Antilles françaises). SaRiMed est financé par la Fondation de France et réunit des chercheur.e.s en sciences sociales de l’UMR AMURE, ainsi que de l’UMR LC2S et de l’EA AIHP-GEODE de l’université des Antilles, des médecins du CHU de Martinique, des membres de la société civile et des artistes.

Présentation (0:45)

La sargasse perturbation et lien, qui échappe à la société, symbolisée en un écheveau d’où partent des fils thématiques définissant autant d’enjeux, ou bien symbolisée en boîte de Pandore (2:39)

La recherche INVABIO comme première approche des perturbations apportées par les proliférations algales (5:05)

Enquête sur l’acceptabilité sociale de la transformation des sargasses en amendement agricole dans le programme de recherche Eco3Sar, Ecologie, Ecotoxicologie des sargasses (2018-2020) (6:54)

« Sargasses menace », une installation artistique en juin 2018 qui réunit geste politique et geste esthétique (7:54)

Singularité des impacts des sargasses sur le littoral martiniquais et guadeloupéen (9:04)

Alerte dans la revue The Lancet sur la sargasse comme « menace réelle pour la santé » due à la décomposition des sargasses(10:54)

Incidence sanitaire de la chlordécone ? (12:48)

Génèse de SaRiMed avec le groupe de recherche sur les sargasses du CHUM (13:06)

Présentation de SaRiMed, du consortium et des objectifs (15:44)

Constitution du corpus (17:14)

Diversité des parcours préventifs et curatifs pour vivre avec les sargasses (19:56)

Interdisciplinarité représentée au cœur du consortium pour analyser ce « fait social total » (20:46)

Travail des artistes sur l’invisible et les traces (22:35)

Une écriture et une médiation de la recherche grâce aux artistes (24:24)

Comment traduire l’expérience sensible ? (25:34)

Implications des artistes dans le projet art & science (26:36)

Partenariat avec le lycée Victor Anicet de Saint-Pierre, Martinique (28:21)

Appel à d’autres études sur les impacts sanitaires dans les territoires insulaires et/ou continentaux caribéens (29:21)

Impacts des sargasses par contact, hors décomposition (30:38)

Apport des sciences sociales dans les recherches interdisciplinaires (32:09)

Conclusion (34:36)

Transcription

Pour lire plus sur le sujet :

֍ Résumé de SaRiMed 

֍Pour en savoir plus sur les risques sanitaires, un ensemble de documents présentés sur le site de l’URML (Union Régionale des Médecins Libéraux) 

֍Article publié dans The Lancet : Sargassum seaweed on Caribbean islands: an international public health concern

֍ Résumé du projet Sargacare

Email: [email protected] 

Facebook

Twitter 

Instagram

LinkedIn 

Patreon

LINK TO LISTENERS SURVEY: https://forms.gle/cWVDc9ZUDM56mFsG8

Our guest today is Teresa Chavez-Capilla who is an environmental and bioanalytical chemist, working as a post-doc at the University in Bern, Switzerland. She is working in the Soil Science Unit within the Interfaculty Cooperation Project One Health, which looks at the microbial-mediated effects and transformations of different pollutants in the environment, and across the food chain. Her research focuses on the microbial-mediated transformations of arsenic from food in the mammalian gut. She is specialized in studying the metabolism of the arsenic available to humans from the diet, including that in seaweed. Besides her position at the University of Bern, she is part of the coordination team of 500 Women Scientist Bern-Fribourg, an organization aimed to promote women in STEM.

Listen to the episode to hear about:

-Survey announcement (0:35)

-Teresa Chavez-Capilla Introduction (3:43)

-Teresa's impression of sargassum influx in the Tropical Atlantic (4:57)

-What sargassum means to Teresa (6:15)

-Inorganic vs organic arsenic (8:00)

-How much arsenic is in the food we eat (10:01)

-What arsenic does to the human body when ingested (12:54)

-Bioaccumulation and bio modification as related to arsenic (15:27)

-Avoiding arsenic exposure in the food chain (16:51)

-What products we have to test for arsenic levels (19:10)

-Where arsenic in the ocean comes from (22:55)

-Whether arsenic is present in other algae (24:26)

-Organic arsenic sugars and carbohydrates in seaweed (26:06)

-Debrief (28:20)

Episode transcript

Learn more about Teresa Chavez-Capilla:

Twitter

Research gate

ORCiD

Soil Science Research Group

One Health Research Cooperation

500 Women Scientists Bern-Fribourg

Publications

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 Become one of our patrons (https://www.patreon.com/Sargassumpodcast) 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? The song is called Them Ah Pree by Drizzle Roadranna. Follow him on youtube and Spotify

Luis Macías es un experto en comercio internacional con un doctorado en Sociedad de la información y conocimiento, con más de diez años de experiencia en desarrollo empresarial y coordinación de proyectos. Forma parte de la “Earth Life University” en Playa del Carmen, México y además es el cofundador de Alquimar. Alquimar es una empresa dedicada a obtener productos de alto valor a partir del sargazo. Uno de sus últimos logros ha sido producir el bioestimulante fucoidan a partir del Sargazo.

Escucha el episodio para aprender sobre:

- Presentaciones (0)

- Quien es Luis Masia (2:28)

- Que es el sargazo para Luis Macías : una solución para la salud (2:45)

- Explicando la Earth Life University, una universidad alternativa y humana (5:10)

- La empresa Alquimar : como nació la idea, y como comenzaron a utilizar el sargazo (5:10)

- Como se hace la recolección del sargazo (12:48)

- Usos del sargazo en Alquimar : biofertilizantes, alimentación animal (18:46)

- Extracción de los componentes del sargazo para varios usos : alginato, fucoxantina, fucoidano (21:52)

- Fucoidano : extracción y utilizaciones por la salud humana (covid, colesterol, etc.) (22:49)

- El protocolo de recolección con Puerto Morelos. La penta helice : empresa, sociedad, gobierno, academia y naturaleza (29:51)

- Visión de Luis de la colaboración internacional por el sargazo (34:53)

- El sargazo como industria azul (40:42)

- Charla entre Mar, Paola y Clio (42:28)

Transcripcíon (ESP)

Transcript (ENG)

Si quieres saber más sobre el trabajo de Veronica, aquí tienes los links a sus proyectos:

֍ Su empresa Alquimar y su experiencia

֍ La empresa Earth Life University 

Si quieres ponerte en contacto con nosotros mándanos un e-mail a [email protected] o conecta con nosotros a través de las redes sociales facebook, twitter, Instagram, linkedin.

Quieres más? Conviértete en uno de nuestros patrocinadores desde 1 USD al mes! Conocerás a nuestros próximos invitados y podrás hacerles preguntas. Agradecemos enormemente cualquier apoyo y estamos deseando conectar con todos ustedes!

Te gusta nuestra música? La canción se llama: “Them Ah Pree” de Drizzle Roadranna. Síguele en Spotify y youtube

Our guest today is Andrés Bisonó León who is the CEO and co-founder of SOS Carbon. He is from the Dominican Republic and studied mechanical engineering and finance at Drexel University in Philadelphia. SOS Carbon started as an R&D based at MIT in 2018. After successfully validating the technologies and system, the leading team developed a spinoff project. SOS Carbon is an environmental service company whose mission is to provide the most cost-effective & responsible solutions for sargassum collection and disposal. SOS Carbon efforts have also focused on involving local communities and acting as liaison between government agencies, private sector, academic institutions, and countries across the Caribbean with the goal to join forces to effectively compact the problem.

- What sargassum means to Andrés (8:17)

- Goals of SOS Carbon - Sargassum as a beneficial resource and opportunity! (9:00)

- Andrés history and passion for sargassum and giving back to the community (10:21)

- Partnering with colleague at MIT for technology-based solutions (12:30)

- Effects of sargassum in the Dominican Republic and Caribbean-wide (15:28)

- Local villages, mangroves and ecosystems are effected by sargassum events (19:20)

- SOS Carbon ("Sargassum Ocean Sequestration of Carbon") and carbon sequestration (22:00)

- Collaborations with MIT & local agencies and institutions for open-ocean solutions technologies (24:10)

- "We (SOS Carbon) were really sequestering a positive amount of carbon, meaning that our system wasn't going to require more energy than what we were going to sequester." (26:50)

- Continued work with other experts and teams to create the best system to manage the sargassum problem (29:13)

- Blue economics, ocean carbon sequestration and impact of sargassum on tourism (30:13)

- The many benefits of Littoral Collection Method (LCM) for fishing community and ecosystems (34:05)

- Uses of systems outside of sargassum specifically (38:00)

- Working together as a team to integrate communities and create opportunities (41:07)

- Associated costs (in USD) for the SOS Carbon hardware, fleet and the formal employment platform (44:16)

- Addressing by-catch within SOS Carbon solutions (47:21)

- Contact info and closing (50:11) *see below*

Transcript

Learn more about Andrés Bisonó León and SOS Carbon:

֍ Website

֍ LinkedIn

֍ LinkedIn (SOS Carbon)

֍ Facebook

֍ Instagram

֍ Twitter

֍ Youtube (Episode video)

֍ LCM system

֍ SOS Carbon Tech (Open Ocean)

֍ SOS pilot on Rio Ozama (same river where The Ocean Cleanup has Interceptor 004)

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 and take part in exclusive perks!

Pierre-Antoine Guibout est le fondateur de Sargasse Project, un projet de transformation des sargasses en pâte à papier destinée à la fabrication de papier, carton, et plus largement tout objet en cellulose moulée.

Originaire de Bretagne (France), Pierre-Antoine Guibout a mené des études en droit des affaires (université de Rennes) et en droit financier (ESCP et université de Paris XI), ce qui lui a permis de fonder une société de conseils. Juriste fiscaliste, il est aussi l’inventeur d’une pâte à papier à base de sargasses, créée grâce à son expérience des échouements de sargasses sur l’île de Saint-Barthélémy, où il habite depuis 2012.

Pour pérenniser son invention, mieux valoriser la sargasse et allier l’écologie à l’économie, il a créé la start-up Sargasse Project en 2019.

Shownotes

Transcription

Pour en savoir plus :

֍ Website Sargasse project

֍ Instagram

֍ Facebook

֍ LinkedIn

֍ Twitter

֍ Ecofeutre, spécialistes des emballages

֍ CEVA, Centre d’étude et de valorisation des algues

֍ Collectivité de Saint-Barthélémy

email [email protected]

facebook, twitter, instagram, linkedin

Sven Jense is the founder of Climate Cleanup an entrepreneurial non-profit organization with the mission of restoring the global carbon balance by removing 1500 gigaton of CO2 out of the atmosphere using natural climate solutions (NCS). One of the most promising and scalable solutions is seaweed. Eelco Leemans joined Climate Cleanup to work on marine solutions and how the oceans can help to sequester carbon. Together they are investigating if Sargassum can help.

Listen to the episode to learn:

-  Intro ~ 0:00

- Guest intro ~ 3:45

- What is sargassum to you? ~ 4:50

- Work in St. Martin (Nature Foundation, the issues like fumes, shipping a ton of sargassum, and local response) ~ 12:20

- Carbon capture study and changing economy based on new plants ~ 14:40

- The nutrition of sargassum (not for direct consumption) ~ 17:36

- Donut economy ~ 18:38

- St. Martin managing the sargassum (they are not doing that much), and how to think about solutions ~ 22:51

- What they are doing with the dried sargassum (chemical analysis, student awards, fertilizers and more) ~ 25:00

- Strength of sargassum and concrete ~ 26:33

- “Double nature solutions” ~ 28:35

- Long term carbon storage in building materials ~ 30:16

- Climate change driven flooding ~ 32:23

- What is needed for their carbon sequestration goals ~ 34:27

- Communication with local people ~ 37:48

- Funding by members logistics ~38:39

- “What do you need?” ~ 40:18

- Paying people  ~ 41:05

- Goodbyes ~ 42:47

- Debrief ~ 43:07

Transcript

Want to learn more about Climate Clean up:

֍ Website

֍ Linkedin

֍ Twitter

֍ Facebook

֍ Sargassum clean up report

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 Become one of our patrons (https://www.patreon.com/Sargassumpodcast) for as little as $1 a month and take part in an exclusive monthly happy hour with our podcast guests and other Sargassum crazy patrons. We are grateful for each supporter and look forward to connecting with you.

Like our music? The song is called Them Ah Pree by Drizzle Roadranna. Follow him on youtube and Spotify

Jerry Mang’ena is a Marine Biologist, Aquapreneur, and the co-founder and director of Aqua-Farms Organisation in Tanzania. He is a tutor at the School of Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Technology of the University of Dar es Salaam a co-organizer of TEDxOysterbay, a Mandela Washington Fellow, a Global shaper and a Climate Reality leader. Jerry has been able to penetrate the international seaweed market by exporting Seaweed to the United States. He is committed to protecting the ocean from unsustainable use and firmly believes that if aquatic resources are sustainably used they can help to mitigate climate change impacts and poverty. Since 2018, using a Gender-sensitive approach, he has changed lives of 58 women from Zanzibar Islands through training on financial literacy, business management skills, value addition to seaweed-based products. He lives in Tanzania and does most of his work in Zanzibar, an island on the East Coast of Africa that also experiences influxes by Sargassum, a phenomenon that is not well known.

Listen to the episode to hear about:

- Intro ~ 0:00

- Guest intro ~ 1:28

- What is sargassum to you ~ 3:00

- History of sargassum in Zanzibar ~ 4:04

- Quantity of sargassum ~ 6:50

- Sargassum’s effect on different stakeholder groups ~ 8:01

o Fisherman and sargassum ~ 10:00

o Seaweed farmers ~ 11:30

o Tourism industry ~ 13:30

o Fishing industry ~ 15:30

- People positively interacting with endangered species (dugongs, sea turtle) ~ 17:45

- The coral reefs of the region ~ 21:00

- People interacting with sargassum ~ 23:40

- People using sargassum ~ 24:45

o Chickenpox medicine ~ 25:00

o Skin care ~ 25:38

- Aquaculture ~ 26:38

- Nile fish ~ 30:10

- International organizations helping with local community ~ 31:57

- Good bye ~ 34:58

Transcript

For more information about Jerry and his organisations:

֍ Aqua farms organization Website

֍ Aqua farms organization Twitter

֍ Aqua farms organization Instagram

֍ Aqua farms organization Facebook

֍ Aqua farms organization: Youtube channel

֍ Jerry‘s Linkedin

֍ Jerry‘s Instagram

֍ Seaweed Innovate Instagram

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.

Like our music? The song is called Them Ah Pree by Drizzle Roadranna. Follow him on youtubeand Spotify

Our guest today is Marion Sutton, an oceanographer and project manager in the Environmental Applications Department of Collecte Localisation Satellites or CLS for short. She was in charge of developing new environmental products and services based on Earth Observation data for the oil & gas and maritime transportation industries. She is now in charge of several projects to valorise the use of Earth Observation marine data through diverse environmental monitoring and drift modelling applications. Collecte Localisation Satellites is subsidiary of the French Space Agency CNES and of CNP, a worldwide company and pioneer provider of monitoring and surveillance solutions for Earth since 1986. The company is a provider of ARGOS environmental data. Its mission is to deploy innovative space-based solutions to understand and protect our planet, and to manage its resources sustainably.

Listen to the episode to hear about:

- Introduction (0:00)

- Guest introduction (4:30)

- She has never seen Sargassum in real life (6:33)

- She sees Sargassum on satellite images (7:08)

- CLS started using Satellite data for Sargassum prediction in 2015 (10:13)

- SAMtool helping locals through Satellite detection of Sargassum and prediction of where it ends up in the next few days through drift models (12:28)

- SAMtool is designed for operational people who manage Sargassum removal on land but also used by Meteo France for their Sargassum predictions and CERMES to compare to their predictions (16:10)

- Geographic range of SAMtool spans across the entire wider Caribbean and West Africa (18:13)

- Until 2020 SAMtool was free and the users helped with feedback to develop this tool (19:48)

- They are looking for new ways to finance SAMtool: Institutions or governments could finance and make the system free for the user or ask a fee from the users to use the system (20:23)

- Between the first detection of Sargassum on Satellite images in 2015 and the SAMtool launch in 2019 they managed to adapt the Sargassum detection algorithm from 1000 m resolution images to 300 m resolution images (23:19)

- They use the MODIS aqua and Sentinel 2 & 3, LandSAT 8 satellite data to get daily information at 300 m resolution for the entire area and every 2-3 days information at 20 m resolution close to shore (26:08)

- High resolution satellites images (20m pixel) are available up to 300km from the shore (29:13)

- SAMtool was developed with a lot of imput from it’s end users (30:06)

- Improvements of SAMtool  (33:27)

- Another development in progress is seasonal planning  (36:33)

Transcript

Learn more about the Marion Sutton and CLS:  

֍  CLS Twitter

֍  CLS youtube channel

֍ Marions Linkedin

֍ Pilot 5.4 Sargassum detection for seasonal planning

֍ Space climate Observation France Honors list

We love to hear from you, feel free to drop us an email to [email protected]

We made it to 20 Episodes!   

Here a little flash back!  

Thanks to all our listeners and our amazing guests so far! Lowell 

Iporac from Florida International University  

Vanessa Selk from Tout monde art Foundation 

Dayre Catzim from Salgax 

Victor Smetacek from Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research  

John Milledge from Greenwich University  

Ligia Collado-Vides from Florida International University  

Thierry Lebrun from Martinique  

Javier Diaz from Stichting Uniek Curacao  

Debbie Bartlett from University of Greenwich  

Jason Cole and Jorge Vega from C-combinator 

Gug from Gug Underwater  

Paola Diaz from Universidad de Costa Rica  

Deemian Vera from Grupo Dakatso de México  

Teresa Mackey and David Freestone from Sargasso Sea Commission  

Brigitte Gavio from Universidad Nacional de Colombia  

Louisa Marajo from Tout monde art Foundation 

Jasmine Harrison ( Rudderly Mad ) and Mark Sealey who completed the Atlantic Campaigns  

Veronica Monroy from UNAM Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México  

Jake Kheel from Grupo Puntacana  

Christophe Mouvet from BRGM

Christophe Mouvet est hydrogéochimiste, docteur en hydrobiologie, ingénieur au BRGM (Service géologique national) à Orléans (France), à la Direction Eau, Environnement, Procédés et Analyses.

Durant les 10 dernières années, il s’est beaucoup intéressé au chlordécone ; il avait travaillé sur l’arsenic dans une phase antérieure de sa carrière. Christophe Mouvet est le chef du projet Sarg As Cld, lauréat de l’appel à projets “Sargasses” lancé en 2018 par l’ANR et d’autres financeurs. Dans ce podcast il nous parle de cette recherche pluridisciplinaire qui sera menée en Martinique sur la quantification, l’atténuation et la perception sociale des impacts environnementaux des lixiviats de Sargasses.

A noter, un changement depuis notre enregistrement : c’est Patrick Ollivier, le collègue de Christophe Mouvet, qui poursuit la direction du projet.

- Présentation des participants (0:32)

- Que représente la sargasse pour Christophe Mouvet : entre souvenir onirique de la Mer des sargasses et objet de recherche et source de préoccupation (0:59)

- Comment la sargasse a fait son apparition dans un projet du BRGM ? (02:35)

- Parution de l’appel à projets de l’ANR (04:07)

- Quelle importance revêt l’interdisciplinarité dans le projet ? (04:58)

- Les compétences du BRGM (06:25)

- L’arsenic est-il organique ou inorganique ? (09:10)

-Le problème de la chlordécone (12:15)

-L’importance de l’analyse des sols de sites de stockage (16:30)

-Obstacles à la diversification des sols analysés (18:27)

-Expérimentation avec la DEAL Martinique (21:12)

-La composition de l’équipe du projet, entre Orléans et les Antilles (23:20)

-Le projet de surveillance d’arrivées des sargasses du BRGM (28:02)

-Un manque de laboratoires d’analyses appropriées aux Antilles françaises (29:24)

-Une coopération internationale dans la Caraïbe ? (30:54)

-Envisager cet objet de recherche : entre vertige et enthousiasme ? (34:57)

-Debrief (38:29)

Transcription

Pour lire plus sur le sujet :

֍Pour en savoir plus sur le projet Sarg As Cld

֍Pour en savoir plus sur les différents projets ANR (Agence national de la recherche) sur les sargasses 

֍ Le BRGM, Service géologique national

֍ Le BRGM Martinique 

֍ Des recherches du BRGM aux Antilles sur les sargasses :

֍ Les articles de Christophe Mouvet sur Research gate

֍ Une expérimentation menée avec la DEAL Martinique (Direction de l’Environnement, de l’Aménagement et du Logement)