Jason Colby (author of Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator) talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young about the capture of Toki/Tokitae/Lolita/Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut and how Penn Cove almost ended the southern resident orcas and was the beginning of the end of the capture era. “It’s worth remembering that the argument at the time, if there could have been a debate at the time, it was really between whale catching and whale shooting, not whale catching and whale watching.”

Shownotes:

0:00 The voice of Toki.

4:08 Jason Colby on writing the book – or at least a very long chapter of his book – on Penn Cove.

6:05 “They eventually capture virtually all of these orcas behind nets. They estimate at the time around 90 individuals… The estimates vary but almost certainly the entire population of the Southern residents.”

7:43 “It’s worth remembering that the argument at the time, if there could have been a debate at the time, it was really between whale catching and whale shooting, not whale catching and whale watching.”

8:50 “Once they rounded them up, 90 to 100 animals, if Ted Griffin and his company would have wanted to and would have had the market to sell all 90 of them they could have done that. If they had wanted to shoot them all in the nets, they could have done that. There may have been a firearms violation, but there would be no sort of conservation law violation.”

10:30 “This must have been horrifically traumatic for these pods to be torn apart.”

11:20 How activists trying to free the orcas accidentally kill four baby orcas.

12:20 Hiding the bodies… “Whether it was illegal or not, it looks like a murder scene.”

14:20 Is Toki really L Pod or did she learn how to speak L Pod from Hugo in Miami?

20:04 “It was a generational loss.”

21:20 “If Griffin had done what the fisherman who was helping him demanded – which is to sell all of them all – you could have seen the entire population of Southern residents extinguished before we had even identified them scientifically as a population.”

23:00 How to help orcas today and the problems humans are creating for orcas today.

26:04 Toki talks.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
Jason Colby from Mark Leiren-Young’s award-winning documentary The Hundred Year-Old Whale
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Howard Garrett (Orca Network) remembering the southern resident orca Toki/Tokitae/Lolita/Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut and his nearly thirty year fight to bring Toki home to the Salish Sea. “Toki’s legacy is building, building, building by the day… She wasn’t just a circus animal. She was a member of the southern residents.”

Shownotes:

0:00 The voice of Toki.
4:57 How Howard started fighting to bring Toki home

7:50 “I really feel like she would have thrived and been thrilled and so relieved to be in her familiar waters.”

14:16 A superpod wake for Toki?

15:55 The Lummi Nation’s fight for Toki.

20:05  The origins of Toki’s names and becoming Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut.

21:44 “Her tank violated the very dismal standard of the animal welfare act…”

30:15 Getting the news that she was gone.

34:00 Toki’s legacy.

43:00 Toki speaks.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
Howard Garrett at a marine conference in Vancouver in 2017
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Author and biologist Rowena Rae on swimming with salmon, threats to this essential species and their incredible resilience with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young. “Salmon can thrive if we just give them a chance… if people would just get out of the way, they can thrive”.

Shownotes:

3:54 On becoming a biologist and leaving biology for writing.
7:12 Introducing young readers to the story of Rachel Carson.

9:20 Introducing Rachel Carson and the importance of Silent Spring.

12:20 Swimming with salmon.

14:07 Keystone species and why they matter.

19:oo  Humans Vs. Salmon; almost everything eats salmon  — salmon as “eco-system engineers”.

23:44 How to save Chinook salmon.

26:09 The fish farm jail-break in Washington State.

28:50 On the resilience of nature and salmon, and why to have hope. “They’re tenacious, they hang on … salmon can thrive if we just give them a chance”.

31:30 How we can help salmon.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.

Rowena Rae – author of Salmon: Swimming for Survival

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Shark expert Alessandro De Maddalena talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young about hunting for the perfect shark photo, the two orcas who are hunting great white sharks in South African waters, what makes great whites great and so much more! “The reason I love sharks is that they are a perfect art form. I consider Mother Nature the greatest artist.”

Shownotes:

4:22 How Alessandro De Maddalena fell for sharks as a kid and why sharks are cooler than dinosaurs.
9:00 Why he thinks the great white is great: “the first time I was watching a great white underwater it was magic… The reason I love sharks is that they are a perfect art form. I consider Mother Nature the greatest artist.”
13:10 Perfect predators and perfect book titles.
17:01 How little sharks care about humans. “Sharks care very little about humans. In most cases they don’t care at all.”
21:40 “The fear was born with Jaws…”
27:50 “People like to be afraid. People like monsters. People also like to create monsters.”
28:44 Leading Great White Shark expeditions.
33:40 His three best moments with sharks.
37:15 The truth behind the orcas attacking sharks in South Africa. No they are not a major threat to the great white shark population!
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Alessandro De Maddalena

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Alessandro De Maddalena image – featured in Mark Leiren-Young’s book Sharks Forever

Sean Holman @Seanholman founder and lead of the Climate Disaster Project @cdp_community talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young @leirenyoung about the past and future of the media’s climate coverage, fighting fires with facts and sharing stories to save the future.

Shownotes:

5:00 Welcome Sean Holman. Why he challenged journalists to do better in their climate coverage.
10:57 The challenge of news cycles moving faster than science
15:10 “There is a lot that we can individually do about combat climate change creating collective action around that. as an example In the United States if everyone switched from eating beef to beans the United States would have actually met the greenhouse gas targets that were set by Obama.”
16:34 ““Almost all of us are climate disaster survivors in one way shape or form but many of us are also perpetrators of climate change as well in our individual lives.”
17:01 Climate impact on the oceans.
21:53 Climate impact on the economy
23:44 How the smoke from the 2017 BC Wildfire season changed the way he saw the world
26:40 The origins of the Climate Disaster Project and the importance of creating community
29:33 What gives Sean Holman hope
Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.

Sean Holman

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Photo via the BC Wildfire Service.

“My whole life story has been planned around having adventures in nature,” artist Robert Bateman told Mark Leiren-Young, in an interview that was just released on the Skaana podcast.

The iconic Canadian painter met Leiren-Young virtually to talk about his views on the importance of staying connected with the natural world and to share how his passions led him to a career in art.

Fin Donnelly (@FinDonnelly), NDP critic for Fisheries, Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard, on the history and future of his fight for a law to protect sharks and what you can do to help pass a new Canadian law to end Canada’s role in shark-finning.

To help turn this bill into law sign the Oceana petition to ban the sale and importation of shark fins.

 

These animals predate dinosaurs… and the scary thing is it could be on humans’ watch that we would lose them.

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Fin Donnelly on Saving the Southern Resident Orcas

Links:

  1. Senator MacDonald: Shark finning is unsustainable, irresponsible and ecologically reckless
  2. MPs, senators unite to oppose ‘finning’ at premiere of ‘Sharkwater Extinction’
  3. Proposed federal shark fin ban a good ‘first step,’ Vancouver advocate says

Fin Donnelly

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Julia Barnes, (Sea of Life), and Jonah Bryson @JonahLBryson (The Fight for Bala) on how Rob Stewart (Sharkwater Extinction, Sharkwater, Revolution) inspired them to make movies to change the world.

“In Revolution, I was learning for the first time that the world’s coral reefs, rainforests and fisheries are expected to be gone by the middle of the century.”

– Julia Barnes

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Check out Rob Stewart’s film “Sharkwater Extinction”

Links:

Guest: Julia Barnes

Campaigns:

Organization:

Guest: Jonah Bryson

Organization:

 

Rob Stewart:

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Rob Stewart’s Sharkwater Extinction (premieres in Canadian theatres Oct 19th. Celebrate earth’s real-life Aquaman with never-before heard interviews from the  launch of his 2013  documentary, Revolution, as Rob talks about big dreams, fighting for the future and why kids will save the world.

Any revolution in the past has been led by the people most directly impacted by the atrocity… now it’s going to be kids because they’re going to be the ones that are impacted by it. It’s their future that we’re taking.”

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about  orcas, oceans and the environment.

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Check out Sharkwater Extinction:

Links:

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Michael Moore waving the flag.

Michael Moore (@MMFlint) on making waves, making movies, making enemies and Canada, eh. A Trump-Free interview from the Obama era archives with Skaana host: Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung). 

Skaana connects you to news and experts and their discussions about orcas, oceans and the environment.

Fahrenheit 11/9… https://fahrenheit119.com

Georgia Strait Alliance… https://georgiastrait.org

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Michael Moore tears into America with Capitalism: A Love Story

Eating Pizza and Slicing Up Capitalism with Michael Moore

“I wish more Americans would look north and see that there are some things we can learn from you, that we might be better off if we were more Canadian-like in some ways. Not the boring, dull stuff. But there’s something about your core, your values, the way you’re wired. You believe that you’re your brother’s keeper, that you have a responsibility, that you exist as part of a whole. If one of you gets sick, it means that if that’s not taken care of, then we all sort of suffer a bit. I think that’s pretty profound.”

Fahrenheit 11/9

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Kelly Iriye, project coordinator for Damsense (@DAMSNSE) on how breaching the Snake River dams could help save the endangered southern resident orcas and why the arguments against damsense are nonsense. #FreeTheSnake

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Damsense… https://damsense.org/get-involved/

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Kelly Iriye, Project Coordinator, Damsense

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Kelly’s advice: YELL! Write a hand-written letter to elected officials, the BPA, the Army Corps of Engineers. Call them and give them your 2-cents. But always press the issue that breaching can begin in 2018 and there is no reason it shouldn’t! On our website, the Get Involved page:  we’ve links to all the documents you’d need to build your case and get the mailing address and phone numbers to the various stakeholders.

Snake River – Lower Granite Dam

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