Eco-Pirate and Eco-Church Founder Paul Watson on Fighting for Whales and Phytoplankton, Launching Neptune’s Navy and Daring Iceland to Arrest Him

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Eco-pirate Paul Watson talks about taking on whalers in Iceland and Japan, splitting with the Sea Shepherd, launching an eco-church and what the hell just happened in his world with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young (author of Sharks Forever & Orcas Everywhere). “We’re ecologically ignorant. And unless we learn to educate ourselves, we’re not going to survive.”

Shownotes:

4:45 Paul Watson on how he landed in Paris and why he’s only working with Sea Shepherd France & Brazil.

5:40  “They said I was too controversial. Too confrontational.”

9:20 On being an international fugitive. And the disappearance of his Interpol Red Notice.

19:00 “We’ll rebuild it.” On the split with Sea Shepherd Global, his new boat and the dangers of sponsors.

21:40 On radically retiring Sea Shepherd vessels.

22:18 “The three most valuable things – courage and imagination and passion.”

22:30 What’s in a name? Neptune’s Pirates, Neptune’s Navy and The Captain Paul Watson Foundation

23:43 Taking action in Iceland and saving whales by taking on “modern Ahab” Kristján Loftsson. “I’m not really concerned about getting arrested.” Why he’d like to be arrested in Iceland.

28:14 Chasing super-trawlers and the importance of saving krill.

30:30 The return of Japanese whalers – with a new factory ship. And preparing to take on a faster ship.

33:45 Shifting baselines and rebranding fish like pollock becoming artificial crab. “Who wants to buy a toothfish… It all comes down to marketing.”

35:10 “We’re overfishing the ocean.” The need for a 75 year moratorium on mechanized fishing.

35:40 The fight for phytoplankton. “If phytoplankton disappear from the ocean, we die… The ocean dies, we die.”

37:15 “We’re ecologically ignorant. And unless we learn to educate ourselves, we’re not going to survive.”

38:20 Founding the Church of Biocentrism and the dangers of anthropocentrism.

45:30 “We can’t have a viewpoint that it was all created for us and we’re the only species that matters.”

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
Captain Paul Watson in his natural habitat!
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Melody Horrill: On Saving Dolphins and Her Book About The Dolphin Who Saved Her

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Author, broadcaster and activist Melody Horrill (The Dolphin Who Saved Me) talks about saving the Port River dolphins and how a dolphin named Jock saved her with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young (author of Sharks Forever & Orcas Everywhere). “Dolphins do have a special place in our hearts… They help us connect to the water and the natural world.”

Shownotes:

5:10 Meet the Port River dolphins. And find out why they’re in trouble.

10:20 “I made it my single-minded mission to let everyone know in South Australia that these dolphins existed. They’re here.”

11:10 “They do have a special place in our hearts… They help us connect I think to the water and the natural world.”

11:50 On the Port River becoming a dolphin sanctuary and how her documentary helped change minds and laws.

15:23 Is the sanctuary really dolphin-friendly?

15:46 The first time she saw a dolphin.

16:51 Meeting Jock.

19:35 “Little did I know at that time that Jock would end up being my best friend. And lead me out of a place that I didn’t think was possible. Immediately I just felt this connection to this solitary dolphin. He was by himself… he just seemed adrift and alone. So from my perspective it was this instant recognition of another being that I felt compassion for and a connection with.”

22:20 “He accepted me in a way that I’d never been accepted in my life before.”

24:20 “He taught me a lot about forgiveness.”

25:07 “He forced me to live in the moment… we’re not feeding him, we’re not enticing him. There’s no other reason for him to hang out with me other than he just wants to. How mind-blowing is that?… It made me realize love was possible.”

26:00 Helping Jock meet and interact with other dolphins. “He taught me about courage.”

29:59 “We really tried to keep his friendliness quiet.” Jock following her boat.

32:34 Connecting with Jane Goodall and the Jane Goodall Institute.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
Melody Horrill with the perfect beach book!
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David Shiffman: On Jaws, Sharknados, Megalodon-Mania and Shark Week Vs. Sharks

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Author and marine conservation biologist David Shiffman (Why Sharks Matter) talks about Sharkweek, Sharknados, megalodon myths, Jaws and junk science with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young (author of Sharks Forever & Big Sharks, Small World). “More people are bitten by other people on the New York city subway system every year than are bitten by sharks in the whole world… but whenever any shark gives someone side eye anywhere in the world, it’s headline news everywhere in the world.”

Shownotes:

4:10 “Jaws has had a really transformative impact. For sharks mostly bad.” How Jaws changed everything for sharks and meeting Richard Dreyfuss. “The movie is just so good.”

5:05 “It’s really changed the world. Before Jaws came out most people really didn’t think about sharks at all.”

5:56 “Spielberg has a lot to answer for here.”

6:23 The Jaws Effect. “It refers to how fictional portrayals of a real world issue can affect how people really think about that issue. In reality.”

7:36 Watching The Shark is Broken – the Jaws play – on Broadway!

10:14 On the impact of Sharknado! “I love those goofy, bad shark movies… there are two kinds of shark movies – there are bad shark movies and there’s Jaws.” And how Sharknado funded his PhD work.

13:18 “It’s just frigging weird how much this goofy Saturday night basic cable movie has escaped its cage and entered the cultural zeitgeist.”

13:44 “Here’s a crazy story for you…” How Sharknado may have launched Donald Trump’s political career.

16:04 On being Sharkweek’s number one critic “I’m very critical of the dumpster fire of nonsense and lies that they show every year.”

17:33 “I could rant about how bad Sharkweek is… forever.” And how Sharkweek does nothing to help sharks. “Sharkweek and I are not besties.”

17:48 There are more dudes named Mike on Sharkweek than there are women… even though in real life 60% of shark experts are women.

19:37 Great white sharks are mentioned in 40% of newspaper stories about endangered sharks – even though they’re not one of the most endangered species… All anyone wants to talk or write about… great white sharks.

21:00 Getting people to care about the bigger picture…”One thing that does change people’s minds is “yes, and…””

25:44 Talking 24 and sharks. “All of the species of sharks in the world combined have killed a lot fewer people than Jack Bauer has killed on-screen. Not even counting his off-screen exploits.”

26:34 “More people are bitten by other people on the New York city subway system every year than are bitten by sharks in the whole world… but whenever any shark gives someone side eye anywhere in the world, it’s headline news everywhere in the world.”

27:46 “Seeing a shark swimming close to the beach is not news. That’s where they’re supposed to be.”

28:00 A toy story – myth busting a fake goblin shark.

31:18 The megalodon conspiracy! “They were very cool – but they’ve been extinct for millions of years.”

33:38 The importance of public science engagement.

34:54 A new treaty that may help save sharks – and other species.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
David Shiffman and friends…
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Gloria Pancrazi: On Endangered Orcas, Endangered Humans and Making Movies that Change the World

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Filmmaker Gloria Pancrazi (Coextinction) talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young about red herrings, fishy fish farms, whale watching, whale saving and Coextinction. “Orcas are telling us something. They’re showing us something. You can learn a lot about the things we’ve got to do in the world right now by looking at these orcas.”

Shownotes:

3:35 Meet Gloria Pancrazi and how the story of love for orcas turned into a mission to save the southern resident orcas.

6:12 “A lot of politicians like to blame whale watchers because then they can accept a pipeline that’s going to increase tanker traffic by seven- fold… you can go on and on about the impact of the Trans Mountain pipeline and how it’s going to impact southern resident orcas.”

8:38 “One of the biggest points of the movie is that everything is connected… it’s hard to pick one big issue.”

11:50 “It always fascinated us how the orcas are telling us something. They’s showing us something. You can learn a lot about the things we’ve got to do in the world right now by looking at these orcas.”

13:18 “They are each other’s home and we’re destroying that home.”

13:38 The first time she saw a whale:

15:35 Working for Cetus’s Straitwatch program in Canada and SoundWatch in the US and the challenges of keeping orcas safe from small boats.

22:04 Visiting OrcaLab. “It’s magical up there.”

25:28 The impacts of colonization and colonial trauma.

27:50 Where and how to see Coextinction.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
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Director Josh Zeman on a Lonely Whale, Lonely People and the Search for 52 Blue

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Director Josh Zeman (@joshzeman)  on the quest for the loneliest whale in the world and shifting his focus from human mysteries to marine mysteries with his movie, The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52.  “Just when you think you’ve had too much devil-worshipping and serial killers, you go and you spend a day working on whales and everything’s okay again.”

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Show notes:

0:00 – intro
4:37 – There once was a film in Nantucket. . .
6:20 – Working on a whaling ship at age 14.
9:47 – “It was such a cool story that interconnected science and legend and naval stuff. It was such a fascinating journey.”
13:38 – “There’s a mystery here for us to solve.”
13:55 – The first time he saw a whale.
17:18 – Looking at loneliness and why this story became a phenomenon.
19:28 – Explaining the idea of 52 Hertz.
23:12 – Moving from true crime to the mystery of 52 Blue.
24:50 – Catching fire on Kickstarter
28:52 – “Just when you think you’ve had too much devil-worshipping and serial killers you go and you spend a day working on whales and everything’s okay again.”
29:33 – “Understand what your consumerism does.”

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Filmmaker Nadine Pequeneza On The Right Ways To Save Right Whales

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Filmmaker Nadine Pequeneza talks about meeting and fighting for the North Atlantic Right Whales Right Whales for her award-winning documentary, Last of the Right Whales, with Skaana (@Skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung).

Mark mentioning his campaign is authorized by Rayne Ellycrys Benu.
Mark’s campaign sponsorship mention is authorized by Rayne Ellycrys Benu -mly@icloud.com

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

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An Orca’s Past and Our Shared Future with Dr. Gavin Hanke at the Royal BC Museum

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Gavin Hanke Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Royal BC Museum (@RoyalBCMuseum) on the life, death and anatomy of Rhapsody – the skeletal star of the museum’s fantastic exhibit Orcas: Our Shared Future #RBCMOrcas – which is open until 2022 before touring the world (and was written by Skaana host, Mark Leiren-Young @leirenyoung).

Rhapsody Orca Breaching

Rhapsody (J32). Credit: Josh McInnes

Skaana connects you to stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

Images of Skaana peeps with the skeleton of Rhapsody.

Photos by Rayne Ellycrys Benu

Books on Amazon and Other Ways to Support Skaana

**Amazon links are affiliate links and support our podcast, thanks for clicking!

• The Killer Whale Who Changed the World… amzn.to/2pRNU1q 
• Orcas Everywhere… orcaseverywhere.com
• Paint the Ocean You Wish to See with Rayne Ellycrys Benu…. digital-enlightenment.net

Significant Quotes:

  • “This is a typical skeleton and it’s in beautiful shape… Rhapsody here, she was in the prime of her life… She was basically perfect.” (10:09)
  • “It’s kind of like LEGO, but with a real, with a real animal, it was, it was a lot of fun to put one together.” (12:24)
  • “Anyone thinking a museum job is nine to five and you go home and forget about it, it’s not the way museum work is. You’re always on. You’re always thinking about it and you’re not. I make the joke that these things aren’t getting any deader, but we don’t want them to degrade. We want these specimens here for thousands of years. As long as humans exists, we want these specimens available for research and study and the older they get, the more value that the valuable they become, because you can’t go back in time to collect a killer whale from 2014. This is now a time capsule. So the one neat thing about a museum is you can go back in time in a sense and handle specimens from the 1800’s. Nowhere else can you do that. No one else preserves the actual physical evidence from the past. And that’s the beauty of museum work.” (15:41)
  • “I think anyone who works at a museum also has a very supportive spouse because sometimes you come home, like, if I’ve been moving whales, I will come home smelling like whale fat..” (18:02)

 

Please support our guests and our podcast.

• https://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/
• https://www.facebook.com/RoyalBCMuseum
• Twitter @RoyalBCMuseum
• instagram royalbcmuseum
• #RBCMOrcas

Skaana visits Rhapsody @ the Royal BC Museum Photo Credits: Rayne Ellycrys Benu

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Assembling Rhapsody’s skeleton with Gavin Hanke 
  • 1:50– Mark’s Welcome. Start of the Skaana Podcast
  • 5:37– Start of the interview. Orca anatomy.
  • 6:47– The story of Rhapsody.
  • 10:05– Explaining Rhapsody’s skeleton.
  • 10:27– “Rhapsody here, she was in the prime of her life. Her skeleton’s in beautiful shape. No deformities, as far as I can tell, she was basically perfect. Her teeth are really nice. They’re not really all that worn. Um, but yeah, the animal’s very, it doesn’t look all that complex when you’ve got it all laid out on a floor.”
  • 12:24– “It’s kind of like Lego, but with a real, with a real animal, it was, it was a lot of fun to put one together.”
  • 13:59– Care and cleaning of marine skeletons.
  • 16:15– This is now a time capsule. One neat thing about a museum is you can go back in time in a sense and handle specimens from the 1800’s. Nowhere else can you do that. No one else preserves the actual physical evidence from the past. And that’s the beauty of museum work.”
  • 16:55– What it’s like to work at the museum
  • 18:02– “I think anyone who works at a museum also has a very supportive spouse because sometimes you come home, like, if I’ve been moving whales, I will come home smelling like whale fat.”
  • 25:31– Secret treasures of the Royal BC Museum
  • 27:22– Message from Mark Leiren-Young for our Patreons. Support independent coverage of issues facing the Southern Resident Orcas at www.patreon.com/mobydoll

 

Julia Barnes on Bright Green Lies and Cars Vs. Fish

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Filmmaker, Julia Barnes, on the dirty secrets of clean energy, how electric cars are running over the oceans and her new documentary Bright Green Lies – debuting online April 22 (Earth Day), 2021 https://www.brightgreenlies.com/

Skaana connects you to stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

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Information on Julia Barnes and Deep Sea Mining

Trailer for Bright Green Lies

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Hello from Julia Barnes
  • 1:01– Mark’s welcome. Start of the Skaana Podcast
  • 3:51– Start of the interview. Discussing Julia’s upcoming documentary Bright Green Lies and where the idea for the documentary came from.
  • 6:30– About false solutions that are promoted by Bright Green Environmentalism.
  • 7:51– About Biomass. The dangers of wood waste and clear cutting.
  • 10:05– Solar, wind and hydro power lies
  • 13:34– How Julia Barnes got interested in filmmaking and her connection to Rob Stewart.
  • 20:33– About being uncomfortable in a room with David Suzuki
  • 24:41– Deep sea mining for electric cars…. “They’re calling it the largest mining operation in history. That’s about to begin. There should terrify everybody.”
  • 37:39– “We should be furious that the movement has been so co-opted and it is at this point, a betrayal of the natural world.”
  • 39:15– The displacement paradox
  • 40:10– There is no such thing as green industrial energy
  • 45:26– Experiences with whales while filming Sea of Life
  • 47:09– “My advice is learn as much as you can about what’s happening and get started right away.”
  • 48:02– Message from Mark Leiren-Young for our Patreons. Support independent coverage of issues facing the Southern Resident Orcas at www.patreon.com/mobydoll
  • 52:25 – Trailer for Bright Green Lies

Michael Moore on Canada, comedy, Capitalism: A Love Story

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Michael Moore (@MMFlint) on Canada, inspiration and capitalism in this flashback interview from the start of the Obama era with Skaana (@skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung). 

Skaana connects you to stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

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· The Killer Whale Who Changed the World  

· Orcas Everywhere

Music:

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Intro
  • 3:16– Sitting down for a slice of pizza with Michael Moore.
  • 4:48– “I’m inspired by a lot of things and I see a lot of good that’s going on.”
  • 5:51– The value of people’s work.
  • 7:00– “If I’m a citizen of a democracy, it means I’m a political activist automatically.”
  • 7:46– The power of movies and how they should be seen.
  • 10:21– What he wants Americans to do.
  • 12:09– Is he scared of haters?
  • 16:30– How he keeps his sense of humour or, since he’s American, sense of humour.
  • 17:20– His Canadian content.
  • 21:18– “Land of Greed” by Miss Emily

A Tribute to Rob Stewart from young filmmakers he inspired

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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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Join the Pod……https://www.patreon.com/skaana

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Check out Rob Stewart’s film “Sharkwater Extinction”

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Guest: Julia Barnes

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Organization:

Guest: Jonah Bryson

Organization:

 

Rob Stewart:

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Sharkwater Week – Remembering 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.

You can use the affiliate links below to support the pod.

Join the Pod……https://www.patreon.com/skaana

Skaana home…..skaana.org

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Michael Moore
“I don’t use the words ‘political activist,’ because I think it’s redundant. If I’m a citizen of a democracy, it means I’m automatically a political activist. I have to be. All of us have to be. If we’re not active, it ceases to be a democracy.”

“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.”

“I’m continually inspired by a lot of things, a lot of people.”

“I hope that the average American will quit thinking that they’re going to achieve the ”˜American dream’, that they too will be rich someday. That’s just not going to happen. I would hope that people get involved—become active, join an organization, run for office themselves, any of a number of things. At the very least, quit participating in the system. Don’t buy shares of stock. Put your money in a credit union. Only use credit cards where you have to pay at the end of the month. Don’t put your pension in the stock market, for Christ’s sake. Things like that.”

“I don’t use the words ‘political activist,’ because I think it’s redundant. If I’m a citizen of a democracy, it means I’m automatically a political activist. I have to be. All of us have to be. If we’re not active, it ceases to be a democracy.”

“I go back over all these movies and things I’ve done where it feels like I’m beating my head against the wall, at some point I just get tired of it.”

“My job is to take a look at what’s going on and to make movies about it”