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.

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Melody Horrill with the perfect beach book!
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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.

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David Shiffman and friends…
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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.

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Cephalopod expert Danna Staaf (author of The Lady and the Octopus and Monarchs of the Sea) talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young about the alien world of octopuses, the secret lives of squid and her two new books Nursery Earth: The Wondrous Lives of Baby Animals and the Extraordinary Ways They Shape Our World and The Lives of Octopuses and Their Relatives: A Natural History of Cephalopods. “They are definitely our fellow earthlings and some of the oddest ones we share the planet with.”

Shownotes:

3:20 Meet Danna Staaf. “They are extremely intelligent animals with extremely short life-spans.”

6:12 Meet Danna Staaf’s first pet octopus – Serendipity.

12:32 “There’s this tension between the alien and the familiar in them.” And octopus decor…

13:50 “They are definitely our fellow earthlings and some of the oddest ones we share the planet with.”

15:49 How and why cephalopods lost their shells.

22:15 The difference between octopus and squid. “Squid basically evolved for swimming and for speed.”

25:10 “Cephalopods are amazing.”

27:13 “These are real animals that inspired a lot of myths and legends.”

28:35 “Squid are like the protein bars of the oceans.”

31:30 Squid squads!

32:36 Baby animals doot doot doot doot – Danna Staff’s new baby book!

34:31 “At any given moment, most of the animals on earth are babies… I find all of them to be adorable in their own ways.”

41:20 Her favourite odd octopus facts… donut brains!

42:17 “I love asking what if questions about nature and about science.”

44:20 How humans are threatening octopuses and the health of the oceans.

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Danna Staff Author Photo_credit Josh Weaver
Danna Staff Author Photo – credit Josh Weaver
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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
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Sean Holman

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Photo via the BC Wildfire Service.

Jonathan Mesulam @MesulamJonathan Founder and Coordinator of the West Coast Development Foundation in New Guinea talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young @leirenyoung about the crucial fight to stop Deep Sea Mining in his home – New Guinea – and around the world.

Shownotes:

5:00 Welcome to Jonathan Mesulam
10:00 The importance of the church in fighting sea bed mining in New Guinea
12:20 Calling out Canada for allowing Canadian companies to mine in the waters off other countries
14:49 “No one knows the risk.”
16:23 On displacing communities. “If the sea is destroyed where are people going to get food?”
21:40 On leaving teaching to fight for the oceans.
25:12 “This fight is not really about us, it’s about everyone.”
27:00 All the places the sign we carried has traveled.
28:32 What he’d like Canadians to do. “We’re looking at the Pacific Ocean and it’s connecting you and me.Any activity on the Pacific Ocean is going to affect your coastline as well. The sea has no boundary… Canadians really need to speak up… Canadians should say no to sea bed mining… This project is a Canadian initiation.”
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Skaana (@Skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@LeirenYoung) shares the introduction and opening chapter of his new book Sharks Forever: The Mystery and History of the Planet’s Perfect Predator published by Orca Book Publishers (@orcabook).  “If you swim in the ocean every day for 100 years, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than swallowed by a shark.” – Mark Leiren-Young from Chapter 1, Sharks Forever.

 

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Show notes:

0:00 – Intro
0:00 – Introduction to Sharks Forever
0:00 – Chapter 1: Sharks Forever

Skaana (@Skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung) talks sharks, Sharkwater (@teamsharkwater) and politics with Joseph Planta (@Planta) on a special shared episode with Planta On the Line @TheCommentary.ca


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Show notes:

00:21 Introduction
2:51 Joseph Planta introduces Mark Leiren-Young.
4:00 Why Sharks Forever is dedicated to Rob Stewart and meeting Rob in Barcelona
10:45 Why I call sharks “the perfect predator.” “They are eating machines… they look devastating and awesome when you see them hunting.”
12:40 The impact of Jaws “What is baffling to me is that this one movie – released in 1976 – completely defined the way humans see sharks…. every time somebody saw a shark it was reported as if aliens invaded.”
16:41 “One moose hit one person in Jasper? ‘We’re going to shoot every moose in Jasper!’ That is the approach to sharks. And I wish I put that analogy in the book… the government does not go, “it’s time for a war on moose.” You get a bear bite you don’t go after every bear.”
17:20 “We’re not food to them. We’re a lousy food source.”
18:00 “Sharks just look scary to us – something about them hits us on a primal level.”
21:18 Shark personalities and shark friendships.
23:40 The dangers of anthropodenial and the term’s creator, Frans de Waal.  “When you tickle a monkey it laughs.”
25:47 “Everything is now eating plastics… humans don’t share. Humans just are not good at sharing.”
26:30 “The more environmental stuff that I do, the more astonished I am by nature.”
28:10 “There are almost always sharks fairly close to shore… they’re everywhere. We’ve all been really close to sharks if we’ve been in the water.”
30:00 “Roughly five people are killed by sharks each year… falling bookshelves definitely kill more people each year than sharks. TVs falling on people. Just pick the most random thing and they are all more dangerous than sharks.”
31:10 Running for Saanich council. Why I ran for political office.
36:08 “Joseph – you’re an essential service.”

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.”

Seattle Times (@seattletimes) environment reporter Lynda V Mapes (@LyndaVMapes) on dams versus salmon, saving the southern resident orcas and how Tahlequah changed the world. “All the things we do for our comfort, convenience and commerce are not good for the southern residents. And that’s just fact.”
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Show notes:

00:30 – Lynda Mapes on falling in love with Ocean Sun
1:50 – Skaana introduction to Lynda Mapes and Tahlequah
9:31 – Removing dams and saving orcas
10:47 – “What do we want the next 150 years to look like?”
11:06 – Becoming the environmental reporter for Seattle newspapers and covering the Makah whale hunt.
15:25 – “We have a motto at the Seattle Times – news you can’t get anywhere else.”
19:30 – Hearing about Tahlequah and her daughter: “And I thought, she won’t let it go. I’m not letting it go.”
20:26 – “I don’t think she ever dropped it. I think it fell apart.”
21:04 – “By the time we wrote that last story where she dropped the calf, there were six million people reading that story online.”
21:13 – Scientists know that these very sophisticated intelligent animals grieve and that that’s what she was doing… these are families.”
26:05 – Tahlequah’s political impact.
30:54 – The Snake River Dam vs. salmon and orcas.
39:15 – Undamming the Elwha River – a river revival.
43:20 – Return of the eagles and dippers (a songbird at the Elwha).
46:36 – “Canada has been a real heartbreak for us down here in the States” – American opposition to Canadian pipeline expansion.
50:27 – “All the things we do for our comfort, convenience and commerce are not good for the southern residents. And that’s just fact.”
55:00 – On the differences in dealing with NOAA and the DFO.
57:38 – Names versus numbers.
1:00:17 – “Calling them by this sort of widget number is bizarre and insulting.”
1:04:00 – “The right way to think about these animals is… they comprise ancient societies.”
1:04:45 – “People say to me oh they’re just like us. Don’t flatter yourself… we could learn a lot from them.”
1:09:30 – “Everywhere we live is orca country.”
1:10:00 – On why she has hope.

Sea Shepherd Captain, Paul Watson (@CaptPaulWatson), talks with Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung) about getting political, remembering Rob Stewart, saving salmon with Alexandra Morton and the Sea Shepherd Navy! Part two of our special two-part interview.

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Excerpts from Orcapedia by Paul Watson and Tiffany Humphrey

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Sea Shepherd Global

Sea Shepherd Legal

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Time Codes

    • 03:08 Running for public office. 
    • 03:38 “I did it primarily for the platform that it provided.”
    • 04:09 The Green Party trying to kick him out as a candidate.
    • 05:08 On the Sea Shepherd’s policy of “aggressive nonviolence.”
    • 08:29 On the Sea Shepherd going from outlaw to law enforcement.
    • 08:54 “We uphold international conservation maritime law.”
    • 11:47 The impact of Rob Stewart and his documentary, Sharkwater
    • 15:01 “The camera’s the most powerful weapon that’s ever been invented. It changes things. It can change society.”
    • 15:35 Operation Virus Hunter and working with Alexandra Morton to help save the salmon in the Salish Sea.
    • 19:02 Saving the vaquita.
    • 22:52 The Sea Shepherd’s current campaigns.
    • 23:45 The size of the Sea Shepherd navy
    • 24:14 “Everybody can do something.”
    • 27:00 Mark Leiren-Young performs Operation Dessert Storm live in Victoria in 2018 – music by Mike McCormick from The Arrogant Worms

Sea Shepherd Captain, Paul Watson (@CaptPaulWatson), talks with Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung) about Seaspiracy, life as an outlaw and as a movie star, the impact of Covid on life in the oceans and whether whales are more intelligent than we are.

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Berke Breathed’s original drawing of Opus, the Penguin – used to illustrate Mark Leiren-Young’s poem Operation Dessert Storm in the Sea Shepherd newsletter.

Excerpts from Orcapedia

Mentioned Episodes:

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Sea Shepherd Global

Sea Shepherd Legal

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TIME CODES

  • 4:38– How Covid has effected the Sea Shepherd and the oceans
  • 4:52– “There has been an increase in poaching.”
  • 6:52– His new book, Orcapedia
  • 7:10– “What we’re talking about here is an international slave trade where the orcas are the new slaves.”
  • 8:36– “The orcas in captivity have names and therefore we tend to relate to them more so than the ones that are in the wild.”
  • 10:13– Tilikum’s story
  • 13:41– How Watson fell for whales.
  • 13:58– “To me whales are highly intelligent, very social, self-aware sentient beings and I think, in many cases, they’re probably more intelligent than we are.”
  • 17:20–  The backlash to Seaspiracy
  • 17:30– “The fishing industry’s very powerful and they throw a lot of money into their PR machines.”
  • 20:55–   “What we really need is a tuna-free tuna.”
  • 21:12–   “You can find scientists who will defend any side of an argument. I call them “biostitutes,” when they’re working for the industry.”
  • 23:36– “A good percentage of the fishing industry is strictly, completely illegal – unregulated and uncontrolled.”
  • 27:10– How his movie Watson happened.
  • 29:04– Selling his life story – a lot.

Killer whales hunting on land? Josh McInnis (scientist) and Justine Buckmaster (naturalist) on their wild discovery that some Salish Sea orcas are hunting seals on the shores of Protection Island and how orcas continue to surprise us.

Skaana shares stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.
Photo credits: Justine Buckmaster

Photo credits: Justine Buckmaster

 

Josh McInnes is a marine ecologist and masters candidate at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries Marine Mammal Research Unit. Josh grew up on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.  For over a decade Josh has studied the ecology and behaviour of transient (Bigg’s) killer whales along the Pacific Coast, but has also traveled to remote locations off British Columbia, Washington State, Alaska, California, Australia, and Antarctica to study marine mammal populations.

Justine Buckmaster is a certified Marine Naturalist currently working at Puget Sound Express. She has been working in the Salish Sea region for over ten years as a guide and educator on whale watching ecotours. Justine works with local marine mammal researchers by providing digital photos and sightings data from her encounters to record proof of presence and unique behaviors of the marine mammal species and populations of the Salish Sea. Justine was raised in southern Washington State near the Columbia River and currently resides in the town of Mukilteo in northern Puget Sound.

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Timecodes

  • 0:00– Intro
  • 4:18– Killer whales hunting on land? Josh McInnis (scientist) and Justine Buckmaster (naturalist) on their wild discovery that some Salish Sea orcas are hunting seals on the shores of Protection Island and how orcas continue to surprise us.
  • 6:52 Discovering Bigg’s orcas who hunt on land.
  • 14:02– “This is something that maybe is brand new to these animals (Josh McInnes)”
  • 14:40– Josh McInnes on meeting rare Gerlache Orcas in Antarctica.
  • 15:01– “It’s kind of surprising that the killer whales are much more maneuverable than the penguins are.”  (Josh McInnes)
  • 19:34– “Seeing transient orcas hunt is always just a awesome” (Justine Buckmaster)
  • 21:30– “I think orcas are basically the epitome of what we are as a species and intelligence or smarter than us.” (Josh McInnes)
  • 27:09  “They’re spectacular animals and I don’t think we’re going to stop learning about them any time soon. (Josh McInnes)”

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

 

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.

Books on Amazon

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

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

Skaana guests Erich Hoyt, Robbie Bond, Joel Bakan, Carl Safina, Julia Barnes, Marc Bekoff & the Skaana team share our wishes for a very new New Year in 2021.

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

Books on Amazon

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

Song Information

  • 0:00– Intro
  • 2:34– Wishes for 2021 from our guests and the Skaana team
  • 12:25– A big thanks to all our Patreon supporters
  • 16:12– Info on our SOCAN license and Mark’s farewell to 2020

Global fisheries expert Daniel Pauly (@SeaAroundUs) on illegal fisheries, vanishing fish and the fight to save BC’s salmon with @Skaanapod host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung).

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

Image credit: Ms.Valentina Ruiz-Leotaud

More Information About Daniel Pauly

Books on Amazon

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

· The Killer Whale Who Changed the World  

· Orcas Everywhere

Music: 

  1. “Skana” – Leah Abramson https://youtu.be/CQr5BHW0k44
  2. Leah Abramson’s Website: http://www.leahabramson.com/

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Intro
  • 5:38– Defining “Shifting Baselines”
  • 9:14– “The main reason why we need to study fisheries globally is because studying them at a local level doesn’t capture the dynamics…All the fish move, they don’t know borders.”
  • 11:46– The globalization of fisheries and outsourcing to meet fish consumption.
  • 14:15– What fish should we eat? And who’s fish are we eating?
  • 20:12– The status of fish as meat and the role they play in our diets.
  • 20:25– Fish were viewed as a package of healthy meat and not wild animals capable of feeling, capable of agency.
  • 22:10– Do fish feel pain?
  • 27:34– “The implication of our treatment of animals, the mass slaughtering of whales for example, is too horrible to contemplate. And so, we have coping mechanisms and denial is one of them.”
  • 31:04– Japan and whaling.
  • 34:00– On the Aquacolypse
  • 36:08– Discussing fish stocks and biomass.
  • 38:26– Canada’s errors in managing fish populations.
  • 40:47– Bureaucracy, the DFO, and the politics of fisheries.
  • 42:10– (In Canada) fish are seen as a commodity, rather than animals that can go extinct
  • 44:35– Discussing the work of Alexandra Morton and her struggle to reveal the failures of the DFO.
  • 52:03– “I think that the DFO has a two-fold mission that should never be imposed, on an agency. They have to both promote and control the aquaculture. And you can’t do both.”
  • 54:04– Discussing FishBase and the thousands of fish that have been catalogued there.
  • 59:28– Daniel Pauly’s childhood and his journey to becoming the world’s leading ichthyologist.
  • 1:04:49– “I’s the B’y” Performed by Great Big Sea

 

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.

Support Michael Moore:

Books on Amazon

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

· 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

In this episode, iconic orca mom, Tahlequah, talks to host Mark Leiren-Young about the upcoming US elections and what life is like for a whale in the Trump-era.

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

Check out this special video content we made to go along with the episode:

https://youtu.be/huJQXz_fj9c 

USA Voter Information: https://www.usa.gov/voting

And if you’d like to know which policies are worrying us — and Tahlequah…

Books on Amazon

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

· The Killer Whale Who Changed the World  

· Orcas Everywhere

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Intro
  • 0:45– Interview with Tahlequah
  • 1:10– Tahlequah’s thoughts on off-shore drilling
  • 1:27– Who Tahlequah is voting for
  • 2:13– Where you can find information on how to vote
  • 2:40– One last word from Tahlequah

Bestselling author Peter Wohlleben, talks plant rights, fruit fly dreams, scientists in denial and animals in love with Skaana (@skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung). The German eco-philosopher shares the secret life of trees, the hidden life of animals and the responsibilities of humans.

“We have to bring more emotions into the process and the discussions about environmental things and climate change. Because when we just discuss the numbers, it’s emotionally so far away. It doesn’t touch your heart, just your mind.”

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

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

Skaana home….. skaana.org

Skaana on Medium…. https://medium.com/skaana

“Your Magical Week” – meditation with Rayne Benu…. digital-enlightenment.net

Facebook……….. https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter…………… https://twitter.com/skaanapod

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World… http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q 

Orcas Everywhere… http://www.orcaseverywhere.com

Spotify……………www.bit.ly/spotify-skaana

Support Peter Wohlleben:

Books on Amazon

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

Music:

Skaana (skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (leirenyoung) talks Tahlequah and expectant southern resident orcas on the Adam Stirling Show (Adam_Stirling) on CFAX radio (@cfax1070).
“This was the story that captured the imagination of the entire world” – Mark Leiren-Young

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

Skaana home….. skaana.org
“Your Magical Week” – meditation with Rayne Benu…. digital-enlightenment.net
Twitter…………… https://twitter.com/skaanapod
The Killer Whale Who Changed the World… http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q 

Photo by SR3 and NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in 2019 and SR3 and SEA in 2020, collected under NMFS research permit 19091

Support Mark Leiren-Young

Books on Amazon

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

Music:

Ken Dunn – Tahlequah

Actor and activist Ta’Kaiya Blaney (@TaKaiyaBlaney) talks about activism, art and the power and importance of young people speaking out for climate justice with Skaana (@skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung).

“Activism doesn’t have to just look like one thing. It can be art, it can be creative resistance, it can be social-media-based. Do what you love to protect what you love.”

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

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

Skaana home….. skaana.org

“Your Magical Week” – meditation with Rayne Benu…. digital-enlightenment.net

Facebook……….. https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter…………… https://twitter.com/skaanapod

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World… http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q 

Orcas Everywhere… http://www.orcaseverywhere.com

Photo by Lëa-Kim Châteauneuf

Support Ta’Kaiya Blaney

FOR MORE ON ISSUES AND ORGANIZATIONS MENTIONED

Music:

Artist Robert Bateman talks about art, inspiration, teaching, the importance of hope and why we all need to spend more time in nature with Skaana (@skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung).

“If you’ve got an eye for it, nature is everywhere.”

“One of my missions in life is to get get more kids out into nature.”

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

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

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

Skaana Tip Jar… https://paypal.me/skaana  

Skaana home…..skaana.org

“Your Magical Week” – meditation with Rayne Benu…. digital-enlightenment.net

Skaana on iTunes… Skaana.ca

Facebook………..https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter……………https://twitter.com/leirenyoung

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World…. http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q

Orcas Everywhere… http://www.orcaseverywhere.com

Links:

Support the Bateman Foundation:

Support Our Guest

Support Robert Bateman:

Books on Amazon

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Music:

“Til I Am Myself Again” by Blue Rodeo

Kriss Kevorkian
The lessons I find from grief – and from death – are appreciating what we have in the now.

“The lessons I find from grief – and from death – are appreciating what we have in the now.”

“What is environmental grief? …It’s the grief reaction stemming from the environmental loss of ecosystems caused by natural or man-made events.”

“Ecological grief is the grief reaction stemming from the disconnection and relational loss from our natural world.”

“I don’t see grief as a disorder. I see it as a life issue. And I wish people would stop trying to medicalize it, or put it as some sort of mental illness because I don’t see my environmental grief or ecological grief as a disorder. I see it as a proper reaction to what’s happening on the planet.”

“Laughter is just one of those things that’s helped us get through dark times.”

“This pandemic is also teaching us that mother nature has a way of managing without us.”

“If Jane Goodall can maintain a sense of hope, then who am I not to?”

“I look at the rights of nature as helping… If a corporation can have rights. I think mother nature should.”

“We need to start putting nature first.”

“When we get rights for the Southern residents, they will be the first species to have rights of nature”

Erich Hoyt
 “If you get to know them as individuals, you get this attachment and it’s beautiful.”


“If you get to know them as individuals, you get this attachment and it’s beautiful.” 


“You walk in to these places and, and maybe you were interested in dinosaurs before because you’ve heard of them, and then suddenly you look up. If you see them in the of natural history and New York or, or you find the room in Edinburgh, Scotland or Toronto, you find the room where there’s a blue whale. And you look at it and you realize it’s a lot bigger than dinosaurs, you know, and it’s alive today.”


“You know, in terms of climate change and everything else there, there isn’t a movement that I know of that’s anywhere near, I mean, there certainly isn’t a movement like what Greta has done with the climate emergency.”


“You know, to be honest, I realized this in redoing my book, you know, we have this sort of natural human desire to get closer and closer. You know, we’re. Visual creatures largely, and we want to fill our frames with, you know, what we see in a way.”


“I think more and more the older I get, the more I’m thinking about, the best way to observe wildlife is to stand off a bit.”


“[in regards to whale watching] the best thing you could do is just kind of stand back in awe and let it happen and try and take notes in your head. About what’s happening.”


“We really need to pay attention to that if we’re going to have these whales and other species around in the future.”

Leah Abramson
“I started researching orcas and was just sort of fascinated by them and their whole social structure and everything. Everything that I researched, I just kept going down rabbit holes until I knew that I had to make some kind of project.”

“When I was really little I had these recurring dreams about a pink beluga whale in a swimming pool, and I don’t know why or how, or it was a very lonely whale and it was pink and I was its only friend, and this was like recurring dreams that I had around the age of, I don’t know, four or five.”


“I started researching orcas and was just sort of fascinated by them and their whole social structure and everything. Everything that I researched, I just kept going down rabbit holes until I knew that I had to make some kind of project.”


“People seem to really respond to it. I mean, I think we’re at a time where people are really waking up to the environment”


“Whales are such a iconic set of animals, especially on the West coast, because, you know, we sort of have this idea of ourselves as wild and, you know, the orcas are jumping and it’s all happy and, you know, we’re obviously in a bit of a, um, crisis with the orcas right now.”


“I know a lot of people have found it quite sad to the project and I don’t know if there’s any way around that, you know, and I think that’s a grief that we have to feel and that it’s important to feel because otherwise we don’t do anything about it. So there’s that as well, you know, like allowing people space and time to feel those feelings of environmental grief, which, you know, you sort of have to slow down a little bit to do sometimes.”

 

Dr. David Suzuki (@DavidSuzuki) is Canada’s most iconic environmentalist and even in his eighties, he’s still fighting for our future. Skaana celebrates the end of the decade by recycling our premiere episode where we talked about fake facts, toxic whales and taking the heat off the planet and putting it on politicians.

“How can you make big decisions in your life if you’re not scientifically literate?”

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

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

Skaana home….. skaana.org

Facebook……….. https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter…………… https://twitter.com/skaanapod

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World… http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q 

Orcas Everywhere… http://www.orcaseverywhere.com

Links Mentioned:

Support Dr David Suzuki:

Home: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/

Dr. Suzuki’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidsuzuki?lang=en

Suzuki Foundation Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidSuzukiFDN?lang=en

Dr. Suzuki’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidSuzuki/

Letters to my Grandchildren:  http://amzn.to/2oPTbVq

Force of Nature:  http://amzn.to/2o9XMDd

The Legacy:  http://amzn.to/2pJ8Jc6

The post David Suzuki on Our Past, Present & Future

Support Local Anxiety:

 

Camille Labchuck
“We’ve got this obligation to animals as a society to try to help them if we can.”

“Canada hadn’t passed any serious new animal protection legislation since the eighteen hundreds. That’s pretty shocking to most people.”

“We’ve got this obligation to animals as a society to try to help them if we can.”

“We never would have come this far, and people never would have known about the industry, if not for Rob Stewart’s Sharkwater film in the first place. I mean, I don’t know about you, but that was definitely the first time that I was exposed to the idea that shark finning existed, and I think it’s what mobilized a lot of people to take action.”

“The problem Mark, is that animals are victims of crime. They can’t report abuse themselves. They can’t speak up for themselves if there’s no one around to listen. And they’re often isolated and kept behind closed doors by abusers and it’s very, very difficult for anyone to know or detect what’s going on.”

“I think the problem is that governments seem to think these days that their role is to protect businesses, their roles are to protect industry — and if some other aspect of our laws, including endangered species laws, it’s inconvenient. To that end, they’re happy just to disregard it.”

“It’s in the economic interests of many humans to keep animals in the position that they are right now and not elevate them to some other sort of status that has rights. So there’s no moral argument for it, and there’s no scientific argument. There really is only an economic argument and I don’t think that’s good enough to deny an entire class of billions and trillions of beings  basic fundamental rights and freedoms, like living in appropriate social groups, like having access to fresh air and water and life.”

“A lot of people say that we need to protect animals because they’re voiceless and we need to speak for them, and I think that’s a mistake too. I think it’s really clear that animals do have voices and they use them. They use them to tell us that they don’t like what they’re doing to us. Every time we see a calf escape a slaughter truck, every time we see a coyote try to gnaw his or her paw off to escape a leg hold trap, when they yell and they scream when they’re being sent to slaughter, they’re telling us that they don’t like what we’re doing to them. So I think it’s important to grant them that agency and recognize that they have voices. We just ignore it and silence those voices.”  

Camille Labchuk (@CamilleLabchuk) executive director of Animal Justice (@AnimalJustice) talks with Mark Leiren-Young (@Leirenyoung) about Canada’s new laws to cancel cetacean captivity and finish finning sharks and the fight for legal rights for animals and vegans. 

Skaana connects you with eco-heroes sharing ideas about oceans, eco-ethics, the environment and how you can change the world.

“Canada hadn’t passed any serious new animal protection legislation since the eighteen hundreds. That’s pretty shocking to most people.” – Camille Labchuk

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

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

Skaana Tip Jar… https://paypal.me/skaana  

Skaana home…..skaana.org

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Facebook………..https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter……………https://twitter.com/leirenyoung

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Links

Vegan firefighter suing the government says he didn’t deserve hunger and humiliation: ‘I’m tired of nice’ | The Star

Canada’s new shark fin ban sets an example for the world

In passage of ‘Free Willy’ bill, Canada bans captivity and breeding of whales and dolphins

Environmentalism’s next frontier: giving nature legal rights

BREAKING NEWS: House votes to end shark fin sales in the U.S.

Support Camille Labchuck

Books on Amazon

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Music:

 

The latest on the Lummi Nation’s fight to free Lolita (Tokitae), ceremonial feedings of the southern resident orcas, rights, responsibilities and reunification from Kurt Russo of the Lummi Nation Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office. Stories of inspiring actions to save the orcas for Orca Action Month. 

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

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

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

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Facebook………..https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter……………https://twitter.com/leirenyoung

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Links:

  1. Lummi Nation fights for return of relative
  2.  Rembering Lolita, an orca taken nearly 49 years ago and still in captivity at the Miami Seaquarium  https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/endangered-southern-resident-orcas-seen-swimming-off-california-coast-1.4360793

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Music:

The post Lummi & Orcas – Kurt Russo on Liberating Lolita & Saving the Southern Residents appeared first on MLY.

 

Jason Colby (@jasoncolby2) author of Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator on the history of humanity’s relationship with orcas – and his personal connection to the capture era.

“I refer to this sometimes as the unthinkable history of the Pacific North West.”

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

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

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

Skaana Tip Jar… https://paypal.me/skaana  

Skaana home…..skaana.org

Skaana on iTunes… Skaana.ca

Facebook………..https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter……………https://twitter.com/leirenyoung

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World…. http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q

Links:

  1. Why Tilikum, SeaWorld’s Killer Orca, Was Infamous: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/tilikum-seaworld-orca-killer-whale-dies/
  2. BC’s Pioneer Of Killer Whale Research: https://www.bcmag.ca/bcs-pioneer-of-killer-whale-research/
  3. Era of the Orca Cowboys: https://thetyee.ca/Life/2008/05/16/OrcaCowboys/
  4. From Machine Guns to Save-the-Whales: https://georgiastrait.org/2018/06/from-machine-guns-to-save-the-whales/
  5. They Shoot Orcas, Don’t They? File this under weird BC history. The harpooning of Moby Doll: https://thetyee.ca/Life/2008/05/13/ShootingOrcas/
  6. Sighting of rare giant basking shark in B.C. thrills scientists: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sighting-of-rare-giant-basking-shark-in-b-c-thrills-scientists-1.3618708
  7. PBS: Interview with Ted Griffin: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/whales/interviews/griffin.html
  8. YouTube: Breaching Basking Sharks | World’s Weirdest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsC61g36EqM
  9. YouTube: Ted Griffin taking a break while orca hunting in 1965: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7jcFR6xE_o

Support Our Guest

Books on Amazon

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Music:

 

Captain Paul Watson (@CaptPaulWatson) founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (@SeaShepherdSSCS) on the Sea Shepherd’s journey from outlaws to law enforcement and his battles to save the fish, the whales and the oceans.

“To be a real conservationist, you have to look ahead a million years.”

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 Tip Jar… https://paypal.me/skaana  

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Links:

Support Our Guest

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Sea Shepherd Global

Sea Shepherd legal

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Music:

 

Whitney Neugebauer (@whalescout) host of the Whale Scout podcast on Whale Scout, whale woes and how much of that 1.1 billion dollars Washington Governor Jay Inslee just pledged to save whales will actually be spent on saving whales.

To find out more about Whale Scout and Whitney Neugebauer visit https://www.whalescout.org

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

“Your Magical Week” – meditation with Rayne Benu…. digital-enlightenment.net

Facebook……….. https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter…………… https://twitter.com/skaanapod

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World… http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q 

Orcas Everywhere… http://www.orcaseverywhere.com

Whitney Neugebauer & Monika Wieland-Shields (Orca Behavior Institute) on Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s Orca Recovery Plans

reactions-to-inslees-budget-and-plan-to-recover-orcas-from-monika-wieland-shields-and-whitney-neugebauer

Links:

  1. The Snake River dam story in the Seattle Times
  2. Dam Sense
  3. David Bain on the proposed whale watching moratorium
  4. Jay Inslee pledges 1.1 billion to save orcas
  5. Whale Scout on Facebook
  6. Whale Scout Website

DISCLOSURE RE: WHALE WATCHING FROM TEAM SKAANA

This should be no secret if you regularly listen to the podcast since we credit them in our sponsored episodes, but Skaana’s sponsors include Eagle Wing Whale Watching Tours. We also shot part of The Hundred-Year-Old Whale onboard Eagle Wing boats after Orca godfather, Ken Balcomb, gave them his seal of approval. Eagle Wing’s sponsorship (which you can see alongside our other sponsors if you check out our Patreon page) is $50 a month. While this is most appreciated – and we’d love to have you join too — it’s not enough to buy our opinions. Sorry TransMountain…

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Music 

Julia Barnes writer, director & star of Sea of Life (Seaoflifemovie.com) talks to Skaana producer, Rayne Benu, about what’s killing our oceans and why we need to be heroes to save the fish and ourselves.

“Everyone has the potential to be a hero for the natural world.”

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 Tip Jar… https://paypal.me/skaana  

Skaana home…..skaana.org

Skaana on iTunes… Skaana.ca

Facebook………..https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter……………https://twitter.com/leirenyoung

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World…. http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q

Links:

  1. Ocean Ark Alliance
  2. Ella Saves the Ocean
  3. What is Ocean Acidification
  4. The Great Hammerhead
  5. Junkyard Symphony

Support Julia Barnes

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Support Junkyard Symphony:

Website: https://www.junkyardsymphony.com/

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junkyardsymphony/

  

Fin Donnelly
“People don’t always realize just how important the ocean is in terms of producing clean air and doing so many things, maintaining a healthy environment and stable climate to create the conditions that humans need.”

“Back in 2012, I read a United Nations report on a state of the world’s oceans and this is what really got my attention.”

“If you lose those top predators – which take a long time to mature and to give birth – you are really affecting a significant portion of the ocean ecosystem.”

“We’ve got to draw some attention to what’s going on in our oceans and I thought sharks would be a good way to do that.”

“People don’t always realize just how important the ocean is in terms of producing clean air and doing so many things, maintaining a healthy environment and stable climate to create the conditions that humans need.”

“We have the longest coastline in the world. So we’re an ocean nation and we’re blessed with fresh water in our country so that’s, for me, a basis on which you build your community and economy and that has to be maintained in a healthy way.”

“It’s the right thing to do… Once Canada does it, we can put some pressure on the United States and then the EU and Asia and other countries.”

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.

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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The Killer Whale Who Changed the World….http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q

Orcas Everywhere…. http://www.orcaseverywhere.com

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

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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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.

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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Check out Sharkwater Extinction:

Links:

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David Neiwert (@DavidNeiwert) – an expert on orcas and America’s Alt-Right – talks orcas, empathy and why fighting for whales still matters in the Age of Trump.  Neiwert is the author of Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us & Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump.

“The fight against Trump and against hate groups and against the far radical right is very much the same fight that I’m engaged with when it comes to saving whales, which is the fight to decide what kind of humans we are going to be.”

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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Links:

  1. Four Lower Snake River Dams
  2. Aryan Nations
  3. Milo Protest at the University of Washington
  4. Ingrid Visser
  5. Alexandra Morton

Support David Neiwert

Official Website: http://dneiwert.blogspot.com

Twitter: @DavidNeiwert

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidNeiwertAuthor/

Southern Poverty Law Center: https://www.splcenter.org

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Support the Arrogant Worms:

Link to the Bob Bossin original song: Here!

 

David Neiwert (@DavidNeiwert) – an expert on orcas and America’s Alt-Right – talks orcas, empathy and why fighting for whales still matters in the Age of Trump.  Neiwert is the author of Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us & Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump.

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

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

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

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

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

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The Hundred-Year-Old Whale…. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/thehundredyearoldwhale

Skaana on Medium… https://medium.com/skaana

Mark Leiren-Young for The Narwhal… https://thenarwhal.ca/author/mark-leiren-young/

Kelly Iriye, Project Coordinator, Damsense

For more on this story

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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Ken Balcomb (Centre for Whale Research @CWROrcas) talks Tahlequah (J-35), Scarlet (J-50) and what we need to do to save the southern resident orcas before we meet the teams from NOAA and the DFO fighting to save Scarlet in this special update on the status of J-Pod. And the world premiere of a new song by poet & author Pauline La Bel. #FreeTheSnake

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

Center for Whale Research….https://www.whaleresearch.com

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

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

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Skaana on Medium… https://medium.com/skaana

Mark Leiren-Young for The Narwhal… https://thenarwhal.ca/author/mark-leiren-young/

For more on this story

NOAA updates of J-35 & J-50 http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/protected_species/marine_mammals/killer_whale/updates-j50-j35.html

The Whale Sanctuary Project is on the scene of Operation Scarlet and updating regularly  https://whalesanctuaryproject.org/updates-on-the-j-pod-orcas/

Jeff Foster tests the breath sample test pole on the NOAA vessel which will be used in the health assesment of J50. (Photo: Katy Foster)

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Support Pauline Le Bel

 

Dr. Lori Marino (Blackfish; The Sanctuary Project; The Kimmela Centre for Animal Advocacy) on seeking sanctuary, captive orcas (Corky, Lolita & Kiska), animal rights and wrongs & more.

“Being a dolphin in a captive environment, in a concrete tank, doing tricks, is not being a dolphin… A dolphin is someone who has a life to lead and is not necessarily interested in looking to you to enrich their lives, they’re going about their business.

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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Links:

  1. Dr. Marino talks possible sanctuary locations 
  2. Mirrors and dolphins 
  3. Are dolphins smarter than your kid?
  4. The Canadian Senate talks cetacean rights

Support Dr. Lori Marino

Official Website: Whale Sanctuary Project

Official Website: Center for Animal Advocacy 

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Song of the Episode:

The Dorsals With The Gatormen “Namu”

 

“Canadians have not been consulted in this whole GMO experiment.”

BC’s farmed salmon are the only genetically modified animals for sale in Canada according to guest, Aube Giroux. Award winning author and filmmaker, Mark Leiren-Young, talks to the filmmaker behind Modified about genetically modified fruits, vegetables and fish or, as our government prefers to call them, “plants with novel traits”

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

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

The Hundred Year Old Whale is playing in Victoria!!

Get Tickets:   http://www.cinevic.ca/short-circuit-pacific-rim-film-festival-2018-pacific-rim-docs/

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

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Links:

Aube Giroux and Modified:

Modified: https://www.modifiedthefilm.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/modifiedthefilm/

Twitter: @Aubergineblog

Instagram: @kitchenvignettes

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjZtlRReje8

CBan Guide:    https://cban.ca/gmos/products/on-the-market/

Kitchen Vignettes on PBS:

Thanks to our Sponsors!

Support Jill Barber: 

 

BC’s farmed salmon are the only genetically modified animals for sale in Canada according to guest, Aube Giroux. Award winning author and filmmaker, Mark Leiren-Young, talks to the filmmaker behind Modified about genetically modified fruits, vegetables and fish or, as our government…

Canadian federal Green Party leader, Elizabeth May (@ElizabethMay), talks about saving orcas and right whales; stopping Kinder Morgan and Bilcon and Canada’s toothless endangered species laws.

All whales matter. All cetaceans matter. All life matters.

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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Gwen Barlee Memorial fund….  https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/GBMF

Check out our YouTube playlist of videos related to this Podcast Episode:

Links:

Bilcon vs. Right Whales:

  1. Trade Deals vs. ‘Core Community Values’
  2. A remote Nova Scotian strip of land is symbolic of upcoming NAFTA fight
  3. A Nafta Battleground on the Shores of Canada 

Support Elizabeth May

On Twitter: @ElizabethMay

Official Website:  http://www.elizabethmaymp.ca

Contact:  http://elizabethmaymp.ca/home/contact-team-widget/contact-team/

Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethMayGreenLeader/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/greenpartycanada/

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Support the Smugglers: