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National Park Scandal and Whale Encounter Updates · How To Protect The Ocean

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It's my birthday! and
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in my business life. In my work life, I tend not
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to worry about that too much. It's more of my business life, in
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other words, this podcast. So I wanna talk about sort
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of the goals I want for the next four months and how things have gone so far, but
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I also wanted to give you a couple of updates on two
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of the stories that I've been covering. One was the National
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Parks in Florida update and with
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the developments that were going on there. literally and figuratively, as
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well as the swim with whales story
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that I covered a couple of episodes ago. So we're gonna talk about
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a lot of just updates. It's gonna be a random kind of episode, but I hope you enjoy
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it. Let's start the show. Hey
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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the
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Ocean podcast. I'm your host Andrew Lewin, and this is a podcast where you
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find out what's happening with the ocean, how you could speak up for the ocean, and what you
1:12
can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. On
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today's episode, it's going to be a little bit of a mishmash. of
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episodes. We're going to first talk about a couple of updates of
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some of the past episodes that I've done. The first one is the national, the
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Florida National Park, uh, developing in the Florida National Park,
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uh, update as well as, uh, some updates with,
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or one update with, uh, the swim with whale story, kind
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of an update, but kind of something that I want to do that I may not have mentioned
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in the past. So, uh, we're going to be talking about those two episodes and
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sort of some updates with that as well as it's my
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birthday. or it was my birthday yesterday, I'm 46 years old, and
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I have some ideas that I want to be putting forward and
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I want to be working on for the next four months before
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the next end of the year and also for the next year. It's almost like my New
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Year's resolutions, I guess, in a way. But
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we're gonna be talking about all that today, so I'm super super excited But before we
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get to that I just want to remind people if you are looking for
2:12
ways to get Access to more information on the ocean
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you can do that through our newsletter I put out a newsletter Monday to Friday and
2:20
the idea is to let people know of all these different articles
2:23
that I find on the ocean that I may not be able to cover in 3 episodes
2:28
a week with the podcast so I put those up I
2:31
put 3 articles per day as well as 3 job
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postings per day I try not to repeat myself if I can
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and I send that out every day Monday to Friday and
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then I also will add sort of a summary of the podcast that comes
2:46
out. So today there'll be a summary of this podcast if you get it in
2:49
your inbox. So to go there to get that into your inbox, all
2:52
you have to do is go to speakupforblue.com forward slash newsletter.
2:56
That's speakupforblue.com forward slash newsletter.
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The link is in the show notes if or in the description depending on where you're watching
3:03
this. Just to remind you we are a video podcast on
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Spotify, as well as on YouTube. And of course you can listen
3:11
to this audio in the auto version in
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Spotify, in Apple Podcasts, as well as your
3:18
favorite podcast app. So we're available almost everywhere.
3:21
And if we're not available in a podcast app that you like, please let
3:25
me know. I'd love to hear which one we're not a part of. Okay,
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let's get started with the show. So the first update is
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the National Park update in Florida. So the
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story I cover was a couple of weeks ago. Essentially, the Florida
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government wanted to put together a plan
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to develop a certain number of resorts as
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well as golf courses, pickleball courses, and disc
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golf courses on National Park land.
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Now, these national parks are supposed to be natural. They're
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supposed to be kept natural, untouched, make sure that all
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the ecosystem functions are there and not developed within that.
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Now, a couple of updates that were made it really, really interesting. One,
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the idea for them to put it through actually
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ended up being a little scandalous. There was a GIS analyst that
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worked for a cartographer that worked for the
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state government in Florida. He found out about this
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sort of movement and this way of developing on
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the national parks back in the beginning of August,
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and found out from the meetings that he wasn't allowed to talk to
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any of his colleagues about it, nor the public. And it
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was going to be released a day before the public meeting. So
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they didn't want anybody coming to the public meetings. They were very worried about that.
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He ended up leaking it, getting fired for leaking it,
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but leaked it in time for people to be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going
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on here? We need to stop this right away, because it's ridiculous. It
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doesn't make sense. And so he got fired for that, unfortunately. There
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is a GoFundMe to fund it. I'll put that link in the show
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notes so that people can support him. Because you know what? As environmentalists,
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as conservationists, whether it's land or water, and a lot of these national
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parks are by the ocean, so that makes it really important. We
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don't have a lot of options for jobs and so when we put
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our neck out there and you end up getting fired for maybe Disobeying
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an order or disobeying what your boss is
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saying for the good of the environment It's
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really hard to get a job. It's really hard to support yourself It's hard to get a job in
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this industry in the first place. So imagine you getting fired for
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doing what's right and Should he have been fired? to
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get ready for public comment. And I'm sure there were a lot of organizations that
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were out there that could have put something together, gotten a lot
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of people together to join those public comment periods, as
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well as if there was in-person meetings. But they didn't want to do that.
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They did that as a tactic to stop it from going through, and they
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can just have it go through without having any problems.
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That didn't happen, though. So the last episode, it
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was delayed until September. now i've heard it
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was delayed until the new year and they're hoping that we
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forget about it but we're not going to forget about it because i've got some
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people who's going to help remind me we're going to do another episode in
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the new year maybe even before that as a reminder to
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let you know that national parks ours or not
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just now it's not state but state parks any park is important i've
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been saying national parks this whole time it's florida state parks These
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parks are important, right? Keeping natural
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areas natural is important. Developing on these areas
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is the counterproductive. And yes, it might provide money, but
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for what? Like, what is the cause of this? Why
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are we just, we're lining the pockets of private owners,
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lining the pockets of business people. We know that's not necessary. We
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know that protecting natural areas is necessary. So protecting these state parks,
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not national parks, state parks in Florida is very important. So
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we're going to be on this. and we're gonna stay on this so
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that's the first update and I want to thank I want to thank Courtney
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I'm gonna thank I just want to make sure I get the
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name right because I've been talking to a lot of people it
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is Courtney one second here Courtney
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Dobberton, sorry. Thank you, Courtney Dobberton, for your
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help in keeping me updated on this story. Really appreciate it.
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What they're doing by sneaking this and delaying these, they're tactics
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that the government uses when they want to put something by. whether it's for
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good or for bad, they use it. It shouldn't be, it should always be the same. There
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should be the same amount of time, like you announce something, there
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should be a certain amount of time that passes and then they have public comments or public meetings
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or both so that the public can comment. This is, these are, you
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know, the lands of the citizens. So of the citizens of
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Florida, these are their lands. They should have ample time to prepare
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and comment whether they want certain things or they don't want certain things. So
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Courtney, thank you so much for keeping us updated on that. She sent me a couple messages
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over the last week to be able to talk about that.
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So I really do appreciate that. Bring me to the next
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thing is the... There's
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another update with the story that I covered a couple of episodes ago on Monday, where
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I talked about the swim with whales operators. The
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story was that in one of the swim with a whale
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operations in Queensland, Australia, just off the coast, there
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was an operator that was actually lifted out of the water. A lot of
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people use launched out of the water. I think I use that as well, lifted out of the
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water by a humpback whale, which is dangerous, right? We know that humpback
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whales are huge. Any interaction or touching
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of the whales should not happen But this one the whale
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came into that person lifted him out of the water brought it back in he was okay
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But that could have been a lot worse And if he got injured who knows what
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they would have done to the whale or who knows what that would have done to the operators looking
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at a business opportunity or a lack or a missed business opportunity where
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a the operators may have been shut down because
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of the incident, somebody got hurt, or the whale could have gotten hurt,
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or they would have tried to kill the whale just like they do with sharks when sharks bite. There's
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a lot of things that could have happened, didn't happen, thank God, but
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it could have happened. So one of the things that I wanna do is
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I wanna proceed with this story and look
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into it a little bit deeper. A lot of times what happens is you'll get
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operators who come together and they are like, okay,
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we gotta go above and beyond you know what the
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research says and says let's enforce protections even if the
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government has certain protections and they're not very good or they're
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not what is necessary there's some science out here that
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says hey you know what we need to do a little bit better and we need to hone
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in on these regulations make them a little stricter It may impede
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the viewing capabilities, but it's better for the whales as well as
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the safety of the tourists that are in the water while these humpback
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whales are swimming around, right? You just never know what's
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going to happen, how a whale is going to come in. You don't know how fast they're traveling. it
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could be a disaster. If that fluke comes down, that tail comes down, and they do
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a tail slap, and they hit you in the head, could be knocked out, right? That's
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a big tail coming down, or even a fin coming down and
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smacking the water. You just never know. Plus, it's not good for
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them. We know that from research that Stephanie Stack did.
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She's doing her PhD out there, wrote a paper on it. I linked to it in
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the last episode, or two episodes ago, so you can check that out.
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the update here is not really an update I'm going to try and
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get an interview with one of the operators from Hervey Bay which was
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part of the research that did the work but
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it's still not like perfect you know we there's not a
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lot like a lot of times when we do these types of episodes We
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try and tap into the already existing efforts that
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are going on to bring in more regulations. And
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there are a few people who are speaking up. Stephanie is one of them, but it's
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not enough. And it's very frustrating, as Stephanie says, sometimes like screaming
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into the vastness of the universe and nobody really
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like hearing her or being able to do any kind of protection.
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And so it comes with numbers. And so that's why in that episode,
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I put in the link to contact the Queensland government around
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looking at marine mammal sightings and saying, hey, look, we need to
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do better when we're in the water with these humpback whales to
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make sure that the people don't get hurt and the humpback whales don't get hurt.
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And it doesn't alter or disturb their
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path and their resting areas as well. So that is
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important. And so I'm going to tell you that I'm going to continue to look into
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this story. I'm going to try and get maybe a couple of the operators or
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at least one of the operators to talk about what they're doing to go above
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and beyond. And if not, just to talk about what they think they can do
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or what they want to do and maybe talk to somebody who maybe
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doesn't want to do anything and just see the dichotomy around
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this issue and where this issue is going to go and where it needs to go.
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So I'm going to look into those more and that brings me to sort of the final
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thing I want to cover. It'll be a quick episode today. Mind you, I'm already at
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13 minutes and I'm halfway through. But, you
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know, it was my birthday yesterday and like I said at the beginning of the episode, I
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like to kind of look at things of what I want to do. from
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now on, whether it's until the end of the year or from now on. I
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had some ideas of what I wanted to do at the beginning of January. Part
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of that was post more YouTube videos, do video
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podcasting, which has been up and down in terms of timing, although
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the last number of episodes I've been able to put out a
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YouTube video, including this one, I've been able to do video podcasting on
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Spotify with some help and push and motivation from a
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group that I'm a part of, it's like Nature Podcasters, it's really fun. Um, and
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shout out to them, but it's been, you know, really interesting
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to be able to put that effort and get into that workflow. I mean,
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for me, who's doing it by himself and the efforts are
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going by myself. I do the newsletter. I do this, these episodes, three
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episodes a week. It's a lot of work. As you know, I have a full-time job.
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I, uh, I have my, my girls, one of them is in grade 12. So
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it's an important year for her. in their last year of high school, the
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other one is in grade 10, still an important year. I want to be there to help
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them out with schooling. I've stopped coaching for a
14:17
little bit, football coaching, because it's taken up too much time because
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I want to focus more on this podcast. And so what
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I want to do now is I've been covering a lot of news
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that's been out to help, you know, help spread the
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awareness on different sites like Manga Bay News, Hakai
14:35
News, and Hakai, unfortunately, is shutting down, which is really
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disappointing to hear. Hopefully, it'll be saved by somebody. But
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there's a lot of news that I try and share. Fizz.org, I
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try and share the ocean stories and a number of stories from
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the cooldown stuff that have already been written and I'm just kind of re-amplifying
14:53
it through this platform. However, what I've been trying
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to do over the last little bit, especially with the interviews, is get into more stories
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that are not being covered in that type of news or
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even in the mainstream news arena. And so
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if you have stories or you have issues that you're trying to work on,
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similar to the swim with whales, similar to the state park
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issue that's happening in Florida, please hit me up on
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Instagram at howtoprotecttheocean or you can email me andrew
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at speakupforblue.com. if you're part of an organization you're
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trying to work get something at work I would love to cover it and re-amplify that
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for you and just kind of have these stories being told because
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if they're not out in ink or on a digital website
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or on a podcast or in a video I want to help you get that out
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I want to cover more original stories so that we can look
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and build upon these conservation movements and these campaign movements
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I want to I
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want to kind of take this and pivot into more original stories. We're
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going to lose, potentially, Hackeye Magazine, which brought a lot
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of original stories. I want to be that resource to
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bring more original stories. There's still Manga Bay, which is doing a fantastic job.
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Fizz.org, which is doing a number of
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articles and stuff. Scientific America and The Conversation, they do a lot, but
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I want to bring in some stuff that we may not see covered before. We
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know there's a lot of efforts going out there. We know there's a lot of conservation challenges and
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issues and I would like to bring those more to the forefront for you
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and so that you can help amplify them just as we're doing it on this
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platform. So that's really, you know, a quick and dirty
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of what I want to do going forward in my 46th year around the sun.
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I guess it'll be 47th. year around the sun because I've just finished
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my 46th. But that's essentially what
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I want to do is get more into the conservation and
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to build it as a community of trying to figure
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out how we can make more of these conservation stories popular
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and get people to talk about them. So that's what we're going to be focusing on.
17:07
The other thing that will be coming out, and I still have to get an update from
17:11
the developer, but I have been working on a community app.
17:15
This is an app that will help build the community. A lot
17:19
of you are following me on various social media or you're
17:22
just subscribed or following this podcast, which, by the way, really
17:25
appreciate or you subscribe to our YouTube channel or Spotify or Apple or
17:29
whatever, however you're listening to this episode. But what
17:32
I want to do, you know, since everybody's on social media, everybody is sort of
17:35
disconnected and disparate across platforms. what
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I want to do is bring all everybody into one platform because you know with social
17:42
media they just bring they just bring stuff that's different you
17:46
know they have algorithms that's supposed to help you focus
17:50
on one thing but if you're interested in birds or you're interested in
17:53
like what's happening in your local area then you're gonna get served up information on
17:57
that and you may not get served up information on what's happening globally in
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the oceans which which we cover and so you may not get all my
18:03
stories or all my posts or anything like that and sometimes it's really hard to
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post all across these different pieces of social the platforms
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of social media so what I want to do is what I'm going to be
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doing is putting an app together and I'm in the process of doing that
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it should come out hopefully this month if not next month And
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I can put together stuff where everybody's in the same area. There's no algorithm.
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When I post something, you all get it. And it just comes off of an app
18:27
on your phone. It's almost like a social media app just for ocean
18:30
lovers and speak up for blue people and how to protect the ocean people and beyond JAWS
18:34
people. And you can just check it out. We'll have scientists on there doing AMAs,
18:38
ask me anythings. I have a lot of plans for this. There's
18:41
going to be some group coaching for careers. There's
18:45
going to be ways that if you, I've had a few people reach out to me and be like, hey, Andrew,
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I want to support your podcast, you don't have to do anything extra, you
18:52
do enough, I want to support it. There's going to be ways to do that as well
18:55
through that app, but the general idea is it's going to be a free app.
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There's going to be some paid options in certain areas, but the whole thing
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is most of the information, 90% of the information is going to
19:05
be free just like you're getting it now, but all in one spot. So
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I want to be up front with you and just kind of build that
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community even more and make it a little bit more intimate. So I think that's
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going to be a lot of fun. So those are the two major things, bring more original stories
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and more conservation challenges and issues to the forefront and
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maybe get some call to action on it, work with organizations, work
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with different people and activists and scientists and
19:30
conservationists, as well as bringing the community together
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so that we can get to know each other and we can share information as well. So
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it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it. I
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hope you are too. If you want to see something from
19:44
this podcast or from the videos or from the app, love
19:47
to hear from you. Hit me up on Instagram at HowToProtectTheOcean or
19:52
leave a comment on Spotify, which you can do now, or
19:55
YouTube, where this is posted. Apple Podcasts me
20:12
for today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I
20:15
want to thank you so much for supporting me in another year around the
20:19
sun with this podcast as well as all the efforts that we're trying
20:22
to do to protect the ocean because you're trying to protect the ocean as well
20:25
and we're doing it together. I want to thank you so much for listening to this episode of
20:29
the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and