Ocean Lovers ~ by Clear Tides | The story behind Clear Tides

In the first episode of the Ocean Lovers podcast, Jess shares the story behind the ocean initiative — from early beach cleans and marine conservation work to sailing adventures, citizen science, and life at sea.

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What is Ocean Lovers ~ by Clear Tides ?

Ocean Lovers is a podcast for ocean lovers, by ocean lovers.

Hosted by Jess from Clear Tides, this podcast is all about the people, stories, and experiences that pull us toward the ocean. From marine scientists and sailors to surfers, spearos, freedivers, fishermen, and everyday ocean lovers — these are real conversations about life connected to the sea.

Expect stories from the water, ocean chats, science, adventure, conservation, and the kind of conversations that make you fall even more in love with the ocean.

Because you protect what you love.

Well, welcome to the very first episode
of the Ocean Lovers Podcast by CLE Tides.

My name is Jess.

I'm a marine biologist yacht crew and the
founder of Clear Tides Organization, and

I'm here to share the stories of salty
souls who feel a deep connection to the

sea and hopefully help you fall in love
with the ocean a little bit more too.

Each episode we're gonna dive
into the lives of people working

in, on and for the ocean.

From scientists and sailors to
free divers, oceanographers,

and everyday ocean lovers.

The goal is to share their stories in
a way that feels real and relatable.

'cause we believe that you protect
what you love and our ocean needs

all the loving it can get right now.

so......

before we get into all the amazing
guests I've got lined up for this

season, I figured I'd start with a
bit of backstory, the who and Why

Behind Ccle Tides Organization.

My name is Jess.

I'm 30 years old, grew up in Sydney,
Australia, and currently living on

Hamilton Island, which is in the Whit
Sundays, the Great Barrier Reef, a

pretty special place to call home.

I've always been drawn to the ocean,
even when I was a little girl.

My dream job growing up was a
dolphin trainer at SeaWorld, like

every other little girl out there.

I didn't grow up near the sea.

We lived about an hour from the beach and
I didn't grow up sailing or anything, but

I just had this massive pool to the ocean.

During high school, I never had a
super clear understanding of what

I wanted to do when I graduated.

I remember one specific day we had
the careers guidance counselors come

and pay us a visit in year 11, and we
sat down and individually had meetings

with them about what we wanted to
do after we graduated and what our

thoughts on a university degree was.

And I remember saying to.

The lady that was having a chat with
me that I wanted to do marine science

at university, and I remember she
looked at me and she laughed and she

said, that's not a real career and
you're never gonna make any money.

And I was kind of a
bit taken back by that.

I'm a teenager at the time looking to an
adult for guidance and I, that was the

only idea I'd come up with at the time.

I didn't have a backup plan
if she said that wasn't good.

So I remember going home to mom
and telling her what this lady

had said, and mom just kind of
said, well, it's your passion.

It's something you're interested in,
it's something you wanna learn about.

You're probably gonna have 10 different
careers in your life, so why not start

with one that you enjoy learning about?

So while I was studying my marine
science degree, I was still living

at home with my parents and doing the
typical thing that Aussie University

kids do, and working about three jobs
at the same time as studying my degree.

So my first job was every teenage
girls' dream job in Australia,

and it was being a boost chick.

Which was the top of the top jobs you
could get as a teenager in Australia.

And it was literally just making
smoothies in the local shopping center.

So a few years into my degree, I
started working as a eco tour guide for

a really cool company in Sydney based
at Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve.

So essentially I would take people
snorkeling in the beautiful aquatic

reserve there and show them all the
cool marine life, teach 'em a bit about

the reserve and the really cool, unique
ecosystem that is there at Shelly Beach.

And honestly, it was so much fun.

It was an hour commute from home.

Which was a little bit of a negative,
but I was in the ocean all day, every

day, showing tourists our beautiful
backyard, and it is one of the most

special snorkel spots in Sydney, just
around the corner from Sydney Harbor.

So that was a really,
really cool job to do.

A alongside while I was studying my
degree, and then I also volunteered

at Manly Sea Life Sanctuary.

So I got a lot of experience
rehabilitating animals,

specifically turtles.

A lot of them had.

Consume plastic.

So they needed rehabbing.

We had a Port Jackson breeding program.

I worked a lot with the fairy
penguins on their feeding routines

and that was really cute 'cause
you get to learn them all by name.

And they all had their
own little personalities.

And then I'd also be hand feeding
the sharks and the stingrays

and everything in the big tank.

And learned a lot about how to
care for injured marine life and.

Just all the behind the scenes husbandry
that it takes to have a successful marine

sanctuary, which is really, really cool.

So my time as an eco tour guide at
Shelly Beach and my time as a volunteer

at the Manly Sea Life Sanctuary kind
of sparked clear Tides organization.

I created this little project when I was
about 18 years old, and I just wanted

to open people's eyes to the problems
we were facing in our own backyard.

I'd spent.

So much time in the water at Shelly
Beach, and it is one of the most beautiful

bays in Sydney in my personal opinion.

And I was seeing so
much rubbish pollution.

And at the time a lot of our focus in
regards to plastic pollution was overseas.

It was in the Pacific Ocean, it was
anywhere but in our own backyard.

And I really wanted to
highlight the fact that.

I was working in one of the most
beautiful aquatic reserves in Sydney,

and I was seeing firsthand the effects
of plastic pollution, not only in

the environment, but also in all
the animals that were being bought

in at Manly Sea Life Sanctuary . So
I wanted to do something about it

clear Tides just started as a
casual little beach clean community.

It was about once a month.

I had a really cute hand-painted sign I
think it was made by me and my friends.

My mom and dad were my biggest
supporters, and they would

be down there every morning.

I hosted a beach, clean baking,
fresh muffins, hosting a sausage

sizzle, doing anything they could
to get more people involved.

And my.

Angels of friends drove all the way
out from where we lived and came out

to the beach every morning, bright
and early at seven o'clock any day.

I was hosting a beach clean.

And we ended up having this really
beautiful community that kept

showing up for these beach cleans,
and it generated a lot of traction

as well with the locals of Manley.

A lot of the locals would come over at the
end of the beach thing when we're doing

our sort and be absolutely shocked at.

How much rubbish we had collected.

And honestly, some of them even
doubted that we'd collected

all that rubbish from here.

And so I'd tell 'em to come back next
time and they'd see firsthand that.

When you're not looking for it, you
don't see it, but the second you start

to look for rubbish and you start to look
for the effects of plastic pollution on

the environment, it is all you can see.

And I'm sorry if that ruins beach walks
and snorkels for you guys now in the

future, but it was all I could see and
I wanted other people to understand that

it was here in our backyard as well.

And then clear tides kind of
grew a little bit, so we were

doing cleans more regularly.

I was doing corporate functions.

I hosted a few movie screenings and worked
with some really cool companies to collab

on some really awesome events in Sydney.

I had sponsors donating gifts
for us to do raffles for all of

our volunteers that came down.

And we even somehow, I don't
really understand how this

happened, it was so amazing.

But we even had a collaboration
beach clean with the one and only

Ziggy Alberts, which is my absolute
all time favorite artist, and was

a dream come true for my small,
little beach clean organization And.

We had a lovely community.

We had so much local support and it grew
into this really cool organization that

had just sparked from me wanting to get
a few people to do some beach cleans.

And so once I finally graduated my
degree, I decided it was time for

me to throw myself out in the wild.

And I think I had about
$40 in my bank account.

And I moved to Hawaii.

So Hawaii was a place we'd traveled to
a fair few times as I was growing up,

it always had this place in my heart.

I remember the last time we
were there, my parents took us

on this sunset sale in Oahu.

And

they had this really cool female
deckhand who was pulling up the sails.

She was blowing in the shell
horn as they came into the beach.

She was the only chick
in a crew full of men.

And I was just in awe of her.

I thought she was so cool.

And I remember thinking one
day, that is gonna be my job.

I wanna be her.

So I Just booked a flight
to Hawaii with no real plan.

I had a stubborn dream and like
I said, $40 in my bank account.

And massive doubts that this would
actually work, but I just wanted to

throw myself into the deep end, get
outta my comfort zone, get out of

everything I knew, and put myself
in an environment where I knew no

one knew nothing, and figure out
what I really wanted to do in life

So I landed in Hawaii with one week of
an Airbnb, booked, and an internship

lined up to do research on Tiger Sharks.

Once I got there, I realized that
role, that research role that I had

applied for and flown across the
world for wasn't exactly what I had

signed up for and wasn't the science
route that I wanted to go down.

Honestly,

I was just absolutely overwhelmed by
the fact I was in this new country

knowing no one with no job, no money,
and only about a week left on my Airbnb.

So things are looking
pretty grim at the start.

But then I decided to just walk down the
dock of the local marina and I was looking

at all the boat crew and they were all
young and looked fun, and the sailboats

looked unreal, and it was on these.

Beautiful turquoise blue water.

And so I started just calling local
companies and by chance, the first

company that I called answered and hired
me, and it was Marukai sailing boats.

So those big yellow sailing
catamarans on Waikiki Beach.

Somehow they wanted the little Aussie
girl with no sailing experience.

I forever count my lucky stars that
my lovely boss gave me the opportunity

to sail that day because that pretty
much set up my life from here on out.

It was the best decision I ever made,

I was learning how to sail
in the waters of Oahu.

There were dolphins riding
the bow every day to work.

I was working in my bikini.

Taking people snorkeling with
turtles and then pouring my ties of

an afternoon and blowing the shell
horn as we came into the beach.

So it was literally that dream job that I
had manifested back when I was a teenager.

I was there on a one year visa and.

COVID hit towards the end of my visa,
so I actually couldn't physically

get home, and I was not mad about
that while I was living in Hawaii.

Pretty much all I was doing was
working on the sailboat, surfing,

and free diving every single day.

Every.

Day just consisted of us waking up,
seeing what the swell was doing, seeing

what the vis was like, and deciding
what ocean activity we wanted to do.

And everyone there had the same M mindset.

And it was such a special place
and it made me realize exactly

what I wanted my life to be.

And it was that it was just
living by the ocean day in,

day out, no question about it.

So when COVID hit and the world shut
down, we had the ocean to ourselves.

Hawaii wasn't taking in any more
guests and we couldn't get out,

and I was stuck in Hawaii, which
was a dream come true for me.

We were surfing empty breaks, sailing
hoby cats onto deserted beaches.

We even beached a Hoby cat on Waikiki
Beach, which if you have been to Waikiki,

you normally can't even see the sand.

There is that many people there.

And we had that whole beach to ourself and
pulled up our own little sailboat on it.

It was.

Unreal.

The animals were all out and super active
'cause there was no one in the water.

It was just such a special, special time
and I have so many beautiful memories of

my life there in Hawaii, and it was just
everything I would've wanted and more.

Eventually my visa ran out and they
had to kick me outta the country

and I was not happy about it.

So.

I really, really didn't wanna go.

I'd set up my life in Hawaii.

I'd made a life for myself that I loved,
and it involved everything that I loved.

I had friends that were like family to me.

It was just a life that I purely created
for myself, and it was so, so special.

And so.

Uh, unique to me that when
I had to go back to Sydney,

I had a full blown meltdown.

I had no idea what the
hell I was gonna do.

So obviously, 'cause it was COVID,
I had to do two weeks in hotel

quarantine as well as I landed.

So while I sat in hotel quarantine
having a massive souk about my dream

life that I just left in Hawaii, I was
looking out on the harbor and thinking,

what the hell am I gonna do here that
is gonna be even close to living.

In Hawaii and having my dream job,
and I saw all the boats driving

around on Sydney Harbor and that kind
of felt like the most logical path.

So I, same as I did in Hawaii, I
called a few people and lucky for

me, I fell into the next dream job.

So the legend Dean Crop, who runs
Barefoot Charters, took my call and he

is a Ocean Explorer sailor filmmaker.

Just absolute legend and looking back
at it now, it's wild how that job fell

into place as well, and proceeded to take
me onto the path of where I am today.

It shaped my entire life, as
did that first sailing job.

So I started out as a deckhand
for Dean on Barefoot Charters.

It was a 12 meter sailing catamaran, and
I just learnt the ropes on how to sail in

one of the busiest waterways in the world.

, So I worked one season as a deckhand and
then the next season Dean threw me the

keys and said, you've got this go drive.

And I somehow figured out how to be a
skipper on Sydney Harbor, and it was.

So terrifying and so challenging, but
I learned so much just being thrown

in the deep end and figuring out
along the way, I wanna say myself,

but it definitely wasn't myself.

'cause I had a list of contacts on
the harbor who were all absolute

legends, who literally guided me
through my whole first summer season.

I'm forever grateful for them helping
me figure out how to navigate there.

But.

I grew so much as a skipper and as
yacht crew, and it just taught me

everything I knew from there on out

and then when winter rolled
around, obviously we wouldn't

be working on Sydney Harbor.

It was too cold.

No one wanted to go out on the boats.

So we'd head off on month long
expeditions into the Coral Sea,

talking like fully off grid adventures.

We followed in dean's dads.

So his dad is Ben Crop, and Ben explored
the remote reefs and islands of the

coral sea that honestly a lot of people
don't even know about or even venture to.

So we would follow that path
and explore places that.

Honestly, I can't even really explain.

You're out at sea for a month.

No phone service, no fresh
food, no fresh water.

You have to literally live off
the ocean and use all of your

resources, and it is the most
rewarding experience I've ever had.

Iam with Minky whales,
tiger sharks, seas, snakes.

We did a lot of citizen science work,
so we tagged Galapagos Whalers, took

samples and deployed hydrophones.

We explored shipwrecks and then
slept under the stars in the most

amazing night sky you've ever seen.

We'd sell for weeks on end without
seeing another boat and diving all

day, every day doing yoga on deserted
sand cas covered in thousands of

birds, just pure, magical moments.

It was.

Super wild, super raw, and really slow
just following the flow of the ocean.

Whatever happened that day happened,
no real plan, no real stress,

except when you're sailing into
a storm and just really being

present and connecting to the ocean.

So after a few years of that, I got
offered a job on a super yacht for a

three month trip up to the Whit Suns.

I'd actually never been to the Whit
Suns before and my mum who they

say Mom's always right, she always
said, you should go up to Wit Suns.

It's a perfect place for you.

It's on the Great Barrier Reef.

Never really thought much of it, but this
yacht was going up there and I thought,

why not go experience something different,
work on a white boat for a little bit.

Um, I had no experience at all on a
super yacht, and this is gonna bite

me in the bum confessing this, but I
learned a lot of what I know from Below

Deck, the reality TV show and YouTube.

But that paid off 'cause I
still do that job to this day.

So after one more month offshore
with Barefoot, I arrived on

the lovely Hamilton Island.

I had been.

I sea for a month, so I was salty,
sunburnt my hair, hadn't seen

shampoo in weeks, and I was just
craving any sort of junk food.

I walked outta the airport, looked around,
and I asked someone where the Ubers were.

And if you know Hamilton Island,
you will know that they don't

have any cars on the island.

They only have golf buggies.

So I had no idea what
I'd just got myself into.

I had no idea where I was, what I
was doing, but part of the adventure.

Hey.

So I went off exploring this tiny
little island that was about to be our

home base for the next three months
where the yacht was gonna be staying.

And to kinda a long
story, very, very short.

That was five years ago.

I'm still on Hamilton Island.

I'm still working on yachts and.

Life just fell into place.

I now freelance as crew on sub yachts
doing everything from skipper to

stewardess to deckhand, and I've built
a home on this little island that

is so deeply connected to the ocean.

So now that I've stopped gallivanting
around the oceans for a little while.

Clear Tides 2.0

has started, and it's just an
expansion of our beautiful beach

cleans that we've begun with.

So more beach cleans, more research
projects, more educational content,

and we also host expeditions where
we take ocean lovers out to the reef

and the whit Sunday islands doing
coral research, beach cleanups,

contributing to some of our research
projects and just connecting people.

With real conservation work and
connecting them to the sea as well.

Because you do protect what you love.

If you don't have any connection
to the ocean, you're gonna

have no desire to protect it.

And then just our educational
side of it as well

so we host school talks, and then
this podcast, which over the years

I have met so many incredible people
doing amazing things for the ocean.

Every single one of them has a story
or something amazing they've done or a

cool project that they're working on.

And this is what that podcast is about.

It's not just about scientists or
people working in the industry.

It's fishermen, surfers,
sailors, travelers, kids.

Anyone who feels connected
to the sea in some way.

Because the more we share
stories, the more people

understand why the ocean matters.

And it's different for
every person as well.

But at the end of the day, we
protect what we love, and if we can

make everyone love it a little bit
more, hopefully we're all inspired

to protect it that little bit more.

So if you're listening and you've got
your own story, please share it with us.

I wanna talk to as many amazing
ocean people as I can and share your

stories, what you're working on.

What your passions are, what inspires you,
and hopefully we can create this awesome

community that just inspires people to
care about our oceans a little more.

And if you wanna get involved in any
way, whether it's joining an expedition,

contributing to research, or even hosting
a beach, clean head to our website and

see what you can get involved with.

But thank you so much for
listening to the first ever

episode of Ocean Lovers Podcast.

I hope you enjoyed it..

This is Ocean Lovers by Clear Tides.