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Unfiltered Union is like eavesdropping on your coolest neighbors! Russ and Lindz, from Tampa, Florida, are the opinionated (but always entertaining) couple next door, bringing you lively discussions about today's hottest topics.
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The Unfiltered Union Podcast.
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All right.
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Florida, as Taylor Swift would say.
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Oh, you're getting copyright infringement.
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We are, well, we are in Florida.
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We are in the Tampa Bay area.
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We love all things ocean.
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I am Linz.
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And I am Russ.
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And I like fishing and boating.
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And not so much the beach.
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There's too much sand that gets everywhere, but.
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Mostly I like the ocean.
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Agreed.
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And I think one of the best things about Florida is it is so rounded by ocean.
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Yes.
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You walk out your front door and there is water.
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But recently we went to SeaWorld.
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We did.
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We took Kiddo up there.
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And there has been a whole new exhibit related to the coral reef and rehabilitation.
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So doing kind of like a deep dive into Instagram, we found Summer Collins.
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Yes.
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Hi, Summer.
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So as a coral biologist and a background in microplastic research and sea turtle rehabilitation,
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your content on Instagram really called to us.
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Let's talk.
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Thank you.
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I try my best.
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I have a lot of fun with it.
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Oh, yeah.
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Well, we appreciate it.
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For sure.
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I mean,
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let's start at the beginning,
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Summer,
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with your background,
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and we're going to dive into some more of the ocean aspects.
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So what started your interest in marine biology?
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So I'm from Florida, born and raised.
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I grew up in the Sarasota area, actually, and there's a local aquarium there.
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And my mom really like fed into my brother and I's interests a little too much, probably.
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So every weekend we went to that aquarium, we remember passes.
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And then that turned into my parents buying a boat because my dad also is an avid fisherman.
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He hates fish, though, but just likes catching them.
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I don't know.
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And then after that, it just kind of kept spiraling.
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I've always been drawn to the ocean.
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And I wanted to just share my love for it.
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And then I was talking to a FWC officer,
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actually,
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and I was like nine standing on the docks being like,
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oh,
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that's barnacles.
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This is the tide.
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And he's like, you're going places, kid.
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So he handed me a bunch of posters that had like all these identifications of fish species on it.
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And that was my first glimpse into kind of more of the scientific area.
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scientific aspects of using like graphic design into science.
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So then it went into like encyclopedias and then it was Steve Irwin and it just kept spiraling.
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And then, um,
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Outside of that, too, the back of my neighborhood was all non-developed land.
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But it was really tore up a lot because it was in the process of being developed.
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And Florida used to be completely underwater.
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So there's fossils everywhere.
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So my mom would take us on fossil walks and we would find like shark's teeth and manatee bones.
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And then it just was like, oh, what's this bone?
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What is this animal called?
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where did this animal fit into the ecosystem?
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And it just kind of kept spiraling.
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Right.
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That is a fun idea.
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Yeah.
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If you've never gone fossil hunting, 10 out of 10.
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really suggest it really do we're not talking like at circle b right like we're
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talking like go to oh yeah beach or something yeah go to the go to the beach go
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like there's a bunch of rivers and creeks all around florida rainbow river
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especially i don't know if you guys are quite close to that one but it would be
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worth the drive needless to say yeah we recently went to wiki wiki watchy nice i
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love that area oh yeah it was awesome
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It really was.
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It was a fun area, but I didn't even think about looking for fossils.
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Have you found a mermaid fossil?
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No.
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I'm just kidding.
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I wish.
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Oh, mermaids are real.
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100%.
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We'll get back to that.
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Scientists claimed mermaids are real.
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All right.
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Oh, you heard it here first.
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I love it.
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I absolutely love it.
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Well,
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I mean,
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so the idea of going on these fossil walks,
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right,
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and your mom really exposing you to the world and being born and raised in Florida,
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I mean,
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that right there just shows your interest in,
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by all things,
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marine biology.
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I mean, how did you get to the point of being interested in researching microplastics?
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So that kind of came when I was a junior in high school.
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My dad's job relocated us to middle of nowhere, South Carolina.
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And I was really landlocked for a couple of years.
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Absolutely did not like it.
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And I went to University of North Carolina, Wilmington for my undergrad.
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And that's where I got it.
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met Bonnie Montaloni,
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who does a plastic research project,
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or a plastic ocean project,
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and she did an entire Netflix documentary.
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She is absolutely fabulous, cannot speak highly enough of her.
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And I actually took a microplastics class with her in school, and that's how I was exposed to it.
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And I ended up dissecting 146 fish specimens
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for ingestion of microplastics for like large trophy fishes that were actually
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located out of the Florida Keys.
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So like mahi-mahi, sailfish, marlin, those kinds of species.
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And I analyzed like
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the microplastics from their gut contents and i also did a micro plastic derby with
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her so we got a lot of local charter captains instead of chartering for fish they
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did uh chartering for plastics so we released um this specialized microplastics net
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into the water that trailed behind the boat and we especially we kind of did like a
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tournament basically of who could ever come back
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with the most amount of plastic,
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the biggest amount of plastic,
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the smallest amount of plastic,
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and they can get rewards as well.
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So it was a really cool experience.
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That's genius.
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Yeah.
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Seriously.
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Yeah.
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So I know Florida has,
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they do that bounty program for like invasive species of lionfish and anaconda or
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pythons and all that stuff.
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Why don't they do that for plastic?
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Yeah.
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For plastic in the ocean, because that's a,
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clearly a huge problem yeah that's that's what bonnie's working on she's trying to
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get that idea to more widespread but yeah yeah i don't know why you wouldn't do it
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yeah it is brilliant because it kind of it's kind of a competition which humans
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thrive off competition yeah
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And you're doing good while also trying to maybe win some money.
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Seriously.
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I mean, who wouldn't want to jump on that?
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I mean,
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it would be so easy to,
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especially when you're talking about plastic,
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because most of it is going to be single use,
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right?
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The bottles, the detergent things or whatever.
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So it'd be pretty easy, I think, to find that stuff.
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Interesting.
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Oh yeah.
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I like that idea.
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It also really depends on where you're going.
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So a lot of our microplastics end up in seaweed that float on the surface and get
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caught up in all of that.
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And so when you're at the beach, ideally you want to be at a beach that doesn't have a lot of seaweed.
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So when you're at the beach,
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you only see like really cigarette butts or bottle caps and like those really hard plastics.
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Um,
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But once you get into like the seaweed and the seaweed patches that roll up on the shore,
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you'll find like the Ziploc bags,
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the more of the plastic bottles,
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a lot of water bottles,
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flip flops.
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I've even found a cooler.
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I found once tons of different stuff.
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Well,
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I mean,
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based on just that,
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right,
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like the list of things you gave,
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obviously we people,
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humans,
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are the large contributor to microplastics.
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The only contributor.
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Well.
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I don't see a freaking lion using a water bottle.
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Okay.
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Yes, but someone on the beach, right?
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They lose their cooler.
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That's one thing.
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Yeah, but that's us all day.
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True.
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But is there any other contributor other than people going to the beach related to microplastics?
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Oh, there's a ton of different things.
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So once you start really digging into it,
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you realize just how much of our society has plastics infused into it.
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So one thing that a lot of people don't realize is that your clothes are a huge microplastic contributor.
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A lot of the textiles have acrylics or polymers in it that release microplastics
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into your washing machine.
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which then get drained down and then the cycle continues.
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They also have these things called nurdles.
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I'm not sure if you've heard of them, but they are in a lot of industrial things to smooth over surfaces.
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So it's plastic beading.
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Another one that's not a lot of people realize is for women like skincare,
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that stuff that feels so good on your face and like really exfoliates your skin
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probably has some microplastics in it.
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The little beads are probably plastic beads and that's another source.
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Yeah.
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The exfoliant is probably a microplastic, unfortunately.
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So you got to like,
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You have to do a lot of reading now, which is crazy.
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But yeah.
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And then obviously you have your traditional plastic.
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What's the word?
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Plastic sources, I would guess you would say.
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Like restaurants,
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you have a lot of takeout boxes,
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Ziploc bags,
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those water bottles,
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silverware,
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those straws,
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those kinds of things.
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I guess it's not silverware if it's plastic.
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cutlery yeah there you go well hold on can we go back just one second you said
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clothes yeah and that literally just blew my mind like i when you talk about
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washing your clothes i understand that the uh fling packs right like the little
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detergent fling packs yeah the tide pods that all the teenagers right yeah
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Yes, those that the actual casein may have some plastic to it.
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There's plastic components to it.
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But you're saying my actual like my shirt that I have on.
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They have some sort of plastic residue that gets into the wash and becomes a microplastic.
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This is organic cotton.
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Yeah.
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So if it does say like 100% cotton or 100% like fleece or whatever,
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then it doesn't have any plastic in it.
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But the things that you have to look out for is like acrylics.
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So they're taking the cotton or they're taking literally like the plastic bottles
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and they string it out to create a fabric like substance that they then make
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clothes out of.
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So like a lot of your workout clothes,
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a lot of your leggings are probably going to have those plastic components in there.
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Is polyester, is that plastic?
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I'm not sure if it's considered plastic.
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I think it is.
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Because I know that I see that on labels a lot for clothing is 30%.
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My mind is blown right now.
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Like the idea that you have clothes that are essentially leeching into your water.
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Into your skin.
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Oh, I have it.
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So I looked at the notes that I made because I wanted to make sure I was like fact
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checking myself before I just spewed random shit.
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I absolutely love you.
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No, you're good.
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We're allowed.
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I curse like a sailor.
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Heads up.
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Okay, cool.
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He was in the Coast Guard.
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We're used to it.
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It's okay.
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Everyone in science curses a lot.
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Except when we're presenting, we're like, oh, this is our research.
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This is the data.
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And then meanwhile, we're running our software.
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Like, fuck.
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Textile fibers with acrylic and polyester.
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So yes, polyester does have plastic in it.
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And it is included in that.
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And I know that's a very common one.
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My leggings.
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I know.
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The leggings I have on.
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You better recycle that thing.
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I mean... So, okay.
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I mean... So, essentially, we're saying everything has plastic in it.
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Pretty much.
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At this point.
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Your phone has plastic in it.
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Computer.
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Your... What do we do?
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That's a great question.
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So a lot of people are looking into different ways to produce a plastic-like
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substance without it actually being plastic.
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So I know a common one that they've been turning to is corn.
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They've actually been using corn and breaking it down into its starch form and then using basically a...
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A mold.
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That's the word I'm looking for.
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A mold to create new things that have the same texture as plastic but are actually biodegradable.
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So it's really good for the environment instead.
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But the issue with that is getting enough to make
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the constant source of plastic that we have to replace it.
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And then the issue with microplastics isn't that we're using a ton of plastic.
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It's the we don't have any way to reduce the plastic that we already have.
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So we have huge plastic piles floating in the middle of the ocean that have congregated.
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And nobody, A, nobody knows how to collect all of that efficiently without it being uber expensive.
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And then B, once you've collected all of it, what do you do with it?
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So those are the two main problems when it comes to plastic.
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And plastic is forever.
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Yes.
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It takes forever to break down and then
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people's definitions of microplastic are different.
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So, like, what I consider microplastic could be as small as a pinhead.
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Some people consider it even smaller than that.
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So, and you're talking about
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centimeters millimeters micrometers you're talking tiny tiny little pieces which
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they've even found plastic now settling into the human body um which is not good
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that scares me i've read you can inhale microplastics now it's airborne that's how
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fine they are that's nuts yeah i know like it's everywhere yeah it's everywhere you
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can't there's no
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essentially getting rid of it, which is very dark to think of.
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Who thought this shit was a good idea?
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Yeah, some guys.
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Boomers!
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Boomers!
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I just don't
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I don't understand how we go down a path that we, it's an irreversible path.
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Like we're down it.
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Now we have to figure out how to undo years and years of, of pollution.
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And I read and researched the recycling industry.
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I read a lot of bad things that it really doesn't do anything.
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Sometimes it does.
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I'm not saying everything.
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but I read that we ship some of our recycling stuff over to China and then China
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just dumps it in the ocean.
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Yeah.
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Because it's cheaper for us to do that.
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But so, so like we're not recycling.
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Yeah.
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It's honestly, if the system is broken, um, on a multitude of different facets, but yeah,
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The main issue with it is that we have this problem.
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We know we need to do... It's kind of like global warming.
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Wow.
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We have this problem.
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We know that we need to make steps towards it.
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And then we absolutely have no foundational system or steps of how to alleviate
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that problem without completely rewriting the way that we do things.
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So, like, for some people, you know, oh, I...
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I'm in Maine currently because I'm focusing on writing my two books for the summer.
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So I was like, oh, cool, Maine.
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I'll go in the middle of the woods and write.
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But here, they don't have recycling bins.
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There's not one anywhere.
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You can't just take out your trash and there's not a recycling bin.
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It doesn't exist.
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But they have, you only can buy a recyclable bag for your groceries or you're using a paper bag.
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But they don't
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Like, what do you do with your cardboard boxes?
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What do you do?
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What do you do with all the... You know, and then...
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The other issue,
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too,
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is the inaccessibility for people financially to be able to afford things that
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aren't a one-time use or disposable.
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I use wax seals over my leftovers,
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or I use reusable Ziploc bags,
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but those are expensive,
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especially when they break,
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and not everybody can financially afford to do that.
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It's cheaper to buy 100 Ziploc bags versus...
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the four or five reusable Ziploc bags, especially if you have a large family or something like that.
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So there's a lot of things that we need to figure out as a society.
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And I think about it all the time because I'm like,
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wow,
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for such a smart species,
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we have really come up with some dumb things.
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Yeah.
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Oh, man.
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I don't know.
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We never think about the long game.
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No.
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I think it's our problem.
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Well, you just said it, that we send our stuff to China for recycling because of money.
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It's cheaper.
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But we're using...
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overabundance of plastic because of money corporation big corporations are over
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there everything goes into plastic because it's real cheap it's readily available
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it costs me less and i can charge you and make a lot more money than doing this
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corn thing or some kind of biodegradable packaging or paper packaging for deodorant
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sticks which makes sense because it's not liquid but you know it's it's more
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expensive which but
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when we don't have the facilities, like where you're at, you don't have the facilities.
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It's like, why, why don't we push more towards these big companies to be more responsible?
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They have the money to do it.
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I think, I think there's something definitely to be said for the convenience of it.
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Like it's easy.
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It's easy to put something in a Ziploc bag and then like, Oh, I don't need that anymore.
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You just throw it away.
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Like,
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It's much harder to wash out the Ziploc bag,
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you know,
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because some recycling facilities make you separate out your recyclables into your
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different types of recyclables.
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You know, you have your hard plastics, soft plastics, single-use plastics, et cetera, et cetera.
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And not everybody wants to do that sometimes.
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I'm guilty of it.
(00:19:53):
Everybody's guilty of it.
(00:19:55):
For sure.
(00:19:56):
I don't want to sit there and wash my bags.
(00:19:58):
What are you talking about?
(00:20:01):
And then you have people that just truly have no concept and have no clue.
(00:20:07):
I have walked around here again,
(00:20:09):
Maine,
(00:20:10):
and I'm like,
(00:20:10):
oh,
(00:20:10):
yeah,
(00:20:10):
I'm a choral biologist and science communicator.
(00:20:13):
And they're like, what?
(00:20:14):
What is that?
(00:20:15):
What is that?
(00:20:16):
So I think, again, we have a long way to go.
(00:20:20):
as far as being able to communicate effectively.
(00:20:24):
And then it kind of leads back to the financial thing because we have these large
(00:20:29):
corporations that do have the finances of doing that,
(00:20:32):
but they get their finances from us.
(00:20:34):
So unless we sit there and we're like, no, we're not going to buy it anymore until you get better.
(00:20:40):
Screw you.
(00:20:41):
But then you have the single mom of five that can't afford that option.
(00:20:46):
Right.
(00:20:47):
what are you going to make her do?
(00:20:49):
Like, yeah, it's a rock and a hard place.
(00:20:52):
Yeah.
(00:20:53):
I just, I don't know.
(00:20:54):
Like when you go to the grocery store, you don't really have much choice.
(00:20:58):
No.
(00:20:59):
If you want to eat, you're buying something out of plastic.
(00:21:02):
Well,
(00:21:02):
even if you go on Amazon,
(00:21:04):
for example,
(00:21:05):
right,
(00:21:05):
and you look for something that is a product that does not have plastic,
(00:21:09):
Amazon's going to ship it to you in a plastic wrap.
(00:21:13):
Yeah.
(00:21:14):
And or a cardboard box.
(00:21:16):
With the bubbles, the plastic bubbles.
(00:21:18):
Right.
(00:21:18):
And then you have the carbon emissions on top of that from being shipped to you.
(00:21:22):
Yep.
(00:21:23):
Yep.
(00:21:23):
Yeah.
(00:21:24):
So unless you make it yourself,
(00:21:25):
which,
(00:21:26):
you know,
(00:21:26):
a lot of millennials and Gen Z's are doing now,
(00:21:29):
like trying to make their own products rather than buying.
(00:21:32):
Which is great.
(00:21:35):
I agree.
(00:21:36):
But I'm not that crafty.
(00:21:39):
So a lot of that is, you know, you have to learn the skill.
(00:21:43):
So again, you're back to convenience and you're back to finance.
(00:21:45):
So I hear you loud and clear on everything that you guys are talking about, but my mind is still blown.
(00:21:51):
Yeah.
(00:21:53):
But I just,
(00:21:54):
I want to say,
(00:21:54):
I think we need to push more towards these big companies doing something about it
(00:21:59):
rather than...
(00:22:00):
I know we still are responsible.
(00:22:03):
Money talks.
(00:22:04):
But yes, money talks.
(00:22:06):
And I feel like,
(00:22:08):
like I said,
(00:22:09):
I can't go to the grocery store and leave there without having something in plastic.
(00:22:13):
It's impossible unless I go to Farmer Joe up the road and he hands me a bunch of
(00:22:19):
stuff that's outrageously expensive that I can't afford.
(00:22:22):
Yeah.
(00:22:22):
But...
(00:22:23):
I don't know.
(00:22:24):
I just feel like all these big companies,
(00:22:25):
they need to be held more responsible for their plastic footprint.
(00:22:28):
Absolutely.
(00:22:29):
I, I completely agree with you.
(00:22:32):
And I definitely, definitely, I definitely think that consumers should push more.
(00:22:39):
Like we're seeing that with kind of Kellogg's and the cereal brands right now of like,
(00:22:43):
Oh,
(00:22:44):
you want to eat cereal for dinner?
(00:22:45):
Oh, good.
(00:22:46):
And like,
(00:22:47):
I think that we have a lot more power than we want to recognize sometimes of like,
(00:22:54):
oh,
(00:22:54):
this is just how it is.
(00:22:55):
But no, we don't have to accept that.
(00:22:57):
And I think if these corporations truly wanted to change, they definitely have the possibility to.
(00:23:06):
And I will also say that there is a lot of.
(00:23:10):
Whole Foods and,
(00:23:11):
like,
(00:23:13):
bulk,
(00:23:14):
like,
(00:23:14):
container stores that are popping up more,
(00:23:16):
especially in,
(00:23:17):
like,
(00:23:17):
coastal cities,
(00:23:19):
which makes me so happy to see.
(00:23:20):
I don't know if you guys have seen one yet,
(00:23:22):
where you basically,
(00:23:23):
you bring in any container of what you want,
(00:23:25):
and then you can buy anything from sugar,
(00:23:29):
rice,
(00:23:30):
flour,
(00:23:31):
soap,
(00:23:32):
all sorts of stuff,
(00:23:33):
and you just bring your container and you pay by the weight of the product that you use.
(00:23:38):
And I think that is definitely going to
(00:23:41):
hopefully be the way moving forward of what we do.
(00:23:46):
Yeah, you think about like Lidl or Aldi or whatever.
(00:23:51):
Trader Joe's.
(00:23:52):
Yeah, exactly.
(00:23:53):
Like they all sell products in bulk and or you have to bring your own,
(00:23:58):
you know,
(00:23:59):
bags,
(00:24:00):
packaging,
(00:24:01):
however you want to get it home.
(00:24:02):
So that's just taking it a step further.
(00:24:04):
So I like that idea.
(00:24:06):
Like let me buy the product and let me figure out how to store it.
(00:24:09):
I'm good.
(00:24:10):
Speaking of bringing your own bags, I had a story that my parents were telling me about when they were
(00:24:16):
younger grocery shopping they went from plastic to paper because plastic's bad but
(00:24:23):
then they said okay we got to stop using paper and go back to plastic because we're
(00:24:27):
chopping down all the trees it's like that was gonna be my next point i was like
(00:24:32):
well and the other bad part about paper is that then we are yeah we can sustainably
(00:24:39):
do that now you know like we've got tree farms and all that well
(00:24:44):
But there's a difference, though, right?
(00:24:45):
Let me figure out how I'm going to store it.
(00:24:48):
I don't need you to put it in whatever packaging, make it pretty and colorful and like, no, I'm good.
(00:24:55):
If I need soap, then I will get a container that I am going to use to dispense said soap.
(00:25:00):
Yeah.
(00:25:00):
And that will be on me to decide on you.
(00:25:03):
Why are you putting cereal in a box?
(00:25:05):
Well, in a bag.
(00:25:06):
Yeah, exactly.
(00:25:08):
Just dump the cereal in that box, man.
(00:25:12):
Or have a big dispensary and I'll come fill up a bowl.
(00:25:15):
There you go.
(00:25:16):
I saw this video on Facebook.
(00:25:17):
It would probably drive you nuts, Summer.
(00:25:19):
It was a lady.
(00:25:21):
She's an organizational person, right?
(00:25:22):
And she goes to the grocery store.
(00:25:24):
She buys all this stuff.
(00:25:25):
And then she takes it out of the containers and puts it in new containers.
(00:25:28):
This is Russ's pet peeve.
(00:25:30):
Oh, my God.
(00:25:30):
Or like it's like the aesthetic.
(00:25:32):
Yes.
(00:25:32):
The refrigerator.
(00:25:33):
That is his pet peeve.
(00:25:34):
Organizing everything.
(00:25:35):
I was so mad.
(00:25:37):
yeah yeah i was like you just bought plastic containers to take stuff out of
(00:25:43):
plastic containers to put into plastic to put into another plastic container so
(00:25:47):
happy medium because i love the aesthetic of an organized fridge i will not lie it
(00:25:53):
looks beautiful the part that isn't so eco-friendly to me is that she's buying it
(00:25:58):
and then putting it in other things
(00:26:00):
So what she could do instead is go to a farmer's market, which I did a lot in the Keys.
(00:26:05):
If you can find a local farmer's market,
(00:26:06):
10 out of 10,
(00:26:07):
they are normally a little bit cheaper than a grocery store anyway.
(00:26:11):
And I would much rather help a family that's having their own farm than fuel a mega corporation.
(00:26:20):
So she could do that instead.
(00:26:21):
So maybe next time you see one of those, be like, check your local farmer's market instead.
(00:26:26):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
(00:26:27):
Oh my gosh, it was so agitating.
(00:26:30):
This is not how I thought this conversation was going to go at all.
(00:26:33):
I think it was like midnight when I saw this video and I woke her up and I said, look at this shit.
(00:26:40):
You need to see this.
(00:26:41):
This is bullshit.
(00:26:45):
Oh, I am enjoying you, Summer.
(00:26:48):
I'm enjoying this conversation.
(00:26:50):
Me too.
(00:26:51):
It's flowing great.
(00:26:52):
Ten out of ten.
(00:26:53):
I did not think we were going to talk about organized fridges at all, but here we go.
(00:26:58):
You never know on this one.
(00:27:01):
We are unfiltered.
(00:27:02):
That's right.
(00:27:03):
Yeah.
(00:27:04):
That's right.
(00:27:06):
Okay, going back to marine biology here for a minute.
(00:27:10):
Circle back.
(00:27:11):
Let's come back here.
(00:27:13):
So overall,
(00:27:14):
I mean,
(00:27:15):
I could probably say that we would all agree that microplastics are one of the
(00:27:19):
biggest threats to the ocean at this point.
(00:27:21):
Yeah.
(00:27:22):
I mean, overall, that's a big one.
(00:27:26):
I mean,
(00:27:26):
can we think of anything other than microplastics that would also be an impact to
(00:27:32):
the ocean that is either what we think the largest threat or second largest threat?
(00:27:38):
I would, obviously, global warming, ocean acidification, pollution.
(00:27:46):
What else?
(00:27:47):
Disease, overfishing, destruction of habitat.
(00:27:53):
Summer, you posted a video that had the fish that was spinning?
(00:28:02):
Yeah, it's like a whole phenomenon that's going on in the Florida Keys right now.
(00:28:07):
What is it?
(00:28:09):
I didn't show you that video.
(00:28:10):
I didn't wake you up at midnight.
(00:28:11):
I'm sorry.
(00:28:12):
You aren't in a fit of rage.
(00:28:15):
No, I was probably flabbergasted.
(00:28:17):
Like, what is this fish doing?
(00:28:19):
Her guests were flabbergasted.
(00:28:22):
Yeah, so nobody really knows, unfortunately, of what's going on.
(00:28:28):
And I haven't had time to reach out to my contacts to figure out further what's happening.
(00:28:35):
But there are now...
(00:28:37):
Thankfully,
(00:28:38):
a ton of different programs and organizations that have answered the call right
(00:28:44):
away and are now looking into it,
(00:28:46):
collecting data samples of
(00:28:48):
vastly different water qualities from all the way next to the shore, all the way offshore.
(00:28:53):
They're collecting specimens that are exhibiting this problem.
(00:28:58):
So basically, Russ, I don't know.
(00:29:00):
I'm going to cue you in on the conversation real quick,
(00:29:03):
you know,
(00:29:03):
since you don't know what we're talking about.
(00:29:06):
Basically, a lot of the fish species in the Florida Keys have just been spinning.
(00:29:13):
They don't do anything else.
(00:29:15):
They just spin in circles,
(00:29:16):
kind of like how your pet goldfish growing up when they had a really bad water
(00:29:20):
quality just starts spinning in circles and you know they're going to die soon.
(00:29:24):
That's what's happening in the Florida Keys.
(00:29:26):
And unfortunately, it's progressed so bad to the point where it's now impacting our...
(00:29:34):
sawfish population which is already a critically endangered species and we've lost
(00:29:39):
a lot of those individuals due to this problem of just them spinning on top of the
(00:29:46):
surface we've seen grouper we've seen pinfish we've seen sawfish we've seen
(00:29:52):
stingrays all sorts of things just at the surface spinning in circles and we don't
(00:29:56):
know what's going on so a lot of it's like a blanket thing it's not just fish it's
(00:30:03):
all kinds of stuff
(00:30:04):
Greg Fersenworth is the first person that noted this behavior.
(00:30:11):
And he's a local in the Florida Keys.
(00:30:13):
He's been diving forever.
(00:30:14):
He grew up there.
(00:30:16):
And he's been recording this phenomenon of fish spinning since last year and has
(00:30:24):
been reaching out to,
(00:30:25):
like,
(00:30:26):
CNN and other organizations like news outlets to be like, what is going on?
(00:30:30):
What is happening?
(00:30:32):
But unfortunately,
(00:30:33):
in that same time frame,
(00:30:34):
we also had the huge coral bleaching event in the Florida Keys.
(00:30:38):
So that kind of took precedent over this fish spinning story.
(00:30:43):
And now since then,
(00:30:44):
it's just increasingly got worse until it finally impacted the sawtooth,
(00:30:50):
the sawfish population.
(00:30:53):
So now that
(00:30:54):
unfortunately, has finally grabbed people's attention.
(00:30:56):
So now they're doing something about it.
(00:30:59):
But there's been hypothetical theories all the way from poor water quality to a parasite to a disease.
(00:31:08):
We have no idea.
(00:31:11):
That's wild.
(00:31:12):
It's crazy.
(00:31:13):
The videos that Summer has on Instagram of these
(00:31:17):
fish and other types of sea animals doing it.
(00:31:20):
Like it literally looks like they can't stop.
(00:31:23):
They're just going in circles.
(00:31:25):
It's insane.
(00:31:26):
But I'm glad to hear that people are answering the call.
(00:31:30):
And when you look at the water temperature for Florida,
(00:31:34):
like from the Gulf all the way through,
(00:31:36):
you know,
(00:31:37):
to the Atlantic,
(00:31:38):
The temperature every summer has gotten at least a degree higher every summer since we've lived here.
(00:31:45):
And we've been in Florida for almost four years.
(00:31:47):
So it's getting hot.
(00:31:49):
Oh, yeah.
(00:31:50):
It's bath water.
(00:31:51):
We have 101 degrees surface temperature.
(00:31:55):
right last year i mean overall though um but overall though it just seems like with
(00:32:03):
the water temperature rising it can only be you know one of those reasons like it
(00:32:09):
can only be a parasite or the water quality right like is that why is that what the
(00:32:14):
the bleaching does it have something to do with the bleaching event
(00:32:17):
Oh,
(00:32:18):
that's,
(00:32:19):
that's also a theory is that like,
(00:32:21):
because we had so many coral like bleach out and die and have tissue necrosis that
(00:32:28):
then the algae overly bloomed in the water.
(00:32:33):
So it's a specific type of algae that's consuming too much oxygen.
(00:32:37):
And it might be because of an oxygen loss.
(00:32:39):
It could be that the toxicity of the water is too high because now we have all this
(00:32:44):
necrosis and death basically in the water.
(00:32:48):
Greg also did like a timescale looking of drone footage over the Florida Keys.
(00:32:53):
And you can see like the progression of algae growth throughout like a timeline that he took.
(00:32:59):
And you can literally see the water get greener and greener and greener because of the algae.
(00:33:04):
So Greg's thinking it could potentially be algae, but I'm not sure.
(00:33:09):
Nobody's really figured it out yet.
(00:33:11):
It's kind of a great mystery right now.
(00:33:13):
And it's very nerve wracking.
(00:33:16):
To the point where people are like, I don't want to go in the water anymore.
(00:33:20):
And that's devastating.
(00:33:23):
Yeah, I don't want to spin around in circles.
(00:33:25):
Are they zombie fish?
(00:33:30):
Don't get me started.
(00:33:32):
Is that how it gets to humans?
(00:33:34):
Okay, sorry.
(00:33:35):
Zombie apocalypse 2024.
(00:33:36):
Here we go.
(00:33:38):
It's not mushrooms, it's fish!
(00:33:41):
You did say the people in Maine had no idea what...
(00:33:44):
Oh, for sure.
(00:33:45):
It's going to.
(00:33:47):
It's either going to be algae or meth.
(00:33:51):
Or the bath salts.
(00:33:52):
Or bath salts.
(00:33:53):
That's right.
(00:33:56):
Oh, God, I'm having way too much fun.
(00:33:57):
But you did say that you were in Maine and nobody knew what coral reefs were or coral was.
(00:34:03):
And I thought that they probably would have thought that it was the sun from Walking Dead.
(00:34:08):
Oh, Carl.
(00:34:10):
Carl!
(00:34:11):
Enough from you.
(00:34:14):
I love that show, so you can't get me wrong.
(00:34:17):
Negan!
(00:34:18):
Anyway, I loved him.
(00:34:21):
Great character.
(00:34:22):
10 out of 10.
(00:34:22):
Okay, we're gonna edit that part.
(00:34:27):
Well, when it comes to the coral bleaching, right?
(00:34:29):
So there's tons of efforts.
(00:34:31):
And again,
(00:34:32):
when we went to SeaWorld,
(00:34:33):
they had all of the tanks of the corals that they were restoring,
(00:34:38):
trying to rehabilitate.
(00:34:40):
So what made you turn your focus from the
(00:34:44):
from any of the marine biology and start to focus in on the coral restoration?
(00:34:49):
Yeah, so I graduated college right in the middle of the pandarini.
(00:34:55):
It was great.
(00:34:58):
Had an online graduation.
(00:34:59):
It was great.
(00:35:02):
And I worked at a red grocery store for at least eight months.
(00:35:10):
And I was just miserable because, you know, tangeriney.
(00:35:13):
And I was like, okay, I'm at this point in my career.
(00:35:17):
I've graduated.
(00:35:18):
I have my degree.
(00:35:19):
I want to do something with it.
(00:35:21):
The world is kind of in shambles right now, but let's just see if anybody's taking internships.
(00:35:27):
I got to diversify my resume a little bit more.
(00:35:29):
You know, I had done, I had worked with sea turtles.
(00:35:33):
I had worked in microplastics.
(00:35:34):
I loved and thoroughly enjoyed both of those experiences,
(00:35:38):
but I knew I had that like tickling feeling of like,
(00:35:41):
This isn't it.
(00:35:42):
This isn't my thing.
(00:35:44):
And I wanted to figure out what my thing was.
(00:35:46):
So I was like, okay, let's, you know, I had gone to Belize.
(00:35:49):
I did a study abroad there in my undergrad and I thoroughly loved it.
(00:35:53):
I saw healthy reefs for the first time in my life and I was just taken aback.
(00:35:58):
So I was like, okay, let's try corals.
(00:36:01):
Why not?
(00:36:01):
And so I applied for the internship in the Florida Keys at the laboratory and
(00:36:09):
and they were like yeah sure come on down and i was like oh my gosh okay cool i i'm
(00:36:16):
you know i'm 20 at the time i'm like i'm moving to the florida keys this is crazy
(00:36:22):
this is great and it was at like my dream laboratory it was my top pick up from all
(00:36:28):
of my internships and i moved down there for
(00:36:33):
In the beginning of January 2021.
(00:36:35):
And I worked as an intern.
(00:36:39):
Unpaid.
(00:36:40):
In the Florida Keys.
(00:36:42):
For four months.
(00:36:44):
And I loved it.
(00:36:45):
That's where I fell in love with choral.
(00:36:47):
That's where I had the passion.
(00:36:50):
mind bending explosion of, okay, this is what I'm meant to do.
(00:36:54):
This is what I'm supposed to work on.
(00:36:56):
This is what I'm, you know, I love this animal and it's so vastly underappreciated.
(00:37:02):
Most people look at it and it's like, that's a rock.
(00:37:04):
I'm like, no.
(00:37:06):
No, that's a boulder.
(00:37:08):
It's alive.
(00:37:09):
And it's way cooler than a rock.
(00:37:11):
It's not just a rock.
(00:37:12):
Don't touch it.
(00:37:13):
Yeah, exactly.
(00:37:14):
Exactly.
(00:37:14):
And I, like, led tours.
(00:37:18):
I got to meet different colleges and, like, students.
(00:37:21):
And I got to educate and work with a great group of staff there.
(00:37:25):
And I just fell in love with it.
(00:37:27):
And so at the end of my four months, I was supposed to get out.
(00:37:32):
And I didn't want to.
(00:37:33):
So...
(00:37:35):
I wrote up an email to the president of the research facility,
(00:37:41):
and I was just like,
(00:37:42):
hi,
(00:37:43):
your team is really understaffed.
(00:37:45):
I'm here.
(00:37:45):
I have a place to live, and I want to work for you.
(00:37:49):
And for some reason, I guess I just...
(00:37:53):
impressed her with my overconfidence.
(00:37:56):
Yeah.
(00:37:57):
And, um, she was like, sure, why not?
(00:38:00):
So I talked to my mentor about it,
(00:38:02):
sent the email and I did an interview with her and I was like shaking like a leaf
(00:38:08):
and I had like 15 questions too many.
(00:38:12):
And she was phenomenal too, because everyone that I've met in Coral has been amazing people.
(00:38:17):
And, um,
(00:38:19):
I was standing outside of the lab, like talking with the staff that I had worked with.
(00:38:25):
And I was like, I don't know.
(00:38:27):
I'm really nervous.
(00:38:28):
And I don't know.
(00:38:29):
And she came up behind me and she gave me a side hug.
(00:38:32):
And she's like, hello, guys.
(00:38:33):
You talking to our new staff?
(00:38:34):
And I just look over like, what?
(00:38:36):
And it was really cool.
(00:38:39):
So that's kind of, I just fell into it.
(00:38:42):
I didn't mean to.
(00:38:44):
I never thought I was going to work with corals.
(00:38:46):
Initially, I went into marine science thinking, oh, I'm going to work with sharks.
(00:38:50):
Sharks are my jam.
(00:38:51):
That's all I want.
(00:38:53):
not taking anything but sharks, and then here I am, coral lady.
(00:38:57):
100%.
(00:38:59):
Boulders.
(00:39:00):
Yeah.
(00:39:00):
I'm just kidding.
(00:39:01):
Yeah, ocean boulders.
(00:39:02):
Well,
(00:39:03):
okay,
(00:39:03):
so some coral,
(00:39:05):
like some species of coral are literally called boulder corals,
(00:39:08):
so you're not wrong.
(00:39:09):
So you're not wrong.
(00:39:10):
See, I know.
(00:39:11):
There you go.
(00:39:15):
You said that you just fell into it.
(00:39:16):
Let's be clear.
(00:39:17):
No, you lady boss that.
(00:39:19):
I just want to give you your props on that because you took initiative and you got in there.
(00:39:24):
Like that is awesome.
(00:39:26):
Summer.
(00:39:26):
I won't let you take that away from you.
(00:39:30):
Thanks.
(00:39:30):
Appreciate it.
(00:39:32):
I started the internship and I'm like, I'm not leaving here without a job.
(00:39:37):
Damn it.
(00:39:37):
I'm not doing it.
(00:39:39):
There you go.
(00:39:39):
I feel like more people need that mentality.
(00:39:44):
I want this.
(00:39:45):
I'm going to get it.
(00:39:47):
Have that drive and you will get the things that you want.
(00:39:52):
You do it.
(00:39:53):
It's all about that confidence too.
(00:39:55):
You emailing that person and saying,
(00:39:59):
I'm just not leaving.
(00:40:02):
You should hire me.
(00:40:04):
You have to keep me.
(00:40:07):
I'm staying and you can go.
(00:40:09):
I honestly, I think it's a mixture of like my dad says it's better to be lucky than good all the time.
(00:40:17):
And I do think it's a mixture of luck, like timing, luck, and luck.
(00:40:22):
confidence because just at that time they were because I worked at a non-profit so
(00:40:27):
a lot of that money is considered soft money so nobody's guaranteed their roles and
(00:40:33):
hiring is very difficult because they have to allocate so much money a year towards
(00:40:38):
paying that person to actually live and I just happened to hit the timing right
(00:40:43):
where they had just gotten a huge grant to be able to allocate another staff member
(00:40:48):
so
(00:40:51):
The stars aligned.
(00:40:53):
It's great.
(00:40:55):
It's all that matters.
(00:40:58):
And now here we are.
(00:40:59):
And now we get to talk to you all about Coral.
(00:41:03):
And you're on our podcast.
(00:41:05):
Woo!
(00:41:08):
I loved that.
(00:41:08):
Keep that in there, please.
(00:41:10):
Oh, it's staying.
(00:41:14):
Our synchronized woo!
(00:41:16):
Yeah, we gotta keep it.
(00:41:19):
Okay, so again, trying to bring it back here, guys.
(00:41:24):
So again, when we talk about restoration of coral, what exactly does that mean?
(00:41:30):
Like, pretend I know nothing.
(00:41:31):
Pretend I don't follow you on Instagram obsessively.
(00:41:34):
Pretend I know nothing.
(00:41:35):
What does that mean?
(00:41:36):
Okay, so basically, you can kind of think of it like... Your yard.
(00:41:44):
Your yard.
(00:41:44):
Right.
(00:41:45):
So say your yard,
(00:41:47):
you mow the lawn and then all of a sudden these bugs come through and you have
(00:41:52):
patches of brown grass everywhere.
(00:41:56):
It's not good.
(00:41:57):
You don't want your yard to look like that.
(00:41:58):
You're going to have mud patches and just dead grass sitting there, not doing anything.
(00:42:04):
And you have an ugly yard and it's not good for you.
(00:42:07):
You don't like how it looks and it's not good.
(00:42:09):
Your HOA is going to find you.
(00:42:10):
Yeah, your HOA is going to find you.
(00:42:11):
It's not good.
(00:42:12):
So what do you do?
(00:42:14):
You buy seeds, right?
(00:42:17):
You buy seeds for your grass,
(00:42:18):
you lay your grass down,
(00:42:19):
you water your grass,
(00:42:21):
and then it comes back to life and it all looks good.
(00:42:23):
And you have a healthy, full coverage surface amount of grass and it's perfect.
(00:42:30):
So that's kind of what restoration does.
(00:42:32):
So it's perfect.
(00:42:34):
Um, restoration is far from perfect.
(00:42:36):
There's actually a lot of debate on whether it's good or not, but I'll answer that later on.
(00:42:41):
Um,
(00:42:42):
Basically,
(00:42:43):
we take corals that are either rescue corals or that are from our spawning facility
(00:42:54):
and our reproduction facility and reproduction lab.
(00:42:57):
And we rescue them from the reef because they're either dying from a disease or
(00:43:03):
they have been dislodged from the reef.
(00:43:07):
And are like buried in sand are definitely going to die.
(00:43:09):
So we take those corals or we take them from like construction sites.
(00:43:13):
So like a seawall is being repaired or rebuilt and all these beautiful corals have
(00:43:17):
grown on there and they don't want to destroy the corals.
(00:43:19):
So they contact organizations like ours and they're like, hey, come get these.
(00:43:23):
So we don't have to kill them.
(00:43:24):
And we're like, cool.
(00:43:25):
So we come in.
(00:43:27):
And we have a, what's called a land-based nursery.
(00:43:30):
So you can kind of think of it like your aquarium tank in your house, if you have one.
(00:43:34):
And we take these corals and we essentially grow them in our tanks.
(00:43:40):
And after they've hit like a specific size range,
(00:43:44):
about a silver dollar is what we would say,
(00:43:47):
we outplant them to the reef.
(00:43:49):
So kind of like laying the seeds in your grass.
(00:43:52):
So we take a two-part epoxy,
(00:43:55):
kind of like plumber's epoxy,
(00:43:57):
and we literally take these little baby corals and we stick them on the reef of
(00:44:01):
different areas of the reef that have...
(00:44:05):
not been doing well or that have low coral coverage so most of the florida reefs
(00:44:11):
that i have seen are like at three percent coral coverage when they should really
(00:44:15):
be like 30 to 50 coral coverage so that's just you know kind of a percentage of how
(00:44:22):
much we're actually missing and our goal was to
(00:44:27):
increase the coral coverage that we have on a reef.
(00:44:30):
So again, kind of like thinking about your grass.
(00:44:32):
You want to think, you want to have nice, even amount of grass everywhere on your yard.
(00:44:38):
You want to have a nice, even amount of coral coverage on your reef.
(00:44:42):
So that's essentially what coral restoration does.
(00:44:46):
And then there's like a whole bunch of
(00:44:48):
Statistics and logistics behind all of that broken down really simply.
(00:44:54):
We take coral from the ocean or we make it in a reproduction lab.
(00:44:59):
We grow it in little and we grow it in tanks and then we take it from the tanks and put it onto the reef.
(00:45:04):
And the idea is that stuff spreads, right?
(00:45:07):
Yes.
(00:45:08):
Yes.
(00:45:08):
And that stuff spreads.
(00:45:09):
And then we're introducing more biodiversity onto the reef.
(00:45:13):
So when corals do spawn,
(00:45:15):
that they can actually spawn and reproduce naturally and thus working ourselves out
(00:45:20):
of the job.
(00:45:20):
That's the long-term goal is that eventually we won't have to do this,
(00:45:25):
but with the coral bleaching events that's happening and like all of the disease
(00:45:29):
progression that's happening behind that looks like it's going to be a couple more years.
(00:45:36):
At least.
(00:45:36):
Yeah.
(00:45:38):
At least.
(00:45:40):
So do you guys go back, like, when you do a seed, do you monitor that area?
(00:45:47):
Yes.
(00:45:48):
So every... What was that?
(00:45:50):
An outplant.
(00:45:51):
That's what we call them.
(00:45:52):
Oh, an outplant.
(00:45:52):
I'm sorry.
(00:45:52):
So instead of... No, no, no, you're good.
(00:45:54):
I was thinking about lawns.
(00:45:54):
I didn't explain.
(00:45:55):
Yeah.
(00:45:57):
But basically, so every...
(00:46:00):
Coral that we have, that's the silver dollar size, we call it an outplant.
(00:46:05):
And we outplant them specifically in clusters of four so they can reach sexual maturity faster.
(00:46:13):
So corals reach sexual maturity at size and not age.
(00:46:17):
So for a coral to start from a larvae,
(00:46:20):
settle onto the reef and grow to a sexual size,
(00:46:22):
which is about a dinner plate,
(00:46:24):
like that big.
(00:46:25):
Um, that would take like anywhere from 75 to a hundred years.
(00:46:30):
The way that we do it cuts it down to about five to six.
(00:46:33):
What?
(00:46:34):
Wow.
(00:46:35):
That's crazy.
(00:46:37):
Very fast.
(00:46:39):
Is it like you put going back to the lawn analogy,
(00:46:42):
you put like miracle grow on there in order to make it grow fast.
(00:46:46):
Yeah.
(00:46:46):
Oh, so we don't.
(00:46:48):
So how does the four thing make that happen?
(00:46:51):
So, um,
(00:46:54):
It's always difficult to explain the physiology of a coral without relating it to a
(00:47:00):
plant because it's not a plant.
(00:47:02):
But think of it kind of like an ant colony.
(00:47:07):
So every ant is part of a colony, right?
(00:47:11):
Even though the ant is an individual thing, you can kind of think like a coral polyp is the same way.
(00:47:16):
It's all part of the colony.
(00:47:19):
But the way that colonies grow in size is that they produce more polyps growing every year.
(00:47:25):
So if we have four little pieces that are next to each other that are all the same genotype,
(00:47:32):
they will eventually fuse in size and recognize each other.
(00:47:36):
Kind of like if you cut open your skin and your skin fuses back together, it's kind of the same process.
(00:47:43):
Wow.
(00:47:44):
Yeah, super cool.
(00:47:45):
So you guys have figured out how to remove...
(00:47:50):
95 years out of the process that's freaking crazy that is insane and the idea that
(00:47:55):
it i'm learning so much about coral the idea that it fuses together that it almost
(00:48:01):
understands each other and it's like okay yeah you're you're me you can be me it's
(00:48:07):
like i'm you you're me like yeah it's the same thing
(00:48:12):
Well, OK, so we've talked about bleaching and we've talked about, you know, pollution, microplastics.
(00:48:16):
But what ultimately ultimately leads to a bleaching event?
(00:48:21):
Like what what is the threat to the coral reef?
(00:48:25):
Heat, water temperature.
(00:48:28):
So it would be like climate change.
(00:48:30):
That's going to be your.
(00:48:31):
Unfortunately, some people like hear climate change.
(00:48:34):
They're like, I'm not listening anymore.
(00:48:36):
Believe what you want.
(00:48:38):
Why it's happening.
(00:48:39):
It's happening regardless.
(00:48:41):
Yeah.
(00:48:42):
No matter what, it's gotten warmer.
(00:48:44):
And that water temperature change,
(00:48:46):
that shift in water temperature,
(00:48:48):
because corals are very much like us,
(00:48:51):
right?
(00:48:51):
We don't like it when it's 90 degrees outside.
(00:48:53):
We can go inside and we can cool off and turn on the AC.
(00:48:58):
Well, corals can't do that.
(00:49:00):
They have no choice.
(00:49:02):
And corals also have an algae symbiont called zooxanthellae that lives within their tissue.
(00:49:08):
So you can think of...
(00:49:11):
zooxanthellae kind of like um they produce the food that the coral feed on so coral
(00:49:19):
kind of are the landlords of this a huge apartment building that zooxanthellae live
(00:49:25):
in and then the ac gets shut off and skyrockets to 100 degrees so the coral's like
(00:49:31):
hey you gotta get out they kick out the zooxanthellae but then the coral is left
(00:49:36):
without any food
(00:49:38):
So then they starve, and then they boil, which is no good.
(00:49:42):
And that zooxanthellae, that uses photosynthesis?
(00:49:46):
Yes.
(00:49:48):
See, that's crazy.
(00:49:50):
It's like a self-sustaining ecosystem, but when you take one part away, it just blows the whole thing up.
(00:49:55):
That is crazy.
(00:49:57):
And besides the zooxanthellae,
(00:50:00):
coral polyps are able to grab food outside of,
(00:50:03):
like,
(00:50:03):
in the water column,
(00:50:04):
so like plankton,
(00:50:05):
and then I've even seen corals eat,
(00:50:07):
like,
(00:50:07):
full-blown
(00:50:08):
shrimp and shrimp and fish which is crazy i don't blame them this shit's good yeah
(00:50:13):
um except when they kick out the zooxanthellae like that's one of their largest
(00:50:18):
energy resources so and then they could also fluoresce which is really cool
(00:50:26):
But also kind of bad because that's their last defense of producing a sunscreen
(00:50:31):
almost to try to help them cool off and protect themselves.
(00:50:35):
And once you see that, that's kind of like the, oh shit, something's not right.
(00:50:42):
They're not good.
(00:50:43):
And then it'll either continue to bleach that white color and keep going past that and eventually die.
(00:50:52):
Because when coral are bleached, they're not dead.
(00:50:56):
Oh, okay.
(00:50:56):
See, I didn't know that.
(00:50:58):
Me either.
(00:50:59):
So, coral get most of their color from the stuff within their tissues and zooxanthellae themselves.
(00:51:10):
So, once that is expelled, their tissue is actually clear.
(00:51:16):
Okay.
(00:51:17):
So...
(00:51:18):
You can actually go super... I actually have a post about this coming up soon.
(00:51:26):
When corals bleach, their tissue is super clear.
(00:51:28):
And all you're seeing is the carbonate skeleton in their body.
(00:51:33):
And that's what makes it appear white.
(00:51:35):
And that's why bleaching is white.
(00:51:38):
But they're not dead.
(00:51:39):
But they're not dead.
(00:51:41):
They're just dying.
(00:51:42):
We can save them.
(00:51:46):
Yes, they can recover from that if the AC is turned back on within a certain time frame.
(00:51:52):
But the issue is once we've hit that temperature in the seawater,
(00:51:56):
it takes a minute for it to come back down.
(00:51:59):
And a lot of the times the corals can't hang on within that threshold for it to cool off.
(00:52:04):
That is so weird.
(00:52:06):
So kind of like you can think of it like when people get a sunburn, they turn bright red and pink.
(00:52:12):
You don't want to see me with one of them.
(00:52:14):
Exactly.
(00:52:14):
Corals just turn white.
(00:52:17):
That's the difference.
(00:52:18):
They're still alive.
(00:52:19):
They just turn white when they get sunburned.
(00:52:21):
And that's effectively what's happening.
(00:52:25):
Wow.
(00:52:26):
So, okay.
(00:52:27):
So that's... We need some solo recover.
(00:52:32):
some spritz and a lot of different conferences like people are now suggest
(00:52:38):
scientists are now like all right balls to the wall fuck it whatever crazy ideas
(00:52:43):
like people have tried to do you know let's haul in offshore water that's cooler
(00:52:48):
let's start out planting coral in deeper depths to see if they'll live let's you
(00:52:54):
know throw a giant shade cloth over the entirety of the reef and see if it still
(00:52:59):
lives
(00:53:00):
The ideas now that are coming out are pretty drastic, but that's because now is the time.
(00:53:07):
And a lot of people are just now getting a grasp on, oh, coral is an animal.
(00:53:12):
Let's save this animal.
(00:53:14):
But the time for that knowledge was 30 years ago.
(00:53:18):
And so we're kind of behind the curve in that aspect of the general public recognizing,
(00:53:24):
yeah,
(00:53:25):
freaking boomers.
(00:53:25):
Everything's their fault.
(00:53:28):
recognizing like this is a huge problem that we're having and coral reefs are one
(00:53:36):
of the most biodiverse ecosystems on our entire globe so if we lose our reefs we're
(00:53:41):
gonna see a huge bio it'll be a domino effect yeah because they provide a lot of
(00:53:50):
shelter for
(00:53:52):
everything we went we went to to the keys back in oh god it was oh six yeah it was
(00:53:59):
years seven we were in high school guys at eight that aged us
(00:54:05):
We're millennials.
(00:54:06):
Let's be clear.
(00:54:08):
We went to a place called Sea Camp.
(00:54:10):
I don't know if you've ever heard of it down there.
(00:54:12):
Yes.
(00:54:13):
Where I worked was next door.
(00:54:15):
What?
(00:54:16):
That's hilarious.
(00:54:19):
We went there and we did a lot.
(00:54:20):
It was a really educational trip.
(00:54:22):
It was for school.
(00:54:24):
Oceanography.
(00:54:25):
It was for oceanography.
(00:54:27):
When we swam on the corals, we did not touch them.
(00:54:30):
They were amazing.
(00:54:32):
It was unbelievable to...
(00:54:35):
The colorfulness, the fish everywhere.
(00:54:38):
I couldn't imagine that not being there.
(00:54:41):
Yeah,
(00:54:43):
it's interesting to talk to some of the older conservationists and scientists that
(00:54:48):
have grown up there.
(00:54:49):
And they're like, oh, if you think this is pretty, you should have seen it 20 years ago.
(00:54:54):
Did you just call us old summer?
(00:54:55):
No, no, no, no.
(00:54:58):
You guys aren't old at all.
(00:54:59):
No, no, no.
(00:54:59):
I'm talking about like.
(00:55:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(00:55:02):
We'll be old next year.
(00:55:03):
Talk about Eric, who's like 60.
(00:55:06):
If he hears this, he's going to keel over.
(00:55:08):
A boomer?
(00:55:10):
No, no, no.
(00:55:11):
He's not a boomer.
(00:55:12):
But he's been diving since before I was born.
(00:55:15):
So, you know, maybe that makes me young.
(00:55:20):
No, it's yeah, I couldn't.
(00:55:22):
I know Australia is going through coral bleaching events over there.
(00:55:27):
I just it's mind boggling that we're struggling so hard to stop it.
(00:55:32):
Well, what's what's incredibly sad because I was working in in June during the pandemic.
(00:55:40):
worst coral bleaching event that like people have ever seen down there in the Keys
(00:55:44):
and I was trying I was doing research and monitoring and I don't know if I ever
(00:55:49):
answered your question about like oh do you go check on them yes um the you asked
(00:55:54):
Russ if like we go back and check on the corals we check on them um it's a
(00:56:00):
one month and then six months and then every sequential year after that we check on
(00:56:05):
them and every single outplant like cluster that we have has a little tag on it
(00:56:10):
that's next to it so we can mark exactly which tag it is what location it is what
(00:56:15):
genotype it is and how old it is too we have vast databases for that that are
(00:56:21):
longer than my legs but um anyway so noah
(00:56:28):
announced i think like in april that we're in our fourth global bleaching event oh
(00:56:33):
because it's because of it's happening globally now so what did i mean have you all
(00:56:41):
done projections of what the ocean looks like without it without coral yeah i mean
(00:56:47):
worst case yeah yeah like worst case i know it's a terrible thing to think about
(00:56:52):
her but i'm sure there's models out there somewhere
(00:56:56):
Yeah, there's models out there, and it's bleak.
(00:57:02):
You're seeing the entire collapse of global fisheries at that point.
(00:57:07):
See, that's what people need to hear.
(00:57:10):
Which sustains millions of people, billions of people globally, not only for jobs, but for food.
(00:57:19):
So you're saying that that is going to be the first thing.
(00:57:24):
that you would see and then it's almost like from a scientific perspective you're
(00:57:30):
almost kind of like you don't want to acknowledge that as a possibility because
(00:57:36):
What the steps that I've seen my organization do,
(00:57:39):
we have this system called a sea bass system where they do the projections of what
(00:57:44):
ocean conditions will be like in 100 years,
(00:57:46):
300 years and so on.
(00:57:48):
And we subjugate like the corals that we have,
(00:57:51):
the genotypes that we have to those conditions to see which ones are the most
(00:57:56):
disease tolerant,
(00:57:57):
the most heat resistant,
(00:57:58):
the most tolerant of ocean acidification changes.
(00:58:03):
And then those are the corals that do best in those conditions for 100 years now.
(00:58:09):
Those are the ones that we focus on outplanting.
(00:58:12):
Scientists are kind of ahead in that aspect of the game of,
(00:58:15):
like,
(00:58:15):
trying to choose genotypes that will be able to survive in those conditions.
(00:58:21):
See, that's cool.
(00:58:22):
Yeah.
(00:58:23):
That's pretty badass.
(00:58:25):
Yeah.
(00:58:26):
And one of my friends, she's the one that developed the, like, system that we were using.
(00:58:30):
And I'm like, wow, you are...
(00:58:33):
Y'all think my little Instagram is impressive.
(00:58:36):
Holy shit.
(00:58:37):
Which I do.
(00:58:38):
People are like, whoa.
(00:58:40):
Yeah.
(00:58:41):
Which I do.
(00:58:42):
That's cool,
(00:58:42):
though,
(00:58:43):
that you're able to kind of model after rising temps and things of that nature and
(00:58:48):
pick the right stuff to go in there.
(00:58:53):
I never even thought that that would be something.
(00:58:55):
I just thought that...
(00:58:57):
out planting.
(00:58:58):
See what I did there.
(00:58:59):
Out planting was just you,
(00:59:02):
what you rescue is what you throw back in there,
(00:59:04):
you know,
(00:59:05):
but I guess it's more,
(00:59:07):
there's a lot more to it than that.
(00:59:09):
It's definitely a mixture of both because obviously we want to preserve the
(00:59:13):
genotypes that are naturally found,
(00:59:14):
like occurring currently,
(00:59:16):
um,
(00:59:18):
in the system or in the environment,
(00:59:21):
the local environment,
(00:59:22):
especially.
(00:59:23):
And, um,
(00:59:25):
But the mixture of genotypes and seeing what corals do best is something that we're
(00:59:33):
heavily focusing on as well.
(00:59:35):
It's wild.
(00:59:36):
And then,
(00:59:38):
again,
(00:59:38):
another crazy thing that people are suggesting is the crossbreeding of Caribbean
(00:59:45):
native species with Polynesian species and Australian species.
(00:59:51):
To see if we can come up with some sort of fierce crossbreed that would withstand all of this.
(00:59:57):
But then you run into heavy red tape with, oh, well, you don't want to introduce an invasive species.
(01:00:04):
Or what if it takes over the entire reef?
(01:00:06):
And then you have government policies and what's allowed and what's not allowed.
(01:00:09):
So it's all very interesting and...
(01:00:14):
incredibly rewarding to work at because it's kind of like a giant jigsaw puzzle of,
(01:00:19):
okay,
(01:00:19):
if I move this piece here,
(01:00:20):
what will be the effect here?
(01:00:22):
And can I do this and that?
(01:00:25):
So when are you guys going to hire me and Lynn?
(01:00:31):
yeah we'll be overconfident and we'll say you need us yeah you need us I need to
(01:00:35):
move to the Keys now I like Tampa though Tampa's doing good for us yeah but I think
(01:00:42):
I'd like the Keys a lot too the Keys the Keys is great I loved living or I love
(01:00:48):
living in the Keys like 10 out of 10 but it's more coming from somebody that lived
(01:00:55):
that lives there for the past three years three and a half years
(01:00:59):
it is great to visit for like a month or two and then it's great to leave yeah
(01:01:05):
because as it almost feels like another country because you're so disconnected from
(01:01:12):
everything like the closest you're gonna be to miami is three and a half hours like
(01:01:16):
right that's it unless i mean i was in the middle keys so i was in big pine i'm in
(01:01:20):
big pine key
(01:01:23):
um so that's definitely more middle key so that's where like the more of the
(01:01:28):
disconnect comes in but you know you're you get the water and you get to be able to
(01:01:32):
go on a boat and diving and fishing and whatever you want all the time but then
(01:01:37):
like oh if your car breaks down good luck walk
(01:01:45):
If you need to go to the doctor, well, that's going to be six months.
(01:01:49):
The day-to-day life aspect of things takes a lot longer, which some people just hate that.
(01:01:59):
It depends on how busy you want to be.
(01:02:02):
It's very laid back.
(01:02:03):
If you say, okay, guys, let's have dinner at 6, nobody's showing up until 7.30, which is great.
(01:02:09):
It sounds like Europe.
(01:02:11):
Yeah, yeah.
(01:02:12):
It's a very European lifestyle.
(01:02:14):
Very European lifestyle.
(01:02:15):
All right, now you just sold me.
(01:02:21):
down you know part of the reason why i do what i do is and talk on like podcasts
(01:02:28):
and do the social media and talk with students and try to do as a lot of a lot of
(01:02:33):
outreach is like one when i was working at that laboratory i thoroughly like
(01:02:40):
thrived in the mentorship aspect because i was the internship coordinator for my
(01:02:46):
program and i mentored over like 50 students when i was working there
(01:02:52):
And it was amazing.
(01:02:53):
And I thoroughly...
(01:02:55):
just enjoyed helping these young students.
(01:02:58):
Cause I saw a lot of myself in them of like,
(01:03:01):
I just love the ocean and I don't know what the hell to do with my life.
(01:03:05):
And I need somebody to help me.
(01:03:06):
And I wish I had that person and I didn't.
(01:03:09):
And I want to be that person for a ton of people.
(01:03:12):
So doing stuff like this and like just being a voice of like, Hey, I'm a scientist yet.
(01:03:20):
I can still talk and relate and like,
(01:03:24):
chill things out so norm so people can understand what the hell i'm talking about
(01:03:30):
when a lot of my colleagues are incredibly intelligent but they don't have a social
(01:03:35):
cue to save their lives so yeah i mean like being that bridge is really cool for
(01:03:41):
sure i can see scientists being we work with engineers and decently abrasive people
(01:03:51):
You know, it's hard to really like, hey, man, you want to go out to lunch?
(01:03:54):
It's like, no.
(01:03:56):
Yeah.
(01:03:57):
Nah.
(01:04:00):
Well, we've talked about the keys.
(01:04:02):
We know you're in Maine right now.
(01:04:04):
Where else have you traveled to see coral or to do any sort of marine biology type research?
(01:04:11):
Um, I've been to Belize, I've been to Hawaii, I've been to St.
(01:04:16):
Martin and St.
(01:04:16):
Thomas, and Italy.
(01:04:18):
Those are all places I've been.
(01:04:20):
Um,
(01:04:21):
I haven't really done,
(01:04:23):
like,
(01:04:24):
research stuff,
(01:04:25):
per se,
(01:04:26):
except for Belize and the Keys,
(01:04:29):
and Italy only kind of counts,
(01:04:30):
because that was my honeymoon,
(01:04:31):
so...
(01:04:33):
there you go yeah congrats to you regardless of how long you've been married i just
(01:04:39):
got married last september so it was a little recent oh oh thanks very nice yeah
(01:04:45):
we're going on 11 years so awesome we're old my my husband so weird to say i love
(01:04:51):
um and i have been together since high school so we're nine years in total there
(01:04:56):
you go same same for us we're 20 we're 20 years in amazing i can't wait we're old
(01:05:06):
So you've mentioned that you're in Maine, though, for your book.
(01:05:09):
Yeah.
(01:05:10):
Your next two books, I think you said.
(01:05:12):
Yeah.
(01:05:14):
Tell me all about your books.
(01:05:16):
So I'm an avid reader.
(01:05:19):
I read too much.
(01:05:20):
My husband calls me a book dragon because I hoard them.
(01:05:23):
And again, my interest in marine science was spurred on by books and encyclopedias and
(01:05:32):
all sorts of stuff so a publishing company reached out to me via my instagram and
(01:05:38):
they were like hey do you want to write a book and i was like hell yeah i do so um
(01:05:44):
yeah i've been working on it for past five months now um i haven't gotten as far as
(01:05:51):
i want to just because this is my first ever book and
(01:05:55):
I've been busy.
(01:05:56):
So, um, but yeah, I've been married, moving across the country, all sorts of things.
(01:06:02):
Um, but yeah,
(01:06:04):
It's been really cool.
(01:06:06):
And I'm essentially just writing about my experience as a graduating student into
(01:06:13):
the pandemic,
(01:06:15):
having mega girl boss vibes of getting my job and then working as a scientist
(01:06:22):
through a coral bleaching event and kind of like afterward.
(01:06:26):
of what the hell am I doing and my trajectory of like moving more from the choral
(01:06:33):
biologist into the science communication role that I'm in now.
(01:06:37):
And I don't know, just hoping to inspire more people and share information like I'm with you right now.
(01:06:46):
about coral reefs and like teaching people about outplants and when corals reach
(01:06:51):
sexual maturity and like the magic that is seen spawning and just all the crazy,
(01:06:58):
wonderful information that I've absorbed the past,
(01:07:00):
you know,
(01:07:01):
five years of my career.
(01:07:03):
And yeah, and basically doing the podcast, but in book form.
(01:07:09):
There you go.
(01:07:09):
So we got the Cliff Notes version.
(01:07:11):
But when it comes out,
(01:07:13):
we will purchase the actual book and get all the gritty details that maybe we
(01:07:20):
didn't get in today's interview.
(01:07:21):
Yeah, there'll be a lot more details.
(01:07:26):
Fair enough.
(01:07:28):
I can't wait to see it.
(01:07:29):
I can't wait to read it.
(01:07:30):
I'm excited.
(01:07:31):
It's coming along, finally, now that I'm in the middle of the woods, able to focus.
(01:07:36):
Sometimes you got to do that.
(01:07:38):
Cut it off.
(01:07:38):
Cut off everything except our podcast, because you got to interview with us.
(01:07:42):
Exactly.
(01:07:43):
I still have internet connection.
(01:07:44):
That's important.
(01:07:46):
Yeah.
(01:07:46):
Oh, yeah.
(01:07:47):
Oh, yeah.
(01:07:48):
Well, I think we're at a point now where we can say,
(01:07:52):
Let's switch gears to our more fun questions.
(01:07:55):
Yes.
(01:07:57):
Okay.
(01:07:59):
We always ask one fun question at the very end, but we're going to have two for you.
(01:08:03):
Okay.
(01:08:04):
And we have two for you because you're a Florida native.
(01:08:07):
I'm special.
(01:08:09):
Amazing.
(01:08:11):
All right.
(01:08:11):
So what, what is, what was, what remains your favorite thing about Florida life?
(01:08:20):
Florida living.
(01:08:21):
Being in Florida.
(01:08:25):
Cannot be bath salts.
(01:08:26):
It's not bath salts for Miami.
(01:08:31):
Favorite part of Florida is that it's always connected to the ocean somehow, some way.
(01:08:35):
Whether it's the fossils in your backyard or the river running through that leads to the ocean.
(01:08:40):
You live right on the beach, you're on the ocean.
(01:08:43):
I really enjoy that aspect and I really like that it's a melting pot of people.
(01:08:48):
Like,
(01:08:49):
There is just so many different people from the walks of life everywhere.
(01:08:53):
You walk down the street, at least where I was, and you can hear five different languages.
(01:08:59):
And so I thought that was really cool.
(01:09:01):
You get to meet people from all over because a lot of people who have never been to
(01:09:06):
Florida want to go to Florida because they hear about the craziness that is Florida
(01:09:10):
and they're like,
(01:09:11):
let's go down there.
(01:09:12):
So it's cool to meet that and then also see the...
(01:09:18):
I would just say the natural gems that are in Florida,
(01:09:22):
because you get such a wild,
(01:09:24):
drastic variety of ecosystems there that are so unique to Florida.
(01:09:30):
You can't find Everglades without Everglades.
(01:09:35):
gators and you can't drive down the highway and you're like oh yeah there's a gator
(01:09:38):
you know you can't crocs or you can't go diving and then there's a florida reef and
(01:09:43):
you see a pod of dolphins swim by you like you can't do those things many other
(01:09:48):
places yeah we agree on that for sure absolutely but it was a two-part question
(01:09:54):
didn't see this coming what's your least oh uh
(01:10:00):
This is my least.
(01:10:01):
Yeah, bath salts.
(01:10:02):
Miami.
(01:10:03):
Miami.
(01:10:03):
I don't know.
(01:10:06):
Miami's got a cool school there, so I'll forgive them.
(01:10:11):
I would say at the same token, the people.
(01:10:14):
Yes.
(01:10:15):
When you get a bunch of visitors who don't know and just are completely unaware,
(01:10:20):
you get also a lot of destruction of those ecosystems and the harassment of
(01:10:24):
wildlife because they just don't know.
(01:10:28):
And that isn't their fault,
(01:10:30):
but it's also heart-wrenching to see when you're diving and then you see somebody
(01:10:34):
that's carved their name into a coral.
(01:10:36):
And you're like, oh, okay.
(01:10:39):
And you just hope that that's just blatant, like, I don't know, and you're unaware.
(01:10:45):
And you don't want to see the destruction of those ecosystems.
(01:10:50):
Yeah.
(01:10:52):
and obviously the trash and stuff on the beaches is hard to see.
(01:10:57):
But again, that's why I do what I do.
(01:11:00):
I want to teach people and show people like,
(01:11:02):
hey,
(01:11:02):
these things are really special and super cool,
(01:11:05):
and I'm incredibly passionate about it,
(01:11:07):
and I care about it,
(01:11:09):
and hopefully me baring my heart and soul of why I care about this makes you care too.
(01:11:15):
So it's like a double-edged sword there with the people.
(01:11:18):
For sure.
(01:11:19):
For sure.
(01:11:20):
No, I can see that.
(01:11:20):
Cause like you said, we've got all walks of life.
(01:11:23):
We've got people coming down that are snowbirds and all that.
(01:11:26):
They don't, I mean, they don't live here.
(01:11:29):
They don't know not to touch a manatee or, or the boulders in the, in the water.
(01:11:34):
The other thing I might want to say is the traffic.
(01:11:45):
yeah yeah we're from we were born and raised in the dc area so to us traffic is is
(01:11:51):
a way of life at this point yeah but i agree florida's traffic is almost jumanji
(01:11:57):
like though yeah it's weird like i never thought i would see worse drivers than
(01:12:05):
where we're from right but these motherfuckers down here
(01:12:10):
Holy crap.
(01:12:11):
Yeah.
(01:12:12):
It blew our minds that you don't have to have a car inspection in Florida.
(01:12:16):
Nope.
(01:12:16):
So the cars that are on the roads.
(01:12:19):
Where it's like crumbling in the back bumper and you're like, oh, cool.
(01:12:23):
Don't follow too close behind that car.
(01:12:25):
Tire iron's going to fly out of the trunk.
(01:12:29):
Yes!
(01:12:29):
Never knew people didn't get car inspections.
(01:12:32):
I mean, I like it, though, because that's an extra expense we don't have.
(01:12:36):
Right, true.
(01:12:36):
What is it, like Final Destination, where that piece comes out?
(01:12:40):
Oh, yeah.
(01:12:41):
That's every time you get in the car.
(01:12:42):
It's very Final Destination any time you get in the car in Florida.
(01:12:46):
That car's bumper's doing this.
(01:12:48):
Why?
(01:12:48):
It's a little scary.
(01:12:51):
It's hanging on by six pieces of duct tape.
(01:12:55):
Literally.
(01:12:59):
We've got one more for you, Summer.
(01:13:00):
If you won $10 million tonight, what is the first thing you would do tomorrow?
(01:13:08):
Oh.
(01:13:10):
Oh.
(01:13:12):
I mean, I hope this means that you're giving me $10 million.
(01:13:15):
I wish.
(01:13:18):
I don't know.
(01:13:18):
That's...
(01:13:22):
Okay, the first thing I'd probably do is cry.
(01:13:25):
Second thing I'd probably do is call my parents and be like, holy shit!
(01:13:29):
And then the third thing I would do is probably start my own non-profit.
(01:13:36):
After working in the non-profit sector and in the private sector with corals and
(01:13:41):
seeing different ways of how people approach the environment and the conservation
(01:13:47):
of our beautiful planet.
(01:13:50):
I think I would start my own nonprofit because there's things that I would want to
(01:13:54):
do and implement in a different way than that I've seen.
(01:13:57):
And like, I really think that I could make a bigger impact than just me alone.
(01:14:05):
And if I had more voices and more people to be able to say, like,
(01:14:12):
hey, this is really great.
(01:14:13):
And I would love to like sponsor interns because a lot of marine science positions
(01:14:21):
that are internships are unfortunately unpaid.
(01:14:24):
And in this economy, you can't do that.
(01:14:28):
You can't have.
(01:14:29):
So you're forcing these 19,
(01:14:31):
20 year old students who probably have student loan debt into an internship that's
(01:14:37):
40 hours a week.
(01:14:38):
And then they often have to have a job on top of that.
(01:14:41):
And that's what I did.
(01:14:42):
during my internship and like yeah do it for the plot builds character but also
(01:14:46):
that sucks so right um and it can squash passion right yeah come out of school and
(01:14:52):
you're passionate you're ready to rock and roll and ideas and exactly you have to
(01:14:56):
have five jobs yeah yeah so i think i would sponsor a lot of interns too because
(01:15:03):
that i don't think people should have to go through choosing between trying to
(01:15:09):
support themselves and pursuing their dreams
(01:15:13):
I love that.
(01:15:13):
So I, that is a really good answer for your $10 million question.
(01:15:19):
I think again,
(01:15:21):
the idea of having a passion and then be able to fund that passion becomes critical,
(01:15:26):
especially for kids right out of college.
(01:15:28):
Yeah.
(01:15:29):
Unpaid internships.
(01:15:30):
That hurts me.
(01:15:31):
Cause I, I just, I tell there's a, there's a little kid in our neighborhood.
(01:15:36):
He likes mowing grass and he came over to my house the other day and said, Hey man,
(01:15:40):
Can I mow your grass?
(01:15:40):
I was like, I don't have any money.
(01:15:42):
No cash.
(01:15:43):
I have no cash.
(01:15:44):
And he was like, he was like 10, 11 years old.
(01:15:46):
He was like, I don't care.
(01:15:47):
I'll do it for free.
(01:15:48):
And I was like, no, no, no, no, no.
(01:15:51):
Time is money, friend.
(01:15:52):
Not for you are a nerd.
(01:15:54):
I am.
(01:15:58):
But, uh, I said, you're not doing that for free, but he loves the fish.
(01:16:01):
So I gave him a fishing rod and he was so, so happy about that.
(01:16:05):
And, but I just, that to me is just wrong.
(01:16:10):
I'm not saying that you shouldn't do internships.
(01:16:13):
I'm just saying it's hard for me to swallow making someone work 40 hours a week for free.
(01:16:19):
Right.
(01:16:19):
Yeah,
(01:16:20):
when I was an intern,
(01:16:21):
I lived in intern dorms on site and there was 15 of us that lived in the dorms and
(01:16:28):
that was a large discussion a lot of the times of like,
(01:16:31):
screw this,
(01:16:32):
this is ridiculous.
(01:16:33):
You know,
(01:16:34):
you're put in a position of like,
(01:16:37):
of just pure,
(01:16:41):
I don't know,
(01:16:43):
like,
(01:16:46):
the word just,
(01:16:47):
blah,
(01:16:47):
blah,
(01:16:47):
blah,
(01:16:47):
blah.
(01:16:48):
left my brain but essentially it's not very open because you have to be in a
(01:16:54):
position financially just be able to support yourself and one that's not fair and
(01:16:57):
then right too like it's hard for somebody that's trying to start their career to
(01:17:03):
be in a position that they can't support themselves so removing that barrier would
(01:17:07):
be awesome and i post a lot on my instagram stories of paid
(01:17:14):
internships so a lot of organizations are trying to change that but there are still
(01:17:19):
a few sticklers out there and the majority are still unpaid so i'm trying to post
(01:17:23):
all the paid ones like here get paid for your time oh yeah for sure oh that's
(01:17:30):
awesome well speaking of your instagram let's tell people where they can find you
(01:17:35):
Yeah.
(01:17:36):
So it's summer.scientist on Instagram.
(01:17:40):
And I actually built a website.
(01:17:42):
Finally.
(01:17:42):
So that's literally just www.summerscientist.com.
(01:17:49):
And they can find like free resources on there,
(01:17:52):
like job and internship opportunities,
(01:17:54):
how to build a resume,
(01:17:56):
how to write a CV,
(01:17:58):
all the different places that I've been.
(01:18:00):
Like I've been in a kid's book.
(01:18:01):
I've been on other podcasts.
(01:18:03):
I'll put y'all's podcast on there, direct link to it.
(01:18:06):
so they can hear me talk about my stuff and then um all my wildlife travel trips
(01:18:11):
are on there too so if they want to join that to go to costa rica with me in june
(01:18:15):
2025 they can find that on there i'll go awesome yeah go well come on let's go
(01:18:23):
let's do it
(01:18:25):
I'm not kidding.
(01:18:28):
It's open to anybody.
(01:18:29):
It's June, 2025.
(01:18:31):
It's, um, it's before father's day.
(01:18:34):
So don't, don't worry.
(01:18:35):
You won't miss out.
(01:18:37):
And, uh, I know I love that little tab.
(01:18:39):
Like, there you go.
(01:18:40):
See,
(01:18:41):
um,
(01:18:42):
and we're literally just going to spend a week in Costa Rica,
(01:18:45):
just romping around and zip lining and going to waterfalls and,
(01:18:50):
um,
(01:18:51):
Kayaking and snorkeling and hiking volcanoes and I'll do basically a lot of this of
(01:18:57):
talking to people about coral reefs and why they're cool and why pursuing a
(01:19:04):
career in science is totally the bomb and all sorts of all the answering all the
(01:19:11):
questions because a lot of students have a lot of like i need advice i don't know
(01:19:15):
what to do but it pertains i just to them individually and i do as much as i can on
(01:19:21):
my instagram but being able to meet people in person and share that knowledge is so
(01:19:26):
important so i figured hey why not do it in costa rica yeah that's a good that's a
(01:19:31):
pretty good venue yeah
(01:19:36):
It's direct flights.
(01:19:37):
The hotels are all covered.
(01:19:39):
Most of the meals are covered.
(01:19:41):
It's great.
(01:19:43):
We'll check it out.
(01:19:45):
I keep making it sweeter, like, oh, you should go with me.
(01:19:50):
You had me go with you to Costa Rica.
(01:19:52):
I mean, you can stop selling there.
(01:19:57):
There's also natural hot springs, so I'm not excited about that at all.
(01:20:01):
I mean, just adding layers.
(01:20:02):
Awesome.
(01:20:03):
Ta-ra.
(01:20:07):
We can't thank you enough, Summer, for coming and joining us.
(01:20:10):
And, you know, like I said, I follow you on Instagram.
(01:20:13):
I'm an avid, avid summer scientist on Instagram watcher.
(01:20:18):
So I appreciate everything that you've taught us today.
(01:20:21):
And everything you do.
(01:20:23):
Absolutely.
(01:20:24):
And I hope you keep going forward with your mentoring and your books.
(01:20:27):
And I can't wait to read the book.
(01:20:29):
So again, thank you.
(01:20:31):
Thank you guys.
(01:20:32):
I was so happy to see you wanted to talk to me and this has been really fun.
(01:20:36):
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
(01:20:40):
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