Cultivating Conservation

Ethical Lens's. Navigating morality in wildlife photography and film making with Megan Hockin-Bennett, Natasha Garritty and Ryan Tidman.  This week’s episode is a little different in format. Last week I hosted the first ever Coastal Insights. Over a year ago I had an idea. To bring science, conservation, creativity and community together. To have everyone under the one roof to present, listen, inspire and share collectively our love for this coast we call home.  We squeezed 90 people into one of my favorite places on earth. The Whale Interpretive centre is a museum in telegraph Cove on vancouver Island.  Run by the wonderful Jim and Mary Borrowman and it houses the most incredible collection of artifacts from this coastline. Every year they welcome thousands of guests to learn from their knowledgeable team. I first visited in 2012 during my first summer on this coast and 15 years later seeing a full house sitting under the skeletons of whales was a sight to behold. Six very different speakers shared stories, statistics, opinions but most importantly they shared their passion and the energy in the room was electric and palpable. It was an evening I will never forget and it is certainly the first of many Coastal Insights.  I really hope sometime soon to be able to share more snippets from these speakers as I sit down with them all separately to learn more about their lives, their passions and their stories.  But for this week I wanted to share with you my contribution to the evening.  A few years ago now I found a instagram account called Woodland Orbit run by a local trail cam enthusiast Natasha Garritty. We finally met a few months later through mutual friends and have always kept in touch. I have been so inspired by her work and thoughtful process towards ethics that I reached out about recording an episode. Another mutual friend of ours Ryan Tidman who is a professional wildlife photography and camera operator was also someone I wanted in the conversation. His work on camera traps and his experience in blue chip natural history was something I was also interested in hearing about.  We took a hike in a local forest where they both set some of their trail cams, set some camping chairs down, rigged up 4 camera and 4 microphones and recorded our chat.  What was a 90 min conversation I had to edit down to a 25 minute piece for Coastal Insights.  We really did only scratch the surface here and it feels like it is the start of a much bigger conversation which I feel is becoming more important than ever.  What you hear now is the audio of that edited conversation.   

Gorillas are among the most recognizable of the large charismatic mammals, but climate change and poaching has brought them to the brink of extinction. Greg Cummings was the executive director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund for seventeen years. He shares his fascinating experiences as a “wildlife Robin Hood”—raising money from the rich and famous and redistributing it to endangered gorillas and their habitats. He met and enlisted the help of celebrities such as Sigourney Weaver, Arthur C. Clark, Douglas Adams, and Leonardo DiCaprio. This thirty-year worldwide journey moves from boardrooms in Manhattan and London to mountain treks in Rwanda and Congo. Gorilla Tactics is sure to enchant readers with Greg’s unique experiences, while sharing insight into the work it takes to save a species from extinction. Show Notes:  - https://www.munrobooks.com/item/XxL4J9tRA546NZ0RHwLBeQ -https://bluegorillagiving.ca/  

Dr Christy Hehir is an environmental psychologist with a PhD on how tourism can better aid conservation. Christy is passionate about understanding how tourists engage with the natural world and the long-term impacts tourism can have on individuals’ subsequent pro-environmental behaviour towards our planet’s sustainability. Committed to science communication, Christy was recently awarded a fellowship at the Royal Geographical Society  and currently works as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Surrey - researching the future of polar tourism. Prior to academia, Christy had 10 years’ travel industry experience across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Her polar adventures ignited when she travelled to Antarctica with Students on Ice, having been elected as the UK’s student representative for International Polar Year. Show Notes:  - https://www.surrey.ac.uk/people/dr-christy-hehir -https://happywhale.com/home - 

Patrica Sims is a Director, Writer and Producer specializing in documenting threatened wildlife and is fascinated by the connection between humans and nature. From the arctic to the tropics, from the land to the sea. A true documentarian, Patricia has spent her life embedded within communities that live in close proximity with the natural world and her goal is to bring a global awareness to threats they face. She is a Fellow International of The Explorers Club, and Fellow in the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS).  In 2012 Patrica founded World Elephant Day, A global awareness campaign that brings attention to the critical threats facing elephants. Now in its 13th year the annual World Elephant Day campaign reaches millions of individuals across the globe through events, traditional media, and social media outreach. Her multi award winning films, For the love of dolphins, Beluga Speaking Across Time, Return to the forest and When elephants were young have been celebrated globally. The founder of production company Canazwest Pictures, A public speaker, avid freediver and lover of all things nature, Patrica loves nothing more than a walk on the beach with her dog. In 2024, she is in development on several projects including her feature documentary “Breathless” and feature documentary series “The Big Hunt”. Show Notes:  - https://worldelephantday.org - http://www.canazwest.com/bios - https://canadiangeographic.ca/canadian-geographic-adventures/rcgs-travel-ambassadors/rcgs-ambassador-patricia-sims/

Tiare Boyes is an underwater camera operator, photographer, commercial diver and ocean plastics artist. Growing up on the coast of BC raised by a family of fishermen, her life has always revolved around the ocean; understanding how we can be good neighbors to our marine cousins, as well as sharing the incredible beauty and amazing underwater life with others in an enjoyable and educational manner drives her creativity. Her passion is being immersed in the marine world, both at work and at play and showing others the incredible world that lays just below the surface.  Show Notes:  - https://www.tiareboyes.com - https://divermag.com/diver-interview-tiare-boyes/ - https://www.wildpacifichalibut.com/fishing-families/tiare-boyes  

Host, Megan Hockin-Bennett takes a break from interviews to talk about the podcast, what it has meant for her so far and the huge ripples it's making in her life swell as others! 

Finlay Pringle is a marine conservationist, climate change activist, Sea Shepherd shark ambassador and alongside his family has collected nearly 10,000KG of trash from the shorelines of his home in Scotland. But most importantly, at the age of 16, right now he is trying to complete his exams so he can once again focus his efforts on saving the planet!  At the age of nine, Finlay was in love with sharks, but became upset when he found out that over 100 million of them were being killed a year due to human threats. This sparked a nearly decade-long journey into activism and conservation. SO FAR.  As of February 2024 he has completed 269 climate strikes on Friday mornings instead of going to school. As a family since 2020 the Pringle’s have completed 229 beach cleans and removed 9832kg of plastic pollution from the oceans. In 2024, so far, they have done 18 clean ups collecting just over 600kg of ocean trash. Finlay is a whirlwind of productivity and we spoke about growing up in the spotlight and how hard it is to stay positive in what can  sometimes feel like a bleak future for this planet.  Show Notes:  https://ullapoolsharkambassador.com https://seashepherd.org https://fridaysforfuture.org Bite Back Shark Education pack: https://www.bite-back.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Bite-Back-SOS-Education-Pack.pdf

Lauren Plummer is the director of Green Threads Cornwall. A slow fashion market dedicated to connecting local communities to second hand clothing and promoting past loved items. She lives in Cornwall with her Husband Martin and her son Orlando. Lauren is passionate about empowering communites to adopt a slower and simpler life for the sake of our children and out planet.

Lindsey Raven Emrich is vetrineray nurse, yoga teacher, green living inspiration and my first and formost, my sister! She lives in a small town in rural England and dedicates every spare moment she can trying to inspire people to make a differance. Whether its orginizing litter picks in her local community or combating waste in the vetrineray industry, Lindsey is the true definition of a conservationist. She has inspired me and many others throughout our lives that incremental change, leads to monumental change! Infectiously enthusiastic about making low impact life FUN!   Show Notes:  - https://www.orangutans.ca/?referrer_source=GADCA_GENERIC&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAtt2tBhBDEiwALZuhANJswPZsCC60cDqlQWmDrruQqXXwsDiaBdENSYOOKXVR6IVhs14vgRoCJQUQAvD_BwE - https://www.asustainablelife.co.uk/ - https://www.vetyogi.com/ - https://www.facebook.com/p/Fingringhoe-Green-Group-100083590209272/?paipv=0&eav=AfZUAPKY58wzhu3if9DAq3D3ecdhKYhFeGu1I991voEdpaagIblMSACjRQFx4TlZepk&_rdr  

Executive president and co-founder of Born Free foundation Will Travers is an internationally renowned wildlife expert who has dedicated his life to wildlife protection, conservation, advocacy and policy. His passion for wildlife was ignited at an early age when  he lived in Kenya while his parents, Dame Virginia McKenna and the late Bill Travers MBE, made the award-winning film Born Free (1966).  In 1984, with his parents, he co-founded the wildlife charitable organisation now known as The Born Free Foundation which works to stop individual wild animal suffering, protect threatened species worldwide and keep wildlife in the wild.   Will has been involved in rescuing, relocating, protecting or conserving elephants, tigers, lions, dolphins and many other species, and is always willing to share his experience and knowledge to further Born Free’s vision for a more compassionate future. Will is also a Board Member of Born Free USA (www.bornfreeusa.org) and is President of the Species Survival Network (www.ssn.org), an international coalition of more than 100 organisations committed to the promotion, enhancement and strict enforcement of CITES (the United Nations Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).  Will has participated in every CITES meeting since 1989 and advises on the precautionary application of the Convention, as part of a highly-experienced international team.  Will is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (London), and was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in June 2012 for Services to Conservation and Animal Welfare in Her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Show Notes: - https://www.bornfree.org.uk - https://www.primevideo.com/dp/amzn1.dv.gti.919c8b65-43bf-4731-8544-70d1cff49641?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb