He Almost Quit the Dive Business. Then a Coral Reef PhD Student Walked In.

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I wanna tell you a story of a dive
shop owner's wife who told him that

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it's time to get out of the business.

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We're in the Keys.

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The environment's not looking that great.

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We don't know how long we're gonna be
in business, if people are gonna come

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out anymore if the reefs are gone.

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So she tells him, "We gotta get out now.
We gotta sell before it's too late."

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He doesn't know what to do about it.

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It's a very difficult decision when you've
spent decades trying to have a dive shop,

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get it off the ground, you know, get
good clientele coming back and forth.

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You're in the Keys, you're in one of
the best places in the US to dive.

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And then so he's thinking about this.

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He's like, "This is a major life
decision." He's approaching sort of

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the, you know, closer to his retirement.

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He's like, "Wait a minute, I'm not sure
if I can do this." Then a grad student

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walks into his shop, a marine biology grad
student, and just to fill a couple scuba

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tanks 'cause she's got to do some work.

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And by the time she leaves, he asked
her, like, a dozen questions about

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the reef and what's been going on.

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And that's the entire origin of
the story of a nonprofit that's

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since planted its first coral it
started as small as a tank fill.

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We're gonna talk about that
on today's episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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It's a great story about, you know,
a guy who doesn't know much about…

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Like, he's not a marine biologist.

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He doesn't know much about the
science of reefs or things like

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that, but he's gone diving a lot.

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And that's what we're
gonna talk about today.

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And so if you wanted to learn more about
this, and this is the type of information

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you like to learn, don't forget to follow
on your favorite podcast app so that you

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get more stories of this Monday to Friday.

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Every week we kinda pick a theme,
and this week's theme is coral

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reefs and coral restoration.

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And we're gonna talk about this story of
how this dive owner became the president

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of an organization that plants corals,
and so that the other dive businesses

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can do really well and his as well.

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So we're gonna find out how he
does that, all that kinda stuff

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and the origin story of that.

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It's kinda like a Marvel movie, I guess.

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No, no, it's not.

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Uh, but it's a great story
anyway, so let's look at it.

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Now, Mike Goldberg had over 10,000
dives and decades in the dive business.

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Enough to have seen that, like,
Florida coral reefs at their pristine,

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almost the impeccable finest.

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Some of the dives that he's done like,
decades ago, wall-to-wall coral.

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Imagine just diving, and you're
just going through, and you're

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probably maybe, like, 10 feet, 20
feet deep, maybe a little bit more.

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You're in the Keys, beautiful
weather, nice calm day on the boat.

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You dive down, and you
see wall-to-wall corals.

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Like, just, sea fans
going back and forth.

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You see these hard corals that are
causing, like, the complex, like,

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the branching corals and the plate
corals, and they're causing this, like,

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complexity in the system where you're
seeing all these little critters hide.

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Fish, like, schools of fish by
the hundreds and thousands of them.

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And you see all these little critters
that come out, these invertebrates,

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shrimp and crabs, and all the nematodes
and worms, and all these wonderful things

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that you get to see when you go to a reef.

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It is why people travel to
the Keys all of the time.

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But then he had his first widespread
coral bleach event around 2008.

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It was like a huge event
across the eastern Caribbean.

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And it was a shock.

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He even says like, "We didn't
even know coral bleaching was.

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Now, about 10 years before that,
there was a thing called stony coral

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loss disease, SCTDL, and it hit.

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And Mike, as a non-scientist, he was
like, almost threw up my hands and, like,

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describing it as genuinely depressing.

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He's just like, "I'm done.

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I can't do it." "The corals
are all dying." It hit, like,

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crazy amounts of corals.

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Just to explain what it is,
cause it's a specific crisis

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here that we're talking about.

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It was first identified off Virginia
Key near Miami in the fall of 2014.

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So almost exactly about 10
years ago, of that window that

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Mike was describing to me.

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The cause is still not fully identified,
but it's a bacteria that appear to be

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involved since like, the antibiotic
treatment slows its progression,

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so it must be, like, a bacteria.

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But no single confirmed pathogen has
been pinned down to this disease.

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But what makes it different from
bleaching is bleaching is a stress

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response a coral can sometimes recover
from once the water temperature drops.

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But with stony coral tissue disease,
it kills living coral tissue outright.

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So in lesions that can spread, like,
five to 40 square centimeters a day.

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So it's rapidly spreading, and often kills
the entire colony within weeks to months.

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It affects more than 20 of Florida's
roughly 45 stony, coral species.

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So there are difference in corals.

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There are stony and soft corals.

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So the stony corals are, like, the
hard corals, the stuff you scratch

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yourself on if you're a diver
or a snorkeler or a free diver.

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The soft corals are kinda like they're
more tissue than skeleton and they,

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you know, mushroom corals, Xenia,
like, all these different… They're

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very, like, wavy, very flowery.

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Some are thick, like the mushroom
corals can be thick at times.

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But the stony corals are,
like, the branching corals, the

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flat corals, the brain corals.

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Those are the stony corals,
the hard corals, right?

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They have that hard limestone
skeleton where the soft ones don't.

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But this is like, 20 out of 45 stony
coral species are affected, including

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the major reef-building species
like the brain and pillar corals.

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With mortality, almost the most
vulnerable species running as high

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as 66 to 100% through virtually
the entire Florida Reef Tract.

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An estimated 90% of it, more than
109,000 acres, and onto reefs in at

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least 18 countries and territories
across the wider Caribbean.

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So this has hit everybody.

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This has hit a lot of people.

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Now at that time, his wife told him
directly, it's like, "What are you

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gonna do? You know, like the product
that you sell, the reef, it's not what

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it used to be, and it's not getting
better." So she suggested he get out

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of the business before it's too late.

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You know?

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Or you're not gonna have anything to sell.

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You're not gonna have anything
to offer on these dives.

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And that's just like, this is a
wife, not, again, not a scientist.

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Maybe not in the know of what's
happening, not following the

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science, and that's fine.

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That's normal.

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This is a business person.

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This person is trying to
show people a good time.

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Her and her husband are trying
to show people a good time at the

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dive sites, and it's beautiful.

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Like, when you go to a lot of dive sites,
like they care about the ocean so much.

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It's not just their business,
but it's what they do.

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And Mike was the same thing.

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Mike and his wife, like,
they care about it.

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But at some point you have to
ask yourself, "Is this, like,

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a thing that we're gonna do?"
He's like, "What am I gonna do?

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I have no idea." But he's not
a person that he describes.

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So I interview him on Friday and
he says, "I'm not a person that,

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like, I'm gonna just give up."

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So around 2017 into 2018, a
young woman walked into Mike's

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shop just to fill up some tanks.

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She turned out to be Dr. Kylie
Smith, who ended up being a

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co-founder of ICARE For with him.

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She was working on her PhD, studying
the relationship between parrotfish

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populations and coral outplants nearby.

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Now he's like, "All right, Kylie.

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Like, I don't know you too well,
but I need you to sit down.

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You're a scientist, you know, you're a
PhD student." So, like, just to let people

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know, like, although graduate students,
master's and PhD students are technically

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students, they know a hell of a lot.

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Like, they have been doing review
after review and been pounded with

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information throughout their undergrad
and graduate studies where they know

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a lot, especially about the particular
subject that they're studying.

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Here is Kylie, a PhD student, who's
studying the, uh, relationship

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between parrotfish populations
and coral plants in the Keys.

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So she knows a lot about the environment.

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She probably knows a lot
about what's happening.

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So he sits down and he's like, "I
don't know you too well, but I need

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to ask you a bunch of questions."

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He's like, that's exactly how
their relationship, like business

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relationship started, is just
him just sitting there and being

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like, " You know, I'm not a scientist.

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I need to know, like, what is happening.

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I need to know whether I need to
close my business down." She came

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back two to three weeks later, and he
then he says, "She couldn't get out

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without me asking a dozen questions."

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He calls it his period of discovery.

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This is a period where he was able to
find out from a scientist, from an expert,

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about what's happening with the reef.

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That's a huge, huge thing.

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A lot of business owners are just
gonna be like, "How can I make money?

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How can I make more money?

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How can I stay with making
the money that I am?

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What if people don't come anymore?"
So he needs to ask questions about

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what's happening to the reef, and
are there ways to make it better.

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And it took a roughly a year
to figure out, like, the

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direction he wanted to take.

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And part of that year was Mike
convincing Kylie not to take a

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government job and instead running
her own nonprofit, something her

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own family said was a little risky.

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'Cause like, look, you're a PhD student,
you graduate with your PhD. And then you

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gotta figure out what you're gonna do.

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And even before you graduate
and before your defense,

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you're looking for post-docs.

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You're looking at which you can get at
government or you can get at institutions,

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like in academic institutions.

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You might go to a nonprofit.

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You might go to, like, a coral restoration
foundation that's already established.

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The options are there, but it's just a
matter of, like, what she wants to do, but

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it's not always easy to get a government
job or to get anything like this.

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This is in 2018.

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Trump administration, the
first time, was in power.

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Environmental jobs weren't coming by the
wayside, especially for government, so

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there's not a lot available at that time.

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And of course, it's before COVID, so
God knows what would've happened if

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she had taken a job somewhere else.

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You know, he's convincing her.

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He's like, "Hey, you need to start
something with me. We need to do

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something together. We need to start
a nonprofit." And he convinced her.

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He's like, "I need to do it." And
he's like, "It's gonna be great.

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Trust me," like, " We're gonna make this
work." And look, he's had this experience

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of running a business for, like, 30 years.

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A dive business.

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He knows the reef, and local
information is always better

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when you couple it with science.

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Or science is always better when
you couple it with local knowledge.

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And so I think it worked.

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And it did.

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It worked.

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Her connections in the scientific
community, his connections in the

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dive industry, it was perfect.

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And in comes ICARE, which is a nonprofit,
and the partnership started with Mote

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Marine Laboratories, and the first coral
went into the water in January 2021.

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Now, I think you have to realize
the way all of this works is you

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have to establish, you know…
Like, there's a lot to go into it.

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There's the infrastructure of actually
putting up a nonprofit organization,

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like starting a nonprofit, building
the team, finding partners.

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Like Mote Marine Laboratories is
not just your regular partner.

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It is Mote Marine Laboratories.

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It is internationally known.

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They have a great coral program.

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They know Florida very well.

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Some of the best researchers have come
and gone through that and continue

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to be there in the laboratories.

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And so having the knowledge and the
backing of them, plus a bunch of other

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partners now, you start to realize,
like, you can do a lot of things here.

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Now it's just a matter of
actually implementing, 'cause

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they knew the science was there.

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They knew the science said, "Hey,
locally, we can actually restore

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this area, this reef on Islamorada."
The keys that they were on.

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Now, since the start, since that first
frag went in, that first coral went in

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in January 2021, it's grown into, like,
Eye Care propagating all its own coral,

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running its own onshore nursery with
nine offshore coral and sponge nurseries

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installing this October coming up.

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Plus partnerships with Reef Renewal
USA, Mote Marine Lab, the Florida

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Aquarium, and the Reef Institute.

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So there's a lot of places
where this is growing out.

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And it's like, for the last five and
a half years through COVID, like, they

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started at the beginning of COVID.

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If you know business owners, whether
it's nonprofits or for-profits, and

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if you ever watched them or asked them
questions during COVID how to manage

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their business, that's a tough thing.

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That's a tough thing.

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Like dive shops, I don't even know how
Mike kept his dive shop open during COVID.

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Like, I know Florida was different, I
know the US was different in the way

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they managed it, but not a lot of people
were traveling for a good amount of

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time before it started to open up again.

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And a lot of businesses, like especially
tourist business, lost money 'cause people

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weren't going on planes because that's
where you caught a lot of COVID, right?

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'Cause we know planes are bad
for that kind of stuff to pass

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around just the common cold, let
alone a global pandemic disease.

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And whatever you think about the
pandemic or not, it doesn't matter.

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People just weren't
moving around that much.

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And to be able to not only continue
his business, like his dive business

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for Mike through that, but also
start and grow ICARE, a nonprofit

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organization that looks for funding
all the time, that's a very difficult

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thing to do, and he's able to grow it.

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And in the interview on Friday,
you'll see how much he's gonna

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be growing it and going into the
details of those pop-up installations

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of these reef, sort of nurseries.

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And it's amazing.

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Absolutely amazing.

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And ICARE, like, didn't start with,
like, a grant or a strategic plan.

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It started with people having
conversations at a dive shop.

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And the dive shop's owner's, like,
frustration, and his one chance to

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have a conversation by a grad student
who just happened to walk in, who was

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a coral reef researcher, and then this
partnership bloomed into something

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like ICARE, which is phenomenal.

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Not something like ICARE, ICARE.

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And if you wanna go to the website,
let me just pull it up here.

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It's icareaboutcoral.org.

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It's that simple.

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I'll put the links in the show notes.

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But the disease that pushed Mike
to act, that stony coral tissue

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disease, it's not like bleaching.

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It's unresolved, it's contagious,
tissue-killing outbreak that's been

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actively spreading through Florida
and the wider Caribbean for over

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a decade with no confirmed cause.

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But this partnership worked because it
paired the two different expertise that

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don't usually sit in the same room, right?

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A scientist's research, a small
business owner's community

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connections, and the, his hustle.

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And I think when you start to watch your
own livelihood, you know, and you see it

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decline, and you choose to act instead
of just walk away, that's admirable.

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That's its own kind of origin
story, separate from the science.

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It's people who need to survive.

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It's this resilience that people
have and communities have.

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And like there are big things
coming with ICARE About Coral.

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There really is, and you're
gonna see that over the years.

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We're gonna cover that.

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We're gonna have Mike back on, probably
have Kylie on as well, and it's just

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phenomenal, and I think you're gonna
be very proud to see that people

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are actually fighting out there.

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It builds my optimism, it builds
my enthusiasm to get more of

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these stories out there to you
because we need these stories.

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We need the people to fight.

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Whether it's local, whether it's just,
like, to build a little bit of resiliency

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until we figure out this climate change
thing or act on this climate change thing,

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that's something that's tangible that we
can bring home and just be like, "Yes,

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somebody out there is doing something."

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And he's not the only one.

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And Kylie's not the only one.

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But they are doing a great job, and we're
gonna hear more about that this week.

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We're gonna talk about, the
monitoring that they're doing, the

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transparency that they're gonna have.

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You're gonna hear all about it.

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And it's gonna be pretty big,
so I'm looking forward to seeing

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that turn into something huge.

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But that's it for today's episode.

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I really appreciate you listening in.

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If you have any questions or
comments, you know, please feel

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free to hit me up on my socials.

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If you're on Spotify, just put a comment.

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I usually get pinged when a
comment is up, and I'll r-reply

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usually within the next 24 hours.

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00:13:49,402 --> 00:13:52,412
So hit me up on Spotify in a comment
if you have a question, comment,

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anything like that on the podcast.

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00:13:54,798 --> 00:13:56,408
And if not, just go to the show notes.

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Not only will you get the website for
ICARE About Coral, but you'll also get,

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the links to my social so you can DM me
on either Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.

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But I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.