Too Enthusiastic? How to Find Your Place in Ocean Action

0:00 Do you ever feel disconnected from ocean action? You sign petitions online and you donate, and then, like, you share the post, but you're really not-- You don't feel like you're doing the work. And today we're gonna discuss, like, why that happens and how to get off the sidelines and into a community that shares the same type of thought process around the environment as you do. That's what we're gonna talk about on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. This is the podcast where you find out everything about the ocean news, whether it's ocean science, ocean conservation. I'm a marine biologist and science communicator here to give you all of that information so that you can just kinda have, lay back, relax, and understand what's happening with the ocean.

0:42 And this week it's all about getting involved, from your own backyard to the global stage. We're gonna talk all about that. And today it starts with a story about me. when I first got into ocean work, I was all in. Like, I'd walk into every room saying the same thing, like, "I just wanna help. I'll do it for free." Like, even after I had my undergraduate, I'd be like, "I'll do it for free. I just wanna have impact on the ocean." That was my goal. That's always been my goal. And I need to do something, it's kinda funny 'cause, like, when I first graduated, I was like, "Hey, you know what? Like, I'm gonna volunteer. Like, I can't find a job right now, but I'm gonna write emails to people and I'm gonna volunteer." Be like, "Hey, I can do, like, some statistics or maybe I can, come out and do some field work and all this." And there were all these hoops that I had to jump through for it to even happen, if they would even respond, because people were just not even responding to what I wanted to do.

1:29 And I was just like, "Why don't they want my help?" And it had to do with a lot of internal stuff, where they had to-- Like, if you have a volunteer, you have to bring them on. They have to get put into a system. There's certain businesses that if they're taking on an intern or a volunteer, they have to show that they're giving back in some sorta way. It was just kinda weird. Like, it felt like it should be easier for me to volunteer with a specific individual or specific organization, but it was difficult to do that. and I think it was, a lot of it was based off of trust. They didn't know who I was. I was emailing them, offhand, and it was just, something where you're just like, "Oh, okay, cool." Like, I don't know who this person is. I have no idea if they're gonna wanna stay with this project or not. They just like what we do and they wanna get involved. But once they get a job, they're probably gonna leave," which is probably true.

2:11 Like, let's be honest here. but I had trouble finding just a way to get in, and then every job that I had After that, I never really felt like I really had an impact. I did some cool science, I worked with some great people, I had some great experiences, but the problem was I just, how do I make sure I have an ocean impact? Like, is it, more involvement? Is it the type of job that I have? How can I do that? That was, like, my big thing, and to be honest, it's how I got into science communication. But the thing is, like, when you first start out, and especially looking, when I tell people what to do, it's like they have no idea where to begin, There's no obvious way in. A lot of the big organizations, they do great work, but the ask is usually like, "You can donate," or, "You can sign here."

2:52 and a lot of the times, like, for you who's listening to this who may not have a background in marine biology, you're not qualified to, like, work as a worker there. You don't have a degree, you're not a scientist. You're probably thinking like, " I'm not even around the ocean that much. I'm not a surfer, I'm not a scuba diver," whatever that might be. But the thing is that anyone who cares about the ocean should be working in a real way to contribute, I think there's a lot of different ways that this can happen, and we can talk a lot about that and how that works. And then, you look at how everything is going these days with the advent of remote working and computers and phones, and the way we, talk about how people are lonely these days. There's no interaction between people outside of work or outside of maybe some community events that they join, that may not be from an environmental perspective, we have phones in our faces, we're coming out of this pandemic that we've had, and it's hard to find your people.

3:44 and if you start to discuss environmental, issues online, that's not fun at a lot of the times 'cause you can get attacked. and so, I think it's interesting to see how people are getting involved. And today we're gonna be talking about, a number of stories of how people are getting involved, including Lily, who was on our podcast yesterday, Lily, Woodruff. And she is from Surfrider Canada. but I wanna tell you a little bit about her, because I think it's something of interest. She told me, like, she grew up wanting to make a difference. She did a degree in environmental studies at the University of Toronto, great school, finished in 2015. And then, like, in that entire degree, there wasn't a single course on something that was really of interest to the world or just in general, like, an issue to the world, which was plastic pollution.

4:28 But she knew litter was bad, everyone knows that. Nobody wants to see litter. But nobody had taught her what plastic was, what it actually was and why it's a pollutant. And so after graduation, she did what a lot of us do, She volunteered everywhere, trying to get a foot in the door, and then she kept hitting the same wall that I did when I first started. groups would let her show up and do a task, but nobody really helped her grow like, within this field. And then she heard about a meeting in Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It was a group called Surfrider. You probably heard of it. It's been around for quite a long time. but she had never heard of it before. But she was a surfer, so she thought, "Hey, I'll just go. Like, it's probably my people." And at that meeting, she basically let it all out, she talked, she stood up, she said, "Hey, look, here's who I am.

5:15 these are my qualifications. Here's what I wanna do. I wanna make a big difference. Like, sign me up for whatever you're doing." And that night, the chapter chair, Michelle Hall, sent her an email, and it was, like, paragraphs long, and it's because Michelle saw something in her. She wanted to connect with her. And Lily joined as a volunteer in February 2016, and a year later, she became the chapter's first paid staff member. She was 23 and pretty terrified at the time, and she thought, like, "What have I done? Am I an imposter? Am I working in the right field? I was an environmental science degree major, and I graduated with that degree from a pretty prestigious school. is this what is, like, what I want?" And the people around her had said, too, like, said, " No, this doesn't seem like you." But 10 years later, Lily is the campaigns and storytelling director for Surfrider Foundation Canada I think what's interesting about this story is that when we go to school, we are shown different types of potential jobs that come out of an environmental science degree, a marine biology degree.

6:16 I had marine freshwater biology degree, oceanography degree. And you get told based on who your professors are, TAs, your colleagues and things like that. But they may not have the experience of working in other fields within this field, like the smaller fields, like the nonprofit organizations, the private consulting, all that kind of stuff. And when you come out, you wanna have an impact or you have a specific goal, and so you want to be able to work in these things, but you have no idea what's available. Lily was able to find this by following her curiosity, and not everyone knows, like, their passion, so when people say follow your passion, it's very difficult to do that if you don't know what your passion is. You may think you have an idea of what that is, but you don't know how that transcends into an actual paying job, So that pressure stops people, but curiosity just asks you to show up, just like Lily showed up to that Surfrider meeting.

7:06 she was curious about what it is. And to be honest, as an environmental scientist, as a marine biologist, as scientists in general, we should lead with our curiosity. That is what propels our entire career. Not necessarily our passion, 'cause you might have a passion for something, but that might not be what your overall curiosity is. You know what I mean? it's a little bit different than that. You have to be open to a lot of different things. you can show up. All you have to do is show up to certain things that you may not think would be worthwhile. You can show up to Surfrider, just like Lily did, a meeting, just like a chapter meeting. Or like after having the podcast for a little bit, I went to Oceans Online in Miami in 2013, I think, 2012, 2013.

7:47 I met all these people who I had, knew online that I'd made friends with and connected with but never really knew who they were. And then before I went to there to learn about science communication I was kind of lonely in what I was doing. I had no feedback. I didn't know what people thought of the show. I didn't know what people thought of podcasting or social media in general. And then I met all these, like, great, intelligent, amazing, creative people at this conference that have propelled, like, continued to make me do science communication like, I wanted to do that. I followed my curiosity into those areas. I went to the World Ocean Summit last year in Montreal just out of curiosity. I was working a completely different job in software. I ended up getting a job out of it just 'cause I was curious of going.

8:28 So you just never know what happens, so lead with that curiosity. And then also look for groups that invest in people, You don't wanna just, like, show up and run the door. Like, they just need people to do jobs. But, like, we'll help you build skills. That's what Surfrider helped Lily do, and I think that's something that we can help, it has helped a lot of people, but that's what you wanna look for, And you don't need to be an expert in anything. You don't need to be a surfrider to join Surfrider. most Surfrider members are not surfers, and I think that's a big difference. And then people come for the impact, but they stay for the people. Imagine showing up to a group where you're doing a beach cleanup, and everybody that's doing the beach cleanup with you in this community is really aligned with your sort of environmental, thinking, So you wanna protect the environment, you want to act, you wanna do something.

9:15 But, like, maybe some of your regular friends and family aren't into that, so they don't like talking about it a lot. But this group does because they're out doing something for the environment. And so having that community that you show up to do, like, you come in, you try and do that impact, but you stay for that community because you really enjoy that aspect. And I think that's the fun part, 'cause then you get into doing, like, film nights, art workshops, you can clean up together, and you just have this shared identity. and to be honest, that's how the culture around the ocean shifts, and I think that's really interesting, Now, what's interesting for me is, I live in Ontario, and for a while now, I've been thinking, like, "Where's my community for the environment around that?" to be honest, like right now, Surfrider Foundation Canada has five chapters.

10:02 I live in Canada, I live in Ontario. They have the South Vancouver Island, Mid Island. They have Vancouver, Pacific Rim, and Atlantic Canada. There's nothing necessarily in, Ontario, although there is a Collingwood one in Ontario that's forming. And there are student clubs at University of Victoria, Dalhousie, Vancouver Island University, and University of Toronto, but there's no community chapter in Ontario. So that's something that could be in my future This is my last year of coaching hockey, which takes up a lot of time. and this could be, I'm not saying it is, but it could be something that I move into to either join the chapter in Ontario or start one around the Great Lakes like Lake Ontario. you just never know, it's a fun time because you can look to attract people that think the same way, and you can really have it make a difference locally.

10:48 And I think that's really good. And if I do, like end up doing this, I bet some of the people who live around here are gonna join too. I think it's really interesting. But the thing is here is like, you wanna find a local group. That's what I want you to do this week. I want you to find a local group this week. Go to one event. See how you feel about that event. You don't have to speak. You can just listen, maybe talk to a few people as you're doing that. Or maybe even think if you're, like into organizing and logistics and that kind of stuff, maybe think about starting a chapter. All it takes is a small group of five to nine people to form the volunteer executive committee, a few thousand dollars to fund your first program, so you can get that, through donations. And then you get like the head office covers the IT, bookkeeping, compliance, and can issue charitable receipts.

11:31 So it's all there for you, and, you can also look at like the relationship with the indigenous nation whose land you're on, and a letter of support from that indigenous nation. And I think that's something that's interesting as well. And then you can ask what their priorities are for water. You can do all these different things for it, and like you look for what problem you wanna solve that's local to your area, to the people that you've talked to. Clean water, plastic, pollution, beach access, ocean or lake protection, depending on where you live, coasts and climate, whatever that might be. And if you're a student, you can start a club at your high school, your college, or your university, depending on where you go. All the details are at surfrider.ca. I think it's something that you should check out if you're interested. And of course, if you're in the US, there are chapters all over the US, and if you're in Europe, there's some chapters there too, and you get the same kind of start.

12:16 Wherever you are around the world, I'm sure Surfrider would be, most interested in working with you or having you come and help them out. There are people who I speak on an everyday basis, And they just, they don't do anything about it, but they complain that the environment is not doing well. and this is the thing, like if you don't join something like this, or if you don't start something like this, or if you don't get more involved, then nothing changes, you end up like still having these feelings of helplessness, And you're just scrolling on bad news, you just ignore the problem eventually. But it's not gonna go away. But if you take that step, like, you find your people, you learn new skills, maybe a new community, and you get a real change, not only for the environment, but for your life, and you end up being a lot happier doing that.

13:02 And I think that's really interesting. If you want more information on Surfrider Foundation Canada, you can look at yesterday's episode, and go back and listen to my full conversation with Lily Woodruff. She was amazing, and she talked really from the heart of what it was like to join Surfrider and look at where it's going in the future, which I really think is great. And then tomorrow I'm gonna tell you about a beach that is related to that episode that doesn't need cleaning anymore. Imagine that, and how a small town in Canada pulled that off. It's always interesting to talk about these things, and this is what we do here at the podcast. So if you're interested in learning more or listening to tomorrow's show, don't forget to, follow. And of course, if you have any questions or comments on the show, you can comment on Spotify, or you can go to my socials, which are in the show notes.

13:47 All the resources and sources for the show will be put in the show notes, so you can check that out as well. And that's it for today's episode. I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.