Deep Sea Trawler decks are where Matthew Gianni's story in ocean conservation actually begins, and today we're telling it. He's the co-founder and political/policy advisor for the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, based in Europe, but he didn't start out as a marine biologist or policy expert. He started as a commercial fisher, working up and down the US West Coast and East Coast doing trawling, long-lining, and pot traps.

It was during deep sea dredging off the central coast of California that something shifted for him: as hauls came up and got sorted, corals and other deep sea life with no market value were routinely thrown back overboard, unlikely to survive. That experience pushed him toward advocacy. He helped organize fellow fishers to fight a plan to dump dredge material from San Francisco Bay onto a prime fishing area, and later took on oil development on California's central coast, winning both fights. He then spent years at Greenpeace directing their international ocean and fishing policy work.

A pivotal moment came when he came across a study on seamounts off Tasmania, which found that heavily dredged sites showed little sign of recovery even years later. That research helped inspire him to co-found the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and push for a UN General Assembly ban on high seas deep sea trawling, a win he's still proud of decades later. Since 2014, his focus has expanded to deep sea mining policy, and he continues to represent deep sea protection at international meetings, including on recent developments here in the US.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro: Who Is Matthew Gianni?
0:10 Co-Founder & Policy Advisor, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition
0:20 His Career as a Commercial Fisher
0:49 Deep Sea Dredging and the Bycatch That Changed Everything
1:27 Advocacy Begins: The San Francisco Bay Dredging Fight
2:14 The Switch to Greenpeace
2:40 The Seamount Study That Changed His Path
3:07 Co-Founding the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition
3:16 Winning the UN High Seas Trawling Ban
4:08 What's Next: The US Deep Sea Mining Question

Takeaways

Matthew Gianni is co-founder and political/policy advisor for the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, based in Europe.

Before advocacy, he spent years as a commercial fisher on both US coasts, working trawling, long-lining, and pot-trap gear.

Witnessing deep sea coral and sponge bycatch discarded overboard during dredging was a turning point that pushed him toward activism.

He helped stop a San Francisco Bay dredge-dumping plan that threatened a prime fishing area, and fought oil development on California's central coast.

He spent years at Greenpeace directing their international ocean and fishing policy program.

A seamount study from researchers in Australia, off Tasmania, found deep sea species showed little recovery even years after heavy dredging, a turning point that helped inspire him to co-found the DSCC.

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, now with roughly 80 partner organizations, helped secure a UN General Assembly ban on high seas deep sea trawling.

Since 2014, his focus has expanded to deep sea mining policy, including recent developments in the US.

#OceanConservation #MarineBiology #SaveOurOceans #ProtectTheOcean #OceanAwareness #BluePlanet #ConservationMatters #ScienceForChange #SustainableOceans
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