Straw, fork, giant squid: three separate discoveries, one marine biologist, and each one landed in front of an audience most scientists spend entire careers hoping for. In this Ocean People profile from Ocean Decoded Live, host Andrew Lewin breaks down the career of his friend Dr. Nathan Robinson, a field biologist who never set out to become one of the most recognizable faces in ocean conservation, but got there anyway, largely by accident, twice.
It started in Costa Rica in 2015. While working as a postdoctoral fellow and Director of the Leatherback Trust, Robinson was sampling olive Ridley's sea turtles for epibionts when he found something that did not belong: a plastic drinking straw lodged in a turtle's nostril. The footage of him removing it went viral and helped tip the global anti-plastic-straw movement, eventually passing 100 million views. About two months later, near Playa Ostional, he found and removed a plastic fork from another olive Ridley's nose, a second viral video that racked up 36 million views of its own. Robinson's path to the water started early: he earned an MSc in Marine Biology from the University of Southampton in 2009 as the top student in his class, then completed a PhD at Purdue University under Frank V. Paladino, studying the migratory ecology of sea turtles. He went on to direct the Leatherback Trust from 2015 to 2017 and the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas from 2017 to 2019, before moving to Barcelona to take up research positions with L'Oceanogràfic and the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), including work in Jacopo Aguzzi's lab.
Robinson's career since has turned squarely toward using cameras as scientific tools. In 2019, working alongside bioluminescence researcher Dr. Edith Widder in the Gulf of Mexico, he helped capture the first-ever live footage of a giant squid in US waters, only the second time this species had been filmed alive anywhere. He's also mounted cameras on the backs of sea turtles to study their behaviour and has been part of efforts using deep-sea cameras to search for the elusive colossal squid, a species that eluded live filming for years before a separate international expedition finally captured it on camera in the South Atlantic in 2025. More recently, Robinson has turned to machine learning and digital-twin technology for ocean monitoring, and to using AI to check whether his own camera-tagging research affects the welfare of the loggerhead and green sea turtles he studies. He's also co-authored a 2024 paper arguing that marine science can contribute to the search for life on other worlds, since Earth's oceans are the closest analog we have to the hidden oceans suspected beneath the surface of other planets and moons. His publications have reportedly been read more than 113,000 times and cited over 1,800 times. You can follow his work on Instagram at Dr. Nathan Robinson.
Chapters:
0:43 – What Happened: The Straw, the Nose, and the Blood
1:44 – Pulling a Plastic Fork From Another Sea Turtle's Nose
5:57 – 2019: Filming the First Live Giant Squid in US Waters
7:31 – Turning to Machine Learning and Digital Twin Technology
8:15 – New Direction: Using AI to Study Sea Turtle Welfare
Takeaways:
Nathan Robinson found and removed a plastic straw from an olive Ridley's sea turtle's nose in Costa Rica in 2015, footage that passed 100 million views and helped drive the global anti-plastic-straw movement.
About two months later, he found and removed a plastic fork from another olive Ridley's nose near Playa Ostional, a second viral video with 36 million views.
He holds an MSc from the University of Southampton (2009, top of his class) and a PhD from Purdue University under Frank V. Paladino, studying sea turtle migratory ecology.
He directed the Leatherback Trust in Costa Rica (2015 to 2017) and the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas (2017 to 2019), then moved to Barcelona for research roles with L'Oceanogràfic and the Institut de Ciències del Mar.
In 2019, alongside Dr. Edith Widder, he helped film the first live giant squid ever recorded in US waters, in the Gulf of Mexico.
His recent work applies machine learning, digital-twin technology, and AI-assisted animal welfare checks to his own camera-based research on sea turtles.
He co-authored a 2024 paper on how marine science can inform the search for extraterrestrial life
#OceanConservation #MarineBiology #SaveOurOceans #ProtectTheOcean #OceanAwareness #BluePlanet #ConservationMatters #ScienceForChange #SustainableOceans
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