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I'm pleased to welcome as my guest today a multidisciplined and passionate advocate for the Sea, Alexandra Doudera. What Alexandra has accomplished in a very short period is quite extraordinary.
As a young girl growing up in Camden, Maine, she formed a deep and lasting connection with the ocean. I'll use her own words here. “I felt called to it. It was an almost unavoidable consequence of spending summers exploring Maine's Rocky Coast.”
Lexi, as her peers and students call her, has gained great success, not only as a passionate ocean advocate and educator, but also as a successful business entrepreneur. She's the founder and executive director of Saltwater Classroom.
Saltwater Classroom's mission is to foster an ethic of ocean stewardship in learners of all ages, especially among students in elementary and middle school. Lexi believes in hands-on education, tech integration, and global collaboration.
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Today’s topic is an aquatic creature that has been on the planet since the Cretaceous Period – that’s about 145 million years ago. Indigenous tribes in the state of Maine were catching and consuming this tasty fin fish in the local rivers and streams for thousands of years – using handmade traps that pre-date the pyramids at Giza.
Yup, we’re talking about the creature commonly known as the Eel.
And today we'll take a look at this fascinating and mysterious creature that has baffled philosophers, scientists, and fisherman alike for thousands of years. The book is called Slippery Beast: A True Crime Natural History, with Eels. Its author and my guest today is Ellen Ruppel Shell.
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Fehlende Folgen?
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A short time ago one of my sisters was looking through a box of correspondence – letters from my father to his sister in the days following World War II. That’s a lifetime ago – 83 years – the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor having pulled America into the war.
John Winkworth, my father, had enlisted in the Navy and reported for training in the winter of 1943. My dad was 24 when he enlisted – and he along with other young soldiers volunteered to face the growing escalation of the enemy offensive in Europe.
After basic training, he was assigned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade aboard the Guadalcanal, a Casablanca Class Escort Carrier. Following the war, my dad was asked to give a talk, to tell the story of the carrier’s anti-submarine work in the Atlantic Ocean – including details of the remarkable capture of the German enemy submarine U-505.
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The winter of 2023-24 saw a series of fierce storms that reshaped the main landscape. The storms battered landmarks and waterfront communities. Most of us hunkered inside, did not venture out to face the storms fury and impact. Unprecedented rains flooded Western and central Maine with sustained winds of 35 to 40 miles per hour gusting well beyond that, bringing additional damage to the state.
My guest today is Sam Belknap. Sam is the current director of Maine Island Institute Center for Marine Economy, overseeing the work on several fronts, including protecting and sustaining Maine's working waterfronts.
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My guest today is an ocean policy specialist. He didn’t start there… after college Michael Conathan worked as a journalist, a children’s book editor, and a Hollywood Screenwriter. But the ocean has always had a hold on him and now he’s got over15 years of experience working on making things happen on international, federal, and regional marine initiatives.
Lately he has been focused on growing the sustainable “Blue Economy”.
I’m pleased to welcome Michael Conathan – dad, surfer, and number one fan and supporter of his writer / comedienne wife – and a Senior Policy Fellow with the Ocean Foundation. Mike is also an independent consultant for a number of likeminded organizations including the Environmental Defense Fund, the World Bank, and the Sustainable Ocean Alliance.
Yup, all of that.
He believes, obviously in a well-rounded life, and that collaboration is fundamental to durable solutions that can help to sustain our oceans – in other words, the “Blue Economy”.
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It might have been predicted that my guest today would become enchanted with the sea. As a young boy, while spending summers on an island off the idyllic coast of Maine, Trevor Corson, was surrounded by beautiful clean, cold waters – the perfect habitat for oysters, shrimp, mussels, scallops, fish and of course the famous Maine lobsters.
Today he is the author of two highly acclaimed books – including The Story of Sushi – and his first book, which is a narrative NON-fiction but reads like a novel - which we’ll talk about today: The Secret Life of Lobsters, a book that was named the Best Nature Book of the Year on its release.
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My guest today is Andrew McCracken, a current PhD student at the University of Vermont. Andrew is on a quest along with his fellow marine biologists to discover possible answers to a pending crisis for these fragile creatures known as starfish - or more accurately, sea stars. I wanted to begin by hearing his thoughts on why this ancient creature has held such fascination for people all over the world.
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My guest today took a highly unusual path to the sea. Anna Conathan is a standup comedienne, actor, television comedy writer, life-coach, and most recently a working stern man on a commercial lobster boat. She’s also a mom – so it’s clear that Anna is a multi-talented, multi-faceted woman whose love of fishing – and the sea - has captured her imagination.
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Today, I want to talk about some unfinished business. In an earlier episode titled, “Men, Fish and Moby Dick” I got to spend time exploring Herman Melville’s impetus to write his great novel about Captain Ahab and his battle with the massive whale, Moby Dick. There’s another famous fish in literature that has always fascinated me – one created by Ernest Hemingway.
In “The Old Man and the Sea” published in 1952, Hemingway wrote about a down-and-out fisherman, named Santiago, from a small village in Cuba - and his epic three days and two nights battle with a giant marlin.
Earlier this summer an article in the NY Times caught my eye – and it made me think of Hemingway’s tale. It is another story of men and fish – really BIG fish.
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Happy Holidays! This piece was written by Jule Selbo and performed by Mark Winkworth. With music composed by Jim McNeely. May your days be filled with light. Enjoy!
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Although we might consider the topic of today’s Tales of the Sea discussion somewhat “sea-adjacent” the health of the lands that directly interact with any body of water – be it ocean or river or lake - is critical to our environment. It might be a watershed, or a wetland or a tidal marsh or estuary or bog – these “sea-adjacent” areas are important. And that’s why I was anxious to have Curtis Bohlen, director of the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership in Portland, Maine, join me on today’s podcast.
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Should Mother Nature find herself in need of a top-notch lawyer to defend her precious waters she would do well to call Bill Taylor. Bill has over 40 years of experience in water law and has been a faithful and passionate steward to the seas along the Eastern Shore.
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Today we talk about WHY men fish, why we are so impressed with BIG fish – and finally, what inspired Herman Melville to write about the biggest whale ever seen.Many have suggested there’s something primal in the act of fishing. Man versus Nature and all that. There’s a well-known quote from the 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, an avid fisherman, he said: “All men are equal before fish.”
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When it comes to the question of how we will feed a world population – estimated to be 8.5 billion people by the year 2030 - attention has recently turned to the sea – and sustainable aquaculture. My guest today is Jeff Auger. Jeff is the director of Business Growth and Acquisitions for Atlantic Aqua Farms – one of North Americas largest growers, processor and distributor of high-quality shellfish. I wanted to know what Jeff, who is based in Maine – and focused primarily on oyster farming - thought about aquaculture practices that are currently in use.
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My guest is Zeke Holland is a lifelong sailor and the author of A Satisfying Sail Around the World. One reviewer, “The book captures the joys and challenges of world cruising, and brings an eventful circumnavigation to a well-deserved and happy ending.”
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In this episode we’re going to talk about Ghost Ships. That’s right – the spooky stuff of legend – and mystery.. Maritime history and literature are filled with tales of ghost ships – some vanish into thin air, some are mysterious vessels found sailing the oceans with no one aboard and some are stories of the curses that often-sent ships to a terrible, deadly – or undeadly - fate.
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December 1839. A massive storm hits the East Coast leaving ships and lives in its wake. A young poet named Longfellow is inspired to write a narrative poem that will become one of the most memorable pieces in American literature.
