Ep 17: Face to Face With Humpback Whales
Beneath The Waves Radio
Join the team live from the Turks & Caicos as they recount their latest mind bending experience - swimming alongside a humpback mother, calf, and male escort. Joined by new friends Mateen and Paisley, get ready to open your hearts and dive into a lifelong ocean dream fulfilled.
info_outline
Ep 16: Tiger Sharks & Square Groupers ft. Tadzio Bervoets
Beneath The Waves Radio
We sit down with ocean conservationist and Caribbean expert Tadzio Bervoets as he recounts a week diving in the Galapagos, talks blue carbon with the squad, and wonders if a tiger shark has ever consumed a square grouper or two... and what the results would be.
info_outline
Ep 15: Blue Natural Capital ft. Cristina Mittermeier
Beneath The Waves Radio
Join us for special episode with guest Cristina 'Mitty" Mittermeier, world reknowned photographer, explorer, and conservationist. We reminisce on our first dives together, the early stages of our partnership with SeaLegacy, and all of the places that the concept "blue natural capital" will take us.
info_outline
Ep 14: Live Après-Ski
Beneath The Waves Radio
The squad takes to slopes for a team building trip, where Austin & Wells have years of ski experience while Liv and Sami each haven't donned ski boots in over a decade. Thankfully, no bones were broken as the team recounts how they persevered through ups and downs and arrived at the lodge at the end of the day, victorious.
info_outline
Ep 13: When Tracking Research Gear With AirTags Goes Wrong
Beneath The Waves Radio
Liv rejoins the podcast as the team recounts an upcoming ski trip, planning how to put camera tags on nurse sharks, & Austin's new found love of air-tagging Beneath The Waves' research gear & R/V Tigress...which the team quickly turns into a prank by dropping air tags where they're not supposed to be.
info_outline
Ep 12: A Traveler's Life ft. Justin Walter
Beneath The Waves Radio
Join us as we chat with special guest Justin Walter - a travel content creator with over 16 years of experience as a host, expert, writer, influencer and producer. We first connected with Justin through the Shark Week world, and have worked on multiple film productions together. And so of course, we cover everything travel - from finding the balance between experiecing the moment vs. documenting it, to pondering if we should do a special film series featuring the dads of BTW team members playing their roles aboard our research vessel R/V Tigress - in what would surely become an episode of...
info_outline
Ep 11: How Partnering With Animals Can Save Humanity
Beneath The Waves Radio
Description: The team dives right into this Ep as we breakdown a recent news article highlighting how remote animal tracking can allow humanity to be better protected from natural disasters, where for the first time our tiger shark monitoring research is mentioned alongside those who study hedgehogs - proving that everything is truly connected on our beautiful planet. We then dive into our amazing work on the Mola Mola, the ocean sunfish, as Ollie explains our new Ocean Giants program - where we partner with animals to learn more about the natural world and how humanity can live a more healthy...
info_outline
Ep 10: The Blue Carbon Space Race
Beneath The Waves Radio
Description: Your favorite podcast returns in our first episode of 2023, diving right into the fascinating and fast-evolving world of blue carbon with our Director of Blue Carbon Wells Howe. Much of our programming and strategy for this year focus around the topic, as our discovery of the world's largest seagrass meadow has left us more hungry and curious than ever as we push to explore our ocean and leverage this incredible self-funding mechanism to protect it. Where to Find the Guests: Dr. Austin Gallagher: CEO: Wells Howe: Director of Blue Carbon: Sami Kattan: Media...
info_outline
Ep 9: Live From The Turks Part II ft. Phillip Shearer
Beneath The Waves Radio
Description: On our second episode recorded live from the Turks & Caicos we sit down with the legendary Phillip Shearer. Captain, guide, naturalist, wildlife photographer, whale whisperer... Phil has done it all and has been with us on a majority of our top ocean encounters in the Turks. Enjoy this deep dive as we journey into the origins of Phil's passion for the ocean and riff on some of our most insane shared experiences - from breaching humpback whales to sharing space with wild tiger and hammerheads sharks. Where to Find the Guests: Phillip Shearer: Captain, Guide, Naturalist: Dr....
info_outline
Ep 8: Live From The Turks Part I
Beneath The Waves Radio
Description: This week the squad is coming at you from the Turks & Caicos in our first in-person recording, an hour after an incredible day conducting research on the water. The Turks has always suprised us with unbelievalbe ocean encounters, and 'The Atlantis Of The Sea' continued to provide on this trip. The team split up into two boats for double the adventure, where Liv had her first enocunter swimming with a pod of bottlenose dolphins and our second boat had an unreal wild great hammerehead encounter that Austin brought in with his Sharkweek magic & Sami was able to capture in the water....
info_outlineDescription:
Welcome back to Beneath The Waves Radio. Today, we are introducing our Blue Carbon Program Manager, Wells Howe, to discuss how blue carbon is a tangible solution to greenhouse gas emissions. Seagrass is already working hard to store carbon in the ocean’s seafloor, proving that nature always finds a solution. When humanity is faced with a crisis like climate change: what if the best action is to simply get out of nature’s way? We want to protect the natural mechanisms already in place and allow nature to take its course.
Conversations about conservation don't have to be depressing. The truth is, every expedition is an adventure. Tune in to hear the team share their experiences diving with tiger sharks at Tiger Beach. What would you do if you were face to face with an apex predator? Don’t let their size fool you, tiger sharks may seem big and slow but they are graceful ambush predators. The team describes just how humbling it is to interact with these amazing creatures and how they manage to keep their cool when dealing with such a dangerous animal in its element.
Key Takeaways:
[2:11] Wells’ first certified dive with apex tiger sharks
[3:30] Even these massive sharks are effective ambush predators
[4:25] The aggregation of tiger sharks at Tiger Beach
[5:05] Diving through reef and lemon sharks to get to the tiger sharks below
[8:24] What goes through your mind when you’re face to face with a mega predator
[9:55] Sharks don’t want to kill humans but they are dangerous and should always be respected
[11:20] Entering the flow state in the presence of hypnotic tiger sharks
[14:10] Forging deep familial connections while on expedition
[15:40] It’s challenging to get a good cup of coffee on an expedition
[24:37] Beneath the waves merch available
[25:30]What is blue carbon?
[26:30] Seagrass undergoes photosynthesis and actually traps carbon in the marine sediment [28:47]Providing a tangible solution to greenhouse gas emissions
[32:45] When humans do less and let the earth do its thing, nature heals itself
[34:48] Conservation doesn't have to be depressing
[35:54]Celebrating with a waterslide every once in a while!
[38:50] No matter what the objective is, every expedition is an adventure!
[40:10] Getting stuck on a zipline in Costa Rica
[43:34] Pushed over the edge bungee jumping in Puerto Vallarta
[47:20] Working to combat the climate crisis
Where to Find Guests:
Austin Gallagher PhD: CEO: www.austingallagher.com
Jamie Fitzgerald: Managing Director: www.instagram.com/jamielfitzgerald
Sami Kattan: Media Director: www.instagram.com/sami.kattan
Wells Howe: Program Manager: www.instagram.com/howe_wells
Memorable Quotes:
“There really is no logical explanation for how big sharks just appear out of nowhere and it literally happens with white sharks as well, in crystal clear blue water at the surface, so they’re just ridiculous animals. Insane predators.” [1:57] -Austin Gallagher PhD
“You’re out in, what feels like, the middle of the ocean and you can’t see anything other than just blue, blue water and just to sink below and be completely surrounded by this shark whirlpool, shark spiral, is just unreal!” [6:00] -Jamie Fitzgerald
“There can be so much grace in that moment, knowing where you are, grounding yourself and not taking your eye off the ball or in this circumstance the shark’s eye.” [12:03] -Sami Kattan
“To grow underwater, seagrass is using sunlight, undergoing photosynthesis, just like grass outside…and taking in carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen from its leaves. So, if you actually look underwater sometimes you can see little oxygen bubbles leaving seagrass and you can hear them popping, which is a really cool thing to see when diving but then all those carbon molecules are getting transported straight through the root system and trapped underwater in marine sediment” [26:46] -Wells Howe
“What we are talking about is supporting life processes on earth that have existed for a millennia and simply either getting out of the way or stopping the degradation of that and providing a real tangible solution to the issues around greenhouse gas emissions.” [29:10] -Wells Howe