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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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....
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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....
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You can never really predict what will happen on a dive, especially when encountering a predator like the oceanic white-tip shark. Senior Research Scientist Dr. Oliver Shipley shares how one of his early experiences with these formidable creatures off Eleuthera Island cemented his passion for a career in shark science. Due to their bold personality and predatory nature, we discuss why it is so crucial to keep calm and exude confidence when in their presence.
No matter your level of experience, working with sharks is always a game of Russian Roulette. Sometimes we need unspoken cooperation with our teammates to stay safe in the water. Jamie shares her experience fending off bull sharks with nothing but a GoPro and a PVC pipe, keeping them out of range of our film crew while producing a shoot for Nora en Pure. These moments are what create trust and community within our team at Beneath The Waves and build long-lasting friendships in every expedition.
Key Takeaways:
[1:20] Introducing Dr. Oliver Shipley
[2:34] Growing up in Scotland visiting Troon Beach
[4:30] Realizing that Marine Biology was a potential career path
[6:00] Discovering his passion while studying sharks on Eleuthera Island
[7:55] Meeting Oliver
[10:45] Capturing the iconic Photograph of “Mabel” the Tiger shark
[11:45] Tagging and Tracking Mabel
[13:20] Smooth seas never make a good sailor
[15:00] Swimming with the formidable oceanic white-tip shark
[20:45] When shark diving starts feeling like Russian Roulette
[23:40] Sharks can sense when you’re uneasy so you need to maintain confidence in the water
[24:25]Fending off bull sharks with nothing but a GoPro and PVC pipe
[27:35] Filming the hammerhead sharks with Nora En Pure
[28:05] Who is the safety diver of the safety diver?!
[29:30] Relocating to areas with more research opportunities
[31:10] If you want the great reward you have to put in the risk
[32:15] How shark diving can deepen your connection to the ocean and nature itself
[35:18] Moving from the land of football to the land of soccer
[41:05] Predicting the World Cup: a friendly feud
[43:50] Excited to attend the Climate Change Conference in Egypt this November
[44:52] Getting Lithium Ion Batteries through Saudi Customs
Where to Find the Guests:
Dr. Austin Gallagher: CEO: https://www.austingallagher.com/
Jamie Fitzgerald: Managing Director: https://www.instagram.com/jamielfitzgerald/?hl=en
Sami Kattan: Media Director: https://www.nomadcreative.org/about
Dr. Oliver Shipley: Senior Research Scientist: https://olivershipley.weebly.com/
Memorable Quotes:
“The toughest days in the field always yield the most interesting results and I get more attached to those data points and what we’re doing on those days is more memorable for me.” [20:35] -Dr. Austin Gallagher
“These things are like, I don't know, like fighter jets. They come at you from all different directions like this real pack mentality and so you’re kind of having to look below you, look behind you, look left and right, look forwards and they come right up as well, they do not care, they are so bold.” [25:25] -Dr. Oliver Shipley
“You can’t control sharks. That’s the biggest thing I’ve actually come to learn more over the years, is that you can still put bait in the water, with you diving with them and try to manage the situation but you still can’t control the animal they are going to do what they want to.” [28:53] -Dr. Austin Gallagher
“If you get in the water feeling weird and dicey, either if that’s psychologically or if the shark is sensing it, it’s gonna kinda spiral downward. You know you need to be a presence in that water.” [31:57] -Sami Kattan
“You have to be like 360 vision all the time, thinking about what sharks are gonna do but if you’re a camera operator or the model in the shot, which is what the 3 of them were, you can’t focus on anything but the task at hand, so I’m there trying to make sure they’re safe and keep the bull sharks out of the shot.” [35:04] -Jamie Fitzgerald