Why We Sail

When Parley for the Oceans founder Cyrill Gutsch spoke with marine biologist and ocean explorer Sylvia Earle, they covered conservation, discovery, and just how connected we are to the sensitive sea below us.

Indigenous peoples worldwide have been careful and educated stewards of the environment. Traditional ecological knowledge can intersect with modern science and public policy to our advantage as we work to curb climate change.

At the intersection of equity and environmentalism, the organization Queer Surf Club is ensuring that people of all identities are being invited into the ocean, knowing it will take full inclusion to save our seas.

Niel Leadon is a Bahamian writer, conservationist, and photographer based in Nassau who operates at the nexus of creative storytelling and cultural representation. Through his conservation writing and photography, he unpacks hot-button social issues like white supremacy, the climate movement, and Black LGBTQ+ representation.

Katie Storr is a Bahamian photographer, PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer, and coral conservationist based in Nassau who is seeking to protect the Bahamas’ bountiful reefs for generations to come. Through her photos, she strives to connect people who have never been beneath the waves to the vital importance of preserving marine biodiversity and coral health.

Alannah Vellacott is a Bahamian marine ecologist who has spent the past decade working in ocean research, conservation, and education in the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Currently, she is the Coral Restoration Specialist at Coral Vita and a member of Diving With a Purpose.

For Nikita Shiel-Rolle, science is a tool we can use to advance climate solutions and social justice. Through her work with the Cat Island community, she is helping Bahamians learn to fall in love with themselves through the lens of the ocean.

The fishing organizations who have vehemently opposed the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act due to its recommendation that we protect 30% of U.S. waters by 2030 do not represent the voice of the collective fishing community. They represent short-sighted and parochial interests of the people who look like them. Fisherwoman and marine scientist Anupa Asokan explains why.

The very first modern Hawaiian navigator, Nainoa Thompson has charted a new course for his people with the canoe Hōkūleʻa. He is a figure of hope, a teacher to a new generation of wayfarers, and a reminder of the importance of caring for our Island Earth.

On the island of Atauro, located in the young Southeast Asian country of Timor-Leste, a group of resourceful and skilled women fishers have broken away from traditional gender roles to provide for their families.

In an ocean state that now imports half of its seafood, a determined group of activists is restoring the age-old aquaculture practices of Native Hawaiians.

Farming under the sea? Meet Bren Smith, the ocean farming pioneer whose vertical kelp and shellfish farms can transform the way food is produced. As a commercial fisherman, Bren’s career was nearly wrecked by the crashing cod stocks in the North Atlantic; he then turned to oyster farming, just in time for catastrophic, climate-driven storms to show him there wasn’t a solid future in that, either. Unwilling to tether himself to land, he took the hard lessons learned and returned to the sea with a new method of restorative ocean farming. What he discovered is a way to produce large quantities of nutritious food that fights the climate crisis, cleans the ocean, creates aquatic habitat, and sustains his sea-going way of life.

Blue Carbon is about mud and the multiple benefits that estuaries provide for us. As wetlands ecologist John Rybczyk says, “You never go into a wetland and just restore one benefit.” It improves water quality, provides salmon habitat, protects our shorelines, and also benefits our climate. In 2018, Restore America’s Estuaries led a first-of-its-kind study in the Snohomish Estuary of Puget Sound, Washington to quantify the climate benefits of estuary restoration. This short film helps to build awareness of blue carbon (carbon that’s captured and stored by coastal wetlands) as a climate mitigation tool and to encourage more investment in wetland restoration at local, state, and federal levels.