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Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast

Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast

di Blue Frontier

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Aaron Eger is yes, Eager to Help the Kelp

In the latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast Oceanographer and Blue Frontier board member Joy Leilei Shih and David Helvarg talk with Australian based scientist Dr. Aaron Eger, one of the world’s top kelp researchers. Based at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, he is the founder and program director of the global ‘Kelp Forest Alliance,’ also the lead author of 3 major scientific kelp reports that have come out over the last 4 years. These include one that identifies the value of kelp forests at roughly half a trillion dollars a year. Aaron discusses food and biodiversity, coastal protection, nutrient and carbon reduction and other values of kelp. He’ll also talk about growing up in coastal British Columbia and the fun of being in on and around macro-algae as the other great fast-growing world forest that is less known because it thrives underwater. Also, he’ll say what threatens it and what we can do about that. So, dive in with us. Additional Resources Blue Frontier / Substack — Building the solution-based citizen movement needed to protect our ocean, coasts and communities, both human and wild. Inland Ocean Coalition — Building land-to-sea stewardship - the inland voice for ocean protection Fluid Studios — Thinking radically different about the collective good, our planet, & the future.

Peter Benchley Awards: The Oscars of the Ocean

In the latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast we highlight the 2026 Peter Benchley Awards that were held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium this spring. They’re named after the author of Jaws who spent most of his subsequent life as a shark and ocean protection advocate. Founded almost 20 years ago by Blue Frontier and Wendy Benchley and continuing under the auspices of the Aquarium Conservation Partnership, the awards have become known as the Oscars of the Ocean with over 80 winners to date. The 2026 award winners included Julie Packard of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, President Jose Manuel Bolero of the Azores, Congressman Jared Huffman of California, Dr. Diva Amon, the ocean business Bureo, Marce Guiterez – Graudins, the documentary Ocean with David Attenborough and youth winner Coji Senanayake. Additional Resources Blue Frontier / Substack — Building the solution-based citizen movement needed to protect our ocean, coasts and communities, both human and wild. Inland Ocean Coalition — Building land-to-sea stewardship - the inland voice for ocean protection Fluid Studios — Thinking radically different about the collective good, our planet, & the future.

Youth Ambassadors Crash Washington

An inside look at the determined youth ambassadors advocating for oceanic policy reform. In the latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast David and oceanographer and Blue Frontier board member Joy LeiLei Shih talk about our Youth Ambassador program before interviewing our 2026 ambassadors – Avery, age 13, Jack, 13, Liam, 14 and Kianna 16 on their return from an Ocean Week trip to Washington DC. We discuss their impressions after having worked the halls of Congress taking a dozen meetings over 3 days to educate their elected officials and staff members on the issues they are involved in from plastic waste to sea turtle protection. We also discuss the direct meetings they held with Senators Padilla, Schiff and Schatz and Representatives Raskin, Huffman and Liccardo. It’s a great conversation and reminder that our ocean youth – even those in middle school - are not necessarily our leaders of the future - but can be leaders today if we work with and mentor them. Additional Resources Blue Frontier / Substack — Building the solution-based citizen movement needed to protect our ocean, coasts and communities, both human and wild. Inland Ocean Coalition — Building land-to-sea stewardship - the inland voice for ocean protection Fluid Studios — Thinking radically different about the collective good, our planet, & the future.

Swimming California: Catherine Breed’s Ocean Journey

In the latest episode of Rising Tide Ocean Podcast, Natasha Benjamin and Vicki Nichols talk with marathon swimmer Catherine Breed — a record-breaking endurance athlete, former U.S. National Team swimmer, and founder of Sea Dreamers. From world-record swims between the Farallon Islands and the Golden Gate Bridge to crossings of Lake Tahoe and beyond, Catherine shares stories from a life shaped by the ocean and discusses her most ambitious challenge yet: swimming the entire California coast. The conversation explores open-water swimming, adventure, ocean conservation, and of course, everyone’s first question — what about the sharks? Tune in for an inspiring and thought-provoking conversation with Catherine Breed. Additional Resources Sea Dreamers — Opening doors for women to get involved in ocean activities through community, inclusivity, empowerment and education surrounding ocean conservation. Blue Frontier / Substack — Building the solution-based citizen movement needed to protect our ocean, coasts and communities, both human and wild. Inland Ocean Coalition — Building land-to-sea stewardship - the inland voice for ocean protection Fluid Studios — Thinking radically different about the collective good, our planet, & the future.

Paul Greenberg on Fishing, Writing and Semiotics

Exploring the Depths: An Investigative Dive on Ocean Conservation and Cultural Impact In the latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols Goldstein have an engaging conversation with Paul Greenberg, author of the best-selling book ‘Four Fish’ and more recent writings including his latest novel ‘A Third Term’ (George Washington takes on Donald Trump). A Writer in Residence at the Safina Center, a former Pew Fellow and recipient of many honors, Paul discusses growing up fishing, his literary journey (with a short jaunt into Semiotics) how people’s habits and perceptions often differ from common environmental messaging they receive and why Bluefin Tuna give him hope for the future. Tune in for a thoughtful and thought- provoking conversation in depth with our guest Paul Greenberg.

Louie Psihoyos on Dolphins, Plastics and More

Unraveling the Threads of Change: From Photography to Global Environmental Advocacy Academy Award-winning director Louie Psihoyos returned to the Rising Tide Ocean Podcast for a conversation as wide-ranging and urgent as his films. Host David Helvarg sat down with Psihoyos before a live audience during SF Climate Week at the downtown San Francisco studios of KALW public radio — and the exchange didn't disappoint. Psihoyos traces his unlikely path to ocean advocacy: a kid from Iowa, drawn early to photography and the sea, who eventually landed at National Geographic — beginning, as origin stories often do, at the bottom, sifting through a garbage dig. From there he rose to become one of the most consequential documentary filmmakers working today, a man who doesn't just point a camera at environmental catastrophe but builds covert operations around it. He recounts the making of The Cove, his shattering exposé of the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan — a film that required as much tradecraft as filmmaking — and discusses his latest work, Plastic Detox, now streaming on Netflix, which takes a hard look at microplastics and their alarming effects on human fertility. The two also range across a broader landscape: adventures, causes for concern, and — perhaps most valuably in these grinding times — reasons for optimism. It's a talk worth diving into. Additional Resources The Plastic Detox — an eye-opening journey into the hidden dangers of plastic in our homes. When six couples embark on a plastic detox within their homes, it changes their families forever. This eye-opening documentary explains what microplastics and their chemicals are doing to our health and how we can take matters into our own hands. From hormone disruption that’s fueling a worldwide fertility crisis, to growing rates of cancer, and early heart attack and stroke, this powerful documentary reveals the shocking science behind plastic’s impact on human life. Blue Frontier / Substack — Building the solution-based citizen movement needed to protect our ocean, coasts and communities, both human and wild. Inland Ocean Coalition — Building land-to-sea stewardship - the inland voice for ocean protection Fluid Studios — Thinking radically different about the collective good, our planet, & the future.

Helvarg on the ‘Forest of the Sea’

Exploring the Forgotten Frontlines of Our Ocean's Battle Against Climate Change The tables turn on the latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast as Blue Frontier’s Natasha Benjamin interviews Rising Tide co-host and author David Helvarg on his latest book, ‘Forest of the Sea – The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp’ (coming out May 5th). As co-director of the award-winning kelp forest documentary ‘Sequoias of the Sea’ Natasha is also steeped in the mystery, wonder and peril of these great underwater forests of life and light. So, their discussion ranges over both familiar territory – how a changing warming ocean is impacting kelp forests that have been around over 30 million years - to some of the newer things David discovered during his two years researching the book, interviewing and diving with a wide range of people and creatures from Alaska to California, Maine, Turkey, Palau – for his chapter ‘Kelp is the new Coral’ - and other far-flung waterfronts where the world’s kelp forests, cover an area larger than the Amazon rainforest. He talks about how they’ve gotten into serious trouble even as they provide us half a trillion dollars of services a year including as ‘the mother seed’ for global food security in fishing and seaweed aquaculture. It’s a fun romp through an entangling wonderland, which is why Rising Tide recommends you give a listen and then buy David’s book (preferably through your local independent bookstore). Additional Resources Pre-order Forest Of The Sea — Veteran journalist David Helvarg takes us on a riveting journey beneath the waves to understand kelp’s natural and human history, the billions of dollars of products and services it contributes to our global economy, the unwitting human activities that threaten its survival, and the powerful movements around the world to restore its disappearing habitat. Sequoias Of The Sea — tells the story of the environmental, cultural and economic destruction impacting a coastal town that has lost its coastal kelp forest. It’s a deep dive into the lives of fishermen, tribes, scientists, and a community working to restore a habitat devastated by a warming climate. Blue Frontier / Substack — Building the solution-based citizen movement needed to protect our ocean, coasts and communities, both human and wild. Inland Ocean Coalition — Building land-to-sea stewardship - the inland voice for ocean protection Fluid Studios — Thinking radically different about the collective good, our planet, & the future.

Amanda Leland and James Workman ‘Sea Change’ in How We Fish

Explore the alliance between fishermen and environmentalists that is reshaping the industry and safeguarding marine life. On the latest episode of Rising Tide the Ocean Podcast, host David Helvarg and co-host Vicki Nichols Goldstein sit down with James Workman and Amanda Leland, co-authors of Sea Change – Unlikely Allies and a Success Story of Oceanic Proportions — a book that makes a convincing case that empowering fishermen to work together, even as they compete, can create miracles. Workman brings the instincts of an award-winning journalist and entrepreneur to the conversation, having already explored humanity's most elemental struggles in his earlier work, Heart of Dryness. Leland came to the sea the way many do — through a grandfather and a fishing line at age five — and never left. Today she serves as Executive Director of the Environmental Defense Fund, the international nonprofit working to align healthy communities and economies with the hard realities of a changing climate. Together, they dig into the market-based system known as catch share fishing: what it is, how it's reshaping the destructive race toward overfishing in U.S. waters, and why it may be one of the most promising tools we have for getting this right on a global scale. They also explore the human cost baked into commercial fishing — still one of the deadliest jobs on earth — and how catch shares are changing those odds. And they explain their choice to tell this sweeping story through the life of one rugged Gulf Coast fisherman named Buddy, a narrative anchor that grounds the policy and the science in salt, sweat and consequence. All of it plays out against the backdrop of a rapidly warming, rapidly changing ocean — and what that means for the millions of people whose dinner plates depend on getting this right. A story of hope, hard-won transformation and new challenges. Dive in and take an audio bite. Additional Resources Sea Change Book — the captivating, deeply-human tale of how fishermen—along with some unlikely allies—helped carry out the biggest conservation success story you've never heard of. Blue Frontier / Substack — Building the solution-based citizen movement needed to protect our ocean, coasts and communities, both human and wild. Inland Ocean Coalition — Building land-to-sea stewardship - the inland voice for ocean protection Fluid Studios — Thinking radically different about the collective good, our planet, & the future.

Angelo Villagomez vs. Trump’s Ocean Policies

On the latest episode of Rising Tide, hosts David Helvarg and Vicki Nichols-Goldstein sit down with Angelo Villagomez, Senior Ocean Fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington D.C. — a man who has spent his career turning conviction into policy at the edges of the map. A longtime activist and advocate for community and indigenous governance, Villagomez was a central force behind the establishment of the Mariana Trench National Marine Monument, doing the hard, unglamorous work of coalition-building from the ground up while based in Saipan, deep in the western Pacific. The conversation turns, as it must, to the present dangers. The Trump administration has set its sights on the nation's marine monuments, thrown open the door to deep-sea mining with reckless enthusiasm, and pursued what can only be described as a vendetta against offshore wind — apparently terrified of a wind-spill — while greasing every available skid for oil and gas expansion. Meanwhile, the institutional backbone of American ocean science, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is being quietly hollowed out from within. But Villagomez and his hosts don't stop at the diagnosis. The episode maps a course forward — from protecting local waters to hitting the streets (signs reading "No Kings but king salmon" are apparently optional but encouraged), registering to vote, and casting ballots with the ocean in mind come November. If information is a weapon for positive change, this conversation is live ammunition. Additional Resources Blue Frontier / Substack — Building the solution-based citizen movement needed to protect our ocean, coasts and communities, both human and wild. Inland Ocean Coalition — Building land-to-sea stewardship - the inland voice for ocean protection Fluid Studios — Thinking radically different about the collective good, our planet, & the future.

Sachi Cunningham Shoots Women Riding Giants

Breaking Barriers & Pioneering Pursuits On the latest episode of Rising Tide, bodysurfer David Helvarg and board surfer Natasha Benjamin sit down with photographer, filmmaker, and journalist Sachi Cunningham — a woman who has spent more than two decades pointing her lens at the pioneers rewriting what's possible in big wave surfing. Cunningham helped build the LA Times video team from the ground up, producing the award-winning Chasing the Swell series and documenting the historic first women's heats at Mavericks, the legendary big wave break that rises from the deep-water canyon just south of San Francisco. Now living within earshot of Ocean Beach, she's putting the finishing touches on her first major documentary, Big Wave Women — a film tracking the hard-won fight for pay equity among the elite athletes drawn, or perhaps driven, to ride some of the most dangerous walls of water on the planet. The conversation ranges wide: the cameras she trusts in the impact zone, the technical and physical demands of shooting from inside the surf, and a recent piece she wrote examining the geology and marine ecosystems that make Mavericks not just a spectacle, but a living seascape. It's a session that goes well below the surface. Additional Resources Seasachi.com — Photographer and ocean swimmer Sachi Cunningham has spent two decades hurling herself into the savage, churning waters of Ocean Beach and Mavericks, camera strapped to her wrist, chasing the beauty buried inside the chaos — and emerging with images she hopes will make the rest of us remember that the sea doesn't just surround us, it lives inside us. Blue Frontier / Substack — Building the solution-based citizen movement needed to protect our ocean, coasts and communities, both human and wild. Inland Ocean Coalition — Building land-to-sea stewardship - the inland voice for ocean protection Fluid Studios — Thinking radically different about the collective good, our planet, & the future.

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