Storytelling has the power to transform how we see our oceans and inspire meaningful action. Two visionary filmmakers, Cynthia Abbott and Andrea Leland, join us to share how they're using documentary filmmaking to spotlight both the crisis facing our marine environments and the everyday heroes working to save them. Their Emmy-winning documentary "Three Ocean Advocates" introduces us to remarkable individuals making a difference: Dick Ogg, a fisherman developing innovative methods to prevent whale entanglement; Tess Felix, an artist transforming beach plastic into stunning portraits; and Barbara Kritz, who unintentionally captured the devastating decline of Caribbean coral reefs through her underwater photography. The conversation takes a deep dive into Cynthia's latest project, "The Abalone Chronicles," which explores the critical endangerment of red abalone along the Northern California coast. Through the eyes of 3 distinct characters—a shell collector, a Yurok tribal regalia maker, and a diver working to restore kelp forests—viewers witness the interconnected challenges facing our coastal ecosystems. Rather than overwhelming viewers with environmental doom, Abbott and Leland spotlight solutions and provide concrete calls to action. Become an ocean advocate! Visit everysecondbreathproject.org to watch these inspiring films,
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to the Resilient Earth Podcast, where
we talk with speakers from theUnited States and around the
world about the critical issuesfacing our planet and the
positive actions people aretaking, from the tiniest of
actions to the grandest ofgestures, so that we can
continue to thrive and survivefor generations to come.
(00:32):
I'm Leanne Lindsay, producerand host, along with co-hosts
and co-producers Scott and TreeMercer of Mindenoma, whale and
Seal Study, located on the SouthMendocino and North Sonoma
coasts.
The music for this podcast isby Eric Alleman, an
(00:55):
international composer, pianistand writer living in the Sea
Ranch.
Discover more of his music,animations, ballet, stage and
film work at ericalamondcom.
You can find Resilient Earth onSpotify, apple and Amazon
(01:18):
Podcasts, iheart Radio, youtube,soundcloud and wherever you
find your podcasts.
(01:53):
Today, scott Tree and I aretalking with Sonoma County
filmmakers Cynthia Abbott andAndrea Leland, creators of the
Emmy award-winning Three OceanAdvocates Inspiring Change and a
new film in the works calledthe Abalone Chronicles.
Cynthia is an award-winningindependent producer-director of
short-form environmental films.
She believes the power ofstorytelling can change our
(02:15):
collective vision of the oceanand create a new vision for the
ocean's future, protected andthriving.
Perfect for the format we havehere at Resilient Earth Radio
and Podcast.
She's an experiencedcinematographer, editor and
producer who has worked in Burmaand Thailand.
She has spent her adult lifenear the ocean in California and
(02:38):
Hawaii and is witness to itsenvironmental demise.
Compelled to take action, sheproduces films on environmental
issues to raise awareness andmove people to take action.
Andrea is a retiredproducer-director and has
produced and directedaward-winning documentaries
(03:01):
focusing on Caribbean cultures,which won numerous awards and
were screened at museums,conferences and festivals
throughout Europe, latin Americaand the United States.
Residing on St John in the USVirgin Islands for over 25 plus
years, she has seen firsthandthe urgency of creating films
(03:27):
about the ocean crises.
Find out more about them andtheir films at
everysecondbreathprojectorg.
Every second breath comes fromour oceans.
So that'severysecondbreathprojectorg
(03:47):
oceans.
So that's every second breathprojectorg.
I'm Leanne Lindsay, a filmmakerand podcast producer, and we'll
get into that conversation withCynthia and Andrea right after
a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
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Speaker 3 (04:15):
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Speaker 2 (05:22):
Welcome Cynthia and Andrea to the Resilient Earth
Radio and Podcast.
It's good to see you both again.
Thank you, yes, and thanksagain to my co-hosts and
co-producers, scott and TreeMercer of Mendenoma, whale and
Seal Study.
Good morning, good morningeveryone.
And we met you both actuallythrough the Sebastopol
(05:44):
Documentary Film Festival a fewyears back and then a couple of
times.
Cynthia and I have also seeneach other and had conversations
at the International Ocean FilmFestival in San Francisco ever
(06:07):
since seeing.
That first documentary that Isaw and shared with Tree, who
drove down with me to Sebastopol, was the Three Ocean Advocates
that you both worked on.
Give us a bit about yourbackground and how you came
about making that particularfilm, then we'll get into what
you're working on today.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
All right, let's start with Three Ocean Advocates
.
This is a project that Andreaand I have been working on for
several years and it startedwhen we met at a mixer, a film
mixer in Petaluma.
We both are residents ofPetaluma, california, which is
about 50 miles north of SanFrancisco, and we discovered we
(06:43):
were both documentary filmmakersand Andrea was living part-time
in St John Virgin Islands andI've always been lived close to
the ocean and have a passion forit, and I had had this idea of
doing a series of shorts onpeople who have a love and
passion for the ocean and whowant to share their stories in a
(07:04):
positive way.
They're not scientists orpoliticians, they're like
everyday people who are takingactions.
The goal is to inspireaudiences to realize they too
can do something to helpmitigate some of the issues that
we're having, many of theissues that we're having with
the environment and especiallythe ocean.
(07:26):
Sometimes with somedocumentaries they're kind of
hitting you over the head withso many negative facts and
figures and you kind of walkaway going what can I do?
And we actually have call toaction and action items at the
end of the films.
Have call to action and actionitems at the end of the films
and it's just to inform, educateand encourage people to learn
(07:49):
about the ocean and theenvironment and to take some
action.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
We don't have to sit back.
Yes, it's what inspired us tocreate this podcast was to talk
about the things that arecritical issues facing our
planet.
But what are some of thepositive actions people are
taking and what can people doLike?
What can our guests suggestthey might do?
Because it gets frustrating.
There are so many things thatare happening in our world.
It tends to get very depressingand then people stop and they
(08:21):
feel like, well, what can I do?
So that's why we were just soinspired by seeing your film and
, andrea, I met you there aswell.
I think it was the openingnight party for one of the
documentary film festivals downthere.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Possibly, yeah, st John Virgin Islands during
Sebastopol's Film Festival,because I had a house there for
25 years and have lived therehalf the year Not so much
anymore.
It's a little hard to get therefrom California.
So one of the segments in ThreeOcean Advocates for your
(09:04):
listeners to learn about isthere's actually three segments.
One is about Dick Ogg, afisherman who is working to
mitigate the problems withentanglement of whales.
That's one.
And then there's Tess Felix,who collects plastics from the
(09:26):
beaches near where she lives inStinson Beach and she makes
these most incredible figuresand people out of these plastic
like portraits and they lookjust like the photographs, are
just beautiful.
And then get up close and yousee all the garbage that has
(09:47):
been collected on the beach.
So it's pretty fascinating.
When I was in the islands,worked with a woman, barbara
Kritz, who was photographing theunderwater coral and fishes for
10 years and she actually wasdocumenting it during the time
(10:09):
of the bleaching and thechanging of the coral and I'm so
sad to say I was just there inMarch and unfortunately the hard
coral is mostly dead.
Occasionally you'll see a braincoral.
We had huge amounts of firecoral and it was all gone.
(10:32):
It's like very sad.
Oh, that's crushing.
Yeah, it's pretty crushing.
But I did see a lot of peopleall over the world, but also in
St John, trying to regeneratecoral and replant it in the
ocean.
And they're taking thesurviving hard corals and using
(10:57):
that coral to duplicate, clone,actually replant.
I don't know how much successthey've had.
Maybe you might know Also.
I see you shaking your headbecause it turns out that they
put it back in the ocean, whichhas the same problems where they
(11:17):
took the coral from.
So we'll see.
You know, you have to have hopethat that is going to succeed
at some point.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Here's a quick update on coral restoration programs
in the US Virgin Islands.
The St John's Island Complexfocuses on coral research and
restoration projects.
Coral research and restorationprojects, including the 100K
Corals Initiative, aiming toplant 100,000 corals over the
(11:53):
next decade.
Their mission statement saysthat sustainability must be at
the heart of any development toensure the long-term viability
of our limited resources.
Their four guiding principlesstate that.
Number one all developmentsmust be low impact and sensitive
to the nature of the islands.
Number two encourage the use ofeco-solutions to promote
(12:19):
sustainability and consider thenatural surroundings and native
biodiversity of the islands.
Number three preserve theisland heritage and conserve or
rejuvenate important natural andhistorical sites and features.
And number four leverage on theeducational values of the
(12:40):
islands to cultivate responsibleenvironmental stewardship.
There are also the MarineProtected Areas, the MPAs.
The Sisters Islands Marine Parkwas established in 2014 to
protect the reef ecosystem, andplans are underway to expand
(13:02):
marine park designations aroundthe southern islands.
Now, according to NOAA, theNational Ocean and Atmospheric
Administration, conservation andrestoration efforts are
underway to address thechallenges facing the reefs of
St John and other areas of theUS Virgin Islands, but with
(13:33):
funding and staffing severelyslashed by this current Trump
administration.
Who knows if or when that willever happen.
Such seriously stupidshort-sightedness hurts us all
and the planet in the long run.
Now, as for monitoring andresearch on corals, the St
John's Island National MarineLaboratory plays a key role in
(13:56):
monitoring reef health andconducting research to improve
restoration techniques.
They have discovered someadaptable corals.
These are corals in the lowerreef slopes which have shown
adaptability to light limitationfrom rising sea levels.
So, in summary, coral reefsaround St John's Island are
(14:21):
under great stress fromenvironmental and human-induced
factors.
However, ongoing conservation,restoration and research efforts
, coupled with some corals'inherent resilience, does offer
some hope for the future ofthese important marine
(14:43):
ecosystems, for the future ofthese important marine
ecosystems At the end of 2024,.
We did an episode about thiswith Dr Carly Kinkle of the
Marine Biology Lab at theUniversity of Southern
California.
It's called Coral ReefsWorldwide A Deep Dive into
Disaster and Rescue.
(15:04):
That's Resilient Earth Radioand Podcast episode number 19
from December 28, 2024.
Now back to the conversationwith filmmakers Cynthia Abbott
and Andrea Leland, creators ofthe Emmy award-winning Three
Ocean Advocates Inspiring Change, and Cynthia is going to be
(15:26):
talking in just a bit about anew film she has in the works,
called the abalone chronicles.
You can find out more at everysecond breath projectorg.
That's every secondbreathprojectorg.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
You know, you have to have hope, though we have some
pretty brilliant scientists andwe have to assume that that will
happen eventually.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Tell us a bit more about your background, Andrea.
I would like to actuallyunderstand both of your
backgrounds and what got youinto the filmmaking world in the
first place.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So I have an MFA from the Art Institute in Chicago
where I lived for 45 years.
Now I live in California.
I love it here, beautiful, andwhen I graduated I do paintings.
But I was always interested inanthropology and filmmaking.
(16:31):
I would be the person at homeshooting all of the Thanksgiving
dinners and the kids and allthat kind of stuff.
So I eventually started totraveling through the Caribbean
because it was closer to Chicagoin terms of the place to go in
the winter months.
(16:52):
Plus, it fed me artisticallythe environment.
And then I got involved inworking with indigenous
communities in the Caribbean.
Working with Indigenouscommunities in the Caribbean.
So I've worked with theGarifuna community in St Vincent
(17:13):
and Belize.
I worked in Haiti, made a filmabout voodoo as a traditional
ancestral worshipping culture.
I've worked in St Johndocumenting Indigenous music in
St John, documenting Indigenousmusic.
So mostly I was working withIndigenous communities in the
Caribbean.
(17:33):
And when I met Cynthia here inPetaluma and she told me about
wanting to work on ocean-relatedenvironmental issues, it was
right up my alley.
Even though I hadn't doneenvironment films, I was
familiar with making films anddistributing films because I'm a
(17:54):
member of New Day Films SocialIssue Documentary Distribution
Cooperative.
So when she mentioned aboutworking on the ocean, I said I'm
in.
Speaker 6 (18:10):
When were you in St John's?
You there in the 90s, by anychance.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Did you ever run into John and Ginger Garrison?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
No.
Speaker 6 (18:20):
They had a chart about the Bahari.
Oh, okay, no.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
They had a chart about the.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Bahari.
Oh okay, ginger was a coralreef biologist scientist and
John was by association.
He was the captain of theBahari.
They did a lot of work there onSt John's.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
No, I hadn't heard of them.
Did they leave any information?
How would I know about whatwork they've done?
Speaker 6 (18:45):
Well, they moved over to Florida.
Last time I spoke to themthey're always like one jump
ahead of me.
I catch their names onsomething when I get in touch
with that place.
No, they moved over tosomewhere else.
Well, ginger did a lot of workwith the National Park Service.
Well, they both did.
Ginger did a lot of diving withpeople snorkeling around the
reefs Just a lot of work withthat.
Change the subject a bit.
(19:05):
We had a funny encounter withpeople from Petaluma yesterday.
They'd come up this way andwere trying to get out of here
without going back down thecoast.
The wife looked like she was ina state of panic.
I think they were hoping theycould evolve wings and fly back.
They wanted to go north, to gosouth.
They wanted to keep drivingnorth to get back to Petaluma
(19:25):
and Tree convinced them thatwasn't going to happen.
They were really looking foranother way back and when they
found out, like a lot of peopledo, that there's mountains
behind us and an ocean in frontof us and a scary road on both
sides you mentioned Petaluma Iwas thinking I wonder if they
ever got home.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, people always ask is there a straighter route
out of here?
Speaker 6 (19:49):
Or a tunnel that goes through.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Right.
So, Cynthia, tell us about yourbackground and how you actually
got into Petaluma and intofilmmaking.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
Well, it's been a long journey.
I think it started with myfirst Brownie camera my father
gave me when I was a child andtook an interest in photography.
Then I've always been a visualperson and I want to convey what
I want to say visually.
Always been a visual person andwant to convey what I want to
(20:21):
say visually, and I startedstudying film in my early 20s
and in those days it was 16millimeter film that I learned
on and in those days you had areel of film that lasted three
minutes and before you had totake it out and replace it with
another three minute reel offilm and then send it off to the
lab to get developed and thenyou'd see whatever you filmed at
(20:45):
least a week later, if you werelucky.
And my first film when I wasstudying filmmaking was actually
On the Ocean the Myth of ElNino and El Nino is a warm
current that we get severaltimes a year here in Northern
California, so we have a warmingocean occurrence every three to
four years and during thatperiod I was fascinated by the
(21:08):
subject because we have severeweather, our storms are more
severe, we have a drought andthat also goes into the interior
of the United States.
That was my first film Irealized.
Oh well, that was in a sense onclimate change, although El
Nino's natural occurringphenomena, but the weather that
(21:29):
we experience, we get thatanyway here in California, but
not to the degree that we do now.
So then I took a hiatus forabout 25 years in filmmaking.
I did some filmmaking in Burma,where I was living for a few
years, and then Thailand, andthen I, like I said, I took a 25
(21:51):
year hiatus.
During that period I continuedto concentrate my attention on
the environment, study it, and Iwas just watching it
deteriorate and towards the end.
I just go.
I don't know what I'm going todo.
I want to do something to bepart of the solution, and I
realized that I could do thatthrough film, through
(22:12):
storytelling.
So that was my plan.
And then, whoops, everythinghad turned to digital.
So I had to retrain in digitalthe camera as well as the
editing programs, which I did.
And then I started makingshorts.
I like shorts.
They don't have a big market,but to me it's attainable to do
(22:36):
financially as well, as people'sattention span is getting
shorter, so you can get amessage across with a short to,
hopefully, more people, althoughwe're finding that difficult to
do.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Attention spans have gotten really short.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
Yeah, Well, our shorts are not that short.
They're not clips.
They're about 10 minutes, whichis still a short.
Yeah, I mean, when you look atthe social media shorts, they're
two minutes or one minute andthey're very quick.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
But isn't this how the Three Ocean Advocates came
together?
Was because each was a short?
Yeah they did.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
They were each shorts and then we presented one of
them to the local PBS stationhere in the North Bay, North Bay
PBS and they said, oh, do youhave more?
Because we have a perfect spoton our programming where a half
hour show would fit in.
So we decided to put the threetogether.
We made a half hour show withthree ocean advocates so they
(23:36):
can be screened as individualpieces or as the 30 to 27 minute
piece.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
On the website.
Every Second Breath there'sanother 10 minute piece about
Mark Nolan, who is a teacher inSan Mateo I believe San Mateo
and he takes kids to the oceanto show them the tide pools.
(24:04):
Yeah, so he does that.
Plus, he's also part of theBanana Slugs, which is a musical
group that sings aboutenvironment to the kids, so like
through these fabulous funnyperformances, they dress up in
costumes of crabs and octopusand they really entertain kids
(24:28):
about the environment.
That short is on our websiteevery second.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
Yeah, I got to watch that.
I watched it in preparing forthis podcast today and I was
really, really impressed.
Just the enthusiasm and theinspiration from that short, and
that's why one of my questionswas do you think you might make
a full-length documentary on theintertidal zone, which is so
(24:54):
fascinating?
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Great job.
Full-length documentaries justnot in the future.
I like to stay with shortsBecause they're more attainable
and budget-wise.
They're more affordable tocreate.
They do take a long time.
These shorts have taken fromstart to finish from the idea.
These shorts have taken fromstart to finish from the idea,
(25:18):
at least a year.
Sure, just because the way weshoot and camera and weather
conditions and finding a subject.
They're shorts, but they dotake time.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Many times I've interviewed producers, directors
, filmmakers at the MendocinoFilm Festival.
For many years I did that, andhow many times I'd hear people
say well, I've been working onthis for 22 years or 10 years,
and personally I've been workingon one for a decade now, as of
2025, and it's still ongoing.
(25:51):
But I too have a connectionwith the two of you because as a
little girl, I was the one thatjust loved cameras Any of those
little disposable cameras I gotmy hands on, I was taking
pictures and I was writingvoluminously in all kinds of
notebooks that I kept.
(26:12):
And then at 16, I took blackand white photography in dark
room in Aspen where I was livingAspen, colorado and I was
working right after that at thelocal rock station, album
oriented rock station.
But we started a little TVstudio and guess who became the
(26:35):
film editor, but me working withthe reel to reel tape and
editing in the commercials myfirst editing experience.
But I moved from Colorado to SanMateo, of all things, and went
to the San Mateo College andthen I got into the tech
(26:55):
industry for the next twodecades, but I did a lot of
writing in that time frame, butI'd gotten away from where I
really wanted to go was tellingstories through either audio or
visual, and I've done a lot ofshorts.
I taught myself through YouTubehow to use Adobe Premiere and
(27:16):
several other editing programs,but that's how I learned.
I didn't have an MFA, but itwas just sort of life experience
.
I always wanted that MFA,though.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Yeah, we were watching Tom Hanks' film series
the Americas and last night wewatched it was probably the last
sequence of it was the Makingof the Americans and anybody who
thought that filmmaking isglamorous and catered and
luxurious straightened out lastnight.
Show people on the top of treesjust as a huge lightning storm
(27:51):
would go through, and there'sphysical labor and hardships.
I can see why you want to keepsome of them short.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
You have hollywood behind you andrea, you started
to say something yeah, I had acouple things to say about
filmmaking.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
First of all, I have five films in distribution, one
of which is three oceanadvocates.
I've been making films for over30 years and every time I make
a film I say that's it, no morefilms, I'm never going to do
another film.
And then a subject comes upthat just needs amplification,
(28:31):
and that's what Cynthia and Iwere talking about.
We don't go in with a script.
We find the stories that needamplification, and so we listen
to the people that we'redocumenting, which is very
different than a narrative filmwhere you go in with the script.
(28:53):
Here we collect the information, we process it and then we
craft a film from the point ofview of the person that we're
working with.
So it's very stimulating, it'swonderful, but it's exhausting
to go through the whole process.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
That's the way I work , too, from an actually
journalistic standpoint as wellJust what is the story?
And I listen and I can seethings that need amplification,
need to raise awareness, andthat's what we do here on the
podcast, too.
I just love that approach, butit is, and can be, exhausting,
right, cynthia?
Speaker 5 (29:35):
Well, when you're doing a film on the ocean, you
are always out in the weather.
You don't know what you'regoing to face, because I think
all our films well, except theinterviews we can control
because they can be indoors buteverything else you know.
Is it going to rain, is theregoing to be a windstorm, is it
going to be too hot?
You're just weathered by theend of a day's shoot.
(29:57):
That part's not easy at all,but it is invigorating and it's
always beautiful to be by theocean.
I mean, there can't be a badday on the ocean.
They're all different andgorgeous.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I think Scott and Tree can attest to that, being
out on the bluffs watching thewhales and seals and all the
other marine life.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
No, two days are alike.
You just never know what youwill find.
And as we drive to Point ArenaLighthouse and we pass an area
and we're looking at the ocean,I was, oh wow, this is so nice
and calm here, not too much wind.
By the time we get to thelighthouse, five miles away,
we've got wind blowing at us andwhite caps covering the ocean
(30:40):
totally different.
It's just hard to know what wewill find so interesting.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I was in St John just after the hurricane of 2017 and
that you see the destructivepower of hurricanes and the
ocean and that's hard to see,but we forget about it because
we don't see it.
I saw it firsthand and I thinkthat had a significant impact on
(31:11):
the coral as well.
Speaker 6 (31:13):
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, for sure.
We worked there in the winters.
When I was there four wintersand, um, there was one year
after a hurricane had gonethrough we went back to an area
to snorkel on it and the reeflooked like somebody taking some
big bulldozers.
Yeah, she tried to bring thewhole reef up on the beach, wow,
but it just looked likebulldozers gone through the area
(31:35):
.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, these huge, huge coral heads that are
completely toppled over.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah, 2017 was also when we had those big fires up
here in Northern California andwe have a ranch over by Willits
it's part of the original homeof Seabiscuit, where Seabiscuit
the racehorse retired thedocumentary I've been working on
but the fires came overRidgewood Ranch and onto our
(32:04):
ranch and it went to PotterValley.
It was all up and down here.
So that's destruction a lot ofpeople see visually, but they
don't see often what happens inthe ocean, you know.
And one thing I wanted tomention too about filmmaking
that documentary I've beenworking on.
It was outside a lot because wewere filming horses and we were
(32:27):
doing this filming on thesechildren in this equine assisted
therapy program.
So we had to coordinate withall these families and their
children and the appointmentsthat they had for medical and
their school.
So I totally get that part.
But we always had to deal withthe weather, we had to
reschedule some shoots, and soit's part of the package.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Well, I just want to add how different the stories
change too as you're filming,because when we first started
our first film with um marknolan, it was going to be this
positive story about childrenand music and exploring the tide
pools and education, and it wasright.
Um, it was back, I think in2016, and sea star wasting
(33:15):
disease hit and all the seastars died, from Mexico all the
way up to Alaska.
Suddenly that became part ofthe story, a very depressing
part of the story, but that wasnothing we had anticipated when
we originally started.
Finding him as a character anda lot of people who have seen
(33:36):
the film that's what theyremember, because it's a very
stark piece of information andthat was just something in front
of our eyes.
It was very rapid.
It only took a couple years todestroy most of the sea stars
and it ended up also in ourfilms and that is happening with
most of them.
(33:57):
Like with Barbara Kreitz, shestarted out just was documenting
the sea life of the Caribbean.
She wasn't documenting thedestruction of the coral, but
she was doing a cat, thedifferent colored fish, and it
explains in the film how she wasdoing that color fish and it
(34:17):
explains in the film how she wasdoing that, but in the course
of those 10 years she wasfilming, she ended up
documenting the coral leachingyeah, as well, as the hurricane
came through, and all of theseclimate events are taking place
so rapidly right in front of us.
as we're making these littleshort films that maybe take a
year or two, there's a benefitfor the two-year time length
(34:39):
that one may take, because thenwe're documenting the change as
well.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
It was amazing to see the library she had of all
those photographs.
Speaker 7 (34:48):
Impressive.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Yeah, yeah, it's a wonderful resource if you're
going snorkeling.
What is that fish, you know?
So, yeah, it's amazing, and shejust did it on her own.
So you know you're talkingabout actions you can take.
That's certainly an action thatbenefits many people, Right?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Something positive that you could contribute and do
, and it was back in what, 2014?
When that heat blob or the bigheat event happened off our
coast which may have contributedto that sea star wasting
disease, but it also helped toobliterate a lot of the kelp
along our coast which you talkabout, and another documentary
(35:40):
filmmaker and an associate ofhers created that Sequoias of
the Sea about the loss of kelpalong the coast.
Well, that's the environment,that's the home for lots of
marine life, and abalone and Iused to actually, in the late
80s, die for abalone right offSea Ranch, right off of Little
(36:03):
River, Van Damme area, andthat's what got me interested in
the next project you're doing.
You know the abalone chronicles.
Can you give us a littleoverview of how you get started
on that and what it's coveringas far as the stories related to
it?
Speaker 5 (36:20):
Yeah, I was actually going to do a film on sound in
the ocean and I researched itfor over I don't know a year,
year and a half, and I couldn'tfind a character to tell the
story.
So I was um I always followwhat's going on in the oceans
here in the north pacific andthere was a workshop being given
(36:45):
on the sea otters beingreintroduced to the north coast
because they had become extincthere, and I went to one of the
workshops with I think it wasNoah, and I met this man there
who was an abalone diver, and Ifound him very interesting with
some of the questions he wasasking and he had a great voice.
(37:09):
I went, huh, this is a film.
You know what he's talkingabout.
The abalone was, and I wasn'ttoo clear of what was going on
with the abalone.
I knew there was a moratoriumand that, um, but now I know a
lot more about abalone, so itintrigued me of the story of the
abalone and what was going onthere, and reintroduction to the
(37:32):
sea otters here, too, has someimpact on abalone.
So the more I learned, it justseemed like this mollusk with a
beautiful shell would make aninteresting story, and I started
out with the diver who has this.
Let me go back.
There's a moratorium now since,I think, 2018, on diving,
(37:55):
because these red abalone in ourarea are critically endangered.
So they're trying to restorethem by no more fishing and
they're focusing too on poachingand hopefully at some point
there'll be enough abalone toopen up the dive season, but
right now there isn't.
(38:16):
And you mentioned the blob,that heat wave which killed the
kelp which is part of theirabalone's diet, the main part of
their diet, and so without theoh and then related to that is
the sea star wasting diseasewhich wiped out the sunflower
star, which is the main predatorto the purple sea urchin which
(38:38):
feast on kelp.
So any remaining kelp has beendestroyed and eaten and there's
just no check and balance onthese sea urchins.
And so the kelp there's been a95% loss on that which is the
bull kelp I'm talking about.
They get eaten by these purplesea urchins.
(39:01):
Tide pools now, or theintertidal zone, are just this
urchin barren.
There's nothing there exceptthousands and thousands and
thousands of these now veryhungry purple sea urchins
because they don't have any morefood so they go dormant.
So I have three characters whoare telling this story about the
(39:24):
demise of the abalone, and it'sall related to climate change.
That's the elephant in the roomall the time.
There's the one who's a diverwho collects all the washed up
shells on the beach, and hestarted a relationship with a
Yurok tribal ceremonial regaliamaker and they were having a
(39:46):
shortage of abalone shells.
And now the Yuroks have usedthe abalone in their culture for
thousands and thousands ofyears and there's this danger of
them losing, you know, one oftheir cultural keystone species,
of their cultural keystonespecies.
So she has a very interestingstory about how it's affecting
them culturally with the loss ofthe abalone.
(40:09):
And then I have anothercharacter, eric, who's a diver
also, but he also spearfishesand he could no longer dive for
abalone and also there wasnothing to hunt as a hunter
hunter.
And so he mobilized a group ofother divers who are trying to
restore the kelp in a local coveby removing these purple sea
(40:35):
urchins and giving them maybe anarea where they can restore.
And these three characters havewonderful stories.
They're very interesting.
They explain the situationreally well, how it's personally
affecting them and what they'redoing to help.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah, I'm encouraged by these different organizations
and people that gather alongour coast.
I attended one just recently inthe Casper Cove by Mendocino of
the Watermen Alliance.
That are a set of divers thatare going out to remove and
destroy the excess purple urchin.
(41:13):
But there's also the NoyoCenter for Marine Science that's
working with otherorganizations and the indigenous
tribes in the area to pull themout and fatten them up and get
them into restaurants and otherplaces like that.
And there are organizationsthat are growing abalone to
reintroduce into the ocean.
In fact, there are severalorganizations that are involved
(41:38):
in Pacific Coast abalonereintroduction and they include
the following Pacific Coastabalone reintroduction and they
include the following NOAAFisheries, and that is the
National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration.
Noaa Fisheries is a key leaderin abalone conservation, heading
the White Abalone RecoveryProgram and partnering with
(41:59):
institutions to breed, raise andreintroduce abalone.
The Aquarium of the Pacific isa founding partner of the White
Abalone Recovery Program andthey are involved in breeding
and releasing young abalone.
They also raise publicawareness through an exhibit.
Uc Davis Bodega MarineLaboratory oversees the white
(42:23):
abalone captive breeding programand has increased production
since 2012.
The Bay Foundation is a majorpartner in kelp and abalone
restoration in SouthernCalifornia, they are involved in
breeding and research as well.
The California Department ofFish and Wildlife collaborates
(42:43):
on recovery efforts, includingcollecting broodstock and
monitoring.
They are also developing a redabalone recovery plan.
Powa Marine Research Groupworks on field methods to
restore white abalonepopulations, and the Cultured
Abalone Farm leads captiveproduction of juvenile red
(43:04):
abalone used as a proxy forwhite abalone in restoration.
University of California SantaCruz conducted a pilot study to
move black abalone forrestoration.
University of California SantaBarbara is a partner in the
captive breeding program, andthe Orange County Coast Keeper
(43:26):
works to protect water qualityand restore abalone habitats.
Redondo Beach Sea Lab partneredon developing methods for green
abalone propagation and rearing.
Cabrillo Marine Aquariumparticipates in the White
Abalone Captive Breeding Programas well, and up in Washington
(43:46):
State, puget Sound RestorationFund is restoring living marine
habitat and species usingstructure-forming species, which
include Olympia oysters andbull kelp, and habitat-enhancing
species like the pinto abalone.
These species are critical tothe food web too, and maintain
(44:09):
the living marine architecturethat supports the marine
ecosystems in Puget Sound andbeyond.
Restoration of these coreelements has ripple effects,
restoring function and providingdirect and indirect support to
fish and marine mammalsthroughout the food web.
Abalone populations havesignificantly declined due to
(44:34):
factors like overfishing,habitat loss, disease and
warming waters and we aretalking climate change.
These organizations that I'vejust mentioned are working
together, though, to helprestore healthy populations.
Now back to our conversationwith Cynthia Abbott and Andrea
(44:57):
Leland, filmmakers, creators ofthe Emmy Award-winning Three
Ocean Advocates, inspiringChange and a new film in the
works called the AbaloneChronicles, on which Cynthia is
working.
I'm Leanne Lindsay, a filmmakerand podcast producer, along
with my co-creators and co-hostsand co-producers, scott and
(45:19):
Tree Mercer of the MendenomaWhale and Seal Study.
You're listening to ResilientEarth Radio and Podcast, and I
wanted to mention, too, scottgives talks on sea otters and
(45:44):
had studied them a lot, so Iwanted you to comment on that.
A little bit about what Cynthiasaid, scott.
Speaker 6 (45:51):
Yeah, there isn't the biomass or the variation in the
area to support sea otters.
We'll see kelp for a few weeksand then we don't see it for a
few weeks and then we don't seeit.
And you know, we're out everyday looking or pulled in
somewhere and we'll see a raftof kelp and then a few weeks
later it's gone, not just from astorm or it's just disappeared.
(46:14):
This business aboutreintroducing them, people who
know that we don't have theconditions here for it, are the
ones I see as slated as speakerssomewhere, and I'm just
wondering why they really haveto know that we don't have the
system here to support them.
The films that we did see a fewyears ago that the divers were
(46:35):
taking of the bottom well,they're just calling it the
Urchin Barrens, and there werehardly any fish skittering
around either, because there'sjust nothing there.
The studies that people like DrJim Estes from Santa Cruz did
years ago, coming down fromAlaska to the Washington and
Oregon coasts they showed thatthe abundance of different
species increased 80% once thesea otters were reintroduced.
(46:57):
But they were reintroduced intoan area they could live in,
even the indigenous people whowere a little nervous at first
about sea otters coming in,because they had a clam industry
going on, realized that theclams were much more abundant
once the otters came in and wereestablished in an area.
So they weren't opposed to it,they were just a little bit
nervous about it.
I always get that question, nomatter what talk we give here.
(47:18):
If it's on finback whales,somebody will say, what about
sea otter reintroduction?
And you feel like saying, whatabout it?
It's just not going to happen,there's just nothing here for
them to live on or in.
It was down in Monterey Baywhen I was a student and what I
remember is it's like looking ata rainforest.
If you were in an airplane andthere were otters wrapped up in
(47:39):
the kelp, you know, likespaghetti on a fork, and the
mothers would swim over with thepups on their bellies and
chests and they'd anchorthemselves there, wrap the pup
in it and you just you need allthat.
We just don't have it.
Speaker 5 (47:52):
Yeah, if there's no kelp, and there's no sea life
there what are they?
going to eat.
They eat abalone as well ascrabs, and if it's not there,
how will they survive?
So it might be premature to tryto reintroduce them.
They were here, I think, untilthe mid-1700s or 1800s, and then
the fur trade is what wipedthem out when I am right now.
(48:15):
I just sent all the footage anda rough script to our editor,
Maya Pichotto, who's justincredible.
I have to give credit to ourfilm crew, which is the
Understory, and that's FabianAguirre.
They're an amazing team andthey do beautiful cinematography
(48:36):
and they make the subjects, ourcharacters, our interviewees so
comfortable.
I can't praise them more.
And then, on this film, Iworked with Beyond your Story,
and then also a newcinematographer, AJ Michon, and
he also is an incrediblecinematographer.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
It was the cinematography and the editing
which really got me.
When I saw your film there atthe Sebastopol Documentary Film
Festival.
Was that beautifulcinematography and the editing
was so well done.
Speaker 5 (49:09):
They make a film, right?
Yeah, I think a film's made inthe editing room, so I've always
had Maya on board for this.
Once I get a rough, then I'llbe going back out into the
fundraising mode to complete thefilm.
Because I'd like to includeanimation in this film and also
some sound design, because partof the abalone story is the
(49:36):
ceremonies that the yurok have,with the beautiful sound and
prayers of the abalone clickingtogether, which makes a song,
and in that song is prayer andit's just so beautiful and I
want to give that as muchemphasis as I can audio is so
important yes, yes, it is this,and the audio in this film is
(49:59):
important.
Yeah, then I'll be out in umdoing some fundraising to get to
final stage of, uh, the film,which I'm very excited about.
It's going to be very movingsome moving stories, an
emotional story, listening tothe people tell their stories
and their connection to theocean, and then also you know
the destruction that's going on.
(50:20):
But it's also going to beinspiring because people are
taking positive actions andthat's the theme of Every Second
Breath Project.
I want to add the word projectbecause that's our website, it's
everysecondbreathprojectorg, iflisteners want to go and look
at some of the footage that wehave, and then there are two
(50:41):
films that you can view entirelysome of the footage that we
have, and then there are twofilms that you can view entirely
.
Or there's a link to Canopy,which then you can view the film
through your local library orrent through New Day Films,
which is for the educationalmarket.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Actually there's a 14-day rental.
Any individual can rent thefilm, not just educational, also
museums, institutions.
I want to add something alsoabout taking action.
Dick Ogg called me yesterdaybecause he knew I was going to
(51:17):
be talking with you talking withyou and he wanted people to
know that he's very excitedbecause they came up with a way
of putting together the crabpots on the bottom of the ocean
together, with no upward ropes,and instead there's like a link
(51:41):
or something at the head of oneof these crab pots that they can
go down with the grappling hookand pull up all the crab pots
at one time.
He was very excited about it.
He was saying that thefishermen were working together
with him on this, that it's notvery expensive, it's cost
(52:06):
effective, it's something thatthe fishermen came up with
themselves.
So he's hopeful that the crabseason will open next spring,
when it's supposed to, ratherthan being delayed.
So that's the message from DickOck and that's the action that
was taken by the fishermen.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
And there's another type of ropeless gear too that
Scott and Tria have beenfollowing.
That you brought to myattention, zach Cliver and
others.
Rick Rales was it Rick Rales.
Speaker 6 (52:39):
He may be the one who came up with the idea first for
a ropeless gear.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
It's.
Gps oriented, but also withthese balloons that can expand
and make the pots rise.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
Yeah, what Dick was saying is that sometimes some of
those are very expensive.
Speaker 2 (52:59):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Solutions for the fishermen, and they can't afford
it, actually.
But this other way that he wastalking about is much more
affordable.
Not that he's discounting anyother form of rope plus crab
pots, but this is to add to the.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
I've always said there needs to be some kind of
subsidies from the government orfrom foundations who want to
help support the fishingindustry, because it is
expensive to make any changelike that.
Speaker 6 (53:34):
Did Dick mention how crabbers find their gear the
next day when they come back tocheck it Without a vertical line
and a buoy?
How are they locating wheretheir trawls are?
I didn't ask that.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Well, I want to point out right now, too, that back
to this website of yours, everySecond Breath Project.
If there are people out therethat would like to help support
you now, cynthia, there's a wayto donate.
There's a donate button on yourwebsite.
Speaker 5 (54:02):
Yes, there is, and we have a fiscal sponsor Center
for Independent Documentary, soany donations are tax deductible
and goes through this umbrella.
So we are nonprofit and ourwebsite, as I mentioned, is
everysecondprojectorg andthere's a write-up, and Abalone
(54:22):
Chronicles also has its own pageso you can get more information
about the story that'sdeveloping in the editing room
right now that is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
I'm so looking forward to seeing this short
film.
How long will it be, do youthink?
Speaker 5 (54:39):
well, I'm going to be vague.
It's going to be 14 or 28minutes long depends on the
editing room right.
14 seems to be a magic numberfor a short short and then, or a
maximum of a short and then 28,because I would like it to be
broadcast on public television.
It's a good amount of time toeducate and put into like
(55:02):
schools.
We have an excellent studyguide on the Three Ocean
Advocates.
It is on the website also andit can be downloaded for free
there for teachers to use in theclassroom.
Speaker 7 (55:15):
Are schools made aware that these study guides
exist because they are sovaluable?
Cynthia.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
Yeah, on New Day site we distribute to educational
market, there's a link to thestudy guide and you can download
the study guide whether or notyou buy the film.
So yeah, it's definitelyavailable.
Speaker 7 (55:39):
That's wonderful.
Who created them?
Speaker 5 (55:41):
That was done by Jennifer Stock, who is an
educational specialist with theFairlawn and Cordell Bank Marine
Sanctuaries.
She did it independently she isan ocean education specialist,
I see.
They're very informative.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
I also want to give a pitch real quick for public
television and public radio thatthey need your support.
Speaker 1 (56:06):
I wanted to say thank you for doing what you do.
I've looked at your podcast andI have a lot to explore, so
thank you for inviting us andthank you for your work.
We appreciate that.
Speaker 5 (56:22):
Yes, Thank you so much for having us on.
Don't lose hope, Ben.
We just have to find somethingthat you're passionate about and
dive in and take action.
It doesn't have to be in theocean anything, because whatever
happens in the ocean island-based, like all the plastic
that flows into the ocean andthe CO2 that the ocean is
(56:46):
absorbing.
So our actions count.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
I want to also thank both Scott and Tree for all of
their hard, dedicated work, notjust on this podcast, but the
work that they do throughMindenoma, whale and Seal Study.
They dedicate their lives tostudying the oceans and
gathering the data that's soimportant for other scientific
organizations.
So, all of you, thank you somuch, and, andrea, thank you for
(57:11):
joining us and thank you foryour kind words too.
Thanks.
Speaker 7 (57:15):
Thank you both so very much, really.
Thank you for your time.
A great conversation today.
Speaker 2 (57:30):
Thanks for listening to the Resilient Earth podcast,
where we talk about criticalissues and positive actions for
our planet.
Resilient Earth is produced byPlanet Centric Media, a 501c3
nonprofit, and Seastorm StudiosInc, located on the rugged North
(57:50):
Sonoma coast of NorthernCalifornia.
Hosts and co-producers Scottand Tree Mercer of Mindenoma,
whale and Seal Study, located onthe South Mendocino and North
Sonoma coasts.
The music for this podcast isby Eric Alleman, an
(58:15):
international composer, pianistand writer living in the Sea
Ranch.
Discover more of his music,animations, ballet, stage and
film work at ericalamancom.
You can find Resilient Earth onSpotify, apple and Amazon
(58:35):
Podcasts, iheartradio, youtube,soundcloud and wherever you find
your podcasts.
Please support us bysubscribing or donating to our
cause.
Welcome to the Resilient Earth Podcast, where
we talk with speakers from theUnited States and around the
world about the critical issuesfacing our planet and the
positive actions people aretaking, from the tiniest of
actions to the grandest ofgestures, so that we can
continue to thrive and survivefor generations to come.
(00:32):
I'm Leanne Lindsay, producerand host, along with co-hosts
and co-producers Scott and TreeMercer of Mindenoma, whale and
Seal Study, located on the SouthMendocino and North Sonoma
coasts.
The music for this podcast isby Eric Alleman, an
(00:55):
international composer, pianistand writer living in the Sea
Ranch.
Discover more of his music,animations, ballet, stage and
film work at ericalamondcom.
You can find Resilient Earth onSpotify, apple and Amazon
(01:18):
Podcasts, iheart Radio, youtube,soundcloud and wherever you
find your podcasts.
(01:53):
Today, scott Tree and I aretalking with Sonoma County
filmmakers Cynthia Abbott andAndrea Leland, creators of the
Emmy award-winning Three OceanAdvocates Inspiring Change and a
new film in the works calledthe Abalone Chronicles.
Cynthia is an award-winningindependent producer-director of
short-form environmental films.
She believes the power ofstorytelling can change our
(02:15):
collective vision of the oceanand create a new vision for the
ocean's future, protected andthriving.
Perfect for the format we havehere at Resilient Earth Radio
and Podcast.
She's an experiencedcinematographer, editor and
producer who has worked in Burmaand Thailand.
She has spent her adult lifenear the ocean in California and
(02:38):
Hawaii and is witness to itsenvironmental demise.
Compelled to take action, sheproduces films on environmental
issues to raise awareness andmove people to take action.
Andrea is a retiredproducer-director and has
produced and directedaward-winning documentaries
(03:01):
focusing on Caribbean cultures,which won numerous awards and
were screened at museums,conferences and festivals
throughout Europe, latin Americaand the United States.
Residing on St John in the USVirgin Islands for over 25 plus
years, she has seen firsthandthe urgency of creating films
(03:27):
about the ocean crises.
Find out more about them andtheir films at
everysecondbreathprojectorg.
Every second breath comes fromour oceans.
So that'severysecondbreathprojectorg
(03:47):
oceans.
So that's every second breathprojectorg.
I'm Leanne Lindsay, a filmmakerand podcast producer, and we'll
get into that conversation withCynthia and Andrea right after
a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
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Speaker 2 (05:22):
Welcome Cynthia and Andrea to the Resilient Earth
Radio and Podcast.
It's good to see you both again.
Thank you, yes, and thanksagain to my co-hosts and
co-producers, scott and TreeMercer of Mendenoma, whale and
Seal Study.
Good morning, good morningeveryone.
And we met you both actuallythrough the Sebastopol
(05:44):
Documentary Film Festival a fewyears back and then a couple of
times.
Cynthia and I have also seeneach other and had conversations
at the International Ocean FilmFestival in San Francisco ever
(06:07):
since seeing.
That first documentary that Isaw and shared with Tree, who
drove down with me to Sebastopol, was the Three Ocean Advocates
that you both worked on.
Give us a bit about yourbackground and how you came
about making that particularfilm, then we'll get into what
you're working on today.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
All right, let's start with Three Ocean Advocates
.
This is a project that Andreaand I have been working on for
several years and it startedwhen we met at a mixer, a film
mixer in Petaluma.
We both are residents ofPetaluma, california, which is
about 50 miles north of SanFrancisco, and we discovered we
(06:43):
were both documentary filmmakersand Andrea was living part-time
in St John Virgin Islands andI've always been lived close to
the ocean and have a passion forit, and I had had this idea of
doing a series of shorts onpeople who have a love and
passion for the ocean and whowant to share their stories in a
(07:04):
positive way.
They're not scientists orpoliticians, they're like
everyday people who are takingactions.
The goal is to inspireaudiences to realize they too
can do something to helpmitigate some of the issues that
we're having, many of theissues that we're having with
the environment and especiallythe ocean.
(07:26):
Sometimes with somedocumentaries they're kind of
hitting you over the head withso many negative facts and
figures and you kind of walkaway going what can I do?
And we actually have call toaction and action items at the
end of the films.
Have call to action and actionitems at the end of the films
and it's just to inform, educateand encourage people to learn
(07:49):
about the ocean and theenvironment and to take some
action.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
We don't have to sit back.
Yes, it's what inspired us tocreate this podcast was to talk
about the things that arecritical issues facing our
planet.
But what are some of thepositive actions people are
taking and what can people doLike?
What can our guests suggestthey might do?
Because it gets frustrating.
There are so many things thatare happening in our world.
It tends to get very depressingand then people stop and they
(08:21):
feel like, well, what can I do?
So that's why we were just soinspired by seeing your film and
, andrea, I met you there aswell.
I think it was the openingnight party for one of the
documentary film festivals downthere.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Possibly, yeah, st John Virgin Islands during
Sebastopol's Film Festival,because I had a house there for
25 years and have lived therehalf the year Not so much
anymore.
It's a little hard to get therefrom California.
So one of the segments in ThreeOcean Advocates for your
(09:04):
listeners to learn about isthere's actually three segments.
One is about Dick Ogg, afisherman who is working to
mitigate the problems withentanglement of whales.
That's one.
And then there's Tess Felix,who collects plastics from the
(09:26):
beaches near where she lives inStinson Beach and she makes
these most incredible figuresand people out of these plastic
like portraits and they lookjust like the photographs, are
just beautiful.
And then get up close and yousee all the garbage that has
(09:47):
been collected on the beach.
So it's pretty fascinating.
When I was in the islands,worked with a woman, barbara
Kritz, who was photographing theunderwater coral and fishes for
10 years and she actually wasdocumenting it during the time
(10:09):
of the bleaching and thechanging of the coral and I'm so
sad to say I was just there inMarch and unfortunately the hard
coral is mostly dead.
Occasionally you'll see a braincoral.
We had huge amounts of firecoral and it was all gone.
(10:32):
It's like very sad.
Oh, that's crushing.
Yeah, it's pretty crushing.
But I did see a lot of peopleall over the world, but also in
St John, trying to regeneratecoral and replant it in the
ocean.
And they're taking thesurviving hard corals and using
(10:57):
that coral to duplicate, clone,actually replant.
I don't know how much successthey've had.
Maybe you might know Also.
I see you shaking your headbecause it turns out that they
put it back in the ocean, whichhas the same problems where they
(11:17):
took the coral from.
So we'll see.
You know, you have to have hopethat that is going to succeed
at some point.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Here's a quick update on coral restoration programs
in the US Virgin Islands.
The St John's Island Complexfocuses on coral research and
restoration projects.
Coral research and restorationprojects, including the 100K
Corals Initiative, aiming toplant 100,000 corals over the
(11:53):
next decade.
Their mission statement saysthat sustainability must be at
the heart of any development toensure the long-term viability
of our limited resources.
Their four guiding principlesstate that.
Number one all developmentsmust be low impact and sensitive
to the nature of the islands.
Number two encourage the use ofeco-solutions to promote
(12:19):
sustainability and consider thenatural surroundings and native
biodiversity of the islands.
Number three preserve theisland heritage and conserve or
rejuvenate important natural andhistorical sites and features.
And number four leverage on theeducational values of the
(12:40):
islands to cultivate responsibleenvironmental stewardship.
There are also the MarineProtected Areas, the MPAs.
The Sisters Islands Marine Parkwas established in 2014 to
protect the reef ecosystem, andplans are underway to expand
(13:02):
marine park designations aroundthe southern islands.
Now, according to NOAA, theNational Ocean and Atmospheric
Administration, conservation andrestoration efforts are
underway to address thechallenges facing the reefs of
St John and other areas of theUS Virgin Islands, but with
(13:33):
funding and staffing severelyslashed by this current Trump
administration.
Who knows if or when that willever happen.
Such seriously stupidshort-sightedness hurts us all
and the planet in the long run.
Now, as for monitoring andresearch on corals, the St
John's Island National MarineLaboratory plays a key role in
(13:56):
monitoring reef health andconducting research to improve
restoration techniques.
They have discovered someadaptable corals.
These are corals in the lowerreef slopes which have shown
adaptability to light limitationfrom rising sea levels.
So, in summary, coral reefsaround St John's Island are
(14:21):
under great stress fromenvironmental and human-induced
factors.
However, ongoing conservation,restoration and research efforts
, coupled with some corals'inherent resilience, does offer
some hope for the future ofthese important marine
(14:43):
ecosystems, for the future ofthese important marine
ecosystems At the end of 2024,.
We did an episode about thiswith Dr Carly Kinkle of the
Marine Biology Lab at theUniversity of Southern
California.
It's called Coral ReefsWorldwide A Deep Dive into
Disaster and Rescue.
(15:04):
That's Resilient Earth Radioand Podcast episode number 19
from December 28, 2024.
Now back to the conversationwith filmmakers Cynthia Abbott
and Andrea Leland, creators ofthe Emmy award-winning Three
Ocean Advocates Inspiring Change, and Cynthia is going to be
(15:26):
talking in just a bit about anew film she has in the works,
called the abalone chronicles.
You can find out more at everysecond breath projectorg.
That's every secondbreathprojectorg.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
You know, you have to have hope, though we have some
pretty brilliant scientists andwe have to assume that that will
happen eventually.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Tell us a bit more about your background, Andrea.
I would like to actuallyunderstand both of your
backgrounds and what got youinto the filmmaking world in the
first place.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So I have an MFA from the Art Institute in Chicago
where I lived for 45 years.
Now I live in California.
I love it here, beautiful, andwhen I graduated I do paintings.
But I was always interested inanthropology and filmmaking.
(16:31):
I would be the person at homeshooting all of the Thanksgiving
dinners and the kids and allthat kind of stuff.
So I eventually started totraveling through the Caribbean
because it was closer to Chicagoin terms of the place to go in
the winter months.
(16:52):
Plus, it fed me artisticallythe environment.
And then I got involved inworking with indigenous
communities in the Caribbean.
Working with Indigenouscommunities in the Caribbean.
So I've worked with theGarifuna community in St Vincent
(17:13):
and Belize.
I worked in Haiti, made a filmabout voodoo as a traditional
ancestral worshipping culture.
I've worked in St Johndocumenting Indigenous music in
St John, documenting Indigenousmusic.
So mostly I was working withIndigenous communities in the
Caribbean.
(17:33):
And when I met Cynthia here inPetaluma and she told me about
wanting to work on ocean-relatedenvironmental issues, it was
right up my alley.
Even though I hadn't doneenvironment films, I was
familiar with making films anddistributing films because I'm a
(17:54):
member of New Day Films SocialIssue Documentary Distribution
Cooperative.
So when she mentioned aboutworking on the ocean, I said I'm
in.
Speaker 6 (18:10):
When were you in St John's?
You there in the 90s, by anychance.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Did you ever run into John and Ginger Garrison?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
No.
Speaker 6 (18:20):
They had a chart about the Bahari.
Oh, okay, no.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
They had a chart about the.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Bahari.
Oh okay, ginger was a coralreef biologist scientist and
John was by association.
He was the captain of theBahari.
They did a lot of work there onSt John's.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
No, I hadn't heard of them.
Did they leave any information?
How would I know about whatwork they've done?
Speaker 6 (18:45):
Well, they moved over to Florida.
Last time I spoke to themthey're always like one jump
ahead of me.
I catch their names onsomething when I get in touch
with that place.
No, they moved over tosomewhere else.
Well, ginger did a lot of workwith the National Park Service.
Well, they both did.
Ginger did a lot of diving withpeople snorkeling around the
reefs Just a lot of work withthat.
Change the subject a bit.
(19:05):
We had a funny encounter withpeople from Petaluma yesterday.
They'd come up this way andwere trying to get out of here
without going back down thecoast.
The wife looked like she was ina state of panic.
I think they were hoping theycould evolve wings and fly back.
They wanted to go north, to gosouth.
They wanted to keep drivingnorth to get back to Petaluma
(19:25):
and Tree convinced them thatwasn't going to happen.
They were really looking foranother way back and when they
found out, like a lot of peopledo, that there's mountains
behind us and an ocean in frontof us and a scary road on both
sides you mentioned Petaluma Iwas thinking I wonder if they
ever got home.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, people always ask is there a straighter route
out of here?
Speaker 6 (19:49):
Or a tunnel that goes through.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Right.
So, Cynthia, tell us about yourbackground and how you actually
got into Petaluma and intofilmmaking.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
Well, it's been a long journey.
I think it started with myfirst Brownie camera my father
gave me when I was a child andtook an interest in photography.
Then I've always been a visualperson and I want to convey what
I want to say visually.
Always been a visual person andwant to convey what I want to
(20:21):
say visually, and I startedstudying film in my early 20s
and in those days it was 16millimeter film that I learned
on and in those days you had areel of film that lasted three
minutes and before you had totake it out and replace it with
another three minute reel offilm and then send it off to the
lab to get developed and thenyou'd see whatever you filmed at
(20:45):
least a week later, if you werelucky.
And my first film when I wasstudying filmmaking was actually
On the Ocean the Myth of ElNino and El Nino is a warm
current that we get severaltimes a year here in Northern
California, so we have a warmingocean occurrence every three to
four years and during thatperiod I was fascinated by the
(21:08):
subject because we have severeweather, our storms are more
severe, we have a drought andthat also goes into the interior
of the United States.
That was my first film Irealized.
Oh well, that was in a sense onclimate change, although El
Nino's natural occurringphenomena, but the weather that
(21:29):
we experience, we get thatanyway here in California, but
not to the degree that we do now.
So then I took a hiatus forabout 25 years in filmmaking.
I did some filmmaking in Burma,where I was living for a few
years, and then Thailand, andthen I, like I said, I took a 25
(21:51):
year hiatus.
During that period I continuedto concentrate my attention on
the environment, study it, and Iwas just watching it
deteriorate and towards the end.
I just go.
I don't know what I'm going todo.
I want to do something to bepart of the solution, and I
realized that I could do thatthrough film, through
(22:12):
storytelling.
So that was my plan.
And then, whoops, everythinghad turned to digital.
So I had to retrain in digitalthe camera as well as the
editing programs, which I did.
And then I started makingshorts.
I like shorts.
They don't have a big market,but to me it's attainable to do
(22:36):
financially as well, as people'sattention span is getting
shorter, so you can get amessage across with a short to,
hopefully, more people, althoughwe're finding that difficult to
do.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Attention spans have gotten really short.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
Yeah, Well, our shorts are not that short.
They're not clips.
They're about 10 minutes, whichis still a short.
Yeah, I mean, when you look atthe social media shorts, they're
two minutes or one minute andthey're very quick.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
But isn't this how the Three Ocean Advocates came
together?
Was because each was a short?
Yeah they did.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
They were each shorts and then we presented one of
them to the local PBS stationhere in the North Bay, North Bay
PBS and they said, oh, do youhave more?
Because we have a perfect spoton our programming where a half
hour show would fit in.
So we decided to put the threetogether.
We made a half hour show withthree ocean advocates so they
(23:36):
can be screened as individualpieces or as the 30 to 27 minute
piece.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
On the website.
Every Second Breath there'sanother 10 minute piece about
Mark Nolan, who is a teacher inSan Mateo I believe San Mateo
and he takes kids to the oceanto show them the tide pools.
(24:04):
Yeah, so he does that.
Plus, he's also part of theBanana Slugs, which is a musical
group that sings aboutenvironment to the kids, so like
through these fabulous funnyperformances, they dress up in
costumes of crabs and octopusand they really entertain kids
(24:28):
about the environment.
That short is on our websiteevery second.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
Yeah, I got to watch that.
I watched it in preparing forthis podcast today and I was
really, really impressed.
Just the enthusiasm and theinspiration from that short, and
that's why one of my questionswas do you think you might make
a full-length documentary on theintertidal zone, which is so
(24:54):
fascinating?
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Great job.
Full-length documentaries justnot in the future.
I like to stay with shortsBecause they're more attainable
and budget-wise.
They're more affordable tocreate.
They do take a long time.
These shorts have taken fromstart to finish from the idea.
These shorts have taken fromstart to finish from the idea,
(25:18):
at least a year.
Sure, just because the way weshoot and camera and weather
conditions and finding a subject.
They're shorts, but they dotake time.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Many times I've interviewed producers, directors
, filmmakers at the MendocinoFilm Festival.
For many years I did that, andhow many times I'd hear people
say well, I've been working onthis for 22 years or 10 years,
and personally I've been workingon one for a decade now, as of
2025, and it's still ongoing.
(25:51):
But I too have a connectionwith the two of you because as a
little girl, I was the one thatjust loved cameras Any of those
little disposable cameras I gotmy hands on, I was taking
pictures and I was writingvoluminously in all kinds of
notebooks that I kept.
(26:12):
And then at 16, I took blackand white photography in dark
room in Aspen where I was livingAspen, colorado and I was
working right after that at thelocal rock station, album
oriented rock station.
But we started a little TVstudio and guess who became the
(26:35):
film editor, but me working withthe reel to reel tape and
editing in the commercials myfirst editing experience.
But I moved from Colorado to SanMateo, of all things, and went
to the San Mateo College andthen I got into the tech
(26:55):
industry for the next twodecades, but I did a lot of
writing in that time frame, butI'd gotten away from where I
really wanted to go was tellingstories through either audio or
visual, and I've done a lot ofshorts.
I taught myself through YouTubehow to use Adobe Premiere and
(27:16):
several other editing programs,but that's how I learned.
I didn't have an MFA, but itwas just sort of life experience
.
I always wanted that MFA,though.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Yeah, we were watching Tom Hanks' film series
the Americas and last night wewatched it was probably the last
sequence of it was the Makingof the Americans and anybody who
thought that filmmaking isglamorous and catered and
luxurious straightened out lastnight.
Show people on the top of treesjust as a huge lightning storm
(27:51):
would go through, and there'sphysical labor and hardships.
I can see why you want to keepsome of them short.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
You have hollywood behind you andrea, you started
to say something yeah, I had acouple things to say about
filmmaking.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
First of all, I have five films in distribution, one
of which is three oceanadvocates.
I've been making films for over30 years and every time I make
a film I say that's it, no morefilms, I'm never going to do
another film.
And then a subject comes upthat just needs amplification,
(28:31):
and that's what Cynthia and Iwere talking about.
We don't go in with a script.
We find the stories that needamplification, and so we listen
to the people that we'redocumenting, which is very
different than a narrative filmwhere you go in with the script.
(28:53):
Here we collect the information, we process it and then we
craft a film from the point ofview of the person that we're
working with.
So it's very stimulating, it'swonderful, but it's exhausting
to go through the whole process.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
That's the way I work , too, from an actually
journalistic standpoint as wellJust what is the story?
And I listen and I can seethings that need amplification,
need to raise awareness, andthat's what we do here on the
podcast, too.
I just love that approach, butit is, and can be, exhausting,
right, cynthia?
Speaker 5 (29:35):
Well, when you're doing a film on the ocean, you
are always out in the weather.
You don't know what you'regoing to face, because I think
all our films well, except theinterviews we can control
because they can be indoors buteverything else you know.
Is it going to rain, is theregoing to be a windstorm, is it
going to be too hot?
You're just weathered by theend of a day's shoot.
(29:57):
That part's not easy at all,but it is invigorating and it's
always beautiful to be by theocean.
I mean, there can't be a badday on the ocean.
They're all different andgorgeous.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I think Scott and Tree can attest to that, being
out on the bluffs watching thewhales and seals and all the
other marine life.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
No, two days are alike.
You just never know what youwill find.
And as we drive to Point ArenaLighthouse and we pass an area
and we're looking at the ocean,I was, oh wow, this is so nice
and calm here, not too much wind.
By the time we get to thelighthouse, five miles away,
we've got wind blowing at us andwhite caps covering the ocean
(30:40):
totally different.
It's just hard to know what wewill find so interesting.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I was in St John just after the hurricane of 2017 and
that you see the destructivepower of hurricanes and the
ocean and that's hard to see,but we forget about it because
we don't see it.
I saw it firsthand and I thinkthat had a significant impact on
(31:11):
the coral as well.
Speaker 6 (31:13):
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, for sure.
We worked there in the winters.
When I was there four wintersand, um, there was one year
after a hurricane had gonethrough we went back to an area
to snorkel on it and the reeflooked like somebody taking some
big bulldozers.
Yeah, she tried to bring thewhole reef up on the beach, wow,
but it just looked likebulldozers gone through the area
(31:35):
.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, these huge, huge coral heads that are
completely toppled over.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah, 2017 was also when we had those big fires up
here in Northern California andwe have a ranch over by Willits
it's part of the original homeof Seabiscuit, where Seabiscuit
the racehorse retired thedocumentary I've been working on
but the fires came overRidgewood Ranch and onto our
(32:04):
ranch and it went to PotterValley.
It was all up and down here.
So that's destruction a lot ofpeople see visually, but they
don't see often what happens inthe ocean, you know.
And one thing I wanted tomention too about filmmaking
that documentary I've beenworking on.
It was outside a lot because wewere filming horses and we were
(32:27):
doing this filming on thesechildren in this equine assisted
therapy program.
So we had to coordinate withall these families and their
children and the appointmentsthat they had for medical and
their school.
So I totally get that part.
But we always had to deal withthe weather, we had to
reschedule some shoots, and soit's part of the package.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Well, I just want to add how different the stories
change too as you're filming,because when we first started
our first film with um marknolan, it was going to be this
positive story about childrenand music and exploring the tide
pools and education, and it wasright.
Um, it was back, I think in2016, and sea star wasting
(33:15):
disease hit and all the seastars died, from Mexico all the
way up to Alaska.
Suddenly that became part ofthe story, a very depressing
part of the story, but that wasnothing we had anticipated when
we originally started.
Finding him as a character anda lot of people who have seen
(33:36):
the film that's what theyremember, because it's a very
stark piece of information andthat was just something in front
of our eyes.
It was very rapid.
It only took a couple years todestroy most of the sea stars
and it ended up also in ourfilms and that is happening with
most of them.
(33:57):
Like with Barbara Kreitz, shestarted out just was documenting
the sea life of the Caribbean.
She wasn't documenting thedestruction of the coral, but
she was doing a cat, thedifferent colored fish, and it
explains in the film how she wasdoing that color fish and it
(34:17):
explains in the film how she wasdoing that, but in the course
of those 10 years she wasfilming, she ended up
documenting the coral leachingyeah, as well, as the hurricane
came through, and all of theseclimate events are taking place
so rapidly right in front of us.
as we're making these littleshort films that maybe take a
year or two, there's a benefitfor the two-year time length
(34:39):
that one may take, because thenwe're documenting the change as
well.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
It was amazing to see the library she had of all
those photographs.
Speaker 7 (34:48):
Impressive.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Yeah, yeah, it's a wonderful resource if you're
going snorkeling.
What is that fish, you know?
So, yeah, it's amazing, and shejust did it on her own.
So you know you're talkingabout actions you can take.
That's certainly an action thatbenefits many people, Right?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Something positive that you could contribute and do
, and it was back in what, 2014?
When that heat blob or the bigheat event happened off our
coast which may have contributedto that sea star wasting
disease, but it also helped toobliterate a lot of the kelp
along our coast which you talkabout, and another documentary
(35:40):
filmmaker and an associate ofhers created that Sequoias of
the Sea about the loss of kelpalong the coast.
Well, that's the environment,that's the home for lots of
marine life, and abalone and Iused to actually, in the late
80s, die for abalone right offSea Ranch, right off of Little
(36:03):
River, Van Damme area, andthat's what got me interested in
the next project you're doing.
You know the abalone chronicles.
Can you give us a littleoverview of how you get started
on that and what it's coveringas far as the stories related to
it?
Speaker 5 (36:20):
Yeah, I was actually going to do a film on sound in
the ocean and I researched itfor over I don't know a year,
year and a half, and I couldn'tfind a character to tell the
story.
So I was um I always followwhat's going on in the oceans
here in the north pacific andthere was a workshop being given
(36:45):
on the sea otters beingreintroduced to the north coast
because they had become extincthere, and I went to one of the
workshops with I think it wasNoah, and I met this man there
who was an abalone diver, and Ifound him very interesting with
some of the questions he wasasking and he had a great voice.
(37:09):
I went, huh, this is a film.
You know what he's talkingabout.
The abalone was, and I wasn'ttoo clear of what was going on
with the abalone.
I knew there was a moratoriumand that, um, but now I know a
lot more about abalone, so itintrigued me of the story of the
abalone and what was going onthere, and reintroduction to the
(37:32):
sea otters here, too, has someimpact on abalone.
So the more I learned, it justseemed like this mollusk with a
beautiful shell would make aninteresting story, and I started
out with the diver who has this.
Let me go back.
There's a moratorium now since,I think, 2018, on diving,
(37:55):
because these red abalone in ourarea are critically endangered.
So they're trying to restorethem by no more fishing and
they're focusing too on poachingand hopefully at some point
there'll be enough abalone toopen up the dive season, but
right now there isn't.
(38:16):
And you mentioned the blob,that heat wave which killed the
kelp which is part of theirabalone's diet, the main part of
their diet, and so without theoh and then related to that is
the sea star wasting diseasewhich wiped out the sunflower
star, which is the main predatorto the purple sea urchin which
(38:38):
feast on kelp.
So any remaining kelp has beendestroyed and eaten and there's
just no check and balance onthese sea urchins.
And so the kelp there's been a95% loss on that which is the
bull kelp I'm talking about.
They get eaten by these purplesea urchins.
(39:01):
Tide pools now, or theintertidal zone, are just this
urchin barren.
There's nothing there exceptthousands and thousands and
thousands of these now veryhungry purple sea urchins
because they don't have any morefood so they go dormant.
So I have three characters whoare telling this story about the
(39:24):
demise of the abalone, and it'sall related to climate change.
That's the elephant in the roomall the time.
There's the one who's a diverwho collects all the washed up
shells on the beach, and hestarted a relationship with a
Yurok tribal ceremonial regaliamaker and they were having a
(39:46):
shortage of abalone shells.
And now the Yuroks have usedthe abalone in their culture for
thousands and thousands ofyears and there's this danger of
them losing, you know, one oftheir cultural keystone species,
of their cultural keystonespecies.
So she has a very interestingstory about how it's affecting
them culturally with the loss ofthe abalone.
(40:09):
And then I have anothercharacter, eric, who's a diver
also, but he also spearfishesand he could no longer dive for
abalone and also there wasnothing to hunt as a hunter
hunter.
And so he mobilized a group ofother divers who are trying to
restore the kelp in a local coveby removing these purple sea
(40:35):
urchins and giving them maybe anarea where they can restore.
And these three characters havewonderful stories.
They're very interesting.
They explain the situationreally well, how it's personally
affecting them and what they'redoing to help.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah, I'm encouraged by these different organizations
and people that gather alongour coast.
I attended one just recently inthe Casper Cove by Mendocino of
the Watermen Alliance.
That are a set of divers thatare going out to remove and
destroy the excess purple urchin.
(41:13):
But there's also the NoyoCenter for Marine Science that's
working with otherorganizations and the indigenous
tribes in the area to pull themout and fatten them up and get
them into restaurants and otherplaces like that.
And there are organizationsthat are growing abalone to
reintroduce into the ocean.
In fact, there are severalorganizations that are involved
(41:38):
in Pacific Coast abalonereintroduction and they include
the following Pacific Coastabalone reintroduction and they
include the following NOAAFisheries, and that is the
National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration.
Noaa Fisheries is a key leaderin abalone conservation, heading
the White Abalone RecoveryProgram and partnering with
(41:59):
institutions to breed, raise andreintroduce abalone.
The Aquarium of the Pacific isa founding partner of the White
Abalone Recovery Program andthey are involved in breeding
and releasing young abalone.
They also raise publicawareness through an exhibit.
Uc Davis Bodega MarineLaboratory oversees the white
(42:23):
abalone captive breeding programand has increased production
since 2012.
The Bay Foundation is a majorpartner in kelp and abalone
restoration in SouthernCalifornia, they are involved in
breeding and research as well.
The California Department ofFish and Wildlife collaborates
(42:43):
on recovery efforts, includingcollecting broodstock and
monitoring.
They are also developing a redabalone recovery plan.
Powa Marine Research Groupworks on field methods to
restore white abalonepopulations, and the Cultured
Abalone Farm leads captiveproduction of juvenile red
(43:04):
abalone used as a proxy forwhite abalone in restoration.
University of California SantaCruz conducted a pilot study to
move black abalone forrestoration.
University of California SantaBarbara is a partner in the
captive breeding program, andthe Orange County Coast Keeper
(43:26):
works to protect water qualityand restore abalone habitats.
Redondo Beach Sea Lab partneredon developing methods for green
abalone propagation and rearing.
Cabrillo Marine Aquariumparticipates in the White
Abalone Captive Breeding Programas well, and up in Washington
(43:46):
State, puget Sound RestorationFund is restoring living marine
habitat and species usingstructure-forming species, which
include Olympia oysters andbull kelp, and habitat-enhancing
species like the pinto abalone.
These species are critical tothe food web too, and maintain
(44:09):
the living marine architecturethat supports the marine
ecosystems in Puget Sound andbeyond.
Restoration of these coreelements has ripple effects,
restoring function and providingdirect and indirect support to
fish and marine mammalsthroughout the food web.
Abalone populations havesignificantly declined due to
(44:34):
factors like overfishing,habitat loss, disease and
warming waters and we aretalking climate change.
These organizations that I'vejust mentioned are working
together, though, to helprestore healthy populations.
Now back to our conversationwith Cynthia Abbott and Andrea
(44:57):
Leland, filmmakers, creators ofthe Emmy Award-winning Three
Ocean Advocates, inspiringChange and a new film in the
works called the AbaloneChronicles, on which Cynthia is
working.
I'm Leanne Lindsay, a filmmakerand podcast producer, along
with my co-creators and co-hostsand co-producers, scott and
(45:19):
Tree Mercer of the MendenomaWhale and Seal Study.
You're listening to ResilientEarth Radio and Podcast, and I
wanted to mention, too, scottgives talks on sea otters and
(45:44):
had studied them a lot, so Iwanted you to comment on that.
A little bit about what Cynthiasaid, scott.
Speaker 6 (45:51):
Yeah, there isn't the biomass or the variation in the
area to support sea otters.
We'll see kelp for a few weeksand then we don't see it for a
few weeks and then we don't seeit.
And you know, we're out everyday looking or pulled in
somewhere and we'll see a raftof kelp and then a few weeks
later it's gone, not just from astorm or it's just disappeared.
(46:14):
This business aboutreintroducing them, people who
know that we don't have theconditions here for it, are the
ones I see as slated as speakerssomewhere, and I'm just
wondering why they really haveto know that we don't have the
system here to support them.
The films that we did see a fewyears ago that the divers were
(46:35):
taking of the bottom well,they're just calling it the
Urchin Barrens, and there werehardly any fish skittering
around either, because there'sjust nothing there.
The studies that people like DrJim Estes from Santa Cruz did
years ago, coming down fromAlaska to the Washington and
Oregon coasts they showed thatthe abundance of different
species increased 80% once thesea otters were reintroduced.
(46:57):
But they were reintroduced intoan area they could live in,
even the indigenous people whowere a little nervous at first
about sea otters coming in,because they had a clam industry
going on, realized that theclams were much more abundant
once the otters came in and wereestablished in an area.
So they weren't opposed to it,they were just a little bit
nervous about it.
I always get that question, nomatter what talk we give here.
(47:18):
If it's on finback whales,somebody will say, what about
sea otter reintroduction?
And you feel like saying, whatabout it?
It's just not going to happen,there's just nothing here for
them to live on or in.
It was down in Monterey Baywhen I was a student and what I
remember is it's like looking ata rainforest.
If you were in an airplane andthere were otters wrapped up in
(47:39):
the kelp, you know, likespaghetti on a fork, and the
mothers would swim over with thepups on their bellies and
chests and they'd anchorthemselves there, wrap the pup
in it and you just you need allthat.
We just don't have it.
Speaker 5 (47:52):
Yeah, if there's no kelp, and there's no sea life
there what are they?
going to eat.
They eat abalone as well ascrabs, and if it's not there,
how will they survive?
So it might be premature to tryto reintroduce them.
They were here, I think, untilthe mid-1700s or 1800s, and then
the fur trade is what wipedthem out when I am right now.
(48:15):
I just sent all the footage anda rough script to our editor,
Maya Pichotto, who's justincredible.
I have to give credit to ourfilm crew, which is the
Understory, and that's FabianAguirre.
They're an amazing team andthey do beautiful cinematography
(48:36):
and they make the subjects, ourcharacters, our interviewees so
comfortable.
I can't praise them more.
And then, on this film, Iworked with Beyond your Story,
and then also a newcinematographer, AJ Michon, and
he also is an incrediblecinematographer.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
It was the cinematography and the editing
which really got me.
When I saw your film there atthe Sebastopol Documentary Film
Festival.
Was that beautifulcinematography and the editing
was so well done.
Speaker 5 (49:09):
They make a film, right?
Yeah, I think a film's made inthe editing room, so I've always
had Maya on board for this.
Once I get a rough, then I'llbe going back out into the
fundraising mode to complete thefilm.
Because I'd like to includeanimation in this film and also
some sound design, because partof the abalone story is the
(49:36):
ceremonies that the yurok have,with the beautiful sound and
prayers of the abalone clickingtogether, which makes a song,
and in that song is prayer andit's just so beautiful and I
want to give that as muchemphasis as I can audio is so
important yes, yes, it is this,and the audio in this film is
(49:59):
important.
Yeah, then I'll be out in umdoing some fundraising to get to
final stage of, uh, the film,which I'm very excited about.
It's going to be very movingsome moving stories, an
emotional story, listening tothe people tell their stories
and their connection to theocean, and then also you know
the destruction that's going on.
(50:20):
But it's also going to beinspiring because people are
taking positive actions andthat's the theme of Every Second
Breath Project.
I want to add the word projectbecause that's our website, it's
everysecondbreathprojectorg, iflisteners want to go and look
at some of the footage that wehave, and then there are two
(50:41):
films that you can view entirelysome of the footage that we
have, and then there are twofilms that you can view entirely
.
Or there's a link to Canopy,which then you can view the film
through your local library orrent through New Day Films,
which is for the educationalmarket.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Actually there's a 14-day rental.
Any individual can rent thefilm, not just educational, also
museums, institutions.
I want to add something alsoabout taking action.
Dick Ogg called me yesterdaybecause he knew I was going to
(51:17):
be talking with you talking withyou and he wanted people to
know that he's very excitedbecause they came up with a way
of putting together the crabpots on the bottom of the ocean
together, with no upward ropes,and instead there's like a link
(51:41):
or something at the head of oneof these crab pots that they can
go down with the grappling hookand pull up all the crab pots
at one time.
He was very excited about it.
He was saying that thefishermen were working together
with him on this, that it's notvery expensive, it's cost
(52:06):
effective, it's something thatthe fishermen came up with
themselves.
So he's hopeful that the crabseason will open next spring,
when it's supposed to, ratherthan being delayed.
So that's the message from DickOck and that's the action that
was taken by the fishermen.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
And there's another type of ropeless gear too that
Scott and Tria have beenfollowing.
That you brought to myattention, zach Cliver and
others.
Rick Rales was it Rick Rales.
Speaker 6 (52:39):
He may be the one who came up with the idea first for
a ropeless gear.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
It's.
Gps oriented, but also withthese balloons that can expand
and make the pots rise.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
Yeah, what Dick was saying is that sometimes some of
those are very expensive.
Speaker 2 (52:59):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Solutions for the fishermen, and they can't afford
it, actually.
But this other way that he wastalking about is much more
affordable.
Not that he's discounting anyother form of rope plus crab
pots, but this is to add to the.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
I've always said there needs to be some kind of
subsidies from the government orfrom foundations who want to
help support the fishingindustry, because it is
expensive to make any changelike that.
Speaker 6 (53:34):
Did Dick mention how crabbers find their gear the
next day when they come back tocheck it Without a vertical line
and a buoy?
How are they locating wheretheir trawls are?
I didn't ask that.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Well, I want to point out right now, too, that back
to this website of yours, everySecond Breath Project.
If there are people out therethat would like to help support
you now, cynthia, there's a wayto donate.
There's a donate button on yourwebsite.
Speaker 5 (54:02):
Yes, there is, and we have a fiscal sponsor Center
for Independent Documentary, soany donations are tax deductible
and goes through this umbrella.
So we are nonprofit and ourwebsite, as I mentioned, is
everysecondprojectorg andthere's a write-up, and Abalone
(54:22):
Chronicles also has its own pageso you can get more information
about the story that'sdeveloping in the editing room
right now that is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
I'm so looking forward to seeing this short
film.
How long will it be, do youthink?
Speaker 5 (54:39):
well, I'm going to be vague.
It's going to be 14 or 28minutes long depends on the
editing room right.
14 seems to be a magic numberfor a short short and then, or a
maximum of a short and then 28,because I would like it to be
broadcast on public television.
It's a good amount of time toeducate and put into like
(55:02):
schools.
We have an excellent studyguide on the Three Ocean
Advocates.
It is on the website also andit can be downloaded for free
there for teachers to use in theclassroom.
Speaker 7 (55:15):
Are schools made aware that these study guides
exist because they are sovaluable?
Cynthia.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
Yeah, on New Day site we distribute to educational
market, there's a link to thestudy guide and you can download
the study guide whether or notyou buy the film.
So yeah, it's definitelyavailable.
Speaker 7 (55:39):
That's wonderful.
Who created them?
Speaker 5 (55:41):
That was done by Jennifer Stock, who is an
educational specialist with theFairlawn and Cordell Bank Marine
Sanctuaries.
She did it independently she isan ocean education specialist,
I see.
They're very informative.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
I also want to give a pitch real quick for public
television and public radio thatthey need your support.
Speaker 1 (56:06):
I wanted to say thank you for doing what you do.
I've looked at your podcast andI have a lot to explore, so
thank you for inviting us andthank you for your work.
We appreciate that.
Speaker 5 (56:22):
Yes, Thank you so much for having us on.
Don't lose hope, Ben.
We just have to find somethingthat you're passionate about and
dive in and take action.
It doesn't have to be in theocean anything, because whatever
happens in the ocean island-based, like all the plastic
that flows into the ocean andthe CO2 that the ocean is
(56:46):
absorbing.
So our actions count.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
I want to also thank both Scott and Tree for all of
their hard, dedicated work, notjust on this podcast, but the
work that they do throughMindenoma, whale and Seal Study.
They dedicate their lives tostudying the oceans and
gathering the data that's soimportant for other scientific
organizations.
So, all of you, thank you somuch, and, andrea, thank you for
(57:11):
joining us and thank you foryour kind words too.
Thanks.
Speaker 7 (57:15):
Thank you both so very much, really.
Thank you for your time.
A great conversation today.
Speaker 2 (57:30):
Thanks for listening to the Resilient Earth podcast,
where we talk about criticalissues and positive actions for
our planet.
Resilient Earth is produced byPlanet Centric Media, a 501c3
nonprofit, and Seastorm StudiosInc, located on the rugged North
(57:50):
Sonoma coast of NorthernCalifornia.
Hosts and co-producers Scottand Tree Mercer of Mindenoma,
whale and Seal Study, located onthe South Mendocino and North
Sonoma coasts.
The music for this podcast isby Eric Alleman, an
(58:15):
international composer, pianistand writer living in the Sea
Ranch.
Discover more of his music,animations, ballet, stage and
film work at ericalamancom.
You can find Resilient Earth onSpotify, apple and Amazon
(58:35):
Podcasts, iheartradio, youtube,soundcloud and wherever you find
your podcasts.
Please support us bysubscribing or donating to our
cause.
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