Dr Easkey Britton 0:13
My mind was empty while I watched the tide slowly reclaim its belongings, lifting the dried out fronds of seaweed and returning them to their liquid, supple state, the flower like pink hydroids welcoming the return of the sea by unfurling their delicate tentacles in the rush of water.

The barnacles fixed to the rocks just below the high tide line, opening their shells to feed all life on this rocky shoreline adjusts it to this tidal rhythm. The certainty of the tide, knowing it always returns, comforts me. I too respond to the rising tide, shedding the layers of my warm clothing and slowly stepping into the water, feeling the persistent surge of tide returning from the open ocean, I let it take me, as if I was being swallowed whole, a rich return to wholeness. I sinking back into the watery embrace of the sea. My body momentarily released from the confines of gravity, floating free and held at the same time.

Hannah Stitfall 1:51
This is Oceans: Life Under Water, the series exploring our oceans and the fascinating life within them. I’m Hannah Stitfal. I’m a zoologist, wildlife filmmaker and broadcaster, and I’m bringing you along as I learn everything I can about our watery planet.

I want to start this episode by asking you a question, how connected do you feel to the ocean? I’m not asking how close you live to it, or how often you swim in open water, I’m asking, How Deep Is Your sense of connection to the sea? In this episode, we’ll explore the link between human health and the health of our oceans, and we’ll reflect on how damaging our waters could be, more harmful to our own well being than we might realise. But if we take proper care of our ocean, the benefits can truly be extraordinary.

Jessica Pita 2:50
My dive buddy just kind of started like whacking me underwater, and then he didn’t know how to tell me that there’s a shark, so he’s trying to scream shark. And then eventually he just went with singing the jaws theme tune.

Martina Burtscher 3:01
Once Mona paddle out and rode her first wave on her belly, you could see this huge smile all over her face. And later back on land, she would tell me that there was some kind of energy coming into her heart.

Dr Easkey Britton 3:14
When you cross that threshold from land to sea and take your first step into the water, you enter this other world, really, and then everything changes. So you’re out in the water looking back at the land. It’s a view that maybe not many of us get in our day to day lives. So even that alone, I think, has an effect.

Hannah Stitfall 3:37
My guest today is Dr Easkey Britton, a marine social scientist, surfer and author, she explores the healing power of the sea and focuses on how water and surfing connect people to nature. So it gives me great pleasure to say, Hello, Easkey, how are you good morning? Hello, great, and you? Yeah, good. Thank you. Thank you for coming on with us today as well. So for our listeners, Easkey, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Dr Easkey Britton 4:04
Yeah, I’m Easkey Britton, and I live on the west coast of Ireland in Donegal, where I grew up and learned to surf and was standing on a surfboard from the age of four. I was born to pioneering surfing parents, so both my mother and father surfed, and we’re the kind of among the first to initiate the sport in the country. And so it just formed our way of life from the very beginning. And as the ocean became my my play playground, my lifelong partner, and also, even in my name, there’s that connection to the sea. So Easkey comes from the gay liquor, Irish for ‘fish east’ and it’s also a famous surf break on the west coast of Ireland, one of my dad’s favourite waves. And it’s wonderful spot, really liminal tidal spot, where the river meets the sea and creates this beautiful wave. So there’s always that kind of ecological connection, and definitely salt water in the blood, so to speak. Yeah. And I feel interestingly, I feel that it’s never changed for me, but I always feel most at home in those kind of maybe in those in between places, those thresholds, the intertidal zone especially, has had such an influence in my life, that crossover from land to sea and all the excitement and transformation that brings, like entering another world. So that’s always drawn me in and fueled my kind of curiosity and fascination with the ocean in this kind of lifelong love affair.

Hannah Stitfall 5:26
Talk us through a typical morning going out surfing on the west coast of Ireland.

Dr Easkey Britton 5:35
Yeah, well, it’s where we’re situated, here on on the edge of the Atlantic, especially in Donegal, we kind of get the full energy of all those ocean storms, and especially in winter time. So the first thing that’s noticeable is always the sound when I wake up, and even if it’s still dark or before I even look out the window, you can get a sense for the energy in the ocean. And I suppose that’s what it is. It’s such a multi sensory experience. And then, of course, it’s the visceral cold, and it’s where all that ocean energy is colliding with rock. These are dark limestone rock of this particular Bay, and it seems to lend itself really well to forming reefs that create quite beautiful waves, these gorgeous surf ecosystems. And it will depend. I mean, if I’m if I’m going for swims, it’s sometimes a quick dip is just the the perfect reset, and it requires a much less time than trying to gather all the gear up to go for a surf. But always, there’s that, yeah, that feeling of, I don’t know what it is, it’s like that the mind is always coming up with all these reasons not to do it, and that it’s total madness, and it’s, you know, profound levels of discomfort when you first get into the cold. But then there’s just this wonderful sense of kind of aliveness when all your you know cells in your body are kind of shocked away the awareness of of everything, it just brings you back into your body so you’re not stuck in your head anymore. And then you’re just so focused in the moment, because you’re you have to pay attention to the ocean, to the waves as part, I suppose, part survival. But you go beyond that kind of fear and anxiety, perhaps, and into this other state then of of just this letting go. It’s like you’re Yeah, for just a moment, you are fully present. And it’s a wonderful perspective shift. I love it. I really feel like it is almost entering like a portal. When you cross that threshold from land to sea and take your first step into the water, you enter this other world, really, and then everything changes. And you’re out in the water looking back at the land. It’s a view that maybe not many of us get in our day to day lives. So even that alone, I think, has an effect. And all of this then is just feel, I suppose, my interest in trying to better understand what is that in it pull water, especially the sea, seems to have on us as humans, and how it changes us, you know, at a physiological level, but also emotional, psychological and even spiritual perhaps.

Hannah Stitfall 7:49
Do you think surfing has been a big factor in your job as a Marine social scientist?

Dr Easkey Britton 7:54
Yes. I mean, surfing for me was my way just to get to know the the ocean, and it’s been my informal classroom, is how I like to think of it, and especially fueling that important quality of curiosity and creativity that seems to get eroded often through mainstream education, and we were told to shut up, really. So I learned a different form of listening through surfing and the sea, so that deeper form of listening, of just having to pay attention to the world around me, yeah, notice the movement and patterns of other species, of other elements, and it’s how I orient myself and the world. To this day, anywhere I go, especially if I’m arriving somewhere new or I’m an outsider, like, I need to go to the nearest body of water and just like, almost like, introduce myself or acknowledge my arrival and get to Yeah, I feel like I haven’t arrived somewhere, but if I haven’t gotten the water or got to connect with it wherever I am. And then, of course, that’s just that kind of Curiosity has really fueled my desire to want to better understand our relationship with these places and with water in the ocean, and also where the connection has been lost or broken, how we might restore it. So that’s really at the heart, I think, of what I do.

Hannah Stitfall 9:04
So tell me a bit about your research, because you explore a lot between marine environments and human health, don’t you?

Dr Easkey Britton 9:11
Yeah, my research currently is really focused and centred around what’s known as blue health. So it’s really emerged only in the last decade or so, and we’re just beginning to have a language to describe what it is. So it’s a real meta discipline looking at essentially the health and well being impacts of being in on or near water, water in all its forms. And for me in particular, that would be the sea and the ocean, and it could be rivers and lakes. And it’s very much linked to the work of marine biologist Wallace J Nichols and his book blue mind, published a decade ago, which was that kind of foundational piece of of work where he coined that term for us to begin to maybe consider are in certainly in the Western world, the more the psychological and restorative powers of off water and how it makes us feel, how it alters our state of mind. Yeah, so of course, that as a lifelong surfer, that really drew me in, and then just the experiences I’d witness worldwide and across cultures of that transformative power of, you know, how we how we show up on land, maybe carrying and holding these different personas, or being able to just in particular, I suppose, when for women and girls, being able to get in the water, and just let go of a lot of those expectations or maybe carrying or those fears, and just, yeah, being be able to feel all of who we are again when we get into the water. So seeing those kind of key qualities that I just been observing over a lifetime, seeing how they could be part of this narrative around blue health. So recognising, I suppose, as part of that piece of recognising our interdependence with the ocean, how, of course, all life and our health is totally dependent on the health of the ocean. But even at a more intimate level, recognising as much as we’re impacting it, how much it impacts our health and well being. And looking at, now my area looks of research really looks at the mental health benefits for all kinds of people, especially for young people of these experiences of, I suppose, Ocean Therapy in a way of connecting with the sea and the beach and water in these different ways.

Hannah Stitfall 11:14
So can you explain a bit about how the ocean does positively affect our well being.

Dr Easkey Britton 11:21
Yeah, it affects us in so many ways, whether we’re conscious of it or not, but I think when we and it depends on these two different sort of levels and layers of immersion. So it could just be simply the benefit of when we when we look at it or listen to it, it has an effect on our brain waves, helping us enter this more meditative calm or state, which is known as blue mind, and that’s such a powerful antidote to the kind of chronic red mind state we find ourselves in, especially in modern society, where we’re just always on that hyper productive mode, but where our stress response is kind of nearly always activated in response to the sort of sharper, shriller sounds we hear in more urban environments, for example, just how our attention is being pulled in so many different directions. A lot of the demands of our work requires us to have this really sort of focused attention we’ve put a lot of effort into, and it creates that brain fatigue, exhaustion, even burnout. And then we know, of course, going to nature has so much restorative potential, and especially water for our state of minds. So there’s just that at a very basic level. And then when you enter it, you have that level of kind of immersion. There’s, yeah, there’s a lot going on. So we can unpack that a bit more.

Hannah Stitfall 12:37
I feel, I live in Newquay, in Cornwall, and I feel when I get really stressed. I will just go and walk my dog, just to go and look at the sea, just look out to it, and that blue might it. I feel so much better afterwards just half an hour, just walking along the coast path looking out to the ocean, you can almost feel it de-stress you, and that’s without even getting in it. So I mean it, it does work.

Dr Easkey Britton 13:04
Yeah, and we, maybe, there’s, maybe we’re just trying to understand various, I suppose, the reasons or the whys behind that. But of course, it’s maybe to do with fact that, like needing that closeness and proximity to water for our own survival, it being a source of our, you know, sustenance in terms of our evolution. But also more than that, I think it’s like the water has this profound ability to hold our attention in a really effortless way. Environmental psychologists would call that involuntary attention. So it’s a why, you know, maybe so many people have those. You get those great insight moments of insight when you’re in the shower or so it’s that ability for your mind to be able to wander. And because water is such a dynamic kind of element, you know, it’s you’re looking at this expanse of blue, perhaps, but it’s also, it’s constantly moving, and there’s textures and colours and sounds, and it draws us in, in a way, maybe looking at the flames of a firewood. And sometimes people will experience something similar, perhaps in the forests under a canopy of trees or but water, it’s very profound because it is so multi sensory. What’s really important about the sea is that it also challenges us. It is a place of fear. We often have to overcome this feeling of either you have some level of fear or anxiety, even, or discomfort, especially, getting into cold water, which is really important in a society where we try to where, you know, convenience is the ultimate aim. We try to have control and micromanage all these little parts of our lives. And then when we get in the water, it’s because we’re our whole bodies are responding to the shock of the cold, the discomfort we’re having to kind of, I suppose, kind of, it creates a sort of recalibration, where our whole body has to regulate our temperature again, and essentially it’s a low dose stress response that we’re intentionally giving the body physically and psychologically, and that we do that the more we do that. And you can only just be for a short period of time, but if you build this up, you know, over and you start to go regularly, even if you just jump in the water for a minute, and we enhance our adaptive capacity. Capacity, so that when we leave the water and enter into the rest of our lives, the rest of the day, whatever sort of shocks, stressors or challenges we meet, we’re much better able to meet them, because we’ve kind of enhanced that level of resilience and ability to adapt.

Hannah Stitfall 15:15
And can you explain a little bit about how human health and ocean health are interconnected?

Dr Easkey Britton 15:21
I suppose my experience of of our relationship with with the ocean, with water, is that it just just, it’s completely interconnected. There is really no such thing away as a way every action in our lives has has an impact, because we ourselves are bodies of water, and the water in our bodies is cycling through us something like 17 times a year. And so we really mirror the health and quality of the waters that we live with, in the watershed that we live in, in that way, we’re completely connected. So of course, if that water isn’t healthy, if it’s polluted, if it’s carrying toxins, then so too are we. And to me, that’s really just speaks to this entanglement of how we are ecological beings, that that myth of separation, of othering nature, of seeing nature and water is just another resource or commodity, is so, so harmful and detrimental to our health and well being. But yeah, the health of the community is totally dependent on the health of its water.

Hannah Stitfall 16:17
And how can we encourage others to deepen their connection with the ocean.

Dr Easkey Britton 16:21
So that’s also the core of this, isn’t it, of everything that we do. How do we deepen the connection? And there’s so many ways, I think, for the for the ocean and the sea, you know, I it’s, it’s so part of who I am, by my very proximity to it and in the air that I breathe in, and being able to connect with it every day, but I often feel and it’s important for every single person on the planet. I mean, I can’t imagine what it’s like if you’ve never seen the sea. But even if you have never seen the sea, we do live on a blue planet. Every second breath we take is come, comes from the ocean. And wherever you are, we can’t survive her very long with water. So if you go to your water, your nearest water body, whatever that may look like, the water that you even drink when you wake up in the morning, the rain that falls from the sky, it’s all connected, which I think is a beautiful way to connect with the ocean, wherever we are. And then when it comes to a lot of the I suppose the ocean conservation and restoration work, I think that narrative really needs to shift, and it is into thinking about water in all its forms, how we’re connected to the ocean in whatever watershed that we live in, no matter how far from the sea that we are. So thinking bringing, I suppose, that ocean awareness and ocean literacy into places that maybe aren’t directly connected with the sea. And also, I find that the power of connecting with it wherever you are, of course, through breath, is one of the, the biggest ways I do that. But also, I mean, when we when you don’t have access to it for so many reasons, people don’t, but being able to access it through the power of imagination. So going back to how water does leave such a powerful imprint in us, and the memory of water that we hold, being able to return to it through simple visualisation practices, even doing that for a few minutes a day is a wonderful way to actually get that reactivate that blue mind effect in the body. I often use that as a kind of tool when I was big way of surfing, and confront it with these huge waves to try and override the stress response and stay calm, I’d literally go to that place in my mind where everything was calm underwater and sort of play it like on a loop in my head. Yeah.

Hannah Stitfall 18:35
So for our listeners who want to stop benefiting from the ocean, what simple activities would you recommend that they try?

Dr Easkey Britton 18:42
Oh, there’s so many ways to begin to deepen that connection with the ocean. I mean, it need not be. I just had this series of kind of fortunate thing elements line up in my life to introduce me to the sea so early on. But I would also say that the sea increasingly will welcome you whatever stage of your life cycle you’re at. Be that. I think it’s wonderful to do it, especially seeing these swim groups happening so many parts of the coast. And the other wonderful thing about it too, especially for women and girls, is just being able to shed I find in those settings, there’s also no like when it comes to our like, connection with our bodies and body image and body confidence. It’s something about just getting in the water so incredibly freeing. And this again, such a leveller, so that there’s a real mix of people who do. And it really doesn’t matter, like, who you are on land, it’s just how you show up in the water. So that can be a lovely, welcoming space if you can, if you wanted to reach out and find your kind of nearest swim group, it may not be too far away from you, but beyond that, even in a more, much more maybe accessible way, for me, is this coming back to the ocean breath as a starting point, and especially in our very busy day to day lives of taking a moment. To just even be conscious for one breath or three breaths, and being aware that when we’re breathing in, we’re breathing in oxygen, that the ocean is exhaled. So the ocean is breathing for us. It’s the ultimate act of symbiosis, and it’s a wonderful way just to reconnect in the body and ground and anchor ourselves again. But by doing it, we’re also connecting with the ocean.

Hannah Stitfall 20:22
I was going to ask you if you could give us some examples of how people can connect with the ocean if they don’t live close to the ocean. But I guess that ocean breath is is a good way.

Dr Easkey Britton 20:33
Absolutely, that’s the first step, and bringing an awareness then into like maybe the water, even in your own body, where does it come from? And then following that into, like, just bringing your curiosity to, yeah, where is your nearest body of water, the water that you drink, or that comes out of your tap? And just beginning to, I suppose, start that relationship, and asking those questions of, where is your water from, and how is it doing, and then what can you do for it, maybe. And there’s, there’s so much we can do, because everything we do has an impact, but it need not always be a negative one. And so it’s even just acknowledging. It starts for me, always with that acknowledgement of water and giving thanks for for all that it does.

Hannah Stitfall 21:32
Yeah, let’s take a quick break now so we can practice some of Easkey’s recommendations, and remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re near the water or not. There’s always something you can do to show your appreciation to the ocean. And whilst we take a small break, you can head over and follow us on Tiktok and Instagram. We are @oceanspod. We’ll be sharing some amazing videos that is key, has kindly shared with us of her surfing. So I really recommend you go and check them out. To find out more about Greenpeace’s work to protect the oceans and how you can support go to greenpeace.org/oceans.

Joining us today is Jessica Pita. Jessica Pita is the first South African blind scuba diver, certified by Paddy. She experiences the ocean in a unique way, relying mainly on what she can hear. So let’s find out more about it. Welcome Jessica. Hello.

Jessica Pita 22:41
Hello. Hello, Hannah. Thank you for having me.

Hannah Stitfall 22:45
Oh, thank you so much for coming on with this. Where are you joining us from today?

Jessica Pita 22:49
From Home, South Africa, shouting, I wish I was some luscious Island getting ready for a dive. But it’s, it’s, yeah, it’s home.

Hannah Stitfall 22:56
So for our listeners, can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do.

Jessica Pita 23:04
Yeah, sure. So my name is like you heard Jessica Pita. I am a keynote speaker. I am a University student. I am majoring in psychology and anthropology. I also do a bit of Show Jumping, horse riding, play a few different instruments, and I scuba dive, which is one of my favourites. So yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s an interesting life as someone with no, well, just that tiny, tad bit of vision bringing a bit of spice to my life. So yeah.

Hannah Stitfall 23:35
And how did you begin scuba diving? Was it something that you’d always wanted to do?

Jessica Pita 23:41
It literally never crossed my mind to do scuba diving as a recreational activity. You know, I’d always seen scuba diving as this scene sport, or, you know, something you do to go down in the ocean and see the reef, see the beautiful sea life, but to do it like for fun, it never crossed my mind. So when the opportunity came, I kind of just took it as a one time thing, a little adventure, something to try, but one thing led to another, and then bam, qualified, and I can’t stop diving.

Hannah Stitfall 24:14
And when you first did get in. I mean, what did it sound like? What did it feel like?

Jessica Pita 24:20
It was crazy, crazy, crazy. My first time on the ocean, I like, going down for my first dive, it did not click that I was going in the ocean for the first time, like, as we were descending, that’s when I was like, Oh my gosh, we’re actually diving. So it was, yeah, I didn’t mentally prepare myself at all. It just happened, but it was the most insane sensation, like going down there, and that weightless feeling kind of freeing. It was quiet as you descended, but as you get to the reef, and then you hear all of that life, like on the reef, the crackling sound, and you can hear the corals, the parrot fish, biting the corals. It’s so insane, and something I did not expect.

From losing my vision, I’ve kind of become used to adapting my lifestyle, to using my different senses, obviously, to help me get around more in an independent way. So especially with scuba diving, now, that was a really, really challenging task, because, I mean, you’re going down there, and it’s kind of something where you rely on your vision, because you you’re going down there to see the sea life, to see the reef, to look at each other underneath the water, and be able to communicate via the hand signals. So that whole experience was going to be completely changed when, when I started. And it was interesting. It was very interesting. I’m not going to lie, to try and adapt the diving to make it work for me, and to to be able to do it independently and on my own. So I use a lot of tactile senses and hearing. So audio is very, very important to me. When I’m down there, I just get so absorbed in listening to the crackle of the reef, listening to all the life that’s around me with the tactile signals. We’ve kind of changed the normal hand, like dive language, to one that I can feel. So I’m always interlinked to my scuba diving buddy on the left, on my left hand side, so I can feel whether my dive buddy is going faster, slower. Are we turning to the left? Are we turning to the right? They’ll put their hand in front of my hand to say, like, stop. Something’s in the way they, like, navigate me, like, like a steering wheel. Yeah, it’s super strange, but it works. Then, in terms of, like, the fish and stuff, divers also have kind of the common fish that you see. There’s also signals to indicate those fish in the normal dive sign language. So with my sign language, we’ve also turned them into things that I could feel so like telling me, if there’s a clown fish, they’ll squeeze my nose as the kind of clown, that kind of cliche red nose thing. So we’ve got that going a trumpet fish, they’ll kind of tap my chin to indicate, like someone playing a trumpet kind of a thing, a butterfly fish. They’ll take my hands, they’ll literally come in front of me, take both of my hands, stretch my arms out long, and start waving them up and down as if I’m flying, which is very strange when you look at it on camera. So yeah, we’ve literally taken the whole sign language and made it into things that I can experience, and then I can feel, and then I’ll know exactly what they’re saying, even though we probably look like completely underneath it. But it’s it’s okay, it’s okay. You got to do what you got to do.

Hannah Stitfall 27:31
How would you know if there was a shark there? What would happen?

Jessica Pita 27:35
Oh, we love sharks. We love sharks. So sharks just play a huge role in my scuba diving journey, because it’s kind of just an on running joke on my very last dive when I qualified, you know, we’re going on shallow dives and whatever, so you’re not really expectant to see a shark. So it’s not a signal we entirely discussed significantly so on my very last dive in Mozambique last year, when I was qualifying this, it was a bull shark, it was about four to six metres, came swimming underneath us. And because we’d never discussed it before, my dive buddy just kind of started, like whacking me underwater, and then he didn’t know how to tell me that there’s a shark, so he’s trying to scream shark. And then eventually he just went with singing the jaws theme tune song. So…

Hannah Stitfall 28:22
No stop there.

Jessica Pita 28:25
So I just first started laughing. I mean, it was so amazing. I was in the water with a shark, and I’m getting the theme tune for JAWS getting sung in my ear. It was the most funniest moment of my entire life. But now, just to prevent any choking of water from laughing too hard, we’ve kind of made a signal where they just put their hand on my head as a fin kind of shape. So I’ll know that they’re sharks.

Hannah Stitfall 28:50
Can you tell us about any other memorable experiences you’ve had with wildlife whilst diving?

Jessica Pita 28:55
Actually, in I just went a couple of months ago in July to Madagascar, and we got to dive with these giant green turtles. Oh, wow, that was abs. Yeah, it was absolutely amazing. Like, these turtles were maybe two metres the smallest, or something like that. Like they were so massive. And just knowing that there was creatures that big, but yet so calm, like right next to you, was absolutely insane for me, and it’s just a general tradition also during scuba diving trips. When we stay here in South Africa, and we go to places like sudwana Bay, there’s specific reefs with these neon yellow fish, and they travel in like schools of hundreds. It’s so incredible. And you can literally just float in between these clouds of fish. It’s so cool. So just like just the whole idea of being in between all of that sea life is absolutely phenomenal to me. Being in the water, it kind of gives me this great sense of independence over myself, especially with my senses, because I have such a great reliance on my senses in my daily. Life, being able to be down there and just like listen for the Joy of listening and not listening for whether a car is about to come in front of the street where I’m about to cross, or listening for people’s voices so I know which direction to go or which direction to avoid. So it’s kind of just like I can just be peaceful and not listen or feel for something because I have to,

Hannah Stitfall 30:23
and where is your favourite place to dive, I mean, and how do different places differ in in your experience?

Jessica Pita 30:33
Well, that’s, that’s the thing, because I’ve mostly just done the oceans here around, kind of South Africa and then Madagascar, but it’s, it’s kind of the same Indian Ocean, so a lot of the sea life is quite similar. But then as you travel, you get to see the different types of coral, like different types of sea cucumber or like the different kinds of turtles, like the ones in Madagascar, a lot different from here in sodoana Bay or Mozambique. But I would say that Mozambique, I don’t know, I have a bit of an attachment, I suppose, because it was where I very, like my very first dives happened. But so do wanna Bay is where I’ve been most commonly. And there’s, like, a lot of memories there as well. The reefs there are proclaimed to be one of the best scuba diving sites. There’s so much coral, so much sea life, that the fish don’t ever end but then also, in Madagascar, it was so different, because it was just amazing. So I can’t give you a specific answer for my favourite, yeah, they each have their unique quirks that make them so special.

Hannah Stitfall 31:37
So you’ve described the beauty of the coral reefs. But since diving, have you also experienced their destruction?

Jessica Pita 31:45
Yes, I have, and it it actually happened. I think it was when we were in Madagascar, actually, the first couple of dives, I actually noticed that the the coral beds were really quiet. But then I I assumed that maybe it was just because it was a different place from where I usually dive, and maybe I was just used to the loudness and the busyness because, like, sudana Bay is so full of fish and things like that. So it didn’t hit me at first, but then as we were diving in Madagascar, conversations came up about the number of corals that were bleached, and then we spoke about it compared to like Mozambique or sodoana Bay. And there was such a difference between the corals in the different areas, like the bleaching and the amount of death that has occurred because of all the destruction, like the heating the oceans warming up. We, like you could see it, and for me, noticing it in my AUDIO sense, and not actually seeing it. I mean, I don’t even know what like. I don’t want to hear it and see it, that it’s it’s just it sounds so bad if I’m able to pick it up via audio, and I’m not actually noticing that half of the coral in front of us is not actually all its bright, colourful, aliveness. It that for me just it hit hard when we were in Madagascar. So, yeah, I definitely say that I have picked up.

Hannah Stitfall 33:14
How do you pick that up in audio sense and not visual?

Jessica Pita 33:18
Well, for the the sound of the reef, like it’s, it’s this weird crackling sound that that’s, that’s the common phrase that scuba divers use for the crackling of the reef. So that’s what they talk about when they’re talking about the life of the reef, and in areas when the coral is so bleached or so dead and like even the fish and things is, it’s much more scarce in those areas. I have noticed a difference in in the audio. So the crackling itself is a lot softer, like a lot softer, because when you’re right above coral, that sound is it’s very prominent. Well, for me, it’s really prominent. I got a lot of other scuba divers to start noticing the sound, because some of them had never noticed it before. So then people got mad at me because they were like, we only dive because it was peace and quiet. Now we’re actually hearing the sound. So when, when I noticed how, how much I could hear it in certain areas compared to others, that’s when I was, you know, I could kind of clarify between all of the live reefs and the bright, luminescent, you know, all the action that’s happening on that reef, compared to a reef that’s completely bleached and there’s nothing happening. It was very prominent in the in the audio, like the the level of sound you could hear.

Hannah Stitfall 34:35
And how has diving deep into awareness of issues like pollution and coral damage?

Jessica Pita 34:40
It’s definitely proved that it’s a real thing. Like, it’s very real, because so many people talk about it so, like, it’s just a general conversation, like global warming and whatever. But people, people don’t actually see the damage, and they don’t actually, like, I feel like seeing it helps you kind of click it into your head. Of. How bad it actually is. So being able to notice it, that’s why I was saying, being able to notice it in, like my audio senses, and not actually having to see it. That’s how much you can notice that there’s a difference, and there’s something happening, and it’s not good. So I think scuba diving and being there, being present, being right there, where all of this damage is happening, being able to be the evidence definitely makes it a lot more real. And I think that if people were able to see it, and, like, notice it on a personal level, like that, I think there would be a definite increase in the amount of help that we can get for the oceans and for, you know, helping with global warming, helping with the raised temperatures, and I know there’s so many associations that that’s doing things to help. I follow several on social media, and it’s amazing to see how many people they can get to help, and all the volunteers and things like that. But, you know, the ocean is such a gigantic place, and I don’t know, I feel like there’s never enough people helping. Yeah.

Hannah Stitfall 36:06
To wrap up this episode, I want to share something truly special with you. Easkey told me about her work with some amazing organisations that are transforming lives by helping people connect with the ocean.

Dr Easkey Britton 36:18
I’ve had the real privilege of working with many different groups of people and organisations that are finding ways to deepen this connection with the ocean, especially through things like black blue health who ocean therapies, and then through kind of the sharing of our experience and stories. Sea Sisters came about, founded by or co founded by Martina Burtscher, and was in Sri Lanka at the time doing her master’s thesis on gender studies. So looking at surfing role in women’s empowerment, there at a time when, when surfing in Sri Lanka was going through this kind of like catalytic shift, where it was very male dominated, it was very exclusionary for local women and girls who just didn’t participate in it until very recently. So around 2017 the Arugam Bay Girls Surf Club got founded. And then from that, then sea sisters as well, which is this beautiful programme. It started out in the the southern coast of Sri Lanka, which was hardest hit by the 2004 tsunami. So it’s a story of how, I said, there’s this legacy of trauma associated with the ocean that gets passed on inter-generationally, that then enhances those social norms and barriers that were restricting women and girls from accessing the sea and developing that kind of ocean awareness and confidence in the first place that led to profound like extremely high levels of fatalities, especially amongst women compared to men in that part of the world. So really, Sea Sisters is remarkable because you’re taking basically a narrative that’s one of fear, risk and danger around that the ocean is actually a source of that, and by creating a safe space through these encounters with the ocean, through swimming and surfing, totally transforming that into the ocean becoming a place of healing and empowerment. So it’s amazing to see how it transforms relationships on so many levels.

Kalpa Nanayakkara 38:02
My name is Kalpa Nanayakkara, and I am the co director of programme and community at sea sisters. I started at Sea Sisters as a translator because I didn’t know how to swim, so I thought it’s a chance that I can learn swimming, and that’s how I joined Sea Sisters. Benefits I get from Sea Sisters; one is that I really made lots of friends, and I think those friendships are going to be lifelong, and it’s connected us through the nature I feel like now I have supportive community. And then also, I started to love the ocean more and more, and now it is my happy place, even before, and like always, I feel that I want to go there and like, watch it and listen to waves. So my relationship with ocean is improved, and also the relationship with nature and and the connections, human connections that we build through this organisation. At Sea Sisters, we offer these free swim and surf lessons for local women. That means during the season, we have lessons running in maligama. And apart from our swim and surf lessons, we also building a ocean loving community, which means we offer once a month community events to our members that include beach cleanups and day tours and yoga sessions and women talks, that kind of thing. So it’s not on. Only about three months self. It’s also a space that people can express and share and learn.

Martina Burtscher 40:11
My name is Martina Burtscher, and I am the co founder of Sea Sister Sri Lanka, which is an organisation in Sri Lanka that uses swimming and surfing as a tool for a woman’s empowerment, I would love to tell you the story of Mona, one of my closest Sri Lankan friends, to show you about the healing power of the ocean. Mona has been deeply traumatised by a tsunami, so she experienced a tsunami herself. She ran away from the waves, and very sadly, she lost her mother, also in the tsunami, who died, and as a consequence, Mona was afraid of the ocean for many years. She got even scared by the sound of the ocean. She didn’t go close to the ocean for years, and really had this very like big trauma inside herself, losing her mothers, her mother, her friends. But then Mona was part of girls make waves, and slowly made her way back to the ocean. And in 2017 I was there when Mona went surfing for the first time. And I will never forget how nervous she was, like we were going out to the beach, and when we entered the water, she would grab my hand, like really putting her fingernails in into my hand being super fearful. But then once Mona paddle out and rode her first wave on her belly, you could see this huge smile all over her face. And later back on land, she would tell me that there was some kind of energy coming into her heart. And then for Mona, kind of her whole life changed after this experience. So she started to become kind of a hunger to go out for the waste more often, she wanted to learn how to surf. And when we first met, she would not allow her daughters to go out to the beach and surfing. But so today, moving forward a few years, Mona is one of the first female surf instructors in arugu Bay. She’s teaching her daughters how to swim and how to serve. And she’s really passing on that spirit. And I think this is a great examples of how the ocean can heal just by being out there and feeling this incredible power, this sense of adrenaline, like being pushed from the waves and and just something changed from that feeling for her. So for sea Sisters, we have many dreams and plans for the future. We’re really growing as this movement in Sri Lanka and in the past, we’ve also worked together with women from other surf cultures, such as from Iran, from India, from Turkey, and women surfing is growing all over the world, and we’d love to be part of that with sea sisters. So our biggest dream will be to have sea sisters programmes running all over the world. Because even though women’s surfing or women engaging in ocean activities, is under rise, there’s still so much to be done, and so many women are still prevented from engaging with the ocean. So that will be our biggest dream. Would be to go global and to share our knowledge, to support other women in their countries, to learn how to swim, how to surf, and to yeah, just get a closer relationship with the ocean.

Hannah Stitfall 43:21
Next week, we’ll hear more about one of the biggest causes of damage to marine life and the oceans: illegal fisheries. And what one edge shark fisherman is doing to help

Jessica Aldred 43:32
It just seems archaic that we’re sending all of our best produce abroad and then buying in things just because there’s this traditional idea that we have to have cod with our fish and chips.

Michelle Strogoff 43:44
I didn’t really think about, you know, shark is important. That’s only in my mind once I left the school. One thing, target shark, make money, help family.

Hannah Stitfall 44:06
This episode was brought to you by Greenpeace and Crowd Network. It is hosted by me, wildlife filmmaker and broadcaster Hannah Stitfall. It is produced by Vicki Wright, Catalina Noguera, Robert Wallace, George Sampson, Kate Stevens, Steve Jones and Christina Irivnak. Sound design is by Crawford Blair. The music we use is from our partners, BMG, Production Music. The team at Greenpeace is James Hansen, Alex Yallop, Jeane Meyer, Marta of charik. Flora Hvesi, Becky Malone and Alice Lloyd Hunter, archive, courtesy of Greenpeace. Thanks for listening. See you next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai