Science Meets Superyachts: How Private Yachts Are Powering Ocean Research

Since yachting is all about enjoying big, beautiful bays and the world's oceans, the health of those waters is of increasing importance to yacht owners and crewmembers.  Scientists and researchers, however, face a big obstacle in learning more about our oceans: access to vessels. Thankfully, owners and crew can welcome scientists onboard and see with their own eyes the difference and the discoveries. Better yet, you can do the same.
In this episode of Megayacht News Radio, we introduce you to the team at the International SeaKeepers Society, a non-profit that helps connect scientists in need with superyacht owners and crew wishing to lend a helping hand with scientist-led expeditions and citizen-science initiatives.

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Email us at info@megayachtnews.com.

Transcript

(voiceover): 0:50

Welcome to Megayacht News Radio, the first and longest running podcast series dedicated to the large yacht industry, hosted by Diane Byrne, the editor of MegayachtNews.com. We feature conversations with engaging and inspiring people in yachting, from shipyard CEOs to designers, from yacht managers to young entrepreneurs. And yes, even owners. You'll learn how they got into yachting, how they're building better businesses, and especially how they're helping people like you get more enjoyment out of the yachting lifestyle.

Diane Byrne: 1:42

Welcome, everyone! Since yachting is all about enjoying the big beautiful bays and oceans of the world. The health of those waters is of increasing importance to yacht owners and crew members. And what they are learning is both alarming and encouraging. For instance, they are finding out that one of the biggest obstacles that scientists and researchers have in learning more about our oceans is access, gaining access to vessels that can travel certain waters, and being able to pay for time aboard those vessels. Now By that same token, though, owners and crew members are encouraged, because they are learning that they can welcome scientists aboard their own yachts, essentially donating to the cause, and simultaneously seeing with their own eyes, the differences and the discoveries. Better yet, you can do the same. This is all possible thanks to the international seakeeper Society, an organization that we have written about a lot over the years here at many news.com. Now the nonprofit in case you're not familiar with it has made significant strides in recent years. Of course, though, it has a lot more than it wants to accomplish. So to talk about all of this, I would like to welcome a handful of people from sea keepers, who are involved in its scientists led expeditions, and its citizen science initiatives. And they are in no particular order. Tony Gilbert, the program director; Katie Sheehan, the program associate; and Toni Lohroff, the education manager. So Tony, Katie, and Toni, welcome to you all. And welcome to Megayacht News Radio. Thanks for joining me.

(mix of voices): 3:29

Thank you for having us. Thanks for having us.

Diane Byrne: 3:32

It's great to have you here today, I look forward to helping educate a lot of people about what you're doing. So Tony, since you are the program director, I think it would be best if we start with you. Why don't you explain a little bit about what SeaKeepers is and what it does?

Tony Gilbert: 3:48

Absolutely. Um, so I guess a good explanation of our mission. And the elevator pitch, as I call it, is that we facilitate marine research, conservation efforts and education. And the way that we do that is by linking the yachting and boating communities with the scientific and academic communities. And what that looks like in practice is let's say you are a researcher, and you have a team of about four six or and you need to be out on the water, it could be for a seven day expedition. And you know, so I look at that, and I say, Okay, well, maybe there's a yacht out there that can house that many people for that many days is going to be in the area and would be interested in being a part of this research expedition. I put the two together. And we we have some research happening. And there are many other ways that we do this. Some are citizen science, where the science team is not doesn't have to be on board the vessel. I'll let Katie expound on that a little later. And then, of course, we've been trying to get more and more kids, you know, K through 12 out on the water as well for more of a hands on learning experience. And that of course, I'll let Toni Lohroff, our education manager, talk more about that later.

Diane Byrne: 5:04

Great. Let's talk a little bit now--a little bit more in depth I should say--about these scientist-led expeditions. So you are pairing the researchers and the yachts together if the yachts can be in certain waters that the researcher needs to access for example. Are there only certain sizes of vessels that can help this? In other words, are you only able to pair the superyachts or or superyachts over 150 feet or something like that with the scientists?

Tony Gilbert: 5:33

Not at all? Actually it really it all depends on the work that needs to be done. And so you know, we we welcome boats and yachts of all shapes and sizes. If it's just a day trip that has to be done out on, you know, let's say, our local Biscayne Bay, you know, in that case, a 30-foot center console would be perfect. Now, if like I said earlier, if let's say you're doing a mission, somewhere else in either the Bahamas or or even can be local, but if you have to be out on the water kind of living aboard, then yeah, you're gonna want a bigger yacht that has, you know, maybe four staterooms and, you know, food aboard and things like that. So, it really helps with taking care of room and board, when when you do have to kind of go more offshore or to a separate location. But really, I mean, yeah, of course, it all depends on on what the nature of the work is. And if you have to be living on a boat for several days, yes, a bigger yacht is always necessary. But you know, in other cases, more medium size or smaller boats are just as helpful.

Diane Byrne: 6:50

So across these size spectrums, what are some of the discoveries that scientists have made, thanks to partnering with all of you with the SeaKeepers?

Tony Gilbert: 7:01

Sure, absolutely. Um, I can start with some of the bigger expeditions we had. One was back in 2021, we were up in southeast Alaska, on board a 68 foot motoryacht. And we were there with, I think, three scientists. Yeah. And one of them was a humpback whale expert. And that's what we were researching on researching on that expedition was humpback whales. And we were trying to record their vocalizations, and then play them back for them to see how they respond. And you do that enough times, you start to decode a little bit what the different calls and songs mean. And that was the whole point of that expedition. But one thing that was really amazing is that after we saw them feeding for a little bit, and this was a about a nine, nine whale pod are thought of whales is about 90 of them. And so as they were done eating, they all started breaching, which is for anyone that doesn't know breaching is when you see a humpback whale or any kind of whale, for that matter, jump completely out of the water, and then just kind of flop on their back. Well, they all started doing it one after another after another after another for about a period of about 10 or 15 minutes. And it was obviously, you know, a sight to behold. But it was also something that was completely novel to the whale expert. He said, I've never seen behavior like this. So, you know, that kind of supports the theory that different, I guess groups of whales have their sort of their own traditions and cultures, and maybe even things that they do. But also, it kind of opened up a new theory of like, okay, well, maybe they're using these breeches. And these, you know, hitting slapping the water as another way of signaling, because you know, the way sound travels in water, I'm sure pods from far away can also hear this, or whales that are maybe, you know, 500 yards away, or are easily hearing it so. And what was really cool, as you could see on our screen, while we were recording the sounds, you would see a big spike in sort of the sound waves whenever they would hit the water. So again, it just goes to show that, you know, there are other ways of communicating other than just vocally or, you know, in our case, we use words and sentences. But these are clearly very intelligent animals. And, you know, they don't have words in sentences, but they do have vocalizations and other ways that they can use sound to communicate. So that was really amazing. And what are some others, I guess, locally, you had set across that size spectrum. Locally, we were working in Biscayne Bay to try to solve the mystery as to why so many fish were dying. And to give you some some context back in 2020, we had a massive fish kill or die off or whatever you want to call it, but it was just you know, we were seeing these huge swathes of of dead fish carcasses washing up on shore, all along this game day. And so, you know, this, of course, caught the attention of all marine scientists in the area. And so we were one of the people that helped them respond to that by taking them out on on, you know, a few different smaller boats. And that took going out every other week to take water samples and see okay, what are the conditions? What are what are the temperatures we're seeing on the water? Is there enough dissolved oxygen in the water for the fish to breathe? We found that no, there wasn't. And this was what was causing the death was because of just a perfect storm of factors and parameters that were kind of out of balance from the usual the, the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water for the fish to actually breathe was had depleted to to inhospitable levels. So, you know, from there that starts that answers one question, but then you start to ask more. And you say, Okay, why why did that happen? Well, is it just merely, you know, rising surface temperatures? Or? Or what is it? And so, you know, we started to make some strides in answering those questions, because, clearly, it was, if nothing else, an indicator, a very unhealthy ecosystem in our day. So, yeah, that was something that we've been researching for now, a couple years.

Diane Byrne: 11:30

Right. That's amazing, because it's those two examples are so interesting, because the one from Biscayne Bay is something that the average citizen obviously saw, right, they go to the local beaches, or if they had waterfront property, they could clearly see and probably also, unfortunately, smell the die off. And it's tragic. And it's upsetting no matter who you are. So that's something that people could really appreciate the fact that you're opening the door to scientists able to learn why this is happening. And then from the other end of the spectrum, the the humpback whale story, I mean, that's incredible, that the scientists were seeing and hearing things that they had never seen before and and heard before. So it's neat to hear that each one of these revelations is opening the door to new questions. But really, that's how all of us learn. And that's how science ends up advancing, right?

Tony Gilbert: 12:24

Exactly.

Diane Byrne: 12:25

Yeah, that's great stuff. Katie, let's talk about some of the citizen science initiatives, because I think this is something that people could really appreciate. So what are some of the things that this involves? And what are some of the results similar to some of the things that happened with the scientists on board? What are some of the discoveries that have resulted by getting the average people involved?

Katie Sheehan: 12:50

Yeah, so our citizen science opportunities are a great way for the public to be involved. There's something anybody with a boat can participate in. So we have a few different projects occurring right now, including seabed 2030, the neuesten net research collective, which is fairly new, and we have a spotter buoy program. So to start off, seabed 2030 is a really simple initiative with a great goal. We're partnered with the Nippon Foundation, and we crowdsource bathymetric data, which is basically depth data to help map the world's ocean floor. And the goal is to do this by the year 2030. So what we do is we attach these small data loggers, they're about two or three inches long, and they just go into the navigational system of boats. And as our participants travel around on our vessels, there'll be collecting this depth data. And that will contribute to creating this map of the world's ocean floor, which we've only mapped about 20% as of the year 2020. So it is increasing, which is exciting. But there's so little we know about the ocean floor, about its geography and all of the features that affect ocean life and everything that we are studying. So that is a really cool project that is really simple to be involved in, but it's going to have some really huge impacts. And the news Danette research collective was created to help collect science samples for marine scientists. So this one's really exciting. We we partner with a few different marine scientists who all need samples collection collected from a wide array of locations. So not every scientist can get into every location in the world, but there are so many things that needs to be studied. So we're working with a few different people. A couple are studying sargassum. So we're working with Dr. Mike Parsons and Dr. Joseph Montoya. And that's something we see all over Florida, you know, we have these massive floods of Sargassum basically wash up on our beaches. And Sargassum is a really important organism in the ocean but washing up on Florida beaches, it can be really smelly and can be kind of a nuisance to to human and animal health. So we have a couple scientists studying that. And then we're working with Dr. Rebecca Helm, who's studying life at the surface of the ocean. So we are helping collect samples of all of these things. And we'll have our participants take these neuesten nets, which are rectangular plankton nets, and they tow them behind the boat to kind of scoop up everything at the surface of the ocean, and then they can be analyzed. So this one is really awesome because we're contributing to multiple different science projects and hoping to learn a lot about all these different things that we're studying. And we're expanding to so we're looking for other researchers to join and more participants to collect samples. So this project kind of covers a wide array of things that can be collected in the ocean. And then we have a spotter buoy program that That's also collecting bathymetric data kind of like seabed 2030, but in the form of these big drifting spotter buoys that are solar powered, and they can technically run forever. So our participants will just kind of toss them over the side of the boat. And they'll float through the ocean and collect data about weather and currents and things like that, that are really important to understanding our ecosystems and how the world is changing. And then we have a pilot citizen science program right now, that is really exciting. And we're getting off the ground. And that's using E DNA to study the presence of great white sharks in the Mediterranean. So E DNA is environmental DNA. And basically, it's just taking a sample of water and you can use or you can analyze that sample of water to detect the DNA of certain organisms that were in that area. So this project will help us understand where great white shark populations might be migrating or where they live. And this one is really easy to be involved in as well, just taking samples of water. And we're excited to get this one up off the ground and running. So all of our projects are pretty simple to be involved in but have huge impacts for science and for research. And it's just a great way for anybody to be involved in science.

Diane Byrne: 17:06

You know, some of the things you just mentioned, I was just sitting here thinking that it's remarkable how simple like you just said, it is for somebody to get involved. And yet the potential discoveries are so profound, something as simple as just skimming the surface of the water. I don't think most of us when we think about ocean life, I don't think we think about the first few inches of water, we're thinking way, way down deep, right? We're thinking about where the sharks live. And we're also officially even though you know, kelp, seaweed, all of that stuff. And there's, as you just were pointing out, there's so much that still lives, right within those first few inches of water. So how fascinating that we could all help open the door to more contributions and more understanding of what's going on there. And then even even when you talk about the depths, the seabed project to mean, the fact that only 20% of the world's ocean floor is actually mapped out, right, that's mind blowing. That's so much that we don't know.

Katie Sheehan: 18:13

Yeah, it is amazing. There's so little we know, from the surface to the bottom of the ocean. And it's really cool that we have projects that kind of cover that expanse. And it's really not that hard to get involved. But there's so much to learn about. And the really cool thing with life at the surface of the ocean, and how not well studied it is is that we can use the information we're collecting and help inform marine protected areas, the creation of them. So that's something really exciting that could come from these projects. And just the more we learn about all of these different ecosystems, hopefully there's more desire to save them.

Diane Byrne: 18:49

Yeah, definitely, definitely. Well, with 80% of the ocean floor still needing to be mapped. I can only imagine what more good can be done. That's incredible. Absolutely incredible. You know, let's let's stay on this, this theme of education. Toni, as the education manager, I know you are really striving to raise awareness about conservation and protection among an up and coming generation. So how are you doing that?

Toni Lohroff: 19:22

Yeah, absolutely. So SeaKeepers really values education, it's something that we're definitely looking to expand on more. And so part of this, we have three main projects, three main kind of initiatives that we really focus on as our education team. So the first being our floating classrooms, and that's really focused on K 12 students. So our floating classrooms aim to get students involved in hands on research and hands on educational opportunities, opportunities, excuse me, on boats, on our discovery yachts. And with some of our discovery out scientists even so we're able to bring students out whether it be with the classroom or with a partner organization directly, we can bring them out on our discovery yachts and do some sort of activity with them, whether it be a water chemistry activity and talking about water chemistry and water pollution and things like fish kills, like Tony was talking about in Biscayne Bay, or whether it be kind of a microplastics lesson where we do a beach cleanup and talk about where plastics are coming from and where the majority of our plastics are coming from, and how they break down and where they kind of end up and how we can bring that back into our home lives and kind of decide which plastics we should be using and reusing and which ones we should be avoiding kind of based on what we're seeing out there in the real world from we're picking them up. And so our goal with those voting classrooms is really to instill students with not only skills but also With this knowledge that they can gain out there on the bay, and then bring that back into their classroom into their home into their life. And it can be something that they are remembering on the daily when they're grocery shopping when they're buying things for friends. You know, when they're in class and talking to people about marine pollution, it's just something if they can kind of think about and bring up as an experience. Um, then we also have our junior zookeepers program, which is targeted at 10th to 12th graders, so high school students. And that's really kind of our version of an ambassador program, or junior ambassador program. So it's an opportunity for those high school age students to come out with junior zookeepers and do kind of exclusive activities. So we host webinars with some of our research scientists and leading experts in the field, about different topics like mangrove ecology, and sharks and whales and things like that. So the students have an opportunity to directly learn from and network with the scientists. They also have an opportunity to go to beach cleanups with Katie, where they'll engage in community service and community outreach. And like I said, learn a lot of those things about marine pollution and marine debris that they might not get the opportunity to be exposed to otherwise. We'll also have them engage in workshops where we'll do personal and professional development, things like resume building, networking, science, communication, and reading scientific papers and things like that. They'll engage in research projects, so they'll get a direct hands on experience with conducting and presenting research, which is great. And also, that's research that we're able to kind of keep in to use for our program for promotional opportunities, and also to kind of expose those students who do that greatly in research for us and with us, and it's a great resume building opportunity for them as well. And also they have opportunities to sousaphone in classrooms with us. So ones that maybe are a little bit more advanced, like, like I said, normally for fluid classrooms to do things like water chemistry, and marine debris. So the more basic lessons that we can kind of accommodate lots of different ages and levels of knowledge for our students. So our junior zookeepers lessons are things that are kind of a little more fun, that allow them to get exposed to maybe the different jobs that exist in the industry of Marine Science, um, since they are kind of in that age, where they're getting into college kind of deciding what they want to do, and what they want to be. So that's a great opportunity to expose them to things like that. And it's also a great opportunity for us to get some of our partner organizations involved with us and during those funny classrooms. And then another big part of our education initiatives, since a really big part of educating students is educating our educators. So we have teacher workshops, that are aimed to bring teachers, especially from landlocked states, out to join us in Biscayne Bay and do things like are flooded classrooms and do activities with us, where they can learn information to take back into their classroom, to incorporate into their lesson plans kind of throughout their career. Last year, we were able to do this with the Georgia Aquarium, which was a fantastic partnership opportunity for us. So we were able to bring some teachers out from Georgia. And do I do believe it was three days a three day long teacher workshop with them. And we were able to teach them all of these things that they really had no other access to know. And they told us some that some of these things they would have kind of never never known before understood or had the opportunity to do especially some of these hands on lessons on the water. And they really also gave us a great opportunity to kind of improve our teacher workshops, and tell us kind of what things we really need to bring into our teacher workshop curriculum so that they can bring it back into their teaching curriculum, and really kind of make that a full circle opportunity for them so that we can really improve our impact so that every little thing we do can really expand down the line. And that way, each teacher throughout their entire career can impact that many students with their teachings, whether it's in the classroom or with the floating classroom, which is a really great opportunity for us. And educating educators also includes parents and adults. So our floating classroom opportunities that are targeted at K 12, are also open to adults. Given that you have a group and you want to kind of learn more about them, marine conservation and the marine realm, you can reach out to us and I would be happy to kind of organize a floating classroom for your group. Depending on kind of what level you guys are at and what you want to learn, I'd be happy to do that we really want to give people that opportunity to be on the water and learn things that they they might not ever get to learn

Diane Byrne: 25:19

I love that you're touching all the different age ranges and the you know, the the school kids and themselves as well as the educators. The whole concept of educating the educators I think is great. Because again, we I think we often forget about that when we think about education. We're thinking, 'Oh, children need to learn,' and if we're really being honest education is something that goes on through our entire lives. You you're 20 or 30 or 40 or 50, etc. You don't ever stop learning. So the fact that you're bringing in the parents as well as their own teachers, and then the kids themselves. You're getting so many different people in so many different stages of life who are all very influential, and can all contribute to the greater good.

Toni Lohroff: 26:02

Absolutely, absolutely. And I mean, adults are the ones that kind of have the power to make those, those changes on the societal scale. So if adults don't know, how are they going to make those changes to so gotta educate the kids, their parents, you know, their older sisters and siblings and brothers and cousins and gotta get everybody educated about marine conservation? For sure. Yeah,

Diane Byrne: 26:23

Absolutely. I know another perspective you are, you have a Green Guide to Boating. It's available through the SeaKeepers website. Talk a little bit about that, too. Who is it for? And what does it contain?

Toni Lohroff: 26:38

Yeah, so the Green Guide to Boating is a really great informational resource that we have. It was created out of need from our SeaKeepers Asia group. They really saw this need for a sustainability guide to boating for boaters of all types, recreational boaters, commercial boaters, boat owners and boat users of any kind. Whatever you're doing, they kind of saw this need to have a resource for people to go to, to see not only the right way to do things, but the way that kind of reduces your impact. So it, the Green Guide to Boating is fantastic. Like you mentioned, it is available for download for anybody who wants to access it on our website, seakeepers.org. And the great thing about it is it has such a wide range of information available about boating, it talks about reducing fuel usage, reducing drag the correct way to anchor and where to anchor so that you're not influencing wildlife, which a lot of people might not know, especially depending on what the bottom topography is where you're boating, talks about antifouling paint and the best types of paints to use for your boat to reduce that kind of impact on the water and pollution and things like that. Talks about invasive species maintenance and native species maintenance so that you're not harming native species, especially in South Florida, we have lots of opportunities for boaters to our native species like sea grasses, and manatees and things like that. So it's great. It really covers a wide range of environments and places, like I said, since it was really targeted towards our our age group. But it's it's for anyone, it's really a fantastic resource. I love to boat and it's something that I have learned a lot from personally. So I think anyone whether you're a lifelong booter, or a new boater has an opportunity to learn from this. And I think it's a great resource for

Diane Byrne: 28:23

Oh, it sounds good. Well, thanks for the. thanks to everybody to have. all three of you for joining me today. I really appreciate the time you've taken to go into detail about all the different programs you're doing and to shine a light really on how your average person can participate. I think often we assume that there's no real impact that we can make because we're just you know, quote unquote, just one person, but really, you've shown that that's not true. So thanks. So once again.

Tony Gilbert: 28:54

Yeah, thank you for having us.

Diane Byrne: 28:56

Everyone, if you would like to learn more about the International SeaKeepers Society, and how you can play a role in ocean conservation, you can visit their website, which is seakeepers.org. That wraps up this episode of Megayacht News Radio. Thanks for listening. Until next time, I'm Diane Byrne.

(voiceover): 29:18

That wraps up this episode of Megayacht News Radio. Thanks for listening. If you liked what you hear, please share the word on social media and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Audible, IHeartRadio, or Spotify. And of course to learn more about what's going on in the world of large yacht cruising new construction and design, check out our daily updated website, the award winning megayachtnews.com.