Our Ocean

Seaful's Phenomenal Vitamin Sea Project Volunteers

Released during Volunteer Week, it is our great pleasure and honour to introduce you to some of Seaful's incredible volunteers. In this episode, we share their stories and their reasons for volunteering with Seaful - the UK charity dedicated to connecting people with our ocean, and the organisation behind the Our Ocean Podcast. You might not realise that one of Seaful's main activities is the Vitamin Sea Project - mindful and transformative experiences of the ocean and waterways such as paddleboarding, snorkelling and rockpooling, and our amazing volunteers are integral to running these projects, embedded within communities. This April, we brought together some of our lead volunteers from around the UK for our first ever volunteer gathering at Greencliff Farm in North Devon. This episode was recorded during that weekend. If you're interested in volunteering with Seaful, you can get in touch or complete our volunteer form here [https://seaful.org.uk/contact/]: https://seaful.org.uk/contact/ For more information about Land Snorkelling, including a helpful video, head to our website here [https://seaful.org.uk/introducing-land-snorkeling-our-latest-vitamin-sea-activity/]: https://seaful.org.uk/introducing-land-snorkeling-our-latest-vitamin-sea-activity/ Stay tuned - our next episode will be all about Land Snorkelling! The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website [https://seaful.org.uk/donate/]. For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website [www.seaful.org.uk], Instagram [www.instagram.com/seafulcharity] or Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/seafulcharityuk]. For questions or suggestions, please email us - podcast@seaful.org.uk. You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website [www.calmajor.com], Instagram [www.instagram.com/cal_major] or Facebook [www.facebook.com/calmajorocean].

Gannets Galore - a rare landing on Bass Rock with the Scottish Seabird Centre

This episode is a true immersion into a seabird city! Last summer, Our Ocean's host Cal Major had the rare opportunity to land on Bass Rock, a towering island just off the coast of North Berwick, Scotland, which is home to one of the world's largest colonies of Northern Gannets. Surrounded by a hundred thousand of these graceful yet formidable birds, Emily Burton and Jess Thompson from the Scottish Seabird Centre describe the behaviours and adaptations of the UK's largest seabird, alongside the threats they face and the enormous impact that avian flu had on the colony's population. To learn more about the Scottish Seabird Centre [https://www.seabird.org/], how you can visit Bass Rock and how you can help seabirds, please visit their website here [https://www.seabird.org/]. Here are some links to specific projects we cover in the episode: Bass Rock Colony Counts: [https://www.seabird.org/conservation/bass-rock-colony-counts] https://www.seabird.org/conservation/bass-rock-colony-counts [https://www.seabird.org/conservation/bass-rock-colony-counts] SOS Puffin [https://www.seabird.org/conservation/sos-puffin]: https://www.seabird.org/conservation/sos-puffin [https://www.seabird.org/conservation/sos-puffin] Island Biosecurity [https://www.seabird.org/conservation/island-biosecurity]: https://www.seabird.org/conservation/island-biosecurity [https://www.seabird.org/conservation/island-biosecurity] Bass Rock Breeding Success [https://www.seabird.org/conservation/bass-rock-breeding-success]: https://www.seabird.org/conservation/bass-rock-breeding-success [https://www.seabird.org/conservation/bass-rock-breeding-success] This episode was recorded by Cal Major and edited by Adventurous Audio [https://www.adventurousaudio.co.uk/]. The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website [https://seaful.org.uk/donate/]. For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website [www.seaful.org.uk], Instagram [www.instagram.com/seafulcharity] or Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/seafulcharityuk]. For questions or suggestions, please email us - podcast@seaful.org.uk. You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website [www.calmajor.com], Instagram [www.instagram.com/cal_major] or Facebook [www.facebook.com/calmajorocean].

Everest to Antarctica - A Life of Adventure with Mollie Hughes

Mollie Hughes is a world-record adventurer who has summited Everest twice and skied solo to the South Pole, all of which she writes about in her brilliant book, Breathe. Mollie then returned to her original love - the ocean - to write Blue Scotland - a guide to ocean adventures in the country she is delighted to call home. In this episode, we dip into the mindset and resilience required of Mollie's extreme expeditions, but also talk about having fun in the sea. Having been coasteering together with Mollie's company, Ocean Vertical, Cal and Mollie discuss the joy of just playing in the water, and how that can create deep connections and opportunities for education and ocean citizenship. Huge thanks to Mollie for sharing her wisdom and joy, and to Ocean Vertical [https://www.oceanvertical.com/] for opening up a new form of ocean exploration to us in Coasteering! You can learn more about Mollie through her website [https://molliehughes.co.uk/], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/molliejhughes/?hl=en-gb] and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/molliehugheseverest/?locale=en_GB]! You can find her books here: Breathe [https://birlinn.co.uk/product/breathe/] Blue Scotland [https://birlinn.co.uk/product/blue-scotland-2/] The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website [https://seaful.org.uk/donate/]. For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website [www.seaful.org.uk], Instagram [www.instagram.com/seafulcharity] or Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/seafulcharityuk]. For questions or suggestions, please email us - podcast@seaful.org.uk. You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website [www.calmajor.com], Instagram [www.instagram.com/cal_major] or Facebook [www.facebook.com/calmajorocean].

How can we make Marine Protection fair? Just Transitions and the Equitable Use of Our Seas

What is a 'Just Transition'? It's a term that gets banded about a lot when talking about protecting areas of the ocean from certain types of destructive fishing. In fact, one of the demands of the Our Seas coalition, who we heard from in last week's episode, is 'The return of a modern seaward limit on bottom-towed fishing, via a just transition'. Although the science shows that protecting our ocean, in particular fragile habitats, from overexploitation is essential for the recovery of fish stocks, and by extension to support local fishing fleets, there may well be people who fish in those areas currently who are displaced. How can transitioning to a better future for our seas be done in a way that is fair, who has the right to have a say, and what does the 'equitable use of our seas' actually mean. We're delighted to be joined by Blue Marine Foundation [https://www.bluemarinefoundation.com/]'s Joe Richards, to guide us through this nuanced subject with empathy and insight. You can learn more about the Our Seas coalition, and sign the petition, here: Our Seas need your help - ask your politician to protect at least 30% [https://ourseasscotland.eaction.org.uk/Our-Seas-Need-Your-Help] Huge thanks to Highlands and Islands Environment Foundation [https://hief.scot/] for supporting this series. The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website [https://seaful.org.uk/donate/]. For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website [www.seaful.org.uk], Instagram [www.instagram.com/seafulcharity] or Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/seafulcharityuk]. For questions or suggestions, please email us - podcast@seaful.org.uk. You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website [www.calmajor.com], Instagram [www.instagram.com/cal_major] or Facebook [www.facebook.com/calmajorocean].

The Our Seas Coalition - More Protection, More Fish, More Jobs

This episode is full of hope. 165 organisations and over 15,000 people stand together in Scotland for better protection of its inshore waters from the most damaging forms of fishing. These people are from different backgrounds, sectors and walks of life, but they are all demanding the same thing from the Scottish government, in the name of a thriving ocean. This is the Our Seas coalition, of which Seaful is a member. We are delighted to share the stories of several other members from an event in Holyrood, Scottish parliament, in June 2025. We'll hear from fishermen, NGOs, community groups, businesses, MSPs and children as to why this matters to them. To learn more about the Our Seas coalition, head to ourseas.scot [https://www.ourseas.scot/] Add your voice here [https://ourseasscotland.eaction.org.uk/bring-back-the-fish] to the call to protect at least 30% of Scotland's inshore seabed, the fragile cradle of life for our ocean. The Our Ocean podcast is brought to you by Seaful, the UK charity dedicated to connecting people to our ocean. To donate, please visit our website [https://seaful.org.uk/donate/]. For more information about Seaful, please visit our Website [www.seaful.org.uk], Instagram [www.instagram.com/seafulcharity] or Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/seafulcharityuk]. For questions or suggestions, please email us - podcast@seaful.org.uk. You can connect with The Our Ocean Podcast's host Cal Major through her Website [www.calmajor.com], Instagram [www.instagram.com/cal_major] or Facebook [www.facebook.com/calmajorocean].