90265 Magazine DevOcean Issue - Issue 1/Vol.2

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JOHN PAUL DEJORIA

DEVOCEAN

ISSUE 1, VOL. 2 THE OCEAN CONSERVATION ISSUE

DEVOCEAN

Issue1 VOL.2

EDITOR’S LETTER I guess I would consider myself an ‘accidental environmentalist’. After spending a good portion of my childhood on Zuma Beach, it was only a matter of time before I returned to the idyllic place that held so many beautiful childhood memories. Once I returned to Malibu, the passion to preserve it was ignited.

Becoming an activist didn’t happen right away, in fact, I was pulled into my first experience unwillingly by my husband (executive editor) Steve Woods, who has been a Malibu resident and Surfrider Beach regular for over 40 years. It was a high profile environmental nightmare that divided this town and severed many friendships. However, it was also the beginning of a new life for me and for the local environment in many ways.

CECE WOODS, Editor in Chief

So, when a salty sea lover named Jennifer Wiser joined the 90265 Magazine staff, she presented the tragic pattern of where the ocean is headed and the concept of the “DevOcean” issue to educate and bring awareness to ocean conservation and activism. After having fought so many battles locally, it was game-on for the global fight to preserve our greatest resource. It was also perfect timing to re-release the print issue of 90265 magazine that has been on hiatus for the last 18 months while we evaluated where glossy print media was headed.

Jennifer, who grew up with heroes like Jacques Cousteau, sprang into action to help curate and execute the unprecedented content in this issue which includes a serious list of Malibu locals; John Paul DeJoria, Cindy Landon, Laird Hamilton, Kelly Meyer, Mari Johnson, Mark Armfield, Shari Sant Plummer, Bobby Kennedy Jr. and world renowned ocean conservationists Captain Paul Watson, Sylvia Earle and SeaWorld whistleblower John Hargrove.

When the DevOcean issue became a reality, and with the magnitude of the content, we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the heroes who participated in DevOcean, than to produce a glossy, keepsake, coffee table edition of 90265 Magazine.

Make room on that coffee table. More groundbreaking issues to come.

Cece Woods is a partner and Brand Strategist at RED INK BRAND Creative Agency and the co-founder of 90265 Magazine and The Local Malibu.

Twitter: @cece90265 redinkbrand.com

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JENNIFER WISER, Senior Editor

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Founder, Editor in Chief, Creative Director

CECE S. WOODS

Co-founder, Executive Editor STEVE WOODS Executive Editor LINDA ATKINSON Managing Editor ADDISON ALTENDORF Senior Editor JENNIFER WISER Media Director KEITH CARLSEN Associate Creative Director WILLIAM CAWLEY PR/Media Relations DIANA KELLY Beauty Editor TARA OWENS Entertainment/Philanthropy Editor MATT DIAMOND Fashion Editor CHRISTY CALAFATI Food Editor JOE LE Global Marine & Wildlife Editor PAUL PADGETT Surfer/Writer SAM GEORGE Wellness Editor DIANA NICHOLSON Travel Editor LESLIE WESTBROOK Contributing Editors KELLY COLLINS LORY MAYOTTE TRACEY ROSS MOLLY STRAWN Contributing Photographers JENNIFER CAWLEY EMILY SCHER TIM HORTON LYON HERRON Copy Editor KIM LEDOUX Interns: ABBY DROEGER JOSEPHINE MARSHALL

ADVISORY BOARD

MARK ARMFIELD, TRACEY BREGMAN, CHRIS CORTAZZO KIRBY & HONORE KOTLER, CINDY LANDON, RICHARD WEINTRAUB

COVER FEATURE

ISSUE

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VOLUME 2

DEVOCEAN THE OCEANS ISSUE

JOHN PAUL DEJORIA

ART

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EDUCATION

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Cindy Landon DEVOCEAN As a young girl, my heart was always connected to living close to nature. In 1981 my husband and I moved to Malibu, a beautiful, majestic, tranquil place where we wanted to settle and eventually raise our children. We spent many years playing in the ocean. One of my children’s favorite activities was to walk out on the reefs during low tide and marvel at the beautiful starfish, crabs, etc.

Eventually we all began to scuba dive and our love and respect for the ocean only grew stronger. I became a vegetarian at the age of 14 and eventually became a vegan because of my love and respect for all living beings.

I am very saddened to witness the human-caused destruction of the ocean. We’re all busy people living in a complex society. It’s easy to let slip through the cracks those things we don’t see immediately before us, whether it’s on the news or in our daily lives. Many of us prioritize our concerns this way.

As the saying goes: Out of sight, out of mind. Therefore, not noticing ever-compounding problems that affect our vast oceans because they’re hidden or hard to see can happen all too effortlessly.

Disastrous dilemmas such as extreme pollution, killing whales, ocean acidification due to climate change, and bottom trawling (which collects and destroys everything in its path: dolphins, turtle sea lions etc.) all contribute to the dangerous decline of our oceans health.

The scale of these perils can be overwhelming, but don’t let them paralyze you from action. The good news is we can all do something to help. Simple things like recycling. Don’t use plastic bottles or plastic bags. Six-pack rings need to be cut up and disposed of properly so they don’t end up in the ocean.

We need to decrease carbon emissions by driving hybrids or electric vehicles, opting for solar power in our homes and cutting back on outdoor grilling. Please treat your world like your home: don’t dump, don’t litter.

Let’s get passionate about healing our oceans. It’s time we shift our awareness, have respect for the environment and stop abusing It. We have the power to reverse the damage that has been done to our planet. Changing how we see the world and realizing that we all share this planet are important acknowledgments. Understanding the world as one big living system, connected from the highest air to the deepest sea, is a necessary and critical first step. It takes every one of us to take that step. Let’s do this.

-Cindy Landon, Businesswoman, Activist, Philanthropist.

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PASSION COMES IN WAVES

By Sam George I'm sixty years old today and if I were to die right now this is what an observant forensics expert might find: hair, naturally brown, once bleached blond by the sun, now blanced white, is dried and split at its ends. Several scars, one running from my right occipital arch leading down onto the bridge of the nose, one horizontal just under the hairline above the left eye, both caused, apparently, by a blow from a sharp object. Ear canals show only just a hint of bony external exostosis, "Surfer's Ear", but the right timpani shows a small perforation scar in its lower right quadrant. Nasal cavities indicate affects of chronic sinusitis; the nose itself is sunburned.

Lower lip shows a lateral chronic lesion due to sun exposure. Both eyes exhibit pterygium growth on schlera, brought on by excessive exposure to glare and wind, right eye more pronounced. C-5 and C-6 cervical vertebra exhibit bone spur growth due to prolonged hyper-flexion. Muscles of the back—latissimus dorsi and deltoid—overdeveloped, creating a muscular imbalance between the back and undeveloped frontal pectoralis group. Over development also evident in upper head of triceps lateralis on both upper arms. Light subscapular abrasions under both armpits. Old navicular bone fracture in left wrist; fractures across right three metacarpal bones of the right hand. Hands more tanned than rest of arm. Band of white skin circles left wrist.

Fifth rib, left side, cracked. Knobby calcium Oglo-Slatter’s* Condition, on left sternum. Light, scabbed abrasions across rib-cage epidermis. Legs feature over-developed quadriceps lateralis, and include a partially torn medial-collateral liga ment on right leg, indicating multiple injuries. Patellar chondromalacia indicated by

“It’’s a surfer’’s body I’’m living in, but one the Beach Boys never sang about.”

Sam George paddleboarding in Cayucos.

rough underside of both kneecaps. Oglo-Slatter’s Condition apparent on patellar surface of left knee.

Both upper and lower legs characterized by numerous scars in various stages of healing. Left ankle shows extensive scarring indicative of a complete Achilles tendon re-construction. Ankle on right leg features band of white, untanned skin circling just above the ankle bone. Feet muscular with broad square toes, metatarsal bones splayed, both left and right, indicative of lack of proper shoe support. Extreme callous development on both heel and ball of both feet. A foreign object removed from beneath left big toe, proving to be the small tip of a sea urchin spine. Right big toe is stubbed.

It's a surfer's body I'm living in, but one the Beach Boys never sang about. But it's a surfer's life I'm living in, too, and the Beach Boys never sang about it either. Because I’m sixty years old now. I have four surfboards, a bike with a board rack and four pair of surf trunks, three of them damp. I live in a small studio, with a tiny deck that peeks out over the Pacific Ocean. And every time I look out over that blue expanse I realize that surrounded by some of the most expensive real estate on earth, and some of the wealthiest people, I’m a rich man.

Because passion comes in waves.

MARI SNYDER JOHNSON

DEVOcEAN

Interview by Kelly Meyer

Interview by Kelly Meyer

Photo by Lyon Herron

Mari Snyder Johnson – longtime advocate and lover of the ocean. I sat down with Mari recently to learn more about her passion and work on behalf of Malibu’s greatest resource, The Pacific Ocean and beyond.

KM: I know you have lived in Malibu a long time and raised your children here but did you grow up by the ocean?

MSJ: I was born in Omaha, Nebraska and raised in a little town in Indiana. The first really big body of water I saw was Lake Michigan and it was amazing!!

That is about as far from the ocean as one could get but when I was ten my family took a trip to Miami. A big trip for us - from Indiana to Miami!! THAT was the first time I saw the ocean, in Miami - I fell in love. It was so magnificent and it was warm and grand and beautiful. The oceans and the seas bring us such joyfulness; they are places of happiness, places of cleansing, and places of sustenance.

KM: What inspired you to become an advocate of the oceans?

MSJ: It started with wolves when I was 11. I fell in love with wolves and then I saw them being villanized. I felt they were misunderstood. There is an order to their families and their packs and they were being portrayed only as a menace. Recognizing this at such a young age and my desire to pragmatically protect them, I eventually ended up at Defenders of Wildlife, where I am currently on the board. It was through them that I learned about Bio-diversity. I learned that we need the predators as much as we need the smallest creaturesthe prey. I learned that we are all interconnected, all part of one Earth. Once I really understood our interconnectedness and the importance of bio–diversity, I was led back to Climate Change and full circle back to the ocean. Keeping the oceans alive and healthy is one of the best ways to hold back the tide of Climate Change. The coral reefs in the ocean are dying due to ocean acidification. Coral reefs and healthy phyto-plankton are some of our greatest carbon sinks – they actually absorb the green house gases that are causing Climate Change. It is ironic that a healthy ocean, the very thing we need to sustain us and stave off Climate Change, is greatly impacted by acidification that is caused by Climate Change.

KM: I know you are a member of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). As a member of their Leadership Council you have hosted their Ocean’s Team here in Malibu many times – but tell me more about the work you do with them?

DEVOcEAN MSJ: Well, I am not a scientist! They do not call upon me for my scientific expertise. They have extraordinary scientists, policy makers and lawyers on staff. I think my relationship with the NRDC works really well because it is built upon me bringing passion, gratefulness and appreciation for the work they do. I have come to understand the magnitude of the oceans, and how much of the planet is made up of our oceans, and what a high percentage of people are fed on a daily basis from those seas. We need to take care of this extraordinary resource. So I come to do ANYTHING they ask of me in regard to the ocean. I live on it...I see it everyday. It is so precious to me.

“The Ocean is life itself.” Sec. of State John Kerry.

KM: Tell me about your experience with the United Nations and the work you were supporting that is being done by the NRDC and other organizations on behalf of the oceans.

MSJ: I attended the meeting at the United Nations for the work that is being done by The High Seas Alliance, which is a coalition of NGO’s that have come together to facilitate worldwide negotiations for waters that are beyond a country’s territorial waters. Our oceans are being impacted by acidification, plastics, and overfishing among other threats. These impacts need help being managed. In other words, the high seas require serious protection. All countries must come together as they did in Paris as a global family to help manage the high seas. Global food security, tourism, transportation of goods across the high seas, mining and drilling.... the treaty is trying to help manage all those important factors. It was amazing to see how all the heads of nations looked to Lisa Speer of the NRDC to lead them towards common ground around the management of our most precious natural resource – our oceans. I am so proud to be affiliated with NRDC because you can see the respect that they have from both the environmental organizations as well as the countries that are being impacted by the degradation of our oceans. After the official meeting, I co-hosted an event at the United Nations for all the countries, and we were able to actually talk to the representatives of countries that weren’t fully committed. It is amazing how a one on one heartfelt conversation with delegates can have an influence on their vote to join forces for the good of the ocean. People really do care about the Earth.

KM: I know you also went with the NRDC to South America on behalf of the oceans – tell me about that trip.

MSJ: The “Our Ocean” conference in Chile was the second in a series of high level gatherings focused on protecting and restoring the world’s ocean. The brainchild of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the conference aimed at promoting solutions to overfishing, massive gyres of plastic waste, the impact of climate change and ocean acidification, and other threats to the health of our oceans. Attended by heads of state and high-level officials from around the globe, the Chile conference provided a key opportunity to help persuade key governments on the importance of a new treaty to conserve and manage international waters of the high seas. Comprising 2/3 of the world’s ocean and covering nearly half the planet, the high seas lack modern conservation tools.

As a lay person I was able to help press the case for a strong, conservation-minded high seas agreement with a variety of government officials, some of whom we met during the NRDC trip to the key UN meeting in January 2015, when the decision to begin negotiating a new agreement for the conservation and management of the high seas was made. We lobbied representatives and foreign dignitaries as well as Christy Goldfuss, the Chair of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality.

The treaty is trying to help manage all those important factors and Lisa Speer, a renowned expert, led this endeavor to help bring order to the high seas.

This experience allowed me to be in the room with delegates from The United Nations and with foreign ministers as a lay person, not a scientist or a policy maker. I don’t know everything but I speak from my heart. I think they responded to that. But the most promising thing that I noticed was a shift in the last few months since January 2015 when we were at the United Nations to October 2015 when I was in Chile. There was a considerable difference in attitude during that time. Perhaps a shift of consciousness and willingness to come together to help protect our natural resources.

DEVOcEAN

“Mari is a quick study and completely fearless. She has a knack for connecting with diplomats across the political spectrum. Those attributes, along with her humor, smarts and charm makes a killer ambassador on behalf of the high seas. We are very lucky to have her on our side.”

-Lisa Speer, NRDC KM: NRDC is lucky to have your support. What other NGO’s do you work with and is it in conjunction with your ocean work – do they compliment each other?

MSJ: I work for several environmental groups, as well as other sectors, and I serve on different Boards but the theme is the same when it comes to the environment. It’s just common sense: we have a responsibility as keepers of the planet to protect and preserve our natural environment.

KM: What do you think will inspire people and corporations to make decisions that will help us protect instead of destroy our natural resource?

MSJ: You know I am passionate about this subject...and disputing the idea that if you’re an environmentalist you don’t believe in business and vice versa. There is a transition going on in the world. You can just feel it. There is a new order coming. If business executives don’t feel it and progress they will be left behind. One of the most interesting aspects of our trip to Chile was the presentations by innovative businesses that are creating greener products, product replacements and material byproducts that are safe for the ocean/environment. We have such brilliant minds that are going to lead us into the future. The informed consumer of today, especially women who control the highest percentage of spending, is increasingly supporting responsible brands.

DEVOcEAN

Ocean photos by Emily Scher We need to continue to educate consumers about what is possible. I would think aware companies would want to push ahead of their competitors and take advantage of the marketing and financial benefits of being legitimate conscientious leaders in their sectors. I believe they will be immensely rewarded.

KM: What is your greatest hope for the oceans and the environment at large?

MSJ: For clean seas, clean skies, dignity and quality of life for all people. I remain hopeful that this earth will persevere for generations to come.

KM: Thank you Mari for all the time and effort you have put forth helping protect our oceans. Your global work on the high seas touches our shores here in Malibu. This is the best gift we can give our kids. We’re grateful for your DEVOCEAN! For more information go to nrdc.org

DEVOcEAN

PEACE, LOVE & PROTECT THE OCEAN

An interview with Philanthropist and Marine Environmental Advocate John Paul DeJoria

BY MOLLY STRAWN The oceans are home to more than half of all species on Earth, provide 70 percent of the breathable oxygen in the atmosphere and regulate the temperature of all environments to support life. In the past 100 years, since the height of the Industrial Revolution, the oceans have been threatened by detrimental human action, including hundreds of different types of pollution. It is no wonder that ocean advocates around the globe have given so much to protecting its beauty.

John Paul DeJoria is one of the prominent global citizens donating his time and money to protecting these valuable ecosystems. His rags-to-riches story revitalizes belief in the American Dream; that a child of immigrants can grow to become a successful entrepreneur, work hard and build a personal net worth of over $3 billion.

DeJoria is the founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems, a hair care product developer with over 90 products sold throughout 90,000 hair salons in 45 countries. He also holds his most valuable investment, Patron Spirits, the undisputed king of premium tequila for over 10 years.

Throughout his successful career, DeJoria has donated millions to notable charities, working to develop environmentally-friendly oil refineries, solar cars, remove mines in torn regions, conserve wild lands and improve the lives of thousands of struggling Americans. His work has earned him numerous humanitarian awards and a seat as a welcomed guest at the White House Conference on Philanthropy in Washington D.C. across multiple presidencies.

DeJoria is specifically passionate about the oceans, entangling himself personally with multiple prominent groups including Paul Watson’s Sea Shepherd Conservation Society for the protection of marine mammals, where he sits on the Board of Advisors. More than monetary contribution, he risks his life, even willing to throw himself in between hunters and a baby harp seal in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada. Locally, he has campaigned to large companies to turn to alternative forms of energy rather than continue burning fossil fuels, aiming to prevent future oil spills into our oceans.

DeJoria embodies the definition of a global citizen, always looking for new ways to innovate ecological well-being among our oceans.

MS: JP, it’s a pleasure to be with you today. On top of your boundless humanitarian work around the world, you’ve been a huge marine environmental advocate for decades. What aspect of these current circumstances concerns and disturbs you the most?

JP: What most concerns and disturbs me about the marine area is the way it is being depleted of fish, of nutrients and things like coral that won’t be around for a long, long time. It takes a long time to build. When you see the depletion of it, whether you say elimination of species, over fishing or just through their practices, ruining reefs and things of this nature. And the important thing for people to realize is this: when the oceans go, mankind goes...it’s over.

What really concerns me about the oceans of our world is the majority of the world is oceans. I am concerned when the marine life gets tampered with, when people over fish, when they do things that are improper by polluting the waterways. For example, the island of trash in the middle of the Pacific Island, and I believe there’s going to be another one in the Atlantic ocean that’s building up right now, bigger than the size of Texas, all trash.

Not only does that trash sit there and ruin the ocean, it kills fish, it kills all kinds of sea life and it damages the land. All of a sudden now, what happens? We start seeing the coral reefs disappear, the species disappear.

When the ocean goes, the world goes.

John Paul DeJoria at his home in Malibu, CA. Photo by Keith Carlsen.

DEVOcEAN

MS: Some have stated that global warming is, in fact, a natural process reoccurring throughout the history of Earth’s climate, and that humans have little to no immediate impact on the deterioration of marine ecosystems. A case against this theory is the damaged condition of the relatively untouched Castro’s Gardens of the Queens, so close to decaying Florida reefs and not far from one of the biggest dead zones in the world: the mouth of the Mississippi River. Your thoughts?

JP: A lot of people are saying that global warming is something that naturally takes effect, but don’t realize man is polluting and over polluting. We are responsible for over 50%. Don’t take my word for it. I had the opportunity to sit with two Nobel Prize winners and the dean of Chester University and flat out ask them, ‘Does man contribute to global warming and if so, how much?’ Their answer was, “we are going to be very conservative with you, way over 50%.”

I ask experts and the scientists that really know. Not the people who’d like it not to happen so they can continue to pollute for the reason of making more money, and not having to switch requirements that are really going to help the land opposed to helping their pocket book.

MS: So humans are responsible, both on an individual basis and through the damaging structure of our world economy. We all drive our cars to work, consume plastic products, and support corporations with catastrophic carbon and fishing regulations. Taking into consideration the fact that the ocean supports all life on Earth through climate regulation and oxygen production, why are we not taking huge steps to clean up our mess?

JP: We put the pollution there and there are not enough efforts made to clean it up because it’s not profitable enough for major companies to get involved with. And the public isn’t given the information on how each individual could help. Most people wait until the masses to come along, but they forget the masses are made up of individuals. What would help is if each individual could take his can and recycle it or take his paper and throw it away. If there is something there that’s out of place, why not put it in its place whether it’s yours or not.

It’s the human beings, each individual that can make that big difference. If everybody knew this, we would eliminate this pollution so fast. It’s that people sometimes don’t care. What’s one extra can, one or two extra?

It’s that mentality that makes up the masses that ruin everything. Yet the individuals can come out and make the masses count for something good, not something bad. They can give a damn! It’s like voting. My vote won’t count. Wasn’t it a couple elections ago that a particular presidential candidate won by 300 votes in a particular state? Think of the tens of thousands who thought, “my vote won’t count.” Everything counts.

Left: Laird Hamilton, John Paul and David Hance, COO of Sea Shepherd spent time together recently discussing the current state of the oceans exclusively with 90265 Magazine. Photo by Jennifer Cawley

“... man is polluting and over polluting.

We are responsible for over 50%. “

DEVOcEAN

John Paul and Eloise DeJoria in front of Sea Shepherd’s boat M/V Farley Mowat which is sponsored by John Paul’s foundation Peace, Love and Happiness.

MS: Evidence shows that protecting sections of ocean habitat does revitalize the ecosystem.

Yet, it is human nature to reap the benefits of the Earth and turn it around for a quick profit, even if it means extinction of populations. Most species of Abalone sea snails are still in rehabilitation due to popular sport and commercial hunting in the 1950s. Do you think it’s possible to reverse damage done by humans, given the vitality of this social stigma?

JP: There’s a lot of new things coming out in technology that will help reverse what mankind has done and stop things like poaching and deforestation. Cows are the main reason for deforestation in many areas. They cut down the the beautiful trees and make them into pastures. A little story was told to me. A few years ago a group from a University went into Indonesia and cut down samples of bark off trees. Then they positioned the trees on GPS so they knew exactly where they were. They went back to see if this bark could do anything, They saw that the bark looked like another piece of bark that was actually a cure for diabetes. They immediately went back by the same GPS to see if they could find that tree they took the bark off of and what did they find there? A pasture. They could not find the tree whatsoever.

“There’s a lot of new things coming out in technology that will help reverse what mankind has done and stop things like poaching and deforestation.”

Technology is coming out with something now that has the same nutritional benefits, the same tastes and the same color as meat but made out of vegetables. No GMOs whatsoever. They tested it on 70 people who said they would not eat anything vegetarian, and they loved it. The goal is to eliminate the need for cows for anything other than milk. Huge difference. If we can make a product that looks and tastes good, people will buy it.

MS: Commercial fishery exploitation, bycatch, derailed hooks and netting, plastic pollution: any last personal thoughts?

JP: When I see a can or a piece of paper near or in any body of water, I just have to wonder how could somebody be so careless and insensitive as to think that one piece of trash won’t make a difference? Why can’t mankind realize they are destroying their own planet, but more importantly that each individual is a powerhouse and if they just realized it we could start making changes. It’s the individual that has to start making changes. And that, of course, creates the masses doing it.

MS: Even though marine habitat deterioration is a real and pressing issue, the ocean is also full of beauty and vibrancy.

To lighten things up a tad, what marine habitat moves you the most?

Right: John Paul and his son on Mount Kilimanjaro on an expedition for Sea Shepherd.

DEVOcEAN JP: There are many beautiful marine habitats all over our fabulous planet but the one that moves me the most is the Great Barrier Reef, but it’s disappearing. What’s happening now is they are letting big cruise ships in there and it’s polluting the water with their oil run off and all the trash they have. And of course, the people that come off the ships will be stepping on the coral and other things. They are ruining it.

MS: If you could influence people to live greener lives, what would your action items be?

John Paul DeJoria and his wife Eloise at home in Malibu, CA. Photo by Keith Carlsen

DEVOcEAN JP: Please realize every individual makes a difference. Don’t pollute in any way, shape or form. Please try and recycle. If you can’t recycle, realize every can is important and put it back at least where it belongs: in a trash container. Along the way, a homeless person will probably come along with a big bag and take those cans, sell them and have a few extra dollars. In other words, you can make a difference. You’ve got start now. You can’t just say, “Great idea JP.” If someone sees someone walk by a trash can and pick up a can that was lying nearby and throw it in, that can influence another to do the same. If no one sees you do it, it’s ok. You know you did something for somebody else and a whole planet without asking for any acknowledgment or anything in return. You did it because you know it would make a difference and that gets you high as a kite.

“ ...GO by any water way...pick up a paper or two and see how good you feel asking nothing in return but know you did something to make the planet a better place to live. That’s a super high. " MS: There are millions of recreational boaters around the world these days, and millions more who love visiting the Southern California intertidal. If every marina, every yacht club, and every person who says they love the beach would go out and do an ocean cleanup just once a year, what difference would that make?

JP: One wonders why you have yacht clubs, boating clubs, groups, whether they’re kayaking or boating; wouldn’t it be nice if they could take even an hour to go out and find some pollution out there? Whether they walk the shore or find something floating on the water, they can just pick it up. I want to add that another thing to do is support groups like The Sea Shepherd that protect mammal life out at sea.

Also, Water Keepers Alliance is cleaning up all the waterways, not just the oceans but also on land. Heal the Bay is another great organization.

If you can’t find an organization, go by any waterway whether it’s a lake or a stream, go on by there and see if there’s any pollution. If you want, wear gloves and pick up a paper or two and see how good you feel asking nothing in return but know you did something to make the planet a better place to live. That’s a super high.

John Paul DeJoria signed the Giving Pledge in 2011 as a formal promise to continue giving back.

That same year, he founded JP’s Peace, Love and Happiness Foundation to invest in charities that share the core values of his companies sustainability, social responsibility and animal-friendliness. John Paul believes that success unshared is failure. To that end, the DeJoria family is committed to contributing to a sustainable planet through investing in people, protecting animals and conserving the environment. peacelovehappinessfoundation.org

DEVOcEAN

MISSION BLUE:: PROTECT OUR OCEANS An Interview with Sylvia Earle, world renowned marine biologist, explorer, author, and lecturer.

By Captain Kurt Lieber, Ocean Defenders Alliance Photos courtesy of Sylvia Earle, Mission Blue I started scuba diving in 1974. I was inspired initially by Jules Verne, Jacques Cousteau, Diver Dan and, of course, the adventures of Lloyd Bridges on Sea Hunt! At the time I was living in Ohio and couldn’t wait to get out and move somewhere where I could dive with all these fantastic creatures I was seeing on the television screens in my living room.

As I started educating myself about the people who were actually going out and studying the intricacies of life under the water, I started reading about this fantastic woman who was a scientist and was going where no woman (or man) had gone before. I mean, going down to one thousand feet, solo, in a suit that looked like something out of Journey to the Forbidden Planet... not only was this lady good looking, she was crazy! My kind of gal.

DEVOcEAN

With people like Sylvia, Bob Ballard, Stan Waterman, Mike deGruy, Bob Talbot and Jean-Michel Cousteau showing the world, through film and photography, all the sights to be seen in our world’s oceans, I was hooked, and started learning and exploring on my own here in southern California. I soon found out that our oceans have been devastatingly impacted by human activities. To that end, I have a few questions to ask marine biologist Sylvia Earle.

K.L.:With the vast majority of the large fish gone – in most cases only ten percent of these fish are left – do you think there is anything that can be done to allow these populations to come back?

S.E.: Our giant appetites have made it so that we have lost 90 percent of our big fish in just a few decades. On top of that, warming and acidifying seawater, caused by our greenhouse gas emissions, is threatening these species and the habitats they rely upon to survive. So how long before those fish are all gone if we keep eating them this way, and how long before all of the corals bleach and reefs erode, destroying habitat for countless species? Everyone can make a difference just by changing what he or she consumes. Less demand will mean less support for commercial fisheries and the fossil fuel industry. It isn’t too late to shift from the swift, sharp decline of ocean systems in recent decades to an era of steady recovery. There is time, and there is a growing awareness, which is the best way to counter indifference. The next ten years will be the most important in the next 10,000 years in terms of shaping a future where humans can have a hope for an enduring place within the natural systems that keep us alive.

K.L: With the oceans being constantly bombarded by a variety of abuses, from overfishing, climate change, noise pollution, ocean acidification to oil and gas extraction and exploration, is there anything you feel we can do as individuals to reverse this exploitation that is obviously NOT sustainable?

S.E.: People don’t tend to think about the ocean when they think of what we need to do to take care of the planet – as if the ocean somehow doesn’t matter or is so big, so vast, that it can take care of itself, or that there is nothing that we could possibly do to harm the ocean. But that’s not true. With new technology and new research findings, now we know that the ocean has limits; there is only so much that we can take out before it will be empty of fish and other sea life, and there is also a limit to how much of our greenhouse gas emissions, excess toxic chemicals and trash we can throw into the ocean before this vital living system will no longer be able to function.

Getting beyond that idea that the ocean is too vast to impact is very challenging. With knowing comes caring, and with caring comes the hope that an ocean ethic will arise that will secure a sustainable future for ourselves, our children, and for the sea. There is still time, but not a lot.

KL: Here in California we have set aside 16 percent of our state waters to serve as marine protected areas (MPAs). How effective are MPAs, and can you cite examples where they have proven to be successful, and others that have failed?

SE: The establishment of marine protected areas (or MPAs) – designated zones of ecological importance in which activities such as fishing and mining are strictly prohibited much like national parks on land – is becoming a very popular conservation method that has power to protect the health of the ocean as a whole. Slowly, but surely, several nations have shown leadership in increasing ocean care.

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“People around the world are holding their breath, hoping policymakers will restrict greenhouse gas emissions and limit climate change before it’s too late.”

The tone was set in 2006 by two presidents: George W. Bush, who designated major areas in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the western Pacific, and Anote Tong, leader of the Pacific island Republic of Kiribati, who declared protection that year and in 2008 for 158,000 square miles of ocean surrounding the nation’s 33 atolls and islands. Another island nation, the United Kingdom, followed in 2010 with what at the time was the world’s largest fully protected marine reserve: 225,810 square miles around the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. In November 2012, Australia created a network of marine reserves covering 888,035 square miles of sea and bringing the total area of Australia’s protected ocean to 1.2 million square miles.

Two years ago, President Obama expanded the areas established by Bush to create one of the largest protected areas on Earth, and in the past year the UK Government announced that it would create the world’s largest marine reserve around the Pitcairn Islands in the South Pacific and the Atlantic’s largest around Ascension Island – both UK Overseas Territories. But even with all of this progress, only two percent of the ocean is fully protected and less than four percent is protected in any way.

One example of both success and failure in an MPA is Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Australia is a country I have admired and loved, from afar and up close in person for years since I first started visiting in the 1970s. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has historically been a pinnacle of marine protection policy and enforcement – an example for the rest of the world. But now in Australia, and around the world, we are witnessing the impact of seven billion carbon emitters on a planet that isn’t getting any bigger. The Great Barrier Reef –

DEVOcEAN a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the seven natural wonders of the world – is in peril, sickened by extremely warm sea temperatures caused by climate change that is bleaching corals at an unprecedented rate. The good news is that coral reefs can recover from bleaching if stressors are reduced quickly. The Australian government would help immensely by confronting the truth that human-caused CO2 emissions are contributing to the recent tragic bleaching event. People around the world are holding their breath, hoping policymakers will restrict greenhouse gas emissions and limit climate change before it’s too late.

KL: You have created a nonprofit organization called Mission Blue. I saw a few years ago that you started a program where you designate areas of the oceans as “Hope Spots.” Can you tell us what these are and what you hope to achieve with them?

SE: When I was awarded the TED Prize in 2009, I was given a special opportunity to make one of my biggest wishes come true – a wish that could “change the world.” I suggested the following: “I wish you would use all means at your disposal – Films! Expeditions! The web! New submarines! – To create a campaign to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas – “Hope Spots” – large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.” That’s how I founded Mission Blue. By designating Hope Spots around the world, Mission Blue is highlighting places in the ocean in need of special protection with the goal of safeguarding at least 20 percent of the ocean by 2020. Mission Blue collaborates with nearly 150 international partners from big multinationals like National Geographic and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to barebones scientific teams to grow the Hope Spots movement and protect large portions of the ocean – our life support system.

KL: Can you tell us of some “Hope Spot” successes? Are there any in the United States?

SE: The Gulf of California Hope Spot is a stellar example.

Cabo Pulmo is a small place, but it is making a big difference in terms of inspiring hope. This village shows that if you make an investment, care for a place, it can recover.

The fish had been depleted, the coral reefs were in trouble, but by taking the pressure off, by creating a safe place in the ocean for the wildlife that is here, recovery has taken place. The people took their ocean back, replaced the fishing with ecotourism, and the community is thriving.

“Our giant appetites have made it so that we have lost 90 percent of our big fish in a just few decades.”

DEVOcEAN “Whatever else we achieve, the ultimate success will be to dispel ignorance about the sea.”

Diving now in Cabo Pulmo is almost like diving in the ocean as it was 60 years ago. Protection really works, and it’s an idea beginning to catch hold around the world.

United States Hope Spots include the Gulf of Mexico deep reefs, the Gulf of the Farallones, Bahamian reefs off the southern tip of Florida and Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine. Mission Blue has received mountains of requests for new Hope Spots and we are getting close to launching a new Hope Spot nomination system with our partners at IUCN that will lead to many new Hope Spots, including in the US. KL: Lastly, in this day and age, most people feel totally disenfranchised by the political system. You once served in our political process by running the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). As one who has worked both inside and outside the system, what do you feel is the best way for ordinary people to become involved in saving what is left of our oceans, and does signing a petition carry any weight?

SE: Whatever else we achieve, the ultimate success will be to dispel ignorance about the sea. Of all the ocean’s problems, what we don’t know poses the greatest threat. We must work together to push that frontier of ignorance further and deeper – and to return to the surface brimming with knowledge. Policymakers within the ‘system’ and citizens outside of it share a responsibility to do what they can to help the world understand threats to life in the ocean and solutions to them. We need people from all backgrounds and professions to raise awareness and inspire empathy among their communities and constituents about issues affecting the ocean, like climate change, ocean acidification, overfishing and pollution. Researchers need to speak out about their findings, activists need to spread the word about them, policymakers need to hear from voters and corporations that saving the ocean is a priority, and they need to work with scientists to act on those demands in effective ways. Petitions, when directed at the appropriate decision makers, can be an effective way to cause grassroots policy change. The only difference that has been made ever in the world, for good or for not so good, always starts with just one person. But it will take a coalition of researchers, indigenous communities, students, engineers, explorers, artists, teachers, policymakers and advocates to use their unique capabilities and new technologies to appeal to our global society and change our relationship with the ocean for good.

K.L Thanks for your time and insights Sylvia, and I hope we can carry on this conversation in the future.

For more information on Sylvia Earle and Mission Blue go to mission-blue.org Photos provided by Mission Blue

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THE WATERKEEPER Robert Kennedy Jr. on SAVING OUR WATER INTERVIEW By Linda Atkinson, MA, MBA Photos courtesy of LA Waterkeeper Malibu local Robert Kennedy Jr. is among the world’s most visible environmental leaders. His reputation as a resolute defender of the planet stems from a litany of successful legal actions. Time magazine named Kennedy one of its “Heroes for the Planet” for his success helping Hudson Riverkeeper’s fight to restore the Hudson River.

The group’s achievement helped spawn some 300 waterkeeper organizations in 34 countries on 6 continents.

Kennedy serves as senior attorney and president for Waterkeeper Alliance, the world’s largest clean water advocacy group. He is of counsel to the national law firm Morgan and Morgan, and he has been one of the lead attorneys representing thousands of refugees from the Porter Ranch gas disaster in their lawsuit against Southern California Gas. He is senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and a professor and supervising attorney at Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation Clinic.

For over three decades, Kennedy has worked on environmental and justice issues across the Americas. He has assisted indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada in successfully negotiating treaties protecting traditional homelands. He is credited with successfully leading the fight to protect New York City’s water supply; the New York City watershed agreement, which he negotiated on behalf of environmentalists and New York City watershed consumers, and is regarded as an international model in stakeholder consensus negotiations and sustainable development. Since 1995, he has led the environmental battle in Washington against efforts by big polluters to undermine the nation’s environmental laws.

Kennedy is a best-selling author. Among his many published books are the New York Times bestseller “Crimes Against Nature” (2004), two children’s books on American history, and a third on St. Francis of Assisi. Kennedy’s writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Nation, Outside Magazine, The Village Voice, and many other publications. His award winning articles have been included in anthologies of America’s Best Crime Writing, Best Political Writing and Best Science Writing. Kennedy is co-host of the popular Ring of Fire radio program.

Kennedy is a licensed master falconer with a life-long enthusiasm for white-water paddling. He has led several expeditions in Canada and Latin America, including first descents on rivers in Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. Kennedy is a lover of Malibu and is ‘devoted to the ocean’.

LA: Bobby, this is our big ‘DEVOCEAN’ issue for 90265 Magazine and we knew we needed to include you. Where did you get your passion for the ocean and rivers?

RFK: I grew up on the Atlantic Ocean off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts among 29 cousins and eleven brothers and sisters. We spent every day on the water; fishing, swimming and sailing to the islands, waterskiing, scuba diving, clamming and crabbing. My uncle, President John F. Kennedy, created the National Seashore on Cape Cod in 1961 when I was a boy – protecting 40 miles of beaches, dunes and salt marshes – so there was always a strong conservation message coming from my family.

LA: I hear you are also a fresh water river rat?

RFK: My father taught us to kayak and took us on America’s greatest whitewater stretches: the Colorado, the Salmon, the Snake, the Yampa and the Green. In 1965, he took us on a whitewater trip to kayak the upper Hudson in a blizzard to stop a dam. That trip still counts as the coldest I’ve ever been on, but I got the message early that our waterways are part of the public commons and that pollution is theft.

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The Waterkeeper movement started in 1966 with the formation of the Hudson River Fisherman's Association, which took on many of our nation's industrial polluters and won. Today Waterkeeper Alliance is made up of over 290 Waterkeepers protecting rivers, lakes and coastal waterways on six continents.

LA: The Waterkeeper movement started in 1966 with the formation of the Hudson River Fisherman’s Association, which took on many of our nation’s industrial polluters and won. Today Waterkeeper Alliance is made up of over 290 Waterkeepers protecting rivers, lakes and coastal waterways on six continents. Tell us how you got involved.

RFK: The first waterkeeper was founded by a blue-collar crew of commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen and former marines, on the Hudson River in 1966. The Hudson hosts North America’s oldest commercial fishery.

The fishermen wanted to reclaim their river from the polluters who were poisoning the fish and destroying their livelihoods. The government agencies refused to help and they came to the conclusion that the government regulatory agencies were in cahoots with the polluters. They realized that only direct action would save the river. There were 300 of them and they used to meet in an American Legion Hall in a working class factory village called Croton Ville to plan direct action – jamming mattresses up pipes, igniting the oil slick at the Penn Central railroad station, floating a raft of dynamite into the intake of the Indian Point power plant. Then they discovered an ancient navigational statute that allowed individuals to collect bounties on polluters who they reported to the federal prosecutors. Suddenly they became a law enforcement organization. They sued dozens of polluters and collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal bounties. They used the money to build a patrol boat. Using bounty money, they hired me as their prosecuting attorney in 1984. Since then, we have filed and won many hundreds of lawsuits forcing polluters to clean up the Hudson. The miraculous resurrection of the Hudson inspired the creation of hundreds of waterkeepers across the globe – all united beneath one umbrella – the Waterkeeper Alliance. Each waterkeeper has a patrol boat and they have to sue polluters to retain their license as a waterkeeper.

Photo by tomboydimages.com

DEVOCEAN LA: And that model has been successful all over the California Coast?

RFK: Yes. We have waterkeepers on the Russian River, Santa Monica Bay, Orange County Coastkeeper, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, Humboldt Baykeeper, Inland Empire Waterkeeper, LA Waterkeeper, Monterey Coastkeeper, San Diego Coastkeeper, San Francisco Baykeeper, San Luis Obispo Coastkeeper and Ventura Coastkeeper. In fact, we have keepers on most of the west coast waterways, from Cabo San Lucas on the Baja Peninsula to Prince William Sound in Alaska. Each keeper has a patrol boat and they track down polluters and do whatever is necessary to protect the waterway.

LA: Are you a community coastguard?

RFK: Exactly…a neighborhood watch on the water.

LA: And your Los Angeles Waterkeeper patrols and protects the waters off of Malibu?

RFK: Yeah, I’m very proud of and grateful to Los Angeles Waterkeeper. That group helped clean up the water where my family and I now swim. Los Angeles Waterkeeper has won many dozens of lawsuits to protect Santa Monica Bay and its neighboring waterways. We won a landmark case against the California Department of Transportation forcing the agency to clean up all the storm drains that drain California highways onto the state’s coastal zones and beaches. That’s why California surfers suffer fewer of the earaches, stomach illnesses and respiratory infections that were coming from storm drain pathogens.

LA: LA Waterkeeper also brought the famous sewer suit against the county of Los Angeles?

RFK: Yes. Our settlement agreement with the county has resulted in an 87% reduction in sewage spills into coastal waterways.

"Our settlement agreement with the county has resulted in an reduction in AN 87% sewage spills into coastal waterways" LA: You’ve also sued some of southern California’s biggest industrial polluters to stop toxic discharges.

RFK: Well, for example, we successfully sued all those industrial scrap metal, recycling and auto scrapping yards in south Los Angeles. We forced them to collect and treat some hideously toxic storm water discharges.

LA: What other kind of litigation have you brought for the coast?

RFK: Los Angeles Waterkeeper recently brought a federal action to restore endangered sea otter populations in Southern California. We also reached a landmark settlement with the City of Malibu over beach water pollution.

LA: LA Waterkeeper is much more than litigation correct?

RFK: Sure…we have a large team of scientists at Los Angeles Waterkeeper who work beside volunteer scuba divers to restore kelp beds in Santa Monica Bay. We do spill prevention and large volunteer beach clean-ups, pollution prevention and education. We patrol and protect the waterways by patrol boat and beach patrols.

We operate a DRAIN WATCH and we deploy our SWAT (Storm Wall Assessment Team), to monitor water safety whenever it rains so that we can detect and cure problem hotspots. We pretty much do anything necessary to protecting southern California’s waterways and beaches for people who use them.

LA: You are known for your environmental work on the east coast. What brought you to Malibu?

RFK: I married a California girl (Kennedy married actress, Cheryl Hines in August 2014). I still commute to New York for work. But I’ve accumulated a pile of environmental and legal work here in California.

LA: That’s right, how did you meet Cheryl Hines?

RFK: Through Larry David. I lived with Larry for two summers on Cape Cod. He introduced us during a Utah ski trip in January 2012.

LA: What’s it like being married to the Curb show?

RFK: Very funny – all the time. I saw Cheryl on T.V. and someone asked her what it was like kissing Larry David without missing a beat, she said, “Like riding a unicorn down a rainbow.” That’s what it’s like being married to Cheryl Hines - a unicorn on a rainbow. She is insanely quick and witty – but she is the wisest and most centered person I’ve ever met.

LA: And I hear you surf (pointing to the surfboard rack)?

RFK: Surprisingly poorly. I really started when I moved out here two years ago. It’s the most difficult sport I’ve ever learned. But I love it and I’m persistent. My kids have gotten quite good.

DEVOCEAN LA: Back to more of your work, besides the Porter Ranch case, you’ve also brought a number of cases against Monsanto?

RFK: Yes. I’ve been doing a lot of toxic tort litigation with two Malibu attorneys, Brian Strange and Michael Baum – both my Point Dume neighbors – and with the national law firm, Morgan and Morgan. I’m representing school districts across the country in suits against Monsanto for PCB contamination that now affects some 24% of American classrooms. Window caulking found in schools that were built in the 1960’s and 1970’s often include a PCB based plasticizer that volatizes when the temperature changes. That allows the PCBs to get into children’s blood where it can cause cancer and interfere with their brain function and sexual development. Monsanto was the sole manufacturer of PCBs and is responsible for financing the removal from all these schools. It’s important that these school districts sue the company before the five-year statute of limitations elapses. So there is a rush now to bring these lawsuits and I’ve ended up with the bulk of them nationally.

LA: You are also suing Monsanto here in California for injuries caused by the pesticide Round Up. Tell me more about this.

RFK: Yes… we’re representing farmers and others exposed to glyphosate, which is the active ingredient of Round Up. Glyphosate is a carcinogen known to cause Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and other cancers.

California’s farm communities are chock filled with heartbreaking stories about Round Up’s legacy. Round Up is also causing the extinction of several species, including Monarch butterflies. Like other powerful polluters, Monsanto uses political clout to subvert democracy and pervert the science in its efforts to escape the consequences of mass poisoning of America’s farmers and our food supply.

Los Angeles Waterkeeper recently brought a federal action to restore endangered sea otter populations in southern California. We also reached a landmark settlement with the City of Malibu over beach water pollution.

LA: You also have a new book “Framed” just published this week about your cousin Michael Skakel, can you give us a synopsis?

RFK: Michael spent 11 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. He was framed by a corrupt police detective, a crooked Connecticut prosecutor and a disgruntled former Los Angeles police detective, Mark Fuhrman – the racist perjurer who blew the O.J. Simpson prosecution. This book is the story of how and why these three scoundrels engineered the conviction of an innocent man. In the course of my investigation, I tracked down the real killers and tape-recorded my conversations with them.

LA: A relative of Los Angeles Lakers star player, Kobe Bryant, played a key role in your investigation?

RFK: Yes. Kobe Bryant’s first cousin, Tony Bryant, is one of the flawed heroes of this story. He actually traveled with the two killers to Greenwich the night of the murder and heard them planning to kill 15-year-old Martha Moxley. He fled back to New York City prior to the killing. Afterward, the two murderers confessed to him.

He kept the secret from everyone but his mother and one other person for nearly three decades. When I finally tracked him down by phone, his first words were “I’ve been waiting for this call for 27 years.”

LA: Sounds like an enticing read for the summer! Thank you Robert. robertfkennedyjr.com waterkeeperalliance.org

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OCEAN VANGUARD Legendary Waterman and Innovator, Laird Hamilton discusses the state of the ocean and his quest to build bigger armies to protect her.

Laird Hamilton Interview by David Hance COO of Sea Shepherd.

Photographs by Jennifer Cawley I arrived in Marina Del Rey, wondering exactly what to expect on meeting Mr. Hamilton. I have read stories and have seen footage of what appear to be death defying stunts at sea. My expectation was that of a larger than life, overly confident, celebrity surfer, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that Laird is a friendly, down to earth and professional guy, who seemed most interested and eager to jump straight into deep conversation with me. He was equally as interested in my experiences at sea, as I was of his.

We were joined at the dock by John Paul De Joira, who had dropped by, just to see us off and to thank everyone for their support. Our craft of the day was the “Arctic Wolf”, a 33ft custom Zodiac, designed by Bear Grylls and owner, David Segel, to navigate some 3,500 miles of the Northwest passage. The vessel was outfitted with 3 powerful outboard motors, as well as a custom suspension system and many other one-of-akind features. I couldn’t help but think what an effective deterrent she would be for the high speed policing of the ocean’s criminals, that we at Sea Shepherd do around the world, on a daily basis.

Jettisoned by a 900hp symphony of Mercury engines, we very quickly found ourselves halfway to Catalina Island, and right on cue, as if it were an orchestrated event, we were joined by a small pod of Pacific White Sided Dolphins, sociably riding the wake of our boat.

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We spent the remainder of the morning talking about everything from family, food, health, children and general life topics. I found Laird to be intelligent and knowledgeable about everything we discussed, but I was especially impressed by his concerns about the plight of the oceans. It was abundantly clear that he has a true passion for their survival. I was pleased to find that he is not just a talker, but an actual “doer”.

DH - Describe your relationship with the ocean and the importance of it in your life?

LH – (Chuckle) That list is of course endless! First of all, it’s the teaching. The ocean has been a teacher to me, that is how I describe the biggest impact for me personally. And let’s face it, without the ocean none of us would be on the planet, and therefore it’s the key to all our lives on the planet.

DH – Do you think if you hadn’t followed this path, what else you have done with your life?

LH – It is hard to imagine a life without the ocean playing such a big part. It’s very confusing for me to imagine contentment and happiness without the ocean being so central, and because of that I find it difficult to envision my life being so dry, not only physically but in the sense of my total existence. A life without an ocean is like a planet without an ocean.

DH – I agree with you, aside from the scientific fact. As someone who grew up in Colorado, but who has now called the ocean home for some twenty years, I cannot imagine life without ocean. I know that there are people who are land locked and have very happy lives, but for me, if I couldn’t drive to the ocean it would be odd. I first came to California at 14 years old and when I returned I knew that’s where I wanted to spend my life.

LH - Absolutely. But I think there’s something to be said for the fact that now you ‘know’ this is where you want to live. But if you didn’t know it might not have bothered you. I believe that for certain people there is a mechanism that is triggered and then it becomes a conscious decision.

DH – So how many hours a year do you spend in the water and whereabouts?

LH- That is a difficult calculation. Hours and hours. I guess that for the six months a year I’m in Hawaii, I’m likely to be in the ocean every day – and that could mean as little as an hour but is often six or eight hours a day. Whereas in the summer in California a little less volume and a lot more in my pool training.

For the most part though I’m in the Pacific. Somewhere.

It’s interesting though, do you notice the difference in feeling between the different oceans?

OCEAN VANGUARD LH- Yeeeaaah well, Hawaii is hard to beat. We are right in the middle of the Pacific. It’s actually like being on a boat! It is the most remote island chain in the world. Right there, it makes it feel pristine and energizing.

DH – So have you ever witnessed any fishing of illegal species or threats to endangered species in your travels?

LH – I’ve certainly seen some primitive and unregulated styles of fishing, like mosquito nets being dragged in Indonesia, regardless of what is caught and so on. But frankly, any type of commercial fishing done in a mass way feels like an intrusion to me. We have some well monitored laws for this amongst the Hawaiian Islands, but when you go further a field it becomes out of control.

DH – I heard that you have an interest in the United Nations and the lack of representation for the planets oceans?

LH – I do have some friends that have encouraged me to get involved. I like the idea of the ocean having a say and even it’s own flag. The ocean deserves a say and a group of people to speak for it. The vigilance and laws required to enforce these rulings need groups like Sea Shepherd, a physical force to police these waters.

But in the same breath, that requires major participation from all countries to work together. Right now, so much hostility exists and these groups operate beyond the government so it seems impossible.

“the more people I can encourage into the ocean, the more awareness and more action. A bigger voice.”

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DH - Absolutely, this a familiar story. Take the commercial whaling ban agreed on by the United Nations back in 1987 and people say how does this still go on. I mean if you go rob a bank, deal drugs or guns, the DEA or ATF will come get you. But with the UN, there is no one who is going to come get you.

For your part, how do you contribute to the peoples awareness of these ocean issues?

LH – I get that question a lot. My personal crusade is simply to try and get people participating, getting into the ocean and establishing their own relationship with the ocean, because then they’ll care. So for me, that’s through sport and fun. So the more people I can encourage into the ocean the more awareness and more action. A bigger voice.

I also hope that through our quest to ride bigger waves and the way we can capture that on film and so on, these experiences show the power of the ocean and leave people in awe of it, as well as create a fascination with it. Ultimately creating a bigger army to protect it.

DH – You mentioned earlier that you’ve been researching Biomimicry, can you explain this concept?

LH – Sure, it’s simply the learning from nature to help us design efficiently and effectively using examples of highly evolved engineering, eco systems and economies to help us solve many of the issue that we face.

Biomimicry is really the next industrial revolution. You know we make things that fly, but we have never made something that flies but makes no noise, but an owl can fly and not make a sound, or looking at how redwoods grow and their group structures that illustrate organization and corporation. It’s endless and what better teacher, like I said earlier about my teacher; the ocean. But don’t forget there are no straight lines in nature.

DH – What are your current professional responsibilities?

LH – Increasing daily! We have several young and exciting companies that I am fully vested to make a success of. They all connect to one another like the spokes of a wheel. I am very participant in all these businesses and they represent every dimension of my lifestyle.

We have a hard goods Stand Up Paddle board company (www.lairdstandup.com) designing and producing the ultimate, premium quality, high performance paddle boards and equipment. We recently launched an Apparel company (www.lairdapparel.com) producing a collection of clothing for offshore, fitness and just hanging out, most of which use highly technical fabrics that provide the hybrid functionality that my day requires.

I am also a coffee connoisseur, so we launched a range of healthy products (www.lairdsuperfoods.com) that take the coffee experience to the next level. These include high Peruvian and Guatemalan coffee beans and natural creamers that we have developed ourselves, these really change the effect that the caffeine has and the usage.

We have also developed a lifestyle training program called XPT (www.xptlife.com) this operates outside the gym and focuses on breathing, movement and recovery. One component being aquatic fitness, where we have developed a revolutionary approach to using the benefits and attributes of water to create a powerful workout system. I originally started this to avoid swimming, quite the irony, but I hate swimming laps, it’s like putting an Orca inside a tank. Just too monotonous. We are now running camps for fifteen or twenty people where guests can come for three days for a full immersion coarse that also includes guidance on some radical breath work, temperature cycling, nutrition and so on, just to tweak their world a little bit.

DH – So anything else is in the pipeline? But I’m guessing that it’s endless?

LH – I’m always receptive to evolution and information, so my door is always open to new ideas and ways to help maintain our planet. I would like my legacy to be that of an “Innovator’ and most particularly how that pertains to the ocean.

Laird Hamilton’s clothing by Laird Apparel, lairdapparel.com

23750 PACIFIC COAST HWY, MALIBU, CA 90265 (310) 317-1444 OLLOMALIBU.COM

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The ( NOT SO )

OLD MAN AND THE SEA Produced by Tara Owens

Story by LW Waldman

Photos by Joseph McDougall

RUTGER HAUER’S YOUTHFUL SPIRIT IS UNDOUBTEDLY EVIDENT IN HIS PASSION FOR LIFE AND OCEAN CONSERVATION. Meeting on a Sea Shepherd vessel on a sunny spring morning, it’s hard not to be cliché and think of “The Old Man And The Sea.” But he is far from cliché. He seems timeless sometimes.

And other moments he is like a child saying whatever is on his mind or losing himself in some small thing nearby.

“I think it’s pretty much in my DNA,” says Dutch born actor Rutger Hauer of his devotion to the sea. Growing up in Amsterdam, he would spend his summers on the tiny island of Schiermonnikoog off the Frisian coast. “There were a lot of birds and nature, with the wind and the tides going through the entire ten-mile island. It’s the movement and the breath of the sea that I love.”

When you look in his steely blue eyes it’s easy to see the fifteen year old that ran off to the sea and scrubbed decks on a freighter for a year. At eighteen he joined the Royal Dutch Navy.

“After my service I didn’t know what to do. My parents suggested acting. I joined an experimental acting troupe.

I loved acting school but I didn’t learn shit. I wanted to make a dollar to pay the rent.” That is where Paul Verhoeven found him and cast him in the lead for “Floris”, the 1969 Dutch medieval TV series. That role made him very famous in Holland. He went on to do a number of films with Verhoeven, most notably Turkish Delight and Soldier Of Orange.

“I DON’T THINK WE’RE HERE TO OWN ANYTHING. WE’RE HERE TO DO SOMETHING.” Receiving recognition in the U.S., he made his American debut playing opposite Sylvester Stallone in the 1981 film Nighthawks in which he played a psychopathic, cold-blooded terrorist. The eighties were Rutger’s decade.

The following year he appeared in arguably his most famous and acclaimed role as the eccentric and violent anti-hero, Roy Batty, in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Other projects he is well known for are “Ladyhawke” and “The Hitcher.”

-RUTGER HAUER

Asked who influenced him the most in acting, he said, “I guess the biggest spark of inspiration came from Brando. After he passed away it came to me, and it was this - don’t lose yourself.

Acting should be interesting and fun.

Keep it real.” Since then Rutger Hauer has gone on to act in close to two hundred films and television pieces. As well as being a prolific actor, Rutger is a tireless humanitarian. If he is not working on a film he is usually giving his time and energy to his favorite charities.

In 2011 he coproduced and starred in a short called “Requiem 2019.” In it,Rutger interacts with the last remaining blue whale. The film highlights the perils these majestic animals face and the bleak future of man as we continue to eradicate their species.

Rutger sits on the board of advisors for Sea Shepherd. He is passionate about preserving the ocean and sea life.

“Sea Shepherd to me is a connection to nature and water – the source of nature.” He is a friend of Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd and advocated for his release from Dutch prison in the 1990’s.

Rutger also has a non-profit called the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association, an organization that raises help and awareness for HIV/AIDS. It focuses especially on support for pregnant women and children suffering from the disease.

In 2014 Rutger was made Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion. This well deserved bit of recognition was bestowed upon him to celebrate his large body of work in acting as well as acknowledge his commitment to charity and conservation. He is a true gentleman by any measure.

For more information go to: seasheperd.org

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IF THE OCEANS DIE We

By Captain Paul Watson

Die

Twenty Seventeen will mark the fortieth year since I founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and my passion for this mission that began four decades ago has not waned. Rather, it has become ever more invigorated each and every time my thoughts dwell on the reality of the consequences that face all life on this planet should the Ocean die.

The Ocean is dying. Since 1950, the year I was born, we have witnessed a 40% diminishment of phytoplankton populations in the oceanic ecosystems. Phytoplankton produces some 70% of the oxygen the all animals require for survival. We have witnessed the destruction of half the non-human wild biomass on the planet and the removal of some 90% of the fishes from the sea.

For hundreds of millions of years, the sea has been the life support system for this planet that should rightfully be called Ocean. The sea not only produces oxygen, it is the foundation of the global food chain and the regulator of global climate.

For the last two centuries, one species, our own, has arrogantly and systematically been plundering this life support system, undermining it and setting the stage for this sixth major extinction event we now call the Anthropocene.

What has been happening cannot be halted by protests. At the moment, there is no political or economic motivation for governments and corporations to seriously address the rapidly diminishing conditions that threaten biodiversity in the sea and thus all life on land.

"For hundreds of millions of years, the sea has been the life support system for this planet"

DEVOCEAN Simply put, we need to stop deforestation in the worlds’ tropical and temperate forests, we need to end all world government subsidies to industrialized fishing and we need to ban all heavy gear fishing technologies like longlines, gill nets, draggers and super trawlers. And, most importantly, we need to somehow move away from animal agriculture to a plant based diet, especially in the developed nations where resource consumption is significantly higher per capita than underdeveloped nations.

I differentiate the sea from the Ocean. Many people think that the sea is the Ocean, however it is but one part of it, the part that is the most obvious.

The Ocean, however, is the entire planet and the one element that gives all living things the gift of life. It is water in continuous circulation, underground, in rivers and lakes, in the clouds, locked in glacial ice and coursing through the cells of every single living plant and animal.

The truth is each and every one of us is the ocean. It is within us, it surrounds us, and we are immersed in it. It flows through our bodies and into the ground, to the sea, transforming into gas and solids and back to liquid again. When we diminish any part, we diminish the whole. When we pollute any part of it, we pollute ourselves.

The key to turning this around can be found in the observation that the strength of any ecosystem is in diversity. Therefore, we need a movement of diversity with action in the field: with education, legislation, litigation and enforcement of conservation laws.

Over the years Sea Shepherd has focused on upholding international conservation law in accordance with the United Nations World Charter for Nature. We have forged working alliances with governments, law enforcement, nongovernmental organizations and companies. We have created the largest conservation navy on the planet with nine ships dedicated to intervention and enforcement.

There are immediate solutions to saving the ocean, addressing climate change, and species diminishment and extinction. I presented these solutions to the 2015 Climate Change Conference in Paris but, unfortunately. my solutions are not what world leaders want to hear.

This past year, Sea Shepherd’s Operation Icefish shut down an Antarctic toothfish fleet of six boats wanted by Interpol. Operation Driftnet worked with China to arrest another six-ship Chinese fleet illegally using drift nets in the Indian Ocean.

In the spring, Sea Shepherd’s Operation Albacore, in partnership with the Gabonese Navy, arrested three Chinese trawlers fishing illegally in the waters of Gabon.

DEVOcEAN Meanwhile, Operation Milagro, a campaign to protect the critically endangered Vaquita porpoise in the Sea of Cortez--worked with the Mexican Navy to seize and confiscate over 50 illegal gill nets and longlines. That saved hundreds of animals, including the life of a Humpback whale.

Sea Shepherd has also formed a partnership with Ecuador to protect the Galapagos National Park Marine Reserve. Presently our Operation Siracusa is working with the police in Sicily to defend the Sicilian marine reserves from poachers.

On top of that, Sea Shepherd has beach clean-up operations around the world. Sea Shepherd ships and crews have removed over 100 tons of abandoned ghost nets from the Southern Ocean and the Mediterranean.

We do what we can with the resources available to us to shut down illegal fishing and to address pollution, and, as a volunteer organization, we provide the means for people to passionately exercise their concerns with actions that achieve concrete results.

I have come to understand over the years that we will only turn this threat around by all of us doing what we can. We need people with passion, imagination and courage to fight for the ocean with a diversity of strategies, tactics and approaches.

I remain hopeful that humanity will soon begin to realize that there is no greater challenge than stopping the diminishment of biodiversity in the sea and on land. The consequences if we fail will fall upon all of us and all future generations. seashepherd.org

"We need people with passion, imagination, and courage to

fight

for the ocean"

S E A

S H E P H E R D

C O N S E R V A T I O N

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CODE BLUE a conversation with Ocean Advocates Shari Sant Plummer And Jane Kachmer

Multi-tasking environmental philanthropist Shari Sant Plummer is president and founder of Code Blue Charitable Foundation, Secretary/Trustees of the Summit Charitable Foundation, founding Board Member of Sylvia Earle Alliance (S.E.A.) and the International League of Conservation Photographers and Vice President of Seacology. Well known as the Executive Producer of the Netflix documentary Mission Blue and is currently producing Antote’s Ark; Ghost Fleet; Sharkwater 2 and Jeff Orlowski’s Untitled Reef Project Project. Plummer is also a member of the Blue Ocean Film Festival Advisory Board, World Wildlife Fund’s National Council, Advisory Board of Ocean Unite, Smithsonian Ocean Initiative and helped create the Sant Ocean Hall at the National Museum of Natural History. Suffice it to say she knows her way around ocean conservation and environmental awareness. On behalf of 90265 Malibu Magazine, I sat down with Shari to find out more about this inspirational ocean advocate, and her mission to inspire change.

JK: How did you choose the ‘ocean’ as an issue to protect & support? And what have you been most inspired by regarding conservation work with the ocean?

SSP: Well, short answer, who doesn’t love the ocean? I mean that wasn’t a hard choice. I fully committed when I discovered that there were so many urgent issues happening in the ocean, and that those issues would really affect our ability to have a future on the planet. I love scuba diving, and I love body surfing, I love everything about the ocean—but about 18 years ago, I learned from my friend Dr. Sylvia Earle, the myriad of problems that the ocean was facing, and what that meant for the survivability of human beings. I realized this is something that’s really important to do, that I wanted to do, and that my work was needed. Through the Summit Foundation, my families foundation, and then the Code Blue Foundation, (started with my husband Dan), in the last two decades I have worked all over the world with hundreds of organizations. Generally, when I started working on ocean issues, there were very few environmental organizations and philanthropists focused on what was happening in the ocean. That’s changed a lot in the last twenty years, many other colleagues have joined this field of conservation largely because there has been successful communication about the issues.

Although we’ve made a lot of headway, and we’ve created a lot of awareness, the rate of over-exploitation has also increased. Lately I’ve shifted my focus to media projects to accelerate ocean literacy, to get other people to understand how urgent it is, that we need to have a healthy ocean to have a healthy planet, to have life at all on the planet.

JK: What have you witnessed as the most dramatic change over the past ten years regarding the ocean?

SSP: Marine protected areas seem to really have caught fire. In the last five years, countries seem to be racing each other to get the biggest marine protected area, which is really exciting. We still have a long way to go, but it’s encouraging.

There is a heightened awareness around species protection—whales, dolphins, turtles and now sharks. People have a respect and empathy for those species, and have rallied to protect them, though many are still being killed for various reasons. I think the movement against captive cetaceans is really hopeful, with many aquariums looking to new digital technology to replace live dolphin shows for example.

I also see an increased awareness about plastic pollution in the ocean, and a more conscious effort from consumers to reduce their use of disposable plastic, and to recycle what they do use. But, there is also new science showing this problem is much worse than originally thought, and most of the plastic, like micro beads, is impossible to clean up.

““Sadly, technology has evolved to help fiFIshing boats fi FIND and catch more fiFIsh than ever, and fiFIshing equipment like bottom trawlers, long lines and gill nets...are destroying whole ecosystems.””

-Shari Sant Plummer

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Sadly, technology has evolved to help fishing boats find and catch more fish than ever, and fishing equipment like bottom trawlers, long lines and gill nets, which have a lot of associated by-catch, are destroying whole ecosystems. But, technology is also probably going to be the solution to that problem, because we can now use satellite tracking devices, and mobile technology, to trace and catch illegal fishing boats. There are efforts to ban destructive gear, and create gear which only gets the intended catch, and that's another really hopeful thing.

The biggest problem, and perhaps the hardest to solve, is climate change. In the last decade warming ocean temperatures have caused coral bleaching and mortality, especially profound in the last couple years during the third Global Coral Beaching Event, devastating over 20 percent of the Great Barrier Reef alone. Marine protected areas will help build resilience, but ultimately we need to cut carbon emissions, period.

Goliath Grouper, Jardines de la Reina, Cuba

Photo credit: XL Catlin Seaview Survey.

Photo of coral bleaching, before and after, in American Samoa.

Humpback Whale calf, Ha’apai Islands Tonga

JK: There’s a statistic, ~ 16% – biggest in the nation – of our CA state waters are marine protected areas (MPAs).

You were a big leader in the community around the MPA in Malibu, could you talk about that and where you saw direct wins in your own backyard?

SSP: I don’t know that I was a big leader, but I did get involved and lobbied for our “front yard” actually, to be part of the protected area. We had been funding research on the biodiversity in the western Malibu area through Reef Check and Heal the Bay, and I had been diving it myself. The beach area and immediate ocean in front of us was already designated an Area of Special Biological Significance, so there were regulations in

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place on pollutants entering the water, but the marine life itself was not protected from fishing. I started attending some of the meetings for the MPA’s, lobbying for our area to be part of the MPA system. It was a really contentious battle between the stakeholders to get any part of the ocean under protection, but the reality is there’s less than two percent of the entire ocean that’s in a no-take marine protected area, so most of the ocean is open to some kind of fishing! After thousands of hours of meetings between all the stakeholders they finally got a plan approved, and fortunately the ocean in front of our house was part of it.

I feel really good about it when I see dolphins, whales, and sea lions out there. I don’t think there has been a follow up scientific study yet on the recovery of the biomass, but I assume its gone up. It’s a pretty simple equation - if you stop killing marine life, biomass increases.

JK: Please talk about the dynamics of the ocean’s impact on Earth’s climate?

SSP: The ocean is really important in controlling our climate, and in reducing carbon in the atmosphere. The ocean absorbs about one quarter of our CO2 emissions, mitigating climate change. Mangroves alone can sequester from - depending on the species and the age of the mangrove forest- as much as five times the carbon that a tropical rainforest can sequester,depending on the species and the age of the mangrove forest.

They also provide habitat for juvenile fish, and protect coastal communities from storm surges and sea level rise, along with sequestering carbon. And yet mangrove forests are being destroyed at an even faster rate than our tropical rainforests. So I think carbon sequestration is one of the most overlooked benefits of ocean protection and coastal protection. But the ocean is also really being devastated from absorbing all that carbon, it is changing the pH balance causing ocean acidification, so things with calcium carbonate shells aren’t able to form. You start seeing that at the base of the food chain in shelled organisms, working up to where larval oysters are not being able to form their shells, we’re seeing that already in the Pacific Northwest. And of course, it also affects coral reefs, but as I said coral reefs are being affected more quickly by warming ocean temperatures and coral bleaching—long-term coral bleaching leading to coral mortality, especially being seen in the Pacific now. I would say the ocean is both the victim and the hero of climate change. It can save us, but not if it gets too degraded to function.

JK: It’s amazing to witness the reaction that we are seeing among people that have little to do with the ocean, that see the Mission Blue film for the first time, and get introduced to Sylvia Earle. How did you get involved with that film?

SSP: I had the opportunity to work on Mission Blue after Sylvia won the TED Prize in 2009, just after we started the Sylvia Earle Alliance foundation. A generous philanthropist saw her talk and wanted to fund a documentary film on her. We spent about three years working on Mission Blue and I became Executive Producer on the film with my friend and fellow SEA board member, Shannon Joy. It was such a great experience getting it distributed by Netflix, and knowing that over 190 countries and millions of people now have access to it, and because it’s on Netflix, will watch it. Mission Blue has been such a powerful tool, and I had so much fun doing it, that I decided to refocus my energy to doing more films. After going to the festivals for a couple years, I noticed there weren’t many environmental films.

Considering that we are experiencing some of the biggest environmental challenges that we’ve ever had—climate change, ocean degradation, habitat and species loss - I thought there would be films on this, but there were very few. Fortunately last year Racing Extinction was released from Louis Psihoyis, which really covers all those things, but there should be dozens of those!

So Code Blue Foundation partnered with Photo of Shari Sant-Plummer diving in the Joy Family Foundation to create an Raja Ampat, Indonesia taken by Dr. Sylvia Earle environmental fund for Sundance Documentary Institute, and now we have several films on track that are being helped. In addition we have teamed up to produce several other films together covering a range of climate change and ocean conservation issues. www.codebluefoundation.org Twitter:@sharisant

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ARK ANGELS

SH

A RACE TO END EXTINCTION

An interview with Paul Lee Padgett, Chief of Marine Operations LJT/National Geographic; Founder/ President Rockers 4 Wildlife and Ken Corben, Malibu local; Multi Emmy Winning Producer/ Director/ Cinematographer; Founder of Ocean Ark Angels.

By Linda Atkinson, MA, MBA Image source: Google

LA: Paul, tell me how you became involved in working on so many different global issues, from fighting for human rights issues, helping the homeless, working with the top apex creatures in the oceans and seas, along with the apex land animals like lions, tigers, and chimps you’re working with.

PP: I’m just a country boy from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I found out, at the age of thirty, that I was truly a Southern California boy who was meant to do something epic with my life: saving animals and humans is my calling. My mission is to inspire everybody I come in contact with. It’s been an amazing formula that’s really worked well for me.

LA: Ken, Paul, you share a love of apex predators, tell us how you first became interested with these incredible creatures…

KC: My moment was in the Solomon Islands. National Geographic Society sent me there on assignment (Documentary- The Covert World of Fish Biofluorescence) to document this new super cool science called biofluorescence… it’s spectacular. I have been diving all my life but in the two weeks of nightly diving I did not see one shark. I even went to the local ‘Shark Wall’, dived it, and nothing…it was a red flag. So I spoke to a Solomon Islander and I asked him, “Where are all the sharks? ….A tear came to his eye and he said to me, “As a child I could walk across the backs of sharks from island to island. Now because of corruption, the illegal fishing vessels have come in and ‘long lined’ all of our sharks, … they are all GONE”. So that was my moment.

PP: Ken, wow, powerful… I would have to agree the most disruptive element to this planet IS corporate greed; it’s wiping out all of our resources that are very important to our survival. It’s out of control beyond anything I have ever seen. I would have to say at this stage, we’ve now crossed over into one of those fragile moments in life where so many things are in peril and going extinct.

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KC: Yes, the illegal fishing industry is a multi-billion dollar industry (long lined illegal night fishing; they cut the fins off, toss the shark carcasses back in). Also, interestingly, the shark fin* (considered a delicacy) has no taste, its just the status symbol, it adds no flavor, no texture, no protein – it’s only a status symbol to have at a social function which denotes that you have money. So feeding that supply to one of the largest populations on the planet is almost insatiable. *Shark finning refers to the removal and retention of shark fins while the remainder of the shark is discarded in the ocean. Up to 98% of the shark is wasted. In Hong Kong 89% of people surveyed have eaten shark fin soup. Contrary to the myth that shark fins are nutritional, shark fins have mercury levels up to 42X higher than the safe limit.

LA: Ken tells us where you are at with your documentary and movement?

KC: Ready to launch! We are ‘CLEARED HOT’… my challenge is funding. We have everything in place except the start-up money. We are all ready to go take down the bad guys; we are very passionate about it. Paul told me his micro-funding strategies have been very successful. I had not thought about micro-funding, what a great idea.

"I would have to agree the most disruptive element to this planet IS corporate greed; it is wiping out all of our resources that are very important to our survival.” -Paul Padgett PP: Yes, let’s make it happen!

LA: Education and exposure of the truth is paramount… how can people get involved with this movement?

What is needed to stop this senseless slaughter?

KC: What is needed to stop shark finning is a cultural movement with a global media strategy and we start the global conversation - THIS is how you make change. If I run a six-month program at sea, with our navy seal team, training locals to protect their resources, bringing in our satellites, drones etc. and document the whole thing, and release to the global media then we start a conversation. I think the millennials in China will respond and soon say, “we no longer need shark fin soup for our wedding”. I think we can really impact the next generations.

LA: Can you leave us with any final thoughts on this subject?

PP: Yes, remember the power of one is very important! You can make a difference. Together we are unstoppable to help preserve the gifts we have been given on this beautiful planet.

KC: So agree Paul. I have an interesting story…I was the first filmmaker to successfully film the salmon sharks (a very, very rare shark) in Alaska (Documentary is called- Icy Killers: Secrets of Alaska’s Salmon Shark). I spent an entire summer there and one of the sharks I met had an injury, which had removed the front end of her nostril, and the tannins from the Alaskan water had turned it yellow, so I named her Button Nose. She would always come and greet me. I would parallel swim with her and that is how we would say hello. I come back a year later…first few days were murky waters then I get in the third day and here come the female sharks at fifty miles an hour chasing the salmon. They are going by with lightening speed (and it is all recorded on film), Button Nose sees me, recognizes me, makes a sharp turn, turning away from her feeding and swims over to me and we proceed to do a dance for three minutes. She circles with me (my cameraman caught all this) and then she swam away. You tell me that is not a sentient being (beings with consciousness, sentience). So with all the skills and talent God has given me and everything I have seen in the ocean, it is my responsibility to save it. If I don’t share my stories and get my hands dirty, it will be too late. What I saw in the Solomon Islands, no sharks at all, will become the norm everywhere.

LA: So powerful and true, thanks for bookending my article! Thank you both. paulpadgettphotography.com facebook: rockers 4 wildlife Ocean Ark Angels: watch for their documentary coming soon.

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BEYOND THE BAY: OCEAN DEFENDERS ALLIANCE WORKING FOR A DEBRIS FREE SEA

BY STEVE WOODS I PHOTOS BY KEITH CARLSEN When New England fishermen and women complained of working harder and harder to catch fewer and fewer fish, Spencer Baird assembled a scientific team to investigate. Though a fishery failure would once have seemed inconceivable, Baird wrote in his report, “an alarming decrease of the shore-fisheries has been thoroughly established by my own investigations, as well as by evidence of those whose testimony was taken.”

The report was Baird’s first as head of the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. The year was 1872.

Am I wrong or are there more and more squid boats lighting up the night skies off of Zuma beach? Knowing that our oceans are being overfished, I was curious as to why it seemed that year after year there were more and more squid boats. I presumed that squid populations, along with fish populations, were both on the decline. After reading a recent news-feed on KBU, I became aware that new research in the Journal of Science shows that man induced changes to marine environments are leading to a surge of cephalopods: octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish. Their populations have boomed, from New England to Japan, since the 1950s.

But why? Well, I found the answer to that question a few days later while crewing on an Ocean Defense Alliance boat that is based in the Channel Islands Harbor. Kurt Lieber, the captain and founder of Ocean Defense Alliance, invited The Local to help volunteer on a diving mission to clear abandoned marine hazards from the ocean. The mission took place on their boat “Bob Barker’s LegAsea.”(Named for supporter Bob Barker, former television game show host and an advocate for the environment) Founded in 2000 and based in Orange County, California, Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) is a marine conservation organization and became a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2002. Captain Kurt Lieber first crewed with the infamous Sea Shepard that was known to take direct action tactics to protect marine life. This included interdiction against commercial fishing, shark finning, seal hunting, and whaling. His former crewmates had been active in intervening against fishing and poaching in the South Pacific, the Mediterranean, and in waters around the Islands. That organization was founded in 1977 under the name Earth Force Society by Paul Watson, a former member of Greenpeace, who had a dispute with that organization over what Watson saw as its lack of more aggressive intervention.

Branching off on his own, Kurt Lieber established ODA with the following goals: MISSION Ocean Defenders Alliance works to clean and protect marine ecosystems through documentation, education, and meaningful action. Working with affected communities, we focus primarily on the reduction and removal of man-made debris, which poses serious threats to ocean wildlife and habitats.

VISION ODA envisions a world in which we educate communities and involve them in solutions that help ensure marine ecosystems can exist free from harm caused by human debris. Without abandoned fishing gear, trash, and improperly sunken vessels damaging their habitat, marine flora and fauna will be able to thrive.

VALUES 1. Clear Focus: We do not compromise our mission, yet strive to remain flexible and open to new ideas.

2. High Personal Standards: We operate from a foundation of integrity, respect, honesty, and expect the same of others.

3. Value Relationships: We genuinely appreciate participation in and support of ODA’s mission by our allies.

4. Continuous Improvement: To maximize our efforts, we continually evaluate our methods, seek opportunities to learn, adapt as needed, and otherwise strive to better ourselves.

5. Open Communication: In all relationships, we endeavor to share communications frequently, truthfully, in a timely manner, and from the heart.

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6. Intelligent Planning: To best facilitate our mission, we act strategically - with forethought, diligence, and comprehensive analysis.

7. Inspire and Empower: With actions and through education, we raise awareness and motivate others to participate in making ODA’s vision a reality.

8. Seek Collaboration: We recognize the value of diversity and seek to enhance our mission by including a broad crosssection of individuals, nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies.

"OCEAN DEFENDERS ALLIANCE envisions a world in which we educate communities and involve them in solutions that help ensure marine ecosystems can exist free from harm caused by human dEbris."

BELOW: Ocean Defender's Alliance founder Kurt Lieber pulling up a trap near the Channel Islands as 90265 magazine's Addison Altendorf and Jennifer Wiser look on.

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We met at the Channel Islands harbor on a cool, foggy Memorial Day weekend morning. We loaded supplies, dive equipment and motored out past fishing boats and the breakwater on a boat financed by wildlife lover Bob Barker.

Heading west, the captain instantly spotted some seine fishing boats laying out net not more than 1/2 mile offshore.

The captain is the nicest gentleman, a well spoken man who is all too aware of the worlds overfishing plight, but you could see him bristle and scowl into the binoculars that were aimed at the fish harvesters. The ocean was alive with dolphins, seals and pelicans diving into the frenzy of fish and though Kurt’s inner warrior was awakened he took a deep breath in order to continue on his days mission. Just outside the breakwater was a sandy marine version of an aquatic killing field. It was full of a deadly combination of lost and abandoned lobster traps. Fisherman set their traps 200 feet from the rocks in 35 feet of water, but due to large swells washing them into the breakwater or as a result of heavy boat traffic severing the buoy lines, dozens of traps with bait are still lost on the bottom. The dangling ropes are a marine hazard that entangle whales and other boaters propellers.The traps continue to trap lobsters, who die in the steel cages, and then attract an endless cycle of lobsters that enter the trap to eat the dead lobsters. Soon after dropping anchor, volunteer expert divers Dave and Jeff, rolled into the brooding sea with their sea scooters to scour the sea floor for marine hazards. Even with poor visibility they managed to find and liberate a number of creatures from lost lobster traps, rebar, lead weights and hundreds of feet of various ropes, chains and buoy lines. In the Zodiac, Kurt’s brother, Jim Lieber, Jennifer Wiser and I followed the air bubbles of the divers. We kept busy helping to locate each air bag that popped to the surface and hauled on board the miscellaneous junk that was attached to the bag lines. All of the traps and ropes we pulled up were loaded with marine life that is required to be released back into the ocean. The captain works on instilling good relations with local fisherman by reaching out and returning lobster traps back to the owners. He is also helping them to increase lobster populations by liberating the bugs from the lost traps so they can breed another generation.

On dive after dive, and all over the world, Kurt found abandoned commercial fishing gear on the ocean floor or attached to boat wrecks that indiscriminately killed marine flora and fauna long after its service to the fishing industry was over! At the same time, in his studies of the state of the world’s oceans, Kurt read widely diverse reports about the oceans, and came to understand the dire plight of life in the seas.

The urgent call came clearly to him: rampant, escalating overfishing and man-made pollution was threatening the survival of marine wildlife and the overall health of the life-giving seas of the earth…and someone needed to DO something about it!

Ocean Defenders Alliance founder Kurt Lieber

The LegaSea trolling near the Channel Islands.

His heart told him to take action, and his intellect agreed completely. So, with a 40-foot boat generously gifted to ODA by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Kurt began taking volunteer divers to reported abandoned fishing gear sites. Using the boat as a dive platform, the divers descend at each location, cut the gear loose, and float it to the surface. Volunteers on the boat haul it onto the deck and take it back to shore for proper disposal. Animals such as lobsters, crabs, and fish found trapped alive are carefully liberated by ODA, and thus given a new chance to thrive, grow, and breed.

In addition to doing invaluable work at sea, ODA also works onshore to educate the public about the vital need for clean and healthy oceans. Through educational presentations at schools, expos, festivals, and dive clubs, they strive to inform people of all types and ages, raise their awareness about the plight of the oceans, and inspire them to join their efforts.

ODA also reaches out to fishermen, restaurants, and the seafood community to enlighten them to these issues and to seek to gain their commitment to becoming better stewards of the oceans.

After a successful day of cleaning up trash that litters our oceans sea floor, I asked Captain Kurt about the squid populations that seemed to be increasing near Malibu. I told Kurt that I had assumed squid increases were a positive sign but he quickly frowned, shook his head and informed me that cephalopods such as octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish are on the rise because the fish populations that traditionally feed on them (such as tuna) have been decimated by overfishing. oceandefenders.org

"With actions and through education, we raise awareness and motivate others to participate in making OCEAN DEFENDERS ALLiANCE's vision a reality.�

““ “““For the whales and for my own life, I can’t be silenced__” -John HaRgrove”

EXCLUSIVE SEAWORLD WHISTLEBLOWER

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JOHN HARGROVE AN IN DEPTH INTERVIEW WITH LINDA ATKINSON, MA, MBA PHOTOS BY LYON HERRON John Hargrove, New York Times Best Selling author of Beneath the Surface and former senior killer whale trainer at SeaWorld speaks to 90265 Malibu Magazine in our Exclusive Whistleblower Interview. After resigning from SeaWorld in 2012, Hargrove, now an expert witness and whistleblower, speaks out against the industry and against whale captivity. We sat down with Hargrove in Malibu, during a visit with the Kotler family who were instrumental in creating awareness about the movie Blackfish (and introducing Hargrove to our community), to go even deeper into his experiences beneath the surface at SeaWorld.

CAUTION - GRAPHIC CONTENT SEAWORLD WHISTLEBLOWING AND THE FUTURE OF THE WHALES STILL IN CAPTIVITY LA: For those who have not seen Blackfish (the documentary on Tilikum and the multi-billion dollar sea park industry) can you give us a brief background on you, your experience as a Senior SeaWorld killer whale trainer and how you began whistleblowing…

JH: I started out with my whistleblowing efforts to change the laws; to stop the orca breeding; to end orca captivity and to make sure this is the last generation of orcas in captivity. Also, I want to make sure that the remaining orcas in captivity have a better quality of life. Seven days after I resigned from SeaWorld I was interviewed for Blackfish (the documentary) and immediately after that I began writing my book, Beneath the Surface – Killer Whales, SeaWorld and the Truth Beyond Blackfish. After the completion of my book, I was one of the sponsors and one of the expert witnesses involved in the legislation process which started as AB2140 and turned into AB2305 which we won: AB2305 states that it is “unlawful to hold in captivity an orca, whether wild-caught or captive-bred for any purpose, including for display, performance, or entertainment purposes; to breed or impregnate an orca held in captivity; to export, collect, or import the semen, other gametes, or embryos of an orca held in captivity for the purpose of artificial insemination; or to export, transport, move, or sell an orca located in the state to another state or country, except as provided”. We also had victories with the California Coastal Commission last October 2015 (in a near unanimous vote) and I have been an expert witness in multiple cases for the government against SeaWorld and other Marine parks. Yes, it’s a victory and we have made sure that no future orcas will suffer and the simple answer is seaside sanctuaries.

CHLORINE, ALUMINUM SULFATE AND OZONE IN THE TANKS; DOPED UP ORCAS

Photo by Melissa Hargrove

LA: You mentioned something shocking to me and I am sure it will be to other people as well – the whale tanks have large amounts of chlorine and other chemicals in them?

JH: A lot of people are not aware that we (the trainers) were consciously taught how to manipulate the public.

Some examples of that are three-fourths of my career we were told to outright lie to the public and say there was no chlorine in the water even though we knew there was chlorine in the water.

Chlorine, aluminum sulfate and ozone are used to treat the water at Shamu Stadium.

We would get physically injured because of the chlorine in the water with eye burns that would require off-site medical attention and eye patches. Doctors told us that if we removed our patches before our eyes healed we would risk permanent blindness and we were still lying to the public and saying we don’t use chlorine in the water.

During the last fourth of my career we would say “we only use a very minute amount of chlorine in the water and we treat the water

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by a process called ozone.” That satisfied the public. They didn’t know about ozone but when you do, it is shocking, it is lethal to all living organisms. For older parks, who only use chlorine, even larger amounts of chlorine are used to replace ozone, when ozone is not used. These animals, whom people think are swimming in these pollution free, bacteria free environments don’t realize that they are swimming in three very toxic, dangerous chemicals and so are the trainers. Aluminum Sulfate at the right amounts can corrode metal.

Everyone knows that our body is made up completely of living tissue and it’s the same with the whales. So everything – the orcas skin, their eyes, everything is being attacked by these chemicals. The amount of chlorine used is greater than five times the strength of household bleach and it is injected directly into the water. The whales are just chronically ill. They are very doped up on medications. I have worked with whales that have lived their entire lives on drugs.

ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION, WHALE MASTURBATION, TEETH DRILLING & THE ABUSE OF THE WHALES LA: I watched Blackfish and like many others who have seen the Documentary I will never look at orcas in captivity the same again. What were some of the most abusive situations for the orcas you encountered?

JH: One of the most graphic examples of how these animals do not thrive in captivity is the breaking down of their teeth in a captive environment. All the whales, 100% of them have some type of destruction to their teeth in captivity. In around 50% of the whales it is so severe that we have to manually drill their teeth out. Normally, you would think a veterinarian would do that procedure, no; the trainers do that procedure because no vet is going to stick their arm in the mouth of a killer whale so they use us to do it. Normally, an animal should be given anesthesia, but none was used. When we are drilling back teeth my arm is completely in the whale’s mouth up to the elbow. All the whale needs to do is close their mouth pull me in, to take my arm off. It is important to note that we still did this, had to do this, even after the deaths of Alexis and Dawn. The other thing to note is that whales are highly intelligent and remember who is working on them, who is causing them pain, so for us to do this work on them and then swim with them in the next few hours is very dangerous. Even after we were not swimming, we were still in positions where I could have easily been pulled in. Like with Dawn, she was not swimming when Tilikum pulled her in. If you didn’t keep the tooth completely bored out then it will close up, they will get an abscess and that is what kills very easily and very quickly. We believe that is what caused the infection that killed Kalina, the original baby Shamu who was born in 1985 and died in 2010. She went from 100% healthy to dead within 48 hours.

“... whales are so valuable; these whales in captivity are valued at $15-20 million each.”

LA: Explain the artificial insemination program that you took part in…

JH: The SeaWorld breeding program is a straight up abomination. These whales SeaWorld brings together do not breed in the wild, nor do they crossbreed. At SeaWorld, we forcibly crossbred these whales and then just by being in captivity, inbreeding has happened creating animals that do not exist in the natural world. People don’t understand that, but it makes sense when I explain it like this. The public thinks that if a calf is born at SeaWorld it’s a good thing. SeaWorld spins it to the media as proof that they have a successful breeding program but you cannot call it a successful breeding program when you are inbreeding and crossbreeding creating animals that do not exist in the natural world. Even Dr. Jane Goodall come out and said that the breeding program was against science and that SeaWorld should be closed down. Dr. Goodall is not normally that controversial, nor would she make a statement like that. For her to come out last year and make that statement is of course, what we as trainers already knew.

LA: Uuuuuuummmm, how do you get the semen?

JH: Its shocking really, not to me because I have lived that life and you become so conditioned to it, but people do need to understand where the semen comes from. We have to train the males and it is a very difficult behavior to train, it takes many years, but we have to train them to give us a fully erect penis present and from there gives us an ejaculation that does not have urine or salt water contaminant. You can visualize what we are doing to these animals; we are essentially masturbating them on some level and getting this ejaculate, storing it frozen and then using it to forcibly impregnate female whales in other parks creating an entire abomination line of killer whales. SeaWorld will spin this and say just because the calf is born it is proof that they are thriving, that they are healthy. In past interviews, I would never use it as an example because it is so inflammatory, but the three girls who were held hostage in Ohio and one of them escaped and he had fathered a child with this hostage and no one on this planet thinks that is a thriving example of birth. What we

DEVOcEAN are doing to these whales is exactly the same thing. We are keeping them hostage. We are forcing these animals to breed or artificially inseminating them against their will and creating calves that should not exist. But these whales are so valuable; these whales in captivity are valued at $15-20 million each.

“In 2001, as a Senior Trainer swimming with the most dangerous whales in the corporation, I was making $15.45 an hour while SeaWorld raked in billions” KILLER WHALE AGGRESSIONS & THE COVER-UPS

LA: You have been in at least ten major water work aggressions how were these and other aggressions handled and could future injuries and deaths have been prevented by SeaWorld?

JH: A lot of people think the story begins with Dawn Brancheau’s death but that is not where this story began it is just where the media picked it up. SeaWorld to this day, glosses over Alexis Martinez’ death. They say we have had only one isolated incident in our history and that is simply false. What about Daniel Dukes in 1999, who was a park guest, who was killed by Tilikum at SeaWorld Florida? Keto, the whale who killed Alexis, was a SeaWorld born, owned, trained and supervised killer whale. We had so many near fatalities before that no one talks about. I have personally been in approximately ten or eleven major water work aggressions where whales have grabbed me and held me under. The trainers I knew either during my career or prior, who were nearly killed, and sued SeaWorld because of it, were crushed by the SeaWorld machine and silenced. They were forced to agree to a settlement and gag ordered. Then we, as their friends were told that you can no longer speak to them and unfortunately, at the time, we believed it. You are so conditioned to stay in this box that they put you in, it is an extremely cult-like environment.

“You first get to the realization that the whales are not taken care of long before you realize you are being equally exploited.”

LA: What did the Martinez autopsy show?

JH: The autopsy showed that Alexis died from multiple, traumatic, internal injuries and that it was a violent death. That did not fit with what SeaWorld management told us even though there is an online autopsy report that goes into graphic detail.

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SEAWORLD SCRIPTS, POOR WORK CONDITIONS & THE CULT-LIKE WORK ENVIRONMENT LA: Explain what it was like working at SeaWorld.

JH: It is sad and definitely scary to say, I believe I survived a cult. It takes a long time to realize that. I have changed a lot in the three and a half years since I have left, my speaking, my perspective has changed and that is how you know how deep you were in it. Just going back to the beginning of my career, I was twenty years old, looking for something. This had all the characteristics of a cult, but instead of one charismatic leader, for us, it was the whales. I had a very traumatic childhood, my father killed his best friend and his physical abuse combined with my mother’s abandonment forced my youngest sibling, Missy to be raised in foster care. All this led to my hope that SeaWorld would be my escape and I would finally find happiness. Then, there is this corporate machine that silences you, warns you and there are examples of other trainers and what is happening to them that makes you very aware that there is a consequence if you leave and you speak out.

DAWN’S DEATH, THE SEAWORLD SPIN MACHINE, THE LIES & THE GAG ORDERS LA: In your experience, what is the “SeaWorld Spin Machine”?

JH: The spin machine at SeaWorld has been incredibly well crafted. The spin that SeaWorld puts out consistently to the public, both in commercials and in PR (Public Relation) statements, is incredible.

In 2011, SeaWorld was in federal court saying they had no idea that this could happen to her, no idea that the whales are dangerous when just sixty days before one of the SeaWorld whales had killed trainer Alexis Martinez. Also, while SeaWorld was actually testifying in court we were doing ‘attack drills’ (planned out by senior management) every three months. It was a full attack scenario with paramedics, etc. What was alarming about this situation is that we had all of senior management (from other parks as well), senior legal counsel, head of Human Resources there watching, what was their purpose of watching our ‘attack drills’? It was only for the ‘spin’. “How would we spin to the public to minimize the damage to the SeaWorld Corporation”, those are the exact words I remembering hearing ‘our spin to minimize damage’.

LA: Can you give us any other specific examples of this “spin”?

JH: Well, yes – Dawn Brancheau’s (a fellow trainer and friend I have known for nine years) death is the

Photo by Melissa Hargrove

LA: You have mentioned this conditioning of the trainers and the SeaWorld machine; tell us more about this from your experience.

JH: A lot of people are not aware that we (the trainers) were consciously taught how to manipulate the public.

There were key words and phrases that we were consciously taught to tell the public and manipulate the public. One was the word ‘captivity’ – we always had to say ‘in the care of man’ or ‘zoological setting’ and that is why one of the chapters in my book is called ‘In the Care of Man’ mocking it. So the word ‘captivity’ was a big ‘no no’ and there was disciplinary action if you used it. We were also told to say ‘in the wild’ instead of their ‘natural habitat’, we could never say in their ‘natural habitat’ because that is self-explanatory. We were consciously taught the reason we were saying ‘in the wild’ because it brings up a feeling of being a scary place. We were taught this. We were taught why we were saying this. Those are only some of the ones off the top of my head, so it was a constant and conscious manipulation of the public.

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perfect example. The official spin was that Dawn slipped and she fell in. The spokesperson for the Orange County’s Sheriff’s Department made that statement after he emerged from an hour long meeting with the Park President, the VP of Animal Training, and the Curator of Animal Training. They were hoping that spin would stick because it would look like an accident and SeaWorld would not be responsible. There were eye witnesses who said she didn’t slip and fall in, Tilikum grabbed her and he pulled her in, the witnesses went on record to say: ‘we saw it’. SeaWorld officials then went back into their ‘huddle’ and changed it to “He (Tilikum) grabbed her by her ponytail and dragged her in.” The truth is that he pulled her in and dismembered her, he did not drown her and it drives me nuts when they say she drowned. SeaWorld refused to turn over the underwater video of this incident to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) during the investigation, they had to get it from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department including an aggression reel of all past recorded aggressions.

As soon as Dawn was pulled into the water, the emergency alarms were hit, but security did not call 911 for 27 minutes... 27 minutes! Also, SeaWorld stopped the recording of this aggression 7-8 minutes into the incident even though they were unable to get her body away from Tilikum for 45 minutes. Why would you stop the underwater video? Only if you are hiding something. The truth is Tilikum refused to give her back, the panic of everyone and the alarms just made Tilikum hold on to her more and that is actually when he started dismembering her. That is when he began to get more aggressive. Trainers that were a part of the rescue said they could feel the vibration through the concrete when her bones were being crushed and snapped. You never hear about that.

SEAWORLD REPERCUSSIONS AND HIS OWN COMPLICITY LA: Are you afraid on any level of repercussions to you from Sea World?

JH: They have already started, I know SeaWorld so well because I am their creation. I know exactly how they think and it is very predictable. I knew they were going to go after me for speaking out and they did. They immediately threatened to sue me. They lied to the public and said they never threatened me. I supplied the first legal letter to a journalist who ran the story showing the letter to prove it. SeaWorld answered by saying it was ‘not a legally threatening letter’ so the journalist had it independently verified by a third party that concluded that it was absolutely legally threatening. Next, they threatened to file an injunction to stop my book, which was not successful. After that I was personally attacked, which I expected. They had private detectives follow me, we believe my phone was tapped and they made it well known to Cal/OSHA attorneys that they intended to get a subpoena for my entire personal email and cell phone records for their “over-all battle with Hargrove”. It has nothing to do with my killer whale training career. I have every right to speak about my life and my experiences they are not going to shut me up, for the whales and for my own life, I can’t be silenced.

LA: As you became more and more aware and you broke through the cult-like environment you described do you, yourself feel complicit in anything here?

JH: I have a level of guilt about abandoning the whales because I got to go on with my life; I have that freedom whereas the whales don’t have that freedom. That will always haunt me on some level. What helps me is speaking out, telling people the truth and passing laws to stop captivity. I am still able to take care of Takara (and all the whales) whom I walked away from and cried like a baby when I did it.

I also have to accept that I was absolutely complicit in being part of the machine. There I was, riding on the back of a whale, with an audience of six thousand people. I have to accept there was some level of selfishness – the whales were forced to do that (for millions of dollars of profit), I wasn’t. I wanted that relationship, I wanted that magical life, I wanted to do those shows and if I can’t say that, I’m not being honest with myself.

LA: Would you do it all over again, if you knew everything you know now?

JH: It is hard for me to even imagine not having those memories and those relationships because it meant everything to me and it was my identity. It was my identity since I was a little boy and I will always be John Hargrove the former killer whale trainer turned whistleblower. I love those whales so much and I had so many amazing memories that people cannot even imagine, but if it meant that none of these whales would have ever been captured and separated from their mothers, I would give up those memories. I would do it in a heartbeat.

John Hargrove’s book Beneath the Surface – Killer Whales, SeaWorld and the Truth Beyond Blackfish is available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or your favorite bookstore. Follow John Hargrove @johnjhargrove

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STAR FISH How one local voice made a difference for the future of Orcas in captivity.

By Cece Woods Grass roots activism consists of a group of like-minded people coming together for a cause they believe in. It is also an attitude. An attitude of freedom and of creativity. Grassroots activism is without a doubt a young girl named Kirra Kotler, who clearly saw the unethical treatment of Orcas at Sea World and decided not just to take a stand - but to actually do something about it.

In 2013, Kirra Kotler protested a school trip after seeing the movie “Black Fish” which documented the effects of captivity on orcas. What started as a ripple effect locally, quickly turned into a tsunami of attention around the world (including coverage on CNN). Along with the efforts of other activists, the issue garnered enough attention to inspire environmental agencies to take action and subsequently lead to the groundbreaking decision to halt all future breeding.

SeaWorld’s breeding program officially came to a halt as AB-2305 (previously AB 2140) was signed at the state Capitol in March, 2016. What does that mean for the future of these majestic marine mammals? It means no more artificial ejaculation or selling of sperm and prohibits shipping orcas to China, Russia or the Emirates.

This is a historical win for the environment showing that grassroots activism is an important aspect to effect change. While the breeding may have stopped

at SeaWorld, this issue continues to demand participation by grassroots activists in the fight to release captive marine mammals from their suffering in captivity. As Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world,” Join the fight to end cruel capture operations and the captivity industry: emptythetanks.org

Left: Photo by Dana Fineman. All other photos by Cece Woods and Linda Atkinson

Sacred OCEAN Stewardship An interview with Mark Armfield, eco warrior and green building pioneer.

BY JENNIFER WISER I PHOTOS BY LYON HERRON On a recent summer day, I met with lifelong Malibu resident Mark Armfield at Westward Beach to learn more about his early connection to the ocean, nature and sustainability. In 1960, Armfield moved to the unpopulated terrain of Point Dume. He was six years old at the time, riding bareback (and barefoot) on a horse named Sugarfoot throughout the Point. His father William Armfield, a veterinarian, instilled in him a love of animals and the environment. Nature continues to be a place he goes to for solace, inspiration and to be with the land and Great Spirit that connects us all. Armfield’s father, whom he speaks of with profound respect, taught him “you can do no wrong when you follow nature…do you know why son? …because it is natural”.

These wise words have guided him as President/CEO of Armfield Design & Construction and as Founder and Chief Visionary of the non-profit RainCatcher, dedicated to healing communities by providing clean water in the developing worlds using affordable and sustainable solutions.

Armfield, considered a pioneer in his industry, has been involved in sustainable and green building since the 1980’s. Current projects include water management, bluff preservation, watershed restoration, rainwater harvesting and catchment designs around the Malibu area.

Still young at heart and still blazing new trails, Armfield prepares to pass the torch on to the next generation…

JW: I am always interested in how someone begins their love affair with nature and even more interested in those that put that passion into action. How did all this begin for you?

“““what do you call a FLflood?”… An abundance of water supply ready to be caught, cleaned and available to quench the world’’s thirst.””

DEVOcEAN MA: I grew up at a time in Malibu that was bucolic, riding my horse from Little Dume to Big Dume, surfing with my buddies, delivering the Evening Outlook paper and hearing my mom ring the cowbell for dinner. My parents taught me as a boy that Malibu belonged to the Chumash (who lived on this land up to 15,000 years ago), I grew to have my own direct experience with this sacred truth and to honor my stewardship of the ocean and land that I love. Really, we are all stewards, it all belongs to the Great Spirit – from the sacred ocean to the open fields and Malibu’s 3,000-foot peak, to the pristine sea life and the indigenous animals that roam this incredible landscape. It’s not ours, we’re not the locals – they are…

JW: Beautifully said… you have over three decades of experience in sustainability; share some specific projects you have worked on relating to our oceans.

MA: My company is working on restoring the watershed throughout the Santa Monica Mountain range, which directly benefits and heals the ocean. We deal with water management, bluff preservation, onsite property water retention, rainwater harvesting, catchment systems and several innovative sustainable designs. All of this is great for our town and the ocean. We can protect the watershed by building sustainable properties that recycle their water. We install clean septic systems that are used for drip irrigation, which prevent run-off to the ocean. I want to extend that to the rest of the world as well. It’s about the heart – that’s everything. It’s what makes people serve our planet and each other.

Additionally, we strive to use indigenous and sustainable products in our projects. Construction can have a tremendously negative impact on watersheds and the natural ecosystems – we have to be part of the solution.

We build high-end, custom homes, which are a long-standing miracle and blessing in my professional life, but it doesn’t stop there. I want to leave the least impact on the land as possible.

““YOU CAN NEVER TAKE THE WRONG TURN WHEN YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT PATH.”””

JW: Which brings us to the subject of your work with RainCatcher*, can you describe what the mission is and how you got involved? * Note: RainCatcher has helped educate and bring awareness about clean water to over a million people, saving and changing lives, and has also helped the Navajo Nation in the four corner states.

MA: A few experiences led me to this. In 1969, at the age of 15, I had a frightening experience with contaminated water while in Mexico and was hospitalized and sick for several months. Then, in 1990 a trip to India changed my life. I came back with the awareness that every 20 seconds children under the age of five die from effects of unclean water. It was on the airplane ride home that I realized I would never be the same. I saw so many children in need and I was determined to help people, to find a real solution for everyone. I realized then that my mission is “that nobody gets left behind, and nobody is forgotten” – THIS is the torch I want to pass on to the next generation.

DEVOcEAN JW: We want to show the world how many great ocean advocates have come out of Malibu and have affected people worldwide. How do you feel today about the fishing and over-fishing and the poaching that goes on at Point Dume and the lack of enforcement?

MA: I was always one to feel, especially growing up here like a native would, that if you were allowed to fish or anything of that nature, nobody would take more than their need for sustainable living. Gill netting, trapping and poaching was a big thing for many years but against the laws of the land… it stripped the sea of life.

Marine life, sustainability and clean water is what nature is all about.

JW: What other water-related issues are you interested in?

MA: Well, as you are aware, water tables are going dry everywhere. We’re finding solutions to make sure that all around the world, including the United States, there is clean water. I am motivated to do that. When oceans start to get sick and are being abused I want to find a way to make it better. The ocean has endured so much pain; it needs our help, not just here in Malibu, but all over the planet.

“Nothing belongs to us. We are stewards of all living things, the earth and ocean included.”””

ABOVE: Mark Armfield surfing with his son in Malibu. Above right; Armfield as a young boy on Point Dume. Right; Majestic Point Dume a very long time ago (circa 1898).

DEVOcEAN ““The more I experience life, nature, humanity and the Ocean,… the less I know”.”””

JW: Who do you think is the biggest water waster? Do you buy into ‘Cowspiracy’ (the documentary about animal agriculture)?

MA: I don’t get political. I love flying under the radar. I love just getting the job done and I don’t like to get stalled. I like to do the thing that I feel in my heart is right. From my perspective contaminated storm water run-off is one of the biggest water wasters.

I always state, “what do you call a flood?”… An abundance of water supply ready to be caught, cleaned and available to quench the world’s thirst. Therefore, there is no water shortage in this world if we are able to fulfill the new innovative philosophies of water supply.

However, you can do your part. For me, it’s like a mission because of the compassion I had as a kid. When I went to India, Thailand and China I got an education seeing so many children suffer.

In this country, at the turn of the century, we built an infrastructure. But there in the developing countries, (I don’t like to say Third World Countries, I like to call them developing countries, I feel I honor them more that way) these people go without a lot, but you’ll see more smiles on their faces than you will on people who have the external luxuries. Happiness is an inside job and it’s not about the outside stuff. It doesn’t take a guru to figure that out. Life is an inside job. Nothing belongs to us. We are stewards of all living things, the earth and ocean included. My mission is to be a good steward and to pass that stewardship on to the next generation… raincatcher.org armfielddesign.com

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CONRAD CARR Photos by Lyon Herron

“ There is so much to say about Conrad. Not only is he the true definition of a charger, he is also an amazing person.

I have never seen anyone take to big waves as effortlessly as him, and he is so humble and true to himself.�

- Garrett McNamara

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“I climbed aboard and felt like young Jack Dawson, when he first got on the Titanic; young, wild and free.”-on his mission with Sea Shepherd to save the vaquita dolphins

Last winter I went down to the Sea of Cortez to be apart of Sea Shepherd’s Operation Milagro. We were out there trying to save the vaquita dolphin. There’s less than 60 left in the world so it’s a pretty intense, dire mission. We were out on a boat all day chasing down illegal fishers and looking for vaquita. It was my first time actually sailing. Martin Sheen, a massive “pirate” ship, gold and elegant. I climbed aboard and felt like young Jack Dawson, when he first got on the Titanic; young, wild and free. I met the crew, learned the safety precautions, and got my watch hours of 12:00 AM to 3:00 AM and 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM.

It feels like a dream now, scanning the horizon for hours for enemy boats by night and looking for vaquita porpoises by day. After dinner I would go out on the deck and watch the stars. I’ve never seen the sky so vast, so open, so beautiful.

The Big Dipper was right above the ocean. The Milky Way was so clear.

There were a million stars in the sky as we sailed across somewhat bumpy seas. One night there was a crazy storm. The boat was rocking up and down viciously. I was trying to sleep in my tiny little top bunk when the roof of my bed caved in on me with all this dust and stuff. It was crazy. I just put my head in the pillow and held on so I wouldn’t fly off. Overall it was a crazy experience. I felt like a true sailor, or pirate, out on the sea, looking for a lost treasure, the rare vaquita dolphin.

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ART 9 0 26 5

BELOW SEA LEVEL

Malibu based artist Natalie Arnoldi’s second solo exhibition with Ace Gallery is comprised of paintings from three ocean-based series: Sharks, Jellyfish, and Waves.

Menace, 2016 oil on canvas, 115 x 105 inches Untitled, 2016, oil on canvas

DEVOcEAN Natalie Arnoldi is clearly an ocean lover.

Having grown up in Southern California, her passion for ocean science led her to pursue a masters degree in the subject from Stanford University.

“Both science and art are a form of exploration at once highly emotional and analytical, but always inquisitive. The methods might be different, but the goal is the same— seeking out and communicating fundamental truths.” says Arnoldi.

Natalie Arnoldi with Gigi, 2016, oil on canvas,102 x 288 inches.

Arnoldi’s subjects range from ocean life to waves in her new show “ Beneath the Sea” now showing at the Ace Gallery. Through a nuanced control of tone and hue, Arnoldi’s large canvases are mysterious and suspenseful.

Natalie Arnoldi has presented her work in over 25 exhibitions since her first solo show at the young age of 19.

Menace, 2016 oil on canvas, 115 x 105 inches

Meltdown, 2011 oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches

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Frankie Harrer

Photo by Morgan Maassen

“"As a surfer my life pretty much revolves around the ocean. I'm always trying to help take care of it, so we can all continue to do what we love in such a powerful place. Nothing makes you feel more in nature and free than the ocean!"�

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Mermaids

By Fashion Editor, Christy Calafati

Photo by Trevor Flores

Among Us

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FRANCESCA AIELLO Malibu born and bred designer Francesca Aiello, a.k.a. “Frankie�, channels boho wanderlust and her innate creativity when designing her eponyomous bikini line, Frankies Bikinis.

Founded in 2012, Frankies Bikinis quickly skyrocketed to social media stardom by showcasing her bikinis on instagram (current following is hovering at just over 616K). By 2014, Francesca hit a new high becoming the youngest designer ever to show at Miami Swim Week.

At the tender age of 21, when most young adults are pursuing their college education, Aiello is in the full throttle success mode selling her wares around the world. Supermodels and celebrities from Gigi Hadid, Yolanda Hadid, Emma Roberts, Lily Aldridge, Candice Swanepoel, Ireland Baldwin, Bella Thorne and Kylie Jenner have all been seen in Frankies Bikinis.

Consistently inspired by the beauty of Malibu, Aiello, along with her mother Mimi (who handles the manufacturing side), has expanded the line to include boho chic beachwear tops, dresses, bottoms and shorts made in downtown L.A. frankiesbikinis.com

Mermaids

Among Us

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DEVOCEAN

OCEAN APPROVED SUNSCREENS

Chemical filled formulas are killing our coral reefs. Make the switch to safer sunscreens for the environment. Save your skin and our oceans.

By Diana Nicholson The sunscreen you lather on before you jump in the ocean protects your body, but new studies find that some of the ingredients in them may also be killing plankton and coral reefs globally. Make no mistake - I am all for sunscreen. However, be informed that even some of the best sunscreens could potentially be harmful to your body and marine life.

Two of the least harmful ingredient’s to look for in your sunscreen are zinc oxide and titanium dioxide (physical blockers), and the only ingredients you need for excellent broad-spectrum protection.

Chemical sunscreen ingredients feel and look better on the skin, while physical sunscreens (mineral based) tend to sink into skin readily and dry clear. There’s some evidence that chemical sunscreen ingredients disrupt hormones and could be killing coral reefs. Oxybenzone is a chemical sunscreen ingredient and probably the most notorious UV filter we know of. It was approved by the FDA in 1978 and is a member of the phenol family that has become so prevalent. A new study finds that a single drop in a small area is all it takes for the chemicals in the lotion to mount an attack on the ocean’s eco-systems.

SUNOLOGY NATURAL SUNSCREEN SPF 50 Sunology is a

physical sunscreen, which reflects UV rays away from the skin, usingnatural, active ingredients, and is formulated without parabens, perfumes, PABA, and other unnecessary chemical additives. $14.99, sunology.com

There are four commonly found sunscreen ingredients that can awaken dormant viruses that live inside reef-building coral species: paraben, cinnamate, benzophenone, and a camphor derivative The chemicals cause the viruses to replicate until their algae hosts explode, spilling viruses into the surrounding seawater where they can infect neighboring coral communities.

Coral reefs are home to a quarter of the oceans marine life and are an important line of defense against storms for coastal population.

But they’re rapidly disappearing. Over the past 30 years the world’s oceans have lost half of their coral reefs. Efforts to rebuild coral reefs are underway but they won’t work if toxic chemicals like oxybenzone and other personal hygiene products continue to leach into these ecosystems. An ecological nightmare! We recommend using “reef friendly” sunscreen to protect the skin from the sun.

Certain foods may assist with protection against sun damage. The most prominent carotenoids that improve skin tones are betacarotenes and lycopenes. Fruits and vegetables containing these anti-oxidants are: carrots, mangos, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, red & yellow peppers, tomatoes, watermelon, pink grapefruit, apricots, peaches, spinach, papaya, and guava.

Also… a wetsuit, hat, umbrella, and rash guard are totally safe! @malibubeachpilates, malibubeachpilates.com

BEAUTYCOUNTER ALL OVER SUNSCREEN

Created with the entire family in mind, this lightweight, water-resistant sunscreen is formulated with non-nano zinc oxide, so it blends seamlessly into skin without leaving white streaks, protecting you against both UVA and UVB rays. Aloe helps hydrate skin, while antioxidant-rich green tea and blood orange extracts fight free radicals. $32, beautycounter.com

THE SUSTAINABLE TABLE Recipes by Food Editor Joe Le I Photos by Cece Woods Delicious vegan recipes for a delightful summer al-fresco meal prepared with locally grown organic ingredients.

HUMMUS 1 can cannellini beans (15 oz), drained and rinsed 2 heaping tablespoons tahini 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil juice of 1 or 2 lemons 1 clove garlic, minced or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, optional a couple twists of himalayan salt grinder

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend unitil smooth. Serve with traditional naan bread or whole wheat organic pita bread. *Add more garlic or lemon to desired taste.

THE SUSTAINABLE TABLE

VEGAN PAELLA with Grilled Baby Artichokes and Fire Roasted Tomatoes ¼ c Olive oil 1 Yellow onion, julienne sliced 1 Red bell pepper, julienne sliced 1 Yellow bell pepper, julienne sliced 1 c Green beans, cut into 2 inch pieces 3 Cloves of garlic, minced 1 tsp Saffron 1 ½ c Arborio rice 1 can Fire roasted tomatoes, diced 2 Bay leaves 4 c Mushroom Stock, can substitute with vegetable stock 1½ c Grilled Artichoke Hearts ½ c Frozen peas Salt and pepper Parsley for garnish

Add oil to a large skillet with lid or paella pan over medium heat. Add onion and peppers and stir to coat then allow to cook for about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then add the green beans, garlic, saffron, and rice and cook for 2 minutes.

In a separate pot, bring the stock to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.

At this point, add the tomatoes and bay leaves to the vegetables and gently stir so the rice settles to the bottom. Ladle in 3 cups of the stock and cook for about 30 minutes uncovered. It is very important that you don’t stir the rice from this point on to ensure even cooking. If the rice gets too dry, add ¼ cup of the remaining stock at a time being careful not to add too much as the rice will be soggy. Add the peas and artichoke hearts then cover the paella while reducing the heat to low and allow to cook another 10 minutes until the rice is tender. Garnish with minced parsley and enjoy.

For more great recipes go to our website: malibu90265magazine.com

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DEVOcEAN CONTRIBUTORS

KEITH CARLSEN An internationally

published photographer, producer and writer, Keith Carlsen has the pleasure of working with clients such as Powder Magazine, Red Bull and Rolling Stone just to name a few.With the love of capturing real-life action and stories at their finest, Keith is known for bringing his “hell-yes!” attitude to whatever the job is, whether on a freezing mountain peak in remote Russia, or on a high-pressure celebrity shoot at the Sundance Film Festival. Keith held true to those words when shooting our cover story with John Paul DeJoria and again hitting the Channel Islands to shoot “Beyond The Bay”. @instantkc

LINDA ATKINSON, MA, MBA Partner, Red Ink Brand Creative Agency Not one to shy away from anything deep or possibly transformative, Linda Atkinson, takes on the heavies in the DevOcean issue interviewing John Hargrove for The Exclusive SeaWorld Whistleblower Interview, Robert Kennedy Jr.’s interview, “The Waterkeeper” and the sharkfinning controversy in “ShARK Angels”. This Carbon Beach resident’s love for the sea is evident when she offers up insight about our greatest resource: “DevOcean - may you be inspired to to keep Her clean and take care of her inhabitants forever.”

Twitter: @linda90265 redinkbrand.com

A Special Thanks To: Kelly Meyer, Kurt Lieber, Emily Scher, Kirby and Honore Kotler, Sam George, Morgan Maassen, Frankie Harrer, Conrad Carr, Joe Le, Christy Calafati, Diana Nicholson Annemarie Stein, Kim Ledoux, Kelly Collins, Diana Kelly, and many more who showed their DevOcean in 90265 Magazine.

LYON HERRON is a present day nomad, survivor, surfer, photographer, and life enthusiast. Born and raised on the beaches of Malibu, CA, Herron creates stellar content, specifically by capturing the true essence of his subjects. NRDC’s Mari Johson, Conrad Carr and Mark Armfield were all photographed with Lyon’s raw style for the DevOcean issue. Herron also likes to mix work and play when he shoots on the north shore for mega surf brands like RVCA.

@lyon_herron

MOLLY STRAWN Originally planning to pursue a career in marine biology, Molly, a junior at Cal Lutheran University currently studying business, is consistently passionate about the health of our oceans - making her the perfect fit for our cover feature interview with philanthropist John Paul DeJoria. @MollyT_Strawn

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Try our new vegan menu options made with best farm fresh ingredients.

CASA ESCOBAR Serving authentic Mexican cuisine since 1946

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DEVOcEAN

THE MAKING OF THE ISSUE

Exec. editor Linda Atkinson knows where Hard core environmentalist and to find the action. serial protester, exec. editor Steve Woods never met a sign he didn't like.

The DevOcean issue started like this... a salute to our veterans on Memorial Day Weekend.

Sometimes work doesn't seem like work, but in the end, it really is work.

While visiting Kauai, we saw the toll plastics pollution is taking on our oceans.

Sometimes brainstorming happens in the most beautiful places.

Photo Keith Carlsen

Former killer Orca trainer John Hargrove and Gabby Reece on July 4th weekend.

Exec. editor Steve Woods takes the Ocean Defender’s Alliance dinghy to troll for debris.

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All smiles during a break from writing, editing, phone calls, emails, photo shoots - you name it - and all in the name of DevOcean!