Kate Parker - Daughters of the Deep

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Kate Parker: Thank you so much. Yeah, my name is Kate Parker and

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I am from Sheffield, just the other side of the pen ions from

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you. And I grew up in England, probably was quite obsessed with

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the ocean from a young age, but didn't get to spend much time in

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it being in a fairly landlocked place in the UK. But then I

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started travelling around about 2011 2012 and learn how to dive

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and got into Scuba diving and just kind of really cemented my

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love for the oceans and how fascinating everything was in

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that startup ball rolling into getting various certificates and

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did my dive masters in Koh Tao, and eventually moved over here

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to Melbourne in 2014. And started working in diving in

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Melbourne just on the weekends for fun, and eventually ended up

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going to see a screening of documentary that was being

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hosted by Sea Shepherd in Melbourne. And that really just

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started a huge snowball into joining the Sea Shepherd onshore

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crew doing some volunteering with them, which eventually

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turned into offshore volunteering, which then led to

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me joining the Australian coast guard, and spending a lot of

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time training with those guys and more recently saying my own

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conservation based project around supporting women to get

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into marine industries. So it really all came from that one

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chance viewing of a documentary with Sea Shepherd back in 2014

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15. I think it was. And it's led me on a path to various marine

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based conservation, voluntary activities. So yeah, it's been

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it's been an interesting road.

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Matt Waters: Do you actually do you have any time for yourself?

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Kate Parker: No, I sleep. I really enjoy everything that I

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do, though. And I feel like I get so much back from from the

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volunteer work that I do. It gives me so much joy, that I

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don't really mind how much time it takes out of my day today.

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But yes, I'll probably have oversubscribed myself somewhat.

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Matt Waters: Yeah. But I suppose it falls into that bracket of

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you know, do what do what you enjoy, do what you love. That's

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exactly right. And it's that work life balance. So I have a

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career as a speech pathologist and I enjoy my job. But my

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passion would definitely be around ocean conservation. And

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I'm very lucky and fortunate to be in a position that I can

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manage both of those so I can get time off work to go and do

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my voluntary offshore cruising with Sea Shepherd. And I have a

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very supportive team that allow me to Yeah, have that work life

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balance. Yeah, pretty stoked with the way that I've managed

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to get things set up. Okay, I'm curious, what's a speech

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pathologist. So a speech pathologist is somebody who

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helps anyone communicate, if they've got issues with

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communication. There's also a little bit around head and neck

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anatomy and swallowing difficulties. But when you train

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as a speech pathologist, you train in all areas from you

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know, newborns all the way up to end of life. And then you're

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specialised, so my specialism is in mainstream schools. So I

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support children who are struggling to access the

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curriculum, based through language difficulties or

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communication difficulties, whether it's understanding or

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verbalising, what they want to say, or articulation issues or

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social pragmatic issues like autism cohort, or you know, any

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situation literacy difficulties, any situation where they're not

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really able to engage with communication, our team will be

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able to support them to access the curriculum. So it's pretty,

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pretty damn interesting. Does that cover all like, is dyslexia

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involved in that as well? Yeah. So a lot of our work is moving

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into that literacy space and supporting children with

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literacy difficulties. Yeah. So a lot of code. It's honest. It's

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mostly consultative what I'm doing. So it's a lot of coaching

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of teaching staff. How to communicate. Yeah. And I picked

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up on yesterday said, you mentioned it briefly the other

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day that you did your training your dive training in Koh Tao

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Sure did.

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Kate Parker: Who doesn't?

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Matt Waters: I know, right. It seems like everybody that comes

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on this show has been the Kotel at some point in their road.

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Dive career. That's it. And you were there as well. Which, which

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dive centre was it? Oh, well, yeah. Big Blue. Yeah. Big Blue.

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Kate Parker: I was sorry, cottage. And that would that was

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with a commonly said the other day. Trevor and Barry, were

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running it when I was there. I'm not sure if it's changed hands

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much. But yeah, the two Irish brothers. So yeah, it was a wild

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time. As you can imagine. I think there was eight of us who

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went through and did our divemasters at the same time. So

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lots of what do they call it the snorkel run or whatever at the

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end parties on Koh Tao as you can imagine, I'm still in touch

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with a lot of them. I'm not sure how many of them are still

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working in diving. But yeah, it was a really cool experience.

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And yeah, I'm really glad that we decided we were travelling

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with my friend and I and we'd done our open water and then I

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advanced another rescue and like everyone else, just kind of

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sacrifice some of us travel time to do that certificate. And I'm

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actually really glad that I did. Because when I like I said, when

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I moved to Melbourne, I got into diving here. And that funded a

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lot of like the pay that I got from that I just bought all of

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my own dive gear with. So it taught me about diving in cooler

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waters, and I ended up doing my drive dry suit diving certain.

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So yeah, it definitely opened a lot of doors for me. And just to

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make you more confident in the water. I mean, I haven't worked

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as a dive master in a while. But it's always nice to feel that

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level of confidence. When you do go back into it. You sort of

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know what you're doing. I think it's definitely worthwhile

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doing, even if you don't work as a divemaster. Yeah, yeah, just

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having that experience, especially with what you're

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doing with C sharp at now as well. And, you know, you never

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know, you never know what you're gonna get into. Absolutely,

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yeah, if we get a proc file, someone's gonna get in the water

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and get the rope out from other engines. So

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yeah, anyone with a diving certificate as a shepherd is

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handy.

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Matt Waters: Hey, now just just saying about Sea Shepherd and

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diving. What's the what's the go with the diving element to

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shepherd?

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Producer of Scuba GOAT: Yeah, so one of the campaigns that I run

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or set up in Australia as part of Sea Shepherd is the Sea

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Shepherd dive campaign. It's only currently in Australia and

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New Zealand. But it's basically a way that we're trying to set

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up a network of dive schools that have the same environmental

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focus as us. And by partnering with these dive schools, we can

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set up a network so that people who want to dive somewhere where

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they know, the dive school is going to uphold the same

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environmental values they can find us on, find those dive

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schools on our website, and then just contact those five schools

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and go diving with them. So we have certain standards that the

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diver schools have to meet. And that's around things like,

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obviously, like not anchoring on coral reefs, and making sure

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you're disposing of your waste appropriately. And single use

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plastics and those kinds of things like ocean based things.

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And if the diver schools can agree to those rules, then they

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can partner with us. And then we can promote them and they can

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sell our merchandise through their stores. And if they want

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to do dive cleanups, we can send onshore volunteers to support

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them. So it's kind of like a business partnership. But the

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whole, the whole ethos been to sort of drive industry standards

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up so that a lot of our dive schools, you know, they really

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want to come onto the programme. They're striving to be really

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environmentally focused, but they might sell fishing

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equipment in a dive store or something like that. And so by

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having these rules, hopefully we're inspiring people. All

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right, and we have had this happen before we said, you take

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your fishing equipment out, we dive store, and you can join the

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programme. And they have and that's just then helped reduce

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that impact on the ocean of sport fishing and recreational

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fishing. So yeah, it's it's an idea to set up a network network

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throughout Australia and New Zealand and hopefully we could

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move it into the global market. But at the minute, we're just

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trying to get that network going over here. So that we can have a

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whole host of environmentally focused I have schools that

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people can go to. That's the plan anyway.

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Matt Waters: Does it cost the dye school anything?

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Kate Parker: Gotta subscribe. Yeah, so they pay us a

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subscription to be part of the programme. And then in return,

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they get benefits. So they get things like discount of

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merchandise that they can sell on at their own price, and they

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get access to our logo that they can put on their website and on

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their you know, communications around anything that doing so

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they can say we are an official Sea Shepherd dive partnered

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school, you would we'll place them on our websites and stuff

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so that anybody who comes to Sea Shepherd who wants to go, you

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know, directly dive schools, they can just jump on. So

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they've got access to all of our media or post about them on our

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Sea Shepherd diver Facebook page and things like that. So yeah,

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it's like a sort of a two way supporting each other kind of

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agreement. Yeah,

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Matt Waters: yeah, I'm, I'm a big advocate for it. Because you

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know, to shepherd as big as it is, if it was free to join, then

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everybody under the sun would want to be in on it. Or at least

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if they're having to pay a subscription, then you get into

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people that are committed properly.

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Producer of Scuba GOAT: That's it. And I think it's about yeah,

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having those dive schools that can stand out in a in a whole

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strip of dive schools and say, We are the ones to come to if

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you want environmentally focused diving. And the dive schools

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that we already have in the programme are doing amazing

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things, you know, they're setting up their own fundraising

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events and inviting some of the Sea Shepherd Apex harmony crew

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to come and give talks and watch documentaries and engaging with

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the community and they're engaging with our marine debris

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team who do beach cleanups and dive cleanups and an organising

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their own dive cleanup. So they're doing they're doing such

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fantastic work, and we really want to promote them and, and

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make them be the standout environmental dive school in the

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area. So yeah, it's kind of more of a niche thing, rather than

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like everyone can a partner. But to be honest, like, I understand

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that for a lot of small businesses, you know, diving

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doesn't always provide all of the financial input that you

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need. And some of our dive schools do run fishing trips in

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order to, you know, support their income and things like

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that. So it isn't always achievable for all all dive

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schools, but we hope that the ones that really have that

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environmental focus will will strive to join the programme to

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be able to say, you know, we are the renowned environmental dive

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school in in our patch, essentially, yeah,

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Matt Waters: I can imagine it being a little bit more

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difficult. I mean, start getting into Southeast Asia where, you

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know, one of the one of the main sources of

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Producer of Scuba GOAT: food over there as you know, fish.

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Yes, absolutely. And so, I've been a little bit difficult to

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try and maintain you Absolutely so that the programme was

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originally in a global market, and then we changed it for the

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Australian market. So it's very specific around. Yeah. As you

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said, like very privileged people who have the financial

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capacity to avoid eating fish, you know, it's not for

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sustenance. It's just a pleasure. But we are thinking

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about potentially in a global market, how that would look. And

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absolutely, we would have to change some of the rules and

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regulations around that to to fit that market. So that's why

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it's just Australia and New Zealand at the moment.

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Matt Waters: Yeah, I just jumped on to have a quick look. So

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you've got on there. And there's a couple of names. I can see

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straightaway is Dr. Jarvis. But yeah, that was awesome. Peeps

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down at woebegone free. Yeah,

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Producer of Scuba GOAT: so good. Yeah. Yeah. Now we've got a it's

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a small community at the moment, but we're hoping to grow it. So

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yeah, I think it's got a lot of potential to help spread that

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environmental message into just to help people really think

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about what they're doing, because it's only small changes

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in the Australian market that needs to be made to, to change,

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you know, the impact that we have. I mean, even diving in

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itself, can have negative impacts on the environment. You

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know, being on Koh Tao, you know, things like Japanese

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gardens where all the trainee divers go, there's barely any

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coral there. So you know, we really need to be mindful as

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much as we want to enjoy the ocean and we want to experience

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all these wonderful things and become passionate about saving

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it. Even just diving as a hobby can have negative environmental

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impacts. And, you know, we need to be conscientious of that. And

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I think this programme is a good way to promote like those big

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being mindful of, you know, what you're taking on board ships,

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you know, are you taking things that will end up in the ocean

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and cause damage through plastic pollution? You know, or just all

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those little things just sort of remind us to, to make sure that

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our sport is, is still good for the environment? Yeah, for

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Matt Waters: sure. And lifestyle. cutouts are brilliant

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example. Because in the height the date, because we were there

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roughly the same time,

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Kate Parker: I believe so yeah, I would have said 2012. Yeah.

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Matt Waters: Yeah. Yeah, I got that. In fact, I landed. I

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landed in Bangkok on Boxing Day early. I was on Boxing Day

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morning. 2012.

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Kate Parker: Wow. Yeah, I was on ko town Boxing Day. 2012. Yeah.

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Matt Waters: We probably don't want the same people with with a

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monumental hangover.

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Kate Parker: Absolutely. I mean, have you met Trevor Barry?

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Matt Waters: I am. Yeah, I know. I got stuck in Bangkok. I was

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there for about almost two weeks, because it was just so

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full with with people who'd booked up on the ferries and the

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planes damage summary. Oh, right. Okay, I'm gonna take it.

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Yeah. Wow. Crazy. So I didn't actually get onto Koh Tao until

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the start of January. Oh, gosh. Yeah,

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Producer of Scuba GOAT: yeah, I think we left probably a

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beginning of Feb. So we might have just, you know, we probably

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had a few beers in Bonanza at some point

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Matt Waters: is distinct possibility.

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Producer of Scuba GOAT: But yeah, I mean, Kota. It's, it's,

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it's a beautiful spot. But I did I did. You know, when you do

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your dive masters, and you have to do that submit that plan. And

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it talks about, you know, how many divers are on the island, I

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think it was would have something like 6000 divers in

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the water every day. And was it bands or someone like that had

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that massive dive though. And they were just shocked. It was

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like a factory farm. They were just chucking divers in the

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water all day long. And you sort of think like, oh, gosh, you

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know, such a beautiful, remote place and such pristine diving.

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And the tourism is good in one sense, because it brings money

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in to the economy and things like that. But then the offset

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is, you know, what is the impact on the corals around there and

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the pollution? I mean, I remember, we were fastidiously

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recycling our water bottles the whole time that we were there in

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the recycling points, and then found out afterwards, they just

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take them to the side of the island and burn them. So you

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know, it's like, there are a lot. I think there's a lot of

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firsts at the moment for the ecotourism and things like that.

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But with that comes all that greenwashing. And you've got to

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be really stringent about who you're diving with and what

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actually are their practices. And I, as much as I love my time

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on Kotel, I worry for that place, because I can only

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imagine it it's got bigger and there's more and more diverse

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schools there. And, you know, how long is that coral going to

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be? Look at the Great Barrier Reef, you know, like there's so

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many places now that people say are not not good for diving. And

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I know that there's all these issues with coral bleaching and

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things like that. But I wonder how much tourism has had an

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impact on that as well. And, you know, there's very popular

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places that just get kind of hounded. You know, we need to be

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mindful of how much impact we're having there too.

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Matt Waters: All I think this this last couple of years, or

00:14:21
COVID is going to be exceptionally good for the likes

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of Koh Tao and the ghillies that kind of those areas that get

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super busy just having a reset that was talking to Elaine from

00:14:33
Master divers and you know, by the height there was almost I

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think she said it was in the low 90s The amount of dive shops

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that were available on Koh Tao Wow. Ranging from the super big

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ones to those individuals that were you know, booking stuff

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online. Yeah. And now it's, it's in the low 30s If not below

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that, because of this hard reset. Okay, so a couple of

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years of not having people there has made a significant

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difference for the good Yeah. With all the macro that's been

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found as well, it's amazing.

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Producer of Scuba GOAT: Yeah. I mean, yeah, obviously we don't

00:15:06
really want to wish a global pandemic, to be the reason that

00:15:09
we reduce Judas Ranadive stores. But you know, I don't know if

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you've been to places like CIPA down in Borneo, and those are

00:15:15
very, very famous, but very well protected places. And they just

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have a certain number of permits per day. Same. We went to the

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Cocos Island of Costa Rica. I think it's like 50 people in the

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water every day. And I think managing the load like that is

00:15:31
probably the way to go in order to protect some of this. But did

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you ever go to sail rock? Was it called it was about a two hour

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trip off? Koh Tao? Yeah, you know, limited access, limited

00:15:40
number of people have going I think we can still enjoy the

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beauty and we can still get inspired. Impact of so many

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divers in the water?

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Matt Waters: Yeah. It was it something that happened in in

00:15:58
the Samoan islands. I was Tripoli there for hallelujah for

00:16:02
big blue garlic. And this particular year, they decided

00:16:06
the government decided that that had enough and they were

00:16:09
restricting numbers. So you could, you could only get a

00:16:12
limited amount of park entry tickets per day. And you had to

00:16:17
pre book them. So they massively started to regulate it. And I've

00:16:20
got to say, as the as much as there's so many busy locations

00:16:25
in Thailand, once the Thai government decides they've had

00:16:28
enough, and they're going to clamp down and do some good,

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they do it in in good style. It was what 2014 I think you could

00:16:39
still get on to Kota Chai Island. And they decided no,

00:16:44
we've had enough. No one's going on it. And no one stepped foot

00:16:47
on that island again since right now.

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Producer of Scuba GOAT: Is that I think a similar thing

00:16:52
happened. Is that what happened in Bora Kai in the Philippines,

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is that that big party place? It actually is that where they fit?

00:16:59
No, I'm getting confused. And it's like where they filmed that

00:17:02
film with Leonardo, the island, because that place is the beach.

00:17:06
Yeah. Pee pee pee pee, because that place got trashed as well

00:17:10
didn't know, unfortunately. But I think that when when the

00:17:12
government does step in and say not enough is enough, we're

00:17:15
going to shut this down. I think that's really important. And it

00:17:19
makes me think, Oh, that's good that the government have got

00:17:21
that, you know, value for for those areas. Because obviously

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tourism, like we said, is helpful in places that need a

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boost to their economy. But eventually, we're just going to

00:17:31
trash everywhere. That's beautiful, and no one's going to

00:17:33
go. So it's important to preserve those areas, as well so

00:17:37
that we can still enjoy them in the future.

00:17:39
Matt Waters: Just a bit. Yeah. So you said that, just bringing

00:17:44
it a bit closer to home, you said you've done some diving

00:17:46
down in Melbourne as well. I've never actually dived in

00:17:49
Melbourne yet. Yeah, right. I keep hearing about it.

00:17:52
Unknown: You'll have to come down.

00:17:55
Matt Waters: Yeah, it's literally a fleeting visit. I'm

00:17:57
there for one or two days and then off again. Yeah,

00:17:58
Producer of Scuba GOAT: yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I was really

00:18:00
surprised because I've only ever done you know, fairweather

00:18:03
diving on all my dive travels around the world. It was all

00:18:05
very nice tropical diving, which is great. And you know, you get

00:18:08
a massive mixture of macro and micro in those places, and great

00:18:11
beers and stuff like that. So when I started diving in

00:18:14
Melbourne, I was a bit kind of, oh, gosh, you know, this water

00:18:16
is cold. And it's kind of a bit soupy. And it's hard and it's

00:18:21
current. But actually on a good day in Melbourne, I would say

00:18:26
is, is probably actually my preference in terms of diving,

00:18:29
because the types of creatures that you can see are just so

00:18:33
fantastic. And you know, we did I did a lot of diving when I was

00:18:36
working the dive school out in the middle of the bay, and

00:18:38
there's the old river that runs down through the middle and the

00:18:41
I think it was down to about 100 metres. So there's some great

00:18:43
walls, and all the guys were getting on their rebreathers and

00:18:46
going super deep. And you can go out through the heads and

00:18:49
they've got a place called the ship's graveyard where there's

00:18:52
lots of old decommissioned vessels have been dumped out

00:18:54
there. So there's like submarines and stuff that you

00:18:57
can go and dive around. And there's lots and lots of wrecks

00:18:59
in the bay because it's quite sort of treacherous coming in

00:19:01
through the the cooler heads. It's just a very small space

00:19:04
where all the water comes into a large body of water in the bay.

00:19:08
And that was sort of fun, and I enjoyed it. But actually for me,

00:19:11
if you go underneath some of the peers and just Do you can you

00:19:14
know you can go down for an hour, you only go down five or

00:19:17
10 metres but the variety of sea creatures, which is really why I

00:19:21
dive is just amazing from like tiny little nudies the size of

00:19:25
your fingernail that are like bright pink to sort of sea

00:19:28
horses. We've got Weedy sea dragons in Melbourne, which has

00:19:32
just been on my bucket list since I first got a copy of blue

00:19:35
planet as a young girl and was totally inspired. You know, and

00:19:38
you can be spending hours looking around really deep in

00:19:41
the water really close tiny, tiny, tiny little things. And

00:19:44
then all of a sudden a great big flat grey ray will come swim

00:19:48
past like an elephants just walked in the room. They're like

00:19:50
Well, hello. You know, it's just a real beautiful mixture. We've

00:19:54
got incredible cuttlefish I think the first time I ever did

00:19:57
in Melbourne, we saw cuttlefish I think there were other Matey

00:20:00
You're fighting or possibly this both of ones. But you know,

00:20:03
they're changing all the colours. They're their bodies

00:20:05
changing shape. It's just it's like being in blue planet. We've

00:20:09
got the spider crab migration here in Melbourne which is

00:20:12
fascinating it just in terms of in terms of the variety of

00:20:16
things that you can see, I think Melbourne has an absolute lot to

00:20:18
offer at what Victoria as a whole, you know, there's a lot

00:20:20
of cave diving that's happening. There's a lot of like sinkholes

00:20:23
and freshwater that you can go and dive in. I haven't done that

00:20:25
yet. But yeah, you definitely have to come down and explore I

00:20:28
think it's, it's a probably underrated part of the world for

00:20:31
diving for sure.

00:20:32
Matt Waters: Yeah, definitely. Well, my other half her. Her

00:20:35
brother lives in Melbourne. Oh, cool. So no excuses. A three or

00:20:39
four day visit. I'll give you a shout.

00:20:42
Kate Parker: Definitely, that would be lovely.

00:20:44
Matt Waters: Hey, just think about sea dragons. Are you? Are

00:20:47
you up to date with the the what's it called the The

00:20:53
Campaign to Save the pier down there. Yeah,

00:20:56
Producer of Scuba GOAT: yeah. So Flinders pier. We were down

00:20:57
there the other day? Absolutely. Yeah, those guys are a great

00:21:00
organisation as well. And yeah, we did a actually a beach clean

00:21:05
with Sea Shepherd marine debris team not long ago, and we

00:21:08
removed tonnes and tonnes of rubbish off that beach because

00:21:11
it was a wrecked yacht, I think. So there was some old like big

00:21:14
massive mooring lines and stuff that was embedded in the sand

00:21:17
and we got four by fours and drag them all out. So it's quite

00:21:20
dramatic. But yeah, the safe fin. Save Flinders pier crew.

00:21:25
Were all down there. And yeah, they're doing some fantastic

00:21:27
work. And I think it's, it's really important to preserve

00:21:30
those old those old places where the wildlife is so heavily

00:21:35
embedded. I actually was involved with a really

00:21:37
interesting project. Similar to what you're talking about, have

00:21:41
you heard about what happened at Blair gallery with the old wave

00:21:44
wall? Yeah, so there was an there was an old way for there

00:21:49
that was being restored or that we're putting in a new wave wall

00:21:52
at the marina and one of our dive partners called dive to you

00:21:56
started this, this this programme, I suppose to try and

00:22:01
save all of the wildlife down there. And what they did was

00:22:05
absolutely incredible. So what they did was that they agreed

00:22:08
with Blair Gary that the new wave will that rather than

00:22:11
taking down everything and putting in the new sections all

00:22:13
along go there do it bit by bit. And by doing it bit by bit, it

00:22:16
gave us time so he'd got a lot of deep divers to get into the

00:22:20
water and we would literally removing all like the corals and

00:22:23
the Assyrians from the old wave wall and a moving them onto the

00:22:27
new wave wall and he had like bungee cords, and he trialled

00:22:30
all different types of underwater glue to stick the the

00:22:33
one that the corals onto the new wave walls. And one day, so I

00:22:38
did a bit of work with them helping them moving across. And

00:22:40
it was super successful. And one day my job was just to relocate,

00:22:44
relocate all the animals. So I was just like a little fairy

00:22:47
taking all the little nudies over to their new home and

00:22:50
depositing them it was super cute. And yeah, so they just

00:22:53
went section by section and you know, it was absolutely freezing

00:22:56
cold, we were in the water for far too long. And very, very,

00:22:59
very cold temperatures couldn't fill in fingers when he came

00:23:01
out. But they managed to relocate all of that wildlife.

00:23:04
And it took really well to the new wave wall. So that was a

00:23:07
fantastic project. I wish there would be more like that around

00:23:10
the world. And you know, maybe if they have to do something

00:23:12
like that with Flinders would, it would be fantastic to try and

00:23:15
save all of those creatures from losing their habitats.

00:23:18
Matt Waters: keeping my eye on that one because I spoke to

00:23:21
Charles Reese about it. It must be six months ago, if not a

00:23:25
little bit longer. Yeah. And I saw John Jenkins. I think it's

00:23:28
John Jenkins is involved as well. But I should get them on

00:23:32
the show as well. Talk about in detail about it. Definitely.

00:23:35
Yeah. But it's looking very, very positive so far.

00:23:38
Producer of Scuba GOAT: Yeah. And that's the power of

00:23:40
community campaigning, isn't it and raising awareness. Like

00:23:42
that's what that's what we do, isn't it and advocacy for all

00:23:45
these important things that I think it's so easy to just just

00:23:50
government that makes decisions, and it just goes under the

00:23:52
radar. And we don't notice. So that's a real good example of

00:23:55
the community standing up and saying we don't, we don't want

00:23:58
this and we're going to we're going to campaign and we're

00:24:00
going to cause a fuss and we're going to raise awareness and

00:24:04
show the world what's happening and actually make those changes

00:24:07
and stand up against those government decisions. So I think

00:24:10
that's fantastic. Yeah.

00:24:11
Matt Waters: Speaking of politicians and hiding shit.

00:24:16
Have you had chance to see the snippet from Peter wish Wilson

00:24:20
the other day? Senator Peter wish wills

00:24:23
Unknown: was was this

00:24:23
Matt Waters: hidden in Parliament isn't done in Tassie

00:24:26
jumping up and down. Was that when he was Yeah, what a rock

00:24:31
star? What a rock star. I love that guy. He's a legend. He's

00:24:34
amazing. Guy a lot. You're probably the only politician in

00:24:36
the world that I actually like

00:24:38
Kate Parker: 100%. Yeah. And his Instagram is Senator surfer.

00:24:41
It's just pictures of him surfing.

00:24:44
Matt Waters: Well, I actually put that put the snippet on the

00:24:46
Scuba goat page, just simply because it's a perfect example

00:24:51
of how politan politicians will not answer a direct question

00:24:55
Unknown: absolutely of bullshit just coached into it. Yeah,

00:24:58
Matt Waters: I don't mind saying that. Say Senator Hume, you did

00:25:01
a great job of being a politician because you didn't

00:25:03
answer the question. I'm sorry. Yeah, they must

00:25:05
Producer of Scuba GOAT: have a special politicians school on

00:25:07
how to not answer a question because they all have the same

00:25:11
trait. But you know, it is amazing. And people like, Peter

00:25:14
wish Wilson, you know that it's so fantastic that he's made it

00:25:17
that far. Because, you know, it's so frustrating seeing all

00:25:20
these people that are ill don't want to get into a hugely

00:25:22
political debate. But I saw a good friend of mine who's like a

00:25:26
very well known person in his community, a teacher in a local

00:25:30
school tried to get into politics just on that very

00:25:32
bottom rung because he was passionate about his area that

00:25:35
he lived in. And he ran to be a local, in the local, local

00:25:39
candidate, or whatever. And he didn't get in, but even hearing

00:25:42
his stories of like, how corrupt it was even on that very first

00:25:45
rung of the ladder, how many people were getting, you know,

00:25:47
secretly had their votes were joined together in the

00:25:50
background, because they were actually a couple. And if you

00:25:52
vote for one, you're actually voting for the other and bribery

00:25:54
and people getting paid off the lies, promising stuff that

00:25:57
didn't happen. You just think like, how does anybody with

00:25:59
actual good heart and soul get to that level of Parliament when

00:26:03
it's so impossible to even get a foot in the door without being a

00:26:06
totally corrupt person, and the people at the top just would

00:26:09
have to be that level of corrupt mess? Right? You know, it's so

00:26:12
frustrating. So go go Peter, for you know, managing to swallow,

00:26:15
rubbish to stay in. So I don't think I could cope with that.

00:26:18
Matt Waters: I think he's, he's got to be one of the very few

00:26:21
that actually is trying to do what he says. Yeah, it kind of,

00:26:26
it's almost like a reality TV show that the reality is, it's

00:26:30
all like Australian survivor. You know, yeah, I'm going to do

00:26:33
this to help you, but then I'm going to stab you in the back

00:26:35
when it comes to getting rid of you. And that's exactly what

00:26:37
goes on in politics. It's ludicrous. But I wish him all

00:26:40
the best. And I hope he does get some great successes, but he's

00:26:44
up against a bloody big brick wall shot, for sure, for sure.

00:26:49
Anyway, I could go on about politics all day long. Okay.

00:26:53
Let's, let's let's circle back with the background to your

00:26:56
experiences with Sea Shepherd. So you've been on several

00:26:58
campaigns?

00:26:59
Producer of Scuba GOAT: That's right. Yeah. So I sort of joined

00:27:01
after I saw that documentary, whenever it was 2015, I became

00:27:04
an onshore volunteer for quite some time. But then that, I

00:27:08
don't know, I just became obsessed with the organisation,

00:27:10
I, you know, I think it's one of those things where you don't

00:27:13
know what you don't know. And, and when I joined, and I started

00:27:15
watching some videos and clips of some of the things that are

00:27:18
happening out in the ocean, I realised just the extent of, of

00:27:21
the damage that were causing, and it's so out of sight, out of

00:27:24
mind. And I just became really, you know, fascinated to learn

00:27:29
more and passionate to do something about it. And it got

00:27:33
to the point where I was helping out with one of the ships that

00:27:35
was docked in Melbourne. And I was like, taking time off work

00:27:38
to go and, you know, scrub around in the engine room and

00:27:41
just do anything I could to be on that boat. So eventually, I

00:27:44
asked my manager to give me some time off to go on to do an

00:27:48
offshore campaign, but she granted me which is, you know,

00:27:50
the key reason why I was able to do it, which I'm very grateful

00:27:53
for. But yeah, so I ended up going on the last campaign to

00:27:56
the southern oceans, it was called Operation Nemesis to

00:27:59
Antarctica to to oppose Japanese whaling, which has been, you

00:28:04
know, very well publicised and probably what we're most well

00:28:06
known for here in Australia. And then I jumped straight from that

00:28:10
over to a campaign in Mexico called Mulago, where we're

00:28:13
trying to save a porpoise from going extinct. It is not the

00:28:18
target of illegal fishing, but a fish that is being targeted. The

00:28:23
fisherman there or the poachers are using nets that are

00:28:26
accidentally killing this Nikita, poor person. Now, when I

00:28:29
first went out there, I think there was about 50 left, and now

00:28:31
they think there's less than 10. So I've been going back to that

00:28:35
campaign pretty much every year since I went out there in 2017.

00:28:40
So it's been running now we're on the eighth year of running

00:28:43
that campaign. And it's changed a lot over the years and our

00:28:46
tactics have had to change. But we were alongside the Mexican

00:28:49
government. We have the military police and army onboard our

00:28:52
vessels. Because essentially, the the poachers are extra

00:28:57
runners because the fish they're trying to catch it swim bladder

00:29:00
is is worth well, more than cocaine. Now. It's worth a lot

00:29:03
of money on the black market in Asia. So they're desperately

00:29:06
trying to catch this fish. It's worth, you know, 1000s of

00:29:08
dollars. Yeah, so that's what I've been mostly doing. And then

00:29:12
I did a campaign where we did a transit up to Mexico, and we

00:29:15
ended up going to that Cocos Island that I was talking about

00:29:17
before of Costa Rica and doing a big cleanup there and removing I

00:29:21
think about 40 tonnes of illegal fishing gear that the park

00:29:24
rangers who live on the island had confiscated. So, yeah, it's

00:29:28
been an incredible ride. I've got to see some amazing things.

00:29:31
And

00:29:32
Matt Waters: I think yeah, I think I saw that one when I was,

00:29:35
in fact, our Jeff Jeff Jeff Hanson, flag that one. We talked

00:29:39
about that one briefly, when he was on the show. Yeah, that was,

00:29:42
that was a lot of fishing in

00:29:44
Producer of Scuba GO: incredible so that Cocos Island is the most

00:29:46
beautiful place I think I've ever been to because there's no

00:29:49
one there. It's not a tourist destination. Literally the only

00:29:53
people that live there are about eight. Park rangers from Costa

00:29:57
Rica and their wives pretty much and And then they patrol the

00:30:01
waters it is a designated marine park. But as we know, there's

00:30:04
very little policing in those kinds of areas and they're also

00:30:07
very popular for illegal fishing. So those park rangers

00:30:10
have been patrolling and confiscating you know, long

00:30:13
lines and things like that, but had been stockpiling on their

00:30:16
island for a long time didn't have a means to remove it. So we

00:30:19
took our vessel the white Holly, which is enormous and can take I

00:30:22
think, about 100 tonnes inside her inside her in areas, she's

00:30:26
got a lot of storage space inside. And we've just helped

00:30:29
them remove that gear. And you know, I just, it was mind

00:30:33
blowing, we went on to the island and they showed us this

00:30:35
warehouse essentially that was floor to ceiling filled with

00:30:39
these really plastic it you know, that's what's it called? I

00:30:41
can't remember it's polyfiber whatever the plastic nets that

00:30:44
are just so barbaric. You know, we were getting our feet caught

00:30:48
in them. I can't imagine what it would be like for an animal

00:30:51
caught in those nets are just horrible. And then just buckets

00:30:54
and buckets and barrels and barrels of longline hooks, you

00:30:57
know, there's massive, great big several inches large hooks that

00:31:00
get caught inside the animals faces like, oh, just awful. And

00:31:03
anyway, it was so nice to be able to take all that stuff away

00:31:07
and think about how much less you know, these fishing devices

00:31:11
will be in the ocean, but it's probably only a small, small,

00:31:14
tiny drop in comparison to what's still out there. But

00:31:17
yeah, it was it was great. And one of the best things about

00:31:19
that was that they actually allowed us to go on the island,

00:31:21
which is not not normal. But we agreed with our captain managed

00:31:25
to agree with them very kindly. And we did this walk we went

00:31:28
over to the other side. And there was a stone that had been

00:31:32
carved by Jacques Cousteau, like back in the day had like a

00:31:36
carving from when he had been there in the late 80s or

00:31:39
something. Yeah, so it was pretty cool. To see that.

00:31:43
Matt Waters: Was that is that the same island because Pete

00:31:46
Bethune was telling us about how they used picked up a new saying

00:31:50
the long lines there. And they were catching the fishing

00:31:53
vessels, that were slinging out the long lines outside the

00:31:59
borders of the marine park, and then cutting the corner to drag

00:32:03
the lines through the marine park and then almost effectively

00:32:07
pretending to bring them back in as though they weren't. Yeah,

00:32:09
heading off home.

00:32:11
Producer of Scuba GOAT: Yeah. Oh, there's all sorts of things

00:32:12
that go on like that. I'm not Yeah, I'm not sure if that's

00:32:15
exactly in that area. But I mean, I think there's there's a

00:32:17
lot of fishing, that happens in places that are supposed to be

00:32:20
protected, just because there's not enough capacity to police

00:32:23
them very heavily. So there's a lot of that stuff happening. But

00:32:26
I've definitely seen in Mexico when they, you know, the

00:32:29
fishermen that or the poachers, sorry, they'll have the legal

00:32:32
nets. And they'll they'll pull them out and show us Oh, look,

00:32:35
here are legal nets. But then actually, when we pull them out,

00:32:38
there'll be attached to an illegal net. So the illegal

00:32:40
based on the size of the holes in them. So the small shrimp

00:32:44
fishes can have small holes in their nets. But the fish they're

00:32:49
trying to catch the total average is a much larger fish.

00:32:51
And they did call them gill nets to the holes are, you know, like

00:32:55
20 centimetres wide square, and they catch the fish by the

00:32:58
gills. And they're illegal. So they'll have their legal nets in

00:33:00
the water. And they'll show us that that's what they've got.

00:33:02
But then actually, where if we recover them, they probably have

00:33:05
the illegal ones on the end. And then sometimes even on the end

00:33:07
of that they have long lines attached on the end of those

00:33:10
illegal acts. So there's a lot of that kind of trying to try to

00:33:13
trick people and trying to make it look like they're doing the

00:33:15
right thing when they're still illegally fishing that's

00:33:18
happening around the world, unfortunately, which is a huge

00:33:22
issue. Yeah,

00:33:23
Matt Waters: it's insane. And I mean, I don't know how it's

00:33:25
always gonna pan out, because my personal opinion over this last

00:33:29
year, or even two years of doing this podcast, more and more

00:33:33
inclined to believe that the oceans pretty damn screwed. And

00:33:39
what we're doing is just delaying or, you know, the delay

00:33:45
delay and how long it is before it's completely screwed. I don't

00:33:50
think that there's enough good people in the world and people

00:33:53
that understand the severity, to actually make a massive

00:33:57
difference straightaway.

00:33:58
Producer of Scuba GOAT: I have to agree with you and and it

00:34:00
makes me really sad. And I remember when I first joined Sea

00:34:02
Shepherd some more long term volunteers telling me you know,

00:34:06
you will, you will go through this anger and sadness when you

00:34:09
really understand the extent and how little is being done about

00:34:13
it. So, I don't want to be pessimistic, but I do agree that

00:34:18
I agree that there's not enough information out there. But I

00:34:21
also think that there's there's willing, there's willing

00:34:25
ignorance of that, you know, you can share all this information,

00:34:29
but then people still want to have fish fingers, so they're

00:34:31
going to outlast crab. Yeah. But I'm not going to stop or change

00:34:34
my habits. It's the link between sharing the information and

00:34:38
actually doing something about it. That is is the bit that's

00:34:41
we're struggling with and whether that's just, you know,

00:34:45
humans being so so bred to believe that they are you know,

00:34:49
top of the food chain that we can do with one or that just

00:34:52
that dissonance between what we're consuming in terms of what

00:34:55
we're eating but also industrial like purchasing global global

00:34:59
any thing, clothing, everything that we're buying, you know,

00:35:02
it's all having an impact on the planet. And I think there isn't

00:35:05
enough people getting the message out there. But even when

00:35:06
the message is put out there, there's not enough people

00:35:08
willing to hear it. And I think that's ultimately going to be

00:35:11
our downfall, when you know, the facts around, you know, 90% of

00:35:15
our oceans overfished two football fields of the

00:35:18
rainforests are getting pulled down every second, you know,

00:35:20
like, all these statistics are out there. But people just don't

00:35:24
want to hear them. And I think that's the most frustrating

00:35:26
thing as an activist, or as an ocean lover, to, to not just get

00:35:31
angry about it and stand on your soapbox and yell and be like,

00:35:33
You should do something about this, because that doesn't get

00:35:36
everyone onside either. It's about trying to share the

00:35:40
information in a way that's going to actually make people

00:35:42
change their habits. And, you know, I feel lucky here in

00:35:46
Melbourne that I surround myself with other people have similar

00:35:49
values to me. But I, I know that that's a bit of a bubble that I

00:35:52
live in. And actually, probably most of the rest of the world

00:35:55
don't have those values. So yeah, it's a tough one. I agree.

00:35:59
I think the oceans are very, very close to collapse.

00:36:03
Matt Waters: And I'll show that. But I'm also very aware that

00:36:06
there's an awful lot of the world that are completely

00:36:08
oblivious, of the importance. And now that we're moving into

00:36:12
that, that age, that digital age of being able to communicate,

00:36:17
and it's not no longer communication within your own

00:36:19
little village. It's it's global communication. And the more that

00:36:23
people are made aware of the importance of what's going on,

00:36:27
then they can start acting locally. And I think we've seen

00:36:30
that an awful lot more in the more remote locations as people

00:36:34
start to understand the importance. Absolutely. Yeah.

00:36:37
And I think so I'm kind of, I don't want to say I don't want

00:36:41
to say I'm a fence sitter, but I'm kind of caught between the

00:36:43
two realms of it's, it's fucked. And we can do something about

00:36:49
it. I think it's just that constant. Like you say, you

00:36:52
don't you can't stand and shout and scream about it and make a

00:36:55
difference.

00:36:56
Producer of Scuba GOAT: Yeah, absolutely. And I would agree

00:36:57
with that. I think, you know, I think we are a lot closer to the

00:37:01
end of than people realise, potentially, you know, I don't

00:37:07
know if you've heard recently about, like the the heating of

00:37:10
overheating in the Arctic and the Antarctic, and then the

00:37:13
recent collapse of the ice shelf. You know, these things

00:37:16
are happening incredibly, regularly. People talk about

00:37:21
these one off freak events, the fires in Australia, the floods,

00:37:25
but they're not one off events. They're happening all the time.

00:37:27
And I think if people could understand the urgency, then we

00:37:31
might have more. More response. But yeah, I think people are

00:37:36
coming to the party, but perhaps not with the speed that we need.

00:37:40
Matt Waters: We can only do what we can do. And see how are we

00:37:42
going? Did you get it? Have you been on? Have you been to Africa

00:37:46
at all on these campaigns that you've done? No, I

00:37:48
Producer of Scuba GOAT: haven't. Yeah, I'd love to. I know that

00:37:51
there's a lot of campaigns with Sea Shepherd off the coast of

00:37:53
places like Gabon, and Liberia. And those campaigns are

00:37:57
fantastic, because that's, that's really targeting one of

00:38:01
the biggest issues for OSHA is not obviously, we're not going

00:38:05
after people who are just fishing to survive. You know,

00:38:08
it's these global fishing organisations that are often

00:38:11
very, criminally run. And they're huge, huge trawlers and

00:38:18
huge fleets of vessels that are just absolutely plundering

00:38:22
oceans at a staggering rate. And these campaigns in Africa are

00:38:26
fantastic, because we're, what we're doing is we're, we're not,

00:38:29
you know, just going in there and trying to fix things

00:38:31
ourselves, we're actually taking local fishing authorities,

00:38:34
local, local government officials from those areas and

00:38:38
providing the resources as in a boat physically, to help them

00:38:41
enforce the laws in their waters. So we'll take the local

00:38:46
officials, and we'll approach a vessel that's fishing in the

00:38:48
local waters. And we will board those vessels and we will

00:38:52
inspect what they have in their catch, and we'll look at their

00:38:54
licences. And more often than not, they're fishing for one

00:38:57
thing, but they've caught about a million other things. And

00:38:59
they've got a freezer full of shark fins and whatever else is

00:39:01
going on. That's illegal. And so then being able to issue fines

00:39:05
and bring them to justice and try and shut some of those

00:39:08
organisations down. So yeah, I think those campaigns are super

00:39:11
important, because that's really targeting one of the very top

00:39:14
top destroyers of the ocean, if you will, like those huge, huge

00:39:20
fleets. Yeah, I'd love to get involved in one of those

00:39:23
campaigns. One day, it'll happen. It's definitely on the

00:39:27
list.

00:39:29
Matt Waters: Hey, speaking of large fleets, do you know if Sea

00:39:33
Shepherd have any plans to head down a Galapagus? Because I have

00:39:37
a funny feeling. Those Chinese vessels will be back at some

00:39:41
point this year.

00:39:42
Producer of Scuba GOAT: I absolutely agree. I don't know

00:39:44
I'm not privy to that information, unfortunately. But

00:39:46
I can only cross my fingers and hope I know that we did have a

00:39:48
very successful campaign there was last year wasn't it looking

00:39:52
at the the amount of squid fishing that was happening over

00:39:54
the Chinese fleets? Yeah, I mean, poor old Galapagus like

00:39:57
one of the most beautiful places on the planet that desperately

00:39:59
needs To be preserved, and its waters just getting plundered,

00:40:02
and then C Sharp has been operating in that area. We've

00:40:04
had campaigns based campaigns over there years ago, like 20

00:40:08
years ago, it's definitely a place of note for us. It's just

00:40:11
really about how we can organise our campaigns to work with local

00:40:16
government and to be as effective as possible. But yeah,

00:40:19
I mean, I hope so I think one thing that I wanted to touch on

00:40:22
as well, that came out of it was highlighted in that that

00:40:25
campaign, and for me was another big reason why I joined Sea

00:40:28
Shepherd is also like, what people don't realise is it's not

00:40:32
just the amount of plundering of the oceans, but it's the actual

00:40:35
human trafficking and slavery that's happening on these

00:40:39
enormous vessels. So that one of the big flip points for me was

00:40:43
that the first time I went down to Sea Shepherd as an onshore

00:40:46
volunteer, and I saw a little clip of a campaign they've done

00:40:48
in Antarctica, where they found a vessel that was fishing

00:40:52
illegally for something called the to fish. And it was run by a

00:40:56
group of criminals from Spain, actually, but their entire crew

00:41:00
were from Indonesia. And when Sea Shepherd eventually chased

00:41:04
them and told them to go to port. And they did and the

00:41:06
captain scuttled on his own vessel, that vessel, there's a

00:41:08
great documentary called Chasing the thunder, you can watch it

00:41:10
learn about that, we had to bring all of these people on

00:41:13
board our vessel, and that they were in, you know, just grateful

00:41:16
to get off, like the conditions that a lot of these people are

00:41:19
captain, and it's just horrific. And I know Greenpeace has been

00:41:22
doing a lot of work in that area. You know, they take people

00:41:26
often illegally, they take their passports, often when they come

00:41:28
on board. And these people can be trapped on board these

00:41:31
vessels for you know, 789 years, these vessels don't go to port,

00:41:35
they have other refuelling vessels that come out to them.

00:41:37
And they're literally kept as slaves. And I think people

00:41:39
think, oh, that doesn't happen anymore. But the amount of human

00:41:42
trafficking that's happening in the in the global fishing

00:41:45
industry is absolutely disgusting. And you know, when

00:41:48
that the Chinese vessels were approached by the Sea Shepherd

00:41:52
volunteers, I don't know if you caught that. But our volunteers

00:41:54
went over, and we're talking to them. And what this is July

00:41:58
2021, and one of the things that they asked our volunteers was

00:42:02
has COVID left China, because they they had left China so long

00:42:06
ago, they didn't even know they had no access to media, they had

00:42:09
no access to the outside world, they had no idea that the global

00:42:12
pandemic had even taken place. And you just think that's

00:42:15
horrific. Like even if you don't care about the oceans, if you

00:42:18
care about people, you should you should be, you should be

00:42:21
avoiding these organisations that you just don't realise you

00:42:24
go and get a can of tuna from the supermarket, like the impact

00:42:27
on the planet and the impact on humans is so colossal behind the

00:42:30
scenes are just really urge people to find out more about

00:42:32
what's going on there. Because that was that was a huge thing

00:42:35
for me as well, just to think about how horrible that must be

00:42:38
for those poor people trapped on those vessels for years and

00:42:40
years leave their family behind. And you know, if you get sick,

00:42:44
or if you break an arm, in you're of no use. They're just

00:42:46
chuck you overboard, because you're not registered anywhere,

00:42:48
you're illegal. And the New York Times did an investigation into

00:42:51
the number of humans just chucked overboard vessels. And

00:42:54
there was absolutely staggering the estimation of people that

00:42:56
have just been camped because they weren't helpful. You know,

00:42:59
I just think that that just blew blows my mind that that kind of

00:43:02
stuff happens in this day and age people just don't know about

00:43:04
it.

00:43:04
Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah. I was listening to Joe Rogan,

00:43:06
literally yesterday on the way back from Canberra. And one of

00:43:10
the comments, or one of the parts of that discussion was

00:43:12
about global slavery. And there's like nine and a half

00:43:15
million people estimated across the globe that are still slaves.

00:43:20
Producer of Scuba GOAT: Yeah. And I think that that, like you

00:43:22
said, I think it's about getting the information out there. But

00:43:26
yeah, it's about delivering in a way that will actually make

00:43:29
people try and change what they're doing, and not just go,

00:43:32
oh, that's crap, and then get on with their day. You know, that

00:43:34
doesn't affect me. So yeah, it

00:43:36
Matt Waters: doesn't affect me. So I'll just completely or, you

00:43:38
know,

00:43:38
Producer of Scuba GOAT: I would like to buy my clothing from an

00:43:40
ethical store, but it's quite expensive. So I'm just gonna go

00:43:43
to Kmart and buy some cheap crap and throw it in the bin in a

00:43:45
week. You know, it's always kind of things that in society, so we

00:43:48
need to change. Yeah.

00:43:50
Matt Waters: Okay, I'm gonna take a quick run to the bathroom

00:43:53
break. Sure. I'll be back.

00:43:57
Producer of Scuba GOAT: Yeah, that's crazy that slavery people

00:44:00
trafficking stuff isn't like this just seriously. So sad.

00:44:03
I'll think about it because you get to rest about the world and

00:44:06
you end up doing nothing. And I think that's the big issue

00:44:07
as well. Yeah, you just get overwhelmed. You know, I think

00:44:10
I've chosen it. My path has been ocean conservation. But there's

00:44:13
a big crossover between Sea Shepherd cruise and the sea

00:44:17
watch cruise. I don't know if you've heard about them, but

00:44:19
they're at work in the Mediterranean, rescuing

00:44:21
immigrants coming over from Africa trying to get into

00:44:24
Europe. And you know, I just think God, like how much

00:44:27
compassion can you have? Like, I feel like I can't even cope with

00:44:30
the amount of trauma that I'm witnessing, doing my Sea

00:44:33
Shepherd stuff to then deal with, you know, what's happening

00:44:36
in immigration, what's happening and women's rights, what's

00:44:39
happening in LGBTQI rights. It's just so overwhelming. There's so

00:44:42
many things that we should be passionate about, and I think

00:44:47
that's the problem people just get, they just get asked or to,

00:44:49
it's all too much. So I'm not going to do anything. But you

00:44:52
know, start with one thing or occasionally catch the train

00:44:56
to Chatswood which is Got a big shopping centre to train

00:45:00
stations down. And just a homeless people lined up along

00:45:03
the Mall there yet enough to just break your heart interface?

00:45:07
Yeah, it's unconscionable. You can't imagine how we've managed

00:45:11
to how have we got to this point? It goes

00:45:15
Matt Waters: back LME,

00:45:16
Producer of Scuba GOAT: if we were depressed before ever go

00:45:19
into the

00:45:22
Matt Waters: well, you just been talking about I heard homeless

00:45:24
people.

00:45:25
Producer of Scuba GOAT: Were just talking about just being

00:45:27
overwhelmed by the number of things in the world there are to

00:45:30
be brokenhearted about Yeah. From right outside your own

00:45:34
front door to what Kate's talking about with people

00:45:36
travelling or just getting chucked overboard on the ship,

00:45:38
because they no longer seem to have any value. Yeah, like

00:45:40
really? When did that just become Yeah, exactly. How

00:45:43
Matt Waters: is the training allowed? Or? Well, it's shut up.

00:45:46
Producer of Scuba GOAT: You know, the other thing they do

00:45:47
that's really terrifying is they have they have inspectors come

00:45:51
on board to inspect the catch or whatever. And Greenpeace have

00:45:55
got some incredibly scary footage of you see all this

00:45:59
footage of them at nighttime, sort of bumbling around on the

00:46:02
deck. And then they'll sit on the side of the deck and they

00:46:04
fall overboard. And they basically poison them. And then

00:46:07
they're just like, they're just wigging out and they're just

00:46:09
completely disoriented. And they fall off the side of the ship.

00:46:12
And then the ship will record it as like an accidental or there

00:46:15
must have fallen overboard. But they're like deliberately

00:46:18
killing these inspectors so they can get away with catching

00:46:21
whatever they want. Like it's so dark, like, yeah, exactly that

00:46:24
how do we get to this point where human life is just so so

00:46:28
replaceable? It's so heavy. Sorry, it's not very

00:46:33
marketable. Several federal Australian governments have been

00:46:37
have been elected in the last two decades, on a policy of turn

00:46:41
back the boats, and how people out in the UK are specialising

00:46:47
in it. Now they've taken a leaf out of Australia, and there are

00:46:50
votes in it. 1000s and 1000s of votes.

00:46:53
Kate Parker: I'm still scaring, what

00:46:54
Producer of Scuba GOAT: twenty years ago, when there was a

00:46:55
massive, I think it was bigger might have been an earthquake in

00:46:58
Afghanistan. And my boss at the time, people were saying we

00:47:00
should be taking all these refugees, these people who have

00:47:02
been affected? No, no, don't let them in if you let them in.

00:47:05
Don't ever leave. Do you understand the human tragedy

00:47:09
that's unfolding? What's actually happening to people?

00:47:11
Yeah, people just separate themselves from that. It's just

00:47:15
a massive humanity over there. It's not real. It's just people.

00:47:19
So they cut their pinky finger. And it's a tragedy that we go to

00:47:23
the emergency department of good, don't get treated. trover

00:47:25
straightaway, cannot just don't have the empathy to understand

00:47:29
that other human beings have the same feelings as the rest of us.

00:47:33
It's quite terrifying.

00:47:34
Matt Waters: Yeah. And I think it's that, you know, you turn a

00:47:37
blind eye and it's ignorance, isn't it?

00:47:39
Producer of Scuba GOAT: It partly is. But it's also partly

00:47:41
what Kate and I were just saying, there comes a point

00:47:43
where you just can't, you've got no more to give, you can't

00:47:47
affect it. I'm going to chat with your water, you see the

00:47:49
homeless people, and you think this is amazing. It's terrible.

00:47:51
It's awful. And then you realise there's nothing you can do about

00:47:55
it. Unless you change your entire life to vote. And even

00:47:59
then, you know, because you know, people who've done that

00:48:01
your impact will be minimal. And so you end up in this conundrum

00:48:05
of well, us in the first world just by being alive, we make it

00:48:09
awful for an awful lot of people. Yeah, just by being

00:48:12
here. Yeah. By being able to go to calls and buy food. Yeah. To

00:48:15
buy like you said, the tinned tuna. Yeah, but I hate this

00:48:18
stuff. But not because I have any great moral thing. I don't

00:48:21
like tuna. If I did, I probably would not take it and all of the

00:48:26
things that are involved, and I don't know how you change it,

00:48:30
change it.

00:48:31
Matt Waters: That's it. And that's the difficult bit is how

00:48:33
do we change it? And it's, I think it's an impossible feat.

00:48:37
And that's why I'm leaning more towards the world is fucked.

00:48:41
Quite frankly, it is fucked. But it's, it's, it's how long have

00:48:45
we got until it gets to that point where, you know, everyone

00:48:48
walking around like it's a scene of Halo or Star Wars when

00:48:52
there's no natural world left, and it's just desert? Yeah, I

00:48:56
think it's somewhere in our future. It's somewhere over the

00:48:59
next couple of 100 years. We didn't know and the first one

00:49:03
that's going to go is the aquatic world. Unfortunately, but

00:49:08
Producer of Scuba GOAT: you know, as well as I do, there are

00:49:09
people in the world smart. I know people who are intelligent,

00:49:11
because I've known him for a long time who genuinely believe

00:49:13
that climate change is a hoax. issue. There are no problems

00:49:18
humans do not cause any issues just by being alive. I think

00:49:23
there is

00:49:24
Matt Waters: it's just insanity. But again, I mean, I'm bringing

00:49:28
it back around the politicians but I mean, they're just to

00:49:30
protect their own assets for the next four years and protect

00:49:33
their jobs. And they're told by in fact, is one for you, Kate.

00:49:38
You guys keep I might actually keep you in this. In this

00:49:42
episode. Robert, is one for the DPI Department of Primary

00:49:48
Industries. They're really starting to piss me off. They

00:49:55
come out with all of this social media stuff about all the

00:49:58
greatness that they're doing. In. And so those people who

00:50:02
don't know that the guy that got attacked and killed in Sydney

00:50:06
last month was was my bestie. Here in Australia, Simon Ellis

00:50:09
bless him. No, and within 23 hours of that occurring, they're

00:50:16
putting in drumlines all up and down the coast. And those drum

00:50:21
lines are still going in. I saw a post about it last week, and

00:50:25
it was almost like a post of pride when putting drum lines in

00:50:29
to deter that was the word I saw was to deter sharks. How the

00:50:35
fuck does a big hook with a big slab of meat on it deter a

00:50:39
shark? It is where humans are interacting in the water.

00:50:44
Producer of Scuba GOAT: It is absolutely wild. Like, excuse

00:50:47
me, it is wild i that campaign. I mean, you must have talked

00:50:52
about this a lot with John Oh, and he absolutely would be the

00:50:55
fountain of all knowledge with that campaign. But I did I did

00:50:58
go up and go out on Apex harmony with Olga on greatness as part

00:51:02
of APEX harmony with John Oh, and I learned a bit about it

00:51:04
there. And I knew I knew some of the backstory. But when I

00:51:08
actually saw it with my eyes, it is unbelievable that anyone

00:51:12
could imagine that a pissy little few few metres long net,

00:51:16
or you know, that's, you know, on a stretch of beach that's

00:51:21
hundreds of kilometres wide, is going to do anything to deter a

00:51:24
shark and drum lines that are baited are only going to bring

00:51:29
sharks in. And I knew that that was existing, and I thought it

00:51:33
was wild anyway. But when I saw like actually how close those

00:51:36
drum lines asked the shore, we drove along them. And you can

00:51:39
see the kids playing. You can see everyone's down at the beach

00:51:41
having a great time. You can swim out to those drum lines.

00:51:43
They're not far off shore. And they're baited and supposed to

00:51:47
catch these like predatory sharks, which is the rhetoric

00:51:50
that they seem to have that like there's these evil sharks that

00:51:52
are going around attacking humans, which is all bullshit.

00:51:56
The whole thing is just so frustrating how Jonno hasn't

00:51:59
just lost his mind over it. I don't know. Because yeah, that

00:52:02
is one of the most weirdest situations that the government

00:52:05
is spruiking. This idea that these these lions that are

00:52:08
baited are somehow going to stop all sharks from coming in no. So

00:52:13
going to attract sharks or is going to attract small animals

00:52:15
that get caught on the hooks that then attract sharks. So

00:52:18
then we're just killing more animals. We're bringing more

00:52:19
sharks close to shore, more shark attacks are going to be

00:52:22
happening, that pissy little net is not going to stop anything.

00:52:25
In fact, I was hearing the other day, some statistics around most

00:52:28
of the sharks caught are caught on the way out there actually

00:52:31
swimming out to sea. They've already been in closer to shore,

00:52:34
and they're getting tangled on the way out is catching whales.

00:52:37
You know, it is so insane. I just don't know what the

00:52:40
government's rationale is for that. And also the public's

00:52:43
perception of how that could possibly do anything to protect

00:52:47
them. I just Yes. Wow.

00:52:49
Matt Waters: Well, I call them out. I've done it several times.

00:52:51
Now. I've called them out on their social media posts and

00:52:54
said, Look, I do disagree with the shard notes. I disagree

00:52:59
vehemently with the beta drumlines. And we can go down

00:53:03
that road because it's it you know, it's controlled by

00:53:08
fishermen. And you know, I had some fool trying comments on me

00:53:12
the other day trying to try to tell me that it was it was

00:53:17
correct. And all the sharks that are caught her take him back out

00:53:21
to sea safely and released and they're unharmed. And I Dude,

00:53:26
you're a fool. Don't believe what you see on Facebook. I've

00:53:29
not read it on Facebook. I've seen the report, clearly. All

00:53:32
right. Have you seen the videos that we've got out there that

00:53:35
sharks been dragged in reverse for over a kilometre the dead by

00:53:39
the time anyway. And I call them out? And I say look, dudes, I

00:53:44
might be against it. But I'd much prefer if you came on

00:53:48
something like this, like the podcast and just had an open

00:53:52
discussion. So I could try and understand where you guys are

00:53:57
coming from. Because it happened back to Simon when when Simon

00:54:03
passed. We went out on the police boat to the scene. And

00:54:09
there was a new copper in charge that was on the boat. weather's

00:54:11
really nice fella. But this this topic of discussion came up

00:54:17
briefly. And I shut him down because he'd been given the

00:54:20
party line from the DPI that they're doing the right thing

00:54:23
when in fact, I don't believe they are. And I think the thing

00:54:27
that's driving it is a the politicians protecting their ass

00:54:30
for the next four years because they want the job still. And the

00:54:33
money that comes with it. All the jobs that come with the

00:54:37
shark nets and drum lines, all the fishermen that are getting

00:54:39
paid to go out and do this stuff. The fact that they're

00:54:42
putting out smart drum, there's no smart drum line. Yes, it

00:54:45
might it might tickle like a, you know, an alarm when there's

00:54:48
something on there. But then you've got to rely on the

00:54:50
individual to get out of his bed to get on a boat to go and deal

00:54:53
with the situation. And as we know, from discussions with

00:54:56
Johnny, he doesn't know if someone doesn't want to go out

00:54:59
on In the water to release a shark, they don't do it now.

00:55:02
Producer of Scuba G: Absolutely. And you're right like that the

00:55:04
amount of money that's been made these fishermen, I don't know if

00:55:07
there's a documentary called, that was one of the apex ones I

00:55:10
can't remember off the top of my head. But shark call envoy will

00:55:14
talk about it, you know, they're getting 1000s and 1000s of

00:55:16
dollars to go and do this, it is a legal call. And you're

00:55:20
absolutely right, I saw it with my own eyes, we were checking,

00:55:23
we went around the corner and saw the drum lines, and there

00:55:25
was the government official boat, whatever, fishermen, and

00:55:28
they pulled on a tiger shark, pulled it onboard the vessel.

00:55:32
And we followed them and we were going to document they take them

00:55:36
out far out to the deeper ocean or whatever released. And John,

00:55:41
I was speeding along, trying to catch up with them and follow

00:55:44
them. And I was getting ready with my freedive fins and a

00:55:46
camera and I was gonna jump in the water and try and document

00:55:48
it. And they they literally, they whipped that boat around so

00:55:52
fast open side door, dumped the shark, and it sank before I

00:55:56
could even get in the water. And Gianna explained, you know that

00:55:59
they often will just kind of disassembled them on the way out

00:56:02
there so that they just will get in the water and sink. And then

00:56:05
all that evidence is destroyed. So so it's all hidden. And and

00:56:10
going back to what you're saying there about those reports, you

00:56:12
know, yeah, sure. There are reports out there. But it's like

00:56:15
this happens across everything. This is what's happened with all

00:56:17
of the COVID pandemic, you know, who's writing these reports.

00:56:21
It's like, there was a report that came out that said, the

00:56:23
eggs are healthy, but it was commissioned by McDonald's or

00:56:25
whatever. Like, if someone's writing a report saying that all

00:56:27
these things are like good practice, chances are it's been

00:56:30
commissioned by the people who were invested in making sure you

00:56:33
believe that it's good practice. So, you know, yeah, that those

00:56:36
reports might exist. The Japanese brought out a report

00:56:39
saying that all of this killing of the whales they did in

00:56:41
Antarctica was scientific research. And the report stated

00:56:44
that whales like to eat krill? Well, we know that from looking

00:56:47
at whales, we don't need report, you don't need to cut them all

00:56:48
open and say that, like there's so much bullshit reports out

00:56:51
there. Just because it's a scientific report doesn't mean

00:56:53
that it's a valid reason to do something. So yeah, I think

00:56:57
that's a problem as well that people hang on to that, like,

00:57:00
Oh, I've got this evidence, I've got this piece of knowledge.

00:57:02
I've got this scientific base evidence report, but it's it's

00:57:05
bullshit report anyway, that was put out just to, to make you

00:57:09
believe that what you're doing, which you probably do don't

00:57:11
know, as you know, is wrong, is okay.

00:57:15
Matt Waters: Well, it's a form of propaganda, isn't it, because

00:57:17
what I did notice with the DPI is that, you know, like on

00:57:22
Facebook, you can put the X symbol and then tag someone in a

00:57:25
post, you can't tag the DPI in a comment. So clearly, they don't

00:57:29
need to read the comments that they probably don't bother. But

00:57:33
they're all about tagging sharks, but you can't tag them

00:57:36
to have an open and frank discussion or invite them on

00:57:38
something like this show to, you know, put the point across so

00:57:41
that we get both sides of the story. Because at the moment,

00:57:44
the only story we've got is from the activists and the people

00:57:48
that are looking in. So why not come on the show like this and

00:57:53
present your findings to normal people, not politicians. And we

00:57:58
can have a balanced debate about what's going on and try and make

00:58:01
sense of it. If at the moment, I don't see any sense in it

00:58:05
whatsoever. It's ludicrous,

00:58:07
Producer of Scuba GO: especially when there's so Okay, so there's

00:58:08
so many other sharp mitigation devices that are non lethal out

00:58:11
there. There's so much research and work going into that but

00:58:14
also you know, as a as an ocean lover, you have to understand

00:58:19
that you are going into that that animals home like you know

00:58:22
that and I think often the surf community they're really great

00:58:25
advocates for sharks and even when their fellow surfers have

00:58:28
been bitten and God forbid you know in a fatal attack the first

00:58:32
ones to stand up and say we understand the risks that we're

00:58:34
taking when we go into the ocean so we do everything we can to

00:58:37
mitigate that risk but we're not going to just go out there and

00:58:39
like randomly call things you know it's like people have such

00:58:42
a massive hoo ha when when people are killing rhinoceros

00:58:45
and things in the savannas in Africa but somehow killing

00:58:49
sharks just I don't know that there's something in the in the

00:58:52
psyche of the public. And I I do run into this a lot with my

00:58:56
friends you know, even friends here in Melbourne who are too

00:58:58
afraid to get into the water at St Kilda Marina because they're

00:59:00
scared of sharks. It's like how have you got this like image in

00:59:05
your mind that they're all these blood thirsty, murderous, like

00:59:08
human hating killers. I know JAWS has got a lot to answer for

00:59:11
in that way but it's I don't know the whole the whole sharp

00:59:15
thing It blows my mind because anyone who actually understands

00:59:17
sharks and dives with sharks and and gets how beautiful they are

00:59:20
how curious they are and and of course yet they can't they can

00:59:24
be dangerous but lots of ocean lovers understand the risks in

00:59:29
being around those kinds of sharks and accept them and and

00:59:32
also how punitive and pointless it is just trying to call sharks

00:59:36
like as if that's gonna work. Because like, I don't know

00:59:39
starting in a garden and killing babies because you think you're

00:59:41
gonna kill a whole lot of businesses that have no it just

00:59:43
it's just ludicrous. It doesn't make any sense at all.

00:59:47
Matt Waters: went on a little rant rage is good. But on a

00:59:52
serious note DPI if anyone from the DPI is listening, just get

00:59:54
in touch come on the show. Let's have a debate about it.

00:59:57
Absolutely not gonna bite your head off. Yeah. Now let's let's

01:00:02
change the subject a little bit like, tell me about this. This

01:00:06
this organisation of yours the daughters of a deep, it's a

01:00:09
charity or foundation.

01:00:11
Producer of Scuba GOAT: Charity. Yeah, we have, we're very much

01:00:14
in our infancy. But we've managed to achieve quite a lot

01:00:17
in our first year we launched on World Oceans Day last year. So,

01:00:21
yeah, pretty chuffed with what we've managed to achieve. So our

01:00:25
original goal was around funding women who might not have the

01:00:31
economical or cultural societal support to get into diving. And

01:00:36
so we were thinking about just kind of paying for the paddy

01:00:39
certificates and helping women get into that diving workforce

01:00:43
that could maybe go into conservation, diving and things

01:00:45
like that. That was sort of our starting point. But it's evolved

01:00:48
into looking at gender inequality across all marine

01:00:52
industries and across all parts of the world as well. So whilst

01:00:55
we were sort of originally targeting places like Nicaragua,

01:00:58
and Thailand and Indonesia, and Madagascar as supporting women

01:01:02
to get into a marine industry financially, there are

01:01:06
discrepancies and things like the number of women that are

01:01:09
overlooked to get research grants into scientific Marine

01:01:12
Base research, or even just the kind of societal impact

01:01:17
implications of having a female captain on a boat, or a female

01:01:21
commercial diver. All of those things, you know, this, this

01:01:24
exists across all industries, but trying to kind of highlight

01:01:27
women in those industries to promote it as as more accessible

01:01:31
for women and to try and address that imbalance, but also

01:01:34
fundraising to support women around the world who aren't able

01:01:37
to access those industries themselves. So we have various

01:01:40
projects on the go. Our first one was in Madagascar. And with

01:01:44
donations that we got through through very kinda daters and

01:01:48
also selling our merchandise. We managed to fund a girl in

01:01:52
Madagascar to go to high school, and she wants to become a marine

01:01:56
biologist. And she's now partnered with a dive school

01:01:59
that we're partnered with, and they've given her internship and

01:02:01
they're teaching her how to dive. And in that part of the

01:02:04
world, I didn't know this until we launched this charity, but

01:02:08
young women who don't have the financial resources to go to

01:02:11
school, are often married off quite young, often to

01:02:14
foreigners, as a way of bringing in money to the family. So by

01:02:20
supporting her to go to school, we, you know, took her away from

01:02:23
that situation in which he probably would have just ended

01:02:25
up being married off quite young. So we started that

01:02:28
project, we've now funded a second woman over there. And now

01:02:32
we're looking at we've got internships happening in

01:02:35
Thailand, where we're sponsoring local Thai women to become dive

01:02:38
instructors. And we've got various other projects that

01:02:41
we're looking to launch over the next year. So it's been amazing.

01:02:44
We're registered in Europe and in the Americas, and over here

01:02:48
in Australia, and we've had a really positive support and just

01:02:50
in friends buying our merchandise and things like

01:02:52
that, and I'm just super excited to see where we're going to

01:02:55
where we're going to go like one day, it'd be cool if we had

01:02:57
doors with the deep dive schools where we could, you know, take

01:03:00
the local community women in and and teach them to dive but so

01:03:03
we're mostly at that sort of fundraising and awareness stage.

01:03:07
And then partnering with organisations on the ground,

01:03:09
we're just about to launch some work in Melanesia, as well. So

01:03:13
you can check out our social media for that one, because I

01:03:15
don't think it's launched just yet. But yeah, it's just been a

01:03:18
really interesting process of did a lot of interviewing with

01:03:22
women working in those industries as well. And that was

01:03:26
really eye opening, and often quite sad hearing some of the

01:03:30
stories around, you know, sexism, sexism that occurs for

01:03:34
women in those industries to this day. So yeah, we're sort of

01:03:38
like advocating and showcasing women in those industries, just

01:03:44
to try and you know, make it more more of a balanced

01:03:48
workforce, I suppose. Yeah.

01:03:50
Matt Waters: You should maybe have a chat with Andy Lewis

01:03:53
foundation. Oh, yeah. Because he's, he founded the see woman

01:03:56
of Melanesia. Yeah. And that one does really well. And it's, it's

01:04:01
much it's very much in line with what you're talking about there.

01:04:04
Because the ladies up there in Papua New Guinea, under his

01:04:08
watch, are out doing all the coral research and it's

01:04:12
fantastic. He's he's had several awards for it. Yeah.

01:04:15
Producer of Scuba GOAT: Amazing. Yeah, we'll keep an eye on our

01:04:17
social media.

01:04:21
Matt Waters: So what's what's next for you? I know that you're

01:04:23
shipping out soon. Yeah.

01:04:24
Producer of Scuba GOAT: Yeah, correct. Next week, I'm back

01:04:26
over to Mexico to join the ship. Which I'm very excited about be

01:04:31
out there for three months, and it'd be my first time in the

01:04:34
bridge. So I've always traditionally been in the deck

01:04:36
team. So first time as an officer, so then let me drive

01:04:39
the boat. So very, very excited slash terrified out of it. Yeah.

01:04:43
Yeah, I know. Crazy. So yeah, super excited to do that. So

01:04:49
I'll be out in Mexico for the next few months. And then yeah,

01:04:52
come back and get on with my speech pathology work for the

01:04:55
rest of the year and come back and continue doing my postcard

01:04:58
work and hopefully Get some more dollars, the deep programmes off

01:05:01
the ground.

01:05:02
Matt Waters: Yeah. So how does that just go back to the boat

01:05:04
there? How does the hierarchy work on the boat?

01:05:07
Producer of Scuba GOAT: So well, we just have different

01:05:08
departments. And then we have some department heads. So I was

01:05:12
in the deck deck department. And then the head of the deck is the

01:05:15
boson. And then we have the bridge department had been the

01:05:19
captain. And we have the engineering team that had been

01:05:21
the chief. So I did, I think five or six campaigns in the

01:05:25
deck team. And then last year, I went in as boson. And then this,

01:05:29
I'm going in to the bridge team. So I'm just a second mate, then

01:05:32
as a first mate, and then as the captain. So I don't know, like

01:05:35
we're all sort of have our own, obviously the captain's right at

01:05:38
the top there, and the chief and the boson and then we all sit

01:05:41
underneath our differences. We also have a media team and a

01:05:44
chef as well. So like as you would know, on boats, it is a

01:05:47
hierarchical structure. And it's Captain's orders, obviously, are

01:05:51
always what we follow. But obviously, we're also an

01:05:54
organisation and we you know, we can have internal conversations

01:05:57
around what we're doing. But yeah, it is it is Captain's

01:06:01
orders, which we will follow in terms of what we're actually

01:06:04
doing day to day on the boat. Yeah.

01:06:06
Matt Waters: As a restructure to each day, or is it very much

01:06:08
flexible, depending on kind of information that's coming in?

01:06:11
Producer of Scuba GOAT: Yeah, absolutely. So each day is

01:06:13
different. And each campaign is different. So for example, in

01:06:15
Antarctica, you know, it was, I think, a month and a half, maybe

01:06:19
two months of just searching for the whaling fleet. Very, very

01:06:23
frustrating, we launched our helicopter, at least twice a

01:06:26
day. And every time the captain of the helicopter came and

01:06:29
landed, you know, we'd look at his face and know that you

01:06:32
hadn't found them. And we'd all be disappointed, then

01:06:34
eventually, we found them. And then we chased them and etc. So

01:06:37
that that's sort of how that campaign is. And I should

01:06:39
imagine that African ones as well as a lot of patrol and

01:06:41
patrolling, patrolling, and then boom, you find the ship. And

01:06:43
then it's all systems go. The one in Mexico is probably daily,

01:06:49
seeing the poachers putting their nets in the water,

01:06:51
recording where their nets are, and then hauling them out of

01:06:53
water. So each day is a combination of kind of

01:06:57
patrolling and noting down and retrieving nets and dealing with

01:07:01
whatever's come in on the nets. And yeah, it can be totally

01:07:06
different, like the deck team have very much that structure,

01:07:08
sort of nine to five type structure. Whereas the bridge

01:07:12
and the engineering team are four hours on eight hours off 24

01:07:15
hours a day, because they are constantly have to check the

01:07:17
engines and constantly have to be on watching the bridge. So

01:07:20
yeah, it totally depends what you're doing and what the at

01:07:23
what stage the campaign is. Obviously, transit is very

01:07:26
different again, because we're just going somewhere, but yeah,

01:07:29
so it can be it can be varied. Suddenly, it's always busy, and

01:07:32
we don't get days off. So it's, it's it's never a dull moment,

01:07:37
for sure.

01:07:38
Matt Waters: Sounds good? Well, I think well, we'll wrap it up

01:07:42
there, Kate, and let you get on with packing for. It's a is

01:07:48
there any particular way that people can follow the activities

01:07:50
that you're going to be involved with?

01:07:51
Producer of Scuba GOAT: Yeah, absolutely. So you can jump on

01:07:54
our Sea Shepherd Conservation Society pages to follow that

01:07:57
campaign for the logro. You can jump on Daughters of the

01:08:01
deep.org to follow what we're doing there. Or you can see some

01:08:05
of the work through the Coast Guard on AV CGA of the

01:08:10
Australian volunteer Coast Guard Association pages. Yeah, follow

01:08:14
along, see what we're getting up to there. When posting out on

01:08:16
our social media accounts. They're

01:08:18
Matt Waters: awesome sauce. When you get back, give me a shout.

01:08:21
And then you can come back on online and give us an update of

01:08:24
all the fun stuff that you saw. And

01:08:25
Kate Parker: you've got to come down for a dive

01:08:28
Matt Waters: on though right? After wait until you get back.

01:08:30
In fact, buddy, hell, it's gonna be winter when you get maybe

01:08:33
maybe in the spring, or spring.

01:08:35
Producer of Scuba GOAT: That sounds better. Yeah. Thank you

01:08:38
so much for giving me the opportunity to talk about all

01:08:41
these things as well. It's always nice to be able to share

01:08:44
the work that we're doing. So I'm super grateful. Thank you so

01:08:46
much for inviting me on.

01:08:47
Matt Waters: It's been an absolute pleasure. And like I

01:08:49
say you're more than welcome to come on again. I look forward to

01:08:51
hearing all the good stuff that you've done over there. Thank

01:08:55
you. No worries. Thanks for tuning in everybody. Bye bye for

01:08:58
now.