World Ocean Radio

Each year during the holidays, longtime World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill reads "At The Fishhouses", a poem by Elizabeth Bishop. This is a perennial favorite of ours because of its succinct distillation of Bishop's seaside meditations, the evocation of the clarity of meaning contained in personal encounters with the world ocean, and its profound relevance for the New Year. Our very best wishes to you from all of us here at the World Ocean Observatory.

This week on World Ocean Radio we have a special reading of "Christmas at Sea", an evocative poem by Robert Louis Stevenson written in 1883. Stevenson, the son of a lighthouse engineer, had intimate knowledge of nor'westers... Merry Christmas to all from the World Ocean Observatory.

This week on World Ocean Radio we explore the lessons of the ocean and the concept of adversity: adversity at sea due to weather, unpredictability, wind, tide, and waves, adversity among a ship's crew, and adversity caused by racism and inequity.

This week on World Ocean Radio we tell a tale of two cities--Newtok, Alaska (pop. 380) and Jakarta, Indonesia (pop. 30 mil)--6,000 miles apart yet facing similar realities of turmoil and social uncertainty due to fresh water stress and the myriad disruptive consequences of climate change.

How many ways do we hear the sound of water? In this episode of World Ocean Radio we explore water, the most essential element on earth, and the ways that we need it to thrive and survive, to nourish our bodies and our souls, and to sustain our families and our communities.

Fish markets are the noisy, colorful, exiting, authentic and lively centers of any coastal city, the place where mongers and customers, tourists and workers, auctioneers and bidders go to trade in the bounty of the sea. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we celebrate the allure of such places of commerce and connection, and their place in history and modern life.

In this episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill reflects on the coming of winter and the collection of the last of the harvest to sustain us--and Nature's creatures--through the cold and into the spring. And he muses on the correspondent seasonal changes that occur in the maritime world: the shifts in the ocean that vary from the temperature of the water to the distribution of elements in the food chain to the migration of ocean species.

A scientific paper published in May 2019 states that eight urgent, simultaneous actions are needed to head off potential ecological disaster in the global ocean. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss the questions and priority actions laid out in the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) report and the warning contained therein that failure to act within the next ten years to halt the damage caused by human activities could result in catastrophic change to how the world ocean functions and pose imminent threats to vital ocean ecosystems.

This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill reflects on the magic of water and the ways it defines our urban spaces. This episode focuses on Tokyo and its network of often unseen and forgotten rivers, streams and canals, and a budding plan for their restoration and revival.

Increasingly, people around the world are experiencing a fresh water crisis. More than 17 countries are under high water stress, and one fourth of the world's population faces running out of water. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss the ramifications of continued and increased disruption if we cannot solve the water supply crisis through local action, conservation, protection, infrastructure improvements, and regulatory enforcement.

There has never been a better time to become a citizen scientist: curious individuals interested in collecting data to build toward solutions, expanding public awareness and to help develop concrete actions for the protection of the ocean. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we list some interesting examples of ocean science initiatives for the curious at heart: from penguins to clouds, phytoplankton to whales, and many other fascinating features of the ocean world.

How do we describe the relationship between human society and nature? This week on World Ocean Radio we discuss what it means to be a stakeholder, and how the word itself has evolved from one of business, ownership and investment to that the larger context of environmentalism and ecological connection. We argue that we must understand the interactions between humanity and natural systems, using collaboration, partnership and integration if we are to invent a new way forward toward a sustainable future.

This week on World Ocean Radio we conclude our four-part series devoted to "The Outlaw Ocean", a new book by award-winning New York Times investigative journalist Ian Urbina. In this episode we ask, "After four years of reporting across the world on vivid and corrupt aspects of the ocean, what comes next? What conclusions can be made? How can we apply what is to be learned from this remarkable adventure?"

This week on World Ocean Radio we offer part three of a four-part series devoted to "The Outlaw Ocean", a new book by award-winning New York Times investigative journalist Ian Urbina. In this episode we discuss the crime of ocean dumping--oil and waste, spent munitions, nuclear material, malfeasance in the cruise ship industry, plastics and airborne pollutants such as mercury and carbon dioxide.

This week on World Ocean Radio we offer part two of a four-part series devoted to "The Outlaw Ocean," a new book by award-winning New York Times investigative journalist Ian Urbina. In this episode we discuss the potential for corruption not only at sea but at the many ports around the world. More than 90% of the world's goods are carried to market by sea, and bribery in ports adds hundreds of millions of dollars each year in unofficial import taxes and transport costs.