Naked Oceans Return to the Airwaves

Naked Oceans presenter, Dr Helen Scales, interviewing founder of the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre, Steve Hartley (photo credit Ivan Scales).

This autumn sees Naked Oceans hit the airways once again with their unique blend of science, conservation, and oceanlife in a second series of monthly podcasts funded by the Save Our Seas Foundation.

Hosted by the lively science duo, Dr Helen Scales and Sarah Castor-Perry, Naked Oceans is a fun and informative radio show dedicated to spreading the word about the beauty, vulnerability, and importance of the seas and sealife.

Naked Oceans is the perfect source of ocean information and entertainment for scuba divers, surfers, sailors, beach goers, students, researchers, conservationists, and anyone with a general interest in science and the natural world. And being an audio podcast, Naked Oceans is ideal ocean accompaniment to a daily commute or gym session.

Now an established part in the mainstream ‘podosphere’, the half-hour podcast features in-studio discussion of marine research breakthroughs and cutting-edge conservation issues alongside interviews with top marine experts from around the world that spotlight a particular ocean topic each month.

Listeners can get in touch with the show via email and Twitter, and via a dedicated marine section of the Naked Scientists’ online forum where they can ask questions, discuss ideas and give feedback.

Naked Oceans series 2 launched with a one-hour special on The Naked Scientists BBC radio show – Naked Oceans’ parent organization and award winning science broadcasters based at the University of Cambridge – featuring Helen and Sarah’s top picks from series 1 and an exclusive “behind the scenes” glimpse into how the series is made.

In September, Naked Oceans dived into the world of whales and whale hunting. Helen visited the headquarters of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to find out if there is such a thing as sustainable whale hunting and whether we are likely to see a return to commercial whaling in the future.

And Sarah talked to Dinah Molloy Thompson from the Scott Polar Research Institute to find out how whaling logbooks from 200 years ago are providing powerful insights into modern-day climate change.

For this month’s show, the Naked Oceans team take a step into the past to explore life and death in ancient seas.

Sarah pays a visit to the Sedgwick Earth Sciences Museum at the University of Cambridge to uncover some of the bizarre evolutionary experiments that appear in the oceans over 600 million years ago.

Winding the clock forwards a few hundred million years, Helen explores the oceans’ greatest catastrophe when 90% of all marine life was wiped out. She talks to geologist Paul Wignall from Leeds University in the UK, to uncover the latest theories about what triggered ‘the Great Dying’ at the end of the Permian era, and what this might tell us about the present and future of life in the oceans.

Helen and Sarah also give a run down of news from the recent World Conference on Marine Biodiversity including Antarctic sealife getting scraped away by icebergs, jellyfish blooms in the Mediterranean, and an update on a new global initiative for protecting biodiversity on land and in the sea – the ‘IPCC for nature’.

The series continues with the popular ‘Critter of the Month’ segment. Each month Helen and Sarah ask a marine expert ‘If you were a marine critter, which would you be, and why?’

Highlights from the ‘Critter of the month’ hall of fame include Wallace J. Nichol’s loggerhead turtle, Carl Safina’s bluefin tuna, Nancy Knowlton’s boulder star coral, Boris Worm’s tiger shark, and Eugenie Clark’s nurse shark.

Plans for the remainder of Naked Oceans series 2 will take on board responses to a listener survey conducted towards the end of series 1, including tackling suggested topics and questions.

The entire Naked Oceans back catalogue is now available to listen to and download for free at their website – http://www.thenakedscientists.com/oceans –  and via the iTunes music store, where you can also sign up to automatically receive new episodes as they are released each month over the coming year.

Naked Oceans producer and presenter, Sarah Castor-Perry, recording an interview about ancient sealife at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge with museum director, Ken McNamara, and a fossil stromatolite.” (photo credit Helen Scales).

Sarah Castor-Perry interviewing director of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge, about biodiversity in ancient seas. (photo credit Helen Scales).

Contact the Naked Oceans team:
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Listen to Naked Oceans:
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/oceans/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/naked-oceans-from-naked-scientists/id388875756

Take part online at marine section of the Naked Scientists’ forum
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/