Elaine Leung, Sea Smart: It never actually occurred to me to be a marine biologist, because it's one of those dream jobs that doesn't really exist, right?
Elaine Leung is a marine biologist with a lengthy résumè featuring research positions in exotic locales like Alaska, Hawaii, and Antarctica. But after 15 years working with all kinds of marine life and relatively little conservation action from world governments, Dr. Leung is trying a different strategy - kids. She founded Sea Smart, an organization that provides a variety of programs to kids in Vancouver featuring marine conservation. From beach walks to classroom discovery, Elaine does an incredible job of showing the next generation how important our oceans are to the health of the planet. We talked to Elaine about ocean noise, fish, and teaching kids to care.
On history: I've always been a very curious person, and even now, I'm going constantly, asking questions about everything. I guess what it came down to was I always loved the ocean when I was growing up. It never actually occurred to me to be a marine biologist, because it's one of those dream jobs that doesn't really exist, right? It's only something you see in movies, and people studying dolphins. Then, for my first real job out of high school, I was only 20, I got a job studying sea lions for UBC. I fell in love with marine biology and never looked back.
On changing course: As someone who's been working with endangered species for over 15 years now, over 30 of the species that I've worked with or interacted with will go extinct within my lifetime. The thing is, I can't quit. If we all quit, then who's going to be doing this? Who's going to fight for our environment? After all this work, trying to save all those species, and realizing it hasn’t amounted to any conservation actions, I needed to change course. I believe so strongly in the power of individual action to create positive change. That's the whole idea behind Sea Smart, is that every little action counts and together we can do so much more.
On Sea Smart: Our mission is to get kids excited about our oceans and empower them to be environmental champions. We all know that our youth are our hope for the future and planet, but they're getting increasingly disconnected from nature, and more and more attached to their screens, their tablets, their phones, their computers. It's a big problem, because when kids lose that connection with nature, they start caring less about it. They don't really care about taking action to protect it, so the whole idea behind Sea Smart is that we bring our oceans to you in the classroom, so that even if you don't live right by the ocean, you can learn about the ocean. You can learn about how amazing it is.
On strategies: We don't just teach kids about ocean problems. We get them to actively brainstorm solutions and to identify actions they can take to help. It doesn't matter if you're in kindergarten, grade 7, or grade 12, there's something that you can do to help, and hopefully they take this knowledge home and they share it with their parents.
On fun: We try to turn everything into a game or really fun activity. For instance, underwater noise, we're trying these really innovative teaching techniques to get the kids to experience firsthand what it's like to be a marine animal growing up, or living in the ocean that's surrounded by all these threats. We taught the kids about echolocation, how a lot of marine animals use sound and echoes to find their prey and each other. We blindfolded the kids and we had fish on the floor. We had other kids tell them where all the fish was, but then we had other kids who were boats, and making lots of boat noise. The kids could really experience that when you're relying on sound to find your prey, how difficult that is in an ocean of increasingly loud noises.
On kids: I've been working as a marine biologists for over 15 years now, all around the world, for different governments, universities, NGOs, and even the mining and gas industries. Mainly working with adults on conservation issues. Most of my research is focused on studying endangered species. What's causing decline, how to mitigate those factors. Inevitably, it's always related to some human economic activity, but you can't get governments to do anything to protect these animals, because they'd rather protect economic interests than environmental interests. Adults are stubborn, whereas kids are a lot more open, and when we get kids who realize, "Wow! There's all these different things that we can be doing differently, or all these things that we can change at home. Why don't we do that?" Then they can ask their parents to do things differently.
On feedback: I've had lots of parents of students saying how impressed they are by the amount of knowledge their kids are retaining and bringing home and teaching them about anything from sustainable seafood to ocean friendly cleaning products to plastic use.
On environmental politics: It's very, very scary times. I don't even know what to make of the situation. I don't know what can be done to change. Obama did so much for the environment, and now when Trump is threatening to take away all of that work that took so long to do. It breaks my heart and terrifies me. I've been trying to figure out what can we do, and I've talked to a lot of American friends who are closely tied into the political scene there. They're all saying to me, "There's nothing you can really do in the US, but focus on Canada. Make sure what happens in the US doesn't happen in Canada." That's where I'm mainly focusing my efforts.
On critical thinking: Whenever I teach kids in Sea Smart, I present unbiased, transparent information. That's very important to me. I never present anything from a political view, but I do share with them what's currently happening and let them decide what they want to do with that information.
On what to eat: I teach my kids about sustainable seafood too, and it's really hard to know whether or not something is sustainable, because there's so many different factors to consider. I think it's great to have organizations like Ocean Wise and Sea Choice, because they take the guess work out for you. That being said, it's difficult when you don't have proper labeling. I find restaurants really difficult. Especially if they aren't Ocean Wise restaurants. I always ask the servers, and the chefs, and the managers, where is the seafood from? They always say, "I don't know."
You can send your kids to Sea Smart programs around Vancouver.
