Banter 84: 27Aug25 Warming Seas - and lessons for organisation of groups - Bob Earll
Bob discusses the organisational part of South West Marine Ecosystems, and relates how the manner in which he arranges his marine "Thematic Topics" have counterparts for land-based operations.
Very helpful for those who need to bring together the actions and thoughts of multiple groups
All presentation this week: no separate Q & A session
Presentation:
You are welcome to download this presentation if it helps; for the purposes of AI indexing, a markdown copy of the text is at the bottom of this page
Meeting Summary:
Quick recap
Bob and Graham explored the structure and impact of a marine science collaboration program, which organizes researchers into thematic topics and produces annual regional reports reaching over 1,000 people through webinars and other communications. The conversation concluded with discussions about climate change, environmental anxiety, and the organization's shift to virtual formats during COVID-19, along with plans for future presentations and sailing trips.
Next steps
Graham: Send Bob scheduling options for rescheduling the talk for after October 22nd.
Bob: Confirm one of the scheduling options provided by Graham.
Bob: Revise the talk title to focus more on organizational aspects.
Summary
Presentation Rescheduling and Focus Revision
Bob and Graham discussed rescheduling a presentation due to low attendance, agreeing to target October or November. They decided to revise the presentation's focus, emphasizing organizational and collaborative aspects rather than marine biology, to better engage audiences. Bob shared insights into the Southwest Marine Systems project, highlighting its voluntary nature and successful regional group organization. Jackie expressed interest in learning from Bob's experience and shared details about her own community network's impact report.
Marine Science Collaboration Structure
Bob explained the structure of a marine science collaboration, describing how they organize researchers into thematic topics and produce an annual regional report. The initiative involves a steering group of 30-35 people, a community of interest with over 1,250 contacts, and specialized communities of practice for each thematic area, with each having dedicated editors and volunteers who contribute to their respective sections. The program has been running for five years and reaches over 1,000 people through webinars and other communications, with Jacky noting that the groups are involved in 137 different projects, primarily focused on biodiversity improvement.
Thematic Topics in Marine Ecosystems
Bob explained the structure of thematic topics for community groups and individual interests, highlighting how these topics provide a framework for communication and interaction, even when people work in silos. He noted that while there are 12 thematic topics in marine ecosystems, issues like plastic pollution are addressed separately due to pragmatic and practical reasons, such as the distinct groups involved in marine and coastal pollution. Graham and Jacky discussed the inclusion of climate and environmental topics, with Jacky inquiring about plastic pollution, which Bob confirmed is addressed under coastal pollution. Graham mentioned the emerging interest from psychologists in addressing anxiety related to climate and environmental issues at the parish level, to which Bob responded affirmatively, acknowledging the existence of such anxiety in marine ecosystems.
Climate Change Communication Challenges
Bob discussed his experience organizing a conference on climate change in London several years ago, where speakers delivered impactful presentations that caused anxiety among some attendees. He explained that his organization, Southwest Marine Ecosystem, operates as a communication platform, hosting webinars, an annual conference, and producing a comprehensive annual report that has recently received BBC coverage. Bob noted that while they don't typically encounter climate change deniers, they do face challenges in presenting the severity of environmental issues without overwhelming audiences.
Chat:
No links or conversations in the Chat this week
Speech-to-text (for AI search engine):
WEBVTT
Jacky Lawrence: I'd be happy… Bob, I'd be happy to share, because I'm part of the Low Carbon Warwickshire Network, and I've just… and I write the newsletter, and we have 41 groups in the… in South Warwickshire now.
256 00:24:32.870 --> 00:24:40.400 Bob Earll: So I've just done an impact report as well, so we've got a different way of doing it in rural areas here, too, so…
257 00:24:40.600 --> 00:24:42.139 Bob Earll: Well, look, look….
258 00:24:42.140 --> 00:24:43.430 Jacky Lawrence: Learn from you.
259 00:24:43.430 --> 00:24:53.520 Graham Stoddart-Stones: List, on the back of that, Graeme, why don't you just flash through some of the slides, and I'll get, you know, that organisational bit, and I'll show Jackie exactly what this is all about. I think it's a great idea.
260 00:24:53.520 --> 00:25:01.690 Bob Earll: Because… because, in essence, … we've… We've come to, …
261 00:25:02.500 --> 00:25:07.029 Bob Earll: Right. So, I'll tell you what, if you go to the organisational ones, Graham… Yep.
262 00:25:07.030 --> 00:25:07.979 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yep, let me….
263 00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:13.829 Bob Earll: And perhaps we can have a chat about that, because essentially, you've just mentioned you're, you know, lots of groups.
264 00:25:14.200 --> 00:25:18.490 Bob Earll: Well, that's exactly what we've got in the South West.
265 00:25:18.820 --> 00:25:26.220 Bob Earll: Except what we've done is basically, organize them into thematic topics.
266 00:25:26.990 --> 00:25:27.970 Jacky Lawrence: Okay.
267 00:25:27.970 --> 00:25:31.839 Bob Earll: So we do, we do, the communication stuff each year.
268 00:25:32.860 --> 00:25:34.360 Bob Earll: But, …
269 00:25:35.590 --> 00:25:48.259 Bob Earll: It's not a but, it's an and, really. So this… so, Graeme, if you could just… so this is the largest collaboration of marine scientists anywhere in the country, probably anywhere in Europe. And…
270 00:25:48.390 --> 00:25:49.970 Bob Earll: effectively.
271 00:25:50.250 --> 00:25:58.690 Bob Earll: You know, the model we've developed over the past few years, you could apply to any regional grouping, probably from the district up.
272 00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:03.939 Bob Earll: you know, whatever kind of regional categories you want to apply. So go to the next slide.
273 00:26:05.220 --> 00:26:24.970 Bob Earll: So, what we… what we do is break it down into them… and I've done this in this table, you know, with thematic topics. So, we have, you know, people who cover oceanography, people who cover, you know, plankton, and they're very different from the people who do seabirds and the, you know, people who do, you know, fish and waste and plastic.
274 00:26:25.320 --> 00:26:34.049 Bob Earll: But if you look at the climate and environment side, you know, the people who are kind of interested in transport are often not the people who are interested in well-being.
275 00:26:35.450 --> 00:26:36.810 Jacky Lawrence: or, or energy.
276 00:26:36.810 --> 00:26:53.209 Bob Earll: Or energy, or whatever. Often by choice and necessity, in the marine environment, people, you know, who's studying seabirds, for example, just use very different techniques than the people who study oceanography. I mean, they're just very different sort of scientists and groups of people.
277 00:26:53.210 --> 00:27:02.860 Bob Earll: So, but I think the same applies almost to, kind of, you know, climate and environment. And so we use these thematic topics, we essentially produce an annual report.
278 00:27:03.840 --> 00:27:14.610 Bob Earll: On a regional scale, for all of these topics, in fact, for about 12 topics. But if we go to the next slide, which actually shows you how we actually organize it.
279 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:20.389 Bob Earll: We've got a steering group, which is the green bit in the middle. …
280 00:27:21.070 --> 00:27:23.779 Bob Earll: It's about 30… 35-odd people.
281 00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:26.299 Jacky Lawrence: Oh, that's a big steering group.
282 00:27:26.300 --> 00:27:37.920 Bob Earll: Well, it is, but in essence, we've got a very sort of standard program of what we do now. We run a sort of communication program for the year, where we kind of communicate the results of what we're finding.
283 00:27:38.100 --> 00:27:51.060 Bob Earll: You know, essentially, you know, we'll start this in October now, but for the year 2025, so essentially we're communicating what happened in 2025, okay? But we've now got a kind of… we've been doing this for 5 years.
284 00:27:52.160 --> 00:28:07.519 Bob Earll: So, even though we've got a very large steering group, and all of them actually represent different groups and people, quite a lot of them never attend any of the steering group meetings, but they do deliver webinars, or talks at the conference, or chapters in the report.
285 00:28:07.520 --> 00:28:11.319 Jacky Lawrence: Okay. It's just a kind of… you've got them in a loop.
286 00:28:11.410 --> 00:28:13.820 Bob Earll: Essentially, you know, an email loop.
287 00:28:14.330 --> 00:28:21.709 Bob Earll: which they can take part in, or not. Anyway, but then we've got these two other groups. One is what we call a, …
288 00:28:21.890 --> 00:28:32.420 Bob Earll: community of interest, which is our, kind of, wider community. Which now… Contains well over,
289 00:28:32.780 --> 00:28:39.299 Bob Earll: Well, we've got over 1,250 contacts on a kind of email MailChimp grouping.
290 00:28:40.260 --> 00:28:40.900 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right?
291 00:28:40.900 --> 00:28:46.089 Bob Earll: And they get regular mailings in the spring when we start our communication program.
292 00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:57.869 Bob Earll: I've got over a thousand people look at the webinars and things we do, and actually, you know, the press and media stuff, so our kind of community of interest is really, you know, very substantial.
293 00:28:57.870 --> 00:29:00.899 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah, the thing that Troy… 1,000 views.
294 00:29:00.900 --> 00:29:09.210 Bob Earll: Yeah, I mean, it's kind of big, because we… for each of those… well, I'll show you what the comms program looks like a bit later on, but, …
295 00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:18.689 Bob Earll: the thing that drives this along really splendidly now, I think what we call communities of practice, covering those thematic topics.
296 00:29:19.010 --> 00:29:19.710 Jacky Lawrence: Mmm.
297 00:29:19.710 --> 00:29:22.630 Bob Earll: So, if I go to the next slide…
298 00:29:24.600 --> 00:29:41.059 Bob Earll: So, the steering group, you know, this is the sort of things that you would have, you know, this is… these are the people in our swimming steering group, Coast and Sea, you know, they're essentially the leads for the thematic topics, the universities, research institutes, you know, the agencies, individuals.
299 00:29:41.750 --> 00:29:53.950 Bob Earll: But in a kind of on-land version of that, you've got exactly the same thing. You've got exactly the same sort of institutions and people involved, except that, you know, they're just doing stuff based on land, okay?
300 00:29:53.950 --> 00:29:54.400 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yep.
301 00:29:54.400 --> 00:29:56.369 Bob Earll: If you go to the next slide.
302 00:29:57.250 --> 00:30:06.849 Bob Earll: If you take this community of practice idea, I mean, I've given you an example of our fish community of practice, which we have over 50 contacts in now.
303 00:30:07.070 --> 00:30:08.100 Bob Earll: …
304 00:30:08.260 --> 00:30:22.950 Bob Earll: including what we… we produce an annual report. We've got 12 editors. We've got a man who edits the sturgeon section, and a man who edits the seahorse section, and a girl who edits the… a girl who edits the bluefin tuna section.
305 00:30:22.950 --> 00:30:24.519 Jacky Lawrence: Are these all volunteers?
306 00:30:24.520 --> 00:30:32.080 Bob Earll: Yeah, yeah, that… They're communicating what they are doing routinely during the year, okay?
307 00:30:32.080 --> 00:30:38.939 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But if you applied that to, say, climate and energy as a thematic topic, as one of the thematic topics you cover.
308 00:30:39.030 --> 00:30:51.510 Bob Earll: Then there's a host of people who get involved in climate and energy. I mean, there's a whole bundle of people who do the kind of low-cost options, you know, the woolly jumpers. I mean, there are hundreds of low-cost options, do you know what I mean? But there are people who do that.
309 00:30:51.790 --> 00:31:04.269 Jacky Lawrence: Yeah, we've listed about 137 different projects that the groups are involved in, and the most common initiative relates to improving biodiversity.
310 00:31:04.270 --> 00:31:10.160 Bob Earll: Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, if you go back to the thematic topics, … it…
311 00:31:10.380 --> 00:31:19.349 Bob Earll: In a sense that, you know, the thematic topics come out very, very standard, both for community groups and for individual, you know, in terms of individual interests.
312 00:31:19.550 --> 00:31:20.550 Bob Earll: So…
313 00:31:21.150 --> 00:31:36.160 Bob Earll: the thematic topics gives the whole thing a framework, which, you know, which is quite structured, do you know what I mean? So, it means that, okay, people are working in silos. Norman, hi. People are working in silos, but…
314 00:31:37.330 --> 00:31:39.939 Bob Earll: In essence, they can actually, …
315 00:31:41.500 --> 00:31:57.209 Bob Earll: communicate with one another really quite easily. And then we're very… we're called Southwest Marine Ecosystems, so effectively, when we have our annual conference, all 12 thematic topics are in… report in the room together at that conference.
316 00:31:57.320 --> 00:32:06.969 Bob Earll: But that's when the interactions between the topics start occurring. Because, you know, even in simplest terms, especially in the sea, you know, the seabirds eat the fish.
317 00:32:07.150 --> 00:32:24.939 Bob Earll: the fish eats the… you know, do you know what I mean? So there's a lot of interactions. So… and in fact, perhaps in some ways, more interactions there are on land, really, more obviously. So to understand what's going on, we… we do need to focus on that kind of interaction stuff for one part of it. But when it comes to….
318 00:32:24.940 --> 00:32:29.639 Jacky Lawrence: I'm assuming that pollution, plastic pollution, is an issue for the marine environment.
319 00:32:29.640 --> 00:32:30.530 Bob Earll: It is, yeah.
320 00:32:30.530 --> 00:32:38.550 Jacky Lawrence: You haven't… you haven't got… I'm just wondering why you haven't got that as a thing in your climate energy.
321 00:32:38.550 --> 00:32:46.950 Bob Earll: it's only because… I guess, in the kind of… in the way I've… there's a kind of… we've got a structure for these thematic topics.
322 00:32:47.080 --> 00:32:51.430 Bob Earll: Okay? Which is very much, kind of, science… science-based.
323 00:32:51.610 --> 00:32:53.170 Bob Earll: And, …
324 00:32:53.520 --> 00:33:06.089 Bob Earll: in the marine environment, I mean, you know, the offshore wind squad and the oil and gas squad living a life of their own, do you know what I mean? By and large, they don't give the monkeys about plastics, whereas plastics falls into the kind of
325 00:33:06.180 --> 00:33:17.039 Bob Earll: coastal pollution sort of side of things. So the plastic… there are something like 40 groups in Cornwall and Devon that do plastic collection on beaches.
326 00:33:17.860 --> 00:33:19.070 Jacky Lawrence: Wow. Yeah.
327 00:33:19.070 --> 00:33:24.339 Bob Earll: So, so we do do plastics as a separate thematic topic, but not under energy.
328 00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:25.440 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right.
329 00:33:25.440 --> 00:33:27.040 Bob Earll: Yeah? So, ….
330 00:33:27.060 --> 00:33:27.720 Jacky Lawrence: Bye.
331 00:33:28.690 --> 00:33:34.670 Bob Earll: Graeme, could you go back a… go back to that list of thematic topics again?
332 00:33:34.980 --> 00:33:48.589 Bob Earll: Yeah, you see, I mean, I haven't put the full list in here, that we do marine spatial planning and stuff as well, and fisheries, but there are 12 of these thematic topics, and by and large… I see it there.
333 00:33:48.590 --> 00:34:02.240 Bob Earll: water quality, we do, you know, we do, you know, storm overflows, all that kind of stuff as well. So, you know, the people involved with those different thematic topics in the marine side of things are usually very different, do you know what I mean? They kind of…
334 00:34:02.310 --> 00:34:18.779 Bob Earll: for all sorts of quite pragmatic and practical reasons. And I think, you know, the same… I think the same is true in relation to, kind of, climate and environment topics, you know, certainly with, you know, activists or groups who are actually working deliberately on food or well-being and water.
335 00:34:19.310 --> 00:34:19.940 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yep.
336 00:34:20.230 --> 00:34:21.400 Bob Earll: So, yeah.
337 00:34:22.030 --> 00:34:33.819 Bob Earll: So, so we've got these thematic, these, communities of practice, which is just a kind of, you know, kind of sophisticated way of… well, it's a kind of… the social scientists use this term to describe expert groups.
338 00:34:34.330 --> 00:34:39.830 Bob Earll: And the social scientists, when they do their work, essentially, …
339 00:34:40.360 --> 00:34:50.220 Bob Earll: that, you know, if you look at communities of practice, then you'll get all the social science literature on expert groups. That's what they're all. If we move on to the next,
340 00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:53.139 Graham Stoddart-Stones: What's wrong question, Bob?
341 00:34:53.679 --> 00:35:02.509 Graham Stoddart-Stones: On the climate and environment side, we've now getting interest from the psychologists, who are saying there is a lot of anxiety that arises.
342 00:35:02.510 --> 00:35:02.880 Bob Earll: Damn.
343 00:35:02.880 --> 00:35:05.240 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And we're having to learn to treat it.
344 00:35:05.370 --> 00:35:13.930 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And that's coming into some of the work that we're doing down at the parish level. Is there any anxiety associated with fish and the sea life?
345 00:35:14.230 --> 00:35:14.950 Bob Earll: ….
346 00:35:14.950 --> 00:35:16.280 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Not quite the same way.
347 00:35:16.280 --> 00:35:22.769 Bob Earll: No, no, like, no, look, I… I'll give you a very… the answer is yes, there is.
348 00:35:22.940 --> 00:35:36.160 Bob Earll: But let me give… let me embellish that slightly. A few years ago, when Aggressor was going full steam ahead and… and Extinction Rebellion were on the, you know, on the move in, I think it was 2000…
349 00:35:36.160 --> 00:35:43.429 Bob Earll: 18? Was it 2019? But anyway, anyway, I felt, you know, I organised this big conference in London,
350 00:35:45.160 --> 00:35:58.310 Bob Earll: I mean, I've been doing it for, sort of, like, 29 years, but we… I thought, we're gonna… we're gonna do, you know, climate change, and… and we're gonna show people what this is really about. So we… we got…
351 00:35:58.590 --> 00:36:03.539 Bob Earll: Five, really outstanding speakers,
352 00:36:03.740 --> 00:36:11.560 Graham Stoddart-Stones: who… and I said to them, look, you know, I don't want you to make this easy listening for the audience. Terrify them.
353 00:36:11.560 --> 00:36:29.340 Bob Earll: it not easy listening. So, and let me give you an example. There was a late… a chairman of the Environment Agency called, Emma Boyd at the time, was… was very vociferous, you know, for the Environment Agency, saying on, you know, what she thought about climate change.
354 00:36:29.620 --> 00:36:48.320 Bob Earll: And she gave an absolutely, you know, rip-roaring, stonking speech on… on the impact of climate change. And anyway, at the end, there was a university master's group in the audience, and they complained to their lecturer that the lecturers hadn't told them how bad this was going to be.
355 00:36:49.900 --> 00:36:50.746 Bob Earll: You're fine.
356 00:36:51.350 --> 00:37:02.749 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right. I mean, these people really did not pull their punches. They really, you know, if you didn't feel anxious at the end of it, or, you know, you didn't… if you thought somehow this was a kind of non-event.
357 00:37:02.760 --> 00:37:14.340 Bob Earll: I mean, nothing's got… nothing's changed, and so it's, you know, things have, you know, since got worse, but the point is, there's no question that this anxiety thing, in a way,
358 00:37:15.220 --> 00:37:22.140 Bob Earll: we perhaps overdid it, but the point… the point is, because you don't want to turn people off, that's the thing, you want to actually get them to act.
359 00:37:22.560 --> 00:37:30.139 Bob Earll: But… but I think… I think in kind of categorization, it falls into this kind of well-being psychology area.
360 00:37:30.470 --> 00:37:37.199 Bob Earll: I'm a kind of… I'm a bit of a kind of nerd when it comes to classifying things, really. There's kind of a science background in me, yeah.
361 00:37:37.420 --> 00:37:38.419 Bob Earll: But I know you've got….
362 00:37:38.420 --> 00:37:50.799 Graham Stoddart-Stones: puzzled, though, nowadays by this business of lecturers, and it didn't include things that we thought was much more… no one warned us it was going to be there, but why do people go to university if not to engage in robust learning?
363 00:37:50.800 --> 00:37:52.269 Bob Earll: Absolutely. Well, I….
364 00:37:52.270 --> 00:37:52.940 Graham Stoddart-Stones: peach.
365 00:37:53.490 --> 00:38:01.280 Bob Earll: I do a talk for this group of students now, and I actually have got, you know, 10 slides on the bad news.
366 00:38:01.630 --> 00:38:05.369 Bob Earll: Just in case they hadn't woken up to it already.
367 00:38:05.830 --> 00:38:07.319 Bob Earll: …
368 00:38:07.530 --> 00:38:17.300 Bob Earll: And one of them is, you know, a series of, well, two slides on shark conservation, where, you know, it's like 5 million sharks die a year.
369 00:38:17.420 --> 00:38:21.940 Bob Earll: You know, and let's show you a picture of lots of shark bodies and lots of fins.
370 00:38:22.570 --> 00:38:28.210 Bob Earll: the shark fin trade. So, you know, if you can cope with that in shark conservation land.
371 00:38:28.340 --> 00:38:35.480 Bob Earll: and not be anxious, then… you know, and people do, you know, it's the most depressing area of work I think I've ever come across.
372 00:38:35.650 --> 00:38:36.330 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Really?
373 00:38:36.330 --> 00:38:49.979 Bob Earll: Oh, God, yeah. I mean, it's just… it's just horrible. The actual numbers are insane and really depressing. But people do, and they… and they are making progress, albeit slowly. The fishermen… the fishermen, our friend!
374 00:38:52.100 --> 00:38:55.969 Bob Earll: Anyway, if we quickly go on to the next slide, I mean, look, …
375 00:38:56.490 --> 00:39:00.030 Bob Earll: This Southwest Marine Ecosystem thing, it's basically…
376 00:39:00.150 --> 00:39:15.510 Bob Earll: a communication platform, okay? And so this is the kind of, you know, so we talked about the collaboration bit, just to, you know, in terms of the way we organize, you know, the voluntary input. But actually, what we do is communicate what's gone on in the pre… you know, what's gone on in the previous year.
377 00:39:15.780 --> 00:39:19.459 Bob Earll: And we do that by, you know, meetings with these communities of practice.
378 00:39:19.700 --> 00:39:23.680 Bob Earll: They then organise webinars on each of the thematic topics.
379 00:39:23.830 --> 00:39:25.470 Bob Earll: So, there are 12 of those.
380 00:39:25.700 --> 00:39:32.510 Bob Earll: those webinars get put on a YouTube channel, so you can watch what happened in the webinars, and also some of the conference stuff.
381 00:39:32.670 --> 00:39:42.410 Bob Earll: Right. We organize an annual conference where the… so the webinars might… might last, 60 minutes, 2 hours, on plastics.
382 00:39:42.810 --> 00:39:43.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Whoa.
383 00:39:43.860 --> 00:39:44.660 Bob Earll: Okay.
384 00:39:44.660 --> 00:39:45.130 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes.
385 00:39:45.130 --> 00:39:48.980 Bob Earll: Or fisheries, or maroon-protected areas, or whales and dolphins.
386 00:39:49.590 --> 00:39:50.520 Bob Earll: …
387 00:39:51.380 --> 00:40:07.780 Bob Earll: the conference then brings all of those… all those thematic topics together in one day. It's a bit of a headbanger of a day, but they're essentially 12, you know, 12 presentations. But actually, the whole… with the point of trying to get people to, you know, look at the interactions between the different topics.
388 00:40:09.150 --> 00:40:19.289 Bob Earll: And then we produce an annual report, which is what's prompted a lot of the, kind of, BBC coverage at the moment, but that's grown gradually. It's about 120 pages this year.
389 00:40:19.460 --> 00:40:23.509 Bob Earll: Where each of the thematic topic leads writes the chapter.
390 00:40:23.940 --> 00:40:24.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right.
391 00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:35.309 Bob Earll: in the fifth chapter, you know, we've actually got 12 sub-editors who've contributed 12 of the, you know, different elements of the… of this fifth chapter. And then…
392 00:40:35.810 --> 00:40:39.920 Bob Earll: once the report is published, and this year it was published in July.
393 00:40:40.550 --> 00:40:46.780 Bob Earll: hence the kind of BBC media coverage, and we've had 3 BBC news
394 00:40:47.010 --> 00:41:01.690 Bob Earll: stories come out nationally now, on the back of that report. We then say to the kind of steering group, well, look, you know, over to you. Here's the kind of… here's the report, you can use that as an excuse to publicize what's going on.
395 00:41:02.070 --> 00:41:18.950 Bob Earll: you know, off you go and do it. And that's what they do, and so… and that is reaching, you know, obviously, kind of, you know, well, millions… well, the book from the BBC says, well, our newsletter, which covered your first slide, reached over 2 million people.
396 00:41:20.020 --> 00:41:25.060 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Do you run into deniers, Bob? People telling you that this is all nonsense?
397 00:41:25.950 --> 00:41:44.219 Bob Earll: No, because I think, you know, what… because we don't deal with climate change directly, by and large. We are… I mean, obviously very… everyone's very aware of climate change, and hence the story in the news about marine heat waves this summer. But in a certain sense.
398 00:41:44.520 --> 00:41:52.850 Bob Earll: what we're dealing with is the kind of, if you like, the natural system responses to that. So the bluefin tuna story, the octopus story.
399 00:41:53.000 --> 00:42:00.189 Bob Earll: the kind of stinging jellyfish side of it. So we're seeing the results of change
400 00:42:00.430 --> 00:42:03.099 Bob Earll: Some of which can be ascribed to climate change.
401 00:42:03.310 --> 00:42:08.240 Bob Earll: Some of which you may not… you know, octopuses have been having explosions, at least for the last…
402 00:42:08.440 --> 00:42:16.950 Bob Earll: 150 years, which are well documented, do you know what I mean? So it didn't necessarily be anything about climate change, but the point is, …
403 00:42:17.080 --> 00:42:19.710 Bob Earll: We don't tend to run into a direct…
404 00:42:19.920 --> 00:42:22.849 Bob Earll: Discussion about climate change and denial.
405 00:42:23.980 --> 00:42:29.600 Bob Earll: But again, there are, you know, there are plenty of people of a certain demographic who just love that kind of…
406 00:42:29.840 --> 00:42:32.759 Bob Earll: I call it climate change cliches, you know.
407 00:42:34.550 --> 00:42:35.050 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes.
408 00:42:35.050 --> 00:42:48.669 Bob Earll: you know, sort of, you know, let's just… let's just kind of… I did a talk, you know, earlier on this year to a group of people who are about my age, and … I heard all the climate change cliches rolled out, you know, it's geological history, and…
409 00:42:50.740 --> 00:42:51.700 Bob Earll: So…
410 00:42:52.900 --> 00:43:02.500 Bob Earll: And there's a certain train of thought, which, well, just can't be asked to kind of worry about the denials, let's just kind of make the kind of… the converted… converters.
411 00:43:03.220 --> 00:43:09.070 Bob Earll: Coming back to that point. What's the next slide do? I don't know. There's some of the kind of, yeah…
412 00:43:09.350 --> 00:43:12.469 Bob Earll: So, I mean, it's kind of frequently asked a question thing, so, …
413 00:43:13.300 --> 00:43:21.170 Bob Earll: It is a massive collaboration, that kind of 100 is kind of… is a massive underestimate. How much it costs? Well, nothing.
414 00:43:22.520 --> 00:43:33.220 Bob Earll: We don't have to raise funds. When we run our conference, it just covers the cost, so people attend, they pay the… they pay enough money to cover the cost, and that's it.
415 00:43:34.410 --> 00:43:39.740 Bob Earll: So, at one level, it's independent, in inverted commas, if anything can ever be independent.
416 00:43:39.850 --> 00:43:47.130 Bob Earll: We've been going 17 years, so there's a certain… sustainability about it. …
417 00:43:47.390 --> 00:43:54.519 Bob Earll: But we have changed, and COVID changed a lot. It made the whole thing far more focused.
418 00:43:54.640 --> 00:43:59.400 Bob Earll: The thematic topics, we call the report now the State of the Southwest Seas.
419 00:44:00.470 --> 00:44:09.439 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Now, why did that happen? Because of the… of COVID? I mean, yes, you had virtual meetings, and then… but did that bring the focus on the topics?
420 00:44:09.440 --> 00:44:20.270 Bob Earll: I think it did… I think we suddenly realized we had… we had these jamboree-like conferences with over 300 people in Plymouth. I mean, they were, you know…
421 00:44:20.690 --> 00:44:27.339 Bob Earll: Huge affairs, I mean, over 300 people. 25 presentations in a day?
422 00:44:28.120 --> 00:44:33.830 Bob Earll: You know, some were 1 and 2 minutes long, some were, you know, 10 minutes long, some were 20 minutes long.
423 00:44:34.150 --> 00:44:35.150 Bob Earll: …
424 00:44:35.570 --> 00:44:49.540 Bob Earll: 10, 20 exhibitors, … so, you know, absolutely massive, you know, things. And then, of course, you know, we… COVID came along, it just cut that completely dead. So we thought, well, what are we going to do in 2000…
425 00:44:49.570 --> 00:44:55.879 Bob Earll: 2020 was, you know, when we got organized, and we thought, well, we'll just focus on the thematic topics.
426 00:44:56.750 --> 00:45:07.629 Bob Earll: And we'll carry… we'll just do webinars on the thematic topics. We've got massive, you know, massive numbers of people tuning in, because that's, you know, that… in that spring, you know, that spring of 2020.
427 00:45:07.630 --> 00:45:08.189 Graham Stoddart-Stones: They had the thing.
428 00:45:08.190 --> 00:45:19.950 Bob Earll: People were watching webinars all the time, you know, we'd get hundreds of people signing into these webinars. I mean, literally hundreds of people, so it was really kind of, you know, because people were just basically sitting at home and watching webinars.
429 00:45:20.300 --> 00:45:24.500 Bob Earll: And then, you know, that… the state of the seas.
430 00:45:24.680 --> 00:45:27.520 Bob Earll: Framing changed the way we did the report.
431 00:45:27.820 --> 00:45:30.749 Bob Earll: So, when we've come out of COVID,
432 00:45:30.930 --> 00:45:35.129 Bob Earll: We've come out with this much stronger focus on the thematic topics.
433 00:45:35.260 --> 00:45:39.699 Bob Earll: And a much clearer idea of what, you know, the way we're communicating.
434 00:45:39.880 --> 00:45:48.890 Bob Earll: YouTube comes along, and we put the webinars on YouTube, or recorded them and put them on YouTube, so you can go… So…
435 00:45:49.330 --> 00:46:00.019 Bob Earll: COVID, I mean, and then, you know, because, I mean, people, you know, virtual meetings have obviously existed before COVID, but after COVID, everyone knew how to do virtual meetings.
436 00:46:00.950 --> 00:46:02.729 Bob Earll: So, you know…
437 00:46:02.870 --> 00:46:14.799 Bob Earll: change doesn't necessarily come from, kind of, you know, elaborate, objective, rational… it comes from, you know, massive disruption. I mean, which is classic in a way, but, …
438 00:46:15.060 --> 00:46:29.570 Bob Earll: But in terms of swimming, so we've never gone back to the Jamboree conferences. We have our conferences at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, which is a very appropriate scientific institution for where we want to be, and the way we want to be seen.
439 00:46:29.840 --> 00:46:41.250 Bob Earll: And we have our, you know, 140 people in a room, you know, for a headbanger of a day. You know, if you sit through these 12 presentations, you know, it is…
440 00:46:42.000 --> 00:46:48.220 Bob Earll: it's pretty full-on, and the discussions that go around, you know, what's going on, so….
441 00:46:48.670 --> 00:46:54.679 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But because of YouTube, the onlookers can see it in their own time. Yeah. Only got a few minutes spare. Right.
442 00:46:54.680 --> 00:47:06.500 Bob Earll: Yeah, I mean, if people want to sort of sit through the kind of, you know, hour and a half on marine protected areas in the southwest, with, you know, the people speak, you know, all the experts speaking on marine protected areas, they can do that.
443 00:47:06.740 --> 00:47:11.570 Bob Earll: But in the conference, we actually, you know, we kind of confined the kind of speaker to, you know.
444 00:47:12.650 --> 00:47:16.380 Bob Earll: 20 minutes, basically. So, do you know what I mean? So, it's just a…
445 00:47:16.650 --> 00:47:26.870 Bob Earll: But, I mean, again, in sort of reporting terms, I mean, the function of Swimmy is to, you know, provide this kind of communication platform, okay?
446 00:47:27.030 --> 00:47:31.899 Bob Earll: But, because people are reporting on the work that they are doing.
447 00:47:33.190 --> 00:47:40.669 Bob Earll: That's why they're kind of happy to volunteer, because it gives them a platform where their work is then shared.
448 00:47:40.800 --> 00:47:43.450 Bob Earll: With very large numbers of people.
449 00:47:43.750 --> 00:47:49.809 Bob Earll: So you say, well, why do people volunteer in this sense? Well, an academic is going to have his work shared with
450 00:47:50.050 --> 00:47:53.520 Bob Earll: You know, systematically, with large numbers of people.
451 00:47:53.740 --> 00:47:54.650 Bob Earll: So….
452 00:47:54.900 --> 00:47:57.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, Jackie, is this going to work for Warwickshire?
453 00:47:59.140 --> 00:48:02.840 Jacky Lawrence: Haha, in about 17 years' time, yeah.
454 00:48:03.650 --> 00:48:13.770 Bob Earll: Look, this has taken… this has taken 5 years since COVID, on the back of, you know, 12 years since, you know, since the whole thing got going.
455 00:48:13.950 --> 00:48:14.310 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right.
456 00:48:14.310 --> 00:48:18.739 Bob Earll: And it has this, you know, singular function of communication.
457 00:48:18.770 --> 00:48:33.820 Bob Earll: But on a regional scale, I mean, I often think, I mean, Normans, but, you know, we used to run, sort of, webinars in COVID, you know, local group, and I think Norman probably came to a few of those. We certainly did one on electric cars, for example.
458 00:48:33.840 --> 00:48:50.709 Bob Earll: You could quite easily do a webinar on electric cars every year, and… because it is changing, do you know what I mean? And on a… I mean, even on a local scale, it was quite, you know, it was always quite pretty, you know, 15… well, 10, 15 people came.
459 00:48:51.150 --> 00:48:59.070 Bob Earll: So if you extend the scale of it to, you know, a sort of regional scale, or even a district scale, the actual numbers of people involved.
460 00:48:59.210 --> 00:49:13.810 Bob Earll: Because, again, because you're not constraining the number of people who attend. You know, you're saying… you're asking your experts to attend and contribute, you're asking your experts by experience to kind of come along and kind of contribute. So, it's…
461 00:49:14.100 --> 00:49:23.770 Bob Earll: You know, but organize on this thematic topic line, it gives you a way of basically engaging people quite systematically in terms of what you want to do.
462 00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:24.770 Jacky Lawrence: Mmm….
463 00:49:24.770 --> 00:49:31.170 Bob Earll: And it's not that thematic topic. Well, put it this way, that list of thematic topics, I've just done a…
464 00:49:31.440 --> 00:49:35.940 Bob Earll: That they are. You know the idea of sets and subsets?
465 00:49:36.620 --> 00:49:37.270 Jacky Lawrence: Yep.
466 00:49:37.270 --> 00:49:50.550 Bob Earll: Each, each of those thematic topics breaks down into a number of, you know, and to give you, you know, give you a simple example, the whales and dolphins break down into the kind of baleen whales and the toothed whales.
467 00:49:51.020 --> 00:49:51.650 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right?
468 00:49:51.650 --> 00:49:57.669 Bob Earll: The seabirds breakdown is the estuarine species, the coastal brooding birds, and the seabirds.
469 00:49:58.590 --> 00:50:03.710 Bob Earll: So before you've blinked, you've got subsets of each of those topics, do you know what I mean?
470 00:50:04.140 --> 00:50:17.060 Jacky Lawrence: Yeah, we've got the same, you know, like I say, we've got 137 project, sort of, like, projects listed, and the biggest one was biodiversity, or some people are doing hedgehogs, some people are doing bees.
471 00:50:17.060 --> 00:50:34.770 Jacky Lawrence: Some people are growing for pollinators, there's all sorts of things, and then there's all the waste and recycling things, there's the energy projects, there's a lot of going on about Dutch, or trying to engage the local community, a lot of social activities, communications.
472 00:50:34.770 --> 00:50:40.110 Jacky Lawrence: Yo, I'm The next thing we're doing is a, bring and share show social.
473 00:50:40.450 --> 00:50:54.989 Jacky Lawrence: Where somebody has written a play called The Storm Officer, and it's… he's going to share 15 minutes of how you would put on the Storm Officer as a way of engaging people if you were running an event.
474 00:50:55.240 --> 00:50:55.840 Bob Earll: Boom.
475 00:50:56.730 --> 00:51:01.110 Bob Earll: this, I mean… God.
476 00:51:01.290 --> 00:51:13.809 Bob Earll: As I say, I mean, I'm kind of… I'm sort of equally interested in the organization of side as I am the kind of marine biology side, in a way. We've got a local group, which kind of is starting to get growing in this area called the Three Counties.
477 00:51:13.980 --> 00:51:14.840 Bob Earll: Boom.
478 00:51:15.410 --> 00:51:28.129 Bob Earll: sort of footprint group. It hasn't quite found out what it's, you know, worked out what it's doing yet properly. But I often think on a three-county scale, you've got lots of active groups doing… trying to do things.
479 00:51:28.560 --> 00:51:38.649 Bob Earll: And there's no one representing those active groups terribly well, do you know what I mean? And on a three-county scale, as Jackie mentioned, you've probably got lots of people doing biodiversity.
480 00:51:39.010 --> 00:51:58.059 Bob Earll: Lots of people doing energy, lots of… you know, do you know what I mean? And actually, you know, working at… so… so in a certain sense, you've got something that's geographically relatively constrained, you know, you could actually… now, this would apply in us, it would apply to Worcester, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire. So it's kind of, you know, no one's having to drive more than 50 miles to go to a face-to-face meeting, even.
481 00:51:58.060 --> 00:52:05.249 Bob Earll: But in virtual land, of course, the actual, you know, that region or area could actually be quite large.
482 00:52:05.450 --> 00:52:06.080 Bob Earll: So….
483 00:52:06.080 --> 00:52:15.440 Graham Stoddart-Stones: You know, the great collaboration is running a pilot in East Anglia, just to see how we do get things, and, you know, you're rather startled to discover you're talking to a thousand parishes.
484 00:52:15.440 --> 00:52:16.680 Bob Earll: Yeah, absolutely.
485 00:52:16.680 --> 00:52:18.799 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And they all need to get organized. Yep.
486 00:52:19.350 --> 00:52:24.840 Bob Earll: Well, and it is, I mean, yeah, so I mean, yeah, I sort of…
487 00:52:26.820 --> 00:52:36.259 Bob Earll: So, I think we've come up with a kind of cunning plan for selling this in the autumn sometime. And thanks for letting me rehearse it on you.
488 00:52:36.260 --> 00:52:39.640 Graham Stoddart-Stones: No, no, is that the last slide, do you think? Nope.
489 00:52:39.640 --> 00:52:55.110 Bob Earll: Oh, yeah, well, okay, look, I mean, I keep on threatening to do a talk locally, but I went off to Mexico a year ago, and actually went with this guy who studies blue whales, and that's the boat we were using, and that's a blue whale.
490 00:52:56.260 --> 00:52:57.860 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes, wow.
491 00:52:58.330 --> 00:53:22.050 Jacky Lawrence: Bob. Bob, I edit the Low Carbon Warwickshire Network newsletter. So, I mean, it's nowhere near as big in scale as you've got, but I have somebody that does a climate blog for me, and I put it in every month. I have the bloke that set up Riverfield Organic, wants to be able to reach people. So you already do loads of communications.
492 00:53:22.050 --> 00:53:37.389 Jacky Lawrence: I think this is something that people, you know, even in… you can't get much more landlocked than Warwickshire, but, I mean, if ever you want to just send me something to include in the newsletter about what's going on in our marine environment, I'd be happy to include it.
493 00:53:37.750 --> 00:53:45.989 Jacky Lawrence: Because I think it's important that people realize, like, I… you know, you're telling me that there's 5 million sharks killed every year just for their fins.
494 00:53:46.420 --> 00:53:51.610 Jacky Lawrence: It's gobsmacking. Horrifying. Horrifying, yeah.
495 00:53:51.610 --> 00:53:56.130 Bob Earll: I'll get you the latest stats, shark finning for Jackie.
496 00:53:56.730 --> 00:53:57.500 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Okay.
497 00:53:57.500 --> 00:54:14.909 Jacky Lawrence: That was just an example, but, you know, it doesn't have to be more than a paragraph or two. If you've already got something that you've already published, doesn't matter. I'll include it. If you'd like people who are landlocked to understand what's going on in the marine environment in Warwickshire, I can put something in the newsletter.
498 00:54:15.200 --> 00:54:15.780 Bob Earll: Yeah.
499 00:54:17.020 --> 00:54:19.329 Bob Earll: Yeah, I'm more than….
500 00:54:19.330 --> 00:54:35.870 Jacky Lawrence: Graham knows my email address. In fact, I'll… if Graham's okay, I'll email him the latest newsletter, because we tried to gather some information about the impact that a county-wide network actually has, or is beginning to have.
501 00:54:35.870 --> 00:54:36.520 Bob Earll: Hmm.
502 00:54:36.710 --> 00:54:38.730 Graham Stoddart-Stones: That's very interesting, Jackie.
503 00:54:39.080 --> 00:54:56.329 Bob Earll: I mean, you know, in listening to that, I mean, in a certain sense, I mean, that's almost the focus that, you know, in a certain sense, we're doing with the state of the Southwest Seas, do you know what I mean? If you do that on a kind of an annual basis, you know, what, you know, what impact
504 00:54:56.750 --> 00:55:00.429 Bob Earll: is our things having? You know, what impact are….
505 00:55:00.430 --> 00:55:01.940 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Any changes, yep.
506 00:55:01.940 --> 00:55:10.380 Bob Earll: It gives you… it gives you a focus for, kind of, organizing, you know what I mean? And I think that's… this is what happened in COVID to us. We suddenly realized
507 00:55:10.490 --> 00:55:21.450 Bob Earll: That all of the other national reporting schemes covering the marine environment were either, … they operated on a 4- or 5-year basis.
508 00:55:22.670 --> 00:55:26.149 Bob Earll: Now, you know, things are happening so fast.
509 00:55:26.560 --> 00:55:36.720 Bob Earll: in the marine environment in the southwest, that, you know, 4 or 5 years just doesn't cut it. It, you know, really, you know, things have come and gone in that kind of timeframe.
510 00:55:36.720 --> 00:55:37.040 Jacky Lawrence: Okay.
511 00:55:37.040 --> 00:55:41.560 Bob Earll: well, so what? But the point is that a lot of these things that we kind of…
512 00:55:41.670 --> 00:55:56.339 Bob Earll: now, you know, it's not them individually, it's not the fact there's an explosion of octopus individually, it's the fact that you've got 5 or 6 or 7 things happening simultaneously in one year. I mean, one of the things I was going to talk about was mackerel. Well, the mackerel…
513 00:55:56.520 --> 00:56:01.499 Bob Earll: Don't turn up in the summer anymore. They come in the sort of later autumn.
514 00:56:01.710 --> 00:56:09.549 Bob Earll: Now, you think, well, those people who go down to the southwest who slug their fishing hook in the sea, you know, expecting to catch mackerel. Well, you know.
515 00:56:09.720 --> 00:56:16.419 Jacky Lawrence: Even the anglers can't catch them out across the user's base any longer, so it's, you know, things are changing, you know….
516 00:56:16.420 --> 00:56:18.780 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Is that a temperature-based thing, Bob?
517 00:56:19.350 --> 00:56:28.299 Bob Earll: As our mackerel expert said, he said the population center… the population center of the mackerel population is a very fluid concept.
518 00:56:29.710 --> 00:56:40.740 Bob Earll: It transpires that they… you know, the vast… well, a large proportion of the population seem to have moved further north, where the pelagic… a lot of pelagic trawlers are now fishing for them.
519 00:56:41.580 --> 00:56:47.140 Bob Earll: But they come to the southwest, but in October, November time.
520 00:56:47.930 --> 00:56:49.300 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And it used to be summer.
521 00:56:49.300 --> 00:56:54.120 Bob Earll: Yeah, it used to be summer, you know, if you're running a tourist business, taking people out catching mackerel.
522 00:56:54.260 --> 00:56:57.650 Bob Earll: You know, October, November, it isn't, you know, it doesn't really cut it.
523 00:56:58.180 --> 00:57:06.159 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well, I'm in the Isle of Wight, and we used to go out on a regular basis mackerel fishing, and it is true that the count is down.
524 00:57:06.160 --> 00:57:12.469 Bob Earll: Yeah, well, I mean, look, I… you see that, there's a picture in one of the earlier slides is of a thresher shark.
525 00:57:12.810 --> 00:57:13.890 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes, I saw that.
526 00:57:13.890 --> 00:57:29.219 Bob Earll: Well, Thresher Shark Central is the Isle of Wight. It seems that Thresher sharks like coming to the Isle of Wight. Most of the sightings of them doing that, jumping out of the water, as I've shown you, are basically, happening.
527 00:57:29.220 --> 00:57:30.380 Graham Stoddart-Stones: us, really.
528 00:57:30.380 --> 00:57:31.959 Bob Earll: Around the Isle of Wife.
529 00:57:32.500 --> 00:57:39.729 Bob Earll: And then they ended up stranded on… well, there were 3 strandings of thresher sharks on Cornwall's beaches last winter.
530 00:57:40.120 --> 00:57:46.009 Bob Earll: But, if you want to see a thresher shark jump out of the sea, then the Isle of Wight is the place for you.
531 00:57:46.010 --> 00:57:48.129 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Wow. Who knew?
532 00:57:48.130 --> 00:57:49.179 Bob Earll: Well, indeed.
533 00:57:49.180 --> 00:57:52.459 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So what's the story associated with the blue whale, Bob?
534 00:57:52.940 --> 00:57:58.690 Bob Earll: It's quite a positive one, in the sense that it's been a very, I mean.
535 00:57:58.870 --> 00:58:04.240 Bob Earll: They're the biggest, obviously the biggest whale, but, they are recovering.
536 00:58:05.600 --> 00:58:18.850 Bob Earll: And they've been recovering ever since the, you know, the blue whale, at least ever since the whaling ban took place, but very slowly. And this guy who's in, … I went to, you know, went to stay with for a week in Mexico.
537 00:58:18.850 --> 00:58:29.189 Bob Earll: Has been monitoring the population there for about 25 years, and it's been… and you can identify them from their tail flukes, and from their marks and scars.
538 00:58:29.190 --> 00:58:29.950 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes.
539 00:58:30.440 --> 00:58:34.210 Bob Earll: And, we saw 35 different blue whales.
540 00:58:35.140 --> 00:58:38.270 Bob Earll: It was… it was impressive.
541 00:58:39.030 --> 00:58:43.279 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Didn't I hear that somebody's looking to lift the Wailing Commission's ban?
542 00:58:44.100 --> 00:58:59.059 Bob Earll: there's always a kind of interesting dynamic, because, you know, the Norwegians and the Italians have a… no, the Icelandic people have a fairly creative view of this. The Japanese also still want to, kind of, fish for whales.
543 00:58:59.210 --> 00:59:03.550 Bob Earll: But… It's not as…
544 00:59:03.790 --> 00:59:11.079 Bob Earll: ingrained in their cultures as it used to be, so there is some hope, and there are very hopeful
545 00:59:11.260 --> 00:59:24.389 Bob Earll: Well, wait a minute, if you go on the, sort of, Portsmouth to Santander ferry, which goes down the continental shelf, and if you do that, at certain times of year, you can see lots of fin whales, for example.
546 00:59:24.460 --> 00:59:34.270 Bob Earll: So it's a very, very encouraging story of recovery. And even in the South West, although we don't quite understand why, in the winter, we're getting more humpback whales.
547 00:59:34.340 --> 00:59:48.460 Bob Earll: coming into, inshore waters, and regularly putting on displays of jumping out of the water. And this is happening every year now, so I think last year it was 4 or 5 different individuals. It's been… this has been going on for the last 3 or 4 years.
548 00:59:49.060 --> 01:00:00.010 Bob Earll: So, and it's to the point where we've now got something like 20… over 20 individual humpback whales are now in the south… in the southwest catalogue of humpback whales that have been sighted.
549 01:00:01.160 --> 01:00:01.950 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Woo.
550 01:00:02.520 --> 01:00:03.520 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Fantastic.
551 01:00:03.790 --> 01:00:07.919 Bob Earll: But this is, you know, so in my talk that's schizophrenic.
552 01:00:08.360 --> 01:00:26.240 Bob Earll: The humpback whale story is the final slide. Because that's the bit I find it, you know, find really interesting, as opposed to the organisational stuff, which is kind of… is kind of interesting, and has greater, greater, how should I say, greater,
553 01:00:27.660 --> 01:00:33.710 Bob Earll: Probably relevance to the kind of, you know, your group. But, … Anyway, hey-ho, this is life.
554 01:00:35.400 --> 01:00:47.639 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well, this has been very fine, Bob, thank you very much, and yes, I will send you some dates to see if we can reverse this and put it in the opposite direction, and… but thank you very much.
555 01:00:47.640 --> 01:00:50.509 Bob Earll: That's no problem at all, it's been very… I mean, I….
556 01:00:50.510 --> 01:00:51.389 Jacky Lawrence: Thank you.
557 01:00:51.390 --> 01:00:57.679 Bob Earll: Yeah, it's okay, good to meet you, Jackie, yeah. Good to see you, Norman. We'll see you probably at Oxenhall soon.
558 01:00:58.460 --> 01:01:05.049 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Thank you, see you then. You ain' muted, Norman, so what you were saying has gone unheard, I'm afraid.
559 01:01:06.470 --> 01:01:10.899 Bob Earll: I know Norman from just down… he lives just down the road from me, so I kind of….
560 01:01:10.900 --> 01:01:12.539 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Okay, well, I'm glad.
561 01:01:12.540 --> 01:01:13.670 Jacky Lawrence: You could join in.
562 01:01:13.670 --> 01:01:15.310 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Take care, bye-bye.
Markdown copy of Bob's presentation (for AI search):
# Changing Marine Life & Lessons
## Slide 1
- Communicating Annual Change
On a Regional Scale
Building Communities & Relationships
(Social Capital)
- Bob Earll
## Slide 2
- I co-ordinate SWME … [from Gloucestershire – since 2014]
So, How do we organise SWME?
There are clear lessons for people working at larger scales – districts – counties …
On climate change and environment
to Collaborate and communicate
## Slide 3
- Thematic Topics
- SWME
Oceanography
Plankton
Seabed & seashore
Fish
Sea birds
Seals
Whales and Dolphins
Marine Protected Areas
Water Quality
Plastic Pollution
- Climate & Environment
Transport
Energy
Consumption & Waste
Food
Biodiversity
Investment
Information – learning & Understanding
Wellbeing
Water
## Slide 4
- Communities of Practice - CoPs
For the Thematic Topics
Professionals, Scientists, Citizen scientists
Peer Groups
- People - Communities & Collaboration– Social Capital
- Steering Group
CoP leaders, Institutions, Key Volunteers
- You – the audience are a community of interest
1000+ viewers of the current
Webinars and YouTube
Recordings
SWME mailings go
1290+ contacts
- Communities of Interest
Bulk Email contacts, social media, conference delegates, YouTube viewers
## Slide 5
- Steering Group – 30+ people
- SWME – Coast & Sea
Thematic topic leads
Universities
Research institutes
Community Partnerships
Agencies: EA, NE, IFCAs
eNGOs: Wildlife Trusts, MCS, SAS
Individuals
- Climate & Environment – Land
Thematic topic leads
Universities
Research institutes
Local Authorities
Community Partnerships
Agencies: EA, NE, IFCAs
eNGOs: Wildlife Trusts, MCS, SAS
Individuals
## Slide 6
- Communities of Practice – CoPs – for thematic topics# Groups of interested parties – virtual meetings
- SWME e.g. Fish CoP – 50+contacts + 12 specialists
Divers – snorkellers
Anglers
Researchers
Agencies IFCAs, NE, EA
eNGOs: Sharks, Seahorses, TWT
Individuals – experts by experience
- Climate & Environment for Energy …
Low cost options
Insulation
Solar – PV & water
Heat Pumps
Restoration – House & New Boilers
Builders
Renewable companies
Local Government
Individuals – experts by experience
## Slide 7
- CoPs &
Webinars
12 Thematic Topics
1-6 speakers
60-120 mins / topic
- Conference
All the thematic topics in one day 20 mins/topic
Plenary Discussions on Integration questions
- State of the South-West Seas
Annual Report
Chapters on thematic topics
& integration Boxes
- Press & Media
Press release
2-3 sentences/
thematic topic
BBC
- SWME is a Communication Programme & Platform
- Infrastructure: Website & Bulk Emailing (Mailchimp) & YouTube Channel & Social Media & Press & Media
- go the SWME Website https://swmecosystems.co.uk/
## Slide 8
- SWME – Frequently Asked Questions
Who takes part?
It is a massive collaboration - 100 people play an active part – talks – presentations
How much does it cost?
Cost of a conference and website covered by delegate fees – otherwise nothing
Lots of people volunteering their time .. But promoting their work …
And so it is ‘Independent’
How long has it been running? 17 years – 5 years in the post-Covid focussed world
Covid changed things: Virtual meetings – Focus on the thematic topics – Framing: State of the Seas South-West Seas
- Individuals – experts by experience
## Slide 9
- We hear daily about the challenges of climate change – biodiversity loss & foolish use of resources
We owe it to ourselves to understand
the changes taking place
in a timely way….
If we act we can make a difference –
Blue Whale
Thank you for listeningLast updated