REEF Roundup: 🪸Coral Reefs🐠 and 🐙Marine Conservation🦈

About REEF Roundup: 🪸Coral Reefs🐠 and 🐙Marine Conservation🦈

Join us and meet some of the many amazing people who are doing exciting work to save the ocean for future generations, with a focus on restoration, ecology, and the environment. A production of REEF Scuba - reef-scuba.org. Co-production and editing by Emily Pokou.

Publisher

Graham Patterson and Tamara Silverstone

Category

science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Feb 2021

Latest episode

21 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

51 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   21 Oct 2026

   Special Episode | Forget-Me-Not, Part 1: Cleaning Up the War of Yesterday

   This is a special episode. REEF Roundup co-host Graham travelled to Germany to record a documentary series, Forget-Me-Not, with Jan Maisenbacher, host of the Ocean Collaborations podcast. Up to 1.6 million tons of munitions lie in German waters, most of it dumped on purpose after the war ended. For decades, steel casings kept the explosive in. Now they are rusting. In this first episode: How it got there: we hear why the munitions are in the sea at all, from the sailors who dumped ammunition on the day the war ended to the Allied decision that the sea was the safest place for it. The first warning signs: we learn how mussels from a Kiel lab gave some of the first evidence that chemicals from the munitions were reaching living things. Why the risk is changing: we learn why the danger is actually rust, which is leading to more contaminants in the water and sea life every year. Germany's response: we meet the people behind Germany's €100 million Immediate Action Programme (Sofortprogramm Munitionsaltlasten), which has started bringing the munitions up and will build the world's first floating platform to destroy them at sea. Featuring Wolfgang Sichermann: Managing Director, Seascape. LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/wolfgang-sichermann-42bb50b8/) Andreas Beerlage: Seascape Special Projects Lead Uwe Wichert: retired German Navy officer and researcher on munitions in the sea Prof. Edmund Maser: Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology for Natural Scientists, Kiel University. Profile (https://www.toxi.uni-kiel.de/de/Mitarbeiter/direktor/professormaser) Prof. Jens Greinert: Deep-Sea Monitoring, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Profile (https://www.geomar.de/en/jgreinert) Dr. Aaron Beck: Senior Scientist, Chemical Oceanography, GEOMAR. Profile (https://www.geomar.de/en/ajbeck) Dieter Guldin: COO, SeaTerra. LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dieter-guldin-881050b3/) Henrik Schönheit: engineer and designer of SeaTerra's seabed crawler Carsten Stürmer: recovery specialist, Immediate Action Programme Stefan Mehlhase: Policy Officer for the Immediate Action Programme, German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUKN) Graham Patterson: co-host of REEF Roundup and Executive Director of REEF Scuba. LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahampatterson/) Jan Maisenbacher: host of the Ocean Collaborations podcast. Website (https://janmaisenbacher.com/en/ocean-podcast/) · LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/janmaisenbacher/) · Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ocean-collaborations/id1797113400) · Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4a3iqQ3Grj2rrcUNpaaEbi) GEOMAR, munitions in the sea (https://www.geomar.de/en/discover/munitions-in-the-sea) CONMAR research project (https://conmar-munition.eu) Kiel University, Institute of Toxicology (https://www.toxi.uni-kiel.de/de) (in German) German Environment Ministry (BMUKN), unexploded munitions in the sea (https://www.bundesumweltministerium.de/en/topics/marine-conservation/unexploded-munitions-in-the-sea) BMUKN press release on the disposal platform contract (https://www.bundesumweltministerium.de/PM11911) (17 September 2026, in German) Seascape (https://seascape.de/) (in German) SeaTerra (https://www.seaterra.de) REEF Scuba (https://www.reef-scuba.org) Production: Forget-Me-Not is recorded and produced by Graham Patterson and Jan Maisenbacher. Music: original, composed for the series. Sounds: "Baltic Sea in Jantar" by GirlWithSoundRecorder (CC0, Freesound) "Clock ticks close to mic" by BonnyOrbit (CC0, Freesound) Support: the series was produced with support from Seascape GmbH, which coordinates Germany's Immediate Action Programme on legacy munitions for the Federal Environment Ministry. Seascape reviewed the episode for factual accuracy. Editorial control remained with the hosts. REEF Roundup is a program of REEF Scuba, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

2. 

   3 Sept 2026

   Francesca Trotman: Humanizing Ocean Conservation | S5E9

   In this episode, we sit down with Francesca Trotman, Founder and Managing Director of Love The Oceans, a grassroots marine conservation charity working in Jangamo Bay, Mozambique. Francesca traces the path from receiving a shark tooth at the London Aquarium on her eighth birthday to witnessing sharks being killed in Mozambican fisheries at nineteen and founding Love The Oceans at twenty-one. That experience forced her to reconsider the simplified conservation narrative she had grown up with, in which fishers are cast as the villains and conservationists as the heroes. The fishers she met were receiving only a tiny fraction of the value generated by the international shark-fin trade. The people and the sharks, she realized, were being exploited by the same system. That insight became the foundation of Love The Oceans’ holistic approach to conservation. More than a decade later, the organization’s work brings together long-term fisheries and coral reef research, megafauna monitoring, turtle protection, ocean literacy, swimming lessons, sustainable fishing, and gender equity. Francesca explains why ecological and human wellbeing cannot be treated as separate problems, and why science only becomes meaningful when it is connected to the lives, knowledge, and leadership of the people who depend on the ocean. Some topics we cover: How Francesca’s early fascination with sharks became a lifelong commitment to marine conservation Moving beyond the “conservationists versus fishers” narrative Love The Oceans’ evidence-based, holistic conservation model Building local capacity through ocean literacy, swimming, and sustainable fishing Why menstrual health and bodily autonomy are ocean-governance issues What actually drives long-term behavior change The challenges of funding grassroots conservation and long-term research Using drones, bioacoustics, underwater video, and DIVEVOLK smartphone housings Why conservation success should eventually make an outside NGO unnecessary Advice for people hoping to build careers or organizations in ocean conservation Mentioned in This Episode: Francesca Trotman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesca-trotman-39b143ab/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesca-trotman-39b143ab/) Love The Oceans: https://lovetheoceans.org/ (https://lovetheoceans.org/) Love The Oceans on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovetheoceans/ (https://www.instagram.com/lovetheoceans/) Pascoal, an award-winning short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e85GEgFon2s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e85GEgFon2s) Peixinho, the story of Bento Armando: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i72QGMyjbMc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i72QGMyjbMc) Love The Oceans’ DIVEVOLK coral-monitoring work: https://www.divevolkdiving.com/blogs/user-story/love-the-oceans-divevolk-coral-conservation-mozambique (https://www.divevolkdiving.com/blogs/user-story/love-the-oceans-divevolk-coral-conservation-mozambique) Period. End of Sentence.: https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81074663 (https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81074663) The Outlaw Ocean by Ian Urbina: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/538736/the-outlaw-ocean-by-ian-urbina/ (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/538736/the-outlaw-ocean-by-ian-urbina/) Ocean Anatomy by Julia Rothman, with John Niekrasz: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/julia-rothman/ocean-anatomy/9781635861600/ (https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/julia-rothman/ocean-anatomy/9781635861600/) Support Love The Oceans: https://lovetheoceans.org/donate/ (https://lovetheoceans.org/donate/) If you want to support the podcast or learn what more you can do to help the ocean, visit: https://www.reef-scuba.org/take-action (https://www.reef-scuba.org/take-action) Thanks as always to our Producer, Emily Pokou. A production of REEF Scuba: https://www.reef-scuba.org/ (https://www.reef-scuba.org/)

3. 

   29 Jul 2026

   Dr. Dirk Petersen: Restoring Reefs Through Reproduction | S5E8

   Dr. Dirk Petersen is the Founder and Executive Director of SECORE International, a non-profit organization with the mission to create and share the tools and technologies to sustainably restore coral reefs worldwide. During his PhD, Dr Petersen began studying the reproduction and breeding of corals; these studies formed the basis on which SECORE’s current work is built – together with the extensive expertise and experience of SECORE’s scientists. What started as a dedicated project of scientists, became officially a non-profit in 2015, and by now, Dr. Petersen has grown SECORE into a leading global institution in the field of restoration research, engineering and the implementation of Coral Seeding. This approach focuses on breeding coral offspring for restoration—in this way, their resilience is strengthened by promoting genetic diversity thus enabling adaptability and the possibility for the corals to thrive in our world’s changing conditions. Over the last decade, SECORE has established a network of active practitioners across the Caribbean to apply Coral Seeding, is implementing advanced coral restoration technologies globally together with AIMS, and has expanded the implementation of Coral Seeding approach into the Indian Ocean with Mauritius as the base. There, full-scale training with regional partners will begin this September. Right now, SECORE is working to bring Coral Seeding to the Pacific together with partners from Australia and on-site partners. GUEST AND PEOPLE MENTIONED Dr. Dirk Petersen Founder and Executive Director, SECORE International https://de.linkedin.com/in/dirk-petersen-06a5759 (https://de.linkedin.com/in/dirk-petersen-06a5759) Sandra Mendoza-Quiroz Restoration Coordinator, SECORE Mexico https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sandra-Mendoza-Quiroz (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sandra-Mendoza-Quiroz) Dr. Margaret Miller Chief Science Officer, SECORE International https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-miller-36513b33 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-miller-36513b33) ORGANIZATIONS AND PROJECTS SECORE International https://www.secore.org/ (https://www.secore.org/) Australian Institute of Marine Science https://www.aims.gov.au/ (https://www.aims.gov.au/) FUNDEMAR https://www.fundemardr.org/ (https://www.fundemardr.org/) Global Coral Tech Transfer Project https://www.secore.org/en/news/25/global-exchange-of-knowledge-and-technology-to-significantly-advance-reef-restoration-efforts (https://www.secore.org/en/news/25/global-exchange-of-knowledge-and-technology-to-significantly-advance-reef-restoration-efforts) ReefSeed https://www.aims.gov.au/research-topics/environmental-issues/climate-change/coral-aquaculture/reefseed (https://www.aims.gov.au/research-topics/environmental-issues/climate-change/coral-aquaculture/reefseed) FEATURED RESEARCH Assisted sexual coral recruits show high thermal tolerance to the 2023 Caribbean mass bleaching event https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11410220/ (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11410220/) FOLLOW REEF ROUNDUP Website https://www.reef-roundup.com/ (https://www.reef-roundup.com/) Instagram https://www.instagram.com/reefroundup/ (https://www.instagram.com/reefroundup/) REEF Roundup is a program of REEF Scuba, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. https://www.reef-scuba.org/ (https://www.reef-scuba.org/)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

12 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

16 ratings

Contact REEF Roundup: 🪸Coral Reefs🐠 and 🐙Marine Conservation🦈

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.