How to Save an Ocean Big Ocean

Join us in this How to Save an Ocean episode with Pelika Andrade, the founder and Executive Director of Nā Maka Onaona, a Hawaiʻi-based non-profit, and an extension agent for the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program. She has a long history working with Hawaiʻi communities as a community member, hoaʻāina (friend of the land), and researcher. For the past 15 years, Pelika has been developing alternate approaches to monitoring Hawaiʻi’s watersheds and supporting the implementation of management strategies that support ‘Āina Momona: healthy, balanced, and thriving communities. As we converse, Pelika shares insights on the interconnectedness of relationship building, preserving our oceans, and nurturing vibrant communities. The conversation illuminates the importance of inspiring reverence of nature in the next generation. Through her role at Hawaii Sea Grant, Pelika champions sustainable practices rooted in cultural knowledge and practice. Beyond her oceanic endeavors, Pelika is an adamant community builder who convenes diverse groups through innovative projects, educational workshops, and cultural celebrations. Tune in and share in Pelikaʻs unwavering dedication to unity, understanding, and amplifying the beauty of our world.

Dan Kinzer founded Pacific Blue Studios, a network of high-impact, community-driven, place-based, and youth-powered studios. The network's shared aim is to leverage biomimicry, indigenous perspective, and cutting-edge technologies as vehicles to grow, connect, and amplify a (k)new intergenerational learning ecosystem––to help realize a resilient, regenerative and inclusive future in Hawai'i around the Pacific and across our Blue Planet. 

Naiʻa and Dan talk about how programs and people can cultivate a sense of kuleana around the ocean, the metaphor of voyaging, and how nuanced definitions of scale allow managers to glean wisdom from island people and community leaders. He Waʻa He moku, He Moku He Waʻa / The Canoe Is An Island, And The Island Is A Canoe.

Bonnie Kahapea is an educator, mentor, voyager, and community advocate. 
While at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, Bonnieʻs passion for voyaging was ignited. She witnessed the Hōkūleʻa preparing for a voyage to Tahiti – and the pull of the ocean was undeniable. While pursuing her master's degree in transformative learning and change, Bonnie remained connected to her roots and "stayed close to the canoe." She never lost sight of her passion for voyaging.
Today, Bonnie serves as an instructor at the Kānehūnāmoku Voyaging Academy (KVA), fostering a new generation of seafarers. Her role blends sailing, traditional navigation, Hawaiian culture, and teaching, providing a unique learning environment for students participating in KVAʻs leadership and career programs. 
Join us as we explore Bonnie's deep connection to the water, her experiences on the Hōkūleʻa voyaging canoe, and her commitment to perpetuating Hawaiian culture through mentorship and teaching.

Kelsey Leonard is the first Native American woman to earn a science degree from the University of Oxford, which she earned in 2012. She earned an MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management from St. Cross College, one of the thirty-eight c olleges of the University of Oxford. Her master's thesis, “Water Quality For Native Nations: Achieving A Trust Responsibility”, discusses water quality regulation and how water resources on tribal land are not protected. Kelsey Leonard is an enrolled member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation and is originally from the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in Long Island, New York. In 2010 she was the first member of the Shinnecock Nation to graduate from Harvard University. Her Harvard degree is a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Anthropology with a secondary field in Ethnic Studies.
Kelsey Leonard currently represents the Shinnecock Indian Nation as the Tribal Co-Lead on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body of the U.S. National Ocean Council. This planning body consisting of tribal, federal, and state entities is charged with guiding the protection, maintenance, and restoration of America's oceans and coasts. As a Shinnecock citizen and environmental leader, Kelsey strives to be a strong advocate for the protection of Indigenous waters through enhanced interjurisdictional coordination and meaningful consultation.
She has been recognized as a 30 under 30 world environmental leader by the North American Association for Environmental Education and a “Native American 40 Under 40” award recipient by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. Additionally, her work with Indigenous Nations to protect the Ocean received a Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Excellence in Policy Solutions.

Marcus Eriksen is the co-founder of Leap Lab, as well as the Research Director and co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute. He studies the global distribution and ecological impacts of plastic marine pollution, which has included expeditions sailing through all 5 subtropical gyres, Bay of Bengal, Southern Ocean and inland lakes and rivers, recently publishing the first global estimate of all plastic of all sizes floating in the world’s oceans, totaling 270,000 metric tons from 5.25 trillion particles.
In 2013 he and colleagues published the discovery of microbeads in the Great Lakes, which became the cornerstone for a US-based campaign to eliminate plastic microbeads from cosmetics, resulting in the Microbead-Free Waters Act, which became US federal law in 2015.  
 Years earlier, in 2000, he traveled to Midway Atoll, finding hundreds of Laysan Albatross with plastic pouring out of their stomachs, and that experience narrowed his focus to plastics. He received his Ph.D. in Science Education from University of Southern California in 2003, months before embarking on a 2000-mile, 5-month journey down the Mississippi River on a homemade raft of plastic bottles to bring attention to this issue. Again in 2008, he rafted across the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii on JUNK, floating on 15,000 plastic bottles and a Cessina airplane fuselage as a cabin (junkraft.com). The journey, 2,600 miles in 88 days, brought attention to the work of the 5 Gyres Institute, the organization he co-founded with his wife Anna Cummins.
His first book, titled “My River Home” (Beacon Press, 2007) chronicled his Mississippi River experience paralleled with his tour as a Marine in the 1991 Gulf War. His second book, titled "JUNK RAFT: An oceanic voyage and the rising tide of activism to fight plastic pollution" (Beacon Press, 2017) tells the story of how plastic pollution at sea was discovered, the impact on people and the planet, and the growing movement to solve the problem through zero waste initiatives in the largest cities worldwide.

As founder of Salted Logic, an indigenous, women-owned multi-media collective, Naiʻa leverages twenty-five years of experience in the public and private sectors to help clients reach their goals. She uses innovative media, high-impact communication products, culturally-driven design, coaching, and resilient partnerships to achieve project objectives parallel to building resilient communities and durable intergenerational learning systems. 

Naiʻa splits her time as Director of Big Ocean, a network of the world's large-scale marine managed areas. Having spent more than a decade working with and for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, she leverages her relationships and partnerships to enhance ocean governance and management at scale globally. 

As an artist, she excels at culturally-centered design, reimagining outdated narratives, and amplifying the voices of marginalized groups, particularly those of women and indigenous peoples. In cooperation with the Salted Logic team, she merges her communications background with her lived experience to effectively translate heritage, history, and culture for diverse audiences. When coaching or facilitating, she creates an environment of trust, a safe space that allows individuals to increase creative capacity, interconnection, and performance on their terms. 

Born and raised on the southeastern shore of the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, Naiʻa graduated from Punahou School and then earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Naiʻa has also been a certified Optimize Coach (Heroic) since 2020. Naiʻa is a daughter, sister, and mother of four who loves cooking (eating), multimedia art, audiobooks, going to the beach, and international travel.