Artivist Series - Lucy Hunt
marine biologist, Marine Awareness Research and Activity
Lucy Hunt is the founder of Sea Synergy, a Marine Awareness Research and Activity Center situated on the southwest coast of Ireland. Lucy is passionate about the ocean and has been working for more than a decade to create meaningful experiences so that others may discover the rich diversity of the marine environment. Lucy offers a range of workshops and activities for people of all ages to help them get to know the waters that border Ireland. For her tireless work Lucy Hunt has received recognition by His Royal Highness King Charles.
Video conversation with Lucy Hunt … click here
What Lucy Hunt talks about …
Lucy is the first scientist in her family. Her family was in the catering and hospitality industry but their establishment was on the southwest coast of Ireland. So she had time to investigate the rock pools and the beach. At school she had lots of questions around science and biology. More than ten years ago she began going to Blue Flag beaches of Ireland. These beaches carried an ecolabel for having good water quality standards. They were supposed to have environmental education. Lucy was undertaking that, sharing with people what could be found in the waters off Ireland,. Lucy said that people were blown away. They were like “What we have 25 different species of whales and dolphins in Ireland?” Plus, “What we have the blue whale in Irish waters?” You know they couldn't get over it. And it was because people started asking where they could go to find out more that she started her marine awareness center. The center hosts a variety of activities to give people first hand experiences with the ocean.
Lucy says that she wants to make sure that participants have some of the best memories of their life, that they can forever talk about with their family. “And for me, that's what makes a difference because you're building the ocean into their life and that then creates a new relationship for them with the ocean. In something they may never have thought they could have had. They now came back and they told us, you know, we now go to our beach with whole new eyes fresh eyes.”
Show Notes
00:00:01 Pam Ferris-Olson Today on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast on womenmindthewater.com, I'm speaking with Lucy Hunt. She's the founder of Sea Synergy, a Marine Awareness Research and Activity Center situated on the southwest coast of Ireland. Lucy’s passion is to provide meaningful experiences so that others may discover the rich diversity of Ireland’s marine environment.
00:00:29 The Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast and womenmindthewater.com engages artists in conversation about their work and explores their connection to the ocean. Through their stories Wo(men) Mind the Water hopes to inspire and encourage action to protect the ocean and her creatures.
00:00:49 Pam Ferris-Olson Today I'm speaking with Lucy Hunt, an Irish marine biologist who noticed a gap in people's knowledge about their marine backyard. The work to fill this gap began with informal talks on local beaches. When attendees began to ask where they could go to learn more Lucy responded by establishing Sea Synergy. Her initiative, begun a decade ago, has expanded to include a range of workshops and activities for people of all ages. Sea Synergy activities range from seashore safaris and kayaking to citizen science research. Sea Synergy’s activities are designed to help people get to know the waters that border the land where they live. And for her tireless work Lucy Hunt has received recognition by His Royal Highness King Charles.
00:01:45 I have to say I recently visited the West Coast of Ireland and I can say without hesitation that the Irish coast is a magical place with ancient ruins, seaside cliffs and basalt columns. I've spent precious little time in the area and so I'm looking forward to hearing from you about the place. And so for listeners who've not had the chance to see the Irish coast take us on a brief tour, as seen through your eyes. What would you want us to see if we only had a few hours?
00:02:21 Lucy Hunt Wow. OK, thank you very much Pam. It’s great to be here. Yes. So what would I like you to see? There's so much to see here on the South West coast of Ireland. But I'm gonna start with a tour. I brought a friend from South Africa on recently. We brought her out to the Skellig Islands, but I would say taking a boat trip to any of the offshore islands on the southwest coast is amazing. Like the Bull Rock or the Skellig Islands, which is a World Heritage site. Seeing the bird colonies there, seeing the old monastic settlements there, the lighthouses you know, see the maritime heritage. You have the bird life. You might get to see some Minky whales, some dolphins, even, sometimes some humpback whales. They're currently out there at the moment and so that would be like the morning time. And then we'd probably go for a little drive around the coast, the Skellig Ring, and see some of the sights. Visit the Chocolate Factory. Have a nice lunch. And then as the sun is setting, I would bring you on a snorkel to see the bioluminescence. We just recently had the bioluminescence in the water. And it's a real magical experience where the phytoplankton and the zooplankton are all there together. The water starts glowing all around you when you move your hands through the water or move your body through the water and it's just magical, really magical. And then to come up and see the dark sky with the stars or the moon. You know it's really beautiful and it keeps you going. It gives you such good energy when you have those lovely experiences with the ocean. So that's like a whistle stop tour of a day in Southwest Kerry.
00:04:30 But if I had you for like an hour, I would bring you down to the seashore. And we would look at the rock pools, especially if you got some young children with you. We would be out rock pooling and enjoying seeing all these amazing animals and rock pools.
00:04:46 Pam Ferris-Olson Ohh my goodness. She got me at the whales and bioluminescence and chocolate. What a perfect, perfect trip. But aren’t the waters off the Irish coast cold and the current strong? Why would somebody want to dive off the western coast of Ireland given that it’s not like being down in the equator?
00:05:05 Lucy Hunt Yeah. So it's definitely not the same as being in the tropical waters, but I learned to scuba dive when I was 12 off the coast of Ireland. So you know, yes, you're wearing a thick wet suit when you're going diving or a lot of people wear dry suits now. But when you go diving, there's so much to see. When you spoke about those cliffs, the sea cliffs, imagine them underwater, covered in jeweled anemones sparkling out at you, you know, or the seaweed. The kelp forests that are growing in our nurseries for many different species of fish. I've even, yeah, snorkeled or dived off of some of the offshore islands and had a mother and calf dolphin buzz me, you know, come in and check me out, you know? So there's amazing things that you can see off the coast of Ireland when you're diving but you don't have to know how to dive. Like we take people snorkeling.
00:06:08 We introduce people how to snorkel and you can go and see kelp forests and seagrass beds. You can see the mud flats where there's so many little, tiny animals growing and living that you wouldn't really know they were there unless someone told you about them, you know. So there's so many different diverse environments around the coast of Ireland that you have to learn to snorkel or to scuba dive. It is fantastic, you know? And it just opens up your world to watch all our planet has on it. You know, when you think about it, there's 71% of the planet covered by the ocean. And so few people have ducked their head under and taken a look. So when you do actually get that opportunity to see it, it's pretty much mind blowing.
Every time I go under the water, every time I put my mask on, I see something new. And to do it in the cold waters, yeah, it's a little more refreshing. Yes, you need to warm yourself up a little bit more when you get out. Once you get that cup of tea or, you know, that cup of coffee after and you just feel so good and so refreshed and having had that experience it's it's beautiful.
00:07:33 Pam Ferris-Olson How is it that you chose to become a marine biologist?
00:07:36 Lucy Hunt Interestingly enough, I'm the first scientist in the family. I grew up in the catering and hospitality industry right next to the beach. So my family had the Smugglers Inn in Waterville. In the backyard is the rock pools and the beach. So that's where I grew up investigating. And I remember in school I always had lots of questions around science and biology especially it was biology.
00:08:05 Pam Ferris-Olson In your opinion, what aspects of the Irish coast are most in need of protection?
00:08:11 Lucy Hunt Yeah, that's a big question really. And there's so many areas. So first of all, we got to map all the areas and find out what is there. But an amazing group of environmental NGOs, about two years ago, did a study around the coast of Ireland. And they've identified many different areas around the coast for, you know, like shark populations, seagrass beds, biodiversity, marine mammals, all of that. And actually this area on the southwest coast was one of the first areas that they highlighted that needed protection. So from Kenmare Bay to Loop Head, which is the southwest, I'm right in the middle of it in Waterville.
00:08:58 Lucy Hunt And yeah, this area is really important for the marine mammals, for the different biodiversities, from seagrass beds, kelp forest and also the shark populations that we have here as well. So there's a lot going on, so I think like identifying those really important areas for biodiversity is critical and then making sure that marine protected areas are implemented. And unfortunately in Ireland, we've been calling for a marine protected area bill for nearly two years now. And since this report was released the government are bit slow on that. So there's been a few rallies to try and get them activated again. So hopefully now, yeah, they'll be listening.
00:09:51 Pam Ferris-Olson Well, it's good to hear that some of the work is being done to identify what's there and that people are beginning to rally the government to make protective areas. I think that's probably true in so many coastal areas.
When you started out and you discovered that people lacked knowledge about the coast, what were some of the things that surprised you the most about that gap?
00:10:20 Lucy Hunt Yeah so 10 years ago, it was even longer than 10 years ago, 12 years ago, I'd say. I started out going on to the beaches, the Blue Flag, beaches of Ireland. So they have an ecolabel for being good water quality standards and they have to have environmental education. So I was undertaking that and really just sharing with people what we have in Ireland, what marine life we have from the different whales and dolphins to the small creatures you find in the rock pools, and people were blown away. They were like “What we have 25 different species of whales and dolphins in Ireland?” Plus, “What we have the blue whale in Irish waters?” You know they couldn't get over it.
The nice thing about it was that I'd had encounters with all of these or most of these animals. So I was able to tell my personal story. And so it was, you know, people really couldn't get over all the life that we had. And even when you're showing them something like an anemone that's in a rock pool, they don't think it's an animal. Many people didn't think it was an animal, they just thought it was seaweed. And then you explain to them exactly what it is. How you know the tentacles you are used for feeding and all that and yeah, they were really blown away. Then a lot of people wanted to know where they could find out more because I suppose it was in a way edutainment. You know, like education, but also entertaining with fun facts and different ideas. And so they wanted to know where they could find out more. So yeah, that's when I set up Sea Synergy, the Marine Awareness and Research and Activity Center as an exhibition.
00:12:10 And we opened that in 2014 and I can honestly say since then like what we've been doing, lots of marine awareness work, but the awareness in Ireland itself around the marine life and need for marine protection has grown immensely. And yeah, I can proudly say, I think I can proudly say, that we were part of that movement in raising the awareness around marine life.
00:12:59 Lucy Hunt Honestly, I was a bit odd to start. I was the only female marine biologist in my area, you know. I think the previous female marine biologist in our area in southwest Kerry would have been more Maude Delap, and she died in the 1950s. You know. So yeah. It was very different.
And then for me to even open my own business as a marine awareness, research and activity center, people were like, “What is that, Lucy? What are you doing?” You know I thought it was written on the outside, you know, marine awareness. But people didn't understand it. So yeah, it's been a really amazing journey to see how we've helped shift things in the right direction for marine awareness in Ireland.
00:13:37 Pam Ferris-Olson Being odd is lovely. Thank you. Is it difficult to get people involved and just to sustain their interest?
00:13:48 Lucy Hunt There has to be something to click, right? So for me it's about having that emotional connection. So you know, you want, if you're bringing your family down to the beach to bring them on their first ever snorkel. You want to make sure that they have some of the best memories of their life with the water, with the ocean, and their memories, that they can forever talk about with their family. And for me, that's what makes a difference because you're building the ocean into their life and that then creates a new relationship for them with the ocean. In something they may never have thought they could have had. They now came back and they told us, you know, we now go to our beach with whole new eyes fresh eyes. We are explorers all together as a family on the beach. So it's like enabling those sort of activities and emotional learning experiences. I think is really important. So that then your work is done.
00:15:05 Lucy Hunt You know if they have a relationship with the ocean and they really enjoy spending time with the ocean and normally, if you enjoy spending time with something or somebody, you also want to look after it, right? So for me, I think I grew up with the ocean as part of my family because I spent so much time with it. So that's kind of what I want to recreate is help people have these amazing experiences where the ocean is part of their memories. It's like built into their memory and that they have a real connection with it, so that then they want to protect it as well.
00:15:37 Pam Ferris-Olson Right. So in your opinion, what is the most impactful thing that a concerned citizen can do to make a difference in the current state of our marine environment?
00:15:49 Lucy Hunt It's, you know, do what you can do because I'm not going to say pick up litter because, yes, you can pick up litter but if you can do something at home, then please do that. But if you can use your voice and if you work in marketing or if you work in media make sure that the ocean's voice is in there somewhere.
00:16:15 You know if you are an artist, which I know you deal a lot, with bring the ocean's voice out through your art or bring the ocean's beauty out through your art.
Yes, we can definitely reduce our plastic. Single use plastic use, we can compost, we can speak to our politicians. That's like very important. But if you want to feel useful and if you want to keep doing it, you have to do whatever your passion is, you know. So whatever your passion is, if you have the ability to bring the ocean through in that, then thank you.
00:16:59 Pam Ferris-Olson Well said. I don't know if you looked at the art on my page, I encourage you to look because I do bring the voice of marine life out to share what they are dealing with. And it's lovely that you are using your voice to share that too. And I want to thank you, Lucy. I appreciate how your passion has been the motivating life to spark others you are an inspiration.
I'd like to remind listeners that I've been speaking with Lucy Hunt, the founder of Sea Synergy. Her passion for the Irish coast has inspired her to share meaningful marine experiences with others and help them discover the rich diversity of the marine environment.
00:17:45 Lucy is the latest guest on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast. The series can be viewed on womenminethewater.com, Museum on Main Street, and YouTube. An audio version of this podcast is available on womenmindthewater.com, iTunes and Spotify.
Wo(men) Mind the Water is grateful to Jaine Rice for the use of her song Women of Water. All rights for the Wo(men) Mind the Water name and logo belong to Pam Ferris-Olson. This is Pam Ferris-Olson.