How do you get people interested in learning about the ocean? We're going to be the focus of today's episode on how to protect the ocean podcast. We're going to be talking to Jevon Hunt, who is a songwriter and artist and working with a nonprofit organization that teaches kids to learn about their own backyard in Bahamas and understand how the ocean plays such an important role in not only in their protection, but in conservation as well as biodiversity.
We're going to talk about that all in today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show. Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. This is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. And today's episode is a great one.
We are talking to Jevon Hunt, who is an artist, a music recording artist, a songwriter, an environmentalist, and somebody who works with nonprofit organization that works with young children to discuss how important the ocean plays a role in their lives. And it allows them to reconnect to their backyard. And we discuss a lot of different things, including taking for granted what we have in our own backyard, including myself here in Canada. We have a lot of green spaces.
We have a lot of blue spaces. And a lot of the times I sit in my house, I sit on my phone and I'm scrolling and scrolling to find out what's happening in the world, realizing that I have, or not realizing that I have a beautiful place just in my own backyard. And I need to look at more. And I feel the same way that Jevon does in terms of getting people out and connecting with nature so that nature becomes an important part of their thoughts. It becomes part of our culture.
It becomes part of ways to realize that the environment is important to us, not only for our protection to provide food and to provide peace is really what it comes down to. So we're gonna talk about Jevon in just a moment. If you want more information like this and you wanna find out more about how you can protect the ocean, you can go to our website, speakupforblue.com. But here's the interview with Jevon Hunt. Enjoy the interview and I'll talk to you after.
Hey Jevon, welcome to the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast. Are you ready to talk about music and ocean conservation? I am ready. Right on, I'm very, very excited about this. I think this is the first time where I have somebody on the podcast who is combining music and entertainment with ocean conservation. And also on the island of the Bahamas, the beautiful Bahamas. And I can't wait to see what you guys have to say. I can't wait to dive into this.
We're gonna talk about why music is important, why you incorporate music, how you got into music, but also how your relationship with the ocean has stemmed from being a young boy in the Bahamas all the way to now, being a grown man, teaching it to others and making sure that's an important part of their education and an important part of sort of their lifestyle. So I'm looking really, really forward to learning more about that.
But before we get into all that, Jevon, why don't you just let us know who you are and what you do. As you said, Andrew, first off, thank you for having me on your platform. I am thrilled to be here. Like you said, my name is Jevon Hunt. I'm from the island of Grand Bahama, which is in the Bahamas. For those of you that don't know, the Bahamas is an archipelago. There's over 700 islands in the Bahamas with about 30 to 40 being inhabited.
You know, typically people only hear about an island in the Bahamas when like a celebrity buys an island or something like that. But there's a lot that's inhabited 30 to 40. Like I said, we're a small population. Like I said, I grew up on the island of Grand Bahama. I've always been into music, the environment. I grew up basically outside, you know, typical island family. Our parents would just shoo us outside to entertain ourselves. Gotcha.
You know, they'd say, just just boy, go outside and play. So typically we spend the majority of our days outside, you know, playing ball, playing anything that could be played. I could actually remember the first time we got like cable, which was just which was like in the early 90s. You know, typically we had those antennas that you'd have to go outside and spin it. So so we had no entertainment like that. We had no phones or well, we did have a rotary phone. But, you know, yes.
You know, I watched technology progress over the years. And now everyone has a cell phone in their hand. Go figure. But anyway, but I was always into music. My family is a musical family. They all play in bands and such. We sang in church. And eventually I progressed to want to take it further. I performed a lot of places in theater, again, my own band and stuff. And I threw a series of events, ended up somehow, somehow I ended up into the environmental field. And I never saw it coming.
I just never saw it coming. Right. A big part of who I am now is I love to mentor. So I always mentor it again in church groups and stuff. And I ended up being a part of a youth environmental program. And through that, I was introduced to the whole world of advocacy and learning and teaching about the environment, like things that I took for granted. It was like, oh, my gosh, this is important. Yeah. So I was in that shoe where I didn't know a thing. Oh, I took it for granted.
You know, see those beaches that people love to say the Bahamas is known for. I live on the beach. So I didn't see it as nothing that's so important. It's just a beach, you know. And so sometimes it just baffled me when I saw like tourists or especially we have a lot of Canadians that come down and have second home. Especially during a winter season. Oh, my gosh, when they come on and for us in our winter season, quote unquote, we're wearing jackets.
We have, you know, with the fur, you know, we can't wait for the cold so that we can put on our boots because the only could do it like one weekend out of the whole year. And here's the Canadians and they're jumping in the water like, oh, this feels so good. And we're thinking these crazy people. Like that water is cold and it's like 70 something degrees. Like that's super cold. Us, you know, and they're like, oh, we just left us, you know, we've snowed in.
We're hurting to see snow and they're running away from it. So, you know, in our mind, young boys, I can know these people are crazy, you know, crazy tourists. So anyway, I ended up learning so much about the environment, learning so much about the things that make us special. I'm learning so much about all the things that we take for granted, like conch and the different varieties of fish that we can just go and have.
And it's not until we speak to people from other parts of the USA, Canada and all the other parts of the world, you know, to learn that they have to get a permit to fish or to learn that, hey, you can only catch so much fish in a fishing trip. And there's someone to watch you as they measure your fish to make sure it's the right length. Whereas in the Bahamas, anyone can just go with a cool and some fishing line and catch a whole cooler of fish because there's such an abundance of it.
Well, it wasn't until I went into advocacy and learning more about the environment to learn how all of the construction and coastal construction and businesses and how that affects us, affects the ocean. It wasn't until I got into this that I realized how the ocean is our livelihood, the things that we took for granted, like the salt water, the seawater, the, you know, being able to swim like we're such what's it called snobs when it comes to beaches.
Like I visited both coasts of the US and they're saying, oh, let's go to the beach. Now you're okay. Let's go to the beach, you know, and, and, you know, to have close friends warn me now when you get to this beach, don't act brand new. Don't act like, you know, because you're used to seeing through the water, you won't be able to see through this water. I'm like, it can't be that bad. Only to go to the beach. And I'm like, oh, no, I'm not getting in that.
I'm like, why? I can't see my feet. You have to see you have to see jaws coming in order to run from you know, or what was really shocking for me being an island boy again. And, um, the docs and like, I remember being in Rhode Island on the coast and I'm like, is this real sound like I thought it was fake and they're like, I'm the only guy there just digging in the sun. And you know, a whole crowd is forming like, why is this guy just digging in the sun like this? Because I'm like, you have
sparkles in your son. Like, this is so cool, you know, versus I was used to powder sign, you know, it, it gets everywhere. So to us, it's annoying. It's a tourist. They're like, the one like snow angels, you know, long story. You're like, this is gonna get all over the house is gonna get everywhere. All my clothes in every crevice that you can imagine. It's there. You know, so, so we get used to that stuff. Yeah. And I'm on an island
and I think my beaches are great. But then some other islands have even less of a population and they're untouched. Like no one's on the beach to us if like 10 people is on the beach. I'm like, Oh, it's so crowded. Let's go to another beach versus I'm going to this beach and you could you have to like tip around people. It's so much folks. Yeah. And then and then, you know, it's all new to me. So it's all eye opening and stuff. I
see these huge seagulls. I've never seen them that huge because they're not that huge, you know, by us and they're like fighting people for food like, hey, yeah, yeah. They're aggressive. So yeah, I mean, to say it was an experience. It really was an experience. But you know, I'm all over the place. But when I I started doing a lot more environmental work and working with the children, and I saw that the best way that I could teach them is
through what I know, which is music. And I kind of stumbled into that as well. But I needed to find a song or write a song as a teaching tool. And I wrote a couple and I was low, you know, not ashamed, but I was a little shy to show it course. But when I did, you know, everybody's like, Okay, okay, I see. You know, and then I had to come up with a simplified version, which is what I taught you earlier. Yes. And if you don't mind, I could do it with.
Absolutely. Please do. So the simplified version is for I use it for preschoolers and young kids, sixth grade and under, but I found that the adults love it even more. But they like to pretend like they don't, you know, so I get them clapping, clapping. And then I get them like, okay, when I say four types here, I want you to say it with me. Yeah, so come on. And four types here. And it's all good. Come on, I do red, black, white and black. And so it's so catchy. It is catchy. I'm
probably gonna say it later on after. I know. But I love it because, you know, because we get you talking about the four types of mangroves that are here in the Bahamas. And then, you know, after they get that little piece, then I'm able to go in depth a little bit about each one of those mangroves and why it's important and why, you know, a lot of the fish species and stock come to the mangroves to have their young, you know.
So if we destroy the mangroves or if they're destroyed, then these fish, these, you know, mammals or these animals have nowhere to go to bring their young, which is a direct reflection on our food source. So if those are destroyed, the things that you like to eat, they're not there anymore. You know, so conch the fish, you know, and sometimes when we go into the mangroves, we see so many turtles in there. We see a lot of bird species, some fish jumping out of the water.
Like it is amazing when you go there, like it is I can't even begin to describe how peaceful it is in areas where people don't go. And and yeah, and then you see the land being built because the mangroves tend to attract a lot of sediment and you see these little islands forming. And when we get people out there for the for the like minute or two or for the 30 minutes or for however long they're out there, we see the shift happening. We see them saying like, oh, okay, this is important.
Okay, this is this is a good reason why we should protect this area, you know, because I'm sure it's the same for you and everyone else listening that you know, you tend to have our habits. We go from work to home, grocery store, you know, if you have children to, you know, PTA is and all that stuff. And that tends to become your world and you kind of block out, you're in your own
bubble. So what we do is we through fun ways and through different ways, reach the audience so that we can tell them like, hey, I know you're in your bubble, but let's take five minutes to sing a song. Let's take five minutes to see how important this ecosystem is to us. Let's let's take 10 minutes, you know, and then we attract them to our youth program, which then goes in depth. And I'm proud to say that in our 13th year, we were able to get a lot of the Bohemian students interested in
environmental careers. And a lot of them are choosing to learn more and come back and teach. So it's having some sort of impact, which is even great, better and stuff, you know, and, and also those who just trapped in their everyday bubble, they're able to just think outside of the box and say, okay, this is important. Okay, let me not litter or my environment. Okay, I might have I bought this property. I don't have to tear down every single tree that's on this
property. So just to get them thinking along that lines and making small choices leads to bigger results. Bigger result. 100%. It's so important to get people connected back to the ocean. I mean, even we talk about that here in North America, all the time, Canada, US, you're right, we're always just in our own little bubble. And we just have to go to the grocery store, and I have to go bring our kids to here. Now I got to go here, now
go here. And a lot of times, we don't even take a take time out of the day, just be like, I live in a pretty cool place. You know, I live in a place where there's lots of trees, lots of greenery, and they just kind of pass by it, because I have to go do some stuff.
And if we don't take time out of our day or time out of our week to go and connect with nature, in your case, like in Baham's case, you know, the ocean and enjoy what you see around there, it takes you know, you can just bypass and you don't you lose that, that connection that want and that understanding of why it's important to protect the ocean unless some disaster comes by and you realize how important it is needed.
And then you're like, well, what happened to these programs and stuff, but the lack of that connection takes away that that memory of this, this is an important part, you know, having mangroves, you know, having coral reefs, having seagrasses are very important in tropical systems to protect the coastline.
And without that connection, without bringing people in and I think it's really interesting because we talk about it a lot, you know, we go away to the tropics, we go away because we love the water, we love the beach, like we go, I'm like that tourist, right? If I went to the Bahamas, I'm out there and like, it's 70 degrees and the water's like probably 60 and I'm like, yes, I'm in, like, let's do it. And you're on the beach, be like, what is
wrong with this guy? Because you just love it so much and it's such a different part of your own. Like, it's not your country, you're in a different country, it's warm, what you're normally used to and it's such an important part. But a lot of times we talk about, you know, going somewhere to reconnect with the ocean, like going to the Bahamas or going to Hawaii or going, you know, other places. But when you, the people that live there, it's so important for the people who live on those islands.
And even like for me to live in Canada, to not take for granted the nature that's around me, but especially for you, when you first started building the program, we're getting the idea to build the program, was it difficult to recruit people from the Bahamas, like, Bahamians to come out and like, you know, even the kids to get people to have permission to come out and connect with with the ocean. Was that a was that a challenging process for you? Yes, it was. And first, I want to say the
first three or four years. Yeah, we had students that wanted to keep coming back because we were developing the program. And when we went to all of the schools and gave the letters and such, no one was really interested because they didn't know what we were about. And, you know, and so once they're like, hey, this is an environmental organization. We were lucky that one of our senior members, he was a principal at a high school for over like 20 years.
So he knew all of the teachers and he just bullied his way inside that, hey, I'm doing this environmental program and you have to help Mother Earth. So you're signing up and they'd be like, yes, sir. Yes, sir. You know, because they trust him too, right? They just he had a great reputation, you know, and and so we had a lot of folks that signed up. And then, you know, then you have to to work with parents.
And because of his reputation and the reputation of the team, they said, you know what, we're going to keep our children coming back because it looks like they're doing a lot. We were able to once they graduate from the youth program, we had a cadet program where we one of the requirements is that they get scuba certified. Oh, so we get them in the water and they have to go in the water. And it's like, okay, okay, it's it's
good. It's good. And as some of the facilitators, we also had to get scuba certified. Of course. Yeah, so we wanted the children to go in there. So we had to do it as well as my first time. And of course, I was nervous. I was nervous. I was so nervous. I won't even lie, Andrew. I'm breathing underwater is not natural. Let's be honest, right? It's not natural. I know. And then, you know, we watched those those movies, you know, like Jaws. And there's one particular place called
Shark Junction. Right. We had to dive, you know. And so I I'm trying to say to my folks, my family, like, how do I tell them that I'm going to willingly scuba dive with sharks without alarming them? So I'm like, hey, I just wanted to say I love you. And I put a tremble in my voice, you know, and when we got out there, the sharks are like, humans, like, you know, it was like we were intruding on their territory, but they didn't care. You know, and the instructors were so
cool. They were so they taught me in a way that I needed to learn. And they got a few pictures of sharks in the background with me not even noticing them there. And I'm like, you know what, thank God, you're gonna tell me turn around. Because I don't know what would have happened, but it might have been embarrassing. But, you know, after five dives, and I got certified, it was like,
okay, it's nothing to fear. And I was able to even get back into the classroom and say, hey, it's even more reason for us to protect our reefs, protect our oceans, because underwater is a completely different world. And it's so beautiful. So just, just imagine being underwater with all of those colors and all those coral reefs and, and like, all of the colors on the fish, I felt like I was seeing Dory from what's the name Dory? I felt like I found Dory. A number of times probably.
A number of times, yeah. And, and just all of the misconceptions I had about sharks and rays. And you know, there's a guy here called the thing Ray Whisper. And I've done his tour like three times. And he showed us how to safely interact with wildlife. And you know what I mean? And it was like, oh my God, all, all of these years, people were telling me that, hey, you saw what's happened to Steve Irwin, don't get next to those dangerous wild animals.
Yeah. But you know, I'm thinking though, like, why would you want to intrude into that space without, you know, without doing it in a safe way, you know, so it just led me to think about things in a different way. And, you know, it's just my whole world changed, my whole world changed. But back to the answer to your question, it was a little bit difficult at first. But after parents and the wider community saw that, hey, they're these children are
getting some amazing opportunities. You know, we've had different folks come out and, and now the current generation, they're more interested in choosing environmental careers. So they're finding us. Yeah, you know, yeah, they're coming back to teach, which, which I think is great, because that's even more of an opportunity to mentor, because they become leaders then. Right. And so they're able to lead other children to go
and then they learn how to be leaders. So whether they stay in environmental jobs or not, they have, it's become a big part of their lives. Plus, they've had an opportunity to lead, which I think is such a, as a, as a, I'm a sports coach, a hockey and football player. So I find it's like, it's such an important part of a, of a, of some kids development, right, is to understand what it means to lead. And not kids don't get an opportunity to do that, right, which
is so this is this is wonderful. I have to ask, like you were nervous at first, when you started scuba diving, which everybody is, I was as well. When you scuba dive now, what's the difference? Um, it's still a little nervous at first. But, you know, that's just me anytime I get in the water. But once you get in it, it's such a calming. Yeah, you'll to be there. Like I said, it's a whole different world. It's like, I knew. Yeah, all of the worries and the stresses that
we carry around with us. Once you submerge not water and you look up and I'm like, Oh, my God, I'm 20 feet in water. I'm not. And it's like, the only thing you can hear is your heartbeat. Yeah. And the calmer you are the less that oxygen you use. So I try to calm myself even more. And it feels so graceful to just be in the water just floating and just exploring sometimes the instructors have to tell us like, Hey, stay with your buddy.
Don't wander off because you get so caught up that, you know, you lose track of time. And one person in particular, again, the elderly gentleman, my, my boss, who is the ex principal, he's in his 80s. And we have to put a tag on him because he's gone. He's gone. I'm like, come back. You know, but then you have to be careful because the hand signals they they're, you know, they're thinking there's something else. So we have to be trying to stick close to your partner and just
explore together. But yeah, I felt like I learned a brand new part of the Bahamas that few people get to see, you know, being underwater. Yeah, 100%. I think that's a, that's a big part of it. Not a lot of people know what it's like underwater. And you're right. It's like a completely different
world. When, you know, we talk a lot about, you know, connecting and making sure that kids and kids and their parents understand more about the ocean, how important it is to, to protect and how important it is to take care of that, that time. What is like, for the average Bahamian who lives in on your island, like grand Bahamas, what is sort of the outlook of,
of the beach and of the ocean? Was it similar to you where they just take it a little for granted and they don't go in the water as much because it's always there and they get caught up in your, in their own lives? Yes, that's still the sentiment. Like I told you earlier, I had that same mentality, like, yeah, I live on the beach. The beach is literally two minutes away from me like I'm at the front of my
property and at the back is my beach. And it's like, no, no Bahamian would willingly want to live on the beach. And my house is it is it is prize land, especially for those who like a landlocked. And you know, when people tend to to build in the Bahamas, and they're from a place that's landlocked, they want to live on the beach. Right for the average Bahamian, they do not want to live on the beach. Because saltwater corrodes everything. Yes, you'll be changing your fixtures and fittings
yearly. You have to park in a garage because then your car will get all eaten up by the salt. Sand flies, you know, all that different stuff. It's all the stuff you never think about not living on the beach, right? Yeah, having saltwater just in the air that comes in it comes the salt comes over. Yeah, just like sand, it'll find its way over and get all the
stuff you don't want to get. Yeah, and in the Bahamas is a unique way for people to tell like, they can look at anyone and they like, for example, they look at me and they'll say, you're in the saltwater a lot. And they'll and then I know why they say that because saltwater bleaches your hair, it turns you here like brown. So we know the fishermen, we know all of the folks who were in the water, because it turns you here brown, like it bleaches
it. Yeah, you know, I get a lot of folks ask me like, hey, you know, did you bleach your hair? I'm like, no, no, I would, you know, we don't do that, you know, but if you know, you know, yeah, like you get in the water and it bleaches your hair. So a lot of my hair is that that that brown that's that's very, you know, with going into saltwater. So all of the fishermen, they have like light brown hair because they're in the water
daily. Like for me, I might be in the water weekly, especially in the summertime, but they're in the water every day year round. And so I find also that the younger folks, they're mostly in the water in the summertime, just like us, up until like October or so when it gets start getting a little bit nippy. But they also take it for granted. And so unless they're doing some type of tik tok, or some type of something, or even partying on the beach,
because that happens a lot too. That's the only time people really go to the beach. Gotcha. Gotcha. That's cool. That's so cool. Now, the music aspect of your life is a big part, as you mentioned, your family's very musical, you're very musical, you incorporate into these environmental programs. How big of a part is it when you go into these schools?
Like, like, do you, is it come in, you bring your guitar, you sing, or keyboard or whatever, and you sing and, and that's most of the program or like, how does it incorporate it? So it depends on what the school wants. And it depends on how much time we have. Normally, we block out like a 45 minute session with students. If I have the young ones, if I have primary school level children, I won't take any instruments or anything or bring along my crew.
We'll just do that same song. And we'll engage like we have a at work, they we wrote this storybook about Manny, the mighty mangrove. And Manny's adventure. You know, Manny's adventure in the mind grove, how he grew up, you know, and all that stuff. So I would typically have story time. Yeah, I read it in a very animated way. You know, it was dramatic, con gestures and all that stuff. And I culminate with a song.
So my thing is, I call myself a storyteller, an environmental storyteller and rhythm and blues, just a storyteller period. And so I have to bring this story alive and communicate this story in a way that my audience could understand. So the younger they are, the more wild and, you know, I have to make this story big and get it to stick. And so we would do songs and I would call them up and say, OK, now you sing it with me. Now let's do this side. You sing it with me.
And so I'll break them up and we'll do call in response. Sometimes I bring my goatskin drum and we play the drums and they would sing the song. So it's all about engagement for me. You know, so as a as a singer songwriter storyteller, I want to bring that alive for my students. And then they come up to our mind grove nursery, which I'm in charge of. And they get community service because it's a requirement in order to graduate community service. Some high school, like high school or just regular
elementary school? High school. High school. I think they have to some schools have up to 75 hours community service. So after school, some days a week, they'll come and do community service. And then I get some little ones who they don't have quite that attention span. So I bring out the drums or I play hide and seek or I have little worksheets with them. And, you know, we go over some environmental stuff just so I could, you know, bait them to get them in my youth program.
So, yeah, so it works. I have to be a character to get all this stuff done. And I love it. I never like I told you earlier, I stumbled into this career field. And it's like it chose me. I didn't choose it. It chose me. And environmentalism. I always thought that it was three huggers. Oh, look at this one. And they just, you know, but then I became that I became the person that's protecting these trees. I became the person that's advocating clean, fishable,
drinkable, suitable waters. Again, I work for waterkeepers Bahamas. Yeah. I became the person that's talking to fishermen and telling them like, hey, some practices, you really shouldn't do that because it's damaging to the reef or talking to developers and telling them like, it's a way for you to do this without harming, you know, all of this stuff. And we get called everything.
Oh, I'm sure. But, you know, at the end of the day, when there is no food, when there is no, you know, the protection from these storms, the coastal protection at the end of the day, all the things that make us the Bahamas, like when it's gone, then what like after hurricane Dorian, in fact, I want to say we had a hurricane, I think it was Hurricane Matthew 2004. So, and we were without power for two and a half months. Two and a half months.
Months. Wow. And, you know, all the humans know that when there's a hurricane, the first thing you do besides secure your property is fill up chugs with water, fill up chugs, buckets, everything with fresh water, because at some point, the water is going to turn off. Right. And so the next thing to do is if you have a chest freezer, you're going to take all that stuff out, you're going to start barbecuing everything because without power, it's going to spoil.
So it's going to spoil, you know, some people have solar, some people have like generators, so it'll last a bit longer. But general rule of thumb is you want to eat all that stuff. And then, you know, water is rationed. And bathing water, you need to have to reuse some water if you bathe in a bucket of water, but you shouldn't. That's too much water, you know, yeah, you then turn it around and use that to flush the toilets.
But what happened during those two and a half months, most people had to take to the ocean, they had to go and swim in the ocean because we couldn't arbitrarily just, oh, I want to use all this water and take a long shot. No, you couldn't do it. Yeah. You know, and the good part is the ocean provided food for us. So stores weren't open at all, you know, and when they were
as limited resources. So a lot of people went back to fishing crawfish lobster time, like we call it all the times that it happened, like where we were without power and stuff that lobs those walking. So people had lobsters for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you know, the ocean provided. Yeah, in a big way. So it's a part of our livelihood. It's a part of our diet. Again, it's something that we think about it. Yeah. Coconut water. We had coconuts and coconut water and
seafood. And that's how we lived. Yeah. And not bad too. That's not bad. Living on seafood and coconut water. Not having power, you know, not being able to, you know, clean properly and do laundry. Like it, it really makes us, it really shows how reliant we are on just general power and the access to water. But on an island system where that may not happen all the time, especially with some of these storms that are coming through that can get get hairy at times.
It can get really difficult at times to live in there. So, yeah. And so now as you, as this program has been built for 13 years and it's expanding. Do you find more people are even like the parents are doing more environmental things, you know, more environmentally friendly things? Yes, we've had a few parents come in and they say like, what are you teaching my
child? Oh my gosh, because they're coming into the home now and they're saying like, hey, like, we might not have recycling, but you need to put that put that away like, or if a parent, she's like, I don't do it. But for some reason, she went to throw something some trash out of the window and a child was like, hey, yeah, let's make smart choices. You know, and they're, they are the one that's enforcing the message in the home now. Yeah, they had a one like all the stuff
that we're teaching them. They're now going into the home because when we talk to adults, you know, it's kind of in one out of the next. So, you know, adults are pretty much set in their way sometimes. And so it's through the children, through their children, like telling them stuff. So we've had successes in that way. We've had parents come back and they had to come back and tell us, you know, so now they're making smarter choices.
And so, you know, we had a plastic band, like a single use plastic band last year that was enforced in the Bahamas. And so the students are going to the supermarkets and grocery stores and you know, parents are like grabbing for the plastic bag and it's like, no, let's purchase the reusable bag. Yeah, let's use those. And you know, the parents are sometimes they get really upset. They're like, yes, but I don't have the time.
You know, and so it becomes a thing where it's like, okay, there if we don't want to be that guy or that person to be like, you know, because, you know, we all have to live. But we just want to encourage if you can just do it. You know, I saw your your podcast where you're talking about the straws. Yeah. Yeah. And so we got some parents, you know, they bind their steel straws and they're like walking around like it becomes a fashion
statement now like that. Yeah. The person's like, Hey, look what I have. Yeah, you know, different colors and everything. Yeah, different colors. And I also experienced like what you talked about, like these messy straws that melt before you finish your drink or break up and just it's like, Oh, yeah. You know, so so we empathize with that. But it gets us thinking outside of the box looking at companies that, you know, have a sturdier product. And and realize that just innovation.
Yeah, it helps us to be innovative, you know, absolutely. Yeah. So this is amazing. And I love to see the work that that you're doing with with Bahama waterkeepers. I'd love to see the environmental programs. I'd love to see the work with children. And then that, you know, going into the homes and the parents are coming back and be like, this is this is fantastic. We're learning. They learn because we know kids are adamant about when they learn something
they want to do it. They want to, you know, contribute to it because they see it sometimes as black and white and they may not see the gray area between their complexities between. But that helps a lot of times when the when parents call you or when kids call out their parents and it's happened to me. It's happened to everybody, you know, but it's important. I think I think it is important because, you know, we're leaving this this to our day.
And we have to do the best we can to to ensure that we leave it in the best condition as possible. So they have an easier job than than we left it with. So I really appreciate you coming on the podcast to discuss this to introduce us.
And I'd love to have you back on talk more about the program in the future because I think this is something that we need to hear more and more about and have that hopefulness and that optimism towards the ocean and and our younger generation that's coming through and and being able to be more protective of the ocean. So thank you so much for being on the program. Not a problem. Thank you for having me. You bet. Thank you, Jevon, for joining us on today's episode of the How
to Protect the Ocean. It was great to have you on the podcast and be able to talk about music here a little bit of your talent and also talk about how you get kids interested in the ocean, especially with, you know, just as he mentioned, there was this persona that the ocean is dangerous and it's nerve wracking to go in it, even with his own own experiences in scuba diving and understanding what it's like to be in the ocean. Once you're there, you can be in the ocean.
And once you're there, it is life changing. And once we connect with the ocean, we realize how important the ocean is to us and what we need to do to be able to protect it better. And so that it continues to be a part of us and continues to provide services for us like protection, just like mangroves does for a lot of island communities, just like salt marshes does for a lot of coastal communities and temperate worlds and a lot of other coastal communities, coastal
habitats does for coastal communities. We just don't see it as much because we're not out in nature as much. And I feel that's what I think. And that's a big part of conservation is to connect with nature so that you understand and you appreciate more about the beauty and protection that nature brings us. And that's really the message for the show. So if you want to learn more about Javan, you can do so.
And just look in the show notes and you can click on the links to his website as well as social media pages and you can find out more about his music as well. It's always great to be able to support local artists, especially those who are in it for the ocean. So I love that. And if you have any questions or comments about this episode, you can get ahold of me through Instagram. DM me at how to protect the ocean. That's at how to
protect the ocean. Don't forget to subscribe and click that notification bell. If you're watching this on YouTube or Spotify. And if you're watching this or if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast app, don't forget. Hit that follow button or subscribe button and listen to more episodes of the how to protect the ocean podcast. That's it for me on today's episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from the true north strong and free. Have a great day.
We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.