Slave Trade Shipwrecks and Saving Sharks: Meet Alannah Vellacott

Alannah Vellacott:

I was traveling the world and teaming up with historians, researchers, experts in the field of archeology, history, storytelling, community leaders, bringing those intentionally sunk stories to the surface and letting people know that slavery was a global enterprise, everyone was involved. And the number that we think we know of how many Black people were trafficked from Africa and/or sold into slavery is very small because the rest of them are under the ocean and the ocean remembers.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

I’m Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, and this is a different kind of nature show, a podcast about the human drama of saving animals. This season, we’re talking to all kinds of nature advocates, from a paleoanthropologist who hunts fossils in conflict zones, to someone who helped save an endangered species while in prison. We’re going to hear from real life heroes with widely different expertise and life experiences, about what led them to be champions for the natural world. What transformation did they go through to create change within themselves, their community, and the world? Together, we’ll find out how these ordinary people fell in love with nature and became their most extraordinary selves. This is Going Wild.

Alannah Vellacott is a marine ecologist, science communicator, and ocean advocate working in marine research, conservation, and education in The Bahamas and the Caribbean. She’s been free-diving ever since she could walk and her Instagram is well worth the visit. You’ll find pictures of Alannah swimming with sharks and diving through coral forests, all without the use of any equipment. In an underwater modeling industry that’s overwhelmingly white, Alannah’s stunning images are showing a generation of young Black girls that they too belong in the ocean.

Today, we’re talking about how Alannah went from fishing for sharks in her childhood to protecting them in her job as a marine ecologist. We’ll also cover her work with Samuel L. Jackson as a feature diver on the documentary Enslaved, where she scoured the ocean floor for shipwrecks and artifacts that reveal the lost history of the transatlantic slave trade.

There’s an article in Essence Magazine that refers to you as the real Little Mermaid, which is just fabulous. And when we were looking into your background, we could totally get it. So I want to know, can you paint a picture for me of how you grew up, where you grew up, and the role that the ocean played in your childhood?

Alannah Vellacott:

I’m from The Bahamas and specifically I’m from the island of Grand Bahama. And I grew up on the outskirts of a very expansive mangrove creek system. So I had the privilege of seeing the ocean every day I woke up. I would see sharks on patrol in the mornings and in the evenings. I would see schools of parrotfish making the water nervous up at the surface. I would see turtles come up for air. I would see snappers, stingrays.

As soon as I was able to go outside on my own, I discovered I had neighbors who were the same age as me and just as wild and crazy and their parents were subsistence fishermen. So of course, we would be gone all day, as often as we could, fishing and playing in the mud, playing in the ocean and learning about the world around me in the same way that children would use a playground to learn about the world around them.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Oh, I love it. You come from a really special place.

Alannah Vellacott:

Thank you.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

So there’s so much more to your childhood, and we don’t mean to skip over all of the growing up you did, but one of the things that I learned about you in reading about you is that before you were working to save sharks, you were on a different end of the spectrum where you were part of catching and harvesting them. So I kind of want to talk about that and I want to talk about it in a way where you can help us understand how normal that was.

Alannah Vellacott:

Yeah, for sure. So of course, my neighbors, their parents were subsistence fishermen. That was the way that they made money. That’s the way that their kids went to school, how food was put in the fridge, gas in the car, literally living off of the ocean. And there were one or two restaurants on island that specialized in shark fingers. And of course, that sounds appealing, maybe not now, but definitely back then.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

I think it sounds cool, especially for a kid. I want to eat shark fingers instead of fish sticks.

Alannah Vellacott:

Per pound, sharks fetched us more money. So when my neighbor and I wanted something a little extra, maybe a toy that was really expensive or a new bike or we need to fix our engine or something like that, we would go fishing sharks intentionally to sell them to those restaurants. It was very dangerous as kids, I could not tell my mom I was doing that.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

What made it dangerous?

Alannah Vellacott:

We were little kids. We were maybe 9, 10, 11.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Was there an adult on the boat?

Alannah Vellacott:

Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not, no. So I’ll paint the complete picture of what was going on.

One day, we were riding our bicycles and decided to take a trip to the dump. And we found this aluminum boat and we dragged it all the way home. We learned how to fiberglass, we patched it up ourselves. We sold seafood to buy a little crappy engine. We slapped that engine on there and we would be gone, just gone.

And this was before cell phones, so imagine being a mother or a father and your child is out there doing God knows what. We would leave the community and go into the mangroves and we would set our line, throwing it out as far as we can into the ocean. We would get up really early in the morning at maybe 5:00 AM, just when it’s sunrise. And we would head to that line and reel that in, all three of us screaming, “Oh, it’s a big one. Oh, it’s a lemon shark,” being super excited.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

So okay, I thought I knew the size of these animals, but how big might they be? Your size, like the size of your own body?

Alannah Vellacott:

Oh, yeah. These sharks were over 10 feet long, some of them. Sharks come in many different species and sizes, but of course, we wanted the bigger sharks, so we were hoping to catch large lemons or large reef sharks.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Stop.

Alannah Vellacott:

We were struggling to reel them in. It would be all hands on deck and most of the time these sharks would still be alive. It’s got a hook in its mouth, it’s fighting for its life and a shark is a wild and dangerous animal. And we would all be straining, pulling these ropes and these lines in to try and put it in our little boat and ride it all the way home to start processing it.

We would use every part of the shark. We would even soak what was left, the skeleton so that we can use the spine for beads. We could sell the jaw to someone who sells souvenirs in a trinket shop. We would use every part of it.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Oh my gosh. I’m full of questions and my jaws on the floor, but you said you were 8, 9, 10, 11. Did it have kind of the same cultural norm as someone like me doing chores in the neighborhood? Or were you the only kids around who were shark fishing, like it was unheard of?

Alannah Vellacott:

I would say yes and no. Shark fishing was culturally normal, but yes, we were the only kids around probably doing this. My neighbor’s dad was a well-known fisherman on island and this is what they did for a living. They were experts in this and so they taught us their expertise at a super young age. And we felt confident that we can go and do this, and they felt confident in us that we can go and do that as well.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

It was a different era.

Alannah Vellacott:

Right?

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

And again, we’re going to spend so much time talking about conservation because obviously that’s what you’re up to now, but I think it’s important for people like us to be honest about all the mistakes along the way or just all of the things we engaged in before we knew better, and to use that as an example of education and information and how it can really alter things. And I really appreciate you being willing to talk about shark fishing.

Alannah Vellacott:

Yeah.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Right?

Alannah Vellacott:

But I’d also like to add that my neighbor’s dad taught us what conservation was, though he was a fisherman, kind of pairing that with indigenous knowledge. People who live off of the land understand how to take care of the land in a way that the land will continue to take care of them. Of course, you can’t keep taking sharks, otherwise there aren’t going to be sharks for the future. And he applied that across the board with all of his fisheries. We understood to fish within the limits and to have mercy, to leave some for later.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Alannah spent every spare moment she had in the water. She got certified as a PADI Junior open Water Diver at just 13 years old. And as soon as she could, she was working at a local dive center. It was there she met her first marine biologist. And by the time she finished high school, she was determined to attend a gap year program at the Cape Eleuthera Island School. Located a few islands away from where she grew up, they had a campus of about 50 students and a marine ecology based curriculum with hands-on classes that were actually taught in the ocean itself. The entire campus was also connected to a state-of-the-art research lab where Alannah would have the opportunity to work with real scientists and researchers from all over the world.

Alannah Vellacott:

I went there thinking I already knew everything about the ocean and this was just going to qualify that I was an expert and nobody could tell me anything. But there was obviously so many things I did not know about the ocean, but also so many career options.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Would you say that this was a life-changing experience?

Alannah Vellacott:

110%. It was taking all of that raw enthusiasm and observation and know-how for the ocean from a fisherman’s perspective and opening up the world to me.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

So I went to the website of The Island School and was super impressed. And then the other thing that was pretty obvious to me was that if the website represents the student body, it was not very Black, and that is notable because of the location, right? So The Bahamas is a Black country. So I’m curious, what were the racial cultural demographics at the school?

Alannah Vellacott:

The Island School is a very inclusive school. They want people from all walks life attending the school. However, because of the cost of attendance, it’s very hard for people of certain demographics to even dream of attending and a scholarship was absolutely necessary for me to attend.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Super different than Grand Bahama Island where you had grown up and been in school before.

Alannah Vellacott:

Absolutely, because it was a completely different demographic.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

And Alannah, because this is a audio podcast and not everyone can see you, can you describe your racial identity? I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but you might identify as a biracial Black woman. Is that accurate?

Alannah Vellacott:

Yeah. I think if you want to get super technical, I would identify as Afro-Caribbean. My dad is white and English and my mom is Black and Bahamian and I am a product of profound love.

My childhood was a little difficult because I don’t look like your standard Bahamian. You’re probably wondering where my accent is. I don’t sound like your typical Bahamian because this is my professional speaking voice and I want you to understand me and think I’m intelligent. It’s code switching, you know what that is, girl. So I’m code switching right now. My hair curls differently and I got teased in high school a lot and I had different interests, white interests. So in a lot of settings I was the white girl and other settings I was the Black girl, so I was both but neither at the same time. So in going to The Island School, I then was Black. I was like, “Oh. Okay. This space is familiar, but it’s also different.”

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

I always think it’s so interesting when racial identity is put upon kids as they’re just figuring themselves out and then you have to kind of figure that out too. And sometimes it’s not logical, sometimes you’re with people that you share identity with and you’re excluded or with people that you don’t share identity with and you’re very much included. And I also appreciate you talking about how you’re code switching.

Alannah Vellacott:

It’s just going to happen. And as I become more relaxed in the conversation, you’ll hear it here and there. But of course, whatever our intersectionality is, I think we all do that. It’s a subconscious method to be understood.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Next to her mostly white classmates at The Island School, Alannah began to discover for the first time all of the subtle and not so subtle ways that her cultural identity could be misunderstood. Alannah’s experience with the ocean would be challenged in ways that were often complex, like one interaction with a group of students that completely changed the way she thought about the sharks she used to catch with her friends.

Alannah Vellacott:

I was sitting at a picnic table and I was telling them, “Oh, yeah, I fish sharks and this is how you process it. This is what you do with the teeth. And then we soak the spine and we get beads.” And everyone was just looking at me almost in disgust. And I’m like, “What’s the matter? Why is nobody laughing or thinking that’s cool?” And someone just was like, “Why would you do that?” I’m like, “For money.”

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Right.

Alannah Vellacott:

I explained that if I want something new or something expensive, I could make my own money by fishing sharks. Some of the students weren’t particularly gentle. They were like, “Why would you do that? That’s so harmful. That’s terrible. That’s super cruel.”

But it was a particular teacher that brought me aside, who was like, “Well, this is slightly problematic because,” and kind of opened the world of why sharks are so important to our oceans and that there is a whole research topic at the Cape Eleuthera Institute dedicated to shark research and conservation. And when I learned that, it was about the same time I needed to write my letter as to where I wanted to do my internship. So in my letter, I wrote that I wanted to come full circle from fishing them and seeking them out intentionally and killing them to learning all I can about them, protecting them, and then taking that home to tell others why sharks are so important.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

That’s really magical. There’s so many ways I want to follow up with that, but I want to really commend you and especially call out that teacher who took that extra time to explain. And tell me if you agree with this. Sometimes there’s this complexity when it comes to the West. My opinion is that unfortunately, conservation globally has had this neo-colonial approach that can be harmful, can be effective, can be incomplete.

So I wonder, learning that shark fishing is bad for the environment, they could have gone in a couple of different ways. In a different situation, you might’ve felt defensive, you might’ve felt that your culture was being attacked. You might’ve felt that this was that very neo-colonial Western people coming into The Bahamas, telling kids, “Don’t earn money the way you’re earning money,” even though you were doing it in a sustainable way. However, it wasn’t that, right? It actually was like this wonderful nurturing educational moment.

Alannah Vellacott:

I did not know it had a name. I did not know about neo-colonialism in terms of conservation or anything like that, but I did experience it at The Island School, but very briefly.

I knew a particular fish species to be called a broad shad. That’s what I called it. It’s a shad. And I went to The Island School, we were learning about mangroves. And I pointed at the fish and I was like, “Oh, look, a broad shad.” And they’re like, “No.” And I’m like, “Yes. How can you tell me?” They’re like, “It’s a yellowfin mojarra.” “I’ve never heard that before. Sorry. I’m a fisherman. I’m from The Bahamas. We call that a broad shad.” And were like, “No, see, it’s called a yellowfin mojarra.” Open the book, there’s the fish. And I’m like, “Okay, sure. Whatever. But I’m going to continue to call it a broad shad.”

And then I learned about scientific names and why scientific names are so important, but I definitely had that experience where my indigenous knowledge was not appreciated. In fact, it was completely rejected. And I don’t think that was by a teacher. I’m pretty sure that was by a student who had been studying fish ID because we were out in the mangroves that day. But yeah, that was the first time I really experienced that.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Thank you for sharing that because even in our best, most nurturing environments, microaggressions show up and remind us of the work that needs to be done and the ways that some of this is imperfect.

Alannah Vellacott:

The Island School was transformative. And the story of how why sharks are important was introduced to me is the way that it should be, and is definitely a way that I try my very best to communicate science to people of all walks of life. It’s about coming to where they’re at and eliciting information from them first. What do you know? What do you see? What are you observing? And then exchanging their knowledge with my knowledge and having a discussion and then coming to an agreement or even a disagreement about how can we work together to protect what’s taking care of you and to protect what I love visiting?

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Alannah went on to study ecology and environmental science at the University of South Dakota, where she was again one of just a handful of Black students. This was a theme that continued throughout the beginning of her career. Even when she found a job back in The Bahamas as a research assistant, it wasn’t unusual to be the only Black person and the only woman on her dive team or in the lab, but all of that was about to change.

In 2018, Alannah got a call from an organization called Diving With a Purpose, founded by members of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers. They’re a multiracial team of underwater archeologists specializing in the documentation and preservation of artifacts related to Black history and the transatlantic slave trade. They were making a documentary with Samuel L. Jackson, and the director wanted Alannah to appear onscreen as one of the featured divers.

Alannah Vellacott:

We were talking and chatting, he was asking questions. And he said, “Oh, by the way, you have the part.” I was like, “I do?” He was like, “Yeah, did anyone tell you?” And I’m like, “No, this is amazing.” He’s talking logistics to me and I’m like, “What is happening?”

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

After the break, we’ll discuss how exploring both sides of her heritage helped Alannah to truly embrace her racial identity. We’ll also talk about meeting Samuel L. Jackson and Alannah’s mission to save the coral forests of her childhood.

I know about the documentary and you know about the documentary, but our audience might not know what we’re talking about. So in your own words, can you explain what this documentary is about?

Alannah Vellacott:

It takes a look at the transatlantic slave trade through the lens of the shipwrecks that it left behind. What that meant was I was traveling the world and teaming up with historians, researchers, experts in the field of archeology, history, storytelling, community leaders, bringing those intentionally sunk stories to the surface and letting people know that slavery was a global enterprise, everyone was involved. And the number that we think we know of how many Black people were trafficked from Africa and/or sold into slavery is very small because the rest of them are under the ocean and the ocean remembers.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

I want to focus a little bit on, we talk about imposter syndrome in the world. Did you have an imposter syndrome moment where you’re like, “I’m a biologist, this isn’t biology”? Or were you kind of like, “This is fate, I’m in”?

Alannah Vellacott:

I didn’t have imposter syndrome about underwater archeology. I had imposter syndrome about my intersectionality and how I looked and that I was being asked to represent Black people. And my entire childhood, I wasn’t considered Black nor white, I was othered. That experience manifested in me not feeling like I’m the correct person to be talking about this experience.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

I didn’t expect you to say that. I expected you to say something about like, “Oh, I wasn’t sure if I belonged on this project because of my science background.”

Alannah Vellacott:

No. I was afraid I wouldn’t belong on the project because I wasn’t dark enough.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

And this was about slavery?

Alannah Vellacott:

Correct. It was wild, and I really wrestled with it because the first episode that we filmed was in Cornwall where my dad was from. And the entire premise of the show is exploring my mother’s ancestry. And this was the first time, as an adult, being in the country of my father and exploring his ancestry, while also exploring her ancestry at the same time. It felt like I had one foot on either side of the line and it was a very emotional experience.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

My gosh.

Alannah Vellacott:

I felt horrible. But at the same time, I felt empowered and vindicated. I felt responsible, and I also felt like a victim. I don’t think anything else on this planet could have brought me to this space, this confident space that I’m in other than working on that documentary. I now stand confident in my intersectionality that I am a proud Black woman and that’s who I am, and no one can tell me otherwise or take it away from me.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

I’m really glad you did it. I’m really glad you said yes, for so many reasons. It’s an offering to the world, but it seems like there are also a lot of ways that it served you. The experience educated you, challenged you, empowered you, helped you explore some really tough stuff that you might not have been able to confront otherwise. And you weren’t alone. After spending so much professional time in white spaces, what was it like to be with Black divers?

Alannah Vellacott:

It felt like coming home. Usually, I’ll be on a dive boat and I am either the only female or I’m the only Black person, or I’m both. And the usual energy are big white men who are like, “Oh, I use this much air. Oh, I need this much weight.” Or, “Hey, can I help you with that? Oh, you can’t lift this.” When, “Sir, excuse me, I’m an instructor. Please step out of the way so I can set up my own gear. Thank you very much.”

To go into this community that looks just like me, that have had the same experiences that I’ve had, the same enthusiasm for these “white” interests that I was teased for in school. It’s just I knew a lot about biology and they knew a lot about history and archeology, something I don’t really know much about. And because I am a scientist and a smarty-pants, I want to know everything it is they know.

So we would have these amazing exchanges of, “This is the fish you’re looking at,” or, “This is the artifact you’re looking at. This is how you map it.” “This is how you do a reef survey.” It was so much fun, because I came home to a tribe of people who already loved me and who wanted to show me everything about their world, while we can sit back and relax and just exchange everything that comes with being Black and in the ocean space. It was the hardest thing I have ever been asked to do. But the adventure in between, the bonds made, the friends made was unforgettable, once in a lifetime opportunity.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

While watching Enslaved, as someone working in ecology, I found myself wondering how much longer this history can survive on the ocean floor. Because I know that large scale fishing vessels drag nets called bottom trawlers across the seabed, which destroys coral forests and underwater ecosystems, but what could they also be doing to the relics that Alannah and her team are trying to protect?

Is there a tremendous urgency right now to uncover the shipwrecks and the artifacts that were left over? To me, it seemed like it might be like now or never. Like, oh my gosh, if we want to understand Black history, we’ve got to do this now. Is that accurate or do you have a sense?

Alannah Vellacott:

Yes. We were in the English Channel and we were searching for this ship that was named F35. I don’t think anyone had really put eyes on this ship in a very long time, much less physically been down there themselves. But imaging had brought back that there were piles of manillas, the currency that was exchanged for African captives.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Oh my gosh.

Alannah Vellacott:

And also an amazing artifact, an elephant tusk that was also down there.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Whoa.

Alannah Vellacott:

And an elephant tusk was worth way more, way more than the life of an African captive. I think the estimation that was told to us was that an elephant tusk was worth 15 or maybe 20 African captive lives. And F35 had all of that history in this one small spot.

But when you zoom out of that imagery, the scraping of bottom trawlers was everywhere around this site. It is a miracle that that site had not been destroyed. It’s almost like they stopped just before they got to it and started just after. So it was so important that that site be mapped as best as possible, imaged as best as possible, and that we bring back artifacts to continue to understand those stories and tell those stories.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

It’s possible that we’ve lost so many.

Alannah Vellacott:

So many.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

There’s no way to know.

Alannah Vellacott:

So many. Diving in Lake Michigan, that water was cold, cold, cold, cold.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Yeah, I bet.

Alannah Vellacott:

But because the water was so cold, it was preserving this shipwreck that we were exploring, a steamship that had caught fire and sunk, and was also a part of the last trek in the underground railroad to Canada. They would take escaped slaves on as waitstaff, as cooks and disguise them for the trip. But when they arrived, they would let them go and tell them to hurry off before anyone caught them. So that cold water was protecting that shipwreck.

Chance, just chance was protecting the shipwreck in the English Channel. Climate change and how we consume this planet is putting all of these stories, closure, important puzzle pieces to Black ancestries, putting that at risk. And if we don’t engage in climate action, if we don’t transform climate anxiety or climate ignorance into climate action, we’re really going to lose out on so, so many things greater than it is we can fathom.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

I could not agree more.

Alannah Vellacott:

Girl, it’s wild.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Okay, and we are wrapping up, but I have to ask, did you meet, in real life, did you meet Samuel L. Jackson?

Alannah Vellacott:

Yes, I got to meet Samuel L. Jackson in person. He came out on the boat with us with Diving with a Purpose in the Keys and said something sweet or positive or empowering or hilarious to every person doing their giant stride off of the boat into the ocean.

So I came up and he’s standing there, kind of super cool, and he’s looking at me. And he’s like, “Yeah, man.” And I’m like, “Uh.”

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Oh, boy.

Alannah Vellacott:

I’m like, “Sam, I’m so sorry, we don’t say that. I’m not Jamaican.”

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Wrong island.

Alannah Vellacott:

He’s like, “You’re not?” And I’m like, “No, I’m from The Bahamas.” “Y’all don’t say that in The Bahamas?” I’m like, “No, we say what’s going on or what you saying?” And he was like, “Oh, okay. Girl, what you saying?” And I was like, “I am so good. I’m so good.” And he’s like, “All right, have a great dive,” and I’m like, “Thanks.”

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Did you ever in your life think that your journey diving and exploring the ocean would give you moments with Samuel L. Jackson that you’ll never forget?

Alannah Vellacott:

Absolutely not. First of all, before I did my [inaudible 00:32:20] stride into the ocean, I was science communicating to Samuel Jackson. I was telling him why reefs are so important to our oceans. If someone told me, before Enslaved, that I was going to have that experience, I would laugh and tell them, nah, they’re a liar. Ain’t no way.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Every single part of you is important to the world. I’m so glad that you are visible in the way that you are, that you are on TV, that you are super popular on social, that you are unapologetically increasing representation in so many different ways.

Alannah Vellacott:

Thank you.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Well, I just want to end with you just explaining to us what’s your job right now?

Alannah Vellacott:

So at the moment, I do have a 9:00 to 5:00, despite all of the adventure and being involved in television, on social media. I work at the world’s first land-based commercial coral farm for reef restoration. And we’re on a mission to restore the world’s dying coral reefs by encouraging corals to grow at accelerated rates. And we also have the capacity to encourage them to grow to be more resistant or resilient to a warmer, more acidic ocean that we project our planet to be in the very near future.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Having grown up on Grand Bahama Island, and that’s where you work now, you must have seen coral reefs change significantly since you were young. Do you have hope? Do you believe that our corals will be okay?

Alannah Vellacott:

You heard the story of my childhood. And when I was little, reefs were huge. They were glorious. I could hide underneath them. They were colors I had never imagined and were home to the biggest fish I’d ever seen. And every time I visited, they were bigger and even more colorful than the last one I would see.

And just within my short lifetime, I don’t see those reefs anymore. I have GPS coordinates to memories of splendor, and I cannot find those reefs. I cannot find those coral heads. I can’t find those fish there. They’re gone.

I am actively trying to bring that back because when I’m handling those corals, I am hovering over, I am touching, I am caring for reefs of the future that will not be for me in my lifetime, they’re going to be for generations to come. That’s what conservation work is. It’s about ensuring that these ecosystems are there for their own sake and they can continue to serve themselves and also so that they can continue to serve us. And future generations can have those sights and smells and sounds and even tastes of what we had as kids or what we experience as researchers or explorers or adventurers. And it’s really fulfilling to be able to work in a place where I can do that and be at home at the same time.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Well, I cannot think of a better way to wrap this up. Thank you so much, Alannah. Thank you for your stories and all of this time that you have given to us today. Oh my gosh.

Alannah Vellacott:

Yeah, we can talk all day.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

I really could talk to you all day. That was so beautiful.

Alannah Vellacott:

Well, thank you.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant:

Since we taped our interview, Alannah has left her job at the coral farm and is now working as a private dive instructor and a freelance science communicator. She has plans to attend grad school in the near future and I, for one, can’t wait to see what she does next.

Thanks for listening to Going Wild. If you enjoyed the show and want to support us, please follow Going Wild on your favorite podcast app and leave a review. It really helps. This episode was hosted by me, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, written and produced by Cariad Harmon, sound design and engineering by Cariad Harmon and Jason Sheesley. Our managing editor is Priscilla Alabi. Going Wild is produced by Great Feeling Studios and the WNET Group. Jakob Lewis is our executive producer, Danielle Broza is digital lead for Nature, and Fred Kaufman is executive producer for Nature. Artwork by Arianna Bollers and Karen Brazell. Special thanks to Amanda Schmidt, Blanche Robertson, Jayne Lisi, Chelsey Saatkamp, and Karen Ho.

Going Wild is a podcast from PBS Nature, made possible by viewers like you. Watch new episodes of Nature Wednesdays at 8:00, 7:00 Central on PBS, at PBS.org/Nature, and on the PBS video app. Funding is provided by Anne and Russell Fernald. Stay connected with PBS Nature on social media and sign up for their newsletter, link in the show notes. You can also follow me, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, and PBS Nature on social media. Find guest details in each episode’s show notes.