Corals, Antarctica, and Embracing Representation with JD Reinbott

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with JD Reinbott, Marine Conservationist, about Corals, Antarctica, and Embracing Representation.   Read his full bio below.

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form 

Showtimes:
1:47  Nic & Laura Talk about Animal Encounters
10:02  Interview with JD Reinbott Starts
13:24  Corals
33:09  Embracing Representation
42:43  Antarctica

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This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with JD Reinbott at https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-reinbott/.

Guest Bio:

As someone who has had an affinity for the marine world from a young age, JD has dedicated his life to conserving the numerous ecosystems and organisms found within the ocean. This self-proclaimed coral nerd has worked extensively on restoration projects around the globe but finds the most rewarding aspect of such to be the community-based engagement that is needed to allow these initiatives to succeed. Recently JD has focused his attention on highlighting the need for further representation of the LGBTQIA+ community within the realm of marine science to ensure that diversity is celebrated both above and below the surface.

Music Credits

Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa

Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-transcribed

[Intro]

Nic 
Hello and welcome to EPR with your favorite environmental enthusiast Nic and Laura, on today's episode, Laura and I discuss our closest animal encounters, maybe our coolest animal encounters. We talked to JD Reinbott about corals and Antartica and embracing representation in the scientific community. And finally, octopuses have three hearts, nine brains and blue blood. They have two hearts pumping blood from their gills and one pumping blood through its organs. They also have one main brain and eight ancillary brains in each arm that are used as pre processors. So the arms can independently figure out how to open a shell while the brain is working on something else. How about that?

Laura
That is freakin amazing.

Nic
Crazy. Oh, wow. All right, well, yeah, hit that music

[NAEP Event News]

Laura 
All right, today we have a special NAEP plug slash shout out for the upcoming environmental professionals day. This has been established worldwide on April 15, to recognize all the hard work that these individuals like yourselves do everyday to create a more just and sustainable world for all living things. The day has been initiated by a consortium of organizations including way too many to mention here so go to the website and check those out. If you want to learn more you can follow along on any NAEP tweets on Twitter to stay in touch with it and we'll keep you updated as we get closer. We appreciate all of our sponsors and they are what keep the show going. If you'd like to sponsor an episode, please head over to www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com and check out the sponsor form for details. Let's get to our segment.

[Nic & Laura Segment]

Nic 
But we should talk about animal encounters today. Because JD had some unbelievable ones. And if I'm being totally honest, super like, I mean, I may cut them out of the episode because they're too good. And

Laura
You can't.

Nic
A penguin a penguin sitting in your lap no thanks that's unbelievable.

Laura 
Oh, spoiler alert.  Oh my god.

Nic 
Yeah, well I mean yeah, but no, it won't. We won't be in the episode so you guys won't know. But no if you had I mean, like what's your most incredible wildlife encounter and just got to be something up there for you.

Laura 
Okay, so there's like, most memorable, funniest, scariest, most significant, maybe is when I went on a trip to Kenya, and we were staying at the Lewa conservation and our tent was close down around the border, you know, their electric fence. And a lion, shortly after we actually were walking you're supposed to walk to your tents from the main hub with a guide right? So, but for some reason, we're like, oh, we'll just walk back by yourselves and literally like we're walking down the path and I was like, what's that noise? And I could hear like, something huffing and then like, I was like, immediately terrified. So so dark. And then we went my boyfriend at the time was just like well whatever, you know, typical and we get back to the tent.

Nic
I could take a lion.

Laura
We could still hear this noise. But actually, I think I think we actually did go back to the guide, probably at my urging. And the guide was like, the walk with us and he's like, oh, yeah, see, there's an elephant out there. And so he took his flashlight and he's like shining out and sure enough, like, I don't know how far a football field there's a an elephant like brushing against a tree. Or just kind of like rocking back and forth. But it's so dark. It was really hard to see like what are you looking at? And then we get back to our tent and 10 minutes later, like literally a lion sounds like it's about to step onto the porch. Oh, cool. Like, low, growling, hunting and there's like a scuffle. And I'm like, Oh my God, did just something happening with the elephant. But I've never been so scared in my life where like I couldn't move. No. Yeah, like, there's a we had a radio to call the Rangers but it was on a table and I was not moving to go get it. It was it was like Jurassic Park. Scary. Like yeah, I'm in a jeep and there's a dinosaur coming and I'm like, I'm not moving.  It might see me.

Nic 
Oh, that's, that's really like what happened to the goat. That's wild

Laura  
That was the most just like, intense I guess. encounter that I've had.

Nic 
That's that is pretty intense. And

Laura 
It's hard to describe like, that sound was just I mean, at the same time, it was like, This is so cool. I'm so scared.

Nic 
Exactly. And it's crazy how powerfully loud they can be. And yeah, it was just this just sounds like murder like whenever. Yeah. And they're being loud. It's scary.

Laura 
Yeah. I think death was coming for something. I was like, please don't let it be me. What about you?

Nic 
Oh, man, you know, it's hard to narrow it down. But I don't know like, I think the Galapagos trip and just in general is an easy one to talk about because of how much we saw, you know, and, you know, there's the standard stuff or you're seeing like reef sharks and I got kicked in the face by like one of the other people and because he saw a three foot shark and freaked out and I'm looking at him like, Dude, it's 50 feet away from us. And it's only three feet long. I can't even take look at maybe take one of your fingers. If you're not paying attention, like come on. Then there were birds diving down to eat fish like on either side of us. That was really cool. Oh, wow. But you know, I think probably the most incredible experience we had there was with sea lions. And so they have Galapagos sea lions. They're slightly smaller. In quotes than the regular old sea lions, but still plenty big.

Laura
Right? Still as big as you, right?

Nic
Oh, no, no, the males are bigger. Yeah, sure. And you know, there's this thing in the Galapagos where it's like, you're not supposed to be within six feet of the animals but you know that that gets broken all the time by the animals as long as you're not the ones breaking it, right. But sea lions are you know, when we were there, they were. They were in mating season, and they're more aggressive than they normally are. And you know, God, they're funny. They were like, literally, I was like, Well, you guys have steps? Yeah, thank you. We'll just lay here on all these steps and you will not get to your boats, you know, kind of stuff and they'll come up onto boats and just you know, sleep, eat, pee, whatever, all over the back deck of your boat just hanging out like thanks for the ride. You know, appreciate that. See you later. But we get to a part and they are doing the there. It's a beach where there's one male and all these females and everything. And they're doing the sound, you're just like, all the time and like our guides are telling us like yeah, they're going to be doing that so long that their voices will give out and they'll they live they don't live long enough because they're just so all they're doing is like my mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, you know that over and over again. And so we have that in our minds and then we get into the water and we start snorkeling. And like one of them comes like right up to our faces and I mean, like, we are trying to get away you know, and like, like, and he's just like, Oh, hey, do you wanna right? Yeah, I'm just hanging out having you know, my ladies here if you want to, you know, just, you know. You guys have a fish or something?  And it just it was a very nonchalant very casual, but this is huge predator like staring me right in the face, you know? And just like, okay, alright. This is cool.

Laura  
Oh God, you know, until you say the word predator. You're like, Oh, that's cute. And you're like, oh, wait, this thing can eat my face.

Nic  
It looks cute, but it's Yeah. They were telling us no, you need to stay away from them. They are aggressive and like it was just much more playful. There were some pups around as well. But it was still really scary because we just you know, you don't know what their intent is when you're doing that and you're trying to move and then you know, later in a similar area. There's one that's just literally sitting there staring at us not moving at all. Much more intimidating. They're just staring you know, like deadpan face and I'm just Yeah, so that was wild. That was quite an experience, but really fun. You know, really cool.

Laura 
That's awesome. I have so many more like when you start.

Nic
I know, right? I know.

Laura
That's what's so cool about connecting with environmental professionals, like once you start talking there's so much to connect on, you know, we all love to hike and travel and and have animal encounters and you know, appreciate wildlife and all that. So it's a rich and  wonderful life. Yeah, and we've been talking about in conjunction with environmental professionals day, something that we've been wanting to do is the "Field Notes". So tell the folks at home what our "Field Notes" is, Nic.

Nic  
Thanks, Laura. Yeah, you know, we're actually trying to do a thing like we had a meeting and you know, these kinds of stories just come up when you talk to environmental professionals, right. And it was like 30 minutes of us telling field stories back and forth, and so we really would love to have you guys submit your stories to us, we want to put them on the air. We want to hear from everybody as well. When we do our live event. We're going to try to ask for some of those from the audience and see if we can get some fun ones as well. So that is going to be we really do want to do a Field Notes episode because I think there's just there's too many stories like Laura, and I'm itching to tell you so many more right now. And it's just fun. And I'm just one person, right? And same with Laura. So the stories are out there. And there's just a lot of fun, they're  just so great. So that's the kind of thing we want to do.

Laura 
Yeah, and so you don't have to actually submit it. Just post something on Twitter, on Instagram with the hashtag Field Notes and we will scan for those and you know, maybe we'll talk about somebody else's fun counter or something scary, weird that happened to you in the field. I think it's great too just for us, seasoned professionals to really relive those moments, but also for young people to take a look and see like what's in store for you.

Nic 
Right. Yeah, absolutely. 100% You know, and yeah, sometimes it doesn't have to be like when you're working either. Like we just told stories of us being on vacation, you know? And yeah, so we just want to hear about it because it's that's interacting with nature is kind of our thing.

Laura
Interacting with nature is kind of wild.

Nic
Yeah. Wow.

Laura
Alright, let's get to to our segment before I say something else.

Nic
Yeah. Alright.

[Interview with JD Reinbott Starts]

Nic
Hello, and welcome back to EPR today we have JD Reinbott on the show, a conservationist in the coral restoration field. Welcome. JD, thank you so much for being here.

JD Reinbott 
Awesome. Thank you guys for having me. A pleasure to be here.

Nic 
We really are genuinely thrilled to have you here today. Like the knowledge experience you have at such a young age is really impressive.

Laura
For sure

Nic
It really is with your love of oceans started like really early. Right. So what was it like for your family to grow up with someone so dedicated to oceans?

JD Reinbott  
Hi mom. Hope you are listening to this? First and foremost, apologize to my mother and my family because I basically commandeered and overtook any family vacation, any family dinner, anything along the lines. I was very fortunate to have a family that was very supportive and kind of fostered my passion, my education for in the marine realm, but they definitely have that added costs. I would not want to go on vacation if there was no aquarium there was no beach, no ocean, no nothing. And you know, it was changing the entire itinerary. Still kind of doing that to this day. We just recently had a trip out to Hawaii and we had the entire thing mapped out and then I was like, I want to go diving with manta rays and they were like, we don't really have the time for that. And I was like, that's nice. We're gonna go ahead and change the itinerary and make it so I can go and dive with manta rays. But I would say growing up it was really cool for them. I think they got to learn a lot with me and kind of grow with me as I became more of a marine conservationist and a more of like marine educator, but I definitely think there were some times they kind of were like, Oh, my God, JD we get it like let's go somewhere besides this.

Nic
Yeah, we get it, you love the ocean, but.

JD Reinbott
Yeah.

Nic 
Oh my gosh, that's incredible. So you said that they agree with you today also at this point, love the ocean, love the beach. Are they like okay, when he's not here? We're going to like the desert. You know? What's it like?

JD Reinbott  
They have really kind of transformed into individuals who have an equal level of passion for the ocean itself. It's been really cool. Especially with my mom. My mom and I are like two peas in a pod. I love her to death. She has always kind of grown up around water but never really had a higher level or like kind of understanding of what that actually means and what it looks like. And it's really cool to now see her talk about the work that I'm doing and also talk about the different organisms that I interact with and be able to become this advocate for marine organisms and marine ecosystems. I know my dad and my mom are also both thinking of getting their scuba certifications. So they can get underwater with me. There's absolutely yeah, there's definitely been a lot of progression and growth with them as well. And as someone who works in that field and wants to be able to share my passion with everyone just like I'm currently sitting talking to all of you guys about it. It's truly like this amazing, holistic experience of getting to share that passionate knowledge with them.

Laura 
Okay, that's so cool. And I'm going to nerd out here with my love for a Little House on the Prairie. So last week, I was watching the episode where two parents of one of the kids were were gonna get divorced. And the kids were having discussion about the parents and the kid literally said and I thought this was the coolest quote and I wondered like, when would this apply and I think it applies to your story right now. He says, I think they have it all wrong. kids to grow up and have parents, not parents have kids.

JD Reinbott
110%

Laura
So kudos to you on raising such good parents.

JD Reinbott  
I try my best. Sometimes it's not easy, sometimes they're difficult.

[Corals]

Laura 
Oh, that's great. So your love for ocean starting early? When did the coral click in?

JD Reinbott 
Yeah, so I went up to College up in Maine. So pretty much the furthest place away from where I'm currently talking with you guys down here in the Florida Keys. I went to university called the University of New England and I was really going to want to focus in originally on like marine mammal rehabilitation and they had some interesting turtles and other organisms kind of thrown in with that project. But things didn't really work out and that program actually got removed from the university altogether and that kind of was like, Oh, crap moment. Because I had my niche and I was like, This is what I'm going to do. This is going to be my entire life. And then I kind of got like, you know, the hypothetical rug pulled out from underneath of you and you're like laying on your back being like, Oh my God, what's happening? So I kind of bounced around and the field of Marine Science and like studying of it is so broad and so over encompassing that it can really be overwhelming at some points. But I kind of stumbled upon this coral biology course taught by a professor named Dr. Jeri Fox and apologies Jeri. I took the course because it had a lab based travel component that went down to Belize. And I like could not care about corals. I was like I'm gonna go post on my Instagram and be right and me drinking like a mojito on the beach. Like all you guys back in Maine in New Jersey, where I'm from freezing to death, like haha. I sat like a hole the way in the back of the classroom was like I'm going to skate by, I'm not going to pay attention. And then my professor opened her mouth and I don't know what it is about Jeri and I've talked to her. I've emailed her I've texted her so many times and we still can't figure it out. But I literally close my laptop and walk to the front of the classroom and like change my seat. And that's kind of the whole journey where it started. In Belize. Everyone was you know, taking pictures on the beach with their drinks and you're chasing after you know, eagle rays and turtles and yes, I was doing that. But I was also that really weird kid who was frantically holding his breath with a snorkel in his mouth trying to prepare and like analyze these coral colonies. And I think it's just kind of the weird and unusual nature of them that kind of got that hook in my mouth for me and it's still currently in my mouth because I can't shake corals for the life of me, but yeah, so it all kind of started down in Belize. And I've traveled a lot from there. I've worked extensively in multiple ecosystems and multiple regions. And I really think coral is what I'm going to spend the rest of my life doing.

Laura 
That's very cool. What's happening in the world of coral restoration right now?

JD Reinbott 
In what sense?

Laura
Well just, are there any exciting projects you're working on or any new technologies? Are there things that are happening here? How's it looking out there for corals?

Nic 
Or is it all doom and gloom because that's what we worry about, you know.

JD Reinbott 
You you kind of get a mix of some doom and gloom and then you get a mix of hope. Obviously, it's an ever going battle with a lot of the anthropogenic factors that are facing our coral reefs today. There are some times that you're like, Oh crap, is this gonna work out? But there's always like these constant innovations and constant developments within the field that are kind of helping bring these corals to light and helping restore the reefs in the grand scheme. A lot of organizations are doing both in situ and ex situ nurseries, where they're basically growing, cultivating these corals and then you know, some more stuff hardening, you know, looking into super corals or corals that are more resistant, certain strains of disease or bleaching or temperature so on and so forth. I'm not going to sit here and ramble about all the high end coral stuff and working to put them back out on the reef and again, preserve these critically endangered ecosystems. A lot of my background, and a lot of the stuff that I like to focus in on is more so the community engagement side of it because I think the act of restoration is amazing and getting to say that you're putting these corals back out on a reef is so freakin cool. But if you don't get other people to, one acknowledge the impact that they're having on the environment and what that does, whether they're in some landlocked state in the middle of the US or down here in Florida, and then, two getting them to actually start doing something about it. I kind of feel like the entire restoration process falls apart. So I personally love the community. Engagement and that's always developing and always shifting because we as human beings are such dynamic organisms. There's a lot of ways that individuals can come in and learn about the different methodologies, the different processes educate themselves on what a coral is, because half the people think a coral is you know, a rock, and it's like it's an animal try again. And getting to have those shifts and those cultural adjustments and those mindsets to start to foster and support these reef ecosystems. So some people you may talk to, you may say, yep, corals are kind of on their way out, but I personally challenged that and I think looking at some of the interactions that I've had with people and the passions and the fires that have been ignited in them, I think our reefs have a very bright future ahead of them. It's just going to take a lot of work.

Nic 
Yeah, but I mean, I thank you for saying that too, because I really love hearing that, you know, some optimism, but community engagement is supremely important. Like we talked about that a few times on the show about lots of different things. So what are you seeing kind of like in the communities that you go to? Are you actually going to landlocked states and being like, Hey, corals are important here. Let me tell you why you're seeing that kind of level of engagement encouragement?

JD Reinbott  
A little bit. I am not as lucky to be able to travel as much as I want to go to landlocked states and you'll spread the good word of coral reefs. But a lot of the individuals that I work with are you know, visitors down here in the Florida Keys who have never heard of a coral reef they don't really know when they look out and see this beautiful blue pristine ecosystem and the beautiful blue ocean that they want to hang out in. That down below. These reefs are shifting from vibrant ecosystems to graveyards and rubble fields, so a lot of it has been working with individuals who again don't have that background. And one of the most profound experiences I had was I was running an educational program. And we you know, take our time and we're like, Hey, everyone, you know, go ahead and introduce yourself, you know, let us know why you're here, what you're interested about, you know, any questions, comments, concerns, and I get to this one individual who was from some landlocked state, I can't remember. My geography is absolutely horrible. I'm a scientist for a reason. And we get to him and he introduces himself and then he's like, I'm being totally honest. I'm just here because my wife wants me to go diving with her. Yeah. And you can tell that he was kind of ready for a little bit of rebuttal. I looked at him and I was like, Thank you for being honest. I respect your decision and like appreciating the honesty and being so transparent. And I didn't give him any special treatment. I wasn't like I'm gonna make you care. About coral. And like, if you want to come in just because your wife dragged you here. By all means, I really don't care. I'm still gonna get my you know, my paycheck. At the end of the day, I'm still doing my job and I'm still gonna have a great day out on the water working to restore these ecosystems. We went out and we did our restoration work, and we popped up from that dive and I tell you, when I thought he was like getting attacked by a shark or something by the way that he was screaming on the surface. And he comes over to me and he's like, this larger individual, you know, in full scuba kit like hugging me on the surface. Like, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so sorry. For what I said. You know, I love this. I love reefs. Corals, they're so important. You know, everything that you've taught me today. I want to go share with other people and I want to get them involved. So I think a lot of it is getting those people in the door and getting them underwater and you know, diving in bad puns intended altogether. But once you get that people are all for it. And for those individuals who already have that backgrounds, they're like 110% involved, you know, living down here in the Keys. I've done work over in Costa Rica. I've done work down in Mexico, all the individuals who live on these coasts and rely on these reef ecosystems already have that knowledge and are looking to build and foster that further. They see you and you know, you're sitting on a bar talking to them after a long day at work and you're like, hey, this is what I do. And they're like, Thank you. You know, what you are doing is helping restore this ecosystem but also keeping my livelihood my future, my family safe because reefs are really important for us, you know, they give us food they protect us from coastal storms and flooding and you know, help underpin the entire, you know, nation's tourism industry, especially down here in the Keys.  So there is a lot of that forward movement within the community, which again, circling back to my previous point really gives me that hope and that future for our reefs.

Laura 
That's really awesome. Exposure is a key facet to education, for sure. But you're doing that as part of your being a dive instructor. So Nic, are you dive certified?

Nic 
Yes, I am. It's been a while.

JD Reinbott
Good answer.

Nic
I am certified. Open water you know, I've done it. It's great. It's beautiful.

Laura 
Awesome. Because Nic and I are gonna come go diving with you and you can expose us to some corals.

JD Reinbott 
Honestly 110%. Just let me know when you're booking your flights and I'll come pick you up at the airport.

Laura 
You know, the NAEP conference is coming up in Fort Lauderdale. So keep that in mind. I used to work in a dive shop in Florida. And so I got to go on a lot of free dives. And but that meant I had to go along with some dive buddies that weren't my choice. And let me tell you that's that's a fun experience. Sometimes. I can't imagine being an instructor and being in charge of newbies in the water. So what made you decide to be an instructo,r and what is that process like because it's already interesting to just get dive certified.

JD Reinbott 
Yeah. So funny story. I was living in the keys and I finished up an internship and I was working down here and didn't really know what I was doing with my life. So I became what all my friends have dubbed a scuba hobo and really just spent all of my free time and more importantly, all of my money on diving down here in the Keys, which was great because you're building up that experience and getting that exposure but you get to a point where you're like, Oh my God, I don't have enough food for ramen what's going on? So I was a DM at the time, and I had been perusing you know, different job opportunities and different job boards trying to you know, get my foot in the door somewhere and continue to build my reputation and my experience within this field. Because breaking into marine science is extremely hard and it's really challenging to get that initial foot in the door. And I happened upon a job posting in some random Deep Down Facebook group that was actually based out in Costa Rica and it was working and helping establish a coral restoration nonprofit organization. And they also wanted to have someone with strong backgrounds in marine science to be an instructor and help them kind of educate the individuals who are coming in to learn about the ocean ecosystem. But again, they wanted an instructor in that position and I kinda was like, I'm just gonna go ahead and shoot my shot and be like, Hey, I'm only a DM but I have a strong background in coral restoration. I've worked with coral restoration nonprofits before, and I'm a huge marine science nerd like you want me. And surprisingly I had the interview and they were like, if you want, you know, we think that we ask that you get your dive instructor. And you know, we're all set. So we worked something out where I was able to actually go down to Costa Rica and work in that corresponding dive shop and actually work towards my instructor certification. It's rather intensive because you're again, teaching people how to become scuba certified, how to take compressed air and breathe underwater and do it safely. Yeah, there is a lot that goes into it. There's oral examination, there's presentations there confined find water skills sessions in pools. And then there's also open water skill sessions. You spend basically two weeks cramming for a final exam, and then you have everything all over again. But instead of it being in a two week period, it's like two or three days where you're running through everything. You have an examiner who normally flies in and you know it was very kind of staunch and it's just like go ahead, doesn't say anything until the end and they give you on a scale of one to five how you do and you know, pass- fail that whole thing, but somehow I managed to do it and I'm able to now teach people how to become certified and educate them on the ocean. It's a whirlwind sometimes.

Nic 
So I mean, do you have any idea of how many dives you've logged

JD Reinbott 
I just a few weeks ago actually went on a dive after a very long hiatus and I think it is now having me set around 650.

Laura
Oh my gosh.

JD Reinbott 
So Just a few. A casual 650.

Nic 
 So yeah, like you do like we all do. Yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh, so Okay, so you talked about the dye certification when I got certified. I got certified in the quarry in April in Virginia, which doesn't sound interesting or important, but it was 45 degrees and the water was so cold. I couldn't feel my face. You know, and I'm like, am I breathing? So do you have like a favorite moment like when you've been diving, we're just one of those quirky, weird things where you just kind of like I'm underwater and I am breathing air and it's the weirdest thing in the world. Do you have anything like that?

JD Reinbott 
Yeah. So when I was working down in Costa Rica, admittedly I love the people that I was working with. I love the organization and what it stands for, but I kind of jumped a little bit too soon. I think I was feeling the overall pressure of society to be like you are graduated out of college. You are working in marine science. You need a job to be successful. And I was basically grasping at straws and again, if my old bosses are listening to this, I love you guys so much and there's no hard feelings there. But I kind of started to fall a bit out of love with diving. I was underwater and you know was doing my stuff and teaching people but there was no, you know, razzle dazzle behind it anymore. It wasn't like those first times where you know, you'd back roll off the bow and you open your eyes and you're like, wow, I am underwater. And it got to a point where I almost actually quit. I was like, I'm gonna go home. I'm just gonna figure something else else out and you know, kind of have a pivot in my career. And a couple of my friends who are working at the shop, I heard about a little islands off of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, known as Isla del Caño, or otherwise known as the poor man's Cocos Island because it's a really cool experience but not as expensive as far as way as Cocos Island. And everyone had been seeing whale sharks and manta rays. And I was like, my next weekend off I'm going I'm going to see a Manta like I'm going to have this magical experience underwater. It's going to be life changing. We're going. So we're on our boat ride out. You know, we packed all of our gear into like this small little taxi and we're like sitting on top of each other and are being like, let's go, let's go. And from the point where we left the mainland to this island was about a two and a half ish hour boat ride out. And there was a gentleman who was sitting next to us and of course, you know, you're all divers. You're talking about your experiences, you know, where you're from what you're doing, and he's like, you know, I've been out the past four or five days and we haven't seen any mantas and we haven't seen any whale sharks. Like, I'm really sorry to say it, but like, you're not seeing anything today. And I was like, well, crap. We went in on our first dive. And we saw some cool stuff. There's a lot of coral which of course me my buddies were having to like, drag me and be like JD, we get it. Stop looking at the coral, we're looking for like larger megafauna. And we come up from our second or the first dive and I'm like, crap, there's no mantas. There's no whale sharks. Like this is a really cool dive, but I was really hoping to see something different. And we're sitting having our service interval, you know, having water to rehydrate and eating snacks and the radio like all of a sudden just bursts into like two lanes of talk. And you know, they're like everyone get back on the boat, everyone, you know, get yourself going, let's go let's go. Let's go. And I'm thinking back in my mind, I'm like, okay, something has happened. Or there's a man on top and of course I'm a gringo. I don't speak any Spanish and the entire radio chatter is in Spanish so for some people on the boat are picking up on it but little old like innocent me is like Lottie da like we're gonna go on another dive. And we're sitting, getting our gear on and I kind of look at one of the guides and he kind of gives me this weird little smirk and he looks at me and he's like, yeah, get in the water. And like I was like a little kid I was like oh my god goodbye Yes, like flips off the back of the boat and we're sitting there and waiting and you know I can still remember it clear as day in my mind. This like 21 foot pelagic Manta just like slowly emerges from the blue. And I was like, cool, we're gonna see this. It's gonna swim by and then that's it. And I was like I'm content well flash forward 45 minutes later, this mantra is just doing loops with us. It would come and go and come and go and you'd say, Okay, we're done, you know, and then it would magically reappear out of the blue. And no joke. I was sobbing, underwater, and it was like that whole aspect of kind of being reborn into the world of scuba. And it was like that very first time when I was a young little kid harassing my family walking into an aquarium and being like, this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. And it was that feeling kind of all over again, and I have the manta tattooed on my forearm, because that's the mantra that saved my life career and whenever anyone asked you know, what's your favorite moment underwater? I make them sit and listen to that story because had I not had an encounter with a 21 foot pelagic Manta. I honestly have no idea what I would be doing right now.

Nic 
Wow. That's an incredible story.

JD Reinbott 
Thank you. I love it. It's a nice little thing to open up with and be like, Oh, you want a good story. I got one for ya.

Laura 
I can see the children's book, "The manta that saved my career" or something.

JD Reinbott 
Let's go in on that. Let's talk further.

Laura 
I have just recently started a publishing company so we can chat.

JD Reinbott 
I got your email. We'll talk.

Laura 
That's really awesome. I haven't really got to brag to Nic about this yet, but we were both recently in Hawaii for different reasons. Mine was Work and Travel talking about publishing company actually. And Nic's is just for business. So I don't know that he gets to do as much fun stuff when he goes yet.

Nic
Not yet. Yeah.

Laura
But I did also the manta snorkel. Did you do a dive? A dive, dive or did you do the snorkel?

JD Reinbott 
Out in Hawaii, Yeah, it was the dive. My mom actually came with and she snorkeled and then we were all diving as

Laura 
Because I wondered how the dive would go, because they wanted us in the snorkel to like keep her arms and legs out of the way and stuff.

JD Reinbott 
Did you have like the weird little like surfboard thing that you had to hold on to that have the light?

Laura 
It was yeah, like a board and you hold on and then they put a swim noodles, whatever, are called under your feet. Hold your legs up. I was really really silly. In your arms get hella tired by the time 45 minutes is up. However, we had they told us they normally get two or three. But we booked a late trip and all the other boats were gone and all 12 of the manta rays came over to our space.

JD Reinbott
Oh my god,.

Nic
Ok, someone's bragging.

Laura
The were all  doing a play and dance. It was really really magical.

Nic
Sounds great. Let's move on.

Laura
I was like I want to get back in the water more because I've been away from it for so long. It's like yeah, you know, you kind of forget. So that's just

JD Reinbott 
Well next time. Next time you're out there Nic. You should you should get in the water and do it.

Nic
Yeah. Now I have to do it. Twelve manta rays...unbelievable.

JD Reinbott
A casual little like brag.

Nic
Yeah you know, I just saw 12 manta rays, like you do.

[Embracing Representation]

Laura 
But we want to definitely leave time here to talk about you and your experiences with being openly gay cisgendered men in the dive industry and in ocean science. And so I read your article that was recently came out Patty's been a really amazing advocate for the community. And we're doing a lot of social media and posting and just trying to build awareness. So you have a quote in there that is really cool about you know, how we all you celebrate diversity under the water but not so much above the surface. So what's kind of your experience with the environmental field it that space?

JD Reinbott  
Yeah, to be honest, I find it a little disheartening. I think the field of marine sciences already so hard to break into as I've kind of mentioned before, that when you're not fitting a set mold, sometimes it can be even more, you know, challenging to break into. I was very fortunate to have a family that was very supportive both of me being so open about my sexuality and you know, multiple aspects of my life but also my passion for the ocean. So I know I am most definitely speaking from a place of privilege saying that I am very fortunate to be able to be where I am right now. But I know for a lot of other individuals that's not as easy and some of them step away from their passions and from this field because of that lack of diversity inclusion representation within the field. I had my idols growing up, you know, I had Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin and you know, everyone else that is amazing, and it's cool to see them doing it. But there was no you know, openly gay or lesbian, trans anything icons working in the field that had these platforms that were like, hey, look, you can be a marine scientist, and you can be as gay as you want, and still, you know, succeed in life. And that was definitely a hurdle and I know a lot of times when I started new positions, internships, as someone who's been out for almost 10 years now, I take a bit of time to open up with that and be like, Hey, by the way, you know, here's another little fun fact and tidbit about me. And I have that resilience and I you know, know who I am and I'm proud of it and we'll never, you know, not shut up about it. But for a lot of other people who don't have that aren't as comfortable with it, or scared or whatever other compound it may be, that can really drive them away. And I've had a lot of friends and even some not really good friends random people who hit me up on social media. Who are like, you know, hey, thank you so much for just being so open about who you are. What you do. I wish I had that strength, you know, I've diverted from this fields, but I'm so happy to see that someone else is doing it. So yeah, it's tough sometimes.

Nic  
Yeah. Well, I mean, I can see I think it's great that you're an advocate for the community. You've promised to move the conversation forward. And I think a lot of that though, starts with what do we need to do in the environmental community to be more accepting?

JD Reinbott 
I think a lot of it is passing the mic and giving those individuals the chance to speak about themselves and have that spotlight shifted to them. I think within marine science, we can spend a lot of our time kind of going back to the same people who were speaking and talking about, you know, the same topics over and over again. And yes, they have pioneered this field and they have gotten us to a point where we can be so open and knowledgeable about it. But we need to take that time to shift to other people. You know, younger generations have new ideas, they have new approaches, new thought processes, new everything's and by giving them that you know, for lack of better word, like you know, shifting that attention to them, and one showing them that they can occupy these spaces, but to giving them the chance to actively occupy them. These new thought processes and new changes can be brought about, I even know just the article that you guys were talking about that my amazing roommate, Tiffany wrote, just having that just out there. And if I was, you know, a young gay kid who was in the closet or whatever, and I read an article about, you know, this blonde bombshell scuba diver working in the field of coral restoration. I'd be like, Oh my god, I can do that. So I think that initial shift really just start making us all rethink what diversity inclusion looked like within these fields, acknowledging that a lot of places are lacking it and then finding those, you know, advocates and individuals who are doing it and who want to speak and talk more. It's definitely a lot easier than it sounds or a lot harder than it sounds like to clarify on that, yeah, but I think with a lot of organizations now taking these shifts and even things like this podcast was giving me the chance to talk about it too. It's helping push that conversation in the right direction.

Nic 
I want to thank you too, for taking the time to do it. You know, because like you said, it's it's hard to hear sometimes people feel they can't be themselves that it hurts and so it's not everybody's able to do what you're doing. Not everybody is able to talk and so I just want to thank you for doing that. We really do appreciate it.

JD Reinbott 
Thank you. I appreciate it. And like, again, just getting the chance to talk about it. Make that younger version of myself know that there is that future for so many other kids and even adults in this field. Moving forward because I'm seeing this huge shift in these conversations which is amazing. So also thank you guys. And I think you you guys.

Nic 
No thank you. No thank you. No thank you.

Laura 
It is, when we talk about like lack of diversity for people of color in the environmental space. A lot of is just exposure. But I think it's different complexity with gender identification, because like you just said we were only out of the closet for 10 years, but your love for animals and things like that starts before that. So it's not necessarily lack of exposure. So it's almost like what, not only exposed giving the role models like yourself, yeah, to people for examples, but what else can be done or what keeps, what keeps the people in the LGBTQ community out of Marine Science and diving? and stuff?

JD Reinbott  
That's a really good question.

Laura 
Sorry. It was very difficult to pull it out of my brain.

JD Reinbott 
No, no. Don't apologize. No. I mean, I think exposure is definitely like mean like, we just had to find exposure. It's you know, that's the big question. And I actually don't even know if I have an answer to that. I think my brain recently has just been so exposure heavy and starting those conversations, and even just seeing the battle that just the topic of exposure has, has maybe stunted my, you know, thought process on what else is out there. I know there are a bunch of other advocates who are working in the environmental field who are finding new ways and whether that's I don't know if you guys are familiar with like Pattie Gonia, the drag queen who is like out like prancing in nature. I think Pattie is doing a really good job because Pattie's you know, talking about exposure but then also providing resources for individuals. There's like a whole like a whole LGBT,

Laura 
Wait, no you're going to have to back up because No, I'm not familiar. I'm thinking you're talking about the company.

JD Reinbott 
Yeah. Oh my god. So when you're when you're done with it, you need to follow Pattie Gonia. Okay. They are a drag queen who was just out in nature. Talking about environmental issues and talking about diversity inclusion within the fields of you know, environmentalism. They are amazing, like huge fan roll moment. But even like doing the aspects of like resources like Pattie has created this amazing LGBTQA+ job board where individuals who are of the community

Laura
Oh, see there's our answer.

JD Reinbott
can find places that have you know, standards and you know, safety protections put in place that are accepting and welcoming to all walks of life. That way even if let's say I was still in the closet, and I found this job I could go apply and even if I don't want to be fully out yet, I can know in the deep down back of my mind that this place is still going to be accepting and when I eventually get to a point of being able to speak my truth, whether that's been a year or 20 years, or whatever it is because everyone does it at their own pace. I'm not going to be met with like retribution, firing anything along those lines. So circling back and you know, ending my tangent because I'm infamous for my tangents. I definitely do think exposure is number one, but I think right behind exposure is the creation of resources and then also the education of other individuals. I know we talked a lot about how my parents grew with me. I think when you come out as an individual, your parents also kind of have to come out and they become these advocates for the community. And I think creating further advocates that way, even if you're in a place that isn't super supportive and is like yeah, whatever diversity inclusion boo hoo, we're gonna change our logo for a month and then go back. That's a little bit of subtle shade at some places.

Nic
Yeah, no, you're totally right.

JD Reinbott
There's still other individuals who have this knowledge and can be there as a resource, whether they're a co worker, a boss, a friend in the field, anything along those lines, so yeah, kind of a hodgepodge of multiple things.

Laura 
No, that's fantastic. I think that's I think that got us to where I was trying to get to, other questions. I will be following Pattie soon. I can't wait to see them. Thanks for sharing that also. Awesome. I think conversation. Glad to have it. And we'll be following to see how your career progresses. For sure. And we want to switch gears a little bit though and talk about your travel.

[Antarctica]

Nic 
As we're all travel buds here. But you've been, this is crazy. We saw this. You've been to five out of seven continents, and one of them is Antarctica.

JD Reinbott
Yes.

Nic
What on earth was that? Like? How the heck did you get there? Tell us that story.

JD Reinbott 
So there was an organization I believe they're still up and running. It's been such a long time called people to people. It's like a student Ambassador organization that is all about like getting used to you know, explore the worlds you know, have different exposures and experiences to different cultures and different backgrounds. And how the program works is once you get into it when you finish your trip, you can nominate a friend for another trip. So one of my really good friends did a travel over to like England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which is cool, but not really me, as we know. So she nominated me to go on that exact same trip and we went to this whole like Meet and Greet where you learn all about it. They talked to you the the whole application process. And you mean you have to submit essays and writing pieces and so on and so forth to qualify. And we sat through this entire thing, and I was like, deadpan the entire time because I was like, oh, it's history and it's like building like oh my god like that's like my like worst nightmare, right? And it actually turned out that the dates of the trip we're supposed to run was actually dates that my family had a pre scheduled vacation. So we went up to the coordinator of the program, and we you know, like thank you so much. I want to do this, but I can't do the set date, like, what do you guys recommend? And they were like, just pick another trip? Go again, you can just apply for that one instead. So of course I scroll through the entire list and I'm like, no ocean, no ocean, no ocean, no ocean, and another very bottom of the list is Antarctica and I kind of looked at my mom and I was like, we're gonna do this one. And she was like, Okay. I was like, let's go. So yeah, so I applied through the entire process. It was pretty intensive. And then I spent two weeks living on a old cruise ship that was converted into a research vessel. We flew all the way down to the southernmost tip of South America, which is Ushuaia. I always butcher it, so I don't think I said that. Right. And then we just popped over down to the Antarctic Peninsula. It was so freakin cool. And also freakin cool if you know what I mean because we were freezing to that yeah, it was kind of like an exploratory exposure based trip where you were kind of learning the basics of the ecosystem. We stopped at a variety of different research bases and you spoke with scientists that were stuff with like the ozone stuff like like incidental sightings and recording of like whales, not dolphins and I was like penguins and I said dolphins instead. Penguins and seals, and it was just beautiful. I highly encourage anyone who gets the chance to go down there. Because one of the best things with it is there's no humans. As weird as that is to say, it's just so quiet. And so peaceful. I remember we had one morning where they woke us up at like 6am to go hike up a glacier. And then we had like a forced hour of silence. And you just sit there and like you hear the penguins like making their noises you hear like the ice like crackling you hear the waves on the beach, and it was just like peace. It was so cool. The animals don't even know really what humans are. So they just come right up to like I had a penguin come sit in my lap. You're not allowed to like, go and touch them because there's all like laws and regulations in place, but they're like if they come and hang with you. They're deciding it, not you so that you would just sit there cross legged and penguins would just come and sit in your lap. And I was like oh, this is a casual Monday like I got a penguin in my lap. So yeah, Antarctica is probably like top of my list. I actually was a freshman in high school when I went so admittedly, I did not appreciate it as much as I should have. Because I was like, oh, you know traveling. Haha. I definitely want to go back but the memories that I do have and the photos are absolutely mind boggling.

Nic 
Like okay, so we get jealous a lot on this show. I don't even know. I don't know if I want to talk to you anymore.

Laura 
You may have crossed paths with Sandy. She was our previous guests. She was an icebreaker in the Coast Guard. So she took she may have even worked with that organization. She didn't mention names Yes, but that was part of her job was helping people get there. So that's pretty awesome.

Nic 
Now I'm stuck. I go back to being jealous. I still have super jealous. What on earth.

Laura
You're always jealous, Nic.

JD Reinbott 
So Laura has the 12 manta rays. I have Antarctica.

Nic 
Okay, like I've been to the Galapagos. I've seen some incredible things I really have. It's too funny. Actually, I have a serious question about that. They're like the trip down there. Right. So the gap between bits, you know, the roughest seas in the world, was it? Like harrowing? Like what was that? Like? Is it really as bad as

JD Reinbott 
it sounds down? It was fine. So that's, they call it Drake Passage and they either say it's going to be Drake's lake or Drake's quake. So going down we had Drake lake it was flat calm, beautiful. You know, we're all like, you know, walking about on like the bridge and like out on the jack being like, cool. This is great. We left the port of you can call it a port from the peninsula of Antarctica. And they were like, cool, everyone tomorrow looks great. The next three days after it do not go out on the deck. Like stay inside and it was like the bow of the boat disappearing under waves like water coming and like crashing up. Over Top like things are going left and right. And we were like, cool. Are we gonna make it back alive? And I'm really happy that I got to experience it though because like that, like weird little adrenaline junkie part of me was like this is amazing. So yeah, so we got the best of both worlds if you want to call it that and going down and coming back.

Laura
Live to tell. That's awesome.

Nic 
I know. I know. Gosh, I know we're running out of time. Do you want to ask one more question before we get to the end but so you've lived in Costa Rica, Morocco, Mexico. Is there any place that stands out above the rest is like you know where you'd go back if you could?

JD Reinbott 
Oh Wow. I have to pick one?

Nic 
Yeah, that's the I didn't say it was an easy question. I wanted to make it harder.

JD Reinbott 
I honestly would probably say Costa Rica.

Laura
I knew he'd say that.

JD Reinbott
That pura vida lifestyle as like gringo as that sounds is amazing. Like Costa Rica is the perfect blind I think for environmentalists who want to get out and see animals and life because you have so many different ecosystems on lands and then you look out at sea and you got a whole bunch of other ecosystems out there. So I would say Costa Rica, I like having to leave I had to leave because of the pandemic and things shutting down. And that was like, literally dragging me back onto the plane because I was like, I do not want to leave this country. But if I had to take a second I would say Morocco. Morocco was super cool. Super different and a beaut like a beautiful country with beautiful and amazing human beings. But Costa Rica is still number one.

Nic 
I love it. I love it. I hate them or at the end here but it's been a great interview. Again we thank you so much for your time. And we just like to say we want to give you a time so work where can people reach out to you if they do have questions they want to talk to you about what we talked about today?

JD Reinbott 
Yeah, I would honestly say the two best places to find me are going to be LinkedIn. My LinkedIn name is just JD Reinbott. So you shouldn't be able to find me but that's doing a quick little search. And then also if you want you can follow me on instagram my instagram handle is the coral qween and it's Queen spelt with QWe N rather than your typical use spelling, but I'm on there all the time. I'm unfortunately very addicted to Instagram and it's always open on my phone.

Nic  
Yeah. And I love that. Well again, JD, thank you so much for being here. Great, great interview really had a great time with you. So thank you.

JD Reinbott  
Thank you guys. It's been absolutely amazing. It's really cool to be here.

[Outro]

Nic 
That's a show. Thank you JD for joining us today. It was such a fun interview. Really, really happy to have you on. Now as always please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. See everybody

Laura
Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai