Ecotourism, Bubble-Netting, and National Geographic with Rachel Crane

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 Rachel Crane, Science Communicator, Explorer, and Mentor about Ecotourism, Bubble-Netting, and National Geographic.   Read her 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:
2:07  Nic & Laura talk about Amazon trips
7:56  Interview with Rachel Crane Starts
8:59  National Geographic
23:17  Ecotourism
39:30  Field Notes: Bubble-Netting 

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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 Rachel Crane at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelonthereef 

Guest Bio:
Rachel works for herself in a variety of roles that take advantage of her knowledge and certifications as a Marine Ecologist, PADI Master Scuba Instructor, and licensed Captain so she can share her passion for the ocean.

She works remotely as the Director of Education and Training for Diveheart, she can be found locally as the captain onboard vessels working to restore the coral reefs of the Florida Keys or educating visitors on the importance of the world’s marine ecosystems, and she travels the ocean as a member of the Field Staff Team aboard Lindblad Expedition and National Geographic vessels. 

Music Credits

Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa

Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-transcribed

[Intro]

Laura 
Hello and welcome to NPR with your favorite environmental nerds Nic and Laura. On today's episode, Nic and I discuss next trip to the Amazon. Then we talk to Rachel Crane about ecotourism, bubble netting and National Geographic. And finally, Dolphin sleep with one side of their brain at a time. They can't sleep like we do because they have to be able to surface to breathe. To work around this dolphins allow only one half of their brains to sleep. The other half stays alert to enable the dolphins to continue to breathe and look out for dangers in the environment. Dolphins also sleep one eye open while they sleep with the left eye closing while the right side of their brain sleeps and vice versa. This type of sleep is known as unihemispheric sleep. Dolphins alternate which half of their brain is sleeping periodically so that they can get the rest they need without ever losing consciousness. Where's my cheers, Nic? You got this got this sound machine and I didn't get any cheers for my unihemispheric on the spot read.

Nic 
You know, you're right. That was incredible. I'm proud of you.

Laura
Hit that music.

[NAEP Event News]

Nic
NAEP's South Carolina chapter is hosting a webinar on invasive plant management on Wednesday, June 7th, from 8:30am to 4pm. Eastern. This workshop will provide landowners and forestry professionals information on invasive plants in South Carolina and methods where their management. Trained professionals will teach participants pesticide basics including safety, active ingredients, and trade names. Identification and management methods for common woody plants, grasses and understory plants will be discussed. An afternoon field tour will include hands on demonstrations of mechanical invasive species control and herbicide application methods in different forest systems. Please check out www.naep.org for more details. We appreciate all of our awesome sponsors and they will keep the show going. If you'd like to sponsor the show, please head on over to environmentalprofessionalsradio.com and check out the sponsor form for details. Let's get to our segment.

[Nic & Laura Segment: Amazon Trips]

Laura 
You went to the Amazon?

Nic  
Yeah, yeah,

Laura
When the heck was that?

Nic
That was right before like the Galapagos.

Laura 
I've heard about Galapagos like 400 times, but I don't remember you talking about the Amazon.

Nic  
Yeah, no, we went to the Amazon right before it actually so we did the Peru. We didn't get to go to Machu Picchu. But we for that we went to the Amazon and actually, this is one of those travel horror stories where we flew from Miami to Lima. And we've actually we landed in Lima at like midnight. It was super early in the morning and it happened to be like their craziest festival of the year so is like,

Laura
And you didn't know this?

Nic
I had no clue because why would I look up what's going on in the city at the time and it's really foolish young version of me made that mistake. It's like the most festive time of year. So everything's crazy everywhere. Everyone's trying to have fun. And we get there and there's no suitcases for us. None. So I'm trying and there's nobody in the airport, nobody to give us any guidance. So I'm calling people. We have a driver that has to take us he's like, I gotta go. We gotta go. It's gonna take you forever. We gotta go. And so I'm in the hotel room at like, one in the morning, trying to figure out where our bags are. And they're like, oh, yeah, no, no, we know exactly where your bags are there in Miami. And I was like, that's great. I'm in Lima. So that's not helpful. And then and then they're like, Okay, well, don't worry, we'll send them to your next destination. And I was like, Oh, that's great. Our next destination is the Amazon where there is no airport. And, you know, we're going to be hours out of communication from anything. And they're like, oh, yeah, we should probably get them to you beforehand. And he's like, don't worry. They'll be at the airport.

Laura
Wait is this a for fun trip or work trip?

Nic
This is for fun, this is vacation.

Laura
Okay.

Nic
And so we finally get to a point that talked to me, it's so exhausting, you just you know this stuff and never go simply. So finally like don't worry when you land at your next destination before you get on the boat. Your bags will be there. And I'm like, Okay, I hope that's true. It's you know, and so we're nervous. We wake up at 4am That's right. We slept for like two hours. And we're walking out to go to the airport. And the woman that checked us in was like, hey your bags are here. She just happen to see us. And it was almost we almost walked away with nothing.

Laura
Right.

Nic
And just and you know, this is like life advice. My wife did not pack anything in her carry on that she could use for a second day. I had three pairs of clothes, as I've done this before. But no, that was brutal. But the trip itself was was amazing. We went up to there was a community in the area that had basically converted some of their land for ecotourism. And they built their own open air huts and you think in the Amazon, it would be brutally hot. And it was warm. You know, it wasn't like a four star hotel, but it was still cool. It's still really fun to do and go to.

Laura  
Was it what you might call tropical?

Nic  
It was tropical. That's right. We had a wide range of people with us. So some people were older. Some people were younger, there were three college age women that just, they would do the thing where they're like wearing, like they're going to the beach, right? So they're basically in swimsuits, and they're like, man, these mosquitoes sure are crazy, aren't they? You know, we're in like full like field gear, you know, because we know that this is what happens. It's just like to be young, you know?

Laura 
That's really cool. I did not know you went to the Amazon.

Nic 
Yeah, it was. It was incredible. We saw you know, plants, birds, all kinds of wildlife.

Laura
Wrestle any anacondas?

Nic
We did not see any anacondas. We did see caiman and that was cool. And you know, we got to see some endangered birds that were only in that one area, which was really neat. A lot of poison dart frogs actually.

Laura
Oh, cool.

Nic
And our guide was so good. And then he actually he saw my name and he's so my name is spelled like the Spanish version. of Nicolas. So he's like, ah, Nicola is coming in. And he's like, Oh, I was like, well, you can call me Nicolas. That's fine. I'm sorry. He was a great guy. Absolutely fantastic. And he was just like, frog and you were just walking by and it's all green. And he finds a green and black frog. Just incredible eyes.

Laura 
Yeah, a good guide makes all the difference on that kind of a trip. Well that's really cool.

Nic 
You haven't done that. But you've done other things. Yeah. No,

Laura 
You know, I've never been to South America.

Nic
Really?

Laura
Yeah.

Nic 
I've been somewhere you haven't about that.

Laura 
Yeah, and the Galapagos. But no, I have not been to Machu Picchu.

Nic 
Oh, yeah. Well, I will say to Machu Picchu. It is beautiful. It is gorgeous. And they do actually a good job managing the amount of people that go in. So we were actually up there almost perfect day and all by ourselves in one spot. But the town is basically like, welcome America isn't so great to be in America. You're like no, we're in Peru. I don't want you to cheese pizza or what you think is a cheese pizza.

Laura 
Cheese pizza with guinea pig?  No.

Nic 
They do have a lot of that too. Like wouldn't you want to try a guinea pig? No. It's crying the whole time.

Laura 
Oh. Oh man. Again, we always go dark. I think it's time to get that's an indication it's time to get your interview.

Nic
Yeah, yeah.

[Interview with Rachel Crane Starts]

Nic 
Hello, and welcome back to EPR and today we have Rachel Crane, who's an independent contractor that works as a science communicator, explore and mentor welcome Rachel. Or should I say Captain Rachel?

Rachel Crane
You can call me Captain.

Nic
Oh man, it says you know looking through your bio and all your interests. It's really hard to figure out where to start. I mean, you wear a lot of different hats. So when people ask you what you do, what do you tell them?

Rachel Crane 
It's a lot. I tell them that I work for myself. And I utilize like my degrees and my skills to work, make money through a lot of different companies. And I typically find out what do they actually want to know about me do they want to know that I'm the director of education and training for an agency and talk to me about scuba diving, that I'm a mostly retired dive instructor. That I'm a captain and I drive vessels from two different reasons, or do they want to know about the fact that I work for ships that has the words National Geographic on the side? And then I kind of see what they want to know more about.

[National Geographic]

Nic 
That's so funny because guess what my next question is? So you have ties on National Geographic so interesting. You traveled the ocean as a member of fields to have team aboard the Lindblad expedition as well for NatGeo How did you get into this?

Rachel Crane 
Okay, so how did I get into this? So I work for a company called Lindblad Expeditions and they're partnered with National Geographic. I got into it because I got really burned out of being a dive instructor. So scuba diving and I left the Florida Keys with my partner, and I moved to Alaska, about as far away as I could get.

Nic
Yeah, I think so.

Rachel Crane
Yeah. We lived and worked in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, which is Southeast Alaska. And that particular property has a dock and so ships dock at the dock, such a surprise. So one day, a ship with the words National Geographic was sitting at our dock and all these people got off it and so we're like, what is this? So I got to ask them a lot of questions. Then I googled the company and that's how I found them. Now, five years later, I decided that I was ready for that part of my journey and I applied with them. And it took me five years from seeing them and understanding what they were to actually decide that I was ready to apply for that job, that company and work for them. And then I got hired six months later. So it took a while. It was a  whole process.

Nic 
So what are you actually end up doing for them then?

Rachel Crane 
Yeah, all right. My title is I have many of them. But if you were going to google it within the company, I would come up as an undersea specialist. I also work as a naturalist slash expedition diver on board. And what does all that mean? It means that I'm a naturalist that specifically focuses on the ocean. And I'm part of the scuba diving team on board. So Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic, take guests out into wild places and show them nature. And then we have this field staff on board which is what I'm part of, and we are your naturalist. And there's different types of naturalist. You've got your National Geographic photo instructor. You have generalists. You might have a glaciologist or a geologist or a bird person, and I'm your ocean person. And I also Lindblad is really cool because they have scuba diving on board. That's not for the guests. It's typically just to professionals to to have your naturalist staff and we gear up and go underwater with cameras and take videos of all the little things that we find. Who knows what it's going to be.

Nic 
In Alaska underwater and Alaska?

Rachel Crane
Oh, yeah.

Nic
Oh, great. Okay.

Rachel Crane
Oh, yeah.

Nic
So super warm waters?

Rachel Crane
Yeah, so warm.

Rachel Crane 
Oh, yeah, I do polar diving when I get paid for it. I live in Key Largo, Florida. So there's like slight disconnect. But I only go to polar places during their summers.

Nic 
Yes. Smart. That's smart. Right.

Rachel Crane  
Yeah. So I'm smart about it. But yeah, so we go down there. We take videos of whatever we find sometimes. We're the first people to ever dive in. That place ever. We have no idea what's out there. And we come back, get warm, and then edit the footage and show it to the guests typically within about 24 hours and show them what we found.

Nic 
So when you're diving in cold water like that, I mean, I'm assuming you have a dry suits. You're all the way covered. But it still has to be ice cold. Like how long can you actually stay down there?

Laura 
Yeah, so how are you going down? Yeah.

Rachel Crane 
How deep?

Nic
Yeah.

Rachel Crane
Yeah. Okay. So we, we stay above 100 feet, wherever we are, but we're in very remote places. So it's very dangerous so most of the time, we're within 30 to 60 feet deep. Because after that, the risks of diving are just increased and if something were to go wrong helps really far away. So we are we definitely have to manage that. You know, unless you can guarantee me that there's like octopus at 80 feet fighting. I'm going to try to find the octopus at 30 feet. And then we wear dry suits. Now dry suits don't necessarily keep us warmer than a wet suit. It just takes us longer to get cold. So I am a warm person I have lemonade for blood, not molasses. So regardless of what I wear, I mean in Alaska. Last summer, the average temperature was like 37, 39 degrees Fahrenheit. So I was cold in about 15, 20 minutes. And we stay down for somewhere between 45 and 60 minutes. So by the end of it you know I'm just shaking. We don't move around much because we're filming. So we're kind of like sitting in one spot and hanging out with whatever organism, critter we found. So the freezing she's not doing anything. So every once in while we just have impromptu dance parties. Like dance with your buddy for a minute.

Nic  
You know there's like a seal looking at you like who are these crazy people on this water? Yeah.

Laura 
Yeah, well speaking of seals and sea lions, I was just sounds a little bit terrifying, a little bit thrilling. And then I don't know about the cold. I don't, that paycheck would have to be pretty big.

Rachel Crane 
There is part of it. You do because you just love it, not for the money. Oh yeah, I've I have yet to be fortunate enough to run into a pinniped underwater so no sea lions or seals for me underwater yet, but a lot of my coworkers have and they're pretty cool. I've seen those videos.

Nic
That's awesome.

Laura 
Yeah, that's that is really cool. And I can only imagine for people listening. They're still wondering, how do you get that job? So you said you follow them for five years. I mean, were you looking at what what the job requirements were and trying to build those skills if you just happen to have those skills they were looking for? Did you do anything to try to ingratiate yourself with them, meet people there and kind of make yourself known like I know lots of people who are trying to break into marine science in particular and they find it very difficult but then we talk to you and Tiffany and JD that's like, oh, yeah, I just got this job. You make it sound so easy. So what were the other details in that career search that's involved and did you become a captain before then or after then is that one of the skills they were looking for?

Rachel Crane 
So when I found the company I wasn't a captain yet, but I wanted to be a captain. So it's part of the reason I didn't immediately throw my hat in the ring, because I had professional goals for myself. And they were specifically looking for individuals that had the United States Coast Guard captain's license that does make you stand out above and beyond anything else, because they have to have a certain number of licensed drivers on the expedition ships and places so we can drive the guests in the little zodiacs.

Nic 
Oh, yeah.

Rachel Crane 
So if you are a geologist with a captain's license, they like you better than just a geologist. So that ones huge. And I already wanted that and I already wanted to have experience actually being a captain of vessels not just has a license in my hand like a driver's permit.

Laura  
yeah. What's entailed with that? Is that kind of like getting a driver's permit or somewhere between driver's permit and flying a helicopter or I don't know how much is involved?

Rachel Crane 
Yeah, so you have to have days at sea. If you just want a basic, like it's called a six pax, like six passengers. So, Pax, pax, you need 360 days that sing. You can only count a calendar day once so January 1 only happens once a year. And then you have to have four hours at sea. So four hours or with dark out at sea to count that day, onboard a vessel you can do anything via divemaster and instructor, a first mate, whatever. That's how you count the day. I have 100 ton license, so that's 720 days at sea. And then you actually have to take a big course through the Coast Guard typically takes you can go do it in two weeks, or I studied online took me two months to study, and you test, and then do all the paperwork and there's lots of money involved in this. But by lots I mean, far less than two grand for the course and all of the other like you have to have a physical, a drug test. All this other stuff you have to do so the return on investment is high, right faster than your degrees. You know, you put two grand into it. Once you're licensed and working. You can make it back probably in the first month.

Laura 
That's awesome. That's really good to know. As much as I drove boats in my last job, I probably should have considered that.

Rachel Crane
Yeah, it makes you very desirable.

Nic
Yeah. yeah.

Laura
Sounds like a missed opportunity.

Rachel Crane 
Right. So that was part of it was I wanted to be a captain so I was still working on I had all my days at sea when I found them. So I was doing the courses and then I wanted several years actually driving vessels before I looked into traveling for work. I do have degrees so having some type of degree is important. They just care that it's some type of natural degree, any kind of science, so mine our ecology and marine biology. So I'm a marine ecologist by degrees, and then diving if you're specifically looking at the diving that's a bit more involved. So I am a master instructor through PADI. So there's only technically one level above me, which is of course director somebody that trains instructors to become instructors. So I'm right under that level. And I wanted to achieve that level before I applied for that job. So I was still climbing that particular ladder and becoming a captain and I wanted to achieve those. So I yeah, I wanted about 95% when I applied to this job. I didn't want to come in at 70 So I had things to check off for myself. Now I actually didn't know a soul when I applied with them when I thought about applying but during the time that I found them and I was doing my own stepping stones one of my friend actually started posting that she worked for them. And so I was like whoa, I haven't talked to you in forever, but I want to work for them. And so I reconnected with her and then she put in a good word for me. This particular company, you can cold apply for most of the field staff positions like your naturalist, it is harder to get a job. But with the scuba diving part. It's almost impossible unless some one of the divers that knows you or has interacted or dive with you so they can kind of vouch for you. Because what we do, it's so incredibly diverse as well as safety forward. So I was fortunate in that I did end up knowing somebody but it was kind of out of a out of the blue that I knew them.

Laura 
That's awesome though. I swear the universe hands you what you need. You're looking for it. So that's fantastic. And then speaking of diving, so I worked at a dive shop for several years. And so I know firsthand that it's not always an easy space to be a woman in and be taken seriously. And so what's been your experience with that and what have you learned over the years being a female dive instructor?

Rachel Crane 
Yeah, I will say I've been incredibly fortunate that most of my co workers were fantastic and supportive of just me and that I had knowledge and that I was can I say badass because so they were really supportive and that was kind of a great environment to be in. I had very few like, maybe two people that I could think of that were not great. Most of the time when I was in that space and I was working because I worked up to instructor and then I was still in that space and I worked up to Captain, it's the clientele actually where you get the most pushback and annoying situations frustrating where you're not respected for your knowledge and your abilities. So I can definitely cite that like simple things like how up to somebody, like how much weight do you need before they go diving? And they're like, Oh, I'm fine. And then your male coworker goes up and says, How much weight do you need? And they're like, Well, I'm not sure I've never dove this wetsuit before.

Nic
Yeah.

Rachel Crane
Simple, silly things like that. And I've had things where I'm the only female on the vessel. And so I'll go around help get divers situated. And then they're like, When are we leaving? And when my coach is like, when the captain says we're ready that they gotta get the manifest and everything that like oh cool. When does he get there? Like she's right here.

Nic 
Yeah, she's Yeah.

Rachel Crane  
It blows their minds. When I run an all female crew. I have no idea what to do. That's really funny. But most of the time, people are really excited by it, especially if there's other women divers. They're stoked. So yeah, I've had a mixed bag which I feel like most of my women house but nothing super duper crazy.

Laura 
Yeah, pretty soon but anyway, because you're badass.

Rachel Crane
Basically.

[Ecotourism]

Nic 
Yeah. And speaking of you're also the director of education and training with Diveheart, which is a skill builder. Training Agency that focuses on building confidence, independence and self esteem. And you do that through scuba diving, scuba therapy and other related activities, which sounds really incredible. But I gotta know, what on earth is scuba therapy.

Rachel Crane 
So scuba therapy. Have you heard of individuals that do maybe like horseback riding as therapy? So maybe it's to recover from an injury, maybe to gain confidence in themselves if they have a cognitive ability that's different than what you might expect to be normal. So that's the type of therapy where they build confidence. You can do the same thing with scuba diving. So we Diveheart works specifically with adaptive divers, and adaptive divers are children, adults and veterans with disabilities. And some of these individuals have been told they couldn't do things for their whole lives. Including scuba diving I think, you know, you look at somebody in a wheelchair, they're like, No, you can't be a scuba diver. Well, that's not always the case. Sometimes they can. And so we have programs that we offer where they can come try diving, for free for fun. And they'll find that they can do it and they like it. And then they can segue into getting certified through Diveheart. And then the biggest goal, some of the adaptive divers are comfortable enough that they can go on trips for vacation and go scuba diving. And so it's kind of changing how people view them and how they view themselves and that's the therapy part of it. They're not Joe in a wheelchair. They are Joe, the scuba diver.

Nic 
Yeah. So what drew you to that?

Rachel Crane 
So when I was working in the Florida Keys, becoming a dive instructor and a captain die of heart would come to the Florida Keys to run trips, and they ran them through one of the shops I used to work for and so I was just a crew member at that shop. And I would always volunteer to work those trips, and they were like my favorite things. It's like Diveheart is in town for a week. I was like cool. I want on every trip. Yeah. And I would just go be the guide and be part of it because it was the most rewarding special thing ever. And then eventually they were hiring and I was looking for a new job. So it just kind of aligned really well.

Nic  
Yeah, that's, that's really incredible. I'm really thankful that you get to do that sounds really rewarding, which is, you know, we all want I think out of all of our careers in general. So I'm glad you get to do that. And you also get to travel quite a bit, and I want to know a little bit about your most recent project in Bahamas and Belize.

Rachel Crane 
Yeah, cool, man. So the Diveheart roll is completely remote. So I've had a remote job way before they were cool. And it's more about my knowledge level and maintaining kind of risk management and safety and course curriculum, then it is actually being there in person anymore. So I'm mostly retired from teaching. And now when I scuba dive, it's typically for fun, or for Lindblad Expeditions. So let's see. It's March right now. So since January, I worked a couple of weeks in Belize, for Lindblad then a few weeks in the Bahamas. I just got home from the Bahamas. We're talking just it's days now.

Laura 
We appreciate you stepping up to the plate here and taking this on.

Rachel Crane 
Yeah, so pretty much what the expeditions do. Their goal is to go to wild places. So in Belize, we were on some of the outer islands if you don't know, Belize and Honduras are part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, which is the second largest barrier reef in the world. So Australia has the Great Barrier Reef, then Belize and Honduras for Mesoamerica and then the Florida Keys where I live. Hey, so pretty easy and all the critters in Belize and the Bahamas underwater. They're the same critters I have in my backyard. So that's why I go there as the undersea specialist because I'm like, Hey, these are the fish I see every day in a new place. So I'm pretty well prepared to try to talk about them and tell the stories of those critters. So I was in Belize and gosh, I saw some of the healthiest coral in the Tropical Western Atlantic is technically the largest umbrella that I can put over this area that I've ever seen in my life. I cried at least three times. Just from seeing healthy coral. And then we also have other aspects. So that's a snorkeling itinerary for guests so guests get to go snorkeling. We did some Jungle Cruises and saw monkeys and parrots and all the cool stuff. Yeah, river cruises was where we did the monkeys. And then in the Bahamas. The Bahamas is a totally different landscape. There's no jungles Yeah, I was actually laughing the highest point in the Bahamas is 207 feet. Which these Key Largo really, really a lot because the highest point in actually the entirety of the Florida Keys is 19 feet. So they had us beat I went to visit some elevation.

Nic
Alright, calm down over there.

Laura
Did your nose bleed. Are you ok

Rachel Crane
Anytime we went over a sandhill, I was like, look guys elevation. So it was just

Laura 
She on a horse like it's so high up here.

Nic 
I'm getting dizzy. Oh my goodness.

Rachel Crane 
I used to show horses. Why not,  that's in there too. But yeah, so the Bahamas was really interesting, because Lindblad Expeditions has never run an itinerary in the Bahamas before ever. So it was true expeditioning. We, no one had ever been any of these places we were going. So we were showing up and getting up early in the morning and going out on scouts to be like, What is this? What can we do here? Can we tie it? Can we snorkel? I don't know. And so every day was kind of a What exactly are we doing again? And how do you say the name of this island? So it was very challenging but the place is stunning like I the Florida Keys I think it's 60 miles by Yeah, like away from parts of the Bahamas and there's a part of Miami that's only 45 miles from the Bahamas. So it's, it's blocking my view of the Atlantic. So it was really neat to go over there and get to see some of those islands that most people will never get to go to because we were primarily in the most southern out islands like closer to the Caymans actually, so very, very cool exploring. I saw my first wild flamingos. That was neat.

Nic 
That's really cool. Yeah. So yeah, that's it. We're supposed to we're supposed to get to the jealousy portion of the interview later. So we're here now and that's great. But with that kind of thing comes science communication, right? Which is really important. So I want to know like what that what does that mean to you and how do you use your experiences? Like what you're talking about right now to teach others of varying education levels?

Rachel Crane 
Yeah. So pretty much everything I do on board is science communication, you'll go snorkeling and people will be like, I saw this fish and I don't just help them learn the name of the fish, I'm helping them learn was that fish do when you're looking at it? What's he doing for his day? Why is that important to the reef? Why is the reefs important to the ocean, why is the ocean important to the planet? Why does why does it matter when you live in Idaho? You know, and so yeah, it's really fun because there's so many little stories to tell. And I really like you know, we've got this critter in front of us right now this experience in front of us and I like upgrading it to a worldview and to a why it matters view, which is probably the ecologist in me, which is the whole How is everything connected? And then I try to do it in a way that's really fun. And not necessarily as many big science words. You know, I I know a lot of big science words, but the people that I'm trying to get to care more don't, and so they can be a bit of a barrier. So I try to speak as much in layman's terms as possible. Or if I ever use a word that might be an unknown word, I stop, you know, partway through whatever I'm doing. And I'm just like, and that just means or I say a lot of times I say that science for whatever it actually is. So it's translating a lot into just information that they can digest that they can turn around and share. Because they're excited about so getting them excited. That like So, alright, here's here's a crazy one. So the Bahamas is one of two places in the world that you can find the oldest living fossil on the planet.

Laura
Really?

Rachel Crane
They look like rocks. They look like rocks. And so and they're called stromatolites. What are you going to do with that word? Yeah. All right. So stromatolites are cyanobacteria. That's not helpful. It basically means like algae that something that photosynthesizesand makes a hard skeleton, and therefore rocks, right? And they're ancient. And the only two places in the world that you can find them are the Bahamas, and Australia. So we were able to see these fossils and they're in kind of where the waves break on a beach. So as the tide pulls back, and you can see everything draining, you see the rocks, and the wave crashes, you can't really see it. And most of the time, they're like cool rocks. And so we get to be like, no these. There's like two places in the world. You see these rocks. People come from all over the world to see these rocks. And now people are excited because they learned about that. And they take pictures of it. And they can go tell everyone like yeah, this island is protected because of these fossils. These rocks. Yeah, and now they care. about them. So yeah, but it's such a strange concept to be like okay, this rock is cool because. Living fossil ancient

Nic 
What do you do in the Bahamas? I saw some cool rocks, you know?

Rachel Crane
Right?

Laura
I don't know what it was called, but it was cool.

Nic
Super cool. Two places you know Yeah, but I love that that's totally true. That's like exactly it you want to take a big thing and make it simple. And then much easier for them to talk about it and then you know someone like me hears that and if you don't think I'm gonna research this after the the interview. You're crazy and you don't know I mean, I love that you know, because I you know, I learned something to Okay, ancient rocks to places so that's what I'm gonna look for.

Rachel Crane 
Yeah. And then you got to boil it down to that, like what are the buzz words like to make it the most important so you have to kind of plow through all of the like, how does cyanobacteria work and all of that and just generally boil it down to these things. And that's what sticks with them and makes it something they want to tell because they're like, I saw something you can only see in two places in the world. And now they're going to talk about it.

Nic 
Right, exactly. That's really cool. And I'm really thankful you get to do that. And there's just seems like there's a lot of freedom in what you do, which has to be exhilarating and terrifying all at once. So like, what are the pros and cons for working with the way that you do?

Rachel Crane 
Okay. There are cons.

Nic
Yeah?

Rachel Crane
Yes. I mean, the pros are when I'm there. It's really fun to see these new places to share them. I'm doing something different. Every day, every hour of every day. I like I'm the captain of a little zodiac, and then I'm leading a hike and then I'm scuba diving and then I'm getting lunch. And then I and then you know, this afternoon, we're gonna go see a glacier and I'm gonna dive that zodiac and then in the evening, I'm going to present to you about why whales are important. And so it's insane. I think my record for how many times I've changed my clothes in a day is about nine. Because you're just constantly changing outfits for what you're doing. In the evenings, we're dressed fancy. So there's a lot of fun in all of that. And that's exciting. It is work to pre prepare some of those talks and to edit footage in like less than 24 hours and you never sit down, which is fun, but also I miss couches. And then, you know the big cons are the classic like away from my partner you know away from from my critters, and so less quality time at home. And then when you are at home just it takes a few days before you're human, which welcome to my few days. And so that can be a lot and when you're gone another con we're in wild places, and wild places don't have cell service, and wild places don't have good Wi Fi. So it's really hard to maintain a level of communication with the people that are back home. You know, that makes it easy to maintain that relationship. It's hard. I like cuddles and so you like have to turn to your co workers and be like so are you somebody that will give me hugs every day? Because I need hugs everyday. Like all these you know these things it's like I don't have you know a kitty to sit on my lap and pet. I don't have somebody like just always turn I'd be like I need a hug. You don't need to listen to my problems. I just need a hug. Right, right. But coworkers are awesome. So most of them are hugging people, but still COVID made that weird too. So yeah, so there's definitely pros pros and cons, but it's worth it. I try. Our contracts are typically between a week to five weeks long. And with travel, you could go ahead and add an extra maybe two days on either side. So five weeks is closer to six. When all is said and done. And that can be a lot. So I definitely have to set boundaries of like hey, you know, this time of my life and what's going on with me right now three weeks on board is my limit. But come fall when I'm you know maybe in a better mental space or more financially secure for the whole year? Yeah. Then I'll do six weeks on board. So boundaries are big. Mental boundaries and time boundaries. Because, you know, at the end of the day, that's what you have.

Nic
Yeah it's you.

Rachel Crane
So you have to take care of those things and prioritize them. Even though Alaska is amazing.  I kind of like the person that's sitting on my couch a little bit more.

Nic 
Making an awful lot of noise. I'm kidding.

Rachel Crane
He only dropped one thing.

Nic 
One thing, just one thing. But no, it's really good perspective because I think a lot of times all of this sounds really whimsical and amazing. And it can be draining as well. So I think it's really important for people to hear that so yeah, I appreciate you saying that.

Laura 
Nic is [13:39 unintelligible] now by the way, his wife is not home. I don't think so.

[Field Notes: Bubble-Netting]

Nic 
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah,

Laura
No one there making noise.

Nic
Yeah, just me. But now it's time for what we're calling our Field Fails segment which is really more like a let's make Nick jealous segment. That's kind of the whole point of this thing. And you have a lot of great stories. And you've been you've seen humpbacks bubble netting which makes me furious. Because I'm so jealous to see that so I know some people don't know what that is. Maybe explain what bubble netting is. And then tell us how you manage to see that.

Rachel Crane 
Okay, yeah, this was kind of cool. I will preface with saying that before I knew a lot about whales. I did not understand why people like whales. Okay, I was not the marine biologist that wanted to train the dolphins. I did not want to go do any of the whales with the orcas stuff. I was like okay, cool. Whales. Well, now I really like whales guys. They grow on you. So bubble netting is a feeding behavior that humpback whales exhibit. Now, an individual whale can do this by themselves. And what they do is they dive down typically under like herring, a school of little fishes or krill. Which are like teeny shrimps. And the whale will go down and they hold their breath with a bunch of bubbles when they go down. And then they exhale. And remember, they blow holes on the top of their head. So they exhale and they swim in a circle. And they come up kind of in a spiral where they continue to exhale. And so they create this wall of bubbles that goes straight up and all of the little fishes and little krills are stuck inside. And then eventually the whale stops going around the outside and it comes underneath and opens its mouth and it comes straight up like the eye of the tornado and gets all the fishes and krills and its mouth explodes out at the top and it's it's very dramatic. And all the birds at the top are very happy and there's fishes and krills jumping everywhere, awesome. And so it's really neat and it's one of the ways that they can feed in southeast Alaska specifically, you see a cooperative bubble net feeding which means that more than one whale does it together. So they work as this huge team and what's wild is they're not related to each other. It's not mom and baby or mom and like grandkids from like, three years ago or whatever. They're not related. They're like bros and hoes. They don't care. They're just all together as friends. And they come in and they all dive together like they all get together in like this little organized kind of pod. And then it's like somebody literally says dive dive dive and they all go down right after each other really quick. And they divide the roles. So somebody's the bubble meta and they go down and blow the bubbles and create the little bubble tornado that goes up. And then the other whales will circle around to kind of push the little things into a tighter pack. And then there's another job and they are the vocalist. And they scream bloody murder at these little fishes and krills on an octave that they know for a fact that the little herrings the little fishes can hear and it's terrifying. And they all get underneath at the same time together and they all come out of the water together with their mouths open and it's absolutely insane. Yeah, if you were if you put your ears like if you got in the water while they were doing this, it's so loud that it could pierce your eardrums.

Nic
Oh gosh.

Laura
What?

Rachel Crane
So typically we just put a hydrophone in the water and listen that way. It's nuts,  it's so loud. You can actually like if you're on a ship and you go down to the lowest part that's under the water and like put your ear up to the metal. You can hear it.

Nic 
Oh my gosh.

Rachel Crane 
Through the ship. So that's crazy. But I've seen this because I've been working in southeast Alaska for many summers. And so that's one of the places this happens. And I've had two specific crazy experiences with it. One of them

Laura
It gets better Nic.

Nic
Oh my gosh.

Rachel Crane
You wanted to be jealous. So now you understand what's happening. So I was driving a zodiac, which is a small inflatable vessel that you can maybe put 10 people on. So I had some guests and I'm just doing a little Zodiac tour. We're talking about geology and stuff. In the ocean and I sight humpback whale, so we got to go look at it. And then we're like, oh cool humpback whale. And then there's more. And humpback whales do not just group together. It's like they're not pod animals like the way that dolphins are. And so I'm like, Oh, weird. There's some more there must be good food here and then they just keep getting closer and closer and closer together. And I was like this is not happening. I'm in a zodiac at like sea level and and then they did it and I the second they did it. They all did the dive dive dive. They all did a coordinated dive and I was just like, everybody get your cameras up. Watch the birds because the birds will see it before we can and I was like and get Ready because you're about to see bubble net  like bubble netting humpback whales, and zodiacs oh my gosh, ocean level like half a dozen whales. It was insane. And so then I have to make the radio call and be like so everybody. Bubble in that thing, humpbacks on the Zodiac right now and they they were doing like hikes on shore and everything and they're like get everyone off the beach and they're like who's on board? Can anyone drive another Zodiac? Get another Zodiac out there now? Someone get a video person over now. So then eventually they're like, Rachel, come back. You have to come back. We're going to take the whole ship. They're like stop having a good experience. We need to share it and then we got the whole ship to see it was really cool. And it got better Nic because there was a mom and like a year like humpback calf and the baby's like not smart enough yet to bubble net so Oh, all the adults are bubble that feeding and the babies just breaching on the side. Just jumping, jumping out of the water jumping off the water and so what are we do we point our cameras at?

Nic  
Yes, that must have been very difficult for you really hard. What's beautiful amazing thing.

Rachel Crane 
Should we photograph? And then I said they were two experiences.

Nic
I  know, I'm mad.

Rachel Crane
This was not as epic. It was actually. You asked for a scary experience. And it took me a minute to think of one but this one scared me. So again, southeast Alaska as driving a little Zodiac with my little guests. And we're circumnavigating this really tiny island and I'm actually taking them to look at sea lions. They don't know that but I know that. So I'm like come around the corner like kind of going full tilt because it's like round two and I know where they are. So just want to get there so you can hang out with the sea lions. And I come around the corner and not quite like a bus length in front of me. Bubble netting humpback whales just explode out of the water and like full tilt in the Zodiac coming around the corner. And so I'm slowing down immediately like almost face planting. forward because I'm stopping so fast. I literally just yelled hold on. And we scared the whales as much as they scared us. And then we were just surrounded by whales and they moved a little bit and bubble netted somewhere else near us and I was like, well now do I show them the bubble that a humpback whales or the sea lions.

Nic
Yes, what a hard life.

Rachel Crane
This is my life.

Nic 
That's incredible. Oh man.

Laura 
And that's all well and good. So let's just switch gears now to something that maybe make Nic a little less jealous. Who knows? Maybe I'm not sure how fond he is the chickens but the thing that you do to chickens.

Rachel Crane 
So I have pet chickens and I love them. I grew up homeschooled on an alpaca farm.

Nic
As you do.

Rachel Crane
And that's yeah, as one does. And we had a flock of like 50 chickens. So I've loved chickens since then. Yeah, during the pandemic mental health was a thing and I was like, I really want chickens. They're just so dumb and they make me happy. And they like they have really silly personalities, they lay eggs, and you almost have to do nothing to keep them alive because they're free range and are like jungle outside. And I also was like I showed it to like my partner and my landlord is like, they'll eat the cockroaches and the bugs. And they 100% do there are less cockroaches in our life.

Laura 
Now. There's a bonus.

Rachel Crane  
But I convinced them and our neighbors to get chickens. And then it was really funny because one of my old co workers like ended up with this abandoned chicken so I went and picked her up. She was alone and still sad. So our local Yeah, our local place that sells plants. I forget what those are called nursery things.

Laura 
Nursery things work.

Rachel Crane 
Oh, yeah. Just the plants. They got in a bunch of baby hens and so I went over and got two baby hens and gave my sad chicken, two little baby hens. And she was less sad. And now I have three chickens.

Laura 
And you're like I'm going out of town for six weeks, does someone want to take care of these,

Rachel Crane 
basically yeah and so my partner's like in a love hate relationship with them because of course they leave bombs everywhere. Yeah, you know, but they're also roaches. Yeah, it's really funny because they'll work on like construction projects outside in the garage. And it's like he'll open his trailer of tools, and the chicken will jump up on the door and be like whatcha doing. Open a tool chest and the chicken will jump in the jar. It's like can I live here? So they help a lot. They figured out to lay eggs in his chest before so I think that's great.

Nic 
Yeah. Oh man. Well, I hate to say this, but you know, we're almost out of time. And, you know, it's it's always tough and we have a fun interview. So is there anything that we haven't talked about that you'd love to mention before we let you go?

Rachel Crane 
Oh, man, this was really fun. I think just to anybody that's listening and is interested in any parts of these careers or paths is to just make sure that you put like value on your time because these companies are buying your time. That's what you're selling. You know, when you're making an income. And that's probably the most important thing you have in the world to give or to sell. So just make sure it's something that's worth your time and your energy and and if it's not, it's okay to break free and I didn't know where I was going for a long time, and I left a lot of opportunities because it wasn't making me happy. And that is kind of the point in life. If you ask me like what's the meaning of life, it's to be happy.

Nic
Yeah, it's a good one.

Rachel Crane
And the way you do that is how you spend your time. So making sure you take time to really think about that.

Nic 
Yeah, that's a great, great end, and last but not least, tell the people where they can find you.

Rachel Crane 
Yeah, so social media. My handle is Rachel on the reef. And mostly you'll find me on Instagram. I don't accept random Facebook friend requests. Sorry, that's where grandma lives. I'm learning about Twitter, but I'm not really somebody that Twitter's, tweets. The word Yeah, and I don't always post because I'm busy but if you private message me I will see it. And it does work on WiFi not cell service. So I see it anywhere. I am in the world.

Nic 
Awesome. Thank you so much for your time, Rachel. It's been really fun. I really enjoyed it.

Laura
Thanks, Rachel.

Rachel Crane  
You are welcome.

[Outro]

Laura 
Thanks so much, Rachel, for joining us today. This was a lot of fun and I hope I get to have any sort of encounter as awesome as you have on the daily. Please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. And before he goes subscribe, rate and review. Bye,

Nic  
See you everybody.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai