We are happy to welcome Gelareh Darabi as presenter of the 2nd edition Healthy Seas Web Labs. We’ll be kicking it off with a topic that applies to everyone as we take a closer look at the amount of single-use plastic waste generated by the pandemic and how much of it is ending up in world’s oceans.
Our discussion will explore how the single use plastics industry has used the lack of information around the virus to keep themselves alive. Our experts will break down the facts when it comes to protecting ourselves from the virus in an Earth-friendly way.
Finally, our featured brands (Ecomask, Lantinga Vita) will tell us how they stepped up to the challenge of a global pandemic to bring forward personal protective equipment (PPE) that not only keeps us safe, but honours the planet.
Hope to see you there!
Monday, November 9th, 4pm CET
COVID Waste: A New Threat to Oceans
About Gelareh Darabi
Gelareh is an award-winning, Canadian-British-Iranian journalist and documentary filmmaker. She is a featured science and environment correspondent with National Geographic Channel and AJ+. Over the past decade, Gelareh has reported across six continents, in over 20 countries, including Haiti, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Gelareh has reported on the ground on major environmental crises such as deforestation in the Amazon and the Australia bush fires.
About Dr Elitza Germanov
Elitza Germanov is a conservation biologist focusing on anthropogenic threats to marine megafauna. Her conservation biology work has focused on establishing baselines in understudied populations of threatened species, specifically manta rays, and evaluating persistent threats, focusing on plastic marine debris. Thus far, she has achieved this work through large-scale citizen science initiatives, which she has fostered in Indonesia. Going forward, she is focusing on building scientific capacity within Indonesia to continue the necessary work on these topics there. Currently, she is identifying global biodiversity hotspots and critical habitats for threatened marine megafauna that would benefit from the flagship approach to conservation.
Senior Scientist Marine Megafauna Foundation
Lead Researcher Microplastics & Megafauna
About Gary Stokes
Born in the UK, Gary was raised in the Mediterranean in Malta and Cyprus where his love affair with the ocean first formed. He has been living in Asia for the past 30 years where he has worked as a professional photographer and diving instructor. He has become an effective ocean advocate due to his ‘no-compromise’ approach. Gary previously held the position of Asia Director for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a position he held for the past 5 years.
Gary has spent the past twenty years investigating and exposing the shark fin industry, gaining international media coverage for the cause, as well as working with airlines and shipping lines to investigate and shut down shark fin shipping routes. When not exposing the shark fin industry, he can be found investigating shipping routes for possible transnational wildlife crimes or on a beach analysing marine debris to better understand and raise awareness to the plastic pollution crisis.