Mar 02 2025 40 mins 1
What do businesses get up to in the two-thirds of the world’s oceans outside national jurisdictions?
Professor John Virdin has always loved the ocean – despite growing up hundreds of miles from the sea. As Director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Programme at Duke University Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions in North Carolina, he has a job title too long for his business card, but a long-term dream of better protection and management of the way we use ocean to provide more food and jobs for people on the coast around the world.
John works to analyse the activities of the biggest companies operating in the ocean, engaging with them to see what they are doing and might yet do to conserve the oceans. From wind energy companies, to dredging firms, to container shipping, marine construction, seafood, and offshore oil and gas – so many companies have a presence in the oceans. While these companies are head-quartered in a small number of countries, their operations and impacts span the globe.
John explains the work being done to try to bring companies together to make progress, where the major impacts of their actions are, and what factors are influencing their behaviours.
We confirm Georgia is not in Texas, bring out the comedy drum sound effect, doubt the possibility of mining a lobster, and explain the mystery of blue carbon.
Will we keep Jan’s promise to talk about everything in the sea? And is Paul’s vision of a cruise ship with a wind turbine on top and fishing nets out the back just a crazy pipe dream?
Find out more about John and his work here: https://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/people/john-virdin
