Preservation with Melissa

Welcome to a new episode of Sangu Stories!

Discover marine conservation with Melissa, a Naturalist at the Jean-Michel Cousteau of the Ambassadors of the Environment programme at the Ritz-Carlton, Maldives Fari islands. She is also a PhD researcher in drone engineering and marine ecology who is currently researching the Maldives.

For any further information or assistance, please contact Aminath.Haadhee@ritzcarlton.com , Marketing Communications Manager.

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For more information about The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands, visit our website

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Transcript

Mark Hehir: 0:01

Welcome back to Sangu stories. We are partnering with Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ambassadors of the Environment program to provide guests with wondrous immersion in nature and explore the rare beauty of the Maldives through our lens. I hope you've enjoyed our conversation with Dr. Murphy, who has shared about the programme and how it was first formed. Today, we have Melissa who's a Naturalist and a resident scientist at The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands and a PhD researcher in drone engineering and Marine ecology. In this episode, we'll go into more detail about the guest experiences and also Melissa's current research, she's doing with us on the island. Welcome Melissa. Tell us about the role of Naturalists.

Melissa Schiele: 0:48

Well, thank you so much for inviting me, Mark. It's really exciting to be here. Um, so I am one of the Naturalists here at The Ritz-Carlton and I, with Dr. Sol, Naturalists are part of the show, Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ambassadors of the Environment program, which was set up by the Ocean Future Society. And the whole program itself was developed by Dr. Richard Murphy, who used to dive with Jacque and Jean-Michel Cousteau back on the Calypso in the sixties and seventies, and also Nicole Boriski, who is the Ocean Future Society, one of the managers there who develops this particular programme and the whole programme, and the whole point of our role is to deliver these incredible programmes and activities centered around sustainability, living in harmony with the planet, but also understanding the environmental, ecological, biological and cultural elements of the Maldives specific. Yeah.

Mark Hehir: 1:44

Something you're passionate about as well, we've been connected for many years, and this has been a great opportunity for you to get involved.

Melissa Schiele: 1:50

It's been an incredible opportunity. Thank you. Yes.

Mark Hehir: 1:53

So exciting, you know, conservation and sustainable solutions are essential components in healing the damage done by humans on planet earth. And, uh, and then speaking with Dr. Richard Murphy about it, and Jean-Michel Cousteau is so passionate about education. How has Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ambassadors of the Environment program contributing to conservation and promoting sustainable practices?

Melissa Schiele: 2:16

Yeah, that's a really good question, actually, because there are a lot of programs out there who may be kind of arbitrarily, you know, educate the guests about really thinking of a strong message behind it. And one of the strongest messages behind our programme is protecting what you love. And we want to create meaningful, um, wildlife and nature experiences, which is a technical term actually in the conservation field. Um, well, I guess learn to love nature, the terrestrial land and in the ocean water as well. And we bring forward all the information, the activities from the Naturalists experience. So we, we come from scientific backgrounds and we understand all of the current issues in sustainability, climate change, overfishing, all of these. And so being able to communicate these things and complex problems clearly to our guests, um, is a really important tool. And, you know, they might go home and they'll be talking about these things and they see their neighbors. Maybe they see their family. Maybe we'll instill a bit of a behavioral change. Absolutely. So we're not trying to, you know, turn everyone into, you know, tree-hugging hippies, but we're absolutely keen on gently driving behavioral

Mark Hehir: 3:27

Change. Yeah. And I see people's eyes pop up and I see the interest and I think that's the great thing that excited us about getting involved in bringing the programme to the Maldives, was that how it could inspire generations, inspire the young ones to put pressure on the older ones?

Melissa Schiele: 3:44

Yeah. Yes, no, absolutely. Kids are without doubt the future.

Mark Hehir: 3:48

So tell us more about your research

Melissa Schiele: 3:50

Yeah. So, um, I'm a PhD researcher and basically left for university ordinarily and Dr. Sol, the other Naturalists just finished his PhD six months ago. Um, so my research involves building fixed-wing drones. They look like little airplanes and mine land on the water, and I fly them out in the middle of the ocean, looking for illegal fishing boats and sharks and rays, but also plastics as well. So that's the main part of my research. I do that in Chagos with the zoological society of London. So I work with a lot of big names in the Indian Ocean and have done for quite a while now, especially with the work that we started with you a couple of years ago. Um, but also part of my research is using smaller drones as well. And that's how I met Dr. Sol. And, uh, we met on Twitter.

Mark Hehir: 4:37

We were both doing drone research and we started talking. He does a lot of work with detecting ghost nets using drones. So he started that in Myanmar, trying to understand if you could even do it. And we've kind of piggybacked on that research. Plus my research from the Chagos science, which we're actually just south of the Maldives and we've developed a new programme here first time ever that drones are being used as part tangible research, but also involving the guests. And I don't know any other place that does that here in the Maldives and especially not The Ritz-Carltons either. So being able to bring our research project, which specifically is about monitoring ocean plastics and being able to have this incredible laboratory here. So we are very grateful to be here genuinely and to involve guests in that that's just strengthening the whole, you know, Jean-Michel Cousteau idea because Cousteau the family, the legacy that all about Marine technology, developing the scuba diving gear, and also the underwater camera equipment underwater rovers here as well that our field is Marine technology. And it's quite new. Yeah,

Melissa Schiele: 5:49

No. And you can see when you do talk about it with customer, our guests and they get straightaway inspired about the, you know, the feeling of that technology and how it's applied to what you, what you're doing. So when we talk about what they can get involved in, what are the must try experiences at The Ritz-Carlton? So we have a whole load of different activities that really range from land-based activities to ocean-based activities and even things like stargazing as well. But if I were to pick three of my top ones, I'd say the Cities on the, sorry, the Coral Cities under the Sea. Yeah. So that's based on Dr. Murphy's book actually. So you can buy that book here or buy it online. And it's all about the analogy of comparing the coral reefs to a city. And that's quite unique perspective actually. And I think that the guests, when they have that experience, things really start to how, how

Mark Hehir: 6:45

Do they, how does that work though? Like, take us through, like, you meet, you see it in the book and then you actually go and see it in the water.

Melissa Schiele: 6:54

Is that how absolutely yes. So we invite the guests to meet us at the Diving Center and we have a 15 to 20 minute presentation where we go through in a, quite an interactive way, all the different roles, um, in a city and how they have their other side in the ocean as well. So you've got the doctors, you've got the engineers a nd you've got your a nd business managers in the ocean. N ow y ou've got your corals, your sharks, y our clean up crew, t heir analogies o f both sides

Mark Hehir: 7:24

Right. So everyone's got a job take care of each

Melissa Schiele: 7:27

Other. You go into the water and we show the guests. Exactly.

Mark Hehir: 7:31

Wow. Yeah. And other experiences.

Melissa Schiele: 7:35

So my other two favourite ones, I would say, um, so definitely Sub Aqua X. Um, so we have underwater, um, rovers. Um, so they've got cameras on them and lights. So we take our guests in the evening we can do it in the daytime as well, but it's more fun in the evening. And the guests can actually have a go at piloting one of these underwater robots, which is incredibly exciting because not only are, you're trying to learn to drive this piece of kit, which isn't easy. It takes a bit of time to get used to, but that's part of the fun. And then you get to explore what's around the reefs, right. So we can do it from your Villa, or we can do it from anywhere else on the resort as well. And then the other one I would say is so Dr. Sol and I doing research all the time around the islands. And one of the things that we do is, um, drone surveys of the reefs. And they're incredible because not only are we going to be able to create a habitat map of the entire area, but we've actually spotted seven Manta Rays just off our reef. Wow. That's exciting. Yeah. So, and we spotted another one today in that same area.

Mark Hehir: 8:38

So, um, it's the sunrise side of the island?

Melissa Schiele: 8:42

Grand Sunset Beach sunset beach.

Mark Hehir: 8:43

Oh, in the front. Oh, wow.

Melissa Schiele: 8:45

It's in a it's in oh, no, no, no, yes, no, that's it. The Grand Sunset Beach.

Mark Hehir: 8:50

Yeah. So right infront of the Waterspors and Dive Centre, step out and you could see Mantas.

Melissa Schiele: 8:56

There is a, there's the lagoon. And then just on the other side of the lagoon, that's where the Mantas are. So we're going to tell the dive center.

Mark Hehir: 9:02

Well, that's amazing. Yeah. Um, and, and when we talk about other ways or what's your top way, would you recommend our listeners that they could support the recovery of our oceans? What should they do? Absolutely.

Melissa Schiele: 9:17

So, I mean, everybody's probably seen all sorts of, you know, articles online or things on the internet. Um, but if I were to suggest three quite doable things to do, I would say, number one, if you're offered, um, single use plastics or anything like that you know, politely decline and maybe find a more sustainable option, carry cutlery around with you, bring your own straw. Of course, here at The Ritz- Carlton, we don't have any single use plastics, which is brilliant. So here you won't have a problem. The second one is to download a food sustainability app and there are there ones in the U S ones in the UK Europe. And what that app does is it tells you, um, where your fish comes from and the fishing method and whether it's sustainable or not. So that's a really easy thing. You can just, you know, pull out in the supermarket or if you're in a restaurant or anything like that. And it can give you a more informed view on what you're eating and you can decide whether you want to eat something or not based on sustainability. And I guess the third one, um, would be just to be conscious of your consumption of everything. So it could be your energy consumption. It could be a water consumption, it could be anything, anything, um, that ordinarily humans might do an exercise. I think there's a, there's definitely a behavioural change in general, where we're trying to live a more minimalistic life, try and draw back on things.

Mark Hehir: 10:35

Declutter. I think taking what you just said in the last comment aboout things like water, you know, The Ritz-Carlton here. We thought a lot about that last year. And we're working with Nordaq, doing our water, uh, filtration system, which is off the back of the water we produce from the seawater from the ocean. So when we saw the quality of what Nordaq, that can produce a Swedish filtering filtration system, it's providing high quality still and sparkling water for our customers. Why would we bring still and sparkling from other parts of the world, burn carbon miles and create all of that drama when you actually producing great water here. And so for us, it's a important conversation at The Ritz-Carlton providing high quality water, um, and also educating our customers to join us in this journey, you know, and try to really, you know, we always about giving our customers what they want, but also probably taking them on the journey of why we, why we wouldn't want to do more than from other parts of the world.

Melissa Schiele: 11:38

Yes, absolutely. And also we have the solar panels on top of all of the villas and buildings. So that's, for us, it's very exciting.

Mark Hehir: 11:46

Yeah. So there's a lot of contributions and ways we can inspire our guests to enjoy luxury without it being, you know, feeling guilty in that sense, you know, and I guess that's where we're on that journey. So, um, we're never going to stop about how we can always get better and improve. And I think it was Jean-Michel Cousteau program helps inspire us to think more and more about it and keep it strong on the radar. And that's where, you know, and then for the ability for us to bring people like yourself here to actually get active in research, which commonly wouldn't be done in other hotels or resorts around the world, unless they were fully set up to do this or embracing it more importantly. Um, it's been a great combination. So thanks for Melissa for getting all the way out here from home and getting excited about this project, but also, um, and then joining forces. And I think the Jean-Michel Cousteau program, we're excited to have your, and Sol's skills on the ground. I think that's also bring the project and the programme to another level. Um, and there's been great feedback so far. So, um, great to have you here in the team and, uh, so excited for our listeners to come and see and experience it.

Melissa Schiele: 13:02

Oh, absolutely. And this is not the end of it. We've got more plans to bring more technology as well. Great. So, um, hopefully in the next couple months I'll be able to return and we've got hydrophones, we've got coral reef monitoring kits. So I work in engineering and, uh, yes, it's Marine engineering. We've got lots of toys we'd like to come and test. And we've definitely things we'd like to showcase to our guests because we invent stuff. That's what we do. It's amazing. Yeah. So we're really excited for this opportunity and we thank you again.

Mark Hehir: 13:29

All right. Well, thank you very much for joining us today. And we look forward to speaking to you more about this very soon

Melissa Schiele: 13:35

My pleasure, thank you so much

Mark Hehir: 13:38

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Join me next time. When we discover more about The Ritz-Carlton.