Michelle Greenfield  0:08  
Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of aqua Doc's, the podcast that keeps you up to date on all things aquatic medicine. I'm your host, Michelle Greenfield. Today, I have the great pleasure of speaking with Dr. Claire Simeon, a marine mammal veterinarian and founder of sea change health. Hi, Dr. Claire, thanks for being here on orthodox.

Claire Simeon  0:27  
Michelle, thanks so much for having me.

Michelle Greenfield  0:29  
Absolutely. I'm really excited to talk with you today about science communication, because clearly, it's something I'm really interested in. Before we go deeper into that. Can you just give our listeners a little overview of how you got to where you are today?

Claire Simeon  0:42  
Absolutely. So I went to veterinary school at the Virginia Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. And I then went on to complete a small animal rotating internship in San Diego, California. And I originally really wanted to go the zoo residency route. And so I applied for residencies and I didn't get into any of them. And so I was trying to figure out what to do next. When I saw that the the national marine mammal foundation and SeaWorld San Diego, they were starting a joint aquatics internship. And so I applied for that and I was lucky to be selected. And so I got trained there by Dr. Cynthia Smith and Eric Jensen touch MIT and 100 Collins. And then I went on to work with the National Marine Fishery Service with NOAA Fisheries and with the Marine Mammal Center as a conservation medicine veterinarian. And there I was mentored by Francis Goland. And Terry rolls. And I then went on to be the director of the Hawaiian monk seal conservation program with the Marine Mammal Center. And about a year and a half ago, I left that position to start my own organization called sea change health. You know, I had amazing mentors and worked for incredible organizations that all helped shape me into a clinician whose focus is understanding how marine mammal health is linked to our own health and the health of the ocean.

Michelle Greenfield  1:53  
Wow, what a whirlwind of places and people you've worked with lots of whom, who we featured here on this podcast?

Claire Simeon  1:59  
Yeah, lots of people who have been passed and passed. Yes, yeah.

Michelle Greenfield  2:03  
So you were selected as a TED Fellow. So I wanted to just highlight a little bit on what you had presented there, which is all about zoonosis. So can you just define that term for us? And then tell us how it fits into your daily life?

Claire Simeon  2:16  
Yeah. So zoonosis is a word that I made up to try to describe the knowledge that spread between humans and animals. And so it takes the Greek root Gnosis for knowledge, and then zoo for all animal life, including us. And you know, as members of the veterinary field, we're all really intimately aware of the importance of this knowledge and how we share it, everything want health and our understanding of how humans and animals and the environment are connected, all has zoonosis at its core, that basically, we're all connected. And there's a lot to be learned from all of those connections. And so it's kind of like preaching to the choir, like it's much easier to talk to them about this. Like they're like, Well, yes, of course, it is everything. But in my own life, I try to look for Zoonosis everywhere. So you know, we can take innovations in human medicine and apply them to help animals we do that all the time, right. The majority of the drugs that we use in the veterinary field have originally been developed for human use. And so six months ago, we performed the first inter neuron transplant in a sea lion named Crona, in an attempt to reverse his epilepsy, so he was a sea lion that had been deemed non releasable after several attempts at rehabilitation. And an MRI scan of his brain showed damage to the part of his brain called the hippocampus that is often associated with exposure to the marine biotoxin domoic acid. And so he had been deemed non releasable and was placed at Six Flags discovery kingdom in Vallejo, California, where they have been caring for him and managing his epilepsy. Well, his epilepsy had been getting worse. And he had run out of options, basically. And Dr. Scott Barry bands lab at the University of California, San Francisco had been researching this inter neuron therapy for more than a decade. And basically, you have excitatory neurons and inhibitory neurons in your brain with ones that get excited and ones that then inhibit the electrical activity. When you have brain damage and leading to epilepsy, those inhibitory neurons are basically destroyed. And so then you just have all this excitation that leads to seizures. And so the hope is that taking these inter neurons that are cultured in the lab can then be injected and basically replaced the last cells. So in last October 27, specialists including human neurosurgeons, marine mammal, veterinarians, trainers, technicians, anesthesiologist, everybody all came together to transplant the cells into the damaged part of chronic sprain. And he just passed the six month mark, and so far he's been seizure free, and his appetite and his weight have been stable. And so we're optimistic that all of these things might mean a successful procedure for Coronavirus. But to think about all that knowledge and all that zoonosis that transferred there you know, between the cross collaboration learning from each other, our understanding of medical techniques and applying them to to humans and animals, and all of that is like, what gets me super excited.

Michelle Greenfield  5:04  
And just seeing how you can apply different ideas from different areas that you might not initially think are connected but actually are completely connected. It's, it's amazing.

Claire Simeon  5:13  
Yes, yeah. And now diagnosis pops up for me everywhere. I always see articles and I'm like, Haha, looking for it. But I was just reading a new publication by Dr. Ellen Hines and her co authors. And they were looking at the timing of migration of baleen whales in California. And they had been using 24 years of daily whale counts. So scientists climbed up the lighthouse at the Faroe Islands every day for 24 years. But they found that humpbacks and blue whales arrived earlier in feeding areas over time, and they had longer periods of time that they spent at risk of entanglement in these fisheries off the central California coast. They showed that the entanglement rates were significantly associated with this early arrival in California. And so then they concluded that if we take actions to decrease the amount of time that the whales and the fisheries overlap, we could decrease the rate of entanglements and like that's amazing. zoonosis right, the natural world is constantly telling us things, but in a lot of times we've we've stopped or we've forgotten to have a listen, and the knowledge is out there. But the ball is really in our court as to whether we as the humans can act to make those changes, which is a lot of the you know, science communication and kind of how do we transition that into action that you and I are talking about?

Michelle Greenfield  6:29  
Yeah. And I think that's a great segue, because we spend a lot of time talking about science communication. And that's what this podcast is right and opportunity for scientists to share their research, share their expertise, but then how do you go that next step? How do you take all of these ideas and actually turn it into action and inspire people to take that next step?

Claire Simeon  6:49  
Well, let's see. I think, get you know, of course, like it's turning communication into impact. I think that's the million dollar question. And science communication really teaches us that we need a call to action, right. And, and that's really hard. I remember reading an article in a major conservation magazine, but it talks about marine pollution. And it describes like the big themes that we know, affect marine mammals and ourselves, like chemical pollution, light pollution, noise, plastic, but there were two sentences at the end with a kind of a call to action, it was like encourage recycling, damp, and unnecessary lights be responsible when you use chemicals. And I was like, Ah, what a missed opportunity. That was it's it's almost like equally as ineffective to have giant calls to action. And because we're such a diverse world, like it's this paradox, because our stage is now global and online. And so it's a really hard balance on how, how we influence people. And of course, there are many, many people that study this exact type of thing, like what influences people to take action. But it's definitely clear that if I approach trying to get you to take action, only by communicating how big and how dire everything is, and that we have only one shot at saving the world are already toast like that causes a total shutdown. But instead, can you make your call to action, really small and even more to that really targeted to the situation? You know, I think for me, in this podcast on science, communication, and how we're talking about shifting impact, the call to action that I would have to listeners is, if you love your thing, whatever that thing is, and you want to talk about it, or you want to communicate about it, write to me and tell me and I would say also write to you. But like go to sea change health.org and choose the contact form and like introduce yourself and tell me what you'd love to communicate about. And then of course, like don't just stuck with me, but like keep telling people that. And of course, I can't promise that I can find a fit for everybody. But if a topic comes up, I'm much more likely to be able to connect somebody if I have that context. And if I know, you know what people do, why they do it, and almost most importantly, like what they want themselves. Who knows what happens from 500 people telling me what they love.

Michelle Greenfield  9:05  
But I really I love what you're saying there because I think that's something that we don't always focus on. But it's actually a huge part of making change in the scientific community and just listening to a podcast like this and it's FERS Oh, that person's doing research, I actually might want to collaborate with them, and then you just reach out to them.

Claire Simeon  9:24  
Exactly. But yeah, that's what you know, I think when we think about personal communication, like getting really familiar with what your own expertise is, but then also understanding like what everybody else has expertise is like so many people would love to tell you about their thing, right? Like in our community, Dr. Andreas Feldman, he wants to tell you about the importance of marine mammal research and how understanding the physiology of these animals can help us protect them and better care for them. And then Miguel on Hill Conseco he wants to tell you about the realities of dolphins under human care and Max sicko and to clarify common misconceptions. And so knowing ourselves is really important. But knowing other people is key too, because these people can help you craft and carry these messages towards this tailored audience.

Michelle Greenfield  10:13  
That's super helpful. Thank you. Now, you've outlined how to craft a call to action as a speaker. But how is the listener able to find opportunities if the call to action is a little bit less clear,

Claire Simeon  10:25  
when I think about the ways that people want to get involved, we can differentiate that into two different things between a listener who's working and supporting an organization versus conservation, communication or actions or anything else that many of us do on our own. If you're looking for ways to be a more effective science communicator in your job, I think that the single biggest support to an organization is for every employee, volunteer affiliate, everything being on the same page and understanding what the key messages are, and spreading that really specific and tailored word. Because messages are so much more effective if they're clear. And if we hear them from multiple sources, then then there's more the general public as well, people thinking about how their own communication works and how they get involved. And I think, you know, the more I'm more and more convinced to that the single biggest thing that I can do, to convey an important message or to to influence people to take action is to get to know myself better. So that I'm working, and I'm living in the way that's the most effective for me. And I think there's often a lot of pressure that we have to go out. And we have to save the world. And we have to make impact. And we have to do that. And without a doubt like there are a lot of individual things that we can do. I'd love to talk a little bit about too. There's a there's a podcast episode of How to save a planet that recently came out. It's Dr. Ayanna Johnson, and Alex Bloomberg. And they talk about all these different topics about world saving. And there was a recent episode where they talked about whether or not your carbon footprint is BS. And they they talked about it really effectively. But they they break down the paradox of like, do my individual actions make an impact? Versus like, Am I too small to matter? And is it really just these big systems and everything? So in that podcast, they quoted Dr. Lea Stokes, who said like, even if you're the perfect zero waste, low carbon footprint human being, that doesn't change the world until you do something bigger than yourself. Because if you disappear tomorrow, we'd still be facing exactly the same magnitude of issues, because you're just a rounding error to global carbon emissions. talking specifically about carbon that could make you feel like, well, what is the point? If I am a rounding error? Right? Yeah, not not great. Yeah, not great. But so a couple of things from that, you know, one is that a lot of these, these things are big and systemic. And a lot of the big problems are in systems that are, you know, feel outside of our influence. But the good thing there is that if you can change the systems, and you actually impact like a bazillion people without them having to do anything. So like focusing on systemic change Absolutely. Is is a key piece there. Because then that's just like a no brainer, when that doesn't help the individual who's thinking about like, what do I do? But that's, that's one thing that's like, Okay, if we can get those systems to change the mess important, whether you're talking about like changing your actions to lower your climate, carbon footprint, or if you're thinking about how do I help to conserve an endangered species, most experts agree that you have to think of the actions that you're doing outside of the scope of just doing it for yourself. So that, like, if you're doing something to be a better human, or even just to like to help an individual animal, it is so meaningful to help an individual human and an individual animal. And so like that, in and of itself is worthy, you know, and valuable and all of those things. But if you really want to think about the impact on a global scale, like the reality there is that you're having a pretty negligible effect. But Dr. Johnson said that, like if you think about your actions as a form of communication, and an invitation for others to join you, then your actions can lead to other actions that can actually lead to change. And I can't know what effects or impacts performing the inner neuron transplant on Chromat will be right like it saved his life. But he's just one sea lion, but it's not even really my job to figure out the scope or the impact. But one thing that I do see as my job is continuing to tell his story and continuing to tell my story, and hopefully like for you, this community that you've brought together, of listeners that love aquatic medicine, hopefully they feel inspired in their community to talk about their work, to look for connections to look for collaborations, because then when it gets bigger than you as an individual, that's like when the magic really happens. Even that person that is far away from the ocean that has no medical background that doesn't really understand anything about conservation, they have value in the words that they say the decisions that they make the choices that they choose to lead with. And they don't know the ripple effect that that's going to have. But just talking about it, and just being passionate about it and being authentic and bringing that to the world, that is where the the actual change happens. And I think that that's one of the things that we can do better to celebrate the impact that's happening, so that people continue to talk about it.

Michelle Greenfield  15:28  
Well, if that wasn't inspiring, I don't know what else is. Like, yes, I want to go out there. I want to tell everyone about my research and about my thoughts make a difference?

Claire Simeon  15:39  
Yes. It's so important. Yeah. Like those connections and feeling inspired is what it's all about.

Michelle Greenfield  15:48  
So for our listeners who might be involved in research, or who are clinical veterinarians working on really cool cases, what advice do you have then to help share those stories and help communicate that stuff to make this bigger ripple that you're talking about?

Claire Simeon  16:02  
Oh, I love that. You know, I think that being intentional about where you put your focus, and being intentional about understanding yourself, and and what you really love to do is really critical. So like, things that I have realized about myself is that I tend to go through these kind of phases where I'm super, super, you know, productive, and like, extra online and everything. And then, and then go through part where like, I just am very internal. And people are probably like, remember Claire, like what happened to her. And I was trying for a long time to be completely productive all of the time. And instead, that led to being burned out and everything. And so getting more in touch with like how I could actually be effective. And the things that I really love to do. And the way that I love to communicate was important for me to be able to continue to do it long term. And so getting up and talking about your research may make some people be like, That is terrible. And I never want to do that. And like you don't have to at all, you know that that does not need to be your thing. Everybody doesn't have to do the same thing. But understanding yourself and what makes you tick can be really helpful to kind of then see, okay, like, what are the platforms that could be useful? Or like, who are the people that I pass things off to so that they can spread the word?

Michelle Greenfield  17:22  
That's definitely something I keep in mind. Is there anything else we haven't covered around science communication that you'd like to touch upon?

Claire Simeon  17:29  
Well, I loved what Sarah L. Schaefer, he said on a previous episode of the podcast on science communication, that, you know, science itself is a search for evidence. But science communication is a search for meaning. And I think when we think about massive problems, like whatever the problems are, that we're tackling, whether it's, you know, clinical medicine, or conservation or anything else, like we can take it even one step further, you know, when we're trying to inspire actual action, like we search for meaning, and we're looking at how we can inspire people to feel and it's really difficult to see marine mammal patients, particularly, you know, if they're sick or injured because of something that humans did, like feeling the crunch of broken vertebrae of a blue whale, like the largest animal on earth, that was struck down by a ship, or cutting away fishing line from the neck of a sea lion that's been severely entangled, you know, you see that and you can magnify it all around the world, and all of the animals that are affected, and of course, like looking at those problems can make you feel really small. But then thinking about whatever the work is that we do, it is such a no brainer. And it's like such a slam dunk, that we're talking about working with animals and in environments that inspire such emotion. And so it's how do we use that. And of course, and that with that, we don't just want to rely on that aspect. But the ability to evoke feelings and people is one of the really key key aspects that then is going to inspire people to take action.

Michelle Greenfield  18:51  
All those rescue stories of the turtles being released, or at the Marine Mammal Center, the sea lions being rehabilitated and released. Everyone loves safe those.

Claire Simeon  19:00  
Yes, yes, everybody loves, loves feeling those good things. And, and that's a really, really key part of it. And like people are doing all of this amazing work all around the world. And so yes, like when we think about using social media, like how can we use that to amplify those messages and the work that's being done?

Michelle Greenfield  19:16  
Exactly. And we're really trying to expand our network here on the podcast. And so anyone listening, if you have great stories that you're looking to share, or colleagues internationally, that's doing great work, you know, definitely send us a message. And we'd love to be able to promote good work from colleagues all over because that's what we're here for. We all help each other out.

Claire Simeon  19:36  
Yes, excellent.

Michelle Greenfield  19:38  
My little little plug there. Um, great. Before I let you go, let's transition for a few moments about sea change health, because you're the CEO, the founder of this incredible organization, and I know for a lot of our student listeners interested in real medicine, there's really cool opportunities there. So I'll let you explain more of what it is and why it came about.

Claire Simeon  20:00  
Sure, absolutely. So the mission of sea change health is really to improve the health for everybody that relies on the sea. And it takes the One Health approach, you know, is that, that focusing on marine mammal health, whether that's supporting clinicians that are doing work or following innovative therapies and new developments that support marine mammal health, whether it's human health, you know, understanding that a key piece of particularly ourselves as health care professionals, that if if our health isn't prioritized, then we can't do the work that we do. And so focusing a piece on that, and then focusing on conservation health as well that how are the programs that we use to try to conserve natural spaces and animals and plants and all of that? How healthy are they? And how healthy can we make them. And so understanding how we're how we're assessing health at all of those different levels is really the mission and the work that we're doing. We're working on, you know, a variety of different projects, a piece was certainly working with Corona and with his story in his case. And then we're also you know, first pursuing listeners, we're doing virtual workshops, that's called the current program. And we had a spring workshop that we had participants from seven countries and that one coming up in the summer. If folks are interested, we would love for them to join. It's, it's something that's been super exciting for me, and just to be in a space again, with a lot of different people who are so passionate about the same thing that I am is really fun.

Michelle Greenfield  21:25  
Um, quick logistical question, when does that course start? And when would people have to sign up by

Claire Simeon  21:31  
they could technically sign up for the five week course until it starts on June 12. So up until June 11. And then we'll, we'll have them around the year. And so it's something that if folks are interested in joining, I'd love for them to check it out.

Michelle Greenfield  21:44  
And you can check out her social media for that. And we'll all put the links in the Episode Notes for anyone who's interested. So outside the class, then what else is sea change health doing on a day to day basis

Claire Simeon  21:55  
on a day to day basis. So we're applying for different grants to do some different health studies are partnering with oceanographic. So we're looking at doing retrospectives with strandings, in Spain, and then we're supporting different practitioners doing consulting either on specific cases, or just in any way that we can can support aquatics practitioners, and then just building up different pieces

Michelle Greenfield  22:16  
as we go. Amazing. So for a few years down the line, where do you kind of see it evolving into

Claire Simeon  22:23  
so I would love or sea change health to evolve in something where it's really making a difference for the health of marine mammals and for people as well, I think that's a really important piece of it that particularly as healthcare professionals, like we talked about, the the community that you're growing, we talked about our community as practitioners and, and those of us that are working and are so passionate about marine mammals, you know, I want them to have a space and to have a community that is growing, and that really feels like it's giving them what they need. And so looking into growing different platforms, and giving people the tools that they need to feel connected and to feel like they're really at the forefront of, of marine mammal health.

Michelle Greenfield  23:07  
That's amazing. Well, we're gonna have to keep watching this grow, and then have you back on in like a year or so and hear about all the great projects you were involved with, and all the emails that people sent you. That would be great. Well, before I let you go, is there anything else that you want to impart on our listeners while you're here?

Claire Simeon  23:27  
Well, I'm sure your listeners are probably people that are passionate about aquatic animals and medicine and maybe conservation. And, you know, I know that they've heard a lot of really great advice from so many of your guests, I think that mine would probably be twofold, I would say get to know outside and get to know inside, you know, first get to know the world outside, like listen to the natural world that zoonosis and listen to what those big problems are, and what the medium and the small problems are. And like what are the needs that you see what need just keeps popping up for you because needs need solutions. And we definitely need people that are coming with solutions. And then second, you know, get to know yourself, of course, the things that you love to do the work you'd enjoy. But get to know your core values and your boundaries and what you'll tolerate and what you won't and how you want to live your life, because then hopefully you can find a need that matches with your values and you can work on the solution. Because man, there's a lot to do.

Michelle Greenfield  24:23  
There is a lot to do and you've given us so much to think about. Thank you so much Dr. Claire.

Claire Simeon  24:28  
Thanks for having me. It was great to talk.

Michelle Greenfield  24:33  
And before we close out since I'm having the time of my life, your Aqua vet and many of you listening are Aqua alumni or hope to participate one day. Here's some fun updates on what we're up to this summer at Aqua vet.

Unknown Speaker  24:44  
Hi everyone. I'm Charlie Stewart Bates. I'm a rising second year at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. I'm also with you and aka vet this summer. This week in the program we learned about a bunch of different bacterial pathogens that afflict different species. So that was really interesting and useful. For me, because I'm interested in aquaculture medicine, I love everything about fish. But just being able to be exposed to these concepts and meeting so many great people, colleagues and leaders in the field is just a dream come true.

Chrissy Kelly  25:12  
Hi, I'm Chrissy Kelly. I'm a fourth year clinical DVM student from St. George's University. And this is my second time at Oracle vet and here, aka vet two we learned through lecture lab dissection and histopathology, all about the ecological and economically important aquatic species anatomy, physiology and diseases. But really, for me, this program is all about the people, all the amazing classmates turn into colleagues and friends, all of the amazing parade of stars that they have to come in to lecture us and lead us turn into not only an amazing network opportunity, but start building us into the family of aquatic professionals that we can rely on to the rest of our aquatic careers.

Michelle Greenfield  25:51  
And that's going to do it for this week's episode of aqua docks. I'd like to thank Dr. Clair for being on the show this week, as well as our sponsor, WAG Ma. And of course all of you are wonderful listeners for tuning in. As always, check out our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date on the latest awkward Fox News. And if you've got a moment, please leave us five stars and a nice review on Apple podcasts. I'm Michele Greenfield stay healthy, stay safe, get vaccinated, and we'll see you next time here on Aqua docks.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai
