Episode #188 Show Notes

Rewilding Islands to Benefit the Sea: Removing the Land Ocean Barrier with Coral Wolf [Repost]

October 17, 2024

Headshot photo of Coral Wolf
Coral WolfConservation Science Program Manager at Island Conservation

Episode #188 Summary

Hey, fellow Rewildologists. Brooke here. I had a whole new episode planned for you this week, but my special guest was affected by the devastating hurricanes, Helene and Milton. Don’t worry, thankfully she’s fine and we are working on another time to record. I didn’t want to leave you all hanging, however, so I decided to reshare one of the show’s top episodes from 2023 called Rewilding Islands to Benefit the Sea: Removing the Land-Ocean Barrier with Coral Wolf. (And yes, I still think Coral has the best name of all time.) She is a scientist at the fantastic organization, Island Conservation, and she came on to share her latest findings about rewilding islands.

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Today’s episode is Part 2 of our 4-part Women in Conservation Science series! Last week, we traveled to South Africa and learned about snakes with Hiral Naik, a fantastic lady biologist that is helping change the narrative for herps in Africa. This week, we’re island hopping and meeting an incredible women scientist that is at the forefront of rewilding our islands.

In this conservation, we’re sitting down with Coral Wolf, Conservation Science Program Manager at Island Conservation. Coral knew from an early age that she wanted to work in wildlife, but wasn’t quite sure in what way. After college, she took all kinds of field jobs searching for her passion and naturally gravitated towards islands. Her future was solidified when she worked on the big island of Hawaii monitoring endangered Hawksbill sea turtle nests. There she saw the devastation invasive predators have on vulnerable wildlife and has been working in island restoration ever since.

Coral and I have a great discussion chatting about:

  • The journey that Coral undertook to find a career in island restoration
  • Why our islands are vulnerable and need extra help reverting back to their pristine state
  • The revolutionary paper she co-authored about the island-marine connection and how restoring islands benefits the surrounding marine ecosystems
  • Removing silos in conservation
  • How Island Conservation chooses locations to rewild
  • And wonderful tips for anyone that is or wants to be a parent while working in this field.

Really quickly, if you would like more background information on the topics Coral and I discuss, check out Episode 89 before or after today’s conversation to understand the importance of invasive species eradication on islands. That conversation is with three stellar scientists, also from Island Conservation, and they do a marvelous job laying the foundation for today’s discussion.

But, let’s get to today’s chat. Everyone, here is my conversation with Coral.

Episode Transcript

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Links & Resources

Related Links

    • Sandin, Stuart A et al. ÒHarnessing island-ocean connections to maximize marine benefits of island conservation.Ó Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 119,51 (2022): e2122354119. doi:10.1073/pnas.2122354119

 

Island Conservation

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Rewilding Islands to Benefit the Sea: Removing the Land Ocean Barrier with Coral Wolf

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