051: Hanli Prinsloo/The Aquatic Significance
“I will do anything for these creatures to remain wild and free, and for their environment to sustain them”.
I finally bagged a guest I’d been after for months when I welcomed Hanli Prinsloo onto the show for episode 051. Hanli is an ocean advocate, conservationist, writer and speaker who is the founder and executive director of I Am Water, an ocean conservation trust. She is also a freediver who enjoyed a decade long career at the top of the sport.
If you only have five minutes…
Listen to this section - Hanli on how we now see nature as a threat.
Show Notes
- Two month round the world trip.
- The morning’s breath workshop.
- “We take breathing for granted – and breathe quite badly as a result”.
- The three stages of the mammalian dive reflex.
- “The spleen is an organ that gets very little airtime”.
- The last existing freediving communities.
- How our attitude to nature has gradually changed for the worse.
- The threads running through Hanli’s work, and where they originated from.
- Starting I Am Water in 2010.
- The importance of sharing experiences.
- Hanli’s talk at Ocean Plastic Solutions Day.
- The work of I Am Water.
- Discovering freediving in Sweden – and instantly connecting.
- The influence of Hanli’s upbringing on her desire to find a new way of telling stories.
- The founder’s trap.
- Peter’s role in helping to establish I Am Water.
- Upending the cultural barriers involved in communing with nature.
- “I’ve had to shift my idea of privilege”.
- How interacting with nature affects childrens’ self esteem and mental wellbeing.
- The importance of working with schools in low income communities.
- Sharing opportunities for women and girls.
- The I Am Water curriculum
- Reaching 30,000 kids a year
- Top five in the world within a year.
- “Talent is a double-edged sword” – competing for ten years
- The creeping effect of self-imposed pressure, the urge for self-validation and Imposter Syndrome.
- Relief of hitting the mid-30s and realising the pressure can come off.
- Peter’s positive influence.
- Finding it hard to rest.
- Having an affinity with animals from an early age.
- Swimming with a pod of sperm whales.
- A truly transformative experience with a pod of spinner dolphins
- The sophistication of dolphin communication.
- Finding a true sense of connection and purpose – and finding a way to open it up for other people.
- I Am Water Ocean Travel.
Animals Mentioned
- Elephant seals
- Sperm whales
- Horses
- Barbel
- Carp
- Whale shark
- Dolphins
- Manta rays
- Humpback whales
- Sharks
Communities/People Mentioned
Places Mentioned
- Cornwall
- Cape Town
- Polynesia
- Japan
- Johannesburg
- Sweden
- Los Angeles
- Equador
- Maldives
- Mozambique
- Miami
- Bermuda
- Egypt
- Kalamata
- Sri Lanka
Companies/Organisations Mentioned
- Finisterre
- WWF
- Greenpeace
- Sea Shepherd
- I Am Water
- Sierra Club
- Stanford University
- World Economic Forum
- I Am Water Ocean Travel