Tybee Island Marine Science Center Podcast

Welcome to the Tybee Island Marine Science Center podcast, recorded in the Ship Watch Loft. On this episode, host Jessica Leigh Lebos welcomes Brooke Chase, host of the Simply B. Sustainable Podcast and co-organizer of Green Drinks Savannah, a monthly gathering (second Tuesday at 6:00) for ecologically minded community and action.
 
Chase shares how she and Chloe revived Green Drinks after reconnecting with a former organizer and describes the event’s growth and rotating locations and topics, including an upcoming Forsyth Park tree walk.
 
She discusses her lifelong drive to reduce waste, emphasizing that imperfect efforts by many matter more than perfection by a few, and frames consumer choices as “money is your vote.” Practical tips include “refuse, repair, reduce, reuse, recycle,” avoiding plastic and styrofoam, composting (highlighting Core Compost), using ABC Glass recycling in Thunderbolt, buying secondhand via Goodwill, Facebook Marketplace, and Buy Nothing, and creating native pollinator gardens. They also note concerns about AI’s water and energy impacts.
 
Learn more about the voices and topics in this episode:
Follow Tybee Marine Science on Instagram
 
Where's Westie UPDATES
 
What's happening at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Resources:
Become a MEMBER
Volunteer at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Partnership and Donation Opportunities
Proudly produced by Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network
 
FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:
00:00 Welcome to Tybee Podcast
00:37 Meet Brooke Chase
01:53 Reviving Green Drinks
04:58 Why Sustainability Matters
06:28 Small Choices Big Impact
09:40 Thrifting and Buy Nothing
11:57 Clothing Swaps and Waste
12:39 AI and Environmental Costs
14:42 Community Sustainability Partners
16:51 Easy Sustainable Habits
19:07 Hope and Learning Together
20:57 Next Green Drinks Details
22:26 Final Tips and Farewell
23:45 Science Center Closing Message

Host Jessica Leigh Lebos sits down at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center with Cloe LeMaire, an environmental scientist and the Savannah Reuse System Outreach Coordinator for Savannah Riverkeeper. They dive deep into the major pressures currently facing the Savannah River, from port-driven growth to the rapid explosion of regional warehouses.
What We Cover in This Episode
The Warehouse Boom & Public Data: Cloe walks through a public GIS dashboard built alongside 100 Miles and Ogeechee Riverkeeper that tracks developers, permits, square footage, and timelines—with expansion plans heading into South Carolina.
Trash Traps & Brand Data: Discover how 12 NOAA-funded trash traps installed since 2024 are capturing stormwater litter and tracking specific brand data, revealing a heavy footprint of takeout-related styrofoam.
Reusables & AI Data Centers: Cloe shares updates on designing an open-loop reusable cup system for Savannah and discusses the delicate organizing happening around a proposed AI data center along the river.
River Science & Restoration: The conversation rounds out with a look at ongoing oyster research, baseline water-quality monitoring supporting the restoration of river cutoff bends, and upcoming channel deepening and widening proposals.
Get Involved Cloe invites listeners to join Savannah Riverkeeper, make use of their community reporting tools, and roll up their sleeves for a cleanup at Lake Mayer Park on September 12th.
Learn more about the voices and topics in this episode:
Tybee Island Maritime Academy
 
Follow Tybee Marine Science on Instagram
 
Where's Westie UPDATES
 
What's happening at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Resources:
Become a MEMBER
Volunteer at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Partnership and Donation Opportunities
Proudly produced by Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network

Host Jessica Leigh Lebos welcomes Tybee Island Maritime Academy science teacher and assistant principal Katie Holliday to the Tybee Island Marine Science Center podcast to discuss TIMA’s place-based, maritime-centered K–8 curriculum and daily experiential learning on Tybee’s beach and marshes.
 
Recorded from the Ship Watch Loft at Tybee Island Marine Science Center. 
 
Holliday explains TIMA is a lottery-based charter school within Savannah-Chatham County Public School System that integrates STEAM through project/problem-based learning and community partnerships, including a NOAA Ocean Guardian native plant garden planted at the Marine Science Center with support from All The Buzz nursery. They highlight TIMA’s MATE ROV robotics program (earning high-school engineering credit) and a recent second-place finish.
 
Holiday shares her 17-year teaching journey and stewardship goals, discusses the school’s purchase of the former Thunderbolt Elementary to potentially expand beyond Tybee, notes TIMA’s established cellphone collection policy, and outlines thoughtful approaches to student AI use and STEAM recertification.
 
Learn more about the voices and topics in this episode:
Tybee Island Maritime Academy
 
Follow Tybee Marine Science on Instagram
 
Where's Westie UPDATES
 
What's happening at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Resources:
Become a MEMBER
Volunteer at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Partnership and Donation Opportunities
Proudly produced by Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network

Host Jessica Leigh Lebos records the Tybee Island Marine Science Center podcast from the Ship Watch loft and interviews Kristen Zemaitis, a biologist with the Caretta Research Project, a nonprofit loggerhead sea turtle research program on Wassaw National Wildlife Refuge that has monitored nesting for 54 years.
 
Zemaitis explains how saturation tagging shows individual females can lay up to eight nests per season about two weeks apart, and discusses natal homing, genetics work with UGA and building paternal family trees from embryo DNA.
 
She describes night patrol fieldwork from May–August using volunteer teams, data collection (measurements, PIT/metal tags, blood/skin/cloacal samples, one egg per nest), nest relocation and predator screens, and challenges like heat, bugs, storms, coyotes, and alligators. The episode covers nesting cycles, TED impacts, satellite tagging, volunteer registration, fundraising, and education outreach.
 
Learn more about the voices and topics in this episode:
Follow Tybee Marine Science on Instagram
 
Where's Westie UPDATES
 
What's happening at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Resources:
Become a MEMBER
Volunteer at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Partnership and Donation Opportunities
Proudly produced by Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network

Host Jessica Leigh Lebos welcomes Dr. Catherine Edwards, a coastal physical oceanographer and professor at UGA’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, to discuss how coastal ocean physics shapes ecosystems and forecasting.
 
Edwards describes her path from music and Spanish into applied physics and oceanography, and explains her work measuring temperature, salinity, density, tides, waves, and currents across Georgia’s wide continental shelf using research vessels, seafloor instruments, and autonomous gliders. She connects coastal processes to carbon export and sequestration, the Gulf Stream’s influence, and why real-time glider profiles improve hurricane intensity forecasts, including rapid intensification risk.
 
Edwards also details using quiet gliders with hydrophones to detect North Atlantic right whale calls, confirm detections with analysts, and send alerts through NOAA to tools like Whale Alert and Whale Map to help slow ships. The conversation includes river-driven events like undammed flood pulses reaching Gray’s Reef and a myth-busting aside about toilet swirl direction.
 
Learn more about the voices and topics in this episode:
Follow Tybee Marine Science on Instagram
 
Where's Westie UPDATES
 
What's happening at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Resources:
Become a MEMBER
Volunteer at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Partnership and Donation Opportunities
Proudly produced by Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network
 
FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:
00:00 Welcome to Tybee Podcast
01:01 Meet Dr Edwards
01:38 Path Into Oceanography
04:22 Coastal Physics Explained
05:45 Tools and Measurements
07:30 El Nino and Carbon
11:10 Hurricanes and Heat
12:18 Gliders and Right Whales
16:38 Whale Alerts to Mariners
18:25 Radars and Rescue
20:16 Defining Local Waters
21:37 Rivers and Flood Pulses
24:38 Altamaha Flood at Grays Reef
27:54 Do Oceans Really Mix
30:39 Gulf Stream Basics
32:54 Myths and Wrap Up
33:38 Next Tropical Research
36:37 Thanks and Membership
 

Host Jessica Leigh Lebos welcomes Dr. Kathryn Craven, a Georgia Southern University professor, Tybee Marine Science Center board trustee, and researcher known for work with loggerhead sea turtles and diamondback terrapins.
 
Craven shares her path from growing up near the Northeast coast to landing a sea turtle research job on Jekyll Island in 1991, including renewing flipper-tagging efforts. She discusses Georgia nesting-season monitoring, increasing loggerhead nest numbers linked to conservation measures such as shrimp fishery regulations and beach protections, and emerging challenges like rising coyote predation, plus mitigation using nest screening and predator control (including feral hogs).
 
Craven highlights research on nest microbiomes (fungi and bacteria) and findings that most unhatched eggs show fertility. She explains the TERPS head-start program incubating terrapin eggs and releasing hatchlings to offset female road mortality on Highway 80. The conversation also covers teaching evolution misconceptions through student drawing, earlier humpback whale work on bubble-net feeding, and new collaborative DNA-based lionfish research tied to lionfish rodeos and outreach.
 
Learn more about the voices and topics in this episode:
Follow Tybee Marine Science on Instagram
 
Where's Westie UPDATES
 
What's happening at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Resources:
Become a MEMBER
Volunteer at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Partnership and Donation Opportunities
Proudly produced by Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network
 
FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:
00:00 Welcome to the Podcast
00:42 Meet Dr Craven
01:42 Coastal Roots and Mentors
04:27 Finding Turtles in Georgia
06:46 Nesting Patrols and Tracks
08:22 Conservation Wins and Predators
10:49 Protecting Nests on Islands
13:06 Microbes Inside Turtle Nests
17:33 Terrapin Season and TERPS
19:04 Head Start Hatchlings Program
21:57 Terrapin History and Turtle Soup
23:27 Teaching Evolution Through Art
28:23 Whales and Bubble Net Feeding
32:20 Lionfish Invasion Research
37:38 Wrap Up and Support the Center
38:53 Membership and Programs Outro
 

Host Jessica Leigh Lebos welcomes back Joy Davis, the Tybee Island Marine Science Center’s permanent artist-in-residence, a biologist-artist known for the Center’s three-dimensional North Atlantic right whale model of “Smoke” and life-size sea turtle models.
 
Davis discusses how homeschooling, travel as an Air Force brat, and a blended arts-and-science college path shaped her career, plus her move to Savannah/Tybee through teaching, bartending, ocean-driven volunteering, and eventually working at the Science Center. She explains the research and collaboration required to make the whale anatomically accurate, including reproducing Smoke’s unique callosities and adding 3D-printed “lice.”
 
Davis also describes work with Animal Exhibits and Designs creating zoo/aquarium environments, new Tybee exhibits like a sit-in osprey nest, four tiled ecosystem murals (marsh, maritime forest, dunes/beach, and Gray’s Reef), and a newly approved backyard pollinator and memorial-style garden.
 
Learn more about the voices and topics in this episode:
Follow Tybee Marine Science on Instagram
 
Where's Westie UPDATES
 
What's happening at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Resources:
Become a MEMBER
Volunteer at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Partnership and Donation Opportunities
Proudly produced by Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network
 
FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:
00:00 Welcome to Tybee Podcast
00:45 Meet Joy Davis
02:21 Homeschool Roots
04:35 College and Mentors
05:43 Moving to Savannah
07:12 Tybee Ocean Pull
08:35 DIY Science Center Builds
09:17 Making the Right Whale
12:07 Smoke Fingerprints
14:09 Zoo Fabrication Work
16:18 Research First Process
17:04 Osprey Nest Exhibit
19:57 Murals Reveal
20:45 Mentor Polly Cooper
21:26 Barrier Island Ecosystems
23:49 Tile Craft Process
25:35 Firing Glazing Install
27:06 Backyard Garden Plans
28:49 Surfing Intuition Story
31:59 Wild Water Encounters
34:07 Teamwork Farewell
36:06 Science Center Membership
 

Host Jessica Leigh Lebos is in the Ship Watch Loft of Tybee Marine Science Center with  Captain Jimmy Armel, former Army Ranger and founder of the Knot Lucky Foundation (K-N-O-T), which offers free fishing trips for active-duty service members and veterans (and immediate family) to support healing, connection, and purpose.
 
Armel shares his own struggles after leaving the military, including alcoholism, brain damage, and suicidal crises, and explains how fishing and later ibogaine treatment led him to shut down his for-profit charter to run the nonprofit full time. He describes transformations he’s witnessed, including posting $75,000 bail for a fellow Ranger, housing him, and building a customized mental health plan.
 
The episode also covers launching from Savannah Boathouse, ocean-based restoration, great white shark satellite tagging with Gray Fish Tag Research, fundraising via an annual barbecue, and ways to donate at knotlucky.org.
 
Learn more about the voices and topics in this episode:
Follow Tybee Marine Science on Instagram
 
Where's Westie UPDATES
 
What's happening at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Resources:
Become a MEMBER
Volunteer at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Partnership and Donation Opportunities
Proudly produced by Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network
 
FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
01:30 Knot Lucky Mission
02:18 Veteran Struggles and Suicide
03:29 Jimmy’s Combat Trauma
05:08 Deployments and Brain Injury
06:38 Fishing as Lifeline
07:34 Second Spiral and Breakthrough
09:59 Veteran Transformations
11:43 Ocean Purpose and Stewardship
12:46 Great White Tagging Begins
14:36 How Shark Tagging Works
15:53 Tag Data and Biggest Sharks
16:42 Adrenaline and Close Calls
18:17 Supporting Not Lucky
20:48 Fishing as Healing
22:02 Water Connection Mindset
24:18 Purpose and Harvest
25:45 How to Join Trips
26:45 Plant Medicine Advocacy
28:03 Ibogaine and Recovery
29:52 Ryan Davis Spotlight
31:24 Fishing Research Thanks
32:48 Tybee Science Center Outro

Welcome to the Tybee Island Marine Science Center Podcast! Host Jessica Leigh Lebos interviews Lisa Goodman, executive director of Wilderness Southeast, Georgia’s first environmental education nonprofit (founded 1973), about its mission to build awareness, appreciation, and stewardship through fun, guide-led outdoor eco-tours.
 
Goodman describes offerings including boat and kayak trips to Wassaw Island, marsh and creek exploration, and paddles at Ebenezer Creek, a tannin-stained blackwater ecosystem with ancient bald cypress and tupelo trees. She explains Wilderness Southeast’s roots, alongside the Caretta Research Project, as organizations that branched from the Savannah Science Museum, and highlights the grant-funded Fish Gotta Swim program (founded 2002) serving Title I students year-round, growing from 550 to 1,385 students. Challenges include school transportation, testing schedules, environmental threats, and technology. She previews the October Paddle Battle fundraiser and shares booking details.
 
Learn more about the voices and topics in this episode:
Follow Tybee Marine Science on Instagram
 
Where's Westie UPDATES
 
What's happening at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Resources:
Become a MEMBER
Volunteer at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Partnership and Donation Opportunities
Proudly produced by Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network
 
FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:
00:00 Welcome to Tybee
00:51 Meet Lisa Goodman
02:16 Wassaw Island Tours
04:16 Savannah Science Museum Roots
06:52 Ebenezer Creek Kayaks
08:04 Tea Colored Water Explained
09:22 Fish Gotta Swim Program
12:02 Challenges and Changes
14:56 Lisa's Path to Leadership
18:47 Wild Stories in the Swamp
21:34 What's Next and Paddle Battle
23:04 Book a Tour and Connect
23:41 Closing Thanks and Outro
24:22 Science Center Membership Plug
 

Host Jessica Leigh Lebos records from the Tybee Island Marine Science Center’s Ship Watch Loft and interviews multidisciplinary abstract artist Betsy Cain, whose work appears in major museums, galleries, and collections.
 
Cain discusses moving to Savannah in 1981 through the early SCAD community, how living near the river and later on the marsh shaped her work through tides, light, movement, and texture, and how kayaking immersed her in marsh ecology, weather, and pluff mud—materials she has even used in art.
 
She describes her disciplined daily studio practice, including distinct work “stations” and taking a 20-minute nap to gain clarity. Cain reflects on Ossabaw Island’s landscapes and longtime steward Sandy West, highlights the Jepson exhibit “Off the Coast of Paradise,” and explains efforts with Art Southeast to restart the Ossabaw Island Artist Residency, funded by sales of her Ossabaw drawings and new grants, with the first resident hoped for in the fall.
 
Learn more about the voices and topics in this episode:
Follow Tybee Marine Science on Instagram
 
Where's Westie UPDATES
 
What's happening at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Resources:
Become a MEMBER
Volunteer at Tybee Island Marine Science Center
Partnership and Donation Opportunities
Proudly produced by Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network
 
FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:
00:00 Podcast Welcome
00:55 Meet Betsy Cain
01:57 Moving to Savannah
03:12 Landscape Inspiration
04:15 Tides and Rhythm
07:39 Kayaking the Marsh
10:19 Pluff Mud Lessons
11:21 Studio Discipline
13:42 Stations and Process
15:11 Figure to Abstraction
16:57 Ossabaw Island
18:20 Exploring Ossabaw Landscapes
18:57 Painting With Sandy West
20:23 Saving The Island
21:25 Adventures At 102
22:48 Exhibit And Legacy
25:39 Reviving Artist Residency
28:15 Remembering Jane Fishman
31:27 Where To See Betsy Work
32:02 Longleaf Pine Inspiration
33:53 Art Making Philosophy
34:24 Protecting Coastal Georgia
35:22 Tybee Marine Science Center