Marine Biologist Jake Levenson’s Talks
Keynotes, workshops, and webinars on innovation and the future of ocean conservation.
For Teams
The Innovation Insight:
How to Find Solutions in Unexpected Places
Ideal for: Non-profits, start-ups, government agencies - and any team who needs to innovate with limited resources
Description:
We often encounter challenges that appear insurmountable, and yet are critical to solve. In those situations we tend to assume that the problem is a lack of resources: time or money. But what if the problem isn’t lack of resources, but lack of resourcefulness?
Over the course of 2 decades, Jake Levenson has repeatedly solved big obstacles with creative solutions found in unexpected places. In this talk, Levenson will explore the nature of innovation and offer a simple framework that anyone can use to solve their biggest challenges.
For the Public
Distilling the Future of Sea Turtles
Ideal for: Public
Description:
Over the course of our lives, challenges come up that lead us down unexpected paths. Long-lived species like sea turtles live life in the slow lane, and we might not know if the conservation measures we implement today are effective decades later.
For Marine Scientists
Using an open source tri-axial accelerometer tag for monitoring whale shark (Rhincodon typus) behavioral disturbance
Ideal for: Non-profits, start-ups, government agencies - and any team who needs to innovate with limited resources
Description:
The rapidly decreasing cost of electronic components has enabled access to better tools for monitoring the behavior of whale sharks on a fine scale never before achieved. We use the new Kinematic tag (Oceans Forward) and the OpenTag (Loggerhead Instruments) as a novel approach to visualizing behavior of whale sharks. Fine scale habitat use and baseline behaviors are fundamental for understanding potential impacts of anthropogenic disturbance.
Every Island counts: sea turtle nesting occurrences in Dominica from 2004-2023
Ideal for: Non-profits, start-ups, government agencies - and any team who needs to innovate with limited resources
Description:
The Caribbean nations represent an important portion of the Atlantic nesting grounds for endangered sea turtles. Nesting data on the smaller island nations may be difficult to acquire due to a lack of monitoring and conservation efforts. However, every nesting ground is vital for species whose numbers are dwindling. The current study offers novel data on the nesting habitats of three turtle species - hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), green (Chelonia mydas), and leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) - in Dominica for the past 20 years. Seasonal nightly beach patrols were established to record nesting data of female sea turtles. Preliminary results reveal the annual average of nests in Dominica from 2004 to 2023 for green turtles = 9.0±2.5, hawksbill turtles = 9.6±2.0, leatherback turtles = 62.8±16.5 nests. Average annual clutch size per species is reported as 104.4±7.9 eggs for green turtles, 136.9±5.1 eggs for hawksbill turtles, and 108.3±2.6 eggs for leatherback turtles. Dominica’s turtle populations make an important contribution to the North Atlantic population as a whole, with nests reported from St Kitts to Venezuela, and migratory routes extending from 650 miles south of Iceland to the West African coast. Impacts from natural disasters like Hurricane Maria in 2017 and illegal hunting like the killing of 16 turtles in La Plaine in 2007 may contribute to declining numbers in Dominica. Although there are many challenges surrounding data collection for Dominica, the current dataset represents the first in-depth information on this nation’s nesting sea turtle populations.
Working with Jake is easy
01. Connect
Find a date/time that works for you to meet with Jake personally about your event.
02. Discover
Tell Jake about your event and audience, and work together to create a personalized program.
03. Innovate
Jake delivers a world-class program to help your team, audience, or community learn powerful new tools to change the world.