2019: What A Year! Peter and Tyler close out 2019 with a wide-ranging retrospective on the year, including the biggest coastal trends, the best podcast guests of the year, our favorite shows on ASPN, and the highlights from the 219 podcasts released this year!

ASPN and Coastal News Today grew beyond our dreams in 2019 and we hope we were able to capture the complexity of the coastal conversation in America and around the world. The coastal space is the most dynamic environment on the planet and a land of immense opportunities and intricate challenges. We hope we have brought a flavor of this world to you, our readers and listeners, in 2019.

In this Year-End-In Review, Peter and Tyler delve deep into ASPN's 2019 coverage, especially our must-show coverage of the Maine lobster industry, which encapsulates the complexity of coastal resource management, economics, and environmental protection all along the American shoreline. Over seven shows, we took an in-depth look at the lobster harvest explosion, the science behind the fishery, lobster shell disease, the seemingly existential threat posed by climate change, and critical efforts by the NOAA Take Reduction Team to protect the last 400 North Atlantic right whales threatened by "vertical lines" from lobster traps and other risks. We call it the "ASPN Treatment."

And, we pause to thank our great ASPN Hosts who made this year so memorable: Jenna Valente, Host of the Sea Change Podcast; Derek Brockbank, Host of the Capitol Beach Podcast; Dan Martin, Host of Next Gen Waterfronts Podcast; Dan Ginolfi & Howard Marlowe, Co-hosts of the Water Log Podcast; Jacques Hebert & Simone Maloz, Co-hosts of the Delta Dispatches Podcast; Thane Tienson and Brad Warren, Co-hosts of the Changing Waters Podcast; Peter Ravella and Tyler Buckingham, Co-hosts of the American Shoreline Podcast; Rob Nixon, Host of the Next Swell Podcast; Bob Frump, Host of the Ship to Shore Podcast; Leslie Ewing, Host of the Shorewords! Podcast; Peter Ravella, Host of the Local Control Podcast; and Tyler Buckingham, Host of both the Beach Shack Pod and the Friday Happy Hour Podcast.

Together, these hosts drew some amazing guests to ASPN. Among our favorites were Danni Washington, ocean educator and activist; Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards; Ken Graham, Director of the National Hurricane Center; Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island; Dr. Susan Hovorka, a carbon sequestration specialist from the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology; Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and international climate change activist; Gilbert M. Gaul Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Geography of Risk; Patrice McCarron, Executive Director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association; Shanee Stopnitzky, Director of the Community Submersible Project; Dr. Joe Kunkel, a lobster scientist from UMASS, and so many, many more.

There's no way to adequately summarize the breadth, width and depth of ASPN's 2019 coverage. Over the holiday when you have time traveling in the car or sitting back on a quiet afternoon, meander through the ASPN catalogue of shows and listen to a few . . . there are real treasures there.

Finally, Peter and Tyler reflect on the coastal and ocean trends of 2019 and the last decade, and what we might expect to see in 2020 and beyond.

Wow, what a year! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all our hosts, our guests, and our readers and listeners! Thank you and on to the next decade.

A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall: Combating Ocean Plastic Pollution with Umbrellas

American Shoreline Podcast NetworkBy The American Shoreline Podcast NetworkApr 16, 2021