Pittwater Life February 2018 Issue

Main pic credit: Nigel Wall
a flat at the end of the garden.
Living Ocean was founded in 2010, a
couple of years after they moved here.
“Sea Shepherd had filmed a clip of a
Japanese whaling boat shooting a mother
whale with her calf next to her, and I posted
that clip to Facebook,” he explains. “Friends
of ours, Deon and Kim Hubner, who lived
at Whale Beach, saw it and said ‘we’ve got to
do raise some money to help fight this’.”
Robbi, Carol, Deon and Kim decided to
organise a fund-raising dinner, and invite
some of their friends to one of their homes.
However because so many locals were
excited by the idea of protecting whales,
the event grew and, in the end, was held at
Ripples at Whale Beach. The evening started
with Aboriginal musician Bunna Lawrie,
playing a whale call on the didgeridoo, a
call to the whales migrating to the Southern
Ocean to be safe. After the meal and
auction hosted by David Koch, Iva Davies
launched into Icehouse’s ‘Great Southern
Land’, and former Mondo Rock bassist Paul
Christie and a group of other musicians
started playing and the evening took off.
“The fundraiser was a huge success and
it was obvious that we should form an
ocean conservation and awareness-based
charity, which we called ‘Living Ocean’.”
Robbi and Carol’s daughter, Claudia, who
is very much involved with Living Ocean,
designed the logo.
Over the next few years Living Ocean
organised three more major fundraising
events and many smaller ones, and has
raised tens of thousands of dollars for Sea
Shepherd and other environmental groups.
“The peninsula is a wealth of extraordinary
talent and everyone we ask to
contribute time and talent always say yes. It
empowers all who contribute,” he said.
In 2011 Living Ocean started their ‘No
Plastic Please’ campaign. International
bodyboarder, Ben Player, who lives locally,
said “everywhere I go there’s plastic in the
ocean” and was passionate about doing
something about it. Documentary and
surf film maker, Jack McCoy, and other
surfers, including Tom Carroll and Barton
Lynch, also got involved, and behind Living
Ocean’s science-based beach clean-ups run
by Sarah Taite and Sally Gole, along with
other plastic awareness groups such as
The Green Team. Currently, Living Ocean is
supporting and funding world-renowned
Dr Jennifer Lavers’ scientific research on
Lord Howe Island into reduced numbers of
shearwaters due to plastic ingestion.
In 2014 Living Ocean merged with the
Whale and Seal Foundation. IT guru Bill
Fulton, and environmentalist, Sam Barrip,
had been leading research in tracking the
migration of humpback whales. In September
2017 the organisation successfully
postponed seismic testing by a petroleum
company in a 40km area south of Newcastle,
showing that the location of the
seismic survey was in the direct path of the
southern migration routes of species such
as Humpback whales with their calves.
Having lived on the peninsula most of
his life Robbi recognises the connection
that residents feel to the ocean, and their
deep desire to do what they can to ensure
the health of its sea life. Robbi emphasises
that it’s the efforts of numerous unsung heroes,
locals and other, which enable Living
Ocean to make a difference both globally
and locally.
“Living Ocean is a volunteer organisation
and we need volunteers to help our growing
number of citizen-science-based campaigns
and new volunteer action group alliances
that are being formed.”
As Robbi juggles his photography work
with his commitment as Living Ocean
president, he is fulfilling his desire to be
creative and his passion to preserve the
natural world.
For more info, to donate, or to become a
member for $10 per annum, go to livingocean.org.au
Life Stories
CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE: Robbi at Palm
Beach; in his designed studio at North Sydney
during the advertising industry’s heyday in the
late 1980s; with the gifted whale on the top of
the beach house (image by Bruce Usher for White
Horse magazine); at home with Carol; celebrating
research vessel Salt with (l-r) Bill Fulton (research
& IT), Prof Ian Goodwin (Macquarie Uni); Jack
Barripp, Sophie McClelland (finance), Sam Barripp
(research), Rita Kluge (photographer) and Mark
Farrell (navigator); Carol, shot on the NSW south
coast for Good Weekend magazine in 1987.
The Local Voice Since 1991
FEBRUARY 2018 39