Nathan J. Robinson (biologist)
{{short description|Marine biologist and environmentalist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Nathan J. Robinson
| image = Nathan and Edie - Medusa.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Robinson (right) and Edith Widder (left) with the MEDUSA, a deep-sea camera that recorded the first-ever footage of a live giant squid in the waters of Japan and the US
| birth_name = Nathan Jack Robinson
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| citizenship = British
| fields = Marine biology and science communication
| workplaces = {{lang|ca|Institut de Ciències del Mar, Barcelona. L'Oceanogràfic|italic=no}}
| education = University of Southampton (MMarBiol 2009)
Purdue University (Ph.D. 2014)
| thesis_title = Migratory Ecology of Sea Turtles
| thesis_url = https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/352/
| thesis_year = 2014
| doctoral_advisor = Frank Paladino
| academic_advisors =
| doctoral_students =
| notable_students =
| known_for = Starring in several viral videos, including removing a straw from a sea turtle's nostril and filming a live giant squid
| influences =
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Nathan Jack Robinson is a marine biologist and science communicator from the United Kingdom. During his career, Robinson has been at the center of several viral videos. These have included videos of him removing a plastic drinking straw from the nostril of a sea turtle{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/17/researchers-save-a-sea-turtle-from-a-plastic-straw-in-this-traumatic-video/|title=Sea turtle trauma: Video shows rescuers extracting plastic straw from deep in nostril|last1=Kirkpatrick|first1=Nick|date=17 August 2015|accessdate=6 January 2020|newspaper=Washington Post}} as well as a plastic fork from the nostril of a different sea turtle,{{cite news|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sea-turtle-fork_n_5672fba5e4b0dfd4bcc0f11e|title=This Sea Turtle With A Fork Stuck In Its Nose Is Exactly Why We Need To Recycle|last1=Guff|first1=Samantha|date=17 Dec 2015|accessdate=6 January 2020|publisher=Huffington Post}} and a video recorded by him and Edith Widder of a live giant squid.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/science/giant-squid-cephalopod-video.html|title=Giant Squid Reappears on Video, This Time in U.S. Waters|last1=Jarvis|first1=Brooke|date=21 June 2019|accessdate=6 January 2020|work=New York Times}} This video is the first-time that a live giant squid has been recorded in US waters and is the second time this species has ever been caught alive on film.
Early life and education
Robinson grew up in the United Kingdom. He earned a Masters of Marine Biology at the University of Southampton in 2009, receiving the awarded for the highest achieving MSc student of his graduating class. Nathan's MSc focused on learning how shallow-water marine species might adapt to deeper habitats. While completing his MSc program, he also began volunteering with the ARCHELON, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece. He followed his interest in sea turtle conservation into a Ph.D. program at Purdue University under the mentor-ship of Frank V. Paladino. His Ph.D. thesis focused on understanding the factors driving the migratory behavior of sea turtles.{{cite web|url=https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/352|title=Migratory Ecology Of Sea Turtles|last1=Robinson|first1=Nathan|date=October 2014 |publisher=Purdue University|accessdate=6 January 2020}}
Research and impact
{{Scholia}}
In 2015, Robinson was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship through Purdue University Fort Wayne to manage the research activities of the Leatherback Trust in Costa Rica. During this fellowship, Robinson joined a Texas A&M research expedition collecting data in northwest Costa Rica to sample olive ridley sea turtles for epibionts. While Robinson was examining a turtle for epibionts, he discovered something in a turtle's nostril.{{cite journal |last1=Robinson |first1=Nathan |title=Plastic Straw Found Inside the Nostril of an Olive Ridley Sea Turtle |journal=Marine Turtle Newsletter |date=2015 |volume=147 |pages=5–6 |url=http://www.seaturtle.org/mtn/archives/mtn147/mtn147-3.shtml |accessdate=24 May 2020}} Upon removing the foreign object, it was revealed to be a plastic drinking straw. Expedition leader Christine Figgener recorded this video, which subsequently went viral and has inspired several anti-plastic straw campaigns worldwide.{{cite web|url=https://www.eater.com/2018/7/12/17555880/plastic-straws-environment-pollution-banned-alternatives-ocean-sea-turtle-viral-video|title=Why the World Is Hating on Plastic Straws Right Now|last1=Houck|first1=Brenna|website=Eater|date=12 July 2018 |accessdate=6 January 2020}}
Two months after removing the straw, Robinson was again studying olive ridley turtles on Playa Ostional, Costa Rica and had a similar encounter. However, this time the object being removed was a plastic fork. This video, recorded by Sean Williamson, also went viral and prompted several other campaigns against single-use plastics.{{cite web|url=https://www.projectaware.org/update/sea-turtle-and-ugly-journey-plastic-fork|title=A Sea Turtle and the Ugly Journey of a Plastic Fork|last1=Pragnell-Raasch|first1=Hannah|website=Project Aware|accessdate=6 January 2020}}
Following the impact of these two videos, Robinson began to focus his research activities on using novel visual technologies to generate engaging footage for the purposes of scientific discovery and environmental outreach. This has included projects using drones,{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/18/beautiful-drone-footage-captures-endangered-turtle-returning-to/|title=Beautiful drone footage shows endangered turtle returning to the sea after nesting|last1=Eysenck|first1=Juliet|date=19 May 2016|accessdate=6 January 2020|publisher=Telegraph UK}} animal-borne cameras,{{cite web|url=https://old.paralenz.com/2018/11/life-from-a-sea-turtles-perspective-with-paralenz/|title=Life From A Sea Turtle's Perspective|last1=Robinson|first1=Nathan|date=|website=Paralenz|archive-url=|archive-date=|accessdate=6 January 2020}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.greatbigstory.com/stories/tracking-green-sea-turtles-in-the-bahamas|title=Tracking Green Sea Turtles in the Bahamas with TurtleCams|website=www.greatbigstory.com|access-date=2020-01-20}} and deep-sea cameras.{{cite web|url=https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/19biolum/background/medusa/medusa.html|title=The Medusa|last1=Widder|first1=Edith|website=NOAA Ocean Exploration and Research|accessdate=6 January 2020}}
In 2019, Nathan was working alongside Edith Widder in the Gulf of Mexico where they were able to film a live giant squid. This video was the first-time that a live giant squid has been recorded in US waters, is the second time this species has ever been caught alive on film.
In 2022, Nathan was invited to present at Gresham College to give a talk entitled "Going Viral: An Environmental Activist's Story".{{Cite web|url=https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/going-viral|title=Going Viral: An Environmental Activist's Story|website=www.greshamcollege.com|access-date=2022-04-20}}
In 2024, Nathan was nominated as one of the Explorer's Club 50: Fifty People Changing the World/ {{Cite web|url=https://50.explorers.org/community/nathan-j-robinson/website=www.https://50.explorers.org/|access-date=2024-03-17}}
Career
Between 2015 and 1017, Nathan was Director of the Leatherback Trust in Costa Rica and a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University Fort Wayne. Between 2017 and 2019, Nathan was Director of the Cape Eleuthera Institute in The Bahamas. Since 2019, Nathan has worked for L'Oceanogràfic and the Institut de Ciències del Mar, Barcelona.
Publications
References
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Category:British marine biologists
Category:21st-century British biologists
Category:British expatriates in the United States
Category:Alumni of the University of Southampton