[The Editor's Adventures] Three Ocean Storytellers: Sea Turtle's Life (海龜之生), Mermaid Ocean, and Lovelife Stone

It was a joy to visit Manta European Cuisine just before the winter cold front moved in — the warmth of the ocean community was in full force. This gathering, hosted at Manta European Cuisine, brought together three professional speakers from different fields: Sea Turtle's Life (海龜之生), Mermaid Ocean, and Lovelife Stone. Each shared their own vision of the ocean and what it means to them.

Sea Turtle's Life (海龜之生)

Remember when the Editor previously interviewed ShuoYi, the author of Sea Turtle's Life? ShuoYi was also one of the featured speakers at this event. Let's revisit that earlier interview: A Must-Read Ocean Picture Book for Every Islander — Sea Turtle's Life by ShuoYi

This time, ShuoYi not only shared the content of the Sea Turtle's Life picture book, but also spoke about his experience volunteering on Yakushima Island in Japan, and the many small ecological stories he has observed through years of sea turtle conservation work.

ShuoYi shared that Taiwan, though small, once had documented sightings of multiple sea turtle species. Sadly, due to coastal development and the growth of the fishing industry, nesting records in the wild have become increasingly confined to Xiaoliuqiu, Orchid Island, Penghu, and Orchid Island — a heartbreaking reality. The challenges sea turtles face in Taiwan include:

• Single-use plastic bags and other disposable plastics, which sea turtles accidentally ingest
• Extensive coastal development — buildings and light pollution from streetlamps that deter sea turtles from coming ashore to nest
• Human pollutants entering the ocean, which may cause sea turtles to develop fibropapillomatosis (fibrous tumours)
• Irresponsible land policy — the widespread use of tetrapods (wave-dissipating concrete blocks) that cut off the final stretch of sea turtles' journey home
• The booming fishing industry, which has made bycatch the leading cause of sea turtle injury and death

Taken together, these points illustrate just how difficult it is for a sea turtle to return to its original nesting ground. For ShuoYi, his role as a conservation volunteer is to minimise human interference as much as possible — to serve as an ecological observer and recorder, documenting shifts in sea turtle populations and emerging threats over the past decade or more.

He also called on everyone to use fewer plastic bags, pick up litter at the beach, respect the regulations of protected areas, and actively participate in marine conservation activities. And of course, if you'd like to learn more about the Sea Turtle's Life picture book, be sure to grab a copy for yourself!

Mermaid Ocean

Audrey's story actually resonated deeply with the Editor — her presentation opened with the observation that Taiwan is a country that feels strangely distant from the sea. The moment a drowning incident occurs in any stretch of water, local authorities immediately designate the area as a danger zone and bar the public from going near it. It's a logic that seems baffling to those of us in the ocean community, yet it is replicated again and again across Taiwan's coastlines, mountains, and forests. Perhaps it is fear that has kept us from ever truly connecting with nature.

Audrey's mission is to use events and activities to reawaken islanders' sense of belonging to the ocean. Only by reconnecting people's hearts and minds with the natural world, she believes, can Taiwanese people one day break free from the cage of urban life.

City dwellers are constantly buried in their phones and computer screens, multitasking as a matter of habit. But when you engage in outdoor pursuits — hiking, rock climbing, freediving — you are forced to be fully present in each and every moment. A lapse of focus while hiking could send you tumbling into a ravine thousands of metres below; freediving demands that you focus entirely on this brief, single breath as you descend into the deep blue to explore the limits of your own body. That kind of focus, Audrey argues, is what can restore our urban selves to our natural instincts, and help us begin a genuine dialogue with ourselves.

Through diving and mermaid performance, Audrey's own firsthand experiences and observations have brought the ongoing collapse of the underwater world into stark relief. Watching ocean documentaries from Taiwan and abroad further drove home that the ocean crisis is not merely a Taiwanese issue — it is a global challenge of our time. Her individual power may be limited, but as long as we start trying, the future holds the possibility of change. That is why she has chosen education as her starting point, hoping to influence how Taiwanese people think about the ocean from an early age.

Already certified as a scuba Divemaster (PADI cert) and a freediving instructor, Audrey is now embarking on a new chapter of mermaid teaching and outreach. Beyond training in the performance arts of mermaiding, she is committed to conveying the spirit of the Mermaid Ocean Ambassador — using the teaching process to reinforce the belief that environmental responsibility must begin with oneself. In addition to adult mermaid courses, she hopes to reach children through junior mermaid and parent-child mermaid programmes, giving young ones an early understanding of what the ocean truly is.

Her presentation also touched on the fascinating history of mermaids — from Eastern and Western mythological descriptions of this mysterious creature, to the pioneering commercial mermaid performances in the United States in 1947 (Weeki Wachee). Beyond celebrating mermaid performance as a display of strength and grace, she highlighted how women wearing swimsuits and earning their own living was, at the time, a powerful symbol of the rising social status of women. The wealth of diverse and substantive knowledge gave everyone a much deeper appreciation of what mermaid performance is truly about.

Of course, as performance art has evolved and new artistic concepts have been introduced, mermaid performance has gone far beyond fixed poses and set movements in a swimming pool. An increasing number of professional performers now take to open water (far more challenging and risky than the calm environment of a pool) to display their graceful underwater choreography. International performers such as Hannah Mermaid have steadily pushed the art of mermaid performance to new heights.

We hope that with Audrey and her team's continued efforts, Taiwan will one day produce its own world-class Hannah Mermaid-calibre mermaid performance artists!

Lovelife Stone (不老石)

When we visit the beach, a beautiful stone often catches our eye. Some people take it home to treasure; others photograph it as a memento. But Mei, an artist by nature, uses lightweight air-dry clay as her medium to create her art — Lovelife Stone (不老石).

Mei has always had a deep affinity for stones, and when she discovered freediving this year, her awareness of the ocean's rapid decline deepened further. Surrounded by a market flooded with mass-produced, homogeneous goods, she felt called to use her own two hands to create something truly one of a kind — one unique "stone" at a time.

To recreate a stone, you must first understand how each type of natural stone is formed and the environment in which it developed — only then can you replicate its textures with any authenticity. In the process, you quietly absorb a wealth of natural science knowledge about the world around you. This echoes what the previous speaker, Audrey, had shared: only through firsthand experience and direct observation can we truly awaken our sense of responsibility toward the natural world.

Further links:

• 海龜海龜-ShuoYi

• Mermaid Ocean

• Lovelife Stone

• Manta European Cuisine

• Weeki Wachee Mermaids (USA)