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Watch a discussion between CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir and a host of people restoring oyster colonies, fisheries, and recreation areas along our coastlines. MacArthur prizewinner Kate Orff joined and discussed her Living Breakwaters project in New York Harbor, while leaders rejoice in the revival of oysters and fisheries in the nearby Chesapeake Bay.

About the Participants

Bill Weir is a veteran anchor, writer, producer, and host who came to CNN in 2013 after a decade of award-winning journalism at ABC News. In 2019, he was named the network’s first chief climate correspondent, drawing on his experience creating and hosting the primetime CNN original series The Wonder List with Bill Weir. His first book, Dear River: A Guide to Growing Up at the End, will be published by Chronicle Prism.

Kate Orff is the founding principal of SCAPE. She focuses on retooling the practice of landscape architecture relative to the uncertainty of climate change and creating spaces to foster social life, which she has explored through publications, activism, research, and projects. In 2019, Orff was elevated to the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows.

Imani Black is the CEO and founder of Minorities in Aquaculture, a nonprofit organization that strives to empower and support women of color in the aquaculture industry by educating women of traditional watermen legacy and heritage in coastal communities while providing opportunities such as paid internship, technical skills training, and career development resources in the new wave of commercial fisheries.

Tanner Council is the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance Manager at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Council’s work focuses on developing partnerships, engaging the public and rallying advocates for water quality issues. Tanner currently manages the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance with an ambitious goal to add 10 billion oysters to the Bay by 2025. COA is a coalition of over eighty partners, supporting a restored oyster population and robust oyster industry in the Chesapeake Bay.

Sean Corson provides overall vision, direction, and leadership at the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office to ensure that NOAA’s science, service, and stewardship capabilities are effectively applied to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. Corson chairs the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Sustainable Fisheries Goal Implementation Team. He also oversees NCBO’s Fisheries Research Program.

Matthew B. Ogburn is a marine ecologist and lead investigator of the Fish and Invertebrate Ecology Lab at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland. His research interests range from ecosystem-based fisheries management to movement ecology and global change. He is the Chesapeake Bay site co-PI for MarineGEO and is a leader in the Movement of Life and Working Land and Seascapes Initiatives of the Smithsonian Conservation Commons.