Mike has spent five decades protecting oceans, rivers, and bays, following his first career in academic neuroscience. He co-founded the San Francisco chapter of the Oceanic Society in 1971 and started its water quality laboratory and volunteer training program. An early citizen monitoring effort pioneered on San Francisco Bay, it used boats and planes for surveillance. As VP of the national Oceanic Society he helped establish three other chapters on the Pacific coast and led successful fights to stop the the disposal of obsolete nuclear submarines in California waters, the leasing of seabeds for mining polymetallic sulfides, and the ocean incineration of Agent Orange. At San Francisco State's Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies, he studied the effects of freshwater diversion on Bay and Delta fisheries and evaluated the potential impacts of the proposed Peripheral Canal. He authored numerous reports on responses to oil spills, prevention, and cleanup capability, which led to his appointment to the Alaska Oil Spill Commission following the Exxon Valdez incident. In 1989 Mike founded San Francisco Baykeeper, one of his proudest lifetime achievements. Baykeeper defends the health of the Bay and its watersheds using the Clean Water Act and other legislation to hold polluters and government agencies accountable. It patrols the Bay, investigates pollution sources, and when necessary, litigates to eliminate them. Baykeeper's work has sent polluters to jail, produced stronger laws and better cleanup requirements, and brought millions of dollars in legal settlements to area nonprofits who use the funds to mitigate damage to the Bay. (If you love the Bay, consider getting involved.) Mike has served on too many boards to count, but among the more recent are Friends of the Earth, Conservation Law Foundation, Defend Our Health, Audubon's Seabird Institute, Maine Rivers, the Singlehanded Sailing Society, Friends of Maine Seabird Islands, Carpenters Boat Shop, and Edgecomb Community Solar Farm. He has sailed more than 20,000 miles along both coasts of North America as well as Europe, the Indian Ocean, the Adriatic, and Australia. In 1980 he sailed single-handed from San Francisco to Kauai. When he's not living aboard a trawler in Point San Pablo Harbor, Mike lives in Damariscotta, Maine with his wife Kate and newly adopted dog Holly. His five grown children and six grandchildren live on both coasts, from Maine to Alaska. He thought up this podcast in Damariscotta, sitting on the dock of the bay, following a productive mushroom trip.