Hi, everyone. It's Meredith. If you miss seeing the horrifying photos last week, we'll give you a second to Google gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico to see the images of the ocean literally on fire. It made us think back to our conversation last year with Christina Middermeyer, marine biologist, conservationist, photographer, and co-founder of Sea Legacy, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the ocean. We felt it was time to revisit

our chat with her and rethink how we can all be working together to save the underwater

and coastal ecosystems around the world. Enjoy.

Hi, everyone, and welcome to Women Who Travel, a podcast from Condonast Traveler.

I am Lolle Ari Coglu and with me, as always, is my co-host Meredith Carey.

Hello!

This week, we're picking back our past slightly neglected How I Became Series and introducing you to Christina Mitemeyer,

whose litany of jobs include marine biologist, conservationist, photographer, and co-founder of

Sea Legacy, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the ocean. She's managed to wrap all of those

roles up into one magnificent career that we cannot wait to dive into. Thank you so much for

joining us, Christina. It is so much fun to be here. Thank you for having me.

So you didn't start your career off as a photographer. Can you talk to us about your early

career, what you were doing before you picked up the camera full time? Absolutely. So when I was a

little girl, I am one of five children in a very Mexican Catholic family. There's four

girls and a boy, my older brother. So one day my dad came home and he had this amazing book,

Jack Cousteau underwater adventure. And the book was a gift for my brother, who was largely interested

in the ocean. I wish the book had been for me,

mostly because it would have validated

that my father was paying attention

to my passions and my interest,

but it wasn't.

So I would sneak into my brother's bedroom

...