Eco-journalist, ocean conservationist and National Geographic Young Explorer Sruthi Gurudev is no stranger to a good story. When she’s not SCUBA diving, delving deep into French synth-pop remixes, or canvassing local art museums, the 23-year old works with young up-and-coming journalists to conceptualize and develop stories centered on solving the environmental crises facing our global oceans as Editor-in-Chief of the youth-led quarterly e-magazine ‘An Hour in the Deep.’ I chatted with Sruthi about engaging young people in conservation, telling impactful stories, and the future of our oceans.

Tell me more about An Hour in the Deep and your mission to protect the oceans. What was your motivation behind creating an e-magazine?

The interplay between man and nature has gotten extremely precarious in the latest geological epoch, declared as the “Anthropocene.” I wanted to understand why the relationship between humans and the environment was so fractured, and since my interests lie in storytelling, I decided that creating an e-magazine was the most conducive route to exploring these questions.  

I decided to start An Hour in the Deep E-Magazine to explore ocean solutions of the future through youth eco-journalism. The magazine publishes writing, artwork, photography, and other media in five subsections: Ocean Conservation, Ocean Solutions of the Future, Ocean Storytelling, Ocean Science, and Spotlight. New editions come out every quarter and are open to contributions from youth worldwide aged 16-26. Instead of just focusing on ecological carnage, we explore ocean solutions, especially ones that are niche or are just being developed.

Part of what makes the magazine important is that it is entirely youth based. All the contributors, from the writers, to the editors, to myself as the Editor in Chief, are under 26. Empowering young people to use their voices is so important, especially if they aren’t in the public eye. Young people are often underrepresented, and their perspectives are just as valuable. The magazine casts a wide net; we try to include youth from around the world. Peoples’ perception of the ocean is colored by where they live, their backgrounds, and their varied experiences, so we want to showcase that. 

In a time where young people seem to be moving to platforms like Instagram and TikTok to share their views, what made you decide to go the traditional media route?

I want young people to go a step further from just reading about environmental issues. The way we can understand them on a more intimate level is by doing the work ourselves, whether through active research, conversation, or writing articles. We face the challenge of public indifference to environmental issues and I want to combat that by telling stories that are niche and underexposed in order to paint the clearest picture of the problems involved. 

Taking difficult topics, holding them up, and examining them against the light allows for the kind of introspection needed for effective storytelling. For instance, reporting on a developing country struggling to take control of its economy at the expense of exploiting its natural resources is a topic where both the environment and the livelihoods of people are at stake. Instead of pointing fingers, we can expend energy to explore viable solutions. That’s what I want readers to take away from An Hour in the Deep. 

What are some of the challenges and surprises you’ve faced as Editor-in-Chief in telling the stories at the intersection of environmental justice and livelihoods?

As an eco-journalist, I think the biggest challenge for me has been knowing the right story to tell at the right time, and developing it into a three-dimensional piece. Effective storytelling is an on-going challenge, one I try to overcome by staying hyper-aware of the environmental, social, and political factors that impact environmental issues. One way we’ve done this is by interviewing people who have vastly different experiences with the ocean and learning from the conversations that occur in this sphere.

Have you had any surprises pop-up while developing these articles?

Yes! The biggest surprise has been seeing my belief in multifaceted conservation come alive through the creativity, ingenuity, and passion of the people around me. I’ve always said that there isn’t a single definition of what being a conservationist means, and seeing how young people engage with the magazine has been a testament to that. For example, one of the upcoming articles for Edition 3 is going to be about a young man who repurposes old sponges to make surfboards. In another article, a group of friends I know are creating giant ocean murals on walls across the U.K. to inspire the public, and another collaborator has created his own digital show on strange ocean creatures. 

I want to move people through writing. As I watch the future unfold, I want to be the one telling the stories. I want to grow as an eco-journalist, compelling readers, motivating young people, and vividly describing the experiences of our most intrepid explorers.

Sruthi Gurudev
Eco-journalist, ocean conservationist, National Geographic Young Explorer

It’s certainly a great time to be a young conservationist, and the world needs it now more than ever! What excites you about the future of conservation and how do you hope to fit it?

I’m excited about having our voices heard and acknowledged. The importance of conservation and mitigating the effects of climate change is certainly picking up with the general public and I’m excited to see how the narrative around this shifts, mutates, and transforms. 

We are always on the lookout for news about nascent technologies that are combating climate change. I look forward to witnessing upcoming innovations in this space such as how people incorporate artificial intelligence into conservation, improve technology (for example, CRISPR gene-editing) to help species survive climate change, and ultimately redraw the line between economic development and environmental conservation so that the former doesn’t encroach on the latter. 

With so many things emerging in the conservation space every day, what is your approach to staying both true to your story while simultaneously at the cutting-edge of science?

I try to incorporate emerging topics into whatever project I’m currently working on. I’m thankful for the creative control that the editors and I have with An Hour in the Deep because we can find a way to adapt multimedia since the magazine is online. I’ve been able to add podcast style conversations to articles and I plan to incorporate an interactive GIS mapping software that shows where there are new marine protected areas, oil spills, and other ocean events. It’s important to me to put these environmental issues into perspective with scale, imagery, and graphics rather than solely relying on words. 

With such large-scale issues such as these, we truly do stand on the shoulders of giants. Who are your storytelling heroes in this space?

Paul Salopek for his brilliant journalism, Paul Nicklen and Brian Skerry for their ocean photography, Asha De Vos for being a pioneer in the field of marine biology, and many other journalists and explorers whose work I pour over. On a more personal level, I’m inspired by my friends and fellow youth conservationists at Reserva, the Youth Land Trust, and my team at Out of Eden Walk Chicago. 

As conservationists, it can certainly feel like there’s so much to do, and yet so little time. What’s next for you and the oceans?

On a more immediate basis, I will be releasing upcoming editions of An Hour in the Deep, increasing the magazine’s scope, giving talks about eco-journalism, and writing my own articles. 

On a long term basis, I’m planning a research project about deep sea mining. It’s no longer a looming threat – it’s happening right now – and more people need to talk about it. Companies are engineering the removal of polymetallic nodules from the seabed in the Clarion-Clipperton zone in the Pacific Ocean. Nodules are made up of precious battery metals (cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese) which, if extracted, are expected to aid in the development of a greener economy and bypass some of the perils of land based mining. While this sounds like an advantage, it’s more nuanced than that. We haven’t scoped out the full extent of the danger. There is a staggering diversity of life in the zone, mining will potentially wipe out deep sea organisms that haven’t even been discovered, and a host of other issues that we may not be able to fathom at the moment. I want the public to reckon with this, especially youth, and so I will plan this project in more detail over the next few months. 

Overall, I want to move people through writing. As I watch the future unfold, I want to be the one telling the stories. I want to grow as an eco-journalist, compelling readers, motivating young people, and vividly describing the experiences of our most intrepid explorers. Sheer appreciation for nature is important, but it is only one part of the game. The rest lies in how we connect it to wider society. Ultimately, I want readers to engage with my writing and come away feeling compelled to make a difference. I hope to bring hope to readers as that can be the most powerful motivator. 

You can follow along on Sruthi’s deep dives into ocean conservation at An Hour in the Deep, the e-magazine’s Instagram page, or her Instagram.