Surviving the Drake Passage: High Seas, Survival, and Unfiltered Adventures | In Conversation wit...

In this episode of the Oceanographic Podcast, Rob Hutchins sits down with explorer and photographer Niccolò Banfi to uncover what happens when you trade a corporate job in Milan for 5,600 miles of stormy seas, remote Pacific atolls, and secret Arctic research vessels. In this episode: • Quitting Corporate Life for the High Seas: How a Milan fashion marketer survived 10-meter waves in the Drake Passage on a 1900s tall ship to find his true purpose. • Living remote: What life is really like on Pitcairn Island, one of the most isolated rocks on Earth, home to just 39 residents. • Turning Pearl Farms into Coral Nurseries: How locals on the remote Cook Island atoll of Manihiki are repurposing underwater pearl infrastructure to fight coral bleaching. • On Board a NATO Arctic Research Vessel: Inside the High N 26 mission mapping the Arctic ocean floor down to 6,000 meters and tracking viruses hidden in melting waters. • The Plastic Crisis on Rapa Nui: How Easter Island is fighting a relentless tide of ocean plastic and building traditional Polynesian Vaka catamarans to educate the next generation.