Radio Marinara

23/10/2026

TOMORROW, 9am:
Bron, Dr Beach and Rach mask up and roll backwards off the boat this week, for a look at bringing back giant kelp forests to Victoria, where the whale things are, and anyone fancy spaghetti worms for dinner?
• You’ve probably heard of the giant kelp forests of Tasmania, but did you know giant kelp forests once thrived along Victoria’s coastline? Dr Chris Gillies from the Nature Conservancy tells us about ‘Island Kelp Recovery', the first Giant Kelp restoration initiative in Victoria, on Millowl Phillip Island, bringing together local businesses, residents, community groups, and experts in marine ecosystem recovery to restore these essential habitats.
• It’s been a huge whale season this year, with reports of humpbacks, Southern Rights and other whales in big numbers making their annual oceanic road trip up and down the coast. We’ll catch up with Dave Donnelly about what this season’s brought for the oceanic charismatic megafauna, including a story of some stranded orcas that sounds bleak, but has a happy ending.
• You might have heard of the pineapple fish, the coconut crab and the sea cucumber – well adding to the list of food-themed creatures is the discovery of an entirely new genus of ‘spaghetti worms’ from the deepest oceans, following the 2021 research voyage of CSIRO’s ‘Investigator’. We speak with Australian Museum’s Dr Elena Kupriyanova and Dr Pat Hutchings about this new discovery, proving once again how much more there is to know about what lives under the sea.

Radio Marinara, Triple R, 102.7FM – for all things wet and salty.
Sunday mornings, 9-10am
Listen live or later via rrr.org.au

16/10/2026

TOMORROW, 9am:
Bron and Dr Beach dive in and explore a tiny marine alga that led to a Nobel Prize, new nature podcast and the wonder of eels, and belly flopping into the shallow end of streaming...

• Dr Beach celebrates that work on the green alga, Chlamydomonas, directly led to this year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. 'Chlamy' and many other phytoplankton cells have a tiny eyespot that enables them to detect and swim towards light. The discovery of the eyespot protein that enables them to perform this phototaxis has allowed for light-activated molecular switches to be inserted into just about any cells, including those in the brain. These switches, tools that were once a dream for the neurobiologist's toolbox, are now a reality that have enabled astonishing insights into how our brains work and, sometimes, don't work as we would like them to.
• ‘Awe Struck’ is a fabulous new podcast that features audio documentaries that celebrate the interconnectedness of the world and the wonder we can find in nature. The first episode is all about the eel, bringing together poetry, memory, philosophy, science, and hope, to muster up a little love for what is a mysterious and underrated animal. We speak with founder and producer Jess Fairfax about ‘Awe Struck’, and eel scientist Dr Wayne Kosta about how and why there is more to eels than meets the eye!
• And finally in Soundwaves, Jeff Maynard dives awkwardly into the biggest TV and film flops ever made. Shows about the ocean that made a splash for all the wrong reasons. This week it’s a 300 million-dollar streaming series that no one wanted to stream..

Radio Marinara, Triple R, 102.7FM – for all things wet and salty.
Sunday mornings, 9-10am
Listen live or later via rrr.org.au

10/10/2026

TOMORROW, 9am:
Bron’s skippering solo this week, with Rachel on the bridge – this week it’s a week of wet ‘n salty arts with a birdy mag for kids, epic underwater mystery for grownups, and fun for everyone where krill and caberet comedy collide!
• As always we’re delighted to catch up with ‘Kelp for Kids’ creator and editor Katrina Cary for a preview of the next edition of arguably the best deep dive marine and coastal magazine around. The spring edition is ‘Birds’ – and we can’t wait to find out what’s on offer!

• In June 1940, the RMS Niagra was on its way to the US carrying 8 tons of British gold when it hit a German mine and sank off the coast of New Zealand. What followed is an epic story of what seemed an impossible mission of discovery and retrieval. Jeff Maynard tells us about the Secrets of the RMS Niagra – the British Gold Ship sunk in a German minefield, and regarded as the greatest gold salvage in history.

• Then, what do you get when you fuse caberet, clowning, comedy, and krill? You get ‘Krilling me Softly’ – a superb show on as part of Melbourne Fringe. We’ll speak with creator and performer Anna Thomson about their show that honours the role of the mighty krill whilst addressing climate anxiety, existential crisis immersed in an hour of the best sea puns you’ll ever hear!

Radio Marinara, Triple R, 102.7FM – for all things wet and salty.
Sunday mornings, 9-10am
Listen live or later via rrr.org.au

03/10/2026

TOMORROW 9AM:
Rex and Anth are doing freestyle the marinara paddle pool this week.

As it is World Octopus Day. Rex Hunter has found a cool link between that and maritime history... he has found out about a little known piece of Victoria's maritime infrastructure. In 1879, two years after the Melbourne Harbor Trust formed, it acquired its first dredging machine. Of all names this Melbourne built machine acquired the name Octopus, which went on to conduct important work in Victoria's ports. Find out about the Octopus.

Prof Kerstin Benkendorf is a highly respected marine scientist and this week Anth catches up with her to talk about the world of marine bioprospecting when it was kicking off a couple of decades ago and how basic science really matter... and conservation was not high on the agenda.

Georgia Walsh is a PHD student at the University of Melbourne and also a Youth Ambassador as part of the Global Voices heading to the next climate COP (31) in Turkiye in 2027. Hear how a
young Australian marine scientists ends up in a leadership role in a UN Climate Conference.

Paddle hard...

Radio Marinara, Sundays 9-10am on Triple R 102.7FM
Listen live or later via rrr.org.au

26/09/2026

TOMORROW, 9am:
It’s a Marinara of sense and sensibility as Bron and Kade explore underwater noise, mind expanding literature by the sea, and inspirational next gen marine conservation…
• What does Port Phillip Bay sound like underwater? Amber Crittenden has been listening — from the sounds of marine life to the rumble of boats and ships moving through the Bay. We chat with Amber about what the recordings reveal about one of Australia’s busiest waterways, and what all that underwater noise might mean for the animals living there.
• Elizabeth McCarthy, Program Director of Queenscliff Literary Festival gives us a run down on this year’s incredible line-up of speakers and presenters at the most spectacularly intellectual, interesting and fun week of celebrating booky goodness by the sea.
• Zoe was just 13 when she started a petition calling for shark nets to be banned in Australia, after learning about their impacts on marine life. We chat with Zoe about what prompted her to act, what she discovered along the way, and how she thinks we could approach shark safety differently..

Radio Marinara, Triple R, 102.7FM – for all things wet and salty.
Sunday mornings, 9-10am
Listen live or later via rrr.org.au

20/09/2026

From today's program - a conversation in The Conversation about the impact of sea urchins on kelp habitats, and the influence of other factors such as sea temperatures.

Sea urchins eat kelp – but new research shows their diets and relationships with kelp forests are more complex than commonly thought.

18/09/2026

TOMORROW, 9am:
Bron and Dr Beach return to normal programming after another marathon Radiothon. Thank you so much to everyone who subscribed and donated this year, and all the best for the upcoming prize draw! On this week’s Marinara…
• Ben Francischelli updates us on the growing treasure trove of ancient marine life within the Prehistoric Bayside Museum, some incredible new discoveries from local coasts including these massive fossil whale vertebrae (pictured) Ben found last weekend, and hints of an exciting new project on the horizon – will it involve Big Ted?
• Then marine heroine of the west, Sandy Webb, brings us up to date on the campaign to extend Williamstown's treasured Jawbone Marine Sanctuary. She'll also report, with Carol Majernik, on the habitat surveys that the Jelly Crystals - a group of like-minded women snorkelers - have been making for more than a year now, as well as this week's morning snorkel to celebrate three years of the broader group, the Masked Jellies.
• And Dr Killian Quigley (ACU) joins us to talk about ‘The Bottom of the Bay’, a wonderful multidisciplinary collaboration that presents the seafloor of Port Phillip in an artistic, scientifically accurate way..

Radio Marinara, Triple R, 102.7FM – for all things wet and salty.
Sunday mornings, 9-10am
Listen live or later via rrr.org.au

12/09/2026

TOMORROW, 9am:

It’s our final Radiothon show for 2026, and bringing it all home in what’s now become a Radiothon tradition, we kick off a mighty 3 hours of the ultimate crossover of Triple R Sunday morning programming with Radio Marinara, Radio Therapy and Einstein A GoGo.

Bron and Dr Beach, Miss Perineum (Radiotherapy) and Dr Shane (Einstein A GoGo) don their wetties, roll backward off the boat, and merge their three radio habitats together - how will Bron and Dr Beach deal with these two introduced species in their radio habitat?

If you haven’t subscribed, this is your last chance to chuck some bucks towards the best radio station in the world, and help us chug along for another year. What’s your fish name? Got one yet? Last chance!

Radio Marinara, Triple R, 102.7FM – for all things wet and salty.
Sunday mornings, 9-10am
Listen live or later , and subscribe/donate via rrr.org.au

04/09/2026

TOMORROW 9AM:

Big show this weekend. Anth and Dr Beach are in the marinara fish suit this week.
PhD candidate Brady Hamilton and Prof Damien Callahan from Deakin Uni return to Marinara to update us on Pesticide Watch, a community science program they coordinate that has engaged volunteers in pesticide monitoring of their local waterways across Australia. They’ll be sharing key findings from the monitoring program and also outcomes of recent research examining community perceptions of pesticides in Australia, highlighting especially the importance of public engagement in pesticide-related issues.

Lisa Nan Joo’s joins us live on the line from up north to chat about her new novel, Mother Waters, which is a stunning piece of marine fiction.

Professor Kirsten Benkendorff is a super star of STEMM and joins us to talk about bioprospecting and pesticides in northern estuaries, and the value of basic marine science to to very applied things.

Hear you on air!

Radio Marinara, for all things wet 'n salty
Triple R 102.7FM, Sundays 9-10am
Listen live or later via rrr.org.au

28/08/2026

TOMORROW, 9am:
With deepest thanks to all who have subscribed and donated (so far!) in this year’s Radiothon, Bron and Kade return to normal (ish) programming this week, and wade back in to explore underwater habitat restoration, a partnership approach to climate action in the Pacific and what happens when the world's penguin experts amass...
• Scott Breschkin brings us the latest in underwater habitat restoration, including two community comps from The Nature Conservancy - the Oceania Photo Contest – with $15K up for grabs, get happy snapping good people! And there's also a 2026 Nature Writing Prize, with $9K on offer.
• Professor Tim Flannery (RMIT) speaks about The Pacific Initiative, RMIT’s multi-program collaboration with leaders and communities from South Pacific Island nations, codesigning culturally sensitive climate change actions. Bron speaks with Tim about the Pacific Initiative and a special Q&A and screening of the powerful documentary ‘YUMI the whole world’ at RMIT’s Capitol Theatre on 9 September.
• And the world’s penguin experts are waddling into Phillip Island/Millowl for the 12th International Penguin Conference. To find out what’s in store, we’ll be talking with one of the local organisers, Dr André Chiaradia — one of Australia’s leading little penguin chasers and researcher.

Radio Marinara, Triple R, 102.7FM – for all things wet and salty.
Sunday mornings, 9-10am
Listen live or later via rrr.org.au