March 26, 2026
Steve Peletz
Principal
Finding Novelty, Connection, & Purpose in the Ocean: Cold Water. Big Stories. Shared Courage.
We carried the momentum into March—this time with fog, sandstone cliffs, and a stretch of water that doesn’t offer comfort so much as clarity.
Just beyond the Golden Gate, where San Francisco’s edge frays into the Pacific, a small community of swimmers enters the ocean again and again. Not for records. Not for spectacle. But for connection—to the water, to one another, and to something wilder than daily life usually allows.
On March 26, we welcomed Steve Peletz—filmmaker, research diver, and storyteller —who screened his short film Lands End, an intimate portrait of Bay Area swimmers who brave 51- degree water and unpredictable conditions off China Beach. The film was selected for screening at the 2026 International Ocean Film Festival.
Steve opened with Lands End, but what followed was just as compelling. Two of those swimmers from the film joined Steve on stage to share what keeps drawing them back—ritual, risk, connection—and how frigid water becomes not a barrier, but a doorway. The conversation didn’t shy away from the hard edges either: cold shock, shark fears, and how understanding replaces assumption when science enters the room.
That set the stage for Steve’s broader story—how a camera became his entry point into a life shaped by the ocean. Through images of sharks, turtles, and whales, he’s helped make threats visible, stories human, and the stakes impossible to ignore.
But true to Ocean Hoptimism, this wasn’t a story about loss alone. It was a reminder that recovery is happening. That policy wins matter. That collaboration works. That science—done well and shared widely—can move the needle.
Through his work with MigraMar, Steve is helping track migratory species across borders, building the case for protecting the conservation corridors or “swimways” these animals depend on. It’s conservation at the scale the ocean demands.
And he closed with something that stuck:
Purpose isn’t found—it’s built.
Pick what moves you. Do the homework. Try it on.
Get involved. Donate if you can—but show up if you can’t.
Find your lane, your people, your way in—and make it something you actually enjoy doing.
I am hopeful because over the last 50 years, humans are paying more attention to their impacts on our ocean. Public concern is beginning to catch up, but we have to keep fighting. Hope is not a substitute for action—it’s a necessary part of an action plan.
—Steve Peletz
