A Seattle woman is using her love of the ocean, and a little Disney princess magic, to help educate and inspire the next generation to take on saving the sea from plastics and pollution.
As a little girl, Rachel Novak loved Disney princesses, but she didn't realize she'd end up living like one of them. Novak is a professional mermaid, entertaining both kids and adults when she slips on her tail fin and dips into the water.
"I did some research and discovered, oh, my gosh! This is actually a thing," she said.
The mermaid "thing" goes swimmingly with her passion which is protecting the planet's oceans. Novak makes her living on the sea as a sailor and diving instructor. She has seen first hand the impacts people and pollution are having on our oceans.
"When I was training in the Philippines, every day we'd come back with our bags full of plastic," Novak said. "I've done sailboat deliveries where we've sailed from Hawaii to San Francisco and every few hours there would be a Mylar balloon floating in the middle of nowhere."
Novak now travels to some of the biggest polluters on the planet, like the Philippines, where she hosts clean-up events. She also teaches children to become part of the solution through her work with the conservation group, "We of the Sea."
"You're able to talk about ocean conservation from a mermaid perspective. It captures kids' imaginations," said Novak. "I'm able to pull from my experience as a sailor, a freediver and a scuba diver to create these beautiful stories about my fish friends and why we need to take care of the ocean."
Experts predict over the next 30 years there will be more plastic in the ocean, by weight, than fish.
While Novak's efforts are one small drop in the sea, she won't let the magnitude of the issue sink her deep love for the world's waters.
"It's a huge problem, but just because there are all these horrible things happening in the oceans doesn't mean we shouldn't be trying to make a difference now," she said.