282: How sharks have become the money-spinners of the sea: Olivia Swaak-Goldman's fight against wildlife crime
From BOAT Briefing by BOAT International
April 23, 2026 · 34 min · Episode 282
About this episode
Olivia Swaak-Goldman discusses the fight against wildlife crime and the impact of illegal trafficking on marine species.
From sharks and sea cucumbers to turtles and seahorses, wildlife crime isn’t just an environmental crisis threatening entire species - it’s a highly lucrative criminal enterprise, worth up to USD 20 billion per year and often seen as lower risk than drug trafficking. Olivia Swaak-Goldman, executive director of the Wildlife Justice Commission, is working to change that. In this episode of the Big BOAT Interview, she explains how her team tracks and targets the kingpins behind vast international smuggling and poaching networks. As this web becomes ever more tangled and traffickers become increasingly sophisticated, the race is on to stay one step ahead before these species are wiped out for good... This episode of BOAT Briefing is sponsored by Amico & Co, a Genoa-based, family-owned refit yard with more than 200 years of maritime heritage, renowned for its full-service refit expertise on large yachts, delivered through highly specialised in-house teams. BOAT Pro: https://boatint.com/4yq Subscribe: https://boatint.com/4yr Contact us: podcast@boatinternationalmedia.com Photo credit: Gerald Schombs for Unsplash
People in this episode
Guest: Olivia Swaak-Goldman
Topics covered
- wildlife crime
- environmental crisis
- smuggling
- poaching
- marine life
Keywords
- sharks
- sea cucumbers
- turtles
- seahorses
- Wildlife Justice Commission
Sponsors
Amico & Co
Mentioned in this episode
Products: refit services
Books & works: the Big BOAT Interview
Places: Genoa
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