Joshua Nueva: Showcasing Ireland’s marine life to a global audience
Joshua Nueva, social media influencer, pictured at Downpatrick Head in his native Co Mayo.
Joshua Nueva has always been intrigued by a challenge.
A well known content creator, with more than 11.8 million likes across his videos on TikTok and over 300,000 followers amassed between his social media channels, Josh initially began making videos as a means to push himself further in competitive bodybuilding.
"When I was around 18 years old, back in 2014, I started getting really into the gym. It was at the time when Gymshark and Myprotein and those kinds of brands were really starting to boom and they were making really high-end fitness edits," Joshua recalls. "This was before Instagram was even really a thing, so it was mainly the YouTube fitness scene I got into.
“I got inspired and decided to document my own process of becoming a bodybuilding men's physique competitor, from my workout routines to what I was eating every day. I documented my six-month prep journey and by the end of it I had fallen in love with vlogging and being behind the camera, so I knew I wanted to explore more opportunities with that. The bodybuilding, especially all the prep for a competition, taught me about having enough dedication to push through really hard parts of life."
That lesson would stand by Joshua as he faced into the next challenge and set his sights on creating travel content.
Very quickly into this new venture, things came to an abrupt halt thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. Undeterred by the setback, he quickly changed tactics and decided instead to focus his travel videos on home turf, capturing the variety of all he could explore in Ireland.
It was a challenge he loved, and one he is still continuing today, showcasing the Emerald Isle to not only a global audience, but also plenty of Irish followers who are eager to make the most of what's on their doorstep.
With so much challenge built into the early days of his success story, it is little surprise that Joshua has a huge passion for Ireland's marine life, as well as a deep fascination as to how these species navigate their own challenges.
"From a very young age I've always loved nature documentaries, particularly National Geographic ones or anything by Sir David Attenborough like Blue Planet and Our Planet. I've also always loved the sea and being in the water. Growing up in Mayo really helped, because we have so much marine life here.
“It wasn't uncommon growing up to spot dolphins or minke whales but it wasn't until more recent years that I noticed that we have bigger marine life, megafauna like humpback whales, fin whales, basking sharks. Learning about all these different things triggered a realisation that we already have the kind of wildlife here that Irish people often travel abroad to go and see.
“For example, it's so common to head off to Canada to go spotting for orcas and we have them right here. I know they’re very, very rare, but we still do have them you just have to be really lucky to be able to see them. Another example is the Northern Lights, which plenty of people leave Ireland and travel to Iceland each year to see, and yet there’s been quite a few occasions now where they were very visible here in Ireland. I think people just don’t realise how lucky we are in Ireland.”
Fortunate as we may be, however, Joshua acknowledges that Ireland is not without its problems, particularly when it comes to providing basic resources for tourists.
“I think the whole tourism industry gets a bad rap when it comes to environmental issues. I can see where it’s coming from, but I just think that there’s not enough education around how tourists visiting a certain area can and should look after it. We also don’t have enough facilities here for tourists who actually want to be sustainable.
“That struck me when my girlfriend and I were road tripping through the east coast of Australia in a camper van and every roadside or highway had so many truck stops, water refill points, bins and other waste disposal facilities that were all managed and maintained so well. I can see why it’s difficult to achieve that here, but we really don’t have enough of things like bins in particular and because of that people tend to litter which is awful to see.
“I encourage my followers whenever you’re exploring anywhere, whether it’s on a mountain, along the coast or in the water to just leave the place better than you found it. That can be something simple like picking up one piece of rubbish that you can take home with you and dispose of yourself.
“I know it’s easy to complain about who left it there or whatever and it’s not our sole responsibility to be looking after other people’s mess. However if we each pick up just one piece of rubbish that can make a big difference. I’m a huge advocate of leave no trace. Whatever it is, if you can bring it out with you, you can take it home.”
As well as the lack of resources, Joshua says there is “a lot of misconceptions about marine life” that he is keen to dispel through his videos.
“I don’t consider myself to be an expert on marine life or our coastlines and I don’t claim to be, but I’ve always asked questions and I think that’s the most important thing. The best way to learn about anything is just keep asking questions. The whole reason why I share wildlife content is so as it can be that foot in the door that prompts people to come away with questions of their own or a curiosity to learn more about our marine creatures.”
Joshua says that it takes really experiencing them for yourself and doing your research to realise that we have so many endangered species that need to be protected. It’s very hard to appreciate something that we don’t understand or that we don’t know enough about, he says.
“If I came up to somebody and started telling them about how we really need to save basking sharks, or puffins, and they’ve never seen any of that before then they’re not going to be interested. Not because they don’t care, but just because they don’t understand.
“I think it takes a certain level of familiarity with that wildlife first of all before you can be invested in their wellbeing, which is where I hope my channel can make a difference. Once you know what a basking shark looks like, or what a puffin looks like, or humpback whales and all these different endangered species, they can be so striking that you’ll just naturally want to know more.
“That’s when you start asking important questions like where can I find them? Are they commonly spotted in Ireland? Are they rare? Are they endangered? It’s all about sparking that curiosity. Once people are curious enough to learn more, I would definitely recommend following Fair Seas, Birdwatch Ireland and the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group on your socials. They’re really educational and I love those pages,” says Joshua.
