April 17, 2025
Coral Restoration In Trouble: Why Saving Reefs Takes More Planting Coral
Coral restoration is often seen as a beacon of hope for our oceans—but are we putting too much faith in it? In this episode, we dive into why coral bleaching has become an annual event, especially on the Great Barrier Reef, and whether restoration...
Coral restoration is often seen as a beacon of hope for our oceans—but are we putting too much faith in it? In this episode, we dive into why coral bleaching has become an annual event, especially on the Great Barrier Reef, and whether restoration can keep up with the pace of climate change. We explore what recurring stress events mean for the long-term survival of reefs and how restoration, while helpful, might be insufficient if larger systemic issues like warming seas and pollution aren’t addressed.
Restoration is discussed not just as a solution, but as a strategy that needs to be reconsidered in light of the science. What happens when reefs bleach four years in a row? What’s the ecological and financial cost of trying to rebuild what’s actively being destroyed? This episode challenges listeners to rethink what ocean conservation should prioritize in the fight for the future of coral reefs.
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Transcript
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Coral reefs are
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bleaching again this year.
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This is the fourth year in a row where
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the Great Barrier Reef has
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bleached a significant amount.
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Will it recover? Probably for the most
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part it will recover as it's recovered
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over the last four years.
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However, what is this going to do at time
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after time after time to the longevity of
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the coral reefs in
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the Great Barrier Reef,
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as well as around the world? And does
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restoration, coral
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restoration, help reestablish corals,
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not only locally, but will it help
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overall in the fight to protect corals?
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We're going to talk about that on today's
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episode of the How to
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Protect the Ocean podcast.
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Let's start the show.
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Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another
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exciting episode of the How
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to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is
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the podcast where you find out what's
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happening with the ocean,
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how you can speak up for the ocean and
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what you can do to live for a better
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ocean by taking action.
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I'm going to tell you something here. I'm
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going to admit something.
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This is a bit controversial.
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When I saw this article, I was a little
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worried about bringing it up.
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It was in that cosmos and they tend to
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have pretty good articles.
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And I was worried because coral
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restoration is very popular right now.
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And this is something that a lot of
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people are doing, especially locally, to
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try and do something to reestablish the
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local coral population and protect it
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from not only bleaching,
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but other significant factors such as
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water pollution, coastal development,
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overfishing, a lot of different things.
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And those cumulative impacts can affect
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not only wild, like an untouched and
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preserved population, but can
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also harm coral restoration.
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So there's a lot of stuff
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going on in this article.
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And I want to talk about it.
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I have thoughts, you
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know, always restoration.
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And this is the real crux of the matter
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is restoration is always more expensive
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and harder than
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preservation or conservation.
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Let me say that again. Restoration is
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always more expensive and harder than
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preservation and conservation.
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So that means if we have a healthy coral
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population or even a somewhat healthy
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coral population that has not been
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degraded to the point where it requires
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restoration, it's actually cheaper to
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protect than it is to
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bring back those corals, right?
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And either, you know, farm them on land
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and bring them back into
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the water and plant them.
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That's always more expensive. And this is
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not just for coral restoration. This is
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for any type of restoration in the wild.
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Like I remember working for the
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Department of Fisheries and Oceans, we
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would do restoration projects in the
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Great Lakes and it would cost like
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hundreds of thousands of dollars just to
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put rocks in for fish habitat.
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Like these are just rocks, nothing
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special. They're just rocks that you
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would normally find there.
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They were just dredged or they were just
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moved and they wanted to restore a
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specific fish population.
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They know they like these rocks of that
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area. They would go grab the rocks. They
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would get higher bars. They would bring
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it in. They would pile it up and it would
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create fish habitat.
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It wasn't difficult, but it was super
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expensive. Like hundreds and hundreds of
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thousands of dollars and you're just
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sitting there and you're just like, this
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would have been really great if we just
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kept it the way it was.
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If we had just been proactive instead of
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reactive and said, hey, you know what?
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Let's just protect this fish
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habitat here in the Great Lakes.
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But sometimes we don't know the damage
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that we cause because we rush into
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things. Hint, hint, deep sea mining. Just
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gonna say it. Just gonna say it.
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We don't want to rush into things when we
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do stuff, especially as humans, that is
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extractive, right? Or that
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will alter a fish habitat.
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Now here in Canada, I can't speak for
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anywhere else, but here in Canada, I know
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it's a rule as part of the Fisheries Act
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that if you are going to harm fish
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habitat here in Canada, whether it's in
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the ocean or in freshwater lakes or
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rivers or streams, you have
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to compensate the government.
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You have to say, hey, you know what? I
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know we're going to be altering this fish
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habitat. So I'm going to give money to
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another project that's
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restoring fish habitat.
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And that's how they got the money to do
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the restoration in other places, which
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they'll probably get money to restore the
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place that they're actually altering at
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that point at some point down the road
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when they realize, oh man,
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we really screwed up here.
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We shouldn't have done this in the first
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place. And that's not just science based.
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That is just a lot of public pressure, a
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lot of political pressure to develop and
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to do things in the
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water, in and around the water.
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That can harm or remove items that are
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critical to specific fish populations or
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just critical to that habitat functioning
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as it does. And if you remove it, it
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changes that habitat. Let's go back to
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coral reefs for a second. Coral reefs are
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very sensitive habitats, but they're very
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important. They're one of the most
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diverse in the world. They are beautiful.
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They're a tourism hotspot.
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Tourists like myself, when we go down
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south and I'm able to go into the
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tropics, I'm able to either scuba dive or
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snorkel. I am taking every advantage to
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go into that water and look at corals.
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Look at the invertebrates. Look at the
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fish. I'm an invertebrate guy, so corals
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and invertebrates are my thing.
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But I love seeing a good school of fish.
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There's nothing like it. And also when
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you see stuff in pristine condition, I'm
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looking at little nematodes that are
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orange and black and they're just
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interacting with the coral. You're seeing
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a parrot fish, a rainbow parrot fish take
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little chips off the coral just to take
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the algae off and you know that coral is
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going to regrow because that's part of
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its regular functioning.
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But there's nothing worse than going
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diving or snorkeling and you see a coral
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that has a disease or that is bleached.
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And what I mean by bleached, essentially
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corals have these living organisms, the
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dinoflagellates in them. So these
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phytoplankton that are in that live
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inside the colonies and they actually use
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photosynthesis to create the calcium that
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the limestone skeleton of
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the coral needs to grow.
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So it's a symbiotic relationship.
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Zuandeli is what the dinoflagellates are
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called and they're pretty important.
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They're pretty critical to the survival
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of these corals. Now, when the coral gets
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hot, like sea surface temperature and
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climate change cause sea surface
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temperature to increase, there's more
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radiation coming in. There's a lot of
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stuff that's going on.
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The dinoflagellate starts to be like,
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this is really hot. I don't really like
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this. I'm going to start to tell you that
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I don't really like this. And it starts
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to expunge these little chemicals that
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the coral doesn't like. It says, you know
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what? Get out of here. You're done.
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You're not behaving. It's like when your
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mother sends you to your room or your
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father sends you to your room. Get out of
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here. You need to time out. So the
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zuandeli gets expunged by the coral into
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the water column and then it becomes
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white because the
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zuandeli give it that color.
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They give it the yellows, the maroons,
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the purples, whatever color that you see
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down there, the greens, the zuandeli are
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responsible for giving that color. If it
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doesn't have that color, then it's just a
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white skeleton and it can't get the
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calcium that needs to grow and eventually
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dies. Sometimes it can't feed itself
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because some will actually filter feed.
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And so it dies. And that's what happens
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if it doesn't come back. And that means
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if the sea surface temperature stays hot
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for long, that the zuandeli can't come
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back and recolonize or other zuandeli
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can't come back and
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recolonize, then we have a problem.
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This bleaching goes away like this
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bleaching stays forever and the corals
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eventually die because they can't get the
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minerals that they need to actually
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survive right and the ions they need to
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survive. So that is a huge problem. And
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that's what's been happening when corals
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get bleached all over the world, not just
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in the Great Barrier Reef. Obviously
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that's something that is an iconic
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habitat. So we focus on there and it's
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huge, but it recovers every year because
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the temperature doesn't last as long, but
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every single year the hot temperature
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last longer and longer and longer.
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Right. So if you hit 40 degrees Celsius
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for longer and longer days, so maybe for
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the first year was like five and then the
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second year was 10 and the third is 15.
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And I'm not saying it's going up to that
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much, but what if it does and it just
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continues to increase in the length of
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the number of days that it's hot.
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That's over 40 degrees Celsius that
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causes the zuandeli to get expunged to go
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to the room to go to the water column.
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Now we have a problem, right? Now we have
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a continuous to happen. So the recovery
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ability of the coral is
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less and less every year.
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You get what I'm saying? This is a big
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problem. Now what people are doing around
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the world, they're saying, you know what?
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I'm not just going to take this lying
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down. There's not a lot we can do about
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climate change on a short term factor,
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other like as
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individuals or as an organization.
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Other than pressuring the government to
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reduce greenhouse gases, put in act and
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implement and follow, you know, Paris
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Accord agreements and all those type of
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Kyoto agreement back when I was younger,
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all these different agreements have
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actually followed it and they actually
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realize the potential of these policies
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that would bring us down lower and lower
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and greenhouse gas emissions that would
267
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allow us to get lower temperatures
268
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overall or not increase and continue to
269
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increase as we keep doing
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every year as a world population.
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Then we were able to actually fix things,
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but a lot of people are like, I can't do
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anything for that in the short term,
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right? Some governments are going to
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listen to some governments aren't and
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that's just what the reality is. So some
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people are like, I need to do something.
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I need to feel like I'm doing something.
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I want to do something locally so that I
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can think globally, act locally, right?
281
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Or is it act locally, think globally? I
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always get confused with that.
283
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Regardless, it's a good thing to do and
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you want to protect the coral reef in and
285
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around your area or the habitat, like say
286
00:08:48,375 --> 00:08:48,833
I'm in Canada, in and around your area.
287
00:08:48,875 --> 00:08:51,291
Although we do have coral reefs, but
288
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they're just a little deeper and they're
289
00:08:53,083 --> 00:08:54,666
beautiful sponge reefs. Anyway, we do
290
00:08:54,666 --> 00:08:56,375
have some beautiful reefs here. But
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00:08:56,375 --> 00:08:57,833
regardless, you know, you want to think a
292
00:08:57,833 --> 00:08:59,666
lot of people want to restore these
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00:08:59,666 --> 00:09:01,541
habitats that have been degraded or have
294
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been bleached over time. So what they'll
295
00:09:02,958 --> 00:09:04,250
do is they'll come up with an
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organization, they'll get funding or
297
00:09:05,791 --> 00:09:07,416
they'll get ways to pay for it. So some
298
00:09:07,416 --> 00:09:09,291
will actually sell corals to the aquarium
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00:09:09,291 --> 00:09:11,333
industry as they cut them and as they
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00:09:11,333 --> 00:09:13,250
make them and as they grow them in, I
301
00:09:13,250 --> 00:09:14,791
guess, the aquarium tanks. And then you
302
00:09:14,791 --> 00:09:17,333
get to bring them out. That's how they
303
00:09:17,333 --> 00:09:17,833
fund them the money to actually do their best to the aquarium tank, and they're actually going to do their best to the aquarium tank.
304
00:09:17,875 --> 00:09:21,041
And then what they do is they bring out
305
00:09:21,041 --> 00:09:23,125
the coral pieces and they attach them on
306
00:09:23,125 --> 00:09:25,041
to different rocks in a reef where there
307
00:09:25,041 --> 00:09:27,666
used to be plenty coral. Now you have a
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00:09:27,666 --> 00:09:29,375
growth and it grows and grows and grows.
309
00:09:29,375 --> 00:09:30,833
But if you get a bleaching event again,
310
00:09:31,250 --> 00:09:32,500
those corals could bleach.
311
00:09:33,250 --> 00:09:35,666
And so is it really that important? This
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00:09:35,666 --> 00:09:37,708
is what a long way of saying this is what
313
00:09:37,708 --> 00:09:39,958
this article gets into says global reef
314
00:09:39,958 --> 00:09:41,791
coverage has potentially decreased by up
315
00:09:41,791 --> 00:09:44,500
to 50% up to 50% with projections
316
00:09:44,500 --> 00:09:47,083
indicating loss exceeding 90% by the
317
00:09:47,083 --> 00:09:48,708
centuries and due to climate change,
318
00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:49,833
pollution and overfishing, right?
319
00:09:49,875 --> 00:09:53,166
Which we all talked about. So looking at
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00:09:53,166 --> 00:09:55,458
restoration efforts is there's a bigger
321
00:09:55,458 --> 00:09:58,125
decrease than it can increase. So current
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00:09:58,125 --> 00:09:59,791
restoration initiatives such as coral
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00:09:59,791 --> 00:10:01,208
gardening and artificial reefs are
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00:10:01,208 --> 00:10:02,416
insufficient against the
325
00:10:02,416 --> 00:10:03,833
vast scale of reef degradation.
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00:10:03,833 --> 00:10:06,625
These methods are often limited in scope,
327
00:10:06,625 --> 00:10:08,833
expensive, as I mentioned before, and
328
00:10:08,833 --> 00:10:11,833
focus on already compromised reefs. So
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00:10:11,833 --> 00:10:14,500
the high cost is that restoring just 10%
330
00:10:14,958 --> 00:10:17,958
or 11,700 square kilometers of degraded
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00:10:17,958 --> 00:10:21,833
reef from 2009 to 2018 would require over
332
00:10:21,833 --> 00:10:25,750
$1 billion, nearly quadrupling the total
333
00:10:25,750 --> 00:10:26,791
global investment in
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00:10:26,791 --> 00:10:27,833
coral restoration to date.
335
00:10:27,916 --> 00:10:31,750
1 billion. Just imagine that 1 billion
336
00:10:31,750 --> 00:10:33,291
with inflation is probably even more than
337
00:10:33,291 --> 00:10:35,625
that. Right? So I talked about coral
338
00:10:35,625 --> 00:10:37,500
bleaching and what it causes. Now the
339
00:10:37,500 --> 00:10:39,416
compounding stressors of overfishing and
340
00:10:39,416 --> 00:10:41,958
pollution make it worse. It exacerbates
341
00:10:41,958 --> 00:10:44,291
the effects of bleaching, stressing the
342
00:10:44,291 --> 00:10:45,583
coral systems and increasing the
343
00:10:45,583 --> 00:10:47,208
mortality rates, meaning that it has a
344
00:10:47,208 --> 00:10:48,541
harder time to recover.
345
00:10:48,833 --> 00:10:50,708
So just think about this, this analogy,
346
00:10:50,708 --> 00:10:52,416
right? You're a human being, you're in
347
00:10:52,416 --> 00:10:54,458
decent shape, but you don't eat the best
348
00:10:54,458 --> 00:10:57,041
way and you're not working out. But you
349
00:10:57,041 --> 00:10:58,708
stay healthy, you walk a lot, say you
350
00:10:58,708 --> 00:11:00,083
have dogs and you go out and you walk a
351
00:11:00,083 --> 00:11:01,375
lot and you do a little bit of exercise,
352
00:11:01,375 --> 00:11:03,416
say in Keering Canada, you play hockey,
353
00:11:03,416 --> 00:11:04,500
maybe in the States you're playing flag
354
00:11:04,500 --> 00:11:06,208
football or you're playing lacrosse or
355
00:11:06,208 --> 00:11:06,708
you're playing soccer,
356
00:11:06,708 --> 00:11:07,583
you're active, right?
357
00:11:07,833 --> 00:11:09,291
But you have all these other stressors,
358
00:11:09,291 --> 00:11:10,791
you're not eating properly and you're not
359
00:11:10,791 --> 00:11:12,750
working out as much as you should. And
360
00:11:12,750 --> 00:11:14,375
that stressor can really happen. So if
361
00:11:14,375 --> 00:11:17,208
something happens, then the stressors
362
00:11:17,208 --> 00:11:19,666
make things worse, it doesn't help in
363
00:11:19,666 --> 00:11:21,708
your recovery to get to a healthier
364
00:11:21,708 --> 00:11:25,125
place. So by maintaining that health and
365
00:11:25,125 --> 00:11:27,625
taking away all these extra factors like
366
00:11:27,625 --> 00:11:29,875
eating unhealthy or not working out as
367
00:11:29,875 --> 00:11:31,958
much as you should, that would harm you
368
00:11:31,958 --> 00:11:33,291
right from a health perspective, right?
369
00:11:33,291 --> 00:11:34,625
All the doctors would say that you need
370
00:11:34,625 --> 00:11:35,416
to eat, right? You need to
371
00:11:35,416 --> 00:11:36,833
exercise on a semi regular basis.
372
00:11:36,833 --> 00:11:38,791
And then you should be fine, but you
373
00:11:38,791 --> 00:11:40,250
never know. So if you get something like
374
00:11:40,250 --> 00:11:42,000
cancer and you already have heart disease
375
00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:43,541
or you're having a problem, that's going
376
00:11:43,541 --> 00:11:45,250
to make things worse. Well, this is the
377
00:11:45,250 --> 00:11:47,333
same thing with corals. If corals are
378
00:11:47,333 --> 00:11:50,083
stressed with algae overgrowth, right?
379
00:11:50,083 --> 00:11:51,833
Because of bad water pollution and high
380
00:11:51,833 --> 00:11:54,041
nutrients, then it's going to be working
381
00:11:54,041 --> 00:11:56,625
to try and get rid, not really get rid of
382
00:11:56,625 --> 00:11:58,041
the algae, but the algae is going to have
383
00:11:58,041 --> 00:12:00,750
an unhealthy effect on that coral. And
384
00:12:00,750 --> 00:12:02,291
then all of a sudden you bring in climate
385
00:12:02,291 --> 00:12:04,708
change and it's heating up the water. And
386
00:12:04,708 --> 00:12:05,833
that coral says, hey, to the zoo and it's like, get out.
387
00:12:05,875 --> 00:12:08,458
Get out. Go to your room. I don't want
388
00:12:08,458 --> 00:12:09,875
you in here right now it's too hot.
389
00:12:10,083 --> 00:12:11,875
You're causing some trouble. I need to
390
00:12:11,875 --> 00:12:13,916
figure this out. I got algae overgrowth.
391
00:12:14,291 --> 00:12:15,916
I've got high temperatures. I've got
392
00:12:15,916 --> 00:12:17,083
sediment coming in from coastal
393
00:12:17,083 --> 00:12:18,833
development. I've got somebody's trying
394
00:12:18,833 --> 00:12:20,666
to fish all over us and we can't get the
395
00:12:20,666 --> 00:12:22,666
Parrotfish to take the algae off. This is
396
00:12:22,666 --> 00:12:24,375
awful. We can't do this, we can't have
397
00:12:24,375 --> 00:12:26,750
all of this stuff happening at the same
398
00:12:26,750 --> 00:12:27,875
time. So having those
399
00:12:27,875 --> 00:12:28,833
cumulative effects, no good.
400
00:12:28,875 --> 00:12:29,541
No good.
401
00:12:29,541 --> 00:12:30,875
The bad news is we may not be able to
402
00:12:30,875 --> 00:12:32,583
control climate change in the short term.
403
00:12:32,916 --> 00:12:34,416
The good news is we can control water
404
00:12:34,416 --> 00:12:36,000
pollution, we can control coastal
405
00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:36,916
development, and we can
406
00:12:36,916 --> 00:12:39,000
control overfishing. Those are the things
407
00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:40,041
that we can control,
408
00:12:40,041 --> 00:12:41,250
especially when it's near shore.
409
00:12:41,708 --> 00:12:43,208
So being able to control that and taking
410
00:12:43,208 --> 00:12:44,166
away those cumulae
411
00:12:44,166 --> 00:12:46,333
effects will give a chance for
412
00:12:46,333 --> 00:12:48,416
coral reefs to recover faster. In fact,
413
00:12:48,416 --> 00:12:49,541
there was a study done a few
414
00:12:49,541 --> 00:12:50,583
years ago, I'll have to find
415
00:12:50,583 --> 00:12:51,500
the link. I don't know if I'll be able to
416
00:12:51,500 --> 00:12:52,708
find it in time, but there
417
00:12:52,708 --> 00:12:53,708
was a study done a few years
418
00:12:53,708 --> 00:12:55,500
ago that looked at corals that were
419
00:12:55,500 --> 00:12:57,625
beyond borders. They
420
00:12:57,625 --> 00:12:58,666
were out in the middle of
421
00:12:58,708 --> 00:13:00,583
nowhere. They bleached and then they
422
00:13:00,583 --> 00:13:02,166
recovered a lot faster than those that
423
00:13:02,166 --> 00:13:03,041
were closer to shore.
424
00:13:03,041 --> 00:13:04,500
They were getting affected by overfishing
425
00:13:04,500 --> 00:13:06,833
and by water pollution. So
426
00:13:06,833 --> 00:13:08,916
these things actually matter.
427
00:13:09,250 --> 00:13:11,125
And when you look at global action and
428
00:13:11,125 --> 00:13:12,125
you say, "Hey, look, this
429
00:13:12,125 --> 00:13:13,291
report without significant
430
00:13:13,333 --> 00:13:15,166
reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
431
00:13:15,166 --> 00:13:16,333
and the broader environmental
432
00:13:16,333 --> 00:13:17,250
protections, localized
433
00:13:17,250 --> 00:13:18,500
restoration efforts aren't really going
434
00:13:18,500 --> 00:13:19,625
to do anything. They're
435
00:13:19,625 --> 00:13:20,500
going to be really expensive,
436
00:13:20,500 --> 00:13:22,958
but overall, we're losing this battle."
437
00:13:22,958 --> 00:13:24,000
And this is not to take
438
00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:25,500
away from anybody who's doing
439
00:13:25,583 --> 00:13:27,541
coral restoration because it's really
440
00:13:27,541 --> 00:13:28,708
important. It's important
441
00:13:28,708 --> 00:13:30,166
not only to see the effects and
442
00:13:30,375 --> 00:13:32,583
the successes that we see locally, but
443
00:13:32,583 --> 00:13:33,250
it's important to get
444
00:13:33,250 --> 00:13:34,250
people involved and connected
445
00:13:34,250 --> 00:13:35,958
to the ocean. A lot of the times, these
446
00:13:35,958 --> 00:13:37,041
are community projects.
447
00:13:37,291 --> 00:13:38,416
And so the community gets
448
00:13:38,458 --> 00:13:40,416
together maybe with a couple of experts
449
00:13:40,416 --> 00:13:41,375
like scientists and
450
00:13:41,375 --> 00:13:42,625
conservationists and even marine
451
00:13:42,625 --> 00:13:44,458
aquarium hobbies that are really good at
452
00:13:44,458 --> 00:13:45,916
propagating corals. And they
453
00:13:45,916 --> 00:13:47,166
go out and they do this as a
454
00:13:47,166 --> 00:13:48,375
community. It's really great. It's like a
455
00:13:48,375 --> 00:13:49,125
beach cleanup. It gets
456
00:13:49,125 --> 00:13:50,500
people connected, sees what's
457
00:13:50,500 --> 00:13:52,041
happening out there, and then they can
458
00:13:52,041 --> 00:13:54,416
make changes locally as
459
00:13:54,416 --> 00:13:55,791
well as in a community basis.
460
00:13:55,791 --> 00:13:57,083
So I don't want to take away from anybody
461
00:13:57,083 --> 00:13:57,833
who's doing coral
462
00:13:57,833 --> 00:13:59,666
restoration, but it's not the answer.
463
00:13:59,666 --> 00:14:01,041
If you see that happening and you're
464
00:14:01,041 --> 00:14:01,833
like, "Thank you for doing
465
00:14:01,833 --> 00:14:02,916
it." Thank the person because
466
00:14:02,916 --> 00:14:04,000
they're making a lot of effort and
467
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:04,916
they're giving up their time.
468
00:14:05,166 --> 00:14:06,000
A lot of times, whether it's
469
00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:07,875
professionally or on a volunteer basis,
470
00:14:08,125 --> 00:14:08,791
they're giving their time
471
00:14:08,791 --> 00:14:10,125
to actually do this work,
472
00:14:10,375 --> 00:14:14,000
but it's not the sole answer. We can't
473
00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:15,875
restore our way out of this. We have to
474
00:14:15,875 --> 00:14:16,666
protect and we have to
475
00:14:16,666 --> 00:14:18,625
reduce greenhouse gases. We have to
476
00:14:18,625 --> 00:14:19,833
reduce pollution and we
477
00:14:19,833 --> 00:14:21,500
have to reduce overfishing.
478
00:14:21,875 --> 00:14:24,333
That's a necessity. Like we are in dire
479
00:14:24,333 --> 00:14:25,833
needs right now, right?
480
00:14:26,083 --> 00:14:27,666
We've lost less than 50% of
481
00:14:27,666 --> 00:14:29,625
coral student bleaching. That's not good.
482
00:14:29,625 --> 00:14:31,916
We need to do better. Restoration is
483
00:14:31,916 --> 00:14:32,875
helping. It's a tool
484
00:14:32,875 --> 00:14:35,500
in the conservation tool belt, but it's
485
00:14:35,500 --> 00:14:36,916
not the tool. It's not the
486
00:14:36,916 --> 00:14:37,750
thing that's going to put us
487
00:14:37,750 --> 00:14:38,958
over the edge to say, "Hey, you know
488
00:14:38,958 --> 00:14:40,083
what? We're winning the battle
489
00:14:40,083 --> 00:14:41,791
for coral restoration against
490
00:14:41,833 --> 00:14:44,583
climate change." That is a sad reality.
491
00:14:45,083 --> 00:14:46,625
When you watch those videos of people
492
00:14:46,625 --> 00:14:47,291
going out and diving
493
00:14:47,291 --> 00:14:48,750
and doing that thing, thank them. They're
494
00:14:48,750 --> 00:14:50,083
doing great effort, but
495
00:14:50,083 --> 00:14:51,500
it's not the solution. It's not
496
00:14:51,500 --> 00:14:53,000
their fault. They're doing what they can.
497
00:14:53,333 --> 00:14:54,166
They're doing whatever they
498
00:14:54,166 --> 00:14:56,166
can do, but we need to really
499
00:14:56,208 --> 00:14:58,916
work on policy. We need to work on voting
500
00:14:58,916 --> 00:15:00,375
people in, politicians
501
00:15:00,375 --> 00:15:02,083
in that will actually do
502
00:15:02,833 --> 00:15:04,875
reduction in greenhouse gas and work and
503
00:15:04,875 --> 00:15:06,041
make sure that the energy
504
00:15:06,041 --> 00:15:07,875
sector is sustainable and
505
00:15:07,916 --> 00:15:10,208
it's greener than it normally is. That's
506
00:15:10,208 --> 00:15:11,708
what we need to do. We're not moving fast
507
00:15:11,708 --> 00:15:12,708
enough and we're losing
508
00:15:12,916 --> 00:15:15,125
these precious habitats at a phenomenal
509
00:15:15,125 --> 00:15:16,958
rate and we do not want to do that. So
510
00:15:16,958 --> 00:15:18,375
that is my call to action.
511
00:15:18,875 --> 00:15:20,125
Thank the people who are doing it, but
512
00:15:20,125 --> 00:15:21,291
understand that we need to
513
00:15:21,291 --> 00:15:22,958
do more from a policy basis
514
00:15:23,083 --> 00:15:25,583
than a political basis than any time in
515
00:15:25,583 --> 00:15:27,250
our history. This is dire
516
00:15:27,250 --> 00:15:29,541
needs, people. If you love corals,
517
00:15:29,541 --> 00:15:31,041
you love snorkeling on corals, you love
518
00:15:31,041 --> 00:15:32,125
diving on corals, you love
519
00:15:32,125 --> 00:15:33,166
just watching them on TV.
520
00:15:33,791 --> 00:15:35,750
Well, you can't get that all the time. An
521
00:15:35,750 --> 00:15:38,000
AI generation of pictures and
522
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:39,666
stuff as great as AI can be.
523
00:15:39,666 --> 00:15:41,500
It's not going to be the same as when you
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00:15:41,500 --> 00:15:43,250
see a beautiful healthy
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00:15:43,250 --> 00:15:45,208
coral right away. You know what?
526
00:15:45,208 --> 00:15:47,125
If you ever have a chance and you're a
527
00:15:47,125 --> 00:15:49,333
TikTok fan, go to TikTok, go to Carissa
528
00:15:49,333 --> 00:15:51,250
Cabello's TikTok profile
529
00:15:51,500 --> 00:15:54,291
and watch the videos of her looking at
530
00:15:54,291 --> 00:15:57,125
beautiful corals in Hawaii. They are
531
00:15:57,125 --> 00:15:59,000
phenomenal and so it's
532
00:15:59,083 --> 00:16:00,833
wonderful place to do it. It's a creator
533
00:16:00,833 --> 00:16:01,791
that I watch on a regular
534
00:16:01,791 --> 00:16:03,041
basis because she has such
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00:16:03,083 --> 00:16:04,750
great pictures and she takes such a great
536
00:16:04,750 --> 00:16:06,541
action, right? She does
537
00:16:06,541 --> 00:16:08,333
what she can and we need more
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00:16:08,333 --> 00:16:09,875
people like her and there are more people
539
00:16:09,875 --> 00:16:11,000
like her on TikTok. And
540
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:12,166
in fact, if you are in the
541
00:16:12,166 --> 00:16:13,791
comments in YouTube or you want to hit me
542
00:16:13,791 --> 00:16:14,458
up with your favorite
543
00:16:14,458 --> 00:16:16,041
creators that show these types of
544
00:16:16,041 --> 00:16:17,625
things, please let me know. I'd love to
545
00:16:17,625 --> 00:16:18,500
get connected with them
546
00:16:18,500 --> 00:16:20,250
even more so than I am with
547
00:16:20,250 --> 00:16:21,833
others that are around that I know of. So
548
00:16:21,833 --> 00:16:23,000
hit me up in YouTube
549
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:24,250
comments or hit me up on Instagram
550
00:16:24,291 --> 00:16:26,000
at how to protect the ocean or you can
551
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:26,833
contact me through
552
00:16:26,833 --> 00:16:28,416
speakupforblue.com. Just go to our
553
00:16:28,458 --> 00:16:30,625
contact page. That form that you fill out
554
00:16:30,625 --> 00:16:31,708
goes right to my email and
555
00:16:31,708 --> 00:16:32,541
I try and get back to you
556
00:16:32,833 --> 00:16:34,416
as soon as possible. I want to thank you
557
00:16:34,416 --> 00:16:35,625
so much for listening to
558
00:16:35,625 --> 00:16:36,791
this episode of the How to
559
00:16:36,791 --> 00:16:38,250
Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host,
560
00:16:38,500 --> 00:16:39,708
Andrew Lewin from the True
561
00:16:39,708 --> 00:16:40,791
North Strong and Free. Have
562
00:16:40,791 --> 00:16:42,291
a great day. We'll talk to you next time
563
00:16:42,291 --> 00:16:43,333
and have a conservation.
00:00:00,625 --> 00:00:01,375
Coral reefs are
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bleaching again this year.
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This is the fourth year in a row where
4
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the Great Barrier Reef has
5
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bleached a significant amount.
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Will it recover? Probably for the most
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part it will recover as it's recovered
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over the last four years.
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However, what is this going to do at time
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after time after time to the longevity of
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the coral reefs in
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the Great Barrier Reef,
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as well as around the world? And does
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restoration, coral
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restoration, help reestablish corals,
16
00:00:28,750 --> 00:00:30,250
not only locally, but will it help
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overall in the fight to protect corals?
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We're going to talk about that on today's
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00:00:34,416 --> 00:00:35,208
episode of the How to
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00:00:35,208 --> 00:00:36,041
Protect the Ocean podcast.
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Let's start the show.
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00:00:39,583 --> 00:00:40,583
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another
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exciting episode of the How
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00:00:41,791 --> 00:00:42,708
to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is
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00:00:44,416 --> 00:00:45,500
the podcast where you find out what's
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00:00:45,500 --> 00:00:46,375
happening with the ocean,
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how you can speak up for the ocean and
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what you can do to live for a better
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ocean by taking action.
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I'm going to tell you something here. I'm
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going to admit something.
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This is a bit controversial.
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00:00:55,875 --> 00:00:58,750
When I saw this article, I was a little
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worried about bringing it up.
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It was in that cosmos and they tend to
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have pretty good articles.
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And I was worried because coral
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restoration is very popular right now.
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And this is something that a lot of
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people are doing, especially locally, to
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try and do something to reestablish the
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local coral population and protect it
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from not only bleaching,
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but other significant factors such as
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00:01:20,041 --> 00:01:22,416
water pollution, coastal development,
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overfishing, a lot of different things.
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And those cumulative impacts can affect
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not only wild, like an untouched and
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preserved population, but can
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also harm coral restoration.
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00:01:34,041 --> 00:01:35,208
So there's a lot of stuff
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going on in this article.
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And I want to talk about it.
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I have thoughts, you
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know, always restoration.
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And this is the real crux of the matter
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is restoration is always more expensive
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and harder than
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preservation or conservation.
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Let me say that again. Restoration is
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always more expensive and harder than
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preservation and conservation.
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So that means if we have a healthy coral
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population or even a somewhat healthy
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coral population that has not been
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degraded to the point where it requires
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restoration, it's actually cheaper to
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protect than it is to
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bring back those corals, right?
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And either, you know, farm them on land
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and bring them back into
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the water and plant them.
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That's always more expensive. And this is
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not just for coral restoration. This is
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for any type of restoration in the wild.
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Like I remember working for the
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Department of Fisheries and Oceans, we
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would do restoration projects in the
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Great Lakes and it would cost like
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hundreds of thousands of dollars just to
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put rocks in for fish habitat.
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Like these are just rocks, nothing
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special. They're just rocks that you
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would normally find there.
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They were just dredged or they were just
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moved and they wanted to restore a
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specific fish population.
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They know they like these rocks of that
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area. They would go grab the rocks. They
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would get higher bars. They would bring
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it in. They would pile it up and it would
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create fish habitat.
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It wasn't difficult, but it was super
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expensive. Like hundreds and hundreds of
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thousands of dollars and you're just
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sitting there and you're just like, this
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would have been really great if we just
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kept it the way it was.
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If we had just been proactive instead of
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reactive and said, hey, you know what?
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Let's just protect this fish
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habitat here in the Great Lakes.
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But sometimes we don't know the damage
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that we cause because we rush into
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things. Hint, hint, deep sea mining. Just
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gonna say it. Just gonna say it.
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We don't want to rush into things when we
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do stuff, especially as humans, that is
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extractive, right? Or that
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will alter a fish habitat.
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Now here in Canada, I can't speak for
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anywhere else, but here in Canada, I know
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it's a rule as part of the Fisheries Act
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that if you are going to harm fish
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habitat here in Canada, whether it's in
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the ocean or in freshwater lakes or
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rivers or streams, you have
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to compensate the government.
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You have to say, hey, you know what? I
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know we're going to be altering this fish
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habitat. So I'm going to give money to
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another project that's
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restoring fish habitat.
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And that's how they got the money to do
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the restoration in other places, which
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they'll probably get money to restore the
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place that they're actually altering at
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that point at some point down the road
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when they realize, oh man,
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we really screwed up here.
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We shouldn't have done this in the first
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place. And that's not just science based.
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That is just a lot of public pressure, a
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lot of political pressure to develop and
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to do things in the
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water, in and around the water.
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That can harm or remove items that are
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critical to specific fish populations or
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just critical to that habitat functioning
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as it does. And if you remove it, it
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changes that habitat. Let's go back to
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coral reefs for a second. Coral reefs are
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very sensitive habitats, but they're very
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important. They're one of the most
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diverse in the world. They are beautiful.
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They're a tourism hotspot.
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Tourists like myself, when we go down
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south and I'm able to go into the
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tropics, I'm able to either scuba dive or
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snorkel. I am taking every advantage to
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00:04:32,458 --> 00:04:34,833
go into that water and look at corals.
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Look at the invertebrates. Look at the
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fish. I'm an invertebrate guy, so corals
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and invertebrates are my thing.
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But I love seeing a good school of fish.
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There's nothing like it. And also when
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you see stuff in pristine condition, I'm
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looking at little nematodes that are
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orange and black and they're just
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interacting with the coral. You're seeing
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a parrot fish, a rainbow parrot fish take
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little chips off the coral just to take
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the algae off and you know that coral is
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going to regrow because that's part of
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its regular functioning.
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But there's nothing worse than going
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diving or snorkeling and you see a coral
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that has a disease or that is bleached.
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And what I mean by bleached, essentially
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corals have these living organisms, the
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dinoflagellates in them. So these
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phytoplankton that are in that live
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inside the colonies and they actually use
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photosynthesis to create the calcium that
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the limestone skeleton of
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the coral needs to grow.
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So it's a symbiotic relationship.
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Zuandeli is what the dinoflagellates are
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called and they're pretty important.
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They're pretty critical to the survival
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of these corals. Now, when the coral gets
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hot, like sea surface temperature and
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climate change cause sea surface
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temperature to increase, there's more
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radiation coming in. There's a lot of
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stuff that's going on.
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The dinoflagellate starts to be like,
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this is really hot. I don't really like
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this. I'm going to start to tell you that
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I don't really like this. And it starts
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to expunge these little chemicals that
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the coral doesn't like. It says, you know
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what? Get out of here. You're done.
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You're not behaving. It's like when your
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mother sends you to your room or your
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father sends you to your room. Get out of
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here. You need to time out. So the
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zuandeli gets expunged by the coral into
200
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the water column and then it becomes
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white because the
202
00:06:10,208 --> 00:06:11,833
zuandeli give it that color.
203
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They give it the yellows, the maroons,
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00:06:13,916 --> 00:06:16,041
the purples, whatever color that you see
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down there, the greens, the zuandeli are
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00:06:17,875 --> 00:06:19,416
responsible for giving that color. If it
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doesn't have that color, then it's just a
208
00:06:21,875 --> 00:06:23,875
white skeleton and it can't get the
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calcium that needs to grow and eventually
210
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dies. Sometimes it can't feed itself
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because some will actually filter feed.
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And so it dies. And that's what happens
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if it doesn't come back. And that means
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if the sea surface temperature stays hot
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for long, that the zuandeli can't come
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back and recolonize or other zuandeli
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00:06:39,208 --> 00:06:39,833
can't come back and
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recolonize, then we have a problem.
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00:06:40,916 --> 00:06:44,083
This bleaching goes away like this
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bleaching stays forever and the corals
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00:06:45,625 --> 00:06:47,083
eventually die because they can't get the
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minerals that they need to actually
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survive right and the ions they need to
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survive. So that is a huge problem. And
225
00:06:52,500 --> 00:06:53,833
that's what's been happening when corals
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get bleached all over the world, not just
227
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in the Great Barrier Reef. Obviously
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that's something that is an iconic
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habitat. So we focus on there and it's
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huge, but it recovers every year because
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the temperature doesn't last as long, but
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every single year the hot temperature
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last longer and longer and longer.
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Right. So if you hit 40 degrees Celsius
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for longer and longer days, so maybe for
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the first year was like five and then the
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second year was 10 and the third is 15.
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And I'm not saying it's going up to that
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much, but what if it does and it just
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continues to increase in the length of
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the number of days that it's hot.
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That's over 40 degrees Celsius that
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causes the zuandeli to get expunged to go
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to the room to go to the water column.
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Now we have a problem, right? Now we have
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a continuous to happen. So the recovery
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ability of the coral is
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less and less every year.
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You get what I'm saying? This is a big
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problem. Now what people are doing around
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the world, they're saying, you know what?
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I'm not just going to take this lying
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down. There's not a lot we can do about
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climate change on a short term factor,
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other like as
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individuals or as an organization.
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Other than pressuring the government to
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reduce greenhouse gases, put in act and
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implement and follow, you know, Paris
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Accord agreements and all those type of
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Kyoto agreement back when I was younger,
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all these different agreements have
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actually followed it and they actually
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realize the potential of these policies
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that would bring us down lower and lower
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and greenhouse gas emissions that would
267
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allow us to get lower temperatures
268
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overall or not increase and continue to
269
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increase as we keep doing
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every year as a world population.
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Then we were able to actually fix things,
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but a lot of people are like, I can't do
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anything for that in the short term,
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right? Some governments are going to
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listen to some governments aren't and
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that's just what the reality is. So some
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people are like, I need to do something.
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I need to feel like I'm doing something.
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I want to do something locally so that I
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can think globally, act locally, right?
281
00:08:39,416 --> 00:08:41,375
Or is it act locally, think globally? I
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always get confused with that.
283
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Regardless, it's a good thing to do and
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you want to protect the coral reef in and
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00:08:46,250 --> 00:08:48,375
around your area or the habitat, like say
286
00:08:48,375 --> 00:08:48,833
I'm in Canada, in and around your area.
287
00:08:48,875 --> 00:08:51,291
Although we do have coral reefs, but
288
00:08:51,291 --> 00:08:53,083
they're just a little deeper and they're
289
00:08:53,083 --> 00:08:54,666
beautiful sponge reefs. Anyway, we do
290
00:08:54,666 --> 00:08:56,375
have some beautiful reefs here. But
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00:08:56,375 --> 00:08:57,833
regardless, you know, you want to think a
292
00:08:57,833 --> 00:08:59,666
lot of people want to restore these
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00:08:59,666 --> 00:09:01,541
habitats that have been degraded or have
294
00:09:01,541 --> 00:09:02,958
been bleached over time. So what they'll
295
00:09:02,958 --> 00:09:04,250
do is they'll come up with an
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00:09:04,250 --> 00:09:05,791
organization, they'll get funding or
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00:09:05,791 --> 00:09:07,416
they'll get ways to pay for it. So some
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00:09:07,416 --> 00:09:09,291
will actually sell corals to the aquarium
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industry as they cut them and as they
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00:09:11,333 --> 00:09:13,250
make them and as they grow them in, I
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00:09:13,250 --> 00:09:14,791
guess, the aquarium tanks. And then you
302
00:09:14,791 --> 00:09:17,333
get to bring them out. That's how they
303
00:09:17,333 --> 00:09:17,833
fund them the money to actually do their best to the aquarium tank, and they're actually going to do their best to the aquarium tank.
304
00:09:17,875 --> 00:09:21,041
And then what they do is they bring out
305
00:09:21,041 --> 00:09:23,125
the coral pieces and they attach them on
306
00:09:23,125 --> 00:09:25,041
to different rocks in a reef where there
307
00:09:25,041 --> 00:09:27,666
used to be plenty coral. Now you have a
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00:09:27,666 --> 00:09:29,375
growth and it grows and grows and grows.
309
00:09:29,375 --> 00:09:30,833
But if you get a bleaching event again,
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00:09:31,250 --> 00:09:32,500
those corals could bleach.
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00:09:33,250 --> 00:09:35,666
And so is it really that important? This
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00:09:35,666 --> 00:09:37,708
is what a long way of saying this is what
313
00:09:37,708 --> 00:09:39,958
this article gets into says global reef
314
00:09:39,958 --> 00:09:41,791
coverage has potentially decreased by up
315
00:09:41,791 --> 00:09:44,500
to 50% up to 50% with projections
316
00:09:44,500 --> 00:09:47,083
indicating loss exceeding 90% by the
317
00:09:47,083 --> 00:09:48,708
centuries and due to climate change,
318
00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:49,833
pollution and overfishing, right?
319
00:09:49,875 --> 00:09:53,166
Which we all talked about. So looking at
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00:09:53,166 --> 00:09:55,458
restoration efforts is there's a bigger
321
00:09:55,458 --> 00:09:58,125
decrease than it can increase. So current
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00:09:58,125 --> 00:09:59,791
restoration initiatives such as coral
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00:09:59,791 --> 00:10:01,208
gardening and artificial reefs are
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00:10:01,208 --> 00:10:02,416
insufficient against the
325
00:10:02,416 --> 00:10:03,833
vast scale of reef degradation.
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00:10:03,833 --> 00:10:06,625
These methods are often limited in scope,
327
00:10:06,625 --> 00:10:08,833
expensive, as I mentioned before, and
328
00:10:08,833 --> 00:10:11,833
focus on already compromised reefs. So
329
00:10:11,833 --> 00:10:14,500
the high cost is that restoring just 10%
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00:10:14,958 --> 00:10:17,958
or 11,700 square kilometers of degraded
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00:10:17,958 --> 00:10:21,833
reef from 2009 to 2018 would require over
332
00:10:21,833 --> 00:10:25,750
$1 billion, nearly quadrupling the total
333
00:10:25,750 --> 00:10:26,791
global investment in
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00:10:26,791 --> 00:10:27,833
coral restoration to date.
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00:10:27,916 --> 00:10:31,750
1 billion. Just imagine that 1 billion
336
00:10:31,750 --> 00:10:33,291
with inflation is probably even more than
337
00:10:33,291 --> 00:10:35,625
that. Right? So I talked about coral
338
00:10:35,625 --> 00:10:37,500
bleaching and what it causes. Now the
339
00:10:37,500 --> 00:10:39,416
compounding stressors of overfishing and
340
00:10:39,416 --> 00:10:41,958
pollution make it worse. It exacerbates
341
00:10:41,958 --> 00:10:44,291
the effects of bleaching, stressing the
342
00:10:44,291 --> 00:10:45,583
coral systems and increasing the
343
00:10:45,583 --> 00:10:47,208
mortality rates, meaning that it has a
344
00:10:47,208 --> 00:10:48,541
harder time to recover.
345
00:10:48,833 --> 00:10:50,708
So just think about this, this analogy,
346
00:10:50,708 --> 00:10:52,416
right? You're a human being, you're in
347
00:10:52,416 --> 00:10:54,458
decent shape, but you don't eat the best
348
00:10:54,458 --> 00:10:57,041
way and you're not working out. But you
349
00:10:57,041 --> 00:10:58,708
stay healthy, you walk a lot, say you
350
00:10:58,708 --> 00:11:00,083
have dogs and you go out and you walk a
351
00:11:00,083 --> 00:11:01,375
lot and you do a little bit of exercise,
352
00:11:01,375 --> 00:11:03,416
say in Keering Canada, you play hockey,
353
00:11:03,416 --> 00:11:04,500
maybe in the States you're playing flag
354
00:11:04,500 --> 00:11:06,208
football or you're playing lacrosse or
355
00:11:06,208 --> 00:11:06,708
you're playing soccer,
356
00:11:06,708 --> 00:11:07,583
you're active, right?
357
00:11:07,833 --> 00:11:09,291
But you have all these other stressors,
358
00:11:09,291 --> 00:11:10,791
you're not eating properly and you're not
359
00:11:10,791 --> 00:11:12,750
working out as much as you should. And
360
00:11:12,750 --> 00:11:14,375
that stressor can really happen. So if
361
00:11:14,375 --> 00:11:17,208
something happens, then the stressors
362
00:11:17,208 --> 00:11:19,666
make things worse, it doesn't help in
363
00:11:19,666 --> 00:11:21,708
your recovery to get to a healthier
364
00:11:21,708 --> 00:11:25,125
place. So by maintaining that health and
365
00:11:25,125 --> 00:11:27,625
taking away all these extra factors like
366
00:11:27,625 --> 00:11:29,875
eating unhealthy or not working out as
367
00:11:29,875 --> 00:11:31,958
much as you should, that would harm you
368
00:11:31,958 --> 00:11:33,291
right from a health perspective, right?
369
00:11:33,291 --> 00:11:34,625
All the doctors would say that you need
370
00:11:34,625 --> 00:11:35,416
to eat, right? You need to
371
00:11:35,416 --> 00:11:36,833
exercise on a semi regular basis.
372
00:11:36,833 --> 00:11:38,791
And then you should be fine, but you
373
00:11:38,791 --> 00:11:40,250
never know. So if you get something like
374
00:11:40,250 --> 00:11:42,000
cancer and you already have heart disease
375
00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:43,541
or you're having a problem, that's going
376
00:11:43,541 --> 00:11:45,250
to make things worse. Well, this is the
377
00:11:45,250 --> 00:11:47,333
same thing with corals. If corals are
378
00:11:47,333 --> 00:11:50,083
stressed with algae overgrowth, right?
379
00:11:50,083 --> 00:11:51,833
Because of bad water pollution and high
380
00:11:51,833 --> 00:11:54,041
nutrients, then it's going to be working
381
00:11:54,041 --> 00:11:56,625
to try and get rid, not really get rid of
382
00:11:56,625 --> 00:11:58,041
the algae, but the algae is going to have
383
00:11:58,041 --> 00:12:00,750
an unhealthy effect on that coral. And
384
00:12:00,750 --> 00:12:02,291
then all of a sudden you bring in climate
385
00:12:02,291 --> 00:12:04,708
change and it's heating up the water. And
386
00:12:04,708 --> 00:12:05,833
that coral says, hey, to the zoo and it's like, get out.
387
00:12:05,875 --> 00:12:08,458
Get out. Go to your room. I don't want
388
00:12:08,458 --> 00:12:09,875
you in here right now it's too hot.
389
00:12:10,083 --> 00:12:11,875
You're causing some trouble. I need to
390
00:12:11,875 --> 00:12:13,916
figure this out. I got algae overgrowth.
391
00:12:14,291 --> 00:12:15,916
I've got high temperatures. I've got
392
00:12:15,916 --> 00:12:17,083
sediment coming in from coastal
393
00:12:17,083 --> 00:12:18,833
development. I've got somebody's trying
394
00:12:18,833 --> 00:12:20,666
to fish all over us and we can't get the
395
00:12:20,666 --> 00:12:22,666
Parrotfish to take the algae off. This is
396
00:12:22,666 --> 00:12:24,375
awful. We can't do this, we can't have
397
00:12:24,375 --> 00:12:26,750
all of this stuff happening at the same
398
00:12:26,750 --> 00:12:27,875
time. So having those
399
00:12:27,875 --> 00:12:28,833
cumulative effects, no good.
400
00:12:28,875 --> 00:12:29,541
No good.
401
00:12:29,541 --> 00:12:30,875
The bad news is we may not be able to
402
00:12:30,875 --> 00:12:32,583
control climate change in the short term.
403
00:12:32,916 --> 00:12:34,416
The good news is we can control water
404
00:12:34,416 --> 00:12:36,000
pollution, we can control coastal
405
00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:36,916
development, and we can
406
00:12:36,916 --> 00:12:39,000
control overfishing. Those are the things
407
00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:40,041
that we can control,
408
00:12:40,041 --> 00:12:41,250
especially when it's near shore.
409
00:12:41,708 --> 00:12:43,208
So being able to control that and taking
410
00:12:43,208 --> 00:12:44,166
away those cumulae
411
00:12:44,166 --> 00:12:46,333
effects will give a chance for
412
00:12:46,333 --> 00:12:48,416
coral reefs to recover faster. In fact,
413
00:12:48,416 --> 00:12:49,541
there was a study done a few
414
00:12:49,541 --> 00:12:50,583
years ago, I'll have to find
415
00:12:50,583 --> 00:12:51,500
the link. I don't know if I'll be able to
416
00:12:51,500 --> 00:12:52,708
find it in time, but there
417
00:12:52,708 --> 00:12:53,708
was a study done a few years
418
00:12:53,708 --> 00:12:55,500
ago that looked at corals that were
419
00:12:55,500 --> 00:12:57,625
beyond borders. They
420
00:12:57,625 --> 00:12:58,666
were out in the middle of
421
00:12:58,708 --> 00:13:00,583
nowhere. They bleached and then they
422
00:13:00,583 --> 00:13:02,166
recovered a lot faster than those that
423
00:13:02,166 --> 00:13:03,041
were closer to shore.
424
00:13:03,041 --> 00:13:04,500
They were getting affected by overfishing
425
00:13:04,500 --> 00:13:06,833
and by water pollution. So
426
00:13:06,833 --> 00:13:08,916
these things actually matter.
427
00:13:09,250 --> 00:13:11,125
And when you look at global action and
428
00:13:11,125 --> 00:13:12,125
you say, "Hey, look, this
429
00:13:12,125 --> 00:13:13,291
report without significant
430
00:13:13,333 --> 00:13:15,166
reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
431
00:13:15,166 --> 00:13:16,333
and the broader environmental
432
00:13:16,333 --> 00:13:17,250
protections, localized
433
00:13:17,250 --> 00:13:18,500
restoration efforts aren't really going
434
00:13:18,500 --> 00:13:19,625
to do anything. They're
435
00:13:19,625 --> 00:13:20,500
going to be really expensive,
436
00:13:20,500 --> 00:13:22,958
but overall, we're losing this battle."
437
00:13:22,958 --> 00:13:24,000
And this is not to take
438
00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:25,500
away from anybody who's doing
439
00:13:25,583 --> 00:13:27,541
coral restoration because it's really
440
00:13:27,541 --> 00:13:28,708
important. It's important
441
00:13:28,708 --> 00:13:30,166
not only to see the effects and
442
00:13:30,375 --> 00:13:32,583
the successes that we see locally, but
443
00:13:32,583 --> 00:13:33,250
it's important to get
444
00:13:33,250 --> 00:13:34,250
people involved and connected
445
00:13:34,250 --> 00:13:35,958
to the ocean. A lot of the times, these
446
00:13:35,958 --> 00:13:37,041
are community projects.
447
00:13:37,291 --> 00:13:38,416
And so the community gets
448
00:13:38,458 --> 00:13:40,416
together maybe with a couple of experts
449
00:13:40,416 --> 00:13:41,375
like scientists and
450
00:13:41,375 --> 00:13:42,625
conservationists and even marine
451
00:13:42,625 --> 00:13:44,458
aquarium hobbies that are really good at
452
00:13:44,458 --> 00:13:45,916
propagating corals. And they
453
00:13:45,916 --> 00:13:47,166
go out and they do this as a
454
00:13:47,166 --> 00:13:48,375
community. It's really great. It's like a
455
00:13:48,375 --> 00:13:49,125
beach cleanup. It gets
456
00:13:49,125 --> 00:13:50,500
people connected, sees what's
457
00:13:50,500 --> 00:13:52,041
happening out there, and then they can
458
00:13:52,041 --> 00:13:54,416
make changes locally as
459
00:13:54,416 --> 00:13:55,791
well as in a community basis.
460
00:13:55,791 --> 00:13:57,083
So I don't want to take away from anybody
461
00:13:57,083 --> 00:13:57,833
who's doing coral
462
00:13:57,833 --> 00:13:59,666
restoration, but it's not the answer.
463
00:13:59,666 --> 00:14:01,041
If you see that happening and you're
464
00:14:01,041 --> 00:14:01,833
like, "Thank you for doing
465
00:14:01,833 --> 00:14:02,916
it." Thank the person because
466
00:14:02,916 --> 00:14:04,000
they're making a lot of effort and
467
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:04,916
they're giving up their time.
468
00:14:05,166 --> 00:14:06,000
A lot of times, whether it's
469
00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:07,875
professionally or on a volunteer basis,
470
00:14:08,125 --> 00:14:08,791
they're giving their time
471
00:14:08,791 --> 00:14:10,125
to actually do this work,
472
00:14:10,375 --> 00:14:14,000
but it's not the sole answer. We can't
473
00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:15,875
restore our way out of this. We have to
474
00:14:15,875 --> 00:14:16,666
protect and we have to
475
00:14:16,666 --> 00:14:18,625
reduce greenhouse gases. We have to
476
00:14:18,625 --> 00:14:19,833
reduce pollution and we
477
00:14:19,833 --> 00:14:21,500
have to reduce overfishing.
478
00:14:21,875 --> 00:14:24,333
That's a necessity. Like we are in dire
479
00:14:24,333 --> 00:14:25,833
needs right now, right?
480
00:14:26,083 --> 00:14:27,666
We've lost less than 50% of
481
00:14:27,666 --> 00:14:29,625
coral student bleaching. That's not good.
482
00:14:29,625 --> 00:14:31,916
We need to do better. Restoration is
483
00:14:31,916 --> 00:14:32,875
helping. It's a tool
484
00:14:32,875 --> 00:14:35,500
in the conservation tool belt, but it's
485
00:14:35,500 --> 00:14:36,916
not the tool. It's not the
486
00:14:36,916 --> 00:14:37,750
thing that's going to put us
487
00:14:37,750 --> 00:14:38,958
over the edge to say, "Hey, you know
488
00:14:38,958 --> 00:14:40,083
what? We're winning the battle
489
00:14:40,083 --> 00:14:41,791
for coral restoration against
490
00:14:41,833 --> 00:14:44,583
climate change." That is a sad reality.
491
00:14:45,083 --> 00:14:46,625
When you watch those videos of people
492
00:14:46,625 --> 00:14:47,291
going out and diving
493
00:14:47,291 --> 00:14:48,750
and doing that thing, thank them. They're
494
00:14:48,750 --> 00:14:50,083
doing great effort, but
495
00:14:50,083 --> 00:14:51,500
it's not the solution. It's not
496
00:14:51,500 --> 00:14:53,000
their fault. They're doing what they can.
497
00:14:53,333 --> 00:14:54,166
They're doing whatever they
498
00:14:54,166 --> 00:14:56,166
can do, but we need to really
499
00:14:56,208 --> 00:14:58,916
work on policy. We need to work on voting
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00:14:58,916 --> 00:15:00,375
people in, politicians
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00:15:00,375 --> 00:15:02,083
in that will actually do
502
00:15:02,833 --> 00:15:04,875
reduction in greenhouse gas and work and
503
00:15:04,875 --> 00:15:06,041
make sure that the energy
504
00:15:06,041 --> 00:15:07,875
sector is sustainable and
505
00:15:07,916 --> 00:15:10,208
it's greener than it normally is. That's
506
00:15:10,208 --> 00:15:11,708
what we need to do. We're not moving fast
507
00:15:11,708 --> 00:15:12,708
enough and we're losing
508
00:15:12,916 --> 00:15:15,125
these precious habitats at a phenomenal
509
00:15:15,125 --> 00:15:16,958
rate and we do not want to do that. So
510
00:15:16,958 --> 00:15:18,375
that is my call to action.
511
00:15:18,875 --> 00:15:20,125
Thank the people who are doing it, but
512
00:15:20,125 --> 00:15:21,291
understand that we need to
513
00:15:21,291 --> 00:15:22,958
do more from a policy basis
514
00:15:23,083 --> 00:15:25,583
than a political basis than any time in
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00:15:25,583 --> 00:15:27,250
our history. This is dire
516
00:15:27,250 --> 00:15:29,541
needs, people. If you love corals,
517
00:15:29,541 --> 00:15:31,041
you love snorkeling on corals, you love
518
00:15:31,041 --> 00:15:32,125
diving on corals, you love
519
00:15:32,125 --> 00:15:33,166
just watching them on TV.
520
00:15:33,791 --> 00:15:35,750
Well, you can't get that all the time. An
521
00:15:35,750 --> 00:15:38,000
AI generation of pictures and
522
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:39,666
stuff as great as AI can be.
523
00:15:39,666 --> 00:15:41,500
It's not going to be the same as when you
524
00:15:41,500 --> 00:15:43,250
see a beautiful healthy
525
00:15:43,250 --> 00:15:45,208
coral right away. You know what?
526
00:15:45,208 --> 00:15:47,125
If you ever have a chance and you're a
527
00:15:47,125 --> 00:15:49,333
TikTok fan, go to TikTok, go to Carissa
528
00:15:49,333 --> 00:15:51,250
Cabello's TikTok profile
529
00:15:51,500 --> 00:15:54,291
and watch the videos of her looking at
530
00:15:54,291 --> 00:15:57,125
beautiful corals in Hawaii. They are
531
00:15:57,125 --> 00:15:59,000
phenomenal and so it's
532
00:15:59,083 --> 00:16:00,833
wonderful place to do it. It's a creator
533
00:16:00,833 --> 00:16:01,791
that I watch on a regular
534
00:16:01,791 --> 00:16:03,041
basis because she has such
535
00:16:03,083 --> 00:16:04,750
great pictures and she takes such a great
536
00:16:04,750 --> 00:16:06,541
action, right? She does
537
00:16:06,541 --> 00:16:08,333
what she can and we need more
538
00:16:08,333 --> 00:16:09,875
people like her and there are more people
539
00:16:09,875 --> 00:16:11,000
like her on TikTok. And
540
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:12,166
in fact, if you are in the
541
00:16:12,166 --> 00:16:13,791
comments in YouTube or you want to hit me
542
00:16:13,791 --> 00:16:14,458
up with your favorite
543
00:16:14,458 --> 00:16:16,041
creators that show these types of
544
00:16:16,041 --> 00:16:17,625
things, please let me know. I'd love to
545
00:16:17,625 --> 00:16:18,500
get connected with them
546
00:16:18,500 --> 00:16:20,250
even more so than I am with
547
00:16:20,250 --> 00:16:21,833
others that are around that I know of. So
548
00:16:21,833 --> 00:16:23,000
hit me up in YouTube
549
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:24,250
comments or hit me up on Instagram
550
00:16:24,291 --> 00:16:26,000
at how to protect the ocean or you can
551
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:26,833
contact me through
552
00:16:26,833 --> 00:16:28,416
speakupforblue.com. Just go to our
553
00:16:28,458 --> 00:16:30,625
contact page. That form that you fill out
554
00:16:30,625 --> 00:16:31,708
goes right to my email and
555
00:16:31,708 --> 00:16:32,541
I try and get back to you
556
00:16:32,833 --> 00:16:34,416
as soon as possible. I want to thank you
557
00:16:34,416 --> 00:16:35,625
so much for listening to
558
00:16:35,625 --> 00:16:36,791
this episode of the How to
559
00:16:36,791 --> 00:16:38,250
Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host,
560
00:16:38,500 --> 00:16:39,708
Andrew Lewin from the True
561
00:16:39,708 --> 00:16:40,791
North Strong and Free. Have
562
00:16:40,791 --> 00:16:42,291
a great day. We'll talk to you next time
563
00:16:42,291 --> 00:16:43,333
and have a conservation.
