Leave the seashells on the Seashore

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Leave seashells by the seashore. And

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apparently, people are taking seashells at record levels,

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and it's actually affecting erosion in these

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places, like Costa Rica. We're going to talk about a new study that's

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shown so many seashells are being taken away that

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it's affecting the environment and the local people. We're going to talk about that on

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today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the

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show. Hey

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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm

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your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean,

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how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a

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better ocean by taking action. And if you are

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new here and you wanna learn more, you can go to our website, speakupforblue.com to

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find out all of our podcast episodes. We have just not just the How to

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Protect the Ocean, but Beyond Jaws, Aqueducts, Fancy Sciences. We have

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a lot of different type of content. Our YouTube channel is on there

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as well, all the videos and so forth. Just check us out. It's

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a really great site. I put it together myself, so I think it's good. I'm

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biased, obviously, but that's speakupforblue.com. And if

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that out, speakupforblue.com forward slash newsletter. Let's

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talk about Costa Rica. Let's talk about your travel plans. Let's talk about the effect that

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we have on just travel in general. I want to talk about it by

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starting off with the story. Went to Malaysia a number of years ago back in

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2018 for a conference. Great place. It was in Borneo. So it was the

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island side of Malaysia. It was a beautiful place. We were in

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Kuching for a marine conference. I remember talking to

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a friend of mine, Dr. Andrew Thaler, and we were talking about like, hey, what are you going to do

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when you're here? Like we traveled together. I was like, what are you going to do when you get there? Are

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you going to do any scuba diving? Are you going to do any kind of touristy type things?

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We talked about going to like a sanctuary, like an orangutan sanctuary

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to check that out. But we talked about diving as well. And he says something really

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interesting to me. I never really thought about it before because I haven't done a

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ton of traveling worldwide. And he had and he said, you know, when did

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you go? I don't actually go scuba diving or I try not

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to do too many things where I can leave an imprint. on

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something that's in a negative way. And he talked about scuba diving and

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he's like, I just don't, you know, what if I touch something by accident or, you

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know, something happens, I just don't feel like I wanna have that type of imprint.

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I wanna leave the local area to the local people and

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let them enjoy it, let them be able to live off of it like a

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lot of the places do in Malaysia. And I never thought about

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it that way. I never thought about going to a place and just, like,

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thinking of the people. I know it's selfish. It's a very sort of North American kind

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of style. When we go away, you know, we'll go down south

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to the Caribbean, we'll go down to Central America, we'll go down to South America. All

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over the place, all over the world, we have that privilege to travel. And

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a lot of times, you think of yourself. You think of, like, what am I going to do down

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there? What good time am I going to have? What am I going to be able to

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accomplish while I'm down there doing all the touristy things? Like, if you go to Costa Rica,

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surfing, the hot springs, ziplining, just

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enjoying the ocean in itself, scuba diving, snorkeling, river

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touring, like there's a lot of ecotourism places in Costa Rica. And

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so when you go down to these places, you think, what can I

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do? What can I do to help out

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or just to enjoy the local area, right?

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We all want to enjoy that tropical sunset. Let's be honest,

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in Canada, a lot of people are moving down to Costa Rica so that they can

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enjoy Costa Rica, they can enjoy the tropical weather. Some people don't like

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it in Canada. Taxes, government, all that kind of stuff.

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They're going down there to live there, taking away property from

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other people and from the local people

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and it's just, I feel like it's just icky. It's an icky thing that

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we Canadians do. It's an icky thing that people do all the time. But one thing that

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has really been identified recently, and I didn't even know this was a problem, but there's a

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seashell crisis in Costa Rica that put coasts at risk.

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That's insane. Like to think about that many seashells being taken

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and being brought back over as a souvenir that's

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becoming a problem. And so apparently that Costa Rica is

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facing this growing environmental crisis due to the massive removal of

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seashells from its coast driven by tourism.

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So it's not just people just randomly taking it, it's driven

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by tourism. So not only are people just taking them from the beach,

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but they're being sold so that people can have them on their chains, on

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necklaces, on bracelets and so forth. Then they can just bring them home in

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a glass Mason jar or something like that or a plastic jar or whatever that

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might be. This seemingly

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minor practice is destabilizing beaches in Costa Rica,

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accelerating erosion, and harming marine ecosystems. Seashells

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are vital for maintaining the structure of beaches, serving

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as habitats for species like hermit crabs, If you don't know

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what a hermit crab is, you've never really seen a hermit crab. I've had a lot of

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experience with dealing with hermit crabs in the marine aquarium industry, which is another

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thing that takes away things from tropical areas. But when you look at a hermit crab,

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they have these little seashells, right? They have these shells that they live in. They actually can't

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grow the shell. So if they grow too big, they have to leave that shell,

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and they have to go into another one. And if a hermit crab is in that one that they want,

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they have to fight that hermit crab, take it out, and then go into that one. It's very

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competitive. but a very interesting type of life cycle. But they

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need seashells to keep themselves protected. That's what

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hermit crabs do. So hermit crabs rely on

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these seashells to be available. Supporting marine biodiversity by

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contributing to the formation of coral reefs and nutrient cycles. So the

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actual shells, whether they break down or

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whether they become part of the habitat for corals to settle

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on, it becomes a really important part of the ecosystem.

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Coral reefs are home of a lot of different species. They're one of the

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most biodiverse habitats known to man, especially in shallow areas.

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They're already going through enough. They need the limestone of

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the seashells, of what they're made of, and they need that calcium. Whether

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it comes off the seashell or they just use it as

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a stable place to settle, they need those

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seashells. Taking it away takes away potential

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habitat for coral reefs as well as the calcium that comes

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off of those limestone shells. The removal also

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worsens ocean acidification, disrupts species reproduction,

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and ecosystem balance. Let's talk about ocean acidification for

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a second because we're already in a period because of

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climate change, where ocean acidification is increasing. So right

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now, when you look at oceans, oceans are around 8.3 pH, right?

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A pH of 8.3, so they're basic. They're essentially not

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basic as in like, you're basic. It's basic as

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in the pH is basic. If the pH

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decreases, meaning it goes under 8.3 and

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towards the acidity part of pH, like going down to

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under seven, then it will stop being

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hospitable for things like corals, for things

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like formation of seashells and the growth of seashells for snails

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and mollusks like clams and mussels and oysters

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and so forth, and that could be a huge problem for limestone in

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general. calcium will not be available in acidic situations. I'm

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not saying pH is going to go down to 6, but the balance

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of the ocean is very, very narrow. And if

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the range goes below 8.2, 8.1, 8.0 pH, it can really

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mess up the entire ecosystem, the entire balance of the ecosystem. And

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we're seeing that with the influx of carbon dioxide being

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absorbed into the ocean by algae right

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and it's and we're seeing that influx come in we're starting

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to see less calcium being available into the

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ocean and like free calcium so that it gets picked up by corals it

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gets picked up by limestone rocks like you know all that and

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you're starting to see an erosion of these like

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shell-based animals. So you're looking at crustaceans like lobsters

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and shrimp and crabs. You're looking at coral reefs like

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corals themselves. They can't handle it. Molluscs, clams,

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oysters, scallops, all those different types of animals that

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require a limestone shell cannot get the calcium that they

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need because as acidity increases or increases, you

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start to get less available calcium. and

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that is not good for the ocean. So ocean acidification is

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not good. It is brought on and exacerbated by

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climate change. And of course, by taking away seashells so

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that you can't get any of those limestones eroded away into

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the ecosystem where you get calcium into the water. So in

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2023 alone, how bad is the problem? In 2023 alone, authorities seized

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over five tons of seashells. But the challenges

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in identifying their origins have complicated conservation efforts.

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So many of the shells remain in storage. They're not

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allowed to go back or are discarded due to

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limited resources for proper classification. You can't just

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put these seashells back in anywhere. They have to

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be put back where they were found. Very difficult to trace

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them. Because let's be honest, when they're sold at markets and tourism

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markets or like at an all-inclusive resort if you're there, or

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on the side of the road, people are just grabbing them and taking them. There's no like

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stamp on it of where they're from. There's no writing on it where

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they're from. It's very difficult to identify which beach they're from. And

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certain seashells are unique to certain areas. And so that's what you don't want.

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to happen. You just don't want to be in that situation. You're never

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going to get to know where these seashells are coming from. So

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having it going back is really difficult. So in response, organizations

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and the University of Costa Rica have developed innovative solutions.

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So using AI technology, so AI can be good for something. Using

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AI technology trained on 18,500 shell

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images, they can now accurately classify shells

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and return them to their natural environments. That means they can

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take a look at the image, they can scan the image and say this shell

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is most likely from this particular like Guanacaste up

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in the northwest. or down near San

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Jose, like on the Caribbean side. They'll be able to tell where

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these seashells are from. And the more images they have of different shells,

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the more of an ability they have to return the shells to the right place once

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they're taken. That's just one thing that they can do. The big

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thing is prevention of taking too many. Obviously, you can't really

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control how many people are taking shells, if it's one or two here and there.

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But if it's this many, where it's five tons are confiscated, that's

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a problem that needs to be addressed. right? This is not as just like people

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are taking one or two, putting them in their pocket and then leaving. This is like massive amounts

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that are being sold to tourists and they're taking them home. And that's

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a, that's a big problem. You can't just take natural things at

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that size or that amount and not expect consequences

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to happen. So in a landmark achievement, thousands of confiscated shells

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were restored to the sea, marking a major step in

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marine conservation. So that is you know, remarkable to

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be able to have that through AI technology, through

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studies to say, hey, we can actually put this back. We have a problem. We've

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diagnosed what the problem is. We're going to try and stop it at the source where

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people are taking this amount of seashells. But in the meantime, we're

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going to be able to see how we can actually return them

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using AI technology to the coast. That will be

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an important part. This initiative highlights the importance of sustainable tourism

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and collective action in preserving Costa Rica's biodiversity. The

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government and conservationists are urging tourists to leave wildlife

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untouched. Not only alive, but shells, even though you think that you

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deserve to have them. You don't deserve to have them. I always say, when

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you're in someone else's backyard or when you're in someone else's country, just

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use the idea and the standard that

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scuba divers use. You can look, but do not touch. Do

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not take. do not bring home just leave it there take

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a picture of it or leave it for memory in the memory bank up

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here and you can enjoy your time there and go back and

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not have to worry about people taking seashells and you'll enjoy the

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wildlife when you go back so it's emphasizing that you know

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wildlife remain untouched emphasizing that each and every

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species is crucial to maintaining ecological balances for

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future generations so this is not not a complicated story.

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Just because they're in the wild, it doesn't mean that they belong to you. Leave them be.

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There's a purpose and a place for everything. Leave them

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be. I'd love to know what you think about this article, what you think about this story. Let

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me know on Instagram. DM me at HowToProtectTheOcean, or

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you can leave a comment down below on our YouTube channel. You

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can comment on our Spotify channel, and you can also DM

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me on Instagram, like I mentioned, at HowToProtectTheOcean. I

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would love to hear your thoughts on this story, but until then, Thank you

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so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy