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So one of the amazing things about Cocos Islands is how well protected it is. They got a law
that prevents any kind of fishing activity for 12 miles out to sea. More important than
just having that law is enforcing that law. The rangers out there are absolutely dedicated
to protecting the environment. The country is dedicated.
I have never seen such high populations of sharks anywhere else in the world, its just
spectacular. I am a taxonomist. My job is to go out there and discover new species and
document them. So I am sort of the librarian of the biodiversity library. Biodiversity
is the most important thing on this planet. Right now at this point in history, we are
surrounded by this incredibly vast resource of information and we have no clue how to
read it. Ocean warming, ocean acidification is going to wipe out a lot of marine species.
It is estimated that within the next 30 years, we may not have any coral reefs left, which
means we not only lose the corals themselves, we lose all the organisms that live with the
corals. Every time you make a species go instinct, you will never again know what kind of information,
what secrets were inside of that species.
Every time we descend on a deep coral reef we have no idea what we are going to find.
Our average rate of species discoveries is about 12 new species per hour of time we spend
at depth. The region that I am exploring is the transition
zone between the shallow water coral reefs, where there is a lot of photosynthesis and
the perpetually dark abyssal depths. A whole new set of organisms live in this transition
zone.
A lot of times scientists will make really critical, important discoveries and publish
really important results that are read by hundreds of other scientists. What is missing
is how to translate that information out to the rest of the world.
And that is where a program such as One World One Ocean fits in so perfectly. Its job is
essentially to tell the story. Tell the story in a way that is compelling to non-scientists.
Get them to understand how important the oceans are to us, our future, our children, our grandchildren
and why it maters. Why it is important to take steps now, to protect these incredible
resources.