How To Protect The Ocean
SUFB 091: Ocean Talk Friday
Nathan and I discuss 3 different topics today: 1) Seaweed farming as an alternative to fishing and a way to absorb more CO2; 2) Over 600 sea turtles were rescued after they were stranded from cold ocean temepratures thanks to a great network of volunteers, vets, and conservationists; and, we discuss the merits of big sharks in aquariums.
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Show Notes:
http://www.speakupforblue.com/session91
Well, come to the speaker for blue podcast session 91 today again every week this day is my favorite day It's ocean talk Friday. We're gonna have a couple of articles that we're gonna talk about We're gonna talk about seaweed farming talk about a deep freeze that happened About a week ago that froze almost 600 sea turtles and then care was needed by humans So we're actually doing something good for once to see turtles and the last story is we're gonna talk about a big story that happened over the last weekend a Shark that was kept in an aquarium. I talked about it on Monday But we're gonna go further and talk about whether big sharks big animals should be kept in aquarium So stay tuned for the speak up for blue podcast Welcome to the speak up for blue podcast helping you get involved in ocean conservation And now here's your host can't get the song bad blood out of his head Andrew lua Hey everybody welcome back to another exciting episode of the speaker for blue podcast your voice for the ocean I am your host Andrew luen founder speak up for blue calm marine ecologist and self-proclaimed oceanpreneur and today is My favorite day of the week. It's not only because it's Friday But it's ocean talk Friday here on the speaker for blue podcast and I am joined with a sickly Nathan Johnson Nathan. How you doing? Nathan has been so kind to join us. He wasn't able I usually recorded on Wednesdays, but he wasn't feeling well He's been at a conference even presented today and he says he's ready to go. He's feeling better feeling good enough for An ocean talk Friday, so Nathan. I appreciate you coming on man. I really do You bet you bet it's been a big week in ocean news. There's been a lot of stuff that's going on Especially regarding sharks, which we're gonna get into all you know in a second I'm gonna get your opinion on what you think about the great white shark in the Japanese aquarium and how that kind of played out And if you think that we should be going more into that and but we'll get to that in just that'll be our one of our last stories But or our last story that we're gonna talk about we're gonna talk about three stories But let's get in to the first story and you want to introduce that one? You Right You Right You Right You You You You You You You You You You Right Right Right Right Right Right Right Right Yeah, and this is something interesting that you know I've married my wife who is who is Asian and very into the cult the Asian culture of course her family her She's from Canada, but her parents are ones from Taiwan and ones from Hong Kong very into the seaweed sort of food and to be honest My daughter loves it as snacks. She just absolutely loves it and of course sushi, you know has seaweed wraps and whatnot I didn't know kelp was being farmed and this is off the Atlantic coast I'm interested to find out. I think it's a great. I think it's it's something that's gonna be that's that's that's great to do However, the biologist in me worries about how this is farmed and where it's farmed and how controlled this is Essentially you're if you if he's doing it in the open ocean, and it doesn't really mention it in this article I've been just kind of looking in it because I just thought about it now as we were as we were talking about it But you know it it doesn't really talk about this article, but that if you introduce kelp a Species of kelp into the system, and it kind of gets out of hand What's it gonna do to the system now? Of course kelp is a very good habitat builder But the the East Coast system from what I know it doesn't have a lot of kelp in the kelp that I'm thinking of in terms of the kelp off the coast of California No, I didn't think it would because I'm looking at the pictures here that we see and we'll put up a picture on the on the on the show notes was we speak up for blue calm forward slash sessions 91, but You know it looks but you know I just you know what I mean like I just wonder if it's if it's a species that's already found in this area or is this a Species that they're gonna be introducing and how are they gonna be farmers gonna be a closed system or an open system regardless of the fact? Yes, it is healthy. It's finally it's good that we you know We put this in as long as it is organically grown And that we're not putting extra stuff in there because I think that would be a bit of a shame Because that's just gonna destroy the waters there, but I think it's good. It's a good carbon sequester It removes carbon dioxide, which is awesome And it's healthy for you. So it's got a lot of pluses on this side And it's looks like it's doing pretty well economically and I think it's one of those things that you can control the harvest You can you can monitor pretty well because it doesn't move And and you can you know make it sustainable, which I think is which I think is fantastic Do you have any concerns about this this the way they farm like I do? I'm not sure it's just what I'm thinking out loud here Yeah Okay Okay, so it is found okay so it is found within that area which is good So it's not the kelp that I'm thinking see it's interesting at what they call kelp And I wonder if it's is it still part of the kelp family Right yeah Me neither, no, no, I'm the same way But yeah, I just find it interesting you know actually that brings up another point of the way they market this as kelp And or seaweed when it can be a lot of different a lot of different Different species or a combination of species. I'm looking at the picture here And it looks like a pretty string. There's like one that's being held up and it looks very full and green And very you know like a big leaf the other ones look like very stringy So I wonder you know when I see seaweed I give to my daughter. It's very compact So I'm assuming it's a number of species that are pushed and pressed together For like one day when they actually just have seaweed as a snack And another whatever other Forms it comes in. I'm sure it's a it's a number of species that are that are put together But hey man if it works and it and it's and we're able to put more in the actual water more more kelp in the water And it's a good way to restore habitats a good way to attract species build the fisheries as well Then I'm all for it. I think it's a great a great way of putting stuff together For sure Right Yeah, and I mean from an economic standpoint and a fissuring standpoint this seems to be a bit of a more steady income for fishermen, you know you can control like I said before you can control the growth You can make sure it's sustainable You don't have to go looking around on your boats all the time. You know where this kelp is I think it's something that is might be a good alternative to fishermen who may not be able to fish the species that they're willing to spit to To fish or that they've they've fished in the past especially now with climate change You know the cod stocks are not doing too well in Maine Area the Northeastern United States This could be a good way to to make sure that they can still sustain a livelihood from this So from fishing and being out on the water like they're used to so I think it's good. All right Let's move on to the next story next story. I'll describe here It's it was kind of a bit of a tragedy that turned into something that People were able to to overcome or the the animals were able to overcome. There was a bit of a cold spell in the Atlantic Ocean just off South Carolina and and just into Georgia where they found over 600 turtles that were essentially in a like cold stunning event is what they call them and The North Carolina Aquariums that regularly provide care for weak-oriented turtles worry on where the response team and they actually Responded to 600 turtles that were caught in frigid water temperatures near shore unable to swim due to a hypothermia like response This is interesting because on one hand one you got you know 600 turtles now They said most of the turtles were able to be put back They recovered quickly, but there are some there still need to be cared for with you know Veterinary assistant and aquarium staff now There's a couple of things that I that I found interesting about this story one a aquarium staff and Veterinarians helped out normally or in the especially in the past week and other other times aquarium staff when you say that It tends to have a negative connotation, you know aquarium staff aren't able to keep you know great white sharks healthy, you know, so it dies after three days or You know aquarium staff are taking care of a marine mammal that is dying or something like that here This is a aquarium staff that that are helping to take care of cetro species that are endangered and that have been that have swam that swam into a cold snap and Need their help so I think it's kind of nice that we hear that aquarium staff are actually doing a really good job in saving them as Many aquariums that is what their jobs are That's one of their arms anyway of the aquarium is to make sure that they take care species and they rehabilitate injured Species and get them back out to the water as soon as possible. So I think that is a great Thing to do the other thing is is a cold snap in the ocean when we have an El Nino We have an El Nino a blob and a Pacific Oz Decadal Oscillation that you know It's telling us that our waters are going to be warm and our sea surface temperature can be worn here They are in a you know, frigid the swimming into this frigid water temperatures. What is going on here Nathan? What's happening? Sorry, I kind of put you on the spot there Yeah Right? I Right Is there sea to sea turtles yeah right? Mm-hmm Right Yeah, and it also could be the fact that that area, you know You get a lot of sea turtles that probably come up the Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream comes out of the Gulf of Mexico goes up the coast It goes offshore of the coast so you don't normally see it But that ends up being a pretty warm body that goes all the way up north and eventually we'll just kind of Take a turn to the right go towards the middle Atlantic and go up all the way to the UK Hence why the UK gets a lot of rain and and a lot of precipitation is because that warm water is evaporating And then that water that the clouds gets saturated and it and it rains so This happens quite a bit with other species. I remember my master's degree when we're looking at You know bottom invertebrates of commercial invertebrates macroinverse crab shrimp Lobsters and so forth and we were trying to find out where there were specific Communities that that were pretty steady that over over a four-year period and one of the years a new A new assemblage of what we call it a new community kind of showed up at a that was dominated by one species of squid species I kind of showed up out of nowhere in on the in the third year and then disappeared in the fourth year and the explanation that we had Was that there was actually an eddy system like a little bit of a gyro small gyro system that came off the Gulf stream and went into the North Atlantic to off this off the Nova Scotian shelf and These animals were caught up in that in that eddy and then of course They're just it's just too cold for that species to establish a long-term history there and they just couldn't they just couldn't survive So this could be part of that reason We know sea turtles like to get into currents and that's part of one of their habitats It could have been just one of those things where they just got off at the wrong stop or they got caught in a netty system during a time Where it was just a little too cold for them and they got caught in a cold snap the good news is that there were people there that realize that there was a huge stranding and these are these are people who work and volunteer to look Oh and watch this stranding and And they did they did a good job in making sure that they got as many as possible back into to warmer water at the aquarium cared for them and release them these animals back as soon as possible and Of course more will be released as hopefully they recover over the next couple of weeks So so I think it's great I think it's great that there is a process in place to one detect this this These strandings to get them into a proper facility and three reintroduce them as soon as possible soon as they're ready and strong enough to swim Out there and of course once the area is kind of is cleared of that cold water just a one note before we move on The the turtles that rescue were made up of juvenile green sea turtles, but there were a few loggerhead and Kemp Ridley turtles so Pretty small turtles if you look at the pictures they do all look like juveniles They're in a lot of the times they're in these little small boxes or or Rubbermaid containers just to get them out And you see some of the pictures which will put up on on the session session notes Where you actually see the inventarians looking at them and inspecting them? So it's it's pretty good that we see this and I'm glad that they they got saved I'm glad their systems in place and there's a volunteer network and a you know a government network that's actually there To to make sure that everything's fine. So I think that's really good to see. What do you think Nathan? No Absolutely absolutely okay, let's move on to our last story of the day of course I'll just kind of give a little bit of a history last week January 3rd. I believe on January 5th a great white shark off the southwest coast of Japan was caught by accident in a I Guess fishing gear. It was brought to a Japanese aquarium in Okinawa Japan and it was placed in an exhibit that was ready for a great white shark now aquarium officials say that they brought the great white shark in not to Rescue it but to actually hold it their long term because the public were demanding it plus They want to know more about the biology and physiology of the shark by taking care of it Unfortunately three days later this animal died and it made huge huge news Around the world and people were just one surprise and two just disappointed and angry that This is actually happening around you know in in aquarium in ice on Monday I talked about it in our podcast that was session 89. I believe no session 87 I'm sorry, so if you go speak up for blue calm forward slash session 87 it was in that podcast we talked about at length Now previously in Monterey Bay Aquarium They tried in the 80s. I believe was 1980 in 1984 They tried with two different individuals one lasted 11 days the other lasted two days both died They think because the sharks did not eat obviously these sharks are not good in captivity other sharks are though other sharks have done well in captivity before but When I saw these articles I saw a lot of people talking about how some other large sharks should not be in an aquarium Whale sharks come to mind And other large-body sharks maybe some tiger sharks, which you haven't you don't really see a lot You sometimes see some bull sharks in in aquariums, but Nathan What are your thoughts on the entire like big fish or big sharks shouldn't be in aquariums? What is your take on that? [silence] [silence] [silence] Mm-hmm [silence] Right [silence] Right [silence] Mm-hmm Right [silence] Right [silence] Yeah [silence] Yes [silence] Yeah [silence] [silence] Right [silence] Right [silence] Yeah, I think the way my thought on on this and I did have a time to think about it this week is I look at it in two ways. I was like, okay, one wall actually three. What's the history of survivability in a tank by the species? You know, there's there are species who of sharks who have done very well in aquariums and continue to do very well in aquariums. It doesn't affect their health, so that's fine. So the one is health of the actual species. Do you know about the species? Are you ready to keep it alive? Is it easy to keep alive and so forth? So, you know, you look at a sand shark, tend to be in a lot of aquariums, leopard sharks tend to be in a lot of aquariums. They tend to be able to handle small spaces. Great white sharks, on the other hand, you don't see them in aquariums. And there's there's a reason for it is they don't really survive well. It could be a food source of issue, you know? You're looking at a great white shark that's probably used to feeding, used to feed on seals. And then all of a sudden, what kind of meat are you giving it? Are you actually going out and killing seals to get to give them that meat? Are you actually able to do that? There's the stress, like you said, there's the stress of actually moving a fish. That's very stressful on an animal. And then you're putting it in a body of water that is, you know, however wide, not even a tenth of a tenth of a tenth percent, you know, that it's used to. It's a large, it's a migratory species over long distances. And you just don't know a lot about the species. So I think it was very ignorant for them to actually just plop it in there. I'm hoping they did more preparation than what it sounds. But I think you have to worry about that. The other thing that you have to worry about is how is it doing in the wild? Great white sharks have been on a decline for a while. It's said in some places that they're actually increased or their sightings are increasing. But there's still not a lot of information on this animal. And there's a lot of pressure on the animal. So are we going to take a chance in bringing this animal into an aquarium when we don't know much about it? And there's a high probability of it dying? Or are we going to leave it in the wild, let it proliferate, let the animals, you know, stabilize and build their populations and then may be considered down the road if it's still safe for the animals? That's how I feel. And I think every shark, every fish should have the same kind of assessment. Obviously there are a lot of aquariums all around the world that are very successful and they're very ethical in the way they keep their animals. Some will believe me, some won't. But it is true. But you still have to be careful of what you're doing. Even people who have sea turtles tend to be very careful in how they treat them. They know a lot more about their physiology. Plus they're able to handle them more. Can you imagine trying to give medicine or some kind of treatment to a great white shark? You know, I just don't see it happening. You know, a sea turtle, you can actually bring it out of the water. It may not love it, but you can handle it. Some small sharks, you can handle them. A great white, I'm not so sure you can really handle it. So that makes it difficult to take care of the animal properly. Not that you want to handle it that much, but when you do, you want to make sure you can do a proper job. So that's just my feeling on that. Of course. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Right. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. No, absolutely. You're right. And it's interesting. This aquarium also, just on this website, this aquarium also has a whale shark exhibit. You know, so that kind of, you know, we talked about big sharks. You know, great whites are a big shark. They're a fast shark. You look at whale sharks, which are the largest fish. I mean, great white size, you know, pales in comparison to the size of a whale shark. How do you keep a whale shark healthy? You know, there are, you know, this aquarium as well as the Georgia aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia. They have a few. Yeah. And some have died in the past, and it's been made big news, but it's also a big, huge crowd pleaser. You know, like, to be honest, I'm curious, you know, if I'm in Atlanta, Georgia, I'm going to go to the aquarium and I'm going to see this. You know, I think they say it's a size of about five or six football fields is the size of the tank. That's just the, you know, that's a pretty big tank. Of course, you have animals that size, but, you know, you, the aquariums have to tread lightly when they're looking at these animals to make sure that they keep them healthy. Because like you said, the bad publicity, especially with the way social media is working right now, can get really nasty very quickly and it could sink a business. So they have to be careful, especially when, when aquariums have these sort of animals. It's, it makes it very risky in terms of publicity and what kind of publicity they have. Now, mind you, this doesn't seem to slow down this aquarium at all. And it's no, it looks like it's known to take chances because it does have whale sharks. So, you know, I guess it's one of those things where aquariums will do what they do and it's unfortunate that this poor shark had to die. You also wonder if it got caught accidentally, was it on the way to die anyway? And maybe this kind of helped its life. But to be honest, in my, in my overall opinion, I just don't think that great whites belong in an aquarium. There's some fish that just don't belong in an aquarium. Just like, you know, you've got some whales and marine mammals who don't belong in an aquarium or in doing a show or what have you. And I think this is just one of these cases that just happened to happen. So, yeah. So that's, that's my, those are my feelings on this. And we kind of closed that chapter because I've been covering sharks all week, which is great. It's a bit of our own shark week here. It definitely was. But, you know, the, you know, yesterday's, you know, Thursday's episode, I really enjoyed because it was, it was one of those episodes where you got to look at the research and what's happening in Great White Sharks. A lot of the times when we look at Great White Sharks, the only, the only thing we see on TV or in movies are them feeding, right, in the way they feed. I mean, it is amazing the way they jump out of the water and they breach and they grab seals and so forth. However, or we see them like attack a cage or eat a cage with divers or try and like bite on a cage and stuff. But we don't really get to see their distribution, their population, how they're doing, that kind of research. And then that's why I want to bring that to light because I think it's really important. We don't know much about the species and we need to find out more and we're just starting to get to that point where we're just discovering now that we've tagged a number of them and we're starting to see where they go. And it's actually quite interesting how much of a pattern they travel in. So I think it's one of those things where we need to just continue on to this research and for you and I, we need to keep communicating this research to get people interested in their actual biology and ecology to see how they're doing. So that's my feelings on that. But yeah, so anyway, so thank you very much, Nathan. Did you have any last words? Sorry, that's what I was asking you before we got cut off. No, no, I figured, I mean, it was a good point to get cut off, but I'd make sure everything's cool. Yeah, no problem. Okay, that's good. I'm glad you can make this, make it on this Ocean Talk Friday because it wouldn't be the same without you, Nathan. So I appreciate the effort. I'm sorry about canceling yesterday. Thanks for being flexible though. Absolutely, man. This has been great. Ocean Talk Friday is not the same one without a person, but especially without you, my man who writes the blogs and gets into it. So I appreciate that. But for all those who want to listen to more podcasts and they want to see us go even further dive deeper and provide more information on different platforms, you can help support the Speak Up for Blue podcast by going to our crowdfunding page on patreon.com and Speak Up for Blue.com/patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N, and you can put in a support amount of whatever you'd like. Just remember it is a monthly support and you can see all our goals and the different levels of support that you can provide and what we will, the incentives that we kind of provide which eat with each one. So I appreciate and Nathan appreciates and we all appreciate you guys supporting this podcast because this is what we love to do and this is what we want to do more of in the future. So you can go to speakupforblue.com/patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N, and you can give your support there and we really appreciate it. So that is it for Ocean Talk Friday. You've been listening to Speak Up for Blue podcast. My name is Andrew Lew and I am your host. Happy Friday, happy weekend, and happy conservation. [Music]