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Why Ocean Exploration Could Matter to Your Future More Than You Think · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Did you know that we know more about some parts of the moon than we do about
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  large areas of our own ocean floor?
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  That should bother probably all of us because you cannot protect
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  a world that you have never seen.
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  This is the How to Protect the ocean Podcast, your weekday podcast for
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  people who want to understand what is really happening in the ocean.
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  So hit that follow button if you do not wanna miss future episodes.
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  Today we are talking about ocean exploration, discovery, and why NOAA's
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  deep ocean work actually matters.
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  We've been talking about NOAA for the past week and we have an interview tomorrow
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  with somebody from the ocean Conservancy who's talking about how important it's
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  to keep NOAA programs funded, which NOAA has been undergoing cuts over the last
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  year because of the Trump administration.
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  They want to decrease anything that has to do with climate change related work, even
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  though it's important to us all, not only from US citizens, but also from the world.
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  Because NOAA leads a lot of this research, not only in protecting marine mammals, sea
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  turtles, sharks, and other fish, not only protecting seafood markets and fishing
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  communities and the seafood economy as a whole, but also in natural disasters.
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  And one thing that we haven't talked about yet, which we're gonna be talking
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  about today, is we're gonna be talking about exploration, discovery, and
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  why NOAA's deep ocean work actually matters because this is something
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  that doesn't get talked about enough.
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  And because the ocean covers most of our planet, over 70% of our planet, yet
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  vast areas remain poorly mapped, rarely observed, or even completely unexplored.
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  It's interesting that we know more about the Marianna Trench, which is the deepest
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  trench in the world, and we still need to know a lot about it, but we don't
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  know much about any other place in the ocean, which is difficult to think.
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  It's not just a trivia fact.
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  It is a real management problem.
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  If we don't know where vulnerable coral gardens exist, where unique sea mount
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  ecosystems thrive or where critical habitats lie, we can accidentally damage
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  them before we even knew where they are.
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  So just even think about deep sea mining.
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  Deep sea mining is a terrifying thing.
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  I know it can provide a great resource for electric vehicle batteries and
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  other renewable energy systems.
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  But the fact that we don't know much about, or anything really about
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  deep sea processes compared to what we should is really a travesty.
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  And it's scary to think that we can say yes to deep sea mining without fully
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  understanding the deep sea, or more about the deep sea and how the deep
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  sea runs, operates that will help us.
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  And if we disrupt that operation, how it could harm us.
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  So NOAA's exploration programs use research vessels.
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  They use remotely operated vehicles, ROVs, sonar mapping sensors, and cameras
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  to reveal hidden parts of the ocean.
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  And recent expeditions have documented deep sea corals, sponge
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  fields, unusual geology and species
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  many people have never actually seen before.
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  I mean, we never would've had the Dumbo octopus without NOAA and without
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  these deep sea aspiration missions.
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  These missions have produced a stunning footage, but the real value
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  is the actual data that we've seen.
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  Maps inform marine protected areas.
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  Habitat data informs fisheries decisions and baseline observations help detect
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  climate change impacts over time.
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  That's a really important part, and discovery can often drive innovation.
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  We often find out that the new medications, the new
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  discoveries in medicine have actually come from the ocean.
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  And that's a really important aspect, the fact that we barely know what's
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  happening in the ocean, and we know that understanding some of these
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  species, some of these habitats and how they survive different aspects
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  of the ocean and how they can recoup or regenerate or even recover from
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  natural disasters could really help us in our own biology, our own ecology.
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  And I think that's an important aspect that we just don't get.
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  Also these exploration missions should look at extreme ocean environments that
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  have inspired advances in robotics, material science, and biotechnology.
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  So it's not just medicine that we're looking at.
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  We're looking at everything that the deep sea can provide,
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  that the ocean can provide.
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  That's something looking at like hydrothermal vent and how species survive
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  in hydrothermal vent and how that can translate in how humans can survive in
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  really unlikely situations where you have sulfur or you have different things
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  we could look at the mechanisms that allow animals that can survive these
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  things, that could help us survive
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  anything that happens, any kind of poisoning that we can have or
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  anything that changes in our bodies.
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  And as I mentioned before, ocean exploration also matters in the
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  current debates like deep sea mining.
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  How can society be responsible for decisions about industrial activity
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  in places like we barely understand?
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  Think about that.
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  It is just insane to say, Hey, we can actually help ruin this area even though
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  we don't think we're gonna ruin it, but we don't really know what's gonna happen,
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  what's gonna help us in the short term?
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  Then we'll actually do it.
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  That question of looking at how we can spend on, how we can
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  destroy environments instead of protecting it is really difficult.
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  And when we look at things like deep sea mining, that type of question
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  about how we can make responsible decisions about industrial activity
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  in places we barely understand.
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  That question gets harder when exploration budgets actually shrink.
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  And this is what happens with NOAA.
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  We start to seek funding cuts and program cuts that can help
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  bring down the operational budget of the entire government.
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  But in the long run, it doesn't help us in any kind of way.
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  It doesn't help US citizens.
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  It doesn't help understanding the ocean a lot better for a lot of the
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  reasons that I've outlined this week.
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  Exploration in general for it helps people 'cause it helps that
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  exploration, that creates knowledge, that supports smarter policy, better
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  risk decisions and scientific process.
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  It also inspires the next generation.
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  You know, a kid watching a live ROV on YouTube, just like a kid who
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  watch like the Artemis II mission and they want to be astronauts.
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  That watching an ROV dive today could become tomorrow's ocean
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  engineer or marine scientists.
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  We have no idea.
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  This actually matters to people and why it matters to the ocean?
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  Because knowing unknown ecosystems, our vulnerable ecosystems, that
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  could be really great to know because we can make them less vulnerable
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  through management decisions.
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  That first step in protection is knowing what exists.
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  So imagine understanding vulnerable and discovering vulnerable communities
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  in the deep sea or elsewhere that we hadn't just originally explored and
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  protecting that area and having a benefit, a net positive benefit on the ocean.
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  The deep sea, it's not an empty space.
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  It is alive.
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  It is connected with the rest of the planet and still full
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  of surprises just because
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  we don't think that there are marine mammals underneath, but there are
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  like tons of diversity of worms.
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  We still don't understand how those worms affect the deep sea and how they help the
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  deep sea be the deep sea as we know it.
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  And so I think that's really important to know.
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  And NOAA is one of the few institutions that help us see it clearly.
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  I think it's important to look at a mission like the Artemis II
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  and see how exciting it was, and it was exciting for everybody,
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  including me as a marine biologist.
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  It was exciting to watch.
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  It was cool to hear the scientists and what they go through when they
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  live in space and stuff like that.
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  Just like it's important for me and fun for me to find out what it's like to
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  see what's on the bottom of the ocean.
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  Looking at hydrothermal vents, looking at how the smoke from the
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  hydrothermal vents can go across the Pacific and what that will do maybe
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  for another habitat in that area.
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  Does it work off of that smoke?
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  Does it use that smoke for some kind of reason?
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  We don't know.
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  Looking at these little nodules that are out there that are being used to mine for
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  critical minerals, but also they could be producing dark oxygen that could help
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  us understand how the deep sea survives and how animals survive the deep sea.
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  Knowing more about the moon and less about this planet is not a good thing.
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  We still need to know about what's in space, but we also need to know
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  what's helping drive every second breath that we take from the ocean.
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  I think that's an important aspect, and it's something that we need to spend more
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  money on, something we don't spend money on, but we'll spend money on destroying it
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  before we protect it.
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  And that's something that I want you to think about and think about why
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  that's so important for us and why we're not fighting for more of it.
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  And I know a lot of the people who are listening to this
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  podcast are fighting for NOAA.
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  If you live in the US or you don't and you understand how important NOAA is
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  to the ocean in general, not just to the US citizens, but to the world,
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  I think it's important to fight for funding, for science, for exploration,
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  for protection, and protection of humans as well as marine species.
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  It's really, really important.
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  Tomorrow we're gonna be talking to a representative from the Ocean Conservancy.
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  He's gonna talk more about NOAA and he's gonna go through a lot of the
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  things that we discussed here, but he's gonna reiterate why it's important.
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  And I do these types of episodes where I do these solo episodes on
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  different aspects of, say, NOAA, or different aspects of Antarctica,
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  which we talked about last week, because it's important for us to
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  know what we need and what people are doing to help protect us in general.
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  And I think that's important.
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  I live in Canada.
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  There's often times where I go to the US.
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  If I'm stuck in a storm there, I wanna know if I need to evacuate or not.
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  I wanna make sure that my colleagues, my friends that live in the US are
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  safe because they have an agency like NOAA working at full capacity.
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  Full budgeting, full funding to say, Hey, we wanna protect the people.
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  We want the information to get to the people.
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  And the science, the exploration, the protection of marine mammals
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  and other organisms as well as us is extremely important.
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  That's what NOAA does.
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  So, with that said, that's the episode for today.
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  Tune in for the episode tomorrow.
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  Follow this How to Protect The Ocean Podcast for more of those episodes
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  where we talk about a topic every week.
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  And I think it's really important that we do and so that we turn ocean systems into
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  stories people can actually understand.
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  It's a very complex system, but we're here to help out.
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  So more people follow the podcast.
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  The more I can get funded to continue to go on, the more I spend on this podcast.
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  I'm gonna spend a lot of time on it anyway.
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  But follow it so you don't miss any of the topics that we talk about in the future.
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  And of course, tune in tomorrow for that Ocean Conservancy interview
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  I am doing speaking about NOAA.
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  So we're talking about NOAA.
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  This is gonna be really important.
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  It was a great interview and I can't wait for you to listen to it tomorrow.
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  So tune in tomorrow.
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  Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the How
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  to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you tomorrow and happy conservation.