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What Does NOAA Have to Do With Saving Marine Wildlife? · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Some of the ocean's most iconic animals would be in even deeper trouble
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  without the quiet work of one agency.
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  So whales, sea turtles, sharks, and coral reefs, and many people do not realize
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  how much NOAA is actually involved.
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  This is the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast, your daily ocean
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  News and conservation podcast.
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  Follow now if you care about what actually helps Marine life, not
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  just what sounds good online.
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  Today we're gonna be talking about how NOAA protects Marine
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  wildlife and its habitats.
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  And I'm talking about this 'cause this is part of my ongoing
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  weekly, I guess topic for NOAA.
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  Really, it's just all about the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric
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  Administration, NOAA, which is an important part of a lot of things.
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  Two episodes ago we looked at storms saving, basically.
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  Saving people from storm damage and harm that can happen with hurricanes,
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  tsunamis, flooding, and so forth.
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  Yesterday we looked at how it protects seafood and seafood, the seafood
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  economy in the United States and beyond.
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  Today we're talking about marine wildlife in general and how important
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  it is to save those as a species and what they do with these species.
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  So when species decline, recovery doesn't just happen by itself.
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  We can't just leave a species to say, Hey, they're declining.
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  They'll be fine.
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  We're not gonna monitor them.
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  We're not gonna do anything.
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  We're just gonna continue on with our merry way and do what
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  we've been doing, and we don't have to worry about what happens.
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  But no, it takes science, enforcement, planning, and long-term
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  commitment to help these species.
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  NOAA plays a central role in marine species protection in US waters.
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  So that includes the responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act and the
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  Marine Mammal Protection Act, plus habitat Conservation and Sanctuary Management.
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  Take the North Atlantic right whale, for instance.
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  One of the most endangered whales on the planet facing vessel strikes
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  and fishing gear entanglement.
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  NOAA has been deeply involved in monitoring populations for
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  decades, proposing protections, tracking mortalities, and
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  supporting recovery measures.
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  That work can be controversial.
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  It can affect industries and it can trigger political fights.
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  But without intervention, extinction risks rises.
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  Sea turtles are another example.
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  NOAA has supported bycatch reduction measures, nesting beach to science,
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  migration tracking and fishery gear changes that reduce accidental captures.
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  Those actions have helped multiple turtle population improve over time even
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  though some of the threats still remain.
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  And speaking of sea turtles, the work that NOAA has contributed among many
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  other conservation organizations and scientists around the world have helped
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  green sea turtles kind of get out of their endangered status of going extinct
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  and into a different status of being less critical when it goes into endanger.
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  So that's an important aspect when we're talking about the
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  effectiveness of this science, of these engagement opportunities,
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  education and policy making from NOAA.
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  That's very important.
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  And of course, there are sharks.
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  No supports population science, fisheries regulations for some species,
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  protected area science, and ecosystem monitoring that helps understand
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  predator roll.
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  So we talk about sharks.
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  Those are predators.
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  And habitats matter too.
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  It's not just the fact that the sharks are important, but habitats matter.
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  Marine sanctuaries protect critical ecosystems, cultural sites, reefs,
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  kelp forests and migration corridors that help house all these species
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  that we're talking about today.
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  They're very important species.
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  These places support biodiversity, education, tourism,
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  and research all at once.
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  A lot of these species, they've been considered enemies.
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  Movies like Jaws have made great white sharks, the enemy number one in the Ocean.
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  People don't wanna see them.
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  They don't wanna be around them.
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  Obviously you don't wanna be in the water with them.
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  But the fact that this apex predator plays such an important role in
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  ecosystem management in and of itself, not take away humans.
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  They regulate the food web within their area.
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  The fact that back in the ' and '60s and even '70s, they realized
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  that the great white shark population has actually decreased.
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  And then the movie jaws comes out and people are worried about them, but
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  they're like, how do we know where these animals are, where are they?
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  And it triggered funding to find out more about these great white sharks.
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  I talked to Dr. David Ebert, who's a colleague of mine and my co-host
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  on the Beyond Sharks podcast.
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  And he's talked about the jaws generation where funding came in
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  for Jaws work, to like to know where these animals are and what they do,
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  and find out as much as possible.
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  And now we know so much more about these amazing and incredible animals that
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  their population has increased more and more because of their protection.
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  So what started off as villains and even though they still may not have that
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  great of a reputation with most people, there are a lot of people out there,
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  a lot more out there that are want to protect them and have protected them.
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  And we've seen an increase in not only the number and the size of these
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  animals, but also their distribution.
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  And of course climate change is helping that.
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  But we're seeing great whites on the East Coast come into Nova Scotia and
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  even further up, which is incredible to see 'cause these animals doing so well
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  and extending their range a lot of the times because there's so much competition
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  'cause there's so many of those great white sharks within areas.
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  So nursery areas in Southern California are being monitored and they're being
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  researched and we're getting more and more actions of those animals.
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  And I think that's really great in that protection.
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  Now, again, we talk about why this matters to people because wildlife protection
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  is not separate from human wellbeing.
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  And again, a lot of times we kind of take ourselves out of the equation
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  of the food web and we realize that we are part of the food web.
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  And we're not at the top of the food web necessarily, but we're
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  involved in this ecosystem.
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  And many communities are economically tied to the living oceans.
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  And I think that's an important aspect to realize.
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  We saw that yesterday.
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  Ecotourism communities are very much tied to the Ocean.
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  Healthy oceans mean people are gonna go out and explore, which means
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  people are going to pay money and support communities in that way.
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  I think that's also cool.
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  And also it matters to the Ocean.
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  Species are not just decorations.
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  Predators regulate food webs, as I mentioned before.
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  Grazers maintain habitats like coral reefs and seagrasses.
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  Migratory animals move nutrients across ecosystems like whales
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  and so forth, which is something that's not talked about enough.
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  You lose enough species and a system weakens.
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  They're not as stable.
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  We talk about biodiversity all the time on this podcast.
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  When you have a system like say, a coral reef system and you have this beautiful
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  habitat of these corals, these corals cannot be just sitting there all the time
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  without any kind of maintenance on them.
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  You'll see other parasites that will come on, a disease that will come on the corals
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  eventually.
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  If there's a lot of nutrients, you'll see an overgrowth of vegetation that will come
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  like algae that will come on these corals.
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  And these corals can't just remove them on its own.
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  You need grazers.
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  So you have fishes that will come in and they'll start to peck at
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  these corals to make sure that the algae is not widespread over the
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  corals and destroy the coral system
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  ' cause all the corals are die because they're smothered.
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  They can't get the nutrients they need.
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  They can't get the sun that they need to do photosynthesis.
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  And so it could be a hell of a system if your species are not there.
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  If you start taking out those species either through fishing or because of
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  climate changes and things like that, you start to weaken the stability
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  of that habitat and that weakening of the stability will weaken the
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  overall health of the coral system.
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  And so when you have a weak system, you have a weak biodiversity, you
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  have a weak system, you don't get to reap the rewards, let's say.
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  So from fishing, from seafood support, from economic
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  support, tourism and so forth.
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  A lot of communities depend on that.
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  We don't realize how much the communities depend on this.
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  So protecting wildlife especially Marine wildlife is very difficult and it's
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  expensive and often politically messy.
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  Not a lot of politicians wanna protect these animals because they don't really
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  see the direct benefits of that, or even the indirect benefits of it.
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  But the alternative is simpler, decline, collapse, and regret.
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  And that's what we want to avoid as much as possible.
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  We've seen in the Gulf of Mexico recently that the US government has reduced
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  the amount of quote unquote hoops that developers like in the oil and gas
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  industry have to go through when they're looking at protecting endangered species.
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  So essentially what happens when a lease is bought, an oil and gas lease
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  is bought in the Gulf of Mexico.
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  They have to go through a bunch of regulations.
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  The companies have to go through a bunch of regulations to ensure
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  that they're not harming the Ocean.
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  And it takes time to go through that.
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  It takes a lot of research, it takes money to do that.
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  Not all of the time the businesses are happy to do it because they takes
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  time to go through those studies.
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  They'll pay a hundred to couple hundred thousand dollars,
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  maybe even more to do that.
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  And they'll say it's really expensive and it takes a lot of time too.
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  That's the argument that I hear all the time.
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  We heard in Canada with the pipeline extensions.
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  But we also hear that in the US now with this, and they say it takes too
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  much time to actually build on this.
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  But even if they were allowed to jump through those hoops a lot of the times
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  to go from exploration to drilling, to lease buying and all that kinda
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  stuff, not in that order, but to do all that, that'll take 20 years.
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  They have the time.
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  They just don't want to go through it because there's a possibility that
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  they could be harming the Ocean and they don't want people to know that
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  they're gonna be harming the Ocean.
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  They don't care if they harm the Ocean.
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  They still get their money out of each of those wells that they drill.
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  And not even long term, they just want short term.
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  That's all these companies care about.
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  And that's something that we have to prevent.
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  And that's why we go through these regulations that they think about it more.
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  They think about the animals and the fish and all the other
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  communities that depend on the Ocean that are not affected by that.
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  So it's not just the fact that you're gonna help destroy the Ocean.
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  It's the fact that so many other communities in the Gulf of Mexico, as
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  well as around the world, depend on these systems, depend on the coastline
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  for money, for stability, for safety.
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  And when you don't get that and because of one other sector that
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  comes through ' cause they find it takes too long to go through and they
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  can't make their money fast enough,
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  that becomes a real problem.
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  So this is why we talk about on these episodes, on this podcast.
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  This is why NOAA is there to help, to help protect these animals, to
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  speak up for these animals that have somebody to speak up for, and to make
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  sure that we're doing things properly
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  as a country.
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  Whether you're in Canada, whether in the US, it doesn't matter.
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  We wanna make sure government agencies really do provide this and NOAAa
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  provides it for the US and that's what you're gonna hear on these episodes of
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  the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  We've covered studies from NOAA before, may not have just gone out and mentioned
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  NOAA, but we have covered a lot of sites from amazing scientists that
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  worked at NOAA all their entire life.
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  Careers, which have been phenomenal.
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  So, that's it for today's episode.
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  I'd love to hear from you.
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  Let me know what you think.
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  Go to speak up for slash feedback and let me know how you feel.
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  You can leave a voicemail or you can write to me.
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  You can also hit me up on any of my socials, which
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  are in the show notes below.
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  And I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  Don't forget to follow this podcast if you want to hear tomorrow's
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  episode of more about NOAA.
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  And I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you tomorrow and happy conservation.