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The Future of Sharks: How Climate Change Threatens Their Survival · How To Protect The Ocean

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  If you like sharks, then you're going to want to see climate change reduced before
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  2100. Because there is a new study out that says that if in the worst case
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  scenario, if we continue to develop fossil fuels the way we are now, that
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  sharks will only hatch at an 11% success rate.
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  That means newborn sharks will only have an 11% success
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  rate of actually hatching. We're going to talk about why that's important on
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  today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show.
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  Hey, 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 a podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how
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  you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by
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  taking action. And on today's episode, we're going to be talking about
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  sharks and why we love sharks so much. We love
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  sharks so much because they're interesting. They're mysterious. They kind of scare
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  us a little bit, but there's a lot of different species of sharks out
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  there. There's over 1200 species of, sharks, skates,
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  chimeras, stingrays, whatever you
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  want to call your different types of sharks. They're out there. There's over
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  1,200. We talk a lot about sharks over on the Beyond Jaws
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  podcast that I co-host with Dr. David Ebert, a.k.a. The
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  Lost Shark Guy. So if you ever want to hear more about sharks, check out that
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  podcast. But really, when it comes down to it, we
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  love sharks. And sharks are important to the ecosystem. They're essentially
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  a predator, and they pretty much have a good formation
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  and form what a food web looks like because they, a
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  lot of times, are apex predators. And we need to protect sharks as
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  much as possible. We need to make sure that not only are they surviving in
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  adulthood, but they're getting to adulthood. And to get to adulthood,
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  you have to be able to hatch from their egg
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  cases, right? That's what a lot of sharks do. They hatch from egg
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  cases. And there's a study that came out that says, hey,
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  you know what? the worst temperature gets and the more acidic
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  the oceans get, the less we're going to have
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  of sharks because they're not going to be able to hatch properly. And so that's a
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  problem that we're going to talk about today. Before we do that though, if you're interested
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  in news and you want to know more about the ocean news, this is your resource.
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  As this podcast, I hope that this is your resource you come to to
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  learn about the new studies that are coming out, people that are
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  doing them, and just overall how you can protect the
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  ocean. That's the name of this podcast. But if you aren't getting enough of that and
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  and you get to listen to it right in your email. So if you want to sign up
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  for that newsletter, you can do so at speakupforblue.com forward
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  slash newsletter. All right, let's get back into
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  this. Now this original story was found on fizz.org. I
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  found this on The Cooldown. The Cooldown's a great website to
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  learn more about climate change. Gotta love
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  that. I'll see you And
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  her team has found some disturbing data involving oceanic
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  warming and acidification that are affecting small spotted
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  cat sharks. So these are just one species that they've found. and
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  that they did some experiments on, and they looked at some scenarios. And
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  so the whole thing is we know
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  that extreme weather is here. We're seeing spikes in
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  ocean temperature. We're seeing increases
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  in pH, meaning if you know the pH scale from 1 to
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  about 15, I guess, somewhere around there, normal
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  pH of an ocean is about 8.2, 8.3, normally 8.3. As
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  it gets less of pH, as the pH decreases,
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  we're actually seeing more acidification. So it's getting more acidic. So
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  7 is about neutral, anything under that is more acidic. And so when you
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  start to see acidic water, you start to see the dissolving
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  of anything that's made from calcareous material.
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  So you'll see corals start to decay. You'll see
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  mollusks like clams and oysters start
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  to decay. Mussels start to decay. Scallops start
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  to decay. Anything that has a shell, crustaceans such as
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  shrimp and such as crabs and lobster, you won't see them grow
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  as well because of the acidity in the water.
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  The higher the temperature in the atmosphere, the more carbon
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  dioxide that comes into the ocean, That carbon dioxide reacts
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  with the calcium in the ocean, and there's less
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  free calcium for those organisms to pick up,
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  and so it becomes hydrocarbic acid, I think? And so
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  it becomes more acidic, and then you get acid water,
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  and you get less crustaceans, you get less molluscs that have
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  shells on them. And that is not good, because those are habitats, right?
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  You get less coral reefs as well. Anything that has
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  a calcium-based shell, you get less of,
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  because it'll slowly start to weather away. It won't be as strong. And
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  so what they're saying here is as temperatures increase and as acidity increases
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  as well, you are going to get less of
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  these types of organisms, including, apparently,
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  small-spotted cat sharks. essentially
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  study was about, that they said here, the hatching success
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  of embryos is crucial factor for population dynamics. In
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  the case of skates and sharks, which have a slow pace of life, low
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  hatching rates could be critical for population renewal.
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  This is Coulombe, the PhD student who shared this article.
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  So luckily we've gotten advanced notice about how environmental changes
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  due to heat and pollution can affect Not just ocean life, but
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  every creature on the planet. So why is this
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  information important? Studies have shown that warmer ocean temperatures impair
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  cognitive function in fish and abnormally high spikes
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  in North Atlantic seas could lead to high mortality rates.
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  The NOAA's projections for the year 2100 showed a pH and carbon levels that
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  could begin dissolving the shells of crustaceans. So this
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  is like lobster, shrimp, crabs, and so forth. Kulo's team
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  created several tiered scenarios for the future and
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  had, so they basically went from less impact
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  to most impact. So SSP2, or middle of the
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  road model, which describes a future where progress towards reducing
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  pollution is underway. This is what we're hoping to see, but net zero
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  isn't achieved just yet. They offered an 83% survival
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  rate of the sharks. But if you go to the other extreme, the
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  SSP5, or the fossil-fueled development scenario,
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  was quite dire. They were shocked to see the low
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  survival rate observed in the SSP5 scenario with
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  only 11% of embryos hatching. So
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  what is the problem with that? You're going to have less sharks. You're going to
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  have less small spotted cat sharks, which also could mean
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  less sharks of other species of sharks and
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  skates and stingrays that have these egg cases. There's
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  something in the water when it's acidic that these egg cases don't
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  do well. The development is not as good. And
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  so we're gonna start to see low development, low survival
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  rates, and that's gonna kill off a lot of sharks in the
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  future. Now, what can we do? It's really take action against
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  climate change. That is the big thing. More research needed on
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  figuring out which species will be affected. But other than that, you
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  wanna find out how we can reduce climate change. Reducing climate
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  change should be the biggest movement
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  that we've ever seen. And we're starting to see governments work on that. too
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  slow in my opinion, but slowly starting to work on that,
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  but they need to do better. They need to start focusing on
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  more advanced policies, stricter rules for
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  emissions, getting back into policies that
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  are positive for the environment, that are positive for the atmosphere, looking
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  at equality and equity within action,
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  giving back local communities with help, just it's everything.
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  We need to throw the book at it. We need to throw everything we have
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  and say, hey, you know what? We're going to reduce climate change. We're
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  going to reduce climate change as much as possible, as
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  fast as we can. And more governments have to act more aggressively. Now,
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  it sounds easy to do. But it's not, right? You know this,
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  like we've been talking about this for a long time. Climate change is a complex problem
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  because there's money tied to it. There's businesses, there's industries
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  that are tied to it that contribute to climate change.
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  Unfortunately, a lot of those businesses have the backs of
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  a lot of politicians who are in power now and will be in power later on.
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  We have two major elections coming up in Canada and North America
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  or in Canada in the US in the US in November 2024 this
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  year There's a huge election for president as well as for
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  Congress people and some senators and then of course in
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  Canada in 2025 we have a big election federal election of
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  who will be the new prime minister or will this that will Trudeau stay
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  prime minister now when you look at what
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  we're looking at in terms of action for these
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  different groups. One party is better than the other in terms of
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  taking action. One party doesn't take action at all. So
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  it really comes down to do you want to see a future where you have seen
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  less change in the environment or do you want to see a future where
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  you're going to see a ton of change in the environment, and it's not
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  going to be good. It's going to be more expensive, more weather-related events,
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  more natural disasters, and a
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  lot of money going towards fixing that. And I don't know how we're all going to pay
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  for that. We're going to get less services so that we can put our tax money towards
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  that. No matter what country you live in, it's going to be bad. It's
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  not going to be good. So the ways that you can help according to
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  this article, you can get involved in climate issues, talk about
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  climate issues, you can support forward-thinking policies, so
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  support the people who want to put forward forward-thinking policies
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  and do your part in transitioning to cleaner tech. such as EVs,
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  solar panels, and whatnot. I even think now they have
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  heat exchangers and coolers. There's geothermal that
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  can work as well. They're expensive. This tech
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  is really expensive. It's very difficult to get if
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  you're not in a position to get that. do what you can, get
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  involved with your government, get involved with non-profit organizations
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  that are working towards changing climate and making
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  changes towards reducing climate change is
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  what I really meant there. But that's really what it comes down to is,
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  you know, if you want to save these sharks, if you want
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  to make sure that we are going to see sharks and other species continue
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  to persist within the environment. Now, we're also not just talking
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  about sharks that sort of, you know, Form aware
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  or have influence over a food web, but
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  you're also looking at you know Organisms that create
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  habitats, you know, some of the most diverse habitats in the
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  world, you know You're gonna have coral reefs. You're gonna have oyster reefs
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  You're going to have mussels and clams and
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  scallops, all that have shells that can form these complex systems,
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  these complex habitats that provide hiding places for fish,
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  that provide food, that clean up the water through
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  filter feeding. There's a lot of benefits in keeping these organisms
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  intact and reducing climate change to do that. The
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  ocean can only take a certain amount of carbon dioxide before it starts to
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  change, and it's already changing. huge spikes
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  in temperature that we haven't seen before. And it continues to get hotter
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  and hotter in that ocean. You can only do it so much where you're going
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  to get a change where you just can't change back. So let's
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  do our part. Let's talk about more climate issues. Let's
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  start to talk about it with our government representatives or
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  future government representatives and become a government representative, especially
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  if you're into changing climate. And I think, you know,
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  just in the previous episode, we talked to Janelle Kelman,
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  who is someone who is very forward-thinking. She's an environmental lawyer.
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  She's also was the mayor of Sausalito City in
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  California. She now sits on the council. She's running for
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  lieutenant governor of California in 2026, where she
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  will have influence over policies and programs that
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  have to do with the environment, including the ocean. This is
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  how you can get in. Lieutenant Governor may not be the spotlight
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  position that you'd want in government, but it's something that she can be most effective
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  at in the background that she has and the
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  motivation that she has to help save our planet, one
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  city at a time, one state at a time. I think that's a valuable lesson.
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  If you want to listen to that episode, you can go back to the last episode, listen to
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  that interview. It was a great interview. She has such great energy, loves
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  the ocean, loves the environment, and she wants to protect it.
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  And I think that's great. That's what we need, more political leaders who
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  do that kind of stuff. And who want to be motivated to
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  do that kind of stuff or who are motivated to do that kind of stuff? So check that out and
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  of course That's it for today's episode if you want to have a conversation about
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  this you want to talk about this Please feel free to visit us on YouTube
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  because I'm starting to put out these YouTube channel YouTube video podcasts
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  I'm also putting the video on on on
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  Spotify where you can actually comment and and or answer polls
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  when they're there. It's a great platform. It's
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  really turning into such a great platform for podcasting and
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  interaction. I love the interaction because this is the start of a conversation that
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  I want to continue with hearing from you and what you think. Whether
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  you agree with me or don't agree with me, that's fine. I don't really mind.
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  I'd love to just chat with you and hear your thoughts on all these
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  items, especially, you know, sharks being affected by climate change even
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  before they're born. Like that's, that's the crazy part. It's even before they're
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  born. So something that you can chat about, you can hit me up also on
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  Instagram at how to protect the ocean and you can just DM me
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  there, but there's so many ways to get ahold of me. You can use any which
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  one you want. Love to hear from you. And thank you so much for joining
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  me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host,