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American Biologist Shot Dead In His Home In the Philippines · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to this deep dive. We are so glad you
• 0:02
  are joining us today.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, We've got a lot of ground.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: To cover, we really do. And I want to acknowledge
• 0:08
  right up front that today's journey is going to navigate
• 0:11
  the really murky waters of a breaking real time true
• 0:15
  crime investigation.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Right well, at the same time, you know, we're celebrating
• 0:19
  a truly monumental scientific legacy.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Exactly. It's a heavy one, but an important one. So
• 0:25
  I want you to picture this, paint a vivid, contrasting
• 0:28
  picture in your mind. It is Sunday night, July twelve,
• 0:32
  twenty twenty.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Six, right in the middle of summer.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we are in a quiet coastal home in Barangay,
• 0:38
  Ajeon that's in the Philippines.
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  Speaker 2: It's a very peaceful area, very lush, very humid, tropical.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Kind of night, right And inside this home, a seventy
• 0:46
  three year old American scientist is simply sitting there watching TV,
• 0:50
  just enjoying a normal Sunday night, which.
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  Speaker 2: Is what you do in you're seventy three and retired
• 0:54
  or well almost retired exactly.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: But moments later, a wildly violent home invasion shot. What
• 1:00
  is that piece and he is left dead.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: It's just so jarring. The contrast is unbelievable, it really is.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: And the man who was killed, the subject of our
• 1:09
  deep drive today is doctor Kent E. Carpenter, And we
• 1:12
  have to be clear.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: He wasn't just a victim in a news headline.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: No, absolutely not. He was a towering figure in marine biology.
• 1:19
  I mean, this is a guy who literally remapped our
• 1:22
  entire understanding of ocean life.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah. His contributions are just massive. You can't overstate them.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: You really can't. So our mission today is twofold. We
• 1:31
  are going to unpack the evolving, highly contradictory details of
• 1:35
  his tragic.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Murder, because the story is shifting by the minute, really
• 1:39
  it is.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: And alongside that, we want to explore his fifty year
• 1:43
  quest to document and defend the most biologically diverse waters
• 1:46
  on Earth.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. To understand the magnitude of this loss, we first
• 1:49
  need to establish exactly what happened, or at least what
• 1:52
  was initially reported on the night he died.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Right, So let's get into the core information from that night.
• 1:57
  It's roughly eleven thirty PM.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Late enough that most of the neighborhood is asleep.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And according to the initial police reports, three
• 2:04
  men wearing bonnets, which is the local term for balaklavas
• 2:08
  or ski masks. They force entry into the house.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Right, and the escalation is instantaneous. There's no negotiation, no standoff.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: No, the crime is horribly abrupt. Doctor Carpenter was shot
• 2:18
  just once in the head and he died instantly.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: It's just brutal. And he was there with his thirty
• 2:22
  four year old Philippina companion, right.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, they had been together for about seven years, and
• 2:28
  her initial report to the responding officers described this chaotic,
• 2:32
  highly violent scene.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: She said that after they shot him, they turned on her.
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  Speaker 1: Right, She reported being tied up and sexually assaulted while
• 2:40
  the men ransacked.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: The house, and then they fled into the night. They
• 2:43
  supposedly took a laptop, an undisclosed amount of cash, and
• 2:46
  a backpack.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this. If you are a police officer
• 2:50
  walking into that scene, the immediate assumption is that this
• 2:53
  is a home invasion gone wrong.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Sure, it fits a certain kind of tragic profile, right.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Because you have this brutal abruptness for a man who,
• 3:00
  by the way, was just months away from a planned
• 3:04
  September twenty twenty sixth retirement. He's a high value target
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  as an American expat, so they take him out immediately
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  to steal what they want.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: That was definitely the initial hypothesis for the Philippine National
• 3:15
  Police the PNP.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: And they responded with overwhelming force.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Di andn't things. Oh absolutely. The immediate aftermath was massive.
• 3:22
  The regional Police director, Brigadier General Romano Cardinho, stepped in directly.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: You don't usually see a general getting involved that fast
• 3:30
  for a standard robbery.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: No, you don't. He activated a special investigation Task Group.
• 3:35
  They literally called it SITG Carpenter.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Wow, SITG Carpenter.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And Cardinia went on record vowing for rapid justice.
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  He had to reassure the public and frankly the foreign
• 3:47
  visitors and expats who drive a lot of the local.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Economy, because if word gets out that an American scientist
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  can just be executed in his living room for a laptop,
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  that's a disaster for the region exactly.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: But this is where the initial robbery narrative starts to
• 4:01
  really break down. The forensic contradiction started emerging within mere days.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this case basically gets turned upside down.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Totally upside down. Yeah, because by mid July, which is
• 4:11
  our present day, as we look at this, the companion's
• 4:13
  story started showing these glaring inconsistencies.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Right, because when someone reports a sexual assault, the police
• 4:20
  initiates strict medical protocols.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Right. You don't just take a statement, you gather physical evidence.
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  But the medical exams revealed absolutely no physical harm to the.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Companion none, no bruising from being tied.
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  Speaker 2: Up, no ligature marks, no defensive wounds, nothing. And the
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  critical piece of evidence, a standard vaginal swab, returned completely
• 4:42
  negative for the alleged sexual assault.
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  Speaker 1: Wait, really, the medical data just completely rejected her claim.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, the forensic evidence flat out contradicted the narrative she
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  gave to the police.
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  Speaker 1: It's just like the scientific method, you know, it's kind
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  of ironic. How do you mean, Well, think about how
• 4:58
  doctor Carpenter worked. I'm seen investigation. You have your initial hypothesis,
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  which here was a random robbery and assault, right, But
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  then you have to test that hypothesis against hard data,
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  the forensics, and sometimes the data completely rejects the hypothesis
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  and you have to start over.
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  Speaker 2: This raises an important question. If the intruders didn't assault her,
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  why did they spare her.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, why shoot the seventy three year old man instantly
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  but leave the other witness completely unharmed and let her
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  spin this false narrative.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, And because of these massive inconsistencies, the police officially
• 5:32
  name the companion as a person of interest.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Which is a huge shift in the investigation.
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  Speaker 2: It is and not just her. They also named her sibling,
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  who is apparently a frequent visitor to the house, as
• 5:42
  a person of interest too.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, I want to jump in here really quickly with
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  a crucial reminder for you listening. We have to explicitly
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  emphasize the presumption of innocence here.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, that is so important.
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  Speaker 1: Being named a person of interest does not equate to
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  being charged with a crime. It is just a lawn
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  enforcement term indicating that someone's statements or proximity to the
• 6:03
  event require heavy scrutiny.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Right, they are not suspects and they have not been charged.
• 6:08
  The police are just following the glaring anomalies in the
• 6:11
  physical evidence.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: So what did the police do next? Because they can't
• 6:15
  just rely on the failed forensics, they.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Pivoted to intense CCTV and intelligence reviews, grinding through local networks,
• 6:21
  tracking vehicle movements and it paid off.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Right, they made arrests, they did.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: They arrested three suspects under aliases to protect the ongoing proceedings.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Let's run through those.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, First, you have m O, who is twenty six
• 6:33
  years old. Intelligence links him as the actual gunman.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, so that's the alleged shooter, right.
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  Speaker 2: Then there's JF, who is specifically linked to the companion's
• 6:44
  fabricated assault claim.
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  Speaker 1: Which implies some level of coordination.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: There, definitely. And finally CD who allegedly acted as the
• 6:53
  lookout during the break in.
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  Speaker 1: But wait, if three men broke in and they have
• 6:56
  these three, is at everyone?
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  Speaker 2: No, Actually, the police stated a fourth suspect remains.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: At large, a fourth Do we know what role this
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  fourth person.
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  Speaker 2: Played, It's still unclear, but it shows just how complex
• 7:08
  this plot actually was. It wasn't just a random smash.
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  Speaker 1: And grab, right, It's just this horrific, chaotic end to
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  a man whose life was built on intense, methodical focus.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: It's incredibly tragic.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and honestly, before we dealt into his global impact,
• 7:23
  we really need to pivot from this tragic end to
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  his vibrant beginnings because you.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Have to understand the human being behind these headlines exactly.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: So let's look at his early life. He was born
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  in January nineteen fifty three, and he clearly had an
• 7:37
  affinity for the water early on, graduating from the Florida
• 7:40
  Institute of Technology in nineteen seventy five.
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  Speaker 2: But the real turning point, the absolute catalyst for his
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  life's work, happened right after graduation, at just twenty two
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  years old. He joined the US Peace Corps and.
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  Speaker 1: They sent him to the Philippines.
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  Speaker 2: Right. Yes, he started working with the Philippines Bureau of
• 7:55
  Fisheries and he completely fell in love with it. He
• 7:59
  actually called it the best job there ever was.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine being twenty two and nineteen
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  seventy five and your job is basically diving in the
• 8:08
  most spectacular underwater environment on the planet.
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  Speaker 2: It's a dream for a marine biologist, and it set
• 8:13
  the stage for a massive academic rise.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he didn't just stay a field worker. He went
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  on to earn a PhD at the University of Hawaii
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  at Manoa in nineteen eighty five.
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  Speaker 2: Right, and his focus wasn't just general biology. He specialized
• 8:26
  in highly specific fish systematics.
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  Speaker 1: Break that down for US what are fish systematics.
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  Speaker 2: It's essentially mapping the evolutionary family tree of fish. He
• 8:34
  focused on families like speroids and lutchenoids.
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  Speaker 1: So snappers and grunts exactly.
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  Speaker 2: The foundational predatory fish of the reef. He became an
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  absolute master of understanding how these species evolved and connected.
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  Speaker 1: And that expertise eventually led him to become an eminent
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  scholar at Old Dominion University or ODU, right in Virginia.
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  Speaker 2: But he maintained this lifelong connection to the Philippines.
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  Speaker 1: Here's where it gets really interesting, though, because you hear
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  eminent scholar and you picture this stuffy academic in a
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  lab coat.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, he was the farthest thing from that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was just this incredibly dynamic guy. First of all,
• 9:11
  he was a fluent to Golic.
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  Speaker 2: Speaker, which is famously difficult for English speakers to.
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  Speaker 1: Learn, extremely difficult. And on top of that, in his
• 9:18
  youth he played bass guitar in rock bands.
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  Speaker 2: Just a marine biologist slapping the bass on the weekends.
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  Speaker 1: Right, But there's a really funny, kind of bittersweet biological
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  twist to his rock band days.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the hearing damage.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, he apparently sustained so much hearing damage from the
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  loud amps in his rock days that it physically altered
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  his ability to hear different pitches, which.
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  Speaker 2: Became a major problem when he tried to learn other
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  languages later in life.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly, he wanted to learn Vietnamese to expand his research.
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  But Vietnamese is a tonal language, right.
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  Speaker 2: The pitch completely changes the meaning of.
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  Speaker 1: A word, and because of his Rock and Roll hearing loss,
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  he literally couldn't detect the tonal shifts. He couldn't learn it.
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  Speaker 2: It's such a great detail. It makes them so relatable,
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  it really does.
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  Speaker 1: But his inability to learn Vietnamese didn't slow down his
• 10:06
  lifelong passion for Philippine reefs.
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  Speaker 2: Not at all. In fact, that passion led to the
• 10:11
  defining scientific breakthrough of his entire career.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a discovery that literally rewrote marine biology textbooks. Tell
• 10:20
  us about the two thousand and five landmark paper.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Okay, so this was published in the journal Environmental Biology
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  of Fishes. He co authored it with a Smithsonian ichthyologist
• 10:28
  named Victor G. Springer.
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  Speaker 1: And this wasn't just a small observational study.
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  Speaker 2: Now, the data set was massive. They mapped the precise
• 10:35
  distribution records for two nine and eighty three marine shorefish.
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  Speaker 1: Species, almost three thousand individual species. I mean, mapping just
• 10:43
  one species across the ocean sounds exhausting.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. They layered thousands of distribution maps on top of
• 10:49
  each other to see where the most overlapping species lived.
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  Speaker 1: To find the absolute peak of biodiversity, right, and.
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  Speaker 2: What they revealed shocked the scientific community. They identified the
• 11:00
  Verdi Island Passage or the VIP.
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  Speaker 1: Which is this specific corridor in the Philippines.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, a one point one four million hector corridor, and
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  they officially declared it the center of the center of
• 11:12
  marine shorefish biodiversity.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: The center of the center.
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  Speaker 2: What's fascinating here is that this discovery completely defied conventional
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  theories of where peak biodiversity should exist.
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  Speaker 1: Why is that? Where did scientists think the center was?
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  Speaker 2: The assumption was always that the most diverse reefs would
• 11:28
  be in the most remote, pristine waters. But the Verdi
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  Island Passage is a massive, heavily traffic commercial shipping lane.
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  Speaker 1: So to help you visualize this, it's like mapping the.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Stars, right, Oh, I like that analogy.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, imagine mapping all the stars and realizing the densest
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  most vibrant, beautiful galaxy isn't out in the deep, unknown,
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  pristine universe. It's located right in the middle of a
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  heavily trafficked commercial flight path over a major city.
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  Speaker 2: That is exactly what it was like. It's an intersection
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  of massive ocean currents that funnel life into this one chaotic,
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  busy corridor.
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  Speaker 1: And Carpenter himself said he literally fell off his chair
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  when he saw the final data.
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  Speaker 2: He was completely stunned because finding the center of the
• 12:11
  Center is an incredible joy.
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  Speaker 1: But there is a heavy burden that comes with that joy, right.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, because the moment you find the most diverse place
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  on Earth, you immediately realize.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: You have to save it, which transitions us from the
• 12:22
  thrill of discovery into the ticking clock of extinction.
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  Speaker 2: Right. He dedicated over twenty years to leading the IUCN
• 12:29
  Global Marine Species.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Assessment And for those who don't know, the ICEN manages
• 12:33
  the Red List.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Right, yes, the Red List of threatened species. It is
• 12:37
  the global standard for tracking extinction.
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  Speaker 1: Risks, and Carpenter coordinated experts around the world to assess
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  nearly twenty thousand marine species for this list.
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  Speaker 2: It's an almost unfathomable amount of administrative and scientific coordination.
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  Speaker 1: But beyond just counting fish, he was looking at their
• 12:54
  genetics and he uncovered a really terrifying warning.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, his research can compaired historical fish specimens, some preserved
• 13:03
  all the way back in nineteen oh eight, to modern fish.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: In the same areas, and what did the DNA tell him?
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  Speaker 2: It proved that decades of overfishing and habitat loss hadn't
• 13:12
  just reduced the population sizes, it had violently stripped away
• 13:15
  their genetic diversity.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Meaning the fish that were left were basically all genetically
• 13:19
  identical exactly, and.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: That is a disaster for survival because without genetic variation,
• 13:25
  the fish lose their ability to adapt to changes in.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Their environment, changes like climate change.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Precisely, they are crippled if the water gets too warm.
• 13:34
  A genetically diverse population might have a few individuals that
• 13:37
  can survive the heat and breed.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: But if they all have the exact same limited DNA, then.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: None of them survive the whole population collapses.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Wow, so his predictions based on this data must have
• 13:48
  been pretty dire.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Dire is an understatement. In two thousand and eight, he
• 13:51
  published a massive article in Science warning that a third
• 13:54
  of all reef building corals face extinction a third.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: That's catastrophic.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: It's worse. By twenty ten, he warned that unchecked global
• 14:04
  warming could wipe out all coral reefs on Earth in
• 14:06
  a single century.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: One hundred years and all the reefs are gone.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture, you have
• 14:12
  to understand the cascade effect.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Walk us through that cascade. What happens when a coral
• 14:16
  reef vanishes.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Coral reefs are a foundational ecosystem. If the coral dies
• 14:21
  and crumbles, the small fish lose their homes and die,
• 14:24
  Then the larger predatory fish starve, Then the apex predators disappear.
• 14:29
  The entire global food chain unschools.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And it impacts ocean chemistry too, doesn't it.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? The reefs filter water and manage carbon. Not to mention,
• 14:39
  hundreds of millions of people rely on those fish for
• 14:41
  daily survival.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: It's a complete humanitarian and ecological collapse.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Yes, and Carpenter knew this. He had the hard data proving.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: It, which brings us to a fascinating pivot in his
• 14:52
  career because he didn't just use this data to write
• 14:55
  sad academic papers.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: No, he used science as a shield on the world stage.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Yes, surely ecological data was transformed into geopolitical ammunition.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Right at the permanent Court of Arbitration in the HIGUE.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: And I want to be extremely careful here. We need
• 15:09
  to explicitly state that we are not taking a political
• 15:12
  side in the territorial disputes between China, the Philippines or
• 15:17
  any other nation.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Exactly. We are strictly maintaining impartiality. Our focus is entirely
• 15:22
  on how Carboner's environmental data was utilized by the tribunal
• 15:26
  to rule on international environmental obligations.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Right, we are just reporting the facts of his involvement. So,
• 15:33
  between twenty thirteen and twenty sixteen, the Philippines brought this
• 15:36
  arbitration case.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: And doctor Carpenter served as a key expert witness for them.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: What exactly did he testify about?
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: In November twenty fifteen, he delivered this devastating testimony detailing
• 15:47
  the severe environmental instruction in the Sprattley Islands.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Because there was massive island building going on.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Right, Yes, he detailed how China's land reclamation, island building
• 15:56
  and destructive fishing practices were essentially worrying and pulverizing fragile
• 16:01
  reef systems.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: He brought the hard biological.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Receipts he did, he proved the physical devastation, and the
• 16:07
  tribunal listened.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean in the grand scheme
• 16:11
  of his life, Because the timing of this is where
• 16:14
  things get really eerie.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the timeline is just haunting.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: The historic arbitral victory for the Philippines, a ruling that
• 16:21
  relied heavily on his testimony, was delivered on July twelfth,
• 16:25
  twenty sixteen.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: July twelve, twenty sixteen.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Exactly ten years to the day before he was murdered
• 16:30
  on July twelve, twenty twenty six.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: It is a staggering coincidence. It just gives you chills.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: It really does. Ten exact years and it forces us
• 16:39
  to reconcile the global scientific hero who testified at the
• 16:43
  Hague with the man living this complex dual existence that
• 16:46
  ultimately put him in harm's.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Way because he really lived in two different worlds.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Right. He balanced being an academic in Hampton Rids, Virginia,
• 16:53
  where he raised a family with his wife, Cecilia.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: A very safe, structured American suburban life.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but he also had had this deep rooted life
• 17:01
  in the Philippines sharing a home with his companion of
• 17:04
  seven years in Scibulum.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: And that duality highlights the broader context of danger that
• 17:09
  environmentalists face.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: It's incredibly dangerous work, isn't it.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: It is scientists working in biodiversity hotspots frequently faced severe risks.
• 17:18
  You're dealing with resource conflicts, illegal fishing syndicates, and just
• 17:22
  the inherent dangers of living in regions with complex socioeconomic issues.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: So you have a man who spent his entire life
• 17:29
  analyzing vulnerabilities in marine ecosystems.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Right, he knew exactly how assistance could break.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: But he ultimately fell victim to the human vulnerabilities of
• 17:38
  the region he loved.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: It's a tragic irony, and the global reaction reflected that
• 17:43
  there was a massive outpouring of grief from Old Dominion University,
• 17:47
  Silimon University, the IUCN.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: And the Tavatah reef managers as well.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Right, yes, because even in June twenty twenty six, literally
• 17:55
  weeks before his death, he was out there surveying the
• 17:57
  Tabata reefs.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: At seventy three years old, doing the.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Grueling field work. He recorded five hundred and thirty four
• 18:03
  species on that single trip.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: His dedication was just relentless, and it really zooms us
• 18:08
  out from the tragedy of his death to the permanence
• 18:10
  of his legacy.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Because his legacy isn't going anywhere. He literally has two
• 18:14
  vibrant fish species permanently bearing.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: His name, the Carpenter's flash or rass and the yellow
• 18:19
  top Jewelfish.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah Mcantheus Carpentery.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: So as long as there are fish in the sea,
• 18:24
  his name is swimming with them.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful thought, it really is.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: But it leaves us with a lingering, provocative question to
• 18:31
  ponder today as we close this out.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Because the ocean is still in danger.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Exactly as genetic diversity dwindles, and as the pioneering scientists
• 18:40
  who dedicated their lives to mapping these unseen worlds pass away,
• 18:44
  whether from old age or in this case, senseless violence,
• 18:47
  who will step up right?
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Who is going to vend the center of the center now?
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: And beyond that, will society ever do enough to protect
• 18:54
  those who dedicate their lives to protecting the planet.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: It's a heavy question, that's when we have to answer.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: We really do. Thank you for joining us on this
• 19:03
  deep dive.