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Can We Study the Ocean Without Harming It? · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Here's a question for you.
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  Can we study the ocean without harming it?
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  And what if you can actually study marine life without disturbing it at all?
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  This is the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, your weekday ocean news update.
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  If you are looking for a resource in the form of a podcast that is all about
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  the ocean and keeping you up to date on what's happening with the ocean, but
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  also how you can make better decisions for the ocean, this is the place to be.
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  Hit that follow button right now on your favorite podcast app
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  because we are posting episodes five days a week, Monday to Friday.
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  Now, normally, if this is your first time here, we do an episode,
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  a solo episode Monday to Thursday, and an interview on the Friday.
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  And then we have the topic's the same.
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  There's like a theme for that week, and I prepare you for the interview, so
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  I break it down in the solo episodes.
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  This week we're doing something a little different.
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  We've been talking about different stories, kinda randomized stories
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  that I thought was interesting.
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  There's no interview tomorrow, but you can tune in and we're gonna be
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  talking about a randomized news item that I think is really important.
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  So stay tuned for that and hit that follow button right away
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  so you can get more ocean news.
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  Let's go back to this question.
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  Can we observe marine life without interfering with it?
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  Science is extremely important.
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  We need to discover trends.
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  We need to see if they're good.
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  We need to see if they're bad.
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  We need to plan out studies with local communities and make sure
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  that things are being addressed the way they need to be addressed.
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  But in that methodology, which we often ignore as non-scientists, like even
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  for me, when I look at a paper, if I'm looking at a science journal where they
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  have the methods, the whole scientific process, I'll look at the intro.
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  I might look at the results, but I'll look at the interpretation,
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  like the discussion, and then I'll look at the conclusion.
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  I rarely look at the methods unless it's a new method or somebody mentions
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  it and it's something new that I'm interested in, 'cause I do like methods,
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  especially when I'm in the field.
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  You have to know the methods, and they're very important.
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  But, like, we really need to focus on methods that are the least
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  disturbance on the animals that we're studying or the ecosystems that we're
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  studying, the habitats and so forth.
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  Because without having that inkling, like, if you're using technology,
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  new technology, and you are harming the animals by using that technology,
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  or you're interfering with their regular life, their natural life,
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  you are truly not getting the true representation of what you're expecting.
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  When you go in with that science question or that null hypothesis
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  where you're, like, testing, like, can this statement be falsified?
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  And you realize that the instrument that you're using to measure and
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  determine whether that statement is true or false is harming the animal,
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  or it's disturbing the animal in a way that could affect your results.
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  I mean, disturbing the animal just in general is not good.
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  But if you're trying to do that without disturbing, that's
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  the better way to doing it.
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  And so we need to do more about making sure that we're not interfering it.
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  And I was on Phys.org the other day, and I saw this article that looked at
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  how drones were affecting whale sharks.
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  Now, you would think this is kind of weird because whale sharks are underwater.
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  Drones are above the water, unless they have actually underwater drones,
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  we're gonna check out in a moment.
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  But if you wanna track that data, drones can cause noise.
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  They can interfere, they can hit, they can do whatever.
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  And drones have been used to track marine mammals under special permits.
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  But there was a lot of worries in the past about when drones first
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  started coming out about who can use a drone and what you can do.
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  Now you have to get your pilot's license and a drone pilot's license to make
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  sure that you're flying it properly.
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  But in this study, researchers used motion sensors and tracking data.
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  So not just observation.
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  They're looking for some other things.
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  And I think that's what's really interesting is looking at how
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  these drones would affect the animals, ' cause they flew the drones
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  above the animals and found that no detectable change in behavior.
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  Well, that's really important, because it suggests that drones may be a low
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  impact way of studying certain species.
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  With whales that come up to the surface or dolphins that come up to the
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  surface, you may see them come up to the surface, and then a drone comes down.
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  You don't wanna touch it.
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  You don't want the noise to bother it because you know that pods of
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  marine mammals will communicate with each other because of noise.
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  We've seen a lot of noise impact studies on the social behavior of whales and the
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  communication of whales in the past, especially when it comes to a lot of boat
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  shipping tracks or shipping observations or also seismic survey observations.
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  And so we know the impacts on those.
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  But, knowing how drones affect certain species is really important.
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  There's a challenge in science, right?
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  To study animals, we don't wanna disturb them.
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  We wanna make sure that they're fine.
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  So you have boats, you got tags, which obviously disturb them cause
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  you have to actually tag them.
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  You got divers in the water.
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  There are trade-offs.
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  So certain times you have to interfere.
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  You have to interfere with their regular path.
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  You have to tag them to find out where they go like, tagging.
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  Studies have come so far and have allowed us to understand so much more
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  about animals and how far they go.
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  The first sea turtle ever tracked, Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, was with a team.
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  When they tagged the sea turtle, I think it was a leatherback sea turtle or a
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  loggerhead, I don't remember, but it went from Baja California all the way to Japan.
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  So we're starting to see these long migration routes that
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  these animals are taking.
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  The other month, I did an episode of the Beyond Jaws with MarAlliance's, Rachel
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  Graham, who's the executive director.
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  She's talked to Dave Ebert and I, about a study where they saw, they
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  observed, they tagged a tiger shark and observed the longest transatlantic
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  tiger shark migration from the Cape Verde islands all the way to Brazil and back.
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  That's pretty long, and we never would have realized it if we hadn't tagged them.
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  So tagging does provide a lot of great information on how
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  animals travel in the ocean.
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  But also, there's some concern about how tags work and, like, if
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  they harm the animal long term.
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  There are studies to show that they don't, but there's special ethics
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  that you have to go through when you go through these research methods.
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  And so, tagging is part of that.
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  Drones are another one that have been studied.
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  Drones might reduce the interference that tagging provides or divers provide.
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  But this doesn't apply to everything.
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  Other species, like whales they can react to drones.
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  So it's not just a free pass of using drones.
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  It's a step forward for certain species, maybe species that don't come to the
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  surface out, as often and we can actually see them through the water.
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  So manta rays, any animal that you can follow easily with a certain pattern.
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  So whale sharks matter because they have unique patterns on their back,
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  so you can identify individuals.
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  You can follow these with drones, although they'd be difficult to follow.
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  You'd have to use a boat a certain distance.
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  So there's still some problems in there from the methodology.
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  These are what scientists consider when they use these different types
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  of instruments, is how far can you be without having to interfere with
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  their regular migration pattern.
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  So it is a step forward.
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  It's good to have these types of above water drones, underwater drones.
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  They provide a lot of information, but you have to be careful, and you
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  have to look at, how you use them.
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  So the next step for these drones is refinement.
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  We have to understand which species would be sensitive, because you don't wanna go
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  to the point where, oh man, these species have reacted to this drone, because then
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  you're not really doing them a favor.
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  But you have to understand what species would be more sensitive
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  to using drones in that area.
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  You have to set up guidelines, and you have to use these tools responsibly.
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  There are a lot of best practices documents out there for specific
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  species in using certain technology, which I think is really important.
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  There's a lot of ethical documents, depending on the country, that you have
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  to fill out, and you have to get permits to work in and around some of these
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  animals, especially marine mammals.
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  Maybe not so much sharks, unless you're tagging them, you have
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  to get special permission.
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  So that's important.
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  And you have to use these tools responsibly.
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  It's not just setting up guides.
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  You have to use them responsibly, because better technology only
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  matters if we use it well.
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  And as scientists, we have this obligation to make sure that we are
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  not harming to the point where we are providing a detriment to their health,
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  where you're harming the animal, and you're not getting the right data.
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  And look, there are a lot of people who are against things
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  like tagging and certain ways that scientists conduct their methods.
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  For some things, I say, "Hey, look, let the science speak for itself.
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  You have to trust scientists in certain ways." But other times,
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  I'll be like, "Hey, you know what?
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  If you don't think this is right, then follow the science, talk to
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  the right people, and pressure scientists to change if that's deemed
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  necessary." I think it's important.
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  I think it's important that scientists just don't go on their own in their
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  own circles and just be like, "Yeah, these guys are kooks, or these activists
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  are trying to get us to change." I think there's a certain way that these
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  activists and advocates can actually work with scientists to ensure that
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  they are doing the proper thing.
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  People may not like the way certain things like tags are added onto the animal, or
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  how the animal may or may not be affected.
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  I don't think it's wrong to add pressure to the scientific community to make
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  sure that we're doing it properly.
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  But when the evidence comes in to say, "Hey, we're actually not harming
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  these," or it's showing, like, that it's actually better to do this and
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  to understand how we can protect them.
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  'Cause a lot of tagging studies, especially tagging, 'cause I talked a
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  lot about that in this episode because a lot of people are against it, it has
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  provided ways to protect sharks and other species because of the information
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  that we learned from the tagging.
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  So when you look at the overall picture, it actually ends up being better.
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  You may not agree with that, and I would love to hear from you because
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  that's something that I always like to hear from people who are
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  interested in protecting animals all the way to the science methodology.
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  The future of the ocean isn't just about what we study, it's about how we study
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  it, and to make sure that we are doing it properly, and to make sure that the
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  animals have a chance to survive each and every time we interact with them.
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  So I think that's really important.
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  And of course, there are some studies that don't, where the animals have
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  to be sacrificed in certain areas.
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  But by all means, I'd love to hear from you.
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  You can get ahold of me through my socials.
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  You can look in the show notes for that.
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  You can sign up for my newsletter, speakupforblue.com/newsletter.
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  When you respond to that newsletter, it goes right to me, so you
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  have a direct access to me.
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  And of course, if you really wanna give me feedback, you can do
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  so, speakupforblue.com/feedback.
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  That's speakupforblue.com/feedback.
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  Leave a voicemail, type a message, whatever you'd like me to hear,
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  I would love to hear from you.
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  And I wanna thank you for joining me on this episode of the How
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  to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I am 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.