$1m to spend on the ocean?
Actually, $1bn. Hypothetically speaking
This was a question The Economist put to...
...five of the world’s leading thinkers in ocean conservation
$1bn
So, $1bn
$1bn
$1bn doesn’t go very far these days
For seven decades Sir David Attenborough has brought...
...the natural world into people’s homes
His ground-breaking television series “Blue Planet”...
...raised global awareness of mankind’s impact on the ocean
So, how would Sir David spend that $1bn?
I would spend a bit of it on trying to persuade...
...the nations of the world that these are the property of humanity...
...as a whole and had to be dealt with...
...by human beings getting together and agreeing on a policy...
...to look after the precious things that are the ocean
Countries have long disputed how the ocean should be governed
But there is a framework in place
Each coastal nation governs the water that extends...
...12 nautical miles from its shore, known as its Territorial Sea
For up to 200 nautical miles out...
...coastal nations have their own exclusive economic zones...
...where they have sovereign rights to resources like fish, oil and minerals
Beyond that, it’s the high seas, a vast expanse of water...
...owned at once by everyone, and no one
A basic law of the sea does exist...
...and a tangle of overlapping authorities...
...often with conflicting mandates, oversees particular activities
And little consequence for nations that don’t abide by it
Negotiations are under way for a new treaty...
...to protect the biodiversity of the high seas
But to make it effective, it will need to have more teeth than its predecessors
Sir David’s $1bn could be spent on funding...
...and demonstrating the value of multinational-enforcement schemes
Yet any negotiations over the high seas face a major stumbling block...
...fishing rights
If I have $1bn, I will establish no-take zones
Zafer Kizilkaya is a conservationist from Turkey
The main problem right now is the resource management
We over-exploited many things
As a result of unsustainable fishing practices...
...over a third of the world’s fish stocks have collapsed
Mr Kizilkaya successfully convinced his government...
...to create 3,000 hectares where fishing isn’t allowed...
...otherwise known as “no-take zones”
This is the most major spawning and nursery area
So, that’s why we have to keep this area safe from all kinds of fishing pressure...
...amateur, professional—any kind
In the ten years since Mr Kizilkaya’s no-take zone has been in place...
...marine biomass has increased by 800%
But there’s a problem
Less than 1% of the whole ocean surface is no-fishing zone
And within this 1%, probably half of that is not well enforced
Creating no-take zones is one thing
Policing them is another
Putting the marine-protected areas on the paper as no-fishing zones...
...doesn’t mean anything. Do we have rangers? Do we have boats?
Do we have people protecting these areas from any illegal activity?
Illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing...
...accounts for one-in-every-five fish taken from the sea
And this is where Zafer Kizilkaya would spend his $1bn
Technology could easily help–the satellite technology or...
...high-tech drones, which can fly really long distances
It is the most time-consuming, money-consuming part of marine conservation
That’s where we need this $1bn
But to convince the international community to create...
...more marine-protected areas, requires evidence...
...and that means more science
So, what would I do with $1bn?
As a scientist, it may be a bit obvious that I would want to invest it in science
We do have large gaps in our knowledge that need to be filled
Dr Susanne Lockhart is a marine biologist...
...with a particular interest in cold-water coral
It may seem that we know a lot about the ocean...
...but it is the tip of the iceberg of what we need to know...
...in order to keep our ocean healthy
Just two years ago, Dr Lockhart became the first person...
...to ever explore the floor of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea
Antarctica has some of the densest and most diverse...
...seabed communities you could ever see
Many thought these waters were too deep and too cold to support much life
But on this expedition, her team uncovered...
...vast coral reefs teeming with marine life
So you’ve got sea stars, a brittle star
We can learn so much from a thousand-year-old coral colony
Dr Lockhart’s research has been used as the basis for a proposal...
...to create the world’s biggest marine-protected area...
...1m square miles in the Antarctic
With an extra $1bn, Dr Lockhart believes scientific research...
...could help to protect much more of the ocean
There will always be those countries that block consensus...
...because they claim a lack of knowledge
So, if we can go into those remote areas and collect evidence...
...then it makes it very hard for them to dispute the fact...
...that we need protections
The ocean is under threat as a result of human activity
Could one way of protecting it focus on how people live on land?
I’d spend $1bn on batteries
Doug McCauley is a professor of marine biology...
...at the University of California Santa Barbara
I know it’s a little bit strange for a marine biologist to suggest batteries
But indeed, that’s precisely where I would put my investment
Professor McCauley has pioneered the use of technology...
...in the conservation of some of the world’s most-endangered marine species
The challenge for a marine biologist is that...
...you’re doing all these things and you must do these things and they matter
And yet looming behind you is this master threat to the oceans: climate change
Climate change is causing the ocean to overheat...
...increasing the level of acidity and reducing the oxygen content of the water
So, what could batteries do to help us fight climate change?
They’re essentially the most important ingredient in a low-carbon future
And it’s because they are the storehouses for the slow carbon-energy...
...that we need to capture
The world relies on lithium-ion batteries
Green technology is being developed around their use
But this type of battery requires minerals like cobalt...
...which have a controversial supply chain
To meet the growing demand for batteries...
...mining companies are turning their attention to the deep sea
There’s a lot of uncertainty in the ocean-science community...
...about exactly what ocean mining would do to ocean ecosystems
But I can tell you the uncertainty is about how bad mining will be for our seas...
...not whether it will be good
Batteries are essential to reducing CO2 emissions
Professor McCauley wants radical innovation...
...to invest the $1bn in designing powerful next-generation batteries
Ones which won’t depend on mining the sea
When we are able to come up with an alternative to a lithium-ion battery...
...then the cost of electric vehicles will come crashing down
The faster we can bring that low-carbon future to us...
...the more likely it is that we see a reduction in extinction in the oceans...
...and major disruptions to ocean health
Living in an ocean-obsessed household...
...Doug’s seven-year-old son, Finn, has his thoughts about...
...where he’d spend the money
I’d put $1m dollars
—You get $1bn actually
$1bn to save the vaquita
The vaquita is a type of porpoise on the brink of extinction
Only ten individuals still remain in the wild
I think you should just save them and then...
...maybe you’d save like 30 other species...
...that need the vaquita for their food chain
Peter Thomson is the United Nations special envoy for the ocean
I would take that $1bn and I would direct it into education
His mission is to galvanise the international community...
...to prioritise ocean conservation
There’s a fundamental disconnect between what we know in ocean science...
...and what the majority of the population knows
When you think of things like every second breath...
...of oxygen you take comes from the ocean
This should be one of the fundamental things...
...that we are learning about in our daily life
The ocean regulates the planet’s climate...
...it provides the main food source to nearly half the global population...
...and underpins trillions of dollars-worth of economic activity worldwide
If you give people that knowledge...
...they’re going to start making the right decisions
And not just individuals, but communities, governments...
...and international bodies, have to be supplied with the right science
There is no single solution to the multitude of threats facing the ocean
And it will take more than $1bn to drive change
A man-made disaster is what faces us and what we are having to deal with
Only through reshaping the way humanity lives and uses the ocean...
...can this vital part of planet Earth be saved
And that will take not just the creativity of individuals...
...but the collaboration of nations
People won’t care about things that they don’t know about...
...and have never seen. And that your first job...
...is to make clear what a wonderful world the natural world is
If you would like to find out more about...
...some of the greatest challenges facing the ocean...
...and the people trying to solve them...
...including some of those you have just seen in this film...
...then please click on the link opposite
For more on The Protectors series, click the other link
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