Planet NOAA Podcast Episode 6: Jaws

Transcript

[Planet NOAA theme music plays]

SARAH JESTER (HOST): Welcome back to Planet NOAA! I’m your Planet NOAA Podcast producer and guest host Sarah Jester. Today, we’ll find out how NOAA scientists are working to conserve and manage living marine resources to keep our ocean – and all of its inhabitants – thriving.

[NOAA in the News theme music plays]

HOST: We’re back with Public Affairs Specialist, Climate Scientist, NOAA in the News correspondent, and dad joke connoisseur Tom DiLiberto.

TOM DILIBERTO: I might NOAA thing or two about dad jokes, but let’s jump right oce-IN and get to the news!

HOST: Oh my god, Tom! Ok, give us the inside scoop. Where can we find NOAA in the world right now?

DILIBERTO: Perhaps in an unexpected place: Hollywood! The new movie Twisters is hitting theaters in just a few weeks, and it’s an update to the classic tornado thriller Twister – singular – from 1996. Twisters stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as a NOAA National Weather Service meteorologist and storm researcher alongside co-stars Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos. So, we’re calling all thriller movie fans – keep your eyes peeled for NOAA but stay out of the bear cage! You’ll spy some of our infamous storm research vehicles, and maybe even some real NOAA meteorologists popping up. Plus, there was plenty going on behind the scenes. NOAA storm experts and communications staff from our Weather Forecast Office and National Severe Storm Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, helped provide safety training, showed set designers what National Weather Service forecast offices and research tools looked like, and even took the Twisters cast out for a day looking for storms to get a feel for what our real-life scientists do. Yup, we chase tornadoes! It’s not just a metaphor! Twisters is scheduled to hit theaters on July 19. But before you catch it on the big screen, you can always throw on a flick at home like The Bourne Legacy or Battleship to see more of NOAA’s mark on Hollywood. The heroes of Battleship actually use our tsunami buoys to locate aliens in the ocean around them. And you can even find NOAA in my favorite Scooby Doo episode – “A Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle.” Ruh-Roh, that place is haunted!

HOST: Personally, I can’t wait to see Twisters! Ok, if you tuned into Episodes 2 or 3 of Planet NOAA, you may remember hearing about the GOES-U satellite, which is the last of four NOAA geostationary satellites to launch. Tom, do you have a GOES-U update for us?

DILIBERTO: Well, Sarah, the wait is over! In a historic moment for both NOAA and NASA, the GOES-U geostationary satellite has at last launched and soared into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. As a reminder, Pam Sullivan, who directs our Office of Geostationary Earth Orbit Observations, shared with us that geostationary satellites refer to the satellites that circle the Earth at the same rate that the planet is rotating – which means that they are constantly viewing and gathering information about the same area on Earth. Once GOES-U reaches geostationary orbit at a lofty 22,236 miles above the Earth, it’ll start providing us with valuable data and snapshots of the Western Hemisphere to help us track severe storms, tropical systems, wildfires, floods, lightning, and other hazards. This is a special launch for a couple of reasons. The GOES-U satellite is carrying the very first operational compact coronagraph alongside its other equipment, which helps us forecast and analyze space weather. So we’ve got both our Earth and extraterrestrial bases covered when it comes to storms! This instrument helps us to monitor the sun and watch for coronal mass ejections, which are huge expulsions of plasma with an embedded magnetic field from the Sun. Coronal mass ejections can cause geomagnetic storms and impact life on Earth, so it’s really important for us to be able to track these events with new tech like the GOES-U compact coronagraph! If you want to learn more about space weather, geostationary orbit observations, or coronal mass ejections, check out Episode 2 of the Planet NOAA Podcast. For more updates on the ongoing GOES-U mission, you can visit noaa.gov/goes-u.

HOST: Awesome; thanks for sharing, Tom!

[Roundtable theme music plays]

HOST: With blockbusters like Jaws, Sharknado, and The Meg looming large, you might think that every time you dip a toe in the ocean, there are hundreds of prehistoric-looking fish with massive teeth just waiting to bite. But did you NOAA that many marine species – including some sharks – are actually endangered or threatened? Under the Endangered Species Act, NOAA Fisheries oversees 165 of these endangered and threatened marine species. Today, we’ll discuss just what is placing different kinds of marine species and ecosystems at risk – and talk about how NOAA’s top scientists are working to conserve and manage the ocean’s living marine resources. We’re fortunate to be joined by four of those top specialists today! I’m here with Erica Fruh, a Program Specialist for NOAA's Uncrewed Systems Operations Center Marine Systems Division helping to support and operate uncrewed systems.  She began working with uncrewed systems in 2008, using an autonomous underwater vehicle to quantify fish, deep-water corals and habitat. Thanks for being here, Erica!

ERICA FRUH: Hello, everybody.

HOST: Dr. Jenny Litz is also joining us from the Southeast Fisheries Science Center, where she’s the Branch Chief of the Marine Mammal Branch. She has more than 20 years of experience in marine mammal research at the Center, which focuses on understanding the distribution, health, and status of marine mammal populations in the Southeast US and how to mitigate stressors on those populations. Glad to have you here, Jenny!

JENNY LITZ: Hi. Thank you so much for having me. 

HOST: Rounding out our wonderful group today is Dr. Shallin Busch, the Director of the Conservation Biology Division at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center. Shallin has worked to build ocean acidification science and policy at state, national, and international levels, with her current research focusing on how ocean acidification and climate change may impact North Pacific ecosystems. 

SHALLIN BUSCH: Hi, everyone. Happy to be here today.

HOST: Happy to have you all here! I’d love to start off by learning a bit more about each of your personal passions for marine life and conservation. What draws you to the field, and how does that tie into your work here at NOAA?

BUSCH: I like the diversity of marine ecosystems, and how so much about marine species and ecosystems is still unknown. That makes our research here at NOAA really exciting. And it also makes effective translation of science to management of marine systems really important. This intersection between the science to understand amazing natural environments and how society impacts them is a real passion of mine. 

LITZ: So the oceans cover more than 70% of our planet, and there's still so much we don't know about it. Most of my career focused on marine mammal health and understanding the impacts of humans on health and populations, and how we can minimize those impacts. I like that there's always something new to discover about the species that we study. Even recently, our scientists demonstrated that the resident baleen whale that we've observed in the Gulf of Mexico for years and previously thought was a subspecies of Bryde’s whale, is really a unique species, which is now known as a Rice’s whale. I never imagined we would still be describing new species of whales in my lifetime, but we are, and we believe that that population size, unfortunately, is very small. Fewer than 100 animals. I feel it's our responsibility to do all we can to learn about these whales, along with other endangered species in our region, including right whales and sperm whales, so that we can effectively conserve them for future generations.

HOST: Jenny, as you're talking about observing and describing new marine species, including the Rice’s whale, can you tell us a bit more about how NOAA monitors marine stocks, particularly in areas that are hard for humans to reach? 

LITZ: So marine mammals can be difficult to study, particularly those that live far from shore or spend a significant amount of time diving underwater. And because these animals are all protected species, we also have legal and ethical constraints to make sure that we're taking appropriate precautions and have appropriate permits while we're studying them. So depending on the species or the habitats, we'll often conduct different types of surveys to collect abundance information, distribution and health data. For example, we’ll often use small boat surveys in the bays or the estuaries or along coastal regions close to shore. We'll use aerial surveys, often using the NOAA Twin Otter aircraft for surveys over the continental shelf waters. And we'll use large vessels like the NOAA white ships to survey for species in the oceanic waters, often staying out for 2 to 3 weeks at a time. During those surveys, we have visual observers searching for animals, identifying, counting and photographing them. We will also use passive acoustic monitoring, either in real-time in the form of a hydrophone array that is towed behind the ship, or as a moored recording instrument that is deployed and later recovered. We use genetics and, more recently, environmental or eDNA, to study these animals to confirm species ID or look at population structure. We also use stranding data and other health surveillance techniques to look at individual and population health and human caused stressors. So all of these observations are snapshots in time, which, when analyzed together over multiple years, can help us make sense of the numbers and the population trends and health over time for our stock assessment. 

HOST: Thanks, Jenny. We got to hear from the Pacific Marine Environmental Lab passive acoustics team about hydrophones and acoustic monitoring on an earlier episode of Planet NOAA – and listen to some really cool ocean noise recordings – so I’m glad to hear you bring up hydrophone arrays as a tool your team is using. Erica, I’d love to turn it over to you to hear a bit more about what drew you to marine study and living resource conservation. 

FRUH: The ocean is vital to our planet's health, and I've always been drawn to the ocean and have known since high school that I wanted to be a marine biologist. And as my career developed, I realized that I enjoy facilitating and conducting science that helps us all to know more about the ocean. My current position…I am able to develop…different using uncrewed systems to conduct some of the research that we've historically done using crewed ships or other methods.

HOST: Erica, can you tell us a bit about what uncrewed marine systems are and how they are used?

FRUH: Uncrewed marine systems are basically robots that we can program to collect scientific information. We are able to use them both in the marine environment and in the air environment. So that would include AUVs, autonomous underwater vehicles, buoyancy gliders, uncrewed surface vehicles, but also your air drones. And we're able to use these to collect information about all sorts of things, from fisheries to marine mammals to ocean acidification to the air sea interface to developing hurricanes – all across NOAA's scientific suite. 

HOST: That’s pretty incredible – very cool to be at the forefront of new marine monitoring tech. Folks, on Planet NOAA, climate change is a really big focus. And understanding the impacts of climate change on marine life is really important – especially the threatened and endangered species we oversee through the Endangered Species Act, or ESA. What are some examples of the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems and environments?

BUSCH: Sure. Well, given that I'm from the Pacific Northwest, I don't think you'll be surprised that I'm going to focus my answer on salmon. Salmon are such an important part of life out here, and especially for the many tribes of Native Americans that have called this region home for thousands of years. Salmon are managed by species. There's a number of species of salmon and also in large regional groups of populations. Some of these are abundant enough to be harvested, while others are protected by the Endangered Species Act. So it's a really complex system out here with salmon. Salmon are also spread across our landscape, from the mountains through the lowlands to estuaries and coastal and open oceans. And almost anything you do on the landscape here affects salmon in some way. And climate change does, too. In the mountains, warming temperatures have changed what would be snowfall to rainfall, and this can cause high river flows that scour out rivers where salmon nest and where young salmon live in the freshwater. When snowpack in a year is low, freshwater temperatures are higher in the warm months and river flow can be reduced, which can challenge salmon adults and out-migrating young. So climate change is affecting the ocean ecosystem in three ways: through ocean warming, ocean acidification and ocean deoxygenation. So most people are familiar with warming that comes with climate change. But ocean warming is just one part of climate change's impacts on the ocean. When oceans warm from a warming atmosphere, it causes changes in stratification and circulation that decreases the amount of oxygen in the ocean. You know, we get oxygen from the atmosphere. And when deep ocean water can't interact with the atmosphere because of stratification, there's less oxygen in the water for animals. Animals need this oxygen in the ocean to breathe, and changes in ocean oxygen levels are already changing species distributions. Oceans also absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at the surface of the ocean. Carbon dioxide is what we call an acid gas. When it dissolves in water, it forms an acid – carbonic acid. This is actually the reason why carbonated drinks are so acidic. So oceans now are 30% more acidic than they were before the start of the Industrial Revolution, and could be 100 to 150% more acidic by the end of the century. These three impacts of climate change will affect salmon distributions, how much prey they have, and of what types of prey they have, and even the physiology of the salmon themselves. Some research that I've been involved with has shown that ocean acidification can influence salmon’s ability to smell, which is an important sense for detecting predators and actually finding their natal streams when it's time for them to return to spawn.

LITZ: Yeah. So for marine mammals in particular, they are warm-blooded like us, and generally fairly tolerant to thermal changes. And again, I'm speaking primarily about the species of marine mammals that we're working with in the Southeast today, and not necessarily those that are ice-dependent, or Arctic marine mammals, for example. So in general, the impacts we're most concerned about aren't really the direct impacts from reduced dissolved oxygen or heat the way Shallin mentioned, but more about the impacts to their prey, which are more constrained to those changes from climate change, such as changes in water temperature or changes in oceanographic variability. So one example of that is the right whales and the recent shift in their distribution related to changes in their prey distribution. So changes in the circulation patterns in the Gulf of Maine caused the abundance of zooplankton, and specifically copepods that right whales eat, to decline in that area starting around 2010. And then over the past decade, right whales have changed their distribution patterns, moving further northward, likely in response to those changes in the prey distribution. An example – 2017 was a particularly deadly year for right whales, with 18 mortalities reported, mostly due to entanglement and vessel strikes near the Canadian and U.S. coasts, which quickly revealed that many of the right whales that had not been seen that year in the New England area had actually migrated north. So as the prey moved, the whales began spending more time in areas with fewer protections set up from vessel strikes and entanglements, because previously the right whales had not spent as much time there. Copepod abundance is also correlated to right whale calving, and reproduction had declined for several years when it seemed that females could not gain enough energy to support reproduction due to reduced copepods in that Gulf of Maine region.

FRUH: So we're using uncrewed systems, especially down here in the Gulf of Mexico, to study the ocean warming and the air sea interface because of more frequent and more severe hurricanes that are happening due to ocean warming. So we have been able to put out gliders in the southeastern Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea every year during hurricane season and collect information on how the ecosystem changes over the course of those hurricane seasons. We've also supported the work of putting out saildrone uncrewed surface vehicles. There's really cool video on YouTube of the Saildrone running right through the eye of a hurricane. And on those saildrones, we're able to collect information both on the water surface, so in the air, and underneath the ocean surface. And we're also able to put echo sounders on these. So that gives us some information on the fish behavior during these weather systems as well. 

HOST: Erica, that’s pretty incredible. The field of science tech is changing pretty rapidly these days, but if anyone can keep up, I think it’s going to be young folks.

FRUH: Uncrewed systems are fun in that they lend themselves to the current technology wave that we're riding, especially in younger folks. This is the video games cellphone generation. And even I feel like my ten year old nephew has a better handle on some of the electronics than I do. [laughs]

HOST: [laughs]

FRUH: One of the things…I've given talks before that say, if you like your video games, then you could be an ROV pilot. You're able to drive an ROV through the ocean and collect samples and collect video. Being able to program makes being a glider pilot possible. Having a background in electronics repair. And as a biologist who switched over to this technology realm, mostly just being able to turn a screwdriver or wrench. And then you learn as you go. And the technology is always increasing in both the different types of things that are out there and the ability, the use of each unit. So you kind of learn as you go and you figure out what your best option is to collect the data that you're looking for. And it's actually a lot of learning by doing.

HOST: I really appreciate you going into that, Erica. Marine science is such an incredibly vast field and there are huge tech applications for young folks that likely already have the skillsets these kinds of jobs need. And what better way to put those skills to use than to immerse yourself in our ocean and all its beauty?

FRUH: NOAA sponsors via SeaGrant…they have an ROV program. It's the MATE ROV Competition, where each group builds its own ROV, and then they compete in a pool to complete certain tasks. And the way the tasks are written, it's, release fish in a certain area, or repair a dam, or things that you would use these technologies for. So the kids are getting first hand experience, and then the winners from each region go to international. It's a really big program. And it's – I've been a judge for it for several years in our Oregon Sea Grant competition. And it's amazing what these kids are able to do. And it's such a great introduction to ocean science.

HOST: That’s super cool – I’m going to have to check out the MATE competition this year…maybe we’ll spot some future NOAA scientists there! All right, folks. Let’s broaden our focus back out a bit. In your opinion, what can people do to conserve marine species and ecosystems in their communities, or in places they’re visiting?

BUSCH: Climate change is a whole-of-society problem. So I'm calling on engineers, educators, artists, parents, kids, scientists, marketing experts, authors, everyone to think about applying their strengths and passions to the climate crisis to help marine species and ecosystems. 

LITZ: I think that's a great point, Shallin, and  I would add to that that another growing problem and threat in the ocean and the environment is also marine debris. And I think everyone has a role to play in that in reducing their consumption of plastics, reducing the use of balloons, particularly outside, and ensuring that all trash is properly disposed of. Unfortunately, when we're out there in the field, we see a lot of balloons floating by, even more than 200 miles from shore. We might see a bunch of balloons floating on the ocean surface, or trash and plastic bags floating by, and it really does impact the animals. One of the more recent Rice’s whale strandings – the dead Rice’s whale that stranded in 2019 – actually died from a very small piece of plastic that had been rolling around in its stomach, a hard piece of plastic. And that's actually what killed this very large and endangered whale, which is sad. So, I think everyone has a part to play in reducing marine debris. And I call on everybody as well to help problem-solve how we can clean up our environment and get rid of some of that marine debris.

FRUH: I will second Jenny's marine debris focus there. I have seen litter in images from over 4,000 meters down on the ocean floor. And it's really disconcerting when you're looking at beautiful fish and corals. And all of a sudden you come upon a piece of junk that's down on the ocean floor that really shouldn't be there. And I would also add, do your research and choose carefully the seafood that you eat. Know what is overfished and where your seafood comes from. And NOAA has a great resource on your seafood in the fishwatch.gov website. 

HOST: Thank you all. To close us out today, I want to return to where we started – with each of your personal passions and interests in the ocean. Is there a particular marine species or ecosystem that you’re especially passionate about that you’d like to highlight today? 

FRUH: Mine personally is deep sea corals. They are little understood and hard to access. We've only managed to map a fraction of the ocean floor and really don't know what is down there. In lots of places, some of these corals have been shown to live for thousands of years. They are slow growing and long lived and worth protecting so we can learn more about their role in the ocean ecosystem. And I actually find the whole deep sea pretty fascinating, especially all the weird, glowy-eyed critters with big, gnarly teeth that hang out down there. Those are my favorite. 

LITZ: So you may have guessed this already, but, recently I'm very passionate about spreading the word about Rice’s whales, as is much of our team. Of course, spreading the word about all endangered species, including right whales and sperm whales, is important. But there's just so much we still don't know about Rice’s whales because they are so rare and only recently described. And they are, you know, right here in our backyard in the Gulf of Mexico. So we really want to spread awareness about this species. And we are actively doing all that we can with the resources we have to just learn more about their distribution, their life history and the threats that they're facing so we can conserve them for future generations.

BUSCH: Well, I'm not going to answer one species that's my particular favorite, as that's kind of like asking a parent which child is their favorite. But I'm a systems person, and I find the California current ecosystem along the U.S. West Coast as absolutely amazing. This big ecosystem along the U.S. West Coast is driven by a phenomenon called upwelling, in which cold, old, nutrient-rich water goes from the depths of the ocean up to the surface at the coast. And this makes the system so productive and so variable. And the chemistry of it is so interesting. It creates this amazingly productive and dynamic system that has charismatic species like killer whales and blue whales, salmon and rockfish, but also holds a lot more to see, love and appreciate, like sea butterflies, kelp, and one of my favorites , which is krill.

HOST: Wonderful, those are all fantastic answers. Y’all have me wanting to go scuba diving – or at least planning a future trip to the West Coast! Thanks so much for joining us today. 

[Leadership Corner theme music plays]

HOST: Today, we’ve talked a lot about conserving living marine resources in our oceans – and the incredible scientists and researchers behind those conservation efforts. It’s now my pleasure to invite a renowned leader in marine conservation, Janet Coit, to join us in the Leadership Corner! Janet is the Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries, where she leads our agency in ensuring the sustainability of U.S. fisheries, restoring coastal and marine habitats, and recovering protected marine species. Thanks for being here, Janet!

JANET COIT: Great to be here.

HOST: Janet, you were appointed as the Assistant Administrator of NOAA Fisheries in 2021. What brought you to Fisheries, and what has your journey at the helm been like so far?

COIT: Thank you. That's a big question. It's also a timely question because I just this week completed my third year. So it's my third year anniversary as the head of NOAA Fisheries. And I came here after over ten years serving as the head of the Department of Environmental Management in Rhode Island. And in that role, I worked for then Governor Raimondo, who is now our Commerce Secretary. And I also was responsible for many, many things, including managing fisheries in state waters and overseeing Rhode Island's major fishing ports and championing the Seafood Marketing Collaborative that was created by the Rhode Island legislature. And I think that part of my previous job at the state level, where I was able to represent Rhode Island and some of the national councils and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, made me appreciate the complexity and the importance of managing fisheries. And I loved that part of my role. I loved working with the fishermen and the scientists and looking at the full spectrum of issues and thinking about ways of addressing them creatively and working with the legislature. Oh, and you asked me what it’s like to be at the helm. It has been fascinating, turbulent, interesting, rewarding. We manage living marine resources in the U.S., so what an awesome responsibility. And the mission is quite expansive in terms of managing over 460 fisheries stocks, but also having responsibility for marine mammals and for endangered species in our oceans. So, a lot of work that I've been doing has been with states and tribes and scientists around species recovery from Pacific salmon to North Atlantic right whales, and, in all waters, corals and abalone. So the work on endangered species is quite difficult. It usually requires addressing threats that mean people have to change the way they're doing things. And then the work, as I said, the work with the fishing community and the coastal communities is really challenging and rewarding because it's people's livelihood. It's safe and sustainable seafood for communities, in some cases subsistence, fishing. So really the lifeblood of a community and the ability to work from, you know, American Samoa to the Caribbean, to the North Pacific, it's been about as rewarding as any work I can imagine doing. 

HOST: Janet, glad to hear you mention the Seafood Marketing Collaborative and sustainable seafood – NOAA recently participated in the annual Capitol Hill Oceans Week, which I was fortunate to attend, and as part of that event, we hosted our annual Sustainable Seafood Celebration. Please indulge me on this one, but I’d love to know what your favorite seafood is. 

COIT: Oh, well, that's like saying, you know, telling, asking a mom who's her favorite child. But I do have to admit that I love to eat Rhode Island seafood. And in Rhode Island, squid is most prevalent. And when I was at the Sustainable Seafood Celebration, I would say the Rhode Island calamari was my favorite. And I'm not just saying that. Loved it. It was delicious, and I love supporting my home state. I also love raw tuna and I was able to sample some both from Hawaii and from the South Atlantic at that celebration. And that's just one of my favorite things to eat. And then yesterday I was at a lab that, in Connecticut, our Milford lab, that does cutting edge work on both the genetics and the resilience of oysters that are farmed. So because I spent the day at that lab, my husband and I had to have raw oysters for dinner last night. And I love the saltiness of the oysters here in New England.

HOST: Ugh, I’m jealous. I’m a big oyster fan myself – although definitely an acquired taste. 

COIT: They really do taste like where they're from. So, I think different people…if you're from the Gulf, you love Gulf oysters. I mean, this is a gross generalization, but, you know, you really do feel like you're sort of tasting the environment, the ocean environment near you. 

HOST: I love it, I love it. And I’m also loving your Rhode Island pride – I’m a very proud Chicagoan but I’ve got to say that I don’t want my oysters tasting like the Chicago River! To stay on the track of seafood here, how is Fisheries promoting seafood sustainability under your leadership?

COIT: So that is core to our mission. Every year we put forth a report called the Status of the Stocks. And our most recent report from 2023 showed that 94% of our fishing stocks are not subject to overfishing, and that in the last 25 years, we've rebuilt over 50 stocks. So rebuilt means that you've taken them from being overfished and therefore not sustainably managed – to ending overfishing and having these stocks meet their targets. The goal is to have a thriving fishing sector while also managing the resource sustainably so that commercial or recreational fishing can occur. But, you know, that you're being conservative in your management to the extent that the stock will continue to reproduce and thrive. Let me just add that it's more and more challenging when we take into account climate change, because the management that has been successful over the last few decades is challenged by how rapidly we're seeing some changes in the environment. So a big focus of my time here at the head of NOAA Fisheries has been investing in science and including some new scientific tools and making sure that our management is catching up to the changes that we're seeing. And then ultimately, doing a better job of predicting those changes, so that if we see fish stocks that are shifting or we see fish stocks that are suffering due to climate change, we're able to quickly alter our management so that we're continuing to ensure sustainability.

HOST: Janet, you mentioned fish stocks shifting. Could you give an example of one of these stocks that’s shifted due to climate change?

COIT: Yeah, I'd be happy to give one. I could give many of them. Just because it just made such news, I'm sure that you were aware when the snow crab collapsed in the Bering Sea that it was a huge, lucrative fishery. So, so many people are aware of the Alaskan crab fishery, because of the popular show The Deadliest Catch. And that meant that when the fishery crashed, that also was national and global news as the people who depend on that fishery suffered from the closure in, just when I had started this role in 2021. It had huge negative impacts. And we were able to demonstrate through scientific research that that was a result of climate change and a marine heat wave that affected the prey, the abundance of prey, and therefore led to the crash of the fishery. So a lot of these changes are not dramatic, but from time to time we're seeing really dramatic impacts from climate change. And, you know, it's making global news and affecting our communities. 

HOST: I think that, at the time, I had actually learned about the collapse of the snow crab from watching Deadliest Catch, so that’s a great example. Aside from conserving fish stocks, conserving protected species is a big core mission for NOAA. Can you tell me more about the NOAA Fisheries Ten Species in the Spotlight and why having that list is important?

COIT: NOAA Fisheries is responsible for implementing the Endangered Species Act, and that includes all marine species and some of the migratory fish, like salmon. And we wanted to bring greater attention to the at risk species and try to marshal resources to save them. I think we all understand that our mission requires not just action by the federal government, but by many, many other parties. And so highlighting certain species from Hawaiian monk seals to north Atlantic right whales, abalone. People can go on our website and see the list of Species in the Spotlight, but what we know is that people care. Americans care about conservation. And if we put more attention on some of these species, we felt that we would have a better shot at recovering them. One of the fun things, many fun things I've done was, going up for a celebration on beluga whales in Alaska last year, and it was a whole day that they do every year, inviting people to go to the coast and count beluga whales. Having educational opportunities for children, having a celebration where scientists and others who are doing research on beluga whales, all come together. And it's an annual event, but it's intended to educate people so that they can help support recovery actions and help drive home the messages around what we can do from keeping plastics out of the environment, you know, to going slower in your vessel in certain places to help reduce the threats.

HOST: So on our Earth Day episode of the Planet NOAA podcast, we heard from some of the experts at NOAA Fisheries about their successful efforts to recover species like the white abalone, which you mentioned as part of the Species in the Spotlight list. You also mentioned the Hawaiian monk seal and right whale. What actions are being taken to recover species like these as they've landed on the list?

COIT: Right whales are really not doing well. They've been subject to what we call an unusual mortality event, because so many have been dying over the last few years. There's only about 360 left in the population. And of those, fewer than 70 are reproductively active females. So they are a migratory species. They go up and down the Atlantic coast. They tend to calf off of Florida or Georgia, South Atlantic states, and then they travel up into Canadian waters. And a couple things make them the subject of a lot of our attention. One is that because they're so migratory and they share a very busy section of the Atlantic coast with commercial traffic or highly trafficked areas, they are threatened by vessel strikes. and we saw several died this past season. Tragically from vessel strikes. And they're also up over 80% of the population ends up getting entangled in fishing lines, in particular the vertical lines that will attach pop and trap fisheries like lobster or crab, to the buoys on the surface of the water. So we've been doing a lot of innovative things, from looking at ropeless gear and working with participants in the lobster and Jonah crab fishery, to vessel “slow down” areas, and voluntary efforts to slow down and mandatory requirements that folks slow down. We're looking at the potential for some new technologies around detection and monitoring and then ways that mariners could learn where whales are and avoid that area. So we're taking a lot of steps. but this is an example where climate change has led whales into areas that they hadn't traditionally been as they followed their prey, as the water temperature and productivity changes. And so in certain geographies, that has increased the threat because they're, you know, going into highly trafficked areas where previously, they haven't been.

HOST:  Yeah, absolutely. Certainly very complex work with a lot of moving pieces, especially when the species themselves are moving in unexpected ways. But it’s great to hear about the successes NOAA and our partners have had with recovering many of these species and conserving them for future generations.

COIT: Right, and I think that complexity can make it harder for all of us because it's harder to understand. So boiling things down to what can individuals do or what can state governments do or what can our, you know, various partners do is something I would like to get better at.

HOST: Well, Janet, that’s a fantastic segue to something that I know our agency really likes to emphasize, which is citizen science and community involvement in marine stewardship. Personally, I’m not a scientist but I know that there’s plenty that I can be doing to care for my community and the ecosystems and organisms that I’m around. So what’s one thing that folks can do today to serve as marine stewards in their areas, even if they’re not in the field?

COIT: One thing, there's many things, but I love that point that you made, because it really does take everybody working together. So I think, well, one thing would be just, you know, reducing the use of plastics, to try to help reduce plastics in the marine environment. They're a source of entanglement so they can harm, you know, sea turtles and dolphins and other creatures that might ingest them or might get entangled. But also they break down, you know, they're sort of forever substances and they break down and create those microplastics that end up being consumed and ingested and causing threats to marine life. So I'd say that would be one thing. I do want to say, as the head of Fisheries, that eating U.S. seafood helps. We talked before about how we sustainably manage seafood. We also have very strict rules about, you know, environmental requirements around growing and selling seafood, grown or harvested. And so we know when we eat U.S. seafood that it's sustainably managed. Yet this country imports the vast majority of the seafood we consume. So another thing I think individuals can do is get educated about what is U.S.; what are your local species and then seek out U.S. seafood, and even better, seafood that comes from your region. And that way, you know, you're supporting both sustainably managed species, but also, you know, you're supporting the people that work so hard on the water. and you're supporting, you know, the jobs and communities that depend on seafood here in America.

HOST: Yeah, thanks, Janet. I’d encourage folks to visit noaa.gov/office-education to get involved in citizen science and volunteer and local cleanup opportunities, but also to check out the site that one of our experts mentioned earlier, fishwatch.gov, as that’s a great resource on U.S. seafood and sustainable seafood consumption. Janet, thank you again for joining us – is there anything else you’d like to share today?

COIT: Thank you and thank you for the opportunity. I'd like to just drill down a little bit on our U.S seafood sector. One of the things we want to help our seafood sector to do is have access to other markets as well, so that they can be competitive in a global marketplace. And we're looking to strengthen the entire seafood sector by doing things like promoting the resilience of communities, helping to make sure that they maintain the infrastructure that is required. So much of America's coast is gentrifying and developing. And if you don't have ports and infrastructure that support our seafood sector, then it becomes prohibitively expensive or difficult to have access and providing access to these marine resources, and making sure that all people have access. It’s part of both our seafood strategy and, and frankly, our overall frame when we're looking at equity issues and whether all Americans have access for recreational fishing, for subsistence purposes and to the commercial sectors that provide the delicious, healthy, sustainably harvested seafood that we enjoy in America. 

HOST: Janet, thank you so much for joining us on the planet NOAA podcast. It was a pleasure having you. To learn more about some of the topics we discussed today, you can visit fisheries.noaa.gov. 

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