What Does NOAA Have to Do With Saving Marine Wildlife?

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Some of the ocean's most iconic
animals would be in even deeper trouble

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without the quiet work of one agency.

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So whales, sea turtles, sharks, and coral
reefs, and many people do not realize

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how much NOAA is actually involved.

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This is the How to Protect the
Ocean Podcast, your daily ocean

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News and conservation podcast.

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Follow now if you care about what
actually helps Marine life, not

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just what sounds good online.

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Today we're gonna be talking
about how NOAA protects Marine

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wildlife and its habitats.

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And I'm talking about this
'cause this is part of my ongoing

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weekly, I guess topic for NOAA.

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Really, it's just all about the
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric

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Administration, NOAA, which is an
important part of a lot of things.

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Two episodes ago we looked
at storms saving, basically.

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Saving people from storm damage and
harm that can happen with hurricanes,

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tsunamis, flooding, and so forth.

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Yesterday we looked at how it protects
seafood and seafood, the seafood

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economy in the United States and beyond.

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Today we're talking about marine
wildlife in general and how important

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it is to save those as a species
and what they do with these species.

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So when species decline, recovery
doesn't just happen by itself.

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We can't just leave a species
to say, Hey, they're declining.

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They'll be fine.

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We're not gonna monitor them.

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We're not gonna do anything.

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We're just gonna continue on
with our merry way and do what

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we've been doing, and we don't
have to worry about what happens.

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But no, it takes science,
enforcement, planning, and long-term

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commitment to help these species.

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NOAA plays a central role in marine
species protection in US waters.

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So that includes the responsibilities
under the Endangered Species Act and the

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Marine Mammal Protection Act, plus habitat
Conservation and Sanctuary Management.

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Take the North Atlantic
right whale, for instance.

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One of the most endangered whales
on the planet facing vessel strikes

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and fishing gear entanglement.

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NOAA has been deeply involved
in monitoring populations for

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decades, proposing protections,
tracking mortalities, and

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supporting recovery measures.

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That work can be controversial.

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It can affect industries and
it can trigger political fights.

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But without intervention,
extinction risks rises.

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Sea turtles are another example.

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NOAA has supported bycatch reduction
measures, nesting beach to science,

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migration tracking and fishery gear
changes that reduce accidental captures.

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Those actions have helped multiple
turtle population improve over time even

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though some of the threats still remain.

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And speaking of sea turtles, the work
that NOAA has contributed among many

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other conservation organizations and
scientists around the world have helped

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green sea turtles kind of get out of
their endangered status of going extinct

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and into a different status of being
less critical when it goes into endanger.

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So that's an important aspect
when we're talking about the

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effectiveness of this science, of
these engagement opportunities,

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education and policy making from NOAA.

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That's very important.

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And of course, there are sharks.

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No supports population science,
fisheries regulations for some species,

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protected area science, and ecosystem
monitoring that helps understand

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predator roll.

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So we talk about sharks.

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Those are predators.

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And habitats matter too.

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It's not just the fact that the sharks
are important, but habitats matter.

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Marine sanctuaries protect critical
ecosystems, cultural sites, reefs,

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kelp forests and migration corridors
that help house all these species

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that we're talking about today.

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They're very important species.

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These places support
biodiversity, education, tourism,

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and research all at once.

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A lot of these species, they've
been considered enemies.

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Movies like Jaws have made great white
sharks, the enemy number one in the Ocean.

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People don't wanna see them.

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They don't wanna be around them.

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Obviously you don't wanna
be in the water with them.

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But the fact that this apex predator
plays such an important role in

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ecosystem management in and of
itself, not take away humans.

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They regulate the food
web within their area.

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The fact that back in the ' and
'60s and even '70s, they realized

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that the great white shark
population has actually decreased.

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And then the movie jaws comes out and
people are worried about them, but

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they're like, how do we know where
these animals are, where are they?

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And it triggered funding to find out
more about these great white sharks.

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I talked to Dr. David Ebert, who's
a colleague of mine and my co-host

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on the Beyond Sharks podcast.

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And he's talked about the jaws
generation where funding came in

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for Jaws work, to like to know where
these animals are and what they do,

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and find out as much as possible.

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And now we know so much more about these
amazing and incredible animals that

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their population has increased more
and more because of their protection.

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So what started off as villains and
even though they still may not have that

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great of a reputation with most people,
there are a lot of people out there,

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a lot more out there that are want to
protect them and have protected them.

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And we've seen an increase in not
only the number and the size of these

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animals, but also their distribution.

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And of course climate
change is helping that.

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But we're seeing great whites on the
East Coast come into Nova Scotia and

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even further up, which is incredible to
see 'cause these animals doing so well

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and extending their range a lot of the
times because there's so much competition

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'cause there's so many of those
great white sharks within areas.

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So nursery areas in Southern California
are being monitored and they're being

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researched and we're getting more
and more actions of those animals.

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And I think that's really
great in that protection.

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Now, again, we talk about why this matters
to people because wildlife protection

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is not separate from human wellbeing.

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And again, a lot of times we kind of
take ourselves out of the equation

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of the food web and we realize
that we are part of the food web.

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And we're not at the top of the
food web necessarily, but we're

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involved in this ecosystem.

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And many communities are economically
tied to the living oceans.

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And I think that's an
important aspect to realize.

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We saw that yesterday.

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Ecotourism communities are
very much tied to the Ocean.

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Healthy oceans mean people are gonna
go out and explore, which means

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people are going to pay money and
support communities in that way.

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I think that's also cool.

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And also it matters to the Ocean.

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Species are not just decorations.

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Predators regulate food
webs, as I mentioned before.

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Grazers maintain habitats like
coral reefs and seagrasses.

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Migratory animals move nutrients
across ecosystems like whales

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and so forth, which is something
that's not talked about enough.

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You lose enough species
and a system weakens.

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They're not as stable.

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We talk about biodiversity
all the time on this podcast.

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When you have a system like say, a coral
reef system and you have this beautiful

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habitat of these corals, these corals
cannot be just sitting there all the time

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without any kind of maintenance on them.

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You'll see other parasites that will come
on, a disease that will come on the corals

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eventually.

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If there's a lot of nutrients, you'll see
an overgrowth of vegetation that will come

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like algae that will come on these corals.

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And these corals can't just
remove them on its own.

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You need grazers.

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So you have fishes that will come
in and they'll start to peck at

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these corals to make sure that the
algae is not widespread over the

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corals and destroy the coral system

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' cause all the corals are die
because they're smothered.

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They can't get the nutrients they need.

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They can't get the sun that
they need to do photosynthesis.

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And so it could be a hell of a
system if your species are not there.

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If you start taking out those species
either through fishing or because of

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climate changes and things like that,
you start to weaken the stability

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of that habitat and that weakening
of the stability will weaken the

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overall health of the coral system.

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And so when you have a weak system,
you have a weak biodiversity, you

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have a weak system, you don't get
to reap the rewards, let's say.

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So from fishing, from
seafood support, from economic

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support, tourism and so forth.

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A lot of communities depend on that.

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We don't realize how much the
communities depend on this.

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So protecting wildlife especially Marine
wildlife is very difficult and it's

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expensive and often politically messy.

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Not a lot of politicians wanna protect
these animals because they don't really

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see the direct benefits of that,
or even the indirect benefits of it.

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But the alternative is simpler,
decline, collapse, and regret.

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And that's what we want to
avoid as much as possible.

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We've seen in the Gulf of Mexico recently
that the US government has reduced

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the amount of quote unquote hoops that
developers like in the oil and gas

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industry have to go through when they're
looking at protecting endangered species.

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So essentially what happens when a
lease is bought, an oil and gas lease

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is bought in the Gulf of Mexico.

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They have to go through
a bunch of regulations.

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The companies have to go through
a bunch of regulations to ensure

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that they're not harming the Ocean.

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And it takes time to go through that.

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It takes a lot of research,
it takes money to do that.

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Not all of the time the businesses
are happy to do it because they takes

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time to go through those studies.

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They'll pay a hundred to couple
hundred thousand dollars,

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maybe even more to do that.

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And they'll say it's really expensive
and it takes a lot of time too.

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That's the argument that
I hear all the time.

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We heard in Canada with
the pipeline extensions.

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But we also hear that in the US now
with this, and they say it takes too

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much time to actually build on this.

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But even if they were allowed to jump
through those hoops a lot of the times

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to go from exploration to drilling,
to lease buying and all that kinda

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stuff, not in that order, but to
do all that, that'll take 20 years.

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They have the time.

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They just don't want to go through
it because there's a possibility that

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they could be harming the Ocean and
they don't want people to know that

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they're gonna be harming the Ocean.

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They don't care if they harm the Ocean.

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They still get their money out of
each of those wells that they drill.

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And not even long term,
they just want short term.

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That's all these companies care about.

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And that's something
that we have to prevent.

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And that's why we go through these
regulations that they think about it more.

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They think about the animals
and the fish and all the other

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communities that depend on the
Ocean that are not affected by that.

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So it's not just the fact that
you're gonna help destroy the Ocean.

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It's the fact that so many other
communities in the Gulf of Mexico, as

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well as around the world, depend on
these systems, depend on the coastline

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for money, for stability, for safety.

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And when you don't get that and
because of one other sector that

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comes through ' cause they find it
takes too long to go through and they

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can't make their money fast enough,

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that becomes a real problem.

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So this is why we talk about on
these episodes, on this podcast.

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This is why NOAA is there to help,
to help protect these animals, to

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speak up for these animals that have
somebody to speak up for, and to make

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sure that we're doing things properly

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as a country.

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Whether you're in Canada, whether
in the US, it doesn't matter.

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We wanna make sure government agencies
really do provide this and NOAAa

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provides it for the US and that's what
you're gonna hear on these episodes of

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the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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We've covered studies from NOAA before,
may not have just gone out and mentioned

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NOAA, but we have covered a lot of
sites from amazing scientists that

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worked at NOAA all their entire life.

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Careers, which have been phenomenal.

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So, that's it for today's episode.

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I'd love to hear from you.

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Let me know what you think.

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Go to speak up for slash feedback
and let me know how you feel.

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You can leave a voicemail
or you can write to me.

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You can also hit me up on
any of my socials, which

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are in the show notes below.

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And I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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Don't forget to follow this podcast
if you want to hear tomorrow's

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episode of more about NOAA.

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And I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you tomorrow
and happy conservation.