Ocean-Human Health Connection: Why This Disappearing Habitat Matters to You

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This hidden ocean habitat is
doing more for you than you think.

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Most people think of forests when they
think about how nature is protecting us.

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But just beneath the surface of the ocean,
just in the coastal waters, there's a

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hidden meadow that quietly cleans the
water we swim in, protects shorelines from

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storms, supports the seafood that we eat,
and even plays a role in human health.

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The problem is that
most of us never see it.

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And because we don't see
it, it's disappearing fast.

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In this episode of the How to Protect
the Ocean Podcast, I'm gonna break down

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why this overlooked ocean habitat matters
to your daily life, how it connects the

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health of the Ocean to human wellbeing,
and what we stand to lose if these

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underwater meadows continue to vanish.

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We're gonna talk about that
on today's episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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There's a lot to cover,
so let's start the show.

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Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to another exciting episode
of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, Marine
biologist and science communicator

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here to tell you what's happening with
the ocean, how you could speak up for

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the ocean, and what you can do to live
for a better ocean by taking action.

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On today's episode, we're gonna be
talking about seagrass meadows and

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how the fact that like we need how
critical seagrass meadows are to us.

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They are essential infrastructure
for resilient coastlines,

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for resilient societies.

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They are part of the ocean's foundational
ecosystems alongside kelp forests, oyster

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reefs, and salt marshes, and often not

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we see these meadows disappearing.

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But the question really
is, is what are seagrasses?

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or you're probably telling me I do.

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Why are you so focused
on seagrass meadows?

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Like why do you wanna start
a podcast that's focused on

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sea meadows?

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Why are you talking about
this episode and all the other

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episodes about seagrass meadows?

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It's 'cause they're vital.

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They're underwater flowering plants
that are found in coastal waters.

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They create these underwater meadows
that support complex food webs.

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They are a core piece of human health.

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They contribute to cleaner coastal waters
by filtering out nutrients from water.

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I just want you to imagine this.

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If you have a tank, like a,
you know, just an aquarium.

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And you put it full of muddy water,
so there's a lot of little particles

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that are in the water, right?

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Whether it be nutrients, whether it be
algae, whether it be just like these

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little sediments, it's just murky water.

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What you're gonna find after a
while is when you put those plants

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in, they filter out that water.

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That water becomes cleaner if you
have the right system in there.

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And especially when you have a coastal
system where you have seagrass meadows

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in it, they're usually found at
the mouths of river systems, right?

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So they're, you know, you get
a freshwater river come down.

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It mixes with the salt water.

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Out in the coastlines where the
fresh water meets the salt water and

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where it becomes really salty, you'll
start to see these flowering plants.

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You'll start to see seagrasses.

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A lot of us will think, hey.

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That's seaweed.

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It's not seaweed.

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It's seagrasses.

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These meadows are filtering out
anything that comes into this

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and some for good, some for bad.

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It'll filter out all the nutrients,
it'll take in those nutrients and

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allow it to grow to provide that
structure, that security around

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the seagrass meadow within the bay.

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What happens is the roots
are underneath the sand.

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So it'll solidify the sand, so
there'll less erosion around the sand.

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It'll provide a habitat, a structure,
a home, if you will, for a lot of tiny

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organisms from microscopic all the way
to fish, small juvenile fish, young

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fish, larval fish larval invertebrates.

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And it provides this protection where
they can actually sit there, eat a lot

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of things and allow themselves to grow
before they become adults and stay there.

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Or they go off to a different habitat
like a coral reef, maybe even a mangrove,

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maybe somewhere else on the seagrass
meadow or a different seagrass meadow.

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They provide so much.

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So they provide food for us.

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They filter out water.

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They provide that structure to prevent
erosion along an important coastline.

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Yet we don't really see
what's happening to them.

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And there's this article that
I found in the conversation.

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And the article was really well written.

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I'll link to it in the show notes.

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But it basically talks about the
importance within this one health ocean

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concept, which is tying environmental
health directly to human wellbeing.

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We've seen this before, but it
was more of mental health with Dr.

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Wallace J Nichols book, Blue Mind.

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These are concepts that are really
important for you and I to understand.

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Because without the health of the
ocean systems, freshwater systems,

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wild systems, whether it's on land in
freshwater or in marine systems like

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oceans, we don't have a healthy planet.

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We do not have like human health.

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Our human health degrades.

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And because seagrass supports young
fish invertebrates, it helps sustains

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fisheries and that are critical for
food, security, and coastal economies.

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Maybe not for you who
are listening to this.

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A lot of my listeners are in the US or in
Canada, or in the UK or, in Australia.

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Many English speaking
countries and other countries.

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And it may not directly relate to
you, but many of the coastal systems

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anybody who lives along coastline will
depend on the health of the systems.

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The seafood that they use to feed
people, the seafood that they

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use to sell to make a living.

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That seafood that we often eat is
gonna be very important that you have

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a healthy seagrass meadow in that
area, a healthy coastal ecosystem.

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So today we're focusing o oyster reefs,
we can focus on salt marshes, we can

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focus on mudflats and kelp forests.

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These systems are very important, not only
for security, but for our food security.

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Not only just a physical coastline
security, but our food security.

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It's really, really important.

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Just in the very basic focus of
this episode, the fact that seagrass

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contributes to cleaner coastal waters
by filtering nutrients from water,

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it just improves coastal health.

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It improves the ability to go swimming,
the ability to get great seafood, the

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ability to just do a bunch of things.

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It has sediment stabilization, water
quality regulation, climate regulation.

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It stores carbon and
mitigates storm impacts.

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So the fact that you have a healthy
system, a seagrass system, and you get

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increased storm surges from hurricanes
or typhoons, or cyclones, the seagrasses

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will actually help protect the quality
of the security of the whole coastline.

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If you have a healthy system, whether it
be coral reefs, seagrasses, mangroves,

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all of it, you'll actually be safer
from like a long term perspective.

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The short term you might
get some more damage.

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But even in areas that had in the 2004
tsunami in the Indian Ocean areas that had

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intact coastal habitats that were healthy,
that were intact, that less damage and

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less deaths than areas that did not have
good coastal habitat health quality.

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It's a situation where, especially
in these days when we have just

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climate issues in general and we're
having storm surges come up on the

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beach or storm surges coming up on
our streets, on our coastlines, it's

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important that we have these physical
structures in there to dissipate the

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energy, to just reduce that energy of
the wave as it goes over the habitat.

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We're also talking about the fact that
seagrass meadows actually absorb carbon

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and they put it in the sediments.

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They're like a carbon sink.

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And so they store carbon through
photosynthesis, so we don't have

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as much carbon into the atmosphere.

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Now you're probably like, well,
forest do the same thing, Andrew.

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Why can't we do the
same thing with forest?

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Sure, we can do the same thing with
forest, but the fact that seagrass

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meadows will absorb it four to 10
times more than a tree on land.

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Now imagine that.

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We have the ability to scale up the
amount of absorption of carbon just

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through an ocean ecosystem that we depend
on, that we depend on for food, water

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clarity, and health, and coastal security.

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Imagine the fact that we could restore
these systems and or protect them just

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by paying more attention to them.

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It's a huge, huge aspect.

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Now here's the thing.

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A lot of the times we're seeing damage to
seagrasses, whether it be through boat.

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Like boats coming in and
putting their anchors over it.

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Whether we're seeing a lot
of bad water quality that are

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coming down from the rivers.

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For instance, in Florida.

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We're seeing a lot of bad water
quality that are coming down, a lot

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of nutrients that are coming down
where it's too many nutrients for

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the seagrass systems to absorb, and
they're causing a lot of algal mats.

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Those algal mats sink to the bottom
and they just suffocate the seagrasses

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to the point now where not only are
we seeing a lot of deaths along the

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side due to red tide, but also the
fact that we just don't have good

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water quality along the coastlines.

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We're also seeing a reduction in manatee
populations because they can't find

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seagrass to feed on cause that's their
primary food source are seagrass meadows.

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So if we don't have seagrass meadows,
we don't have these lovely manatees

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that regulate the seagrass meadows.

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It's a negative feedback loop where you
have poor water quality coming down.

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Algal blooms that are created
because of too many nutrients, right?

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And warmer waters.

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And then those nutrients
sink to the bottom.

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They suffocate the seagrasses,
not as many seagrasses.

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Then you get less productive coastlines.

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You get less clear, water quality and
you're not gonna have anything eat off

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of like larger animals like manatees.

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And so now all of a sudden you're
just having this system that just

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continues to negatively feed back
into the system and you're just

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like, we lose our seagrass meadows.

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It's as simple as that.

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In Florida, the manatees are starving
so much that they're actually having

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to feed them lettuce all the time.

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It just happens all the time.

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It's like a cascading effect for coastal
ecosystems and services that we depend on.

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That's what we gotta avoid.

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So by keeping the systems healthy, by
monitoring them, by acknowledging that

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they're there, and by making sure nothing
happens to them and having people look

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out for them, then we can all of a
sudden, we can just make sure that these

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seagrass meadows are in good condition.

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But the problem is, is we don't
have people monitoring them

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and because a lot of times we
just don't know where they are.

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What type of species are there?

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Are they the right species that are there?

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Are there any invasive species?

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What's happening to our system?

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Monitoring programs need to be done.

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We have organizations like Project
Seagrass who are working with Citizen

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scientist to identify seagrass meadows
with their Seagrass spotter app, where

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you can actually go in and contribute
to this app where you can say, Hey,

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by the way, there's a seagrass meadow
just over here down in Florida, or

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down in California, or over in British
Columbia, or in the UK somewhere.

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And we have all these systems
and we're mapping them out and

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this is the distribution of them.

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So we can have all of that.

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So the fact is, is we
have to start monitoring.

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We have to start acknowledging
that these systems are there and

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making sure that they're intact.

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And if they're not intact, or if you see
them degradating, then all of a sudden

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we're like, okay, let's put in a plan
to make sure we protect them 'cause

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that's the cheapest way of doing things.

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And also let's make sure we restore
seagrasses where we need them and

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where they were before so that we can
ensure that they're done properly.

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And we'll talk about restoration
because there's a lot to go into

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it, a lot of science to go into it.

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But that's something that
has to be done afterwards.

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And it's very, very expensive to do it.

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But we see success with it.

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We are seeing really
great success with it.

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We wanna make sure that our
seagrass habitats are intact,

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that we don't ignore them.

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We're not just looking for
coral reefs, we're not looking

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to just restore coral reefs.

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Coral reefs get a lot of
attention as they should.

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They are very important systems.

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But seagrass systems
are just as important.

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Maybe you could make the argument, if
not more, because a lot of the larva

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fish that grow up in a seagrass meadow
will go over to a coral reef and make

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sure that it's in good health as well.

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There's a lot to know within the ocean.

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There's a lot to protect within the ocean.

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But if we protect these systems,
and this system goes from really,

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really warm areas to temperate areas.

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It is very important to do that.

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all of a sudden we start to get better
water quality, better seafood, and better

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protection essentially for our coastlines.

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So I wanna make sure that you know
that I want to bring that about.

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There's the article in the conversation
by I believe it was Benjamin Jones

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and he had a coauthor as well.

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You can read that if you click on
the links below in the description.

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But if you have any questions or
comments, I'd love to hear your comments.

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If you're watching this on YouTube,
let me know in the comments below.

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If you're listening to this on your
favorite podcast app, you can go

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to speak up for blue.com/feedback.

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Let me know what you think there.

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If you're watching this on an app that
allows for comments, please let me know

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or like put your comments in there.

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I think Spotify allows it.

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I wish more podcast apps would allow it.

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Any way you want to connect
with me, you can do so.

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So please figure it out and find a
way to connect with me and I'd be

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more than happy to connect with you.

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And that's it for today's episode of
the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from
the True Nord Strong and free.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time
and happy conservation.