This ocean place will help protect the planet, but we need to do something to help it

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Coastal ecosystem health is extremely
important in protecting the ocean, and one

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of those coastal ecosystems is seagrass.

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It supports fisheries, stores
carbon and protects coastlines.

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But we still cannot agree
on how to measure whether it

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is healthy or disappearing.

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If we can't measure it properly,
how can we protect it at all?

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We're gonna be diving into the ways
of measuring why it's so important

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to have one way or just two or three
ways of measuring and keeping that

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consistent around the world so we
can properly identify whether it's

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trending upwards or downwards.

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On this episode of the How to Protect
the Ocean Podcast, 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 can 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, but we're

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going back into the ways of measuring.

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We talked about eDNA last week.

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Today we're gonna be talking about
ways of measuring seagrass, but in

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a way where it's actually consistent
across all seagrass habitats, and

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we're gonna talk about why that's
so important in their protection.

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But first, before we get into that,
let's talk about what seagrasses are.

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They are a plant, an aquatic plant
that goes underwater that is a vitally

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important coastal habitat to not only
biodiversity, but fisheries, production,

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water quality, and carbon storage.

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It matters because without these
habitats, we lose a vital habitat

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that will protect the ocean.

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These areas of biodiversity, of fisheries
production, of better water quality, of

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carbon storage, these are areas that are
gonna help us in just being with the ocean

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and making sure that it's stable, making
sure that we reduce climate change, making

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sure that we can eat from it, making sure
that we can have a lot of biodiversity,

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like I said, to keep it stable.

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So this is how we protect the ocean.

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However, there are certain
habitats that get a little bit

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more attention than others.

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And you can argue that seagrasses
take a backseat to, I don't know, a

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habitat like coral reefs maybe.

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And look, coral reefs are
very important as well.

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They're extremely abundant in
certain places, or they used to be.

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And they were a huge tourist attraction
for a lot of people, a lot of countries.

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They provide a lot of fish.

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They provide a lot of diversity.

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However, they are very, very narrow in
terms of their ability to stand change.

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And so when change happens, like you
see in the ocean right now with very

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different and varying temperatures,

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we're seeing different PHs and varying
PHs, coral habitats tend to kind of

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go wonky and tend to bleach or die
off, and we're seeing that a lot.

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And without these habitats that
are around it to help supply them

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with the biodiversity that's needed
with the animals that are needed

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to help these coral reefs thrive.

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Because with coral reefs, if you
get algae that grow over the corals,

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you're not gonna get many corals.

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It'll suffocate the corals.

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The corals won't get the light that
they need to use to photosynthesize

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and be able to build their skeleton
over and over and over again.

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I would go into the science, but
we're not talking about coral reefs.

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We're talking about seagrasses.

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So if algae overgrow corals, and the fish
that are eat the algae aren't there, then

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we're not gonna have many corals around.

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The fish that eat the algae, a lot of
the times they're juvenile or smaller

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little sections or life history cycles
are usually being protected in seagrass

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habitats and the biology exchange
between corals and seagrasses and even

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mangroves and other coastal habitat is
extremely important when we see that.

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Also, there are salt marshes
in more temperate areas.

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There's mudflats.

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These are all in very
important coastal habitats.

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But today we're gonna be
focusing in on seagrasses.

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Like I said before, the amount
of services that seagrass

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provides are extremely important.

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Without seagrasses, we
have crappy water quality.

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We have less fish, and we
have less biodiversity, and

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we have less carbon storage.

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The amount of carbon that
seagrasses will absorb is four to

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10 times more than a tree on land.

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That's how important these meadows are.

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That's how important these plants
are to our oceans for a number of

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different reasons, but even just
for climate change in itself.

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The way that we protect these
places is not just to restore them

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once they're gone, but it's to
protect them when they're there.

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And to be able to protect them,
we have to know what is there.

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We have to be able to measure them
properly and be able to protect 'em

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across all different places within
that nation, within a coastline or even

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in different nations internationally.

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We have to be able to
measure them the same way.

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And that's what the focus of this episode
is on is measuring consistently across

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habitats like for seagrass habitats
across coastlines, across national

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borders and international borders.

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These are such something that's
extremely important to measure properly.

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seagrass Montes, it varies widely and
it really happens based on the people

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that are around, the expertise that
they have, the money that they have, and

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the ability to get out into the ocean.

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The ocean can be a very dangerous place.

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Luckily, a lot of these places are
on the coast, but still can be very

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dangerous to get out to certain places.

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Some of them are very remote and it
could be dangerous to get out there.

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Some of 'em are very
expensive to get out there.

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So that varies depending on the geography,
depending on the country, if they have

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the money to go out and do this, or even
just the funding that's available to

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them to go out and do this type of work.

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Now when you have countries that are
doing different methods, and we'll talk

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about the methods in a second, we will
have differing ways of like accuracy.

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We're gonna have different ways of biases.

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So every method will
have different biases.

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Let's get into some of those methods.

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So we have quadrat-based field
surveys, which is basically

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a square that's put down

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of, usually it's like
a PVC pipe in a square.

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It's put down all over the seagrass,
and then you count the number of

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plants that are in that seagrass.

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Sometimes you can count the species.

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So the quadrat sizes can vary widely.

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The cover estimates may be continuous
percentages or bin categories, such as

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like different methods and different
scores, which can be inconsistent

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across these different scores.

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The observer that's judging
them can be very different.

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And some surveys will record species level
cover and others will just do total cover.

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So the, data that's done through
these quadrat-based field surveys

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are not done consistently.

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Then you have photoquadrats, which
is basically you have a photo.

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You, decipher a quadrat or video
transact, and then you decipher a quadrat.

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And then you count what's ever in there.

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Now sometimes the image resolution
and camera angle can vary, so

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that makes it a little different.

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Different annotation methods are used,
so, such as point counts or pixel

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classification or broadbands, which
even though they're digital, it makes

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it very inconsistent across the methods.

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Understory or rare species are
often missed in this type of way.

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And so, we have remote sensing
from satellites or drones,

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which can be very expensive.

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Again, you're looking at different
centers have different potentials

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for spatial and spectral resolutions.

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Classifications,
algorithms are very widely.

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And so there's a lot of problems.

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We just have field-based
parameters or mapping with GPS.

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It's just there's so many different
ways of identifying things and

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it can be very inconsistent across

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different, you know, labs that
are doing the work, the nonprofit

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organizations are doing the work.

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Sometimes you're doing it through
a citizen conservation project, the

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Citizen Science Conservation Project.

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So, the people who are identifying
the species or the total cover have

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different methodologies of doing
things or may not do it perfectly.

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And so that becomes a problem when we're
starting to look at how we are judging

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the health of seagrasses across the world.

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Not only in one section of
One nation, one region, one

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nation, but also across nations.

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So it can be very difficult.

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Now the thing is, is seagrasses
have become an Essential

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Ocean Variable, an EOV.

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So what does that mean?

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We are gonna go into it because it's
something that's really, really important.

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So an Essential Ocean Variable or an EOV
is a small, carefully chosen set of ocean

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measurements that scientists agree are the
most important things we need to measure

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consistently to understand how the ocean
is changing and support decision making.

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So once we start to see how these
seagrass meadows are changing over time,

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we can actually put in place
management decisions or policies

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to actually help out this.

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Now why was this important, or why
was seagrasses designated as an EOV?

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Well, it does two things.

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One, it's critically important
for society and ecosystems.

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And two, it is feasible to
observe repeatedly at large

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scales using existing methods.

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So that's a pretty good
reason to have them there.

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So the big thing is, is
they're comparable, they're

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repeatable, and it's usable data.

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That's the big thing why
EOVs are so important.

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Now, here's the thing.

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They identified three core measurements
that will be good to measure across

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nations and across seagrass Meadows.

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There's seagrass aerial
extent where seagrass exists

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and how much area it covers.

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Seagrass percentage cover how
dense or sparse the seagrass

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is in on the sea floor.

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Seagrass species composition, which
species are present, and why it matters

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for the resilience and ecosystem services.

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So some species are a little bit more
resilient than others, so if there is ones

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that are not resilient that are present,
and it's only those, then maybe that needs

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a little bit more protection than the
ones that are a little bit more resilient.

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So together, these give a proper
picture of what the seagrass

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is in and how it's doing.

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So if you have the looking
at the aerial extent, you're

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looking at how much it covers.

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Well, if you look at the actual,
like the space that it covers, that's

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a huge indicator of like, if it
grows, that means it's doing well.

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If it starts to shrink, that's
means it's not doing well.

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When you have the percent cover,
you're looking at the patchiness

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within the seagrass meadow.

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If it starts to become patchy within
there, meaning that it's starting

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to get sparse within the area.

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There's something going on within the
area that's either eating the seagrass

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or it's, really degradating it inside.

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So that's something
that we have to look at.

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And of course, species composition,
what seagrass species is present.

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That's really an important aspect.

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I just mentioned it.

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If it's more resilient or
less resilient, it's something

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that's very important for you.

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It whether it will continue to provide
ecosystem services on the long term.

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So once you have the standardized method
and understanding that these are the

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three methods that we can use, you're
able to look at how management decisions

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will help these seagrass meadows, right?

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Because we're looking at, well, we want
this thing to grow an aerial extent, or we

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want it to be very dense within that area.

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'cause that'll provide more biodiversity.

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We want these species to be protected
depending on what's present.

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Obviously the more diverse, the better.

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But we need to make sure that these are
all looked at from a policy level and it's

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easy to measure and assess their health.

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When we have this type of data
across all different types of sea

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meadows and habitats and regions and
countries, we start to get a better

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understanding of health overall.

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If everything is measured differently
and we can't really compare,

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it's like apples to oranges.

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It's not good.

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You need apples to apples or oranges
to oranges, then you'll be able

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to say, comparing to this area.

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This one's doing really well
or not doing really well.

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And if we see, look at ones in
France, well, if we actually did

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some work in here, we can really
rebuild it and it can be really great.

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I'm just using France as an example.

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Nothing bad with France.

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I'm sure there's some ones that
are doing really well, Meadows

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and some that need to be restored.

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The way we measure seagrass is not just
important for international frameworks

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or for policies, but it's important for
scientists to be able to compare how the

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seagrass is doing within their study area
compared to how seagrass is doing outside.

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That's the really, the big
thing when it comes to it.

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We can actually compare to see what
different disturbances are causing

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growth or causing a reduction in seagrass
cover, species composition and so forth.

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Now here's the thing.

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As we start to get better with technology,
satellites, drones, AI, and machine

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learning, these technologies are
really gonna help us with monitoring.

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So for instance, there is a project
out in Australia on the Great Barrier

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Reef that actually helps monitor
using AI, like, how well and how

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much cover there is in specific
photographs of the Great Barrier Reef.

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So essentially it's a
citizen science program.

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You can go on the website, I'll
put the link in the show notes.

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You can go on a website.

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You sign up for an account And then
you can do like four or five in a

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row in like 10 minutes, not even.

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And what the AI does is demarcates an area
was like, I think this has coral cover.

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And then you say, what
type of coral cover?

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It's a boulder, whether it's
like a flat like plate coral or

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whether it's a branching coral.

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And then that data goes to someone else.

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That picture gets looked at five
times by five different people.

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And then they look at
what the results are.

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It goes to a great barrier
Reef Monitoring program where

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people can look at more data.

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'cause that's really
what it comes down to.

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You need more data that's
standardized that we can do it.

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And even though it doesn't provide
accurate, like to the centimeter kind

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of data, it provides really good data
to make better management decisions on.

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And that's really what it comes down to.

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Sometimes, the most accurate data or the
best resolution is not the best thing to

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do for management of seagrasses across a
country or a nation or internationally.

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So what we need next is we need
broader acceptance or adoption of

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these shared monitoring standards.

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This paper that I'm talking about
today that this whole thing is based

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on really calls for that adoption of
these shared monitoring standards.

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So hopefully there's incentives for
open data sharing, which is gonna

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be really important when we're able
to standardize these methodologies

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and more people can use them.

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These are easier things to
measure than a lot of other

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things that have been used before.

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And you can see a little bit more
collaboration between researchers,

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managers, and policy makers.

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One of the reasons why I do this
podcast is because I can take research

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that's being done in a research
papers that are behind paywalls.

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This one was freely
available, which is great.

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Most of them are behind paywalls
because it's really hard

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to get them outta paywalls.

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You have to pay a lot of money and
that the researchers don't have.

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And so managers don't get access to
these papers and don't get access to

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something as important as standardizing
methods so they can make better

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management decisions for managers.

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I've done episodes on this before,
the crazy thing about peer reviewed

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papers and journal articles is
they're not available for everybody.

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They're not very inclusive.

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They're actually very exclusive.

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So really what it comes down to is
like if we want to protect habitats,

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we need to make sure that we are
all measuring it the same way.

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They may not be the best measurements,
they may not give you the UpToDate

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and most experienced way of looking
at how to protect seagrasses.

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But what they do is they give us a base
and they give us enough information

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for people to make management decisions
and compare and contrast different

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seagrass Meadows around the world.

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And that's what's really needed right now.

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We don't know a lot about seagrasses.

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We have very little knowledge on the
extent of seagrasses around the world.

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And there's programs like SeagrassSpotter
where people can measure their

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own seagrasses and the extent and
everything and put it into a database

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and it goes into a map where people
could get more information on that.

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It's just a great citizens science
project that's put on by my friends

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over at the seagrass project.

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But we need more of that.

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We need standardized data to make
sure that everything is done properly.

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And so without this type of measuring,
without these standards, we

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are not in good shape to protect
seagrasses around the world.

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And so this is a foundational step
towards protecting coastal ecosystems

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for coastal ecosystem health.

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It's really, really important.

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So what I would like to encourage
is listeners to see monitoring and

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data as part of conservation action.

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If you're able to fund small organizations
or large organizations that do this type

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of work, that do restoration, that do
monitoring, this is really important.

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The Seagrass Project is a great
organization that does a lot of

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restoration, that does a lot of
monitoring, and they also test instruments

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to help with monitoring, to help with
seed propagation and all that kinda stuff.

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It is so, so important to help these
organizations like Seagrass Project.

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I'll put a link to the show notes
with for them, and that will be really

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important to be able to support groups
like that and seagrass organizations

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like that because seagrass is, like I
said at the beginning, are important

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for a lot of different things.

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Biodiversity support, fish
production, carbon sequestration,

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and of course water quality control.

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So that's very, very important.

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

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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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If you wanna subscribe or follow,
you could do so on YouTube.

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I'd love to hear your comments if
you wanna put a comment on YouTube.

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00:15:08,333 --> 00:15:11,063
Also, if you want to leave a comment,
you're listening to an audio, go

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00:15:11,063 --> 00:15:13,313
to speak up for blue.com/feedback.

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00:15:13,313 --> 00:15:15,023
I'd love to hear what you think.

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00:15:15,130 --> 00:15:18,400
And of course you can always catch
me on the next episode of the

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00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:19,570
How to Protect the ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from
the True nor 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.