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So, of all my childhood memories,

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there is one that stands above the rest.

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And that is the time that my brave parents

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rented an RV, packed it
with me and my brothers,

5
00:00:13,823 --> 00:00:16,172
and drove west
from our house in Minneapolis,

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00:00:16,196 --> 00:00:18,463
out to Yellowstone National Park.

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00:00:19,188 --> 00:00:22,737
We saw all the sights, like the geysers,
we stopped at the Badlands,

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but more than any of the places,
I remember this as an adventure.

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This was my introduction to the Wild West.

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00:00:31,974 --> 00:00:34,617
But it wasn't until I got older

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and I learned more about
the National Park System,

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that I realized just how lucky I was.

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One, to have that experience,

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but also that, hundreds of years ago,
people had the foresight

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00:00:47,784 --> 00:00:51,656
to set aside the very best places,

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00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:56,577
the very best ecosystems
in the country, for everyone.

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And for future generations.

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And to really appreciate
just how prescient that idea was,

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you have to go back and
you have to look at the history

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00:01:07,888 --> 00:01:09,353
of the National Parks Service.

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So, a lot of people know, the first
National Park was Yellowstone in 1872.

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A lot of people think of John Muir,
the poet, naturalist,

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who was such a visionary

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and getting people inspired
by the idea of conservation,

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that we need to take
the best places and protect them.

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He had audience in very high places,

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so there's a great story
of Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir

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going hiking, in Yosemite.

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During his presidency, four days,
completely off the grid,

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just the two of them.

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Can you imagine a president

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actually just going completely
off the grid for four days?

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(Laughter)

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No tweeting.

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00:01:46,815 --> 00:01:50,609
(Laughter) (Applause)

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Like that idea.

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But he had a great impact
on Theodore Roosevelt.

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And he created dozens of national parks,
hundreds of thousands of square acres

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00:02:05,228 --> 00:02:07,164
of national wildlife refuges.

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00:02:07,188 --> 00:02:11,839
It was an important administration,
but it wasn't a done deal.

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Even less than 10 years after
he created all of those new places,

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the future of those places
was very much in doubt.

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And it wasn't until this guy,
Stephen Mather,

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a businessman from Chicago,

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wrote an angry letter to
the Department of the Interior, saying,

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"You guys aren't doing a good enough job
protecting and preserving these places."

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Than something was done about it.

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The Department of the Interior
wrote him back,

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"Mr Mather, if you care
so much about this,

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00:02:40,038 --> 00:02:42,895
why don't you come to Washington
and do it yourself?"

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And he did.

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He took a job at the
Department of the Interior,

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00:02:48,227 --> 00:02:51,783
but more importantly,
he started a campaign.

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He actually had a meeting
two blocks from here in 1914,

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in California Hall,

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00:02:58,463 --> 00:03:01,982
and he brought together the Park
superintendents and a few other people

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00:03:02,006 --> 00:03:04,806
who cared about this idea of conservation.

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00:03:05,601 --> 00:03:09,537
And they put together a plan,
they hatched a campaign,

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that eventually led to the
National Park Service in 1916.

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And that's really important.

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Because it went from an idea
that we should protect these places,

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to an actual plan,

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a way for people to enlist
and carry that idea forward

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for future generations,

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00:03:27,005 --> 00:03:31,045
so little kids like me can go
and have these amazing experiences.

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That is the history of the
National Parks on land.

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The ocean, what I want
to talk to you about today,

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is a completely different story.

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And we are almost,
precisely 100 years behind.

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So, the first marine
sanctuary was in 1972,

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after the oil spill in Santa Barbara,

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00:03:50,171 --> 00:03:52,878
people got interested
in taking that concept

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and applying it to
underwater environments.

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We've had our own John Muir,
who's Dr. Sylvia Earle,

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who's been a tireless advocate

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00:04:01,213 --> 00:04:04,529
for creating these marine
protected areas around the world.

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So, I know there's a lot
of bad news about the ocean,

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there's plastic pollution,
coral bleaching, over-fishing --

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00:04:10,916 --> 00:04:13,821
it's hard to take it all in sometimes.

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00:04:13,845 --> 00:04:19,276
But this idea of setting aside
places for nature is working.

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Science tells us, that if you
set these places aside,

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nature will come back
and we can keep the oceans healthy.

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So we know this idea works.

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And Dr. Sylvia Earl
has been influential, like John Muir,

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with administrations --

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00:04:33,315 --> 00:04:37,172
George W. Bush and Obama
were both fantastic ocean presidents,

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00:04:37,196 --> 00:04:40,579
creating marine protected areas
all around the country.

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This is not a conservative idea
or a liberal idea,

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it's not even an American idea,

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it's just a good idea.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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But --

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(Applause)

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Here we are, a few years later.

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And now the administration is proposing
to roll back a lot of the progress

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00:05:01,854 --> 00:05:03,780
we've made in the past 20 years.

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00:05:04,449 --> 00:05:07,568
So, so, don't mourn -- organize.

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00:05:08,809 --> 00:05:11,722
We need to do what
Stephen Mather did 100 years ago.

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We need to start a campaign
to get people engaged with this idea.

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And I think we need a league
of citizen scientists for the ocean.

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00:05:21,486 --> 00:05:25,351
And I've seen glimpses of this future
and I know that it's possible.

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My friend Erik and I started building
underwater robots,

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these little swimming cameras
with lights that you can see underwater.

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We started building these
in his garage, five years ago

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and we've watched that grow

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into this community of thousands
of people around the world,

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who believe that everybody
should have access to these places.

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We all deserve the tools
to go and explore.

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There's stories like Laura James,
who used her robot

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to find out that sea stars
in her area were dying.

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00:05:51,212 --> 00:05:54,299
And she started this whole
citizen science campaign,

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collected data and drove awareness
for sea star wasting syndrome,

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to try and figure out
what was happening there.

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There are stories of fishermen in Mexico,

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who used the robot to create
marine protected areas

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where Nassau grouper were spawning,
to protect the future of this species.

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It's really amazing stuff.

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We found that if you
give people the tools,

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they'll do the right thing.

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00:06:19,291 --> 00:06:21,196
But we need to take it a step further.

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And, actually, I think we can dust off
Stephen Mather's playbook.

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So what did he do?

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So, the first thing that he did
was he focused on infrastructure.

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So 1914 wasn't just
the time for the parks,

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it was also a time for the automobile,

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the Model T was rolling off the line

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and Stephen Mather understood

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that this was going to be
an important part of American culture.

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And so he partnered with Highway
associations around the country

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to build big, beautiful highways
out to these parks.

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And it worked, he's basically
invented car camping.

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And he knew that if people
didn't go to these places,

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that they wouldn’t fall in love with them
and they wouldn't care.

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So that was a really insightful
idea that he had.

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The second thing they did,

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00:07:03,958 --> 00:07:06,006
was they focused on
visionary philanthropy.

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00:07:06,030 --> 00:07:09,617
So, Stephen Mather was a successful
businessman from Chicago,

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00:07:09,641 --> 00:07:12,849
and anytime there was
a Parks Association that needed funding,

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00:07:12,873 --> 00:07:15,730
anytime there was a Highway
association that needed funding,

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00:07:15,754 --> 00:07:18,071
they'd step in, write
the checks, make it happen.

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There's a great story
of his friend, William Kent,

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who recognized there was a small patch
of redwoods left on the base of Mount Tam,

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00:07:25,433 --> 00:07:29,346
and so he quickly bough up the land and
donated it to this National Parks effort.

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That's Muir Woods today,

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it's one of the most popular
national parks in the whole country.

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My parents are visiting here
from Minnesota,

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00:07:36,152 --> 00:07:38,421
and they don't really even
care about this talk,

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all they're talking about
is going to Muir Woods.

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(Laughter)

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But the last thing is critical.

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Is, Stephen Mather focused on engagement.

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In one of the first meetings that they
had around this new system, he said,

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"If you're a writer, I want you
to write about this.

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00:07:54,736 --> 00:07:58,601
If you're a business owner, I want you
to tell your clubs and your organizations.

156
00:07:58,625 --> 00:08:01,611
If you work for the government,
I want you to pass regulation."

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00:08:01,635 --> 00:08:02,895
Everybody had a job.

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00:08:02,919 --> 00:08:05,042
"Each of you, all of you,
have a roll to play

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00:08:05,066 --> 00:08:08,137
in protecting these places
for future generations."

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00:08:08,161 --> 00:08:10,248
Each of you, all of you.

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I love that.

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That's the plan --
simple, three-point plan.

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I think we can do the same.

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00:08:19,411 --> 00:08:21,494
So, this was the headline
when Obama created

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the Papahanaumokuakea national monument:

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"Lots to see, but good luck
trying to get there."

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00:08:28,593 --> 00:08:33,307
But like Mather, we should focus on
the technology of our time,

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all of this new, amazing,
digital infrastructure can be built

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00:08:37,203 --> 00:08:39,404
to engage people with the oceans.

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00:08:39,751 --> 00:08:44,133
So, the National Marine Sanctuary

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has created all these
wonderful VR 360 videos,

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where you can actually go
and see what these places look like.

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Our team is continuing to build new tools,

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this is our latest, this is
the trident underwater drone,

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it's a diving submarine, it's sleek,
you can fit it in a backpack,

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00:09:00,372 --> 00:09:03,469
and go down to 100 metres,
deeper than most divers can go.

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00:09:03,796 --> 00:09:07,999
They can see these environments,
that most people have never had access to.

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New tools are coming
and we need even better tools.

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We can also use more
visionary philanthropists.

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00:09:17,450 --> 00:09:20,347
So, when Erik and I started this,
we didn't have any money,

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we were building this in his garage.

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00:09:23,163 --> 00:09:24,594
But we went to Kickstarter.

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And we found over 1,800 people,

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almost a million dollars
we've raised on Kickstarter,

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finding other people who think,

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00:09:30,370 --> 00:09:31,849
"Yeah, that's a good idea.

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00:09:31,873 --> 00:09:33,378
I want to be a part of that."

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00:09:33,712 --> 00:09:36,736
We need more ways for people
to get engaged,

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00:09:36,760 --> 00:09:39,479
and become visionary
philanthropists themselves.

190
00:09:39,503 --> 00:09:41,524
We've also had
traditional philanthropists,

191
00:09:41,540 --> 00:09:42,885
who've stepped up to fund us

192
00:09:42,909 --> 00:09:46,131
in the SEE initiative -- the Science
Education and Exploration,

193
00:09:46,155 --> 00:09:50,969
who are going to help us get donated
units out to people on the frontlines,

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00:09:50,993 --> 00:09:54,255
people who are doing the science,
people who are telling the stories,

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00:09:54,279 --> 00:09:55,715
and inspiring communities.

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00:09:55,739 --> 00:09:59,032
You can go on to openexplorer.com
and see what people are doing,

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it's hugely inspirational.

198
00:10:02,119 --> 00:10:04,818
And it will also, hopefully,
spur you to get involved.

199
00:10:04,842 --> 00:10:08,517
Because there is plenty of room
to get involved.

200
00:10:08,541 --> 00:10:12,415
We want to hear what ideas you have
for telling these stories.

201
00:10:13,529 --> 00:10:16,116
Because that's just it --
this is all about engagement.

202
00:10:16,140 --> 00:10:19,997
There's all sorts of interesting,
new ways for people to participate

203
00:10:20,021 --> 00:10:21,870
in the protection of these places.

204
00:10:21,894 --> 00:10:23,188
And the understanding.

205
00:10:23,212 --> 00:10:26,164
Like, Reef Check -- scuba divers
are going down and swimming,

206
00:10:26,188 --> 00:10:30,109
[unclear] and counting
fish and biodiversity data.

207
00:10:30,133 --> 00:10:33,533
They're getting the information we need
to protect these places.

208
00:10:33,911 --> 00:10:37,306
If you're going down to the beach,
participate in MPA Watch.

209
00:10:37,330 --> 00:10:41,014
Document what activities you see
going on in these different areas.

210
00:10:41,038 --> 00:10:44,304
There is room for everybody
to participate here.

211
00:10:45,490 --> 00:10:47,410
And that's just it, that's what we need.

212
00:10:47,434 --> 00:10:51,283
We need to build a future
for our grandkids' grandkids.

213
00:10:51,307 --> 00:10:53,552
Last month, I went out sailing,

214
00:10:53,576 --> 00:10:57,149
and we got out to the Farallon Islands,
25 miles off the Gate

215
00:10:57,173 --> 00:10:59,926
and most people think of this
as kind of a bird sanctuary,

216
00:10:59,950 --> 00:11:02,617
but we took our robot and we sent it in.

217
00:11:03,125 --> 00:11:07,322
And the people on the boat were astonished
at the life beneath the surface.

218
00:11:08,101 --> 00:11:11,768
I mean, these are really,
really important ecosystems.

219
00:11:12,625 --> 00:11:16,855
Really, and this is a whole
wild world we haven't yet explored.

220
00:11:16,879 --> 00:11:19,871
And we have an opportunity right now,

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00:11:19,895 --> 00:11:22,037
just as they did 100 years ago,

222
00:11:22,061 --> 00:11:26,886
to protect these places, to put in a plan,
to keep people engaged.

223
00:11:27,625 --> 00:11:29,950
So last year, when the
executive order came out,

224
00:11:29,974 --> 00:11:31,832
putting all of the progress we've made,

225
00:11:31,856 --> 00:11:35,138
all of these new marine protected
areas under review

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00:11:35,162 --> 00:11:38,749
there were over 100,000 people
who commented online.

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00:11:39,845 --> 00:11:42,448
Almost all of these letter were saying,

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00:11:42,472 --> 00:11:46,805
"Don't do it; protecting these places
is the right thing to do."

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00:11:47,839 --> 00:11:51,728
My message to those 100,000 people,
those 100,000 letters is,

230
00:11:51,752 --> 00:11:53,442
don't wait for Washington.

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00:11:53,466 --> 00:11:55,093
We can do this ourselves.

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00:11:55,117 --> 00:11:56,291
Thank you.

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00:11:56,315 --> 00:12:00,497
(Applause)