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Welcome to the Natural World Facts Awareness
Project, a new series in which I’ll be explaining
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the importance of wildlife conservation and
what you can do to help. In this video, I’m
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joined by Alex Collins, a fellow YouTube wildlife
enthusiast and biologist at the University
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of Bristol, who focuses on conservation. His
channel is linked below, I recommend you check
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it out for videos on some of the world’s
rarest species and how you can help them.
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What is Marine Conservation?
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Marine Conservation is defined as the protection
and preservation of ocean ecosystems, with
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a focus on limiting the damage caused to them
by humans and preserving threatened marine
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species.
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The main threats being seen in our oceans
include species loss, habitat degradation,
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and changes in ecosystem function. Human activities
causing a rise in extinction rates has lead
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to a huge decrease in biodiversity, particularly
in coral reefs, 88% of which are threatened
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by excessive CO2 emissions.
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These reefs are among the most important stores
of biodiversity on the planet; it takes around
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10 thousand years for a reef to form from
coral polyps, and up to 30 million years for
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a reef to fully mature, hosting an estimated
25% of all marine life. And yet, around the
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world, coral reefs are dying, as warming temperatures
and stressful conditions bleach the corals
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white as they are forced to expel the colourful
algae on which the coral depends for its survival.
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So, why does this matter? Why is marine conservation
so important?
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With the world’s oceans currently more under
threat than ever before, and with half of
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the world’s reefs having died in the last
30 years, Marine Conservation has never been
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more important than today.
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I’ve already made some videos which answer
these questions on my own channel, so if you’d
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like to know why conservation is crucial to
both yourself and the environment, and why
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we should save endangered species and ecosystems,
then make sure to check those videos out after
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you’ve finished watching this.
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Put simply, different species rely on each
other for survival. If one species is under
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threat, the likelihood is that so is another
species. This can have a chain reaction, until
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eventually a whole ecosystem is under threat.
We need healthy ecosystems just as much as
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the marine life itself, because without them,
we’d have less food, less money, and less
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life on our planet. The bottom line is, life
on Earth needs healthy oceans, and it is our
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responsibility to protect them.
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So how can we do this?
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One of the most effective methods has been
the setting up of marine protected areas.
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This creates a much safer environment for
marine life, undisturbed by the impacts of
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overfishing, noise pollution from ships, and
other human activities. Thankfully, biodiversity
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has been found to increase by 21% within marine
reserves like these.
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We can also use artificial reefs. These are
man-made structures, built to promote marine
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life and the growth of new coral. Artificial
reefs have proven successful in providing
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a habitat for threatened wildlife, therefore
allowing damaged ecosystems to recover, and
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the regeneration of valuable biodiversity
within reef ecosystems.
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As well as these strategies, we also need
to be careful in the way we interact with
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the marine environment. For example, active
demersal fishing techniques like trawling,
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where a net is dragged along the bottom of
the ocean, can destroy the seafloor, which
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often contains ecologically important plant
and coral species.
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Active pelagic fishing techniques, where a
net is dragged through the open ocean, can
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also be just as bad. This is because it’s
indiscriminate, meaning that the nets will
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catch anything in their way, regardless of
whether or not the fisherman are looking for
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it. This often leads to protected animals
like dolphins and turtles being injured or
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even killed. For every 1 kilogram of prawns
that are caught and sold in stores, 9 kilograms
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of other sea animals are caught as bycatch,
being injured or killed and then thrown away.
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Marine conservation efforts have been made
to reduce the destruction caused by these
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fishing techniques, either by reducing how
often they are allowed to be used, or by making
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the technique itself less destructive. For
example, by using specific fishing hooks that
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are less likely to catch unwanted species.
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So there’s a small insight into just some
of the problems that marine conservationists
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face today. Solving these problems does take
a lot of hard work, but that doesn’t mean
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there’s nothing you can do if you don’t
work as a conservationist.
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So here are some simple things that you can
do to help marine conservation.
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Firstly, use your water supply more economically.
This will not only save you money but it will
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reduce excess runoff, containing pollutants
and waste, into the ocean.
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Secondly, use less energy in your day to day
life. Higher temperatures can cause the death
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of corals, rising sea levels and flooding,
and more extreme weather which can damage
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marine ecosystems. Many marine species also
rely on specific temperatures to determine
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what sex they develop into (i.e. they have
temperature-dependent sex determination),
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and so by changing the temperature we can
throw an entire population out of balance.
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You can also fish responsibly, or just fish
less, or not at all if this is an option to
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you. The same goes for eating seafood.
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Reducing your use of plastics is also essential.
Ingestion of microplastics (bits of plastic
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which are less than 5mm across) can lead to
bioaccumulation. This is where harmful substances
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build up in the food chain and eventually
cause serious problems to the organisms at
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the top.
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There are just a few things that you should
consider when trying to cause less impact
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to marine life. There is of course plenty
of other things that you can do to help, so
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if you’d like to know more, then let us
know down in the comments, and we can make
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another video for you.
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Thank you for watching, subscribe to see more
videos from the Awareness Project. Hit the
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like button and be sure to watch our video
on the Pine Marten by following the link to
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Alex’s channel.