1
00:00:01,429 --> 00:00:03,562
I want to tell you a love story.

2
00:00:04,190 --> 00:00:06,524
But it doesn't have a happy ending.

3
00:00:07,333 --> 00:00:11,029
Once upon a time,
I was a stubborn five-year-old

4
00:00:11,053 --> 00:00:14,053
who decided to become a marine biologist.

5
00:00:14,527 --> 00:00:18,990
Thirty-four years, 400 scuba dives
and one PhD later,

6
00:00:19,014 --> 00:00:22,180
I'm still completely
enamored with the ocean.

7
00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:25,387
I spent a decade working
with fishing communities

8
00:00:25,411 --> 00:00:26,593
in the Caribbean,

9
00:00:26,617 --> 00:00:29,012
counting fish, interviewing fishermen,

10
00:00:29,036 --> 00:00:32,551
redesigning fishing gear
and developing policy.

11
00:00:32,957 --> 00:00:37,012
I've been helping to figure out
what sustainable management can look like

12
00:00:37,036 --> 00:00:40,680
for places where food security,
jobs and cultures

13
00:00:40,704 --> 00:00:42,585
all depend on the sea.

14
00:00:43,538 --> 00:00:46,942
In the midst of all this, I fell in love.

15
00:00:47,628 --> 00:00:48,953
With a fish.

16
00:00:49,675 --> 00:00:53,287
There are over 500 fish species
that live on Caribbean reefs,

17
00:00:53,311 --> 00:00:56,540
but the ones I just
can't get out of my head

18
00:00:56,564 --> 00:00:57,746
are parrotfish.

19
00:00:58,093 --> 00:01:00,641
Parrotfish live on coral reefs
all over the world,

20
00:01:00,665 --> 00:01:02,434
there are 100 species,

21
00:01:02,458 --> 00:01:04,264
they can grow well over a meter long

22
00:01:04,288 --> 00:01:05,911
and weigh over 20 kilograms,

23
00:01:05,935 --> 00:01:08,077
but that's the boring stuff.

24
00:01:08,101 --> 00:01:11,783
I want to tell you five
incredible things about these fish.

25
00:01:12,815 --> 00:01:15,315
First, they have a mouth
like a parrot's beak,

26
00:01:15,339 --> 00:01:17,117
which is strong enough to bite coral,

27
00:01:17,141 --> 00:01:19,672
although mostly, they're after algae.

28
00:01:19,696 --> 00:01:21,887
They are the lawn mowers of the reef.

29
00:01:21,911 --> 00:01:25,700
This is key, because many reefs
are overgrown with algae

30
00:01:25,724 --> 00:01:29,009
due to nutrient pollution
from sewage and fertilizer

31
00:01:29,033 --> 00:01:30,500
that runs off of land.

32
00:01:30,842 --> 00:01:33,502
And there just aren't enough
herbivores like parrotfish

33
00:01:33,526 --> 00:01:34,700
left out on the reefs

34
00:01:34,724 --> 00:01:36,223
to mow it all down.

35
00:01:36,932 --> 00:01:39,290
OK, second amazing thing.

36
00:01:39,314 --> 00:01:44,399
After all that eating,
they poop fine white sand.

37
00:01:44,830 --> 00:01:48,639
A single parrot fish can produce
over 380 kilograms

38
00:01:48,663 --> 00:01:50,996
of this pulverized coral each year.

39
00:01:51,371 --> 00:01:52,956
Sometimes, when scuba diving,

40
00:01:52,980 --> 00:01:54,895
I would look up from my clipboard

41
00:01:54,919 --> 00:01:59,059
and just see contrails
of parrotfish poop raining down.

42
00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:04,202
So next time you're lounging
on a tropical white-sand beach,

43
00:02:04,226 --> 00:02:06,543
maybe think of parrot fish.

44
00:02:06,567 --> 00:02:07,718
(Laughter)

45
00:02:07,742 --> 00:02:10,686
Third, they have so much style.

46
00:02:10,710 --> 00:02:12,994
Mottled and striped, teal, magenta,

47
00:02:13,018 --> 00:02:15,159
yellow, orange, polka-dotted,

48
00:02:15,183 --> 00:02:18,746
parrotfish are a big part
of what makes coral reefs so colorful.

49
00:02:19,212 --> 00:02:21,565
Plus, in true diva style,

50
00:02:21,589 --> 00:02:25,128
they have multiple wardrobe changes
throughout their life.

51
00:02:25,473 --> 00:02:26,631
A juvenile outfit,

52
00:02:26,655 --> 00:02:27,949
an intermediate getup,

53
00:02:27,973 --> 00:02:29,306
and a terminal look.

54
00:02:29,711 --> 00:02:32,537
Fourth, with this last wardrobe change

55
00:02:32,561 --> 00:02:35,058
comes a sex change from female to male,

56
00:02:35,082 --> 00:02:37,939
termed sequential hermaphroditism.

57
00:02:38,252 --> 00:02:42,172
These large males then gather
harems of females to spawn.

58
00:02:42,700 --> 00:02:46,391
Heterosexual monogamy
is certainly not nature's status quo.

59
00:02:46,415 --> 00:02:49,216
And parrotfish exemplify
some of the beauty

60
00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:51,574
of diverse reproductive strategies.

61
00:02:52,088 --> 00:02:55,358
Fifth, and the most incredible,

62
00:02:55,382 --> 00:02:59,310
sometimes when parrotfish
cozy up into a nook in the reef at night,

63
00:02:59,334 --> 00:03:03,093
they secrete a mucus bubble
from a gland in their head

64
00:03:03,117 --> 00:03:05,728
that envelops their entire body.

65
00:03:06,752 --> 00:03:08,950
This masks their scent from predators

66
00:03:08,974 --> 00:03:10,562
and protects them from parasites,

67
00:03:10,586 --> 00:03:11,880
so they can sleep soundly.

68
00:03:11,904 --> 00:03:13,913
I mean, how cool is this?

69
00:03:13,937 --> 00:03:15,926
(Laughter)

70
00:03:15,950 --> 00:03:19,721
So this is a confession
of my love for parrotfish

71
00:03:19,745 --> 00:03:21,434
in all their flamboyant,

72
00:03:21,458 --> 00:03:24,689
algae-eating, sand-pooping,
sex-changing glory.

73
00:03:24,713 --> 00:03:25,808
(Laughter)

74
00:03:25,832 --> 00:03:29,887
But with this love comes heartache.

75
00:03:30,832 --> 00:03:34,475
Now that groupers and snappers
are woefully overfished,

76
00:03:34,499 --> 00:03:36,912
fishermen are targeting parrotfish.

77
00:03:36,936 --> 00:03:39,348
Spearfishing took out the large species,

78
00:03:39,372 --> 00:03:43,650
midnight blue and rainbow parrotfish
are now exceedingly rare,

79
00:03:43,674 --> 00:03:46,974
and nets and traps are scooping up
the smaller species.

80
00:03:46,998 --> 00:03:50,677
As both a marine biologist
and a single person,

81
00:03:50,701 --> 00:03:51,939
I can tell you,

82
00:03:51,963 --> 00:03:54,413
there aren't that many fish in the sea.

83
00:03:54,437 --> 00:03:55,534
(Laughter)

84
00:03:55,558 --> 00:03:58,724
And then, there's my love for their home,

85
00:03:58,748 --> 00:03:59,923
the coral reef,

86
00:03:59,947 --> 00:04:03,393
which was once as vibrant
as Caribbean cultures,

87
00:04:03,417 --> 00:04:05,448
as colorful as the architecture,

88
00:04:05,472 --> 00:04:07,339
and as bustling as carnival.

89
00:04:07,671 --> 00:04:09,369
Because of climate change,

90
00:04:09,393 --> 00:04:12,236
on top of overfishing and pollution,

91
00:04:12,260 --> 00:04:16,879
coral reefs may be gone within 30 years.

92
00:04:16,903 --> 00:04:19,827
An entire ecosystem erased.

93
00:04:20,188 --> 00:04:21,346
This is devastating,

94
00:04:21,370 --> 00:04:25,694
because hundreds of millions
of people around the world

95
00:04:25,718 --> 00:04:29,560
depend on reefs
for their nutrition and income.

96
00:04:29,584 --> 00:04:31,210
Let that sink in.

97
00:04:32,998 --> 00:04:34,815
A little bit of good news

98
00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:40,441
is that places like Belize, Barbuda
and Borneo are protecting these VIPs --

99
00:04:40,465 --> 00:04:42,560
Very Important Parrotfish.

100
00:04:42,879 --> 00:04:47,012
Also, more and more places
are establishing protected areas

101
00:04:47,036 --> 00:04:49,663
that protect the entire ecosystem.

102
00:04:50,044 --> 00:04:53,345
These are critical efforts,
but it's not enough.

103
00:04:54,163 --> 00:04:56,036
As I stand here today,

104
00:04:56,060 --> 00:04:59,568
only 2.2 percent
of the ocean is protected.

105
00:04:59,956 --> 00:05:02,717
Meanwhile, 90 percent of the large fish,

106
00:05:02,741 --> 00:05:05,805
and 80 percent
of the coral on Caribbean reefs

107
00:05:05,829 --> 00:05:07,670
is already gone.

108
00:05:08,323 --> 00:05:10,903
We're in the midst
of the sixth mass extinction.

109
00:05:10,927 --> 00:05:14,272
And we, humans, are causing it.

110
00:05:15,292 --> 00:05:17,616
We also have the solutions.

111
00:05:18,061 --> 00:05:21,037
Reverse climate change and overfishing,

112
00:05:21,061 --> 00:05:22,553
protect half the ocean

113
00:05:22,577 --> 00:05:24,549
and stop pollution running from land.

114
00:05:24,573 --> 00:05:26,831
But these are massive undertakings

115
00:05:26,855 --> 00:05:28,966
requiring systemic changes,

116
00:05:28,990 --> 00:05:32,224
and we're really taking our sweet time
getting around to it.

117
00:05:32,784 --> 00:05:35,050
Each of us can contribute, though.

118
00:05:35,498 --> 00:05:38,212
With our votes, our voices,
our food choices,

119
00:05:38,236 --> 00:05:40,149
our skills and our dollars.

120
00:05:40,173 --> 00:05:43,149
We must overhaul both corporate practices

121
00:05:43,173 --> 00:05:44,577
and government policies.

122
00:05:44,601 --> 00:05:47,197
We must transform culture.

123
00:05:48,046 --> 00:05:50,808
Building community around solutions

124
00:05:50,832 --> 00:05:53,166
is the most important thing.

125
00:05:54,149 --> 00:05:56,729
I am never going to give up

126
00:05:56,753 --> 00:06:00,268
working to protect and restore
this magnificent planet.

127
00:06:01,220 --> 00:06:04,387
Every bit of habitat we preserve,

128
00:06:04,411 --> 00:06:07,609
every tenth of a degree
of warming we prevent

129
00:06:07,633 --> 00:06:09,331
really does matter.

130
00:06:09,820 --> 00:06:12,534
Thankfully, I'm not motivated by hope,

131
00:06:12,558 --> 00:06:14,758
but rather a desire to be useful.

132
00:06:15,558 --> 00:06:19,690
Because I don't know
how to give an honest talk

133
00:06:19,714 --> 00:06:23,087
about my beloved parrotfish
and coral reefs

134
00:06:23,111 --> 00:06:24,711
that has a happy ending.

135
00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:26,191
Thank you.

136
00:06:26,215 --> 00:06:29,373
(Applause)