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I want to tell you a love story.

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But it doesn't have a happy ending.

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Once upon a time,
I was a stubborn five-year-old

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who decided to become a marine biologist.

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Thirty-four years, 400 scuba dives
and one PhD later,

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I'm still completely
enamored with the ocean.

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I spent a decade working
with fishing communities

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in the Caribbean,

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counting fish, interviewing fishermen,

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redesigning fishing gear
and developing policy.

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I've been helping to figure out
what sustainable management can look like

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for places where food security,
jobs and cultures

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all depend on the sea.

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In the midst of all this, I fell in love.

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With a fish.

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There are over 500 fish species
that live on Caribbean reefs,

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but the ones I just
can't get out of my head

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are parrotfish.

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Parrotfish live on coral reefs
all over the world,

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there are 100 species,

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they can grow well over a meter long

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and weigh over 20 kilograms,

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but that's the boring stuff.

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I want to tell you five
incredible things about these fish.

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First, they have a mouth
like a parrot's beak,

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which is strong enough to bite coral,

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although mostly they're after algae.

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They are the lawn mowers of the reef.

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This is key, because many reefs
are overgrown with algae

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due to nutrient pollution
from sewage and fertilizer

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that runs off of land.

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And there just aren't enough
herbivores like parrotfish

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left out on the reefs

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to mow it all down.

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OK, second amazing thing.

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After all that eating,
they poop fine white sand.

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A single parrot fish can produce
over 380 kilograms

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of this pulverized coral each year.

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Sometimes, when scuba diving,

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I would look up from my clipboard

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and just see contrails
of parrotfish poop raining down.

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So next time you're lounging
on a tropical white-sand beach,

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maybe think of parrot fish.

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(Laughter)

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Third, they have so much style.

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Mottled and striped, teal, magenta,

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yellow, orange, polka-dotted,

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parrotfish are a big part
of what makes coral reefs so colorful.

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Plus, in true diva style,

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they have multiple wardrobe changes
throughout their life.

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A juvenile outfit,

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an intermediate getup,

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and a terminal look.

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Fourth, with this last wardrobe change
comes a sex change from female to male,

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termed sequential hermaphroditism.

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These large males then gather
harems of females to spawn.

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Heterosexual monogamy
is certainly not nature's status quo.

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And parrotfish exemplify
some of the beauty

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of diverse reproductive strategies.

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Fifth, and the most incredible,

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sometimes when parrotfish
cozy up into a nook in the reef at night,

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they secrete a mucus bubble
from a gland in their head

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that envelops their entire body.

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This masks their scent from predators

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and protects them from parasites,

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so they can sleep soundly.

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I mean, how cool is this?

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(Laughter)

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So this is a confession
of my love for parrotfish

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in all their flamboyant,

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algae-eating, sand-pooping,
sex-changing glory.

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(Laughter)

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But with this love comes heartache.

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Now that groupers and snappers
are woefully overfished,

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fishermen are targeting parrotfish.

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Spearfishing took out the large species,

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midnight blue and rainbow parrotfish
are now exceedingly rare,

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and nets and traps are scooping up
the smaller species.

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As both a marine biologist
and a single person,

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I can tell you,

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there aren't that many fish in the sea.

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(Laughter)

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And then, there's my love for their home,

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the coral reef,

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which was once as vibrant
as Caribbean cultures,

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as colorful as the architecture,

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and as bustling as carnival.

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Because of climate change,

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on top of overfishing and pollution,

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coral reefs may be gone within 30 years.

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An entire ecosystem erased.

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This is devastating,

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because hundreds of millions
of people around the world

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depend on reefs
for their nutrition and income.

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Let that sink in.

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A little bit of good news

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is that places like Belize, Barbuda
and Borneo are protecting these VIPs --

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Very Important Parrotfish.

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Also, more and more places
are establishing protected areas

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that protect the entire ecosystem.

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These are critical efforts,
but it's not enough.

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As I stand here today,

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only 2.2 percent
of the ocean is protected.

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Meanwhile, 90 percent of the large fish,

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and 80 percent
of the coral on Caribbean reefs

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is already gone.

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We're in the midst
of the sixth mass extinction.

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And we, humans, are causing it.

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We also have the solutions.

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Reverse climate change and overfishing,

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protect half the ocean

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and stop pollution running from land.

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But these are massive undertakings

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requiring systemic changes,

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and we're really taking our sweet time
getting around to it.

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Each of us can contribute, though.

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With our votes, our voices,
our food choices,

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our skills and our dollars.

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We must overhaul both corporate practices

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and government policies.

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We must transform culture.

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Building community around solutions

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is the most important thing.

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I am never going to give up

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working to protect and restore
this magnificent planet.

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Every bit of habitat we preserve,

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every tenth of a degree
of warming we prevent

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really does matter.

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Thankfully, I'm not motivated by hope,

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but rather a desire to be useful.

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Because I don't know
how to give an honest talk

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about my beloved parrotfish
and coral reefs

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that has a happy ending.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)