0:00:00.758,0:00:05.446
We know more about[br]other planets than our own,

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and today, I want to show you[br]a new type of robot

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designed to help us better understand

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our own planet.

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It belongs to a category

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known in the oceanographic community[br]as an unmanned surface vehicle, or USV,

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and it uses no fuel.

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Instead, it relies[br]on wind power for propulsion,

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and yet it can sail around the globe

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for months at a time.

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So I want to share with you[br]why we built it,

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and what it means for you.

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A few years ago, I was on a sailboat[br]making its way across the Pacific,

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from San Francisco to Hawaii.

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I had just spent the past 10 years

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working nonstop developing video games[br]for hundreds of millions of users,

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and I wanted to take a step back[br]and look at the big picture

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and get some much-needed thinking time.

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I was the navigator on board,

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and one evening, after a long session[br]analyzing weather data

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and plotting our course,

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I came up on deck and saw[br]this beautiful sunset,

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and a thought occurred to me;

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how much do we really[br]know about our oceans?

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The Pacific was stretching all around me[br]as far as the eye could see,

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and the waves were[br]rocking our boat forcefully,

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a sort of constant reminder[br]of its untold power.

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How much do we really[br]know about our oceans?

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I decided to find out.

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What I quickly learned[br]is that we don't know very much,

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and the first reason is just[br]how vast oceans are,

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covering 70 percent of the planet,

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and yet we know they drive[br]complex planetary systems

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like global weather,

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which affect all of us on a daily basis,

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sometimes dramatically.

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And yet, those activities[br]are mostly invisible to us.

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Ocean data is scarce by any standards.

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Back on land, I had grown used[br]to accessing lots of sensors,

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billions of them actually,

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but at sea, in situ data[br]is scarce and expensive.

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Why? Because it relies[br]on a small number of ships and buoys.

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How small a number[br]was actually a great surprise.

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Our National Oceanic[br]and Atmospheric Administration,

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better known as NOAH,

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only has 16 ships

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and there are less than[br]200 buoys offshore globally.

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It is easy to understand why.

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The oceans are an unforgiving place,

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and to collect in situ data,[br]you need a big ship

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capable of carrying a vast amount of fuel

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and large crews,

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costing hundreds[br]of millions of dollars each,

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or big buoys tethered to the ocean floor[br]with a four-mile-long cable

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and weighted down by a set of train wheels

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which is both dangerous to deploy[br]and expensive to maintain.

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What about satellites, you might ask?

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Well, satellites are fantastic,

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and they have taught us[br]so much about the big picture

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over the past few decades.

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However, the problem with satellites

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is they can only see through one micron

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of the surface of the ocean.

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They have relatively poor[br]spatial and temporal resolution,

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and their signal needs to be corrected

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for cloud cover and land effects[br]and other factors.

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So what is going on in the oceans?

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And what are we trying to measure?

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And how could a robot be of any use?

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Let's zoom in a small cube in the oceans.

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One of the key things we want[br]to understand is the surface,

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because the surface,[br]if you think about it,

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is the nexus of all air-sea interaction.

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It is the interface through which[br]all energy and gases must flow.

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Our Sun radiates energy,

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which is absorbed by oceans as heat

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and then partially released[br]into the atmosphere.

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Gases in our atmosphere like CO2

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get dissolved into our oceans.

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Actually, about 30 percent[br]of all global CO2 gets absorbed.

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Plankton and microorganisms[br]release oxygen into the atmosphere,

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so much so that every other breath[br]you take comes from the ocean.

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Some of that heat generates evaporation,[br]which creates clouds

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and then eventually[br]leads to precipitation,

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and pressure gradients create surface wind

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which move the moisture[br]through the atmosphere.

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Some of the heat radiates down

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into the deep ocean

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and gets stored in different layers,

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the ocean acting as some kind[br]of planetary-scale boiler

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to store all that energy

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which later might be released[br]in short-term events like hurricanes

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or long-term phenomena like El Nino.

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These layers can get mixed up[br]by vertical upwelling currents

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or horizontal currents,[br]which are key in transporting heat

0:05:00.053,0:05:01.917
from the tropics to the poles,

0:05:01.917,0:05:04.659
and of course there is marine life,

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occupying the largest ecosystem[br]in volume on the planet,

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from microorganisms to fish[br]to marine mammals

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like seals, dolphins, and whales.

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But all of these are mostly[br]invisible to us.

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The challenge in studying[br]those ocean variables at scale

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is one of energy,

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the energy that it takes to deploy[br]censors into the deep ocean.

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And of course, many solutions[br]have been tried,

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from wave-actuated devices

0:05:38.819,0:05:40.244
to surface drifters

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to sun-powered electrical drives,

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each with their own compromises.

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Our team breakthrough came[br]from an unlikely source,

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the pursuit of the world speed record[br]in a wind-powered land yacht.

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It took 10 years of research[br]and development

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to come up with a novel wing concept

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that only uses three watts[br]of power to control

0:06:02.778,0:06:06.047
and yet can propel a vehicle[br]all around the globe

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with seemingly unlimited autonomy.

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By adapting this wing concept[br]into a marine vehicle,

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we had the genesis of an ocean drone.

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Now, these are larger than they appear.

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They are about 15 feet high,[br]23 feet long, seven feet deep.

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Think of them as surface satellites.

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They're laden with an array[br]of science-grade sensors

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that measure all key variables,

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both oceanographic and atmospheric,

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and a live satellite link transmits[br]this high-resolution data

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back to shore in real time.

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Our team has been hard at work[br]over the past few years

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conducting missions in some of the[br]toughest ocean conditions on the planet,

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from the Arctic to the tropical Pacific.

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We have sailed all the way[br]to the polar ice shelf.

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We have sailed into Atlantic hurricanes.

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We have rounded Cape Horn,

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and we have slalomed between[br]the oil rigs of the Gulf of Mexico.

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This is one tough robot.

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Let me share with you[br]a recent work that we did

0:07:07.067,0:07:08.763
around the Pribilof Islands.

0:07:08.763,0:07:12.518
This is a small group of islands[br]deep in the cold Bering Sea

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between the US and Russia.

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Now, the Bering Sea is the home[br]of the walleye pollock.

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It is a white fish you might not recognize[br]but you might likely have tasted

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if you enjoy fish sticks or ??

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Yes, ?? looks like crab meat,[br]but it's actually pollock.

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And the pollock fishery[br]is the largest fishery in the nation,

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both in terms of value and volume,

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about 3.1 billion pounds[br]of fish caught every year.

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So over the past few years,[br]a fleet of ocean drones

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has been hard at work in the Bering Sea

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with the goal to help assess[br]the size of the pollock fish stock.

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This helps improve the quota system[br]that's used to manage the fishery

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and help prevent a collapse[br]of the fish stock,

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and protects this fragile ecosystem.

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Now, the drones survey[br]the fishing ground using acoustics,

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ie. of sonar.

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This sends a sound wave downwards

0:08:08.632,0:08:11.724
and then the reflection,[br]the echo from the sound wave

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from the seabed or schools of fish,[br]gives us an idea of what's happening

0:08:14.404,0:08:16.191
below the surface.

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Our ocean drones are actually[br]pretty good at this repetitive task,

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so they have been gridding[br]the Bering Sea day in, day out.

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Now, the Pribilof Islands are also[br]the home of a large colony of fur seals.

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In the 1950s, there were about[br]two million individuals in that colony.

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Sadly, these days,

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the population has rapidly declined,

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and there's less than 50 percent[br]of that number left,

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and the population[br]continues to fall rapidly.

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So to understand why,

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our science partner at[br]the National Marine Mammal Laboratory

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has fitted a GPS tag[br]on some of the mother seals,

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glued to their furs.

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And this tag measures location and depth

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and also has a really cool little camera

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that's triggered by sudden acceleration.

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Here is a movie taken[br]by an artistically inclined seal

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giving us an unprecedented insight[br]into an underwater hunt

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deep in the Arctic,

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and the shot of this pollock prey

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just seconds before it gets devoured.

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Now, doing work in the Arctic[br]is very tough, even for a robot.

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They had to survey a snowstorm in August

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and interferences from bystanders

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like this spotted seal enjoying a ride.

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(Laughter)

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Now, the seal tags have recorded[br]over 200,000 dives over the season,

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and upon a closer look,

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we get to see the individual seal tracks

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and the repetitive dives.

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We are on our way to decode[br]what is really happening

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over that foraging ground,

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and it's quite beautiful.

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Once you superimpose the acoustic data[br]collected by the drones,

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a picture starts to emerge.

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As the seal leaves the islands[br]and swims from left to right,

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they are observed to dive

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at a relatively shallow depth[br]of about 20 meters,

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which the drone identifies[br]is populated by small young pollock

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with low calorific content.

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The seals them swim much greater distance[br]and start to dive deeper

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to a place where the drone identifies[br]larger, more adult pollock

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which are more nutritious as fish.

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Unfortunately, the calories[br]expended by the mother seals

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to swim this extra distance

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don't leave them with enough energy[br]to lactate their pups back on the island,

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leading to the population decline.

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Further, the drones identify that[br]the water temperature around the island

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has significantly warmed.

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It might be one of the driving forces[br]that's pushing the pollock north

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and to spread in search of colder regions.

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So the data analysis is ongoing,[br]but already we can see

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that some of the pieces of the puzzle[br]from the fur seal mystery

0:11:03.866,0:11:05.859
are coming into focus.

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But if you look back at the big picture,

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we are mammals too,

0:11:11.238,0:11:14.965
and actually the oceans provide[br]up to 20 kilos of fish per human per year,

0:11:14.965,0:11:16.693
and as we deplete our fish stocks,[br]what can we humans learn

0:11:16.693,0:11:19.932
from the fur seal story?

0:11:19.932,0:11:23.363
And beyond fish, the oceans[br]affect all of us daily

0:11:23.363,0:11:25.305
as they drive global weather systems,

0:11:25.305,0:11:27.848
which affect things like[br]global agricultural output

0:11:27.848,0:11:32.214
or can lead to devastating destruction[br]of lives and property

0:11:32.214,0:11:36.106
through hurricanes,[br]extreme heat and floods.

0:11:36.106,0:11:39.798
Our oceans are pretty much[br]unexplored and ??,

0:11:39.798,0:11:44.258
and today we still know more[br]about other planets than our own.

0:11:44.258,0:11:48.069
But if you divide this vast ocean[br]in 6x6 degree squares,

0:11:48.069,0:11:51.330
each about 400 miles long,

0:11:51.330,0:11:53.896
you'd get about a thousand such squares,

0:11:53.896,0:11:57.812
so little bit little,[br]working with our partners,

0:11:57.812,0:12:00.352
we are deploying one ocean drone[br]in each of those boxes,

0:12:00.352,0:12:02.962
the hope being that[br]achieving planetary coverage

0:12:02.962,0:12:07.148
will give us better insights[br]into those planetary systems

0:12:07.148,0:12:08.071
that affect humanity.

0:12:08.071,0:12:09.619
We have been using robots

0:12:09.619,0:12:13.209
to study distant worlds[br]in our Solar System for a while now.

0:12:13.209,0:12:16.440
Now it is time to quantify our own planet,

0:12:16.440,0:12:20.532
because we cannot fix[br]what we cannot measure,

0:12:20.532,0:12:23.920
and we cannot prepare[br]for what we don't know.

0:12:23.920,0:12:25.653
Thank you.

0:12:25.653,0:12:28.727
(Applause)