WEBVTT

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[Music]

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Biodiversity is really

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how we define our own existence, isn't it.

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It's us and say tens of millions
of other species

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that occupy this planet with us.

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It's like there's this incredible web

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where we're all connected, you know.

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You start to lose these linchpin species

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the environment starts to fail

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when we translate human activity

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into these forces of extinction

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there are several major factors

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that are contributing.

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One of the major drivers of extinction

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is that we hunt some species to oblivion.

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It's what we're doing with sharks now

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with the explosion of demand 
for shark fin soup.

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Global estimates for the shark fin trade

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put it in the neighborhood
of a billion dollars.

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It's a huge amount of money

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so sharks are targeted
by fleets around the world.

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They may simply cut the fins off and
then release them

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to a slow and very unpleasant death.

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You keep all the sharks 
or put the bodies back,

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done cut them.

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We don't actually know how many sharks
are in the ocean.

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What we do know is that the big sharks,
the apex predator

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in the open ocean food chain,

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their numbers have declined 
between 90 and 99 percent.

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Sharks have survived 
four mass exticntion events,

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they've been around the planet

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longer than dinosaurs,
a lot longer.

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Sharks have ruled our oceans
for over 400 million years.

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They've been responsible for regulating

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and maintaining the entire balance
across our oceans.

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Now we're in a situation where sharks
are being removed from that system.

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Humans are really the single 
most impactful species

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this planet has ever seen.

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We have these prehistoric brains
and we have this god-like technology

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and when you bring them together,

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the result is not necessarily a happy one.

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You know species are like a house of cards

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you can't just sort of take one card
out of the deck

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and not expect the deck to crumble.

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You