WEBVTT

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Right now, beneath a shimmering blue sea,

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millions of fish are having sex.

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(Cheers)

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And the way they're doing it
and strategies they're using

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looks nothing like what we see on land.

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Take parrotfish.

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In this species, all fish are born female.

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And they look like this.

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Then later in life,
she can transition into a male.

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And she'll look like this.

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But, it's not just a spectacular
wardrobe change.

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Her body can reabsorb her ovaries
and grow testes in their place.

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In just a few weeks, she'll go
from making eggs to producing sperm.

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It's pretty impressive,
and in the ocean, it's also pretty common.

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In fact, I bet nearly all of you have,

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at some point,

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had a seafood dish
made up of an individual

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that started life as one sex
and transitioned to another:

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oysters, grouper, shrimp,

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Seeing some heads nodding, yeah?

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But not all fish that change sex
start as females.

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Those clownfish we know
from Finding Nemo ...

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they're all born male.

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So, in the real world,

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when Nemo's mother died,

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Nemo's dad, Marlin,
would have transitioned into Marlene,

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(Laughter)

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and Nemo would have likely made it
with his father-turned-mother.

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(Laughter)

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You can see -

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(Laughter)

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You can see why Pixar
took a little creative license

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with the plotline, right?

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(Laughter)

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So sex change in the ocean
can happen in either direction

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and sometimes, even back and forth.

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And that's just one
of the many amazing strategies

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animals use to reproduce in the ocean.

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And trust me when I say,
it's one of the least surprising.

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Sex in the sea is fascinating.

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And it's also really important

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and not just to nerdy
marine biologists like me

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who are obsessed with understanding
these salty affairs.

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(Laughter)

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It matters for all of us.

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Today we depend on wild caught fish

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to help feed over 2 billion
people on the planet.

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We need millions of oysters and corals
to build the giant reefs

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that protect our shorelines
from rising seas and storms.

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We depend on medicines
that are found in marine animals

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to fight cancer and other diseases.

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And for many of us, the diversity
and beauty of the oceans

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is where we turn for recreation
and relaxation and our cultural heritage.

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In order for us to continue to benefit

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from the abundance
that ocean life provides,

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the fish and coral and shrimp of today

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have to be able to make fish
and shrimp and coral for tomorrow.

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To do that, they have to have
lots and lots of sex.

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(Laughter)

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And until recently, we really didn't know
how sex happened in the sea.

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It's pretty hard to study.

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But thanks to new science and technology,

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we now know so much more
than even just a few years ago.

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And these new discoveries
are showing two things:

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First, sex in the sea is really funky.

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(Laughter)

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Second, our actions are wreaking havoc

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on the sex lives of everything
from shrimp to salmon.

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So today, I'm going to share a few details
about how animals do it in the deep,

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how we may be interrupting
these intimate affairs,

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and what we can do to change that.

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So, remember those sex-changing fish?

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In many places in the world,

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we have fishing rules
that set a minimum catch size.

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Fishers are not allowed
to target tiny fish.

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This allows baby fish to grow
and reproduce before they're caught.

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That's a good thing.

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So fishers go after the biggest fish,

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but in parrotfish, for example,
or any sex changer,

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targeting the biggest fish means
that they're taking out all the males.

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That makes it hard
for a female fish to find a mate,

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or it forces her to change sex
sooner, at a smaller size.

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Both of these things can result
in fewer fish babies in the future.

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In order for us to properly care
for these species,

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we have to know if they change sex,

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how, and when?

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Only then can we create rules
that can support these sexual strategies,

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such as setting a maximum size limit
in addition to a minimum one.

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The challenge isn't that we can't think
of these sex-friendly solutions.

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The challenge is knowing which solutions
to apply to which species

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because even animals we know really well

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surprise us when it comes
to their sex lives.

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Take Maine lobster.

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They don't look that romantic ...

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(Laughter)

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or that kinky.

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They are both.

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(Laughter)

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During mating season,

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female lobsters want to mate
with the biggest, baddest males,

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but these guys are really aggressive,

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and they'll attack
any lobster that approaches -

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male or female.

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Meanwhile the best time
for her to mate with the male

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is right after she's molted,
when she's lost her hard shell.

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So she has to approach this aggressive guy
in her most vulnerable state.

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What's a girl to do?

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(Laughter)

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Her answer?

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Spray him in the face,
repeatedly, with her urine.

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(Laughter)

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Under the sea,

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pee is a very powerful love potion.

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(Laughter)

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Conveniently, lobsters' bladders
sit just above their brains,

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and they have two nozzles
under their eye stalk

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with which they can shoot
their urine forward.

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(Laughter)

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So the female approaches the male's den,
and as he charges out,

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she lets loose a stream of urine,
and then gets the hell out of there.

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(Laughter)

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Only a few days of this daily dosing

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is all it takes for her scent
to have a transformative effect.

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The male turns from an aggressive
to a gentle lover.

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By the week's end,
he invites her into his den.

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(Laughter)

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After that, the sex is easy.

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(Laughter)

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So how are we interrupting
this kind of kinky courtship?

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Well, the female's urine
carries a critical chemical signal

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that works because it can pass
through seawater,

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and lobsters have a smell receptor
that can detect and receive the message.

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Climate change is making
our oceans more acidic.

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It's the result of too much
carbon dioxide entering seawater.

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This changing chemistry
could scramble that message

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or it could damage
the lobster's smell receptors.

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Pollution from land
can have similar impacts.

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Just imagine the consequence
for that female

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if her love potion should fail.

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These are the kinds of subtle
but significant impacts

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we're having on the love lives
of these marine life.

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And this is a species we know well.

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Lobsters live near shore in the shallows.

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Dive deeper, and sex gets even stranger.

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Fanfin anglerfish live
at about 3000 feet below the surface

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in pitch-black waters,

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and the males are born
without the ability to feed themselves.

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To survive, he has to find a female fast.

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Meanwhile the female,
who is 10 times bigger than the male,

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10 times,


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she lets out a very strong pheromone
with which to attract mates to her.

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So this tiny male is swimming
through the black waters,

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smelling his way to a female.

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And when he finds her,
he gives her a love bite.

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And this is when things get really weird.

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(Laughter)

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That love bite triggers
a chemical reaction

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whereby his jawbone
starts to disintegrate.

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His face melts into her flesh,

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and their two bodies start to fuse.

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Their circulatory systems entwine,

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and all his internal organs
start to dissolve,

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except for ...

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his testes.

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(Laughter)

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His testes mature just fine
and start producing sperm.

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In the end, he's basically

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a permanently-attached, on-demand
sperm factory for the female.

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(Laughter)

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It's a very efficient system,

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(Laughter)

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but this is not the kind of mating system
that we see on a farm, right?

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I mean this is weird; it's really strange.

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But if we don't know
that these kind of strategies exist,

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or how they work,

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we can't know what kind of impacts
we may be having,

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even in the deep sea.

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Just three years ago, we discovered
a new species of deep-sea octopus

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where the females lay their eggs

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on sponges attached to rocks
that are over two and a half miles deep.

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These rocks contain rare-earth minerals,

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and right now, there are companies
that are building bulldozers

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that would be capable of mining
the deep-sea floor for those rocks,

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but the bulldozers would scrape up

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all the sponges
and all the eggs with them.

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Knowingly and, in many cases, unknowingly,

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we are preventing successful sex
and reproduction in the deep.

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And let's be honest,
dating and mating is hard enough

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without somebody coming in
and interrupting all the time, right?

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We know this.

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So today, while I hope
you will leave here

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with some excellent
bar trivia on fish sex,

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(Laughter)

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I also ask that you remember this:

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We are all far more intimately connected
with the oceans than we realize,

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no matter where we live.

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And this level of intimacy requires
a new kind of relationship with the ocean.

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One that recognizes and respects
the enormous diversity of life

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and its limitations.

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We can no longer think of the oceans
as just something "out there,"

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because every day, we depend on them
for our food security,

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our own health and wellness,
and every other breath we take.

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But it is a two-way relationship,

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and the oceans can only
continue to provide for us

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if we, in turn, safeguard
that fundamental force of life in the sea:

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sex and reproduction.

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So like any relationship,

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we have to embrace some change
for the partnership to work.

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The next time you're thinking
about having seafood,

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look for sustainably caught
or farmed species

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that are local and low on the food chain.

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These are animals like oysters, clams,
mussels, small fish like mackerel.

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These all reproduce like crazy

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and with good management,
they can handle a bit of fishing pressure.

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We can also rethink what we use
to wash our bodies,

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clean our homes, and care for our lawns.

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All those chemicals
eventually wash out to sea

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and disrupt the natural
chemistry of the ocean.

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Industry also has to play its part
and take a precautionary approach,

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protecting sexual activity
where we know it exists

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and preventing harm in the cases
where we just don't yet know enough,

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like the deep sea.

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And in the communities where we live,

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the places we work,
and the country in which we vote,

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we must take bold action
on climate change now.

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(Applause)

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(Cheers)

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Never has it been more important
nor more possible

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to fight for the solutions
that we know already exist.

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But time is running out

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for lobster seduction
and coral sex parties

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and so many other animals

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that depend on just the right temperature
and chemistry for peak sexual performance.

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I know sometimes it can feel
like the problem is as big as the ocean,

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but remember, nature is on our side.

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Animals want to reproduce.

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In fact, we've even discovered
some female sharks and rays

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that when they can't find a mate,

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they go off and reproduce
all on their own.

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It's real-life virgin birth.

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Fascinating.

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Unfortunately, the strategy
can't save the species in the long term -

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sex between males and females
is needed for that genetic diversity,

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but the tactic can buy a population time.

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And it just goes to show that in the sea,

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reproduction and sex
are truly a force of nature.

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And the animals are doing their part.

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Imagine if we did ours

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and worked with this force
rather than against it.

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We can help set the mood
and then step back

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and allow today's, tomorrow's,
and future generations

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of fish and all ocean life

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the freedom to do what they do best ...

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get their spawn on!

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(Laughter)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)