Save the oceans, feed the world!
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0:01 - 0:02You may be wondering
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0:02 - 0:04why a marine biologist from Oceana
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0:04 - 0:06would come here today to talk to you
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0:06 - 0:07about world hunger.
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0:07 - 0:09I'm here today because
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0:09 - 0:13saving the oceans is more than an ecological desire.
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0:13 - 0:15It's more than a thing we're doing
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0:15 - 0:16because we want to create jobs for fishermen
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0:16 - 0:19or preserve fishermen's jobs.
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0:19 - 0:22It's more than an economic pursuit.
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0:22 - 0:25Saving the oceans can feed the world.
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0:25 - 0:26Let me show you how.
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0:26 - 0:28As you know, there are already
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0:28 - 0:31more than a billion hungry people on this planet.
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0:31 - 0:33We're expecting that problem to get worse
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0:33 - 0:36as world population grows to nine billion
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0:36 - 0:37or 10 billion by midcentury,
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0:37 - 0:40and we can expect to have greater pressure
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0:40 - 0:42on our food resources.
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0:42 - 0:43And this is a big concern,
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0:43 - 0:46especially considering where we are now.
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0:46 - 0:49Now we know that our arable land per capita
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0:49 - 0:50is already on the decline
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0:50 - 0:53in both developed and developing countries.
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0:53 - 0:55We know that we're headed for climate change,
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0:55 - 0:58which is going to change rainfall patterns,
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0:58 - 1:01making some areas drier, as you can see in orange,
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1:01 - 1:03and others wetter, in blue,
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1:03 - 1:05causing droughts in our breadbaskets,
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1:05 - 1:07in places like the Midwest and Central Europe,
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1:07 - 1:08and floods in others.
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1:08 - 1:10It's going to make it harder for the land
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1:10 - 1:13to help us solve the hunger problem.
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1:13 - 1:15And that's why the oceans need
to be their most abundant, -
1:15 - 1:17so that the oceans can provide us
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1:17 - 1:19as much food as possible.
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1:19 - 1:21And that's something the oceans have been doing
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1:21 - 1:24for us for a long time.
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1:24 - 1:26As far back as we can go, we've seen an increase
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1:26 - 1:28in the amount of food we've been able to harvest
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1:28 - 1:30from our oceans.
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1:30 - 1:32It just seemed like it was continuing to increase,
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1:32 - 1:34until about 1980,
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1:34 - 1:37when we started to see a decline.
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1:37 - 1:38You've heard of peak oil.
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1:38 - 1:40Maybe this is peak fish.
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1:40 - 1:42I hope not. I'm going to come back to that.
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1:42 - 1:44But you can see about an 18-percent decline
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1:44 - 1:47in the amount of fish we've gotten in our world catch
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1:47 - 1:49since 1980.
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1:49 - 1:51And this is a big problem. It's continuing.
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1:51 - 1:53This red line is continuing to go down.
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1:53 - 1:55But we know how to turn it around,
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1:55 - 1:57and that's what I'm going to talk about today.
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1:57 - 2:00We know how to turn that curve back upwards.
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2:00 - 2:02This doesn't have to be peak fish.
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2:02 - 2:05If we do a few simple things in targeted places,
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2:05 - 2:08we can bring our fisheries back and use them
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2:08 - 2:10to feed people.
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2:10 - 2:12First we want to know where the fish are,
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2:12 - 2:13so let's look where the fish are.
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2:13 - 2:15It turns out the fish, conveniently,
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2:15 - 2:18are located for the most part
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2:18 - 2:20in our coastal areas of the countries,
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2:20 - 2:21in coastal zones,
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2:21 - 2:23and these are areas that national jurisdictions
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2:23 - 2:25have control over,
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2:25 - 2:27and they can manage their fisheries
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2:27 - 2:28in these coastal areas.
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2:28 - 2:30Coastal countries tend to have jurisdictions
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2:30 - 2:33that go out about 200 nautical miles,
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2:33 - 2:36in areas that are called exclusive economic zones,
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2:36 - 2:38and this is a good thing that they can control
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2:38 - 2:40their fisheries in these areas,
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2:40 - 2:41because the high seas,
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2:41 - 2:43which are the darker areas on this map,
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2:43 - 2:46the high seas, it's a lot harder to control things,
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2:46 - 2:48because it has to be done internationally.
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2:48 - 2:50You get into international agreements,
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2:50 - 2:52and if any of you are tracking
the climate change agreement, -
2:52 - 2:54you know this can be a very slow,
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2:54 - 2:56frustrating, tedious process.
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2:56 - 2:57And so controlling things nationally
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2:57 - 3:00is a great thing to be able to do.
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3:00 - 3:02How many fish are actually in these coastal areas
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3:02 - 3:04compared to the high seas?
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3:04 - 3:05Well, you can see here about
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3:05 - 3:08seven times as many fish in the coastal areas
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3:08 - 3:10than there are in the high seas,
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3:10 - 3:12so this is a perfect place for us to be focusing,
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3:12 - 3:14because we can actually get a lot done.
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3:14 - 3:17We can restore a lot of our fisheries
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3:17 - 3:19if we focus in these coastal areas.
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3:19 - 3:22But how many of these countries
do we have to work in? -
3:22 - 3:24There's something like 80 coastal countries.
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3:24 - 3:26Do we have to fix fisheries management
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3:26 - 3:27in all of those countries?
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3:27 - 3:29So we asked ourselves, how many countries
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3:29 - 3:30do we need to focus on,
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3:30 - 3:32keeping in mind that the European Union
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3:32 - 3:34conveniently manages its fisheries
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3:34 - 3:36through a common fisheries policy?
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3:36 - 3:39So if we got good fisheries management
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3:39 - 3:42in the European Union and,
say, nine other countries, -
3:42 - 3:44how much of our fisheries would we be covering?
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3:44 - 3:47Turns out, European Union plus nine countries
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3:47 - 3:50covers about two thirds of the world's fish catch.
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3:50 - 3:53If we took it up to 24 countries
plus the European Union, -
3:53 - 3:55we would up to 90 percent,
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3:55 - 3:58almost all of the world's fish catch.
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3:58 - 4:01So we think we can work in
a limited number of places -
4:01 - 4:03to make the fisheries come back.
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4:03 - 4:05But what do we have to do in these places?
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4:05 - 4:07Well, based on our work in the United States
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4:07 - 4:09and elsewhere, we know that there are
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4:09 - 4:11three key things we have to do
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4:11 - 4:13to bring fisheries back, and they are:
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4:13 - 4:15We need to set quotas or limits
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4:15 - 4:17on how much we take;
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4:17 - 4:20we need to reduce bycatch, which is the accidental
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4:20 - 4:23catching and killing of fish that we're not targeting,
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4:23 - 4:24and it's very wasteful;
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4:24 - 4:27and three, we need to protect habitats,
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4:27 - 4:29the nursery areas, the spawning areas
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4:29 - 4:32that these fish need to grow
and reproduce successfully -
4:32 - 4:34so that they can rebuild their populations.
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4:34 - 4:37If we do those three things, we
know the fisheries will come back. -
4:37 - 4:39How do we know?
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4:39 - 4:41We know because we've seen it happening
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4:41 - 4:42in a lot of different places.
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4:42 - 4:44This is a slide that shows
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4:44 - 4:46the herring population in Norway
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4:46 - 4:48that was crashing since the 1950s.
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4:48 - 4:50It was coming down, and when Norway set limits,
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4:50 - 4:53or quotas, on its fishery, what happens?
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4:53 - 4:55The fishery comes back.
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4:55 - 4:58This is another example, also
happens to be from Norway, -
4:58 - 5:00of the Norwegian Arctic cod.
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5:00 - 5:03Same deal. The fishery is crashing.
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5:03 - 5:04They set limits on discards.
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5:04 - 5:07Discards are these fish they weren't targeting
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5:07 - 5:09and they get thrown overboard wastefully.
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5:09 - 5:11When they set the discard limit,
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5:11 - 5:13the fishery came back.
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5:13 - 5:14And it's not just in Norway.
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5:14 - 5:16We've seen this happening in countries
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5:16 - 5:19all around the world, time and time again.
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5:19 - 5:21When these countries step in and they
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5:21 - 5:24put in sustainable fisheries management policies,
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5:24 - 5:27the fisheries, which are always crashing, it seems,
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5:27 - 5:29are starting to come back.
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5:29 - 5:30So there's a lot of promise here.
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5:30 - 5:32What does this mean for the world fish catch?
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5:32 - 5:34This means that if we take that fishery catch
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5:34 - 5:35that's on the decline
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5:35 - 5:38and we could turn it upwards, we could increase it
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5:38 - 5:41up to 100 million metric tons per year.
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5:41 - 5:43So we didn't have peak fish yet.
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5:43 - 5:45We still have an opportunity
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5:45 - 5:46to not only bring the fish back
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5:46 - 5:48but to actually get more fish
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5:48 - 5:49that can feed more people
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5:49 - 5:51than we currently are now.
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5:51 - 5:53How many more? Right about now,
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5:53 - 5:56we can feed about 450 million people
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5:56 - 5:57a fish meal a day
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5:57 - 5:59based on the current world fish catch,
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5:59 - 6:02which, of course, you know is going down,
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6:02 - 6:03so that number will go down over time
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6:03 - 6:05if we don't fix it,
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6:05 - 6:07but if we put fishery management practices
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6:07 - 6:10like the ones I've described in place
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6:10 - 6:12in 10 to 25 countries,
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6:12 - 6:13we could bring that number up
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6:13 - 6:17and feed as many as 700 million people a year
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6:17 - 6:18a healthy fish meal.
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6:18 - 6:20We should obviously do this just because
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6:20 - 6:23it's a good thing to deal with the hunger problem,
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6:23 - 6:24but it's also cost-effective.
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6:24 - 6:29It turns out fish is the most cost-effective protein
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6:29 - 6:30on the planet.
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6:30 - 6:32If you look at how much fish protein you get
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6:32 - 6:33per dollar invested
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6:33 - 6:36compared to all of the other animal proteins,
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6:36 - 6:39obviously, fish is a good business decision.
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6:39 - 6:40It also doesn't need a lot of land,
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6:40 - 6:42something that's in short supply,
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6:42 - 6:45compared to other protein sources.
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6:45 - 6:48And it doesn't need a lot of fresh water.
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6:48 - 6:50It uses a lot less fresh water than,
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6:50 - 6:51for example, cattle,
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6:51 - 6:53where you have to irrigate a field
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6:53 - 6:56so that you can grow the food to graze the cattle.
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6:56 - 6:58It also has a very low carbon footprint.
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6:58 - 7:00It has a little bit of a carbon footprint
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7:00 - 7:02because we do have to get out and catch the fish.
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7:02 - 7:04It takes a little bit of fuel,
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7:04 - 7:06but as you know, agriculture
can have a carbon footprint, -
7:06 - 7:08and fish has a much smaller one,
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7:08 - 7:09so it's less polluting.
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7:09 - 7:12It's already a big part of our diet,
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7:12 - 7:14but it can be a bigger part of our diet,
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7:14 - 7:16which is a good thing, because we know
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7:16 - 7:17that it's healthy for us.
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7:17 - 7:20It can reduce our risks of cancer,
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7:20 - 7:21heart disease and obesity.
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7:21 - 7:23In fact, our CEO Andy Sharpless,
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7:23 - 7:26who is the originator of this concept, actually,
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7:26 - 7:30he likes to say fish is the perfect protein.
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7:30 - 7:32Andy also talks about the fact that
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7:32 - 7:35our ocean conservation movement really grew
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7:35 - 7:37out of the land conservation movement,
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7:37 - 7:38and in land conservation,
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7:38 - 7:41we have this problem where biodiversity
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7:41 - 7:44is at war with food production.
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7:44 - 7:47You have to cut down the biodiverse forest
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7:47 - 7:49if you want to get the field
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7:49 - 7:51to grow the corn to feed people with,
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7:51 - 7:53and so there's a constant push-pull there.
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7:53 - 7:55There's a constant tough decision
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7:55 - 7:57that has to be made between
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7:57 - 7:59two very important things:
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7:59 - 8:02maintaining biodiversity and feeding people.
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8:02 - 8:04But in the oceans, we don't have that war.
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8:04 - 8:07In the oceans, biodiversity is not at war
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8:07 - 8:08with abundance.
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8:08 - 8:10In fact, they're aligned.
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8:10 - 8:13When we do things that produce biodiversity,
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8:13 - 8:15we actually get more abundance,
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8:15 - 8:19and that's important so that we can feed people.
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8:19 - 8:22Now, there's a catch.
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8:22 - 8:24Didn't anyone get that? (Laughter)
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8:24 - 8:26Illegal fishing.
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8:26 - 8:28Illegal fishing undermines the type of
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8:28 - 8:30sustainable fisheries management I'm talking about.
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8:30 - 8:32It can be when you catch fish using gears
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8:32 - 8:33that have been prohibited,
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8:33 - 8:36when you fish in places where
you're not supposed to fish, -
8:36 - 8:39you catch fish that are the wrong
size or the wrong species. -
8:39 - 8:41Illegal fishing cheats the consumer
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8:41 - 8:44and it also cheats honest fishermen,
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8:44 - 8:45and it needs to stop.
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8:45 - 8:48The way illegal fish get into our
market is through seafood fraud. -
8:48 - 8:49You might have heard about this.
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8:49 - 8:52It's when fish are labeled as something they're not.
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8:52 - 8:54Think about the last time you had fish.
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8:54 - 8:55What were you eating?
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8:55 - 8:57Are you sure that's what it was?
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8:57 - 8:59Because we tested 1,300 different fish samples
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8:59 - 9:00and about a third of them
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9:00 - 9:02were not what they were labeled to be.
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9:02 - 9:05Snappers, nine out of 10
snappers were not snapper. -
9:05 - 9:07Fifty-nine percent of the tuna we tested
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9:07 - 9:09was mislabeled.
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9:09 - 9:12And red snapper, we tested 120 samples,
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9:12 - 9:14and only seven of them were really red snapper,
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9:14 - 9:17so good luck finding a red snapper.
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9:17 - 9:19Seafood has a really complex supply chain,
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9:19 - 9:22and at every step in this supply chain,
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9:22 - 9:24there's an opportunity for seafood fraud,
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9:24 - 9:26unless we have traceability.
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9:26 - 9:29Traceability is a way where the seafood industry
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9:29 - 9:31can track the seafood from the boat to the plate
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9:31 - 9:34to make sure that the consumer can then find out
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9:34 - 9:35where their seafood came from.
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9:35 - 9:37This is a really important thing.
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9:37 - 9:40It's being done by some in
the industry, but not enough, -
9:40 - 9:41so we're pushing a law in Congress
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9:41 - 9:42called the SAFE Seafood Act,
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9:42 - 9:45and I'm very excited today to announce the release
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9:45 - 9:48of a chef's petition, where 450 chefs
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9:48 - 9:50have signed a petition calling on Congress
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9:50 - 9:53to support the SAFE Seafood Act.
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9:53 - 9:54It has a lot of celebrity chefs you may know --
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9:54 - 9:58Anthony Bourdain, Mario Batali,
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9:58 - 9:59Barton Seaver and others —
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9:59 - 10:01and they've signed it because they believe
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10:01 - 10:02that people have a right to know
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10:02 - 10:05about what they're eating.
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10:05 - 10:10(Applause)
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10:10 - 10:12Fishermen like it too, so there's a good chance
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10:12 - 10:14we can get the kind of support we need
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10:14 - 10:15to get this bill through,
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10:15 - 10:16and it comes at a critical time,
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10:16 - 10:19because this is the way we stop seafood fraud,
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10:19 - 10:21this is the way we curb illegal fishing,
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10:21 - 10:23and this is the way we make sure
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10:23 - 10:24that quotas, habitat protection,
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10:24 - 10:26and bycatch reductions can do the jobs
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10:26 - 10:27they can do.
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10:27 - 10:30We know that we can manage
our fisheries sustainably. -
10:30 - 10:32We know that we can produce
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10:32 - 10:36healthy meals for hundreds of millions of people
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10:36 - 10:38that don't use the land, that don't use much water,
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10:38 - 10:39have a low carbon footprint,
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10:39 - 10:41and are cost-effective.
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10:41 - 10:43We know that saving the oceans
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10:43 - 10:45can feed the world,
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10:45 - 10:47and we need to start now.
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10:47 - 10:50(Applause)
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10:50 - 10:54Thank you. (Applause)
- Title:
- Save the oceans, feed the world!
- Speaker:
- Jackie Savitz
- Description:
-
What's a marine biologist doing talking about world hunger? Well, says Jackie Savitz, fixing the world's oceans might just help to feed the planet's billion hungriest people. In an eye-opening talk, Savitz tells us what’s really going on in our global fisheries right now — it’s not good — and offers smart suggestions of how we can help them heal, while making more food for all.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 11:10
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Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Save the oceans, feed the world! | |
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Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Save the oceans, feed the world! | |
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Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Save the oceans, feed the world! | |
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Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Save the oceans, feed the world! | |
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Morton Bast approved English subtitles for Save the oceans, feed the world! | |
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Madeleine Aronson accepted English subtitles for Save the oceans, feed the world! | |
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Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for Save the oceans, feed the world! | |
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Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for Save the oceans, feed the world! |