yeah oh well you’re probably wondering
why you called us here welcome to have
hey welcome to our Google+ hangout I’m
Valerie Craig your host for today and
I’m a manager in National Geographic
Explorer programs so joining us today we
have three amazing ocean explorers who
are working to conserve document and
protect our oceans we have explorer and
rain biologists and reeks allah say
hello and wreak hello everyone we have
submarine pilot and diesel engineer
Erika Bergman hi and marine biologist
and adventure tyranny chase hi everybody
you can join our conversation today by
posting or tweeting your questions on
social media for our explorers with the
hashtag all one word let’s explore so
I’d love to just get each of you to
briefly tell me a little bit about what
you do maybe we can start off with an
Drake I am an ocean Explorer I work at
National Geographic but I try to be at
the office as little as possible I tried
to be in the ocean as much as possible
and I laid the project called the
pristine cease project we combine
scientific research and media to inspire
the leaders of the countries that owned
the last pristine places in the ocean to
protect them so I’m doing scientific
research films article social media to
try to convince these leaders to create
the largest marine reserves on the
planet wonderful thank you and Erica
tell us a little bit about your work
sure well as you can see i’m inside of
an interesting sort of vehicle right now
i’m actually inside of a human occupied
vehicle a submarine i’m a submarine
pilot and i love using
and submersibles like this one or woman
submersible doing education and outreach
getting students involved hands-on with
engineering and ocean science and using
these exciting inner space vehicles for
outreach awesome thanks for coming to us
from the submarine today that’s fun sure
and tyranny I see that mola behind you
maybe you can tell us a little bit about
your work yeah well I work in all sorts
of different disciplines all of my work
is targeted towards engaging the public
with raising awareness about the
importance of the ocean and our need to
protect and conserve our ocean resources
and and I work in all sorts of different
disciplines from primary research
working on the ocean sunfish which I
have a inordinate fondness for you’ll
see behind me tracking them satellite
tagging them around the world but I also
work with them doing filmmaking I have
an ongoing film series with the ted
conference group who i do a lot with and
and also lots of different education i
work with dancers and photographers all
trying to infuse science in creative
ways to raise awareness about the ocean
that’s great thank you so i’m jumping
right into it we had a number of people
have send us questions in advance of
this so i’m going to jump right in with
their questions starting with arturo
cardiac posted on google+ and I guess
I’ll direct this first one to you and
reek what are you what are your views on
the current health of the ocean what do
you think’s happening out there right
now well our tudo the ocean is insidious
trouble because we are taking fish out
of the ocean faster than they can
reproduce there is global portion and
climate change through the warming of
the water and acidification is going to
transform the entire ecosystem and just
to give you an example ninety percent of
the large animals in the ocean sharks
groupers tuna are gone we aid them in
the last hundred years ninety percent
gone
there are projections that predict that
if we don’t change our course before
2050 most of the fisheries of the world
will have collapsed coral reefs are in
danger also because of overfishing
pollution and warming and a quarter of
the coral reefs of the world have
vanished you know and so on so there are
many many problems affecting the ocean
from the smallest organism to the
largest the good news is that there are
solutions that work and we can talk
about that later that’s wonderful thanks
and I know you know you’re a marine
ecologist and tyranny you’re a marine
biologist and we’ve gotten already two
questions one from Eleanor Totten on
google+ she’s ten years old and we’ve
also just heard from cameron smith on
google+ who’s in sixth grade and both of
them are wondering what it takes to
become a marine biologist well um first
I think you just have to have a lot of
curiosity um the ocean has the wealth of
animal diversity wealth of animal life
wealth of life on the planet is in the
ocean so if you are curious about life
and how it works the ocean is a great
place to start so having bountiful
curiosity will will will get you farther
than pretty much anything else um having
a good science background is is
definitely important um so you know
studying and doing your biology and your
math and and and really targeting really
focusing on science but I think most
importantly is some when you have free
time outside of school find ways of
getting in the in the ocean finding
people that are doing work that you find
is really really exciting and and you
think they’re asking really interesting
questions and and find those people and
you can even if you’re young and you
don’t have experience you can volunteer
and and you learn so much just by
actually being in the field with people
doing work that you’d like to be doing
as you get older
so I could totally envision how one
decides they want to become marine
biologist I grew up on the ocean you
spend a lot of time in the water Erica
how in the world do you go from love in
the ocean to wanting to get into a
submarine right away and and learn to
pilot submarine yeah it’s sort of an
unusual career path sometimes people ask
me oh did you always want to be a
submarine pilot but no I didn’t know
that was an option that sort of thing um
but I think as children we’re sort of
naturally very good at taking things
apart it’s kind of what kids do and if
you just use that curiosity about how
things work and wanting to look inside
of whether it’s an engine or a fruit you
know anything if you want to look inside
something and see how it grows and how
it works you’re already well on your way
to a career in engineering I’ve worked
with students that are 89 years old and
they’re already building underwater
robots that’s the kind of field that’s
going to take you into piloting a
vehicle like this one which is a little
bit cramped as you can see this remind
me is there but any sort of curiosity
about how things work is going to push
you into ocean engineering and there are
all sorts of opportunities like mate the
maid organization which does underwater
ROV competitions to start engineering
start soldering start looking at
hydraulic systems and pneumatic systems
and getting your hands dirty very cool
and you know there’s some namah shivay
om nom us from india sent us a question
in advance about your your work
specifically and how you see anything
when you’re diving down so deep and and
how you make things visible oh that’s a
great question it’s dark down there the
sunlight even at the maximum only
reaches down to 1,500 feet beyond that
it’s pitch black and in many places it
can be dark at 300 or 400 feet but a
submersible like this one is outfitted
with so many lights
that you can turn the lights on and see
everything that’s out in front of you
but sometimes it’s more fun to leave the
lights off a lot of places are full of
bioluminescence and if you turn all the
submersible lights off and you stop
moving it gets very quiet and then all
of a sudden these little specks of green
come out all over in front of you and
sometimes if you turn the lights on all
of a sudden there’s going to be all of
the big organisms that were hiding from
your lights have come up to the
submarine and all of a sudden you get a
chance to see them there too so kind of
switching tracks a little bit I want to
come back to you tyranny for a second we
had a I’m thinking darkness now off to
the Sun we had a question from Janet
Gannon from Maine posted a question to
our blog in advance of the conversation
and she says she recently heard that
mola aren’t actually basking in the Sun
when they lay on the surface so if
they’re not basking in the Sun what are
they really doing yeah well so so I’m
there’s that there’s a couple different
things going on um the group and in the
Atlantic found that the moas behavior
didn’t correspond with you know if it
was in cold water didn’t Basque longer
there wasn’t that that correlation which
is what we have found in the Pacific so
molas Basque depending on their um for
different reasons depending on the
thermal structure the of the ocean that
they’re swimming through so in the
Atlantic um basking can there’s multiple
reasons for basking you can cast a
shadow below you which attracts little
cleaner fish mola are heavily
parasitized and so by floating on the
surface you have little cleaners come up
underneath and pick off the parasites on
their skin you also expose your skin to
UV radiation from the Sun which can bake
off parasites that way and you can also
show yourself to see birds and solicit
cleaning from seabirds so that’s kind of
a fun little um you know an added
benefit from exposing yourself
at the sea surface you could have
seabirds come help give you a little
tuna but we have found in colder ocean
like tempura notion that they they are
probably warming themselves up after a
deep cold dive so lots of reasons for
basking not just sunbathing that’s um I
wonder if I might ask tyranny a question
something that I’ve been wondering for a
while in Monterey you see the mola mola
unfortunately getting sort of played
with by all of the sea lions and the
seals they almost use them as frisbees
they sort of play with them and toss
them around across the surface I was
wondering if that’s the natural predator
of the mola mola or what their natural
predator is Oh they’ve got they’ve got a
number of natural predators but
certainly the California sea lions are
love to play ultimate frisbee with the
sunfish and them and that’s that’s just
a natural natural occurrence orcas feed
on them sharks feed on them but probably
the biggest the biggest effect on mola
maybe or bycatch they make up a massive
portion of bycatch the largest
vertebrate species in the California
drift gill net fishery is mola and in
the Mediterranean huge thousands and
thousands of them are caught in the tuna
nets and in the drift gill nets which
are supposed to be outlawed but people
still fish with these and they cause a
tremendous amount of damage with mole is
getting caught in their big bycatch in
South Africa so humans sharks orcas sea
lions those are all natural well all
predators of the of the sunfish hmm yeah
thank you yeah so I think you’ve been
all around the world on expeditions and
you you have this global view now of
what’s happening in the oceans we’ve
gotten a question in from parvin
Krishnan on Google+ and really just
would be great to hear about the major
threats to the ocean amble flora and
fauna and how people who aren’t
necessarily even in contact with the
oceans can help yeah part of an ass i
said before that our
three main issues that are affecting the
ocean one is over fishing too much
fishing globally offshore deep large
animals small fish everything to is
pollution and three is climate change
which is affecting the ocean through
warming and through making the ocean
more acidic and what people can do to
help there are many things you can do to
help but one very simple thing is eat
more vegetables you know it’s good for
you you’re going to feel better and
you’re going to have less pressure on
the ocean also it’s not a good idea to
eat big fish because they have lots of
mercury the bigger the fish like the
tuna or sharks have lots of mercury and
farmed fish like salmon also have lots
of mercury and they are not the most
sustainable sources so you can go online
to National Geographic calm and look for
our seafood choice selector and you’ll
understand what species are more
sustainable than others so if you make
smart choices when you go to the
restaurant or a smart choices when you
go to the store to buy fish if everybody
did that that would mean a huge
difference and you know since the ocean
is connected to every every part of our
life you can work yourself back to the
ocean having some effect on it and one
of the biggest looming crises hitting
the ocean right now is this effect that
co2 is having on on the ocean both by
rising sea level and warming the sea and
as well as decreasing the pH and so
anything you can do to reduce your
energy footprint and that may seem
really disconnected from the ocean but
that all enters into um you know
reducing the amount of co2 we produce in
the atmosphere so um so really being
conscious about not only what you’re
eating like what an Areth says but also
how much energy you’re using that’s a
really great point tyranny thank you
because I think we often think about
that direct impact right on the water
you know what i would i might
accidentally dumped into the ocean or
what i’m eating but thinking about just
our broader behavior and its impact
definitely makes a huge difference and
really points to how everybody
everywhere around the world can can help
so some of this some of those little
things who are really critical though
even at a thousand feet deep at 2,000
feet deep everywhere that I go I see
beer bottles at the bottom of the ocean
beer bottles soda bottles cans no matter
where in the world you are you
guaranteed to find those so something as
simple as a little beach cleanup or
throwing your your garbage in the in the
recycling or in the garbage can will
make a huge impact on really deep-sea
ecosystems too right rethinking how much
plastic single-use servings plastic that
stuff lasts forever and it should be
treated as this immortal material not as
a throwaway material and so it’s kind of
you know maybe it seems like drudgery
who do this but when you become part of
something larger you start feeling I
mean it affects you in a deeper
psychological way that when you change
your light bulbs you’re actually helping
the ocean when you bring your bags to
the grocery store so you don’t have to
get those plastic bags you’re helping
the ocean when you decide to carpool
your help in the ocean so every little
bit of your life you’re there in you
don’t have to be submerged in the deep
your help in the ocean with all your
actions and most importantly if you
share that with your buddies then they
can you can do it all together and it
becomes this fun thing you can compete
against each other it’s fun and you’re
part of the biggest you know helping the
biggest feature on our planet the thing
that sets us apart from every other
planet in in the known universe is the
fact that we’ve got ocean we have some
serious ocean love in this group that is
for sure um you know I’m gonna I’m gonna
switch tax a little bit because I want
to hear enrica paddocks experience now
recently up in the Arctic for the first
time and many of your other expeditions
have been tropical and a little bit
temperate but how was it different to be
up in the Arctic and sowed are both from
the expedition side but also in your
experiences and what you were seeing
while he was definitely cold
and diving in water 28 degrees
Fahrenheit or minus 1.5 degrees Celsius
it’s really painful after a while but
it’s a fascinating world so different
from anything else had seen before and I
was especially fascinated by the polar
bears and the walruses the walruses that
can grow up to 1.5 tons and they are so
curious they have to come and check you
out and they had these thick whiskers
and you have to touch everything with
the whisker so they come the Tigers the
boat and your camera and man these guys
are huge it’s it was a little little
hairy but the thing that struck me the
most was how the Arctic has changed we
had photographs from 20 years before and
even in the summer the entire surface of
the that place in the North Russian
Arctic was covered with sea ice with
seals and poor bears entirely covered
with the ice early explorers were skiing
in between islands in the summer when we
were there last summer there was no sea
ice at all we went to a northernmost
island north of the northernmost point
of Russia the northernmost archipelago
in the world and the ice was more than
hundred kilometers north of that place
it was really really shocking and
disappointing you know you know about
these things you read about them and you
see them on TV but when you go there to
a place where you expect to see ice
seals and polar bears and you see polar
bears is stuck on line eating grass in
front of a blue ocean that is warmer
than it used to be that really tells you
about the magnitude of the changes that
are happening in the art thing because
of climate change well and I know that
they’re saying you know the Northwest
Passage on the other side of the Arctic
from where you were is opening up and
that sort of i’m hoping Erika you can
tell us a little bit about where you’re
headed into the Northwest Passage and
your adventures coming up it’s a little
scary to me that anybody’s doing
anything in the Northwest Passage
because it means there’s no ice but
it’d be great to hear about your new
adventures sure well that’s exactly why
it’s terrifying is that there’s no ice
so I’m joining a group of 10 snorkeling
women who are going to go 3,000
kilometers from Alaska all the way to
Greenland through the Northwest Passage
and the only reason that we can do that
is because the sea ice has melted to
such an extreme extent and I think 2007
was the record minimum for sea ice in
the summer time and it was the first
time in 50 years that sea ice has been
that low and it’s just been getting more
and more open each summer so we’re going
to go on an extreme polar ice
conservation expedition we’re going to
get face to face with those walruses
that Enric mentioned that makes me quite
nervous actually thinking about those
voice is so close and we’re going to go
get face-to-face with all of these
creatures right at the surface right
about interface between the sea and the
surface with polar bears and the
narwhals and Greenland sharks and do
outreach with the Inuit community we’re
going to take a few remotely operated
vehicles with us and let the Inuit
people pilot them themselves there on
the shoreline and sort of hope to
encourage the next generation of
explorers and scientists we’re going to
help conserve this really changing
environment rapidly changing environment
so just a quick reminder to everybody
who’s participating in our hangout that
you can join the conversation by posting
or tweeting your questions on social
media and i’ll be sure to to get those
out to our explorers and tyranny and in
this conversation we’re having about
global change and we had a question come
in from Thor king from idaho on google+
and he’s wondering about how migration
patterns have changed over time with the
mola yeah well right now we’re still in
our exploratory phase figuring out where
mole ago just the basics that excuse me
just the fundamentals so being able to
say that migration patterns
have shifted or not shifted in response
to a fast changing ocean environment is
we’re not in a position to say that but
what we can say something that’s of
interest um there’s um there’s a region
of the Pacific called the oxygen minimum
layer and it it sort of caps where
certain creatures do forage and it’s
been becoming it’s with climate change
it’s becoming shallower and shallower we
call it shoaling and so by moving
farther up in the water column that’s
compressing the area that many of these
big big fishes and things like Lola have
to to forage because you don’t want to
be in that area of the ocean where
there’s not very much oxygen a hypoxic
area so so we do expect to see shifts in
foraging areas in relation to that
shoaling of the oxygen minimum layer at
least in the Pacific and the California
Current ecosystem so that’s one thing
but with mold avi we’re just figuring
out where they go and why um and we
can’t say yay or nay to the fact that
they’ve shifted their behavior because
we just don’t even have the enough
baseline data to begin with but it’s a
great question we’re working on it great
well thank you um I have a question here
from Josie Hemingway on Google+ that I
suspect many of our viewers would have
the same question which is how ordinary
people who can dive and swim and get to
get out in the oceans and maybe assist
any of you in your work if there are
programs or volunteer groups or even
travel experiences really what can the
the average ocean enthusiast with maybe
some skills do to to help out and I’d
love to hear from all of you but maybe
we can start with you and wreak if you
have ideas I have two sugestions if
you’re a diver and you go to tropical
places coral reefs that is a program
called reef check check it out online
reef check and there is a way for
citizen scientists for divers spore
divers to collect scientific data
that then are submitted to a global
database that tell us about the state of
these reefs and you know there are many
more diverse than there are scientists
so this is a very valuable tool and
another one is you can find it on the
Cousteau diverse website and coastal
divers org they Cousteau the younger son
of course toe is putting together a
database of all the videos and
photographs so now you can submit your
videos and photographs of the same
places or other places and we can look
at the changes over time so if we have
this Armada of divers is for divers that
are collecting scientific data and
posting videos and photos up there we
can understand what is the state of the
raves today and this is something that
the limited number of marine biologists
cannot do so these are very to concrete
things that I would recommend to diverse
and check out that citizen scientist Sir
hey Erica you were gonna go oh I was I
was going to mention sure adventures and
scientists Greg drainage has an
organization that uses anyone who goes
out from anything from a hike to an
Arctic expedition you can share your
findings with a scientist who might need
some data collected in the particular
area that you’re going you can also get
involved with projects that are already
happening there and on the engineering
front because being the mechanic that I
am there’s also open ROV which is a
small very inexpensive kit remotely
operated vehicle that you can build in a
weekend you can take it out into the
ocean and you can just start flying it
from your laptop if you’ve got students
that you want to build it with there you
go free underwater robot is not free but
inexpensive underwater robot there’s
also i encourage viewers to check out
Zooniverse which is a big portal for all
manner of citizen science programs
there’s one plankton the plankton portal
where you can identify different
creatures from different planktonic
creatures and there’s also
one for identifying deep sea animal
that’s going through lots and lots of
video that’s been taken to help to help
scientists identify creatures and
categorize and catalogue one what
animals are aware um and in doing that
you get you get a sense of how data are
collected and analyzed and you also can
get if you’re into it you get your name
known by the people who are running
these programs and they could invite you
out to help get them get the data as
well so so volunteering making showing
your passion showing your commitment to
really um want to make a difference uh
that gets you noticed hey Valerie if I
may I like to talk about good story
success stories because we have just a
couple minutes less latter very good
we’ve talked about the doom and gloom
but there are things at work there are
things to bring back marine life and I’m
going to talk about one very briefly
marine reserves areas where fishing is
prohibited we have hundreds of examples
around the world showing that if we
protect areas from fishing the fishes
come back after a few years there are so
many fit inside this reserve that they
spill over the boundaries of these
reserves in the future and catching more
around them and that also brings
studiously bring the divers that we are
talking about that bring dollars into
the local economy and create jobs so
these reserves are like savings accounts
that restoring life create jobs and help
the local economy it’s a win-win the
marine reserves definitely it’s good
business yeah very cool I want to get a
another question that’s come in from a
viewer from Selena hartman on google+
and I want to direct this one first to
Erica and what’s your job like and what
do you do on a daily basis that’s an
excellent question diving submarines is
obviously the ultimate goal but for one
single dive there are many many many
hours of maintenance and fabrication and
work to be done to prepare the submarine
so on a daily basis I’m either in
schools sharing my experiences with
students and building robots with them
or I’m in the shop maintenance amiss up
filling the air tanks checking the
hydraulic systems doing the safety
things that it takes to actually put it
in the water every day so they’re just
sort of elbow deep in bearing grease and
hydraulic oil for the most part that’s
great and so in our last minute I’d love
to hear from each of you what you think
the absolute best part what’s the best
part of your job so enrrique you can go
first with this one the best part of my
job is to one diving in places that have
not been touched by humans and to seeing
these places protected tyranny um well
I’d have to I’d have to echo and reeks
um you know being just being underwater
is the best part of the job but secondly
I love talking to school groups and
particularly very young kids um like my
kids age really that to see their eyes
light up when they here’s something
they’ve never heard when they they
realized that that ninety-five percent
of the ocean hasn’t been explored to see
that light up in their faces that can’t
can’t hold a candle to that nice nice so
you’ve got that you’ve got the last word
here Erica for me it’s exploring the
deep ocean and inner space and hopefully
sharing my enthusiasm for it the same
way that I was inspired by astronauts
exploring outer space and seeing the
next generation take on the deep sea
that’s very exciting so I’m anybody have
any last comment you really want to get
in there for our audience today get a
mask and snorkel get in the water you’re
already an explorer get wet all right
you guys are awesome well for everybody
that’s been with us today thanks for
joining us and to find out more about
our next hangout and future hangouts you
can become a member of the National
Geographic Society by going to members
National Geographic calm and definitely
keep an eye on our
blogs you’ll hear about him coming join
the family thanks everyone thank you see
you later
why you called us here welcome to have
hey welcome to our Google+ hangout I’m
Valerie Craig your host for today and
I’m a manager in National Geographic
Explorer programs so joining us today we
have three amazing ocean explorers who
are working to conserve document and
protect our oceans we have explorer and
rain biologists and reeks allah say
hello and wreak hello everyone we have
submarine pilot and diesel engineer
Erika Bergman hi and marine biologist
and adventure tyranny chase hi everybody
you can join our conversation today by
posting or tweeting your questions on
social media for our explorers with the
hashtag all one word let’s explore so
I’d love to just get each of you to
briefly tell me a little bit about what
you do maybe we can start off with an
Drake I am an ocean Explorer I work at
National Geographic but I try to be at
the office as little as possible I tried
to be in the ocean as much as possible
and I laid the project called the
pristine cease project we combine
scientific research and media to inspire
the leaders of the countries that owned
the last pristine places in the ocean to
protect them so I’m doing scientific
research films article social media to
try to convince these leaders to create
the largest marine reserves on the
planet wonderful thank you and Erica
tell us a little bit about your work
sure well as you can see i’m inside of
an interesting sort of vehicle right now
i’m actually inside of a human occupied
vehicle a submarine i’m a submarine
pilot and i love using
and submersibles like this one or woman
submersible doing education and outreach
getting students involved hands-on with
engineering and ocean science and using
these exciting inner space vehicles for
outreach awesome thanks for coming to us
from the submarine today that’s fun sure
and tyranny I see that mola behind you
maybe you can tell us a little bit about
your work yeah well I work in all sorts
of different disciplines all of my work
is targeted towards engaging the public
with raising awareness about the
importance of the ocean and our need to
protect and conserve our ocean resources
and and I work in all sorts of different
disciplines from primary research
working on the ocean sunfish which I
have a inordinate fondness for you’ll
see behind me tracking them satellite
tagging them around the world but I also
work with them doing filmmaking I have
an ongoing film series with the ted
conference group who i do a lot with and
and also lots of different education i
work with dancers and photographers all
trying to infuse science in creative
ways to raise awareness about the ocean
that’s great thank you so i’m jumping
right into it we had a number of people
have send us questions in advance of
this so i’m going to jump right in with
their questions starting with arturo
cardiac posted on google+ and I guess
I’ll direct this first one to you and
reek what are you what are your views on
the current health of the ocean what do
you think’s happening out there right
now well our tudo the ocean is insidious
trouble because we are taking fish out
of the ocean faster than they can
reproduce there is global portion and
climate change through the warming of
the water and acidification is going to
transform the entire ecosystem and just
to give you an example ninety percent of
the large animals in the ocean sharks
groupers tuna are gone we aid them in
the last hundred years ninety percent
gone
there are projections that predict that
if we don’t change our course before
2050 most of the fisheries of the world
will have collapsed coral reefs are in
danger also because of overfishing
pollution and warming and a quarter of
the coral reefs of the world have
vanished you know and so on so there are
many many problems affecting the ocean
from the smallest organism to the
largest the good news is that there are
solutions that work and we can talk
about that later that’s wonderful thanks
and I know you know you’re a marine
ecologist and tyranny you’re a marine
biologist and we’ve gotten already two
questions one from Eleanor Totten on
google+ she’s ten years old and we’ve
also just heard from cameron smith on
google+ who’s in sixth grade and both of
them are wondering what it takes to
become a marine biologist well um first
I think you just have to have a lot of
curiosity um the ocean has the wealth of
animal diversity wealth of animal life
wealth of life on the planet is in the
ocean so if you are curious about life
and how it works the ocean is a great
place to start so having bountiful
curiosity will will will get you farther
than pretty much anything else um having
a good science background is is
definitely important um so you know
studying and doing your biology and your
math and and and really targeting really
focusing on science but I think most
importantly is some when you have free
time outside of school find ways of
getting in the in the ocean finding
people that are doing work that you find
is really really exciting and and you
think they’re asking really interesting
questions and and find those people and
you can even if you’re young and you
don’t have experience you can volunteer
and and you learn so much just by
actually being in the field with people
doing work that you’d like to be doing
as you get older
so I could totally envision how one
decides they want to become marine
biologist I grew up on the ocean you
spend a lot of time in the water Erica
how in the world do you go from love in
the ocean to wanting to get into a
submarine right away and and learn to
pilot submarine yeah it’s sort of an
unusual career path sometimes people ask
me oh did you always want to be a
submarine pilot but no I didn’t know
that was an option that sort of thing um
but I think as children we’re sort of
naturally very good at taking things
apart it’s kind of what kids do and if
you just use that curiosity about how
things work and wanting to look inside
of whether it’s an engine or a fruit you
know anything if you want to look inside
something and see how it grows and how
it works you’re already well on your way
to a career in engineering I’ve worked
with students that are 89 years old and
they’re already building underwater
robots that’s the kind of field that’s
going to take you into piloting a
vehicle like this one which is a little
bit cramped as you can see this remind
me is there but any sort of curiosity
about how things work is going to push
you into ocean engineering and there are
all sorts of opportunities like mate the
maid organization which does underwater
ROV competitions to start engineering
start soldering start looking at
hydraulic systems and pneumatic systems
and getting your hands dirty very cool
and you know there’s some namah shivay
om nom us from india sent us a question
in advance about your your work
specifically and how you see anything
when you’re diving down so deep and and
how you make things visible oh that’s a
great question it’s dark down there the
sunlight even at the maximum only
reaches down to 1,500 feet beyond that
it’s pitch black and in many places it
can be dark at 300 or 400 feet but a
submersible like this one is outfitted
with so many lights
that you can turn the lights on and see
everything that’s out in front of you
but sometimes it’s more fun to leave the
lights off a lot of places are full of
bioluminescence and if you turn all the
submersible lights off and you stop
moving it gets very quiet and then all
of a sudden these little specks of green
come out all over in front of you and
sometimes if you turn the lights on all
of a sudden there’s going to be all of
the big organisms that were hiding from
your lights have come up to the
submarine and all of a sudden you get a
chance to see them there too so kind of
switching tracks a little bit I want to
come back to you tyranny for a second we
had a I’m thinking darkness now off to
the Sun we had a question from Janet
Gannon from Maine posted a question to
our blog in advance of the conversation
and she says she recently heard that
mola aren’t actually basking in the Sun
when they lay on the surface so if
they’re not basking in the Sun what are
they really doing yeah well so so I’m
there’s that there’s a couple different
things going on um the group and in the
Atlantic found that the moas behavior
didn’t correspond with you know if it
was in cold water didn’t Basque longer
there wasn’t that that correlation which
is what we have found in the Pacific so
molas Basque depending on their um for
different reasons depending on the
thermal structure the of the ocean that
they’re swimming through so in the
Atlantic um basking can there’s multiple
reasons for basking you can cast a
shadow below you which attracts little
cleaner fish mola are heavily
parasitized and so by floating on the
surface you have little cleaners come up
underneath and pick off the parasites on
their skin you also expose your skin to
UV radiation from the Sun which can bake
off parasites that way and you can also
show yourself to see birds and solicit
cleaning from seabirds so that’s kind of
a fun little um you know an added
benefit from exposing yourself
at the sea surface you could have
seabirds come help give you a little
tuna but we have found in colder ocean
like tempura notion that they they are
probably warming themselves up after a
deep cold dive so lots of reasons for
basking not just sunbathing that’s um I
wonder if I might ask tyranny a question
something that I’ve been wondering for a
while in Monterey you see the mola mola
unfortunately getting sort of played
with by all of the sea lions and the
seals they almost use them as frisbees
they sort of play with them and toss
them around across the surface I was
wondering if that’s the natural predator
of the mola mola or what their natural
predator is Oh they’ve got they’ve got a
number of natural predators but
certainly the California sea lions are
love to play ultimate frisbee with the
sunfish and them and that’s that’s just
a natural natural occurrence orcas feed
on them sharks feed on them but probably
the biggest the biggest effect on mola
maybe or bycatch they make up a massive
portion of bycatch the largest
vertebrate species in the California
drift gill net fishery is mola and in
the Mediterranean huge thousands and
thousands of them are caught in the tuna
nets and in the drift gill nets which
are supposed to be outlawed but people
still fish with these and they cause a
tremendous amount of damage with mole is
getting caught in their big bycatch in
South Africa so humans sharks orcas sea
lions those are all natural well all
predators of the of the sunfish hmm yeah
thank you yeah so I think you’ve been
all around the world on expeditions and
you you have this global view now of
what’s happening in the oceans we’ve
gotten a question in from parvin
Krishnan on Google+ and really just
would be great to hear about the major
threats to the ocean amble flora and
fauna and how people who aren’t
necessarily even in contact with the
oceans can help yeah part of an ass i
said before that our
three main issues that are affecting the
ocean one is over fishing too much
fishing globally offshore deep large
animals small fish everything to is
pollution and three is climate change
which is affecting the ocean through
warming and through making the ocean
more acidic and what people can do to
help there are many things you can do to
help but one very simple thing is eat
more vegetables you know it’s good for
you you’re going to feel better and
you’re going to have less pressure on
the ocean also it’s not a good idea to
eat big fish because they have lots of
mercury the bigger the fish like the
tuna or sharks have lots of mercury and
farmed fish like salmon also have lots
of mercury and they are not the most
sustainable sources so you can go online
to National Geographic calm and look for
our seafood choice selector and you’ll
understand what species are more
sustainable than others so if you make
smart choices when you go to the
restaurant or a smart choices when you
go to the store to buy fish if everybody
did that that would mean a huge
difference and you know since the ocean
is connected to every every part of our
life you can work yourself back to the
ocean having some effect on it and one
of the biggest looming crises hitting
the ocean right now is this effect that
co2 is having on on the ocean both by
rising sea level and warming the sea and
as well as decreasing the pH and so
anything you can do to reduce your
energy footprint and that may seem
really disconnected from the ocean but
that all enters into um you know
reducing the amount of co2 we produce in
the atmosphere so um so really being
conscious about not only what you’re
eating like what an Areth says but also
how much energy you’re using that’s a
really great point tyranny thank you
because I think we often think about
that direct impact right on the water
you know what i would i might
accidentally dumped into the ocean or
what i’m eating but thinking about just
our broader behavior and its impact
definitely makes a huge difference and
really points to how everybody
everywhere around the world can can help
so some of this some of those little
things who are really critical though
even at a thousand feet deep at 2,000
feet deep everywhere that I go I see
beer bottles at the bottom of the ocean
beer bottles soda bottles cans no matter
where in the world you are you
guaranteed to find those so something as
simple as a little beach cleanup or
throwing your your garbage in the in the
recycling or in the garbage can will
make a huge impact on really deep-sea
ecosystems too right rethinking how much
plastic single-use servings plastic that
stuff lasts forever and it should be
treated as this immortal material not as
a throwaway material and so it’s kind of
you know maybe it seems like drudgery
who do this but when you become part of
something larger you start feeling I
mean it affects you in a deeper
psychological way that when you change
your light bulbs you’re actually helping
the ocean when you bring your bags to
the grocery store so you don’t have to
get those plastic bags you’re helping
the ocean when you decide to carpool
your help in the ocean so every little
bit of your life you’re there in you
don’t have to be submerged in the deep
your help in the ocean with all your
actions and most importantly if you
share that with your buddies then they
can you can do it all together and it
becomes this fun thing you can compete
against each other it’s fun and you’re
part of the biggest you know helping the
biggest feature on our planet the thing
that sets us apart from every other
planet in in the known universe is the
fact that we’ve got ocean we have some
serious ocean love in this group that is
for sure um you know I’m gonna I’m gonna
switch tax a little bit because I want
to hear enrica paddocks experience now
recently up in the Arctic for the first
time and many of your other expeditions
have been tropical and a little bit
temperate but how was it different to be
up in the Arctic and sowed are both from
the expedition side but also in your
experiences and what you were seeing
while he was definitely cold
and diving in water 28 degrees
Fahrenheit or minus 1.5 degrees Celsius
it’s really painful after a while but
it’s a fascinating world so different
from anything else had seen before and I
was especially fascinated by the polar
bears and the walruses the walruses that
can grow up to 1.5 tons and they are so
curious they have to come and check you
out and they had these thick whiskers
and you have to touch everything with
the whisker so they come the Tigers the
boat and your camera and man these guys
are huge it’s it was a little little
hairy but the thing that struck me the
most was how the Arctic has changed we
had photographs from 20 years before and
even in the summer the entire surface of
the that place in the North Russian
Arctic was covered with sea ice with
seals and poor bears entirely covered
with the ice early explorers were skiing
in between islands in the summer when we
were there last summer there was no sea
ice at all we went to a northernmost
island north of the northernmost point
of Russia the northernmost archipelago
in the world and the ice was more than
hundred kilometers north of that place
it was really really shocking and
disappointing you know you know about
these things you read about them and you
see them on TV but when you go there to
a place where you expect to see ice
seals and polar bears and you see polar
bears is stuck on line eating grass in
front of a blue ocean that is warmer
than it used to be that really tells you
about the magnitude of the changes that
are happening in the art thing because
of climate change well and I know that
they’re saying you know the Northwest
Passage on the other side of the Arctic
from where you were is opening up and
that sort of i’m hoping Erika you can
tell us a little bit about where you’re
headed into the Northwest Passage and
your adventures coming up it’s a little
scary to me that anybody’s doing
anything in the Northwest Passage
because it means there’s no ice but
it’d be great to hear about your new
adventures sure well that’s exactly why
it’s terrifying is that there’s no ice
so I’m joining a group of 10 snorkeling
women who are going to go 3,000
kilometers from Alaska all the way to
Greenland through the Northwest Passage
and the only reason that we can do that
is because the sea ice has melted to
such an extreme extent and I think 2007
was the record minimum for sea ice in
the summer time and it was the first
time in 50 years that sea ice has been
that low and it’s just been getting more
and more open each summer so we’re going
to go on an extreme polar ice
conservation expedition we’re going to
get face to face with those walruses
that Enric mentioned that makes me quite
nervous actually thinking about those
voice is so close and we’re going to go
get face-to-face with all of these
creatures right at the surface right
about interface between the sea and the
surface with polar bears and the
narwhals and Greenland sharks and do
outreach with the Inuit community we’re
going to take a few remotely operated
vehicles with us and let the Inuit
people pilot them themselves there on
the shoreline and sort of hope to
encourage the next generation of
explorers and scientists we’re going to
help conserve this really changing
environment rapidly changing environment
so just a quick reminder to everybody
who’s participating in our hangout that
you can join the conversation by posting
or tweeting your questions on social
media and i’ll be sure to to get those
out to our explorers and tyranny and in
this conversation we’re having about
global change and we had a question come
in from Thor king from idaho on google+
and he’s wondering about how migration
patterns have changed over time with the
mola yeah well right now we’re still in
our exploratory phase figuring out where
mole ago just the basics that excuse me
just the fundamentals so being able to
say that migration patterns
have shifted or not shifted in response
to a fast changing ocean environment is
we’re not in a position to say that but
what we can say something that’s of
interest um there’s um there’s a region
of the Pacific called the oxygen minimum
layer and it it sort of caps where
certain creatures do forage and it’s
been becoming it’s with climate change
it’s becoming shallower and shallower we
call it shoaling and so by moving
farther up in the water column that’s
compressing the area that many of these
big big fishes and things like Lola have
to to forage because you don’t want to
be in that area of the ocean where
there’s not very much oxygen a hypoxic
area so so we do expect to see shifts in
foraging areas in relation to that
shoaling of the oxygen minimum layer at
least in the Pacific and the California
Current ecosystem so that’s one thing
but with mold avi we’re just figuring
out where they go and why um and we
can’t say yay or nay to the fact that
they’ve shifted their behavior because
we just don’t even have the enough
baseline data to begin with but it’s a
great question we’re working on it great
well thank you um I have a question here
from Josie Hemingway on Google+ that I
suspect many of our viewers would have
the same question which is how ordinary
people who can dive and swim and get to
get out in the oceans and maybe assist
any of you in your work if there are
programs or volunteer groups or even
travel experiences really what can the
the average ocean enthusiast with maybe
some skills do to to help out and I’d
love to hear from all of you but maybe
we can start with you and wreak if you
have ideas I have two sugestions if
you’re a diver and you go to tropical
places coral reefs that is a program
called reef check check it out online
reef check and there is a way for
citizen scientists for divers spore
divers to collect scientific data
that then are submitted to a global
database that tell us about the state of
these reefs and you know there are many
more diverse than there are scientists
so this is a very valuable tool and
another one is you can find it on the
Cousteau diverse website and coastal
divers org they Cousteau the younger son
of course toe is putting together a
database of all the videos and
photographs so now you can submit your
videos and photographs of the same
places or other places and we can look
at the changes over time so if we have
this Armada of divers is for divers that
are collecting scientific data and
posting videos and photos up there we
can understand what is the state of the
raves today and this is something that
the limited number of marine biologists
cannot do so these are very to concrete
things that I would recommend to diverse
and check out that citizen scientist Sir
hey Erica you were gonna go oh I was I
was going to mention sure adventures and
scientists Greg drainage has an
organization that uses anyone who goes
out from anything from a hike to an
Arctic expedition you can share your
findings with a scientist who might need
some data collected in the particular
area that you’re going you can also get
involved with projects that are already
happening there and on the engineering
front because being the mechanic that I
am there’s also open ROV which is a
small very inexpensive kit remotely
operated vehicle that you can build in a
weekend you can take it out into the
ocean and you can just start flying it
from your laptop if you’ve got students
that you want to build it with there you
go free underwater robot is not free but
inexpensive underwater robot there’s
also i encourage viewers to check out
Zooniverse which is a big portal for all
manner of citizen science programs
there’s one plankton the plankton portal
where you can identify different
creatures from different planktonic
creatures and there’s also
one for identifying deep sea animal
that’s going through lots and lots of
video that’s been taken to help to help
scientists identify creatures and
categorize and catalogue one what
animals are aware um and in doing that
you get you get a sense of how data are
collected and analyzed and you also can
get if you’re into it you get your name
known by the people who are running
these programs and they could invite you
out to help get them get the data as
well so so volunteering making showing
your passion showing your commitment to
really um want to make a difference uh
that gets you noticed hey Valerie if I
may I like to talk about good story
success stories because we have just a
couple minutes less latter very good
we’ve talked about the doom and gloom
but there are things at work there are
things to bring back marine life and I’m
going to talk about one very briefly
marine reserves areas where fishing is
prohibited we have hundreds of examples
around the world showing that if we
protect areas from fishing the fishes
come back after a few years there are so
many fit inside this reserve that they
spill over the boundaries of these
reserves in the future and catching more
around them and that also brings
studiously bring the divers that we are
talking about that bring dollars into
the local economy and create jobs so
these reserves are like savings accounts
that restoring life create jobs and help
the local economy it’s a win-win the
marine reserves definitely it’s good
business yeah very cool I want to get a
another question that’s come in from a
viewer from Selena hartman on google+
and I want to direct this one first to
Erica and what’s your job like and what
do you do on a daily basis that’s an
excellent question diving submarines is
obviously the ultimate goal but for one
single dive there are many many many
hours of maintenance and fabrication and
work to be done to prepare the submarine
so on a daily basis I’m either in
schools sharing my experiences with
students and building robots with them
or I’m in the shop maintenance amiss up
filling the air tanks checking the
hydraulic systems doing the safety
things that it takes to actually put it
in the water every day so they’re just
sort of elbow deep in bearing grease and
hydraulic oil for the most part that’s
great and so in our last minute I’d love
to hear from each of you what you think
the absolute best part what’s the best
part of your job so enrrique you can go
first with this one the best part of my
job is to one diving in places that have
not been touched by humans and to seeing
these places protected tyranny um well
I’d have to I’d have to echo and reeks
um you know being just being underwater
is the best part of the job but secondly
I love talking to school groups and
particularly very young kids um like my
kids age really that to see their eyes
light up when they here’s something
they’ve never heard when they they
realized that that ninety-five percent
of the ocean hasn’t been explored to see
that light up in their faces that can’t
can’t hold a candle to that nice nice so
you’ve got that you’ve got the last word
here Erica for me it’s exploring the
deep ocean and inner space and hopefully
sharing my enthusiasm for it the same
way that I was inspired by astronauts
exploring outer space and seeing the
next generation take on the deep sea
that’s very exciting so I’m anybody have
any last comment you really want to get
in there for our audience today get a
mask and snorkel get in the water you’re
already an explorer get wet all right
you guys are awesome well for everybody
that’s been with us today thanks for
joining us and to find out more about
our next hangout and future hangouts you
can become a member of the National
Geographic Society by going to members
National Geographic calm and definitely
keep an eye on our
blogs you’ll hear about him coming join
the family thanks everyone thank you see
you later
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