1 00:00:05,171 --> 00:00:12,712 Far out in the remote northwestern Pacific, islands formed by an ancient volcano rise 2 00:00:12,812 --> 00:00:16,216 out of the sea They re very, very hard to reach. 3 00:00:16,316 --> 00:00:22,922 It s very remote. It s maybe 500 miles from the nearest population center so it gets 4 00:00:23,023 --> 00:00:27,394 very few visitors. It was like Jurassic Park pretty much. I was 5 00:00:27,494 --> 00:00:37,570 really impressed. These are the islands of Maug, an uninhabited 6 00:00:37,670 --> 00:00:41,908 paradise near the northern tip of the Mariana Islands. 7 00:00:42,008 --> 00:00:46,146 Maug is unlike any other place I ve ever been in the world -you re in the middle 8 00:00:46,246 --> 00:00:51,251 of absolutely nowhere and you come to what looks from a distance just like an island, 9 00:00:51,351 --> 00:00:56,156 and then you see that it s a big volcanic crater essentially. And you are able to sail 10 00:00:56,256 --> 00:01:01,761 inside and it all of a sudden becomes not just this big roiling Pacific but almost this 11 00:01:01,861 --> 00:01:08,601 lake inside the ocean-- flat, calm, very pleasant with these big, kind of walls rising up around 12 00:01:08,701 --> 00:01:14,941 you and that just in and of itself is special and amazing. 13 00:01:15,041 --> 00:01:20,146 Maug used to be a volcano that was up above the water, but there was a large eruption 14 00:01:20,246 --> 00:01:25,051 at some point and the whole top of the volcano collapsed down and it left this ring of three 15 00:01:25,151 --> 00:01:30,423 islands around that have openings big enough to drive the ship into, and it s about a 16 00:01:30,523 --> 00:01:37,497 mile and a half across so it s a pretty good size caldera inside. 17 00:01:37,597 --> 00:01:45,905 Within this caldera are unspoiled coral reefs The coral diversity is impressive. 18 00:01:46,005 --> 00:01:52,946 There s areas where you have almost 100 percent coral coverage and just fields of 19 00:01:53,046 --> 00:02:02,055 coral, and just the most pristine reefs you could imagine. 20 00:02:02,155 --> 00:02:07,293 But what makes these waters of particular interest to scientists is what else can be 21 00:02:07,393 --> 00:02:16,936 found beneath the surface. You can jump in the water, dive down 30 feet 22 00:02:17,036 --> 00:02:21,808 and feel that the ground there is actually hot and you ve got this hot water coming 23 00:02:21,908 --> 00:02:27,013 out and gas bubbles. I ve heard someone say that it s like 24 00:02:27,113 --> 00:02:32,919 diving in champagne, and it absolutely is. It s not an exaggeration. It s pretty 25 00:02:33,019 --> 00:02:35,622 amazing. Volcanic gases are typically dominated by 26 00:02:35,722 --> 00:02:40,860 CO2, so when we heard that there were gas bubbles coming out within the coral reef area 27 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:45,465 something clicked and we said, hey this is an opportunity to go look at how volcanic 28 00:02:45,565 --> 00:02:51,838 CO2 might be affecting the coral reef communities and use it as an analog to what s going 29 00:02:51,938 --> 00:02:59,913 on in the bigger ocean. The chemistry of seawater is changing throughout 30 00:03:00,013 --> 00:03:06,486 the world s oceans. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, human activities have 31 00:03:06,586 --> 00:03:13,159 increased the amount of CO2 that is released into the atmosphere. The oceans naturally 32 00:03:13,259 --> 00:03:21,734 absorb a percentage of atmospheric carbon dioxide every year. As the levels of CO2 increase 33 00:03:21,834 --> 00:03:28,274 in the atmosphere, more of it is taken up by the oceans as well. 34 00:03:28,374 --> 00:03:34,113 And this causes essentially a lower pH and a more acidic condition, so this creates a 35 00:03:34,214 --> 00:03:39,652 situation where it s harder for corals, or any other organism that forms a calcium 36 00:03:39,752 --> 00:03:47,393 carbonate or hard skeleton to actually lay down those skeletons and to calcify. 37 00:03:47,493 --> 00:03:54,167 This is known as ocean acidification. One of several effects elevated levels of CO2 38 00:03:54,267 --> 00:04:05,178 is having on the world s oceans, it is predicted to severely impact coral reefs in the future. 39 00:04:05,278 --> 00:04:10,883 We could use this local volcanic activity to study that process in an experiment that s 40 00:04:10,984 --> 00:04:16,456 sort of set up by nature for us where the volcano is putting CO2 into the water and 41 00:04:16,556 --> 00:04:22,028 affecting the chemistry and if conditions were right we could possibly use that to study 42 00:04:22,128 --> 00:04:37,510 how ocean acidification may be affecting coral growth and what the future of coral reefs 43 00:04:37,610 --> 00:04:51,524 might look like. Major funding for this program was provided 44 00:04:51,624 --> 00:04:57,563 by the Batchelor Foundation, encouraging people to preserve and protect America s underwater 45 00:04:57,664 --> 00:05:06,639 resources. And by Divers Direct/Emocean Sports inspiring the pursuit of adventure and water 46 00:05:06,739 --> 00:05:16,182 sports. And by the following In Memory of Harriet Fagan, the Do Unto Others Trust, and 47 00:05:16,282 --> 00:05:37,403 the Friends of Changing Seas. Maug is part of the Commonwealth of the 48 00:05:37,503 --> 00:05:43,743 Northern Mariana Islands, a United States territory consistingof fourteen islands in 49 00:05:43,843 --> 00:05:49,949 the northwestern Pacific. I just absolutely love my island home. 50 00:05:50,049 --> 00:05:57,290 Geographically we are approximately 1,500 miles east of the Philippines and Tokyo and 51 00:05:57,390 --> 00:06:04,230 little over 3,000 miles from the islands of Hawaii, and 6,000 miles plus from the Pacific 52 00:06:04,330 --> 00:06:10,069 coast of the United States. So, we re pretty far out here in the northwestern pocket of 53 00:06:10,169 --> 00:06:14,240 the Pacific. It s right near the Mariana Trench, deepest 54 00:06:14,340 --> 00:06:20,012 part of the ocean in the world, and it s a very volcanically active area. 55 00:06:20,113 --> 00:06:25,218 Maug itself hasn t erupted for a while, it formed a caldera some thousands of years 56 00:06:25,318 --> 00:06:26,886 ago, and built a volcanic, a small volcanic dome in the center of that caldera, but it 57 00:06:26,986 --> 00:06:28,654 hasn t erupted in historic times. It s not dead, there s still heat coming out 58 00:06:28,755 --> 00:06:32,525 and magmatic gases coming out, but it s not one of the most active volcanoes around. 59 00:06:32,625 --> 00:06:46,739 But potentially it could increase in activity again. 60 00:06:46,839 --> 00:06:52,712 In the spring of 2014 a group of twenty marine scientists from across the United States and 61 00:06:52,812 --> 00:06:59,318 its Pacific Island territories headed to Maug for a ten day research expedition organized 62 00:06:59,419 --> 00:07:06,826 by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. 63 00:07:06,926 --> 00:07:11,531 First of all we wanted to look at the actual chemistry of the water there. 64 00:07:11,631 --> 00:07:16,302 So we took bottle samples and looked at the chemistry over a different space and we mapped 65 00:07:16,402 --> 00:07:21,407 that out and kind of created a map of this gradient of CO2. 66 00:07:21,507 --> 00:07:27,513 And the beauty of this system is that it s well contained in a relatively calm environment 67 00:07:27,613 --> 00:07:35,822 and in depths that scuba divers can investigate. The first order question was do these vents 68 00:07:35,922 --> 00:07:41,260 change the ocean pH in this area enough to affect the corals. And the answer is definitely 69 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:46,799 yes. And then secondly, can you take advantage of a gradient in pH conditions to change from 70 00:07:46,899 --> 00:07:53,306 normal background pH to lower and lower pH as you get closer to the vents, to look at 71 00:07:53,406 --> 00:08:01,314 the corals that are living in those different pH environments and see how they are growing. 72 00:08:01,414 --> 00:08:07,420 Maug is one of a handful of spots that offer scientists a natural laboratory to investigate 73 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:13,493 what ocean acidification could look like by the end of our century. 74 00:08:13,593 --> 00:08:18,831 Based on these localized differences in pH levels, the team of scientists researching 75 00:08:18,931 --> 00:08:26,506 ocean acidification selected three distinct study sites. One is close to a vent site, 76 00:08:26,606 --> 00:08:33,446 where waters are very acidic and the bottom is dominated by algae. 77 00:08:33,546 --> 00:08:41,487 The CO2 conditions there are analogous to what we can expect by the end of the century. 78 00:08:41,587 --> 00:08:47,693 About 50 meters away, the scientists selected their 2nd study location. At this intermediate 79 00:08:47,793 --> 00:08:53,065 site the CO2 levels are lower than at the vent site, but higher than in most current 80 00:08:53,165 --> 00:08:56,969 day ocean waters. There are some species that are more stress 81 00:08:57,069 --> 00:09:02,508 tolerant and so in the intermediate site we kind of found this community where some species 82 00:09:02,608 --> 00:09:07,880 were present, some were not. Coral cover was not as high and it was kind of just holding 83 00:09:07,980 --> 00:09:13,352 on. The third site represented a coral reef with 84 00:09:13,452 --> 00:09:19,392 pH levels that are equivalent to what can be found near most reefs today. It s located 85 00:09:19,492 --> 00:09:26,532 a kilometer away from the vent site. I want to say something like 60% coral. These 86 00:09:26,632 --> 00:09:32,371 beautiful massive coral colonies that were many meters apart, huge, hundreds of years 87 00:09:32,471 --> 00:09:38,311 old, all sorts of branching corals, fishes, we saw some sharks, all sorts of amazing species. 88 00:09:38,411 --> 00:09:47,320 So it s very stark difference. To better understand the impact of high CO2 89 00:09:47,420 --> 00:09:52,725 levels on corals, researchers collected core samples from the same species of coral at 90 00:09:52,825 --> 00:09:57,396 each study site. We took small cores, from these large colonies 91 00:09:57,496 --> 00:10:01,567 and we immediately sealed them up underwater so that nothing, you know, gets into those 92 00:10:01,667 --> 00:10:05,504 holes. This process does not permanently harm the 93 00:10:05,605 --> 00:10:12,712 corals. Once back in the lab in Miami, Florida, these 94 00:10:12,812 --> 00:10:19,685 cores are analyzed using a cat scanner. So what a cat scanner does, and this is exactly 95 00:10:19,785 --> 00:10:24,123 the same as you would get in a doctor s office, is it takes a whole bunch of x-ray 96 00:10:24,223 --> 00:10:28,894 images and lines them up in a way that you create a three dimensional structure. And 97 00:10:28,995 --> 00:10:36,702 so this view that we see here is both the top down of this coral core as well as the 98 00:10:36,802 --> 00:10:42,174 sides, and then a 3D model here. You can see that we can manipulate it all around like 99 00:10:42,274 --> 00:10:47,680 this. Um, and so, if you for instance move right here this actually will allow us to 100 00:10:47,780 --> 00:10:52,752 scroll through and you can see year after year how each of these little coral polyps 101 00:10:52,852 --> 00:10:58,090 grows up and down and if you look carefully you can see these changes in brightness, which 102 00:10:58,190 --> 00:11:02,962 are equivalent to changes in density. And these are the yearly rings, the yearly density 103 00:11:03,062 --> 00:11:09,935 rings, that we actually use to measure coral calcification and coral growth, just like 104 00:11:10,036 --> 00:11:15,074 tree rings on a tree. So you can see all these yearly bands and then we re able to graph 105 00:11:15,174 --> 00:11:22,982 this out and look at these changes in density from year to year then measure yearly calcification. 106 00:11:23,082 --> 00:11:28,287 When we analyzed the cores from Maug we found that distance in between each of these high 107 00:11:28,387 --> 00:11:33,793 density yearly bands was less in the high CO2 conditions and this means that nearer 108 00:11:33,893 --> 00:11:38,030 to the vents the corals were growing less every year, which is one of the things that 109 00:11:38,130 --> 00:11:44,937 is predicted to occur with ocean acidification. So we re really trying to figure out how 110 00:11:45,037 --> 00:11:52,111 ocean acidification actually slows down calcification. So it s not just that corals are putting 111 00:11:52,211 --> 00:12:07,159 skeleton down slower, it s actually fundamentally changing the skeleton that they put down. 112 00:12:07,259 --> 00:12:12,164 While in the field, the scientists wanted to study how much coral fragments would grow 113 00:12:12,264 --> 00:12:18,070 over a three-month period in varying levels of acidity. 114 00:12:18,170 --> 00:12:24,110 They were collecting branching corals from one spot and putting them on discs and transplanting 115 00:12:24,210 --> 00:12:29,882 them to move into an area where the pH was a little bit lowered in two test sites, one 116 00:12:29,982 --> 00:12:36,388 that was significantly impacted and one that was just moderately impacted. 117 00:12:36,489 --> 00:12:40,760 So with field experiments not everything works, and actually what we found was in the period 118 00:12:40,860 --> 00:12:45,998 from when we first went to when we returned there was incredibly warm summer conditions 119 00:12:46,098 --> 00:12:53,305 and caused a mass bleaching event. Increased water temperatures are another threat 120 00:12:53,405 --> 00:12:59,945 global climate change poses to coral reefs. When water temperatures rise above normal, 121 00:13:00,045 --> 00:13:06,852 corals lose their symbiotic algae, making the corals look white or bleached. Corals 122 00:13:06,952 --> 00:13:12,391 depend on these algae for nourishment, and if temperatures are elevated for too long, 123 00:13:12,491 --> 00:13:17,163 the corals will die. And this actually affected a lot of our experiment 124 00:13:17,263 --> 00:13:24,203 as well. Corals are dying and it s a bad situation so, the experiment was messed up. 125 00:13:24,303 --> 00:13:29,608 But while this experiment didn t pan out as planned, the researchers did get some great 126 00:13:29,708 --> 00:13:37,550 data from another. It was kind of a side experiment, like, Oh! 127 00:13:37,650 --> 00:13:41,921 Let s put these down and see what happens. And what saw was pretty amazing. 128 00:13:42,021 --> 00:13:47,359 So this may not look at all like the same material that a coral skeleton is made up 129 00:13:47,459 --> 00:13:52,431 of, but this is actually just very pure calcium carbonate, just like a coral skeleton. And 130 00:13:52,531 --> 00:13:59,471 we put these out at the high CO2, mid CO2 and control sites for about 3 months. On the 131 00:13:59,572 --> 00:14:06,312 screen here, this is actually a sample from the high CO2 site, and you see that all of 132 00:14:06,412 --> 00:14:12,451 these little tiny, holes and tunnels that are bored into the actual calcium carbonate 133 00:14:12,551 --> 00:14:19,191 and these are called micro-boring algae -these are microscopic and are actually inside the 134 00:14:19,291 --> 00:14:24,129 coral skeleton. In the intermediate site, you can see there s 135 00:14:24,230 --> 00:14:28,934 less and in the control site there s even less. So, we found that there were really 136 00:14:29,034 --> 00:14:33,939 stark differences in the samples. You can kind of think of it like a forest 137 00:14:34,039 --> 00:14:39,678 where trees are essentially analogous to corals in that they re forming this kind of complex 138 00:14:39,778 --> 00:14:44,817 structure and in a forest fungi essentially break down these trees and kind of cause it 139 00:14:44,917 --> 00:14:50,823 to rot and decompose and break away. On coral reefs there are similar organisms. 140 00:14:50,923 --> 00:14:55,761 As the oceans get more acidic, it s easier for these organisms to break down the coral 141 00:14:55,861 --> 00:15:02,401 skeletons. And this is kind of a double whammy because you have a situation where you have 142 00:15:02,501 --> 00:15:08,274 faster erosion and slower coral growth, and so you have kind of a situation where these 143 00:15:08,374 --> 00:15:13,679 reef frameworks are not able to expand and are also getting eaten away, and it s essentially 144 00:15:13,779 --> 00:15:24,857 a very bad situation for these amazing ecosystems and habitats. 145 00:15:24,957 --> 00:15:30,396 Another team of NOAA scientists analyzed the hot water and gases emitted by the hydrothermal 146 00:15:30,496 --> 00:15:47,646 vents. Dr. David Butterfield has spent his career studying how deep sea volcanoes work 147 00:15:47,746 --> 00:15:52,017 More than 70% of the volcanic activity on the planet takes place underneath the sea 148 00:15:52,117 --> 00:15:59,191 surface and that has an effect on ocean circulation, ocean chemistry, and so we need to study these 149 00:15:59,291 --> 00:16:05,064 things just to know how the earth works. We measured the composition of the gas bubbles 150 00:16:05,164 --> 00:16:10,669 that are coming out in the system, we found they were about 60% CO2, which is much higher 151 00:16:10,769 --> 00:16:16,742 than what you find in air, less than 1%, and the balance of the gas was mostly nitrogen 152 00:16:16,842 --> 00:16:20,379 and some trace gases that come out of the magma chamber. 153 00:16:20,479 --> 00:16:24,650 And then there s the warm water that s coming out of the ground it comes out and 154 00:16:24,750 --> 00:16:31,523 sort of mixes up into the seawater above it this warm water carries that low pH signal 155 00:16:31,623 --> 00:16:35,828 with it. The gas bubbles are rising up through the water and basically coming right out the 156 00:16:35,928 --> 00:16:41,300 surface but the lower pH water that s coming up through the seafloor, that s where that 157 00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:47,773 acidified signal is coming from. The warm waters coming up from the vents also 158 00:16:47,873 --> 00:16:52,845 contain trace elements that dissolved out of the volcanic rock. 159 00:16:52,945 --> 00:16:58,917 They re loaded with iron and they also have other metals that potentially might be toxic. 160 00:16:59,018 --> 00:17:03,489 We found that there was very high arsenic in the warm fluids that were coming out of 161 00:17:03,589 --> 00:17:09,895 the sea floor there, and that s actually a relatively common thing for shallow hydrothermal 162 00:17:09,995 --> 00:17:15,667 systems. So you know we have questioned is the arsenic affecting the growth of the corals 163 00:17:15,768 --> 00:17:20,172 and there s very little experimentation that s been done that can answer that question 164 00:17:20,272 --> 00:17:24,543 so far. The iron makes the water cloudy because it 165 00:17:24,643 --> 00:17:30,849 is forming these particles that absorb light, so the corals there get less light. 166 00:17:30,949 --> 00:17:38,190 You have to isolate what is actually affecting those corals. Is it just the pH? Is it the 167 00:17:38,290 --> 00:17:43,896 metals that are coming out? Increase in temperature, maybe. And so you have to look carefully at 168 00:17:43,996 --> 00:17:48,233 all those things to know what effect you re actually measuring. 169 00:17:48,333 --> 00:17:55,774 It s very difficult to completely eliminate the possibility of other factors. Um, we specifically 170 00:17:55,874 --> 00:18:03,282 designed our study areas to not be in the area of very, very high, rapid activity so 171 00:18:03,382 --> 00:18:07,686 that they were removed and they were more natural. We looked at gas composition and 172 00:18:07,786 --> 00:18:13,358 a whole bunch of different things to try to eliminate those factors. 173 00:18:13,459 --> 00:18:19,231 Maug is part of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, signed into law by President 174 00:18:19,331 --> 00:18:27,706 Bush in 2009. The monument protects roughly 95-thousand square miles of land and sea, 175 00:18:27,806 --> 00:18:34,146 including the famous Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the oceans. 176 00:18:34,246 --> 00:18:40,252 These protections, as well as Maug s remoteness, mean its coral reefs are less impacted by 177 00:18:40,352 --> 00:18:46,158 the stressors other reefs encounter in more populated areas. 178 00:18:46,258 --> 00:18:52,531 The other impacts such as fishing, such as nutrient runoff, things that are influencing 179 00:18:52,631 --> 00:18:57,269 reef systems all over the world were not as big of a deal there, yet we still saw this 180 00:18:57,369 --> 00:19:02,841 shift, this complete ecosystem loss due to CO2. 181 00:19:02,941 --> 00:19:07,980 Ecosystems are so complex. We have a hard time understanding how everything kind of 182 00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:13,652 works its way out and how it will manifest in the end. What we have found is that the 183 00:19:13,752 --> 00:19:22,194 accumulation of all of these multiple stressors absolutely can cause more rapid, more catastrophic 184 00:19:22,294 --> 00:19:35,374 degradation then when simply one stressor is present. 185 00:19:35,474 --> 00:19:41,046 Another tool that helps scientists understand and quantify Maug s ecosystems are detailed 186 00:19:41,146 --> 00:19:47,719 maps of the study sites - created by combining high resolution images into large scale photo 187 00:19:47,819 --> 00:19:52,624 mosaics. What this entails is establishing a 100 square 188 00:19:52,724 --> 00:19:57,930 meter plot and then taking about 3,000 images within that plot that are then stitched into 189 00:19:58,030 --> 00:20:04,169 one large landscape image which allows us to look at the spatial patterning and the 190 00:20:04,269 --> 00:20:09,141 spatial arrangement of all of the organisms that are in that image. 191 00:20:09,241 --> 00:20:15,981 To create these photo mosaics, the divers stake out a 10 meter by 10 meter area. 192 00:20:16,081 --> 00:20:22,054 We set a series of corner markers and floats that allow us to see the plot and then we 193 00:20:22,154 --> 00:20:26,291 have a frame that holds two high resolution cameras one set to 18 millimeters the other 194 00:20:26,391 --> 00:20:31,563 set to 55 millimeters. And we swim repeated passes across this plot. The camera s set 195 00:20:31,663 --> 00:20:35,667 to interval timer so both cameras taking a picture every second, and the idea is for 196 00:20:35,767 --> 00:20:41,907 the swimmer to swim every square centimeter of that plot. You do it in a reverse lawnmower 197 00:20:42,007 --> 00:20:46,178 pattern so you go up and down and then side to side trying to do about 20 passes per plot, 198 00:20:46,278 --> 00:20:51,850 a minimum of 10 passes per plot so that there s a high degree of overlap between images, both 199 00:20:51,950 --> 00:20:55,954 in the passes, and you re swimming pretty slow it s just a little flutter kick 200 00:20:56,054 --> 00:21:02,461 so that each image has about 90 percent overlap. While one diver is taking pictures, a second 201 00:21:02,561 --> 00:21:09,468 diver is taking very exact measurements. This will ensure that all the images are to scale 202 00:21:09,568 --> 00:21:14,806 as they are stitched together into one very high resolution image. 203 00:21:14,906 --> 00:21:18,477 If you zoom all the way out it s the view that a scuba diver or a snorkeler would have 204 00:21:18,577 --> 00:21:23,482 when they splashed off the boat on the surface looking straight down. But as you zoom in, 205 00:21:23,582 --> 00:21:27,986 it would be the same resolution as you would see with your own eye going all the way down 206 00:21:28,086 --> 00:21:32,758 to the polyp structure of the individual corals. And what we re able to do is create a map 207 00:21:32,858 --> 00:21:36,561 that has the distribution of all those organisms on there and then we go through and classify 208 00:21:36,662 --> 00:21:40,932 them down to the species level if we can. And what we re able to do from that is then 209 00:21:41,033 --> 00:21:45,871 extract all that data so that each species will come off as an individual layer and it 210 00:21:45,971 --> 00:21:50,609 allows us to create a whole lot of metrics such as size distributions. We can do nearest 211 00:21:50,709 --> 00:21:55,781 neighbor analyses. We can do a lot of techniques that have typically been confined to the terrestrial 212 00:21:55,881 --> 00:22:05,457 realm because they ve been able to have these large satellite-derived images. 213 00:22:05,557 --> 00:22:11,797 Over the course of the ten-day research expedition, scientists worked hard to better understand 214 00:22:11,897 --> 00:22:18,070 this shallow hydrothermal vent system and gain insight into the impacts climate change 215 00:22:18,170 --> 00:22:26,178 will have on coral reefs in the future. This is such a unique experience to have all 216 00:22:26,278 --> 00:22:31,717 these different collaborators come together on board the ship. The team that we assembled 217 00:22:31,817 --> 00:22:37,089 for this expedition was a diverse group from many different institutions. 218 00:22:37,189 --> 00:22:45,630 We had chemists, geochemists, volcanologists. We had coral experts, biologists, coral ecologists, 219 00:22:45,731 --> 00:22:51,436 people who study algae, photographers who could make maps of the sea floor and just 220 00:22:51,536 --> 00:22:56,541 a really diverse group of people to put it all together. 221 00:22:56,641 --> 00:23:03,048 We had local partners doing diving to actually analyze the species composition. I don t 222 00:23:03,148 --> 00:23:07,786 know the species of algae and the species of coral in that area and these guys are experts 223 00:23:07,886 --> 00:23:14,659 and were able to identify everything to a very fine taxonomic level. It was amazing 224 00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:18,463 an amazing field team and really pulling this all together was really, really important 225 00:23:18,563 --> 00:23:41,987 for actually describing it and telling the story that is Maug. 226 00:23:42,087 --> 00:23:46,892 A lot of the local people should communicate their knowledge about the archipelago. This 227 00:23:46,992 --> 00:23:54,800 is my first trip up here so as a Chamorro, it s like I ve fulfilled a dream kind 228 00:23:54,900 --> 00:24:00,539 of thing. I made it up the whole chain. I ve been able to see all the islands. So it s 229 00:24:00,639 --> 00:24:07,045 something important for me. I think we re in a period where we really 230 00:24:07,145 --> 00:24:14,486 have to do something now about the global increase in CO2. It may be too late to prevent 231 00:24:14,586 --> 00:24:21,526 major effects, but even so we need to figure out a way to slow it down or possibly remove 232 00:24:21,626 --> 00:24:30,969 CO2 from the atmosphere somehow. We re giving up a lot of our resources just 233 00:24:31,069 --> 00:24:36,608 for the money when it s not all about that. What about, what about your kids, what about 234 00:24:36,708 --> 00:24:41,880 your kid s kids. You know I want my son to experience what I experienced. I want his 235 00:24:41,980 --> 00:24:48,887 son to experience that too. It s about what you, what you leave behind for your next generation. 236 00:24:48,987 --> 00:24:55,927 So they always teach us to respect our elders and make your ancestors proud. 237 00:24:56,027 --> 00:25:01,933 Our ancestors -they had such a connection with environment. Something got lost along 238 00:25:02,033 --> 00:25:09,441 the way and thank goodness that we have a number of individuals that have such foresight. 239 00:25:09,541 --> 00:25:15,981 I think that s the ancestor speaking through us that this is important now. Now is the 240 00:25:16,081 --> 00:25:56,187 time to act to protect what you have left. Major funding for this program was provided 241 00:25:56,288 --> 00:26:02,193 by the Batchelor Foundation, encouraging people to preserve and protect America s underwater 242 00:26:02,294 --> 00:26:12,370 resources. And by Divers Direct/Emocean Sports inspiring the pursuit of adventure and water 243 00:26:12,470 --> 00:26:20,879 sports. And by the following In Memory of Harriet Fagan, the Do Unto Others Trust, and 244 00:26:20,979 --> 00:26:24,979 the Friends of Changing Seas.