How Otters Are Saving Earth’s Underwater Forests — Transcript

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1. 0:00(birds squawking)
2. 0:02(light music) (water moving)
3. 0:06- This is one of the most
4. 0:06important forest ecosystems on earth.
5. 0:10Okay, not a forest like you were expecting, right?
6. 0:13But trust me, this forest ecosystem
7. 0:15is every bit as beautiful and epic as a forest on land,
8. 0:19only instead of being made of trees,
9. 0:21this one is made of giant towering strands of kelp.
10. 0:25(light music continues)
11. 0:26But this epic forest is in danger of disappearing.
12. 0:30Luckily, an unlikely team of marine mammal researchers,
13. 0:33underwater ecologists
14. 0:35and algae farmers is fighting
15. 0:37to bring this forest back from the brink.
16. 0:41Like every forest,
17. 0:42this one has predators to help keep it in balance,
18. 0:46and one of those predators is really stinking cute.
19. 0:53I mean, have you ever seen anything
20. 0:55that adorable in your life?
21. 0:57(light music continues)
22. 1:03Kelp forests are the foundation of this marine ecosystem.
23. 1:06Without them, this environment
24. 1:08would not exist as we know it.
25. 1:11They support over 800 species
26. 1:13and provide crucial habitat and food.
27. 1:16Kelp forests like this one
28. 1:17can be found in cold water regions all over the world.
29. 1:21Now, you might be tempted to call kelp a plant, but don't.
30. 1:24Kelp is a type of macroalgae,
31. 1:27which means it doesn't have roots, stems,
32. 1:29or leaves like plants.
33. 1:32Kelp forests have been a part of these coastlines
34. 1:34for more than 30 million years.
35. 1:38One of the dominant species of kelp here in California
36. 1:40is bull kelp.
37. 1:42It's the trees of this underwater forest,
38. 1:45and these kelp forests thrive in part
39. 1:48because of animals like sea otters.
40. 1:50They're part of a complex love/lunch triangle
41. 1:53between predators like otters,
42. 1:55kelp, and underwater plant eaters like sea urchins.
43. 1:59Here's how it all works.
44. 2:01Urchins eat kelp,
45. 2:02which is fine, so long as someone eats the urchins.
46. 2:05Someone like our cute and hungry friend here
47. 2:08who can eat up to 15 pounds of seafood a day.
48. 2:11An otter's appetite protects the kelp forest
49. 2:14from being overgrazed.
50. 2:16The kelp keeps the urchin happy and fed.
51. 2:18The urchin keep the otter healthy and fed,
52. 2:21and the otter eating the urchin
53. 2:22keeps the kelp from being overgrazed.
54. 2:25Scientists call this type of carefully balanced relationship
55. 2:27between different species a trophic cascade.
56. 2:31(gentle music)
57. 2:34But here's the thing.
58. 2:35This carefully balanced trophic cascade
59. 2:38has fallen apart in Northern California.
60. 2:41Otters are fighting for their lives here.
61. 2:44European settlers decimated the otter population
62. 2:47in the mid 1700s and early 1800s
63. 2:49as part of the fur trade,
64. 2:52but researchers are trying to bring them back
65. 2:55one otter at a time.
66. 2:57(gentle music continues)
67. 3:02(birds squawking)
68. 3:03- [Sandrine] My name is Sandrine Hazan
69. 3:06and I rescue and rehabilitate sea otters.
70. 3:08- You get to take care and rehabilitate and release
71. 3:11the cutest animal on earth into the wild?
72. 3:13- I do that.
73. 3:14Yes, I have that badge.
74. 3:16This is a receiver that's used to pick up a signal
75. 3:20that a released otter would have,
76. 3:22so they are implanted with a transmitter
77. 3:26that has a specific frequency,
78. 3:27and we can pick that up with this receiver.
79. 3:30We recently released Otter 956
80. 3:33just out here in the kelp bed,
81. 3:34and so we have been tracking her on a daily basis.
82. 3:37- Let's cut this joyous otter release footage.
83. 3:40(soft music)
84. 3:50Why do all this work?
85. 3:51Why do all this trouble to to track, you know, one otter?
86. 3:54- Well, it's really part of the bigger picture
87. 3:57of helping to bring these otters back
88. 3:59to their historic habitat.
89. 4:02They are keystone species
90. 4:04and they really do so much for these kelp forests,
91. 4:06keeping them healthy and keeping them balanced.
92. 4:12- [Joe] After the otter population disappeared,
93. 4:14another predator stepped up, sea stars,
94. 4:18particularly the Sunflower Sea star,
95. 4:20with its dinner plate sized body and up to 24 limbs.
96. 4:24They began to dine on urchins
97. 4:27becoming formidable urchin hunters themselves,
98. 4:30but then a series of events
99. 4:31turned hundreds of miles of California coastline,
100. 4:34a spiky purple.
101. 4:36Suddenly a mysterious marine disease
102. 4:38nearly wiped out sea star populations,
103. 4:41and then a roving ball of warm ocean water
104. 4:44known as the blob
105. 4:46rolled through the region
106. 4:47causing sea temperatures to rise
107. 4:49by two to three degrees Celsius.
108. 4:51The trophic cascade fell out of balance.
109. 4:54The sea stars disappeared,
110. 4:56the urchins went wild,
111. 4:57and 96% of the kelp canopy
112. 5:00along Northern California's coastline
113. 5:02has disappeared in the past decade.
114. 5:05A region spanning 350 kilometers of the coast.
115. 5:10(soft music) (waves lapping)
116. 5:15(bird squawking)
117. 5:19- I think we're ready to go.
118. 5:22Got my camera.
119. 5:23Yeah, let's do it.
120. 5:24(soft music continues)
121. 5:25- [Joe] One of the last remaining strongholds of bull kelp
122. 5:28is here in Mendocino County in Northern California.
123. 5:32- We're kind of left in a situation
124. 5:34where there is no natural predator in the sea right now.
125. 5:37And so what I work on specifically is
126. 5:39trying to find ways where human can temporarily mitigate
127. 5:42and help fill that role
128. 5:43until we're able to have some level of apex predator
129. 5:46back in the system.
130. 5:48(soft music continues)
131. 5:49This is our coral reef.
132. 5:50This is our great barrier reef for Californians.
133. 5:53It's kelp forests.
134. 5:54Kelp and the ecosystems they create
135. 5:57are why we have any fish in the ocean.
136. 6:01They create food, habitat and shelter
137. 6:04for hundreds, if not thousands of organisms,
138. 6:06including human.
139. 6:08- [Joe To understand the extent of the loss,
140. 6:10scientists like Tristan have turned to aerial imagery
141. 6:13and high resolution mapping,
142. 6:15looking at kelp from both below the water and from above.
143. 6:19- So what you're looking at right there
144. 6:21is the dark green patches,
145. 6:23and this was just this past fall,
146. 6:25and that's where, that's the only area where we saw kelp.
147. 6:29And so what we're focused on now
148. 6:31is looking at where kelp has been persistent
149. 6:34and it's survived, so then we can really focus
150. 6:36our kelp recovery efforts in a way that's meaningful,
151. 6:39impactful, and then also leveraging persistent kelp refugia.
152. 6:44- [Joe] One of those recovery efforts
153. 6:45involved roping in aquaculture researcher, Andrew Kim
154. 6:49and his team to plant lab grown kelp
155. 6:51in the waters of Northern California.
156. 6:54- [Andrew Kim] We've developed these methods
157. 6:55for being able to grow kelps year round.
158. 6:58Being able to put kelps out
159. 7:00that are already ahead
160. 7:02of the curve
161. 7:03and giving them really just a headstart
162. 7:06in the environment,
163. 7:07I think is a big breakthrough
164. 7:09because for an annual species, like the bull kelp,
165. 7:12it extends the potential window
166. 7:15for them to be reproductive
167. 7:16and to put spores into the environment.
168. 7:19- [Joe] Bull kelp like this
169. 7:20regenerates every year
170. 7:22growing from a microscopic spore
171. 7:24to a huge structure dozens of meters tall.
172. 7:26(soft music)
173. 7:28This kelp can grow up to 60 centimeters per day,
174. 7:32making it one of the fastest growing organisms in the ocean.
175. 7:36After three years of trial and error,
176. 7:38Andrew and his team are seeing success
177. 7:40with new ways of planting their lab grown kelp
178. 7:43designed to protect young kelp
179. 7:45from predators and harsh conditions.
180. 7:47- Kind of like you would plant a raised garden bed
181. 7:49if you had animals like running through your garden,
182. 7:52you could put your seaweed in, in a raised bed
183. 7:55and keep it out of the hungry reaches of the urchins.
184. 7:58About a month ago, we put
185. 8:00out kelps that were about six to 10 inches,
186. 8:03and we came back and we surveyed these modules,
187. 8:07and in the last month,
188. 8:08they've grown several feet
189. 8:10and they're already attracting lots of fish.
190. 8:13Every time we put kelp out,
191. 8:15we're putting a piece of hope out.
192. 8:18You know the hope that it'll create home
193. 8:20for some little fish.
194. 8:21It's a big ocean.
195. 8:23We just need to keep working and chipping away.
196. 8:27We're all in this together and we need to keep trying.
197. 8:30(soft music continues)
198. 8:31- Back in the rich marine waters of Monterey,
199. 8:33Sandrine is working hard to support otters
200. 8:36as the cute, hungry predators fight
201. 8:39to retake their place as the keystone species
202. 8:42of this ecosystem.
203. 8:44Do we have ears on 956 right now?
204. 8:46- We do, yep.
205. 8:47This is her signal and she is somewhere nearby
206. 8:50and based on this signal, she is resting.
207. 8:52- Do you think in your lifetime
208. 8:54that otters in the kelp forest
209. 8:57will be restored north of here?
210. 9:00- I hope so.
211. 9:00The sea otters are trying really hard
212. 9:02to expand their range,
213. 9:03and we are doing everything we can
214. 9:05to support conservation efforts
215. 9:07to help them restore back to their range.
216. 9:09- It sounds like you take it day by day,
217. 9:11otter by otter around here.
218. 9:13- Yes, very, very much so.
219. 9:14- 956, wherever you are,
220. 9:17I hope that you're getting lots of good urchin snacks.
221. 9:19(gentle music)
222. 9:22The kelp forest reminds us of the wonder
223. 9:25that's out there in nature,
224. 9:26sometimes literally right beneath the surface.
225. 9:30It's also precious and so fragile.
226. 9:33We just have to take it one breath at a time.
227. 9:36(gentle music continues)