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Hello and welcome to the Natural World Facts Awareness Project, a new series in which I'll
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be explaining the importance of wildlife conservation and what you can do to help.
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In this video, I'm joined by Alex Collins, a fellow YouTube wildlife enthusiast and biologist
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at the University of Bristol. His channel is linked below. I recommend you check it out
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for videos on some of the world's rarest species and what you can do to help them.
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So, what is marine conservation? Marine conservation is defined as the protection
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of marine ecosystems, with the focus of limiting the damage caused to them by humans
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and protecting threatened species. The main threats being seen in our oceans include species
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loss, habitat degradation and changes in ecosystem function. Human activities causing a rise in
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extinction rates has led to a huge decrease in biodiversity, particularly in coral reefs,
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88% of which are threatened by excessive CO2 emissions. These reefs are among the most
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important stores of biodiversity on the planet. It takes around 10,000 years for a reef to form
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from coral polyps and up to 30 million years for a reef to fully mature, hosting an estimated 25%
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of all marine life.
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And yet, around the world, coral reefs are dying as warming temperatures and stressful conditions
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bleach the corals white as they are forced to expel the colourful algae
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on which the corals depend for their survival.
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So, why does this matter? Why is marine conservation so important? With the world's
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oceans currently under more threat than ever before, and with half the world's coral reefs
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having died in the last 30 years, marine conservation has never been more important
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than it is today. I have already made some videos explaining why conservation is so important to you
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and why we should save endangered species, so make sure to check out those videos after watching this.
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Put simply, different species rely on each other for survival. If one species is under threat,
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the likelihood is that so is another species. This can have a chain reaction until eventually
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a whole ecosystem is under threat. We need healthy ecosystems just as much as the marine
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life itself, because without them we'd have less food, less money and altogether less life on our
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planet. The bottom line is, Earth needs healthy oceans and it's our responsibility to protect them.
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So, how can we do this? One of the most effective methods has been the setting up of marine
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protected areas. This creates a much safer environment for marine life, undisturbed by
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the impacts of overfishing, noise pollution from ships and other human activities.
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Thankfully, biodiversity has been found to increase by 21% within marine reserves like these.
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We can also use artificial reefs. These are man-made structures built to promote marine life
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and the growth of new coral. Artificial reefs have proven successful in providing a habitat
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for threatened wildlife. This allows damaged ecosystems to recover and valuable biodiversity
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to regenerate. As well as these strategies, we also need to be careful in the way that we interact
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with our marine environment. Active demersal fishing techniques like trawling, where a net
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is dragged along the bottom of the sea floor, can be really destructive as this destroys ecologically
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important species like certain corals. Active pelagic fishing techniques, where a net is dragged
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through the open ocean, can also be just as bad. This is because they're indiscriminate, meaning
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they'll catch anything in the way of the net, regardless of whether the fishermen want it or not.
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This often leads to protected animals like dolphins and turtles being injured or killed.
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For every 1kg of prawns that are caught and sold in stores, 9kg of other sea animals are
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caught as bycatch, being injured or killed and then thrown away. Marine conservation efforts
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have been made to reduce the destruction caused by these fishing techniques, either by reducing
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the amount of times that these techniques are allowed to be used, or making the techniques
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themselves less destructive. One example of this is the use of specific fishing hooks, which are
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less likely to catch unwanted species. Solving these problems does take a lot of hard work,
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but that doesn't mean that there's nothing that you can do if you don't work as a conservationist.
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So here are some of the things that you can do to help marine conservation. Firstly, use your
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water supply more economically. This will not only save you money, but it will also reduce
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excess runoff containing pollutants and waste into the ocean. Secondly, use less energy in your daily
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life. Higher temperatures can cause the death of corals, rising sea levels and flooding, and more
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extreme weather, which can damage marine ecosystems. Many marine species also rely on specific
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temperatures to determine what sex they develop into. This is called temperature-dependent sex
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determination, and so by changing the temperature we can throw an entire population out of balance.
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You can also fish more responsibly, or just fish less, or not at all if that's an option to you.
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The same goes for eating seafood. Reducing your use of plastics is also essential. Ingestion of
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microplastics, bits of plastic which are less than 5mm across, can lead to bioaccumulation.
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This is where harmful substances build up in the food chain and can eventually cause serious damage
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to the species at the top. There are just a few things that you should consider when trying to
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cause less impact in marine life. There are of course plenty of other things that you can do to
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help. So if you'd like to know more, then let us know down in the comments so that we can make
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another video for you.
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