I had the extreme good fortune of being able to join a trip to the Revillagigedo Islands (Socorro, Roca Partida, San Benedicto, and Clarion Island). This trip was hosted by Ocean Blue Tree, for which my superstar wife Mon Amores is the Director of, and Pelagios Kakunjá, as a way of bringing some of the most influential shark and ray experts together for a two-week trip where they could not only do their science, but also collaborate with each other in an attempt research these threatened animals further and maintain and expand the levels of conservation in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean."Collaboration is key" when it comes to protecting threatened species, and the combined forces of these incredible scientists is the only way forward when it comes to enacting and enforcing protective measures for these enigmatic species. One of the big topics of conversation on the summit was about how can this ensemble of scientists protect species once they leave the protective boundaries of places like the Revillagigedo Islands. Sharks and rays in the Eastern Tropical Pacific are known to move between groups of islands like the Revillagigedo Islands, Cocos Island, Galapagos, among others, and this is where they are most vulnerable to fishing-both legal and illegal. As these scientists came from Ecuador (Galapagos), Costa Rica (Cocos Island), Colombia (Malpello), and Mexico (Revillagigedo Islands), all places where sharks and rays move to and from, all the data they gather from this trip will hopefully help to enact further legislation to create protective corridors for these species to safely move through. I could not be more proud of my wife for organizing such an incredible and important meeting of minds to help save the ocean!
It's not a turtle problem, it's not a shark problem, it's an overfishing problem
that has overarching ecosystem impacts.
We are arriving now to Cabo San Lucas where we are going to meet all the scientists
from different parts of the tropical eastern Pacific.
We are departing tomorrow and it's going to be a very exciting two-week expedition
to understand more about these beautiful and majestic animals.
The eastern tropical Pacific is one of the most incredible and productive
oceanic regions on the planet.
Spread across the region there are remote islands and seamounts
like the Galapagos Islands, Cocos Island, Malpelo, Coiva
and our destination, Revillagigedo Archipelago, off of Mexico.
These areas are biodiversity hotspots, teeming with marine life
that play a crucial role in maintaining the overall health of our oceans.
Schools of fish gather in massive numbers attracting predators
like whale sharks, hammerheads and tiger sharks.
Giant manta rays visit the reefs to socialize and get cleaned.
Humbug whales bring their babies here to nurse
and even orcas patrol these waters.
This vibrant ecosystem demonstrates the remarkable connectivity
of marine life across the eastern tropical Pacific.
Unfortunately, many of the species that thrive around these islands
are either threatened or endangered as a result of illegal
or mismanaged fishing practices.
Places like Galapagos, Cocos, Coiva, Malpelo and the Revillagigedo
are all marine protected areas.
These areas act as migratory stepping stones,
providing critical habitats for many species.
However, as these species leave the safety of the MPAs,
they face significant threats and their populations are struggling.
That's why we are here.
This Ocean Blue Tree Summit has brought together top scientists
from all around the world to collaborate in this important mission.
Our goal is to gather as much data as possible
in order to prove how interconnected these islands and seamounts are
so that we can push for the expansion of the marine protected areas
in the eastern tropical Pacific and establish more protective corridors
so these animals can safely travel between habitats.
So it is actually about 4.30 in the morning.
We've got to Socorro Island.
So we're going to do our first day of shark tagging.
There's already some silky sharks around the boat, so that's a good sign.
Our main species that we're trying to target are going to be tiger sharks,
silver tip sharks and then Galapagos sharks.
So hopefully we'll be able to get all our tags out.
Today I have the opportunity to tag one hammerhead, one tiger and one manta
and also get a couple of Galapagos shark tissue samples.
This information is very important to understand the movements of these animals
in these islands and also in the beach environment.
Okay, so before we deploy we need to make sure that the radio is pinging.
So when we record the name of the sequence it means that it's starting
and then it pings at one second and then it's working.
So we can assemble that into the tag.
This tag is super important because we designed it in a way
that we would be able to collect a huge volume of information,
different variables including how the animal behaves,
including the characteristics of its environment
and also be able to observe with video what is the environment and what is the animal doing.
And all this in a design that makes it minimally invasive.
So we have to deploy it using this harness.
We don't use any kind of anchor and then when it releases
the whole system is read and close to the surface
so there's nothing left on the animal and there's no debris,
there's no trash left on the ocean.
Fifty meters.
And the tag is in that direction.
In the Oceanic Monitor it's the first time we've deployed this kind of camera in a sonometer.
So let's see what we have, the data, the behavioral data and the footage.
Now you deserve it.
One interesting observation that we had with this first deployment
was a breaching of a giant manta.
It reached an incredible speed of 7.3 meters per second.
Fifteen knots.
Amazing.
It's a very powerful animal.
This is a system called ROPS or Bated Rebound Water Video
that we use for assessing biodiversity and also the biomass in an area.
The idea is that we have two cameras that are placed at a distance of one meter from each other
and these cameras are configured in a way that they can allow us in a computer
to reproduce a 3D environment of whatever they are filming in front of them.
So if a shark passes by we can measure the shark
and by doing so we can also estimate the weight of the shark.
And we have all the estimation for all the fish that are passing by in front of the camera.
You can have a really good idea of how much is the biomass of every particular site in the area.
And now we are copying the data to the hard drive
so that we can look at the information later on.
During the night we're going to run a machine learning algorithm
that's going to process all this data for us
so that tomorrow morning we're already going to have an idea of what we found in this place.
We're on the cutting edge here. We're producing science.
Good science. And the good science is what's needed to get the policy change done.
And that's where the real trick is at.
Politicians don't usually listen to the science.
There are all sorts of other pressures.
Friends, economy or whatever.
But we as scientists need to push this science
and we need the politicians to listen to it
and we need policy based on this science.
Because otherwise if we're just going to be publishing our papers and producing science
that nobody else is going to read but other scientists
we're not getting our job done which is to save these endangered species.
