Mission Blue Voyage
Stephen Palumbi: Hidden toxins in the fish we eat
Filmed:
Readability: 4
431,169 views
What's link between the ocean's health and our health? Marine biologist Stephen Palumbi shows how toxins at the bottom of the ocean food chain find their way into our bodies -- and tells a shocking story of toxic contamination in the fish market, where consumers were being tricked into buying fish that's not only mislabeled but unsafe.
Stephen Palumbi - Marine biologist
Stephen Palumbi studies the way humanity and ocean life interact and intertwine. His insights into our codependence offer ideas for protecting both the ocean and ourselves. Full bio
Stephen Palumbi studies the way humanity and ocean life interact and intertwine. His insights into our codependence offer ideas for protecting both the ocean and ourselves. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
It can be a very complicated thing, the ocean.
0
1000
2000
00:18
And it can be a very complicated thing, what human health is.
1
3000
3000
00:21
And bringing those two together might seem a very daunting task,
2
6000
3000
00:24
but what I'm going to try to say is that
3
9000
2000
00:26
even in that complexity,
4
11000
2000
00:28
there's some simple themes that I think,
5
13000
2000
00:30
if we understand, we can really move forward.
6
15000
3000
00:33
And those simple themes aren't really
7
18000
2000
00:35
themes about the complex science of what's going on,
8
20000
2000
00:37
but things that we all pretty well know.
9
22000
2000
00:39
And I'm going to start with this one:
10
24000
2000
00:41
If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
11
26000
3000
00:44
We know that, right? We've experienced that.
12
29000
3000
00:47
And if we just take that
13
32000
2000
00:49
and we build from there,
14
34000
2000
00:51
then we can go to the next step,
15
36000
2000
00:53
which is that if the ocean ain't happy,
16
38000
3000
00:56
ain't nobody happy.
17
41000
2000
00:58
That's the theme of my talk.
18
43000
2000
01:00
And we're making the ocean pretty unhappy in a lot of different ways.
19
45000
3000
01:03
This is a shot of Cannery Row in 1932.
20
48000
3000
01:06
Cannery Row, at the time,
21
51000
2000
01:08
had the biggest industrial
22
53000
2000
01:10
canning operation on the west coast.
23
55000
2000
01:12
We piled enormous amounts of pollution
24
57000
3000
01:15
into the air and into the water.
25
60000
2000
01:17
Rolf Bolin, who was a professor
26
62000
2000
01:19
at the Hopkin's Marine Station where I work,
27
64000
2000
01:21
wrote in the 1940s that
28
66000
2000
01:23
"The fumes from the scum floating on the inlets of the bay
29
68000
3000
01:26
were so bad they turned
30
71000
2000
01:28
lead-based paints black."
31
73000
2000
01:30
People working in these canneries
32
75000
2000
01:32
could barely stay there all day because of the smell,
33
77000
3000
01:35
but you know what they came out saying?
34
80000
2000
01:37
They say, "You know what you smell?
35
82000
2000
01:39
You smell money."
36
84000
2000
01:41
That pollution was money to that community,
37
86000
3000
01:44
and those people dealt with the pollution
38
89000
2000
01:46
and absorbed it into their skin and into their bodies
39
91000
3000
01:49
because they needed the money.
40
94000
2000
01:51
We made the ocean unhappy; we made people very unhappy,
41
96000
3000
01:54
and we made them unhealthy.
42
99000
3000
01:57
The connection between ocean health and human health
43
102000
2000
01:59
is actually based upon another couple simple adages,
44
104000
3000
02:02
and I want to call that
45
107000
2000
02:04
"pinch a minnow, hurt a whale."
46
109000
2000
02:06
The pyramid of ocean life ...
47
111000
2000
02:08
Now, when an ecologist looks at the ocean -- I have to tell you --
48
113000
3000
02:11
we look at the ocean in a very different way,
49
116000
2000
02:13
and we see different things than when a regular person looks at the ocean
50
118000
3000
02:16
because when an ecologist looks at the ocean,
51
121000
2000
02:18
we see all those interconnections.
52
123000
2000
02:20
We see the base of the food chain,
53
125000
2000
02:22
the plankton, the small things,
54
127000
2000
02:24
and we see how those animals
55
129000
2000
02:26
are food to animals in the middle of the pyramid,
56
131000
3000
02:29
and on so up this diagram.
57
134000
3000
02:33
And that flow, that flow of life,
58
138000
2000
02:35
from the very base up to the very top,
59
140000
2000
02:37
is the flow that ecologists see.
60
142000
2000
02:39
And that's what we're trying to preserve
61
144000
2000
02:41
when we say, "Save the ocean. Heal the ocean."
62
146000
3000
02:44
It's that pyramid.
63
149000
2000
02:46
Now why does that matter for human health?
64
151000
3000
02:49
Because when we jam things in the bottom
65
154000
2000
02:51
of that pyramid that shouldn't be there,
66
156000
2000
02:53
some very frightening things happen.
67
158000
3000
02:56
Pollutants, some pollutants have been created by us:
68
161000
3000
02:59
molecules like PCBs
69
164000
2000
03:01
that can't be broken down by our bodies.
70
166000
2000
03:03
And they go in the base of that pyramid,
71
168000
2000
03:05
and they drift up; they're passed up that way,
72
170000
3000
03:08
on to predators and on to the top predators,
73
173000
2000
03:10
and in so doing,
74
175000
2000
03:12
they accumulate.
75
177000
2000
03:14
Now, to bring that home, I thought I'd invent a little game.
76
179000
2000
03:16
We don't really have to play it; we can just think about it here.
77
181000
2000
03:18
It's the Styrofoam and chocolate game.
78
183000
2000
03:20
Imagine that when we got on this boat,
79
185000
3000
03:23
we were all given
80
188000
2000
03:25
two Styrofoam peanuts.
81
190000
2000
03:27
Can't do much with them: Put them in your pocket.
82
192000
2000
03:29
Suppose the rules are: every time you offer somebody a drink,
83
194000
3000
03:32
you give them the drink,
84
197000
2000
03:34
and you give them your Styrofoam peanuts too.
85
199000
2000
03:36
What'll happen is that the Styrofoam peanuts
86
201000
2000
03:38
will start moving through our society here,
87
203000
2000
03:40
and they will accumulate in
88
205000
2000
03:42
the drunkest, stingiest people.
89
207000
2000
03:44
(Laughter)
90
209000
5000
03:49
There's no mechanism in this game
91
214000
2000
03:51
for them to go anywhere but into
92
216000
2000
03:53
a bigger and bigger pile
93
218000
2000
03:55
of indigestible Styrofoam peanuts.
94
220000
2000
03:57
And that's exactly what happens with PDBs
95
222000
2000
03:59
in this food pyramid:
96
224000
2000
04:01
They accumulate into the top of it.
97
226000
3000
04:04
Now suppose, instead of Styrofoam peanuts,
98
229000
2000
04:06
we take these lovely little chocolates that we get
99
231000
2000
04:08
and we had those instead.
100
233000
2000
04:10
Well, some of us would be eating those chocolates
101
235000
2000
04:12
instead of passing them around,
102
237000
2000
04:14
and instead of accumulating,
103
239000
2000
04:16
they will just pass into our group here
104
241000
3000
04:19
and not accumulate in any one group
105
244000
2000
04:21
because they're absorbed by us.
106
246000
2000
04:23
And that's the difference between a PCB
107
248000
2000
04:25
and, say, something natural like an omega-3,
108
250000
2000
04:27
something we want out of the marine food chain.
109
252000
3000
04:31
PCBs accumulate.
110
256000
2000
04:33
We have great examples of that, unfortunately.
111
258000
2000
04:35
PCBs accumulate in dolphins
112
260000
2000
04:37
in Sarasota Bay, in Texas, in North Carolina.
113
262000
3000
04:40
They get into the food chain.
114
265000
2000
04:42
The dolphins eat the fish
115
267000
2000
04:44
that have PCBs from the plankton,
116
269000
2000
04:46
and those PCBs, being fat-soluble,
117
271000
3000
04:49
accumulate in these dolphins.
118
274000
2000
04:51
Now, a dolphin,
119
276000
2000
04:53
mother dolphin, any dolphin --
120
278000
2000
04:55
there's only one way
121
280000
2000
04:57
that a PCB can get out of a dolphin.
122
282000
2000
04:59
And what's that?
123
284000
2000
05:01
In mother's milk.
124
286000
2000
05:03
Here's a diagram of the PCB load
125
288000
2000
05:05
of dolphins in Sarasota Bay.
126
290000
2000
05:07
Adult males: a huge load.
127
292000
2000
05:09
Juveniles: a huge load.
128
294000
2000
05:11
Females after their first calf is already weaned:
129
296000
2000
05:13
a lower load.
130
298000
2000
05:15
Those females, they're not trying to.
131
300000
2000
05:17
Those females are passing the PCBs
132
302000
2000
05:19
in the fat of their own mother's milk
133
304000
3000
05:22
into their offspring,
134
307000
2000
05:24
and their offspring don't survive.
135
309000
3000
05:27
The death rate in these dolphins,
136
312000
2000
05:29
for the first calf born of every female dolphin,
137
314000
2000
05:31
is 60 to 80 percent.
138
316000
2000
05:33
These mothers pump their first offspring
139
318000
3000
05:36
full of this pollutant,
140
321000
2000
05:38
and most of them die.
141
323000
2000
05:40
Now, the mother then can go and reproduce,
142
325000
2000
05:42
but what a terrible price to pay
143
327000
2000
05:44
for the accumulation of this pollutant
144
329000
2000
05:46
in these animals --
145
331000
2000
05:48
the death of the first-born calf.
146
333000
3000
05:51
There's another top predator in the ocean, it turns out.
147
336000
3000
05:54
That top predator, of course, is us.
148
339000
2000
05:56
And we also are eating meat
149
341000
2000
05:58
that comes from some of these same places.
150
343000
2000
06:00
This is whale meat
151
345000
2000
06:02
that I photographed in a grocery store in Tokyo --
152
347000
2000
06:04
or is it?
153
349000
2000
06:06
In fact, what we did a few years ago
154
351000
2000
06:08
was learn how to smuggle
155
353000
2000
06:10
a molecular biology lab into Tokyo
156
355000
2000
06:12
and use it to genetically test the DNA
157
357000
3000
06:15
out of whale meat samples
158
360000
2000
06:17
and identify what they really were.
159
362000
2000
06:19
And some of those whale meat samples were whale meat.
160
364000
2000
06:21
Some of them were illegal whale meat, by the way.
161
366000
2000
06:23
That's another story.
162
368000
2000
06:25
But some of them were not whale meat at all.
163
370000
2000
06:27
Even though they were labeled whale meat, they were dolphin meat.
164
372000
3000
06:30
Some of them were dolphin liver. Some of them were dolphin blubber.
165
375000
3000
06:33
And those dolphin parts
166
378000
2000
06:35
had a huge load of PCBs,
167
380000
2000
06:37
dioxins and heavy metals.
168
382000
3000
06:40
And that huge load was passing into the people
169
385000
2000
06:42
that ate this meat.
170
387000
2000
06:44
It turns out that a lot of dolphins
171
389000
2000
06:46
are being sold as meat
172
391000
2000
06:48
in the whale meat market around the world.
173
393000
2000
06:50
That's a tragedy for those populations,
174
395000
2000
06:52
but it's also a tragedy
175
397000
2000
06:54
for the people eating them
176
399000
2000
06:56
because they don't know that that's toxic meat.
177
401000
3000
06:59
We had these data a few years ago.
178
404000
3000
07:02
I remember sitting at my desk
179
407000
2000
07:04
being about the only person in the world
180
409000
2000
07:06
who knew that whale meat being sold in these markets
181
411000
3000
07:09
was really dolphin meat, and it was toxic.
182
414000
3000
07:12
It had two-to-three-to-400 times the toxic loads
183
417000
3000
07:15
ever allowed by the EPA.
184
420000
2000
07:17
And I remember there sitting at my desk thinking,
185
422000
3000
07:20
"Well, I know this. This is a great scientific discovery,"
186
425000
3000
07:23
but it was so awful.
187
428000
2000
07:25
And for the very first time in my scientific career,
188
430000
2000
07:27
I broke scientific protocol,
189
432000
2000
07:29
which is that you take the data and publish them in scientific journals
190
434000
3000
07:32
and then begin to talk about them.
191
437000
2000
07:34
We sent a very polite letter
192
439000
2000
07:36
to the Minister of Health in Japan
193
441000
3000
07:39
and simply pointed out that
194
444000
3000
07:42
this is an intolerable situation, not for us,
195
447000
2000
07:44
but for the people of Japan
196
449000
2000
07:46
because mothers who may be breastfeeding,
197
451000
3000
07:49
who may have young children,
198
454000
2000
07:51
would be buying something that they thought was healthy,
199
456000
3000
07:54
but it was really toxic.
200
459000
2000
07:56
That led to a whole series of other campaigns in Japan,
201
461000
3000
07:59
and I'm really proud to say that at this point,
202
464000
3000
08:02
it's very difficult to buy anything in Japan
203
467000
3000
08:05
that's labeled incorrectly,
204
470000
2000
08:07
even though they're still selling whale meat,
205
472000
2000
08:09
which I believe they shouldn't.
206
474000
2000
08:11
But at least it's labeled correctly,
207
476000
2000
08:13
and you're no longer going to be buying
208
478000
2000
08:15
toxic dolphin meat instead.
209
480000
3000
08:18
It isn't just there that this happens,
210
483000
3000
08:21
but in a natural diet of some communities
211
486000
2000
08:23
in the Canadian arctic and in the United States
212
488000
2000
08:25
and in the European arctic,
213
490000
2000
08:27
a natural diet of seals and whales
214
492000
3000
08:30
leads to an accumulation of PCBs
215
495000
2000
08:32
that have gathered up from all parts of the world
216
497000
3000
08:35
and ended up in these women.
217
500000
2000
08:37
These women have toxic breast milk.
218
502000
3000
08:40
They cannot feed their offspring, their children,
219
505000
3000
08:43
their breast milk
220
508000
2000
08:45
because of the accumulation of these toxins
221
510000
2000
08:47
in their food chain,
222
512000
2000
08:49
in their part of the world's
223
514000
2000
08:51
ocean pyramid.
224
516000
2000
08:53
That means their immune systems are compromised.
225
518000
3000
08:56
It means that their children's development
226
521000
2000
08:58
can be compromised.
227
523000
2000
09:00
And the world's attention on this over the last decade
228
525000
3000
09:03
has reduced the problem
229
528000
2000
09:05
for these women,
230
530000
2000
09:07
not by changing the pyramid,
231
532000
2000
09:09
but by changing what they particularly eat out of it.
232
534000
2000
09:11
We've taken them out of their natural pyramid
233
536000
2000
09:13
in order to solve this problem.
234
538000
3000
09:16
That's a good thing for this particular acute problem,
235
541000
2000
09:18
but it does nothing to solve the pyramid problem.
236
543000
2000
09:20
There's other ways of breaking the pyramid.
237
545000
3000
09:23
The pyramid, if we jam things in the bottom,
238
548000
3000
09:26
can get backed up like a sewer line that's clogged.
239
551000
3000
09:29
And if we jam nutrients, sewage, fertilizer
240
554000
3000
09:32
in the base of that food pyramid,
241
557000
2000
09:34
it can back up all through it.
242
559000
2000
09:36
We end up with things we've heard about before:
243
561000
2000
09:38
red tides, for example,
244
563000
2000
09:40
which are blooms of toxic algae
245
565000
2000
09:42
floating through the oceans
246
567000
2000
09:44
causing neurological damage.
247
569000
2000
09:46
We can also see blooms of bacteria,
248
571000
2000
09:48
blooms of viruses in the ocean.
249
573000
2000
09:50
These are two shots of a red tide coming on shore here
250
575000
3000
09:53
and a bacteria
251
578000
2000
09:55
in the genus vibrio,
252
580000
2000
09:57
which includes the genus that has cholera in it.
253
582000
3000
10:00
How many people have seen a "beach closed" sign?
254
585000
3000
10:05
Why does that happen?
255
590000
2000
10:07
It happens because we have jammed so much
256
592000
2000
10:09
into the base of the natural ocean pyramid
257
594000
2000
10:11
that these bacteria clog it up
258
596000
2000
10:13
and overfill onto our beaches.
259
598000
2000
10:15
Often what jams us up is sewage.
260
600000
3000
10:18
Now how many of you have ever gone to a state park or a national park
261
603000
3000
10:21
where you had a big sign at the front saying,
262
606000
2000
10:23
"Closed because human sewage
263
608000
2000
10:25
is so far over this park
264
610000
2000
10:27
that you can't use it"?
265
612000
2000
10:29
Not very often. We wouldn't tolerate that.
266
614000
3000
10:32
We wouldn't tolerate our parks
267
617000
2000
10:34
being swamped by human sewage,
268
619000
3000
10:37
but beaches are closed a lot in our country.
269
622000
2000
10:39
They're closed more and more and more all around the world for the same reason,
270
624000
3000
10:42
and I believe we shouldn't tolerate that either.
271
627000
3000
10:45
It's not just a question of cleanliness;
272
630000
2000
10:47
it's also a question of
273
632000
2000
10:49
how those organisms
274
634000
2000
10:51
then turn into human disease.
275
636000
2000
10:53
These vibrios, these bacteria, can actually infect people.
276
638000
3000
10:56
They can go into your skin and create skin infections.
277
641000
3000
10:59
This is a graph from NOAA's ocean and human health initiative,
278
644000
3000
11:02
showing the rise of the infections
279
647000
3000
11:05
by vibrio in people
280
650000
3000
11:08
over the last few years.
281
653000
2000
11:10
Surfers, for example, know this incredibly.
282
655000
3000
11:13
And if you can see on some surfing sites,
283
658000
3000
11:16
in fact, not only do you see
284
661000
2000
11:18
what the waves are like or what the weather's like,
285
663000
2000
11:20
but on some surf rider sites,
286
665000
2000
11:22
you see a little flashing poo alert.
287
667000
3000
11:25
That means that the beach might have great waves,
288
670000
3000
11:28
but it's a dangerous place for surfers to be
289
673000
2000
11:30
because they can carry with them,
290
675000
2000
11:32
even after a great day of surfing,
291
677000
2000
11:34
this legacy of an infection that might take a very long time to solve.
292
679000
3000
11:37
Some of these infections are actually carrying
293
682000
2000
11:39
antibiotic resistance genes now,
294
684000
2000
11:41
and that makes them even more difficult.
295
686000
2000
11:43
These same infections
296
688000
2000
11:45
create harmful algal blooms.
297
690000
2000
11:47
Those blooms are generating other kinds of chemicals.
298
692000
3000
11:50
This is just a simple list of some of the types of poisons
299
695000
3000
11:53
that come out of these harmful algal blooms:
300
698000
2000
11:55
shellfish poisoning,fish ciguatera,
301
700000
3000
11:58
diarrheic shellfish poisoning -- you don't want to know about that --
302
703000
3000
12:01
neurotoxic shellfish poisoning, paralytic shellfish poisoning.
303
706000
3000
12:04
These are things that are getting into our food chain
304
709000
2000
12:06
because of these blooms.
305
711000
2000
12:08
Rita Calwell very famously
306
713000
2000
12:10
traced a very interesting story
307
715000
2000
12:12
of cholera into human communities,
308
717000
3000
12:15
brought there, not by
309
720000
2000
12:17
a normal human vector,
310
722000
2000
12:19
but by a marine vector, this copepod.
311
724000
3000
12:22
Copepods are small crustaceans.
312
727000
2000
12:24
They're a tiny fraction of an inch long,
313
729000
2000
12:26
and they can carry on their little legs
314
731000
2000
12:28
some of the cholera bacteria
315
733000
2000
12:30
that then leads to human disease.
316
735000
3000
12:33
That has sparked cholera epidemics
317
738000
2000
12:35
in ports along the world
318
740000
2000
12:37
and has led to increased concentration
319
742000
3000
12:40
on trying to make sure shipping
320
745000
2000
12:42
doesn't move these
321
747000
2000
12:44
vectors of cholera around the world.
322
749000
2000
12:46
So what do you do?
323
751000
2000
12:48
We have major problems in disrupted ecosystem flow
324
753000
3000
12:51
that the pyramid may not be working so well,
325
756000
2000
12:53
that the flow from the base up into it
326
758000
2000
12:55
is being blocked and clogged.
327
760000
2000
12:57
What do you do when you have this sort of disrupted flow?
328
762000
3000
13:00
Well, there's a bunch of things you could do.
329
765000
3000
13:03
You could call Joe the Plumber, for example.
330
768000
2000
13:05
And he could come in
331
770000
2000
13:07
and fix the flow.
332
772000
2000
13:09
But in fact, if you look around the world,
333
774000
3000
13:12
not only are there hope spots
334
777000
2000
13:14
for where we may be able to fix problems,
335
779000
2000
13:16
there have been places where problems have been fixed,
336
781000
2000
13:18
where people have come to grips with these issues
337
783000
2000
13:20
and begun to turn them around.
338
785000
2000
13:22
Monterey is one of those.
339
787000
2000
13:24
I started out showing how much
340
789000
2000
13:26
we had distressed the Monterey Bay ecosystem
341
791000
3000
13:29
with pollution and the canning industry
342
794000
2000
13:31
and all of the attendant problems.
343
796000
2000
13:33
In 1932, that's the picture.
344
798000
2000
13:35
In 2009, the picture is dramatically different.
345
800000
3000
13:39
The canneries are gone. The pollution has abated.
346
804000
3000
13:42
But there's a greater sense here
347
807000
2000
13:44
that what the individual communities need
348
809000
2000
13:46
is working ecosystems.
349
811000
2000
13:48
They need a functioning pyramid from the base all the way to the top.
350
813000
3000
13:51
And that pyramid
351
816000
2000
13:53
in Monterey, right now,
352
818000
2000
13:55
because of the efforts of a lot of different people,
353
820000
2000
13:57
is functioning better than it's ever functioned
354
822000
2000
13:59
for the last 150 years.
355
824000
3000
14:02
It didn't happen accidentally.
356
827000
2000
14:04
It happened because many people put their time and effort
357
829000
3000
14:07
and their pioneering spirit into this.
358
832000
2000
14:09
On the left there, Julia Platt,
359
834000
2000
14:11
the mayor of my little hometown in Pacific Grove.
360
836000
2000
14:13
At 74 years old, became mayor
361
838000
2000
14:15
because something had to be done
362
840000
2000
14:17
to protect the ocean.
363
842000
2000
14:19
In 1931, she produced California's first
364
844000
2000
14:21
community-based marine protected area,
365
846000
3000
14:24
right next to the biggest polluting cannery,
366
849000
3000
14:27
because Julia knew
367
852000
2000
14:29
that when the canneries eventually were gone,
368
854000
2000
14:31
the ocean needed a place to grow from,
369
856000
3000
14:34
that the ocean needed a place to spark a seed,
370
859000
3000
14:37
and she wanted to provide that seed.
371
862000
2000
14:39
Other people, like David Packard and Julie Packard,
372
864000
3000
14:42
who were instrumental in producing the Monterey Bay aquarium
373
867000
3000
14:45
to lock into people's notion
374
870000
2000
14:47
that the ocean
375
872000
2000
14:49
and the health of the ocean ecosystem
376
874000
3000
14:52
were just as important to the economy of this area
377
877000
3000
14:55
as eating the ecosystem would be.
378
880000
2000
14:57
That change in thinking has led to a dramatic shift,
379
882000
3000
15:00
not only in the fortunes of Monterey Bay,
380
885000
3000
15:03
but other places around the world.
381
888000
2000
15:05
Well, I want to leave you with the thought that
382
890000
2000
15:07
what we're really trying to do here
383
892000
2000
15:09
is protect this ocean pyramid,
384
894000
2000
15:11
and that ocean pyramid
385
896000
2000
15:13
connects to our own pyramid of life.
386
898000
2000
15:15
It's an ocean planet,
387
900000
2000
15:17
and we think of ourselves as a terrestrial species,
388
902000
3000
15:21
but the pyramid of life in the ocean
389
906000
3000
15:24
and our own lives on land
390
909000
2000
15:26
are intricately connected.
391
911000
2000
15:28
And it's only through having the ocean being healthy
392
913000
2000
15:30
that we can remain healthy ourselves.
393
915000
2000
15:32
Thank you very much.
394
917000
2000
15:34
(Applause)
395
919000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Stephen Palumbi - Marine biologistStephen Palumbi studies the way humanity and ocean life interact and intertwine. His insights into our codependence offer ideas for protecting both the ocean and ourselves.
Why you should listen
Stephen Palumbi teaches and does research in evolution and marine biology at Stanford University, and has long been fascinated by how quickly the world around us changes. His work on the genetics of marine organisms tries to focus on basic evolutionary questions but also on practical solutions to questions about how to preserve and protect the diverse life in the sea. DNA data on the genetics of marine populations like corals helps in the design and implementation of marine protected areas for conservation and fisheries enhancement. A second focus is on the use of molecular genetic techniques for the elucidation of past population sizes and dynamics of baleen whales, with the notion of recreating a better sense of the ecology of the virgin ocean.
Palumbi has lectured extensively on human-induced evolutionary change, has used genetic detective work to identify whales for sale in retail markets, and is working on new methods to help design marine parks for conservation. His first book for non-scientists, The Evolution Explosion, documents the impact of humans on evolution. His latest is an unusual environmental success story called The Death and Life of Monterey Bay. He also helped write and research and appears in the BBC series The Future Is Wild and the History Channel's World Without People. Other recent films appearances include The End of the Line and an upcoming Canadian Broadcasting series One Ocean.
Palumbi's other passion: microdocumentaries. His Short Attention Span Science Theater site received a million hits last year. And his band Sustainable Soul has several songs out, including "Crab Love" and "The Last Fish Left."
Stephen Palumbi | Speaker | TED.com