Mission Blue Voyage
Greg Stone: Saving the ocean one island at a time
Filmed:
Readability: 4
531,712 views
Aboard Mission Blue, scientist Greg Stone tells the story of how he helped the Republic of Kiribati to create an enormous protected area in the middle of the Pacific -- protecting fish, sealife and perhaps the island nation itself.
Greg Stone - Oceanographer
Greg Stone was a key driver in the establishment of the Phoenix Island Protected Area in the island nation of Kiribati. The second-largest marine protected area in the world -- and one of the most pristine -- PIPA is a laboratory for exploring and monitoring the recovery of coral reefs from bleaching events. Full bio
Greg Stone was a key driver in the establishment of the Phoenix Island Protected Area in the island nation of Kiribati. The second-largest marine protected area in the world -- and one of the most pristine -- PIPA is a laboratory for exploring and monitoring the recovery of coral reefs from bleaching events. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
I guess the story actually has to start
0
1000
2000
00:18
maybe back in the the 1960s,
1
3000
2000
00:20
when I was seven or eight years old,
2
5000
3000
00:23
watching Jacques Cousteau documentaries on the living room floor
3
8000
3000
00:26
with my mask and flippers on.
4
11000
3000
00:29
Then after every episode, I had to go up to the bathtub
5
14000
3000
00:32
and swim around the bathtub and look at the drain,
6
17000
2000
00:34
because that's all there was to look at.
7
19000
3000
00:37
And by the time I turned 16,
8
22000
2000
00:39
I pursued a career in marine science,
9
24000
3000
00:42
in exploration and diving,
10
27000
3000
00:45
and lived in underwater habitats, like this one off the Florida Keys,
11
30000
3000
00:48
for 30 days total.
12
33000
2000
00:50
Brian Skerry took this shot. Thanks, Brian.
13
35000
2000
00:52
And I've dived in deep-sea submersibles around the world.
14
37000
3000
00:55
And this one is the deepest diving submarine in the world,
15
40000
3000
00:58
operated by the Japanese government.
16
43000
2000
01:00
And Sylvia Earle and I
17
45000
2000
01:02
were on an expedition in this submarine
18
47000
2000
01:04
20 years ago in Japan.
19
49000
3000
01:07
And on my dive, I went down 18,000 feet,
20
52000
3000
01:10
to an area that I thought
21
55000
2000
01:12
would be pristine wilderness area on the sea floor.
22
57000
3000
01:15
But when I got there, I found
23
60000
2000
01:17
lots of plastic garbage and other debris.
24
62000
2000
01:19
And it was really a turning point in my life,
25
64000
2000
01:21
where I started to realize
26
66000
2000
01:23
that I couldn't just go have fun doing science and exploration.
27
68000
3000
01:26
I needed to put it into a context.
28
71000
2000
01:28
I needed to head towards conservation goals.
29
73000
3000
01:31
So I began to work
30
76000
2000
01:33
with National Geographic Society and others
31
78000
3000
01:36
and led expeditions to Antarctica.
32
81000
3000
01:39
I led three diving expeditions to Antarctica.
33
84000
2000
01:41
Ten years ago was a seminal trip,
34
86000
2000
01:43
where we explored that big iceberg, B-15,
35
88000
3000
01:46
the largest iceberg in history, that broke off the Ross Ice Shelf.
36
91000
3000
01:49
And we developed techniques
37
94000
2000
01:51
to dive inside and under the iceberg,
38
96000
2000
01:53
such as heating pads on our kidneys
39
98000
2000
01:55
with a battery that we dragged around,
40
100000
2000
01:57
so that, as the blood flowed through our kidneys,
41
102000
2000
01:59
it would get a little boost of warmth
42
104000
2000
02:01
before going back into our bodies.
43
106000
2000
02:03
But after three trips to Antarctica,
44
108000
2000
02:05
I decided that it might be nicer to work in warmer water.
45
110000
3000
02:09
And that same year, 10 years ago,
46
114000
2000
02:11
I headed north to the Phoenix Islands.
47
116000
2000
02:13
And I'm going to tell you that story here in a moment.
48
118000
3000
02:16
But before I do, I just want you to ponder this graph for a moment.
49
121000
3000
02:19
You may have seen this in other forms,
50
124000
2000
02:21
but the top line is the amount of protected area
51
126000
3000
02:24
on land, globally,
52
129000
2000
02:26
and it's about 12 percent.
53
131000
2000
02:28
And you can see that it kind of hockey sticks up
54
133000
2000
02:30
around the 1960s and '70s,
55
135000
2000
02:32
and it's on kind of a nice trajectory right now.
56
137000
3000
02:35
And that's probably because
57
140000
2000
02:37
that's when everybody got aware of the environment
58
142000
2000
02:39
and Earth Day
59
144000
2000
02:41
and all the stuff that happened in the '60s with the Hippies and everything
60
146000
3000
02:44
really did, I think, have an affect on global awareness.
61
149000
2000
02:46
But the ocean-protected area
62
151000
2000
02:48
is basically flat line
63
153000
2000
02:50
until right about now -- it appears to be ticking up.
64
155000
2000
02:52
And I do believe that we are at the hockey stick point
65
157000
3000
02:55
of the protected area in the ocean.
66
160000
2000
02:57
I think we would have gotten there a lot earlier
67
162000
3000
03:00
if we could see what happens in the ocean
68
165000
2000
03:02
like we can see what happens on land.
69
167000
2000
03:04
But unfortunately, the ocean is opaque,
70
169000
3000
03:07
and we can't see what's going on.
71
172000
2000
03:09
And therefore we're way behind on protection.
72
174000
2000
03:11
But scuba diving, submersibles
73
176000
2000
03:13
and all the work that we're setting about to do here
74
178000
3000
03:16
will help rectify that.
75
181000
2000
03:19
So where are the Phoenix Islands?
76
184000
2000
03:21
They were the world's largest marine-protected area
77
186000
3000
03:24
up until last week
78
189000
2000
03:26
when the Chagos Archipelago was declared.
79
191000
2000
03:28
It's in the mid-Pacific. It's about five days from anywhere.
80
193000
3000
03:31
If you want to get to the Phoenix Islands,
81
196000
2000
03:33
it's five days from Fiji,
82
198000
2000
03:35
it's five days from Hawaii, it's five days from Samoa.
83
200000
2000
03:37
It's out in the middle of the Pacific,
84
202000
2000
03:39
right around the Equator.
85
204000
2000
03:42
I had never heard of the islands 10 years ago,
86
207000
2000
03:44
nor the country, Kiribati, that owns them,
87
209000
2000
03:46
till two friends of mine who run a liveaboard dive boat in Fiji
88
211000
3000
03:49
said, "Greg, would you lead a scientific expedition up to these islands?
89
214000
3000
03:52
They've never been dived."
90
217000
2000
03:54
And I said, "Yeah.
91
219000
2000
03:56
But tell me where they are and the country that owns them."
92
221000
2000
03:58
So that's when I first learned of the Islands
93
223000
2000
04:00
and had no idea what I was getting into.
94
225000
2000
04:02
But I was in for the adventure.
95
227000
2000
04:06
Let me give you a little peek here of the Phoenix Islands-protected area.
96
231000
3000
04:09
It's a very deep-water part of our planet.
97
234000
3000
04:13
The average depths are about 12,000 ft.
98
238000
2000
04:15
There's lots of seamounts in the Phoenix Islands,
99
240000
2000
04:17
which are specifically part of the protected area.
100
242000
3000
04:20
Seamounts are important for biodiversity.
101
245000
2000
04:22
There's actually more mountains in the ocean than there are on land.
102
247000
3000
04:25
It's an interesting fact.
103
250000
2000
04:27
And the Phoenix Islands is very rich in those seamounts.
104
252000
3000
04:31
So it's a deep -- think about it in a big three-dimensional space,
105
256000
3000
04:34
very deep three-dimensional space
106
259000
2000
04:36
with herds of tuna, whales,
107
261000
3000
04:39
all kinds of deep sea marine life
108
264000
2000
04:41
like we've seen here before.
109
266000
2000
04:43
That's the vessel that we took up there
110
268000
2000
04:45
for these studies, early on,
111
270000
2000
04:47
and that's what the Islands look like -- you can see in the background.
112
272000
3000
04:50
They're very low to the water,
113
275000
2000
04:52
and they're all uninhabited, except one island
114
277000
2000
04:54
has about 35 caretakers on it.
115
279000
2000
04:56
And they've been uninhabited for most of time
116
281000
3000
04:59
because even in the ancient days,
117
284000
2000
05:01
these islands were too far away
118
286000
2000
05:03
from the bright lights of Fiji and Hawaii and Tahiti
119
288000
3000
05:06
for those ancient Polynesian mariners
120
291000
2000
05:08
that were traversing the Pacific so widely.
121
293000
3000
05:11
But we got up there,
122
296000
2000
05:13
and I had the unique and wonderful scientific opportunity and personal opportunity
123
298000
3000
05:16
to get to a place that had never been dived
124
301000
2000
05:18
and just get to an island and go, "Okay, where are we going to dive?
125
303000
2000
05:20
Let's try there,"
126
305000
2000
05:22
and then falling into the water.
127
307000
2000
05:24
Both my personal and my professional life changed.
128
309000
2000
05:26
Suddenly, I saw a world
129
311000
2000
05:28
that I had never seen before in the ocean --
130
313000
3000
05:31
schools of fish that were so dense
131
316000
2000
05:33
they dulled the penetration of sunlight from the surface,
132
318000
3000
05:36
coral reefs that were continuous
133
321000
2000
05:38
and solid and colorful,
134
323000
2000
05:40
large fish everywhere,
135
325000
2000
05:42
manta rays.
136
327000
3000
05:45
It was an ecosystem. Parrotfish spawning --
137
330000
2000
05:47
this is about 5,000 longnose parrotfish spawning
138
332000
3000
05:50
at the entrance to one of the Phoenix Islands.
139
335000
2000
05:52
You can see the fish are balled up
140
337000
2000
05:54
and then there's a little cloudy area there
141
339000
2000
05:56
where they're exchanging the eggs and sperm for reproduction --
142
341000
3000
06:00
events that the ocean is supposed to do,
143
345000
2000
06:02
but struggles to do in many places now
144
347000
2000
06:04
because of human activity.
145
349000
2000
06:06
The Phoenix Islands and all the equatorial parts of our planet
146
351000
2000
06:08
are very important for tuna fisheries,
147
353000
2000
06:10
especially this yellowfin tuna that you see here.
148
355000
3000
06:14
Phoenix Islands is a major tuna location.
149
359000
2000
06:16
And sharks -- we had sharks on our early dives,
150
361000
3000
06:19
up to 150 sharks at once,
151
364000
2000
06:21
which is an indication
152
366000
2000
06:23
of a very, very healthy, very strong, system.
153
368000
3000
06:26
So I thought the scenes
154
371000
2000
06:28
of never-ending wilderness
155
373000
2000
06:30
would go on forever,
156
375000
2000
06:32
but they did finally come to an end.
157
377000
2000
06:34
And we explored the surface of the Islands as well --
158
379000
3000
06:37
very important bird nesting site,
159
382000
2000
06:39
some of the most important bird-nesting sites in the Pacific, in the world.
160
384000
3000
06:44
And we finished our trip.
161
389000
2000
06:46
And that's the area again.
162
391000
3000
06:49
You can see the Islands -- there are eight islands --
163
394000
2000
06:51
that pop out of the water.
164
396000
2000
06:53
The peaks that don't come out of the water are the seamounts.
165
398000
3000
06:56
Remember, a seamount turns into an island when it hits the surface.
166
401000
3000
07:02
And what's the context of the Phoenix Islands?
167
407000
2000
07:04
Where do these exist?
168
409000
2000
07:06
Well they exist in the Republic of Kiribati,
169
411000
2000
07:08
and Kiribati is located in the Central Pacific
170
413000
2000
07:10
in three island groups.
171
415000
3000
07:13
In the west we have the Gilbert Islands.
172
418000
2000
07:15
In the center we have the Phoenix Islands,
173
420000
2000
07:17
which is the subject that I'm talking about.
174
422000
2000
07:19
And then over to the east we have the Line Islands.
175
424000
2000
07:21
It's the largest atoll nation in the world.
176
426000
3000
07:24
And they have
177
429000
2000
07:26
about 110,000 people
178
431000
2000
07:28
spread out over 33 islands.
179
433000
3000
07:31
They control 3.4 million cubic miles of ocean,
180
436000
3000
07:34
and that's between one and two percent
181
439000
2000
07:36
of all the ocean water on the planet.
182
441000
2000
07:38
And when I was first going up there,
183
443000
2000
07:40
I barely knew the name of this country 10 years ago,
184
445000
3000
07:43
and people would ask me,
185
448000
2000
07:45
"Why are you going to this place called Kiribati?"
186
450000
2000
07:47
And it reminded me of that old joke
187
452000
2000
07:49
where the bank robber comes out of the courthouse handcuffed,
188
454000
2000
07:51
and the reporter yells, "Hey, Willy. Why do you rob banks?"
189
456000
3000
07:54
And he says, "cause that's where all the money is."
190
459000
2000
07:56
And I would tell people, "Why do I go to Kiribati?
191
461000
3000
07:59
Because that's where all the ocean is."
192
464000
2000
08:01
They basically are one nation
193
466000
2000
08:03
that controls most of the equatorial waters
194
468000
3000
08:06
of the Central Pacific Ocean.
195
471000
2000
08:09
They're also a country
196
474000
2000
08:11
that is in dire danger.
197
476000
2000
08:13
Sea levels are rising,
198
478000
2000
08:15
and Kiribati, along with 42 other nations in the world,
199
480000
3000
08:18
will be under water within 50 to 100 years
200
483000
2000
08:20
due to climate change
201
485000
2000
08:22
and the associated sea-level rise from thermal expansion
202
487000
3000
08:25
and the melting of freshwater into the ocean.
203
490000
3000
08:28
The Islands rise only one to two meters
204
493000
2000
08:30
above the surface.
205
495000
2000
08:32
Some of the islands have already gone under water.
206
497000
3000
08:35
And these nations are faced with a real problem.
207
500000
2000
08:37
We as a world are faced with a problem.
208
502000
3000
08:40
What do we do with displaced fellow Earthlings
209
505000
3000
08:43
who no longer have a home on the planet?
210
508000
3000
08:46
The president of the Maldives
211
511000
2000
08:48
conducted a mock cabinet meeting
212
513000
2000
08:50
underwater recently
213
515000
2000
08:52
to highlight the dire straits of these countries.
214
517000
2000
08:54
So it's something we need to focus on.
215
519000
2000
08:57
But back to the Phoenix Islands,
216
522000
3000
09:00
which is the subject of this Talk.
217
525000
2000
09:02
After I got back, I said,
218
527000
2000
09:04
okay, this is amazing, what we found.
219
529000
2000
09:06
I'd like to go back and share it with the government of Kiribati,
220
531000
3000
09:09
who are over in Tarawa,
221
534000
2000
09:11
the westernmost group.
222
536000
2000
09:13
So I started contacting them --
223
538000
2000
09:15
because they had actually given me a permit to do this --
224
540000
2000
09:17
and I said, "I want to come up and tell you what we found."
225
542000
3000
09:20
And for some reason they didn't want me to come,
226
545000
2000
09:22
or it was hard to find a time and a place, and it took a while,
227
547000
3000
09:25
but finally they said, "Okay, you can come.
228
550000
2000
09:27
But if you come, you have to buy lunch
229
552000
2000
09:29
for everybody who comes to the seminar."
230
554000
2000
09:31
So I said, "Okay, I'm happy to buy lunch.
231
556000
2000
09:33
Just get whatever anybody wants."
232
558000
2000
09:35
So David Obura, a coral reef biologist, and I went to Tarawa,
233
560000
3000
09:38
and we presented for two hours
234
563000
2000
09:40
on the amazing findings of the Phoenix Islands.
235
565000
2000
09:42
And the country never knew this. They never had any data from this area.
236
567000
3000
09:45
They'd never had any information from the Phoenix Islands.
237
570000
3000
09:48
After the talk, the Minister of Fisheries walked up to me
238
573000
3000
09:51
and he said, "Greg, do you realize
239
576000
2000
09:53
that you are the first scientist
240
578000
2000
09:55
who has ever come back
241
580000
2000
09:57
and told us what they did?"
242
582000
2000
09:59
He said, "We often issue these permits
243
584000
2000
10:01
to do research in our waters,
244
586000
2000
10:03
but usually we get a note two or three years later,
245
588000
2000
10:05
or a reprint.
246
590000
2000
10:07
But you're the first one who's ever come back and told us what you did.
247
592000
3000
10:10
And we really appreciate that. And we're buying you lunch today.
248
595000
3000
10:13
And are you free for dinner?"
249
598000
2000
10:15
And I was free for dinner,
250
600000
2000
10:17
and I went out to dinner with the Minister of Fisheries in Kiribati.
251
602000
2000
10:19
And over the course of dinner,
252
604000
2000
10:21
I learned that Kiribati gains most of its revenue --
253
606000
3000
10:24
it's a very poor country --
254
609000
2000
10:26
but it gains what revenue is has
255
611000
2000
10:28
by selling access to foreign nations
256
613000
2000
10:30
to take fish out of its waters,
257
615000
2000
10:32
because Kiribati does not have the capacity
258
617000
2000
10:34
to take the fish itself.
259
619000
2000
10:36
And the deal that they strike
260
621000
2000
10:38
is the extracting country
261
623000
2000
10:40
gives Kiribati five percent
262
625000
2000
10:42
of the landed value.
263
627000
2000
10:44
So if the United States
264
629000
2000
10:46
removes a million dollars'
265
631000
2000
10:48
worth of lobsters from a reef,
266
633000
2000
10:50
Kiribati gets 50,000 dollars.
267
635000
3000
10:53
And, you know, it didn't seem like a very good deal to me.
268
638000
3000
10:56
So I asked the Minister over dinner,
269
641000
2000
10:58
I said, "Would you consider a situation
270
643000
3000
11:01
where you would still get paid --
271
646000
3000
11:04
we do the math and figure out what the value of the resource is --
272
649000
3000
11:07
but you leave fish and the sharks
273
652000
2000
11:09
and the shrimp in the water?"
274
654000
2000
11:11
He stopped, and he said, "Yes, we would like to do that
275
656000
3000
11:14
to deal with our overfishing problem,
276
659000
2000
11:16
and I think we would call it a reverse fishing license."
277
661000
3000
11:19
He coined the term "reverse fishing license."
278
664000
2000
11:21
So I said, "Yes, a 'reverse fishing license.'"
279
666000
3000
11:24
So we walked away from this dinner
280
669000
2000
11:26
really not knowing where to go at that point.
281
671000
2000
11:28
I went back to the States and started looking around
282
673000
2000
11:30
to see if I could find examples
283
675000
3000
11:33
where reverse fishing licenses
284
678000
2000
11:35
had been issued,
285
680000
2000
11:37
and it turned out there were none.
286
682000
2000
11:39
There were no oceanic deals
287
684000
2000
11:41
where countries were compensated for not fishing.
288
686000
3000
11:44
It had occurred on land,
289
689000
2000
11:46
in rainforests of South America and Africa,
290
691000
3000
11:49
where landowners had been paid
291
694000
2000
11:51
not to cut the trees down.
292
696000
2000
11:53
And Conservation International had struck some of those deals.
293
698000
2000
11:55
So I went to Conservation International
294
700000
2000
11:57
and brought them in as a partner
295
702000
3000
12:00
and went through the process
296
705000
2000
12:02
of valuing the fishery resource,
297
707000
3000
12:05
deciding how much Kiribati should be compensated,
298
710000
3000
12:08
what the range of the fishes were,
299
713000
2000
12:10
brought in a whole bunch of other partners --
300
715000
2000
12:12
the government of Australia,
301
717000
2000
12:14
the government of New Zealand, the World Bank.
302
719000
2000
12:16
The Oak Foundation and National Geographic
303
721000
2000
12:18
have been big funders of this as well.
304
723000
2000
12:20
And we basically founded the park
305
725000
2000
12:22
on the idea of an endowment
306
727000
2000
12:24
that would pay the equivalent lost fishing license fees
307
729000
3000
12:27
to this very poor country
308
732000
2000
12:29
to keep the area intact.
309
734000
2000
12:31
Halfway through this process, I met the president of Kiribati,
310
736000
2000
12:33
President Anote Tong.
311
738000
2000
12:35
He's a really important leader,
312
740000
2000
12:37
a real visionary, forward-thinking man,
313
742000
2000
12:39
and he told me two things when I approached him.
314
744000
2000
12:41
He said, "Greg, there's two things I'd like you to do.
315
746000
3000
12:44
One is, remember I'm a politician,
316
749000
2000
12:46
so you've got to go out and work with my ministers
317
751000
2000
12:48
and convince the people of Kiribati that this is a good idea.
318
753000
3000
12:51
Secondly, I'd like you to create principles
319
756000
2000
12:53
that will transcend my own presidency.
320
758000
2000
12:55
I don't want to do something like this
321
760000
2000
12:57
if it's going to go away after I'm voted out of office."
322
762000
3000
13:00
So we had very strong leadership, very good vision
323
765000
3000
13:03
and a lot of science, a lot of lawyers involved.
324
768000
3000
13:06
Many, many steps were taken to pull this off.
325
771000
3000
13:09
And it was primarily because Kiribati realized
326
774000
3000
13:12
that this was in their own self-interest to do this.
327
777000
2000
13:14
They realized that this was a common cause
328
779000
2000
13:16
that they had found
329
781000
2000
13:18
with the conservation community.
330
783000
3000
13:21
Then in 2002,
331
786000
2000
13:23
when this was all going full-swing,
332
788000
3000
13:26
a coral-bleaching event happened in the Phoenix Islands.
333
791000
3000
13:29
Here's this resource that we're looking to save,
334
794000
3000
13:32
and it turns out it's the hottest heating event
335
797000
2000
13:34
that we can find on record.
336
799000
2000
13:36
The ocean heated up as it does sometimes,
337
801000
3000
13:39
and the hot spot formed and stalled
338
804000
3000
13:42
right over the Phoenix Islands for six months.
339
807000
3000
13:45
It was over 32 degrees Celsius for six months
340
810000
3000
13:48
and it basically killed
341
813000
2000
13:50
60 percent of the coral.
342
815000
2000
13:52
So suddenly we had this area that we were protecting,
343
817000
2000
13:54
but now it appeared to be dead, at least in the coral areas.
344
819000
3000
13:57
Of course the deep-sea areas and the open ocean areas were fine,
345
822000
3000
14:00
but the coral, which everybody likes to look at, was in trouble.
346
825000
3000
14:03
Well, the good news is it's recovered
347
828000
2000
14:05
and recovering fast,
348
830000
2000
14:07
faster than any reef we've seen.
349
832000
2000
14:09
This picture was just taken by Brian Skerry a few months ago
350
834000
3000
14:12
when we returned to the Phoenix Islands
351
837000
2000
14:14
and discovered that, because it is a protected area
352
839000
3000
14:17
and has healthy fish populations
353
842000
3000
14:20
that keep the algae grazed down
354
845000
3000
14:23
and keep the rest of the reef healthy,
355
848000
2000
14:25
the coral is booming, is just booming back.
356
850000
3000
14:28
It's almost like if a person
357
853000
2000
14:30
has multiple diseases,
358
855000
2000
14:32
it's hard to get well, you might die,
359
857000
2000
14:34
but if you only have one disease to deal with, you can get better.
360
859000
3000
14:37
And that's the story with climate-change heating.
361
862000
2000
14:39
It's the only threat,
362
864000
2000
14:41
the only influence that the reef had to deal with.
363
866000
3000
14:44
There was no fishing, there was no pollution, there was no coastal development,
364
869000
3000
14:47
and the reef is on a full-bore recovery.
365
872000
3000
14:51
Now I remember that dinner I had with the Minister of Fisheries 10 years ago
366
876000
3000
14:54
when we first brought this up and I got quite animated during the dinner
367
879000
3000
14:57
and said, "Well, I think that the conservation community
368
882000
2000
14:59
might embrace this idea, Minister."
369
884000
2000
15:01
He paused and put his hands together and said,
370
886000
2000
15:03
"Yes, Greg,
371
888000
2000
15:05
but the devil will be in the details," he said.
372
890000
2000
15:07
And it certainly was.
373
892000
2000
15:09
The last 10 years have been detail after detail
374
894000
3000
15:12
ranging from creating legislation
375
897000
3000
15:15
to multiple research expeditions
376
900000
3000
15:18
to communication plans,
377
903000
2000
15:20
as I said, teams of lawyers,
378
905000
2000
15:22
MOUs,
379
907000
2000
15:24
creating the Phoenix Islands Trust Board.
380
909000
3000
15:27
And we are now in the process of raising the full endowment.
381
912000
2000
15:29
Kiribati has frozen extracting activities
382
914000
3000
15:32
at its current state while we raise the endowment.
383
917000
3000
15:35
We just had our first PIPA Trust Board meeting three weeks ago.
384
920000
3000
15:38
So it's a fully functional
385
923000
2000
15:40
up-and-running entity
386
925000
2000
15:42
that negotiates the reverse fishing license with the country.
387
927000
3000
15:45
And the PIPA Trust Board holds that license
388
930000
3000
15:48
and pays the country for this.
389
933000
2000
15:50
So it's a very solid, very well thought-out,
390
935000
2000
15:52
very well grounded system,
391
937000
3000
15:55
and it was a bottom-up system,
392
940000
2000
15:57
and that was very important with this work,
393
942000
2000
15:59
from the bottom up to secure this.
394
944000
2000
16:01
So the conditions for success here are listed.
395
946000
2000
16:03
You can read them yourselves.
396
948000
2000
16:05
But I would say the most important one in my mind
397
950000
2000
16:07
was working within the market forces
398
952000
2000
16:09
of the situation.
399
954000
2000
16:11
And that insured that we could move this forward
400
956000
3000
16:14
and it would have both the self-interest of Kiribati
401
959000
3000
16:17
as well as the self-interest of the world.
402
962000
3000
16:20
And I'll leave you with one final slide,
403
965000
2000
16:22
that is: how do we scale this up?
404
967000
2000
16:24
How do we realize Sylvia's dream?
405
969000
2000
16:26
Where eventually do we take this?
406
971000
2000
16:28
Here's the Pacific
407
973000
2000
16:30
with large MPAs
408
975000
3000
16:33
and large conservation zones on it.
409
978000
3000
16:37
And as you can see,
410
982000
2000
16:39
we have a patchwork across this ocean.
411
984000
3000
16:42
I've just described to you the one story
412
987000
2000
16:44
behind that rectangular area in the middle, the Phoenix Islands,
413
989000
3000
16:47
but every other green patch on that
414
992000
2000
16:49
has its own story.
415
994000
2000
16:51
And what we need to do now
416
996000
2000
16:53
is look at the whole Pacific Ocean
417
998000
2000
16:55
in its entirety
418
1000000
2000
16:57
and make a network of MPAs
419
1002000
2000
16:59
across the Pacific
420
1004000
2000
17:01
so that we have our world's largest ocean
421
1006000
2000
17:03
protected and self-sustaining
422
1008000
2000
17:05
over time.
423
1010000
2000
17:07
Thank you very much. (Applause)
424
1012000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Greg Stone - OceanographerGreg Stone was a key driver in the establishment of the Phoenix Island Protected Area in the island nation of Kiribati. The second-largest marine protected area in the world -- and one of the most pristine -- PIPA is a laboratory for exploring and monitoring the recovery of coral reefs from bleaching events.
Why you should listen
Greg Stone began his career as an ocean scientist, pioneering research in Antarctica on marine mammals and ice ecology where he mastered the art of diving into icebergs. Today he is well-known for his leadership in the effort to create the world’s second-largest marine protected area (MPA), around the Phoenix Islands in Kiribati.
Working with the government of Kiribati, Stone helped establish the MPA using market-based tools to conserve ocean biodiversity, in order to encourage continued local economic development rather than destruction of local communities livelihoods. Stone is the Chief Scientist for Oceans at Conservation International and a prolific author and speaker on the state of the marine environment and how policy can make change.
Greg Stone | Speaker | TED.com