WEBVTT

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[Moderator] Welcome everyone.

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We'll get today's webinar started in about two minutes.

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Thank you.

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All right. Welcome everyone to today's
special presentation.

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As part of our National Marine Sanctuaries webinar
series.

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This webinar series is hosted

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by NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

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and our goal is to provide relevant
information about

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our education and outreach programs, products and curricular materials,

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and bring science topics into your classroom

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or facility that you can then, in turn,

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bring to students and other visitors

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or just increase your knowledge.

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So I wanted to start with sharing a little bit

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about our national marine sanctuaries.

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So these are the special places located around

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the country that we consider underwater parks.

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The National Marine Sanctuary
system encompasses

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over 600,000 square miles of ocean and Great Lakes treasures.

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As you see on this map here,

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we have four in the state of California.

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We have one in Pacific Northwest, a couple in the Hawaiian Islands.

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Our country's largest National Marine Sanctuary is currently in American Samoa.

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We have sites along the west coast, in the Gulf of Mexico,

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Florida Keys and we even have a
sweetwater National Marine Sanctuary in

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Alpena, Michigan.

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You will see two yellow boxes on this slide that

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represent proposed National Marine Sanctuaries and

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one is in one is in the Great Lakes and

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one is a Mallos Bay Potomac River.

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So these special areas help protect the

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ocean and Great Lakes and we call them
National Marine Sanctuaries.

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So a little bit more about sanctuaries,

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before we get into today's presentation,

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we within the National Marine Sanctuary system,

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we're mandated to do education and outreach,

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and research and monitoring,

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and resource protection and, of course,

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management of these underwater treasures

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and many of these special ocean areas were set aside

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by Congress because of their conservation or

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ecological or historical cultural value

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or aesthetic qualities.

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So various reasons of why these underwater parks have been established

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over the last several decades

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and we like to think of these National Marine Sanctuaries as living classrooms.

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These are places that teachers, and students,

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and the public can recreate.

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They can learn and see and touch

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about these underwater
treasures.

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So with that,  I wanted to introduce myself.

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My name is Claire Fackler

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and I am National Education Liaison

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for the sanctuary system and I will be providing

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webinar support today for our special
presentation.

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I wanted to let you know before I introduce our speaker

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that we appreciate any feedback you have related

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to this webinar series.

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So there is an evaluation that shows up at the end of the presentation

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when we close out.

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It would take you probably two to four minutes

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to complete this couple of questions

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and we would greatly appreciate your feedback.

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During today's presentation, all of you as attendees,

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will be in listen-only mode.

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So we have control of your mute and unmute buttons.

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If you have any technical difficulties
go ahead

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and type that into your question box

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and I will be addressing those as I can.

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And if you have any questions,

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go ahead and also type those into the the question box.

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Lindsey, if your question is relevant with something

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that she's talking about, she's invited me to pause her

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and ask the question.

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If I get the question after the relevant topic

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that she's discussing, then we'll do them at the end

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and I'm also going to encourage you at the end,

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if you'd like to actually raise your hand in your control panel

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on GoToWebinar.

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That would alert me that you'd be willing to ask your question

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with me unmuting you.

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So that's also an option at the end of the presentation.

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We're also recording today's session,

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like we do all of our webinars,

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and there will be an archive for today's presentation

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including a PDF of the
presentation itself,

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a one-pager on the educational materials that are discussed,

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and of course the recording of this particular webinar.

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So with that, I would like to introduce our presenter.

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It's Dr. Lindsay Marks.

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She'll be giving the presentation entitled

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the Devil Weed is in the Details the Spread and Ecology of an Invasive Seaweed.

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So a little bit about Lindsay, she's a marine ecologist

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and ocean enthusiast.

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She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in marine biology

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from UC Santa Cruz back in 2007

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and she has studied kelp forest ecology
for the past ten years.

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First as a research diver,

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and then as a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara.

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For her PhD research she studied the invasive seaweed Sargassum horneri

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in Southern California.

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Now she currently holds a postdoctoral fellowship

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with NOAA's Channel Islands
National Marine Sanctuary

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and is based actually in the same office with me here in Santa Barbara.

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So with that I'm going to go ahead and turn the controls over to our presenter.

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Coming your way Lindsay.

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Alright, take it away.

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[Lindsay] Can you see me?

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[Claire] Yes, we can see you.

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[Lindsay] Okay.

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I can't hear you super well, Claire,

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but I'm assuming you can hear me okay.

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[Claire] Yes,  I can hear you.

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Thank you for the introduction

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and hi welcome everyone thanks for tuning in.

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Okay, perfect, alright, we'll get started.

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So as Claire mentioned, for my PhD
research at UC Santa Barbara,

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I studied the spread and ecology of an invasive seaweed

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called Sargassum horneri or devil weed.

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Which is what's shown in the picture here down below the surface of the ocean

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and that's pretty much what
I'm going to talk to you about today.

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But, I want to start by asking or just going over the

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basics, the fundamental point of what are invasive species?

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When people think of environmental impacts by humans,

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invasive species aren't usually the
first thing that comes to mind.

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But, invasive species are actually one of the greatest drivers

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of biodiversity loss worldwide.

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Second only to habitat
destruction.

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And they cost over 120 billon dollars each
year in the US alone to manage.

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So maybe some of you already know this,

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but I just want to hit on what invasive species are.

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So they are plants or animals that are
introduced to new places by humans.

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They're species that do really well in their new habitat

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and they proliferate and spread.

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And also importantly, they have unwanted
impacts,

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either ecological or environmental in the new location.

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And there are tons of examples of invasive species from around the world.

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Some of them you might be familiar with.

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There's the Burmese pythons that have
been described as eating Florida.

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Over 99% of small mammals have disappeared

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in just a few short years since the pythons have been spreading.

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And their importation was banned in the US in 2012.

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In the ocean, invasive lionfish were
accidentally released from aquariums

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and have spread totally unchecked through the Caribbean and in the Atlantic.

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They're known to reduce small prey fish
on reefs by over 90 percent

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in just a few short weeks.

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And they have no known predators.

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The cane toads are now numbering in the millions in Australia.

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And these were also actually intentionally introduced to control sugar cane pests

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but they did really well and their extreme toxicity kills predators

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like alligators and crocodiles.

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So they've also spread all over
Australia.

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Down in the southern states of the US,

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the kudzu vine is spreading all
over and suffocating the trees

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that it grows upon and in the aquatic
environment as well this is a problem.

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On the lower right side is a picture of Caulerpa taxifolia,

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which is an invasive alga that has totally taken over reefs in the Mediterranean.

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[Claire] Sorry Lindsay, let's launch that poll question before you move on.

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So everyone here, we have a quick poll question make sure you're paying attention.

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The question is, a species is considered invasive in a given region if it is

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not native to that region;

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was introduced by humans;

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has unwanted impacts;

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or all of the above.

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So, go ahead and place your vote.

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Alright, we've got over 60% of you that have
voted so keep them coming in.

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Alright, last few of you to want to
vote.

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Alright, I am going to go ahead and close the poll and share the results.

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Alright, looks like most people are paying attention here.

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We're very familiar with your topic, you are correct with all of the above.

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So excellent, I'll go ahead and close that and you can continue your
presentation.

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Thanks Lindsay.

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[Lindsay] Thank you. Well done.

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That's right, that's an
important distinction.

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Sorry, I'll just go back for a moment.

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That's an important distinction.

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Just because the species is not
native to an area

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doesn't necessarily make it invasive.

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It has to have those other components,

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that humans intervened in its introduction

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and that it has those negative impacts.

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So this is an image documenting that global shipping routes

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are a really major part of the world's economy.

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Shipping is a major part
of the world's economy

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and the shipping traffic that's criss crossing

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and connecting coastlines is a big driver

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of invasive species in the marine
environment.

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Unfortunately, along with marine trade comes hitchhikers on these ships.

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An increased transportation around the world

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means more and more
species are being moved by humans.

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This is an image from a single year in 2008
showing all of the tracks

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from the vessels that that transported goods around the ocean.

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On any given day, it's estimated that 5,000 species are in motion

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around the globe due to this shipping.

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As I mentioned, not all introduced species become invasive.

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It's only a small fraction,

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but the problem is that it's a small fraction of a growing number.

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So these are two graphs from different areas of different oceans in the world.

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Showing that over time in
the last hundred years or so,

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a couple hundred years, the number of invasions in the ocean has been increasing

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and in some places that are really fast rate.

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And that's because this global commerce has been accelerating

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So this is a problem in oceans around the world

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and including in our Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary

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and all sanctuaries really.

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I'm working, as Claire mentioned, in Santa Barbara

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and so I've been focused on the
Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary area.

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In our sanctuary here, we've recently been confronted

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with several marine invasive species
that are incurring in our waters.

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These lie off the coast of Southern California

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and as I'm sure we've already heard, National Marine Sanctuaries are
protected

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because these are areas that contain some

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of our most important
underwater resources and treasures

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and the Channel Islands National Marine
Sanctuary contains

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one of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on the planet,

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which are kelp forests.

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So if you've ever had a chance to visit these incredible ecosystems,

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you would understand they are the redwoods of the sea.

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They are these plants that tower from the
reef floor all the way up to the surface

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and create this incredible structure and
habitat for all kinds of plants,

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other plants and animals to live in.

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They support an incredibly diverse spectrum of life in the Channel Islands

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and unfortunately invasive species do threaten the sustainability

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of these ecosystems.

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But, there's still a lot that we need to learn

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about how marine invasions occur and what impacts they have

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and what we can do about them.

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So, when I first came to UC Santa Barbara and I started my graduate degree,

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I started hearing reports of this invasive seaweed

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called devil weed, or Sargassum
horneri,

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that was showing up at some of the long-term monitoring sites in the area

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and it quickly started becoming more and more prevalent

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in just a couple of short years.

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This is an image taken at one of the southern Channel Islands,

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Santa Catalina Island showing the giant kelp as we already talked about

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and some kind of early stages of invasion of this devil weed shown down below there.

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In the fifteen years since its discovery in Southern California,

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it has become super abundant on some reefs

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and change some of them from
looking like this

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to this is what it looks like on a lot of reefs out there now,

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where it literally just looks like a hay field of this stuff.

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It's been unusually warm in the last couple of years around here

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and we've seen natural
declines in native kelp.

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So it's not necessarily that this invasive seaweed

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is crowding out other species like the giant kelp

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but it has done really well in its place.

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Our reefs, some of them have really sort of transitioned

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from kelp dominated to the Sargassum dominated environment

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and why is this a problem?

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While we're concerned that Sargassum
can't necessarily provide

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the same ecological services that kelp forests do,

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it doesn't grow all the way up to the surface

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to form that nice canopy.

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It doesn't necessarily support all of the plants and animals that depend on giant
kelp.

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But it's really hard to predict those impacts of invasive species

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without knowing just some basic information about it first.

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So for my PhD, I asked some pretty fundamental questions about Sargassum,

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like where is it spreading, how is it interacting with native species,

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and what might we be able to do to control its spread.

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And so today, I'm going to talk to you a bit about some of what we've learned

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about the ecology of devil weed.

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So it originated in Japan and was first detected outside

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of that native range in Long Beach
Harbor in California in 2003

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and it's thought to have been introduced by commercial shipping

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and, interestingly, this is the only place in the world

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where it's been found outside of its native range.

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So this could be a really early stage of global invasion.

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Time will tell.

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This is a map showing the the Channel
Islands here

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and the introduction site in Long Beach Harbor.

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I'm going to show you an animation here

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of the progress of the invasion.

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It first spread out to Santa Catalina Island

00:18:02.520 --> 00:18:06.270
and has since spread to five of the eight
Channel Islands

00:18:06.270 --> 00:18:09.240
and north and south along the coast

00:18:09.280 --> 00:18:12.580
all the way down to about halfway down Baja California

00:18:12.580 --> 00:18:16.542
and moving up the coast

00:18:16.542 --> 00:18:20.760
towards Point Conception as well.

00:18:21.790 --> 00:18:25.638
So this has been a pretty rapidly
spreading invasion,

00:18:25.638 --> 00:18:27.760
it's not totally atypical,

00:18:27.760 --> 00:18:35.140
but in 15 years it's covered 700 kilometers of coastline.

00:18:35.140 --> 00:18:38.660
It has a life cycle that I'm just going
to walk you through

00:18:38.660 --> 00:18:41.660
because it's important to what I talk about later.

00:18:41.660 --> 00:18:44.300
But it's an annual species meaning it

00:18:44.300 --> 00:18:47.280
goes through its full cycle of growth and reproduction

00:18:47.280 --> 00:18:49.640
and dies all within one year.

00:18:49.820 --> 00:18:52.400
And so this is what it looks like
in it's really early,

00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:55.020
sort of baby recruit stage.

00:18:56.660 --> 00:18:59.280
And when it's in this phase it can form these really dense mats

00:18:59.280 --> 00:19:03.040
on the reef that have the potential
to exclude other species

00:19:03.040 --> 00:19:08.300
from being able to reach the substrate to attach and grow.

00:19:11.300 --> 00:19:12.920
When it gets a little bit older,

00:19:13.020 --> 00:19:15.560
it develops these gas bladders and those
are full of air

00:19:15.560 --> 00:19:19.280
and that's what allows the plants to sort of stand up into the water column

00:19:19.280 --> 00:19:24.040
and float and create a bit of a canopy below the surface there.

00:19:24.040 --> 00:19:26.780
It can create these really sort of dense,

00:19:26.780 --> 00:19:29.872
as I mentioned, hay field looking swaths.

00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:32.720
Like you can see in the picture here.

00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:37.420
And those canopies can actually be
quite dark underneath.

00:19:37.620 --> 00:19:41.400
This is it almost looks like a redwood forest or something from down below

00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:45.140
but this is an image just from the under underside of that canopy

00:19:45.140 --> 00:19:49.420
and this is concerning and that it might be limiting the light that's reaching the bottom

00:19:49.420 --> 00:19:51.940
that would be available for other species,

00:19:51.940 --> 00:19:53.300
native species, to grow.

00:19:54.820 --> 00:19:59.320
At some point, it reproduces by growing these structures

00:19:59.320 --> 00:20:00.620
called receptacles.

00:20:00.620 --> 00:20:02.580
And it reproduces really heavily

00:20:02.580 --> 00:20:05.290
and as soon as it's done, it senescences and dies

00:20:05.290 --> 00:20:07.700
and comes off the substrate.

00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:12.880
So this is just an outline of what I'm going to cover

00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:14.120
for the rest of the talk.

00:20:14.120 --> 00:20:18.380
A couple of points, why is
Sargassum horneri so successful?

00:20:18.380 --> 00:20:20.480
Can you weed a seaweed?

00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:23.060
I'm going to tell you about our attempts to control it through removal.

00:20:23.060 --> 00:20:26.720
And how can we fight marine invasive species in general?

00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:29.320
Sort of a more broad discussion of marine invasions

00:20:29.380 --> 00:20:32.420
and how they occurred, and what's the best way to deal with them.

00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:39.320
So we'll start with why is Sargassum horneri so successful.

00:20:40.340 --> 00:20:44.760
So a lot of research underwater happens

00:20:44.760 --> 00:20:47.740
by just doing a lot of diving and counting
things

00:20:47.740 --> 00:20:50.280
and that's a picture of me doing just that right here.

00:20:50.280 --> 00:20:52.920
Most of my work was done at Santa Catalina Island

00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:55.580
at Southern Channel Island.

00:20:55.580 --> 00:20:58.120
I'm going to show you some results from some surveys we did

00:20:58.120 --> 00:20:59.918
where we just went out and looked

00:20:59.920 --> 00:21:03.420
at where and when this and other species were growing.

00:21:06.640 --> 00:21:11.000
One question we had, was just where on the reef is it growing?

00:21:11.020 --> 00:21:14.540
A lot of algae can grow anywhere
from the intertidal zone all the way

00:21:14.540 --> 00:21:16.720
down to about a hundred or more feet.

00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:22.780
And so we asked what in that sort of depth range did Sargassum seem to prefer?

00:21:22.980 --> 00:21:25.440
So what we found is over on the right side .

00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:29.440
You can see on the top graph a
distribution of Sargassum, or devil weed.

00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:33.542
We found that it grew all the way
across that range,

00:21:33.542 --> 00:21:36.800
down to 30 meters or about 120 feet,

00:21:36.800 --> 00:21:40.460
but was most abundant in the, sort of, mid-range depth.

00:21:40.460 --> 00:21:43.020
Whereas, if you look on the bottom graph their native algae,

00:21:43.020 --> 00:21:45.720
you don't need to worry about which species they are

00:21:45.720 --> 00:21:49.540
but just know that the different patterns and color indicate different species.

00:21:49.540 --> 00:21:53.420
We can see that they actually all together have a totally opposite pattern

00:21:53.420 --> 00:21:56.940
where there's more native species more shallow and deeper

00:21:56.940 --> 00:21:59.830
but less where the Sargassum is most abundant.

00:22:00.340 --> 00:22:01.980
Which is really interesting.

00:22:01.980 --> 00:22:04.080
It's showing us that Sargassum is doing really well

00:22:04.180 --> 00:22:08.340
in the places where native species
either are not doing so well

00:22:08.340 --> 00:22:13.380
either due to natural causes or potentially because of the Sargassum.

00:22:13.380 --> 00:22:17.240
We can't really tell that at this point but, in any event,

00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:21.540
it's sort of filling this empty space left by native species.

00:22:25.400 --> 00:22:27.660
When doing these surveys through time,

00:22:27.660 --> 00:22:30.640
as well, we can see that a similar pattern emerges through time.

00:22:30.700 --> 00:22:34.420
Where, as I mentioned, that annual lifecycle of Sargassum happens

00:22:34.420 --> 00:22:36.960
so we see really low biomass on the top graph

00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:38.228
in the summer and fall,

00:22:38.228 --> 00:22:40.820
this is when it's in that recruit or baby stage,

00:22:40.820 --> 00:22:43.320
but in the winter and spring,

00:22:43.320 --> 00:22:45.380
that's when it grows up really tall and big

00:22:45.380 --> 00:22:49.000
and reproduces right before it senesces and dies.

00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:50.600
And we can see that the native algae,

00:22:50.600 --> 00:22:53.240
again all kind of clumped together
on the bottom graph there,

00:22:53.240 --> 00:22:55.960
also have sort of an opposite pattern

00:22:55.960 --> 00:22:58.920
where there's more growth in biomass in the summer and fall

00:22:58.920 --> 00:23:01.560
and less in the winter in spring.

00:23:01.900 --> 00:23:08.100
So it appears that Sargassum might do really well here

00:23:08.100 --> 00:23:10.060
just because it has a different, it reaches its greatest biomass

00:23:10.060 --> 00:23:14.820
in times or in places where
native algae are least abundant.

00:23:18.200 --> 00:23:21.320
Thinking about what else might be affecting the spread of Sargassum,

00:23:21.320 --> 00:23:25.580
I also wondered whether herbivores, like urchins or snails, would eat it.

00:23:25.580 --> 00:23:30.300
This is a common reason why species become invasive.

00:23:30.300 --> 00:23:32.380
As I mentioned the lionfish earlier, for example,

00:23:32.420 --> 00:23:36.720
doesn't have any native predators in its invaded range

00:23:36.860 --> 00:23:39.260
which just gives it sort of a leg up

00:23:39.260 --> 00:23:43.000
compared to native species that have evolved with other native species

00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:45.620
and have predator-prey relationships.

00:23:45.620 --> 00:23:50.760
So escaping control by predators or herbivores would be an advantage.

00:23:50.760 --> 00:23:53.800
I wondered if Sargassum might be enjoying that same advantage.

00:23:53.800 --> 00:23:55.520
So I did a field experiment

00:23:55.520 --> 00:23:58.820
where I presented urchins with a buffet
of algae

00:23:58.820 --> 00:24:03.420
including kelp, native kelps on the left here, and Sargassum on the right.

00:24:04.380 --> 00:24:09.720
And we deployed these buffets next to some urchin dens

00:24:09.720 --> 00:24:12.300
and offered them a sample of each species.

00:24:12.300 --> 00:24:14.400
We had some cage treatments on the right side,

00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:17.320
you can see there where herbivores didn't have access.

00:24:17.320 --> 00:24:22.500
And we compared how much of
the tissue was lost after 48 hours

00:24:24.080 --> 00:24:25.680
of all these different species

00:24:25.860 --> 00:24:29.760
and compared that to cage treatments where we didn't get much loss

00:24:29.760 --> 00:24:34.059
to determine how much of each of these the herbivores were eating.

00:24:34.780 --> 00:24:36.580
What we found was,

00:24:36.580 --> 00:24:41.240
here we can see the percent of tissue of those samples we put out

00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:43.513
that was lost from the two kelps,

00:24:43.520 --> 00:24:47.298
the giant kelp and the sea pom, these are the two native species.

00:24:47.298 --> 00:24:49.660
And when we compare that to how much was lost

00:24:49.660 --> 00:24:51.827
of the invasive devil weed,

00:24:51.827 --> 00:24:55.720
only about 10 percent as opposed to 60 to 50,

00:24:55.920 --> 00:24:57.140
it's a lot less.

00:24:57.140 --> 00:25:01.399
So these results suggest
that herbivores are avoiding Sargassum

00:25:01.399 --> 00:25:04.040
and preferring to eat the native kelps.

00:25:04.040 --> 00:25:06.109
Which could potentially be contributing

00:25:06.109 --> 00:25:08.911
to its invasion if it's getting that
advantage.

00:25:08.920 --> 00:25:11.620
If herbivores are preferring to eat the native species,

00:25:11.620 --> 00:25:13.662
they might be sort of paving the way

00:25:13.662 --> 00:25:16.972
and facilitating the spread of the invasive.

00:25:16.980 --> 00:25:21.380
And this is especially concerning in places where urchin predators,

00:25:21.380 --> 00:25:24.160
like lobsters, have been heavily fished

00:25:24.160 --> 00:25:29.920
because without predation inflated urgent populations can decimate native kelp beds

00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:33.180
and again pave the way for Sargassum to spread more easily.

00:25:33.180 --> 00:25:35.660
And we think this is actually happening,

00:25:35.660 --> 00:25:39.260
because in historic marine protected
areas around Anacapa Island,

00:25:39.260 --> 00:25:41.100
in the sanctuary for example,

00:25:41.280 --> 00:25:43.860
where lobsters have had decades to recover

00:25:43.860 --> 00:25:46.600
from overfishing and urchins are back in
check,

00:25:46.600 --> 00:25:48.759
we see reduced levels of Sargassum.

00:25:48.759 --> 00:25:51.563
But, we do still need to do experiments

00:25:51.563 --> 00:25:54.900
to test whether this is why MPAs, or marine protected areas,

00:25:54.900 --> 00:25:57.820
seem resistant to invasion.

00:25:59.220 --> 00:26:03.040
So since it seems like Sargassum has no natural predators,

00:26:03.040 --> 00:26:06.700
I also explored whether we might be able to control it through removal.

00:26:06.700 --> 00:26:12.040
And to do this, I did an experiment where we cleared over 4 tons of Sargassum

00:26:12.040 --> 00:26:15.140
using an underwater vacuum called a super sucker.

00:26:15.320 --> 00:26:18.280
And I'm going to show you a short
video of this project

00:26:18.280 --> 00:26:22.360
so you can see what it's like to do this kind of work underwater.

00:27:58.140 --> 00:28:01.665
[Claire] Lindsay before you dive back in,

00:28:01.665 --> 00:28:05.620
we have a couple of interesting questions here.

00:28:05.679 --> 00:28:10.399
[Lindsay] Right, so this is a pile of the algae
that we removed.

00:28:10.399 --> 00:28:14.740
This is what four tonnes of devil weed looks like.

00:28:14.740 --> 00:28:17.615
Me standing triumphantly on top of it .

00:28:17.620 --> 00:28:21.700
But it was a really important feature.

00:28:25.220 --> 00:28:27.200
Sorry Claire, did you say something?

00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:29.855
[Claire] Gosh we have a 
30-second delay.

00:28:29.860 --> 00:28:33.680
So yeah, before you started I was suggesting a couple of
these questions

00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:35.920
but with the delay, I'm just gonna let you go.

00:28:35.940 --> 00:28:37.400
We'll ask all the questions at the end.

00:28:37.400 --> 00:28:41.560
So continue on. My apologies.

00:28:41.560 --> 00:28:43.800
[Lindsay] Okay, I can actually hear you perfectly right now.

00:28:43.920 --> 00:28:46.220
If you want to.

00:28:46.220 --> 00:28:49.860
Okay, sorry. I could hear you
well but maybe it's not working.

00:28:51.500 --> 00:28:56.980
So it's really important that we did collect
this algae

00:28:56.980 --> 00:29:00.120
because the last thing we want to do is release it and let it go.

00:29:00.120 --> 00:29:01.950
I showed you how it's really buoyant

00:29:01.950 --> 00:29:03.554
because of those gas bladders

00:29:03.560 --> 00:29:06.700
and if we were to release it, it could just float away

00:29:06.700 --> 00:29:08.297
and create whole new populations.

00:29:08.300 --> 00:29:11.400
One thing I didn't mention about the life history

00:29:11.400 --> 00:29:13.360
is that it's a monoecious
species

00:29:13.360 --> 00:29:16.320
which means that it has male and female gametes

00:29:16.320 --> 00:29:18.923
and so it's capable of self fertilization.

00:29:18.923 --> 00:29:21.240
So a single plant, if it were released and let go,

00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:24.700
could drift away and create whole new populations

00:29:24.700 --> 00:29:28.480
as it as it moves along the coast and drops it zygotes.

00:29:28.480 --> 00:29:32.440
So it's important that we collected everything through a vacuum

00:29:32.440 --> 00:29:34.019
instead of letting it go.

00:29:34.020 --> 00:29:38.500
But we ended up clearing almost a third of a square mile,

00:29:38.500 --> 00:29:41.260
a huge area, removing over four tons of algae

00:29:41.260 --> 00:29:43.066
and we did it in three days.

00:29:43.066 --> 00:29:46.640
I had a great team of eleven people helping me.

00:29:46.640 --> 00:29:52.470
So yeah, we cleared a huge
area it looks like we made a great dent

00:29:52.470 --> 00:29:56.300
but the question is, since this is an
annual species what happens

00:29:56.300 --> 00:29:59.680
in the next generation, the next cohort? Right.

00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:02.740
So we cleared it before it had a chance to reproduce.

00:30:02.740 --> 00:30:06.572
This was just prior to the
reproductive phase.

00:30:06.920 --> 00:30:08.540
But the question is,

00:30:08.540 --> 00:30:10.220
what happened in the next generation?

00:30:11.020 --> 00:30:12.940
So I'm going to show you a little bit of data on that.

00:30:13.240 --> 00:30:17.340
So if we look at this graph here on the right, the top one,

00:30:17.340 --> 00:30:20.553
is data we collected before we did
any removals,

00:30:20.560 --> 00:30:23.300
the baseline, in February right before reproduction.

00:30:23.300 --> 00:30:26.820
And in the light gray we have a set of control plots

00:30:26.820 --> 00:30:30.100
where we didn't do anything we just surveyed but left them alone.

00:30:30.100 --> 00:30:33.680
And in the removal plots on the
right hand side and dark gray.

00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:37.840
So following removal, we went back in
September,

00:30:37.840 --> 00:30:39.820
this is the season when we would have expected

00:30:39.820 --> 00:30:43.540
to see the highest number of recruits in that middle graph.

00:30:43.540 --> 00:30:46.500
And we did see we reduced recruitment by about 50%

00:30:46.500 --> 00:30:49.500
compared to the non removal, or the
control plots.

00:30:49.500 --> 00:30:52.260
But that turned into, if you go all the way down to the bottom,

00:30:52.260 --> 00:30:54.620
we went back and measured those as adults,

00:30:54.620 --> 00:30:59.200
the cohort in the next generation, and we
had only about a 25% reduction

00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:01.520
compared to control plots.

00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:06.540
So semi effective, our
treatment was, if you look at it that way.

00:31:06.540 --> 00:31:10.360
But also important to note, on that
vertical axis there are the numbers.

00:31:10.360 --> 00:31:13.600
This is density, or number per meter squared.

00:31:13.600 --> 00:31:15.519
The number is actually just about doubled

00:31:15.520 --> 00:31:19.540
between February 2015 on top and
February 2016 on bottom.

00:31:19.540 --> 00:31:25.760
So ultimately, the the numbers were even higher in the removal plots

00:31:25.760 --> 00:31:28.440
than they were before we did the work.

00:31:28.440 --> 00:31:30.980
Which was a little bit soul-crushing

00:31:30.980 --> 00:31:33.000
but this is how science works.

00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:34.560
So our treatment worked a bit.

00:31:34.560 --> 00:31:37.420
But what this really showed is that, as I mentioned earlier,

00:31:37.420 --> 00:31:39.587
we have had a spell of really warm water.

00:31:39.587 --> 00:31:42.460
We've had a lot of loss of the native giant kelp

00:31:42.460 --> 00:31:45.260
and the Sargassum has done really well in this environment.

00:31:45.260 --> 00:31:48.860
So even though there was
some effective removal,

00:31:48.860 --> 00:31:53.940
ultimately more important factors were the good oceanic conditions,

00:31:53.940 --> 00:31:57.300
perhaps the lack of competition from native species.

00:31:57.300 --> 00:32:01.980
So ultimately, removal was shown to be not a great tool

00:32:01.980 --> 00:32:06.820
to try to control algae, this invasive seaweed.

00:32:06.820 --> 00:32:09.873
At least not during this kind of oceanic environment

00:32:09.880 --> 00:32:13.520
that it's really being favored under.

00:32:15.780 --> 00:32:20.120
However, there is another group that's
carrying the torch with this project.

00:32:20.120 --> 00:32:25.840
The Los Angeles Waterkeeper is sort of
doing phase 3 of this project.

00:32:25.840 --> 00:32:31.720
Where they are removing Sargassum in areas that do have healthy kelp forests

00:32:31.720 --> 00:32:36.060
and it would be a lot better for this work

00:32:36.060 --> 00:32:38.540
to happen in a place where native species are around

00:32:38.540 --> 00:32:41.040
and the conditions are such
that they could recolonize the space

00:32:41.049 --> 00:32:41.937
that's left clear.

00:32:41.937 --> 00:32:44.799
And in the long run, I think it'd be really cool to explore

00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:47.961
maybe seeding these areas with native
species

00:32:47.961 --> 00:32:51.040
to sort of help give them a leg up as well.

00:32:51.580 --> 00:32:55.920
But again, we have to wait for
the water to be suitable for that.

00:32:57.460 --> 00:33:00.260
Okay, so now I want to zoom out a little
bit

00:33:00.260 --> 00:33:05.740
and talk more generally about how we can fight marine invasive species.

00:33:05.740 --> 00:33:09.760
I just showed you an example of how difficult it can be to control them

00:33:09.760 --> 00:33:12.260
once they're already well-established.

00:33:13.740 --> 00:33:18.500
And so although removal is not necessarily a good strategy,

00:33:18.500 --> 00:33:22.060
we still have the option of trying to limit how far we spread it.

00:33:22.060 --> 00:33:23.960
So I'm going to show you another little

00:33:23.960 --> 00:33:26.000
short video here that a colleague made.

00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:29.320
Sort of a public service announcement about how to limit the spread

00:33:29.320 --> 00:33:32.420
of this other invasive algae.

00:33:32.420 --> 00:33:39.559
Oh and actually we figured out this works
better streaming from the internet.

00:33:39.560 --> 00:33:42.980
So just a second while I switch over there.

00:33:46.700 --> 00:33:56.120
[chime music]

00:33:56.120 --> 00:33:59.040
[Narrator] We we need your help to fight marine invasive species.

00:33:59.040 --> 00:34:02.600
Marine species or saltwater species,

00:34:02.600 --> 00:34:06.760
that are not native to an area and they have unwanted impactsin their new location.

00:34:06.760 --> 00:34:09.696
These species are transported from their homes to faraway places

00:34:09.700 --> 00:34:10.974
as hitchhikers aboard ships

00:34:10.974 --> 00:34:13.240
or as aquarium pets released back into the wild.

00:34:13.240 --> 00:34:17.800
They can then be spread across local waters by boats, divers and fishermen.

00:34:17.800 --> 00:34:21.720
Marine invasive species cause major economic and ecological impacts

00:34:21.720 --> 00:34:24.780
costing billions of dollars each year to manage.

00:34:24.780 --> 00:34:29.180
If you're a certified diver you
can help us with this challenging problem.

00:34:29.180 --> 00:34:35.000
[whistling music]

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:37.720
We're currently looking for two
invasive algae spreading

00:34:37.720 --> 00:34:40.560
across the coast of Southern California and the Channel Islands.

00:34:40.560 --> 00:34:44.480
They're called Sargassum horneri and Undaria pinnatifida.

00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:47.360
We need your help to track these dangerous characters,

00:34:47.360 --> 00:34:49.780
pinpointing exactly where you've seen them.

00:34:55.580 --> 00:34:57.100
When you find an invasive seaweed,

00:34:57.100 --> 00:35:01.600
record the species, water depth, life stage and habitat where you saw it.

00:35:01.660 --> 00:35:03.040
Make sure you don't remove it.

00:35:03.040 --> 00:35:04.520
It's easily spread.

00:35:04.520 --> 00:35:06.803
Photos of invasive algae are important too.

00:35:06.803 --> 00:35:09.520
If you have a camera, be sure to take a picture.

00:35:10.040 --> 00:35:13.100
Once you're back on board, record your GPS location

00:35:13.100 --> 00:35:15.540
and the name of the site where you were diving.

00:35:15.540 --> 00:35:18.460
Before you leave a dive site, make sure to check your gear and anchor

00:35:18.460 --> 00:35:20.580
and remove any hitchhiking seaweed.

00:35:21.120 --> 00:35:23.800
Back on land, report the invasive
species you saw

00:35:23.800 --> 00:35:25.260
at marineinvasives.org.

00:35:25.260 --> 00:35:28.640
With this important data, we will be able to
document the spread

00:35:28.640 --> 00:35:31.520
and contain and minimize the impacts of the invasion.

00:35:31.520 --> 00:35:34.520
Have fun diving and remember to report your sighting.

00:35:34.680 --> 00:35:36.360
Thanks for your help.

00:35:36.720 --> 00:35:58.140
[guitar and chorus music]

00:36:07.520 --> 00:36:11.280
[Lindsay] Okay. That looked like it was a little bit jumpy.

00:36:11.280 --> 00:36:13.081
I apologize if that was the case

00:36:13.081 --> 00:36:15.553
and I can provide a link at the end

00:36:15.553 --> 00:36:18.660
if you'd like to be able to watch that again

00:36:18.660 --> 00:36:20.600
if it didn't come through well.

00:36:21.180 --> 00:36:25.780
But the two species that we highlighted in that video,

00:36:25.780 --> 00:36:29.280
they're shown here, Undaria pinnatifida is another invasive algae

00:36:29.280 --> 00:36:32.800
that's starting to show up in the sanctuary in the last couple of years

00:36:32.800 --> 00:36:35.780
and has been invasive worldwide.

00:36:35.780 --> 00:36:38.480
And Sargassum, which I've already been talking about.

00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:43.980
So to prevent the further spread there's their link.

00:36:43.980 --> 00:36:47.700
Only so much we can do in areas where these species have become well established.

00:36:47.700 --> 00:36:50.100
But to prevent further spread,

00:36:50.180 --> 00:36:52.080
we really have to be focusing on the vectors

00:36:52.080 --> 00:36:54.360
or the ways that they are being moved

00:36:54.360 --> 00:36:56.980
from one area to another by people.

00:36:56.980 --> 00:37:01.380
So growing on boat hulls is a
really common thing for Undaria

00:37:01.380 --> 00:37:04.086
and if a fisher or a boat operator

00:37:04.086 --> 00:37:07.760
is not aware of this, and moves from one spot to another,

00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:12.700
they could be inadvertently transporting species to new sites that way.

00:37:12.700 --> 00:37:15.860
Also pulling it up on an anchor and then moving sites

00:37:15.980 --> 00:37:19.660
and dropping anchor elsewhere is another
potential way to spread species.

00:37:19.820 --> 00:37:23.000
So making sure that people are aware

00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:26.300
that this is a problem, that we don't want to be moving non-native species

00:37:26.300 --> 00:37:28.340
from one place to another.

00:37:28.340 --> 00:37:30.160
And if you do find it on your property,

00:37:30.160 --> 00:37:31.820
make sure to dispose of it on land

00:37:31.820 --> 00:37:35.520
as opposed to just letting it out under the water is really critical.

00:37:35.520 --> 00:37:38.240
So we've been doing a lot of outreach locally

00:37:38.240 --> 00:37:41.120
to try to just make sure that people are aware of this issue

00:37:41.120 --> 00:37:45.200
this is an example of a flier to be put
up at harbors

00:37:45.200 --> 00:37:48.940
and boating centers and things like that

00:37:48.940 --> 00:37:50.660
to make people aware of the issue and

00:37:50.660 --> 00:37:53.700
how to spread the word not the weed.

00:37:53.700 --> 00:37:56.280
As we showed in the
video, as well,

00:37:56.280 --> 00:37:59.480
we're looking to citizen scientists and divers interested

00:37:59.480 --> 00:38:01.730
in just helping us document new sightings

00:38:01.730 --> 00:38:05.500
because it's really hard to identify

00:38:05.500 --> 00:38:09.180
where invasive species have spread underwater

00:38:09.180 --> 00:38:12.980
just because it's so inaccessible, people have to be on scuba.

00:38:12.980 --> 00:38:16.660
And so the more eyes in the water
looking for it the better.

00:38:19.020 --> 00:38:23.080
And if you are a local diver you
can absolutely get involved

00:38:23.080 --> 00:38:25.540
with this by reaching out to me

00:38:25.540 --> 00:38:27.700
or looking at marineinvasives org,

00:38:27.700 --> 00:38:30.040
which I'll talk more about in a little bit

00:38:30.040 --> 00:38:34.140
about how you can contribute to our knowledge of where it's spreading.

00:38:36.600 --> 00:38:39.860
This is a website that we've also helped create

00:38:39.860 --> 00:38:43.960
to help educate people about what marine invasive species are,

00:38:43.960 --> 00:38:46.220
why it's important to keep track of them,

00:38:46.220 --> 00:38:48.060
and how you can help.

00:38:48.060 --> 00:38:51.120
So this is actually the website where you can find that video I showed,

00:38:51.120 --> 00:38:55.040
as well as, these fliers and a lot of other resources and information

00:38:55.040 --> 00:38:56.740
about marine invasive.

00:38:57.100 --> 00:38:59.080
Some of which you might find helpful

00:38:59.080 --> 00:39:02.600
for lesson plans or things like that.

00:39:04.600 --> 00:39:07.000
But now I'm gonna zoom out a little bit more.

00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:09.460
I just talked about some dispersal vectors locally

00:39:09.460 --> 00:39:13.380
with the the two species that we
have here in the sanctuary.

00:39:13.380 --> 00:39:19.860
On a more global scale,  how do new
marine invasive species occur?

00:39:21.760 --> 00:39:24.420
One really common way is through ballast water

00:39:24.420 --> 00:39:27.480
and if you don't know what that is, I didn't the first time I heard it,

00:39:27.480 --> 00:39:30.920
I'm going to show you a little animation I made here

00:39:30.920 --> 00:39:35.900
of the way that ships move goods from one coastline to another

00:39:36.560 --> 00:39:41.876
and why they have to use
water as part of that.

00:39:41.880 --> 00:39:46.200
So a ship has to have a certain height in the water column,

00:39:46.200 --> 00:39:48.040
and I think it's called a draught,

00:39:48.040 --> 00:39:51.760
and so it operates most efficiently at a
certain height

00:39:51.760 --> 00:39:54.740
and so that takes into account the weight of its cargo.

00:39:54.740 --> 00:40:00.940
So let's say it arrives in Port A,

00:40:00.940 --> 00:40:03.740
but offloads its cargo in Port
A.

00:40:03.740 --> 00:40:06.380
That is going to reduce the weight on the ship

00:40:06.380 --> 00:40:08.910
and cause it to come up higher.

00:40:08.910 --> 00:40:13.260
To counteract that and get back to its proper draught,

00:40:13.260 --> 00:40:16.540
the ship actually takes in
seawater into its hull

00:40:16.540 --> 00:40:18.920
in that port where it offloaded.

00:40:18.920 --> 00:40:21.600
Now the issue is, say it needs to go elsewhere,

00:40:21.600 --> 00:40:23.940
to Port B to pick up its next load,

00:40:23.940 --> 00:40:26.960
well it needs to make room and create space for that additional weight

00:40:26.960 --> 00:40:30.640
and so it will offload that water as it takes on new cargo

00:40:30.640 --> 00:40:33.400
to maintain that correct draught.

00:40:33.840 --> 00:40:38.284
And so imagine if there are critters that are living in Port A,

00:40:38.284 --> 00:40:41.740
that you've now
potentially released into Port B,

00:40:41.740 --> 00:40:45.260
that's a really common way that invasive
species are spread

00:40:45.260 --> 00:40:49.020
and why most of them are found in harbors around the world.

00:40:50.180 --> 00:40:52.400
Another way that they're spread

00:40:52.400 --> 00:40:54.640
through shipping is by growing on hulls.

00:40:54.640 --> 00:41:00.440
This is a couple images of some invasive species,

00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:02.720
some mussels and Undaria, on the right.

00:41:02.720 --> 00:41:05.360
The other is seaweed I told you about,

00:41:05.360 --> 00:41:07.480
that can grow on hulls and clearly be transported

00:41:07.480 --> 00:41:10.060
from one harbor, or site, to another.

00:41:10.060 --> 00:41:14.280
Boat anchors, we've already talked about a bit.

00:41:15.540 --> 00:41:19.400
The aquarium trade is another big one I
mentioned earlier in this talk.

00:41:19.400 --> 00:41:25.220
Lionfish were introduced to the
Atlantic that way.

00:41:25.220 --> 00:41:28.380
If species are sent as aquarium pets

00:41:28.380 --> 00:41:31.190
and somebody decides they
don't want it anymore,

00:41:31.190 --> 00:41:34.656
can't take care of it anymore, and don't
realize it's a problem

00:41:34.660 --> 00:41:37.180
and release their pets out into the wild,

00:41:37.180 --> 00:41:39.440
this is how a lot of invasions occurred.

00:41:39.440 --> 00:41:44.300
That was also how the Burmese python example occurred, as well.

00:41:44.740 --> 00:41:47.160
So it's really important that people are aware

00:41:47.160 --> 00:41:48.700
that if you don't want your pet anymore,

00:41:48.700 --> 00:41:50.540
you need to just take it back to a pet store.

00:41:51.080 --> 00:41:54.540
There are resources out there to help you deal with it

00:41:54.540 --> 00:41:57.400
and ways other than releasing it
into the wild.

00:41:58.100 --> 00:42:02.060
Another common way is aquaculture in the marine environment.

00:42:02.060 --> 00:42:04.339
This is a growing and really important

00:42:04.340 --> 00:42:07.700
tool for food security, but it does come with problems.

00:42:07.700 --> 00:42:09.956
Either these structures provide;

00:42:09.956 --> 00:42:14.380
invasive species grow really well on man-made structures

00:42:14.380 --> 00:42:17.294
and there's also the potential for species imported

00:42:17.300 --> 00:42:19.760
for aquaculture to escape into the wild.

00:42:19.960 --> 00:42:22.500
So it's something we need to be careful of.

00:42:22.940 --> 00:42:25.717
And packaging material, oddly enough,

00:42:25.717 --> 00:42:30.117
shellfish for example, and worms in this
example I'm showing you,

00:42:30.120 --> 00:42:35.120
seaweed can be packed to keep things moist for shipping

00:42:35.120 --> 00:42:38.160
but sometimes it's discarded without a lot of thought.

00:42:38.160 --> 00:42:42.560
Again, that can be a way to introduce a species into a new environment

00:42:42.560 --> 00:42:44.380
if it's discarded into the water.

00:42:45.620 --> 00:42:49.933
[Claire] Alright Lindsey, this is time for another poll question.

00:42:49.940 --> 00:42:52.060
So I'll go ahead and launch the poll.

00:42:52.060 --> 00:42:56.180
This is just making sure everyone's staying awake and engaged in the webinar.

00:42:56.180 --> 00:42:58.820
So Lindsey just covered this.

00:42:58.820 --> 00:43:04.200
Which of the following are ways marine invasive species are introduced?

00:43:04.200 --> 00:43:06.620
So go ahead and look at your four options there

00:43:06.620 --> 00:43:08.360
and go ahead and vote.

00:43:08.760 --> 00:43:12.120
We're up to 70% of you already voted, so you're on it.

00:43:17.520 --> 00:43:22.080
Okay, we'll give you another five
seconds here to register your vote.

00:43:23.960 --> 00:43:26.920
And we'll see how the pop quiz turned out.

00:43:28.900 --> 00:43:32.240
Alright. Here are the results.

00:43:32.440 --> 00:43:33.980
Everyone's paying attention, Lindsey.

00:43:34.580 --> 00:43:36.720
All of the above; you are absolutely correct.

00:43:36.720 --> 00:43:38.400
Those there's just three of the several examples

00:43:38.400 --> 00:43:40.132
that she gave in her slides.

00:43:40.140 --> 00:43:44.800
But those are different ways that invasive species are introduced.

00:43:45.120 --> 00:43:47.120
Alright, continue on. Thank you.

00:43:48.480 --> 00:43:49.380
Well done. Good job.

00:43:49.380 --> 00:43:50.560
Everyone's still awake.

00:43:52.560 --> 00:43:56.740
I don't want this graph to overwhelm you.

00:43:56.740 --> 00:43:59.828
It's really just a nice demonstration

00:43:59.828 --> 00:44:03.250
to visual to go along with an explanation

00:44:03.250 --> 00:44:06.360
of what the process of invasion really
is.

00:44:06.680 --> 00:44:10.100
And so on the vertical access here,

00:44:10.100 --> 00:44:11.740
we're talking about area infested.

00:44:11.740 --> 00:44:14.260
And it's really just more of, it's not units,

00:44:14.260 --> 00:44:16.160
just think about it conceptually.

00:44:16.400 --> 00:44:20.380
A small area would be on the low

00:44:20.380 --> 00:44:23.354
and then all the way up to where the red is darkest,

00:44:23.360 --> 00:44:26.480
a really large area infest.

00:44:26.480 --> 00:44:30.480
As we move from left to right, across the bottom access there,

00:44:30.480 --> 00:44:33.800
this is sort of the different stages of invasion.

00:44:33.800 --> 00:44:36.140
And what we might be able,

00:44:36.140 --> 00:44:40.460
what a realistic goal would be to deal with an invasion

00:44:40.460 --> 00:44:42.340
at any of these stages.

00:44:42.640 --> 00:44:45.220
So on the left side, species absent,

00:44:45.220 --> 00:44:48.260
there's an arrow there showing introduction.

00:44:48.260 --> 00:44:54.960
This is where a new species is just recently found.

00:44:54.960 --> 00:44:59.700
So basically, the colors are showing the the optimum time

00:44:59.700 --> 00:45:01.680
to deal with invasions.

00:45:01.680 --> 00:45:05.080
What I just explained to you is that prevention,

00:45:05.080 --> 00:45:09.920
thinking about the vectors and preventing introductions from ever taking place

00:45:09.920 --> 00:45:13.200
in the first place is our most powerful tool to deal

00:45:13.200 --> 00:45:16.460
with invasions is to never allow them to
happen in the first place.

00:45:16.460 --> 00:45:20.360
By making sure that we're educating people

00:45:20.360 --> 00:45:22.600
about the
risks of releasing their pets,

00:45:22.600 --> 00:45:27.620
or coming up with alternatives to ballast water,

00:45:27.750 --> 00:45:31.160
moving ballast water from one port to
another, for example,

00:45:31.160 --> 00:45:35.880
by flushing out in the open ocean, which is a common practice to lower the risk

00:45:35.880 --> 00:45:39.640
of spreading species that way, or cleaning
your hull often,

00:45:39.660 --> 00:45:41.100
things like this.

00:45:41.100 --> 00:45:45.280
As we move towards the right, we see
that when once we get small numbers

00:45:45.280 --> 00:45:49.900
of localized populations we could start to
think about a really rapid response

00:45:49.900 --> 00:45:51.620
to deal with this invasion.

00:45:52.620 --> 00:45:56.520
As we move towards the right, when it gets,

00:45:56.520 --> 00:45:59.180
sort of, beyond that point where we could think

00:45:59.180 --> 00:46:01.360
about capturing all of it.

00:46:01.380 --> 00:46:02.900
We're thinking about containment,

00:46:02.900 --> 00:46:05.170
which is, sort of, the
stage I described we're in right now

00:46:05.170 --> 00:46:07.220
with Sargassum and Undaria.

00:46:07.220 --> 00:46:09.020
Where we're trying to prevent further spread

00:46:09.040 --> 00:46:13.300
and then all the way over on the right is
something just completely out of control,

00:46:13.300 --> 00:46:17.014
spread everywhere, then we need
to start thinking

00:46:17.014 --> 00:46:19.440
about managing it in other ways.

00:46:19.440 --> 00:46:20.600
Trying to do restoration,

00:46:20.600 --> 00:46:24.180
thinking about the cascading effects

00:46:24.240 --> 00:46:26.300
that it could have up the food chain

00:46:26.316 --> 00:46:28.209
and managing those in other ways.

00:46:28.209 --> 00:46:31.480
But like I said, really prevention is the very
best policy

00:46:31.480 --> 00:46:34.680
and this is something that we do really well on land, right?

00:46:34.680 --> 00:46:38.040
We have checks at borders, for example,

00:46:38.100 --> 00:46:39.980
to make sure that we're not moving produce

00:46:39.980 --> 00:46:43.200
that could contain pests from one place to another.

00:46:43.200 --> 00:46:47.650
We have programs in lakes to
prevent the spread

00:46:47.650 --> 00:46:50.880
of quagga mussels or zebra mussels.

00:46:51.800 --> 00:46:55.320
And even at our Channel
Islands Parks out here on land,

00:46:55.320 --> 00:47:00.020
we're really careful to make sure to not
spread seeds

00:47:00.020 --> 00:47:02.340
of potentially invasive plants onto land.

00:47:02.340 --> 00:47:05.560
So these are things
that we think about on land and we just

00:47:05.560 --> 00:47:09.240
need to start doing a better job of
thinking about them in the water.

00:47:13.900 --> 00:47:16.980
If we do get past that point and something is introduced,

00:47:16.980 --> 00:47:22.220
it's always a conversation of is eradication a possibility?

00:47:22.220 --> 00:47:27.240
There are a handful of cases where that was an effective strategy

00:47:27.240 --> 00:47:29.160
in the marine
environment.

00:47:29.160 --> 00:47:31.560
So that algae I mentioned earlier, that was invasive

00:47:31.560 --> 00:47:34.940
in the Mediterranean, Caulerpa taxifolia,

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:38.860
it was detected in California in the
same year

00:47:38.860 --> 00:47:41.320
that Sargassum was actually.

00:47:41.320 --> 00:47:44.980
But, it was already invasive elsewhere in
the world.

00:47:44.980 --> 00:47:47.440
So people were really on top of it.

00:47:47.440 --> 00:47:51.120
They were very concerned here
in California about the potential consequences

00:47:51.120 --> 00:47:54.860
to our reefs and our communities here.

00:47:54.860 --> 00:48:01.100
And so there was a really major effort taken to eradicate Caulerpa

00:48:01.100 --> 00:48:04.580
from the areas where it was found near the Port of Long Beach.

00:48:04.580 --> 00:48:08.620
They did this using a tenting method, where it was really labor-intensive,

00:48:08.620 --> 00:48:12.540
but one strategy is, with plants underwater,

00:48:12.540 --> 00:48:17.460
if you're able to contain them and kill the the patches underneath,

00:48:17.460 --> 00:48:20.140
like a tent like this in the right hand picture.

00:48:20.860 --> 00:48:25.880
If you are truly able to get all of the population,

00:48:25.880 --> 00:48:29.040
theoretically you will be able to eradicate it

00:48:29.040 --> 00:48:32.280
and with this example it
was caught early enough

00:48:32.280 --> 00:48:34.800
that eradication was successful.

00:48:34.800 --> 00:48:37.000
Which is really amazing
and shows

00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:39.740
that rapid response is a realistic option

00:48:39.740 --> 00:48:43.740
if it's well executed, and funded well enough.

00:48:43.747 --> 00:48:49.100
But again, you have to be able to catch it really early on

00:48:49.100 --> 00:48:50.760
and have a good strategy in place.

00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:54.620
But again, this is something that we do well in other areas,

00:48:54.620 --> 00:48:56.260
like chemical pollution containment.

00:48:56.260 --> 00:48:59.040
If there's an oil spill. there are a lot of funds,

00:48:59.040 --> 00:49:06.500
trained volunteers, there's a protocol in place to deal with chemical pollution containment.

00:49:06.500 --> 00:49:09.340
I would argue that we would do well

00:49:09.340 --> 00:49:12.580
to come up with a similar response for biological pollution,

00:49:12.580 --> 00:49:15.220
like an invasion of a new species.

00:49:15.220 --> 00:49:19.000
Particularly because in the long run,

00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:23.500
invasive species can have much longer term impacts

00:49:23.600 --> 00:49:25.300
then even a chemical spill.

00:49:25.300 --> 00:49:26.820
As bad as that is

00:49:26.820 --> 00:49:30.180
and as good as it is that we have good ways to deal with it.

00:49:30.720 --> 00:49:35.720
I think we need to to give do
due diligence

00:49:35.720 --> 00:49:39.060
to biological invasions as well because they have the potential

00:49:39.060 --> 00:49:42.180
to have consequences for many, many, many years to come.

00:49:45.100 --> 00:49:50.140
[Claire] Alright. Just to pause you, we have our third and final poll question.

00:49:50.140 --> 00:49:52.120
Launching the poll right now.

00:49:52.120 --> 00:49:55.640
When's the best time for trying to eradicate an invasive species?

00:49:56.420 --> 00:49:57.780
Immediately after its detected,

00:49:57.780 --> 00:49:59.180
one year after its detected,

00:49:59.180 --> 00:50:02.840
or after a full environmental assessment of its impacts.

00:50:03.440 --> 00:50:05.720
Go for it, halfway there.

00:50:07.940 --> 00:50:11.020
Alright, more than 70% of you have
voted.

00:50:14.060 --> 00:50:18.660
I'll close the poll in just another five seconds.

00:50:23.340 --> 00:50:25.020
Here are the results.

00:50:26.600 --> 00:50:28.940
So there were a quarter of the folks

00:50:28.940 --> 00:50:32.600
that were thinking after a full environmental assessment of its impacts,

00:50:32.600 --> 00:50:36.400
but the majority, three-quarters, say immediately.

00:50:36.400 --> 00:50:38.160
Correct on the immediately.

00:50:38.160 --> 00:50:42.200
Do you have any more feedback on the after a full environmental assessment?

00:50:47.520 --> 00:50:49.660
[Lindsay] I know that was a tricky question

00:50:49.660 --> 00:50:52.240
because
that is always a concern as well.

00:50:52.240 --> 00:50:54.260
How worried do we need to be about this?

00:50:54.260 --> 00:50:55.476
Do we need to take action?

00:50:55.480 --> 00:50:58.000
That is always sort of a catch-22.

00:51:00.100 --> 00:51:02.840
How much resources should we put into dealing

00:51:02.840 --> 00:51:04.280
with something that we know is a risk,

00:51:04.280 --> 00:51:06.099
but we don't know how big of a risk.

00:51:06.099 --> 00:51:09.502
But the key is that, we really have such a short window,

00:51:09.502 --> 00:51:11.280
as I showed on that graph,

00:51:12.580 --> 00:51:15.040
of being able to truly eradicate
something.

00:51:15.040 --> 00:51:18.300
If we have any indication that it may become a problem,

00:51:18.660 --> 00:51:23.040
I think the only window we have is to act immediately.

00:51:24.400 --> 00:51:27.775
Good point, it's a philosophical question.

00:51:27.780 --> 00:51:30.920
I put A, but it does bring up really important conversations

00:51:30.920 --> 00:51:36.320
that do need to happen about what species will we deal with.

00:51:36.320 --> 00:51:38.319
As I mentioned in the case of Caulerpa,

00:51:38.319 --> 00:51:41.160
since it was invasive elsewhere in the world,

00:51:41.160 --> 00:51:43.200
that really fueled that decision .

00:51:43.200 --> 00:51:46.860
Now that we've seen that the same action wasn't taken with Sargassum

00:51:46.860 --> 00:51:51.340
and how widely it spread, I wonder if that's worth revisiting

00:51:51.340 --> 00:51:54.260
if it was worth waiting to to determine.

00:51:54.740 --> 00:51:57.100
Yes, it really was a really invasive species.

00:51:59.600 --> 00:52:03.540
So I will just wrap up here by
going back

00:52:03.540 --> 00:52:06.420
over the things we talked about today.

00:52:06.420 --> 00:52:10.540
So Sargassum appears to be a
really highly pervasive

00:52:10.540 --> 00:52:13.860
and still actively spreading invasive seaweed.

00:52:13.860 --> 00:52:16.150
Its life history allows it to reproduce

00:52:16.150 --> 00:52:18.760
really rapidly, it has really high
dispersal

00:52:18.760 --> 00:52:23.500
and it's most abundant in times and in
places when native algae are less.

00:52:24.820 --> 00:52:26.920
It seems like can you weed a seaweed

00:52:26.920 --> 00:52:32.340
that removable is not a viable strategy in highly infested places.

00:52:32.340 --> 00:52:35.160
Although, this might be a good tool if we wanted

00:52:35.160 --> 00:52:41.020
to really pick selective areas that we
wanted to maybe think about removals

00:52:41.020 --> 00:52:43.055
then that might be a direction to go.

00:52:43.060 --> 00:52:46.340
For example in a marine protected area or the sanctuary,

00:52:46.340 --> 00:52:50.740
a place where you're preserving it for it's really high value

00:52:50.740 --> 00:52:52.311
in terms of native biodiversity,

00:52:52.311 --> 00:52:54.520
that might be a place where we think about it.

00:52:54.520 --> 00:53:00.190
But on a grand scale there's really not
much we can do to reduce the abundance

00:53:00.190 --> 00:53:05.680
of an invasive at the scale that
Sargassum has already become, unfortunately.

00:53:06.380 --> 00:53:11.680
Prevention is a much better strategy to prevent the next Sargassum.

00:53:12.340 --> 00:53:15.140
How can we fight marine invasive species?

00:53:15.140 --> 00:53:17.794
Well locally spread the word not the weed.

00:53:17.794 --> 00:53:20.900
Make sure that boaters and divers and water users are aware

00:53:20.900 --> 00:53:25.960
of invasive species and how to
not contribute to their further spread.

00:53:25.960 --> 00:53:28.820
Also remember that minimizing
introductions

00:53:28.820 --> 00:53:31.880
by regulating vectors is really the best way we have

00:53:31.880 --> 00:53:34.480
to prevent invasive species going forward.

00:53:35.100 --> 00:53:39.610
And we ultimately need to make
invasive species more of a conversation.

00:53:39.610 --> 00:53:43.680
As I started this talk, I said I
told you it's the second greatest driver

00:53:43.680 --> 00:53:46.620
of biodiversity loss in the whole world

00:53:46.620 --> 00:53:48.400
and it costs us billions of dollars.

00:53:48.420 --> 00:53:51.460
Yet, it's it's not really something many
people think about

00:53:51.460 --> 00:53:54.680
when we think about environmental human impacts.

00:53:54.680 --> 00:53:56.920
So I think the more that we can sort of talk about this,

00:53:56.920 --> 00:54:00.070
think about this, the better off we'll be

00:54:00.070 --> 00:54:02.660
to be able to deal with it moving
forward.

00:54:04.180 --> 00:54:08.180
So I just want to take a moment to acknowledge all of the people

00:54:08.180 --> 00:54:09.320
who've helped me with my work

00:54:09.320 --> 00:54:13.260
and the wonderful support I've gotten from these different agencies

00:54:13.260 --> 00:54:18.720
including the National Marine Sanctuaries Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program.

00:54:21.380 --> 00:54:26.240
I will just end here with a slide
showing you a couple of resources.

00:54:26.240 --> 00:54:30.060
Down at the bottom there is that marineinvasives.org website I told you about

00:54:30.070 --> 00:54:32.500
where if you want to learn any more about our regional marine invasive species

00:54:32.500 --> 00:54:37.240
and get the resources that I've shown you today.

00:54:37.240 --> 00:54:40.642
There's also a NOAA invasive species lesson plan.

00:54:40.642 --> 00:54:43.880
If you want me to do a lesson in your classroom

00:54:43.880 --> 00:54:47.960
to teach your students about invasive species.

00:54:47.960 --> 00:54:50.320
That provides some guidelines and examples and some key outcomes,

00:54:50.320 --> 00:54:54.600
basically outlining the concepts.

00:54:56.580 --> 00:55:00.740
There are some things about things you can teach your students

00:55:00.740 --> 00:55:03.680
to help them understand invasive species.

00:55:03.680 --> 00:55:08.720
I also found another great webinar on the same series on invasive lionfish.

00:55:09.040 --> 00:55:12.180
So if you're interested in the topic and you want to learn more

00:55:12.180 --> 00:55:15.000
about another invasive species over on the Atlantic

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:18.400
that's a fantastic webinar to check out the archive for.

00:55:18.400 --> 00:55:24.380
And with that I will take any questions if we have time, Claire.

00:55:24.380 --> 00:55:30.120
[Claire] Okay excellent! Thank You Lindsay for your great presentation.

00:55:30.120 --> 00:55:32.000
We do have several questions.

00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:34.640
People are, I'm sure, extremely interested in getting the response to.

00:55:34.640 --> 00:55:38.500
So the first question is coming from Lorraine

00:55:38.500 --> 00:55:45.620
and she is interested in knowing how this Sargassum horneri is doing in its native habitat

00:55:45.620 --> 00:55:49.360
and if there's any natural predator in
its native habitat?

00:55:53.980 --> 00:55:56.200
[Lindsay] That's a great question.

00:55:56.540 --> 00:56:01.300
So it's been challenging to learn a lot about Sargassum.

00:56:01.400 --> 00:56:04.520
That's why a lot of my work was kind of really basic life history stuff

00:56:04.520 --> 00:56:09.020
because there's not a lot known about it in its native range.

00:56:09.020 --> 00:56:14.040
But, I do know that it's not necessarily the dominant alga over there.

00:56:14.040 --> 00:56:15.980
There are many other species of seaweed.

00:56:15.980 --> 00:56:20.980
I know that they are actually trying to
restore it in some places

00:56:20.980 --> 00:56:23.720
where it's died back from coastal development.

00:56:23.720 --> 00:56:24.842
So that's sort of ironic.

00:56:24.842 --> 00:56:28.900
If only we could just ship ours back to them.

00:56:29.740 --> 00:56:34.860
I do know that urchins do eat it over there.

00:56:34.860 --> 00:56:41.820
So it's I guess I didn't go into why I
thought that urchins over here are avoiding it.

00:56:41.820 --> 00:56:44.940
But Sargassum is part of an order called Fucales

00:56:44.940 --> 00:56:48.360
that tend to have really high levels of
chemical defenses to herbivory.

00:56:48.360 --> 00:56:52.960
So they just taste sort of bitter, they just
don't taste good to herbivores.

00:56:52.960 --> 00:56:58.390
And so given the choice over here, our urchins appear to be preferring tastier kelp.

00:56:58.390 --> 00:57:03.760
But over there, it's possible that
they've sort of had time to evolve

00:57:03.760 --> 00:57:09.300
to not be as bothered by whatever
chemical defenses the Sargassum may have.

00:57:09.310 --> 00:57:15.530
So it is consumed, it is a player in the
ecology over there,

00:57:15.530 --> 00:57:18.440
but it's not nearly as dominant over there

00:57:18.440 --> 00:57:21.880
as it is in some places we've seen it here in California.

00:57:22.740 --> 00:57:24.508
[Claire] Oh great, thank you.

00:57:24.508 --> 00:57:26.920
So a follow up question is,

00:57:26.920 --> 00:57:29.740
is there any economic value for the collected seaweed?

00:57:29.740 --> 00:57:33.520
Like basically after removal, are there any uses?

00:57:33.520 --> 00:57:37.940
Can it be composted? Is there any value?

00:57:40.240 --> 00:57:42.320
[Lindsay] Yeah, also a great question.

00:57:42.320 --> 00:57:47.560
We tried to compost the stuff that we collected on our big removal.

00:57:47.560 --> 00:57:50.060
Unfortunately, it kind of  just dried
up and blew away.

00:57:50.060 --> 00:57:54.920
But there are other invasive algae removal projects.

00:57:54.920 --> 00:57:59.180
For example, one in Hawaii where the material collected

00:57:59.180 --> 00:58:03.970
is picked up by local farmers who do use it as fertilizer.

00:58:03.970 --> 00:58:07.740
Apparently it's a great great source
of nutrients for that.

00:58:07.740 --> 00:58:11.254
So I think that there absolutely is potential there.

00:58:11.254 --> 00:58:22.839
Other people have come up with ideas for soap, putting it in beer, there are medical uses

00:58:22.840 --> 00:58:25.460
of similar species as well.

00:58:25.460 --> 00:58:29.400
I don't know how large-scale that would really be.

00:58:29.410 --> 00:58:33.150
The trick is coming up with an operation in a system

00:58:33.150 --> 00:58:36.580
for using it but I do think that there are ways.

00:58:36.580 --> 00:58:42.840
We just need someone to to create a market.

00:58:43.520 --> 00:58:46.860
[Claire] Excellent, well it's good to know that there are some possibilities

00:58:46.860 --> 00:58:50.280
for a future market for something like
Sargassum horneri.

00:58:50.280 --> 00:58:54.860
I guess we can probably take one additional question before we wrap up here.

00:58:54.860 --> 00:58:59.880
We have a participant named Laura
that's thanking you

00:58:59.880 --> 00:59:01.620
for a very interesting and informative talk.

00:59:01.620 --> 00:59:07.540
She's curious if you have some specific examples of escapements from aquaculture farms

00:59:07.540 --> 00:59:11.680
that resulted in invasions of non-native species that had a significant negative impact

00:59:11.680 --> 00:59:14.020
on local native species.

00:59:14.020 --> 00:59:18.657
Maybe outside your realm of expertise but perhaps in your studies.

00:59:18.660 --> 00:59:20.540
You may have a quick example you can
share.

00:59:23.580 --> 00:59:26.380
[Lindsay] Laura, that's a great question.

00:59:26.380 --> 00:59:28.509
I'm sorry none are really coming
to mind

00:59:28.509 --> 00:59:30.240
but I would be happy to look into it

00:59:30.240 --> 00:59:33.320
and if I can get your contact
information from Claire,

00:59:33.323 --> 00:59:36.072
I'd be happy to send you some examples.

00:59:36.072 --> 00:59:38.680
There will be several questions we won't be

00:59:38.680 --> 00:59:41.120
able to get to today, based on our time,

00:59:41.120 --> 00:59:44.840
so I will absolutely follow up with Lindsay to get responses

00:59:44.840 --> 00:59:48.040
and send it out to all of the participants.

00:59:48.040 --> 00:59:52.560
So with thatI will go ahead and take over control

00:59:52.560 --> 00:59:56.980
and wrap up our webinar for today.

01:00:03.320 --> 01:00:07.380
I do want to share that and remind you

01:00:08.020 --> 01:00:12.860
that the archive for today's presentation and for all previous webinars

01:00:12.860 --> 01:00:15.740
in this distance learning series are available on that web link.

01:00:15.740 --> 01:00:17.600
Don't fret and try to write it down.

01:00:17.600 --> 01:00:23.000
I will be sending a follow-up email just a few minutes after today's webinar ends

01:00:23.000 --> 01:00:25.760
and it'll have that link in there
and you'll be alerted

01:00:25.766 --> 01:00:27.528
when the archive is available.

01:00:27.528 --> 01:00:30.700
We are a little short-staffed on the web support,

01:00:30.700 --> 01:00:33.211
so it generally has been taking us about a
week to two weeks

01:00:33.220 --> 01:00:36.080
to get it up online, unfortunately.

01:00:36.080 --> 01:00:41.840
But if you have any follow-up questions go ahead and email sanctuary.education@noaa.gov.

01:00:41.840 --> 01:00:45.280
Following today's presentation,

01:00:45.280 --> 01:00:48.788
all participants will receive a certificate of attendance.

01:00:48.788 --> 01:00:53.260
This is just a sample from last month's deep-ocean presentation,

01:00:53.260 --> 01:00:56.680
but this will provide documentation for one hour

01:00:56.680 --> 01:01:00.420
of professional development based
on your participation today.

01:01:00.420 --> 01:01:05.680
And as an example, this was based on feedback that webinar participants

01:01:05.680 --> 01:01:08.520
in the beginning of our series a couple of years ago said

01:01:08.520 --> 01:01:10.840
"Hey, is there any way you can have a way to document,

01:01:10.840 --> 01:01:14.620
let us document that we participated in this for continuing education

01:01:14.620 --> 01:01:16.076
and professional development?"

01:01:16.080 --> 01:01:18.260
Which then we created the survey.

01:01:18.260 --> 01:01:22.520
So any other feedback you have is greatly appreciated

01:01:22.520 --> 01:01:25.420
and I mentioned at the beginning and I'll
mention again

01:01:25.420 --> 01:01:29.720
that we do have that short evaluation at the end of today's presentation

01:01:29.720 --> 01:01:31.960
that will take you just a few minutes to complete.

01:01:31.960 --> 01:01:35.840
We are greatly appreciate any feedback that you're willing to share with us.

01:01:35.840 --> 01:01:41.200
For those that might be interested in the topic of plastics and microplastics,

01:01:41.200 --> 01:01:46.860
we have Anna Roruck, she's one of our current foster Nancy Foster
Scholars

01:01:46.860 --> 01:01:48.640
at the University of Rhode Island.

01:01:48.640 --> 01:01:50.758
She's at the Graduate School of
Oceanography

01:01:50.760 --> 01:01:55.020
and she will provide an overview of the ocean plastic pollution problem

01:01:55.020 --> 01:01:58.980
and explain the difference between marine debris and microplastics.

01:01:58.980 --> 01:02:03.860
I think this will be a webinar of high interest

01:02:03.920 --> 01:02:06.400
and you can register with
that link below

01:02:06.400 --> 01:02:09.800
that will be in the email coming your way just shortly.

01:02:09.800 --> 01:02:13.560
So with that, I wanted to say a big thank you again to Dr. Lindsay Marks

01:02:13.560 --> 01:02:18.460
for her very informative and visually beautiful presentation

01:02:18.460 --> 01:02:22.200
and we greatly appreciate
your time.

01:02:22.200 --> 01:02:24.180
I will get the additional questions to you.

01:02:24.180 --> 01:02:26.320
For the rest of you, we appreciate your support

01:02:26.320 --> 01:02:29.120
and your interest in our webinar series.

01:02:29.120 --> 01:02:35.700
Any feedback you have we would be most appreciative to get.

01:02:35.700 --> 01:02:38.740
So with that, this concludes today's webinar.

01:02:38.740 --> 01:02:40.360
Thank you.