Dee Boersma: Pay attention to penguins

20,978 views ・ 2010-05-19

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:16
I want to talk about penguins today.
0
16260
2000
00:18
But first, I want to start by saying that
1
18260
2000
00:20
we need a new operating system,
2
20260
2000
00:22
for the oceans and for the Earth.
3
22260
3000
00:25
When I came to the Galapagos 40 years ago,
4
25260
2000
00:27
there were 3,000 people
5
27260
2000
00:29
that lived in the Galapagos.
6
29260
3000
00:32
Now there are over 30,000.
7
32260
2000
00:34
There were two Jeeps on Santa Cruz.
8
34260
3000
00:37
Now, there are around a thousand trucks
9
37260
2000
00:39
and buses and cars there.
10
39260
3000
00:42
So the fundamental problems that we face
11
42260
3000
00:45
are overconsumption and too many people.
12
45260
3000
00:48
It's the same problems in the Galapagos,
13
48260
2000
00:50
except, obviously,
14
50260
2000
00:52
it's worse here, in some ways, than other places.
15
52260
3000
00:55
Because we've only doubled the population of the Earth
16
55260
3000
00:58
since the 1960s -- a little more than doubled --
17
58260
3000
01:01
but we have 6.7 billion people in the world,
18
61260
3000
01:04
and we all like to consume.
19
64260
2000
01:06
And one of the major problems that we have
20
66260
2000
01:08
is our operating system
21
68260
2000
01:10
is not giving us the proper feedback.
22
70260
2000
01:12
We're not paying the true
23
72260
2000
01:14
environmental costs of our actions.
24
74260
3000
01:17
And when I came at age 22 to live on Fernandina,
25
77260
3000
01:20
let me just say, that I had never
26
80260
2000
01:22
camped before.
27
82260
2000
01:24
I had never lived alone
28
84260
2000
01:26
for any period of time,
29
86260
2000
01:28
and I'd never slept with sea lions
30
88260
2000
01:30
snoring next to me all night.
31
90260
3000
01:33
But moreover, I'd never lived on an uninhabited island.
32
93260
3000
01:36
Punta Espinosa is where I lived for over a year,
33
96260
2000
01:38
and we call it uninhabited
34
98260
2000
01:40
because there are no people there.
35
100260
2000
01:42
But it's alive with life;
36
102260
2000
01:44
it's hardly uninhabited.
37
104260
3000
01:47
So a lot has happened in the last 40 years,
38
107260
3000
01:50
and what I learned when I came to the Galapagos
39
110260
2000
01:52
is the importance of wild places, wild things,
40
112260
3000
01:55
certainly wildlife,
41
115260
2000
01:57
and the amazing qualities that penguins have.
42
117260
3000
02:00
Penguins are real athletes:
43
120260
2000
02:02
They can swim 173 kilometers in a day.
44
122260
3000
02:05
They can swim at the same speed day and night --
45
125260
3000
02:08
that's faster than any Olympic swimmer.
46
128260
2000
02:10
I mean, they can do like seven kilometers an hour
47
130260
2000
02:12
and sustain it.
48
132260
2000
02:14
But what is really amazing, because of this deepness here,
49
134260
3000
02:17
Emperor penguins can go down
50
137260
2000
02:19
more than 500 meters
51
139260
2000
02:21
and they can hold their breath for 23 minutes.
52
141260
2000
02:23
Magellanic penguins, the ones that I work on,
53
143260
3000
02:26
they can dive to about 90 meters
54
146260
2000
02:28
and they can stay down for
55
148260
2000
02:30
about 4.6 minutes.
56
150260
2000
02:32
Humans, without fins: 90 meters, 3.5 minutes.
57
152260
3000
02:35
And I doubt anybody in this room
58
155260
2000
02:37
could really hold their breath for 3.5 minutes.
59
157260
3000
02:40
You have to train to be able to do that.
60
160260
2000
02:42
So penguins are amazing athletes.
61
162260
2000
02:44
The other thing is, I've never met anybody
62
164260
2000
02:46
that really doesn't say that they like penguins.
63
166260
3000
02:49
They're comical, they walk upright,
64
169260
3000
02:52
and, of course, they're diligent.
65
172260
2000
02:54
And, more importantly, they're well-dressed.
66
174260
2000
02:56
So they have all the criteria
67
176260
2000
02:58
that people normally like.
68
178260
2000
03:00
But scientifically, they're amazing because they're sentinels.
69
180260
3000
03:03
They tell us about our world in a lot of different ways,
70
183260
3000
03:06
and particularly the ocean.
71
186260
2000
03:08
This is a picture of a Galapagos penguin
72
188260
2000
03:10
that's on the front of a little zodiac here in the Galapagos.
73
190260
3000
03:13
And that's what I came to study.
74
193260
2000
03:15
I thought I was going to study the social behavior of Galapagos penguins,
75
195260
3000
03:18
but you already know
76
198260
2000
03:20
penguins are rare.
77
200260
2000
03:22
These are the rarest penguins in the world.
78
202260
2000
03:24
Why I thought I was going to be able to do that, I don't know.
79
204260
3000
03:27
But the population has changed
80
207260
2000
03:29
dramatically since I was first here.
81
209260
2000
03:31
When I counted penguins for the first time
82
211260
2000
03:33
and tried to do a census,
83
213260
2000
03:35
we just counted all the individual beaks that we could
84
215260
2000
03:37
around all these islands.
85
217260
3000
03:40
We counted around 2,000, so I don't know how many penguins there really are,
86
220260
3000
03:43
but I know I can count 2,000.
87
223260
2000
03:45
If you go and do it now, the national parks
88
225260
3000
03:48
count about 500.
89
228260
2000
03:50
So we have a quarter of the penguins
90
230260
2000
03:52
that we did 40 years ago.
91
232260
2000
03:54
And this is true of most of our living systems.
92
234260
3000
03:57
We have less than we had before,
93
237260
2000
03:59
and most of them are in fairly steep decline.
94
239260
3000
04:02
And I want to just show you a little bit about why.
95
242260
2000
04:04
(Braying)
96
244260
5000
04:09
That's a penguin braying
97
249260
2000
04:11
to tell you that
98
251260
2000
04:13
it's important to pay attention to penguins.
99
253260
2000
04:15
Most important of all,
100
255260
2000
04:17
I didn't know what that was the first time I heard it.
101
257260
3000
04:20
And you can imagine sleeping on Fernandina your first night there
102
260260
3000
04:23
and you hear this lonesome, plaintful call.
103
263260
3000
04:27
I fell in love with penguins,
104
267260
2000
04:29
and it certainly has changed the rest of my life.
105
269260
2000
04:31
What I found out I was studying
106
271260
2000
04:33
is really the difference in how the Galapagos changes,
107
273260
3000
04:36
the most extreme variation.
108
276260
2000
04:38
You've heard about these El Ninos,
109
278260
3000
04:41
but this is the extreme that penguins all over the world
110
281260
2000
04:43
have to adapt to.
111
283260
2000
04:45
This is a cold-water event
112
285260
2000
04:47
called La Nina.
113
287260
2000
04:49
Where it's blue and it's green, it means the water is really cold.
114
289260
3000
04:52
And so you can see this current coming up --
115
292260
2000
04:54
in this case, the Humboldt Current --
116
294260
2000
04:56
that comes all the way out to the Galapagos Islands,
117
296260
3000
04:59
and this deep undersea current, the Cromwell Current,
118
299260
3000
05:02
that upwells around the Galapagos.
119
302260
2000
05:04
That brings all the nutrients:
120
304260
2000
05:06
When this is cold in the Galapagos,
121
306260
3000
05:09
it's rich, and there's plenty of food for everyone.
122
309260
3000
05:12
When we have extreme El Nino events,
123
312260
2000
05:14
you see all this red,
124
314260
2000
05:16
and you see no green
125
316260
2000
05:18
out here around the Galapagos.
126
318260
2000
05:20
That means that there's no upwelling,
127
320260
2000
05:22
and there's basically no food.
128
322260
3000
05:25
So it's a real desert
129
325260
2000
05:27
for not only for the penguins and the sea lions and the marine iguanas ...
130
327260
3000
05:30
things die when there's no food.
131
330260
2000
05:32
But we didn't even know that that
132
332260
2000
05:34
affected the Galapagos when I went to study penguins.
133
334260
3000
05:37
And you can imagine being on an island hoping you're going to see penguins,
134
337260
3000
05:40
and you're in the middle of an El Nino event
135
340260
2000
05:42
and there are no penguins.
136
342260
2000
05:44
They're not breeding; they're not even around.
137
344260
2000
05:46
I studied marine iguanas at that point.
138
346260
3000
05:49
But this is a global phenomenon, we know that.
139
349260
3000
05:52
And if you look along the coast of Argentina, where I work now,
140
352260
2000
05:54
at a place called Punta Tombo --
141
354260
2000
05:56
the largest Magellanic penguin colony in the world
142
356260
2000
05:58
down here about 44 degrees south latitude --
143
358260
3000
06:02
you see that there's great variation here.
144
362260
2000
06:04
Some years, the cold water
145
364260
2000
06:06
goes all the way up to Brazil,
146
366260
2000
06:08
and other years, in these La Nina years, it doesn't.
147
368260
3000
06:11
So the oceans don't always act together; they act differently,
148
371260
3000
06:14
but that is the kind of variation
149
374260
2000
06:16
that penguins have to live with,
150
376260
2000
06:18
and it's not easy.
151
378260
2000
06:20
So when I went to study the Magellanic penguins,
152
380260
2000
06:22
I didn't have any problems.
153
382260
2000
06:24
There were plenty of them.
154
384260
2000
06:26
This is a picture at Punta Tombo in February
155
386260
2000
06:28
showing all the penguins along the beach.
156
388260
2000
06:30
I went there because the Japanese wanted to start harvesting them
157
390260
3000
06:33
and turning them into high fashion golf gloves,
158
393260
3000
06:36
protein and oil.
159
396260
2000
06:38
Fortunately, nobody has harvested any penguins
160
398260
3000
06:41
and we're getting over 100,000 tourists a year to see them.
161
401260
3000
06:44
But the population is declining
162
404260
3000
06:47
and it's declined fairly substantially, about 21 percent
163
407260
3000
06:50
since 1987, when I started these surveys,
164
410260
3000
06:53
in terms of number of active nests.
165
413260
2000
06:55
Here, you can see where Punta Tombo is,
166
415260
2000
06:57
and they breed in incredibly dense colonies.
167
417260
2000
06:59
We know this because of long-term science,
168
419260
3000
07:02
because we have long-term studies there.
169
422260
2000
07:04
And science is important in informing decision makers,
170
424260
3000
07:07
and also in changing how we do
171
427260
2000
07:09
and knowing the direction of change that we're going in.
172
429260
3000
07:12
And so we have this penguin project. The Wildlife Conservation Society
173
432260
3000
07:15
has funded me along with a lot of individuals
174
435260
3000
07:18
over the last 27 years
175
438260
2000
07:20
to be able to produce these kinds of maps.
176
440260
2000
07:22
And also, we know that it's not only
177
442260
2000
07:24
Galapagos penguins that are in trouble,
178
444260
2000
07:26
but Magellanics and many other species of penguins.
179
446260
3000
07:29
And so we have started a global penguin society
180
449260
3000
07:32
to try to focus on the real plight of penguins.
181
452260
3000
07:35
This is one of the plights of penguins: oil pollution.
182
455260
3000
07:38
Penguins don't like oil
183
458260
2000
07:40
and they don't like to swim through oil.
184
460260
2000
07:42
The nice thing is, if you look down here in Argentina,
185
462260
2000
07:44
there's no surface oil pollution from this composite map.
186
464260
3000
07:47
But, in fact, when we went to Argentina,
187
467260
2000
07:49
penguins were often found
188
469260
2000
07:51
totally covered in oil.
189
471260
3000
07:54
So they were just minding their own business.
190
474260
2000
07:56
They ended up swimming through ballast water that had oil in it.
191
476260
3000
07:59
Because when tankers carry oil
192
479260
2000
08:01
they have to have ballast at some point,
193
481260
2000
08:03
so when they're empty, they have the ballast water in there.
194
483260
2000
08:05
When they come back, they actually dump
195
485260
2000
08:07
this oily ballast water into the ocean.
196
487260
2000
08:09
Why do they do that? Because it's cheaper,
197
489260
2000
08:11
because they don't pay the real environmental costs.
198
491260
3000
08:14
We usually don't, and we want to start
199
494260
2000
08:16
getting the accounting system right
200
496260
2000
08:18
so we can pay the real cost.
201
498260
2000
08:20
At first, the Argentine government said, "No, there's no way.
202
500260
2000
08:22
You can't find oiled penguins in Argentina.
203
502260
2000
08:24
We have laws,
204
504260
2000
08:26
and we can't have illegal dumping; it's against the law."
205
506260
3000
08:29
So we ended up spending nine years
206
509260
2000
08:31
convincing the government that there were lots of oiled penguins.
207
511260
3000
08:34
In some years, like this year, we found
208
514260
2000
08:36
more than 80 percent
209
516260
2000
08:38
of the adult penguins dead on the beach
210
518260
2000
08:40
were covered in oil.
211
520260
2000
08:42
These little blue dots are the fledglings --
212
522260
3000
08:45
we do this survey every March --
213
525260
2000
08:47
which means that they're only in the environment
214
527260
3000
08:50
from January until March,
215
530260
2000
08:52
so maybe three months at the most
216
532260
2000
08:54
that they could get covered in oil.
217
534260
2000
08:56
And you can see, in some years over 60 percent
218
536260
2000
08:58
of the fledglings were oiled.
219
538260
2000
09:00
Eventually, the government listened
220
540260
2000
09:02
and, amazingly, they changed their laws.
221
542260
3000
09:05
They moved the tanker lanes
222
545260
2000
09:07
40 kilometers farther off shore,
223
547260
3000
09:10
and people are not doing as much illegal dumping.
224
550260
3000
09:13
So what we're seeing now
225
553260
2000
09:15
is very few penguins are oiled.
226
555260
2000
09:17
Why are there even these penguins oiled?
227
557260
2000
09:19
Because we've solved the problem in Chubut province,
228
559260
3000
09:22
which is like a state in Argentina
229
562260
3000
09:25
where Punta Tombo is --
230
565260
2000
09:27
so that's about 1,000 kilometers of coastline --
231
567260
2000
09:29
but we haven't solved the problem
232
569260
2000
09:31
in northern Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.
233
571260
3000
09:35
So now I want to show you that penguins are affected.
234
575260
2000
09:37
I'm just going to talk about two things.
235
577260
2000
09:39
This is climate change. Now this has really been a fun study
236
579260
3000
09:42
because I put satellite tags on the back
237
582260
2000
09:44
of these Magellanic penguins.
238
584260
2000
09:46
Try to convince donors to give you a couple thousand dollars
239
586260
3000
09:49
to glue a satellite tag on the back of penguins.
240
589260
3000
09:52
But we've been doing this now for more than a decade to learn where they go.
241
592260
3000
09:55
We thought we needed a marine protected area
242
595260
2000
09:57
of about 30 kilometers,
243
597260
2000
09:59
and then we put a satellite tag on the back of a penguin.
244
599260
2000
10:01
And what the penguins show us --
245
601260
2000
10:03
and these are all the little dots
246
603260
2000
10:05
from where the penguins' positions were
247
605260
2000
10:07
for penguins in incubation in 2003 --
248
607260
2000
10:09
and what you see is some of these individuals
249
609260
3000
10:12
are going 800 kilometers away from their nests.
250
612260
3000
10:15
So that means as their mate
251
615260
2000
10:17
is sitting on the nest incubating the eggs,
252
617260
3000
10:20
the other one is out there foraging,
253
620260
2000
10:22
and the longer they have to stay gone,
254
622260
2000
10:24
the worse condition the mate is in when the mate comes back.
255
624260
3000
10:27
And, of course, all of this then leads to a vicious cycle
256
627260
3000
10:30
and you can't raise a lot of chicks.
257
630260
2000
10:32
Here you see in 2003 --
258
632260
2000
10:34
these are all the dots of where the penguins are --
259
634260
2000
10:36
they were raising a little over
260
636260
2000
10:38
a half of a chick.
261
638260
3000
10:41
Here, you can see in 2006,
262
641260
2000
10:43
they raised almost three quarters
263
643260
2000
10:45
of a chick per nest,
264
645260
2000
10:47
and you can see that they're closer to Punta Tombo;
265
647260
3000
10:50
they're not going as far away.
266
650260
3000
10:53
This past year, in 2009,
267
653260
2000
10:55
you can see that they're now raising
268
655260
2000
10:57
about a fourth of a chick,
269
657260
2000
10:59
and some of these individuals are going
270
659260
2000
11:01
more than 900 kilometers away from their nests.
271
661260
3000
11:04
So it's kind of like you having a job in Chicago,
272
664260
2000
11:06
and then you get transferred
273
666260
2000
11:08
to St. Louis,
274
668260
2000
11:10
and your mate is not happy about this
275
670260
2000
11:12
because you've got to pay airfare,
276
672260
2000
11:14
because you're gone longer.
277
674260
2000
11:16
The same thing's true for penguins as well.
278
676260
3000
11:19
And they're going about, on average now,
279
679260
2000
11:21
40 kilometers farther than they did a decade ago.
280
681260
3000
11:25
We need to be able to get information out to the general public.
281
685260
3000
11:28
And so we started a publication
282
688260
2000
11:30
with the Society for Conservation
283
690260
2000
11:32
that we think presents cutting-edge science
284
692260
2000
11:34
in a new, novel way,
285
694260
2000
11:36
because we have reporters that are good writers
286
696260
3000
11:39
that actually can distill the information
287
699260
2000
11:41
and make it accessible to the general public.
288
701260
3000
11:44
So if you're interested in cutting-edge science
289
704260
2000
11:46
and smarter conservation,
290
706260
2000
11:48
you should join with our 11 partners --
291
708260
3000
11:51
some of them here in this room, like the Nature Conservancy --
292
711260
3000
11:54
and look at this magazine
293
714260
2000
11:56
because we need to get information out about conservation
294
716260
3000
11:59
to the general public.
295
719260
2000
12:01
Lastly I want to say that
296
721260
2000
12:03
all of you, probably,
297
723260
2000
12:05
have had some relationship at some time in your life
298
725260
2000
12:07
with a dog, a cat, some sort of pet,
299
727260
3000
12:10
and you recognized that those are individuals.
300
730260
2000
12:12
And some of you consider them almost part of your family.
301
732260
3000
12:15
If you had a relationship with a penguin,
302
735260
3000
12:18
you'd see it in the same sort of way.
303
738260
2000
12:20
They're amazing creatures
304
740260
2000
12:22
that really change how you view the world
305
742260
2000
12:24
because they're not that different from us:
306
744260
2000
12:26
They're trying to make a living,
307
746260
2000
12:28
they're trying to raise their offspring,
308
748260
2000
12:30
they're trying to get on and survive in the world.
309
750260
3000
12:33
This is Turbo the Penguin.
310
753260
2000
12:35
Turbo's never been fed.
311
755260
2000
12:37
He met us and got his name
312
757260
2000
12:39
because he started standing under
313
759260
2000
12:41
my diesel truck: a turbo truck,
314
761260
2000
12:43
so we named him Turbo.
315
763260
2000
12:45
Turbo has taken to knocking on the door with his beak,
316
765260
2000
12:47
we let him in and he comes in here.
317
767260
2000
12:49
And I just wanted to show you
318
769260
2000
12:51
what happened one day
319
771260
2000
12:53
when Turbo brought in a friend.
320
773260
3000
12:56
So this is Turbo.
321
776260
2000
12:58
He's coming up to one of my graduate students and flipper patting,
322
778260
3000
13:01
which he would do to a female penguin.
323
781260
3000
13:05
And you can see, he's not trying to bite.
324
785260
2000
13:07
This guy has never been in before
325
787260
2000
13:09
and he's trying to figure out, "What is going on?
326
789260
2000
13:11
What is this guy doing?
327
791260
2000
13:13
This is really pretty weird."
328
793260
2000
13:15
And you'll see soon
329
795260
2000
13:17
that my graduate student ...
330
797260
2000
13:19
and you see, Turbo's pretty intent
331
799260
2000
13:21
on his flipper patting.
332
801260
2000
13:23
And now he's looking at the other guy,
333
803260
2000
13:25
saying, "You are really weird."
334
805260
2000
13:27
And now look at this: not friendly.
335
807260
2000
13:29
So penguins really differ in their personalities
336
809260
3000
13:32
just like our dogs and our cats.
337
812260
3000
13:35
We're also trying to collect our information
338
815260
3000
13:38
and become more technologically literate.
339
818260
3000
13:41
So we're trying to put that
340
821260
2000
13:43
in computers in the field.
341
823260
2000
13:45
And penguins are always involved in helping us
342
825260
3000
13:48
or not helping us in one way or another.
343
828260
3000
13:51
This is a radio frequency ID system.
344
831260
3000
13:54
You put a little piece of rice in the foot of a penguin
345
834260
3000
13:57
that has a barcode, so it tells you who it is.
346
837260
2000
13:59
It walks over the pad, and you know who it is.
347
839260
2000
14:01
Okay, so here are a few penguins coming in.
348
841260
3000
14:04
See, this one's coming back to its nest.
349
844260
2000
14:06
They're all coming in at this time,
350
846260
2000
14:08
walking across there, just kind of leisurely coming in.
351
848260
2000
14:10
Here's a female that's in a hurry. She's got food.
352
850260
2000
14:12
She's really rushing back, because it's hot,
353
852260
3000
14:15
to try to feed her chicks.
354
855260
2000
14:17
And then there's another fellow that will leisurely come by.
355
857260
3000
14:20
Look how fat he is. He's walking back to feed his chicks.
356
860260
3000
14:23
Then I realize that they're playing
357
863260
2000
14:25
king of the box.
358
865260
3000
14:28
This is my box up here, and this is the system that works.
359
868260
3000
14:31
You can see this penguin, he goes over, he looks at those wires,
360
871260
3000
14:34
does not like that wire.
361
874260
3000
14:37
He unplugs the wire; we have no data.
362
877260
3000
14:40
(Laughter)
363
880260
2000
14:42
So, they really are pretty amazing creatures.
364
882260
3000
14:47
OK.
365
887260
2000
14:49
Most important thing is:
366
889260
2000
14:51
Only you can change yourself,
367
891260
2000
14:53
and only you can change the world
368
893260
2000
14:55
and make it better, for people
369
895260
2000
14:57
as well as penguins.
370
897260
2000
14:59
So, thank you very much. (Applause)
371
899260
2000
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7