Test your knowledge on ocean health

Brut America

"It's never what you think."  We asked people about ocean health … and had a marine biologist fact-check their answers.  - with United Nations, UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea and Madison McKay (@nudibranch_nerd).

Transcript

00:00What percentage of heat does the ocean absorb before warming?

00:02I'm gonna go 70.

00:03Oh, okay. All right.

00:06I'm a writing major.

00:07It's never what you think.

00:15True or false?

00:16Trees are the most efficient tool for absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere.

00:20Obviously trees, they take in CO2 and give us oxygen.

00:23It's a basic science question for a fourth grader.

00:27This one is false.

00:28Seagrass, which is an actual plant, are 35 times faster at absorbing carbon than trees.

00:35Excess amounts of carbon entering the ocean are pushing these sinks past their limits.

00:40About 90% of all seagrass, marsh, and mangrove species are threatened with extinction.

00:46True or false?

00:47More people have been to space than to the bottom of the ocean.

00:50Oh, that is true.

00:51You can't go to the freaking bottom of the ocean, bro.

00:53Bro, you're hitting it like pop.

00:54Pressure, we're like...

00:56Push it down.

00:57That is true.

00:59Only three people have been to the deepest point in the ocean, which is in the Mariana Trench.

01:03Luckily, their heads did not explode because they were in special deep sea submersibles.

01:08In comparison to this, over 500 people have been to space.

01:12This is pretty crazy considering the ocean covers over 70% of the planet,

01:16and only 10% of it has been seen.

01:19True or false?

01:20Traces of pharmaceutical products, including antibiotics,

01:23caffeine, and painkillers have been found in all areas of the ocean.

01:27It's true, man.

01:28It's crazy, man.

01:29It's true, man.

01:30You're right, man.

01:30It's crazy.

01:31The ocean is the ocean, man.

01:32It's the business, man.

01:33It's true.

01:34It's true, man.

01:36This one is true, unfortunately.

01:38This affects the animals that live on the surface of the ocean,

01:41but it also affects the animals that live on the surface of the ocean.

01:45This one is true, unfortunately.

01:47This affects the animals that live in those areas and can actually influence their biology.

01:52People eat fish, so that can come back and have health risks for humans as well.

01:56For this to change, we need better waste management systems

02:00and a better recycling program for these products.

02:03What is a marine heat wave?

02:14A marine heat wave is what it sounds like.

02:16It's a period of extremely high temperatures in the ocean that can last days to even months.

02:22Just like heat waves we experience, they can be dangerous and even deadly for marine life.

02:26What percentage of heat does the ocean absorb from global warming?

02:33This one is pretty crazy.

02:34The ocean absorbs over 90% of the heat from global warming.

02:38What is a dead zone?

02:45What is a dead zone?

02:47Poor Benny.

02:48It's just like how it sounds.

02:49A dead zone is a place where there is no life and it's from low oxygen levels.

02:54This is typically caused from runoff from fields and farms that use chemical fertilizers.

02:59And in less than a decade, dead zones have nearly doubled.

03:05So how do you feel towards the ocean?

03:07I feel like we kind of just like take the ocean for granted.

03:10I don't think people know.

03:12I want to give the ocean a hug.

03:14I want the public authorities to fund research on the ocean.

03:20I want us to move towards policies of subsidies.

03:22I want us to move towards policies of sensitization towards this.

03:25Stop sweeping the earth, man.

03:27It's not good.

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