Let’s save the ocean's superpower | Martha LaGuardia-Kotite | TEDxSarasota

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:05][applause] >> We've done this before.

[00:00:10]There was a time when wolves were nearly erased from Yellowstone.

[00:00:14]We hunted them believing them to be a nuisance.

[00:00:18]And when they disappeared, something unexpected happened.

[00:00:22]The rivers changed course and the land began to unravel.

[00:00:26]So we stopped.

[00:00:28]And when they slowly returned, with them came balance.

[00:00:34]And once again, we heard their howls and rejoiced.

[00:00:40]We've done this in the ocean, too.

[00:00:42]When we hunted whales to the edge of extinction, we heard their songs and something in us told us that losing them meant more than losing a species.

[00:00:54]So we stopped and we changed.

[00:00:58]And once again, recovery felt possible.

[00:01:02]Today, the whales we fought so hard to save are once again at risk.

[00:01:09]Not because we're hunting them, but because we're removing something smaller.

[00:01:16]Something many of us have never even thought about.

[00:01:19]And that tiny thing holds the entire Southern Ocean together.

[00:01:27]I didn't understand this at first.

[00:01:30]I knew Antarctica as an idea, an edge of the world distant place.

[00:01:37]And then I spent a month there as part of an expedition team, driving my zodiac, a small boat, around icebergs and helping cruise ship guests understand Antarctica and this precious ecosystem of the Southern Ocean.

[00:01:55]Moving between icebergs, exploring penguin rookeries where thousands of pairs roamed, watching whales surface, hearing their exhales, and perhaps a show descending to the deep where the ocean breathes.

[00:02:14]Standing on my zodiac in the Southern Ocean, I realized this place is not remote at all.

[00:02:24]When I turned off the engine, I listened to Antarctica and I understood how close we are to it.

[00:02:32]One afternoon, I was driving near the Antarctic Peninsula with guests on board and we were watching a pod of humpback whales feeding. They were putting on a show.

[00:02:42]And then, in the distance, a fishing vessel appeared. No alarms, no confrontation, massive nets released into the same waters where the whales were feeding.

[00:02:55]I realized these fishermen were hunting the same food whales had migrated thousands of miles to find.

[00:03:05]Not for survival, but for demand.

[00:03:10]Demand for omega-3 supplements, pet and animal food.

[00:03:16]This was the moment I truly saw krill.

[00:03:20]Antarctic krill may be small, but collectively they are the ocean's superpower.

[00:03:28]They are the largest animal biomass on Earth. Their swarms can be seen from space.

[00:03:35]The size of your pinky.

[00:03:38]They rise to the surface and help with climate control eating phytoplankton.

[00:03:44]And once they have eaten what has absorbed the carbon from the atmosphere at the sea surface level, they descend to the depths where they excrete their waste.

[00:03:56]A product that contains the carbon from the atmosphere and provides carbon storage services worthy of 100 years at a value of 15 billion US dollars annually.

[00:04:14]Only when I went to the white continent did I understand how important Antarctic krill are to the Southern Ocean and how important the Southern Ocean is to us.

[00:04:28]Antarctic krill are not a resource to be harvested for human profit or diets.

[00:04:35]They are one to be saved for humanity.

[00:04:39]They belong to the whales, to the wildlife, and to the ocean.

[00:04:44]And we are connected to the ocean and we only have one.

[00:04:50]The Southern Ocean is the heart of our planet.

[00:04:55]Circulating cold water to every region and along our coasts, the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian, and the Arctic, and then it comes back down to keep Antarctica frozen, a powerful current circulates around the continent acting as a barrier to warmer waters.

[00:05:18]Antarctic krill need this cold water and sea ice to thrive.

[00:05:25]To balance our ecosystem and serve as a lifeline, penguins get most of their calories from krill, and whales, the blue whale, the largest animal to ever exist depends on them.

[00:05:41]We've seen this pattern before.

[00:05:45]Remove the foundation, the wolf, the whale, the forage fish at the bottom of the food chain like herring and mackerel, and systems weaken, the ocean declines.

[00:06:01]Imagine Antarctica, our last wilderness without wildlife.

[00:06:13]This will be the story of an ocean without krill.

[00:06:20]Like krill, who are individually small, but collectively a superpower, we can choose to collectively stop the destruction of this precious, magical place we call Antarctica.

[00:06:38]We must save and sing the song of the krill to protect this ecosystem.

[00:06:49]A species the size of your finger serving the wildlife of the ocean.

[00:06:58]We used to think that saving the ocean meant saving its giants.

[00:07:05]The creatures we could see, the animals we could fall in love with.

[00:07:10]But what the Southern Ocean teaches us is something far deeper.

[00:07:15]That the fate of its giants rests on something in our hands.

[00:07:21]A species the size of your pinky rising to the surface, descending to the depths, keeping the rhythm of an entire ocean together.

[00:07:31]When we remove what we don't notice, systems don't collapse all at once.

[00:07:38]They unravel quietly until one day the songs are gone.

[00:07:46]Antarctica is often called the end of the world.

[00:07:51]Standing there, I realized it's one of its beginnings.

[00:07:57]Over 35 million years ago, this ice-covered continent drifted from previously forested lands to the South Pole.

[00:08:09]Its cold waters move through every region of our ocean balancing and regulating our climate.

[00:08:17]Its smallest life supports its largest.

[00:08:22]What happens in Antarctica affects all of humanity.

[00:08:27]And there are things we can do at home now to help.

[00:08:32]Here are three things.

[00:08:35]Check your omega-3 supplements, pet and animal food for Antarctic krill.

[00:08:41]Engage with policy leaders.

[00:08:45]Ask them, no, demand of them, support Antarctica.

[00:08:50]And put a reminder in your phone to do so this week.

[00:08:56]Create and vote for marine protected areas to prevent exploitation.

[00:09:05]Antarctica and our ocean belong to us.

[00:09:09]To you.

[00:09:11]Not to any nation.

[00:09:13]Not to any nation.

[00:09:15]So, the question isn't whether krill matter.

[00:09:20]The question is are we willing to see what sustains us before it's gone?

[00:09:29]Because once you understand that you don't hear the ocean's songs the same way ever again.

[00:09:41]Thank you.

[00:09:42]>> [applause]