full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ocean Ramsey: Why the world needs sharks


Unscramble the Blue Letters


What if we were to redefine the relationship we have with sharks, to one based on scientific fact, rieltay, and logic, rather than the current one, based off of limietd and biased ioafnmtorin? I want to talk about how changing the way we perceive sharks and itarecnt with them could change our environment, economies, and lives for the better. But first, I want to introduce you to someone who has positively influenced and inspired my life's work, passion, and fcuos. She's intelligent, she's graceful, beautiful, efficient, but what I admire her most for is her very important work and role. What most people don't know is that without her work and influence, none of our lives would be the same. And I wanted to describe her to you first, before I sheowd you her potho, because I've come to find that, oftentimes, we make snap judgments, prejudice, based off of very little factual information. I've penllorsay found this because oftentimes I'm judged solely off of my appearance or work as a professional model, rather than my primary work in science, conservation, and business. So, please keep in mind the truth that often there's more than meets the eye, and when you take time to get to know someone and better usnraedntd them, maybe you can better value them. And sometimes it's a little more interesting than you think too. So, without further ado, my beautiful role model, Bella, which means bfteuiual, and yes, she's a great white shark, or more accurately termed, a white srahk, Carcharodon crairachas. Now, I know you might just be noticing her nice teeth and thinking something along the lines of "monster," but tonight, put your porir beliefs about sharks on hold, while I exalpin why Bella is an ideal role model, why we should seriously take action to rfendiee the relationship we have with these aiamnls, to one baesd on scientific fact, to that or reality, rather than appearances, snap judgments, and fictitious Hollywood movies. Bella and her kind are extremely intelligent. I've observed her, and her kind, outsmarting even hmuans within a matter of moments by atidpnag her behavior even in novel situations. This ability to quickly aapdt has likely led to sharks' resilience over time. They evevold before dinosaurs, before trees. They evolved two more known sensory systems than we even have to aid them a high level of efficiency in their very important role in the ecosystems, shaping, influencing them, and mkinag them stronger, and better. Now, even though they are highly cognitive, cautious, and take in multiple factors before they take action, it is true that on rare, rare, rare, much more rare, occasions than we make mistakes, sharks do make mistakes, and, unfortunately, someone does get bit. Still, considering the millions of people that enter the water, the oceans, every single day, and the average number of fatalities is five to seven ... Now, I feel eemetxrly lucky. I get to spend almost every single day diving with sharks, over 30 different species around the world on a diversity of resecarh programs and cotsnovirean campaigns. My work in marine biology focuses on ethology, which is animal behavior and pgcsohyloy, and cognitive ecology, where I study the way the animals interact with one another and their environment. I've come to observe and learn some of the most fascinating things I wish I had more time to sahre with you tonight. But in my limited time with you, what I've come to appreciate, what I feel is most intmporat and uregnt, and if I could speak up for sharks, what I'd want to share with you, is their very important role and work, and how it affects all of our lives. esseatlnliy, imagine sharks as the ocean's immune sestym, the white blood cells. They pick up the dead, dying, weak, sick, injured animals, leaving only the hietslehat to reproduce, keeping lower trophic levels and paponliutos in baalcne. We all rely on our imnume systems, and the scientific evidence for the importance of sharks is mounting. There are so many studies that show one after the other that the removal of sharks has environmental and economic negative impacts - rnosam A Myers, Bascompete - effects all the way down to coral reef systems. The raemvol of sharks has been auebttirtd with soiatrvatn. Throughout the respected scientific community, there's no deinnyg the imconrptae of sharks, their effects on our environments, our economies, even the air that we breathe. 70-80% of the air we rely on to continue living comes from our oceans. Either directly or indirectly, we all rely on the oceans. blinlios rely on it for seafood, over 200 molilin rely on it for direct employments. Our lives, our futures, are interconnected. In the words of one of my haumn role melods, the wonderful Dr Sylvia Earle, "With every drop of water that you dnirk, every bertah that you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on the planet you live." But sharks are still scary, right? So that's kind of the peblrom. Most ppeelos don't know many factual things about sharks, except they have teteh, and many more people don't know that sharks are actually being decimated, gblalloy, at a rate of over 11,000 every single hour. That's more than three sharks every single second. That translates to 70-100 million sharks killed every year. That's like killing everyone in Spain, Austria and France every single year. Now, according to fshiing records, over 90% of sharks have been depleted. According to the ieroinnatantl unoin for Conservation of nraute, over a third of all lagre sharks have been wiped out, or are facing extinction, or are vulnerable to extinction. So, why such a mass slaughter of such an important and keystone sepices? Well, some of it is due to slily things like souvenirs and pharmaceuticals. Some of it is due to men and their iirfetoniry complexes ... I'm gesunsig. (Laughter) (Applause) 80% of long-lining is bycatch, and most of it is sharks. Culling, which is probably this least intelligent reaction a country can have to an adverse shark-human interaction; basically, like shooting yourself in the foot, from a barhivaeol standpoint, also a waste and idsmirnniictae killer. But the number one killer of sharks, globally: a bowl of soup. Yes, we are trading the hatelh and productivity of our oceans-reliant environment and emoienocs for a bowl of soup. What's worse, it's not even nutritious; it's actually toxic. It's merely for the Chinese crluute belief that when they serve that soup, it mnaes that they're prestigious or important. But what is classy about catching a shark, hacking off its fins, oifentetms while it's still alive, wasting 95% of the aminal just to make yourself feel better about your saocil satuts. Consider: sharks have been evolving for over 400 million years; humans, 200,000, and their culturals, far less. We can live without culture, but not without our oceans, and our oceans cannot live without their immune seystms. Like rhinos killed just for their horns, and elephants killed just for their tksus, sharks are being killed, slaughtered, globally, just for their fins. Now, I love traveling the wrlod and experiencing the diversity of cultures, but there has to be a point when we re-evaluate the relationship that we have with sharks and animals, and look at how our cultures can adapt and evolve honorably. An ancient Chinese proverb says when you do not change your dieorcitn, you may end up where you are hdneiag. So what if we were to adopt this idea and change the way we interact with sharks? What would that look like? Well, the great news is we already have concrete examples, pleacs like Palau, Bahamas, aears like Cabo Pulmo, and Palmyra. In those areas, reef and fish stocks are thriving. Ecotourism is bringing in over US $314 million to loacl economies, directly employing over 10,000 jobs. This study by Dr Michele Barnes and the University of British Columbia is actually showing that that number will icrnsaee, more than double, in less than 20 years. So $780 million, far outweighing the global fin trade. So put at the most basic terms, even on just the monetary leevl, which is usually what politicians care about, a live shark is worth more than a dead shark. And what's great is, these shark ecotourism programs, they can sppuort research. I was working out with Dr mriuciao Hoyos, we were tagging, taking biopsies, and I was wondering: Is any of this conservation-based research going to make a defceirnfe before these guys are just weipd out off the planet? Then one day, 20 meters uderetanwr, doing a population count surrounded by these beautiful sharks, I was realizing by the time I gather, process and publish my studies, another 3-6 million sharks will be killed. So why study something that's being eradicated the rate the sharks are and not do anything about it. So I opened my research to the public. I developed a program, where people could come to leran about sharks from a scientific perspective. I collaborated with @juansharks, who is a well-known shark and marine photographer and shark specialist. We developed this program that's research- and conservation-based, and opened it to the public so they could learn about their bglooiy, pghlisooyy, behavior, how to interact with them safely, answers all those questions people don't know about sharks. The cool thing is people actually get to get in the water with us and see for themselves, eye to eye, what sharks are really like. It's such a secusfucsl pargorm as people can speak up for sharks from a first-hand perspective and also influence their networks, and change people's minds. We are also able to fund editconaual outreach through this, reef and beach cleanups, local conservation campaigns, and international conservation campaigns, like stopping the cull in Western aailrutsa, a story for another time I'm honestly rather glad I don't have time to share tonight as I'd end up crying. But we were able to save one of the juielvne shakrs. She was under three meters, and she would have just died, even though she was cattle tagged improperly, and, you know, for 90 mtneius, I swam with her, looking her in the eye, and trying to tell her it was going to be okay as blood was spilling out of her head, and kind of trying to tell myself it was going to be okay. After 90 minutes, she swam off: and it was that effort. This is another conservation cgamaipn, a little better known. It reached over 2 million people in 2 days and ftueeard none other than the lovely role model, Bella, who is so great for her species, a great representative. At the time when we released it, it was because there was a sdtuy put out shwniog there were less than 350 great whites, in the area from California to asalka to Hawaii to Mexico, an area where juansharks and I grew up diving with sharks, with white sharks specifically. We knew many of them, had spent much time with them, studying behavior, working with them. So what do you do when you hear someone you love, care about, understand, is being eitcadaerd? Something. So, we thought, with Water inrspeid we'd try and use ipsninirg photography and videography to irspine people to care. We needed people to give white sharks a second look, a second chance. They don't make the news very often. When they do, I'm sure you guys all know, it's not usually good press. So we were successful. We wenatd to show the natural beauty of sharks. But most often, when people see a beautiful image like this, they just think it's just on its way to eat the next person, right? So, we want to do the anti-Jaws. The little blond girl, she gets eaten in the fictitious movie, right? So what's it like in reality? Well, I've been working with them for a long time, right? We dive to get receivers and other things like that, so I wanted to show a connection, I wanted people to be able to connect, see another side of these animals, realize that we can coexist. But in oerdr to coexist, they have to eixst, and there's so much more to these animals than meets the eye. When you take the time to get to know somebody, you know, you can understand that maybe there's more to them. And so I wanted to share that with the world. And I have to give the dlemiiacsr - I mean, there's just so many things that I would love to share with you guys — but I do have to give the disclaimer that they deserve a lot of rcpseet ... not fear, but they are apex predators, they do have a role ... and we need them for that role, it's very important. I mean, I could cite study after study after study, showing the importance of that. You know, if I wanted to go out into the African savanna and pat a lion, you know what I would do? I would call up the lion whisperer, and I'd go hang out with him, and I'd learn, and I'd study from him, out of respect for the animal because of its reputation. So, while I understand that, especially the way that they are portrayed in the media, that ploepe are afraid of them, you shouldn't be afriad of them; you should just respect them. they are beautiful animals, there's so much more to them. So if there's one thing that Bella has taught me, it's that, like Bella, we can all positively change and influence our einvmotenrns for the better. All we need to do is take action. In the words of Jane Goodall: Every day we make an impact. It's up to us what kind of an impact we want that to be. Now, this was just one successful collaborative program that we collaborated with GoPro on. They were very true to the mgsaese and released a beautiful piece, but there are so many other things, other media pieces we could do, even just writing to a reatnasurt, asking them not to serve shark fin soup. New campaigns, political policies, the ideas are esnelds. What it comes down to is: Yeah, knowledge is powerful, but it's nothing without action. I love Nike. I get up every morning and go running. It's like, just do it. You may not feel like it, but any effort is better than no erfoft. [We may feel like what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less without that drop.] So I want to ask you guys tinohgt, (Laughter) to take action for your frtuue. Sharks and the oceans afefct us all. I'd like to see a raise of hdans for all those that are willing to take a small, small action for a better future. Raise your hands if you are willing to take that action. Oh, I so see all those hands. Okay, I'm going to call you out on it. I want you guys to use that hand and grab your phones. I'll do it with you. Grab your phones. I know it's usually rude to grab your phones during a talk, but you'll be helping me. This is really good. This is good. This is your call to action. Let's do it! (Laughter) So I want you guys to grab your phone, and we're going to spread geart ideas globally. I want you guys to Tweet, Facebook, Instagram, something. Spread an idea, share a fact about a shark. I'm going to do it with you because it's actually really fun. Even though you guys are kind of dark - Okay, ready? Smile! Okay. So don't get distracted with the missed call or text. This'll only take a muitne, and I'm off the stage, so ... All right, let's do this together. We're going to make a difference, a measurable impact for sharks. So I'm going to Instagram. This is how the world is now, right? We all just walk around on our phones. I think I saw that on a talk earlier. This is all good. Okay next. So I'm going to use a hashtag. #HelpSaveSharks. Okay. #HelpSaveBella. Here with the amazing group at TEDx conference in Europe, helping spread great ideas and ways we can help save sharks and our future. Sharks are important. Redefining the relationships we have with sharks. #SharkConservation, #HelpSaveSharks, #NoSharkFinSoup, #TEDSavesSharks, #TEDTalksonSharks. Okay. And I will share that. Awesome! And this is the best part. I get to thank you all for being a part of the force that redefines the relationship we have with sharks for a better future. Thank you, guys. (Applause)

Open Cloze


What if we were to redefine the relationship we have with sharks, to one based on scientific fact, _______, and logic, rather than the current one, based off of _______ and biased ___________? I want to talk about how changing the way we perceive sharks and ________ with them could change our environment, economies, and lives for the better. But first, I want to introduce you to someone who has positively influenced and inspired my life's work, passion, and _____. She's intelligent, she's graceful, beautiful, efficient, but what I admire her most for is her very important work and role. What most people don't know is that without her work and influence, none of our lives would be the same. And I wanted to describe her to you first, before I ______ you her _____, because I've come to find that, oftentimes, we make snap judgments, prejudice, based off of very little factual information. I've __________ found this because oftentimes I'm judged solely off of my appearance or work as a professional model, rather than my primary work in science, conservation, and business. So, please keep in mind the truth that often there's more than meets the eye, and when you take time to get to know someone and better __________ them, maybe you can better value them. And sometimes it's a little more interesting than you think too. So, without further ado, my beautiful role model, Bella, which means _________, and yes, she's a great white shark, or more accurately termed, a white _____, Carcharodon __________. Now, I know you might just be noticing her nice teeth and thinking something along the lines of "monster," but tonight, put your _____ beliefs about sharks on hold, while I _______ why Bella is an ideal role model, why we should seriously take action to ________ the relationship we have with these _______, to one _____ on scientific fact, to that or reality, rather than appearances, snap judgments, and fictitious Hollywood movies. Bella and her kind are extremely intelligent. I've observed her, and her kind, outsmarting even ______ within a matter of moments by ________ her behavior even in novel situations. This ability to quickly _____ has likely led to sharks' resilience over time. They _______ before dinosaurs, before trees. They evolved two more known sensory systems than we even have to aid them a high level of efficiency in their very important role in the ecosystems, shaping, influencing them, and ______ them stronger, and better. Now, even though they are highly cognitive, cautious, and take in multiple factors before they take action, it is true that on rare, rare, rare, much more rare, occasions than we make mistakes, sharks do make mistakes, and, unfortunately, someone does get bit. Still, considering the millions of people that enter the water, the oceans, every single day, and the average number of fatalities is five to seven ... Now, I feel _________ lucky. I get to spend almost every single day diving with sharks, over 30 different species around the world on a diversity of ________ programs and ____________ campaigns. My work in marine biology focuses on ethology, which is animal behavior and __________, and cognitive ecology, where I study the way the animals interact with one another and their environment. I've come to observe and learn some of the most fascinating things I wish I had more time to _____ with you tonight. But in my limited time with you, what I've come to appreciate, what I feel is most _________ and ______, and if I could speak up for sharks, what I'd want to share with you, is their very important role and work, and how it affects all of our lives. ___________, imagine sharks as the ocean's immune ______, the white blood cells. They pick up the dead, dying, weak, sick, injured animals, leaving only the __________ to reproduce, keeping lower trophic levels and ___________ in _______. We all rely on our ______ systems, and the scientific evidence for the importance of sharks is mounting. There are so many studies that show one after the other that the removal of sharks has environmental and economic negative impacts - ______ A Myers, Bascompete - effects all the way down to coral reef systems. The _______ of sharks has been __________ with __________. Throughout the respected scientific community, there's no _______ the __________ of sharks, their effects on our environments, our economies, even the air that we breathe. 70-80% of the air we rely on to continue living comes from our oceans. Either directly or indirectly, we all rely on the oceans. ________ rely on it for seafood, over 200 _______ rely on it for direct employments. Our lives, our futures, are interconnected. In the words of one of my _____ role ______, the wonderful Dr Sylvia Earle, "With every drop of water that you _____, every ______ that you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on the planet you live." But sharks are still scary, right? So that's kind of the _______. Most _______ don't know many factual things about sharks, except they have _____, and many more people don't know that sharks are actually being decimated, ________, at a rate of over 11,000 every single hour. That's more than three sharks every single second. That translates to 70-100 million sharks killed every year. That's like killing everyone in Spain, Austria and France every single year. Now, according to _______ records, over 90% of sharks have been depleted. According to the _____________ _____ for Conservation of ______, over a third of all _____ sharks have been wiped out, or are facing extinction, or are vulnerable to extinction. So, why such a mass slaughter of such an important and keystone _______? Well, some of it is due to _____ things like souvenirs and pharmaceuticals. Some of it is due to men and their ___________ complexes ... I'm ________. (Laughter) (Applause) 80% of long-lining is bycatch, and most of it is sharks. Culling, which is probably this least intelligent reaction a country can have to an adverse shark-human interaction; basically, like shooting yourself in the foot, from a __________ standpoint, also a waste and ______________ killer. But the number one killer of sharks, globally: a bowl of soup. Yes, we are trading the ______ and productivity of our oceans-reliant environment and _________ for a bowl of soup. What's worse, it's not even nutritious; it's actually toxic. It's merely for the Chinese _______ belief that when they serve that soup, it _____ that they're prestigious or important. But what is classy about catching a shark, hacking off its fins, __________ while it's still alive, wasting 95% of the ______ just to make yourself feel better about your ______ ______. Consider: sharks have been evolving for over 400 million years; humans, 200,000, and their culturals, far less. We can live without culture, but not without our oceans, and our oceans cannot live without their immune _______. Like rhinos killed just for their horns, and elephants killed just for their _____, sharks are being killed, slaughtered, globally, just for their fins. Now, I love traveling the _____ and experiencing the diversity of cultures, but there has to be a point when we re-evaluate the relationship that we have with sharks and animals, and look at how our cultures can adapt and evolve honorably. An ancient Chinese proverb says when you do not change your _________, you may end up where you are _______. So what if we were to adopt this idea and change the way we interact with sharks? What would that look like? Well, the great news is we already have concrete examples, ______ like Palau, Bahamas, _____ like Cabo Pulmo, and Palmyra. In those areas, reef and fish stocks are thriving. Ecotourism is bringing in over US $314 million to _____ economies, directly employing over 10,000 jobs. This study by Dr Michele Barnes and the University of British Columbia is actually showing that that number will ________, more than double, in less than 20 years. So $780 million, far outweighing the global fin trade. So put at the most basic terms, even on just the monetary _____, which is usually what politicians care about, a live shark is worth more than a dead shark. And what's great is, these shark ecotourism programs, they can _______ research. I was working out with Dr ________ Hoyos, we were tagging, taking biopsies, and I was wondering: Is any of this conservation-based research going to make a __________ before these guys are just _____ out off the planet? Then one day, 20 meters __________, doing a population count surrounded by these beautiful sharks, I was realizing by the time I gather, process and publish my studies, another 3-6 million sharks will be killed. So why study something that's being eradicated the rate the sharks are and not do anything about it. So I opened my research to the public. I developed a program, where people could come to _____ about sharks from a scientific perspective. I collaborated with @juansharks, who is a well-known shark and marine photographer and shark specialist. We developed this program that's research- and conservation-based, and opened it to the public so they could learn about their _______, __________, behavior, how to interact with them safely, answers all those questions people don't know about sharks. The cool thing is people actually get to get in the water with us and see for themselves, eye to eye, what sharks are really like. It's such a __________ _______ as people can speak up for sharks from a first-hand perspective and also influence their networks, and change people's minds. We are also able to fund ___________ outreach through this, reef and beach cleanups, local conservation campaigns, and international conservation campaigns, like stopping the cull in Western _________, a story for another time I'm honestly rather glad I don't have time to share tonight as I'd end up crying. But we were able to save one of the ________ ______. She was under three meters, and she would have just died, even though she was cattle tagged improperly, and, you know, for 90 _______, I swam with her, looking her in the eye, and trying to tell her it was going to be okay as blood was spilling out of her head, and kind of trying to tell myself it was going to be okay. After 90 minutes, she swam off: and it was that effort. This is another conservation ________, a little better known. It reached over 2 million people in 2 days and ________ none other than the lovely role model, Bella, who is so great for her species, a great representative. At the time when we released it, it was because there was a _____ put out _______ there were less than 350 great whites, in the area from California to ______ to Hawaii to Mexico, an area where juansharks and I grew up diving with sharks, with white sharks specifically. We knew many of them, had spent much time with them, studying behavior, working with them. So what do you do when you hear someone you love, care about, understand, is being __________? Something. So, we thought, with Water ________ we'd try and use _________ photography and videography to _______ people to care. We needed people to give white sharks a second look, a second chance. They don't make the news very often. When they do, I'm sure you guys all know, it's not usually good press. So we were successful. We ______ to show the natural beauty of sharks. But most often, when people see a beautiful image like this, they just think it's just on its way to eat the next person, right? So, we want to do the anti-Jaws. The little blond girl, she gets eaten in the fictitious movie, right? So what's it like in reality? Well, I've been working with them for a long time, right? We dive to get receivers and other things like that, so I wanted to show a connection, I wanted people to be able to connect, see another side of these animals, realize that we can coexist. But in _____ to coexist, they have to _____, and there's so much more to these animals than meets the eye. When you take the time to get to know somebody, you know, you can understand that maybe there's more to them. And so I wanted to share that with the world. And I have to give the __________ - I mean, there's just so many things that I would love to share with you guys — but I do have to give the disclaimer that they deserve a lot of _______ ... not fear, but they are apex predators, they do have a role ... and we need them for that role, it's very important. I mean, I could cite study after study after study, showing the importance of that. You know, if I wanted to go out into the African savanna and pat a lion, you know what I would do? I would call up the lion whisperer, and I'd go hang out with him, and I'd learn, and I'd study from him, out of respect for the animal because of its reputation. So, while I understand that, especially the way that they are portrayed in the media, that ______ are afraid of them, you shouldn't be ______ of them; you should just respect them. they are beautiful animals, there's so much more to them. So if there's one thing that Bella has taught me, it's that, like Bella, we can all positively change and influence our ____________ for the better. All we need to do is take action. In the words of Jane Goodall: Every day we make an impact. It's up to us what kind of an impact we want that to be. Now, this was just one successful collaborative program that we collaborated with GoPro on. They were very true to the _______ and released a beautiful piece, but there are so many other things, other media pieces we could do, even just writing to a __________, asking them not to serve shark fin soup. New campaigns, political policies, the ideas are _______. What it comes down to is: Yeah, knowledge is powerful, but it's nothing without action. I love Nike. I get up every morning and go running. It's like, just do it. You may not feel like it, but any effort is better than no ______. [We may feel like what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less without that drop.] So I want to ask you guys _______, (Laughter) to take action for your ______. Sharks and the oceans ______ us all. I'd like to see a raise of _____ for all those that are willing to take a small, small action for a better future. Raise your hands if you are willing to take that action. Oh, I so see all those hands. Okay, I'm going to call you out on it. I want you guys to use that hand and grab your phones. I'll do it with you. Grab your phones. I know it's usually rude to grab your phones during a talk, but you'll be helping me. This is really good. This is good. This is your call to action. Let's do it! (Laughter) So I want you guys to grab your phone, and we're going to spread _____ ideas globally. I want you guys to Tweet, Facebook, Instagram, something. Spread an idea, share a fact about a shark. I'm going to do it with you because it's actually really fun. Even though you guys are kind of dark - Okay, ready? Smile! Okay. So don't get distracted with the missed call or text. This'll only take a ______, and I'm off the stage, so ... All right, let's do this together. We're going to make a difference, a measurable impact for sharks. So I'm going to Instagram. This is how the world is now, right? We all just walk around on our phones. I think I saw that on a talk earlier. This is all good. Okay next. So I'm going to use a hashtag. #HelpSaveSharks. Okay. #HelpSaveBella. Here with the amazing group at TEDx conference in Europe, helping spread great ideas and ways we can help save sharks and our future. Sharks are important. Redefining the relationships we have with sharks. #SharkConservation, #HelpSaveSharks, #NoSharkFinSoup, #TEDSavesSharks, #TEDTalksonSharks. Okay. And I will share that. Awesome! And this is the best part. I get to thank you all for being a part of the force that redefines the relationship we have with sharks for a better future. Thank you, guys. (Applause)

Solution


  1. essentially
  2. endless
  3. prior
  4. carcharias
  5. alaska
  6. billions
  7. tonight
  8. local
  9. economies
  10. humans
  11. indiscriminate
  12. understand
  13. psychology
  14. sharks
  15. featured
  16. learn
  17. information
  18. biology
  19. large
  20. direction
  21. importance
  22. juvenile
  23. beautiful
  24. program
  25. eradicated
  26. underwater
  27. peoples
  28. redefine
  29. attributed
  30. silly
  31. evolved
  32. personally
  33. heading
  34. making
  35. research
  36. culture
  37. million
  38. inspire
  39. successful
  40. message
  41. limited
  42. environments
  43. urgent
  44. human
  45. inspired
  46. increase
  47. international
  48. animals
  49. nature
  50. australia
  51. showing
  52. fishing
  53. globally
  54. removal
  55. guessing
  56. hands
  57. extremely
  58. afraid
  59. explain
  60. systems
  61. showed
  62. people
  63. populations
  64. inspiring
  65. exist
  66. share
  67. restaurant
  68. animal
  69. adapt
  70. wanted
  71. teeth
  72. campaign
  73. behavioral
  74. adapting
  75. denying
  76. world
  77. drink
  78. immune
  79. species
  80. minutes
  81. based
  82. models
  83. affect
  84. effort
  85. shark
  86. photo
  87. places
  88. tusks
  89. focus
  90. healthiest
  91. support
  92. interact
  93. difference
  94. breath
  95. starvation
  96. problem
  97. social
  98. respect
  99. physiology
  100. balance
  101. health
  102. future
  103. study
  104. status
  105. order
  106. important
  107. union
  108. educational
  109. minute
  110. reality
  111. areas
  112. level
  113. oftentimes
  114. conservation
  115. great
  116. system
  117. inferiority
  118. disclaimer
  119. ransom
  120. means
  121. mauricio
  122. wiped

Original Text


What if we were to redefine the relationship we have with sharks, to one based on scientific fact, reality, and logic, rather than the current one, based off of limited and biased information? I want to talk about how changing the way we perceive sharks and interact with them could change our environment, economies, and lives for the better. But first, I want to introduce you to someone who has positively influenced and inspired my life's work, passion, and focus. She's intelligent, she's graceful, beautiful, efficient, but what I admire her most for is her very important work and role. What most people don't know is that without her work and influence, none of our lives would be the same. And I wanted to describe her to you first, before I showed you her photo, because I've come to find that, oftentimes, we make snap judgments, prejudice, based off of very little factual information. I've personally found this because oftentimes I'm judged solely off of my appearance or work as a professional model, rather than my primary work in science, conservation, and business. So, please keep in mind the truth that often there's more than meets the eye, and when you take time to get to know someone and better understand them, maybe you can better value them. And sometimes it's a little more interesting than you think too. So, without further ado, my beautiful role model, Bella, which means beautiful, and yes, she's a great white shark, or more accurately termed, a white shark, Carcharodon carcharias. Now, I know you might just be noticing her nice teeth and thinking something along the lines of "monster," but tonight, put your prior beliefs about sharks on hold, while I explain why Bella is an ideal role model, why we should seriously take action to redefine the relationship we have with these animals, to one based on scientific fact, to that or reality, rather than appearances, snap judgments, and fictitious Hollywood movies. Bella and her kind are extremely intelligent. I've observed her, and her kind, outsmarting even humans within a matter of moments by adapting her behavior even in novel situations. This ability to quickly adapt has likely led to sharks' resilience over time. They evolved before dinosaurs, before trees. They evolved two more known sensory systems than we even have to aid them a high level of efficiency in their very important role in the ecosystems, shaping, influencing them, and making them stronger, and better. Now, even though they are highly cognitive, cautious, and take in multiple factors before they take action, it is true that on rare, rare, rare, much more rare, occasions than we make mistakes, sharks do make mistakes, and, unfortunately, someone does get bit. Still, considering the millions of people that enter the water, the oceans, every single day, and the average number of fatalities is five to seven ... Now, I feel extremely lucky. I get to spend almost every single day diving with sharks, over 30 different species around the world on a diversity of research programs and conservation campaigns. My work in marine biology focuses on ethology, which is animal behavior and psychology, and cognitive ecology, where I study the way the animals interact with one another and their environment. I've come to observe and learn some of the most fascinating things I wish I had more time to share with you tonight. But in my limited time with you, what I've come to appreciate, what I feel is most important and urgent, and if I could speak up for sharks, what I'd want to share with you, is their very important role and work, and how it affects all of our lives. Essentially, imagine sharks as the ocean's immune system, the white blood cells. They pick up the dead, dying, weak, sick, injured animals, leaving only the healthiest to reproduce, keeping lower trophic levels and populations in balance. We all rely on our immune systems, and the scientific evidence for the importance of sharks is mounting. There are so many studies that show one after the other that the removal of sharks has environmental and economic negative impacts - Ransom A Myers, Bascompete - effects all the way down to coral reef systems. The removal of sharks has been attributed with starvation. Throughout the respected scientific community, there's no denying the importance of sharks, their effects on our environments, our economies, even the air that we breathe. 70-80% of the air we rely on to continue living comes from our oceans. Either directly or indirectly, we all rely on the oceans. Billions rely on it for seafood, over 200 million rely on it for direct employments. Our lives, our futures, are interconnected. In the words of one of my human role models, the wonderful Dr Sylvia Earle, "With every drop of water that you drink, every breath that you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on the planet you live." But sharks are still scary, right? So that's kind of the problem. Most peoples don't know many factual things about sharks, except they have teeth, and many more people don't know that sharks are actually being decimated, globally, at a rate of over 11,000 every single hour. That's more than three sharks every single second. That translates to 70-100 million sharks killed every year. That's like killing everyone in Spain, Austria and France every single year. Now, according to fishing records, over 90% of sharks have been depleted. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, over a third of all large sharks have been wiped out, or are facing extinction, or are vulnerable to extinction. So, why such a mass slaughter of such an important and keystone species? Well, some of it is due to silly things like souvenirs and pharmaceuticals. Some of it is due to men and their inferiority complexes ... I'm guessing. (Laughter) (Applause) 80% of long-lining is bycatch, and most of it is sharks. Culling, which is probably this least intelligent reaction a country can have to an adverse shark-human interaction; basically, like shooting yourself in the foot, from a behavioral standpoint, also a waste and indiscriminate killer. But the number one killer of sharks, globally: a bowl of soup. Yes, we are trading the health and productivity of our oceans-reliant environment and economies for a bowl of soup. What's worse, it's not even nutritious; it's actually toxic. It's merely for the Chinese culture belief that when they serve that soup, it means that they're prestigious or important. But what is classy about catching a shark, hacking off its fins, oftentimes while it's still alive, wasting 95% of the animal just to make yourself feel better about your social status. Consider: sharks have been evolving for over 400 million years; humans, 200,000, and their culturals, far less. We can live without culture, but not without our oceans, and our oceans cannot live without their immune systems. Like rhinos killed just for their horns, and elephants killed just for their tusks, sharks are being killed, slaughtered, globally, just for their fins. Now, I love traveling the world and experiencing the diversity of cultures, but there has to be a point when we re-evaluate the relationship that we have with sharks and animals, and look at how our cultures can adapt and evolve honorably. An ancient Chinese proverb says when you do not change your direction, you may end up where you are heading. So what if we were to adopt this idea and change the way we interact with sharks? What would that look like? Well, the great news is we already have concrete examples, places like Palau, Bahamas, areas like Cabo Pulmo, and Palmyra. In those areas, reef and fish stocks are thriving. Ecotourism is bringing in over US $314 million to local economies, directly employing over 10,000 jobs. This study by Dr Michele Barnes and the University of British Columbia is actually showing that that number will increase, more than double, in less than 20 years. So $780 million, far outweighing the global fin trade. So put at the most basic terms, even on just the monetary level, which is usually what politicians care about, a live shark is worth more than a dead shark. And what's great is, these shark ecotourism programs, they can support research. I was working out with Dr Mauricio Hoyos, we were tagging, taking biopsies, and I was wondering: Is any of this conservation-based research going to make a difference before these guys are just wiped out off the planet? Then one day, 20 meters underwater, doing a population count surrounded by these beautiful sharks, I was realizing by the time I gather, process and publish my studies, another 3-6 million sharks will be killed. So why study something that's being eradicated the rate the sharks are and not do anything about it. So I opened my research to the public. I developed a program, where people could come to learn about sharks from a scientific perspective. I collaborated with @juansharks, who is a well-known shark and marine photographer and shark specialist. We developed this program that's research- and conservation-based, and opened it to the public so they could learn about their biology, physiology, behavior, how to interact with them safely, answers all those questions people don't know about sharks. The cool thing is people actually get to get in the water with us and see for themselves, eye to eye, what sharks are really like. It's such a successful program as people can speak up for sharks from a first-hand perspective and also influence their networks, and change people's minds. We are also able to fund educational outreach through this, reef and beach cleanups, local conservation campaigns, and international conservation campaigns, like stopping the cull in Western Australia, a story for another time I'm honestly rather glad I don't have time to share tonight as I'd end up crying. But we were able to save one of the juvenile sharks. She was under three meters, and she would have just died, even though she was cattle tagged improperly, and, you know, for 90 minutes, I swam with her, looking her in the eye, and trying to tell her it was going to be okay as blood was spilling out of her head, and kind of trying to tell myself it was going to be okay. After 90 minutes, she swam off: and it was that effort. This is another conservation campaign, a little better known. It reached over 2 million people in 2 days and featured none other than the lovely role model, Bella, who is so great for her species, a great representative. At the time when we released it, it was because there was a study put out showing there were less than 350 great whites, in the area from California to Alaska to Hawaii to Mexico, an area where juansharks and I grew up diving with sharks, with white sharks specifically. We knew many of them, had spent much time with them, studying behavior, working with them. So what do you do when you hear someone you love, care about, understand, is being eradicated? Something. So, we thought, with Water Inspired we'd try and use inspiring photography and videography to inspire people to care. We needed people to give white sharks a second look, a second chance. They don't make the news very often. When they do, I'm sure you guys all know, it's not usually good press. So we were successful. We wanted to show the natural beauty of sharks. But most often, when people see a beautiful image like this, they just think it's just on its way to eat the next person, right? So, we want to do the anti-Jaws. The little blond girl, she gets eaten in the fictitious movie, right? So what's it like in reality? Well, I've been working with them for a long time, right? We dive to get receivers and other things like that, so I wanted to show a connection, I wanted people to be able to connect, see another side of these animals, realize that we can coexist. But in order to coexist, they have to exist, and there's so much more to these animals than meets the eye. When you take the time to get to know somebody, you know, you can understand that maybe there's more to them. And so I wanted to share that with the world. And I have to give the disclaimer - I mean, there's just so many things that I would love to share with you guys — but I do have to give the disclaimer that they deserve a lot of respect ... not fear, but they are apex predators, they do have a role ... and we need them for that role, it's very important. I mean, I could cite study after study after study, showing the importance of that. You know, if I wanted to go out into the African savanna and pat a lion, you know what I would do? I would call up the lion whisperer, and I'd go hang out with him, and I'd learn, and I'd study from him, out of respect for the animal because of its reputation. So, while I understand that, especially the way that they are portrayed in the media, that people are afraid of them, you shouldn't be afraid of them; you should just respect them. they are beautiful animals, there's so much more to them. So if there's one thing that Bella has taught me, it's that, like Bella, we can all positively change and influence our environments for the better. All we need to do is take action. In the words of Jane Goodall: Every day we make an impact. It's up to us what kind of an impact we want that to be. Now, this was just one successful collaborative program that we collaborated with GoPro on. They were very true to the message and released a beautiful piece, but there are so many other things, other media pieces we could do, even just writing to a restaurant, asking them not to serve shark fin soup. New campaigns, political policies, the ideas are endless. What it comes down to is: Yeah, knowledge is powerful, but it's nothing without action. I love Nike. I get up every morning and go running. It's like, just do it. You may not feel like it, but any effort is better than no effort. [We may feel like what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less without that drop.] So I want to ask you guys tonight, (Laughter) to take action for your future. Sharks and the oceans affect us all. I'd like to see a raise of hands for all those that are willing to take a small, small action for a better future. Raise your hands if you are willing to take that action. Oh, I so see all those hands. Okay, I'm going to call you out on it. I want you guys to use that hand and grab your phones. I'll do it with you. Grab your phones. I know it's usually rude to grab your phones during a talk, but you'll be helping me. This is really good. This is good. This is your call to action. Let's do it! (Laughter) So I want you guys to grab your phone, and we're going to spread great ideas globally. I want you guys to Tweet, Facebook, Instagram, something. Spread an idea, share a fact about a shark. I'm going to do it with you because it's actually really fun. Even though you guys are kind of dark - Okay, ready? Smile! Okay. So don't get distracted with the missed call or text. This'll only take a minute, and I'm off the stage, so ... All right, let's do this together. We're going to make a difference, a measurable impact for sharks. So I'm going to Instagram. This is how the world is now, right? We all just walk around on our phones. I think I saw that on a talk earlier. This is all good. Okay next. So I'm going to use a hashtag. #HelpSaveSharks. Okay. #HelpSaveBella. Here with the amazing group at TEDx conference in Europe, helping spread great ideas and ways we can help save sharks and our future. Sharks are important. Redefining the relationships we have with sharks. #SharkConservation, #HelpSaveSharks, #NoSharkFinSoup, #TEDSavesSharks, #TEDTalksonSharks. Okay. And I will share that. Awesome! And this is the best part. I get to thank you all for being a part of the force that redefines the relationship we have with sharks for a better future. Thank you, guys. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
important role 2
million sharks 2
white sharks 2
future sharks 2
spread great 2
great ideas 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
spread great ideas 2


Important Words


  1. ability
  2. accurately
  3. action
  4. adapt
  5. adapting
  6. admire
  7. ado
  8. adopt
  9. adverse
  10. affect
  11. affects
  12. afraid
  13. african
  14. aid
  15. air
  16. alaska
  17. alive
  18. amazing
  19. ancient
  20. animal
  21. animals
  22. answers
  23. apex
  24. appearance
  25. appearances
  26. applause
  27. area
  28. areas
  29. attributed
  30. australia
  31. austria
  32. average
  33. bahamas
  34. balance
  35. barnes
  36. bascompete
  37. based
  38. basic
  39. basically
  40. beach
  41. beautiful
  42. beauty
  43. behavior
  44. behavioral
  45. belief
  46. beliefs
  47. bella
  48. biased
  49. billions
  50. biology
  51. biopsies
  52. bit
  53. blond
  54. blood
  55. bowl
  56. breath
  57. breathe
  58. bringing
  59. british
  60. business
  61. bycatch
  62. cabo
  63. california
  64. call
  65. campaign
  66. campaigns
  67. carcharias
  68. carcharodon
  69. care
  70. catching
  71. cattle
  72. cautious
  73. cells
  74. chance
  75. change
  76. changing
  77. chinese
  78. cite
  79. classy
  80. cleanups
  81. coexist
  82. cognitive
  83. collaborated
  84. collaborative
  85. columbia
  86. community
  87. complexes
  88. concrete
  89. conference
  90. connect
  91. connected
  92. connection
  93. conservation
  94. continue
  95. cool
  96. coral
  97. count
  98. country
  99. crying
  100. cull
  101. culling
  102. culturals
  103. culture
  104. cultures
  105. current
  106. dark
  107. day
  108. days
  109. dead
  110. decimated
  111. denying
  112. depleted
  113. describe
  114. deserve
  115. developed
  116. died
  117. difference
  118. dinosaurs
  119. direct
  120. direction
  121. disclaimer
  122. distracted
  123. dive
  124. diversity
  125. diving
  126. double
  127. dr
  128. drink
  129. drop
  130. due
  131. dying
  132. earle
  133. earlier
  134. eat
  135. eaten
  136. ecology
  137. economic
  138. economies
  139. ecosystems
  140. ecotourism
  141. educational
  142. effects
  143. efficiency
  144. efficient
  145. effort
  146. elephants
  147. employing
  148. employments
  149. endless
  150. enter
  151. environment
  152. environmental
  153. environments
  154. eradicated
  155. essentially
  156. ethology
  157. europe
  158. evidence
  159. evolve
  160. evolved
  161. evolving
  162. examples
  163. exist
  164. experiencing
  165. explain
  166. extinction
  167. extremely
  168. eye
  169. facebook
  170. facing
  171. fact
  172. factors
  173. factual
  174. fascinating
  175. fatalities
  176. fear
  177. featured
  178. feel
  179. fictitious
  180. fin
  181. find
  182. fins
  183. fish
  184. fishing
  185. focus
  186. focuses
  187. foot
  188. force
  189. france
  190. fun
  191. fund
  192. future
  193. futures
  194. gather
  195. girl
  196. give
  197. glad
  198. global
  199. globally
  200. good
  201. gopro
  202. grab
  203. graceful
  204. great
  205. grew
  206. group
  207. guessing
  208. guys
  209. hacking
  210. hand
  211. hands
  212. hang
  213. hashtag
  214. hawaii
  215. head
  216. heading
  217. health
  218. healthiest
  219. hear
  220. helping
  221. high
  222. highly
  223. hold
  224. hollywood
  225. honestly
  226. honorably
  227. horns
  228. hour
  229. hoyos
  230. human
  231. humans
  232. idea
  233. ideal
  234. ideas
  235. image
  236. imagine
  237. immune
  238. impact
  239. impacts
  240. importance
  241. important
  242. improperly
  243. increase
  244. indirectly
  245. indiscriminate
  246. inferiority
  247. influence
  248. influenced
  249. influencing
  250. information
  251. injured
  252. inspire
  253. inspired
  254. inspiring
  255. instagram
  256. intelligent
  257. interact
  258. interconnected
  259. interesting
  260. international
  261. introduce
  262. jane
  263. jobs
  264. juansharks
  265. judged
  266. judgments
  267. juvenile
  268. keeping
  269. keystone
  270. killed
  271. killer
  272. killing
  273. kind
  274. knew
  275. knowledge
  276. large
  277. laughter
  278. learn
  279. leaving
  280. led
  281. level
  282. levels
  283. limited
  284. lines
  285. lion
  286. live
  287. lives
  288. living
  289. local
  290. logic
  291. long
  292. lot
  293. love
  294. lovely
  295. lucky
  296. making
  297. marine
  298. mass
  299. matter
  300. mauricio
  301. means
  302. measurable
  303. media
  304. meets
  305. men
  306. message
  307. meters
  308. mexico
  309. michele
  310. million
  311. millions
  312. mind
  313. minds
  314. minute
  315. minutes
  316. missed
  317. mistakes
  318. model
  319. models
  320. moments
  321. monetary
  322. morning
  323. mounting
  324. movie
  325. movies
  326. multiple
  327. myers
  328. natural
  329. nature
  330. needed
  331. negative
  332. networks
  333. news
  334. nice
  335. nike
  336. noticing
  337. number
  338. observe
  339. observed
  340. occasions
  341. ocean
  342. oceans
  343. oftentimes
  344. opened
  345. order
  346. outreach
  347. outsmarting
  348. outweighing
  349. palau
  350. palmyra
  351. part
  352. passion
  353. pat
  354. people
  355. peoples
  356. perceive
  357. person
  358. personally
  359. perspective
  360. pharmaceuticals
  361. phone
  362. phones
  363. photo
  364. photographer
  365. photography
  366. physiology
  367. pick
  368. piece
  369. pieces
  370. places
  371. planet
  372. point
  373. policies
  374. political
  375. politicians
  376. population
  377. populations
  378. portrayed
  379. positively
  380. powerful
  381. predators
  382. prejudice
  383. press
  384. prestigious
  385. primary
  386. prior
  387. problem
  388. process
  389. productivity
  390. professional
  391. program
  392. programs
  393. proverb
  394. psychology
  395. public
  396. publish
  397. pulmo
  398. put
  399. questions
  400. quickly
  401. raise
  402. ransom
  403. rare
  404. rate
  405. reached
  406. reaction
  407. ready
  408. reality
  409. realize
  410. realizing
  411. receivers
  412. records
  413. redefine
  414. redefines
  415. redefining
  416. reef
  417. relationship
  418. relationships
  419. released
  420. rely
  421. removal
  422. representative
  423. reproduce
  424. reputation
  425. research
  426. resilience
  427. respect
  428. respected
  429. restaurant
  430. rhinos
  431. role
  432. rude
  433. running
  434. safely
  435. savanna
  436. save
  437. scary
  438. science
  439. scientific
  440. sea
  441. seafood
  442. sensory
  443. serve
  444. shaping
  445. share
  446. shark
  447. sharks
  448. shooting
  449. show
  450. showed
  451. showing
  452. sick
  453. side
  454. silly
  455. single
  456. situations
  457. slaughter
  458. slaughtered
  459. small
  460. snap
  461. social
  462. solely
  463. soup
  464. souvenirs
  465. spain
  466. speak
  467. specialist
  468. species
  469. specifically
  470. spend
  471. spent
  472. spilling
  473. spread
  474. stage
  475. standpoint
  476. starvation
  477. status
  478. stocks
  479. stopping
  480. story
  481. stronger
  482. studies
  483. study
  484. studying
  485. successful
  486. support
  487. surrounded
  488. swam
  489. sylvia
  490. system
  491. systems
  492. tagged
  493. tagging
  494. talk
  495. taught
  496. tedx
  497. teeth
  498. termed
  499. terms
  500. text
  501. thinking
  502. thought
  503. thriving
  504. time
  505. tonight
  506. toxic
  507. trade
  508. trading
  509. translates
  510. traveling
  511. trees
  512. trophic
  513. true
  514. truth
  515. tusks
  516. tweet
  517. understand
  518. underwater
  519. union
  520. university
  521. urgent
  522. videography
  523. vulnerable
  524. walk
  525. wanted
  526. waste
  527. wasting
  528. water
  529. ways
  530. weak
  531. western
  532. whisperer
  533. white
  534. whites
  535. wiped
  536. wonderful
  537. words
  538. work
  539. working
  540. world
  541. worse
  542. worth
  543. writing
  544. yeah
  545. year
  546. years