Full Transcript for How Coffee Is Bringing Songbirds Back with Kirstin Hill

this the species we're talking about? 85 00:03:45,030 --> 00:03:48,174 Like what is it about them that gets you so excited? 86 00:03:48,174 --> 00:03:50,580 - Well, I love sea turtles 87 00:03:50,580 --> 00:03:52,710 and as a kid growing up in New England, 88 00:03:52,710 --> 00:03:54,102 we didn't see a lot of sea turtles. 89 00:03:54,102 --> 00:03:56,550 - Yeah, sure. - And when I was a little boy, 90 00:03:56,550 --> 00:03:58,350 my dad was a Boston police officer 91 00:03:58,350 --> 00:04:01,443 and he would drop me off at the New England Aquarium. 92 00:04:01,443 --> 00:04:04,950 And they were like, "Who's this little seven-year-old, 93 00:04:04,950 --> 00:04:07,032 eight-year-old kid here every weekend?" 94 00:04:07,032 --> 00:04:08,700 And I like could... 95 00:04:08,700 --> 00:04:10,200 I knew all the names of the creatures. 96 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:13,260 And before you know it, I was helping them do assessments, 97 00:04:13,260 --> 00:04:16,230 health assessments on their only sea turtle, 98 00:04:16,230 --> 00:04:17,809 which is Myrtle the Turtle. 99 00:04:17,809 --> 00:04:19,830 And she is still there today. 100 00:04:19,830 --> 00:04:20,663 - Is she? - She's one 101 00:04:20,663 --> 00:04:25,140 of the oldest giant well-fed Reuben-esque sea turtles 102 00:04:25,140 --> 00:04:25,973 you'll ever see 103 00:04:25,973 --> 00:04:27,966 and she's thriving there at the New England Aquarium. 104 00:04:27,966 --> 00:04:31,338 But since then, I've had a chance to work with sea turtles 105 00:04:31,338 --> 00:04:34,020 all around the world and I've worked 106 00:04:34,020 --> 00:04:36,480 with almost all the sea turtles. 107 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:37,710 - So, okay. 108 00:04:37,710 --> 00:04:40,230 For many people out there who are not like you 109 00:04:40,230 --> 00:04:42,930 and me and kind of in it with wildlife all the time, 110 00:04:42,930 --> 00:04:45,150 a sea turtle is a sea turtle is a sea turtle. 111 00:04:45,150 --> 00:04:46,470 So can you talk to me about 112 00:04:46,470 --> 00:04:48,900 what a green sea turtle looks like? 113 00:04:48,900 --> 00:04:52,710 Is it kind of like how a brown bear is actually brown? 114 00:04:52,710 --> 00:04:56,610 Or is it more like how a blue whale is like kind of blue 115 00:04:56,610 --> 00:04:59,100 but a little bit more gray and dark? 116 00:04:59,100 --> 00:05:02,100 Like what does this green sea turtle really look like? 117 00:05:02,100 --> 00:05:04,290 - Well, they don't look green. - Yeah. 118 00:05:04,290 --> 00:05:05,123 - At all. 119 00:05:05,123 --> 00:05:05,960 - Thank you. 120 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:07,830 - So do you know why they're called green sea turtles? 121 00:05:07,830 --> 00:05:11,280 - I don't. - Because of their meat. 122 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:14,677 Because when you would eat the flesh, the muscle tissue 123 00:05:14,677 --> 00:05:19,440 and fat tissue is green because of all the foraging. 124 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:23,777 They forge in a lot of alginous type material 125 00:05:23,777 --> 00:05:28,020 and they're absorbing that chromatophore type, 126 00:05:28,020 --> 00:05:30,419 the pigments. They're absorbing that. 127 00:05:30,419 --> 00:05:33,600 - The fact that green sea turtles are named for the color 128 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:37,888 of their meat explains why some of their population crashed. 129 00:05:37,888 --> 00:05:41,220 Over the course of Jeff's career, he's been a witness 130 00:05:41,220 --> 00:05:43,080 to the sea turtle's journey 131 00:05:43,080 --> 00:05:47,600 and the many factors leading to the crash and the comeback. 132 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:51,019 - In my career, I've seen the arc of sea turtles. 133 00:05:51,019 --> 00:05:54,288 So I'm going on over 30 years in my career. 134 00:05:54,288 --> 00:05:56,760 And when I began my career, 135 00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:59,460 sea turtles were very critically-endangered. 136 00:05:59,460 --> 00:06:03,390 And now I can see sea turtles when I'm out fishing 137 00:06:03,390 --> 00:06:05,010 in the summer off Massachusetts. 138 00:06:05,010 --> 00:06:06,420 We have sea turtles. 139 00:06:06,420 --> 00:06:07,253 - No. 140 00:06:07,253 --> 00:06:09,036 I didn't know it was that good. 141 00:06:09,036 --> 00:06:09,960 - Yes. 142 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,930 So green turtles were critically-endangered, 143 00:06:12,930 --> 00:06:15,780 loggerheads critically-endangered, leatherbacks, 144 00:06:15,780 --> 00:06:19,500 all the sea turtles were critically-endangered. 145 00:06:19,500 --> 00:06:21,818 Some now are endangered. 146 00:06:21,818 --> 00:06:24,210 But like loggerheads are, 147 00:06:24,210 --> 00:06:27,480 have drifted their way into threatened status. 148 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:29,190 And green turtles are probably, 149 00:06:29,190 --> 00:06:31,650 many scientists would say are no longer threatened. 150 00:06:31,650 --> 00:06:33,298 They're very abundant. 151 00:06:33,298 --> 00:06:37,650 And a lot of that came down to was eliminating the hunting 152 00:06:37,650 --> 00:06:41,160 of sea turtles because they were a food 153 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:43,770 and they still are a food for many people around the world, 154 00:06:43,770 --> 00:06:45,943 including Costa Rica. 155 00:06:45,943 --> 00:06:50,438 And having this global mission to make people 156 00:06:50,438 --> 00:06:52,980 wanna protect them, have them sort 157 00:06:52,980 --> 00:06:55,530 of be ambassador species that we can love 158 00:06:55,530 --> 00:06:58,480 and then protecting and restoring habitat 159 00:06:59,370 --> 00:07:02,429 and protecting the oceans where they foraged 160 00:07:02,429 --> 00:07:06,750 is what allowed us to bring them back. 161 00:07:06,750 --> 00:07:10,350 And if you were to go to Boca Raton, for example, 162 00:07:10,350 --> 00:07:14,400 40 years ago, they had a dearth of sea turtles. 163 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:17,010 Just a couple would come up and nest. 164 00:07:17,010

--> 00:07:20,186 But now Boca Raton, Florida is probably 165 00:07:20,186 --> 00:07:24,330 the most important nesting site for sea turtles, 166 00:07:24,330 --> 00:07:26,940 especially loggerhead sea turtles. 167 00:07:26,940 --> 00:07:31,380 But green turtles have made an extraordinary recovery. 168 00:07:31,380 --> 00:07:34,740 So in the short-term, in the midterm, 169 00:07:34,740 --> 00:07:37,774 sea turtles are doing incredibly well. 170 00:07:37,774 --> 00:07:40,560 The long-term, we don't know 171 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,140 because they're facing other challenges. 172 00:07:43,140 --> 00:07:45,546 But where I live in New England, 173 00:07:45,546 --> 00:07:50,546 because our waters have gotten so warm and also 174 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:52,920 because they are cleaner than they have been 175 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:55,860 in 100 years, Boston Harbor 176 00:07:55,860 --> 00:08:00,709 was the dirtiest modern urban waterway in the world. 177 00:08:00,709 --> 00:08:01,542 - I believe it. 178 00:08:01,542 --> 00:08:04,110 - It's now the cleanest modern waterway. 179 00:08:04,110 --> 00:08:05,419 - Way to go, Boston. 180 00:08:05,419 --> 00:08:06,330 - Brought back the right whales. 181 00:08:06,330 --> 00:08:07,230 It brought back. - [Dr. Rae] Uh-huh. 182 00:08:07,230 --> 00:08:08,820 - It brought back turtles 183 00:08:08,820 --> 00:08:12,362 that would now could migrate up because it doesn't get cold. 184 00:08:12,362 --> 00:08:13,195 - [Dr. Rae] Uh-huh. 185 00:08:13,195 --> 00:08:15,210 - But eventually, it does get cold 186 00:08:15,210 --> 00:08:16,970 and they get cold-stunned. - [Dr. Rae] Oh. 187 00:08:16,970 --> 00:08:20,344 - So we have a whole sea turtle hospital in New England now 188 00:08:20,344 --> 00:08:24,330 that back in the day would get five patients a year 189 00:08:24,330 --> 00:08:26,963 and now they get thousands of patients a year. 190 00:08:26,963 --> 00:08:29,970 And the other challenge with sea turtles is 191 00:08:29,970 --> 00:08:34,232 because the sand is warmer, nests 192 00:08:34,232 --> 00:08:37,414 with many species, including green sea turtles, 193 00:08:37,414 --> 00:08:41,190 are hatching out about 90% female. 194 00:08:41,190 --> 00:08:44,310 - Oh interesting because the temperature of it's like kind 195 00:08:44,310 --> 00:08:46,350 of the incubation temperature 196 00:08:46,350 --> 00:08:48,420 helps determine the sex of the animal. 197 00:08:48,420 --> 00:08:50,831 - Hotter means girls. 198 00:08:50,831 --> 00:08:54,574 And colder means guys. 199 00:08:54,574 --> 00:08:59,160 And then it's reversed with crocodilians. 200 00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:00,930 - Because why not? - [Jeff] And why not? 201 00:09:00,930 --> 00:09:01,763 Yeah. 202 00:09:01,763 --> 00:09:02,596 - Because that's just how nature is. 203 00:09:02,596 --> 00:09:03,960 - So I don't know how you fix that problem. 204 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:05,400 So on the short-term, they're trying 205 00:09:05,400

--> 00:09:08,868 to do things like regulate the nest temperature, 206 00:09:08,868 --> 00:09:12,750 but truly recovered species are when we can sort 207 00:09:12,750 --> 00:09:15,450 of step back and say like wild turkeys, 208 00:09:15,450 --> 00:09:16,890 you're doing it on your own now. 209 00:09:16,890 --> 00:09:17,910 You're doing good. 210 00:09:17,910 --> 00:09:22,440 Or coyotes or other species, American alligators. 211 00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:23,610 - [Dr. Rae] Yeah. 212 00:09:23,610 --> 00:09:26,758 - Bald eagles, species that were once 213 00:09:26,758 --> 00:09:28,740 almost extinct, 214 00:09:28,740 --> 00:09:30,240 but now have recovered to the point 215 00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:32,505 where they are doing it on their own. 216 00:09:32,505 --> 00:09:35,220 - The Endangered Species Act gave the sea turtles 217 00:09:35,220 --> 00:09:39,420 legal protection, but law alone doesn't save a species. 218 00:09:39,420 --> 00:09:41,670 What happened in Costa Rica showed 219 00:09:41,670 --> 00:09:45,600 what protection actually looks like on the ground 220 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:47,313 and who has to be a part of it? 221 00:09:48,409 --> 00:09:49,650 - The animal plant, we'd go to a market 222 00:09:49,650 --> 00:09:51,630 and buy these sea turtles and release them 223 00:09:51,630 --> 00:09:53,715 and go out with this guy to buy sea turtles. 224 00:09:53,715 --> 00:09:57,900 And Costa Rica, their nesting green turtles 225 00:09:57,900 --> 00:09:59,700 and their loggerheads in the leatherbacks 226 00:09:59,700 --> 00:10:01,500 had largely crashed 227 00:10:01,500 --> 00:10:03,510 because people were both eating the turtles 228 00:10:03,510 --> 00:10:05,370 and eating the eggs. - Wow. 229 00:10:05,370 --> 00:10:08,970 - And once they protected those beaches, they now have 230 00:10:08,970 --> 00:10:10,770 so many sea turtles that they will say 231 00:10:10,770 --> 00:10:14,250 to the local population, "Please don't eat the sea turtles, 232 00:10:14,250 --> 00:10:17,220 but we have managed these nests so well, 233 00:10:17,220 --> 00:10:18,657 you can have some of the eggs. 234 00:10:18,657 --> 00:10:21,177 You get to have 20% of the eggs." 235 00:10:21,177 --> 00:10:24,390 - That really speaks to some great recovery 236 00:10:24,390 --> 00:10:28,410 because allowing people to use these natural resources 237 00:10:28,410 --> 00:10:31,380 in their traditional way is fair 238 00:10:31,380 --> 00:10:34,830 and also speaks to how resilient some 239 00:10:34,830 --> 00:10:36,210 of these species really can be 240 00:10:36,210 --> 00:10:37,560 if they have the right intervention. 241 00:10:37,560 --> 00:10:38,393 - Right. 242 00:10:38,393 --> 00:10:41,070 And with sea turtle eggs, there's a lot 243 00:10:41,070 --> 00:10:45,833 of cultural importance, especially in Latin America. 244 00:10:45,833 --> 00:10:48,030 They would just go and dig up all the eggs. 245 00:10:48,030 --> 00:10:49,200 They just didn't have a

chance. 246 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:53,460 And once those nests stabilized, they were like, "It's okay. 247 00:10:53,460 --> 00:10:55,050 We can share this resource 248 00:10:55,050 --> 00:10:57,240 because we're already beating the odds." 249 00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:00,300 Because it already is a game of numbers for sea turtles. 250 00:11:00,300 --> 00:11:03,681 Like one, if you're lucky, one in 10,000 251 00:11:03,681 --> 00:11:06,000 - Survives. - will come back as an adult. 252 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:07,500 - Walk me through that life cycle 253 00:11:07,500 --> 00:11:08,670 from where it's born. - Yeah. 254 00:11:08,670 --> 00:11:11,430 So when the sea turtle, when the mom, she comes out 255 00:11:11,430 --> 00:11:14,580 and she excavates that nest out to deposit her eggs 256 00:11:14,580 --> 00:11:18,750 and she may, during that season, she'll do multiple nests 257 00:11:18,750 --> 00:11:22,860 and she'll do like a decoy nest to kind of do kind of sloppy 258 00:11:22,860 --> 00:11:24,639 that kind of fool the animals. 259 00:11:24,639 --> 00:11:25,472 - Clever. 260 00:11:25,472 --> 00:11:28,260 - The idea is you do multiple nests so 261 00:11:28,260 --> 00:11:30,190 your entire clutch isn't lost. 262 00:11:30,190 --> 00:11:34,800 And then, you know, she's laying between 30 and 70 eggs. 263 00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:35,633 - [Dr. Rae] Okay. 264 00:11:35,633 --> 00:11:37,560 - Little bigger than a ping pong ball. 265 00:11:37,560 --> 00:11:41,550 And then she goes back to sea. 266 00:11:41,550 --> 00:11:45,540 When she comes out to nest, she is nesting on the very beach 267 00:11:45,540 --> 00:11:47,070 where she was born. 268 00:11:47,070 --> 00:11:48,873 - Amazing. - Where her life began. 269 00:11:50,070 --> 00:11:53,634 And she is the only time a sea turtle 270 00:11:53,634 --> 00:11:57,450 for the most part with few places like Hawaii 271 00:11:57,450 --> 00:11:59,013 will have this phenomenon of sea turtles 272 00:11:59,013 --> 00:12:00,810 that actually will sleep in the beach. 273 00:12:00,810 --> 00:12:04,020 Most sea turtles become pelagic. 274 00:12:04,020 --> 00:12:05,940 A sea turtle born 275 00:12:05,940 --> 00:12:09,540 that hatches out on Florida may find its way. 276 00:12:09,540 --> 00:12:12,660 We've tracked them to the coast of Africa. 277 00:12:12,660 --> 00:12:13,890 - [Dr. Rae] Oh my gosh. 278 00:12:13,890 --> 00:12:14,940 - [Jeff] Sea turtles from Africa 279 00:12:14,940 --> 00:12:17,100 have shown up beating in the horn 280 00:12:17,100 --> 00:12:18,960 of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. 281 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:19,793 - [Dr. Rae] Incredible. 282 00:12:19,793 --> 00:12:22,629 - So they are incredibly adaptive of using 283 00:12:22,629 --> 00:12:25,410 the ocean's currents to go from A to B 284 00:12:25,410 --> 00:12:27,660 or go from the new world to the old world. 285 00:12:27,660 --> 00:12:29,250 - And we can find them in all 286 00:12:29,250 --> 00:12:31,080 of the oceans essentially,

right? 287 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:32,223 - We can now, we even have some sea turtles 288 00:12:32,223 --> 00:12:34,236 that go into the Arctic. 289 00:12:34,236 --> 00:12:35,069 - What? 290 00:12:35,069 --> 00:12:38,130 - You know, we think of sea turtles as being cold-blooded 291 00:12:38,130 --> 00:12:40,380 and not being warm-blooded, being endothermic. 292 00:12:40,380 --> 00:12:44,472 But they are the only turtle that is megathermic 293 00:12:44,472 --> 00:12:48,540 because they are so big they are like their own uni, 294 00:12:48,540 --> 00:12:51,330 they're a closed loop energy system. 295 00:12:51,330 --> 00:12:55,980 So the nest is laid there and she will go back to sea 296 00:12:55,980 --> 00:12:58,350 and only the females will come out. 297 00:12:58,350 --> 00:13:00,526 Males will spend their whole lives in the ocean. 298 00:13:00,526 --> 00:13:01,745 - At sea, isn't that something? 299 00:13:01,745 --> 00:13:04,980 - And when they hatch out, you know, 300 00:13:04,980 --> 00:13:08,953 if they're lucky enough, if they're that one in 10,000 301 00:13:08,953 --> 00:13:13,953 that survive the flood, that survived that high-tide, 302 00:13:14,430 --> 00:13:17,610 that survived the coyotes, of the raccoons, 303 00:13:17,610 --> 00:13:19,710 that survived the ghost crabs 304 00:13:19,710 --> 00:13:21,480 and all the fish that will eat them, 305 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:23,850 then they'll come back 20 years later. 306 00:13:23,850 --> 00:13:28,500 It will take two decades for that mom to come to the beach, 307 00:13:28,500 --> 00:13:32,054 excavate that nest out and bring that next generation in. 308 00:13:32,054 --> 00:13:35,520 So that's kind of how the cycle works. 309 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:37,710 - The recovery of the green sea turtle 310 00:13:37,710 --> 00:13:39,540 didn't happen by accident. 311 00:13:39,540 --> 00:13:42,750 It happened because people decided it would. 312 00:13:42,750 --> 00:13:44,970 But the threats that nearly wiped them out 313 00:13:44,970 --> 00:13:48,230 haven't disappeared and some new ones have arrived. 314 00:13:48,230 --> 00:13:50,172 - So green sea turtles 315 00:13:50,172 --> 00:13:53,970 were listed on the endangered species list. 316 00:13:53,970 --> 00:13:57,750 And that made a big difference, at least in the US 317 00:13:57,750 --> 00:14:00,750 and in North America in their protection. 318 00:14:00,750 --> 00:14:02,280 And you know, 319 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:05,400 and I think it also made a difference worldwide. 320 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:09,791 - It did because they were protected internationally. 321 00:14:09,791 --> 00:14:13,320 The IUCN and other groups. 322 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:15,720 And there was a tremendous... 323 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:19,260 There's still places where people eat green turtles 324 00:14:19,260 --> 00:14:20,490 and other sea turtles. 325 00:14:20,490 --> 00:14:24,630 The green turtle is the one that's actually eaten the most. 326 00:14:24,630 --> 00:14:26,190 People don't eat leatherbacks. 327 00:14:26,190 --> 00:14:28,309 - And they're eating this green meat. 328 00:14:28,309 --> 00:14:29,142 - Yeah. (laughs loudly) 329 00:14:29,142 --> 00:14:29,975 - I can't get over that. 330 00:14:29,975 --> 00:14:33,840 - It's like that's what they say is I've been to places 331 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:36,840 where I've seen it being cooked in the streets of Indonesia 332 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:38,400 and other places. 333 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:42,450 But that was the most hunted sea turtle. 334 00:14:42,450 --> 00:14:44,490 They would hunt them for their eggs. 335 00:14:44,490 --> 00:14:46,410 And sometimes, they would just literally get them all 336 00:14:46,410 --> 00:14:48,630 on board, cut them open, remove the eggs. 337 00:14:48,630 --> 00:14:51,600 And you can look at those old National Geographic photos 338 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:53,801 and you don't really see that anymore. 339 00:14:53,801 --> 00:14:57,097 But they still face future challenges. 340 00:14:57,097 --> 00:14:59,374 One is a warming world. 341 00:14:59,374 --> 00:15:02,040 - Yeah. - And how do we combat that? 342 00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:04,170 And the other are plastics. 343 00:15:04,170 --> 00:15:05,003 - Okay. 344 00:15:05,003 --> 00:15:06,900 Talk to me about plastics in the ocean. 345 00:15:06,900 --> 00:15:07,740 - Yeah. 346 00:15:07,740 --> 00:15:12,480 We dump 10 billion pounds of plastics 347 00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:14,313 every year into our oceans. 348 00:15:15,150 --> 00:15:18,240 And you can see that as blue 349 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:21,810 as a beautiful bluebird morning in New England. 350 00:15:21,810 --> 00:15:26,310 I've been to the Trash Pacific Gyre and I've seen that 351 00:15:26,310 --> 00:15:29,912 and where you see something that looks like an island 352 00:15:29,912 --> 00:15:34,912 that is hundreds of miles in size of this gyro of trash 353 00:15:35,430 --> 00:15:37,140 that has all come together. 354 00:15:37,140 --> 00:15:39,960 And there are places where beautiful Bali, 355 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:42,630 for example, you go there and they have to every day they, 356 00:15:42,630 --> 00:15:45,360 because people have spent all this money to be a tourist 357 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:47,010 and beautiful Bali. 358 00:15:47,010 --> 00:15:48,870 They have to come in with excavators 359 00:15:48,870 --> 00:15:50,310 and front-end loaders every morning 360 00:15:50,310 --> 00:15:52,860 just to clean the trash off the beach. 361 00:15:52,860 --> 00:15:57,480 And that is a preventable thing. 362 00:15:57,480 --> 00:15:59,340 It is something we could mitigate. 363 00:15:59,340 --> 00:16:00,809 So that's the good news. 364 00:16:00,809 --> 00:16:05,340 If we decided, we could limit almost all 365 00:16:05,340 --> 00:16:09,480 of the plastic trash that goes into our oceans, 366 00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:11,790 there's a way we could manage that. 367 00:16:11,790

--> 00:16:15,369 But it's been documented that one 368 00:16:15,369 --> 00:16:19,980 like big landscape plastic bag, you know, those plastic bags 369 00:16:19,980 --> 00:16:21,450 that's really tough. 370 00:16:21,450 --> 00:16:22,590 - Yeah. Yeah. 371 00:16:22,590 --> 00:16:25,851 - Can kill five individual sea turtles 372 00:16:25,851 --> 00:16:26,684 - [Dr. Rae] Just one. 373 00:16:26,684 --> 00:16:28,470 - Before it's broken up enough into little pieces 374 00:16:28,470 --> 00:16:30,540 that it could pass through. 375 00:16:30,540 --> 00:16:33,660 And I have been to so many sea turtle hospitals 376 00:16:33,660 --> 00:16:34,800 where that is it. 377 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:37,319 So you have them eating plastics. 378 00:16:37,319 --> 00:16:42,319 And then off Florida boat strikes, big problem. 379 00:16:42,630 --> 00:16:45,450 And then they have diseases that may be the result 380 00:16:45,450 --> 00:16:49,530 of climate change, may be the result of pollution. 381 00:16:49,530 --> 00:16:52,362 They have a, it's a papilloma-type virus 382 00:16:52,362 --> 00:16:57,362 where they get these tumors and they'll often get them in 383 00:16:57,420 --> 00:16:58,980 and they'll remove the tumors and stuff. 384 00:16:58,980 --> 00:17:00,472 So they have challenges. 385 00:17:00,472 --> 00:17:02,580 But overall, I don't like to look at things 386 00:17:02,580 --> 00:17:04,650 as good news or success. 387 00:17:04,650 --> 00:17:07,030 I would say it's a promising story. 388 00:17:07,030 --> 00:17:09,420 - Okay. - It's a hopeful story. 389 00:17:09,420 --> 00:17:12,210 We are at a place of uncertainty 390 00:17:12,210 --> 00:17:14,280 and hope with green sea turtles 391 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:17,670 and all the other sea turtles that we have out there. 392 00:17:17,670 --> 00:17:19,260 What I would argue, we are there 393 00:17:19,260 --> 00:17:22,020 where we have this out of sight, out of mind. 394 00:17:22,020 --> 00:17:23,040 Oh, we fixed it. 395 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:25,260 - Sure. - We live in a world now 396 00:17:25,260 --> 00:17:30,030 where whether you like it or not, in the last century, 397 00:17:30,030 --> 00:17:33,030 humankind has consumed 398 00:17:33,030 --> 00:17:36,427 70 to 80% of all our planet's nature. 399 00:17:36,427 --> 00:17:38,550 We, whether we like it or not, 400 00:17:38,550 --> 00:17:40,650 have been given this responsibility 401 00:17:40,650 --> 00:17:42,450 to be our planet stewards. 402 00:17:42,450 --> 00:17:44,126 - [Dr. Rae] Yeah. - And that is something 403 00:17:44,126 --> 00:17:48,030 that will always require vigilancy. 404 00:17:48,030 --> 00:17:50,075 - The way I'm interpreting what you're saying is that 405 00:17:50,075 --> 00:17:53,070 if you are committed to protecting sea turtles 406 00:17:53,070 --> 00:17:56,334 or wildlife, you know, nature at all, 407 00:17:56,334 --> 00:17:58,800 it's not a single decision. 408 00:17:58,800 --> 00:18:01,530 So it's not just choosing a paper straw 409 00:18:01,530 --> 00:18:02,702 over a plastic straw. 410 00:18:02,702 --> 00:18:05,654 It's not the right thing to get your paper straw 411 00:18:05,654 --> 00:18:09,570 and then the next car you buy is a huge gas guzzler, right? 412 00:18:09,570 --> 00:18:11,850 It is a lifetime kind of readjustment 413 00:18:11,850 --> 00:18:16,050 and commitment to these better environmental practices. 414 00:18:16,050 --> 00:18:17,190 It is the way you vote. 415 00:18:17,190 --> 00:18:19,230 It is the community that you live in. 416 00:18:19,230 --> 00:18:21,018 It is, you know, bringing the- 417 00:18:21,018 --> 00:18:22,178 - The businesses you support. 418 00:18:22,178 --> 00:18:23,193 - The businesses you support. - [Jeff] Farmers. 419 00:18:23,193 --> 00:18:25,950 - It's bringing that reusable bag 420 00:18:25,950 --> 00:18:28,920 and eliminating single use plastics. 421 00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:31,050 It's talking to your friends 422 00:18:31,050 --> 00:18:33,900 and family who might not be politically-activated to, 423 00:18:33,900 --> 00:18:35,820 you know, research their candidates. 424 00:18:35,820 --> 00:18:37,620 It's the way you travel. 425 00:18:37,620 --> 00:18:39,600 It is this commitment. 426 00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:40,830 And it's not too hard. 427 00:18:40,830 --> 00:18:44,370 That's not to say like it's overwhelming and it's too hard. 428 00:18:44,370 --> 00:18:46,650 It actually can become- - Well, if it is too hard, 429 00:18:46,650 --> 00:18:47,483 you can't do it. 430 00:18:47,483 --> 00:18:49,530 It's not, it's not sustainable. 431 00:18:49,530 --> 00:18:51,120 So it has to be something 432 00:18:51,120 --> 00:18:54,870 that you can achieve reasonably in your life. 433 00:18:54,870 --> 00:18:56,863 It's like the 5% rule. 434 00:18:56,863 --> 00:19:01,590 It's 5% of everything in your life to give, to take, 435 00:19:01,590 --> 00:19:05,490 to manage time, talent, treasure. 436 00:19:05,490 --> 00:19:06,993 It's that 5%. 437 00:19:06,993 --> 00:19:10,593 If everyone did that, that makes a big difference. 438 00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:13,560 - Conservation classifications tell us 439 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:14,834 where a species stands. 440 00:19:14,834 --> 00:19:18,012 They don't tell us how it got there. 441 00:19:18,012 --> 00:19:20,940 Jeff has been on the ground for three decades 442 00:19:20,940 --> 00:19:24,573 and his stories say more than status reports ever could. 443 00:19:25,830 --> 00:19:28,410 - You know, I've always believed in these classifications 444 00:19:28,410 --> 00:19:30,480 that we have, endangered, - [Jeff] Right. 445 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:31,830 - You know, critically-endangered, 446 00:19:31,830 --> 00:19:33,660 vulnerable, least concerned, 447 00:19:33,660 --> 00:19:35,957 threatened, least concerned, et cetera. 448 00:19:35,957 --> 00:19:40,620 I think it really helps us to triage conservation work. 449 00:19:40,620 --> 00:19:42,900 And at the

same time, I think you've made this point. 450 00:19:42,900 --> 00:19:44,828 It doesn't necessarily point us to the future. 451 00:19:44,828 --> 00:19:48,167 So when we have an animal that is of least concern, 452 00:19:48,167 --> 00:19:51,480 they are abundant, maybe they've gone through a lot, 453 00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:52,890 but they've arrived at this place 454 00:19:52,890 --> 00:19:54,210 where they're doing pretty well. 455 00:19:54,210 --> 00:19:59,210 It doesn't actually secure them for a future of abundance. 456 00:19:59,820 --> 00:20:01,860 And so I appreciate people like you 457 00:20:01,860 --> 00:20:05,520 who have this articulation for the work isn't done yet. 458 00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:09,480 - And what you have to remember is that creatures 459 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:11,641 that are critically-endangered today 460 00:20:11,641 --> 00:20:15,150 or extinct were once abundant. 461 00:20:15,150 --> 00:20:16,351 - Abundant. There you go. 462 00:20:16,351 --> 00:20:19,410 - Passenger pigeons were abundant. 463 00:20:19,410 --> 00:20:22,230 The heathen was very abundant. 464 00:20:22,230 --> 00:20:24,740 And that's what created conservation, 465 00:20:24,740 --> 00:20:28,170 when we wiped out wild turkey. 466 00:20:28,170 --> 00:20:31,260 So again, a sign of success like green, 467 00:20:31,260 --> 00:20:33,510 where green turtles are today. 468 00:20:33,510 --> 00:20:35,700 If you went to New England 100 years ago, 469 00:20:35,700 --> 00:20:37,410 there were no wild turkeys. 470 00:20:37,410 --> 00:20:38,250 They were eaten up. 471 00:20:38,250 --> 00:20:40,830 There were no white, very few white-tailed deer. 472 00:20:40,830 --> 00:20:43,440 And now these are very abundant species, 473 00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:44,949 very abundant resources. 474 00:20:44,949 --> 00:20:47,460 And there are places now where turkeys 475 00:20:47,460 --> 00:20:51,630 are now worth-thriving, but then they're in trouble again 476 00:20:51,630 --> 00:20:54,000 because of bird flu and other things. 477 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:54,833 So, you're right. 478 00:20:54,833 --> 00:20:57,180 We're never really out of the woods 479 00:20:57,180 --> 00:21:00,690 where humankind envelops everything 480 00:21:00,690 --> 00:21:04,470 with such a completeness. 481 00:21:04,470 --> 00:21:06,988 We constantly have to be vigilant. 482 00:21:06,988 --> 00:21:11,988 But yes, we have gotten to a point where species 483 00:21:12,391 --> 00:21:16,050 like green sea turtles, which were on the brink 484 00:21:16,050 --> 00:21:19,560 of disappearing, have recovered swimmingly. 485 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:24,560 And that is something I have experienced in my own life. 486 00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:28,440 - You know, you have been on TV speaking about the power 487 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,350 of nature and wildlife conservation for decades 488 00:21:31,350 --> 00:21:32,670 and you've changed so much. 489 00:21:32,670 --> 00:21:34,740 You've been hugely influential. 490 00:21:34,740 --> 00:21:37,440 Is there a particular sea turtle story that you'd like 491 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,170 to share with me that just stands out either from filming 492 00:21:40,170 --> 00:21:42,412 or something that happened off camera? 493 00:21:42,412 --> 00:21:45,660 - There have been so many sea turtle stories. 494 00:21:45,660 --> 00:21:47,122 Some mishaps. 495 00:21:47,122 --> 00:21:48,060 - Oh. 496 00:21:48,060 --> 00:21:53,060 - So we had this sea turtle, this big Ridley sea turtle, 497 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:55,620 probably weighed about 100 pounds, 498 00:21:55,620 --> 00:21:58,590 and it had lost all four of its flippers. 499 00:21:58,590 --> 00:22:01,560 - Poor thing. - So we were, 500 00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:05,646 had drained its enclosure to clean it 501 00:22:05,646 --> 00:22:09,030 and I was gonna go grab the turtle. 502 00:22:09,030 --> 00:22:11,910 I was leaning, talking to my cameraman. 503 00:22:11,910 --> 00:22:15,270 I was leaning on the edge of this thing. 504 00:22:15,270 --> 00:22:18,720 It's about chest high and the sea turtle, the water is gone. 505 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:20,970 And this is about half the size of this room. 506 00:22:20,970 --> 00:22:24,480 And without any flippers, that sea turtle 507 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:28,874 managed to come over and bite-off the tip of my toe. 508 00:22:28,874 --> 00:22:30,300 - Oh my God. (laughs hilariously) 509 00:22:30,300 --> 00:22:32,640 - And I wielded in pain. 510 00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:33,473 - I shouldn't laugh. I shouldn't laugh. 511 00:22:33,473 --> 00:22:35,786 - And I was like, "Oh my gosh." 512 00:22:35,786 --> 00:22:37,920 And I turned around and there's blood everywhere 513 00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:40,423 and this sea turtle trying to eat my foot. 514 00:22:40,423 --> 00:22:42,030 (laughs happily) And so- 515 00:22:42,030 --> 00:22:43,470 - And it's, I mean, I can't even imagine 516 00:22:43,470 --> 00:22:44,400 how it's moving towards you. 517 00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:46,170 - Like one toe that's the longest. 518 00:22:46,170 --> 00:22:48,690 It was like whatever toe and it like cut-off the tip of it. 519 00:22:48,690 --> 00:22:52,583 And so that I was like, "Man, you're one determined turtle." 520 00:22:52,583 --> 00:22:55,890 And then, so that was one story. 521 00:22:55,890 --> 00:22:59,034 And then the other story was I was in Borneo 522 00:22:59,034 --> 00:23:04,034 and I'd waited all night for this, 523 00:23:04,994 --> 00:23:06,810 this nest to hatch out. 524 00:23:06,810 --> 00:23:09,120 We were gonna film it hatch out. 525 00:23:09,120 --> 00:23:12,120 And lo and behold, it starts to happen 526 00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:13,503 and you see them coming out. 527 00:23:13,503 --> 00:23:18,000 And it was sunrise coming up and they're going in. 528 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:18,960 It was so beautiful. 529 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:19,793 We're filming it up. 530 00:23:19,793 --> 00:23:24,405 And

there was like, and then they're all gone. 531 00:23:24,405 --> 00:23:26,760 And then I look at the nest 532 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:28,714 and there's this one straggler 533 00:23:28,714 --> 00:23:32,695 and its flippers, not deformed, but it's just not right. 534 00:23:32,695 --> 00:23:35,040 It's just the straggler. 535 00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:38,850 And you just know it's probably not gonna make it. 536 00:23:38,850 --> 00:23:41,677 And it was really very emotional for me to, just to 537 00:23:41,677 --> 00:23:44,910 watch this thing kind of trying 538 00:23:44,910 --> 00:23:46,338 to keep up with the other guys. 539 00:23:46,338 --> 00:23:49,635 And that was like emotional for me to see that. 540 00:23:49,635 --> 00:23:50,670 - [Dr. Rae] Sure. Yeah. 541 00:23:50,670 --> 00:23:52,980 - And so that was one incredible moment. 542 00:23:52,980 --> 00:23:57,135 Or dealing with these cold-stunned sea turtles 543 00:23:57,135 --> 00:24:00,624 that have come to New England to eat 544 00:24:00,624 --> 00:24:03,720 the bounty of plenty in the oceans. 545 00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:07,530 And then winter does come, comes later, but it does come 546 00:24:07,530 --> 00:24:08,880 and they get cold-stapped. 547 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:12,450 And all of these people, little old ladies coming up 548 00:24:12,450 --> 00:24:16,710 and we found this sea turtle and it was dead 549 00:24:16,710 --> 00:24:18,693 and we brought it back to the center 550 00:24:18,693 --> 00:24:21,180 and we had it there. 551 00:24:21,180 --> 00:24:24,390 And it had no, it was completely cold. 552 00:24:24,390 --> 00:24:26,312 It was as cold as the ice. 553 00:24:26,312 --> 00:24:27,900 It had no heartbeat. 554 00:24:27,900 --> 00:24:29,411 It wasn't breathing. 555 00:24:29,411 --> 00:24:34,411 And the scientist said "You know, I like to wait." 556 00:24:34,537 --> 00:24:37,853 But we went back the next day and it had a heartbeat. 557 00:24:37,853 --> 00:24:39,540 (shocks loudly) It was that determined. 558 00:24:39,540 --> 00:24:41,250 And we released that turtle back 559 00:24:41,250 --> 00:24:43,650 to the wild many months later. 560 00:24:43,650 --> 00:24:46,547 So that's the resiliency of nature. 561 00:24:46,547 --> 00:24:51,150 - The comeback is real, but ask Jeff Corwin why it matters 562 00:24:51,150 --> 00:24:53,703 and the answer has nothing to do with data. 563 00:24:54,540 --> 00:24:58,560 - I just months ago, again in Costa Rica, was looking at, 564 00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:00,180 well, I was waiting on this beach with my co-host 565 00:25:00,180 --> 00:25:02,220 and we were waiting for Jaguars, waiting for jaguars. 566 00:25:02,220 --> 00:25:04,830 And lo and behold, a wave sweeps up 567 00:25:04,830 --> 00:25:07,860 and there's a green sea turtle female obviously 568 00:25:07,860 --> 00:25:11,820 coming onto the sand to lay eggs for her nest. 569 00:25:11,820 --> 00:25:14,888 You know, I had been snorkeling with sea turtles before. 570

00:25:14,888 --> 00:25:17,880 And so I have seen them just be fast, you know, 571 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:20,730 just super fast in the water and agile 572 00:25:20,730 --> 00:25:22,800 and just amazing, like hard to keep up with. 573 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:27,630 And she comes in on this wave, riding the wave pretty fast 574 00:25:27,630 --> 00:25:30,030 and then kind of splat on the sand. 575 00:25:30,030 --> 00:25:32,265 And then suddenly, I see this massive body just, 576 00:25:32,265 --> 00:25:34,080 (reenact a water animal amazingly) 577 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:35,934 you know, using both of her flippers. 578 00:25:35,934 --> 00:25:39,960 And to me, this is a bit of, you know, anthropomorphizing. 579 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:40,950 - [Jeff] I know where you're going with this. 580 00:25:40,950 --> 00:25:43,800 - The animal, it seemed like she was exhausted 581 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:46,320 and just kind of, you know, I'm a mother myself, 582 00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:47,790 just mom to mom. 583 00:25:47,790 --> 00:25:50,610 I was thinking to myself, she's so tired 584 00:25:50,610 --> 00:25:51,990 and she's just, "Ugh", trying 585 00:25:51,990 --> 00:25:55,560 to get from the shore into the brush where she can, 586 00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:56,880 you know, lay these eggs. 587 00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:59,670 And it just took her like 10 minutes, you know, 588 00:25:59,670 --> 00:26:01,680 to get somewhere where if she was swimming, 589 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:03,540 would've been seconds. - Right. 590 00:26:03,540 --> 00:26:07,230 - And I just had this compassion and empathy 591 00:26:07,230 --> 00:26:10,316 for the sea turtle in that moment thinking to myself, 592 00:26:10,316 --> 00:26:12,600 you know, what a labor of love 593 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,630 because there are predators on this beach, you know? 594 00:26:15,630 --> 00:26:17,340 There are humans on this beach. 595 00:26:17,340 --> 00:26:18,690 There are seagulls 596 00:26:18,690 --> 00:26:20,010 and, you know, all kinds of things 597 00:26:20,010 --> 00:26:22,455 to eat her babies or to bother her. 598 00:26:22,455 --> 00:26:27,455 And yet she has to make her way with her heavy body 599 00:26:27,754 --> 00:26:30,240 to lay the eggs and then make her way back. 600 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:32,566 And I was just, I, you know, I just felt like 601 00:26:32,566 --> 00:26:35,400 so much compassion for that experience 602 00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:36,810 and for the fact 603 00:26:36,810 --> 00:26:40,046 that sea turtles have been perpetuating their species 604 00:26:40,046 --> 00:26:43,470 for millennia, you know, in the same way, 605 00:26:43,470 --> 00:26:45,060 but with the extreme effort. 606 00:26:45,060 --> 00:26:47,144 - For hundreds of millions of years. 607 00:26:47,144 --> 00:26:47,977 - Hundreds of- 608 00:26:47,977 --> 00:26:52,260 - That sea turtle in when she comes up, 609 00:26:52,260 --> 00:26:56,560 this is a creature that's designed to have buoyancy 610 00:26:58,410 --> 00:27:00,510 where all the heaviness 611 00:27:00,510 --> 00:27:02,683 of being a 200 pound animal- - Disappears in the water. 612 00:27:02,683 --> 00:27:04,170 - Disappears in the water. 613 00:27:04,170 --> 00:27:05,520 - Yeah. - But then it's like 614 00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:07,890 landing on a planet of all that gravity. 615 00:27:07,890 --> 00:27:10,950 It has to come out without, you know, with 616 00:27:10,950 --> 00:27:13,916 that heavy gravity and fight with the sand 617 00:27:13,916 --> 00:27:16,260 and the bugs. And then- 618 00:27:16,260 --> 00:27:17,190 - And they don't have feet yet. 619 00:27:17,190 --> 00:27:18,374 - The dryness of the eyes. 620 00:27:18,374 --> 00:27:21,875 And then she has to excavate a hole 621 00:27:21,875 --> 00:27:25,980 that takes some hours to create this pit 622 00:27:25,980 --> 00:27:30,240 that's three feet deep and then give birth literally. 623 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:35,240 You can hear them, you know, they sigh and they heave. 624 00:27:37,470 --> 00:27:40,590 And then she has to go back to the sea. 625 00:27:40,590 --> 00:27:44,940 And she's coming to the very place where her mother 626 00:27:44,940 --> 00:27:47,460 brought her into, "Dad, he's gone." 627 00:27:47,460 --> 00:27:49,350 But she does all that work. 628 00:27:49,350 --> 00:27:53,970 But then she is done and they are on their own. 629 00:27:53,970 --> 00:27:55,358 It's a game of numbers. 630 00:27:55,358 --> 00:27:58,980 - [Dr. Rae] Yeah. - She doesn't need 70 631 00:27:58,980 --> 00:27:59,813 to survive. 632 00:27:59,813 --> 00:28:02,370 She needs just one to survive. 633 00:28:02,370 --> 00:28:07,370 And that wonder survive maybe in her, you know, two 634 00:28:07,380 --> 00:28:09,900 or three times in her entire life when you think about it. 635 00:28:09,900 --> 00:28:12,150 - Right. - [Jeff] That's how it works. 636 00:28:12,150 --> 00:28:14,700 - It's really difficult, I think, to be in the presence 637 00:28:14,700 --> 00:28:18,210 of a sea turtle and not feel impacted by it somehow. 638 00:28:18,210 --> 00:28:21,000 And now that we have so many more sea turtles 639 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:22,950 because conservation has been working, 640 00:28:22,950 --> 00:28:25,050 the public has gotten on board, 641 00:28:25,050 --> 00:28:29,550 policies have been put in place, we can keep this species 642 00:28:29,550 --> 00:28:32,730 or all of these species alive around and around forever. 643 00:28:32,730 --> 00:28:37,259 - It's the reward of investing our time and our energy 644 00:28:37,259 --> 00:28:41,430 and our resources to bring this species back. 645 00:28:41,430 --> 00:28:43,800 Because when we lose a species, 646 00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:46,232 we lose a little piece of ourselves. 647 00:28:46,232 --> 00:28:47,065 - [Dr. Rae] Yeah. 648 00:28:47,065 --> 00:28:50,460 - We lose a piece of our humanity, our dignity. 649 00:28:50,460 --> 00:28:53,911 We have allowed under

our watch to lose something 650 00:28:53,911 --> 00:28:57,411 that we've been charged to protect as a steward. 651 00:28:57,411 --> 00:29:00,101 When we can learn from our mistakes 652 00:29:00,101 --> 00:29:03,240 and see this creature that has been here 653 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:07,912 long before humankind has been by tens of millions of years 654 00:29:07,912 --> 00:29:12,912 and give it a chance to do it as it has done as a species. 655 00:29:13,872 --> 00:29:17,672 We are the better for it. 656 00:29:17,672 --> 00:29:22,320 So yeah, it's pretty incredible to see that. 657 00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:25,532 And sea turtles are a big part of us. 658 00:29:25,532 --> 00:29:29,980 And the other thing that I have come to learn, I think 659 00:29:31,464 --> 00:29:35,110 back in the old days, we kind of science 660 00:29:35,954 --> 00:29:39,300 and I think it just made it easier to harvest things. 661 00:29:39,300 --> 00:29:44,193 We took away emotion from them, complexity. 662 00:29:45,180 --> 00:29:48,480 We took away any idea of thinking 663 00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:50,790 and we just say they're hardwired to be. 664 00:29:50,790 --> 00:29:52,525 It's all driven by instinct. 665 00:29:52,525 --> 00:29:56,100 Well, we now know that especially turtles 666 00:29:56,100 --> 00:30:00,270 are far more complex behaviorally. 667 00:30:00,270 --> 00:30:02,220 There's stories of sea turtles 668 00:30:02,220 --> 00:30:04,710 that have had bonds to people. 669 00:30:04,710 --> 00:30:07,117 I have been with sea turtles that I'm like, 670 00:30:07,117 --> 00:30:09,510 "This creature has taken a shining to me." 671 00:30:09,510 --> 00:30:11,220 And I'm not being anthropomorphic. 672 00:30:11,220 --> 00:30:12,570 The more you study them, 673 00:30:12,570 --> 00:30:16,037 the more we don't know what's going on inside of them. 674 00:30:16,037 --> 00:30:17,096 - Sure. 675 00:30:17,096 --> 00:30:19,260 That is such a perfect way to end 676 00:30:19,260 --> 00:30:23,968 because it offers us so much interest in what happens next. 677 00:30:23,968 --> 00:30:27,917 There's so much more to discover and to know about them. 678 00:30:27,917 --> 00:30:32,490 Thus, we can't wait to see how good it can get 679 00:30:32,490 --> 00:30:33,900 with sea turtles around the world. 680 00:30:33,900 --> 00:30:34,733 - Yeah. 681 00:30:34,733 --> 00:30:37,020 In a world where there's not a lot of good news, 682 00:30:37,020 --> 00:30:38,910 this is a good news story. 683 00:30:38,910 --> 00:30:41,400 It's also a gateway animal. 684 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:43,785 It's a creature that can be a part of your life 685 00:30:43,785 --> 00:30:48,785 in a meaningful way, that can be your gateway to developing 686 00:30:49,971 --> 00:30:53,999 a connection and a relationship with our natural world. 687 00:30:53,999 --> 00:30:56,670 - Jeff Corwin, I have to thank you 688 00:30:56,670 --> 00:30:59,280 for coming onto "Back from the Brink" 689 00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:00,540 and talking to us about 690 00:31:00,540 --> 00:31:02,610 how sea turtles have come back from the brink 691 00:31:02,610 --> 00:31:07,290 and how we are responsible for their future moving forward. 692 00:31:07,290 --> 00:31:08,123 - Yeah. - And it has been 693 00:31:08,123 --> 00:31:10,620 an amazing conversation and I have to thank you so much. 694 00:31:10,620 --> 00:31:11,765 - Thank you. It was fun. 695 00:31:11,765 --> 00:31:12,783 (gentle music) 696 00:31:12,783 --> 00:31:16,950 - From the edge of extinction to beaches full of nests, 697 00:31:16,950 --> 00:31:19,650 from boats loaded with harvested turtles, 698 00:31:19,650 --> 00:31:21,470 to Boca Raton becoming one 699 00:31:21,470 --> 00:31:25,050 of the most important nesting sites on earth. 700 00:31:25,050 --> 00:31:27,330 The sea turtle didn't just survive. 701 00:31:27,330 --> 00:31:30,090 It became proof that when people choose 702 00:31:30,090 --> 00:31:33,660 to protect something, nature will do the rest. 703 00:31:33,660 --> 00:31:36,990 Green sea turtles have been making this journey for hundreds 704 00:31:36,990 --> 00:31:39,420 of millions of years, long 705 00:31:39,420 --> 00:31:42,450 before humans arrived on these shores. 706 00:31:42,450 --> 00:31:47,040 They're still here because of laws passed, beaches protected 707 00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:49,860 and communities that decided this animal 708 00:31:49,860 --> 00:31:51,930 was worth fighting for. 709 00:31:51,930 --> 00:31:53,700 The work isn't done, 710 00:31:53,700 --> 00:31:57,600 but out there, the turtle is still swimming free 711 00:31:57,600 --> 00:31:59,973 in the wild oceans once again. 712 00:32:01,459 --> 00:32:03,270 This is "Back from the Brink" 713 00:32:03,270 --> 00:32:05,840 from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. 714 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:10,445 (gentle music) (soft wave of water) 715 00:32:10,445 --> 00:32:11,845 (intense music) 716 00:32:11,845 --> 00:32:13,260 - If you loved this episode 717 00:32:13,260 --> 00:32:15,720 and it sparked something in you, please follow 718 00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:17,310 or subscribe, leave a review 719 00:32:17,310 --> 00:32:20,910 and send this episode to the turtle lover in your life. 720 00:32:20,910 --> 00:32:23,426 I'm Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant and I'll see you next time. 721 00:32:23,426 --> 00:32:26,146 (intense music) 722 00:32:26,146 --> 00:32:28,729 (gentle music)