Envisioning a healthy ocean for all: ‘What does it look like if we get it right?’

Leaders in ocean science and sustainability from Stanford University, SRI, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium gathered in the heart of Silicon Valley to discuss how technology can help illuminate and protect Earth’s largest and least understood habitat.

“The ocean holds 97% of the volume where life can exist, and it needs our attention,” said Julie Packard, co-founder and executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, during a keynote address to an auditorium of 250 attendees and 100 online viewers. 

Co-sponsored by the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, the event took place on October 15 at the Palo Alto campus of SRI, a research and development institute known for transformative technologies such as the computer mouse and ultrasound imaging. 

Following her keynote, Packard was joined by Fiorenza Micheli, co-director of the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions and the David and Lucile Packard Professor of Marine Science, and Julie Bert, the director of SRI’s Hardware, Research, and Technology Lab.  Rosa Tuirán, a journalist and video producer for the public media station KQED, moderated the conversation.

Technology’s pros and cons

The panelists discussed three ways climate change threatens the ocean: increased acidification, less dissolved oxygen for marine life to breathe, and warmer waters that fuel stronger hurricanes and more severe weather. 

“One of the scariest graphs I’ve seen is that of global average sea surface temperature,” said Micheli, a marine ecologist whose research includes the impacts of marine heat waves on fishing cooperatives. “For over a year, it’s been a record temperature every day.”

The ocean has absorbed one third of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity since the Industrial Revolution and 90% of the atmosphere’s excess heat. Technology could help alleviate the burning of fossil fuel emissions, panelists said, but trade-offs must be considered.

SRI’s Bert cited the “pollution paradox” as an example. Reducing air pollution is vital for public health, but can also lead to higher local temperatures and marine heat waves as smog particles that shield the planet from the sun’s rays decline.

“This speaks to the need for research,” said Bert. “We need to understand that one intervention may have unintended consequences.”

Related: A scientist driven to solve intertwined climate and pollution problems

Filling data gaps

The panelists highlighted a range of new technologies that are helping monitor ocean health and marine life. Satellite tags affixed to species like sea turtles and white sharks through efforts like oceans and biology professor Barbara Block’s Tagging of Pelagic Predators Program have helped inform protections by revealing where seasonal migrations overlap with commercial shipping lanes.

“This manner of instrumenting the ocean, I think of it in the context of how well we’ve instrumented the atmosphere,” said Packard. The same scale and scope of technology that powers everything from air traffic control to local weather predictions has yet to be unleashed upon the ocean.

At SRI, Bert leads development of low-cost, autonomous devices to bridge gaps between satellites, which return data only every few days when they pass overhead in orbit, and underwater sensors, which are limited by the time and money required to deploy them. SRI’s volleyball-sized ocean “drifters” hitch a ride on surface currents and passively collect measurements ranging from climate data to indicators of harmful algal blooms.

According to Bert, artificial intelligence will help accelerate integration of disparate measurements like salinity, wave action, and acoustic noise across different spatial scales.

Democratizing insights, celebrating success

The panelists emphasized the need to democratize and scale the benefits of ocean technology. Micheli cited an optical sensor prototype from the School of Engineering that uses light to detect genetic material sloughed by animals and plants as they pass through the water. Developed in partnership with the Center for Ocean Solutions and natural resource managers in the Monterey Bay Area and the Republic of Palau, the device is being designed to deliver the data local users need to monitor their marine protected areas for everything from endangered species to toxins.

Related: Oceans in a new light

Packard lauded traditional fisheries management practiced for generations in the Western Pacific, underscoring the importance of elevating community leaders to manage local marine resources.

Tuirán posed a final question to the panel: Moving beyond the doom and gloom of the climate apocalypse narrative, she asked, “What does it look like if we get it right?”

For Micheli, the answer is interconnectedness: “The vision is for healthy oceans to include equitable access to resources, for humans and nature to thrive together,” she said, noting that millions of people rely on the sea for their livelihoods, food security, and culture. 

For Bert, it’s about inspiring the next generation to take interest in ocean research and carry forward solutions. “Our kids, our students, they’ll be the force of change for the things we find difficult now,” she said.

Packard concluded with support for the next generation. “I’m thinking about young people,” she said, citing climate anxiety and other growing mental health crises. “Let’s try to show them the care, empathy, and support they need to have the mental energy to feel optimism, engage, vote, finish school, and be a part of a positive future.”

Fiorenza Micheli is also a professor of oceans and, by courtesy, of biology. Micheli and Barbara Block are both senior fellows at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.