Oceanography (Audio)

If you love seafood, you’re not alone — but every bite comes from a complex and fragile marine ecosystem. To keep our ocean ecosystems thriving and our seafood resources abundant, we need a deeper scientific understanding of how they function. Colleen Petrik, a professor of oceanography at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, talks about her work studying the changing ecosystem of the ocean from fishing to coastal development. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Science] [Show ID: 41301]

How do most organisms in the natural world communicate? It's through the language of chemistry. Scripps Institution of Oceanography marine biologists Bradley Moore and Natalie Grayson explore how ocean life uses molecules as a language. Examples include a pigment that lets squid and octopus change color for camouflage, a coral and its microbial partners that produce biologically active compounds, and a chemical now in phase three human clinical trials to treat glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the brain. Their research has applications for new materials in biotech, and improving the food supply and human health. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Science] [Show ID: 41190]

For many people, a personal connection to the ocean ties into bigger issues like conservation and climate change. As the biodiversity of marine life along the coast at La Jolla Shores has declined, divers and researchers discuss why simply knowing about environmental problems isn’t enough. They emphasize the importance of conservation psychology, storytelling, and inspiration to encourage action. This video was created by graduate students in Marine Biodiversity & Conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. [Science] [Show ID: 41072]

The land we now call Scripps Oceanography has been home to the Kumeyaay people for thousands of years. A history of encroachment, colonization and displacement from coastal lands has challenged Kumeyaay ocean traditions and practices. Today, Kumeyaay-Iipay-Tipay people are actively revitalizing Indigenous ocean culture. As part of Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series, Stan Rodriguez and Priscilla Ortiz Sawah of the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, and Andrew James Pittman of the Los Coyotes Band and Cupeño Indians, talk about the history of the Kumeyaay culture in the region. Through community efforts, they are rebuilding traditional ha kwaiyo (tule boats), harvesting ha shupill (grunion) and teaching language about the ocean (ha silowik). These intergenerational practices embody Indigenous resilience, resistance and revival — nurturing and evolving Indigenous ocean knowledge, culture and traditions. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 40596]

It's time for a new narrative for the ocean, one that reflects current scientific knowledge and acknowledges innovative new partnerships and solutions that center the ocean in our future. In this program, Jane Lubchenco, Professor of Marine Biology at Oregon State University and with expertise in the ocean, climate change, and interactions between the environment and human well-being, talks about the two current dominant narratives for the ocean are anchored in the past. The older one considers the ocean to be so vast, bountiful, and resilient that it is simply too big to fail. This first narrative drives pollution and over-exploitation of resources. A second, more recent narrative is that the ocean is now so depleted, polluted, and disrupted, and the drivers of those outcomes are so powerful and complex, that the ocean is simply too big to fix. A third, new narrative is emerging, based on scientific findings, existing solutions, and innovative partnerships and policies. This new narrative acknowledges that the ocean is central to a safe, clean, healthy, just, and prosperous future. This new narrative tells us that the ocean is neither too big to fail, nor is it too big to fix. But it is too important and too central to our future to ignore. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 40427]