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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Liz Waid.
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And I'm Adam Navis. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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A young salmon swims through the dark and cold ocean. The fish struggles as the water pushes against it. However, the salmon continues swimming. In fact, this fish has been swimming for weeks. It started its great trip in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. It swam down the Columbia River into the Pacific Ocean. And now, it continues its 2500 kilometer trip to its feeding grounds, off the coast of Alaska. Many of the other salmon that began this trip died along the way. However, this salmon will arrive safe in Alaska. In a few years, it will return to its home waters to produce new young, and then die. But this trip will be even more difficult. Only one to four percent of these salmon will live to complete their travel to and from the Alaska coast.
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How do we know the story of this fish? Using new technology, ocean scientists followed this salmon on its travels. This one fish provided scientists with a lot of information. And this technology is one of many new kinds developed during a major global science project - called the Census of Marine Life. Today's Spotlight is the second of two programs on this project. This program will explore exciting new developments from the Census - developments that have changed the future of ocean science.
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The project's name - Census of Marine Life - simply means counting the things that live in the sea. But this huge project took ten years and 650 million dollars to complete. It ended in the autumn of 2010. The goal of the project was to answer three questions:
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"What lives in the oceans?"
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"What lives where in the oceans?"
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"How much of each kind of life lives?"
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The Census collected and reported a lot of information. It greatly increased our knowledge of the world's ocean life. But to gather this information, scientists had to create a number of new technologies. Paul Snelgrove, a Marine Census scientist from Canada, told National Public Radio,
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"One of the greatest achievements of the census is that these technologies will continue to be used for many more years."
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Returning to our story about the salmon...
Scientists knew a lot about that fish because they had attached a small tag to it. Tags are devices that collect information about the fish and where it has been. A tag can measure the temperature of a fish and the water around it. It can report how deep the fish swims, and even the level of salt and light in the water. For years, tags have collected such information. However, the information could only be collected after scientists caught the fish and removed the tag. The Census used a better way to collect the information from the tags – sound. Using sound tags, scientists can identify where a fish is swimming - even in deep oceans. They place sound receivers on the ocean floor. When fish with sound tags swim by, the sounds receivers identify and report the fish.
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During the Census, a research group placed 2000 receivers along the Pacific Ocean coast of North America. They placed receivers as far south as Mexico and as far north as Alaska. This path of receivers can report the travels of hundreds of thousands of fish across thousands of kilometres. For years to come, these sound receivers, and others like them, will continue to provide ocean scientists with important information.
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A different kind of tag uses satellites to send its information to the scientists. Together, sound and satellite technology can provide more information about ocean life faster than ever before. This is one example of the new technology Paul Snelgrove talked about.
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Another amazing Census invention is the Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure or 'ARMS'. ARMS are devices that can be placed in the ocean - in areas that have coral reefs. Coral is colorful and exists in many different shapes and sizes. Often, coral looks like stone. But it is a living sea creature. Many fish, plants, and other small sea creatures live in coral reefs. When coral is harmed, it dies. If too much coral dies, the ocean environment is changed. ARMS provide a method for scientists to research the coral life without damaging the coral.
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The scientists leave the ARMS devices on the reef for some years. Over time, fish, plants and other small sea life begin living in the ARMS. Scientists can then remove the ARMS from the ocean and perform many tests on the coral life. All this can be done without touching any coral. ARMS have become the new way for scientists to observe and research coral. More than 500 ARMS have been placed throughout the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans.
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During the Census, one new technology particularly changed how ocean scientists identify life. The technology is called genetic barcoding. It can be difficult to identify, compare and report on different kinds of small ocean life. It is also difficult for scientists to identify the remains of creatures that they may only have part of - like a tail, fin or jaw. Genetic barcoding makes the process much easier. Scientists use a creature's DNA information to produce a one-of-a-kind symbol – called 'the genetic barcode'. They can produce a genetic barcode from a very small amount of DNA information. During the Census, scientists created barcodes for more than 35,000 kinds of ocean life.
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Tags, sound technology, satellites, ARMS and genetic barcoding are all technologies that provide ocean scientists with huge amounts of information. And with all this new information, there was a need for a system of organization. For this reason, the Census created an information system on the internet - an online database. Anyone can visit this website and search for information about sea-life. This can be interesting information for any person, but the database is particularly helpful for scientists everywhere.
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The database shows the global nature of the Census of Marine Life. It also shows how scientists have worked together to increase everyone's knowledge of life. This development may be the greatest of all - that scientists around the world worked together over 10 years for a common goal. This process formed and increased global relationships. It caused new technologies and ways of researching to be shared across the world. And this has changed the study of ocean science. Ian Poiner is an Australian scientist and head of the Census of Marine Life Steering Committee. He told USA Today magazine,
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"Ten years ago, ocean scientists concentrated only on their individual projects... Now, we all work together, across research projects that never communicated before. Ocean science has changed."
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