[cheerful music] Argueta: Hello and welcome to Snack Time with NASA!
My name is Jocelyn Argueta and today I am going to prepare one of my favorite dishes,
the Peruvian ceviche.
What many people don't know about NASA is that we play an important role
in helping keep fisheries healthy using satellite data.
With that data, scientists can look at something like the color of the ocean
nd determine the health and condition of different fish populations,
like this white fish I'm going to use today.
To tell us about all this, I am accompanied by Laura Lorenzoni,
a scientist in the Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry program at NASA headquarters.
Hello Laura how are you?
Lorenzoni: Hi, Jocelyn. How are you?
Argueta: Very well, thanks for joining us.
First of all, tell me how you like ceviche.
Lorenzoni: I love it. My husband makes it with mango and it is absolutely delicious.
Very good. So first of all, tell me a little about why
NASA studies the ocean and what does that have to do with ceviche.
Lorenzoni: You know that 17% of the world's population depends on the ocean for their daily protein,
and we want to make sure that our marine resources are being maintained,
not just for us, but for our future populations.
Since the sea covers two thirds of our planet,
it is also important to make sure that we
are using it well and it plays a fundamental role in our climate.
The ocean absorbs heat
and through ocean currents, redistributes it around the rest of the planet,
but as the climate changes, our ocean also changes, that is why it is very important to observe it,
because those changes can also impact fishing.
NASA's mission is really to understand how the earth works as a global system.
Argueta: Sure, a whole system. I know that NASA observes the color of the ocean from space, right? What does that mean?
Lorenzoni: It means exactly what you hear, what color is the water.
The color of our waters is impacted by what is dissolved or what is suspended in it.
Satellites work just like our eyes work and we can see if there is something different about the color of the water.
For example, if we see a large patch or large areas of green,
we can assume that it is a very healthy population of phytoplankton.
Now what does phytoplankton eat? Zooplankton,
and what eats zooplankton? The little fish.
Who eats the little fish? The largest fish.
You understand more or less how everything is connected,
Other times we can also see what we call red tides,
which are expansions of phytoplankton, which in this case is toxic because they produce toxins.
In coastal areas, where many people go, this can be a problem for the local health,
not only for people but also for ecosystems.
Argueta: Yes, how interesting that the color of the ocean gives us so much information.
What impact does observing ocean color and ecosystem health have on fisheries?
Lorenzone: It all comes back to the phytoplankton.
Fisheries, fish depend on phytoplankton which is the base of the food chain.
It also helps us understand where the fish may be, because of course
e depend on the fish that are caught to be able to consume them.
We know that fish have favorite areas,
o we can use other data such as sea surface temperature or sea height
to know in which areas the fish may find themselves to get food.
All of our data is free and open to the public.
Therefore, we love that people use them.
Our users vary widely, from the scientists
who generate these algorithms and other research,
but also to the general public. We have non-profit organizations,
private entities, educators, children.
We love it when people really leverage NASA data to better understand,
protect, and sustainably use our ocean.
Argueta: Yes, it seems like a very important investigation, since we are so dependent on the ocean.
Lorenzoni: Our ocean is giant, it is 70% of our planet.
No por nada llamamos a nuestro planeta, "Nuestro planeta azul."
We are all interconnected with the ocean. Did you know
that at least half of the oxygen we breathe comes from the sea generated by phytoplankton and other seaweed?
it's important to remember that we are all interconnected
and whatever I do in the Earth -- for example,
where I put my waste or the fertilizers that I put on the land,
all of that in some way or another, eventually reaches the ocean through our rivers that connect the continent to the ocean
and from the coastal area, which is a area where there is a lot of population, that eventually reaches the open ocean.
The ocean also plays an important role in regulating the earth's climate,
It not only absorbs heat, as I mentioned, and redistributes it, but it also absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The fact that the ocean has absorbed so much carbon dioxide in the last 100 years
has helped our climate change to slow down a lot.
Without the ocean our temperatures would be much higher
and at NASA we have been studying the role that the ocean has in climate change,
especially trying to understand what is this connection between human influences and how our planet has been changing,
and one of the missions in which we are working, which is the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystems
or PACE mission by its acronym in English, it will help us, it is a new mission,
it is hyperspectral, which means that we are seeing more
colors of the ocean than we can see right now. It is going to be truly revolutionary
nd it will allow us to better understand what kind of phytoplankton is there.
I talked about the phytoplankton that feed the fish,
but we also have the phytoplankton that generates toxins and right now it's a bit difficult for us to distinguish between the two.
With PACE facing the ocean it will really allow us to exploit that information of colors that our ocean gives us.
Argueta: Yes, sure. Who would have thought that satellites in space would have
so much to do with getting this fish to prepare a dish like ceviche?
Lorenzoni: Satellites, again, because our planet is so big and we have so many oceans, they play a critical role in
really being able to observe the changes that occur day by day and those that occur in the long term.
This is important because it allows us to be better prepared for the changes to come.
Argueta: That's where food safety comes in as well, right?
Lorenzoni: Exactly. In fact, one of the fisheries in Costa Rica is part of the PACE Data Early Adoption Program,
which means that before they launch PACE they are ready to incorporate this type of data
into local fisheries.
We are truly very fortunate to have the support of scientists and users
who are always pushing the limits of what our age and our technology can do.
Argueta: Incredible. A lot is being done right now in the world of ocean monitoring
and this ceviche is almost ready,
but we can't forget about the tiger's milk, of course.
[sound of pouring liquid]
To put together the plate I'm just going to put some sweet potato slices, a little lettuce,
and a few spoonfuls of ceviche.
A little chopped onion, coriander-
Lorenzoni: And the mango!
Argueta: -and the mango. Here we go, it looks delicious. [laughs]
Thank you very much. Hopefully people can thank you enough for being here with us.
Cheers for this ceviche, for all the science it takes for lunch today,
and also for how the ocean and terrestrial systems are connected.
Lorenzoni: Thank you Jocelyn. A pleasure.
Argueta: Thank you.
Lorenzoni: Now I want ceviche.
Argueta: [laughs] I'll give it to you there.
Thank you for joining us today, I wish you learned a lot about the ocean and now it is time for lunch. Bon Appetite.
[music fades]