What are the effects of climate change on sea flora and fauna?

The European ECOMARE project is looking for answers at Portugal’s Aveiro estuary.

Transcript

00:00 Why was the Ecomar project created and what is its goal?

00:07 It began with the recovery of animals after the prestige oil spill off the coast of Galicia,

00:12 and so this was our first major operation, the recovery of these animals that were covered in oil.

00:17 We brought them here.

00:21 When it comes to putting the transmitter on the turtle, the main objective for us is to find out how long,

00:27 or if it will survive the rehabilitation process.

00:34 We don't know which direction it will choose to go.

00:38 Then we'll try to figure out what the environmental variables are, the ocean variables,

00:45 for example, sea temperature, bathymetry, which calculates the depth of water.

00:54 We'll track these variables in the places she travels to,

00:58 and we'll discover the preferred conditions of this species.

01:04 We work a lot here, for example, on the effects of heat waves.

01:08 How are these abnormally hot days, which we're experiencing more and more, affecting marine life?

01:13 And how do animals adapt to these changes?

01:16 And those of us in academia, research centers and public aquariums are trying to make a Noah's Ark of sorts,

01:23 in order to save some of these animals and figure out which of them will have the best chance of surviving,

01:30 not in the oceans of today, but in the oceans of tomorrow, in 2025, 2050, 2100,

01:37 using the models that scientists have created to predict the conditions these corals will face in the future.

01:43 [Music]