10-Year Census on Marine Life Unveils Mysteries of the Underwater World
VELSHI: Time now for the most in depth story of the day, maybe even the decade. Before we went to the break, I asked you how many species do scientists believe live in our ocean. A, 250,000; B, 1 million; or C, 5 million. The answer is B, 1 million. The reason we asked is because 2,700 scientists from around the world have just finished a 10-year $650 million study of the world's oceans. It's called the Census of Marine Life. Makes sense. The findings are astonishing. From the schools of fish the size of Manhattan, to the tiny, never before seen creatures living in deep sea floor cracks where it's hot enough to melt lead. One of the men behind this incredible endeavor is with us today. Dr. Ian Poiner is the chairman of the Scientific Steering Committee, the governing body of the Census of Marine Life. Ian, good to see you. Thank you for joining us.</s>DR. IAN POINER, CHAIRMAN, CENSUS STEERING COMMITTEE: Good afternoon, Ali, and thank you for having us. It's a wonderful day for our oceans and ocean life.</s>VELSHI: I think we could bet you know more about the ocean than I do and maybe most of our viewers. What surprised you or did anything surprise you? What's the finding that is most interesting to the world in the study that you have just conducted?</s>POINER: As you said in your introduction, this is a 10-year, unprecedented 10-year study looking at ocean life. And after 10 years of both consolidating what was known going far back as Aristotle and adding significantly to that knowledge, what we can tell you, it's an ocean far richer in species than we ever expected. It doesn't matter whether we're in the coldest parts down at the poles, the hot tropics, the shallow seas or the deep ocean, or the undersea mountain ridges. It's a place rich in life. It's also oceans that are much, much more connected than we expected. Connected through the movement of animals. Some animals move from one side of the ocean and back. One side, across and back from the north to the south. So it's a far, far more connected ocean than we expected. But sadly, it's also an ocean that has changed more than we expected. And that change occurred far earlier than -- and far quicker than we might have thought. And for the -- but there is some message of hope there for a couple --</s>VELSHI: Well, tell me what that is. Because all we ever seem to hear about the environment, about ecology is how it's all going to hell in a hand basket, thanks to us in large part, and thanks to some natural occurrences. What's the message of hope?</s>POINER: Well, sadly for some species, part of the census went back into history. It managed to go back and reconstruct robust information from historical records, monastery records. What we can show from that is when things change. Now, for many of the large animals, the sharks, the tunas, the whales, they declined very early and they decline quite quickly. For many of them, declines are up around 80, 90 percent of levels prior to our exploitation. For a couple of species, notably the whales and seals, the Pinnipeds, as we call the seals, with our intervention, those populations have recovered and they are recovering back to pre- exploitation levels. Similarly for the birds, sea birds, where we've had an impact. Intervention has helped. But sadly for many others, others that we've exploited, they are significantly depleted.</s>VELSHI: Ian, there's so much. We could talk for days on this. We thank you for coming and telling us just a little about it. We're going to put a link up on my blog so that people can learn more about this. Ian Poiner is the chair of the Census Steering Committee. The Census of Marine Life. What a great idea. There are lessons to be taken from this, by the way. So go to my blog CNN.com/Ali, and connect to it and find out a little bit more about it. OK. It gets better. Three simple words that could save lives. In the wake of some shocking suicides, a new campaign reaches out to bullied, gay teens with that very message. It gets better. On the other side.