Leave seashells by the seashore. And apparently, people are taking seashells at record levels, and it's actually affecting erosion in these places, like Costa Rica. We're going to talk about a new study that's shown so many seashells are being taken away that it's affecting the environment and the local people. We're going to talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show. Hey
everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. And if you are new here and you wanna learn more, you can go to our website, speakupforblue.com to find out all of our podcast episodes. We have just not just the How to
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get an email sent every Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. Eastern to start off your day with ocean news, new podcasts, new videos, and ocean jobs that have been posted recently. Check that out, speakupforblue.com forward slash newsletter. Let's talk about Costa Rica. Let's talk about your travel plans. Let's talk about the effect that we have on just travel in general. I want to talk about it by starting off with the story. Went to Malaysia a number of years ago back in
2018 for a conference. Great place. It was in Borneo. So it was the island side of Malaysia. It was a beautiful place. We were in Kuching for a marine conference. I remember talking to a friend of mine, Dr. Andrew Thaler, and we were talking about like, hey, what are you going to do when you're here? Like we traveled together. I was like, what are you going to do when you get there? Are you going to do any scuba diving? Are you going to do any kind of touristy type things?
We talked about going to like a sanctuary, like an orangutan sanctuary to check that out. But we talked about diving as well. And he says something really interesting to me. I never really thought about it before because I haven't done a ton of traveling worldwide. And he had and he said, you know, when did you go? I don't actually go scuba diving or I try not to do too many things where I can leave an imprint. on
something that's in a negative way. And he talked about scuba diving and he's like, I just don't, you know, what if I touch something by accident or, you know, something happens, I just don't feel like I wanna have that type of imprint. I wanna leave the local area to the local people and let them enjoy it, let them be able to live off of it like a lot of the places do in Malaysia. And I never thought about it that way. I never thought about going to a place and just, like,
thinking of the people. I know it's selfish. It's a very sort of North American kind of style. When we go away, you know, we'll go down south to the Caribbean, we'll go down to Central America, we'll go down to South America. All over the place, all over the world, we have that privilege to travel. And a lot of times, you think of yourself. You think of, like, what am I going to do down there? What good time am I going to have? What am I going to be able to
accomplish while I'm down there doing all the touristy things? Like, if you go to Costa Rica, surfing, the hot springs, ziplining, just enjoying the ocean in itself, scuba diving, snorkeling, river touring, like there's a lot of ecotourism places in Costa Rica. And so when you go down to these places, you think, what can I do? What can I do to help out or just to enjoy the local area, right?
We all want to enjoy that tropical sunset. Let's be honest, in Canada, a lot of people are moving down to Costa Rica so that they can enjoy Costa Rica, they can enjoy the tropical weather. Some people don't like it in Canada. Taxes, government, all that kind of stuff. They're going down there to live there, taking away property from other people and from the local people and it's just, I feel like it's just icky. It's an icky thing that
we Canadians do. It's an icky thing that people do all the time. But one thing that has really been identified recently, and I didn't even know this was a problem, but there's a seashell crisis in Costa Rica that put coasts at risk. That's insane. Like to think about that many seashells being taken and being brought back over as a souvenir that's
becoming a problem. And so apparently that Costa Rica is facing this growing environmental crisis due to the massive removal of seashells from its coast driven by tourism. So it's not just people just randomly taking it, it's driven by tourism. So not only are people just taking them from the beach, but they're being sold so that people can have them on their chains, on
necklaces, on bracelets and so forth. Then they can just bring them home in a glass Mason jar or something like that or a plastic jar or whatever that might be. This seemingly minor practice is destabilizing beaches in Costa Rica, accelerating erosion, and harming marine ecosystems. Seashells are vital for maintaining the structure of beaches, serving as habitats for species like hermit crabs, If you don't know
what a hermit crab is, you've never really seen a hermit crab. I've had a lot of experience with dealing with hermit crabs in the marine aquarium industry, which is another thing that takes away things from tropical areas. But when you look at a hermit crab, they have these little seashells, right? They have these shells that they live in. They actually can't grow the shell. So if they grow too big, they have to leave that shell,
and they have to go into another one. And if a hermit crab is in that one that they want, they have to fight that hermit crab, take it out, and then go into that one. It's very competitive. but a very interesting type of life cycle. But they need seashells to keep themselves protected. That's what hermit crabs do. So hermit crabs rely on these seashells to be available. Supporting marine biodiversity by
contributing to the formation of coral reefs and nutrient cycles. So the actual shells, whether they break down or whether they become part of the habitat for corals to settle on, it becomes a really important part of the ecosystem. Coral reefs are home of a lot of different species. They're one of the most biodiverse habitats known to man, especially in shallow areas. They're already going through enough. They need the limestone of
the seashells, of what they're made of, and they need that calcium. Whether it comes off the seashell or they just use it as a stable place to settle, they need those seashells. Taking it away takes away potential habitat for coral reefs as well as the calcium that comes off of those limestone shells. The removal also worsens ocean acidification, disrupts species reproduction, and ecosystem balance. Let's talk about ocean acidification for a second because we're already in a period because of
climate change, where ocean acidification is increasing. So right now, when you look at oceans, oceans are around 8.3 pH, right? A pH of 8.3, so they're basic. They're essentially not basic as in like, you're basic. It's basic as
in the pH is basic. If the pH decreases, meaning it goes under 8.3 and towards the acidity part of pH, like going down to under seven, then it will stop being hospitable for things like corals, for things like formation of seashells and the growth of seashells for snails and mollusks like clams and mussels and oysters and so forth, and that could be a huge problem for limestone in
general. calcium will not be available in acidic situations. I'm not saying pH is going to go down to 6, but the balance of the ocean is very, very narrow. And if the range goes below 8.2, 8.1, 8.0 pH, it can really
mess up the entire ecosystem, the entire balance of the ecosystem. And we're seeing that with the influx of carbon dioxide being absorbed into the ocean by algae right and it's and we're seeing that influx come in we're starting to see less calcium being available into the ocean and like free calcium so that it gets picked up by corals it gets picked up by limestone rocks like you know all that and you're starting to see an erosion of these like
shell-based animals. So you're looking at crustaceans like lobsters and shrimp and crabs. You're looking at coral reefs like corals themselves. They can't handle it. Molluscs, clams, oysters, scallops, all those different types of animals that require a limestone shell cannot get the calcium that they need because as acidity increases or increases, you start to get less available calcium. and that is not good for the ocean. So ocean acidification is not good. It is brought on and exacerbated by
climate change. And of course, by taking away seashells so that you can't get any of those limestones eroded away into the ecosystem where you get calcium into the water. So in 2023 alone, how bad is the problem? In 2023 alone, authorities seized over five tons of seashells. But the challenges in identifying their origins have complicated conservation efforts. So many of the shells remain in storage. They're not allowed to go back or are discarded due to
limited resources for proper classification. You can't just put these seashells back in anywhere. They have to be put back where they were found. Very difficult to trace them. Because let's be honest, when they're sold at markets and tourism markets or like at an all-inclusive resort if you're there, or on the side of the road, people are just grabbing them and taking them. There's no like stamp on it of where they're from. There's no writing on it where
they're from. It's very difficult to identify which beach they're from. And certain seashells are unique to certain areas. And so that's what you don't want. to happen. You just don't want to be in that situation. You're never going to get to know where these seashells are coming from. So having it going back is really difficult. So in response, organizations and the University of Costa Rica have developed innovative solutions.
So using AI technology, so AI can be good for something. Using AI technology trained on 18,500 shell images, they can now accurately classify shells and return them to their natural environments. That means they can take a look at the image, they can scan the image and say this shell is most likely from this particular like Guanacaste up in the northwest. or down near San Jose, like on the Caribbean side. They'll be able to tell where
these seashells are from. And the more images they have of different shells, the more of an ability they have to return the shells to the right place once they're taken. That's just one thing that they can do. The big thing is prevention of taking too many. Obviously, you can't really control how many people are taking shells, if it's one or two here and there. But if it's this many, where it's five tons are confiscated, that's
a problem that needs to be addressed. right? This is not as just like people are taking one or two, putting them in their pocket and then leaving. This is like massive amounts that are being sold to tourists and they're taking them home. And that's a, that's a big problem. You can't just take natural things at that size or that amount and not expect consequences to happen. So in a landmark achievement, thousands of confiscated shells were restored to the sea, marking a major step in
marine conservation. So that is you know, remarkable to be able to have that through AI technology, through studies to say, hey, we can actually put this back. We have a problem. We've diagnosed what the problem is. We're going to try and stop it at the source where people are taking this amount of seashells. But in the meantime, we're going to be able to see how we can actually return them using AI technology to the coast. That will be
an important part. This initiative highlights the importance of sustainable tourism and collective action in preserving Costa Rica's biodiversity. The government and conservationists are urging tourists to leave wildlife untouched. Not only alive, but shells, even though you think that you deserve to have them. You don't deserve to have them. I always say, when you're in someone else's backyard or when you're in someone else's country, just use the idea and the standard that
scuba divers use. You can look, but do not touch. Do
not take. do not bring home just leave it there take a picture of it or leave it for memory in the memory bank up here and you can enjoy your time there and go back and not have to worry about people taking seashells and you'll enjoy the wildlife when you go back so it's emphasizing that you know wildlife remain untouched emphasizing that each and every species is crucial to maintaining ecological balances for future generations so this is not not a complicated story.
Just because they're in the wild, it doesn't mean that they belong to you. Leave them be. There's a purpose and a place for everything. Leave them be. I'd love to know what you think about this article, what you think about this story. Let me know on Instagram. DM me at HowToProtectTheOcean, or you can leave a comment down below on our YouTube channel. You can comment on our Spotify channel, and you can also DM
me on Instagram, like I mentioned, at HowToProtectTheOcean. I would love to hear your thoughts on this story, but until then, Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy