All language subtitles for Current.Sea.2020.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG3_English

- My name is Matt Blomberg,

I'm a investigative
journalist in Cambodia.

Four years ago, I was a
sports reporter in Australia.

That was my goal in life,

and then I came
here on a holiday.

I didn't want to go home,

so I applied for a job
at The Cambodia Daily.

There's not much
professional sport here, so

I got sucked into the world of

corruption and
investigation and scandal.

There's a lot of
different people

using a lot of different
methods to try and confront

injustices all over the world.

For me, the most effective
way is with a pen and a camera.

From Phnom Penh I was following
the story about illegal fishing

and starting to get
little bits of stories

about the lawlessness at sea.

And then one day

I heard that a
Cambodian man was killed

in a clash of
Vietnamese fishermen.

To where?

Yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah for sure.

So I went down and
visited the village,

met the widow,

Then started, you know,

poking around the villages
and asking questions.

- Was there any justice
for the death of Auok?

- The governors
think they are wrong.

- At this point, I
hadn't seen anything myself.

So I went and asked the
captain to take me out.

It's a really volatile situation

because there's so
many fishing villages

who are all living off
the same patch of ocean.

There's hundreds of boats
that go out every night.

There's these fishing
communities all along the coast.

The scale is massive.

He says that all these

boats with their lights off
are Vietnamese and that,

this is Cambodian
water for a little bit more.

So that's everything
off the sea floor.

Everything.

I watched them drag hundreds
of kilos worth of sea life

onto the boat.

20% of it is put into buckets

that are going to be
sold at market later

and then the rest of it,

the stuff that wasn't
worth any money, just died.

Their yields are down
exponentially every year.

The yields are dropping
and dropping and dropping.

It's a race to the bottom.

The more villages I went to,

I just kept hearing
the same story.

There's no fish left,

that the Vietnamese
had taken all the fish

and that the local fishermen
are powerless to stop them.

If you have a look at the
maps, you can see that

Thailand in the west
and Vietnam in the east,

their waters have
been fished out.

The Vietnamese have
pillaged their own oceans and

the fishing fleets from there
are moving into Cambodia.

There's billions of
dollars worth of seafood

exported from Southeast
Asia every year.

And so, a lot of
people around the world

are affected by the
things that happen here.

In Cambodia, things
are pretty desperate.

It became apparent very quickly
how serious this issue is.

If this problem is not
addressed, it's only a matter

of time before there's no
fisheries in Cambodia at all.

Hundreds of
thousands of people's

livelihoods are on the line.

Through talking to the
fishermen down there,

I found out about

this vigilante British guy
who was living on an island

off the coast and

doing his best to try and
keep the illegal fishers at bay.

So, I'm thinking to myself,

"Who is this guy Paul?"

- At least one set of
Vietnamese pair trawlers,

First one,

somewhere between
500 meters and 1 kilometre

north of Koh Seh. Now we...

- Paul's strategy
is to flood Facebook with

live streams when
he's out on patrol.

- Oh there
he is, throwing stuff!

Live on Facebook! Here
we go, chasing the boat.

- 90% of Cambodians

see Facebook as their
lead source of information.

And he knows that pretty high
ranking people are watching,

- Okay here we
are, continuous offenders.

- And that if he keeps
slapping them in the face

someone will react eventually.

- Guy's waving an axe at us.

- The illegal fishermen
are notoriously violent.

They go to work armed
with machetes and slingshots

and homemade guns and
anyone who gets in their way,

they're willing to
use those weapons.

They've rammed boats,
they've sunk boats,

they've launched
coordinated attacks even.

- 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8
electric trawlers

trying to ram our
boat right now.

- Obviously I
was quite interested in it,

so I went down
there looking for him.

I also heard that Paul

wasn't very keen on
talking to the media.

His staff told me, you know,
he doesn't like journalists.

The small one has all the
cameras and some stuff in it.

How're you doing, Paul?

My first impression was that

getting along with
Paul will be difficult.

What I wanted to do

was to get into a position
where we can share information.

- Nothing else to do.

- But it took me a little while

to even gain his attention.

- I approached
him and sat down and

slowly started chatting to him.

No,
it's okay. We've done all the

research we've
been doing it first...

And I guess I won
his trust in the end.

At the end, at the end.

Yeah, yeah. It was
like, that was exactly...

- At the very beginning when
these little seahorse trawlers

came over from Vietnam,

this was what the
bycatch looked like.

So it was a really,
really sensitive habitats

that hadn't been disturbed.

So you've got, that's
a, say a 30 minute trawl,

and they have
that much life in it.

This is exact, almost
the same trawler

and that's what they catch now.

So the first one
was, I think 2008,

so they get, and that will
be maybe a two hour trawl.

It's pretty crazy how
little there is now left.

But I've got to say,

the Vietnamese ones
must be working hard..

Matt contacted me

and I gave him a bit of
information about things

and we talked and it sort
of progressed from there.

The other and he's like,

"If I had this and
if I had this..."

Twelve years ago, I was a diver,

I loved the ocean and
I came to Cambodia

to work as a dive instructor.

It was a very small island.

Just off the coast of
Sihanoukville, called Koh Koun.

When the ocean
started being destroyed,

no one else was there to stop it

and I was there.

There wasn't really a
choice, it had to be done.

So, that was when I started
Marine Conservation Cambodia.

- We started out to
protect the seahorses here

and the more we started
to work with the community,

the more we understood
how little fish were left

and it became much more about

protecting the community and
the whole marine environment.

We worked on getting the
illegal sand dredging banned.

We ran a clinic.

We ran a small English
school, for the local kids.

It was very successful.

And the deputy governor

basically asked if we
were interested in doing,

in the ocean here in Kep,

exactly what we'd done there.

And so, we set up
MCC here in Kep,

and then we began work.

- MCC has a very
small area in front of Koh Seh,

the island that they populate.

- We have the conservation area

that we've officially
been granted

by the provincial government.

- And it's surrounded
on three sides by Vietnam.

- Essentially we really are

smack bang on the front line.

- This is the
border, right here,

between Cambodia and Vietnam.

This is our medium boat.

This is the boat that
we go patrolling on.

Phon is the captain on the boat.

- We run the patrols

to stop the trawling boats

from going into the
marine conservation areas.

Three electric boats,

Clearly know
they're in the wrong.

They're running from
our boat right now.

- They also have an
extensive research program

that follows the seahorse
populations in the area.

MCC is a really
grassroots operation.

Y'know they're all living
on a thread out there.

For Paul, every time he
wakes up in the morning,

he's risking everything.

'Cause he's got his family,
he's got five kids and a wife

living on that small
island with him.

- Hello everybody.
- Hello everybody.

- So can you give us hundreds
of money, all your moneys.

- You guys love
being live, don't you?

- Papa I want to
say something too.

- What do you want to
say? What'd you want to say?

- Whoever is
watching me right now,

please help me to save
this island and this ocean.

- That was so sweet.

If we can protect this area,

this tiny little
oasis of recovery,

then we can expand everything,

encompassing a much
larger conservation area

called an MFMA,

which is a Marine
Fisheries Management Area.

And essentially within that
you then have zones that allow

a breeding season to happen
without the interference,

conservation zones,
which are entirely no take.

If you've got the
conservation zones

and they're fully protected,

you have areas for
the fish to move out.

First year you have no fish,

then you have a few fish,

because you have a few,

you have a few
more the next year.

Once it gets to a certain point,

there's so much life there
that breeds and produces

new offspring that it explodes

and spawns other
areas of recovery.

And research has to be done

to back up everything
that we're doing.

- So basically,

after having seeing lots
of different individuals

but without being
able to identify them,

it's very hard to differentiate
different seahorses.

So if you want
to be able to track

the evolution of a single
individual inside the coral reef

then we need some
kind of way to identify it.

Today we have the
pink and the green,

which hopefully will have
a good mark under water.

Alright, let's go.

- Amick leads the research and

the scientific
side of operations.

He is bringing in
volunteers and divers

and scientists to help do
the monitoring of the water.

- If we do the research to prove

to the provincial government

that the work that
we're doing is working,

then we can take this
to the entire archipelago

to protect all of the essential
habitats that need to be

under the umbrella of this MFMA.

Around 2008,

Cambodia's diving equaled
what people now think of as

the best diving
sites in the world.

Where divers from all over
the world go to do photography

to find the craziest critters
that no one else sees.

The seahorse was the
thing that I enjoyed spending

most of my time
in the water with.

They're incredibly
beautiful to watch.

Because of Cambodia's
recent history, the genocide,

they'd been untouched
by industrial fishing.

Seahorses were pretty
much everywhere.

And then a few years later

we had this huge influx
of Vietnamese boats

targeting the seahorses
in the inshore areas.

The trawling boats
were increasing

and you'd go to a dive site

and you'd been diving there
for six months, seven months,

and you knew the
area, it was beautiful,

and all of a sudden you go down

just looks like someone had
just taken a bulldozer to it.

There's absolutely
nothing left whatsoever.

You've got bare
sand, crushed shells,

half dead things everywhere

it was just... it was horrific.

They've got their nets laid out

because they're
all the same flags.

We started out

and the illegal fishing was
worse than in Sihanoukville.

Sihanoukville was bad,

but here was pretty
much like the Wild West.

They're actually illegal.

All the boats work
with complete impunity.

Yeah, so if you look at
the mesh size of this net,

this net's actually illegal.

You can get a look at the
size of the fish in this net,

it's like a mosquito net.

All tiny juvenile fish.

One illegal boat
pulling everything up.

Nothing escapes those nets.

- MCC has managed

to gain some kind of
trust with the government

to be allowed to go in and

tackle the illegal fishing
that goes on there,

but they're walking a
very fine line between

doing what is right and

pleasing the people who
hold the key to their existence.

- Anyone got a camera
that's got a good zoom on it?

It looks like a 18 to 20
person Vietnamese IUU boat.

We've got to turn around now.

Basically the police
have stopped us

from coming into this area

and all these Vietnamese
boats know that

and that's where they run to.

- MCC is essentially
doing what the police

and the fisheries are
supposed to be doing.

The trawlers have operated with
impunity for at least 10 years.

Bottom trawling is where

they drop a net off
the back of the boat

and inside the front of the
net are these timber sleds

that drive the net down
into the ocean floor.

And then the net is
dragged along the ocean floor

for kilometres.

And scoops and smashes

everything that it passes over.

- Oh, look
at all that sea grass.

All the seagrass on that boat.

That whole pile is seagrass.

- When there's nothing
left on the bottom to catch.

Then there's the
electric version of those.

- Electric trawling is just
your average standard trawler,

but they connect an
electric cable to the net

that goes through a copper wire

and then they send
a thousand volt pulse

down into the water and

electrocute
everything as they go.

Anything that's
been electrocuted

by one of those nets

dies within 48 hours.

And so, as they go
along taking all of the fish

they're also taking
with it all of the habitat.

So there can't be
any regeneration.

Yeah.

Here he is with all the
sea grass in the net,

yeah, same guy,
he just doesn't care.

- And then
there's the pair trawler,

it can be nets
hundreds of meters long

slung between two massive boats

and then dragged through
swathes of ocean kilometres,

it can wipe out acres of
underwater habitat in one night.

The pair trawlers in
Cambodia come from Vietnam.

This we know, there's no
Cambodian pair trawlers.

- Vietnam pair trawler.

That's Koh Puh
there, Koh Mak Prang.

There's the two pair trawler.

- It's the most
destructive thing

that I've come across
within the ocean so far,

so that's why it's
really essential that we

stop the trawling bags from
going in to the protected area.

- Are you going to...

- You just wait, wait here.

This is the idea of the blocks.

We deploy them under water.

The idea is to come up
to about seven blocks high.

If it's seven blocks high

it will weigh just
over three tons.

The blocks have two
main purposes, which is

to create artificial habitat

and also to function as
an anti trawling device

to stop the illegal trawlers.

And we're mixing
them all by hand so,

we've made about 200 so far.

This is our mixing
and making station.

We can do everything by hand.

We don't have to worry
about heavy machinery,

high labor costs.

We build with very
basic materials.

Essentially it's a very
adaptable system.

- I just see all the
possibilities of this place

and it's just waiting to bloom

and develop into
something incredible.

It has to be all good.

Maybe, one of or two of
you could bring a bench

and you can
just sit in a circle.

Just a practice,
we do that for fun.

We're going to discuss why
we think which fish is who,

the shape of
the fish, his color,

his behaviors help us
decipher what fish it is.

- Conservation is far from

anywhere near the top of the
agenda for most Cambodians,

but we met a couple of

Cambodian students
over there doing research.

- All right. What is it?

- Yes. Very good.

Gold fish.

- They're here
to do their thesis.

And they are beginning an early
testing and monitoring program

for the block systems
that we'd like to implement

for the MFMA on a
much larger scale.

I've always thought this isn't,

this isn't a job for foreigners,

it's going to be
Cambodian people

that make the changes here.

They can do this so much
more efficiently than we can.

- Vida and Rachana
are swimming against the tide.

They will tell you
that their parents

didn't want them to
get involved in this stuff.

And they'll also tell you
that the university professors

advised them against it because

it's just not seen as
a stable career here.

- This is a good example,

this story is a
absolutely flagrant abuse

of the fisheries law.

Hundreds of Vietnamese fishermen

floating around in
these little cane baskets,

taking hundreds of kilos of
squid out of the Cambodian water

every single day

and paying those who are
supposed to be stopping them

for the privilege.

It took us a few
days to find them

because they're way
out in the open ocean.

But when we did,
they told us everything.

They told us who they
pay, how much they pay,

and it all checked out.

I haven't been back looking
for the Vietnamese guys,

but I would bet that
they're still there.

I also would bet that

this story caused some
problems for some people,

because all these
guys are named.

As a Western journalist,
you have to be very cautious

with the way that you
approach stories because

you have a completely
different angle on everything.

You get people saying, you know,

"What are you doing interfering,
it's not your business?"

And, you know, there's some
elements of that argument

that I can agree with.

But at the same time,

a great part of the reason
why I do this work is because

I've become so
attached to the country.

It has become my home.

Thank you.

I have a much stronger
connection to this place

and these people than
I do to even Australia.

And what happens here
does actually affect me.

I know that I'm
privileged and lucky

to be able to do what I do.

And I feel like I have
a duty to use my skills

as best as I can to try
to improve the situation.

- How are you?
- Good.

- And it's a
wonderful opportunity

to have Matt here again
from The Cambodia Daily.

- I moved out to Cambodia
from Australia in 2012.

One of the things that I saw
was the unsustainable depletion

of the natural
resources of Cambodia.

There's great resources here

in the forest and in
the ocean particularly,

and they're all being
exploited improperly.

Who here wants
to be a journalist?

It's gotten worse
since last year.

- It's gotten worse.

- Yeah.

- Why doesn't anyone
want to be a journalist?

- Because here for, I
think, for Cambodians, like,

we see investigative journalism

as sort of, pretty
life threatening.

Like, it bars people from it.

- This is like the class for
journalism in Cambodia right?

If you're not here, you're not.
- Right.

- Yeah.

It's kind of not, not that
easy for Cambodians

to stand up and say,

"That's wrong"
and "that's wrong"

when it is.

If you do this job

and it doesn't look like
many of you want to do it,

but it's a really
rewarding kind of job.

It's exciting.

Organizations put together lists

of countries that are most
dangerous to be journalists in.

And Cambodia recently was
named the most dangerous place

to be an
environmental journalist.

Over the years
we've seen a number

of environmental activists
and political commentators

murdered, some in cold
blood in broad daylight.

- One of Asia's
leading environmental activists

was gunned down in Cambodia.

- The local reporters
are much more at risk

than we foreigners are.

Deleting a foreigner isn't going
to be swept under the carpet

like deleting a
local activist can be.

So in some senses, I
guess I often feel like

I have a responsibility
to the local reporters.

If something goes wrong,

I can pack my bag and go,

but the local
reporters, they can't.

- Oh, here we go.

Morning.

- Hot, sweaty.

Chasing illegal boats this
morning on the way back,

nearly didn't make it on time.

- Yeah. that's
been my main work.

I have the guys that all
focus on the research, but

I tend to spend most
of my time with, on the

sort of, legal
fishing and the IUU.

- It's better but it's harder.

I've been on this personally
for around eight years

and I was financing it
from businesses that I had

and we can see the finish line,

we've just got to
this point where

basically I've run out of money.

I mean, I've sold my
land, I've sold my house,

I've sold everything.

And I'm now at a point where we,

we basically struggling just
to buy the food every day.

So we applied to the
conservation fund of Canada

for an emergency grant

so that we could basically
continue the patrols,

which was $3000 a month

to cover fuel and
the patrol team

and then an extra thousand for

like, maintenance
and stuff like that.

- Yeah.

Oof.

- I found out that one
Cambodian fishing village

on the coast has gone
particularly militant.

Prek Tanin, or "Shock
Village" as it's known locally,

is just a few K's
from MCC's Island.

And I'd heard that

they've electrified
all their nets.

See this blue electric,

this blue wire down here,

that's electric.

This chain runs around
the mouth of the net

and then this electric current
is hooked onto the chain.

They'll tell us that

that electric wire is for
their lights and stuff but

right here we can see that

it's hooked up to the
mouth of the trawling net.

They know that we're here

collecting
information so that's...

we collected the right
information that means.

Getting kicked out is
always a good sign, right?

- Oh wait, you're together.

- Don't show it.

Don't show yet.

- Aren't you playing Braiden?

Okay, let's do it.

Start the engine.

Just be careful.

There's something a little
bit strange about them.

They have their light on
and they're signaling to us.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right here!

Okay, let's bring it in!

This way! This way! This way!

Here! Here! Here!

- Ah man!

That kills my heart man!

- Bring him out! Bring
him out! Bring him out!

- He's dead already!

- He's not breathe-

Oh yes! He
breathes! He breathes!

- Get it in the ocean!

- You got to go, you
got to go in there.

- Come on.
- Come on

- You've got to breathe, man.

- Come on, you need to breathe!

- Hey, hey.

- Bok. Bok. Bok. Bok. Bok.

Bok!

Come back here. We
take the net, you quiet.

Small scale! Dude!

Small scale! Bok!

Alright. Take all those
needle fish off this boat.

Come sit down

- Was it a good catch tonight?

Just take time.

I'm sorry I can't
make it any faster.

I'd like to make it faster,
but I can't. You know?

Maybe he wants to
give his phone number or

take the phone number
from one of you yeah,

so when he hear the pair trawler
or the Vietnamese boats come in,

he can call to us we
can inform or help him.

I think is good.

- Damn.
- Yeah we raised those fish.

- Yeah we did.

- Small scale fishermen
have been here since

the area was repopulated after
the fall of the Khmer Rouge.

A large portion of Cambodians
still live in severe poverty.

The fishermen who are scrapping
for their survival every day

are left to kind of fight
amongst themselves,

which is so sad.

- Small scale
fishermen use methods that

aren't that destructive
and are sustainable.

But then you have the
illegal fishermen from Vietnam

and the electric boats
come into Cambodia

and take as many fish

as a small fishermen
would take in months.

So the Cambodian
fishermen upgrade

to using electric
trawlers, just to keep up.

- I was having a discussion with
an illegal fishermen one time

and I was sat on the boat
in all my righteousness of,

"Your children aren't
going to have any fish."

This guy turned
around to me and went,

"Well, if I don't
catch the fish today,

I won't have any children."

I can't answer that.

If you don't feed
the kids, kids die.

He's not thinking about
tomorrow or the next day,

or what these kids
will have in the future.

So, it changed me and
it changed my mentality.

I absolutely adore my kids.

I'm the luckiest
man on the planet

to have such wonderful kids.

But, bringing up kids in
the world that we live in

is hard. So hard.

Our societies are built on
so many of the wrong criteria.

This all washed in today.

- But I hope that

growing up the way they have,

they will all be advocates
and ambassadors of nature.

- Tiny little fish baby. Wow.

- They're interested in nature.

They're interesting
in how nature works.

They ask all the
right questions.

- Sometimes the kids
ask me questions that

properly make me cry

because I don't have
an answer for them.

- But I hope that
they will realize that

our natural world is more
important than anything

because without
it, what do we have?

My kids make me feel
like I have to continue

Like, I have to be
an example to them.

- Happy New Year!

- We want to
conserve the environment

and at the same time we
want to bring some culture,

Cambodian culture,
into the conservation.

- Guys go! 1, 2, 3!

- I want to see it recover.

I want to see happy long-tail
fishermen fishing legally,

catching great big crabs.

I want to see the
little communities

becoming communities again

where they don't have
to move away to get jobs

where they can just
go into the ocean.

I want to go diving and see
the stuff that should be there.

I want to see blue
water every day

cause it's not
foul and disgusting

from being dragged
up with the trawlers.

It could be beautiful.

It was beautiful once.

- We've got 25 minutes.

For years I'd heard that

the Vietnamese pair
trawlers fishing in Cambodia

come from the
island of Phu Quoc,

which on a map appears
to be in Cambodian water

but is in fact Vietnamese.

So, I wanted to see what
was actually happening there.

And there's a lot of strange
underwater creatures

for sale there that you can
pick out of a tank and then eat.

What's that guy?

Shark, yeah?

Kinda looks like a reef shark.

Come have a look at the
colors on these Stingrays.

- You want to take a picture?

- Eco tours, hey?
- Yeah.

- So can you do a tour
into the ocean or not?

- Nah.

- Why?

- Overfishing? Really?

You know about the
fishermen going into Cambodia?

- Wow.

- Yeah we just
get in the evening.

- From the boat?
- Yes...

- Okay. and they go to
the, across the river here?

- Yes from the ocean.

- I want to see the boat.

When the boat comes
back to the village.

What would be a good time to go?

- Morning.

- Morning?

Oh, they come
back in the morning.

- They come back in the morning
after they catch the fish.

- Okay, good luck man.

I'll see you.

Thank you.

These things are slowly dying.

Pregnant seahorse.

Big fella too.

I found a fishing village

that is said to be the hub
for the giant pair trawlers.

Oh yeah, there it is.

- One boat fishes,
one brings ice.

One fishes and one brings ice.

Those guys on the second boat
over: "No photos, no photos."

How are you man?

You can see the
size of the nets.

Hundreds and hundreds
of meters worth of nets.

One of these boats
can come into Cambodia

and take as many fish as a small
trawler would take in months.

It's industrial fishing
on a large scale.

Cambodians and Vietnamese,

they're not competing
on a level playing field.

These commercial
scale trawlers are

undoubtedly coming
across the border

and harvesting millions of
dollars worth of Cambodian fish

that subsistence fishermen in
Cambodia need just to get by.

Which is why the trawlers
of Prek Tanin in Cambodia

have wired their
nets with electric

because there's simply
nothing left for them to catch.

We're managing to prove
that the blocks are working.

The next step is for the
MFMA to be agreed upon

by all of the different
stakeholders,

the local fishing
communities, fishers,

various different
levels of government,

which then allows us to
continue to do work on the plan.

- But now I'm working for Paul

on communication
with the communities

and the fishermen about
the MFMA and it's really good.

- More than this?
- Yeah, more than this,

Yeah.

Do you know who's
making them now?

Are they buying
them from Vietnam or

other people in Cambodia
are you making them?

- Vietnam
- Vietnam sir.

- Do you ever,

the fishermen that you arrest

do they ever get angry?

The head of the
Kampot fisheries, Sorin,

he's one of these new breed

of officials who have
come into government

looking to concentrate on issues

that just haven't been a
focus for the government

in years past.

- The fisheries are
almost fatally hamstrung

by a lack of resources,

which kind of leaves a
gap for people like Paul.

- So, this was our
original request,

so it was four different zones,

which equaled
out to 5 kilometers

away from the islands.

We've got this
conservation area agreed

but we making it square
so it makes it slightly bigger.

- Yeah.

- The Koh Pu and Mak
Prang one we cut down,

which covers the
seagrass and Mak Prang,

We're talking about
70 square kilometers

- Okay.
- Together.

- And you get four islands in...
- We get four islands in yeah.

Four islands with Koh
Seh and Mak Prang.

- Things can move really, really
slowly in Cambodian bureaucracy.

- Oh yeah. Cool.

So that's the idea.

It will still has to go
through the consultations

so it will change
slightly but...

so yeah, got to get it done now.

- We were able to publish
a number of stories about

conservation and
destruction of the ocean

which is something that
hadn't been written about a lot.

- My work and Paul's work I
guess kind of work together.

Paul does something and
then I write a story about it

and then we publish it and
then more people know about it.

And their story is slowly
starting to get out there.

I suppose it was seahorses

that started everything.

I spent a long time with them.

They sort of get to know you,

you can spend a long time
photographing and videoing them.

I developed a sort
of relationship...

- Mmh

It was really, really
hard to choose,

like between something that
was chunky, heavy, and solid

or something that
was like light and fast.

Its looking very, very nice.

It's beautiful isn't it?

- So you can just
drive it straight

into some of these trawlers.

- But they've done
a beautiful job.

They got a little
bit on the front.

The International
Conservation Fund of Canada

managed to supply
funds to buy a speed boat.

Who knows about this?

- Up until a couple of days
ago, absolutely no one.

Now, Sorin and
all his team know,

they've seen all the pictures.

Pardon?

This one?

Yeah, yeah, they're
going to change that.

- Hey, Sorin.

- Tie that boat, bring it back.

Heading straight in towards
us, now he's see our boat coming

he's turned around he's
try to run back to Vietnam.

Good job, dad!

- You want to go on?

- Yeah!

- Okay.

- I'm going first!

I don't know,

I think it was out...

The success that we're
seeing is quite amazing.

These boats that have
been able to come in here

for many, many years
and do whatever they like,

and now there's a defense

and this means that the pressure
for illegal fishers is huge.

Okay, Paul, it's recording.

Recently, we've seen that
the illegal fishers themselves

are exceedingly violent.

The success that
we've had is resulting

for sure in a backlash.

They really need
to get rid of us

because what we're
doing is successful.

Okay, there's about seven or
eight boats from Prek Tanin,

chasing us here.

You see them all. You
hear the noises this is all

the boats chasing
behind, throwing rocks.

- Hold on!

We're just 2 boats
up against fucking 10.

They're fucking everywhere.

We're being attacked.

I've always thought that
when things are wrong

and nobody does
anything about them,

they just continue to be wrong.

You have to stand up
at that point and say,

"Right, no, I'm
not taking this."

Alright.

What I'm gonna do
now is I'm at the pier

and I'm going to
go and drive across

to show just how
easy it is to find

where the electric trawlers are.

And the fact that they've
come into our area now

three nights running
almost all night.

Plus we've got
dead dolphins again.

I'm going to show you
how easy it is to find them.

So right now I'm going
to turn the camera around.

You don't have to be
awake all night chasing boats,

spending lots of fuel and time.

What we can do, or
what anybody can do,

is just wait for them
where they are.

Yeah? - Yeah.

- Four years and
they still operate.

They get caught,

the gear gets taken off,

somehow a lot of that gear
actually gets returned to them

and that thing really,
really frustrates me.

I do not understand
how they can be caught,

the gear is confiscated,

and then the same boats
are out with the same gear.

We've even marked
some of that gear

and then found that same
gear back on those boats.

Oh I see them.

- Yeah.
- Pretty close.

- Can we see all those boats?
- Yeah. Yeah.

- So we're just
going to go past,

so it's been around five minutes

and already we're at the place
where they could be inspected,

they could be inspected
every single day.

None of these folks
have registered.

They're here everyday and night.

- Everyday and night.

The problem is

the block system is going
to take a few months to get in

and these guys are
now going full on full out

because they know
it's going to happen.

We need some help.

We need assistance
to stop these boats

whilst we're
installing the blocks

before there's
nothing left to protect.

The status quo on the coast
has existed for a long time.

A boat there.

And Paul is seen as a
troublemaker, the foreigner

who's come in
and rocked the boat

and so there's people
who want him shut down.

- Okay, okay bye.

We've been stopped
from going out on patrol.

The local government is trying
to avoid international incidents

that cause a problem
between Cambodia

and its neighboring countries.

But I think it's being used as
an excuse to stop us going out

or have us closed down.

Yeah.

- Sad.

- Yeah.

It's sad.

It's all good.

Come on, Rachana.

Hey, do not break.

- No matter what he's
done for the ocean,

they still think that
he's a foreigner

and that's really sad.

Like you cannot just say
you're the white person,

you don't love my
ocean more than I do,

you don't love my
country more than I do,

which is completely wrong.

- The frustration and hurt and

how it makes you
feel inside is intense.

Watching something you love die

and using every single
power that you have

to stop yourself doing
the one thing that's right,

which is to go out and stop.

If MCC was removed from Koh Seh,

the fishermen would be
lining up to get in there.

Everything that
they've worked for,

would be gone in
a matter of days.

- Sometimes I think
like, are you stupid?

Like are you fucking stupid?

Why do you carry on?

Why are we doing this?

Is your family not more
important to you than the ocean?

But last night was bad,
there's two big pairs.

I mean like big,

you could see the silhouette
bigger than our big boat,

just came straight through here.

That's the thing that I'm
trying to get them to understand

at the moment is that, like,

the blocks are the
only way to do it.

Even if you've run the patrols,

and even if you catch them
an hour into what they're doing,

they've done that damage.

You've got to prevent the
damage that they're doing,

it's not just about
catching them,

it's about stopping
them in the first place.

- It's very clear that

the government
has to be convinced

that this is the
right thing to do.

This is a story that I
wrote for Mongabay.

The most recent story
that I've published.

The story itself is
about Paul's MFMA

and it's kind of
looking forward to,

what could happen if they
get this plan underway.

It's Paul and Sar Sorin.

With a bunch of, electric gear

that they've
confiscated off boats.

Here's a nice image of a trawler

that I got off the
coast of Kampot.

Journalists can
make things change.

If we're not exposing
some of these things then,

the governments have no reason
to do anything about them.

Here we have a trawler illegally
fishing right outside our area

within our 300 meters.

You need to sink about
five or six of these boats,

put them around, and we
got beautiful artificial reef.

We have a second boat
in the background there.

We're just waiting on
police officers to come

and assist us because we've been
told we're not allowed to go

and tackle these big
old boats on our own.

There you go.

Feeling fucking frustrated.

Two sets of pair trawlers
already doing damage and

absolutely no action.

So here we are
again on another night.

Sometimes I really wonder,

like, what is going
through their heads.

There's been many
times it's been rocky,

but we wouldn't still be here

if the government of Cambodia
didn't support what we do.

I don't see an end to it unless
they stopped me doing it.

One pair, two pair, one missing.

I want to know
where this one's gone.

That's the one I'm looking for.

Can you see it?

You can't see that?

Yeah, he's passing it.

You see over there, Puppet?

- Oh okay let's go.

- Take us towards them.

Is there any way we can
get some support from Neak?

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, I know,
we should be careful.

He's dropped his net.

He's cut his net.

His net is in the water.

That big motherfucker
is running.

Hey move, move, move, move.

Move, now.

- You got one of them
there Paul.

- Yeah, yeah I see him.

Hey, Virak, now we've got two.

We're 300 meters from Koh Seh.

One has dropped his
net and he's running

and there's one other
boat with him.

And he's signaling
for his friends.

He's calling his friends, he's
signaling to the other boats.

Let's go after the other one.

Carney,

give me the baseball
bat just in case.

See the electric cable?

Phon, put me into the front.

Okay?

- Ooh.

You guys, man.

- That is a squid.

Yeah.

You know like the big squid
that you see on the market?

That's a baby one.

So he's never going
to get to be a big squid.

A whole load of
them, tiny little babies.

Never going to get any bigger.

I've had enough of
these dudes, man.

He's been told that many times

he's still got electric,
they still don't stop.

Phon, do the same,
yeah? Tow him.

Even I feel sorry for
these guys right now.

But at the same time you've got
these legal fishermen out there

and the legal
fishermen have nothing

and they're losing their
livelihoods to these guys.

- We caught them on time and
they pulled the neck and said

they go out but they obviously...

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

MCC's been on the front lines
of this battle for years now,

largely on their own.

But, finally the government
is starting to realize

that they're doing
this for the right reason

and that it's the
right thing to do.

- This is the same way they
did for Kampot in 2008, I think.

- He posted 1 out
of 10 drop the drop.

- Yeah.

If we can make, like document,

like a request,

then I can show for
the donor for the money.

Now we have full
backing and permission

from high ranking people within
the government of Cambodia

to go out and stop boats again.

- At the moment we have marine
police, provincial police,

fisheries.

They've come down to take
these people to the court.

To have the Marine police and
the provincial police here means

that they're really, really
starting to take it seriously.

I'm impressed. I'll be honest,
I'm seriously impressed.

- Yeah.
- Okay.

- It is a big step because
when you arrest someone,

it begins a process that's
supposed to be followed.

Right? And we've
seen in the past that

they don't follow the process,
but, every time you see

the fisheries guys
doing their job,

it's a great sign
for things to come.

Okay.

The whole MCC project

was built from scratch
by Paul and his people

with their bare hands
and with very little money.

The problem of overfishing
in Cambodia is so complex

and involves so
many moving parts that

if it can be solved here,

it can probably be solved
anywhere around the world.

Just on the small scale
that we've been doing,

we have a proof that
the ocean can recover.

The MFMA is enough
to give you hope.

It will be a signal
to the illegal fishers,

the government is serious
about changing things.

- Okay, everybody
here this morning,

I'd like to introduce
you to, Angie San

is the excellency
director general of

Fisheries Administration.

Director Angel
San's come today to

officially drop the first
demarcation blocks

so that we can begin
to protect the area with

anti-trawling devices
that create fish homes.

- The idea is each
block is around 150

and then we have
a big metal pole

block to join them together.

- Right.

- So this is the actual
fish aggregation device.

So it's attracting
the fish into it.

So the moment we
put these to the test,

within one to two days,

they're full of fish.

Like, everything is
just looking for a home.

For him to come
here, for him to say that

the work we're
doing is wonderful

and it's something that could
be implemented in other places

in Cambodia,

for him to be so happy
with the work that we've done,

tt's insanely wonderful.

All very good swimmers.

Swim from the deep.

Yeah, onto the front
is probably the easiest.

And just around here is
where Rachana made her reef.

So she's got the
two big structure,

a small one, and then
two lions like on the pier.

It looks very beautiful.

Rachana is basically the future
and the hope of MCC in my mind.

Mind your toes, mind your feet.

Go on, out of the way.
Come on Rachana,

I believe under her leadership

she will take MCC
to a different level.

- 1,2,3!

- That allows us to do
what we've done here

throughout the
whole archipelago.

It's the beginning
of full restoration.

It's the beginning
of the beginning.

I'm just, I'm
buzzing. It's brilliant.

- Yeah, yeah.

Thank you very,
very much everybody

for being fucking wonderful!

Yes!

- For me, the great power
of investigative journalism

is that it can make
things change.

And, this new job gives
me a much bigger platform

and more resources
to keep reporting

the stories that don't get told.