1 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:47,440 It's only in the last 50 years with the invention of the aqualung that we've 2 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:50,940 been able to get underwater and see some of the animals that live there. 3 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:12,400 We all love dolphins. 4 00:01:12,890 --> 00:01:15,410 They're the playful, popular face of the ocean. 5 00:01:21,010 --> 00:01:26,870 But most of what lives underwater is out of sight, and so out of mind. 6 00:01:28,370 --> 00:01:32,830 Even in the 20 -odd years that I've been diving, there have been big changes in 7 00:01:32,830 --> 00:01:33,830 our seas. 8 00:01:34,270 --> 00:01:38,050 It's clear that our oceans are now in real danger. 9 00:01:49,390 --> 00:01:54,070 Flying over miles and miles of ocean, you get the impression that things 10 00:01:54,070 --> 00:01:55,029 too bad. 11 00:01:55,030 --> 00:01:58,630 But below the surface, there's a multitude of man -made problems. 12 00:02:00,350 --> 00:02:04,510 Of all of them, probably the most destructive is fishing. 13 00:02:04,830 --> 00:02:08,090 And it's the way we catch fish that's the problem. 14 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:21,980 Bluefin tuna, king of the sea. 15 00:02:22,180 --> 00:02:25,100 They are exquisitely designed for the open ocean. 16 00:02:26,580 --> 00:02:31,840 They can grow up to three quarters of a ton and can swim at 50 miles an hour, 17 00:02:31,940 --> 00:02:37,320 faster than any other creature in the sea, apart from us. 18 00:02:39,620 --> 00:02:42,480 They have few natural predators when fully grown. 19 00:02:42,820 --> 00:02:46,240 It is believed that these bluefins are now endangered. 20 00:02:47,310 --> 00:02:50,810 There's no place in the ocean where we can't pursue them. 21 00:02:51,050 --> 00:02:53,450 They just can't escape us. 22 00:02:55,810 --> 00:03:00,370 Fishing has become incredibly high -tech, so much so that we can pretty 23 00:03:00,370 --> 00:03:02,990 capture anything anywhere in the world nowadays. 24 00:03:03,490 --> 00:03:07,350 These bluefin tuna boats beneath me have every mod con. 25 00:03:07,610 --> 00:03:11,950 They have incredibly big engines, they're using depth sounders, GPSes, and 26 00:03:11,950 --> 00:03:14,110 they've even got spotter planes in the air. 27 00:03:14,820 --> 00:03:18,380 spotting the fish for them. Yeah, Paul, I had about eight fish over here. 28 00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:19,860 They just went down. 29 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:22,120 They're on my left side. 30 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:31,380 So the bluefin tuna, travelling at 50 miles an hour, hasn't really got much of 31 00:03:31,380 --> 00:03:34,840 chance. The moment it comes to the surface, somebody's going to spot it. 32 00:03:38,460 --> 00:03:39,339 Come left. 33 00:03:39,340 --> 00:03:41,840 Yeah, there you go. 12 o 'clock, five or six boats. 34 00:03:44,010 --> 00:03:47,410 Here they're being hunted on one of their major migration routes. 35 00:03:48,550 --> 00:03:53,090 It's thought they swim from the Gulf of Mexico up the eastern seaboard of the 36 00:03:53,090 --> 00:03:55,530 United States to Canada each summer. 37 00:03:56,730 --> 00:04:02,190 Their routes are so predictable that fishermen can catch them year after 38 00:04:08,950 --> 00:04:13,260 While these fishermen are still catching them, There are scientists who are 39 00:04:13,260 --> 00:04:17,760 tagging the fish, trying to discover how many separate populations there are, 40 00:04:17,899 --> 00:04:22,620 what their movements are, and just how many fish are left. 41 00:04:25,660 --> 00:04:31,100 Marine scientist and keen sports fisherman, Carl Safina, fishes off Long 42 00:04:31,260 --> 00:04:31,979 New York. 43 00:04:31,980 --> 00:04:36,620 He loves fishing for bluefin, but these days he has to target other species. 44 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:44,570 I've been fishing offshore since i was 12 with my fathers and my uncles and we 45 00:04:44,570 --> 00:04:49,990 used to see lots of bluefin tuna a lot of small ones and a lot of big ones now 46 00:04:49,990 --> 00:04:56,470 uh there aren't so few tuna that people sport fish for sharks now 47 00:04:56,470 --> 00:05:03,250 safina is so concerned 48 00:05:03,250 --> 00:05:07,950 by the decline in numbers that he started a campaign with the National 49 00:05:07,950 --> 00:05:10,290 Society to try and save these tuna. 50 00:05:11,050 --> 00:05:15,290 What we do know about bluefins in the western part of the Atlantic, in other 51 00:05:15,290 --> 00:05:21,930 words, the part of the Atlantic off the U .S. and Canada, is that from the mid 52 00:05:21,930 --> 00:05:27,870 -1970s until the late 1990s, the population has declined by roughly 53 00:05:27,870 --> 00:05:29,130 85%. 54 00:05:30,090 --> 00:05:34,190 In New England, where most of the Western Atlantic bluefin are caught 55 00:05:34,190 --> 00:05:38,090 commercially, fishermen just don't believe these government figures. 56 00:05:40,010 --> 00:05:43,370 They claim there are consistent mistakes in the analysis. 57 00:05:44,310 --> 00:05:48,930 So they're naturally very skeptical about the quotas the government imposes 58 00:05:48,930 --> 00:05:49,930 them. 59 00:05:50,390 --> 00:05:55,670 Scientific research in the ocean is expensive, and the politics surrounding 60 00:05:55,670 --> 00:05:57,110 fish are complicated. 61 00:05:58,380 --> 00:06:00,700 But one thing is indisputable. 62 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:03,940 These fish sell for vast amounts of money. 63 00:06:04,660 --> 00:06:11,460 The bluefin tuna was worth a few cents a pound and often sold as cat food until 64 00:06:11,460 --> 00:06:17,880 some people realized that if they airlifted them to Japan, if they sent 65 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:23,720 Japan in airplanes, the price would go from a few cents to many dollars per 66 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:24,720 pound. 67 00:06:29,580 --> 00:06:34,200 Tsukiji Market in Tokyo is the biggest push market in the world. 68 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:45,280 Before I came to Japan, I'd heard a lot about it, but I just wasn't prepared for 69 00:06:45,280 --> 00:06:46,280 the scale of it. 70 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:50,060 This warehouse is just the frozen section. 71 00:06:50,420 --> 00:06:56,180 In another section, there are rows and rows of fresh tuna, and amongst these 72 00:06:56,180 --> 00:06:58,520 a frightening quantity of bluefin. 73 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:19,440 The Japanese are by far the biggest importers of bluefin tuna in the world. 74 00:07:20,100 --> 00:07:21,700 This is big business. 75 00:07:22,060 --> 00:07:25,080 These bluefin are fetching £60 a kilo. 76 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:32,140 So in today's auction, a dealer would expect to get £12 ,000 for this one fish 77 00:07:32,140 --> 00:07:38,120 alone. But the market fluctuates madly, and there have been bluefin here that 78 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:39,940 have fetched more than £100 ,000. 79 00:07:57,660 --> 00:08:02,760 Tuna fishermen don't accept the bluefin numbers are right down, but most 80 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:05,280 scientists firmly believe that they are. 81 00:08:07,020 --> 00:08:10,880 Many people want bluefin tuna listed as slightly dependent one. 82 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:14,160 In other words, a total ban on all fishing of them. 83 00:08:14,580 --> 00:08:19,240 Unless this is done, there is no way the fishermen, the wholesalers, everybody 84 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:22,620 involved in the market will give up. There's simply too much in it for them. 85 00:08:25,860 --> 00:08:28,620 This market is not just about tuna. 86 00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:31,380 There's every conceivable type of fish here. 87 00:08:41,100 --> 00:08:46,500 Nearly 50 % of the food eaten in Japan comes from the sea, compared to the 88 00:08:46,500 --> 00:08:52,400 world's average of about 15%. They eat enormous quantities of fish, every 89 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:53,760 species imaginable. 90 00:08:54,540 --> 00:08:59,060 But unfortunately, some of those species are in deep trouble. 91 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:06,100 This is a swordfish. In the Atlantic, its numbers have more than halved since 92 00:09:06,100 --> 00:09:11,010 the 1960s. As a result... Many restaurants have now taken it off the 93 00:09:13,290 --> 00:09:19,490 Marlin are a favourite amongst game fishermen, and some species are down by 94 00:09:19,490 --> 00:09:26,490 While shark meat is on sale 95 00:09:26,490 --> 00:09:32,150 in many Japanese markets, by far the biggest trade is in shark fins, and that 96 00:09:32,150 --> 00:09:33,910 trade is Asia -wide. 97 00:09:35,190 --> 00:09:39,630 About 100 million sharks are caught every year. 98 00:09:41,870 --> 00:09:43,790 Admittedly, this is the biggest market. 99 00:09:44,070 --> 00:09:48,390 But there are hundreds of markets all over the world selling huge quantities 100 00:09:48,390 --> 00:09:53,330 fish. And it's not just one day a week. It's day after day after day. 101 00:09:53,890 --> 00:09:58,030 You might find some really strange creatures here, ones which are totally 102 00:09:58,030 --> 00:09:59,150 unfamiliar to us. 103 00:09:59,370 --> 00:10:03,350 But that's not the issue. It's often the more common species that are seriously 104 00:10:03,350 --> 00:10:06,830 threatened. And those you can find on sale at home. 105 00:10:09,130 --> 00:10:13,090 This is Billingsgate Market, the largest fish market in London. 106 00:10:13,910 --> 00:10:17,670 Here you can buy all the familiar fish, which we love to eat. 107 00:10:18,050 --> 00:10:23,130 But in the UK, every day we're eating fish whose stocks are dangerously low. 108 00:10:24,670 --> 00:10:29,750 Most of us have no idea that these fish are in trouble, even the most common 109 00:10:29,750 --> 00:10:31,310 ones, such as cod. 110 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:37,980 At the moment, the worst problem is with cod in the Irish Sea, which is really 111 00:10:37,980 --> 00:10:41,340 in a very, very depressed state indeed. 112 00:10:42,660 --> 00:10:49,060 The northeast Arctic stock off the coast of Norway is not in very good shape. 113 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:53,380 The Canadian stock is not in good shape. The North Sea stock is not in good 114 00:10:53,380 --> 00:10:57,740 shape. About the only one that's doing reasonably well at the moment is that 115 00:10:57,740 --> 00:11:01,440 Iceland. And if that one goes the same way... 116 00:11:01,770 --> 00:11:03,010 There will be no Atlantic cod. 117 00:11:03,610 --> 00:11:06,330 There simply will not be any cod for sale. 118 00:11:09,890 --> 00:11:13,630 So is this a normal tide for a cod these days? 119 00:11:13,910 --> 00:11:17,910 That's about an average side there, yeah. When you go and buy fish in the 120 00:11:17,910 --> 00:11:22,870 supermarket or in the fish and chip shop, you generally as a consumer have 121 00:11:22,870 --> 00:11:26,790 way to tell whether this has come from a stock that is overfished or a stock 122 00:11:26,790 --> 00:11:29,410 that isn't. Where are these ones from? They're from Aberdeen. 123 00:11:29,930 --> 00:11:35,510 Was it in the North Sea? We know that fish stocks do collapse and sometimes 124 00:11:35,510 --> 00:11:37,770 recover. The herring collapsed and recovered. 125 00:11:38,210 --> 00:11:44,070 There was a stock of mackerel in the North Sea in the 60s and 70s that 126 00:11:44,070 --> 00:11:50,590 under very heavy fishing pressure by Perth seine and it has not come back. In 127 00:11:50,590 --> 00:11:52,110 years it has not come back. 128 00:11:52,790 --> 00:11:58,510 The sole and the place are fully exploited and could not really sustain 129 00:11:58,510 --> 00:12:04,070 further. fishing pressure the herring also is fully exploited there's no room 130 00:12:04,070 --> 00:12:10,990 for expansion now with so much fishing pressure in surface waters fishermen are 131 00:12:10,990 --> 00:12:15,710 going deeper and deeper to find fish for the market we're seeing things here 132 00:12:15,710 --> 00:12:22,170 that we would never even have heard of 20 years ago this is a black 133 00:12:22,170 --> 00:12:26,690 scabbard and it lives at about a thousand meters so are these fish in 134 00:12:27,290 --> 00:12:30,530 It's hard to say, really, because like everything else that lives in the deep, 135 00:12:30,690 --> 00:12:35,170 very little is known about it. And that's the problem with deep -sea 136 00:12:35,470 --> 00:12:39,170 The scientists don't really know what's going on down there, and they're only 137 00:12:39,170 --> 00:12:41,070 just beginning to find out. 138 00:12:44,850 --> 00:12:49,690 Scientists from Tasmania are now using high -tech cameras mounted on 139 00:12:49,690 --> 00:12:53,670 submersibles to study the effects of fishing on the deep sea. 140 00:12:56,200 --> 00:13:00,560 Only in the last 30 years have we had the technology to fish the deep. 141 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:05,540 But in many places, the fishing pressure has been very intense. 142 00:13:08,380 --> 00:13:12,160 This particular fish is now on our menus. 143 00:13:15,100 --> 00:13:20,440 These white fish are the fillets of a deep -sea fish called orange roughy. You 144 00:13:20,440 --> 00:13:23,460 may have noticed them in your local fishmonger or supermarket recently. 145 00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:28,140 They can live at up to depths of 1 ,500 metres. 146 00:13:28,460 --> 00:13:31,820 And like a lot of deep -sea fish, they live a very long time. 147 00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:37,420 These ones could have been born during World War II. They could even have been 148 00:13:37,420 --> 00:13:39,460 around during the Victorian era. 149 00:13:40,140 --> 00:13:45,080 It's believed that orange roughy can live to a staggering 150 years old. 150 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:51,860 As well as living longer, these fish mature later, at about 30 years old. 151 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:55,860 If you take them out before this age, they won't be able to reproduce. 152 00:13:56,520 --> 00:14:00,380 There won't be a future generation of orange roughy. 153 00:14:05,860 --> 00:14:08,980 For many years, the fishing pressure here was huge. 154 00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:14,060 Thousands of tons were scooped up for the market and sold around the world. 155 00:14:14,460 --> 00:14:20,280 At times, so many were caught, there wasn't even the market for them. They 156 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:21,280 just dumped. 157 00:14:25,050 --> 00:14:29,710 Fortunately, the New Zealand and Australian fisheries recognise the 158 00:14:29,710 --> 00:14:32,830 time. They now monitor the fish stocks carefully. 159 00:14:33,630 --> 00:14:38,190 The fish may be safe, but the habitat they rely on isn't. 160 00:14:45,270 --> 00:14:51,530 In the deep sea, there are animals so new to us and so strange, it's as if we 161 00:14:51,530 --> 00:14:52,530 are in another world. 162 00:15:26,410 --> 00:15:30,890 Despite its remoteness, the deep -sea habitat is now under threat. 163 00:15:31,170 --> 00:15:36,630 And once again, it's the method of fishing that is causing the real damage. 164 00:15:40,510 --> 00:15:43,290 Deep -sea fishing nets are huge. 165 00:15:43,590 --> 00:15:46,490 They dredge up life indiscriminately. 166 00:15:47,370 --> 00:15:53,130 Corals and sponges hundreds of years old are being ripped off the seabed and 167 00:15:53,130 --> 00:15:54,130 destroyed. 168 00:15:55,020 --> 00:15:59,120 What it's all actually done, particularly in the deep sea, where 169 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:03,740 is concentrated around seamounts, which are very hard rock, to protect the net 170 00:16:03,740 --> 00:16:07,660 from the rock, they've got huge steel balls on them. Those balls are about a 171 00:16:07,660 --> 00:16:12,520 half a metre in diameter, and they run along in a huge ground rope. Now that 172 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:17,040 is pulled along, it's like three knots, smacking into the rock. Smack, smack, 173 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:18,620 smack, smack, smack, smack, smack. 174 00:16:19,500 --> 00:16:24,080 So this net basically comes along and it physically mows that thing down, just 175 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:26,760 rips it off, shoots it into the back of the net, it's history. 176 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:29,300 It's got no chance of living after that. 177 00:16:30,740 --> 00:16:33,100 You can't see the damage done at that. 178 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:36,900 But if the same was done on land, you'd be horrified. 179 00:16:37,710 --> 00:16:42,090 If we wanted to catch cows, for instance, we'd get a net and we'd hang 180 00:16:42,090 --> 00:16:45,890 a helicopter and we'd drag that through the paddock. We would not only catch a 181 00:16:45,890 --> 00:16:51,190 few cows, we'd catch the dog, we'd catch the car, we'd catch the farmyard, the 182 00:16:51,190 --> 00:16:55,170 barn, we'd catch the farmer's wife, we'd catch all of the other stuff that we 183 00:16:55,170 --> 00:16:56,650 weren't originally going for. 184 00:16:58,110 --> 00:17:01,710 O'Shea is concerned about many of the animals that are being brought up from 185 00:17:01,710 --> 00:17:04,510 deep, most of them unintentionally. 186 00:17:07,050 --> 00:17:10,589 He's monitoring the damage being done from his lab in New Zealand. 187 00:17:11,150 --> 00:17:15,230 One of the most spectacular things we've received in fisheries bycatch is this 188 00:17:15,230 --> 00:17:16,230 large gorgonian. 189 00:17:16,630 --> 00:17:20,670 It's like a black coral, it's very closely related to it, and this 190 00:17:20,670 --> 00:17:25,630 specimen we've had aged at some 700 years old. So it's 700 years when the 191 00:17:25,630 --> 00:17:28,329 came down and basically ripped it off the bottom of the sea. 192 00:17:28,610 --> 00:17:32,790 It's dead, it's gone. When you add up the pieces together, you would have some 193 00:17:32,790 --> 00:17:34,190 three metres in... 194 00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:40,240 total height from the sea floor and that must be the equivalent of an underwater 195 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:43,960 forest. It's just tragic that something like this should be ripped from the 196 00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:44,960 floor. 197 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:54,340 This particular species used to be very common between 700 and 1100 metres off 198 00:17:54,340 --> 00:18:00,180 our coast but like everything that is very fragile and were we to put a steel 199 00:18:00,180 --> 00:18:03,580 bobbin straight over that it would be crushed to pieces. 200 00:18:09,250 --> 00:18:14,150 O'Shea has a particular fascination for deep -sea squid, but he's worried that 201 00:18:14,150 --> 00:18:18,450 many of them are disappearing before we've even had a chance to see them 202 00:18:18,450 --> 00:18:21,530 in the wild, let alone understand them. 203 00:18:25,190 --> 00:18:28,550 This species used to be very common around New Zealand. Along the entire 204 00:18:28,550 --> 00:18:30,390 Northland Beach coast, it's gone. 205 00:18:31,610 --> 00:18:36,190 And the only reason why an animal like this is gone... It's so stupid, it's so 206 00:18:36,190 --> 00:18:40,650 slow, it wasn't hurting anyone, it got attacked by a trawler net, and the 207 00:18:40,650 --> 00:18:44,030 trawlers have been going back and forth the same area for so long, we've 208 00:18:44,030 --> 00:18:45,650 basically made this animal extinct. 209 00:18:49,810 --> 00:18:55,270 With every single dive to the deep ocean, scientists are discovering new 210 00:18:55,270 --> 00:19:00,370 species. Some may have properties that could be invaluable to us. 211 00:19:02,690 --> 00:19:03,990 Sponges are animals. 212 00:19:04,570 --> 00:19:08,570 but they're rooted to the bottom and can't get away from something that's 213 00:19:08,570 --> 00:19:11,650 to eat them or something that's trying to grow over them. 214 00:19:12,150 --> 00:19:17,770 So they produce chemicals to ward off predators or other encroaching sponges. 215 00:19:25,710 --> 00:19:29,850 It's these chemicals that interest marine scientists in Florida. 216 00:19:30,590 --> 00:19:34,730 They collect sponges from the deep and take them back to the lab for analysis. 217 00:19:36,170 --> 00:19:42,610 The challenge to us as drug discoverers and marine biologists is to figure out 218 00:19:42,610 --> 00:19:49,150 why the organism is producing it and then apply that knowledge to try and 219 00:19:49,150 --> 00:19:54,490 out what might be an appropriate drug target for that chemical compound. 220 00:19:56,230 --> 00:19:59,930 Pomponi and her team have been using the chemicals from these sponges in a 221 00:19:59,930 --> 00:20:00,930 series of trials. 222 00:20:01,450 --> 00:20:05,390 They believe the chemicals will prevent the growth of cancer cells in humans. 223 00:20:08,850 --> 00:20:13,630 Ideally we want something that will kill a certain type of cancer cell, so it 224 00:20:13,630 --> 00:20:16,070 will be very specific for certain types of cancer. 225 00:20:16,610 --> 00:20:19,910 And so far the results are very encouraging. 226 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:26,860 So, yes, we think that this will be useful as a treatment for certain forms 227 00:20:26,860 --> 00:20:27,860 cancer. 228 00:20:29,780 --> 00:20:33,700 So far, we've only explored 2 % of the deep. 229 00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:40,020 We could be in danger of losing a treasure trove of species before we've 230 00:20:40,020 --> 00:20:41,020 discovered them. 231 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:49,260 If we lose that biological diversity that occurs in 232 00:20:49,260 --> 00:20:54,840 the deep ocean, and it does, then we lose that chemical diversity and we lose 233 00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:57,700 the opportunity to discover new drugs. 234 00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:08,400 It's not just the deep that's in danger. 235 00:21:08,940 --> 00:21:13,460 Shallow water habitats like coral reefs are having a hard time too. 236 00:21:19,590 --> 00:21:25,030 Part of the problem is the growing trade in reef fish, and it's often the market 237 00:21:25,030 --> 00:21:30,370 demand for luxury fish like groupers, coral trout and wrasse that's behind the 238 00:21:30,370 --> 00:21:33,970 problem. They're being fished out at an alarming rate. 239 00:21:39,630 --> 00:21:45,510 Fish on coral reefs that were once a staple food for local people are now in 240 00:21:45,510 --> 00:21:49,910 high demand as a delicacy for people in major cities around the world. 241 00:21:56,150 --> 00:22:00,890 The majority goes to mainland China and cities like Hong Kong. 242 00:22:01,170 --> 00:22:07,670 It's a huge market and some 30 ,000 tonnes of reef fish come into Hong Kong 243 00:22:07,670 --> 00:22:08,730 every year. 244 00:22:12,590 --> 00:22:17,490 But the fishermen are having to go to coral reefs further and further afield 245 00:22:17,490 --> 00:22:18,490 stocks dry up. 246 00:22:18,830 --> 00:22:25,050 Some now travel 3 ,000 miles on a single fishing trip to find reefs with fish. 247 00:22:25,950 --> 00:22:30,070 People like their fish fresh, very fresh. 248 00:22:30,290 --> 00:22:36,310 So much so that the cost of live fish is ten times the cost of fresh dead fish. 249 00:22:36,830 --> 00:22:40,670 And the fish in the marketplace are getting smaller and smaller. 250 00:22:41,900 --> 00:22:47,340 Dr. Yvonne Sadovi is worried about the amount of juveniles being sold here. 251 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:53,080 This beautiful animal is a humphead wrasse, and he's called humphead wrasse 252 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:54,900 because of his hump on his head. 253 00:22:55,900 --> 00:23:00,420 And the other one is the giant grouper. This is the giant grouper. 254 00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:02,400 There's several of them. 255 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:04,460 And these are juveniles. 256 00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:07,560 This one is probably a late teenager. 257 00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:12,180 but still not particularly old or well -developed fish. 258 00:23:12,420 --> 00:23:16,340 And the majority that we see of these species are young juvenile fish. 259 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:22,560 Humphead wrasse should be able to live for more than 20 years, but they rarely 260 00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:26,440 reach that age these days. They're taken out far too young. 261 00:23:26,740 --> 00:23:32,400 If you have fisheries which take large numbers of juveniles, these animals have 262 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:33,560 not had a chance to reproduce. 263 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:35,780 So you start to wonder... 264 00:23:36,300 --> 00:23:38,320 Where's the next generation going to come from? 265 00:23:39,660 --> 00:23:44,960 If you take too many juveniles, slowly what happens is you don't get enough 266 00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:50,380 adults in the next generation, and slowly the populations or stocks decline 267 00:23:50,380 --> 00:23:51,380 numbers. 268 00:23:55,480 --> 00:24:01,500 So that's what my concern is, that if this is part of a trend... that we're 269 00:24:01,500 --> 00:24:04,820 seeing more and more juveniles being taken in this trade, then that does not 270 00:24:04,820 --> 00:24:07,340 augur well for these particular species. 271 00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:14,720 But much more serious than the possible loss of a few species is the loss of an 272 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:20,960 entire habitat, especially one which supports thousands upon thousands of 273 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:21,960 species. 274 00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:33,180 reef are the most diverse communities in our oceans many of them have grown up 275 00:24:33,180 --> 00:24:39,640 over hundreds sometimes thousands of years and over that time a fantastic 276 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:46,420 of animals and plants have evolved with them the intricate 277 00:24:46,420 --> 00:24:51,080 structure built by the corals themselves provides animals with protection from 278 00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:55,800 predators important breeding sites and endless feeding opportunities 279 00:25:18,350 --> 00:25:22,950 But now the coral itself is under threat from man. 280 00:25:40,710 --> 00:25:43,550 Today, dynamiting is commonplace. 281 00:25:43,930 --> 00:25:47,250 It's an efficient way to kill all the nearby fish. 282 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:52,700 but just one blast will completely flatten a patch of reef. 283 00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:58,040 And there are lots of other threats to reef right across the world. 284 00:25:58,500 --> 00:26:03,300 Sometimes it's pollution, sometimes they get covered by sediment, and global 285 00:26:03,300 --> 00:26:05,920 warming is certainly playing its part too. 286 00:26:07,620 --> 00:26:14,400 Here in Southeast Asia, 80 % of reefs are either in danger of dying or are 287 00:26:15,660 --> 00:26:21,020 A lot of it's been dynamited, but now a more sinister method of fishing is being 288 00:26:21,020 --> 00:26:25,300 used. It's fast, it's effective, but it's highly illegal. 289 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:28,880 Fishermen are using the poison cyanide. 290 00:26:31,780 --> 00:26:36,220 Fishermen squirt sodium cyanide into crevices where fish take refuge. 291 00:26:37,220 --> 00:26:41,200 Cyanide starves the fish of oxygen, and so they come out into the open 292 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:44,700 temporarily dazed and much easier to catch. 293 00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:53,040 Not all these fish are for food. Many of them are for the aquarium trade. 294 00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:55,880 They're purely a luxury item. 295 00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:07,920 The corals themselves die in just a few weeks, and the whole reef becomes 296 00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:09,300 smothered in algae. 297 00:27:13,780 --> 00:27:17,300 That was a reconstruction, but this is real life. 298 00:27:17,930 --> 00:27:22,290 Members of the International Marine Alliance in the Philippines are trying 299 00:27:22,290 --> 00:27:24,110 save their few remaining reefs. 300 00:27:24,910 --> 00:27:27,610 They suspect these men have been fishing illegally. 301 00:27:28,290 --> 00:27:32,850 They're trying to find out where and how they've been fishing, but the fishermen 302 00:27:32,850 --> 00:27:33,850 are wary. 303 00:27:37,170 --> 00:27:43,410 They're afraid to tell us where the places are because there might be some 304 00:27:43,410 --> 00:27:44,410 retaliation. 305 00:27:45,150 --> 00:27:47,690 from the other villagers in this village. 306 00:27:49,390 --> 00:27:55,230 They hide the bottles underneath the boat and when another 307 00:27:55,230 --> 00:28:02,030 boat approaches, they just ditch this so that nobody could see it. 308 00:28:03,130 --> 00:28:06,590 These men know they could end up in jail. 309 00:28:07,590 --> 00:28:12,530 It's so hard to police the coastal areas of the Philippines because it's... 310 00:28:12,940 --> 00:28:14,720 It's a very long coastal area. 311 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:19,580 Another thing is that if you jail them, you don't have enough room in jail. 312 00:28:23,940 --> 00:28:27,020 We were taken to a jail on the island of Coron. 313 00:28:29,360 --> 00:28:33,460 These men have been arrested for illegal fishing and they're waiting trial. 314 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:39,960 They've been locked up for months, but the trader, the middleman, is still 315 00:28:43,459 --> 00:28:49,520 I don't think we can lump in all the blames into the fishermen because first 316 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:52,500 that they do not know anything better. 317 00:28:53,420 --> 00:28:58,660 They're afraid of being caught, but they say there's no other method to catch 318 00:28:58,660 --> 00:28:59,660 fish. 319 00:29:02,060 --> 00:29:06,440 When they've been squirted with cyanide, fish don't die immediately. 320 00:29:06,740 --> 00:29:12,140 But the damage has been done, and their internal organs gradually pack up. 321 00:29:12,730 --> 00:29:17,890 The trader has to move them fast as they will die in just a few weeks. 322 00:29:21,450 --> 00:29:26,550 Cruz is sure that the importers know when cyanide has been used because the 323 00:29:26,550 --> 00:29:28,410 mortality rate is so high. 324 00:29:28,670 --> 00:29:31,150 But they simply choose to ignore it. 325 00:29:32,070 --> 00:29:35,510 Importers would know immediately that there's something wrong with these 326 00:29:36,550 --> 00:29:38,330 But yet they... 327 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:43,980 start and keep on importing from the same exporter in the Philippines or in 328 00:29:43,980 --> 00:29:44,980 other countries. 329 00:29:47,700 --> 00:29:52,340 The majority of tropical fish caught in Indonesia and the Philippines are 330 00:29:52,340 --> 00:29:54,580 exported to America and here to the UK. 331 00:29:55,580 --> 00:29:59,680 Fortunately, there are a lot of responsible importers, like the owner of 332 00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:04,080 shop, who refuse to buy fish that have been caught by cyanide. But as a 333 00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,260 customer, you can't tell how a fish was caught. 334 00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:10,540 The responsibility lies with us to check with the shopkeeper. 335 00:30:11,540 --> 00:30:17,140 And if you don't, it may only take a couple of weeks before your ornamental 336 00:30:17,140 --> 00:30:20,780 is as dead as the reef it came from. 337 00:30:31,550 --> 00:30:32,489 Really loud. 338 00:30:32,490 --> 00:30:39,150 I'm wishing I could be that kind of fool. Shall I twist your arm? I'd say no 339 00:30:39,150 --> 00:30:40,430 more work for mine. 340 00:30:40,710 --> 00:30:41,930 Welcome to the club. 341 00:30:42,310 --> 00:30:44,450 On my door I'd hang a sign. 342 00:30:45,250 --> 00:30:47,130 Gone fishing. 343 00:30:49,150 --> 00:30:53,790 Instead of just a wishing. 344 00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:28,540 This abandoned net is made of tough nylon, which won't easily disintegrate. 345 00:31:33,940 --> 00:31:38,900 If it isn't removed, it could carry on killing like this for years and years to 346 00:31:38,900 --> 00:31:39,900 come. 347 00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:49,330 If one small net on one reef can cause this much damage. 348 00:31:49,730 --> 00:31:52,850 Imagine what fishing nets do on a global scale. 349 00:31:53,470 --> 00:31:57,550 Our fishing methods today ensure that we catch more and more. 350 00:31:57,890 --> 00:32:04,090 But a lot of what is caught is thrown away, simply chucked overboard, usually 351 00:32:04,090 --> 00:32:05,090 dead. 352 00:32:07,190 --> 00:32:08,790 Modern fisheries are very destructive. 353 00:32:09,170 --> 00:32:12,550 They don't just catch what they're after. They catch everything else that's 354 00:32:12,550 --> 00:32:13,489 there as well. 355 00:32:13,490 --> 00:32:19,350 The United Nations tells us that up to 30 million metric tons a year are caught 356 00:32:19,350 --> 00:32:22,570 by fisheries and simply thrown overboard, dead or dying. 357 00:32:23,870 --> 00:32:27,670 That's one -quarter to one -third of the annual catch around the world. 358 00:32:29,430 --> 00:32:34,730 I'm talking about not just non -target fish species, but sea turtles, marine 359 00:32:34,730 --> 00:32:39,890 mammals, seabirds such as albatrosses and so forth, even whales on occasion. 360 00:32:53,930 --> 00:32:59,650 No matter how magnificent no animal is spared in our hunt for food 361 00:32:59,650 --> 00:33:06,410 But what's even 362 00:33:06,410 --> 00:33:12,110 more ridiculous is that often the fish that we would eat are thrown away if the 363 00:33:12,110 --> 00:33:18,950 boat is targeting a different species and There's one particular fishery 364 00:33:18,950 --> 00:33:20,870 where the waste is phenomenal 365 00:33:22,140 --> 00:33:26,320 Prawn or shrimp trawling is the worst example of destructive fisheries in the 366 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:31,400 world. Prawn and shrimp trawling is ubiquitous throughout the tropics. The 367 00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:35,360 are dragged along the bottom. The shrimp live in the habitat along the bottom. 368 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:38,120 Those nets hoover up everything in their path. 369 00:33:38,420 --> 00:33:45,300 Up to 15 pounds of other species are taken aboard and discarded for every one 370 00:33:45,300 --> 00:33:46,880 pound of shrimp that's caught. 371 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:54,500 Worse still are the quantities of juvenile fish that get thrown away. 372 00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:08,440 Hundreds of thousands of tons of young fish are discarded every year. Fish that 373 00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:13,060 would otherwise grow to become an important and very valuable source of 374 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:18,260 And all this for just a handful of prawns. 375 00:34:20,110 --> 00:34:23,530 The fishermen have recognized the problem and have asked for help. 376 00:34:23,770 --> 00:34:29,330 So Dr. Steve Kennelly is now looking at the prawn fishing industry in New South 377 00:34:29,330 --> 00:34:30,469 Wales, Australia. 378 00:34:33,150 --> 00:34:35,449 Here the industry is huge. 379 00:34:35,730 --> 00:34:39,270 They catch over a thousand tons of prawns a year. 380 00:34:46,130 --> 00:34:49,489 Kennelly has invented a bycatch reduction device. 381 00:34:50,319 --> 00:34:55,060 a BRD, which lets the smaller, immature fish escape from the net. 382 00:34:56,139 --> 00:34:59,500 This is the cod end that actually gets towed along behind at the back of the 383 00:34:59,500 --> 00:35:03,620 and right down the back of the whole operation, and all the catch that goes 384 00:35:03,620 --> 00:35:06,500 a trawl net ends up in this bag, at the back of this bag. 385 00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:11,320 We did some trials in flume tanks and other experiments, and we found that at 386 00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:14,180 certain point in the cod end, just in front of where this... 387 00:35:14,570 --> 00:35:18,710 cotton material changes, you get a back pressure of water and by putting in this 388 00:35:18,710 --> 00:35:23,630 panel of open square meshes just at that point where that back pressure of water 389 00:35:23,630 --> 00:35:28,310 is occurring, the water will tend to flow up and out through that square mesh 390 00:35:28,310 --> 00:35:33,490 panel. Now little fish, as they're swimming along inside this net, feel 391 00:35:33,490 --> 00:35:36,410 back pressure of water and their immediate escape response is to head 392 00:35:36,410 --> 00:35:39,190 and out through the open square mesh panels. 393 00:35:42,110 --> 00:35:44,610 Kennelly is experimenting with two different nets. 394 00:35:45,170 --> 00:35:48,450 This first one is a conventional prawn fishing net. 395 00:35:50,910 --> 00:35:54,770 Okay, this is the catch from the control caught in, that is from the 396 00:35:54,770 --> 00:35:57,390 conventional caught in without any BRD in it. 397 00:35:58,130 --> 00:36:03,210 As you can see, there's quite a large number of small fish in the catch, and 398 00:36:03,210 --> 00:36:08,130 hopefully in the other caught in with the BRD installed, there'll be a lot 399 00:36:08,130 --> 00:36:10,330 fish and still the same quantity of prawns. 400 00:36:12,710 --> 00:36:16,790 This is the net with its bycatch reduction device in it. It's immediately 401 00:36:16,790 --> 00:36:19,870 obvious that fewer fish have been accidentally caught. 402 00:36:25,470 --> 00:36:27,430 So that's the difference in bycatch there. 403 00:36:27,990 --> 00:36:32,810 Most of the smaller fish have escaped, so at least they should have a chance to 404 00:36:32,810 --> 00:36:36,770 breed. You've just got to have a look for your own eyes and there's no doubt 405 00:36:36,770 --> 00:36:40,970 that there's, I'd say there's at least... Probably a 60 % maybe even more 406 00:36:40,970 --> 00:36:42,430 reduction in bycatch there. 407 00:36:43,610 --> 00:36:46,750 Kennelly's device has gone a long way to reducing the waste. 408 00:36:48,630 --> 00:36:51,310 But he knows that it's not the whole answer. 409 00:36:51,630 --> 00:36:54,990 I don't think it's possible to ever have a situation where we can go out and 410 00:36:54,990 --> 00:36:58,150 confidently only catch the things we're trying to catch. 411 00:36:58,510 --> 00:37:04,370 Just about every fishing method you're going to catch undersized organisms of 412 00:37:04,370 --> 00:37:05,430 the target species. 413 00:37:07,340 --> 00:37:11,760 To get it down to the position where we don't catch any bycatch at all for 414 00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:15,020 things like prawns and shrimp and so on, I don't think we're ever going to get 415 00:37:15,020 --> 00:37:18,160 to that particular point, at least not in the foreseeable future. 416 00:37:20,980 --> 00:37:26,480 But there is possibly another way, one where there may be no bycatch at all. 417 00:37:27,860 --> 00:37:30,580 It's fish farming or aquaculture. 418 00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:34,000 Already it's producing huge quantities of fish. 419 00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:41,960 fish farming be the solution? 420 00:37:42,540 --> 00:37:47,480 At the moment, one in every four fish that we eat is farmed. But over the next 421 00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:52,260 25 years, it's thought that figure will double, that half the fish we eat will 422 00:37:52,260 --> 00:37:57,340 be farmed. So is this the answer? Can we really protect our fish stocks, protect 423 00:37:57,340 --> 00:37:59,880 the juveniles, protect the fragile marine habitats? 424 00:38:00,700 --> 00:38:04,920 In fact, is fish farming the solution to all our fishing problems? 425 00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:13,060 If aquaculture is one of the answers, then surely the people with the highest 426 00:38:13,060 --> 00:38:15,360 incentive to get it right are the Japanese. 427 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:18,980 They're already very advanced in farming fish. 428 00:38:19,620 --> 00:38:24,860 They're now even trying to raise large predatory fish like tuna, and in 429 00:38:24,860 --> 00:38:26,760 particular, bluefin tuna. 430 00:38:28,020 --> 00:38:31,940 Here in Kushimoto in western Japan, they're going for broke. 431 00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:36,640 Swimming around beneath me in this enclosure, there are 50... 432 00:38:37,100 --> 00:38:44,080 fully mature bluefin tuna these tuna were caught in the 433 00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:49,700 wild and are now being fattened up for market they're being fed generously so 434 00:38:49,700 --> 00:38:56,400 they'll be in prime adult condition when they're sold here they've taken tuna 435 00:38:56,400 --> 00:39:00,720 farming to the next stage they're not just holding them they're actually 436 00:39:00,720 --> 00:39:05,970 breeding these captive bluefin They hope that these fish will themselves breed 437 00:39:05,970 --> 00:39:12,650 in three years time and so complete the whole life cycle in captivity Then 438 00:39:12,650 --> 00:39:17,250 they won't have to take any more bluefin tuna from our oceans 439 00:39:17,250 --> 00:39:24,150 Japan is 440 00:39:24,150 --> 00:39:26,890 the largest tuna consuming nation in the world 441 00:39:29,930 --> 00:39:34,710 And we're also very concerned about the diminishing stocks of bluefin tuna in 442 00:39:34,710 --> 00:39:35,710 the wild. 443 00:39:39,250 --> 00:39:42,390 Aquaculture has its own set of well -known problems. 444 00:39:42,730 --> 00:39:47,450 The most worrying are pollution, as well as the mixing of captive -bred fish 445 00:39:47,450 --> 00:39:48,590 with wild stocks. 446 00:39:50,390 --> 00:39:52,010 But there's another issue. 447 00:39:53,990 --> 00:39:58,210 These tuna are fed a staggering amount of fish every day. 448 00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:05,880 They're being fed valuable protein, which should be food for the poorer 449 00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:06,880 of Asia. 450 00:40:08,100 --> 00:40:13,080 So now the Japanese are trying to develop a substitute feed, either from 451 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:15,580 vegetable matter or from animal products. 452 00:40:19,660 --> 00:40:24,220 And we hope further development will enable us to use more and more 453 00:40:24,220 --> 00:40:25,620 feed in the future. 454 00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:38,320 But they haven't succeeded yet, and they still take huge quantities of low 455 00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:42,240 -value fish to feed one big luxury fish. 456 00:40:46,460 --> 00:40:51,340 In other parts of Asia, which are poorer than Japan, and where fish stocks are 457 00:40:51,340 --> 00:40:55,380 already heavily depleted, they are also turning to agriculture. 458 00:41:01,900 --> 00:41:06,760 And tiger prawns are the biggest money earner. More than half a million tonnes 459 00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:10,620 of prawns are produced a year, nearly all of which are exported. 460 00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:14,720 It's big business and it employs a lot of people. 461 00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:22,380 But just like tuna, the prawns are carnivorous and they need to eat fish, 462 00:41:22,380 --> 00:41:24,180 that have been ground into pellets. 463 00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:29,620 And when they're farmed as intensively as they are here, they need a lot of 464 00:41:29,620 --> 00:41:30,620 feed. 465 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:37,720 If you have three square meters of pond for one tiger prawn, that's extensive. 466 00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:41,020 You don't have to feed anything. Nature will feed the prawn. 467 00:41:41,500 --> 00:41:46,560 But if you have 30 of them in one square meter, then you have to provide some 468 00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:47,560 kind of food. 469 00:41:47,940 --> 00:41:54,180 Now, I think the latest figures are about two, two kilos of fish 470 00:41:54,180 --> 00:41:58,320 to produce one kilo of prawn. 471 00:41:59,850 --> 00:42:03,450 Substitute feeds may help, but they could come too late. 472 00:42:03,750 --> 00:42:09,410 In the meantime, low -value fish are fed to prawns, which are then exported to 473 00:42:09,410 --> 00:42:10,288 the West. 474 00:42:10,290 --> 00:42:13,390 These fish should be feeding local people. 475 00:42:14,270 --> 00:42:21,150 It's the little fish that's there that's being bought by 476 00:42:21,150 --> 00:42:27,090 people, by Filipino families for their food, low -income families and middle 477 00:42:27,090 --> 00:42:28,570 -income families. 478 00:42:29,610 --> 00:42:31,770 That will not be available to these families. 479 00:42:33,830 --> 00:42:35,450 But there's another issue. 480 00:42:35,770 --> 00:42:40,770 Thousands of intensive farms have been built in coastal areas, destroying a 481 00:42:40,770 --> 00:42:43,670 valuable marine habitat, mangrove forests. 482 00:42:47,070 --> 00:42:50,450 Mile upon mile of mangroves have been cut down. 483 00:42:54,210 --> 00:42:57,890 The coastline has been stripped of its natural protection. 484 00:43:00,010 --> 00:43:04,850 And there are many important ecological reasons why mangroves should be 485 00:43:04,850 --> 00:43:05,850 protected. 486 00:43:06,850 --> 00:43:11,370 To many people, mangroves are just a mass of gnarled roots where the bottom 487 00:43:11,370 --> 00:43:14,750 sludgy and muddy and yuck, and the air is full of mosquitoes. 488 00:43:15,410 --> 00:43:18,490 But get underwater, and it's a very different world. 489 00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:30,680 The intricate root system provides a natural nursery for young fish. 490 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:35,060 They spend their later life out on coral reefs or in the open sea. 491 00:43:35,580 --> 00:43:40,960 The roots provide protection from predators which is vital for small, 492 00:43:40,960 --> 00:43:41,960 fish. 493 00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:51,800 In the shelter of mangroves, fish can feed and grow in relative safety. 494 00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:58,820 Again, it's the habitat that's under threat. 495 00:43:59,140 --> 00:44:03,560 We're carelessly destroying it without a thought for the animals that depend on 496 00:44:03,560 --> 00:44:04,560 it. 497 00:44:08,140 --> 00:44:13,040 Perhaps the answer might be to set aside some areas of the sea so that the 498 00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:16,480 animals that live there, whatever they are, have a chance. 499 00:44:17,820 --> 00:44:22,060 As soon as we recognise that land animals need protecting, we usually do 500 00:44:22,060 --> 00:44:23,060 something about it. 501 00:44:23,550 --> 00:44:29,110 The huge game reserves of Africa are a classic example, but for some reason we 502 00:44:29,110 --> 00:44:30,730 treat our seas very differently. 503 00:44:31,610 --> 00:44:36,690 This is the island of Skoma, a very beautiful reserve that offers excellent 504 00:44:36,690 --> 00:44:39,530 protection for all the birds and plants that live here. 505 00:44:40,250 --> 00:44:45,390 It also calls itself a marine nature reserve, one of only two in the whole of 506 00:44:45,390 --> 00:44:46,390 Britain. 507 00:44:46,570 --> 00:44:51,690 You'd think a marine reserve would offer total protection for all life under the 508 00:44:51,690 --> 00:44:52,690 sea. 509 00:44:52,750 --> 00:44:57,670 But amazingly, you can fish here. Even commercial fishermen can operate here. 510 00:44:59,970 --> 00:45:04,210 In the time of our grandfathers, there were natural marine reserves, 511 00:45:04,650 --> 00:45:06,530 inaccessible to fishing fleets. 512 00:45:07,270 --> 00:45:11,030 There, the fish could grow to maturity undisturbed. 513 00:45:11,450 --> 00:45:16,350 But with modern fishing technology, there's practically nowhere we now can't 514 00:45:16,350 --> 00:45:21,430 fish. Only a tiny percentage of the ocean is a safe sanctuary. 515 00:45:23,150 --> 00:45:28,390 Something like one -third of one percent of the oceans are currently within 516 00:45:28,390 --> 00:45:29,930 marine protected areas. 517 00:45:30,130 --> 00:45:34,430 That's a very tiny fraction, and it's equivalent to something like the size of 518 00:45:34,430 --> 00:45:35,430 South Africa. 519 00:45:35,670 --> 00:45:41,870 However, we're not really protecting those areas well enough at the moment, 520 00:45:41,870 --> 00:45:46,170 only something like one -tenth -thousandth of the surface of the oceans 521 00:45:46,170 --> 00:45:48,670 protected from all forms of fishing at the moment. 522 00:45:49,310 --> 00:45:51,210 That's equivalent to the size of Holland. 523 00:45:51,470 --> 00:45:55,070 It's a tiny fraction and it isn't nearly enough. 524 00:45:56,290 --> 00:45:59,810 Roberts wants areas set aside which are totally protected. 525 00:46:01,950 --> 00:46:06,590 There are some small areas where they've done this, like this reserve off the 526 00:46:06,590 --> 00:46:07,930 North Island of New Zealand. 527 00:46:11,070 --> 00:46:16,530 Since they stopped fishing 25 years ago, the stocks have recovered and the water 528 00:46:16,530 --> 00:46:18,270 is now teeming with fish. 529 00:46:24,970 --> 00:46:28,070 And it's not just fish, everything's doing well. 530 00:46:28,670 --> 00:46:32,030 Lobsters are abundant again and they're getting a lot bigger. 531 00:46:34,370 --> 00:46:39,470 Scientists monitor stocks carefully and keep a close eye on how all the animals 532 00:46:39,470 --> 00:46:40,530 in the reserve are doing. 533 00:46:41,770 --> 00:46:46,770 This five kilometre wide reserve produces the same number of lobsters as 534 00:46:46,770 --> 00:46:50,050 hundred kilometre stretch of unprotected coastline. 535 00:46:52,890 --> 00:46:55,690 Fishermen are allowed to fish right up to the boundaries. 536 00:46:56,330 --> 00:47:01,250 The lobsters are now so abundant within the reserve, there isn't room, so they 537 00:47:01,250 --> 00:47:03,350 spread out into the surrounding waters. 538 00:47:04,110 --> 00:47:10,310 And so what these no -take zones provide to fisheries is an increase in the 539 00:47:10,310 --> 00:47:14,410 replenishment to their fisheries. They're spawning stocks which are being 540 00:47:14,410 --> 00:47:17,370 protected. They're like deposits in a bank account. 541 00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:22,260 Even the behaviour of the fish has changed. 542 00:47:22,620 --> 00:47:27,760 Once scared of man, the fish are now perhaps a little over -friendly. 543 00:47:32,500 --> 00:47:38,160 Roberts believes that between 10 and 20 % of our oceans should become no -take 544 00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:44,380 zones, that we should protect large areas of different marine habitats, the 545 00:47:44,380 --> 00:47:48,920 sea, coral reefs, mangroves, as well as key spawning grounds. 546 00:47:49,770 --> 00:47:54,750 That way, fish can grow bigger and older, and stocks will recover. 547 00:47:59,910 --> 00:48:04,550 And he also believes that migration routes and feeding grounds should be 548 00:48:04,550 --> 00:48:09,410 protected, particularly the routes taken by the largest marine animals of all, 549 00:48:09,630 --> 00:48:13,730 the whales, as they circumnavigate the globe. 550 00:48:23,660 --> 00:48:29,000 It's a simple idea, and one that Roberts believes, with the public's help, is 551 00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:30,000 possible. 552 00:48:30,820 --> 00:48:36,660 Once people realize what's going on, and they begin to bring to bear pressure on 553 00:48:36,660 --> 00:48:41,340 the politicians and decision makers, then I think we'll see moves taking 554 00:48:41,340 --> 00:48:45,460 to establish the areas that we need to set aside from fishing. 555 00:48:48,750 --> 00:48:53,070 We can make that choice. We've done it before. We brought back some of the 556 00:48:53,070 --> 00:48:54,430 whales from near extinction. 557 00:48:55,050 --> 00:48:59,610 Most of them can now spend their entire lives free from the threat of a whaling 558 00:48:59,610 --> 00:49:05,210 boat. But it took international cooperation, and that only came about 559 00:49:05,210 --> 00:49:08,790 public realised how close the whales were to being wiped out. 560 00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:21,480 Whaling was a huge industry right up until the 1970s. 561 00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:26,760 Some species very nearly disappeared from our oceans altogether. 562 00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:33,120 We recognised this just in time, so we did something about it. 563 00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:44,380 We do now know what's happening in our oceans. 564 00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:47,100 We know they're in trouble and that we're to blame. 565 00:49:47,980 --> 00:49:52,480 We can't hide behind an out -of -sight, out -of -mind attitude anymore. 566 00:49:53,040 --> 00:49:57,480 We know what's down there, the extraordinary diversity of life. 567 00:49:58,460 --> 00:50:03,080 Our oceans are so precious, so vital to the planet. 568 00:50:03,420 --> 00:50:08,000 If we care about that, then surely we can look after them.