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The Indian Ocean, home to the
world's most exotic islands...

..and beautiful and rare wildlife.

I'm travelling through 16 countries
around the edge of this vast ocean

that stretches 6,000 miles
from Africa to Australia.

Steeped in history, the Indian Ocean
is vital to world trade.

It's a journey of extremes,

from stunning islands,

across pirate-infested seas,

to remote villages...

Salama.

..and war-torn lands.

GUNSHOT
What was that?

This is a journey about much more
than just what's under the waves.

It's about the lives
of the millions of people...

..who live around this,
one of our greatest oceans.

On this last leg of my journey,
I'm travelling through Indonesia

and down the coast towards my final
destination in the southwest of Australia.

In the beautiful waters off Bali,

I help to harvest
an ocean wonder crop.

Aaaaah!

In Jakarta, I go undercover

to learn more about the disturbing
international trade in exotic pets.

You are not happy, are you?
Poor things.

And in the remote wilderness
of Western Australia,

I have a close encounter
with an ancient predator...

God, look at those teeth!

Cor!

..before I reach the end
of my entire Indian Ocean journey

at spectacular Cape Leeuwin.

I'm starting this final part
of my Indian Ocean journey here

at the northern tip
of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

This is Aceh,
a beautiful region of Indonesia,

which became known around the world

because of one of the biggest
natural disasters in modern history.

On Boxing Day, 2004,
a huge earthquake

with the power of more than
20,000 atomic bombs

shook the Indian Ocean
and triggered a tsunami.

A giant wave rolled in here and
almost wiped this region off the map.

The Indian Ocean tsunami hit the province
of Aceh harder than anywhere else.

Almost 170,000 people
lost their lives here.

The power of the giant wave tossed boats
and even huge ships miles inland.

Some have been left as poignant
reminders of the day the wave struck.

We're three miles inland here.
Three miles.

I can see the sea in the distance
on the horizon

and this ship carved its way
through the houses

on the way to its resting place
here.

But with the help of international
aid, Aceh's been rebuilt.

It's once again
a thriving centre of trade.

Aceh juts out into the Indian Ocean,
so, almost inevitably,

this became a great trading centre.

Merchants would travel
from across the seas

to come here to buy spices,
timber, ivory and gold.

In exchange, those merchants
brought their religion here.

This is thought to be where Islam
first got a foothold in Indonesia.

It spread out from this island
to the rest of the country

and Indonesia is now the most populous
Islamic nation on the planet.

The vast majority of the 250 million
people in Indonesia are Muslim.

Aceh is one of the most conservative
parts of the country

and here they've introduced
Islamic or sharia law.

MAN ISSUES ORDERS

Sharia law means all aspects of life are
governed by an Islamic religious code.

This religious police squad is known
as the Vice and Virtue Patrol.

So you're kindly going to allow us
to come with you

on patrol, that's very good of you.

So, we're out on patrol with the squad.
There's more vehicles following behind us.

Why do people call you
the Vice and Virtue Squad?

TRANSLATION: We want the Koran
To become a positive force

in people's lives.

We want religious law
to govern our country.

So, where are we heading to first?

We're patrolling an area

where we often find
unmarried couples cavorting.

SIMON: The religious law in Aceh
says

that unmarried couples are not allowed
out together without supervision,

and physical contact
is out of the question.

We're stopping already,
not sure why.

What's he doing?

As we were driving along, he spotted
couples down on the river bank here

and he's leapt off to go and, er...
well, catch them, I suppose.

I think they saw him coming.

So, there's a couple there
who are racing off.

TRANSLATION: Yes, when we're on patrol,
and we spot people breaking the law,

they just run from us, ashamed.

So, do you suspect they would be
an unmarried couple

who were having
some sort of saucy courtship, then?

Look, there's more going away, they're
racing off there on scooters.

TRANSLATION: Theyy wouldn't bother
running away if they were married

or if they were brother and sister
from the same family.

But are they really doing
something so wrong?

Yes, according to Acehnese law,
they are.

SIMON: The Vice and Virtue Squad usually
just issue youngsters with warnings.

But for persistent breaches of religious
law, the punishments can be severe.

There, there, there! Hello!

There are public canings in Aceh,
and religious hardliners

have called for adultery to be
punished by death by stoning.

They've raced in there. I presume that...
they've spotted somebody doing something quite serious.

So, look, this guy with the long
hair, I think, is grassing...

grassing up some teenagers.

It looked like this young couple
were in real trouble.

This is very surreal.

Looks like they're leading them
away.

She's being taken away.
Does she know what she did?

What will happen to her?
Where will you take her?

Scores and scores of people
have come to see

this poor couple of kids
being taken away. It's, er...

pretty much a public humiliation for
them, I think it's fair to say.

And they're now being taken away
to the religious police HQ.

From my European perspective, it all
seemed very odd and rather sad.

It just feels like
in this corner of Indonesia...

..people are being denied
some of the basic delights of being

a teenager and a young adult.

The right to associate with who you want,
the right to meet boys or meet girls.

RELIGIOUS CHANTING

Take our life in our hands.
You lead. LAUGHS

It was time for me to head on
with my guide, Shinta Okta.

Hello, Shinta. Hi, Simon.

Shinta's going to be my guide
across... well, across Indonesia.

We're not going to visit every
island because there are...

How many islands in Indonesia?

Almost 17,500.

We must be accurate about this.
Yeah, yeah.

No island should be missed.

All right, but we're not going to be able to visit
very many of them, because you were just telling me...

How long would it take
if you visited an island a day?

48 years.

We haven't got that long,
but we'll see a bit of the country.

Shinta took me to the fish market
in the region's capital, Banda Aceh.

I've tried to visit as many fish markets
as I can around the Indian Ocean

because they tell you so much about,
not only life around the sea,

but life in it as well -
what's happening to life in it.

The fishermen told me they now have to
travel as far as the sea off Burma to fish

because marine life in this part of the
Indian Ocean has been severely depleted.

Good God!

He's bringing a ray in.

They've got a shark here.

I would have just seen this
as a frightening fish

when I started this journey.
Now, seeing it here,

it's like seeing a lion or a tiger
on a slab -

apex predator of the seas.

Still with its fins on,
but not for long.

Since the start
of my Indian Ocean journey,

I'd regularly seen local fishermen

pulling sharks out of the ocean
and slicing off their fins.

Millions of sharks are taken from
our seas every month,

and Indonesia is the major global
player in this tragic trade.

Indonesia is the biggest shark-fishing
and shark-finning country in the world.

They're the central ingredient in shark
fin soup - a Chinese/Asian delicacy.

It's a fairly obscene trade, but...

you try telling that to a poor Indonesian
fisherman who's trying to feed his family.

It's not just Indonesia's ocean
wildlife that's under threat.

Ohh!

Good to go?
Yeah, ready, sir.

On land too, these islands are home
to endangered and beautiful animals,

including tigers, rhinos and
orang-utans.

I left Banda Aceh and headed to the
neighbouring Indonesian island of Java,

the most heavily populated island
on Earth,

in search of one very special
creature.

Java was once cloaked in a giant
and almost impenetrable rainforest.

But most of this habitat
has been annihilated

by the growing human population.

Forests have been destroyed in Indonesia
faster than anywhere in the world.

Look at that.

We're on the edge of a village now,

just a couple of hundred metres
from where people are living,

and of course, they chop the trees to
give themselves somewhere to farm.

It's not actually that we are close
to the village, it's that the village

is too close to the forest.

SIMON LAUGHS
Yeah?

So, I mean, like, this is a problem
of the population here in Java.

Karmele Sanchez is a Spanish veterinary
scientist working for the charity

International Animal Rescue.

She was taking me high into
a protected pocket of rainforest

to see one of the rarest and most
bizarre animals on the planet.

I think I've sweated about a pint
already.

Up here, Karmele and her team
have built an enclosure,

where they hang bait
to tempt the mysterious animal

down from the forest canopy.

So, now we wait.

As darkness fell, we switched
our cameras to night vision.

KARMELE: Yes, there... Now.
You see? Now, now, now...

You can see the eyes, yes.

The Javan slow loris is among the 25
most endangered primates in the world.

In just three generations,
numbers have collapsed by a half.

He's coming down, he's coming down.
He's coming down?!

Hello.

He spreads his weight carefully,
look.

With this wind,
look how he can balance his body.

A nocturnal animal, the slow loris
is a master tree climber.

Well, he's having a good scratch.

You must get enormous satisfaction
from seeing this.

I mean, this is what it makes
everything worth.

For more than five years, Karmele and the
team from International Animal Rescue

have been working to protect
slow lorises.

She knows many of them by name.

Our visitor was called Willis.

Willis - I think he's decided
to come down the tree.

You've got to see this.

Here he comes!

While Willis scoffed his treat,
the scientists caught him.

The battery in his tracking collar
needed replacing.

Good lad.

Then they did a few basic tests
to check his health.

That's a fantastic sign.

Bye-bye, Willis.

Willis is headed back up
into the trees.

It was a real... privilege to see this
because it is a remarkable success story.

Around the Indian Ocean,

forests are being cleared for
farming and chopped for timber.

Animals are losing their habitat
and their numbers are collapsing.

But there's another huge threat
to creatures like Willis -

the illegal global trade
in exotic pets.

So, how many lorises
have you actually got here?

90.
Where have they all come from?

They all come from
the illegal wildlife trade.

All of them?
All of them, yeah.

They often arrive here
with horrific injuries.

Look at this.

This is a toothless loris.

And the reason
it doesn't have any teeth there

is because somebody
has cut its teeth out.

Mm-hm, you see. Bad trading.

They're surely among the top ten
cutest creatures on the planet.

And therein lies their problem.

They may look cute, but they're wild
animals with a painful and venomous bite,

unique among primates.

So pet traders cruelly rip out their teeth
with pliers before selling them on.

Who's buying them? It's normally
people from middle class.

They just see them in the markets,
they think they are cute

and they just buy them,
they keep them as pets.

That's illegal, isn't it? It is.

How do they get away with it?

The same as the animals...
are not just traders,

they are sometimes big mafias
and networks of people,

probably in quite high up positions,
you know.

It's a very profitable business.

It's a business worth
up to 10 billion a year globally.

Wildlife trade is definitely
one of the top illegal activities

after drugs and arms.

12 hours ago, we were up that
mountain with Willis the loris.

Now we're down here
with millions of people.

Shinta and I headed towards Jakarta,

Indonesia's vast capital city,

to find out more about this hugely
damaging illegal trade in wildlife.

This is the real Indonesia.

I expected more seats.

More than 30 million people
live in the area around this city.

Most of them seem to be on our
train.

Where the hell are they going?

To the roof.
They're going to the roof?

Yeah.

I'll sit on your bag
and you stand the whole way.

What a gentleman, Simon(!)

HORN BLARES

Vibrant and exciting.

Jakarta's the centre
of the booming Indonesian economy.

But I'd heard about a pet market
in the centre of town

with a reputation
for selling endangered species.

It's an open street market, but I've been
warned that violent criminal gangs control it

and our TV cameras would not be
welcome,

so it was time to go undercover
with hidden cameras.

My God.

The conditions they're being held in are
totally inappropriate for any creature.

You are not happy, are you?

You poor things.

Thousands of creatures are sold here
and many of them

are smuggled out of the country.

Among the birds and domestic animals, we
saw cages containing long-tailed macaques,

leaf monkeys and even eagles
in cramped, unhealthy conditions.

Within a few minutes,
we'd spotted slow lorises.

So, this is an endangered
slow loris.

It's rare, it's endangered...

...and it's for sale
by the side of the main road.

500,000?

So, that's less than £50. Yes.

£40.

I was told that traders in the area can
supply orang-utans and even tigers,

creatures that are on the brink
of extinction in parts of Indonesia.

I think what's really amazing about that
situation is those animals are for sale

next to the main road
in the centre of the capital city.

Why is the Indonesian government
not doing something to stop it?

It was time to leave Java and head towards
the Indian Ocean paradise island of Bali.

But I was bypassing the tourist
resorts this area is famous for.

Instead, I took a boat

to the tiny island
of Nusa Lembongan.

This place looks amazing.

You can see there's a few huts here

for tourists who make it over
to this island from Bali,

but the vast majority of the people
here are involved not in tourism

but in a rather different trade.

I'd come to this far corner
of the Indian Ocean

to learn about an unlikely treasure
of the seas,

found everywhere, that could have
huge implications for all of us,

for how we eat, and for what we use
to power our cars and vehicles.

Simon, this is Wyan.

Wyan? Simon. Very nice to meet you,
sir.

Wyan Simon and his wife Evelu
are farmers.

But they don't plough the land
or tend animals.

Hello. Simon.

Hello! Do I get a handshake?

LAUGHTER

Do I get a handshake?

Their crop comes out
of the Indian Ocean.

Wyan took Shinta and I
out to see his farm in the sea.

The water here is amazingly clear.

It's like we're going over the top
of a series of gardens.

There's seaweed, tied onto bits of
rope, attached to the sea bed!

It's like an underwater allotment.

Captain! What do we need to do?
What work needs to be done that I can help with?

SIMON LAUGHS

OK? OK, let's go! I'll help.
OK!

SHE LAUGHS

Wyan and the other islanders here
grow edible seaweed,

and it's a pretty simple process.

Seaweed cuttings
are tied onto a line of string.

They grow by using sunlight
for energy,

and by absorbing nutrients
from the sea as food.

This doesn't need
lots of land space to grow it,

it doesn't need awful
artificial fertilisers,

it doesn't need lots of fresh water.

It just grows in the sea.

Seaweed is amazing.

THEY LAUGH

Aaaaah!

SHE LAUGHS

Thank you, Simon.

This seaweed
is something of a wonder crop

and many experts think we need
to be eating a lot more of it

because it's so easy to grow
and it's a good source of vitamins,

minerals and protein.

Perhaps most excitingly of all,

scientists have now worked out
how to convert seaweed into ethanol,

which can be used
as an alternative to petrol.

It has... enormous potential.

Seaweed could actually help us to resolve
some of our most pressing global issues.

You're already using seaweed extract

in dozens of products
ranging from ice cream to cheese,

even in your toothpaste.

The seaweed trade is already worth
billions of pounds every year,

but it's going to get a lot bigger.

Wyan's seaweed is sold around
the world

to China, Hong Kong
and as far afield as Denmark.

It's a good business to be in.

TRANSLATION:
It's been brilliant since day one.

Now we can pay for our children's
clothes, we can eat. We're very happy.

Family's happy, missus is happy,
children are being educated.

Exactly!
Everybody's doing well out of it.

People are making a great living,
not from fishing,

but from farming seaweed.

Who'd have thought it, eh?

Every day,

the people of Nusa Lembongan
give thanks

for the prosperity
the Indian Ocean brings them.

This is such a fantastic little
story to encounter on our journey.

I've seen so much suffering
and so many problems

as we've been travelling around
the Indian Ocean.

We've visited so many communities
that are just about clinging on,

even as the fish stocks they rely on
are being wiped out.

I'm really delighted to have found at
least one solution to the problems

facing our oceans,
and our world, here,

in this little corner of paradise.

Feels appropriate, somehow.

Whoa!

Magnificent sight!

The Indian Ocean rolling in.

I left Indonesia behind and headed to the
last country on my travels, Australia.

My next stop was the Kimberley
region of Western Australia.

I was 1,500 miles from the finishing
line for my entire Indian Ocean journey.

And I'd arrived somewhere
completely spectacular.

The Kimberley is more than three
times the size of England

and one of the last remaining
true wilderness areas on our planet.

That's where we're headed,
down to that beautiful island.

This archipelago is made up of
thousands of Indian Ocean islands,

most of them uninhabited.

I'd come to meet a few of the rugged
outback types hardy enough to work here.

Bloody hell, Benno, what a place to
work!

Pretty amazing, isn't it, mate?

Ben Little and his team are
fish farmers.

He told me their cages were packed

with one of Australia's favourite
fish, the barramundi -

apparently up to 45,000 per cage.

There's one, certainly. There's one.
There's definitely more than that!

Oh, I've seen two.

45,000?

Yeah. Where the hell are they?

They're in there. When we get
feeding, you'll see the fish come up.

MECHANICAL WHIRRING

He's firing the feed! I mean...

Oi, oi!

Mind the camera, sunshine!

LAUGHTER

He's a cheeky bugger!
Yeah, he's deliberately doing that!

These are targeted!

They minimise the impact of their
farm on this spectacular corner

of the Indian Ocean by monitoring the
amount of food pumped into the cages,

reducing waste and pollution.

So it's good for business
and for the environment.

We need Benno in here.

You can see a turtle
in the water Just here.

Coming up? Hello!
Keeping our ropes clean.

He's nibbling off all the algae. One
thing we don't have to worry about.

That's great! Yeah, they love it.

Fish farm and environment
working in harmony.

Ah, it's great to see.

But some of the locals

are not so welcome.

The saltwater crocodile, or salty,
is the largest croc in the world,

and the most dangerous.

Just here, is that one there?
Yeah, these are small ones.

Probably, maybe seven foot.
A small one?

Yeah.

Often more than five metres long
and weighing as much as a ton,

these crocodiles are cunning, fearless
and hunt almost anything that moves,

including workers at the fish farm.

At any given point in time, you can see
them sitting on the collars of the cages,

like, sitting on the edges.

About two months ago,

I think we had one break through a net
while there was a diver in the water.

Needless to say,
he got out of the water pretty quick!

Yes, that's a pretty one-sided
cage fight, isn't it?

Should I be standing a bit further back from the edge?
No, I think you'd be fine.

What do you mean, you THINK?

Well, no-one else has been done yet!

Let's just move a little bit away.

It kind of gets to the point
where you step off a boat

and you're a bit unsure of
where to look.

They tend to pop up out of nowhere
and you're like,

you know, "Where did you come from?"

Definitely stalking us, for sure.

Saltwater crocodiles were once
hunted to near-extinction,

but conservation efforts

have led to a recovery
in their numbers and around here,

they've become a very real threat
to the workers on the fish farm.

So, they've called
in the croc catcher.

Morning. Thank you.
Welcome to the Kimberley.

Thank you very much indeed.
Marshall? Simon, nice to meet you.

How are you going, mate?

Hello. Simon, nice to meet you.
Good to meet you, mate.

Mark Jones and his mates
have years of experience

working with crocodiles
in the Kimberley area.

These are their essential supplies.

Just for breakfast, I imagine!

I'm sure you're quite happy to
share, aren't you?

Well...

SIMON LAUGHS

In this camp, they haven't had
any crocs walk into their camp... yet.

But certainly in the other camps around
the Kimberley, they are known to come in.

Is their concern justified?

Well, there's been a lot of people
killed by them

and they are, as we say in Australia,
as cunning as a toilet rat.

Previously, they used to shoot the animals
and indeed a licence was given here,

but now, they're coming to us
and saying,

"Can you remove this animal?" and we
do it in a way that saves the animal,

looks after the people here and both
animal and human can coexist.

No matter how much
many of us might fear them,

crocodiles are a vital part
of the ecosystem here

and Mark works to control their
numbers without harming them.

So, this is our vessel for the
evening.

Is it big enough?
So, this is luxury!

Flippin' heck!
LAUGHS

I'd agreed to go out
on a crocodile hunt at night

and it seemed I was going to be
in the thick of the action.

You're right in the front,
you're kneeling down,

I'm over the top of you with the
harpoon.

You're near me with a weapon
and I've got the light.

So, I'm like the tethered goat.

Your last line of defence,
if the crocodile was to come at you,

is to throw the light down its mouth.

Brilliant. You can just stop
laughing, mate, all right?

It might work!

LAUGHTER

Anything above six foot
is a dangerous animal,

so yeah, we do have to have
our wits about us.

As the sun set and we switched our
cameras to night vision,

the mood became more serious.

Can I have everyone's attention,
please?

When you find one, Simon, you must keep
that spotlight on that animal's eyes.

If you remove it from his eyes,
he'll then take flight.

We'll motor into the animal,
heading straight into him.

When we come up close to the animal,
we'll cut the engine and we'll glide in,

hit it in the back... in the neck,
it doesn't hurt the animal at all.

I'll have the lasso ready.

Once we've got that on and secured,
he's ours.

In the darkness, we began searching,
hunting the hunters.

Good luck, everybody.

THEY WHISPER

I don't want to fall in.
Don't fall in!

Don't fall in! Rule number one!

There. Oh, yeah.

There it is.

Shh! Shh! Straight ahead.
Straight ahead. Straight ahead.

Mark and the team hunt the crocs by
mesmerising them with a bright light.

Then the plan was for us to drift in
close enough to attach a line to it

with a harpoon.

We're getting quite close now,
aren't we?

Keep on him, Simon.
Keep on him. Keep on him.

Keep on him.

Keep on him, keep on him,
keep on him.

All right, back off, mate,
if you can.

All right.

They can hear the water
lapping on the edge of the boat.

They're bloody clever, aren't they?

They've been around people,
so they're very cagey.

Let it go. Let go, let go, let go.

Other hand line. Get the other hand
line.

All right.

He's out front. Here he is.

Just go with it, don't pull too hard.
Don't pull too hard.

SIGHS

There he is, on the surface there.

He doesn't seem overly concerned
by the fact he's got a line in him.

It can't be hurting him because he's
not thrashing around or anything.

The harpoon sits just under the tough
skin on the back of the salty's neck,

holding it firm, but not harming it.

It's coming up, it's coming up,
it's coming up.

Right here. There he is, just there!

Whoa!

Now it's just a case of waiting
till he gets tired.

There is a croc at
the end of this line.

How big do you think he is, or she?

Eight to eight and a half feet,
just under three metres.

What's the most stressful bit?

This bit.
This bit. It's the most dangerous.

Steady, mate. Just watch the rope
with that little death roll.

I don't want to sound grotesque,
but an animal this size,

if it grabbed you by the hand
and it death rolled you,

it would quite easily roll your arm
out of the shoulder socket.

There's a lot of power
in an animal this size.

It's getting tired now.

He's gone under.

There we go. Here we go.

At the ready, there.

It's right in. Oh!

Hear that clap of the jaws? I didn't
just hear it, I bloody saw it.

Careful, careful, careful, oh!

Right, next rope!

Quick!

God, look at those teeth!

God, it's ferocious!

He's tying himself up, anyway.
That's good.

He's done it for you, hasn't he?
Bring him up!

We're going to pull it in with us.
We need to clear the decks.

Yep, deck is pretty clear.

Right, guys. I'm going to bring him
up and over. I'll hold the torch.

I need the cameras back just a
little bit. One, two, three.

Up and over!

Right, one, two, three, go!

On his back!

Good God!

Put a little bit of weight on.

Bloody hell! You just pulled
a bloody crocodile into the boat!

It feels like we are gnats
on this creature's backside.

You can feel the power within it.

This is like touching Godzilla.

It's completely freaky.

What a beast!

Good on you too, Simon.
Thanks, mate.

Pretty good job for your first time,
mate! Thank you.

Mark Jones runs a renowned
wildlife sanctuary down the coast

called the Broome Crocodile Park.

The croc will be transferred there, where it
could live without posing a risk to humans.

We're going to get Simon
to sex the animal.

OK.
LAUGHS

What we're going to do, Simon,
is we're going to roll him over

and expose this animal's vent,
or cloaca...

OK. Right.
..so we can sex it. Right.

If we just expose the belly
there, you'll see this vent.

Can you see it?
Yeah, I see the vent.

OK, grab two of your fingers...

Oh, you're joking me.

..and finger it.

Can you feel a rod
or is it just an open cavity?

No, I can feel something
poking from the right.

Let me have a go.

Yep, that's a boy.

Sorry about that, buddy.
Yeah, erm...

don't hold it against us.

So, this croc is now going to go on
a little journey to your sanctuary?

That's right,
where he'll live and reproduce.

Have a happy life.

Thanks for letting us
come out with you and see this.

It's been a fairly awesome
experience.

The pleasure's been all ours.

What happens now?
We go home and we have a beer!

Mark Jones is much more than
some modern-day "Crocodile" Dundee.

He's a world expert
in crocodile conservation

and a leading light in the campaign to preserve
the great wilderness that is the Kimberley.

Back on the mainland,
Mark wanted to show me more

of what makes the Kimberley
so extraordinary.

It's easy to forget the size of
Australia.

The state of Western Australia
on its own is vast.

If it were a country in its own right, it
would be one of the ten biggest in the world.

It's 11 times larger than Britain.

I'd seen some amazing
and remote places on my long journey

but the Kimberley
has the most pristine coastline

in the entire Indian Ocean.

What a view!

LAUGHS

What a place!

This place is absolutely spectacular
and completely pristine.

If you sat here all day, you'll see 200 or
300 whales come through with their calves.

We see manta rays regularly
coming through here.

It's beautiful.

But, like many other areas of
Australia,

the Kimberley sits on vast reserves of
natural energy and mineral resources,

and giant multinational corporations are
desperate to start digging them out.

What's being proposed
for this stretch of coastline?

The big plan is to actually turn
this into a major industrial plant.

The first thing will be a gas plant,
but as the gas comes in here,

it can then drive the turbines
of all the other industries

and it will grow very quickly.

And we know this because we've seen
it in other parts of Australia.

600 kilometres down the road
we have Port Hedland,

which is going to be the largest port
in the world in 20 years' time,

bigger than Shanghai.

This will be bigger again.

Wouldn't most Australians say,
"We want to be rich,

"we want to sell off our resources,
it's our right"?

At what cost? China's certainly
going to be better off for it,

India are going to be better off
for it.

In this country, in 100 years' time,
because of its short-sightedness,

we'll be left with a great big hole
in the ground

and everybody scratching their heads,

hearing the old stories
about these wilderness areas

and not seeing them any more.

This will be completely destroyed

and you will never, ever be able
to bring it back. That's it.

Dozens of enormous industrial projects
are now planned for the Kimberley.

It seems the insatiable global demand for
energy and raw materials knows no limits.

The result here in Australia could
be the ruining of a wilderness

of planetary importance.

It's not difficult to see what might
lie in wait for the Kimberley.

A few hundred miles down the coast
is the Pilbara,

a centre of Australia's
amazing resource boom.

This country is making vast sums

from selling off its iron ore,
gas and natural wealth.

But of course, it's a messy,
destructive business, needing trains,

vast mines, roads, huge ships
and towns.

These are some of
the longest trains in the world.

This is resources being shipped out,
put on ships

and sent off to fuel the economies
of China and India

and provide the rest of the world
with consumer goods.

Here in the Pilbara region,
huge mines have opened up

and the place is being
industrialised.

HORN HONKS

They've taken wilderness and they've
stripped it of all of its resources,

and people don't want that to happen
in the Kimberley as well.

Oh, my God!

Look at this!

Ooh!

The scale of this
is quite something, eh?

This is just a tiddler compared to what
they're planning in the Kimberley,

and the gas plant they're planning there is
just one of dozens of industrial projects

that are being proposed
for that currently pristine region.

Using and selling off
their natural resources

has brought great prosperity
to Australians in recent years,

but the environment pays
a heavy price.

It left me wondering how we can ask
poor countries around the Indian Ocean

to protect their wildlife and
forests

when wealthy Australians
are exploiting what they've got.

I was on the home straight now,
with the end almost in sight.

I headed south towards the city
of Perth

and the finishing point for my
entire journey at Cape Leeuwin.

This is glorious, look at it!

SAT-NAV: After 600 metres, cross the
roundabout, second exit, then keep left.

You have reached your destination.

Windows up, grab those sunnies and don't
let the seagulls steal your chips!

LAUGHS

As I'd circled the Indian Ocean,

I'd been privileged to see
some incredible marine wildlife,

from magnificent sharks
to giant manta rays.

But for me, one creature symbolises

both the mystery and the majesty
of life in our oceans, and finally,

just offshore south of Perth,
I was about to get close to it.

There's at least half a dozen
of them in the second wave!

They're actually coming to us, to
the wave of the boat. Look at this!

They just cannot resist playing
when a boat turns up

and creates a big wave behind!

LAUGHS

These wild bottlenose dolphins

are one of the most familiar
creatures in the sea.

Highly intelligent and friendly,
they live in groups

of between 6 and 60 animals,
called pods.

We've drawn a crowd.

Let's go and say hello.

Dolphins have been closely studied in
captivity and we know that, in the wild,

they enjoy human company.

But despite their willingness
to approach us,

there's still so much we don't know
about their life beneath the waves.

That was so exciting, I actually
forgot to come up to breathe!

My lungs started to burst!

We don't fully understand even
friendly dolphins

and we're a long way from understanding the
rest of the mysterious marine environment.

But one thing my journey had shown
me, beyond all doubt,

is that human impact on all our
oceans is reaching a critical level.

Out there,

it's a free-for-all.

Nobody's really in charge and our seas are
suffering from endless pollution and overfishing.

It's a bit like the Wild West.

So, before I reached the end
of my epic journey,

I arranged to meet a world-renowned expert whose
research is helping to change our understanding

of the Indian Ocean and our seas
globally.

For most people, when they look at the
ocean, all they see is the surface

and they have no idea
how much lies beneath,

so for us, our research is really
about pulling that curtain back,

that barrier, and allowing people
to see and scientists to learn

about all the special things that we
have.

So, revealing the deep blue.
Indeed, indeed.

Professor Jessica Meeuwig is the director
of the Centre for Marine Futures

at the University of Western
Australia.

Really looking forward to this.
It's a real opportunity to peer into the depths.

I get excited every time we go out because
you never know what you're going to see.

Jessica specialises in marine
biodiversity and fisheries ecology.

The Indian Ocean is the least studied
of the world's oceans

and also one of the most biodiverse, so it's really
important that we get out there and understand it.

One aspect of Jessica's research
is using small, waterproof cameras

to document life under the sea

in areas of the Indian Ocean
we know little about.

We call it pulling back the blue
curtain

because that allows us to actually
see below the surface of the ocean.

By people being able to see
beneath the surface,

they can get excited,
they can really enjoy it,

they can value it, and if they value
it, they'll protect it.

This camera system means
you're able to see

what is actually down there.
Out there, and count them.

And because it's hard to sample fish,
because they're in the ocean,

we actually don't have
that basic information.

The camera's being lowered.

Jessica films at depths
of more than 500 metres

to collect crucial research
material.

Her team have already recorded
more than 5,000 hours of footage.

This is footage from other cameras
you've dropped down,

right on the floor of the ocean.

This is what gets me excited
about being a scientist,

when I get to actually watch these
things unfolding before my eyes.

So, it basically films on the sea bed
for an hour

and we take the videos back to our
lab

and we can figure out
what species are out there,

how many of them there are and, most
importantly, how big they are,

because one of the first signs of
overfishing is when fish get smaller.

I was finishing my Indian Ocean
journey

next to one of the most important
areas of ocean on the planet.

It's now clear the sea here
has greater levels of biodiversity

than even the Great Barrier Reef.

Almost every week,
new species are being discovered.

Most of them are found
nowhere else on Earth,

but less than 1% of the sea
in this area is protected.

Around the planet, we're witnessing
a collapse of marine life.

Two-thirds of the world's coral
reefs are dead or at risk

and it's estimated up to 90% of the
world's large fish have been annihilated.

If we don't change our behaviour,
we'll be left with lifeless oceans.

Something that's really amazed me
on this journey

is the almost cavalier way
we are fishing the oceans to death.

That's how it's been described to me
by several people I've met.

Do you think that's a fair description,
and how is this happening?

Well, we're effectively
emptying the oceans of fish.

We've got industrial-scale fleets

that have nets that are bigger
than, you know, airplanes.

We drag these heavy metal things
across the sea bed,

basically clear-felling
everything in their way.

Can you imagine if we dragged
something like that through a forest,

knocked down all the trees, took out
all the birds and animals?

That's what we're doing to the ocean.

I mean, the fish have nowhere
to hide.

We need to allow our fish stocks
to recover

and that means
implementing sanctuary zones

or national parks in the ocean.

We need some areas where the fish can
be left alone to grow big, old and fat

and produce lots of more fish.

Is that one of the key solutions,
then?

Absolutely, and Australia's actually
at the forefront of this.

It's developing a system of national
parks around the entire continent

and what's really critical in that
is that it includes national parks

where you can't go fishing
and you can't drill for oil and gas.

Protected marine parks
where fishing is banned

ensure that fish have a place
to breed.

And that means their numbers can
recover from overfishing.

It's an idea that has
overwhelming public support.

70% of West Australians want to see
strong national parks in the ocean.

Public opinion, at least
here in Australia, wants it,

but how do you persuade people
off the...

desperately poor people
on the coast of Mozambique,

or in Madagascar or off Bangladesh,

to accept national parks
when they're struggling to survive?

Actually, in some countries,
like the Philippines,

they have been willing to put aside
significant areas

as sanctuary zones,
where they don't fish,

and they're seeing that the fish numbers are
increasing and coming back and spilling over,

so in poor countries,

we've actually seen
some of the biggest successes.

That's quite... That's quite
hopeful.

If they can do it, there's no excuse why Australia,
Britain, America, Europe, can't as well, surely?

Absolutely.

We're increasing our understanding
all the time

of how the marine environment works,

so no, I'm totally optimistic,
but we do have to act now.

Now I hear it,
the answer seems blindingly obvious.

We have national parks on land, of course
we should have them in the sea as well.

They're not a silver bullet. It's not the single
solution that's going to protect the seas,

but it is part of the solution,
it is part of the answer.

We have got to protect life in our
oceans, and national parks in the sea,

or marine sanctuaries,
are part of the solution.

Here it comes!

Yup.

My journey had also convinced me

that we need more global co-operation
to police the high seas,

the millions of square miles
of international waters

that are currently
being fished relentlessly.

The Indian Ocean is a spectacular
region of our world.

Hundreds of millions of people
rely on it to survive.

Preserving and protecting it
is vital for the future of us all.

After months of travelling
by land, air and sea,

I was finally nearing the end
of my journey.

Cape Leeuwin is the point where
Australians say the Indian Ocean ends.

My goodness.

That's the ending.

I've got a lump in the throat
and a tear in the eye.

Look! "Two Oceans Meet.

"Cape Leeuwin marks the point where the
Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean."

Indian Ocean to the right,
Southern Ocean to the left.

This has been my most exotic
and extreme adventure.

And it ends just down here.

I've gone from the horrors of the
front line in Mogadishu in Somalia

to the glory of the Maldives
and the Seychelles.

I've been to 16 countries.

This journey has really taught me there's
so much more to the Indian Ocean

than just glorious, gorgeous
holiday islands.

It's a vast, tantalising, historical and
absolutely vital part of the planet.

This is it!

This is the end.

The end of my journey.