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01:44Flying over miles and miles of ocean, you get the impression that things aren't too bad.
01:50But below the surface, there's a multitude of man-made problems.
01:55Of all of them, probably the most destructive is fishing.
02:00And it's the way we catch fish that's the problem.
02:13Bluefin tuna, king of the sea, they are exquisitely designed for the open ocean.
02:20They can grow up to three-quarters of a ton and can swim at 50 miles an hour, faster than
02:26any other creature in the sea, apart from us.
02:33They have few natural predators when fully grown.
02:36It is believed that these bluefin are now endangered.
02:40There's no place in the ocean where we can't pursue them.
02:44They just can't escape us.
02:48Fishing has become incredibly high-tech.
02:51So much so that we can pretty much capture anything anywhere in the world nowadays.
02:55These bluefin tuna boats beneath me have every mod con.
03:00They have incredibly big engines.
03:02They're using depth sanders, GPSs.
03:04They've even got spotter planes in the air, spotting the fish for them.
03:08Yeah, Paul, I had about eight fish over here.
03:10They just went down.
03:12They're on my left side.
03:17So the bluefin tuna, traveling at 50 miles an hour, hasn't really got much of a chance.
03:23The moment it comes to the surface, somebody's going to spot it.
03:29Come left.
03:30Yeah, there you go.
03:31Twelve o'clock, five or six boats.
03:34Here, they're being hunted on one of their major migration routes.
03:39It's thought they swim from the Gulf of Mexico up the eastern seaboard of the United States to Canada each
03:45summer.
03:47Their routes are so predictable that fishermen can catch them year after year.
03:59While these fishermen are still catching them, there are scientists who are tagging the fish,
04:04trying to discover how many separate populations there are, what their movements are,
04:09and just how many fish are left.
04:15Marine scientist and keen sports fisherman, Carl Safina, fishes off Long Island, New York.
04:21He loves fishing for bluefin, but these days he has to target other species.
04:27I've been fishing offshore since I was 12 with my fathers and my uncles.
04:32And we used to see lots of bluefin tuna, a lot of small ones and a lot of big ones.
04:39Now, there aren't so few tuna that people sport fish for sharks now.
04:49Safina is so concerned by the decline in numbers that he's started a campaign with the National Audubon Society to
04:56try and save these tuna.
04:58What we do know about bluefin is in the western part of the Atlantic,
05:02in other words, a part of the Atlantic off the U.S. and Canada,
05:05is that from the mid-1970s until the late-1990s,
05:11the population has declined by roughly 85%.
05:15In New England, where most of the western Atlantic bluefin are caught commercially,
05:21fishermen just don't believe these government figures.
05:26They claim there are consistent mistakes in the analysis.
05:30So they're naturally very skeptical about the quotas the government imposes on them.
05:36Scientific research in the ocean is expensive,
05:39and the politics surrounding this fish are complicated.
05:43But one thing is indisputable.
05:46These fish sell for vast amounts of money.
05:49The bluefin tuna was worth a few cents a pound and often sold as cat food
05:55until some people realized that if they airlifted them to Japan,
06:01if they sent them to Japan in airplanes,
06:03the price would go from a few cents to many dollars per pound.
06:13Tsukiji market in Tokyo is the biggest fish market in the world.
06:23Before I came to Japan, I'd heard a lot about it,
06:26but I just wasn't prepared for the scale of it.
06:30This warehouse is just the frozen section.
06:34In another section, there are rows and rows of fresh tuna,
06:37and amongst these are a frightening quantity of bluefin.
06:56The Japanese are by far the biggest importers of bluefin tuna in the world.
07:02This is big business.
07:04These bluefin are fetching 60 pounds a kilo.
07:07So in today's auction, a dealer would expect to get 12,000 pounds for this one fish alone.
07:14But the market fluctuates madly,
07:17and there have been bluefin here that have fetched more than 100,000 pounds.
07:38Tuna fishermen don't accept the bluefin numbers are right down,
07:42but most scientists firmly believe that they are.
07:47Many people want bluefin tuna listed as CITES Appendix 1.
07:51In other words, a total ban on all fish in the world.
07:54Unless this is done, there is no way the fishermen, the wholesalers,
07:58everybody involved in the market will give up.
08:00There's simply too much in it for them.
08:05This market is not just about tuna.
08:08There's every conceivable type of fish here.
08:19Nearly 50% of the food eaten in Japan comes from the sea,
08:24compared to the world's average of about 15%.
08:27They eat enormous quantities of fish, every species imaginable.
08:32But unfortunately, some of those species are in deep trouble.
08:39This is a swordfish.
08:40In the Atlantic, its numbers have more than halved since the 1960s.
08:45As a result, many restaurants have now taken it off the menu.
08:51Marlin are a favorite amongst game fishermen,
08:53and some species are down by 90%.
09:01While shark meat is on sale in many Japanese markets,
09:05by far the biggest trade is in shark fins,
09:08and that trade is Asia-wide.
09:12About 100 million sharks are caught every year.
09:18Admittedly, this is the biggest market,
09:20but there are hundreds of markets all over the world
09:23selling huge quantities of fish.
09:24And it's not just one day a week.
09:26It's day after day after day.
09:29You might find some really strange creatures here,
09:32ones which are totally unfamiliar to us.
09:35But that's not the issue.
09:36It's often the more common species that are seriously threatened,
09:39and those you can find on sale at home.
09:44This is Billingsgate Market,
09:46the largest fish market in London.
09:48Here you can buy all the familiar fish,
09:51which we love to eat.
09:52But in the UK, every day we're eating fish
09:56whose stocks are dangerously low.
09:59Most of us have no idea that these fish are in trouble,
10:03even the most common ones, such as cod.
10:07At the moment, the worst problem is with cod in the Irish Sea,
10:11which is really in a very, very depressed state indeed.
10:17The North East Arctic stock off the coast of Norway
10:21is not in very good shape.
10:22The Canadian stock is not in good shape.
10:25The North Sea stock is not in good shape.
10:27About the only one that's doing reasonably well at the moment
10:30is at Iceland.
10:31And if that one goes the same way,
10:34there will be no Atlantic cod.
10:36There simply will not be any cod for sale.
10:42So is this a normal size for a cod these days?
10:46That's about an average size there, yeah.
10:48When you go and buy fish in the supermarket
10:50or in the fish and chip shop,
10:53you generally, as a consumer, have no way to tell
10:55whether this has come from a stock that is overfished
10:58or a stock that isn't.
10:59And where are these ones from?
11:00They're from Aberdeen.
11:01They're from the North Sea?
11:03Yeah, they're stocks.
11:03We know that fish stocks do collapse,
11:05and sometimes they recover.
11:07The herring collapsed and recovered.
11:09There was a stock of mackerel in the North Sea
11:12in the 60s and 70s
11:13that collapsed under very heavy fishing pressure
11:17by purse sauners,
11:19and it has not come back.
11:21In 30 years, it has not come back.
11:23Seoul and the place are fully exploited
11:26and could not really sustain
11:29any further fishing pressure.
11:30The herring also is fully exploited.
11:33There's no room for expansion.
11:37Now, with so much fishing pressure in surface waters,
11:40fishermen are going deeper and deeper
11:42to find fish for the market.
11:44We're seeing things here
11:45that we would never even have heard of 20 years ago.
11:50This is a black scabbard,
11:52and it lives at about 1,000 metres.
11:54So are these fish in trouble?
11:56It's hard to say, really,
11:58because like everything else that lives in the deep,
12:00very little is known about it.
12:02And that's the problem with deep-sea fishing.
12:04The scientists don't really know
12:06what's going on down there,
12:07and they're only just beginning to find out.
12:13Scientists from Tasmania
12:15are now using high-tech cameras
12:17mounted on submersibles
12:19to study the effects of fishing on the deep sea.
12:24Only in the last 30 years
12:26have we had the technology to fish the deep.
12:30But in many places,
12:31the fishing pressure has been very intense.
12:36This particular fish is now on our menus.
12:42These white fish are the fillets of a deep-sea fish
12:46called orange roughy.
12:47You may have noticed them
12:48at your local fishmonger or supermarket recently.
12:51They can live at up to depths of 1,500 metres,
12:55and like a lot of deep-sea fish,
12:57they live a very long time.
12:59These ones could have been born during World War II.
13:02They could even have been around
13:04during the Victorian era.
13:06It's believed that orange roughy
13:08can live to a staggering 150 years old.
13:12As well as living longer,
13:14these fish mature later,
13:16at about 30 years old.
13:18If you take them out before this age,
13:20they won't be able to reproduce.
13:22There won't be a future generation
13:24of orange roughy.
13:31For many years,
13:32the fishing pressure here was huge.
13:35Thousands of tons were scooped up
13:36for the market
13:37and sold around the world.
13:39At times, so many were caught,
13:42there wasn't even the market for them.
13:44They were just dumped.
13:49Fortunately,
13:51the New Zealand and Australian fisheries
13:52recognised the problem in time.
13:54They now monitor the fish stocks carefully.
13:58The fish may be safe,
13:59but the habitat they rely on isn't.
14:09In the deep sea,
14:10there are animals so new to us
14:12and so strange,
14:14it's as if we are in another world.
14:16If there are animals so new to us,
14:24and there are animals so new choice
14:46like that.
14:48Despite its remoteness, the deep sea habitat is now under threat and once again it's the
14:55method of fishing that is causing the real damage.
15:02Deep sea fishing nets are huge.
15:05They dredge up life indiscriminately.
15:09Corals and sponges hundreds of years old are being ripped off the seabed and destroyed.
15:16What a trawl actually does, particularly in the deep sea where fishing effort is concentrated
15:20around seamounts which are very hard rock, to protect the net from the rock they've got
15:25huge steel balls on them and those balls are about a half a metre in diameter and they run
15:30along on a huge ground rope.
15:32Now that net is pulled along at say three knots, smacking into the rock.
15:36Smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack, smack.
15:39So this net basically comes along and it physically mows that thing down, just rips it off, shoots
15:44it into the back of the net.
15:46It's history.
15:46It's dead.
15:47It's got no chance of living after that.
15:50You can't see the damage done at death, but if the same was done on land, you'd be horrified.
15:57If we wanted to catch cows, for instance, we'd get a net and we'd hang that from a helicopter
16:01and we'd drag that through the paddock.
16:03We would not only catch a few cows, we'd catch the dog, we'd catch the car, we'd catch the
16:08farmyard, the barn, we'd catch the farmer's wife.
16:11We'd catch all of this other stuff that we weren't originally going for.
16:16O'Shea is concerned about many of the animals that are being brought up from the deep, most
16:21of them unintentionally.
16:25He's monitoring the damage being done from his lab in New Zealand.
16:29One of the most spectacular things we've received in fisheries bycatch is this large gorgonian.
16:34It's like a black coral, it's very closely related to it.
16:37And this particular specimen we've had aged at some 700 years old.
16:41So it's 700 years when the net came down and basically ripped it off the bottom of the
16:45sea.
16:45It's dead.
16:46It's gone.
16:47When you add up the pieces together, you would have some three metres in total height from
16:52the sea floor.
16:53And that must be the equivalent of an underwater forest.
16:57It's just tragic that something like this should be ripped from the floor.
17:05This particular species used to be very common, between 700 and 1100 metres off our coast.
17:11But like everything, that is very fragile.
17:14And where we'd put a steel ball bobbin straight over that, it would be crushed to pieces.
17:24O'Shea has a particular fascination for deep sea squid, but he's worried that many of them
17:29are disappearing before we've even had a chance to see them alive in the wild, let alone
17:35understand them.
17:40This species used to be very common around New Zealand, along the entire Northland and
17:43East Coast.
17:44It's gone.
17:46And the only reason why an animal like this is gone, it's so stupid, it's so slow, it
17:51wasn't hurting anyone.
17:52It got attacked by a trawler net, and the trawlers have been going back and forth, the
17:56same area for so long, we've basically made this animal extinct.
18:03With every single dive to the deep ocean, scientists are discovering new species.
18:10Some may have properties that could be invaluable to us.
18:16Sponges are animals, but they're rooted to the bottom and can't get away from something
18:21that's trying to eat them, or something that's trying to grow over them.
18:24So they produce chemicals to ward off predators or other encroaching sponges.
18:37It's these chemicals that interest marine scientists in Florida.
18:42They collect sponges from the deep and take them back to the lab for analysis.
18:48The challenge to us as drug discoverers and marine biologists is to figure out why the
18:55organism is producing it, and then apply that knowledge to try and figure out what might
19:01be an appropriate drug target for that chemical compound.
19:07Pomponi and her team have been using the chemicals from these sponges in a series of trials.
19:11They believe the chemicals will prevent the growth of cancer cells in humans.
19:19Ideally we want something that will kill a certain type of cancer cell, so it will be
19:24very specific for certain types of cancer.
19:27And so far the results are very encouraging.
19:31So yes, we think that this will be useful as a treatment for certain forms of cancer.
19:39So far we've only explored 2% of the deep.
19:43We could be in danger of losing a treasure trove of species before we've even discovered them.
19:51If we lose that biological diversity that occurs in the deep ocean, and it does, then we lose that
20:01chemical diversity and we lose the opportunity to discover new drugs.
20:13It's not just the deep that's in danger.
20:17Shallow water habitats like coral reefs are having a hard time too.
20:27Part of the problem is the growing trade in reef fish.
20:31And it's often the market demand for luxury fish like groupers, coral trout and wrasse that's behind the problem.
20:38They're being fished out at an alarming rate.
20:46Fish on coral reefs that were once a staple food for local people are now in high demand as a
20:53delicacy for people in major cities around the world.
21:02The majority goes to mainland China and cities like Hong Kong.
21:07It's a huge market and some 30,000 tons of reef fish come into Hong Kong every year.
21:17But the fishermen are having to go to coral reefs further and further afield as stocks dry up.
21:24Some now travel 3,000 miles on a single fishing trip to find reefs with fish.
21:30People like their fish fresh, very fresh.
21:35So much so that the cost of live fish is ten times the cost of fresh dead fish.
21:41And the fish in the marketplace are getting smaller and smaller.
21:46Dr. Yvonne Sadovy is worried about the amount of juveniles being sold here.
21:52This beautiful animal is a humphead wrasse and he's called humphead wrasse because of his hump on his head.
21:59And the other one is the giant grouper. This is the giant grouper.
22:04There's several of them.
22:06And these are juveniles.
22:08This one is probably a late teenager, but still not a particularly old or well-developed fish.
22:15And the majority that we see of these species are young, juvenile fish.
22:20Humphead wrasse should be able to live for more than 20 years.
22:24But they rarely reach that age these days.
22:26They're taken out far too young.
22:29If you have fisheries which take large numbers of juveniles,
22:33these animals have not had a chance to reproduce.
22:35So you start to wonder, where's the next generation going to come from?
22:41If you take too many juveniles, slowly what happens is you don't get enough adults in the next generation,
22:49and slowly the populations or stocks decline in numbers.
22:56So that's what my concern is, that if this is part of a trend, that we're seeing more and more
23:03juveniles being taken in this trade,
23:05then that does not all go well for these particular species.
23:09But much more serious than the possible loss of a few species is the loss of an entire habitat,
23:17especially one which supports thousands upon thousands of species.
23:26Coral reefs are the most diverse communities in our oceans.
23:31Many of them have grown up over hundreds, sometimes thousands of years.
23:36And over that time, a fantastic number of animals and plants have evolved with them.
23:44The intricate structure built by the corals themselves provides animals with protection from predators,
23:51important breeding sites and endless feeding opportunities.
24:15But now the coral itself is under threat from man.
24:37Today, dynamiting is commonplace. It's an efficient way to kill all the nearby fish.
24:44But just one blast will completely flatten a patch of reef.
24:50And there are lots of other threats to reef right across the world.
24:54Sometimes it's pollution, sometimes they get covered by sediment,
24:58and global warming is certainly playing its part too.
25:03Here in Southeast Asia, 80% of reefs are either in danger of dying or are dead.
25:11A lot of it's been dynamited, but now a more sinister method of fishing is being used.
25:16It's fast, it's effective, but it's highly illegal.
25:21Fishermen are using the poison cyanide.
25:26Fishermen squirt sodium cyanide into crevices where fish take refuge.
25:32Cyanide starves the fish of oxygen, and so they come out into the open temporarily dazed and much easier to
25:38catch.
25:41Not all these fish are for food. Many of them are for the aquarium trade.
25:47They're purely a luxury item.
25:55The corals themselves die in just a few weeks, and the whole reef becomes smothered in algae.
26:07That was a reconstruction, but this is real life.
26:11Members of the International Marine Alliance in the Philippines are trying to save their few remaining reefs.
26:17They suspect these men have been fishing illegally.
26:20They're trying to find out where and how they've been fishing, but the fishermen are wary.
26:29They're afraid to tell us where the places are because there might be some retaliation from the other villagers in
26:38this village.
26:41They hide the battles underneath the boat, and when another boat approaches, they just ditch this so that nobody could
26:52see it.
26:54These men know they could end up in jail.
26:58It's so hard to police the coastal areas of the Philippines because it's a very long coastal area.
27:06Another thing is that if you jail them, you don't have enough room in jail.
27:14We were taken to a jail on the island of Koron.
27:19These men have been arrested for illegal fishing, and they're waiting trial.
27:25They've been locked up for months, but the trader, the middleman, is still free.
27:30They don't have money to post bail.
27:33I don't think we can lump in all the blames into the fishermen, because first is that they do not
27:40know anything better.
27:42They're afraid of being caught, but they say there's no other method to catch fish.
27:50When they've been squirted with cyanide, fish don't die immediately.
27:55But the damage has been done, and their internal organs gradually pack up.
28:01The trader has to move them fast, as they will die in just a few weeks.
28:09Crews is sure that the importers know when cyanide has been used, because the mortality rate is so high.
28:16But they simply choose to ignore it.
28:19Importers would know immediately that there's something wrong with these fishers.
28:23But yet, they start and keep on importing from the same exporter in the Philippines or in other countries.
28:34The majority of tropical fish caught in Indonesia and the Philippines are exported to America and here to the UK.
28:42Fortunately, there are a lot of responsible importers, like the owner of this shop, who refused to buy fish that
28:48have been caught by cyanide.
28:49But as a customer, you can't tell how a fish was caught.
28:53The responsibility lies with us to check with the shopkeeper.
28:57And if you don't, it may only take a couple of weeks before your ornamental fish is as dead as
29:04the reef it came from.
29:08Gone fishing by a shady wady pool.
29:14Shangri-la, really la.
29:17I'm wishing I could be that kind of fool.
29:22Shall I twist your arm?
29:23I'd say no more work for mine.
29:25Welcome to the club.
29:27On my door, I'd hang a sign.
29:30Gone fishing.
29:34Instead of just a wishing.
29:38Bam-boo-ba-ba-boo-bam-boo-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam.
30:05This abandoned net is made of tough nylon, which won't easily disintegrate.
30:16If it isn't removed, it could carry on killing like this for years and years to come.
30:26If one small net on one reef can cause this much damage, imagine what fishing nets do on a global
30:34scale.
30:34Our fishing methods today ensure that we catch more and more.
30:39But a lot of what is caught is thrown away, simply chucked overboard, usually dead.
30:48Modern fisheries are very destructive.
30:50They don't just catch what they're after, they catch everything else that's out there as well.
30:54The United Nations tells us that up to 30 million metric tons a year are caught by fisheries and simply
31:01thrown overboard, dead or dying.
31:04That's one quarter to one third of the annual catch around the world.
31:09I'm talking about not just non-target fish species, but sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds such as albatrosses and so
31:17forth.
31:17Even whales on occasion.
31:32No matter how magnificent, no animal is spared in our hunt for food.
31:44But what's even more ridiculous is that often the fish that we would eat are thrown away if the boat
31:50is targeting a different species.
31:55And there's one particular fishery where the waste is phenomenal.
32:00Prawn or shrimp trawling is the worst example of destructive fisheries in the world.
32:05Prawn and shrimp trawling is ubiquitous throughout the tropics.
32:08The nets are dragged along the bottom.
32:10The shrimp live in the habitat along the bottom.
32:13Those nets hoover up everything in their path.
32:15Up to 15 pounds of other species are taken aboard and discarded for every one pound of shrimp that's caught.
32:26Worse still are the quantities of juvenile fish that get thrown away.
32:39Hundreds of thousands of tons of young fish are discarded every year.
32:44Fish that would otherwise grow to become an important and very valuable source of protein.
32:49And all this for just a handful of prawns.
32:55The fishermen have recognised the problem and have asked for help.
33:00So Dr. Steve Kennelly is now looking at the prawn fishing industry in New South Wales, Australia.
33:08Here the industry is huge.
33:10They catch over a thousand tons of prawns a year.
33:21Kennelly has invented a by-catch reduction device, a BRD, which lets the smaller, immature fish escape from the net.
33:30This is the caught in that actually gets thrown along behind at the back of the net and right down
33:34the back of the whole operation.
33:36And all the catch that goes into a trawl net ends up in this bag, at the back of this
33:40bag.
33:40We did some trials in flume tanks and other experiments and we found that at a certain point in the
33:45caught in,
33:46just in front of where this caught in material changes, you get a back pressure of water.
33:51And by putting in this panel of open square meshes, just at that point where that back pressure of water
33:56is occurring,
33:57the water will tend to flow up and out through that square mesh panel.
34:01Now little fish, as they're swimming along inside this net, feel that back pressure of water
34:07and their immediate escape response is to head upwards and out through the open square mesh panel.
34:14Kennelly is experimenting with two different nets.
34:17This first one is a conventional prawn fishing net.
34:22OK, this is the catch from the control caught in, that is from the conventional caught in without any BRD
34:28in it.
34:29As you can see, there's quite a large number of small fish in the catch.
34:34And hopefully in the other caught in, with the BRD installed, there'll be a lot less fish and still the
34:40same quantity of prawns.
34:43This is the net with his by-catch reduction device in it.
34:47It's immediately obvious that fewer fish have been accidentally caught.
34:56So that's the difference in by-catch there.
34:58Most of the smaller fish have escaped.
35:00So at least they should have a chance to breed.
35:04You've just got to have a look for your own eyes and there's no doubt that there's,
35:07I'd say there's at least probably a 60%, maybe even more reduction in by-catch there.
35:13Kennelly's device has gone a long way to reducing the waste.
35:18But he knows that it's not the whole answer.
35:21I don't think it's possible to ever have a situation where we can go out and confidently only catch the
35:26things we're trying to catch.
35:28Just about every fishing method, you're going to catch undersized organisms of the target species.
35:36To get it down to the position where we don't catch any by-catch at all,
35:39for things like prawns and shrimp and so on,
35:42I don't think we're ever going to get to that particular point,
35:44at least not in the foreseeable future.
35:49But there is possibly another way,
35:52one where there may be no by-catch at all.
35:55It's fish farming or aquaculture.
35:59Already it's producing huge quantities of fish.
36:07Could fish farming be the solution?
36:09At the moment, one in every four fish that we eat is farmed.
36:13But over the next 25 years, it's thought that figure will double.
36:17But half the fish we eat will be farmed.
36:20So is this the answer?
36:21Can we really protect our fish stocks, protect the juveniles,
36:25protect the fragile marine habitats?
36:27In fact, is fish farming the solution to all our fishing problems?
36:34If aquaculture is one of the answers,
36:37then surely the people with the highest incentive to get it right are the Japanese.
36:42They're already very advanced in farming fish.
36:45They're now even trying to raise large predatory fish like tuna,
36:49and in particular, bluefin tuna.
36:53Here in Kishimoto in western Japan, they're going for broke.
36:58Swimming around beneath me in this enclosure,
37:00there are 50 fully mature bluefin tuna.
37:07These tuna were caught in the wild and are now being fattened up for market.
37:12They're being fed generously, so they'll be in prime adult condition when they're sold.
37:19Here, they've taken tuna farming to the next stage.
37:22They're not just holding them, they're actually breeding these captive bluefins.
37:27They hope that these fish will themselves breed in three years' time,
37:31and so complete the whole life cycle in captivity.
37:35Then, they won't have to take any more bluefin tuna from our oceans.
37:46Japan is the largest tuna-consuming nation in the world,
37:52and we're also very concerned about the diminishing stocks of bluefin tuna in the wild.
38:01Aquaculture has its own set of well-known problems.
38:05The most worrying are pollution,
38:07as well as the mixing of captive bred fish with wild stocks.
38:12But there's another issue.
38:16These tuna are fed a staggering amount of fish every day.
38:22They're being fed valuable protein,
38:25which should be food for the poorer people of Asia.
38:29So now the Japanese are trying to develop a substitute feed,
38:33either from vegetable matter or from animal products.
38:40And we hope further development will enable us to use more and more artificial feed in the future.
38:53But they haven't succeeded yet,
38:55and they still take huge quantities of low-value fish to feed one big luxury fish.
39:06In other parts of Asia, which are poorer than Japan,
39:09and where fish stocks are already heavily depleted,
39:12they are also turning to aquaculture.
39:21And tiger prawns are the biggest money earner.
39:24More than half a million tons of prawns are produced a year,
39:27nearly all of which are exported.
39:30It's big business, and it employs a lot of people.
39:35But just like tuna, the prawns are carnivorous, and they need to eat fish.
39:40Fish that have been ground into pellets.
39:42And when they're farmed as intensively as they are here,
39:46they need a lot of feed.
39:49If you have three square meters of pond for one tiger prawn that's extensive,
39:56you don't have to feed anything.
39:57Nature will feed the prawn.
39:59But if you have 30 of them in one square meter,
40:02then you have to provide some kind of food.
40:05Now, I think the latest figures are about two.
40:09Two kilos of fish to produce one kilo of prawn.
40:16Substitute feeds may help, but they could come too late.
40:21In the meantime, low value fish are fed to prawns,
40:24which are then exported to the west.
40:26These fish should be feeding local people.
40:30It's the little fish that's there,
40:34that's being bought by people, by Filipino families for their food,
40:41low income families and middle income families.
40:44that will not be available to these families.
40:49But there's another issue.
40:51Thousands of intensive farms have been built in coastal areas,
40:55destroying a valuable marine habitat, mangrove forests.
41:02Mile upon mile of mangroves have been cut down.
41:08The coastline has been stripped of its natural protection.
41:14And there are many important ecological reasons why mangroves should be protected.
41:21To many people, mangroves are just a mass of gnarled roots,
41:24where the bottom is sludgy and muddy and yuck,
41:27and the air is full of mosquitoes.
41:29But get under water, and it's a very different world.
41:39The intricate root system provides a natural nursery for young fish.
41:44They spend their later life out on coral reefs or in the open sea.
41:48The roots provide protection from predators,
41:51which is vital for small, vulnerable fish.
41:59In the shelter of mangroves, fish can feed and grow in relative safety.
42:08Again, it's the habitat that's under threat.
42:11We're carelessly destroying it without a thought for the animals that depend on it.
42:19Perhaps the answer might be to set aside some areas of the sea,
42:23so that the animals that live there, whatever they are, have a chance.
42:29As soon as we recognise that land animals need protecting,
42:32we usually do something about it.
42:34The huge game reserves of Africa are a classic example.
42:38But for some reason, we treat our seas very differently.
42:42This is the island of Skoma, a very beautiful reserve
42:46that offers excellent protection for all the birds and plants that live here.
42:50It also calls itself a marine nature reserve,
42:53one of only two in the whole of Britain.
42:56You'd think a marine reserve would offer total protection for all life under the sea.
43:02But amazingly, you can fish here.
43:05Even commercial fishermen can operate here.
43:09In the time of our grandfathers, there were natural marine reserves,
43:14inaccessible to fishing fleets.
43:16There, the fish could grow to maturity undisturbed.
43:20But with modern fishing technology, there's practically nowhere we now can't fish.
43:26Only a tiny percentage of the ocean is a safe sanctuary.
43:31Something like one third of one percent of the oceans are currently within marine protected areas.
43:38That's a very tiny fraction, and it's equivalent to something like the size of South Africa.
43:43However, we're not really protecting those areas well enough at the moment.
43:49And only something like one ten-thousandth of the surface of the oceans is protected from all forms of fishing
43:55at the moment.
43:56That's equivalent to the size of Holland.
43:58It's a tiny fraction, and it isn't nearly enough.
44:03Robert's wants areas set aside which are totally protected.
44:08There are some small areas where they've done this, like this reserve off the North Island of New Zealand.
44:17Since they stopped fishing 25 years ago, the stocks have recovered, and the water is now teeming with fish.
44:30And it's not just fish, everything's doing well.
44:34Lobsters are abundant again, and they're getting a lot bigger.
44:40Scientists monitor stocks carefully, and keep a close eye on how all the animals in the reserve are doing.
44:47This five-kilometre-wide reserve produces the same number of lobsters as a hundred-kilometre stretch of unprotected coastline.
44:57Fishermen are allowed to fish right up to the boundaries.
45:01The lobsters are now so abundant within the reserve, there isn't room, so they spread out into the surrounding waters.
45:08And so what these no-take zones provide to fisheries is an increase in the replenishment to their fisheries.
45:16They're spawning stocks which are being protected.
45:19They're like deposits in a bank account.
45:23Even the behaviour of the fish has changed.
45:26Once scared of man, the fish are now perhaps a little over-friendly.
45:35Roberts believes that between 10 and 20% of our oceans should become no-take zones.
45:42And that we should protect large areas of different marine habitats.
45:46The deep sea, coral reefs, mangroves, as well as key spawning grounds.
45:52That way, fish can grow bigger and older, and stocks will recover.
46:01And he also believes that migration routes and feeding grounds should be protected.
46:07Particularly the routes taken by the largest marine animals of all.
46:11The whales, as they circumnavigate the globe.
46:24It's a simple idea, and one that Roberts believes, with the public's help, is possible.
46:31Once people realise what's going on, and they begin to bring to bear pressure on the politicians and decision-makers,
46:39then I think we'll see moves taking place to establish the areas that we need to set aside from fishing.
46:48We can make that choice. We've done it before.
46:51We've brought back some of the great whales from near extinction.
46:54Most of them can now spend their entire lives free from the threat of a whaling boat.
46:59But it took international cooperation.
47:02And that only came about once the public realised how close the whales were to being wiped out.
47:15Whaling was a huge industry right up until the 1970s.
47:21Some species very nearly disappeared from our oceans altogether.
47:26We recognised this, just in time. So we did something about it.
47:39We do now know what's happening in our oceans.
47:42We know they're in trouble, and that we're to blame.
47:45We can't hide behind an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude anymore.
47:50We know what's down there, the extraordinary diversity of life.
47:55Our oceans are so precious, so vital to the planet.
48:00If we care about that, then surely we can look after them.
48:20Chen ë”ê°€, like, if we care about it.
48:25We do now know what we can look after them.Бdy
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