- 16 minutes ago
Wild and un-navigable, Africa's iconic Zambezi boasts the world's largest waterfall and deadly rapids. From the delta in Mozambique to the upper reaches in Zambia, Jeremy investigates why this great river is in trouble.
非洲的地貌由数条气势磅礴的河流塑造而成，而赞比西河正是其中最宏伟的河流之一。每当夏季降雨造访河谷、蓄满水塘时，非洲水牛和象群便会离开河岸；然而，诸如留鸟和斑颈水獭等动物，却始终离不开这条非洲巨川——赞比西河。
非洲的地貌由数条气势磅礴的河流塑造而成，而赞比西河正是其中最宏伟的河流之一。每当夏季降雨造访河谷、蓄满水塘时，非洲水牛和象群便会离开河岸；然而，诸如留鸟和斑颈水獭等动物，却始终离不开这条非洲巨川——赞比西河。
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TVTranscript
00:00I'm Jeremy Wade.
00:02For 35 years, I've been tracking down freshwater monsters.
00:09But wherever I look, these apex predators are disappearing.
00:15This is really remote, but even here, the big fish have gone.
00:21For a biologist, that's a wake-up call.
00:24A sign that our rivers are in trouble.
00:28To uncover what's going on,
00:31I'm heading to six of the planet's major waterways.
00:36I need to mix with the people who live along their banks
00:40and test the waters any way I can.
00:48My mission?
00:49To find out if these mighty rivers
00:52really are past the point of no return.
01:06When white explorers found the mouth of the Zambezi,
01:10they hoped it would be a gateway to the riches of Central Africa.
01:15They soon realised their mistake.
01:17It wasn't just deadly rapids or what turned out to be the largest waterfall on Earth
01:23that got in the way of would-be exploiters.
01:26Around every bend, dangerous animals lay in wait.
01:31Today, the river is still unnavigable
01:34and still largely surrounded by wild country.
01:39But as I've learnt, in the 21st century,
01:42just being remote isn't enough to keep a river healthy.
01:45And if recent reports are anything to go by,
01:47then even the mighty Zambezi is in trouble.
01:57I'm starting my investigation in western Zambia,
02:01where my first challenge is to find the Zambezi.
02:06It might not look like it, but all of this is the Zambezi River.
02:13Where is all the water, you're probably asking,
02:15and that's a very good question.
02:16Right now, it's gone underground,
02:18but for nearly half of every year, all of this is submerged.
02:24As the floodwaters recede, they leave hundreds of shallow lakes.
02:28The amount of fish trapped in these pools
02:31should give me my first clue about the health of the river.
02:36Apparently, the biggest of all these pools that are scattered around
02:40is a place called the King's Pool.
02:42And I'm told that every year about this time,
02:46the king of the local tribe allows his subjects
02:49to come along and fish the pool.
02:51It's the first time it's fished during that dry season.
02:54And what I'm going to try and do is to get myself invited.
03:11I've driven for miles across a seemingly deserted wilderness,
03:15but it's quickly apparent that I'm not alone.
03:23This is quite incredible.
03:24Just about everywhere I look,
03:25people are materialising out of what were just empty plains.
03:29There's a lot of people coming.
03:31This is the territory of the Lotse,
03:34a tribe that's totally attuned to the seasonal flooding
03:37of the upper Zambezi.
03:40I'm not sure if anyone here speaks English,
03:43but the official-looking tent is probably a good place to try.
03:47And it turns out they're expecting me.
03:51Good morning. Good morning.
03:54I would like to welcome you here.
03:56Thank you very much.
03:57We are delighted to receive you here.
03:59Nyambe Nwenda, the man in charge,
04:01has guessed that I want to join the hunt.
04:04I give you this spear today.
04:07Whatever you get out of this,
04:09it will be consumed by all of us.
04:11Thank you very much.
04:12We wish you good luck.
04:20The locals seem game for the out-of-towner
04:23to lose the shirt and have a go.
04:27My guide is Chief Mundandowe.
04:29And then we will scout,
04:30and then the children will join us.
04:32So I will follow you?
04:34I know what's going on.
04:34Yes.
04:35All right.
04:38Oh, here we go.
04:39Look at that.
04:40Oh!
04:42A little bit of mud down there.
04:50So what are we finding in here?
04:51What kind of fish?
04:52It is bubble fish.
04:54OK.
04:54So the important thing is to get a spear in.
04:56Yes.
04:56OK.
05:02Someone's got one.
05:10A few people are starting to catch fish.
05:15It is a bit like the lottery.
05:17I think it is deliberately inefficient.
05:20My anglers' instincts are all about maximum results,
05:23but that is not what this is about.
05:25It's about something else.
05:28The Lotse are big fish-eaters.
05:30I'm curious to see the size of the fish they're catching,
05:34and how many.
05:35So it's a catfish.
05:36I mean, it's exactly what you'd expect to find
05:38in a bit of water like this.
05:40That's, gosh, that's four big ones.
05:42Four big ones, yes.
05:43Are you the best fisherman here?
05:51I didn't even get one, so maybe I'll come back next year.
05:55Yes.
05:57A haul of some 200 catfish from a single pool
06:01suggests that this part of the Zambezi is in good shape.
06:05But why is the fishing here so haphazard?
06:09We caught a good number of fish,
06:11but I'm sure could have caught many more
06:13if you just have one net,
06:14and with 100 people you would empty all the fish.
06:17So why don't you do that?
06:19It's like eating all your food in the house in one day.
06:24We'll have nothing for tomorrow.
06:26It's quite regulated, the fishing here.
06:28So how long have you had this system?
06:30Since time immemorial, it's always been like that.
06:38What I'm seeing here is a rare example
06:41of a well-managed fishery.
06:44The King's Pool is harvested only a few times a year
06:48in a way that allows plenty of fish to escape.
06:53And it's the same for hundreds of other nearby pools,
06:57all of them owned by Lotse families.
07:04But the area where Lotse tradition holds sway
07:07is only a tiny fraction of the upper Zambezi.
07:13Before I can feel confident about this part of the river,
07:16I need to look further.
07:20Most of the water here is overseen not by tribal chiefs,
07:24but by the Zambian authorities.
07:32Just slowing down because there's a guy
07:34with a couple of fishing lines out there.
07:37Do you have any fish?
07:39No fish?
07:40It seems the line fishermen aren't having much luck.
07:45And I soon spot a possible reason.
07:49Can we go in?
07:50There's a suspicious-looking net there.
07:53It's attached to a load of weed.
07:56Continuing downstream, I see more nylon fishing nets.
08:01From my experience, these nets can be a serious problem.
08:08I've just seen some more nets, and I just...
08:10Can we go back a little?
08:18This isn't nylon monofilament.
08:19This is a woven material, but it's a very small mesh.
08:23I can just about force the end of my little finger through that hole.
08:27So that's for very small fish, fish sort of three, four inches long.
08:32And it looks like there's several, you know, many feet of this net.
08:37How many... how many meter this net?
08:39How many... how many feet?
08:40200 meters?
08:44A 600-foot net for such a narrow river channel seems like overkill.
08:50Alarm bells are starting to ring.
08:53Oh, are these the fish you catch?
08:56Wow.
08:58The numbers are impressive.
09:00That's a lot of fish.
09:04It's the size that's worrying.
09:08They are very, very small fish.
09:11And what they're on here, this is mosquito netting.
09:15You know, nothing's going to go through that mesh.
09:18It's going to get tiny fish.
09:21Most of these fish are young cichlids and catfish that didn't even get big enough to breed.
09:30Lots of different species, but they're all dead.
09:32They're all being pulled out.
09:33If resources were infinite, that would be fine.
09:36But if you do this for too long, you end up with nothing left at all.
09:42According to Zambian law, the minimum mesh size is a full three inches.
09:46But as far as I can tell, everyone here is ignoring the rules.
09:53Hello, this is me.
09:54What puzzles me is why these people are destroying their own livelihoods.
10:00That one there.
10:01When I try to find out, I'm told to ask a fisherman called Brian.
10:11Brian has fished this stretch of the Zambezi for 20 years.
10:21He says the problem started when traders from outside turned up.
10:27The traders buy all the fish for export.
10:30And to meet this new demand, people are catching whatever they can.
10:36With no one checking on net sizes, it's become a free-for-all.
10:41Where do you see things ending if it just goes on like this?
10:56The fishermen are actually getting quite desperate.
10:58They need to turn things around.
11:00They need support.
11:01And it's got to the point where if they can't do anything about it, the river here is finished.
11:09With no one bothering to stop illegal fishing, most of the upper Zambezi is being allowed to die.
11:18Wondering about the rest of the river, I'm taking my investigation downstream into neighboring Namibia.
11:28Namibia is one of Africa's most stable and prosperous countries.
11:33Like Zambia, it also has laws to protect its fish.
11:39Ironically, though, it seems that the proper enforcement of these laws is creating its own problem.
11:45A problem that these men are trying to fight.
11:49Hello, man. I'm Jeremy.
11:55So successfully are the Namibians protecting their part of the Zambezi that poachers are now coming for their fish.
12:02So these poachers, where are they coming from?
12:04They are coming from us this way.
12:06From Zambia?
12:07From Zambia, yes.
12:08For these self-styled fish guards, every night holds the very real possibility of armed confrontation.
12:16So normally do you find people?
12:18Sometimes we find people.
12:19Is that dangerous for you? Are they aggressive?
12:22They are dangerous.
12:22Yeah.
12:23Because they are using spears.
12:25Do you have any weapons?
12:26Only this one.
12:29So what is this?
12:31A paintball?
12:33A paintball, yes.
12:35This will hurt a little bit, but it won't do any damage.
12:37Yeah, gun damage.
12:38Yeah.
12:40A single paintball gun against men armed with spears doesn't seem like a fair fight.
12:47Our plan is to lie low and wait for the poachers to show their hand.
13:03We've had a bit of a tip-off.
13:05There's three dugout canutes and apparently they're coming into this arm of the river.
13:12All right, and what we're going to do now as well, we're going to turn off the camera light because,
13:16um, we need to be in self-mode.
13:20We want to be quiet and we want to be invisible.
13:23Invisible.
13:38Is it possible that the poachers are near? That maybe they're watching us?
13:41Maybe they're watching us.
13:46I'm starting to wonder, are we the ones being hunted?
13:59I'm on the mighty Zambezi with Namibian rangers looking for poachers.
14:06We've just heard that armed men are in the area.
14:10And now we've got another problem.
14:13We just went pretty well straight over this net.
14:16And this has immobilized our boat.
14:19A poacher's net has fouled our propeller.
14:22And the small fish are still alive actually.
14:26Our priority now is to free the fish before they die.
14:34What we're talking about here really is theft.
14:36It's people coming in and stealing fish belonging to somebody else.
14:41We've rescued some of the fish.
14:43It's a small victory to have taken this net out of action.
14:49There's only one thing to do with nets like this.
15:06Every week the fish guards remove about a mile of cheap nylon net from the river.
15:15It's very clear they're doing a good job here.
15:19Fish are getting taken away but they are keeping on top of things.
15:22They appear to be winning insofar as that is possible.
15:25But any let up of this work and this bit of river here is finished.
15:30The Namibians seem determined to defend their side of the Zambezi.
15:35But it's a task that will only get tougher if the situation in Zambia doesn't improve.
15:43For around 60 miles the river forms the border between these two countries.
15:48I'm not sure what to expect next.
15:53Rounding a bend I can feel the current getting stronger.
15:57And this is the dry season.
16:00I'm seeing white water there so the old ticker is going a little bit faster at the moment.
16:04This part of the Zambezi is certainly wild and the water looks clean.
16:11But the best way to judge the health of a river is to find out what's actually living in it.
16:22Hang on, there's some guys here.
16:24Ken can we, can we go in here?
16:26Yeah, yeah.
16:27There are fishermen on the bank.
16:29It looks like the, I don't know, they might be setting these, um, they might be,
16:33oh there's something, there's some stuff in the water here as well.
16:35Some stuff in the water.
16:39I'm intrigued to see what these Zambian fishermen are after.
16:44Hello, good morning.
16:47Hi, how are you?
16:48I'm well.
16:49Jeremy?
16:49Jeremy, Celilo.
16:51Good to meet you Celilo.
16:52You too.
16:53Um, are these yours out here, these, uh, baskets?
16:56Yes, they are mine.
16:58What fish are you after?
16:59Upper Zambezi parrotfish.
17:01Parrotfish.
17:02Is that a, is that a big fish, a small fish?
17:04Small fish, about this size.
17:06Right.
17:07Celilo informs me that parrotfish are especially prized for their fat, which is used as cooking oil.
17:14How long does it take you to make one of these?
17:17In one day I can make four of them.
17:19Four of these?
17:19Yes.
17:21How many years have you been doing this?
17:24I started since I was seven years.
17:27How old are you now?
17:28Now I'm 37 years.
17:30So it's nearly 30 years.
17:35Celilo sets his traps to catch the parrotfish as they migrate upriver to their breeding grounds.
17:43You're gonna stand on this side.
17:46Okay.
17:46If the current pushes you, you can able to lean on the wire.
17:52Since they're weak swimmers, parrotfish often get washed backwards into waiting traps.
17:58But even when it's low, this water can knock you off your feet.
18:04I've just found out what that is for.
18:06Um, these traps are potentially very dangerous for people.
18:10If you slip head first, even feet first, inside that funnel, you'll get just pushed to the end.
18:16Your head is under the water.
18:17Your partner has to take this, cut the rope that holds it.
18:21Otherwise you're just gonna be forced down and a very unpleasant ending, you know, caught in your own trap.
18:29Parrotfish are more active under cover of darkness.
18:32So the traps are left out overnight.
18:37According to Celilo, the river is also home to other night feeders, like catfish.
18:44But he's also warned me about lions.
18:47So with nothing biting, I decide to get some sleep.
18:55In the morning, we return to check the traps.
19:15You can actually see the tails poking out of the basket.
19:23August is the very end of the parrotfish season, a chance to pick up the last stragglers.
19:30So what about the health of the river?
19:34Solilo's hand-made traps are a good sign.
19:38Unlike the nylon nets I saw upstream, these baskets are designed to catch a particular fish at a particular time.
19:47What's more, it seems that different families fish different sections of the river.
19:52So it's in everyone's interest to look after their patch.
19:58Despite our modest haul, Solilo doesn't seem worried.
20:03Is it a lot better when it's the main season?
20:05See, this boat here, it's gonna be full up to this.
20:12Right, that's many pounds of fish, isn't it?
20:15Yes.
20:18Next, I'm about to feel the full force of this mighty river, as my investigation takes me into a country
20:25gripped by a 30-year dictatorship.
20:30We thought we were out of trouble.
20:32We've got to leave here.
20:41I'm in Africa, investigating the Zambezi, a river whose fortune seemed to swing dramatically from one stretch to the next.
20:51Now, I'm heading into Zimbabwe.
20:56Here, the 30-year dictatorship of Robert Mugabe has trashed the economy and spawned a repressive security system.
21:05Asking questions can land you in serious trouble.
21:09So I need to tread carefully.
21:15My first stop is the Zambezi's most iconic landmark.
21:23Victoria Falls is the largest curtain of water on Earth.
21:28You can hear it long before you see it.
21:33On many of the world's great rivers, you find huge cities on the banks and the waterways tend to form
21:40important transport routes.
21:42But not the Zambezi.
21:43And there's a very good reason for that.
21:46It's not exactly the easiest river to navigate.
21:49And because of this, the Zambezi has remained largely wild.
21:55But now, right here in the wildest part of this wildest of rivers, things could be about to change.
22:07Below the falls, the Zambezi has carved out the Batoka Gorge.
22:11A 75-mile cleft in the rock, flanked on both sides by rugged wilderness.
22:19Like America's Grand Canyon, this ancient geological wonder is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, supposedly protected by international agreements.
22:32But there are plans to build a huge hydroelectric dam here that will flood the entire valley.
22:41The best way to appreciate the wild beauty of this place...
22:46Holding on. Holding on.
22:47..is in a raft.
23:09So this is why you don't get any cargo boats or passenger boats going in either direction on this river.
23:16But the whitewater rapids of Batoka Gorge are among the best in the world for adventure tourism.
23:24This is easy now, yeah?
23:26Yes.
23:26And after this, just nice and smooth.
23:28Nice and smooth.
23:31By taming this stretch of the river, the new dam is set to destroy the wild heart of the Zambezi.
23:39I find it very hard to imagine this being a lake here.
23:44The thing about today, the water has just been moving, it's so powerful.
23:47The idea of this being still water and not here, but way up.
23:53I feel sad, but also we need electricity.
24:00600 million Africans, twice the population of the US, have no electricity.
24:06So people like Tetrix are resigned to the dam being built.
24:12Others are not.
24:15But opposition to the dam is not welcome here in Zimbabwe.
24:19I'm going to meet somebody from an organisation called International Rivers.
24:23But there's been a bit of a problem.
24:24It seems that the Zimbabwean government has got wind of me wanting to talk about this proposed dam.
24:30We were going to go and meet at the dam site.
24:32That would now be too risky.
24:33So we've had to go for a plan B.
24:38Questioning government policy has long been dangerous in Zimbabwe.
24:42So we're meeting in secret, out in the bush.
24:48Rudo Sanyanga believes that people don't understand the full impact of the Batoka Dam.
24:54People are made to believe that this project is really good for them.
24:59It's going to benefit them.
25:01But the impacts, the hidden costs, are not announced to the people.
25:07The big questions are not asked, like, who is going to benefit?
25:12As well as doubting that electricity will ever get to people like Tetrix,
25:17Rudo is concerned that with global warming, the dam won't deliver what was originally promised.
25:23Lower water levels, and hence less water running through the dam's turbines, will mean less power is produced.
25:31Batoka would lose up to 22% of its generation capacity due to climate change.
25:39So you've got those turbines there, and if nothing's going through the turbines, no power?
25:45No power.
25:46The authorities say they're listening to people's concerns.
25:50But downstream, there could be a telling precedent at Zimbabwe's existing mega dam.
25:57Kariba was the first big hydro dam built across the Zambezi.
26:03Decades later, though, the surrounding villages are still not connected to the electricity grid.
26:09And the reservoir's receding water doesn't bode well for the future.
26:15I've come here to find out what happens when you transform a wild river into a huge man-made lake.
26:24Does it automatically spell disaster for the creatures that live in and along the river?
26:29Or could there be some surprise winners?
26:34These are just massive animals. Massive.
26:43Hippos use the water to keep cool.
26:46But they're fiercely territorial.
26:49And if there's one thing that gets them riled, it's a perceived intruder.
26:54There are so many of these things here, and most of the time, you just don't see them.
26:58They could be right underneath you.
27:05Is this close enough?
27:07Armed with massive tusks, these notoriously aggressive vegetarians kill more people than lions,
27:14and maybe even crocodiles.
27:28I'm in Zimbabwe, investigating the mighty Zambezi.
27:33I've had to meet in secret to learn about a planned dam.
27:37And now I'm in trouble on the world's biggest reservoir.
27:41Oh! It's too close, too close, too close!
27:48There's one well-known saying, it's the hippo you can't see.
27:51It's the one you've got to be worried about.
27:57Since hippos are grazers that feed on land, they can't tell me much about the underwater ecosystem.
28:04I need to find out about the fish.
28:07Morning.
28:08Morning, hi. Hello.
28:11These fishermen are Tonga, a river tribe that was displaced when Lake Kariba was created.
28:18They've got a good haul, including tigerfish.
28:22Has this been out all night?
28:23No, overnight.
28:25A lot of tigers?
28:27Yeah.
28:28It's a good season.
28:31Do people check the nets?
28:32Yes, sir.
28:35And if they catch you with a small net, what do they do?
28:37They give fiends.
28:39So you're fiends?
28:40A hundred dollars.
28:41A hundred dollars?
28:42This net is the biggest size I've seen on the river.
28:45Upstream, this size?
28:48Small meshes finish the fish.
28:51How do you feel about the regulation net size?
28:54I just need this net because I've got a three-month child.
28:58So in 20 days to come, the fish will be there.
29:03It looks like the strict regulations here are working.
29:06And welcome.
29:09This is a good catch.
29:13But what about the even bigger fish that feed on tigerfish?
29:20The presence of top predators is usually a clear sign of a healthy river.
29:25And I'm itching to test the waters myself.
29:35I want the surface.
29:38There's the fish.
29:39It looks like a good-sized vundu catfish.
29:43Oh, under the boat.
29:50I think it's off.
29:52Right.
29:58Hoping to tempt another one, I throw out more bait.
30:08But the vundu isn't the biggest predator in the water.
30:14I think that splashing around has distracted him.
30:16He's coming right towards the boat.
30:18Nile crocs are well-known man-eaters.
30:21They can reach lengths of 18 feet, which is longer than my canoe.
30:27The local fishermen tell me that the crocodiles here have learnt to start tipping fishermen out of boats.
30:37It's coming closer and closer.
30:48It's time to pull out.
30:51But I have my answer.
30:53Since fish make up the bulk of a Nile crocodile's diet, their abundance along the shores points to a healthy
31:00aquatic food chain.
31:03But what about the middle of the lake?
31:06Lake Kariba is only 60 years old, yet I've heard it's teeming with a fish that didn't even exist here
31:12before.
31:14To see for myself what's going on, I've arranged to go out on one of the many makeshift fishing boats
31:20that ply the open water.
31:23Then, without warning, my investigation hits a wall.
31:29Well, we thought we were out of trouble.
31:34We thought it was just the proposed dam in the gorge that there was a problem about.
31:38But it turns out, we've just heard, our filming permission has been withdrawn.
31:42We've got to leave here.
31:45For reasons that aren't clear, I've been kicked out of Zimbabwe.
31:57So far on the Zambezi, I've seen some encouraging examples of intelligent fishing, which works for the future as well
32:04as the present.
32:05But I've also witnessed rampant overfishing.
32:10In Zimbabwe, where the government plans to dam the wild Batoka Gorge, I'd hoped to find out how the huge
32:18Kariba dam is already affecting the Zambezi.
32:22Unfortunately, though, I've been kicked out.
32:26So I'm heading downriver into Mozambique.
32:33The town of Sena is right beside the Zambezi.
32:39I'm hoping its fish market can tell me what's coming out of the river.
32:47For 400 years, Mozambique was a colony of the Portuguese.
32:52And the language, which I know from my years in Brazil, is still spoken.
33:03They're all either smoked or salted, not seeing anything fresh here, nothing on ice.
33:08There's no ice anywhere to be seen.
33:11Most of the fish on offer are sea fish that have been dried and trucked in from the coast.
33:18There's precious little from the river, and what there is, is small.
33:27So I'm just asking if we've got any big fish here today. He says, no. You know, sometimes there's big
33:31fish, but generally, you know, what we're looking at is small fish.
33:35It looks like the river may have run out of fish.
33:39Or have I just picked a bad day?
33:42Very interesting market. There's no fresh fish here at all, but the main thing is I'm not noticing any big
33:47fish.
33:47However, they've given me the name of a fisherman who sometimes catches big fish, so I think that could be
33:53my next stop.
33:56I'm concerned that the river here has lost its big predatory fish.
34:00But before I write it off, I need to find this mystery fisherman.
34:06His name is Benjamin, and I've been told that unlike everyone else, he fishes with lines.
34:17So he used to fish with nets like all the other fishermen. His boat was stolen, so what he does
34:22now is fishes with a hook and line from the side of the river, and this is how he's picking
34:26up some of the bigger fish.
34:29Benjamin claims that the big fish can still be found, but he has a word of warning.
34:38Just weeks ago, a fisherman here was snatched and killed by a crocodile.
34:43He says I need to visit the witch doctor for protection before I go anywhere near the river bank.
34:51I'm surprised to find that the witch doctor is a woman.
35:06They've just asked me a question which made me think quite deeply. They said, what is the name of the
35:10spirit in your place that helps you to fish?
35:12And I'm thinking, well, I sort of do have a voice inside my head when I'm fishing.
35:17And they seem to get there, and they said, well, the name of the spirit that helps fishermen is called
35:21Hambalumi.
35:26To give me the protection that Benjamin says I need, the witch doctor calls upon Hambalumi.
35:43With the spirit now on my side, Benjamin is happy to take me to the river bank.
35:51It's coming up for dusk, prime time for predators.
35:59So the spirits for crocodiles, when he came down, the first thing he did was just jab that in the
36:03water, just in case something was there with his nose just under the surface.
36:07Benjamin is philosophical about the danger.
36:11He says he already has many grandchildren.
36:18That's the bite alarm on the end, that's a tin with stones in it, so if anything's on the line
36:21that will rattle that.
36:23All it needs now is just to bait the hooks, the three hooks here, chuck it out, wait for the
36:28rattle.
36:37So that's all set up. My turn now to get rigged.
36:47I'm starting to wonder, could the scarcity of river fish in the market simply be down to a fear of
36:54crocodiles?
36:57Yeah, what Benjamin's doing looks a little bit hairy to me.
36:59I mean, knowing about the crocs in this water here, you know, I wouldn't want to be, I wouldn't want
37:04to be actually in the water.
37:17I'm on the lower Zambezi, hoping to get hands on with an apex predator, as long as it's not a
37:24crocodile.
37:27Benjamin claims that big fish are still here.
37:30Whatever it is, it's right in the bushes here.
37:31And if he's right, that's good news for the river.
37:37New me.
37:38New me.
37:39New me.
37:42And...
37:45OK.
37:48Hey.
37:50OK, OK, OK, OK?
37:52OK, OK.
37:54OK.
38:02This is what Benjamin calls a new me, but which I know as a window.
38:07It's a good size.
38:09Maybe 15 minutes with a bait in the water, and this came along.
38:12So I say it's a pretty good sign.
38:15It seems that Benjamin is right.
38:18Despite what I saw in the fish market, the river here is still home to big fish.
38:27Which means the small fish must be here too.
38:32But I'm not yet done with this river.
38:36Further downstream, at the river's mouth, I've heard there may be big problems.
38:54After carving its way across half the continent, Africa's mighty Zambezi finally approaches the sea.
39:02Its huge delta is a crucial wetland refuge for hundreds of species.
39:08But from up in the air, it's immediately apparent that something isn't right.
39:14Much of the landscape here is nothing like I expected.
39:18Normally with a delta, you've got that classic branching pattern like the branches of a tree.
39:23But here, there's none of that at all.
39:28Mark Haldane has been flying here for 30 years and says he's witnessed a dramatic change.
39:35I was expecting to see more watercourses.
39:38It's because there's no flooding anymore.
39:42There's no longer floods to the extent it used to.
39:46It's definitely dried up.
39:48So the floods used to keep the waterways open.
39:52Now a lot of them are blocked up.
39:53Absolutely correct.
39:56What's holding back the floods is no secret.
40:00The Kariba Dam and Mozambique's huge Cahorabasa Dam could be game-changers.
40:08For millennia, natural flooding didn't just keep river channels open.
40:12It also deterred people from settling the delta.
40:17Now, because of the big dams, inhospitable swamps are becoming potential farmland.
40:24Where wildlife roams today, there could soon be fields, villages, and eventually cities.
40:38The way things are going, we shouldn't take spectacles like this for granted.
40:44Just an incredible sight.
40:46Incredible.
40:50For centuries, the Zambezi was protected by its wildness.
40:57Today, overfishing and a thirst for hydropower are starting to kill off this mighty river.
41:05But there is also hope.
41:08For many years, the countries that share the Zambezi have been divided and underdeveloped.
41:14Now at peace and increasingly prosperous, they have a clear but brief opportunity to stop its further decline and secure
41:24its long-term future.
41:49To find out what you can do to help the rivers in your part of the world, go to animalplanet
41:54.com slash mighty rivers.
41:56To be continued...
41:56To be continued...