All language subtitles for deep_trouble_2

It's only in the last 50 years with the
invention of the aqualung that we've

been able to get underwater and see some
of the animals that live there.

We all love dolphins.

They're the playful, popular face of the
ocean.

But most of what lives underwater is out
of sight, and so out of mind.

Even in the 20 -odd years that I've been
diving, there have been big changes in

our seas.

It's clear that our oceans are now in
real danger.

Flying over miles and miles of ocean,
you get the impression that things

too bad.

But below the surface, there's a
multitude of man -made problems.

Of all of them, probably the most
destructive is fishing.

And it's the way we catch fish that's
the problem.

Bluefin tuna, king of the sea.

They are exquisitely designed for the
open ocean.

They can grow up to three quarters of a
ton and can swim at 50 miles an hour,

faster than any other creature in the
sea, apart from us.

They have few natural predators when
fully grown.

It is believed that these bluefins are
now endangered.

There's no place in the ocean where we
can't pursue them.

They just can't escape us.

Fishing has become incredibly high
-tech, so much so that we can pretty

capture anything anywhere in the world
nowadays.

These bluefin tuna boats beneath me have
every mod con.

They have incredibly big engines,
they're using depth sounders, GPSes, and

they've even got spotter planes in the
air.

spotting the fish for them. Yeah, Paul,
I had about eight fish over here.

They just went down.

They're on my left side.

So the bluefin tuna, travelling at 50
miles an hour, hasn't really got much of

chance. The moment it comes to the
surface, somebody's going to spot it.

Come left.

Yeah, there you go. 12 o 'clock, five or
six boats.

Here they're being hunted on one of
their major migration routes.

It's thought they swim from the Gulf of
Mexico up the eastern seaboard of the

United States to Canada each summer.

Their routes are so predictable that
fishermen can catch them year after

While these fishermen are still catching
them, There are scientists who are

tagging the fish, trying to discover how
many separate populations there are,

what their movements are, and just how
many fish are left.

Marine scientist and keen sports
fisherman, Carl Safina, fishes off Long

New York.

He loves fishing for bluefin, but these
days he has to target other species.

I've been fishing offshore since i was
12 with my fathers and my uncles and we

used to see lots of bluefin tuna a lot
of small ones and a lot of big ones now

uh there aren't so few tuna that people
sport fish for sharks now

safina is so concerned

by the decline in numbers that he
started a campaign with the National

Society to try and save these tuna.

What we do know about bluefins in the
western part of the Atlantic, in other

words, the part of the Atlantic off the
U .S. and Canada, is that from the mid

-1970s until the late 1990s, the
population has declined by roughly

85%.

In New England, where most of the
Western Atlantic bluefin are caught

commercially, fishermen just don't
believe these government figures.

They claim there are consistent mistakes
in the analysis.

So they're naturally very skeptical
about the quotas the government imposes

them.

Scientific research in the ocean is
expensive, and the politics surrounding

fish are complicated.

But one thing is indisputable.

These fish sell for vast amounts of
money.

The bluefin tuna was worth a few cents a
pound and often sold as cat food until

some people realized that if they
airlifted them to Japan, if they sent

Japan in airplanes, the price would go
from a few cents to many dollars per

pound.

Tsukiji Market in Tokyo is the biggest
push market in the world.

Before I came to Japan, I'd heard a lot
about it, but I just wasn't prepared for

the scale of it.

This warehouse is just the frozen
section.

In another section, there are rows and
rows of fresh tuna, and amongst these

a frightening quantity of bluefin.

The Japanese are by far the biggest
importers of bluefin tuna in the world.

This is big business.

These bluefin are fetching £60 a kilo.

So in today's auction, a dealer would
expect to get £12 ,000 for this one fish

alone. But the market fluctuates madly,
and there have been bluefin here that

have fetched more than £100 ,000.

Tuna fishermen don't accept the bluefin
numbers are right down, but most

scientists firmly believe that they are.

Many people want bluefin tuna listed as
slightly dependent one.

In other words, a total ban on all
fishing of them.

Unless this is done, there is no way the
fishermen, the wholesalers, everybody

involved in the market will give up.
There's simply too much in it for them.

This market is not just about tuna.

There's every conceivable type of fish
here.

Nearly 50 % of the food eaten in Japan
comes from the sea, compared to the

world's average of about 15%. They eat
enormous quantities of fish, every

species imaginable.

But unfortunately, some of those species
are in deep trouble.

This is a swordfish. In the Atlantic,
its numbers have more than halved since

the 1960s. As a result... Many
restaurants have now taken it off the

Marlin are a favourite amongst game
fishermen, and some species are down by

While shark meat is on sale

in many Japanese markets, by far the
biggest trade is in shark fins, and that

trade is Asia -wide.

About 100 million sharks are caught
every year.

Admittedly, this is the biggest market.

But there are hundreds of markets all
over the world selling huge quantities

fish. And it's not just one day a week.
It's day after day after day.

You might find some really strange
creatures here, ones which are totally

unfamiliar to us.

But that's not the issue. It's often the
more common species that are seriously

threatened. And those you can find on
sale at home.

This is Billingsgate Market, the largest
fish market in London.

Here you can buy all the familiar fish,
which we love to eat.

But in the UK, every day we're eating
fish whose stocks are dangerously low.

Most of us have no idea that these fish
are in trouble, even the most common

ones, such as cod.

At the moment, the worst problem is with
cod in the Irish Sea, which is really

in a very, very depressed state indeed.

The northeast Arctic stock off the coast
of Norway is not in very good shape.

The Canadian stock is not in good shape.
The North Sea stock is not in good

shape. About the only one that's doing
reasonably well at the moment is that

Iceland. And if that one goes the same
way...

There will be no Atlantic cod.

There simply will not be any cod for
sale.

So is this a normal tide for a cod these
days?

That's about an average side there,
yeah. When you go and buy fish in the

supermarket or in the fish and chip
shop, you generally as a consumer have

way to tell whether this has come from a
stock that is overfished or a stock

that isn't. Where are these ones from?
They're from Aberdeen.

Was it in the North Sea? We know that
fish stocks do collapse and sometimes

recover. The herring collapsed and
recovered.

There was a stock of mackerel in the
North Sea in the 60s and 70s that

under very heavy fishing pressure by
Perth seine and it has not come back. In

years it has not come back.

The sole and the place are fully
exploited and could not really sustain

further. fishing pressure the herring
also is fully exploited there's no room

for expansion now with so much fishing
pressure in surface waters fishermen are

going deeper and deeper to find fish for
the market we're seeing things here

that we would never even have heard of
20 years ago this is a black

scabbard and it lives at about a
thousand meters so are these fish in

It's hard to say, really, because like
everything else that lives in the deep,

very little is known about it. And
that's the problem with deep -sea

The scientists don't really know what's
going on down there, and they're only

just beginning to find out.

Scientists from Tasmania are now using
high -tech cameras mounted on

submersibles to study the effects of
fishing on the deep sea.

Only in the last 30 years have we had
the technology to fish the deep.

But in many places, the fishing pressure
has been very intense.

This particular fish is now on our
menus.

These white fish are the fillets of a
deep -sea fish called orange roughy. You

may have noticed them in your local
fishmonger or supermarket recently.

They can live at up to depths of 1 ,500
metres.

And like a lot of deep -sea fish, they
live a very long time.

These ones could have been born during
World War II. They could even have been

around during the Victorian era.

It's believed that orange roughy can
live to a staggering 150 years old.

As well as living longer, these fish
mature later, at about 30 years old.

If you take them out before this age,
they won't be able to reproduce.

There won't be a future generation of
orange roughy.

For many years, the fishing pressure
here was huge.

Thousands of tons were scooped up for
the market and sold around the world.

At times, so many were caught, there
wasn't even the market for them. They

just dumped.

Fortunately, the New Zealand and
Australian fisheries recognise the

time. They now monitor the fish stocks
carefully.

The fish may be safe, but the habitat
they rely on isn't.

In the deep sea, there are animals so
new to us and so strange, it's as if we

are in another world.

Despite its remoteness, the deep -sea
habitat is now under threat.

And once again, it's the method of
fishing that is causing the real damage.

Deep -sea fishing nets are huge.

They dredge up life indiscriminately.

Corals and sponges hundreds of years old
are being ripped off the seabed and

destroyed.

What it's all actually done,
particularly in the deep sea, where

is concentrated around seamounts, which
are very hard rock, to protect the net

from the rock, they've got huge steel
balls on them. Those balls are about a

half a metre in diameter, and they run
along in a huge ground rope. Now that

is pulled along, it's like three knots,
smacking into the rock. Smack, smack,

smack, smack, smack, smack, smack.

So this net basically comes along and it
physically mows that thing down, just

rips it off, shoots it into the back of
the net, it's history.

It's got no chance of living after that.

You can't see the damage done at that.

But if the same was done on land, you'd
be horrified.

If we wanted to catch cows, for
instance, we'd get a net and we'd hang

a helicopter and we'd drag that through
the paddock. We would not only catch a

few cows, we'd catch the dog, we'd catch
the car, we'd catch the farmyard, the

barn, we'd catch the farmer's wife, we'd
catch all of the other stuff that we

weren't originally going for.

O'Shea is concerned about many of the
animals that are being brought up from

deep, most of them unintentionally.

He's monitoring the damage being done
from his lab in New Zealand.

One of the most spectacular things we've
received in fisheries bycatch is this

large gorgonian.

It's like a black coral, it's very
closely related to it, and this

specimen we've had aged at some 700
years old. So it's 700 years when the

came down and basically ripped it off
the bottom of the sea.

It's dead, it's gone. When you add up
the pieces together, you would have some

three metres in...

total height from the sea floor and that
must be the equivalent of an underwater

forest. It's just tragic that something
like this should be ripped from the

floor.

This particular species used to be very
common between 700 and 1100 metres off

our coast but like everything that is
very fragile and were we to put a steel

bobbin straight over that it would be
crushed to pieces.

O'Shea has a particular fascination for
deep -sea squid, but he's worried that

many of them are disappearing before
we've even had a chance to see them

in the wild, let alone understand them.

This species used to be very common
around New Zealand. Along the entire

Northland Beach coast, it's gone.

And the only reason why an animal like
this is gone... It's so stupid, it's so

slow, it wasn't hurting anyone, it got
attacked by a trawler net, and the

trawlers have been going back and forth
the same area for so long, we've

basically made this animal extinct.

With every single dive to the deep
ocean, scientists are discovering new

species. Some may have properties that
could be invaluable to us.

Sponges are animals.

but they're rooted to the bottom and
can't get away from something that's

to eat them or something that's trying
to grow over them.

So they produce chemicals to ward off
predators or other encroaching sponges.

It's these chemicals that interest
marine scientists in Florida.

They collect sponges from the deep and
take them back to the lab for analysis.

The challenge to us as drug discoverers
and marine biologists is to figure out

why the organism is producing it and
then apply that knowledge to try and

out what might be an appropriate drug
target for that chemical compound.

Pomponi and her team have been using the
chemicals from these sponges in a

series of trials.

They believe the chemicals will prevent
the growth of cancer cells in humans.

Ideally we want something that will kill
a certain type of cancer cell, so it

will be very specific for certain types
of cancer.

And so far the results are very
encouraging.

So, yes, we think that this will be
useful as a treatment for certain forms

cancer.

So far, we've only explored 2 % of the
deep.

We could be in danger of losing a
treasure trove of species before we've

discovered them.

If we lose that biological diversity
that occurs in

the deep ocean, and it does, then we
lose that chemical diversity and we lose

the opportunity to discover new drugs.

It's not just the deep that's in danger.

Shallow water habitats like coral reefs
are having a hard time too.

Part of the problem is the growing trade
in reef fish, and it's often the market

demand for luxury fish like groupers,
coral trout and wrasse that's behind the

problem. They're being fished out at an
alarming rate.

Fish on coral reefs that were once a
staple food for local people are now in

high demand as a delicacy for people in
major cities around the world.

The majority goes to mainland China and
cities like Hong Kong.

It's a huge market and some 30 ,000
tonnes of reef fish come into Hong Kong

every year.

But the fishermen are having to go to
coral reefs further and further afield

stocks dry up.

Some now travel 3 ,000 miles on a single
fishing trip to find reefs with fish.

People like their fish fresh, very
fresh.

So much so that the cost of live fish is
ten times the cost of fresh dead fish.

And the fish in the marketplace are
getting smaller and smaller.

Dr. Yvonne Sadovi is worried about the
amount of juveniles being sold here.

This beautiful animal is a humphead
wrasse, and he's called humphead wrasse

because of his hump on his head.

And the other one is the giant grouper.
This is the giant grouper.

There's several of them.

And these are juveniles.

This one is probably a late teenager.

but still not particularly old or well
-developed fish.

And the majority that we see of these
species are young juvenile fish.

Humphead wrasse should be able to live
for more than 20 years, but they rarely

reach that age these days. They're taken
out far too young.

If you have fisheries which take large
numbers of juveniles, these animals have

not had a chance to reproduce.

So you start to wonder...

Where's the next generation going to
come from?

If you take too many juveniles, slowly
what happens is you don't get enough

adults in the next generation, and
slowly the populations or stocks decline

numbers.

So that's what my concern is, that if
this is part of a trend... that we're

seeing more and more juveniles being
taken in this trade, then that does not

augur well for these particular species.

But much more serious than the possible
loss of a few species is the loss of an

entire habitat, especially one which
supports thousands upon thousands of

species.

reef are the most diverse communities in
our oceans many of them have grown up

over hundreds sometimes thousands of
years and over that time a fantastic

of animals and plants have evolved with
them the intricate

structure built by the corals themselves
provides animals with protection from

predators important breeding sites and
endless feeding opportunities

But now the coral itself is under threat
from man.

Today, dynamiting is commonplace.

It's an efficient way to kill all the
nearby fish.

but just one blast will completely
flatten a patch of reef.

And there are lots of other threats to
reef right across the world.

Sometimes it's pollution, sometimes they
get covered by sediment, and global

warming is certainly playing its part
too.

Here in Southeast Asia, 80 % of reefs
are either in danger of dying or are

A lot of it's been dynamited, but now a
more sinister method of fishing is being

used. It's fast, it's effective, but
it's highly illegal.

Fishermen are using the poison cyanide.

Fishermen squirt sodium cyanide into
crevices where fish take refuge.

Cyanide starves the fish of oxygen, and
so they come out into the open

temporarily dazed and much easier to
catch.

Not all these fish are for food. Many of
them are for the aquarium trade.

They're purely a luxury item.

The corals themselves die in just a few
weeks, and the whole reef becomes

smothered in algae.

That was a reconstruction, but this is
real life.

Members of the International Marine
Alliance in the Philippines are trying

save their few remaining reefs.

They suspect these men have been fishing
illegally.

They're trying to find out where and how
they've been fishing, but the fishermen

are wary.

They're afraid to tell us where the
places are because there might be some

retaliation.

from the other villagers in this
village.

They hide the bottles underneath the
boat and when another

boat approaches, they just ditch this so
that nobody could see it.

These men know they could end up in
jail.

It's so hard to police the coastal areas
of the Philippines because it's...

It's a very long coastal area.

Another thing is that if you jail them,
you don't have enough room in jail.

We were taken to a jail on the island of
Coron.

These men have been arrested for illegal
fishing and they're waiting trial.

They've been locked up for months, but
the trader, the middleman, is still

I don't think we can lump in all the
blames into the fishermen because first

that they do not know anything better.

They're afraid of being caught, but they
say there's no other method to catch

fish.

When they've been squirted with cyanide,
fish don't die immediately.

But the damage has been done, and their
internal organs gradually pack up.

The trader has to move them fast as they
will die in just a few weeks.

Cruz is sure that the importers know
when cyanide has been used because the

mortality rate is so high.

But they simply choose to ignore it.

Importers would know immediately that
there's something wrong with these

But yet they...

start and keep on importing from the
same exporter in the Philippines or in

other countries.

The majority of tropical fish caught in
Indonesia and the Philippines are

exported to America and here to the UK.

Fortunately, there are a lot of
responsible importers, like the owner of

shop, who refuse to buy fish that have
been caught by cyanide. But as a

customer, you can't tell how a fish was
caught.

The responsibility lies with us to check
with the shopkeeper.

And if you don't, it may only take a
couple of weeks before your ornamental

is as dead as the reef it came from.

Really loud.

I'm wishing I could be that kind of
fool. Shall I twist your arm? I'd say no

more work for mine.

Welcome to the club.

On my door I'd hang a sign.

Gone fishing.

Instead of just a wishing.

This abandoned net is made of tough
nylon, which won't easily disintegrate.

If it isn't removed, it could carry on
killing like this for years and years to

come.

If one small net on one reef can cause
this much damage.

Imagine what fishing nets do on a global
scale.

Our fishing methods today ensure that we
catch more and more.

But a lot of what is caught is thrown
away, simply chucked overboard, usually

dead.

Modern fisheries are very destructive.

They don't just catch what they're
after. They catch everything else that's

there as well.

The United Nations tells us that up to
30 million metric tons a year are caught

by fisheries and simply thrown
overboard, dead or dying.

That's one -quarter to one -third of the
annual catch around the world.

I'm talking about not just non -target
fish species, but sea turtles, marine

mammals, seabirds such as albatrosses
and so forth, even whales on occasion.

No matter how magnificent no animal is
spared in our hunt for food

But what's even

more ridiculous is that often the fish
that we would eat are thrown away if the

boat is targeting a different species
and There's one particular fishery

where the waste is phenomenal

Prawn or shrimp trawling is the worst
example of destructive fisheries in the

world. Prawn and shrimp trawling is
ubiquitous throughout the tropics. The

are dragged along the bottom. The shrimp
live in the habitat along the bottom.

Those nets hoover up everything in their
path.

Up to 15 pounds of other species are
taken aboard and discarded for every one

pound of shrimp that's caught.

Worse still are the quantities of
juvenile fish that get thrown away.

Hundreds of thousands of tons of young
fish are discarded every year. Fish that

would otherwise grow to become an
important and very valuable source of

And all this for just a handful of
prawns.

The fishermen have recognized the
problem and have asked for help.

So Dr. Steve Kennelly is now looking at
the prawn fishing industry in New South

Wales, Australia.

Here the industry is huge.

They catch over a thousand tons of
prawns a year.

Kennelly has invented a bycatch
reduction device.

a BRD, which lets the smaller, immature
fish escape from the net.

This is the cod end that actually gets
towed along behind at the back of the

and right down the back of the whole
operation, and all the catch that goes

a trawl net ends up in this bag, at the
back of this bag.

We did some trials in flume tanks and
other experiments, and we found that at

certain point in the cod end, just in
front of where this...

cotton material changes, you get a back
pressure of water and by putting in this

panel of open square meshes just at that
point where that back pressure of water

is occurring, the water will tend to
flow up and out through that square mesh

panel. Now little fish, as they're
swimming along inside this net, feel

back pressure of water and their
immediate escape response is to head

and out through the open square mesh
panels.

Kennelly is experimenting with two
different nets.

This first one is a conventional prawn
fishing net.

Okay, this is the catch from the control
caught in, that is from the

conventional caught in without any BRD
in it.

As you can see, there's quite a large
number of small fish in the catch, and

hopefully in the other caught in with
the BRD installed, there'll be a lot

fish and still the same quantity of
prawns.

This is the net with its bycatch
reduction device in it. It's immediately

obvious that fewer fish have been
accidentally caught.

So that's the difference in bycatch
there.

Most of the smaller fish have escaped,
so at least they should have a chance to

breed. You've just got to have a look
for your own eyes and there's no doubt

that there's, I'd say there's at
least... Probably a 60 % maybe even more

reduction in bycatch there.

Kennelly's device has gone a long way to
reducing the waste.

But he knows that it's not the whole
answer.

I don't think it's possible to ever have
a situation where we can go out and

confidently only catch the things we're
trying to catch.

Just about every fishing method you're
going to catch undersized organisms of

the target species.

To get it down to the position where we
don't catch any bycatch at all for

things like prawns and shrimp and so on,
I don't think we're ever going to get

to that particular point, at least not
in the foreseeable future.

But there is possibly another way, one
where there may be no bycatch at all.

It's fish farming or aquaculture.

Already it's producing huge quantities
of fish.

fish farming be the solution?

At the moment, one in every four fish
that we eat is farmed. But over the next

25 years, it's thought that figure will
double, that half the fish we eat will

be farmed. So is this the answer? Can we
really protect our fish stocks, protect

the juveniles, protect the fragile
marine habitats?

In fact, is fish farming the solution to
all our fishing problems?

If aquaculture is one of the answers,
then surely the people with the highest

incentive to get it right are the
Japanese.

They're already very advanced in farming
fish.

They're now even trying to raise large
predatory fish like tuna, and in

particular, bluefin tuna.

Here in Kushimoto in western Japan,
they're going for broke.

Swimming around beneath me in this
enclosure, there are 50...

fully mature bluefin tuna these tuna
were caught in the

wild and are now being fattened up for
market they're being fed generously so

they'll be in prime adult condition when
they're sold here they've taken tuna

farming to the next stage they're not
just holding them they're actually

breeding these captive bluefin They hope
that these fish will themselves breed

in three years time and so complete the
whole life cycle in captivity Then

they won't have to take any more bluefin
tuna from our oceans

Japan is

the largest tuna consuming nation in the
world

And we're also very concerned about the
diminishing stocks of bluefin tuna in

the wild.

Aquaculture has its own set of well
-known problems.

The most worrying are pollution, as well
as the mixing of captive -bred fish

with wild stocks.

But there's another issue.

These tuna are fed a staggering amount
of fish every day.

They're being fed valuable protein,
which should be food for the poorer

of Asia.

So now the Japanese are trying to
develop a substitute feed, either from

vegetable matter or from animal
products.

And we hope further development will
enable us to use more and more

feed in the future.

But they haven't succeeded yet, and they
still take huge quantities of low

-value fish to feed one big luxury fish.

In other parts of Asia, which are poorer
than Japan, and where fish stocks are

already heavily depleted, they are also
turning to agriculture.

And tiger prawns are the biggest money
earner. More than half a million tonnes

of prawns are produced a year, nearly
all of which are exported.

It's big business and it employs a lot
of people.

But just like tuna, the prawns are
carnivorous and they need to eat fish,

that have been ground into pellets.

And when they're farmed as intensively
as they are here, they need a lot of

feed.

If you have three square meters of pond
for one tiger prawn, that's extensive.

You don't have to feed anything. Nature
will feed the prawn.

But if you have 30 of them in one square
meter, then you have to provide some

kind of food.

Now, I think the latest figures are
about two, two kilos of fish

to produce one kilo of prawn.

Substitute feeds may help, but they
could come too late.

In the meantime, low -value fish are fed
to prawns, which are then exported to

the West.

These fish should be feeding local
people.

It's the little fish that's there that's
being bought by

people, by Filipino families for their
food, low -income families and middle

-income families.

That will not be available to these
families.

But there's another issue.

Thousands of intensive farms have been
built in coastal areas, destroying a

valuable marine habitat, mangrove
forests.

Mile upon mile of mangroves have been
cut down.

The coastline has been stripped of its
natural protection.

And there are many important ecological
reasons why mangroves should be

protected.

To many people, mangroves are just a
mass of gnarled roots where the bottom

sludgy and muddy and yuck, and the air
is full of mosquitoes.

But get underwater, and it's a very
different world.

The intricate root system provides a
natural nursery for young fish.

They spend their later life out on coral
reefs or in the open sea.

The roots provide protection from
predators which is vital for small,

fish.

In the shelter of mangroves, fish can
feed and grow in relative safety.

Again, it's the habitat that's under
threat.

We're carelessly destroying it without a
thought for the animals that depend on

it.

Perhaps the answer might be to set aside
some areas of the sea so that the

animals that live there, whatever they
are, have a chance.

As soon as we recognise that land
animals need protecting, we usually do

something about it.

The huge game reserves of Africa are a
classic example, but for some reason we

treat our seas very differently.

This is the island of Skoma, a very
beautiful reserve that offers excellent

protection for all the birds and plants
that live here.

It also calls itself a marine nature
reserve, one of only two in the whole of

Britain.

You'd think a marine reserve would offer
total protection for all life under the

sea.

But amazingly, you can fish here. Even
commercial fishermen can operate here.

In the time of our grandfathers, there
were natural marine reserves,

inaccessible to fishing fleets.

There, the fish could grow to maturity
undisturbed.

But with modern fishing technology,
there's practically nowhere we now can't

fish. Only a tiny percentage of the
ocean is a safe sanctuary.

Something like one -third of one percent
of the oceans are currently within

marine protected areas.

That's a very tiny fraction, and it's
equivalent to something like the size of

South Africa.

However, we're not really protecting
those areas well enough at the moment,

only something like one -tenth
-thousandth of the surface of the oceans

protected from all forms of fishing at
the moment.

That's equivalent to the size of
Holland.

It's a tiny fraction and it isn't nearly
enough.

Roberts wants areas set aside which are
totally protected.

There are some small areas where they've
done this, like this reserve off the

North Island of New Zealand.

Since they stopped fishing 25 years ago,
the stocks have recovered and the water

is now teeming with fish.

And it's not just fish, everything's
doing well.

Lobsters are abundant again and they're
getting a lot bigger.

Scientists monitor stocks carefully and
keep a close eye on how all the animals

in the reserve are doing.

This five kilometre wide reserve
produces the same number of lobsters as

hundred kilometre stretch of unprotected
coastline.

Fishermen are allowed to fish right up
to the boundaries.

The lobsters are now so abundant within
the reserve, there isn't room, so they

spread out into the surrounding waters.

And so what these no -take zones provide
to fisheries is an increase in the

replenishment to their fisheries.
They're spawning stocks which are being

protected. They're like deposits in a
bank account.

Even the behaviour of the fish has
changed.

Once scared of man, the fish are now
perhaps a little over -friendly.

Roberts believes that between 10 and 20
% of our oceans should become no -take

zones, that we should protect large
areas of different marine habitats, the

sea, coral reefs, mangroves, as well as
key spawning grounds.

That way, fish can grow bigger and
older, and stocks will recover.

And he also believes that migration
routes and feeding grounds should be

protected, particularly the routes taken
by the largest marine animals of all,

the whales, as they circumnavigate the
globe.

It's a simple idea, and one that Roberts
believes, with the public's help, is

possible.

Once people realize what's going on, and
they begin to bring to bear pressure on

the politicians and decision makers,
then I think we'll see moves taking

to establish the areas that we need to
set aside from fishing.

We can make that choice. We've done it
before. We brought back some of the

whales from near extinction.

Most of them can now spend their entire
lives free from the threat of a whaling

boat. But it took international
cooperation, and that only came about

public realised how close the whales
were to being wiped out.

Whaling was a huge industry right up
until the 1970s.

Some species very nearly disappeared
from our oceans altogether.

We recognised this just in time, so we
did something about it.

We do now know what's happening in our
oceans.

We know they're in trouble and that
we're to blame.

We can't hide behind an out -of -sight,
out -of -mind attitude anymore.

We know what's down there, the
extraordinary diversity of life.

Our oceans are so precious, so vital to
the planet.

If we care about that, then surely we
can look after them.