All language subtitles for Sea.Of.Hope.Americas.Underwater.Treasures.2017.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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SYLVIA EARLE:
When I was a kid, we thought

the ocean was too big to fail.

Now we know better.

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

MAX KENNEDY:
National parks protect

America's natural treasures
on the land.

The same must be done for the ocean.

It is a frontier in peril.

♪ ♪

On the 100th anniversary
of our National Park Service,

a pioneering expedition travels
from sea to shining sea

to help inspire one man...

BARACK OBAMA:
A great honor to meet you.

MAX: ...to create blue parks
across an unseen wilderness.

BRIAN SKERRY: If we're not careful
it'll slip through our fingers.

SYLVIA: We need all of it
for us to survive.

We have a chance that
will never come again.

♪ ♪

MAX:
Factory-scale taking of wild fish

is an example of what's at stake.

Schooling in the trillions,

menhaden filter the Atlantic and Gulf.

They are so crucial to the diet
of bigger fish,

they're known as the most
important fish in the sea.

Yet they are targeted
by the menhaden reduction industry,

not to be eaten by humans,

but rendered into fertilizer
and chicken feed.

DONNIE SMITH:
Just like the Bible says.

It says in greedin' times
you will destroy your own Earth.

And that's what's happening.

It's in front your eyes.

All you got to do is
open your eyes and see it.

DAVE PALMER: It's heartbreaking.

Heartbreaking.

This is in our blood.

All the fishing, shrimping,
oystering, we do it all.

It's just coming to an end like that.

MAX: The local small boat
fishermen have a powerful ally.

She's spent thousands of hours
underwater.

Scientist, explorer, and conservationist,

Dr. Sylvia Earle.

SYLVIA:
Change is happening fast.

We're losing coral reefs,
we're losing fish in the ocean,

and whole ecosystems are
coming apart, unraveling.

The chemistry of the planet
is being affected

by what we're putting into the ocean,

what we are taking out of the ocean.

It's a different world.

DAVE PALMER:
Pogie boats, they go out there,

and take in the whole school.

SYLVIA: That's right.

DAVE:
They don't always catch pogie.

But there should be
limits on all that.

SYLVIA: There should be,
and there should be some places,

it seems to me,
that we should just leave alone.

Like national parks.

You don't cut the trees,

you don't shoot the squirrels,
you don't...

DAVE: They don't have that now?

MAX: No, we don't.

Offshore America is larger
than the 50 states,

but nearly all of it is open
to the taking of ocean wildlife.

SYLVIA: Now we know what
we could not know when I was a kid,

that the ocean governs climate,

absorbs much of the heat,
regulates temperature.

97% of Earth's water is
out there in the ocean.

And we have a chance
that will never come again.

A luxury for the sharks
that are taken...

MAX:
Why do sharks bite people so much?

SYLVIA: They don't!

(laughter)

MAX: I'm Max Kennedy.

My love of the sea comes
through my family.

I'm thrilled to be joining
Sylvia on a voyage

to forge an undersea version
of America's best idea--

the national parks.

More than a century ago,
we killed every great auk,

every passenger pigeon,
every eastern elk,

and nearly the last buffalo.

The turning point was photography,

and images that galvanized a nation.

Then in 1871,

28-year-old Civil War veteran
William Henry Jackson

became official photographer
of the Hayden Wyoming expedition

and made history.

Jackson's stunning images

inspired President Ulysses S. Grant

to create the world's first
national park, Yellowstone.

Protecting our natural systems

is an increasing presidential priority.

RONALD REAGAN:
Preservation of our environment

is not a liberal
or conservative challenge.

It's common sense.

MAX: In 1983, President
Ronald Reagan laid claim

to a blue America
200 miles off our shores,

as little explored as the West
in Jackson's day

and as full of natural wonders.

One such vital resource
is Cashes Ledge,

an undersea mountain range
brimming with life.

A magnet for tuna, sharks, minke whales,

endangered right whales,
and humpbacks like these.

If protected, Cashes Ledge would become

New England's first national monument

and a refuge for life
vanishing elsewhere.

Opposing the refuge--
an industrial fishing industry

that has emptied the Gulf of Maine.

ALLISON LORENC: About two years ago,
there was a stock assessment

that showed that Gulf of Maine
cod populations

were about 3% to 4%

their target biomass.

MAX: I'm sorry?

ALLISON: Yeah, their--
their populations have plummeted.

MAX:
96% below where they should be?

FIONA BELTRAM:
There's a sustainable point

at which you can take
a certain amount of fish.

If you overshoot that limit,

then slowly you're just going to
watch the population decline,

because they can't produce
enough individuals

to replace the ones
that we've taken.

MAX: Our goal--
support the scientific case for protection

with photography.

And no one does that better
than Brian Skerry,

one of the world's best
underwater photographers.

BRIAN:
I grew up in this small town,

a working class
sort of blue collar town.

The notion of being
a National Geographic photographer,

or being an ocean explorer

were probably as far away
from anyone's radar

as you could imagine.

♪ ♪

Pleasure to meet you finally.

MAX: So great to see you!

I've seen a bunch of your stuff.

I'm so excited.

BRIAN:
When I began diving in New England,

I can remember walking off beaches
and seeing big shoals of fish.

And I don't see those things anymore.

MAX: Cashes Ledge harbors
an unexpected treasure--

an underwater forest
80 miles off the coast of Maine.

BRIAN:
There's nothing like this.

I mean, you come down,

and you see this--
this undulating bottom of kelp.

And in the distance
you see schools of pollock,

and you see cod--
and some of the cod are red in color,

because they're blending in
with this red kelp.

You get this sense that
this can't be New England.

This must be some tropical paradise

that I need to journey days
on an aircraft to get to.

But it's not. It's right here.

♪ ♪

When I am in a place like that,

I'm trying to make pictures that
they can see that it is special.

I want them to connect with the codfish.

♪ ♪

SYLVIA:
It was an experience of a lifetime

to dive in and to see for myself

what some scientists have been
raving about for years.

There's a fish looking right at me!

(laughs)

I felt like a dancer,
these golden scarves surrounding me.

♪ ♪

This place rocks.

This place is special.

It's a source of renewal,

a source of recovery.

♪ ♪

-MAN: Neutral.
-MAN: Neutral.

MAX: One of the most beautiful dives
I have ever had in my life.

BRIAN: Yeah. Hypnotic.

You know, I mean, you're sort
of just in this trance

in this cathedral setting.

MAX:
It's like walking through a temple.

JON WITMAN: I think Cashes Ledge
is kind of a Noah's Ark

for the offshore Gulf of Maine.

I mean, think of it,

it's got practically
one of every species,

and one of every type
of offshore habitat,

all in a really concentrated area.

MAX: Yeah, well, let's hope
it has two of each.

(laughter)

♪ ♪

SYLVIA: There's an opportunity
here to look at Cashes Ledge...

as the Yellowstone
of the North Atlantic Ocean.

♪ ♪

BRIAN: This is like an oasis.

It's what remains of what
used to be everywhere.

If we're not careful,
it'll slip through our fingers.

It'll go forever.

And it can happen
without anyone knowing it.

That's why we need to show them,

because once they see it, they care.

♪ ♪

MAX: We head 200 miles southeast
of Cashes Ledge

to another fragile oasis--

the deep canyons and seamounts
along the continental shelf.

Most of life on Earth
is in the deep ocean.

Too deep for divers,
but not for an unmanned NOAA rover.

You would think the very depths
would safeguard the seamounts.

But there's a new threat,
deep sea mining,

with machines that can
chew up ocean habitats

before we even know what we've lost.

Life that deserves protection.

At my mother's home,
we join Brian and his new apprentice,

my nephew Finn.

FINN: Because you're kind
of like a modern-day Jackson.

BRIAN:
Well, I don't know about that.

We have a almost more difficult
task than Jackson had,

because we're starting from scratch.

We have to show that these places,
A) exist,

that they're vital to the health
of the planet.

So we got a lot of work to do.

FINN: We have to plan carefully.

BRIAN: We have to plan
very carefully.

The last thing we need is
something to go wrong

on this project.

MAX: You remember my mom?

SYLVIA: I do, really.
What a pleasure!

ETHEL: No, it's so nice for me.

Thank you!

SYLVIA:
I'm still a little bit salty.

We were diving.

(laughs)

It's an extension
of Acadia National Park.

It comes close enough to the surface

that sunlight strikes this mound
out in the ocean,

and there's a forest of kelp.

ETHEL: Who would dare go anywhere
near the water with you?

(laughing)

SYLVIA: All of your--
all of your family!

We need to show people, look,
there's still reason for hope.

We're the agent of change,

and so we can be the agent
of positive change.

That's the key,

to get that news and
do something about it.

MAX: Sylvia recruits
an indispensable crew--

the inheritors of the Earth.

SYLVIA: Enlisting teenagers
to be ambassadors for the ocean,

to go explore the ocean
and be witnesses

and tell their parents,
tell their teachers,

tell their mayors,
their senators, their presidents.

Get them out there.

No child left dry.

MAX: Rounding out the team
are two activists

from Washington's Benning Terrace

public housing community,
Rob Edwards and Ashley Dawkins.

ROB EDWARDS:
So excited.

I never ever experienced the ocean.

MAX: Our expedition to create
a blue necklace of protected treasures

reaches the troubled waters
of the Caribbean.

Amid an over-fished and warming sea
lies a lonely refuge.

The world's first
blue national monument...

created by my uncle,
President John F. Kennedy.

JOHN F. KENNEDY:
And it is an interesting biological fact

that all of us have in our veins

the exact same percentage
of salt in our blood

that exists in the ocean.

We are tied to the ocean,
and when we go back to the sea,

we are going back
from whence we came.

JOEL TUTEIN:
I was 11.

There was a dedication
to the new park,

so my father brought me out,

along with a lot
of government officials.

Kennedy was one of them.

It was a beautiful day.

As a Crucian, I am very proud
to be the superintendent

for this park that was protected
and designated some 64 years ago

by the president of the United States.

This monument was expanded
in 2001 by President Clinton.

It became the first
marine protected area,

which means no fishing at all,
no take in the monument.

MAX: But some of the fish swim
out of the protected area,

and when they do,
they can be caught.

FISHERMAN: These are nice
frying fish, local parrotfish.

SYLVIA:
It was really exciting

to be down in the Virgin Islands
with them.

Rob and Ashley had never seen the ocean.

So for me to be a witness
of their first view

was a way for me to see the ocean

as if I were seeing it
for the first time.

♪ ♪

MAN: Aw, wait a minute. (laughs)

ROB:
What you doing?

(laughing)

SYLVIA:
This is what real divers do.

Just a bit of saliva,
otherwise known as spit,

and you rub it into your mask.

Then it is less likely to fog.

ASHLEY DAWKINS:
Nah, I'm not going to spit in it.

ROB: I was very afraid getting
in the ocean for the first time,

but I had to test my fears.

♪ ♪

ASHLEY: I jumped,
'cause I thought there was

going to be, like, the bottom.

But there wasn't.

I'm like wait, am I drowning,
am I drowning?

♪ ♪

MAX: I've never seen someone
learn how to snorkel

that quickly...

who really is not a swimmer at all.

ASHLEY:
Sylvia is a real life mermaid.

I feel like she would live there
if she could.

What does she say, like,
no child should be left... dry?

That's what she says, yeah!

MAGGIE NIXON: What was, like,
the most memorable part?

ASHLEY:
Just seeing it, like, for myself

and not through, like, a TV.

I never thought...
no, no, I don't know, just no.

MAGGIE: Why not?

ASHLEY: Umm...

Because of, like, where I come from.

It was a good feeling just
being out in the open water.

I felt, like, free kind of.

MAX:
But something was missing-- grouper.

By the 1980s,

we had eaten almost all
of St. Croix's grouper.

FISHERMAN:
Grouper, we really don't catch grouper.

Grouper is more like--
I think, what do you call it?

Endangered species?

You barely can see those.

My father use to catch, two, three

bring them home, you know.

Big size.

But now, it's like.
You don't see them most.

MAX:
So fishermen turned to parrotfish.

The beautiful keepers of the reef.

FISHERMAN:
These are nice frying fish.

That's why we call them local parrotfish.

All the restaurants
in St. Croix buy those.

Chicken shop buy them too.

He takes 100 pounds every week.

I really don't know much.

I just catch them

and make a little dollar
to survive, you know?

MAX:
We are just beginning to understand

that loss of grouper and parrotfish

has a domino effect and kills the reef.

It's happening so fast,

and it doesn't take an old-timer
to remember the good old days.

BOBBY:
In just my short lifetime of 19 years,

I've been able to see immense change

in at least the one habitat
that I have been able to dive on

since I was four with my dad.

The way I remember it is
this absolutely magical place.

These immaculate reefs.

Such vibrant color
no matter where you went.

A treasure trove of fish.

An incredible ecosystem.

But now going back
the last three years,

it looks like a pile of rubble

after a building was demolished
in New York City.

It's all gray and white and crumbled.

And the fish are gone.

And that's only in--
that's in 12 years, yeah.

♪ ♪

MAX: The waters around
Buck Island are an oasis

in a fast expanding wasteland,

fueled by climate change and overfishing.

SYLVIA: I would love to have
seen what you saw here as a boy.

JOEL:
The fish population were very diverse,

very large, very colorful.

But, you know, even my benchmark
was nothing

in comparison to my father's benchmark.

He went, "Ah! You should have
seen it when I was a boy!"

You know, these are small fish

compared to when he was growing up.

SYLVIA:
The corals need the fish;

the fish need the corals.

You take the fish away,
the corals are stressed.

MAX: Expanding the refuge
to embrace the devastated reefs

outside of the monument

will give the natural systems
a chance to recover.

SYLVIA: People say I came from
a different planet--

I did. The planet was
so different when I arrived.

90% of the big fish are already gone.

But the great news is
we can turn the corner.

We can restore it.

MAX: Brian's photography is
such a powerful tool,

and now he is unleashing the children.

BRIAN: Trying to tell a story
with pictures is your message--

what you're trying to communicate,
your vision.

I proposed a story on something
called the Global Fish Crisis.

It's a thresher shark that
was dead in a gill net.

And as I framed it up
in my camera's viewfinder,

it sort of struck me as a crucifixion,

and I thought it might
give some empathy.

There's a difference between
just making a pretty picture

and being a photojournalist.

As an underwater photographer,
we don't have

the luxury of using telephoto lenses

and wait in some blind
for an elusive animal to wander by,

you know, a week down the road.

It's really a testament to the animals

that allow us into their world.

They inevitably do.

You know, if you're patient,
you don't chase them,

they will come to you.

♪ ♪

♪ Yeah, I run right back
from Carolina ♪

♪ And I run right back
from New Orleans ♪

♪ 'Cause I can't forget
the times I held you ♪

♪ And all those songs
you sang to me ♪

♪ Yeah, I run right back
from Carolina ♪

♪ And I run right back
from New Orleans ♪

BRIAN: We live in a world today
where communication

and sharing of images is so much
easier than it ever was.

Get those images out there

and tell the story
that you want to tell.

By doing that we can collectively reach

a much broader audience than we would

if I was just doing a magazine story.

Just get out and do it.

♪ ♪

♪ Run right back from Carolina ♪

♪ And I run right back
to Tennessee ♪

♪ 'Cause I can't forget
the times I held you ♪

♪ And all those songs
you sang with me ♪

BRIAN: I started
my turtle photography here

about three nights ago,

so I'm doing these very long
exposures under the moonlight,

and it ends up looking
almost like daytime.

I mean, it's still kind
of spooky and primal-looking,

and you've got this
dinosaur-like creature.

♪ ♪

(laughter)

WOMAN:
No attacking turtles!

They get to be about 900 pounds
whenever they're adults.

ASHLEY: 900 pounds?

All of them don't survive.

To me, it just like brought me back

to, like, where I come from.

Because my neighborhood is that way.

Like, you find, not comfort,
but you become okay

that not everyone will make it.

It just hit home for me.

Sylvia helped me see a bigger picture.

Unless we keep the ocean
from dying, none of us will make it.

♪ ♪

MAX: The Gulf of Mexico
faces the same threat

as the Caribbean--
overfishing and climate change.

SYLVIA:
The Gulf of Mexico is resilient.

But it's like World War II and Europe.

If you didn't know
there had been a war,

you might not even know
that there had been one,

unless you'd been there before

unless you lived through it.

MAX:
And Dave Palmer has lived through it.

SYLVIA: What are the places that
you would choose for protection?

And they nail it.
They know-- real fishermen

and whose livelihoods,
whose life really depends

on respect for the ocean.

They know what it takes to make fish.

Breeding areas, feeding areas,
not taking too much.

DAVID: That's a buster.

-SYLVIA: Dave.
-DAVID: Hey!

-SYLVIA: How are you?
-DAVID: How are you doing?

-SYLVIA: Good to see you.
-DAVID: Yeah, been a long time.

SYLVIA: Like you, I spent
my early years on the Gulf.

So important to the whole country,

you know, we just take it for granted.

Treating it like an endless source.

DAVID: You got everybody fishing
wherever they want.

They don't really have no
sanctuary where it's not fished.

It's not gonna last.

It's going to eventually
run out sooner or later.

My hope is they put these spots
all around the coast

where you can't fish, period.

Put a triangle here,
put a circle over here,

put a rectangle over there.

SYLVIA:
You want to save the nursery areas...

you want to save the feeding areas,
breeding areas.

If you want to have tuna,
the last thing you want to do

-is kill them while they're spawning.
-DAVE: Yeah.

That's the only thing
that is going to help.

Common sense.

SYLVIA:
This is where the bluefin tuna spawn,

that drive this amazingly intact system.

MAX: Bluefin and other tuna
spawn in the Gulf of Mexico

in special places, like Ewing Bank.

Sylvia dreams of seeing protected areas
large enough to restore the Gulf.

Hope spots, she calls them.

SYLVIA: Look at this.

It's an ocean full of whale sharks.

I can't even count the number of fins.

As soon as I think I have
number, six more pop up.

MAX:
A whale shark's spot pattern is unique,

like our fingerprints.

Photographs will go straight
into an international database.

ROB:
These fish is like 20 times big as me.

But when I seen that they was
not worried about me,

my fears went out the window.

ERIC HOFFMAYER:
So we just pulled a plankton net to see

what the whale sharks were feeding on.

And like we suspected, it's full of eggs.

MAX: Tunny, a species of tuna,
spawn in the depths below.

The eggs are naturally buoyant
and float to the surface.

It's a crucial, age-old feeding site

for the largest fish in the sea.

SYLVIA:
Ewing Bank is so special

because you have combination
of breeding and feeding.

You got the breeding of the tunny,

but you get the feeding
of the whale sharks.

ERIC: Six years ago,
we were out at this exact spot,

and we had our largest
documented encounter

of whale sharks in US waters
with over 100 animals.

We've put out some satellite tags
to look at the connectivity

from here and other places
in the Caribbean

and elsewhere in the world.

MAX: Of the world's 14 known
congregation sites,

Ewing Bank is the only one
in American waters--

an obvious candidate for protection.

BRYCEN BALL:
Words is hard to explain,

once you get in the water,
get right next to 'em.

It's like you can almost
feel their heartbeat.

♪ ♪

It's a very, very sacred place.

These fish are telling us
they need help.

MAX: So does life
in another sacred realm--

the waters around Ni'ihau,

the westernmost inhabited
Hawaiian island.

(singing in Hawaiian)

SYLVIA:
The people who first came to Hawaii,

their descendants cared deeply about,
not just the land,

but also the ocean.

They are essentially
people of the ocean.

KAI'MI: My family hails
from the island of Ni'ihau.

The Ni'ihau people believe

that once somebody
in our lineage passes,

their soul take on the form of a shark

and plays as a guardian for our people.

And there is a lot of sharks
that swim around Ni'ihau,

and they protect the island
from outsiders, from harm.

BRIAN:
First we frame, look,

and then we can make
adjustments as we go.

-BOBBY: Fantastic!
-BRIAN: All right!

SYLVIA:
Here in Hawaiian waters,

the oldest living animals
have been discovered.

Corals that are more than
5,000 years old.

BRIAN: Two, one, go.

SYLVIA:
So we're diving into history

when we dive into the ocean here.

BRIAN:
We're in a place called Hale O'Hono,

which means house of the turtle.

There are a number of places
in the ocean

where animals go to be cleaned.

They get parasites and algae
and things on their body,

and other animals eat that off of them.

But it's this symbiotic relationship.

♪ ♪

FINN:
I saw a massive moray eel down there.

BOBBY: Yeah. We went to this other
little cave that we found,

and we both poked our heads in,

and then out comes this gigantic
moray eel flaring its teeth.

♪ ♪

WOMAN: There's a seal!
There's a seal!

(man singing in Hawaiian)

SYLVIA:
Monk seals in the Hawaiian Islands,

they're right on the edge.

(man singing)

I got to see one in her lair.

She and her little whiskered face.

Just lounging around
holding her breath.

♪ ♪

You protect the monk seals,
the turtles, the coral reefs.

It's all the little things.

By saving them, you save
big chunks of the ocean,

and you save humankind as well.

♪ ♪

MAX:
Ni'ihau is the gateway to Eden--

a protected area called
Papahanaumokuakea.

Created as a national monument
by President George W. Bush,

it was then the world's largest
protected habitat.

GEORGE W. BUSH:
I want to thank Sylvia Earle.

She sat me down and gave me
a pretty good lecture about life.

(laughter)

OWEN PYLE: In 2006
when Papahanaumokuakea

was first established,
it was the biggest,

and now it's number ten,

so that kind of really inspired
other countries

to up their game,
so maybe we can do the same thing again.

MAX: That's the goal--
expanding the monument

to the 200-mile limit
of American waters,

the biggest sanctuary on land or sea.

WOMAN:
I am in strong support

of increasing the size of the monument.

There's nothing else like this
in the world.

We need to protect it.

MAN:
Taking steps that would be a model

for other places that we don't control.

WILLIAM AILA, JR.:
It's this bold decision

that we're counting
on President Obama to make.

MAN: And providing the best
possible seafood for all of us.

And I can tell you right now...

MAX: Opposing it--
the longline fishing industry.

MAN: ...if we do continue
to restrict our...

MAN: I am strongly opposed

to the proposed expansion
of the monument.

There is no scientific evidence

to support any additional
conservation benefits

to be gained by expanding
the no-fishing zone

beyond its current limit.

RICHARD PYLE:
The reason for the protection

is protecting it from future threats.

Because human population is growing,

human exploitation of
the environment is growing,

and there will be increasing pressure

in the years and the decades
and even the centuries to come

to expand out into exploiting areas

that haven't previously been exploited.

And the problem is that so much
of the bottom of the sea

is out of sight of most people.

They don't realize how much
biodiversity is

and how important that
biodiversity is not just to us

but the whole future of humanity.

And a lot of those organisms
on the bottom of the sea

haven't even been discovered yet.

MAX:
The ocean is so little known

that scientists discover thousands
of new species every year.

Richard and his fellow explorers
use helium-mixed gas

to venture into the cold twilight world

between 200 and 500 feet deep,

finding an average
of 12 to 15 new species

per hour of exploration.

MAN (high-pitched voice):
This is submarine territory!

MAN 2 (high-pitched voice):
It's ice water!

IT'S ICE WATER DOWN HERE!

♪ ♪

SYLVIA: I've been privileged
to be with kids,

to see the world through their eyes.

ROB:
I'm going deep down into the waters.

Yeah, I'm nervous.
Don't get me wrong, I am nervous.

I'm going to be with Sylvia,
so I know I'm good.

Bottom of the ocean.

See y'all later.

♪ ♪

(radio chatter)

JOHN SMITH:
Pisces V, KOK, do you copy?

TERRY KERBY:
Roger, hatch is shut,

ready to dive, dive, dive, over.

MAN: Roger, hatch it shut,
ready to dive, dive, dive.

MAX: Sylvia last dived here
nearly four decades ago,

using a special diving suit
called JIM.

MAN:
There is a new tool in the sea.

It moves with the ponderous
rhythms of a mechanical monster.

Her question-- can scientists
use the JIM suit

for dives beyond 1,000 feet?

If successful,
she will be the first woman

to walk the sea floor
beyond 1,000 feet.

SYLVIA (over radio): I see it.
Oh, it's the bottom!

MAX:
Sylvia is looking for signs of change.

ROB:
When you're up near the surface,

it's kind of light blue.

But as you go down,
you see the pretty shades of blue,

and the blue gets darker and darker.

Then it gets pitch black.

TERRY:
It's really black.

There is no ambient light.

♪ ♪

FINN:
It's like a different world.

SYLVIA: Actually, our world
is a different world.

This is normal.

♪ ♪

MAX: New life comes to light--
an unknown coral.

RICHARD: Chris doesn't even know
what species this thing is.

TERRY: This is the only place
I've really seen it this color.

I've seen some
in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

RICHARD:
Just scattered everywhere.

SYLVIA:
It's like a magic carpet.

Oh, my goodness.
Beautiful.

Except it's better than
any old carpet, it's alive.

TERRY:
It's a live flying carpet.

FINN: Sylvia never stopped
looking out the window.

She was just excited to see

things that she hadn't seen in so long.

♪ ♪

SYLVIA:
Swimming right over the ray.

FINN:
The ray just ate something.

He just trapped one of those
little fish under his...

TERRY:
That's unbelievable, he did!

He got one of those Polymixia.

MAN ON RADIO:
Pisces V, Pisces IV, do you copy?

TERRY: We just watched these
two rays eat Polymixia.

SYLVIA:
Here comes the ray!

MAN ON RADIO: Okay, that's
the first observation I've heard

of anybody seeing that.
That's really interesting.

SYLVIA: It took a kid
with fresh eyes to notice something

that has been happening all along,

because after Finn pointed it out,

we looked and we saw it
happening all around us.

TERRY:
That little eel just swam under.

Oh! Did you see that?

FINN: Yeah, I got it on film.

TERRY: Oh ho ho!

MAX: For Sylvia, one question
looms above all--

what is the state
of this special place?

SYLVIA: I had witnessed
the forests of bamboo coral in 1979.

The good news for me
was they're still there.

Since I began exploring
the oceans in the 1950s,

about the half the coral reefs are gone.

But the deep coral reefs
still provide reasons for hope.

MAX:
On her first dive here,

Sylvia saw corals 1,200 feet deep

thriving in utter darkness.

This coral emits living light
when touched-- bioluminescence,

a marvel of nature never filmed
without lights.

To see it as nature intended

takes a revolutionary
low-light camera...

shooting at 4 million ISO.

TERRY:
Wow, look at that.

MAX: The first color video
of coral bioluminescence.

TERRY:
Wow, look at that.

TERRY (on radio):
That's a beauty.

♪ ♪

We'd like to report success
with the low-light camera.

We've just, uh...

♪ ♪

That looks like Avatar.

(laughter)

SYLVIA: Not everyone has seen
the Grand Canyon,

but the Grand Canyon
and other beautiful places

are valued as treasures
by the people of the country.

As people come to understand
the cliffs, the canyons,

the wildlife that are in the deep sea,

that will be valued, too.

RICHARD:
Gosh, this coral is so slimy.

SYLVIA:
That's the critter itself.

MAX:
Sylvia's mysterious specimen.

SYLVIA: We don't know
how old these are.

We don't know what
species this is, or...

Who are you?
Where did you come from?

Who's your mom? Who's your dad?

I apologize for bringing you
out of the ocean.

RICHARD: Yeah.

SYLVIA:
We are all sea creatures.

Just like the creatures
who live in the sea,

all life, including humankind,
needs the ocean.

The ocean now needs us.

There is a blue country out there,

and nowhere is that more obvious
than in the Hawaiian Islands.

BONNIE: I think the hope
is that President Obama

will expand the monument,

and with that I think
we are making a huge contribution

to the globe.

RICHARD: I implore you all,

please understand the real science.

Don't just wave your arms.

Understand what's really going on.

And I-- I assure you if you look
at it rationally and objectively,

you will agree the science
supports the expansion.

-Mahalo.
-(applause)

MAX: For a lifetime,
Sylvia has dreamed and fought

to see protection of the ocean
become a reality.

And now, an epic announcement.

(applause)

OBAMA:
We've designated national monuments

from Maine to Ohio to California.

And just last week,

I created the world's largest
marine preserve.

Quadrupling the size of our monument,

this is an area twice the size of Texas

that's gonna be protected
and allows us to save and study

the fragile ecosystem
threatened by climate change.

(laughing)

Tomorrow I'm going to travel
to the Midway Atoll

to see it for myself.

MAX: Before it was
a national wildlife refuge,

Midway Atoll was a US naval base,

and the site of one of the most decisive
battles in American history.

SYLVIA: Where we're standing
right now, Midway,

this was considered
a turning point in World War II.

♪ ♪

They're basically kids
flying the airplanes.

Kids fighting the war,
putting their lives on the line.

♪ ♪

RICHARD: We're in a different
kind of war today.

It's not one country against another.

It's humanity against
the rest of biodiversity.

SYLVIA: The biggest problems
we're facing right now

has to do with the changing climate.

(thunder)

We have a chance that
will never come again

to stabilize things,

protecting the natural systems
that are still in good shape

and restoring what we can.

-OWEN: We are the natural world.
-SYLVIA: Yeah, we are, thank you.

OWEN: We've socialized ourselves to think
we're not even animals, but we are.

Four billion years of development

is what allows us to survive,

and if we think we can
change that in 100 years,

we are sorely mistaken.

RICHARD: So I quote you at the end
of the presentations that I give.

What we do in the next 10 years
will impact what happens

in the next 10,000 years.

We are at a pivotal moment in history.

Now is the time we must act.

OBAMA:
Doctor, how are you?

I am in awe of anybody

who's done so much
for ocean conservation.

SYLVIA: It's a good start.

OBAMA: Oh, listen,
it's better than a good start.

You've done amazing work.

SYLVIA: I see one of your
constituents has come up here.

OBAMA: I noticed.

Doesn't seem that excited
about meeting the president,

which is how it should be.

Why it's so important for us
to preserve these for the future.

You know, you got a monk seal
in the background,

one of the most endangered
marine species in the world.

You've got 7,000 different
marine species here,

many of whom are unique
to this ecosystem.

And all of this could be
impacted by climate change.

This isn't just a matter
of quote-unquote "tree huggers"...

SYLVIA: Fish huggers.

OBAMA: Yeah, or fish huggers
or coral huggers.

All of us depend
on these ecosystems and...

SYLVIA: Yes!

-OBAMA: They're incredibly...
-SYLVIA: Yes, yes!

OBAMA: In some ways
they're incredibly resilient

if we do the right thing,

but they're also really fragile
when we do the wrong thing.

SYLVIA: People have to know.

OBAMA: It's not enough to just talk
about policy in the abstract.

People have to see it and feel it
and be able to understand

what it is that we're fighting for

and why this is so important.

♪ ♪

MAX:
We dive in to celebrate

while Brian captures
the first underwater photograph

of an American president.

♪ ♪

Just two weeks later,

President Obama takes
another giant step,

creating the Northeast Canyons
and Seamounts

National Marine Monument--
the first in the Atlantic Ocean.

♪ ♪

The mission to secure the future
is gaining recruits.

ROB: So the goggles won't fog up
when you go underwater,

you got to spit in them.

-BRIAN: Defog it.
-WOMAN: Okay.

ROB:
I say we clean up this river!

Do you think that we can
clean up the world?

SYLVIA: Oh, it's not
if or could we-- we must.

JOHN F. KENNEDY:
We have no more urgent task.

Our problems are man-made.

Therefore they can be solved by man.

We all inhabit this small planet.

We all breathe the same air.

We all cherish our children's futures.

And we are all mortal.

♪ ♪

MAX: These historic conservation
victories are a great start,

but much remains to be done

for Cashes Ledge, for St. Croix,
for Ewing Bank,

and for most of the ocean.

SYLVIA:
You didn't cause the problems.

You've inherited them.

But suddenly this is thrust upon you.

It's your job now to try to restore

some of what has been lost.

Heal the world
and our relationship with it.

Captioned by Point.360