All language subtitles for Great.Blue.Wild.S03E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10

The waters off Mozambique's
wildcoast are home to marine giants.

The world's largest and
most elusive stingray

and the greatest fish in the sea

parade along the coast feeding
in its nutrient-rich waters.

But even the ocean's largest
animals are defenseless

against reckless overfishing.

It's an urgent issue and we
need to start making some
changes

here to save these species.

You start to realize that ifyou
don't stay and fight for them,

on one else is going to.

Now, Mozambique's leading
marine researchers

set out to find one of theocean's
most secretive animals.

And protect its most well-known
before it's too late.

It's a race against time to
savethe giants of Mozambique.

The waters of Mozambique teem
with marine life.

The Western Indian Ocean pumps
nutrients along this coast,

inviting some of the
ocean's most exotic

and most-loved marine giants.

It's almost like a
perfect storm.

A situation where the
continental shelf drops off

really close to shore

so it generates a lot of
upwelling here or

a lot of nutrients being
pumped along the coast.

So you just get a
lot of biodiversity here,

a lot of food here.

A resident population of
juvenile whale sharks

feeds along the coast gulping
up the plankton-filled water.

Migrating humpbacks use
thecoast's warmer waters to breed.

Pods of dolphins skip through
the water,

chasing after smaller fish
that have come close to shore

and close to the surface
to feed.

Providing the dolphins with
a small feast.

A rare giant also makes
an appearance,

as it surfaces on the coast.

The mola mola, or ocean sunfish,
weighs as much as a bull

and is the heaviest known
bony fish in the world.

This to me is one of the
mostcritical habitats in Africa.

I call it the blue heart of
the east coast here

and I really do believe it's
oneof the last blue wildernesses

left in Africa.

The wild coastline of
Mozambique stretches along

more than 1600 miles from
Tanzania to South Africa.

Andrea came to Mozambique's
Tofobeach to study manta rays

in 2002.

And never left.

She established the Marine
Megafauna Foundation.

An organization dedicated to
theprotection and conservation

of larger marine species.

I arrived to the most
pristine environment I'd ever
seen.

You could walk on the back
of whale sharks here,

there was mantas everywhere,
turtles everywhere.

It was like utopia for me

and especially for
a young marine biologist

you couldn't get better
than this.

But things have changed
drastically for the worse.

As I saw things changing,
asI saw development happening

and as I saw these fisheries

starting to barter
for things like shark fin,

I realized that what I'm
fighting for.

I'm fighting for that picture
ofMozambique when I first arrived.

I just won't be satisfied
untilwe can bring it back

to its original splendor.

Seventy miles down the coastat Zara Bay.

The manta ray
population is healthy

and there is little-to-no
impactfrom recreational diving.

But local fishing
practices posea big threat.

Nakia Cullain, fights
to preserve

what is for now a
pristine coast.

They put out these large nets

and unfortunately
their target is smaller fish

but a lot of other
bigger species

get trapped in these nets.

A lot of the locals here
are self-sustaining.

So by fishing, they support
themselves and their families.

The problem is, the fishing
nets are placed along the
shoreline,

intercepting the migration
route of larger species

such as rays and sharks.

Nakia and her partner Mornay
run Zara Marine Lab.

A research station
established in 2009

to investigate and conserve
thecoastal ecosystems of Zara Bay.

It's set on one of the most
remote stretches

of Mozambique's coastline.

A place where many of the
reefsare yet to be explored.

It's wild and it brings in
alot of different marine life

so the diversity is amazing,

the remoteness and
thequaintness of it is fascinating

and it allows for us to
do some research

that's never been done before.

Nakia hopes to learn
more about which reefs

the manta rays use most and
in what numbers.

This information will help her
monitor the population.

And protect the migration
routesof these marine giants

from local fisheries.

The murky, nutrient-rich water
along Mozambique's coast

attracts many filter feeders.

Among them, the giant
oceanic manta ray.

A larger cousin to the smaller
reef manta

which Andrea first established
as a separate species

in 2008.

It's one of the
largest new species

discovered in the last 50 years.

A lot has been learned
about these gentle giants

in just a short time.

We've identified more than
athousand individuals living

along this coastline.

We've documented a lot about
their reproductive ecology.

We've learned about
their predation.

We've learned a lot about the
population genetics

and how these animals are
mixing in different parts

of the coastline.

We really have done some of
thekeystone work on manta rays.

While researching manta
raysAndrea uncovered another giant.

One she's never seen before.

I started noting when we
werediving this really large ray

that I was completely unfamiliarwith.

I couldn't even ID it.

It was this crazy mystery,
you know,

trying to figure out what this
animal was.

One of our friends who worked inIndonesia

eventually helped us
ID it as a smalleye stingray,

which is a very rare animal

that comes up mostly in
fisheries around the world.

But very few people
encounter it alive

and very few people have
any data on this animal.

So we were shocked that we
hadsuch a rare animal living here.

More than seven feet wide,

the smalleye is the
largest of all stingrays.

The ray is named after its
small, beady eyes

which leave the animal
with poor vision.

We were shocked even morewhen
we found it has never beenseen

west of the Maldives.

So we actually wrote a
paper back then

and did a range extensionshowing
that they actually live

along the eastern
coast of Africa

but then we were tasked
with finding out more

about this animal,

which is really hard when you
don't see them very often.

The rays are so rarely sighted

researchers can't begin to
guessthe size of their population.

Andrea's records show sightingspeak
in September and October.

With a short two-month window
ahead of them,

she and her assistant Anna

set out to find and tag
the smalleye stingray.

One of the ocean's rarest
creatures.

They don't distribute evenly,
they prefer certain reefs

so we're actually going to
target those reefs today.

It's going to be great to try
and learn where they're going

and what they're eating

and where they are
when we're not seeing them.

Hopefully in the same way that
we do with manta rays,

we can find out how large
the population is

by taking the ID shots
of the spot patterns

that they have on their backs.

We'd like to be
able to start with telemetry,

putting some tags on them
and finding out

how they use the local habitats,

how far they travel.

So really, the world's
largest stingray,

we know nothing about it

and that's what we're
endeavoring to do,

learn more about this
awesome animal.

The visibility isn't ideal.

But Anna and Andrea hope
they'llbe able to spot the smalleye

if they see it.

The temperate reefs along
Tofo'scoastline appear dull and rocky

in stark contrast to the
colorful coral reefs

of the tropics.

The lack of color on this reef

makes the researchers'
jobs much more difficult,

as they try to
spot well-camouflaged animals

through water clouded
by plankton.

Many, like this alligator fish
disappear against the rock.

As they scour the reef
for smalleyes,

a curious potato
bass joins them.

It's named for the large
potato-sized markings

on its body.

The potato bass or potatogrouper
can grow to seven feet.

It's one of the largest
predators on the reef.

Despite their round physique,

potato bass are
extremely swift hunters.

But this one seemed content
to just hang out.

There was this potato
bassthat wouldn't leave us alone.

It was trying to bite my
strobe...

and everywhere we went it
seemed to be following us.

Potato bass tend to be
inquisitive toward divers.

As a result, they make easy
targets for spear fishermen.

Because it's so big
the potato bass

is a sought-after trophy fish.

Its survival is now
threatened by overfishing.

Anna grabs a photo
ID of the fish

so the team can keep an eye

on this friendly
giant on future dives.

Still no sign of the
mysterioussmalleye stingray.

There are no rays here
at the moment.

But the information they've
collected over the years

indicates this reef is a
hotbedfor both manta rays

and smalleye stingrays.

Anna and Andrea deploy a
listening station

that will record
activity on the reef,

when they're not there to
monitor it themselves.

The acoustic station picks up
pings from tagged manta rays

as they pass by.

If Anna and Andrea
are successful,

this listening station
will also pick up pings

from the first-ever tagged
smalleye stingray.

The equipment is ready.

Now the team just needs to
finda smalleye stingray to tag.

Down the coast at Zara Marine
Lab, Nakia and her team

hope to find and ID manta
rays at an inshore reef.

Andrea's network of acoustic
listening stations

and her photo database

have helped her document
more than a thousand

individual mantas at Tofo.

Here at Zara, Nakia and her team

have logged fewer
than 400 mantas.

And there is no network of
tags to track the rays.

It would be nice to start
tagging with the mantas

so we actually know
their migratory patterns

and what they're doing.

There's a lot of
unanswered questions

and I'd love to get to
the bottom of it.

The team heads out to
find answers.

Nakia needs to identify which
reefs the manta rays favor.

So she can install acoustic
listening stations

to monitor their whereabouts.

But working on a wild,
remote coast is never easy.

Nakia and her team face their
first set of challenges

before they even
get on the water.

Normally, what we do

is the tractor will pull
the boat along the beach

and then when we get
to the launch spot

the tractor will launch us
into the water,

usually with the back first.

But with today's sticky,
wetsand and rough seas,

this isn't possible.

So it's on to Plan B.

They ask us to and push,
push, push through the waves,

over the waves, and then
we hop on the boat

and we head out.

Nakia and her team continue
to battle the elements.

We tend to have a lot of
plankton in the water,

which in turn leads to bad
visibility for us divers.

However,
it does bring in a lotof our big megafauna

and for us we photo ID for
a lot of our surveys

it can be challenging to fight
through that visibility

and the heavy surge
and the swell.

So definitely poses challenges

but we continue to go
out and sample.

When you go down in this
water, yes, the viz is not so
beautiful

but you go down and you've
got this feeling of it's

you, your soul and
the water around you

and the creatures around you.

When you see animals in
their natural habitat,

you get a certain amount of
respect for an animal.

Before long,
Nakia spots oneof the Zara Coast's

most graceful animals.

A reef manta ray appears
from the gloom.

Soon several rays
circle the team.

We're very very lucky with
our mantas.

They're very, very curious.

They come extremely close so
itmakes it very easy for us to get

some nice identification photos.

Nakia takes photos of
the spot patterns

on the manta ray's belly
to ID the animal.

She uses a laser to measure
its size.

They swim over you, they
swim with you,

it's breathtaking and
it will never get old, ever.

It's wonderful.

The mantas have come here
to be cleaned.

Mozambique's manta rays
form partnerships

with eight different
species of cleaner fish.

The cleaners remove parasites,

mucus and dead skin from the
manta ray's body.

Each fish cleans
a different area

so they don't compete with
each other.

But on this reef, the sergeant
major damselfish outnumber

the other cleaners.

The rays can spend
as long as 10 hours

interacting with the cleaners.

Mantas have the largest brain
of any fish in the ocean.

Specifically, the regions of
the brain responsible

for sensory functions,
memory and learning.

Behavior in this researchfootage
suggests that manta rays

signal to the fish the body
parts they want cleaned.

They flick the back of
their pectoral fins

or flare their gills to
indicatethese areas require

immediate attention.

On this reef, one manta ray
demands more attention

than the rest.

This female reef manta bears
a scar from a shark bite

on her pectoral fin.

A damselfish follows closely
behind her to clean the wound.

The ray's bloated stomach
showsshe's pregnant.

She will need to be
cautious inthese waters.

With the mantas you do
see alot of predator scars

on their pectoral fins.

This is usually from bigger
shark species,

Zambezi sharks, blacktip sharks,

lot of different shark
species that could

potentially be preying
on the mantas

so we do see a lot of the mantas

with these big chunks
taken out of them.

The manta isn't typically a
target for large predators.

Nearly 3,000 miles east
of Mozambique,

the Maldives has one of
the world's largest

reef manta populations.

Yet relatively few are
attacked there.

In an estimated population
ofmore than 5,000 reef manta rays

only 500 exhibit any sign of
bite marks or scarring,

about 10% of the population.

The manta ray's size alone
isenough to deter most attackers.

But in Mozambican waters
morethan 70% of the reef manta rays

have visible scars.

The direct result of shark
attacks.

While we don't always see
these large predatory sharks

while we're out on our surveys,

we tend to see some
remnants that they're there.

As Nakia and her team
survey the area,

they come across an
unexpected find.

A half-eaten blacktip shark.

It's a little eerie,
bad visibility,

this looks like it didn't
happen too, too long ago

so you're wondering
if these sharks

are still looming in the area.

I was very curious as to
what could've taken

half of this shark
in a clean swipe.

The size and shape
of the bite mark

suggests a much largerpredatory
shark is responsible.

There's no sure way to
determine which shark actually
did take

the chunk out of the blacktip,

however, this nice clean cut
andthe blacktip was quite big,

we are assuming that it was
a white shark or a Zambezi,

one of these bigger
sharks in our area.

Researchers believe
that Zambezi sharks

are the primary predators
in these waters.

Also known as Bull Sharks.

These predators are consideredto
be one of the most dangerous

sharks in the world.

They're fast,
agile and will eatalmost anything.

Bull sharks are
opportunistic hunters.

Though they prefer smallerfish
like snapper and mackerel.

They will eat what's
readily available.

Bull sharks have been known to
attack rays, dolphins.

Even other sharks.

They prefer to hunt in
murky waters.

And Mozambique's
plankton-fuelled coast

fits the bill.

For this soon-to-be mother,
the worst is over.

A manta ray's tissue
regenerates incredibly fast.

With a little help from
the damselfish

the wound remains clean

and should heal completely
in a few weeks.

Meanwhile in Tofo, Andrea and
Anna continue their search.

But there are no smalleye rays
in sight.

Not even a single manta ray.

In the distance,
Andrea spots ablotched fantail ray.

Also known as a marble ray or
its distinctive light-and-dark

blotched colouration.

These rays are found
throughoutthe Indo-West Pacific

in a wide variety of habitats
from reefs to shallow lagoons.

The ray moves its
disc-like pectoral fin

to cruise through the water.

The marble ray can grow to
six feet in width.

The blotched fantail ray isn't
aggressive.

But it's cautious of strangers
in the water.

The ray assumes a defensive
position.

It's just amazing how you
can't get close to them at all

without them starting
to posture.

The smaller the ray the
morefrightened they are of a large,

strange animal.

The ray's stinger sits near
the base of its tail

and contains a sharp spine

with serrated edgesthat
face the body of the fish.

Its greatest weapon,
a venomous gland

rests at the base of the spine.

A membrane-like sheath covers
the entire stinging mechanism.

Anna approaches carefully to
geta photo ID of the stingray.

When a ray strikes,
its tail shoots up,

jamming its stinger into the
body of its victim.

The pressure from the strike
tears the protective sheath.

The sharp,
serrated edges of thespine sink in.

And an excruciating
venom flowsinto the wound.

If released into a vital organ,
the venom can kill a human.

These bottom-dwelling hunters
often hide in the sand

and go unnoticed by divers.

If stepped on, the ray's sting
usually leaves a wound

around the ankle.

It's a treatable injury if
it'slooked after quickly enough.

The smalleye stingray is
far larger in size

and its tail is
much more robust.

So it could be more dangerous.

But there are no
recorded incidents

with this rare and
elusive animal.

Over millennia, the giant
oceanic manta ray

lost its stinger entirely.

Its size alone is enough to
keepmost predators at bay.

A small bump on the back
of itstail serves as a reminder

of the time this large
fish had a stinger.

Another day breaks in Tofo.

And Andrea and her team get
a second chance

at finding the
smalleye stingray.

They prep the research boat as
the hunt presses on.

But a new challenge lies ahead.

The sea's actually really
flattened out today

which is amazing!

It's gonna be a great ride out
there, much flatter.

We have a little bit of a
tricky launch,

even though there's no waves,
there's a massive sandbank

so I'm actually going
to have to launch sideways

which is pretty strange
and track along the coast

and then spin out just
around the sand bank.

We'll see how that goes.

I don't normally launch
like that here

but this sort of sand
bank popped up

so we'll see how it goes.

Everyday is something new here
so a little bit of a challenge

but we'll see.

Andrea steers the boat clearof the sandbank

and the team heads out.

Hopeful that the flatter seas
will yield better visibility

and allow them to
spot the smalleye.

The visibility is
much better today

providing a much better
view of the sea life.

Unfortunately the
better visibility

also reveals a
disappointing reality.

The larger animals
just aren't there.

Not seeing one of the most
rare animals in the ocean,

the smalleye, isn't surprising.

But not seeing manta rays
off Tofo's coast, is.

We were chasing the
good vis today.

I'm guessing maybe
all the animals are hiding

down in the green
water down south.

We're gonna brave it tomorrow
and go all the way south

to some of the sort of
flagship reefs here.

It might be cold,
it might be green

but we're still hoping for
a lot of animal life.

In the last few days we
haven'treally seen very many animals,

which is kind of rare.

How do you hide some of the
world's largest fish?

You know, where do they go?

The lack of sightings over
the last several days

reveals a sobering truth

about Mozambique's manta
ray population.

It's indicative of the fact
that the populations are
crashing.

Mantas, we used to
encounter them 80, 90%

of the time we go diving
and now sometimes it's 30%

of the time that we go diving.

We've lost a lot
of our animals here

so it's not as easy to
have encounters

with these giants anymore.

Andrea's concerned about
hermanta ray population

but she must press on with
the task at hand.

Locating the smalleye
stingraysthat come here seasonally.

Today Andrea's team will head
south to continue the search.

The visibility underwater
will be poor,

so finding the animals
will be harder.

But for researcher,
Claire Prebble,

the murky conditions here
in Tofo are an advantage.

Cloudy water is often created
by nutrients.

Plankton, the tiny plant and
animal-based organisms,

that drift on the ocean's
current use these nutrients,

along with sunlight, to grow.

Plankton is the main food
source of the animal

Claire hopes to sight today:
the whale shark.

One of the first and
mostimportant pieces of information

we like to get about
the whale sharks

is actually their identity.

So the way that we do this
is through a technique

called photo identification.

The spots and stripes make
a wonderful fingerprint

really for us to be able to
identify individual sharks.

The ID area is here

so we take a photograph
behind the gills

and next to the pectoral fin
inthis sort of square box here

just before it gets to
the ridges.

At the moment in Mozambique we
have identified 665 sharks.

We have a good idea of
what thewhale sharks are doing

when they are close to
this coastline.

So the information that we're
lacking at the moment

is what these animals are doing

and where they're spending
their time

when they're away from this
coastal aggregation site.

By looking at their diet,
looking at their tissues,

we can find out what they're
eating, and from that

we can also find out
where they're eating.

We do a couple of differenttypes
of analyses on this tissue

and it's based on a you are
what you eat' principle.

As the whale sharks go
through their life they

will swim into different areas

and they will eat
different things

and this biochemical
analysis we do

is just taking advantage of
this tissue passport

that the whale sharks
have created unknowingly

in their skin and we
can almost reverse engineer

what they've been doing and

where they've been
going from this.

To collect a sample,
researchers poke the whale shark

with a pole spear rigged
with a biopsy tip.

They target an area
near the dorsal fin.

Where the animal's
skin is thickest.

And the density of
nerve endings is lowest.

This ensures the
animal doesn't suffer

It's likely the whale shark
doesn't even feel the poke.

As the team heads out, Claire
looks for whale sharks.

But spotting them is no easy
feat along this coastline.

The whale sharks don't
spend very much time

very close to the surface.

So, we're really just
looking for a suspicious

shark-looking shadow underwater.

So far, no whale sharks.

So turns her attention to
another, less glamorous,

area of research.

Zooplankton are tiny
aquatic animals,

no larger than a grain of rice.

From copepods, to crustacean
and snail larvae,

these tiny creatures
drift in the water

nourishing ocean filter
feeders small and large.

Zooplankton is a favorite
food of whale sharks.

These tiny animals could
be the reason

that the resident population
of whale sharks

remains along this coastline.

Without a microscope,

Zooplankton are
nearly invisible.

Claire sieves the water out.

If the tissue sample
from the whale shark

matches these plankton samples

it will prove that Claire's
sharks do in fact

feed along this coastline.

The diet of a jellyfish

is similar to that of
a whale shark.

Both feed on tiny plankton
thatdrift in the water.

Jellyfish are short-lived
creatures.

They're also poor swimmers,

and rely largely on the
current for transportation.

Making them a good
representative

of the local food web.

Claire jumps in to grab a
sample.

She wears gloves, to prevent a
painful jellyfish sting.

What I like to do is take a
bit of the bell,

so around the edge of the
domed part of the jellyfish,

I only need a small
tissue sample.

Andrea and Anna are hopeful
the plankton in these murky
waters

will invite some megafauna.

And it has, but not in the way
they hoped.

We're on our way to a dive
site now and we actually see

the locals cutting up somereally
big animal on the beach.

So I'm assuming it's
a manta ray.

We see a big gill net behindthem
so it's obviously an animal

that's probably run
into a gill net

as it happens along this coast.

We've lost a lot of our mantas
as a result of that,

a lot of our other megafauna

so it's really important for
us to get an understanding of,

you know, what's being caught,

how it's being caught and where.

Let's go!

Waves coming!

So Andrea and Anna and Claire
decided to swim through

the waves to go and
see what it is,

before they chop it up
and it's unidentifiable.

I'm just gonna
quickly fly the drone

to get some evidence and also
to get a picture.

Photo and video evidence of
this incident is crucial

for Andrea and her team

to convince the
Mozambique government

of the need for manta
protectionalong this coastline.

They head in for a closer look
and to collect specimens

from the dead ray.

The death of a mature female
manta ray is a huge loss.

Most females don't reach
sexual maturity

until they are 10 years old.

It's assumed that a
healthy mother,

gives birth to just one
pup every 2-5 years

throughout her lifetime.

Which is thought to be 40 years.

It's a big problem
for these large animals

because they reproduce so slowly

that they cannot withstand any
sort of fishing pressure.

By far the biggest threat to
ourmarine megafauna here

are gill nets.

Gill nets are set up by many
different groups of people

and villages up and down
this entire coastline.

And they're set
perpendicular to the coast

so as these animals travel
up and down

this stretch of water
that they're utilizing,

they'll run straight
into these gill nets.

And the fishermen might
belooking for smaller fish to eat

for dinner but if they catch a
manta, most of these people,

they're hungry, they
don't have many options

and they're going to eat
whatever swims into that net.

The manta ray is now
completely chopped to pieces.

This is a meal for an
entire village.

For Andrea and Anna
it's a tragedy.

I've established such a
close connection to these
animals.

They're not just mantas
for me anymore,

I want to know who it is.

I want to know which
manta's gone.

She scours the beach in
search of any body part with
spots.

Anything she can piece
togetherto identify this manta ray.

But it's hopeless.

It's like finding a friend.

But at the same time, you know,

I think it's really important
to try and rise above

that a bit and try to get
a positive out of a negative.

Andrea and her team are ableto
take samples from the manta ray

that will advance their
research.

Luckily we were able tosecure
almost all of the samples

we wanted.

So we are able to do
a lot of science

even though it's obviously
a really sad thing to see.

With heavy hearts, the team
heads back to shore.

Down at Zara, Nakia and her team

encounter a sobering
reality of their own.

Just as we were finished
launching the boat we were on
our way

just beyond the breakers and a
local fisherman came to us

and he said he has a problem.

We got ready to go
assess the situation.

A leatherback turtle's been
caught in a gill net.

I think it's a leatherback
turtle?

It's a big leatherback on
the net, big one.

It's a big leatherback, it's
getting drowned.

I was in a state of mind
of just get in the water,

get this turtle cut out, let itfree,
no matter what happens,

no matter the
conditions just dive down.

When a turtle is in distress

they have a range of about a
few minutes of surviving time

cause they lose oxygen
when they're stressed.

Very big turtle and it's a
really rare turtle to see.

I haven't seen a leatherback
right close to the beach,

so this is my first time.

The team only has 10 minutesto
save this endangered turtle.

Nakia holds the leatherback
still for Mornay.

I'm just cutting the net off,

trying to free this
turtle as quick as possible

but at the same time
not cutting off parts

that will make it swim away
with netting around the neck

or the flippers.

I don't know what's gonna
happen with the guys in the
water now

so Pedro can we go closer to
seewhat's happening please.

The turtle swims off buta piece of netting

is still tangled around her fin.

Mornay chases after her.

Finally,
the team can breathe asigh of relief.

She is free.

It was entangled very,
very badly

and luckily we were
there to rescue it

but had we not been
there, you know,

it probably would have drowned.

And it's sad to see these
larger animals get entangled

and die just at thecost
of these fishing practices.

It's not only one net,
youcan see it, it's a lot of buoys.

We have like 7, 10
nets at the same place...

so it's quite, it's
quite dangerous.

They caught a big mantas
and big rays

a lot of rays and
sharks and stuff.

It's not legal, but yeah, our
government tried to stop

but it's the local people,
this is their food source.

Back in Tofo, Claire freezesher
plankton and jellyfish samples

to be sent off for analysis.

Once I've analyzed all of
thedata this is the kind of graph

that I get.

An overlap between the bluedots
belonging to the whale sharks

and the red dots belonging to
other plankton-eating animals

will prove that that the whale
sharks come here specifically

to feed on the plankton.

What I'll be looking for
withthe data in Mozambique

is whether the whale sharks
fallvery close and very nicely

within the species that we
sample from this coastline.

Andrea's research, is a
little messier.

We just got back from the
boat and I'm trying to rush to
get

some of these samples processed.

Obviously nobody
wants to see mantas get killed

so we're trying to make
something good out of a bad
situation.

We got a bunch of things
from the manta:

we got a bit of the jaw, so we
can have a look at the teeth.

The gill raker,
that's actuallywhat people kill mantas for

is literally for the gill rakersto
trade for Chinese tonics.

We got a piece of liver,
I meanjust endless amounts

of little bits we got
from the manta.

Very few biologists have the
opportunity to be able to

dissect mantas and collect
parts from them.

It's one of the biggest issues
of trying to describe species

is you actually don't have
access to dead specimens.

In order to document a species
you actually have to look

at everything from their teeth
to their skin to their gills.

In the early days I used to
getquite upset and emotional and

now you have to just try and
think to yourself that manta's

already gone, what can
we get from this?

You know what information can
we get from the locals

to understand their perspective.

What information can we get
fromthe animals that can help

further science, that we can
figure out how to stop this,

and that's what we did today.

It was very much
business, we went in,

we talked to the fishermen,

collected our samples
and we left.

Later tonight I might have
a drink to that manta

but you know at the
moment we're still processing

those samples and trying to
get as much as we can

so that wasn't a wasted life.

The next several days yield
no sightings of smalleye
stingrays.

And, more concerningly,
no manta rays.

With smalleye stingrays,
ourstudies are so new with them

we can't really give much good
information on whether

the population is increasing
or decreasing.

They are something
that's quite uncommon to see

which is why we reallyhave
to integrate their research

in opportunistically
when we're studying mantas

because the mantas have
historically been much

more consistent in this area

whereas smalleyes show up
less frequently.

Three days after the
camera crew left,

a Marine Megafauna researcher

filmed this sighting
of a smalleye stingray.

One of the ocean's most rare
animals has been seen.

But this coastline's
most frequent visitors,

the manta rays are
nowhere to be found.

Highlighting the problem.

We've seen more than 88%
decline in sightings,

which is the largest decline
onrecord anywhere in the world.

That's huge.

A lot of that is due to fishing.

From Tofo beach, to Zara Bay,

the coast of Mozambique
is under pressure.

Gill nets snare the
marine giants

that call this coastline home.

But the researchers that live
here will stop at nothing

to protect them.

It got under my skin this
place, these animals.

I'm really committed to
this coastline now.

This is still my home
and I won't leave until

I see this population
is protected.

We recently increased our
conservation outreach

into the local communities...

working with local fishing
collectives and co-operatives

to implement more
sustainable fishing methods

and really have them manage
their own resources.

Researchers here in Mozambique

are targeting the creation
of marine-protected areas

and the way that we're
doingthat is we're trying to isolate

what are the most important
critical habitats

along this coastline so
that we can figure out

how to protect them first.

The manta rays use a very
close reef as a cleaning
station,

turtles are using our beaches
to nest on

so protecting these areas
is very important

in order to keep
these species from declining

any more than they already are.

The ocean really supports
the life on this planet

and so we don't really
have a choice

but to fix some of these issues.

Hopefully we can build a chain
of parks along the coastline,

maybe even connect
those areas so that

we can have a large enough
marine-protected area.

It's only by working together
that we're going to figure out

how to save the ocean.

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