Original subtitles

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NARRATOR: Near the southern tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula,

an extraordinary story unfolds...

a coral reef, burgeoning with life...

all but wiped out,

decimated by reckless overfishing.

But those that destroyed it would ultimately save it.

Dazzling schools of fish

once again decorate the reef

and the ocean's supreme predators

ply these waters once more.

It's fundamentally a pristine environment

and it's really the only place like it left

in the Sea of Cortez.

NARRATOR: Cabo Pulmo,

one of the world's most successful marine reserves,

offers hope in the struggle to save our threatened seas.

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Off the Eastern Cape of Mexico's Baja Peninsula,

a pioneering effort is underway:

the first ever study of sharks

in the Bay of Cabo Pulmo.

MAN: Tres, uno.

(Water splashes)

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NARRATOR: The shallow seas here in the Sea of Cortez

teem with life.

More than 200 species of fish find refuge on the coral reef:

swirling jacks, powerful bull sharks,

dancing mobula rays, and mighty whale sharks.

But it wasn't always this way.

Thirty years ago, the reef lay barren,

its waters deserted.

For the fishermen of Cabo Pulmo,

photographs of prized catch were all that remained:

memories, and nothing left to squander.

The remote village of Cabo Pulmo

sits on the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula -

60 miles from the tourist hotbed of Los Cabos.

It's perched on the shores of the Sea of Cortez -

also known as the Gulf of California.

Cabo Pulmo is hidden away,

surrounded by undeveloped desert

and the Sierra de la Giganta mountain range.

It can only be accessed by a bone-rattling dirt road

winding through dusty plains

that crawl with rattlesnakes.

About 100 people live here.

Solar energy and generators power the village.

There are no mega-hotels,

no shopping centers, and no marina.

There's only one way to launch the boats.

The village's isolation has limited its prosperity,

but Cabo Pulmo has always had one thing going for it:

the reef.

It's the only hard coral reef

off the west coast of North America.

And at 20,000 years, it's also the oldest.

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In the '60s and '70s,

Cabo Pulmo was a fishing village like many others.

Times were bountiful.

Local Piscatoris stretched their nets with tons of fish.

CASTRO: My father used to tell us that when he was a child,

he saw in Cabo Pulmo so many sharks

like the little pieces of wood

that the rivers brings to the ocean when it rains.

So, and he said,

"I saw that amount of sharks in Cabo Pulmo,

but you will never see that again because we kill it.

All of them."

NARRATOR: By the late 1980s,

local fishermen began seeing fewer fish.

Those that remained

retreated farther out to the ocean.

CASTRO: I can tell you because I remember,

I was child,

that they went out very early in the morning

and they came back some days very late, almost dark,

with no fish.

Tired, thirsty, hungry, angry

because they couldn't find.

So the fishing was declining

more and more and more and more.

NARRATOR: Without any fish, there was no future.

The fishing village of Cabo Pulmo

was close to collapse.

Realizing their livelihoods were in jeopardy,

the fishermen, whose fathers took to the sea before them,

took a drastic step.

They gave up fishing.

Judith's uncle, Juan Castro, led the campaign

to try to save the bay.

He and others dedicated themselves

to conservation and tourism instead.

After several years of effort, in 1995,

Cabo Pulmo was officially designated

a national marine park.

It's a no-take reserve,

meaning fishing is banned within its boundaries.

But the question remained:

would the fish come back?

CASTRO: The two or three years after that

were the most horrible years,

because we didn't know what to do.

They only knew how to fish

and nothing else,

so it was really hard.

I remember those years.

Oh my God, really, really hard years.

And then we were thinking, maybe we made a mistake.

NARRATOR: The fishermen of Cabo Pulmo had given up their livelihoods.

But out on the reef, little had changed.

In 1999,

researchers conducted a study of fish in the marine park.

Even after four years of protection,

the numbers of fish had barely risen.

Ten years later, they repeated the study.

This time, the results were astounding.

In just one decade,

Cabo Pulmo had increased the total fish biomass

by more than 400 percent.

Nowhere in the Gulf of California today

are there more fish per square foot

than in Cabo Pulmo:

schools of Mexican porkfish in their yellow stripes,

blunthead triggerfish,

and porcupine fish

patrol their own patches of coral.

The 1.7 tons of fish per acre

recorded on these reefs

rank as some of the highest anywhere,

making Cabo Pulmo

one of the world's most successful marine reserves.

The park's success has been credited to enforcement

by local residents, boat captains, and dive masters.

Ricardo Castro runs a local dive shop.

He has been diving in Cabo Pulmo for more than 20 years

and has logged more than 7,000 dives.

Like most people here,

his forefathers had fished these waters

since the turn of the last century,

selling their catch to nearby towns.

Over the last five years,

Ricardo has seen a profound change on the reef.

CASTRO: What I think is because we don't fish anymore,

I think everything that there was here before

is coming back, you know.

By talking to my dad and my uncles,

they used to see the sharks right on the shore,

you know, every day.

So I think those times are coming back.

NARRATOR: Cabo Pulmo's 30 square miles of protected waters

make it one of the world's largest national marine parks.

Environmentalist Philippe Cousteau,

grandson of the legendary oceanographer Jacques Cousteau,

sees Cabo Pulmo as a model

for marine-protected areas around the world.

COUSTEAU: In my opinion,

Cabo Pulmo is one of the best diving sites,

not just in the Sea of Cortez,

if not the best diving site in the Sea of Cortez,

it is better than pretty much, almost anything I've ever seen

in the Caribbean

or anywhere else in this part of the world

and Central America.

Less than 1% of the world's marine parks are no-take,

and so this particular scale, at 70 square kilometers,

is one of the largest no-take reserves.

And that means that other than scuba diving and snorkeling,

it's really left the way it should be.

It's fundamentally a pristine environment

and it's really the only place like it left

in the Sea of Cortez.

NARRATOR: The reef at Cabo Pulmo

is one of the healthiest in the entire Pacific Ocean.

And with healthy reefs come monster swarms of fish.

Here a giant school of trevally jacks,

swarms in a constantly swirling thick, silvery cloud.

It's amazing, you know?

CASTRO: When you're diving

and when there's a huge school, a giant school of the jacks,

if we're that far away from each other,

I wouldn't be able to see you.

We're gonna have a wall of fish.

Or if you're under the school, like in the center bottom,

you're not gonna see any sun going through.

It's totally a cloud, dark.

NARRATOR: The jacks swim in tightly-formed schools

to protect themselves from predators.

As the size of the school increases,

more eyes are able to scan greater areas

of the ocean for predators,

increasing safety and allowing more time

to concentrate on feeding.

COUSTEAU: One of my favorite memories of diving down

here in Cabo Pulmo:

I splashed in the water

and only needed to descend a few feet before I saw

what looked like a high-school gymnasium-sized school

of trevally jacks.

I had never seen anything that large

in this part of the world in my entire life.

I mean, it took my breath away.

As they swim around you,

it was just a swirling mass of life.

Unlike anything I've seen in the Caribbean;

unlike anything I've seen elsewhere

here in the Sea of Cortez.

And of course, it couldn't exist anywhere,

because fishermen would go through it

and clean those jacks out like that.

It wouldn't take them more than a few days,

if not a few weeks

to pretty much wipe everything off this coral reef.

NARRATOR: The explosion of life on the protected reef

has been astounding.

But the ultimate sign of success

has been the return of the sharks.

KETCHUM: This place had no sharks before in the '90s,

before it was a reserve.

I came here in the '90s to dive and I never saw a shark.

And 10 years after, it was declared a reserve,

the top predators, the sharks, returned.

NARRATOR: The presence of a healthy population of sharks

is final proof that the effort

to restore this national marine treasure to its former glory

has worked.

But to ensure the sharks remain in Cabo Pulmo,

there's work yet to be done.

To determine the impact the marine reserve has had

on the resident shark population,

marine biologist James Ketchum and his team

are conducting an ongoing shark survey in Cabo Pulmo.

KETCHUM: What we're looking at is the abundance of sharks,

how many sharks are here?

And what is the diversity of sharks?

What species are we finding here in Cabo Pulmo?

We chose this place because of the sharks.

In the 2000s, and 2005,

the sharks started to return to Cabo Pulmo

and nobody was studying the sharks.

So that's also one of the reasons we came here:

to do the first ever study of the sharks here.

We need to provide enough information

to the Mexican government to manage it in the proper way.

What is the proper way?

Well, not having too many divers,

too many people in the water.

Protecting the sharks efficiently.

If you have a place that's not very well managed,

the sharks will leave.

They will be molested too many times and continuously,

until they just leave the place and will go somewhere else.

So we don't want that to happen in Cabo Pulmo.

NARRATOR: Some of the sharks carry electronic tags

that send individual signals to an acoustic receiver.

The receiver records the presence of passing sharks,

and reveals how long a shark spends at a specific location

and how many times it returns to the same spot.

Data on these daily movements allow researchers

to learn about shark residency and habitat use.

KETCHUM: We also wanted to study how efficient is this reserve?

Other than just saying it's a good reserve,

we just want to know how many sharks are here

and how long they stay here

to measure, in that way, the efficiency of the reserve.

NARRATOR: Research takes place under water and on land.

Students positioned 20 to 30 feet above the sea,

keep lookout for sharks cruising along the shore.

Many sharks hunt in shallow waters,

close to the shoreline.

KETCHUM: We've seen 11 species of sharks so far.

So we have here a number of sharks, a high diversity of sharks,

a high abundance of some of these species.

So it's quite an amazing place

in terms of shark ecology and biology here.

NARRATOR: Bull sharks are the most common species found at Cabo Pulmo,

although whitetips, nurse sharks,

and Galapagos sharks also ply these waters.

For years, bull sharks were nowhere to be seen.

Once the area was fished out,

there was nothing here for them to eat.

But these pelagic predators have returned in abundance,

though curiously, they rarely seem to be hunting.

KETCHUM: When we see bull sharks in Cabo Pulmo here, for example,

they're just resting.

It's kind of a refuging, resting station.

What they are doing,

they're not really feeding when you're looking at,

they're not really breeding.

But they're probably moving into foraging grounds

or foraging at night or in the afternoon

when nobody is looking at bull sharks.

NARRATOR: Bull sharks cruise slowly

through the shallow, warm waters.

They may appear sluggish,

but are capable of quick bursts of speed

to catch small, agile prey.

With the strongest bite of all shark species,

more powerful than a great white,

they can attack turtles, dolphins, even other sharks.

Bull sharks get their name from their short blunt snout,

used to head-butt and stun prey,

and from their supposed pugnacious temperament.

KETCHUM: It's a big predator,

but actually my feeling is a feeling of

"I want to see more sharks."

It's just beautiful.

I love diving with sharks,

because every time you're in the water with them,

you see something new.

They're very unpredictable animals.

Most of them are top predators.

So that's their nature, to be unpredictable.

And that makes them more incredible to see

how they move around.

That's also-- they're perfect movements in the water.

They're a perfect machine in that sense.

Amazing animals.

I have never felt threatened by sharks in my entire life.

Particularly, bull sharks.

It's about respect.

The dive guides down here in Cabo Pulmo are world-class

and it is one of my favorite things to do in the world.

I like to remind people

that people are more likely to die from a coconut

than be attacked by sharks.

More people die from goldfish-related accidents

in the United States every year than from shark attack.

So if you're afraid of sharks or being attacked by a shark,

don't ever leave your house.

Because driving in your car, walking across the street,

all those things are far more dangerous.

If you see a bull shark here in Cabo Pulmo,

consider yourself lucky,

because seeing sharks is just a rare treat in life.

And forget all the hype and the fear

that the media dumps onto these majestic animals

and just appreciate how beautiful they are.

NARRATOR: Recently, whitetip reef sharks tagged by Ketchum

in the Socorro Islands, more than 300 miles away,

have turned up in Cabo Pulmo.

Whitetip reef sharks

are not typically long-distance travelers.

It's believed these Socorro whitetips

followed warm currents powered by El Niño.

KETCHUM: Well, El Niño has two sides.

It's two sides of the coin.

One side brings bad news, 'cause the water's too warm.

The thermocline drops down,

that means that all the nutrients are trapped deep,

so there's no replenishment of nutrients

in the surface waters.

So there's no food basically.

So that's bad news for many species,

for top predators and a number of species.

But on the other side of the coin is good news,

because we have migration of species

that otherwise can't make it to places

where they can live.

Like, an example is the whitetip reef.

The whitetip reef is pretty much restricted to Socorro Islands,

to that archipelago or was.

And now it's able to inhabit other places,

like the Gulf of California-- southern Gulf of California.

So it's good news in some sense.

NARRATOR: One species that is known for its migratory behavior

is the whale shark.

The largest fish in the sea,

it is the largest fish that has ever lived on our planet.

The length of a school bus,

a 40-foot whale shark can weigh more than 20 tons,

four times the size of the great white shark.

Its mouth is wide enough

to allow four divers to swim in at once.

By tagging whale sharks,

scientists are able to learn about their migration habits.

One whale shark was tracked from the Sea of Cortez

to a spot more than 8,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean.

The largest fish in the world

is also one of the most mysterious.

Tagged whale sharks will disappear for weeks,

descending more than a mile

into the chilly depths of the oceans.

Little is known about their mating and birthing habits.

But studies here are shedding new light.

The southern Sea of Cortez is thought to be a pupping area

for whale sharks that migrate to breed.

KETCHUM: A few years back, we saw a large female

just-- not too far from here, it's called Gorda Banks,

that had her cloaca open,

it just had pupped.

And her sides of the belly were fluffed.

So we have very strong evidence that these sharks are pupping

here in the southern Sea of Cortez.

NARRATOR: Here an adult and two juveniles feed near the surface.

It's believed that whale sharks pup at great depths,

then remain there for months.

Deep water offers protection from predators,

such as blue marlin and orcas, that prey on young whale sharks.

Mother and pup stay in the deep

until the pup is at least 6 feet long.

They then come to the surface, to a secondary nursery,

where juveniles gather.

KETCHUM: Here in the Bay of La Paz,

we have a secondary nursery of high importance.

So we see 2, 3 meter whale sharks there

typically every year.

So we know that they're probably pupping here.

They stay in the deeper part

of the Sea of Cortez/ Gulf of California

and then they reach a certain size

and they come to the surface and they stay in-shore

for protection and for feeding on plankton.

NARRATOR: The largest fish in the sea

feeds on some of the smallest.

Plankton is the most abundant food in the sea,

and whale sharks are one of three known shark species

that filter feed on these microscopic plants and animals.

The sharks filter plankton through pads

that cover the entrance of the throat.

Giant gulps at the surface draw water into the mouth

suctioning in the plankton.

A single shark can filter

more than 160,000 gallons of water per hour.

That's enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool

in just four hours.

KETCHUM: It's incredible.

When you see a really large whale shark

over 10 meters in length,

it's not only the length, it's also the girth.

It's like a humongous submarine.

So when we were studying the whale sharks

in the Bay of La Paz,

the first thing you have to do is look at the sex,

what's the gender, what's the sex of the shark.

For juveniles, it's easy.

You just drop down a little bit

and you can look for the claspers.

Male sharks have two organs that are called claspers.

When you see a shark over 10 meters in length,

you have to really dive down.

You're diving down several meters down

to go under the shark, look if it has claspers or not.

So they're humongous animals.

COUSTEAU: They'll come right towards you

and just kinda swim right past you,

and like they don't have a care in the world.

And their mouth is 6 feet wide,

this huge, gaping black hole,

and you think, "Oh, my goodness, I'm going to get sucked in."

You don't.

They know you're there.

They don't wanna get you in there,

'cause they can't eat you anyway,

so it's not a good thing.

So, you know, they're really gentle giants.

But to see something the size of a small submarine

coming towards you,

it's certainly a humbling experience

and might make you catch your breath for a moment,

but it's really one of those sights in the ocean,

those experiences in the ocean, that I've never forgotten.

That no one forgets when they see it.

And it's just awe-inspiring.

NARRATOR: As the sun sets over the Sea of Cortez,

another filter feeder swoops through the water

in the dark of night.

Nowhere near the size of the whale shark,

but in such large numbers,

that it's equally remarkable: the mobula ray.

As each ray glides through the water,

two blade-like fins channel water

into the ray's wide-open mouth

where gills sift out microscopic plankton and krill.

Powerful wing beats

constantly propel the rays through the water,

passing oxygen-rich water over the gills for respiration.

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The non-stop action is a bit too much

for this pufferfish, which makes a hasty retreat.

Mobula aggregations,

particularly common at breeding times,

can number in the hundreds.

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But these large shoals are vulnerable

to commercial fishing.

Mobulas are highly valued in international trade:

used for Chinese medicine,

and as an ingredient of shark-fin soup.

A single haul of a fishing net through one of these shoals

can draw in many rays,

dramatically decreasing the population.

Today the protected waters of Cabo Pulmo

are similar to those of a coral reef

that has never been fished.

The coral reef functions as a nursery

for a vast number of animals that live in the Sea of Cortez,

and the benefits of its protection

extend well beyond the confines of the reef.

Away from the marine park, fishing has improved.

Fishermen outside the park's boundaries

take advantage of this spill-over effect.

To prevent fishing from once again decimating the reef,

marine park staff Daniel Gatica and Alicia Chávez

patrol Cabo Pulmo's protected waters.

They're on the lookout for poachers

with weighted gill nets that haul in anything that swims by,

including sharks and rays.

The illegal fishing boats often try to evade capture.

NARRATOR: Park rangers arrest and fine the fishermen,

and confiscate their illegal fishing boats.

But it's not just poachers

that concern the Cabo Pulmo marine patrol.

Scuba diving boats can also pose a problem.

(Speaking in Spanish)

Buenos dias.

Buenos dias.

CHÁVEZ: Your bracelet.

NARRATOR: Park staff check that the dive boat

has the proper park permits,

and that divers have purchased a park wristband.

They tightly control the number of divers at Cabo Pulmo

and instruct divers never to touch

the fragile corals on the reef.

(Speaking in Spanish)

NARRATOR: In the distance, the marine patrol spots

what look like fishermen near the shore.

They head closer to inspect.

(Speaking in Spanish)

GATICA: James, James' workers.

It's James' students. They're looking the sharks in this area.

NARRATOR: The fishermen turn out to be shark researchers

working with marine biologist James Ketchum.

NARRATOR: 70 feet below the surface of the Sea of Cortez

lies a ghostly relic,

claimed by the power of the sea:

the wreck of the Fang Ming,

a Chinese fishing vessel seized by authorities

for attempting to smuggle nearly 100 migrant workers

into the United States.

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In 1999,

the confiscated 180-foot-long vessel

was intentionally sunk

to create an artificial reef,

the first of its kind in Latin America.

Today, the Fang Ming is a haven for marine life:

reef cornetfish...

a green moray eel...

an olive ridley turtle.

Of all the sea turtles, olive ridleys are the smallest,

weighing on average about 75 pounds.

They are also the most abundant,

though their survival is threatened.

In the water, fishing nets take their toll.

On land, nesting females are slaughtered

for their meat and skin.

Most hatchlings die on the beach

before reaching the ocean,

preyed on by birds, crabs and even dogs.

For every 1,000 eggs laid,

just one hatchling will survive to breeding age.

On the beaches lining the Sea of Cortez,

there are a small number of nesting sites.

A disturbance to even one nest beach

can have a dramatic effect on the turtle population.

At Cabo Pulmo,

Daniel and Alicia work to ensure

that sea turtles have a safe place to nest,

hatch, and eventually make their way to the sea.

These young conservationists search the beach

for vulnerable nests,

then move them to a protected corral.

They bury the eggs for six weeks

under heavy sand nearly 2 feet deep.

(Alicia speaking in Spanish)

NARRATOR: The progress of each protected nest is monitored

to ensure that the greatest number of hatchlings survive.

When the eggs hatch, babies crawl to the surface,

orient to the ocean,

and scramble instinctively to the sea.

It's a dangerous journey, fraught with predators.

But marine park staff don't take the hatchlings

directly to the sea.

Hatchlings need to experience the beach

and even taste the sand,

as they scurry down the beach to the surf.

It's believed this helps create a chemical memory

of their birthplace,

so they may return to the same spot

in 12 to 15 years to lay their own eggs.

It takes more than an hour for each tiny hatchling

to push its way over the thick, wet sand.

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The water doesn't always offer the sanctuary it seeks,

but this one gets a helping hand.

Each wave knocks it back.

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But the turtle is determined,

and after about a dozen unsuccessful attempts,

a wave carries it out to sea, on the start of an epic journey.

North of Cabo Pulmo, at Los Islotes,

overzealous fishing has had a dramatic impact

on large colonies of Baja California sea lions.

Diminished local fish stocks

have driven these sea lions into deeper waters

to hunt for fish beyond the reach of commercial fishermen.

California sea lions are opportunistic eaters,

feeding on fish, squid, and small sharks.

They typically hunt at the surface

down to about 80 feet.

But they can dive as deep as 1,200 feet

and hold their breath for up to 20 minutes...

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An amazing feat, enabled by a physiology

that's evolved over millions of years.

When starting a dive,

sea lions slow their heart rate,

stop their breathing,

and divert blood flow from the extremities

to the brain, heart, and muscles.

They are natural-born swimmers.

Large front flippers power their streamlined bodies

through the water at speeds up to 25 miles an hour.

Thick layers of blubber, and a coat of coarse hair,

provide insulation from chilly marine waters.

The sea lion's whiskers contain nerve fibers

that aid in navigation through ocean waters

and detect vibrations from prey in the water.

Hunting sessions can last as long as 30 hours.

This young female has hit upon a school of jacks.

The school is designed to confuse predators.

But she displays a remarkable hunting technique.

From a school of hundreds of jacks,

the sea lion focuses on just one.

She tears after the fish,

even as the jack tries to hide within the school,

the sea lion continues her relentless pursuit,

until the fish is too tired to outswim the hunter.

In the water, sea lions are flexible and agile.

On land, powerful front flippers

and a rotating hip bone,

allow them to drag their burly bodies over the rocks.

They gather in protected areas near the shore

and spend hours lolling in the sun.

On land, they have no predators.

In the sea, great white sharks and orcas

pose the greatest threat.

When not hunting,

young sea lions have one thing on their minds: play.

Juveniles chase each other, wrestle,

and practice territorial battles for hours on end.

Despite a diminished food supply,

due in part to overfishing,

the sea lion population at Los Islotes

has increased by 20 percent since 1991.

These curious animals have learned to adapt and thrive.

Back in Cabo Pulmo,

diving on the reef is like traveling back in time,

when all of the Sea of Cortez teemed with life.

Today, the waters of Cabo Pulmo contain sights,

rarely seen around the world.

COUSTEAU: It's no secret that the oceans are suffering.

When you talk about, not just overfishing,

but you add ocean acidification, climate change,

all these different issues, the oceans,

the life support system of this planet,

are getting hammered.

However, there are some things that we can do on a local level

to help protect the oceans

and to make them as resilient as possible

in the face of some of these larger global problems.

And one of the best things that we can do

to protect our oceans is to create marine reserves.

In particular,

no-take marine reserves like here at Cabo Pulmo.

They've been proven to work.

It's essentially saying

that, you know, we can provide areas in the ocean

where human beings aren't pulling stuff out

and dumping stuff in.

And give it a break.

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KETCHUM: Here you have a formula that worked.

You have a beautiful location.

You have a beautiful habitat of many different species.

But if you don't protect that, that will be gone,

because we'll get fished out.

So what happens in Cabo Pulmo,

you also have a community of local people

that have been here for decades; for almost 100 years.

So they learn to protect this place.

So this was like an experiment.

And it worked.

And we're hoping to have other Cabo Pulmos

in other parts of the Gulf of California,

because if you repeat this formula,

we know it's gonna work.

COUSTEAU: Fishermen up and down this coast

will tell you they don't want their kids to become fishermen,

because they see the decline in the health of the fisheries

along here

and that it's a diminishing return on investment

and they want their children to go and do something else.

Whereas, what they've built here in Cabo Pulmo

is truly an investment in the future

and is value that continues to grow for the next generation.

CASTRO: Cabo Pulmo,

it's my life.

It's been my dad's, my mom's,

and my grandpa's life, you know?

And I wish it's gonna be my kids' life,

you know?

I'm very proud of Cabo Pulmo.

The town itself,

but also what we have on the ocean.

As you can see, it's a beautiful place.

Unfortunately, we don't have that many places in the world

like Cabo Pulmo.

We have to start taking care of those places.

So our kids, the world kids,

can enjoy these kinds of places.

NARRATOR: Inspired by the success of Cabo Pulmo,

Mexico has plans to extend its marine sanctuaries

to include up to 10 percent of its seas.

One of the world's most successful marine reserves

is now a model for other marine-protected areas

around the world.

And one of the many wonders of the Great Blue Wild.

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