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Line | From | To | |
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The Indian Ocean. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:09 | |
Home to the world's most exotic islands. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
And beautiful and rare wildlife. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:16 | |
I'm travelling through 16 countries around the edge of this vast ocean | 0:00:19 | 0:00:23 | |
that stretches 6,000 miles from Africa to Australia. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:27 | |
'Steeped in history, the Indian Ocean is vital to world trade. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:34 | |
It's a journey of extremes. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:38 | |
'From stunning islands... | 0:00:38 | 0:00:40 | |
'..across pirate-infested seas... | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
'..to remote villages.. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:45 | |
'..and war-torn lands.' | 0:00:50 | 0:00:52 | |
What was that? | 0:00:52 | 0:00:54 | |
RAPID GUNSHOTS | 0:00:54 | 0:00:55 | |
CHILDREN LAUGH | 0:01:01 | 0:01:03 | |
This is a journey about much more than what's under the waves. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:08 | |
It's about the lives of the millions of people... | 0:01:09 | 0:01:13 | |
..who live around this, one of our greatest oceans. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:18 | |
On this leg of my journey, | 0:01:23 | 0:01:24 | |
I'm travelling from the edge of Arabia to India, | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
and on to the tropical islands of the Maldives. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
'On the way I experience the chaos | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
'of one of the great Indian Ocean festivals.' | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
Feels like the whole of Mumbai is out on the beach. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:42 | |
Among beautiful coral reefs I discover | 0:01:44 | 0:01:46 | |
what threatens the delicate balance of the underwater world. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:48 | |
It's all dead, like a forest that's been logged. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:53 | |
And on the high seas I go fishing the old-fashioned way. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
Yaaay! | 0:02:00 | 0:02:01 | |
FISHERMAN: Nice catch! > | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
-I caught it! -Yes! | 0:02:03 | 0:02:04 | |
In the Indian Ocean, sustainably. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
I'm starting this part of my journey in a remote region of Oman. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:29 | |
I'm next to the Strait of Hormuz, | 0:02:29 | 0:02:32 | |
one of the most important entry points into the Indian Ocean. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:37 | |
Giant super-tankers come through here | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
carrying vast quantities of the world's oil, | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
which makes this stretch of water one of the most vital on the planet. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:46 | |
Middle Eastern oil literally fuels the industrialised world. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
40% of all seaborne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz | 0:02:53 | 0:02:58 | |
and into the Indian Ocean. | 0:02:58 | 0:02:59 | |
The oil tankers pass the Musandam Peninsula, | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
a strategically vital region of Oman. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:09 | |
Oman was once a great power in the Indian Ocean. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:13 | |
For centuries Omanis traded with India, Africa, | 0:03:13 | 0:03:17 | |
and even the Far East. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:19 | |
And that tradition lives on into the 21st century. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
In the town of Khasab, I met up with my Omani guide. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:27 | |
I've met up with Bhada here, who's brought me down to the harbour... | 0:03:27 | 0:03:33 | |
..to have a look out to sea. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:35 | |
Hmm. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:39 | |
Wow, look at the boats go. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
What would these boats be? | 0:03:43 | 0:03:44 | |
-That's Iranian people. -Iranians? -Yes. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
-Heading across the water to Iran. -Exactly. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
And what do they do? They come over here trading? | 0:03:51 | 0:03:55 | |
Yes. There is a business between Khasab and Iran. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
The business here is a multi-million pound operation. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:04 | |
A combination of western sanctions against Iran and high import taxes | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
has encouraged rampant smuggling between Oman and Iran. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
They take from here different stuff, like food, electronics, clothing. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:17 | |
When you say electronics... Televisions? | 0:04:17 | 0:04:19 | |
TV, radio, fridge, whatever. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
-Sometime they put the car in the boat. -No! | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
-They put the car in the boat. -They're not slow, eh? -For sure not. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:31 | |
Wow, they're like power boats. Look at them go. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:33 | |
Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, thirteen, fourteen in one go. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:42 | |
And more and more are coming out again. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:45 | |
It is quite a staggering sight. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:47 | |
'The smugglers weave their way across the Strait of Hormuz, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
'through the busy shipping lanes, dodging the Iranian Coastguard.' | 0:04:50 | 0:04:54 | |
I don't imagine the Iranian authorities | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
are particularly happy about that, are they? | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
No, I don't think so. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
The speed they go at, the size of the boats... | 0:05:04 | 0:05:08 | |
it does give a sense of a dangerous game being played. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:13 | |
Sanctions were imposed on Iran because of its nuclear programme. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:18 | |
But they're not working. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:20 | |
Iran says it will block the Strait of Hormuz | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
and halt global oil supplies | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
if the West decides to launch attacks | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
The rising tensions have made the waters off the Musandam Peninsula | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
one of the major global flashpoints. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:34 | |
Bhada took me to explore the craggy inlets | 0:05:34 | 0:05:37 | |
that scar the coast of this otherworldly area. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
Though it's fantastically remote, people do live here... | 0:05:43 | 0:05:47 | |
on the edge of the rocky hills. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:49 | |
We're on our way to a community to meet them. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
This place looks incredible! | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
Just nestling under these rocky hills. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:03 | |
Considering so much of the world's oil is passing by a few miles away, | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
the Musandam Peninsula is marvellously pristine. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
Amid this arid moonscape, | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
the village of Kumzar is only accessible by boat. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
PEOPLE CHANT, RHYTHMIC MUSIC PLAYS | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
The Kumzaris, like most Omanis, are Muslims. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
But after hundreds of years of relative isolation, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
hey have their own unique culture. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:37 | |
And they roll out the carpet for a foreign visitor. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:41 | |
MEN CHANT IN UNISON | 0:06:49 | 0:06:52 | |
I do love how...a journey like this, | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
around the Indian ocean, | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
can throw up such... incredibly different cultures. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:03 | |
This is so staggeringly different | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
from life in Mozambique, for example... | 0:07:07 | 0:07:12 | |
earlier in the journey. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
And yet all these countries and communities | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
are connected by being next to one of our great oceans. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
All around the Indian Ocean, people showed me great hospitality | 0:07:25 | 0:07:28 | |
and the Kumzaris were no different. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:32 | |
We bedded down for the night in the village hall. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
I'm absolutely shattered already. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
It's just the heat. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
It really... saps the energy out of you. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
It's going to be a long, hot, sweaty night. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:53 | |
Living out here in isolation, on the edge of Arabia, | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
the Kumzaris have developed their own language, | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
containing elements of Persian but spoken nowhere else in the world. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:12 | |
But centuries of trade HAVE brought outside influences | 0:08:12 | 0:08:16 | |
and when I met Abdu Salaam, a village elder, | 0:08:16 | 0:08:19 | |
some of the language proved surprisingly familiar. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:21 | |
Different kind of language. > | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
Even there is some words of English in it also. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:25 | |
-Words in English, really? -There is English words. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:28 | |
BHADA SPEAKS IN LOCAL LANGUAGE | 0:08:28 | 0:08:30 | |
-Door. -In Kumzari? | 0:08:30 | 0:08:32 | |
-"Door" is "door". -Door is door. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:36 | |
Door and, er...star. Najim, Arabic, najim. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:40 | |
So you would stay "star" for the stars | 0:08:40 | 0:08:44 | |
and you would say najim in Arabic for stars. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:48 | |
-Exactly. -We have...we are bonded. We are brothers! Star! | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:08:51 | 0:08:52 | |
Can we ask, is this your fishing crew? | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
Are these local people? | 0:09:01 | 0:09:02 | |
TRANSLATION: Yes, my crew starts early in the morning, | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
at around 5am, and keeps going until sunset. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:10 | |
There's a person on the mountain whose job it is to watch the sea. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:15 | |
Then he directs the others to the fish | 0:09:18 | 0:09:20 | |
by telling them to move to the left or right or forward. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
So they can catch the fish. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
That is genius! | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
So he's the sort of spotter, up there on the cliffs, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
and he says, "OK, now's the time. Get the net out and get them." | 0:09:34 | 0:09:39 | |
Exactly. That's his job now, on the top there. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
That's your bit. Come on. I'll help you. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
-Bhada, pull harder! -And you! | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
-I don't see you pulling. -I'm pulling, I'm pulling! | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
Oh, right, I see. That's how it is, is it? | 0:09:57 | 0:10:00 | |
(He's a tough taskmaster!) | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
I want to know more about the benefits in this job. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
What are the holidays like? | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
Looks to me like they've got a good catch. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
-Are you happy with that as a catch? -TRANSLATION: -Yes, thanks to God. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:25 | |
You've got to take the whole scene in to appreciate | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
how spectacular this is, really. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
On the edge of the Strait of Hormuz, | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
there's a community here | 0:10:34 | 0:10:36 | |
still pulling fish out of this bay | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
in the way they have done for generations. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
There's no heavy industry polluting the sea here | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
and no vast fishing fleet decimating fish stocks. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
The sea off Kumzar is plentiful | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
and Oman is one of the most prosperous nations | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
on my entire Indian Ocean journey. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
Goodbye and farewell. Thank you very much indeed. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
Thank you, thank you. You are very welcome in Kumzar. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:09 | |
They might be isolated today but throughout history, | 0:11:10 | 0:11:13 | |
sailors from this area | 0:11:13 | 0:11:15 | |
used to trade around the coast of the Indian Ocean. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:18 | |
Omani merchants used the monsoon winds to travel | 0:11:18 | 0:11:22 | |
thousands of miles and trade between continents. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
I followed one of those ancient routes | 0:11:26 | 0:11:28 | |
to the west coast of India | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
and headed towards the biggest Indian Ocean city of all, Mumbai. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:34 | |
It's only when you're at a festival like this | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
that you really start to understand | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
just how many people there are in this country. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
I'd arrived during one of the biggest festivals | 0:11:57 | 0:12:00 | |
in the entire world - | 0:12:00 | 0:12:02 | |
the annual birthday celebration for the elephant-headed god, Ganesh. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:07 | |
For weeks and months before the festival, | 0:12:08 | 0:12:11 | |
Hindu fans buy or make statues of the god | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
before carrying them as part of a huge procession | 0:12:14 | 0:12:18 | |
down to the Indian Ocean. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:20 | |
All this is just a temporary installation, | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
if you like, that will be taken down at the end of today. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:27 | |
Wow! | 0:12:27 | 0:12:29 | |
And this is Ganesh. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
Hindus believe that paying homage to Ganesh | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
will remove obstacles to success | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
and bring good fortune over the coming year. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:45 | |
Vikas Vasudev would be my guide | 0:12:48 | 0:12:51 | |
on this leg of my journey in western India. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
Ganesh is a visitor during these ten days. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
He visits the people of the Earth, | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
and then the way you bid farewell to guests, | 0:12:59 | 0:13:03 | |
you bid farewell to Ganesh, and you put him back in the Earth. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
This is the all-inclusive nature of this festival. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
This lady, who is just receiving a blessing, | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
or giving a blessing there, she's Muslim - this is a Hindu god, | 0:13:13 | 0:13:17 | |
but this festival brings everybody in the city and the country together. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:23 | |
For the finale of the festival, | 0:13:25 | 0:13:27 | |
even this huge Ganesh is carried through the streets towards the sea. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
THEY CHANT | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
That is nothing short of miraculous. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
Ganesh is on the forklift truck and he's on the move! | 0:13:39 | 0:13:43 | |
We joined the devotees, as hundreds of other Ganeshes | 0:13:46 | 0:13:50 | |
flooded in from different parts of the city. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
All sorts of Ganeshes at this festival, from the big... | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
to the small. | 0:13:57 | 0:13:58 | |
DRUMS BEAT | 0:13:58 | 0:14:01 | |
It's a traditional Indian festival, set to a very modern beat. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:05 | |
THEY PLAY DRUMS AND CHANT | 0:14:05 | 0:14:07 | |
It's totally surreal, being here. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:11 | |
There's these gloriously dressed, | 0:14:11 | 0:14:14 | |
elderly Indian ladies, | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
following a giant wall of speakers... | 0:14:17 | 0:14:22 | |
playing Ibizan house, with a slightly Indian twist. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:26 | |
MUSIC PUMPS | 0:14:26 | 0:14:30 | |
The monsoon winds made this city | 0:14:31 | 0:14:34 | |
one of the great Indian Ocean trading ports. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
MAN SHOUTS, THEY CHEER | 0:14:37 | 0:14:38 | |
And that same monsoon delivers this deluge. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:42 | |
It's raining, it's getting a little bit dark. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
We're moving close to the sea now | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
and the festival is really beginning. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
This is an absolutely extraordinary experience. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
It feels like the whole of Mumbai is out on the beach. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
They're starting to spray Ganesh with water over there, | 0:15:12 | 0:15:15 | |
and then he's going to be immersed into the sea. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
The Ganesh is going into the sea. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
There he goes, into the water, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:25 | |
to be immersed and return back to nature. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
Ganesh is the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:33 | |
The festival is hugely popular with the millions of people | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
who've flooded into this great city in recent years, | 0:15:36 | 0:15:39 | |
fleeing rural poverty and seeking a better life. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:43 | |
It's been a very long and magnificent, wonderful day. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:47 | |
Ganesh is going into the sea until the early hours of the morning, | 0:15:47 | 0:15:52 | |
but I think we're going to head off. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:54 | |
It's colossal. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
I knew it was the biggest city in India, but it just seems to | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
go on and on and on, like the size of a small country. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
Mumbai has become a great symbol of India's economic growth in recent years. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:19 | |
It has some of the most expensive property in the world, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
as well as some of the largest slums. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
Like many people in Mumbai, Vikas is not a local. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
Why did you move here? | 0:16:30 | 0:16:32 | |
Work, man. This is where the action is. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
-Was it a good decision? -I love the city, | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
and at the same time, I hate it. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:39 | |
It's the richest city in India, | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
at the same time, it also has the most poor people. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:45 | |
It has the largest slum in India, so it's just full of contradictions. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:50 | |
In India, this is seen as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, | 0:16:50 | 0:16:55 | |
isn't it? This is the place to come to, to make your fortune? | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
Yes. Definitely. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:00 | |
This has the biggest pot of gold and the biggest sewer. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
"The biggest pot of gold and the biggest sewer" - | 0:17:03 | 0:17:05 | |
I need to remember that. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:07 | |
India's population has more than doubled in the last 40 years. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:11 | |
There are now at least 1.2 billion people in this country. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:16 | |
This population explosion is having profound consequences. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
In just a short time, | 0:17:20 | 0:17:21 | |
Mumbai has gone from being a small port to a mega-city. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:26 | |
One of the original fishing communities here were the Kolis. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:29 | |
This is incredible. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:31 | |
I wondered how India's rapid changes were affecting them | 0:17:31 | 0:17:36 | |
and the ocean that sustained them for generations. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
We're walking into near total darkness! | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
We're down by the sea in a small fishing village that has become an urban warren. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:47 | |
Are you sure this isn't into somebody's house? | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
This is absolutely unbelievable. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:54 | |
It's really overwhelming here, actually. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:58 | |
I'm overwhelmed by the sights and senses. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
Bloody hell, look at this. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:04 | |
The Koli have been fishermen for centuries, | 0:18:04 | 0:18:06 | |
making a living from the Indian Ocean. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
Now they live down here on the beach, | 0:18:09 | 0:18:11 | |
surrounded by pollution, muck and tower blocks of the big city.' | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
-Namaste. -Namaste. -Simon, Amur. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
'Amur is a community leader.' | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
How do we mend a fishing net? | 0:18:23 | 0:18:25 | |
I'll sit there... or I'll sit next to you. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:30 | |
OK. Through there...right... | 0:18:30 | 0:18:34 | |
He's a good teacher. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
Can you tell me a little bit about the community you represent? | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
-TRANSLATOR: -'The Koli are the original inhabitants of Mumbai. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:49 | |
'We are the fisherfolk.' | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
What's the fishing like off here? | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
This is a huge city. | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
I imagine with all the ships and the pollution, | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
the fish stocks must be declining, but is that the case? | 0:19:00 | 0:19:04 | |
'It's difficult for us. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:07 | |
'Before, we earned good money and our kids ate well. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:10 | |
'But because of the lack of fish in the sea, | 0:19:10 | 0:19:15 | |
our life has become difficult.' | 0:19:15 | 0:19:19 | |
More people means more stomachs to feed. It means over-fishing and more pollution, | 0:19:19 | 0:19:24 | |
and lack of fish is just one of the problems faced by the Koli. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
Property developers are now after their patch of seafront. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:31 | |
You live on what looks to me like prime real estate, | 0:19:31 | 0:19:36 | |
right next to high-rises and in a city of billionaires. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:41 | |
'I want to stand up and show you this village of ours.' | 0:19:41 | 0:19:46 | |
Excuse me. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
'There are no toilets or running water here. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
'The high rises have all the facilities. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:57 | |
'All THEIR needs are met. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
'But no-one listens to us.' | 0:20:00 | 0:20:02 | |
The Koli people believe they are being deliberately denied basic amenities, | 0:20:05 | 0:20:10 | |
so they'll have no choice but to move away from the seafront. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
It does feel a little bit to me as though your whole way of life | 0:20:15 | 0:20:21 | |
is being threatened, because the fish stocks on which you rely are dwindling, | 0:20:21 | 0:20:25 | |
and you're being squeezed out by the developers who want your land. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:32 | |
Does the community here feel under threat? | 0:20:32 | 0:20:34 | |
'You know, everybody wants a piece of this seafront location. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:40 | |
'But the sea is our God. We make a living from the sea. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:45 | |
'It feeds our children. So whatever happens, we're not leaving. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:50 | |
'We'll stay here, come what may.' | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
It's perhaps inevitable that a fishing community like the Kolis | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
will struggle to survive | 0:20:57 | 0:20:58 | |
in the polluted waters off a growing mega-city, | 0:20:58 | 0:21:02 | |
but as this extraordinary country continues to develop and industrialise, | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
the impact of India's increasing population | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
is being felt all around the Indian Ocean. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
Nearly 200 million people have been added to India's population | 0:21:16 | 0:21:21 | |
in the past decade. To understand the consequences for the ocean, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
Vikas and I headed to his home state of Gujarat. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:29 | |
Along the way, I had a fascinating reminder of the connections | 0:21:29 | 0:21:32 | |
that have linked countries around the Indian Ocean | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
for hundreds of years. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:36 | |
Incredible, we just stopped to help a rickshaw that's got some kind of problem, | 0:21:38 | 0:21:42 | |
and it's loaded with what appears to be black Africans - | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
We're driving through rural India! | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
These are the Siddi people, | 0:21:52 | 0:21:54 | |
the descendants of black Africans who live in communities | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
close to the coast in this area and across India. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:00 | |
Vikas and I went to meet a local leader. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
Meet Simon. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:07 | |
-Namaste! -Namaste. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
Very nice to meet you, sir. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:12 | |
Who are the Siddis? Who are the Siddi people? | 0:22:12 | 0:22:16 | |
-TRANSLATOR: -'The Siddis are descended from Africans who came to India. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:22 | |
'The Muslim princes brought us here from Africa. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:25 | |
'We have been in Gujarat for 600 years. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:27 | |
'They were brought here as slaves. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:34 | |
'They were brought here to work... | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
'..because the Siddis are hard-working people.' | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
Hello, ladies, namaste! | 0:22:46 | 0:22:48 | |
African ladies, wearing saris. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:53 | |
The movement of Africans to India has been little studied, | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
but over centuries, the Siddis have found their own place in Indian society. | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
Mohammad is saying the communities live very harmoniously, | 0:23:00 | 0:23:05 | |
and that's pretty unusual, frankly, in this country, which has suffered | 0:23:05 | 0:23:10 | |
such caste and communal and religious conflicts over the generations. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:16 | |
It's quite wonderful to hear him saying, "No, we get along fine!" | 0:23:16 | 0:23:21 | |
Oh, that's the cutest scene! | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
'Mohammed took us to a local school, which was full of Siddi children.' | 0:23:27 | 0:23:32 | |
Namaste. Assalamu alaikum! | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
Do any of you know where Africa is? Could any of you come and point to where Africa is on the map? | 0:23:35 | 0:23:40 | |
Come on, mate. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:42 | |
Yay! | 0:23:46 | 0:23:48 | |
SIMON LAUGHS | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
Clap, everybody, come on! | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
'The children are kept in touch with their history.' | 0:23:52 | 0:23:56 | |
-TRANSLATION: -'After they came here as slaves, | 0:23:56 | 0:24:00 | |
'they were soon recognised as being very hard-working. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:04 | |
'They were particularly good at working with wood. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:06 | |
'They were spread right across India, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
'but because of their skills in carpentry, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:11 | |
'they were brought to Gujarat. | 0:24:11 | 0:24:13 | |
'They came to Gujarat in 1411, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
'so before 1411, we don't know much.' | 0:24:15 | 0:24:18 | |
Merchants were trading huge distances across the Indian Ocean, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:24 | |
centuries before the Atlantic was explored and Columbus reached America. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:29 | |
They weren't all just slaves, as well. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
So many Africans came as sailors, as merchants, as traders, | 0:24:32 | 0:24:38 | |
as soldiers, as warriors, to India. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:42 | |
It's still hardly known about in India itself. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:45 | |
But this is all about people travelling across the Indian Ocean. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:50 | |
The ancestors of these little children here | 0:24:50 | 0:24:54 | |
were blown across the Indian Ocean by the monsoon winds... | 0:24:54 | 0:24:58 | |
many, many years ago. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
Some experts think millions of Africans travelled to India. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
Many were slaves, but they also came as merchants and warriors. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
There's even believed to have been an African king in central India. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:15 | |
All around the Indian Ocean, cultures have mingled. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
Sometimes people travelled willingly, | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
sometimes they were forced. The ancestors of the villagers here may well been traded | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
through the East African slave market I visited in Zanzibar | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
on the first leg of my Indian Ocean journey. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
THEY PLAY MUSIC | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
MEN BEAT DRUMS | 0:25:36 | 0:25:40 | |
Centuries have passed since their ancestors arrived, | 0:25:43 | 0:25:46 | |
but the Siddis still perform dances with African roots. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
This group appears at temples for money. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:53 | |
MUSIC CONTINUES | 0:25:53 | 0:25:56 | |
'We travelled on through Vikas' home state, Gujarat, towards the coast. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:32 | |
I don't like driving at night in India | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
because you never know what you're going to find. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:38 | |
Now, we've got a dangerous obstruction in the road. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:41 | |
Holy cows! | 0:26:42 | 0:26:44 | |
How are we going to move the cows? | 0:26:44 | 0:26:46 | |
Oh, a gentle tap. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
Come on! | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
Convoy moving. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:55 | |
You look a bit tougher. | 0:26:58 | 0:27:00 | |
Would you mind moving just out of the way? | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
Would you mind just moving to one side? We've had quite a long day. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
Would you just mind moving, please? | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
Could you help us, city boy? | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
He doesn't want to move. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
Whoa. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:18 | |
The most vital bit of work we've done. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:22 | |
Oh, my God! | 0:27:40 | 0:27:41 | |
What a sight. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
Vikas had brought me to Veraval, | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
just one of the hundreds of huge fishing ports | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
that now dot the coast of India. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
I have never seen anything quite like this. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
It's the biggest fishing port in India, | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
and I think it's probably the port in India with the most flags. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
Every trawler is just completely bedecked with flags | 0:28:07 | 0:28:11 | |
as far as the eye can see. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:13 | |
There are hundreds, there must be thousands, of fishing boats here. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:19 | |
There are 4,000 trawlers based here at Veraval. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:23 | |
On my journey, | 0:28:23 | 0:28:24 | |
I'd already seen the impact of overfishing on the Indian Ocean. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 | |
This was the first time I'd seen an entire fishing fleet. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
All the boats were moored up, | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
waiting for the end of the monsoon season. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:35 | |
Why don't we see if we can get on this boat? They're waving at us. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:39 | |
Oh, man. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:40 | |
A bit of poo there. Afternoon, gentleman! Can we come aboard? | 0:28:42 | 0:28:48 | |
Several million tonnes of fish | 0:28:49 | 0:28:51 | |
are landed at ports along the coast of India each year. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
Can there be any doubt this is having a massive impact on fish | 0:28:54 | 0:28:57 | |
and marine life in the Indian Ocean? | 0:28:57 | 0:29:00 | |
THEY SHRIEK | 0:29:00 | 0:29:01 | |
Oh, man, we're going to go into the water. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:05 | |
It's the world's most polluted water. Save yourself, Vikas! Quick! | 0:29:05 | 0:29:11 | |
'If anyone could tell me about the health of Indian Ocean fish stocks, | 0:29:16 | 0:29:19 | |
'it was a Veraval skipper.' | 0:29:19 | 0:29:22 | |
Is it becoming harder to fish the waters off here | 0:29:22 | 0:29:25 | |
because of the number of boats? | 0:29:25 | 0:29:27 | |
TRANSLATION: Yes, the fishing has become very difficult. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:32 | |
The number of fishing boats has been increased, | 0:29:32 | 0:29:35 | |
and that's what makes it difficult. | 0:29:35 | 0:29:38 | |
Because of this, we have to go quite far out to fish. 400-500 kilometres. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:42 | |
500 kilometres? | 0:29:44 | 0:29:46 | |
That's the distance you're having to travel out into the ocean? | 0:29:46 | 0:29:49 | |
That's incredible. | 0:29:49 | 0:29:51 | |
Do you think we might be destroying fish stocks in our seas - | 0:29:51 | 0:29:56 | |
is this what you are seeing? | 0:29:56 | 0:29:59 | |
TRANSLATION: Every year we are catching less fish. | 0:29:59 | 0:30:02 | |
So every year, fish stocks are reducing. | 0:30:04 | 0:30:07 | |
It could be that this season will be very bad for us. | 0:30:09 | 0:30:12 | |
On my journey, conservationists had already warned me | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
we're fishing our oceans to death. | 0:30:19 | 0:30:21 | |
But despite the collapsing fish numbers, | 0:30:21 | 0:30:24 | |
they're still building more boats here. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:26 | |
In fact, the fishing industry is subsidised by the Indian government. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:29 | |
Colossal fishing fleets like this are wiping out the fish in our seas. | 0:30:29 | 0:30:35 | |
It's devastating to learn about, | 0:30:35 | 0:30:38 | |
to be told about it - not just by scientists, but by the captain | 0:30:38 | 0:30:42 | |
of a fishing boat who says he's seeing his catch diminishing. | 0:30:42 | 0:30:47 | |
He's worried the fish are being wiped out - he's worried, | 0:30:47 | 0:30:51 | |
I'm worried, we all, in my view, should be worried. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
This might look beautiful, | 0:30:54 | 0:30:55 | |
but what this sight really is is the destruction of our oceans. | 0:30:55 | 0:31:00 | |
Ultimately, it's up to governments to reduce | 0:31:01 | 0:31:03 | |
the impact of the world's growing population on the environment. | 0:31:03 | 0:31:08 | |
Politicians have to take a long-term view and protect our seas. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:11 | |
I left India and headed south-west towards the coral island paradise | 0:31:16 | 0:31:20 | |
widely seen as a barometer | 0:31:20 | 0:31:21 | |
of the health of the world's oceans - the Maldives. | 0:31:21 | 0:31:25 | |
I can see literally dozens of tiny little islands | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
strewn across a perfectly flat sea. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:42 | |
Almost like little emeralds. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:43 | |
This is definitely a contender | 0:31:48 | 0:31:49 | |
for the most beautiful sight in the world. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:52 | |
The 1,200 islands which make up the Maldives are scattered | 0:31:52 | 0:31:54 | |
over 35,000 square miles. | 0:31:54 | 0:31:58 | |
Every year, hundreds of thousands of tourists fly in for a unique | 0:32:01 | 0:32:05 | |
Indian Ocean experience. | 0:32:05 | 0:32:08 | |
What a way to travel. | 0:32:13 | 0:32:14 | |
Look at this. Paradise. We've landed in paradise. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:21 | |
The Maldives specialises in high-end and high-cost tourism. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:27 | |
This hotel was keen to show off its luxury suites. | 0:32:31 | 0:32:34 | |
I know what you're thinking. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:41 | |
Honest to God, we don't stay in many places like this. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:45 | |
This is a deluxe beach villa. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:50 | |
-Is this all for me?! -This is all for you. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:53 | |
What's this? | 0:32:57 | 0:32:59 | |
I've got my own swimming pool! | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
This is what people come to the Maldives for. | 0:33:11 | 0:33:14 | |
And, to be honest, I can really see the attraction. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:18 | |
Apart from how posh it is here, the thing that really strikes me | 0:33:24 | 0:33:28 | |
is just how flat the Maldives is. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
The highest point on these islands is only about here above my head. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:35 | |
So Maldivians say they're very keen on environmental issues, | 0:33:36 | 0:33:40 | |
because they're aware of what could happen to them | 0:33:40 | 0:33:43 | |
from things like rising sea levels. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
It also means they're very connected to the ocean. | 0:33:46 | 0:33:49 | |
And in this luxury resort, you can even have a meal under the sea. | 0:33:53 | 0:33:57 | |
What is this? | 0:33:59 | 0:34:00 | |
This is an underwater restaurant. | 0:34:02 | 0:34:05 | |
HE GASPS | 0:34:05 | 0:34:07 | |
It's like we're in an aquarium. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:11 | |
'My guide to the Maldives was Marie Celine, | 0:34:11 | 0:34:14 | |
'an expert in the environmental issues facing these islands.' | 0:34:14 | 0:34:18 | |
So, how do you describe yourself? | 0:34:19 | 0:34:21 | |
You're a scientist, a conservationist, | 0:34:21 | 0:34:24 | |
coral reef specialist? | 0:34:24 | 0:34:25 | |
I would call myself a preservationist now. | 0:34:25 | 0:34:27 | |
We do rely on coral reefs here in the Maldives, in the sense that | 0:34:27 | 0:34:30 | |
our whole livelihoods depend on it, and our survival. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:34 | |
-Tourism is that important to the Maldives? -Yes, it is. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:38 | |
Tourism and fisheries, which are boats connected to the reefs. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:42 | |
The entire Maldives archipelago is made up of coral islands, | 0:34:42 | 0:34:46 | |
one of the most extensive reef systems in the world. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:50 | |
Marie runs a unique coral conservation project, | 0:34:50 | 0:34:53 | |
and offered to take me there on her boat. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:56 | |
Hello, gentlemen. | 0:34:56 | 0:34:58 | |
Let's set off. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:06 | |
-Where are we and where are we going to? -You see that? | 0:35:13 | 0:35:18 | |
We are somewhere around here. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:20 | |
So we're moving up and then we'll cross this big channel here. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:26 | |
How long is it going to take us, given that it's already very dark? | 0:35:26 | 0:35:30 | |
-We're trying to get there by sunrise. -OK. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:32 | |
-So that you will see the beauty of the atoll. -Tomorrow morning. -Yes. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:38 | |
The sort of sky that Turner painted. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:02 | |
To be greeted by a dawn like this is... | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
A tonic, is what it is. A tonic. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
We'd reached an area called the Baa Atoll. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:16 | |
It's a UNESCO biosphere reserve | 0:36:16 | 0:36:19 | |
because of the fantastic diversity of marine life underwater. | 0:36:19 | 0:36:23 | |
It's also a truly stunning sight. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:33 | |
Although they make up less than 1% of the global marine environment, | 0:36:35 | 0:36:39 | |
coral reefs around the planet provide food | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
and shelter for more than 25% of all marine species. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:46 | |
These awesome coral structures are made by tiny animals called polyps. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:54 | |
Reefs are a crucial habitat for hundreds of unique fish | 0:36:56 | 0:36:59 | |
and marine invertebrates. | 0:36:59 | 0:37:01 | |
They are also a nursery for many young fish | 0:37:04 | 0:37:06 | |
from the rest of the ocean. | 0:37:06 | 0:37:08 | |
It is amazing down there. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:17 | |
I mean, the colours of the coral | 0:37:19 | 0:37:20 | |
are like the colours on a paint chart, really. | 0:37:20 | 0:37:23 | |
And the size of the coral reefs, just from these tiny little corals | 0:37:26 | 0:37:31 | |
the size of my small finger right up to great dining tables of coral. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:35 | |
Amazing. It's an amazing place to visit. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:40 | |
Coral has created this stunning seascape. | 0:37:44 | 0:37:47 | |
The reefs form protective barriers around the islands, | 0:37:48 | 0:37:51 | |
creating atolls with stunning turquoise lagoons. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:54 | |
This is the Indian Ocean at its most glorious. | 0:37:55 | 0:37:58 | |
I had a poster on my wall when I was a kid | 0:38:00 | 0:38:03 | |
growing up in London. | 0:38:03 | 0:38:05 | |
A poster of a tropical island. And this...This looks like it. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:09 | |
It's just staggering. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:13 | |
Climate change threatens to raise sea levels, | 0:38:16 | 0:38:18 | |
which could put the Maldives underwater. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:21 | |
But scientists fear it is also causing | 0:38:25 | 0:38:27 | |
the temperature of the sea to rise. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:29 | |
That's a catastrophe for coral | 0:38:35 | 0:38:36 | |
because both here and around the world, | 0:38:36 | 0:38:39 | |
coral reefs are incredibly vulnerable to change. | 0:38:39 | 0:38:42 | |
-Wow. -That's a nice piece of coral. -Why is this coral white? | 0:38:47 | 0:38:51 | |
When the temperature rises even one centigrade above the usual | 0:38:51 | 0:38:55 | |
average, and stays like that for a while, the coral polyps get upset. | 0:38:55 | 0:39:01 | |
Then it dies and this is what becomes of the coral. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:04 | |
We're not talking about the temperature plummeting to freezing | 0:39:04 | 0:39:08 | |
-or rocketing to boiling, are we? -No, not at all. A slight change. | 0:39:08 | 0:39:12 | |
In what ways is the coral reef | 0:39:12 | 0:39:14 | |
so important to people here in the Maldives? | 0:39:14 | 0:39:17 | |
The coral reef keeps the rest of the ecosystems in balance. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:20 | |
They are like the rainforests. | 0:39:20 | 0:39:22 | |
And like many of our great rainforests, | 0:39:22 | 0:39:24 | |
coral reefs around the world are now being devastated. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:27 | |
There's reef just over here, maybe only 20 metres away from us, | 0:39:27 | 0:39:32 | |
which Marie was saying was vibrant and healthy just 18 months ago. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:36 | |
Sea temperatures are now at an all-time high. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
Around the world, coral reefs are dying at an unprecedented rate. | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
It's called coral bleaching. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:52 | |
Coral is also threatened by pollution and fishing. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:58 | |
Even here in paradise, | 0:39:58 | 0:40:01 | |
a great swathe of reef was a barren wasteland. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:03 | |
It's all dead. It really is all dead. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:19 | |
It's a devastated, and a devastating site as well. | 0:40:21 | 0:40:25 | |
Like a forest that's been logged. | 0:40:27 | 0:40:29 | |
The figures are really frightening. | 0:40:32 | 0:40:34 | |
Three quarters of the world 's coral reefs are now at risk | 0:40:34 | 0:40:39 | |
of a severe decline because of climate change, | 0:40:39 | 0:40:42 | |
because of pollution, and because of overfishing. | 0:40:42 | 0:40:46 | |
And if we lose them, which is possible - some scientists think we could lose coral reefs | 0:40:46 | 0:40:49 | |
within a single generation - we're not just losing something that's | 0:40:49 | 0:40:53 | |
pretty for tourists to come and look at, we're losing an absolutely | 0:40:53 | 0:40:57 | |
fundamental part of our seas, of our oceans, of the marine environment. | 0:40:57 | 0:41:02 | |
Marie has started a groundbreaking coral regeneration project | 0:41:04 | 0:41:08 | |
to try to stem the tide of destruction. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:11 | |
You sure you know the way? Goodness. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:16 | |
The salvation of the coral... starts here, does it? | 0:41:19 | 0:41:24 | |
The team here are welding hundreds of special frames | 0:41:25 | 0:41:29 | |
to literally build new coral reef. | 0:41:29 | 0:41:32 | |
Do you think I could have a go? | 0:41:35 | 0:41:37 | |
I love the idea that this is actually going to be used | 0:41:42 | 0:41:47 | |
to save coral! | 0:41:47 | 0:41:48 | |
I don't think he's very impressed with my work. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:53 | |
Happy with that? | 0:41:53 | 0:41:55 | |
-You got in eight out of ten! -Eight?! Thank you, sir! | 0:41:57 | 0:42:00 | |
You must have been bribing him! | 0:42:00 | 0:42:02 | |
How dare you? This was natural welding skill, I'll have you know! | 0:42:02 | 0:42:06 | |
'The frames are given a rustproof coating. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:10 | |
'Then carefully selected live coral cuttings are attached. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:14 | |
'Marie's husband, Tom, showed me how to do it.' | 0:42:14 | 0:42:16 | |
I was expecting it to be more complicated. | 0:42:16 | 0:42:20 | |
You're basically just attaching the coral with cable ties. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:24 | |
-Yes, basically, that is what it is. -Fantastic. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:28 | |
'Over time, this will grow into a new reef.' | 0:42:28 | 0:42:31 | |
How many of these frames have you put into the water so far? | 0:42:33 | 0:42:38 | |
-Over 1,000 structures. -More than 1,000? -Yes. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:42 | |
'This project is run at a resort and largely funded by tourists. | 0:42:42 | 0:42:46 | |
'People who contribute get to have their own name on the reef.' | 0:42:46 | 0:42:49 | |
We're in a bit of a rush now because this is a live coral | 0:42:56 | 0:43:00 | |
and it's out of the water. We need to get it back into the sea. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:03 | |
This innovative project has been a huge success. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:15 | |
Marie and Tom's reefs are flourishing | 0:43:15 | 0:43:18 | |
and the technique is being used elsewhere in the Maldives | 0:43:18 | 0:43:22 | |
and around the world to help save and regenerate endangered coral. | 0:43:22 | 0:43:25 | |
There's more to the Maldives than just tourism. | 0:43:33 | 0:43:38 | |
More than 300,000 people live here | 0:43:38 | 0:43:40 | |
and half the workforce are employed in the fishing industry. | 0:43:40 | 0:43:43 | |
This is the locals' fish market? | 0:43:45 | 0:43:47 | |
Yes, it's where the local boats bring their catch. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:52 | |
They must have had a load just come in. | 0:43:58 | 0:44:03 | |
'The main catch here is tuna. | 0:44:03 | 0:44:05 | |
'Some is eaten locally, but much of this is exported to the UK.' | 0:44:05 | 0:44:08 | |
Does this look familiar? | 0:44:10 | 0:44:12 | |
That is some yellowfin. | 0:44:12 | 0:44:15 | |
-This is yellowfin tuna? -Little... They're tiny. -Baby yellowfin. | 0:44:15 | 0:44:21 | |
'Tuna is one of the main fish taken from our seas. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:24 | |
'In the Indian Ocean alone, it is a multibillion pound industry.' | 0:44:24 | 0:44:29 | |
Skipper, can I ask, how long have you been fishing? | 0:44:29 | 0:44:33 | |
TRANSLATION: 33 years. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:35 | |
How has the fishing changed | 0:44:35 | 0:44:37 | |
in the three decades that you have been fishing? | 0:44:37 | 0:44:40 | |
TRANSLATION: Before, we used to get big fish. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:44 | |
Nowadays, we get very small fish. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:47 | |
These are the fish left | 0:44:47 | 0:44:49 | |
after the big boats have caught the fish in the nets. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:51 | |
Ten years ago, they started using big nets to catch large amounts of fish. | 0:44:51 | 0:44:58 | |
That's when the changes started. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:01 | |
After overfishing our other oceans, in the last ten years | 0:45:03 | 0:45:06 | |
the giant industrial trawling fleets from Europe and Asia | 0:45:06 | 0:45:09 | |
have begun targeting the Indian Ocean with vast nets | 0:45:09 | 0:45:13 | |
that scoop up entire shoals of tuna. | 0:45:13 | 0:45:15 | |
Do you ever see the giant fishing trawlers with the really big nets? | 0:45:16 | 0:45:23 | |
Do you ever see them when you're out at sea? | 0:45:23 | 0:45:25 | |
TRANSLATION: We do see those boats. | 0:45:25 | 0:45:29 | |
Mostly we see the nets which are left after fishing, | 0:45:29 | 0:45:32 | |
which we see drifting in the sea. | 0:45:32 | 0:45:34 | |
They're so huge, they can weigh tonnes. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
Here, they don't fish using those obscenely big nets. | 0:45:41 | 0:45:45 | |
They fish in a much more traditional, sustainable way. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:49 | |
Tomorrow, I'll get up at the crack of dawn and head out on a boat | 0:45:49 | 0:45:52 | |
and see how they do it. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:55 | |
Fishermen in the Maldives have pioneered sustainable tuna fishing. | 0:46:00 | 0:46:05 | |
But out of sight over the horizon, huge foreign trawlers | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
pull hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fish | 0:46:08 | 0:46:10 | |
from the Indian Ocean. | 0:46:10 | 0:46:12 | |
Yasir Wahid has witnessed the industrial nature | 0:46:14 | 0:46:16 | |
of their trawling operation. | 0:46:16 | 0:46:18 | |
It's quite hard for people to get a sense of the scale | 0:46:20 | 0:46:23 | |
of the fishing nets used by the big industrial trawlers. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:27 | |
Can you try to describe to us how big they are? | 0:46:27 | 0:46:30 | |
Six of them could even cover the entire Maldives archipelago. | 0:46:30 | 0:46:36 | |
-If you square the islands... -Wow! | 0:46:36 | 0:46:38 | |
Yes, to the area. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:40 | |
They would be able to spread their nets all over our archipelago. | 0:46:40 | 0:46:44 | |
-Around the country? -Yes. | 0:46:44 | 0:46:45 | |
'Using nets more than seven miles long, the foreign trawlers | 0:46:45 | 0:46:48 | |
'indiscriminately scoop up marine life, | 0:46:48 | 0:46:51 | |
'including huge quantities of fish they cannot sell | 0:46:51 | 0:46:54 | |
'and dolphins and turtles. | 0:46:54 | 0:46:57 | |
'Often this unwanted bycatch, as it is called, | 0:46:57 | 0:47:00 | |
'is just dumped back into the sea, dead.' | 0:47:00 | 0:47:02 | |
Every bit of life that was in that part of the sea will be taken out | 0:47:02 | 0:47:07 | |
and put into a boat. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:08 | |
It's an incredibly destructive form of fishing | 0:47:08 | 0:47:11 | |
and I think it's contributing to killing life in our oceans. | 0:47:11 | 0:47:15 | |
The method used by these Maldivian fishermen | 0:47:15 | 0:47:18 | |
could not be more different. | 0:47:18 | 0:47:20 | |
First step is to try to spot the tiny fish | 0:47:21 | 0:47:24 | |
they use as bait for the tuna. | 0:47:24 | 0:47:26 | |
They've seen bait. | 0:47:29 | 0:47:31 | |
He's given the signal and now they want to get the nets in, | 0:47:31 | 0:47:34 | |
catch the bait... Oh, it's all go! | 0:47:34 | 0:47:38 | |
MAN SINGS | 0:47:38 | 0:47:42 | |
Let's get the net in. | 0:47:44 | 0:47:47 | |
The fishermen surround a small shoal of live bait | 0:47:51 | 0:47:55 | |
and haul it to the surface. | 0:47:55 | 0:47:57 | |
This here, fishing like this, they use everything. | 0:48:11 | 0:48:14 | |
And they don't end up with dolphins in the net. | 0:48:14 | 0:48:17 | |
In they go, thousands and thousands of them. | 0:48:20 | 0:48:23 | |
-Is that a good haul? Are they happy with this? -Yes. | 0:48:26 | 0:48:30 | |
With the bait in the boat, all eyes were peeled for signs of tuna. | 0:48:32 | 0:48:36 | |
They're getting ready, they've seen some activity in the water. | 0:48:39 | 0:48:42 | |
We might be about to start fishing. Tuna? Here we go. | 0:48:42 | 0:48:47 | |
The live bait goes in and the tuna start flying out. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:49 | |
-Be careful. -Wow! | 0:48:49 | 0:48:52 | |
This is pole and line tuna fishing. It's fast and furious. | 0:48:55 | 0:48:59 | |
Blinking heck! | 0:49:01 | 0:49:03 | |
It's a skipjack! | 0:49:03 | 0:49:06 | |
A skipjack! | 0:49:07 | 0:49:09 | |
This is a skipjack tuna that Yasir has just caught. | 0:49:09 | 0:49:14 | |
This is what we eat masses of in tins, in the UK. | 0:49:14 | 0:49:18 | |
So much of it comes from here in the Indian Ocean. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:22 | |
Catching fish like this leaves most of the shoal alive | 0:49:22 | 0:49:26 | |
so they can reproduce - they're not annihilated. | 0:49:26 | 0:49:29 | |
Tuna caught this way is now available in Britain. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:32 | |
It's sold as pole and line tuna but it costs just a little more | 0:49:32 | 0:49:34 | |
than tuna caught by the industrial fishing fleets. | 0:49:34 | 0:49:37 | |
I haven't caught a single one yet. | 0:49:37 | 0:49:40 | |
Yeah! Here's a big one. | 0:49:43 | 0:49:45 | |
-How many have you got now? -Ten. -Ten? Ten?! | 0:49:45 | 0:49:51 | |
-Yes! -This is why we need to pay a premium for this fish, | 0:49:51 | 0:49:56 | |
it's bloody impossible to catch! | 0:49:56 | 0:49:58 | |
Come on! | 0:49:58 | 0:50:02 | |
Yes! I caught a tuna! | 0:50:02 | 0:50:04 | |
-In the Indian Ocean! -Sustainably! Pole and line! | 0:50:04 | 0:50:09 | |
Sustainably! You are so right! | 0:50:09 | 0:50:14 | |
Oh, I feel like a proper fisherman. | 0:50:14 | 0:50:16 | |
You've got to believe in fishing sustainably. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:20 | |
We have to fish sustainably, | 0:50:20 | 0:50:23 | |
otherwise we're going to wipe out life in our oceans. | 0:50:23 | 0:50:27 | |
Fishing this way means that there's very little bycatch. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:30 | |
There's very little wasted fish, | 0:50:30 | 0:50:32 | |
and we're not pulling dolphins or turtles out of the water. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:36 | |
The Maldives is in many ways a unique country. | 0:50:38 | 0:50:41 | |
They've pioneered eco-friendly tourism | 0:50:41 | 0:50:45 | |
as well as sustainable fishing. | 0:50:45 | 0:50:47 | |
But there are contradictions here. | 0:50:47 | 0:50:49 | |
Despite concerns about climate change, | 0:50:49 | 0:50:51 | |
the only way tourists can get here is on long-haul flights | 0:50:51 | 0:50:55 | |
with a huge carbon footprint. | 0:50:55 | 0:50:58 | |
And of course, tourism has other by-products. | 0:50:58 | 0:51:00 | |
It's easy to forget that these are populated islands, | 0:51:03 | 0:51:06 | |
with lots of tourists as well. | 0:51:06 | 0:51:09 | |
They produce a lot of muck. | 0:51:09 | 0:51:11 | |
This is really behind the scenes in the Maldives, eh? Oh, my God. | 0:51:11 | 0:51:19 | |
What a sight! There's a stinking smoke hanging in the air. | 0:51:19 | 0:51:24 | |
It's actually cascading off the edge there into the water. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:33 | |
My God. | 0:51:34 | 0:51:37 | |
There's flies everywhere. | 0:51:37 | 0:51:40 | |
Are you OK? I don't know if we can get through here. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
This is where the Maldives dumps its rubbish. | 0:51:47 | 0:51:50 | |
Just 20 years ago, this was another unspoiled coral island. | 0:51:51 | 0:51:57 | |
Bloody hell! | 0:52:01 | 0:52:03 | |
The stink, and the dust! | 0:52:05 | 0:52:07 | |
'Since then, up to 300 tonnes of waste every day | 0:52:09 | 0:52:13 | |
'has been shipped here.' | 0:52:13 | 0:52:16 | |
I just swallowed another bloody fly, | 0:52:16 | 0:52:18 | |
there are so many around here. | 0:52:18 | 0:52:21 | |
-Look at this! -Oil drums. | 0:52:21 | 0:52:25 | |
This is quite a gobsmacking sight. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:28 | |
These drums here are rupturing and leaking. | 0:52:30 | 0:52:32 | |
Do you think the toxins will hit the sea? | 0:52:32 | 0:52:35 | |
I think so, because it is quite porous, the sand, | 0:52:35 | 0:52:40 | |
here in the Maldives, so then it would seep into the sea from here. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:44 | |
It's not very far. | 0:52:44 | 0:52:45 | |
You can just about make out the water there, | 0:52:45 | 0:52:49 | |
through the haze from the burning of the rubbish | 0:52:49 | 0:52:52 | |
which appears to be going on. | 0:52:52 | 0:52:55 | |
FLIES BUZZ | 0:53:00 | 0:53:01 | |
It's sort of apocalyptic here. | 0:53:03 | 0:53:05 | |
I don't mind the dust, natural dust, at all. | 0:53:08 | 0:53:10 | |
But the smoke that is coming off here, | 0:53:10 | 0:53:12 | |
and the dust that's being blown up is really toxic. | 0:53:12 | 0:53:18 | |
Bloody hell! | 0:53:21 | 0:53:23 | |
The scenes here are gobsmacking. Gobsmacking. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:33 | |
Really upsetting as well. | 0:53:33 | 0:53:35 | |
More flies than I have ever seen anywhere in the world. | 0:53:35 | 0:53:39 | |
This is a poisoned environment. | 0:53:44 | 0:53:46 | |
It shouldn't be happening anywhere, least of all here. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:50 | |
This feels about as far removed from my images of the Maldives | 0:53:54 | 0:53:58 | |
as I think it's possible to get. | 0:53:58 | 0:54:01 | |
For all of us, it is. Even for the Maldivian, this is not real. | 0:54:01 | 0:54:04 | |
-You don't often see this. -No, we don't. We don't. | 0:54:06 | 0:54:09 | |
On the islands, you see little heaps that are being burned, | 0:54:09 | 0:54:12 | |
but not at this scale. | 0:54:12 | 0:54:14 | |
You've got such a fabulous environment | 0:54:15 | 0:54:18 | |
and you've got such an amazing patch of Planet Earth. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:24 | |
It's desperately sad to see this bit of it being poisoned like this. | 0:54:25 | 0:54:29 | |
It is. But at the moment, this is the only solution, | 0:54:29 | 0:54:33 | |
just dumping it here and burning it. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:36 | |
We need to find proper solutions to manage the waste. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
For me, this is not waste management, | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
this is just dumping and burning. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:43 | |
Yeah, I have to admire the Maldives as well, | 0:54:46 | 0:54:49 | |
because we're not being stopped from being here. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:53 | |
For a country that depends so heavily on tourism, | 0:54:53 | 0:54:57 | |
there hasn't been any attempt to muzzle us, | 0:54:57 | 0:55:01 | |
or prevent us from seeing this site. | 0:55:01 | 0:55:04 | |
Partly, I think, because people here in the Maldives | 0:55:04 | 0:55:07 | |
face the same challenges as we all do. | 0:55:07 | 0:55:10 | |
The entire world is creating this sort of rubbish | 0:55:10 | 0:55:13 | |
and nobody really knows what to do with it. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
The government here says that it will sort out the rubbish island. | 0:55:18 | 0:55:23 | |
I hope that they're true to their word. | 0:55:23 | 0:55:26 | |
These islands lie at the very heart of the Indian Ocean | 0:55:26 | 0:55:28 | |
and the environmental stakes couldn't be higher. | 0:55:28 | 0:55:31 | |
Industrial fishing, pollution, rising sea levels | 0:55:31 | 0:55:35 | |
and the warming of these coral waters are all insistent threats. | 0:55:35 | 0:55:40 | |
Before I left, I was hoping to see one of the wonders of the seas | 0:55:40 | 0:55:43 | |
that make this place so worth preserving. | 0:55:43 | 0:55:46 | |
-You see the black blanket that pops up? -Just where the bird is now? | 0:55:46 | 0:55:52 | |
If you keep looking there... | 0:55:52 | 0:55:54 | |
'Every new moon, this area receives some very special visitors | 0:55:54 | 0:55:59 | |
'who come in great numbers to feed on clouds of plankton.' | 0:55:59 | 0:56:04 | |
These are manta rays. | 0:56:06 | 0:56:09 | |
Measuring up to seven metres across, they're the largest rays in the sea. | 0:56:15 | 0:56:21 | |
They travel hundreds of miles from other parts of the Indian Ocean | 0:56:27 | 0:56:31 | |
to mate among the coral reefs here. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:34 | |
The mantas seem playful and inquisitive, | 0:56:39 | 0:56:42 | |
and, despite their huge size, were completely unthreatening. | 0:56:42 | 0:56:46 | |
That was amazing! | 0:56:59 | 0:57:01 | |
Actually quite moving. Those are huge creatures! | 0:57:03 | 0:57:07 | |
Yet they're so... they're so graceful in the water. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:13 | |
They sort of fly. They fly through the water with these giant wings. | 0:57:14 | 0:57:21 | |
The mantas are one of the most spectacular examples | 0:57:21 | 0:57:25 | |
of the riches of the Indian Ocean. | 0:57:25 | 0:57:27 | |
We still don't know much about them. | 0:57:27 | 0:57:30 | |
And yet, like the rest of the environment here, | 0:57:30 | 0:57:33 | |
we're threatening their very survival. | 0:57:33 | 0:57:35 | |
I found the Maldives one of the most breathtaking countries | 0:57:36 | 0:57:40 | |
I've ever visited, but what had really surprised me | 0:57:40 | 0:57:43 | |
about my short visit was just how much I'd learnt here | 0:57:43 | 0:57:45 | |
about the challenges facing the whole Indian Ocean | 0:57:45 | 0:57:48 | |
and our global seas. | 0:57:48 | 0:57:49 | |
This is the end of this part of my journey. | 0:57:49 | 0:57:53 | |
I've spent so much time in boats, my legs are still wobbling | 0:57:53 | 0:57:56 | |
now I'm back on dry land. | 0:57:56 | 0:57:58 | |
But in the next leg, I'll start in Sri Lanka. I'm going to head around | 0:57:58 | 0:58:02 | |
the Bay of Bengal, and then down the eastern edge of the Indian Ocean. | 0:58:02 | 0:58:07 | |
Next time: I'll be helping Indian fishermen | 0:58:09 | 0:58:12 | |
fighting to save our seas. | 0:58:12 | 0:58:13 | |
I don't think it's good to be the tallest person! | 0:58:13 | 0:58:16 | |
And in Bangladesh, I'll see the graveyard | 0:58:20 | 0:58:23 | |
where the world's ships go to die. | 0:58:23 | 0:58:25 | |
Giant ships with great, huge chunks ripped off them. | 0:58:25 | 0:58:30 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:50 | 0:58:53 |