Our Desert Island Home My Life


Our Desert Island Home

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-Hi, I'm Luca.

-And I'm Felix.

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-BOTH:

-Welcome to our island.

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We live on this beautiful island in the middle of the South Pacific,

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surrounded by coral reefs.

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Having a lot of marine life around where we live is really fun.

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I love swimming with the whales.

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They come near to our island to have their calves.

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Under the water is just an entirely different world.

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But although it looks like the perfect place to live,

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the island has just had its worst storm in over 100 years.

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And our coral reef may be damaged.

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-So how was it?

-There's not a lot of healthy coral.

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'If nothing is done to save the reef,

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'it and the wildlife that lives here could be destroyed.'

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Because it eats all the algae, and has destroyed beautiful reefs.

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Join us as we fight to protect our island home.

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A piece of rubbish. They could just pick it up and put it in a bin.

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We'll show you what life in a desert island is really all about.

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This is the island of Fofoa,

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our home and our own personal adventure playground.

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My name is Luca. I'm ten years old.

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I'm Felix. I'm 11,

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and I live on an island in Tonga, which is in the South Pacific.

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We have lived here for nine years, and it's full of wildlife,

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such as colourful birds, sand crabs, lots of fish, whales, dolphins.

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'I've got a few non-human friends on the island too.'

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So, this is Robin.

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I actually obviously don't know why they're called a sea hare,

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because they actually should be called a hippopotamus slug.

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They have a big nose, sort of same eyes.

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When they feel threatened,

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purple ink comes out from that hole there...

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..which I don't want to demonstrate, because he's a good friend.

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'Having a lot of marine life around where we live is really fun.

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'And it's exciting, because things that you don't see a lot of,

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'if you just walk along the reef, and then you see one and, yeah,

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'that's something to do over there.

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'There's never usually a usual day.

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'There's no sort of routine that we have.'

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We just see what looks fun on that day, and do it.

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These leaves, which you can stick on your faces...

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..and they'll stick.

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We're here to see the local medicine cabinet.

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These are both very good for cuts,

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cos the Aloe Vera is good for cleaning out the cuts.

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And then these, when you roll them up and crush them,

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it's good for, like, healing cuts to make them grow over.

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We don't have Wi-Fi, so mobiles and iPads aren't much use here.

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We do a lot of stuff together as a family, playing games.

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This is our dad, Boris.

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We never fall out seriously in this game.

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We tease each other, but no, no fall-outs.

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That's our mum, Karen.

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-Do you want to hit that one first?

-Oh, great.

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CHEERING

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And don't forget Lulu the dog.

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We never trained her to hunt, erm...

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fish, but she sort of just does it anyway for fun.

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'As our family are the only people who live full-time on the island,

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'we have to make our own fun.

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'But that's not a problem for us.'

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Most of the things we use, we've made.

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These are probably one of the coolest toys that my dad has made.

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We have showers, and we have the sea as a big bath.

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But if we want, like, a bath bath, then this is sort of what we use.

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Ah!

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Just a seed.

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So where one coconut goes, a coconut tree...

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planted.

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-Do you want to drink this?

-Yeah.

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It doesn't taste like anything I know -

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it just tastes like coconut water.

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Sort of...

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in between sweet and non-sweet.

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-Felix, do you want to open that?

-Yeah.

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Opening the coconut like that, he's using the blunt side of the knife.

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It's not that dangerous that I've got a machete,

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cos I know how to use one.

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'But you have to be careful with it.'

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Coconuts are great - coconuts give you everything, really.

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Water, food, shelter, firewood.

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Well, a whole house, really.

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We built our house ourselves,

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made from things that you can find on the island.

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The home-made table - it's all made out of cedar.

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And then all of these posts everywhere are all coconut wood,

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all from our land.

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This is our measuring pole.

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Which is how...

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well, tall we are.

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That was me when we first started, and...

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That's me when we first started.

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But now...

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We haven't done this yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm here.

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Yeah, I'm around there at the 16th of May.

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I was only 18 months when I moved here,

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so this island and the stuff you can do here

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is pretty much everything I know.

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-RADIO:

-'Good morning, everyone.

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'I'll be your net controller for this morning.'

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This is the VHF.

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It's what we use to stay in contact with other islands and the mainland.

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Every morning at 8:30, there's what we call the net,

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which is kind of like the news, only you don't watch it,

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you just listen for it.

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-Hello, Mum.

-Hey, boys!

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The cat's on the back of the bed, but look,

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there's actually a stray hermit crab that you can return, please.

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Before he comes and bites my toes.

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Our island is in the country of Tonga.

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To get here, it takes three days' travel from the UK.

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In the holiday season, we get tourists coming to stay here.

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This is our main house, which we call Happy Appi.

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We park our boat at the front.

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The guests stay in the beach house.

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The island is surrounded by coral reefs.

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The family business is that we have a guest house,

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but it's not on all the time,

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because there's a season for when customers come,

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because they only usually come when there's whales.

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The reefs in Tonga are so special

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that every year, whales come here to have their young.

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It's one of the only places in the world

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where you can swim with them,

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and it's a really special moment in the year for us.

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When I'm about to go swimming with whales, I feel very excited,

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because under the water is just an entirely different world

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of entirely different species,

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and it's just so exciting to see such big mammals

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just move so gracefully.

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Can you see the reefs under the water?

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They are so important to the whales, as this is where they come

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to give birth, because it is warm, safe and calm.

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Being in the water with a whale,

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it feels really magical, because it's such a big,

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intelligent creature that feels like...

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it's knowing what you're trying to do.

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But our reef is in danger.

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If it gets too damaged, the whales will lose their birthing place,

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and that would be a disaster.

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Coral reefs are really important,

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as they help house thousands of marine species,

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from large sharks to small fish.

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Coral needs tiny plants called algae to survive.

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The algae is the breakfast,

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lunch and tea for the coral, and gives it this pinky colour.

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The rising water temperatures and tropical storms in the area

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are causing the coral to shed their algae,

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turning them completely white.

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This is known as coral bleaching, and is very dangerous,

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as the coral is more likely to catch disease and die.

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We're really worried about the coral around our island,

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but don't know enough about how to help it.

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So Mum asked her friend, Karen, a marine expert, for help.

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-Pleased to meet you, you must be...

-Luca.

-Luca, excellent.

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-And you must be...

-Felix.

-Excellent. Very happy to be here.

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Karen tells as that one way we can help is to do a survey

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on our island beaches and surrounding coral.

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So what we're doing, we're going to look at the ocean temperatures,

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you see that blue line, well, you're going to read off of that.

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So let's just put it into the ocean.

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And you can see there, it's 28 degrees.

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What does 28 degrees mean?

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So, 28 degrees is the highest water temperature

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before corals get stressed.

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It's to do with climate change and global warming.

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It's from users of fossil fuels, more cars, less green forests,

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less coral reefs and mangroves to store the carbon dioxide,

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so as much a part of it as natural,

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a lot of it is accelerated by man-made practices.

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What are we looking for when we survey the beach?

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So, a couple of things, one is that there's no rubbish around,

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especially plastics and plastic bags that can float into the ocean.

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The other is just to make sure that there's no big eroded areas,

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like, your sand's not disappearing.

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But if you're noticing any dramatic changes,

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you should note it down and then bring it in and let us know.

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Karen tells us that if the stress continues,

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then the coral will eventually die.

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We need to learn how to survey the reef properly,

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so we can keep it healthy.

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So we'll be recording everything that we see,

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any groupers, any turtles,

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and then when we come back, we'll be adding that up

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to see what the total number we found was.

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We'll also be looking for the crown-of-thorns.

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The crown-of-thorns starfish is a big threat.

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It eats the algae on the coral, and slowly kills off the reef.

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They have large spines on them

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and those spines have sort of toxin in them,

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so you don't want them poking you,

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and if we see a crown-of-thorns, we want to try and remove it

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without damaging any coral around it.

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They can destroy a metre to a metre and a half of reef within a day.

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So if they're left without doing some management,

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they can really destroy large areas of reef.

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And remember, the biggest and most important thing is always spit well

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into your mask to stop it from fogging up.

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I'm hoping to see groupers, turtles and eels.

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'But we'll only see them if the reef is healthy.'

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I'm very excited to survey this reef,

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so I can know what to touch and what not to touch.

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So when we're swimming, we signal to each other by saying, "OK,"

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and we signal back, "OK."

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So let's go!

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Yay!

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Under water, we see a few different species, which we take note of.

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We notice some small fish, but no large fish or turtles,

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which you would expect to see on a healthy reef.

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The coral reef isn't very colourful,

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so we're really devastated to see how unhealthy it all looks.

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The good news is we see plenty of sea cucumbers.

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They feed on tiny bits of waste on the ocean floor,

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and help keep the reef clean, which gives us hope.

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Not a lot of healthy coral, but...

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there were a few patches and a lot of sea cucumbers.

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'Karen leaves us with some homework, desert island style -

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'to survey another part of the reef to build a bigger picture

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'on how healthy it all this, and get the results to her next week.'

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I think the survey will go great.

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I think they've really want to do their bit

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to help out and to help get some of these reefs protected.

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Healthy reefs bring whales, and whales bring tourists

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to stay on our island.

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When we have a lot of guests staying, we have to stay in camp,

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which is real outdoors living.

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This is the refrigerator.

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Then there's also the other pantry, which is that.

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'All our water comes from rain, and it's collected in these tanks.'

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We need a lot of rain,

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and this tank is half full, same as this one,

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and this is all the water we have on our island.

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This long drop is the camp toilet,

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which is one of the most disturbing things we have to do

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when we stay up here.

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The thing that's really annoying about this toilet is, obviously,

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cockroaches would like it under there.

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Sometimes a cockroach crawls out.

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The weather changes so quickly,

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it can be sunny one minute, and then stormy the next.

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'Good morning to you all. I'll be starting with the weather forecast.

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'Cloudy periods with occasional showers. Heavy at times.

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'A heavy, damaging cloud warning remains in force for the Vava'u,

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'plus some very rough seas, a heavy, damaging east-to-south-east swell.

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'That is our weather, and we'll be moving out to our prediction...'

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'But despite the rain, we've got work to do.'

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'We're halfway through building our new guest house,

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'Coral Cottage, so we don't have to move out of our home

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'when guests stay.'

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Yeah, you know what this wood is for, guys?

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-Coral Cottage.

-Yeah, Coral Cottage.

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Some is for the new deck,

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and some is for actually building the wall frames.

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So the thin stuff is the deck?

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Yeah, and you guys can take that, cos it's actually not that heavy.

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HEAVY RAIN

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I kind of enjoy the work with my dad,

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because I like watching a building sort of just

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grow into its full structure.

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Now we are making the deck here at Coral Cottage, and the wooden frame.

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Living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean

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means we get tropical storms.

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Three months ago, Cyclone Winston hit our home -

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the worst storm in over 100 years.

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The first thing that came off the entire house

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was the tin at the top of this roof.

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Then this part came off, as well, and that part, and all this stuff,

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which is attached to the roof,

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and when that came undone,

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then the whole roof just flipped back that way.

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And...yeah, it was in front of the door,

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so in the morning it was pretty hard to get out.

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But after a lot of hard work, we get things back to normal.

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Today, we've come to the mainland to pick up supplies.

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Our parents come into town usually once a week,

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but Luca and me prefer to stay on the island,

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so we come in only if we need to.

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Right now, we're at the market,

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which we come to pretty much every time we come here,

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because it's where all the fruit, vegetables,

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and just all the healthy foods are.

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Boys, do you want to pick some?

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-The whole thing?

-Yeah, just two.

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Yeah, sorry.

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Perfect!

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Yeah. That's it. Alors.

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One of the best things about coming into town is collecting any parcels

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or letters that have been sent to us.

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Luca's upset because my parcel has arrived and his hasn't.

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The parcel's come from England.

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It was sent by my nanny.

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It's going to look smart, Felix.

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Whatever this is.

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I think that's yours, Mum - that looks like a dress.

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-No, those are your trousers.

-Oh, right.

-To go with your suit.

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And to go with your jacket.

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'I wouldn't wear a suit every day.'

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The only reason I like a suit is for special occasions,

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like Christmas or something like that.

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That way you've got something good to put on.

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So, Luca's feet,

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because he's never worn shoes,

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cos he was that much younger when we got here,

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so he's got really, really wide feet,

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and my mum has a thing about really wanting them,

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whenever we're back in the UK, to have a smart pair of shoes.

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Well, any shoes, actually.

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So we go to the shoe shop, get measured,

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but guaranteed they never have any that's going to fit him,

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because he's just proportionately too wide for the height,

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so, yeah, it's quite difficult to find you some shoes, isn't it?

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And then as soon as you get them on, you just insist on taking them off.

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-That's why I don't wear shoes.

-I know!

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Just one more thing to do before we go back to the island.

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We have our homework to do that Karen set us - the big reef survey.

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We're going to survey our reef, and find out how badly damaged it is.

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On the practice survey, I was kind of concerned

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about the health on our reef,

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so hopefully the next part of the reef will be a lot healthier.

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We're going to be getting there on the boat,

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because this one's a lot further out.

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I hope we'll see some parrotfish, grouper, sharks, turtles...

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all of them are a very important part in the reef's food web.

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'We need to make a note of all the marine species that we can spot.'

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I have seen seven parrotfish and four surgeonfish so far.

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We see a rare sight - a sea turtle in the distance.

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The reef seems a lot more colourful than the reef closer to shore.

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But then, Felix spots something.

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We just found a crown-of-thorns on the reef.

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We've got to be very careful to not break the crown-of-thorns,

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cos if you break them, they multiply, and it gets worse.

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It's really difficult to remove,

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and I'm worried I won't be able to get it.

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But eventually, determination pays off.

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Well done, Felix.

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It's very good if we remove this starfish from the reef,

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because it eats all the algae, and just destroys

0:19:450:19:48

lots and lots of beautiful reefs.

0:19:480:19:52

Back in the water, we manage to remove a few more,

0:19:530:19:57

which is excellent news for the reef,

0:19:570:19:59

but there's still lots of work to do.

0:19:590:20:01

The second part of our survey is to look at the health of our beach,

0:20:010:20:04

and clean up the rubbish that gets washed ashore or left by tourists,

0:20:040:20:09

before it damages the environment.

0:20:090:20:11

If kids are on a beach and they just come across any tiny...

0:20:110:20:14

Even just a bottle cap or a piece of rubbish,

0:20:140:20:17

they could just pick it up, and put it in a bin.

0:20:170:20:20

'Even though the ocean has washed the rubbish clean,

0:20:200:20:23

'it can still be toxic to reefs and sea life.'

0:20:230:20:26

These won't fit you, there're huge!

0:20:260:20:28

They won't fit me!

0:20:280:20:30

I've found this, which is one of the most annoying, cos it breaks up.

0:20:310:20:37

And then it becomes lots of different separate pieces,

0:20:370:20:39

and is very poisonous.

0:20:390:20:42

Well, that looks a lot better now, doesn't it?

0:20:420:20:44

When we get back,

0:20:440:20:46

we find Mum has a plan to get rid of the crown-of-thorns starfish.

0:20:460:20:49

Oh, there you are. I've already started.

0:20:490:20:52

-Who's going to take over?

-Felix, do you want to finish digging the hole?

0:20:520:20:55

Yeah, I can do that.

0:20:550:20:56

So, although we only got three out of the five we would have liked

0:20:560:21:00

to have got, that's made a huge difference to that reef.

0:21:000:21:02

We've just got to go back and see if we can get the others another day.

0:21:020:21:05

-Good compost. So, who's going to close the hole?

-Me.

0:21:070:21:11

So, do you remember how much damage Karen said

0:21:110:21:13

that these things can do in just one day?

0:21:130:21:15

-Yeah, one metre.

-Yeah. A day.

0:21:150:21:18

So much of island life is spent on the water and just living.

0:21:220:21:26

I come fishing with my dad as long as I have the chance,

0:21:270:21:31

and if there's room on the boat.

0:21:310:21:33

Yeah, that's it. And then you start winding.

0:21:380:21:40

There you go.

0:21:400:21:42

Yeah, but I just can't do everything fast.

0:21:420:21:43

Hey, you start practising, and then it'll come.

0:21:430:21:47

Tuna, wahoo, mahi-mahi...

0:21:500:21:54

Anything that we will eat, basically.

0:21:550:21:57

Sashimi. It tastes like sashimi.

0:22:040:22:06

Sashimi's raw fish.

0:22:080:22:09

I don't really like killing the fish, but it's, you know,

0:22:130:22:17

it's like, part of the cycle of life.

0:22:170:22:19

Some of our best ingredients come from right here on the island.

0:22:240:22:28

Here's some chillies.

0:22:280:22:30

So, we're collecting these chillies because we are making a hot sauce,

0:22:300:22:38

and these are the hottest chillies there are.

0:22:380:22:41

Though they're very small, they're...

0:22:420:22:45

..boiling hot.

0:22:460:22:47

-Bon appetit, everyone!

-Bon appetit.

0:22:510:22:53

A few days later, we head to the mainland

0:22:580:23:00

to let Karen know what we found on the second reef that we surveyed.

0:23:000:23:04

All the information we have collected will be given to

0:23:040:23:07

the Government, and we hope it will encourage them to give our reef

0:23:070:23:11

protected status.

0:23:110:23:13

It was much better. It had much more colour in it.

0:23:130:23:15

I mean, the other one, it was mainly just brown and grey.

0:23:160:23:21

It sounds like it's a much more balanced reef.

0:23:210:23:23

And what did you see?

0:23:230:23:24

We saw a lot of parrotfish,

0:23:240:23:27

and unfortunately, a lot of crown-of-thorns.

0:23:270:23:29

Did you manage to get any of the crown-of-thorns?

0:23:290:23:31

Well, we saw five,

0:23:310:23:32

but they were juvenile, so I'm guessing there's many more,

0:23:320:23:35

but we got three. We used it as compost, actually.

0:23:350:23:37

Oh, that's a brilliant idea - helping the garden at the same time.

0:23:370:23:41

The data that you've collected here,

0:23:410:23:43

we'll be able to use to help get some changes in the law

0:23:430:23:47

to get some of our reefs protected.

0:23:470:23:50

'Karen asks us to keep checking the reef every month,

0:23:500:23:52

'and report back the findings.'

0:23:520:23:54

My biggest goal for this reef would probably be for its data

0:23:540:23:58

not just to affect our island, but the whole of Tonga as well.

0:23:580:24:02

After months of work, Coral Cottage is finally finished.

0:24:050:24:08

Tourists are arriving to swim with the whales,

0:24:080:24:11

and we get some great news about our survey.

0:24:110:24:13

Hey, boys, I just got an e-mail from Karen from VEPA.

0:24:140:24:17

-You want to come and hear what she has to say?

-Oh, yeah!

0:24:170:24:19

So, it's written to all of us.

0:24:190:24:21

She says,

0:24:220:24:24

"We want to say a heartfelt thank you

0:24:240:24:27

"for the commitment that Felix and Luca have shown

0:24:270:24:29

"towards the coral reef in Fofoa.

0:24:290:24:31

"It is great to hear that Felix and Luca

0:24:310:24:33

"are continuing the monthly monitoring.

0:24:330:24:35

"Thank you so much, Felix and Luca,

0:24:350:24:37

"and we look forward to continuing to work together

0:24:370:24:39

"for our oceans and coral reefs.

0:24:390:24:41

"Best wishes, Karen from VEPA."

0:24:410:24:43

-What do you think?

-Awesome.

-Yeah!

0:24:430:24:46

'It's great news that our survey results

0:24:470:24:50

'are helping towards protecting our reefs for the whales to return.'

0:24:500:24:54

We have seen a few whales swim by the island so far this season,

0:24:540:24:57

but as the water has been really choppy,

0:24:570:24:59

we haven't managed to swim with them yet.

0:24:590:25:01

It's amazing to think that these humpbacks

0:25:030:25:05

have swum over 5,000 miles from Antarctica to our warmer waters

0:25:050:25:09

to have their young.

0:25:090:25:11

A female whale, known as a cow, can weigh up to 30 tonnes.

0:25:110:25:15

That's as much as 20 cars.

0:25:150:25:17

Newborn calves are usually three to five metres long.

0:25:170:25:21

They produce a lot of sounds known as whale songs.

0:25:210:25:25

A male's song can be heard over 1,000 miles away.

0:25:250:25:29

Now that the weather is calmer,

0:25:290:25:30

we go out to see if we can finally swim with them.

0:25:300:25:33

We're really looking forward to hearing a whale song.

0:25:330:25:36

Listening to a whale sing is one of the wonders of the ocean world.

0:25:360:25:42

All your hair tingles.

0:25:420:25:43

The first thing we see isn't a whale, but a shark.

0:25:430:25:49

Luckily, it's harmless.

0:25:490:25:51

We also find a sailfish, which comes right up to us.

0:25:510:25:56

And then, what we've really been hoping for - a whale song.

0:25:560:26:00

Can you hear it? It's amazing. FAINT WHALE SONG

0:26:000:26:02

We finally get up close to them.

0:26:020:26:04

WHALE SONG

0:26:040:26:07

When there's a single whale around, you can feel it.

0:26:070:26:10

You can feel the singing vibrating straight all across your body,

0:26:100:26:14

so you sort of vibrate yourself.

0:26:140:26:17

Being in the water with a whale feels really magical,

0:26:170:26:21

because it's such a big, intelligent creature.

0:26:210:26:25

If the reef died off,

0:26:250:26:27

that would mean the whales wouldn't come,

0:26:270:26:29

because they want to have their calves on a healthy reef.

0:26:290:26:32

I want to see this island be shining very, very bright.

0:26:360:26:40

In its beauty, and so it is in a golden line.

0:26:400:26:46

Swimming with a whale is absolutely epic.

0:26:460:26:50

And I'd be completely devastated if the whales never came back.

0:26:500:26:55

-So, boys, how was that?

-Crazy.

-Absolutely insane!

0:26:560:26:58

It looked fantastic on our viewer.

0:26:580:27:01

-What did you see?

-We saw a sailfish.

0:27:010:27:03

There was about four humpback whales.

0:27:030:27:05

-Wow!

-Saw a shark!

-A shark as well? Cool!

0:27:050:27:09

So we've seen loads and loads of false killer whales.

0:27:090:27:13

Oh, wow!

0:27:130:27:14

Amazing!

0:27:140:27:16

Well done, mate.

0:27:160:27:18

Yeah.

0:27:180:27:21

If people wouldn't be wasteful,

0:27:210:27:24

then the world would live on a lot longer.

0:27:240:27:28

I think it's very important

0:27:280:27:30

that this island and the reefs stay healthy.

0:27:300:27:34

I'd say it's a very good thing, what we're doing,

0:27:340:27:38

so for future generations, say in 40 years' time,

0:27:380:27:41

people can enjoy what I once enjoyed.

0:27:410:27:44

WHALE SONG

0:27:440:27:47

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