Episode 4 Iolo's Welsh Sea

To the north, west and south, Wales is surrounded by sea.

I'm on a sea journey around Wales.

In this final part,

I'll be travelling along the South Wales coast

from Pembrokeshire to the Severn Estuary.

I'll be meeting people who work on the sea...

You must be called out in these conditions all the time.

-Well, believe it or not, today's quite a nice day.

-Is it?

People who have a passion for the sea.

It's cracking, isn't it? We're very lucky today, it's lovely and calm.

I normally go to work on Monday morning with dirty nails.

I'll also be discovering the amazing wildlife that lives in the sea.

How fantastic is that?!

The sea around Wales is a combination of warm waters from the south

and cold nutrient-rich currents from the north.

It's a mixture that attracts all kinds of sea life,

and some of the species that visit our sea might surprise you.

I'm heading out of Dale, Pembrokeshire, to look for sharks.

Yes, sharks - fish that you don't usually associate with Welsh waters.

However, within minutes of leaving harbour, my shark expedition

and early breakfast is interrupted by dolphins.

We've only just come out of Dale, literally five minutes out of Dale,

we're not even out to the Haven yet

and we've got a pod of Risso's dolphins.

Amazing dolphins, they're a really pale colour, a light grey colour

and they've got a dorsal fin, you can see them here,

a little bit like a shark's.

I'm going to carry on with my breakfast now.

Risso's dolphins are usually seen further out at sea

but during the past few years more have been recorded

near the coast of Pembrokeshire and the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales.

It's a lucky sighting.

Let's hope the luck will continue on my shark mission.

I'm actually shark fishing for a population study.

-If you come here, look in the corner.

-Yeah.

-All right?

'I've arrived 20 miles out at sea in a part of the Atlantic Ocean

'roughly halfway between Wales and Ireland, known as the Celtic Deep.'

He's still there, he's still there.

'With a guiding hand from Greg Laycock,

I'm trying to land a blue shark.'

-Just hold on to the rod and...

-Let him go with that?

Let him go, don't try and fight him.

'Within minutes and a slice of beginner's luck, something big has taken bait.'

Now, the idea is that you want to tire the fish out so...

Or tiring me out!

Thing is, you'll get him to the side of the boat,

-then he's likely to see the boat and then dive.

-OK.

He might be dead weight, as I said, if he's rolled up in the trace

-he can't swim now.

-Oh, right, OK.

-So you're bringing in a dead weight.

-Tire himself out.

-Just keep tension on that line all the time.

Tell you what...

..it's hard work.

My arm is aching and this is an easy one, they reckon.

I'd hate to see what a hard one's like. If it's a big one, I'll give it to the boys.

Beautiful fish, aren't they? Beautiful fish.

Come on, boy, come on.

-Oh, look at that, come on, you beauty.

-Well done, sir.

Oh, look at the colour on that.

'Lloyd Jones from the Shark Trust, an organisation set up to

'protect sharks in the UK, is giving the shark a thorough check.'

Good and fat.

So this is all part of an ongoing study, looking at what?

Weights and measures of the fish you catch, is it?

Yeah, we're mainly interested

-in the male to female ratio in the area then.

-Yeah.

-And the population, the number of sharks in the area.

-Right.

Two metres.

-So what are you doing now?

-Measuring the tail then.

-OK, do you want me to hold there?

-Yeah.

-55.

-It's amazing, it's all smooth underneath

and all rough on the back here.

-74 girth.

-74.

-Oh, you're going to put a tag in there, are you?

-Yeah.

-Just at the base of the dorsal fin here.

-Yeah.

Use this then, just to make a small incision.

What happens? If anybody catches this one again,

they, hopefully, will return the tag to you, is it?

The next person who catches it will be able to update

their information on where it was caught.

-How many have you tagged now, then?

-It'll be 22 now in total.

-22 this year, is it?

-22 in total this season.

-Does anybody know where they go?

-Because they only appear here over the summer months, is it?

-Yeah.

They travel all the way across the North Atlantic.

As they get older, they tend to go to the Caribbean,

-Eastern America, Florida.

-And I bet you, most people wouldn't know

there are sharks in Welsh waters.

I don't think many people appreciate just how many there are out here.

There's got to be tens of thousands out here.

But of course, they're completely harmless, aren't they?

Yeah, as long as you keep away from the sharp end.

Yeah, that's why I'm at the tail!

They don't go out to cause you any damage

but doing this, you run the risk.

Just look at the colour, a beautiful topaz blue.

Amazing animal, look at that.

-Right, that's this one done?

-Yes, indeed.

So she goes back in? OK.

-Slip her back in.

-Right.

'I've decided to join her in the water.

'Although seeing and touching a shark on a boat is terrific,

'there's nothing quite like seeing an animal in its own environment.

'In the water you can see why the blue shark has a blue back.'

It shows this cryptic colouring, the dark blue on the back.

Because any prey item or potential predator

looking down at the shark, well, it's virtually invisible.

And if you look up at it from below, of course it's very pale,

it's like looking up at the sky.

And I've got to keep pinching myself.

I'm in the sea off the coast of West Wales.

This isn't the Red Sea, this isn't the Bahamas,

this is Wales.

'And my lucky day continues.

'Out of the blue, a pod of dolphins suddenly appear

'while I'm in the water.'

Oh, wow! Here's some dolphins, common dolphins.

Whoa! Look at this.

Woo hoo!

Fantastic. Common dolphins!

Wow!

That came out of nowhere and whizzed through.

Oh, look at this!

Look at this!

Woo!

I'm surrounded by common dolphins.

How fantastic is that?

Looking for sharks and the next thing

a big pod of common dolphins come through.

It's the first time I've ever been in the water with dolphins.

That's...

And it's off the Welsh coast!

Incredible.

During the Second World War, Pembroke Dock was a large

naval port and the biggest seaplane base in the world.

The majority of the seaplanes were Sunderland Bombers.

It was one of the most powerful flying boats of the time,

and a sunken Sunderland still exists here on the sea bed.

I'm heading down-river from the Cleddau Bridge

with Rik Saldanha, who is a member of the Sunderland Trust,

a volunteer dive group set up to recover the seaplane

and protect the military heritage of Pembroke Dock.

So we're going to dive down to look at a Sunderland flying boat, is it?

-Yes, yeah.

-And that went down during the war?

It went down during the war, 12th November 1940.

-Wasn't shot down or anything like that?

-Wasn't shot down.

It had flown down from Oban, we believe, for repairs,

but it sunk in a storm.

So what would this area have looked like?

Say we were looking out now towards Pembroke Dock?

If we're looking out towards Pembroke Dock,

where you've got the two main hangars over there,

which, as you can see, are still in existence.

So that's those huge grey buildings there now?

-That's those huge grey buildings.

-Oh, right.

Somewhere over there, I'm not quite sure where,

-there would have been a large slip.

-Right, bringing them down.

-Bringing them up and down.

-What was their role then? Coastal defence?

It was anti-submarine.

So they would carry bombs and depth charges?

The one we'll be diving on today actually carried bombs

-because it's a Mark I.

-Are there any bombs on it?

We are assured by the Navy clearance team that there isn't.

-Right, OK.

-IOLO LAUGHS

We will find out possibly one day if they ever bring it up.

If there's a big boom and I come flying up, then we'll know why!

'Below the surface the sea is murky.

'It's a dark world where you lose orientation easily.

'A dogfish and other marine plants and animals

'live amongst scattered rubbish on the sea bed.

'Any movement stirs up silt and makes the visibility even worse.

'It's deep, dark water,

'and we can only see objects up to a metre or two away from us.

'Eventually we see the first remnants of the plane,

'a cylinder-shaped exhaust pipe.

'And next to it, one of the bomber's huge engines.'

Visibility down here is really, really poor.

We've got a rope to follow.

Thank goodness for that, otherwise I'd have got completely lost.

But we've come down by an engine,

there's an engine behind this, this is one of the propellers.

Now, of course, covered in anemones and sponges.

It's difficult diving down here,

there's a current, a constant current,

there's a lot of silt so visibility isn't great.

But it's amazing to come across this.

When you think that this plane has been lying here

in the silt for 70-odd years now.

And what you have to remember is that these were huge planes,

these were the Boeing 747s of their day.

And it's a big propeller,

most of it is underneath the silt, beneath my knees here.

'It may seem an unbelievable task,

'but it's hoped that the plane will be recovered bit by bit

'and re-built in a heritage museum on Pembroke Dock.

'But for the time being, it's a fabulous artificial reef

'for all sorts of sea life.'

The beautiful coast of South Wales

is perfect for all kinds of leisure activities.

I'm below Worm's Head on the western tip of the Gower Peninsula

with champion surfer James Jones.

James has been surfing competitively for 25 years

but today he's taking me stand-up paddle-boarding.

It's one of the fastest-growing water sports in the world.

It's popular because it's relatively easy to do,

while at the same time, it improves your balance, strength and fitness.

Apparently ancient Hawaiian kings paddled this way,

so it's not new, but I guess they didn't wear wetsuits.

Well, James, I can think of worse places to be on a day like this.

I know, it's cracking, isn't it?

We're very lucky today, it's lovely and calm.

It's not normally like this out here, that's for sure.

I'm glad it is, because I'm going to have a go in a minute.

I've been watching you and you make it look so easy,

but I've never been underneath Worm's Head like this.

I've climbed it, you know, the other side,

but to come this side is just completely different.

Yeah, it's brilliant, isn't it?

It's...it's quite spooky, I find it, to be honest!

Deep water, but all the birds are amazing.

You can hear them, can't you?

you can hear the kittiwakes going, "kittiwake, kittiwake, kittiwake"!

And you usually come out here to surf, not to paddle-board, is it?

Yeah. We surf off the other side of the Head there.

Obviously today it's really flat, but what we tend to do,

we get the paddle boards,

either lay-down or stand-up paddle boards like these,

and we paddle out either around Bury Holmes or around the Worm.

There's just no better place to be, is there, in the world, really.

Today is an exceptional calm day, no good for surfing,

and the sea is relatively safe.

But offshore on a board in deep water is a dangerous place.

The sea needs a lot of respect.

You know, whether you're paddle-boarding or surfing,

you've got to know your water, haven't you?

Yeah, definitely, really important.

But it's one of those things, you can't really be taught it.

You sort of pick it up with knowledge

and just spending time in the water.

When you look at the weather chart and you see the swell is coming

and the wind's going to be northerly and the tide's low at three o'clock,

you know exactly where to go and where's going to work.

So there's a lot of knowledge you gain just through experience

and surfing.

I'm pretty sure that the Hawaiian kings

didn't paddle-board on their knees either, but I can tell you,

that first time on a board, kneeling is a lot easier than standing.

The sea is both powerful and corrosive

and any artificial structure in contact with it

needs to be maintained.

Underwater, this work is carried out by commercial divers.

It's an occupation that's clearly potentially dangerous

but done properly under strict safety conditions,

it's routine work for an experienced diver.

These are the lock gates to Swansea Marina.

In common with other marine structures,

they're checked every two years for wear and tear.

Diver Russell Edwards has been asked to inspect them underwater.

-You don't see much, do you?

-Not a great deal no, no.

I go underwater, I go underwater to see stuff,

see the fish and the crabs and whatever.

No, we don't see a lot to be honest.

It's normally black so we don't see a lot.

Russell's diving equipment is totally different to mine.

For a start, he wears a sealed helmet rather than a mask

and that's because he needs to be able to stay underwater

for a much longer period, often many hours.

He's fed air with hoses from the surface.

With my cylinders,

I can stay underwater for no more than around 45 minutes.

Pre-dive checks have to be thorough, there's no room for complacency

even here, in what appears to be the relative safety of a marina.

It's deep water, and any silly mistake can be fatal.

Underwater, it's a dark, eerie world.

This makes inspection difficult, but with his trailing umbilical cord

Russell has to climb and check every part of the structure.

The water in the lock is also an unusual mixture of fresh water

from the River Tawe and salt water from the sea.

The fresh water lies at the surface and, as it's heavier,

sea water falls to the bottom.

I tell you what,

it's an unusual experience diving in a marina like this

where you can see up on top, visibility's great -

down here, not only is there a lot of mud getting churned up

but you've got that weird mixture of fresh water and sea water,

which gives it that real blurred appearance,

so visibility is just dreadful, and as for wildlife, well...

I had a quick look round, but I haven't seen anything so far.

I don't envy the boys working down in this.

'The metal frame of the lock looks as if it's covered with rusty corrosion,

'but in fact, its rough uneven surface has been formed

'by colonies of marine wildlife.'

It's incredible, really, when you consider that these gates

are moving constantly and they're flooded by sea water

and by fresh water, and yet these columns, these metal columns here

are covered in sea life including,

see these small purse-like creatures here?

These are sea squirts. A whole host of them packed on there.

Nature's just fabulous.

'There are many different species living on the lock gates,

'but one is particularly interesting.

'The small, bright white rings belong to an invasive tube worm.

'It doesn't belong in the UK.

'It's been brought here on the hulls of ships

'from its native Indian Ocean.

'The conditions are perfect for it here.

'For a start, it likes brackish water,

'that is a mixture of sea and fresh water,

'and the moving water in the locks brings a constant supply of food.

'This is why the other species are also thriving here.

'These colonies on their own don't directly damage the lock gates.

'The main problem with them is that they may be hiding a fault.

'Russell is clearing them away to make sure that everything is sound.

'I guess it won't be too long before they re-establish their colonies once again.'

With so much coastline around Wales,

it's probably no surprise that sea angling is a popular past-time.

I'm heading out at low tide along Ogmore beach

with Sally Owen and her partner, Mark Cowell.

They've both competed at international level.

-'It's therapeutic, isn't it?

-It is, yeah. Even on a day like this...'

Ogmore beach is part of the Glamorgan Heritage Coastline.

It's a fantastic landscape of eroded cliffs and wide beaches

made even more dramatic today by a strong breeze and a big sea.

Nearly ready? You going to bait them up now?

-Going to put worm on first.

-You going to put worm? What have you got, lugworm?

-No, ragworm.

-What are you aiming to catch?

-Hopefully a bass.

-Yeah.

The possibility you might get a flatfish flounder.

I suppose for any fishing, wind's never a good thing, is it?

Too much wind.

But then sometimes if it's too calm, the fish aren't feeding so...

A bit of wind might not be a bad thing?

You want a happy medium, which you don't always get, do you?

How long have you been fishing then?

About seven years. I find it relaxing.

I used to go to the gym a lot and now I fish. I fish a lot instead.

But it's just the scenery, you forget all the problems in work.

What do you think about?

Do you just concentrate so much on the fishing, on the line,

the tip of the rod, that you don't have time to think,

-or do you just look around?

-Well, you don't have time to think.

You're just thinking about what you're going to do next,

what bait you are going to use, are you going to use the same tactics?

And at Ogmore here, you're hoping to catch bass.

What else would you catch here say in spring, early summer?

You could get rays, you might get dogfish.

Again, it's dependent on the tides, you know,

if you're fishing high or low tide and the weather.

You have to know your fish, don't you?

You have to know the ecology of the fish, what they feed on,

where they feed, different aspects of the tide.

You have to know what they're feeding on

because that's the bait you're using

and if they're feeding on crabs and you stick a worm out there,

they're looking for crab, so, yeah, you've got to know what bait to use

and what fish are in the locality to be in with a chance of catching one.

Shore fishing is hard work.

You constantly have to keep on the move as the tide comes in.

Many fish prefer strong current areas like headlands and tidelines

because currents stir up the sea and brings food to them.

But not today.

It's turning out to be a bad fishing day.

There's too much current

and fish are avoiding the turbulent shoreline.

And to make matters worse, the sea is tearing up seaweed underwater

and carrying it to the tideline.

Sea lettuce, a lot of this.

I normally go to work on Monday morning with dirty nails.

Yeah, I bet. And bits of crab all over you and everything.

-Oh, no, I've washed those bits off!

-Have you?

The coastline of Wales is around 1,680 miles long.

The sea around it is a big area where illegal activities

could potentially take place undetected,

in particular drug and human trafficking.

Welsh territorial waters extend to 12 miles from the coast

and this area is protected by the police.

I'm heading out of Cardiff Bay with Sergeant Peter Allen

and PC Owen Whittendale

of the South Wales Police Specialist Search and Recovery Team.

We're entering one of the locks of the Cardiff Barrage

on the way to the Bristol Channel.

They have one of the fastest boats in Welsh waters.

It can travel at 44 knots, the equivalent of 50 miles per hour.

With this speed, they can respond quickly to any incident at sea.

Today, it's just a routine exercise to Flat Holm island

which is around five miles from Cardiff Bay.

But their presence in the channel

is nevertheless an important deterrent to crime.

So do all of you join the police as ordinary policemen

and then move on to this job?

Or do you join specifically to be part of the boat squad, if you like?

No, join the police as a normal police constable,

you've got to do minimum two years as a PC in your probation

before you can apply to do any specialist roles.

You've got to be a reserve on the unit first

before you can come on as a full-time member.

And all of you then have to be divers as well, do you,

-and boat handlers, I would imagine?

-Absolutely, yeah.

Anybody coming through, as they first come on as reserves,

the first thing they do is sent for an eight-week course,

commercial diving course. Once they get through that, they come back,

we then put them on a three-week offshore rib course.

They then go on rope-access courses, become rope-access technicians

for climbing, for going into mines, tunnels, body recovery, everything.

They've all got to be skilled in the six or seven disciplines we do.

I always thought, being an estuary here,

the Bristol Channel would always be flat calm.

But tanking it out here, that was quite interesting!

But I imagine you boys have got to be out in all weathers.

Yeah, due to the tidal range here, the sheer volume of water

that moves up and down the channel, and because it's got quite

a lot of obstructions, sandbanks, sandbars in it as well,

the water gets funnelled and because of the high state of the tide

and the wind, it does create quite a rough sea state out here at times.

Do you enjoy the work, lads?

It's varied, you never know. Each day we come in, we try to make plans

for what we're doing, but a lot of the time

we've got to react to what we've got and our plans may change.

A few years ago, we dealt with a vessel just off the coast here

where Greenpeace had gone onto the vessel, attached themselves to the anchors.

We were taken over there by boat and helicopter and we had to rope access,

going down the sides removing the protesters,

cutting them free and lowering them safely into the boats.

Drugs-wise, if there's specific intelligence, we might go on

and actually start searching, and the same with people trafficking.

That's a major problem for the UK now as well

and again we will check, go on board, check crew lists,

ask who the people are and check them against the documentation we've got.

The Bristol Channel, in common with other seas around the Welsh coast,

can be dangerous waters.

Because the UK is a collection of islands,

we're effectively an obstruction to the sea

and this causes big tides and fast currents around our coast.

This, together with frequent bad weather, means that boats and people

will from time to time get into difficulty and need to be saved.

The Severn Estuary below the two Severn bridges

is protected by the Severn Area Rescue Association.

The water under the bridges is only deep enough for large vessels

in the central part of the estuary.

Either side of this channel, there are rocks and mudflats.

I'm with volunteer rescuer Mark Cawardine.

And your job, you're kind of lifeboatmen for the estuary.

That's right, yeah.

The Severn Area Rescue Association, we cover, broadly speaking,

a line that's from Avonmouth across to Newport

where we've got four stations that cover the entire Severn Estuary,

so this body of water really is our responsibility.

And it's a foul day, we've got rain lashing down,

visibility isn't great but it goes to show

you must be called out in these conditions all the time.

-Well, believe it or not, today's quite a nice day.

-Is it?

It'll get a little bit more choppy and sinister

once the tide starts ebbing.

We're really at the top of tide at the moment

so this is as still as the water will get.

-We'll come back in a couple of hours and, er, yeah...

-It'll be rough, yeah.

The sea under the Severn bridges has the second-highest

rise and fall of the tide in the world.

The currents here can be extreme, and the SARA team train

to help them locate people who have fallen into the estuary.

We use a dummy to simulate a body situation

and we'll monitor and track its movements

for up to three or four hours

just to find out exactly where it's likely to go,

what route it's likely to take at various points of tide.

And you'd be surprised, with an eight knot tide, in half an hour,

-you're four miles away.

-Honestly, that quickly?

-Yeah.

So what's your job outside of this, then?

-Oh, it's nothing to do with boats.

-Isn't it? Is it not?

No, I run residential care services for kids with autism.

-Do you? Oh, wow.

-Yeah, quite different.

-So two completely different worlds for you?

-Yeah, indeed.

From the Severn bridges all the way to the Dee Estuary,

Wales's seas support an amazing variety of habitats and species.

It's arguably the oldest unspoiled landscape of Wales.

Although our sea has been exploited for centuries

and new technologies allow an even greater scale of exploitation,

much of this beautiful natural landscape and wildlife is still intact.

I hope it remains so.

In one survey, almost three out of four people in Wales

agreed that the Welsh coast was an important part of their life.

But the Welsh seascape extends 12 miles from land,

and I'm lucky enough to be able to dive

and see the hidden part of Wales.

It's a fantastic asset to be loved and cherished.

It's a place that can enhance the quality of all our lives.