Browse content similar to South Africa to Zanzibar. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
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 | 0:00:28 | |
Steeped in history, the Indian Ocean is vital to world trade. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:34 | |
It's a journey of extremes, from stunning islands | 0:00:36 | 0:00:40 | |
across pirate-infested seas, to remote villages... | 0:00:40 | 0:00:47 | |
..and war-torn lands. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:52 | |
What was that? | 0:00:52 | 0:00:54 | |
This is a journey about much more than just what's under the waves. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
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 | 0:01:17 | |
I start my journey at the tip of Africa, | 0:01:21 | 0:01:25 | |
and travel up the east coast of the continent to the island of Zanzibar. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
'I discover what threatens the ocean's mightiest predator.' | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
I think they've got something. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
'And I confront my own fears on my first ocean dive.' | 0:01:36 | 0:01:41 | |
You got me to swim with sharks. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
We're stuck in the sand. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:47 | |
On this first part of my journey, I travel by land, sea and air... | 0:01:49 | 0:01:53 | |
..through a country ravaged by civil war. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
3,500 people live here now? | 0:01:59 | 0:02:04 | |
And ending on the exotic island of Zanzibar, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
with its stunning coral beaches. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:11 | |
My goodness look at this! | 0:02:11 | 0:02:13 | |
I'm at the bottom of Africa. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
Somewhere out there, two of the world's mightiest oceans collide. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:44 | |
Over there is the Atlantic, but I'm heading this way. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:48 | |
This is the start of my journey around the glorious Indian Ocean. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:53 | |
It's a huge trip. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:54 | |
It's an enormous challenge, and it begins right here, right now, | 0:02:54 | 0:03:00 | |
on the rugged coast of South Africa. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:02 | |
The Indian Ocean might be better known for tropical beaches | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
and palm trees, but down here, near the Cape of Good Hope, | 0:03:12 | 0:03:16 | |
the sea churns with life, | 0:03:16 | 0:03:18 | |
and the coastline is dramatic. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:20 | |
There's no neat dividing line between two great seas. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
And the water here is fed by currents from both the Atlantic | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
and the Indian Ocean. As a result, the water temperature | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
can fluctuate wildly, and there's a huge diversity of marine life. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:43 | |
This area is a breeding ground | 0:03:43 | 0:03:45 | |
for vast stocks of fish, sea birds and mammals. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
Oh, dolphins, porpoises, just off to the left! | 0:03:53 | 0:03:57 | |
Across the Indian Ocean, this spectacular wildlife | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
is in desperate need of protection. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
I hitched a ride on a South African fisheries patrol boat, | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
whose job it is to police these waters. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
This pearly beach area, | 0:04:13 | 0:04:15 | |
there's a group of poachers that live out here, OK? | 0:04:15 | 0:04:18 | |
And they actually swim from the shoreline | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
all the way through to the island. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
Keith Govender and his team are targeting poachers | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
who are after a little known, but valuable, sea creature. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:31 | |
Part of what we're going to do today is basically looking | 0:04:34 | 0:04:36 | |
and protecting a resource called abalone. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
-Abalone. -Abalone in layman's terms you could describe as a shellfish. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
It's become a commodity now that is wanted in the Far East. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
As a food? | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
-As a food, or as a delicacy. -Delicacy is the word, yeah. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:51 | |
And it's become so wanted that people in South Africa now | 0:04:51 | 0:04:55 | |
are actually poaching it more and more | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
to sell off to syndicates, basically. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
-What, crime gangs? -Crime gangs itself. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
And that stuff gets smuggled onto the black market into the Far East. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:06 | |
And people will poach from the shoreline, | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
where divers would walk into the water and poach off a reef | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
and you also have one where it's sea-based, | 0:05:12 | 0:05:14 | |
where people use rubber ducks. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:16 | |
When you say a rubber duck, you mean something like this? | 0:05:16 | 0:05:18 | |
Yeah, something like this. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:20 | |
-This one's specially designed for enforcement. -And it's super fast. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
It's super fast. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:24 | |
The patrol received a tip-off that poachers had been spotted. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:28 | |
They were hunting for rare abalone, | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
which is protected in South African waters. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:34 | |
It was time to launch the rubber duck. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:36 | |
If we tell you to hang on, drop whatever you're doing | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
-and you hang on, OK? -OK. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:40 | |
No matter what's happening, just hang on. OK, let's go! | 0:05:40 | 0:05:44 | |
Hold on! | 0:05:44 | 0:05:46 | |
There's something there! | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
Right-hand side. See? | 0:05:52 | 0:05:54 | |
Right on the starboard bow, dead ahead! | 0:05:54 | 0:05:59 | |
Coming very fast, so they won't be able to get away. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:04 | |
Keep this course. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:08 | |
'It looked like we were going to catch | 0:06:08 | 0:06:10 | |
'a group of poachers red-handed.' | 0:06:10 | 0:06:12 | |
Now you see there the divers are busy on the rock there | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
-at the moment, as you can see. -'But just a few hundred feet | 0:06:15 | 0:06:17 | |
'from the coast, we ran into a floating natural barrier | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
'that could entangle the boat propeller.' | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
I mean, and if you look at the kelp here, you can see how thick it is. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
My God, look at it, it's like a tangle of knots! | 0:06:26 | 0:06:30 | |
I can see, yeah, a guy, he's just sort of crouching down, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
trying to stay out of sight. There was a third guy. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:37 | |
He's just gone into the water. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
So, there's poaching going on right here, right now. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:42 | |
It's very frustrating. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:43 | |
It's very frustrating. You can see them. You want to grab them. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
You see now they're just getting equipment and walking away. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
And run away. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:52 | |
Now this is Whiskey Bravo, over. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
Keith alerted the local police, who tracked | 0:06:56 | 0:06:58 | |
and caught the poachers. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
'The trade in abalone has become a multi-million pound business.' | 0:07:02 | 0:07:06 | |
My goodness! | 0:07:06 | 0:07:08 | |
'This was abalone they'd confiscated from other poachers.' | 0:07:09 | 0:07:13 | |
It's basically a shellfish. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:16 | |
It doesn't look like very much, let's be honest. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:18 | |
It's slimy and not particularly pleasant. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
'But a plate of abalone can sell | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
'for more than £100 in a restaurant in China.' | 0:07:23 | 0:07:26 | |
There's abalone here worth, | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
-I would guess, tens of thousands of pounds. -Yep. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:33 | |
'And, bizarrely, the black market trade in abalone is linked | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
'to serious organised crime.' | 0:07:39 | 0:07:40 | |
But the problem is it opens up a whole lot of things, such as drugs, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:45 | |
illegal weapons, those type of things. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:46 | |
It's connected with all these other... | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
-It's connected, yeah. -..crime activities. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:51 | |
It's a spider's web, basically. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
This is such a weird situation. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
Weird story, but it gets even odder, | 0:08:01 | 0:08:03 | |
because what we've been told is that | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
while abalone's being smuggled out of the country by criminal gangs, | 0:08:05 | 0:08:09 | |
the same people are then involved in smuggling back in | 0:08:09 | 0:08:12 | |
a methamphetamine drug called tik, | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
which is apparently causing all sorts of chaos here in South Africa. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:20 | |
This two-way trade is centred on nearby Cape Town, | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
where use of the drug, tik, has reached epidemic proportions. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:31 | |
Abalone is smuggled out of the country to China, | 0:08:33 | 0:08:36 | |
and the same gangs use the profits to trade in tik. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
Police here have even found large quantities of abalone, | 0:08:39 | 0:08:43 | |
together with tik, while carrying out drugs raids. | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
I headed to Manenberg, an area notorious for poverty, | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
drugs and violent crime. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:53 | |
I met up with William Williams, | 0:08:53 | 0:08:55 | |
who runs a local charity that works with people addicted to tik. | 0:08:55 | 0:09:00 | |
How has tik affected the community in recent years? | 0:09:00 | 0:09:04 | |
It's almost like people have lost this whole thing | 0:09:04 | 0:09:08 | |
of caring about other people and only caring about themselves, | 0:09:08 | 0:09:12 | |
and that the biggest thing for them is getting the drug, | 0:09:12 | 0:09:16 | |
so if they have to rob their neighbour, steal from the neighbour, | 0:09:16 | 0:09:21 | |
do anything against their neighbour to be able to get this drug. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:25 | |
This was a side of South Africa few visitors get to see. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:30 | |
It was the poaching of an ocean mollusc that had brought me here, | 0:09:30 | 0:09:34 | |
but almost everyone I met had a story about the damage | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
the methamphetamine drug, tik, is now doing to the community. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:41 | |
It can hurt families, | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
like just parents and children, | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
like kids today when they've used drugs, | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
then like mothers, fathers, kids, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
they use it together. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:52 | |
Almost like meals they use it. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
-I use it for eight years. -Eight years? -I'm 24 years old now. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
And what does it do to the mind? | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
Make you end up like suicidal. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:05 | |
But some of my friends that use it, they are mad today. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
Readily available and highly addictive, | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
tik has become a massive problem in Cape Town. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
William took me down the street to meet a local addict. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:23 | |
But as we walked into his house, it became clear | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
it was the neighbourhood drug den, and the man wasn't alone. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:29 | |
Hello! Is it OK to come in? | 0:10:34 | 0:10:37 | |
-Thank you, gentlemen. Can I sit down? -Sit down. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:41 | |
-Is that a real gun? -Yeah. -Oh, dear! | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
Ah, OK. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
'Suddenly the mood changed. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
'The men started jostling us and demanding money. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
'It was time to make a quick exit.' | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
That last situation, that surprised me. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
Suddenly you're into a situation which is so dark. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:14 | |
You're witnessing people who've fallen so far down, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:18 | |
and I can't quite believe how far | 0:11:18 | 0:11:22 | |
this situation develops | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
from something that appears so simple as poaching abalone. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
There is a desperation for the drugs. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
People will go out and get the abalone, OK, to pay for the drugs. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:37 | |
It's desperate, eh? Absolutely desperate. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:42 | |
The weird connection between abalone poaching | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
and the drug trade in Cape Town... | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
..was proof that even in big coastal cities | 0:11:52 | 0:11:54 | |
life is still linked to the sea. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
From the Cape, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
my journey around the Indian Ocean was now really beginning. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
A commuter train, through the southern suburbs, | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
showed me a more affluent side of South Africa. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
But I wasn't travelling far, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
as I headed to meet some friendlier local residents. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
I think this is our stop. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:25 | |
I was a bit surprised to find penguins in Africa, | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
but there used to be millions living along the coast here. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:40 | |
I'd arrived during the moulting season, | 0:12:40 | 0:12:42 | |
when the penguins were waiting patiently for their new set | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
of clothes. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:47 | |
So this is quite a boring time for them. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
They have to just wait by the coast | 0:12:54 | 0:12:56 | |
for their new coat. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:58 | |
You can say it's a boring time, but I see it as time out. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:01 | |
I mean we also need that as humans, you know, | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
you need to take time out at some point, and this is their time out. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:07 | |
Conservationist Tributin Bueni | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
spent two years studying these penguins, | 0:13:10 | 0:13:12 | |
living alone with them on a remote island. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
Not surprisingly, her nickname is Birdie, | 0:13:15 | 0:13:17 | |
and she feels that penguins have plenty to teach us. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:21 | |
We could learn quite a bit from them. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:23 | |
What would be the key lessons that we should learn? | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
Both the male and the female take care of the chicks. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:29 | |
It's a teamwork, | 0:13:29 | 0:13:30 | |
it's not just a woman's duty to take care of the chicks. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
Oh, I see. I see. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:35 | |
-You think there's an equality in the penguin household. -Yeah, there is. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:39 | |
That we humans could learn... perhaps we boys could learn from. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
Mmm, I wonder. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:43 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:13:43 | 0:13:45 | |
But like many species that rely on the ocean, | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
the African penguin is struggling to survive. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
The birds are simply not getting enough to eat. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
Scientists believe that fish stocks, which penguins rely on, | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
are taking a hammering in this area because of the changing environment | 0:14:00 | 0:14:04 | |
and humans overfishing. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
So the day we're here | 0:14:09 | 0:14:10 | |
is quite an important day for the colony here, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:14 | |
because they're going to round up, or catch, | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
and collect some of the really underweight young chicks. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:22 | |
And they're going to take them to a facility | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
where they're going to feed them up, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
so that they actually have a chance of surviving | 0:14:26 | 0:14:28 | |
when they're in the water. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:30 | |
In the last few decades, | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
the penguin population along the coast has suffered a dramatic fall. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
Penguin numbers have dropped by 80%. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
They've got one! | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
They've got a baby penguin just over here. It's a little chick. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:44 | |
It's actually quite sad to think, ten years after this, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
are they still going to be there or not? | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
You know, and it's quite sad just thinking about it, you know. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
You're genuinely concerned these could be extinct in ten years? | 0:14:54 | 0:14:58 | |
In ten years' time. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
Looking at how the numbers are going down now, it's totally possible. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:04 | |
Volunteers from SANCCOB, | 0:15:11 | 0:15:13 | |
a sea bird rescue group, | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
had set up a local centre to feed the underweight chicks. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:19 | |
Vanessa Strauss was running the operation. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
At this age, they need to have a really round belly. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
You can see that he's got a hollow belly, | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
so he doesn't have any muscle round his chest. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
He doesn't have any fat. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:33 | |
You can just see from him that he hasn't been fed in a while. | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
He's dehydrated. He's not feeling strong. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:38 | |
-So you're becoming the mum and dad, basically. -Yep, absolutely. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
Every penguin that we can save is essential for the survival | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
of the species. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
Look at the size of this! | 0:15:49 | 0:15:51 | |
Little penguin paradise here! | 0:15:54 | 0:15:56 | |
After six weeks of intensive care here at SANCCOB headquarters, | 0:15:57 | 0:16:01 | |
the chicks are given training in essential penguin skills. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:05 | |
Been given a towel. OK. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:10 | |
What are we using this for? | 0:16:10 | 0:16:11 | |
This is a little exercise programme. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
We're sort penguin wrangling. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:16 | |
-Yes. -It's a round up, really. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:18 | |
They need to get fit, | 0:16:18 | 0:16:19 | |
ready to swim far out at sea to find their own food. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:23 | |
Come on! Come on! | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
They're really not going to go in. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:29 | |
Fish! Eat! | 0:16:29 | 0:16:30 | |
Oh, there we go! Yes! There you go! | 0:16:30 | 0:16:34 | |
Vanessa has resorted to a more direct approach. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:41 | |
No, you can't come back! | 0:16:41 | 0:16:43 | |
There are 18 penguin species in the world, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
and 11 are in serious population decline. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
What a wonderful sight! | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
When their swimming lessons are complete, | 0:16:54 | 0:16:56 | |
these penguins will be ready to return to the ocean, | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
hopefully strong enough to survive and to breed. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
It was time for me to continue my Indian Ocean journey. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
It was a drive of three hours | 0:17:22 | 0:17:24 | |
along the coast towards the wild and windswept Cape Agulhas, | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
which is actually even further south than the Cape Of Good Hope. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
I've reached the most southerly tip of Africa. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:41 | |
Look, it's very rugged along here. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:45 | |
Look at the rocks! | 0:17:45 | 0:17:46 | |
Ever since the late 1400s, when European explorers | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
made it around the Cape, from the Atlantic | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
round to the relative calm of the Indian Ocean, | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
this coastline has always had a fearsome reputation. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:59 | |
And even now, | 0:18:01 | 0:18:02 | |
with all our modern navigation aids, | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
some ships don't make it. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:06 | |
500 years ago, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama left | 0:18:12 | 0:18:16 | |
the southern Atlantic Ocean, sailed around the Cape, | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
and passed here on the first epic sea voyage from Europe to India. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:23 | |
Travellers and traders followed in his wake, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:30 | |
and there are believed to be at least 200 shipwrecks | 0:18:30 | 0:18:32 | |
along this coastline, known as the Graveyard Of Ships. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:36 | |
I followed their route | 0:18:37 | 0:18:39 | |
along the coast to South Africa's third largest city, Durban. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
The beaches around Durban are a holiday-maker's paradise. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:55 | |
Hundreds of thousands of people come here from across the world | 0:18:55 | 0:18:59 | |
to surf and swim. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:01 | |
Money from tourism is crucial to many countries | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
around the Indian Ocean, | 0:19:04 | 0:19:05 | |
but often there are conflicts between the tourism industry | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
and those who want to protect the ocean ecosystem, | 0:19:08 | 0:19:12 | |
particularly in Durban, where the water just off the beaches | 0:19:12 | 0:19:15 | |
can hide some very unwelcome visitors. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:17 | |
Now this is a sight. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:26 | |
It's basically a collection of jaws | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
from the species which we commonly catch. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
And what would this one on the end be? | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
It looks like the biggest one. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:35 | |
Well, these are all white sharks here, | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
and they have, by far, the most impressive teeth. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
-This is a great white? -Great white, yes. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
Look at that in there! | 0:19:43 | 0:19:44 | |
Serrated teeth, which is perfect for swiftly biting | 0:19:44 | 0:19:49 | |
and chopping away at a lump of flesh. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:52 | |
Durban spends millions of pounds defending | 0:19:53 | 0:19:56 | |
its tourists from shark attacks. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
Jeremy Cliff, of the Natal Sharks Board, | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
took me out to see his first line of defence, | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
a system of shark nets introduced after a series of attacks in the 1950s, | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
which killed seven people. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:11 | |
Many people think that the nets are a physical barrier, | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
and we put them up and the sharks stay on the outside, | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
and we quite happily swim on the inside. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:21 | |
Well, it's not like that at all. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:23 | |
The nets don't extend from the surface to the seabed, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
and the nets are only 300 metres long. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
So it's not excluding a shark from the area? | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
That's right. That's right. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:34 | |
It's what? It's killing some of them? | 0:20:34 | 0:20:37 | |
Yes. It's designed to catch and kill the dangerous sharks. Yes. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:42 | |
There are 15 miles of nets along Durban's beaches, | 0:20:43 | 0:20:47 | |
but they don't just kill sharks. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:49 | |
If these nets are designed to catch sharks, | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
presumably they're catching other creatures, as well. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
Yes, unfortunately. That's the major drawback of shark nets | 0:20:57 | 0:21:01 | |
is that they don't just select or target the three dangerous species. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:06 | |
They take sharks which pose very little threat to humans. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:09 | |
We also catch rays and turtles and dolphins, unfortunately. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:13 | |
Far from being just a protective barrier, | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
shark nets around the world actually kill | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
thousands of marine creatures every year. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:22 | |
They also reinforce the idea | 0:21:22 | 0:21:24 | |
that only a sea free of sharks is safe water. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:28 | |
Back at the Shark Board headquarters, | 0:21:28 | 0:21:31 | |
there's a cold storeroom piled up with dead sharks | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
and other animals they've caught. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:36 | |
It was a shocking sight, and Jeremy wasn't keen for us to film it. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
But outside he showed me one shark the nets had caught, | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
a juvenile great white, one of the world's rarest sharks. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:47 | |
Yeah, just under two metres in length. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:52 | |
-Our measurements, we exclude the tail. We measure up to there. -OK. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
At up to six metres long, | 0:21:56 | 0:21:58 | |
the great white shark is the largest predatory fish on the planet. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:02 | |
I sense there's a little bit of a conflict, really, | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
perhaps, dare I say, even within you, as a marine biologist. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:10 | |
-It must be tough to do this. -Oh, sure, most definitely. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
I mean, the last thing we want to do is see dead white sharks like this, | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
but unfortunately we've got a job to do, | 0:22:17 | 0:22:20 | |
tourism is very important for this part of the world, and we've seen, | 0:22:20 | 0:22:23 | |
historically, what a huge negative impact shark attack has had. | 0:22:23 | 0:22:28 | |
It does seem a little bit of a tragic end | 0:22:28 | 0:22:33 | |
for such an incredible beast. I don't know, but I feel my feelings | 0:22:33 | 0:22:37 | |
slightly conflicted about it, cos I fear it | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
and I really do respect it, as well. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:44 | |
I think that's the important thing, Simon, is to try and change | 0:22:44 | 0:22:48 | |
this predominant attitude of fear, | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
towards one of respect, rather than fear. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
I could understand Jeremy's dilemma. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
Shark attacks are actually incredibly rare, | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
but such is the fear they inspire, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
tourist resorts will do almost anything to prevent them. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
I travelled a few miles outside Durban to meet a woman | 0:23:13 | 0:23:18 | |
who's on a mission to change our views | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
on this most infamous creature of the deep. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
People don't have empathy for sharks. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
It is the most terrible, terrible sad thing, | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
but they are to be revered. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:33 | |
Gail Addison is a big shark fan, | 0:23:33 | 0:23:36 | |
so much so, she regularly takes her family along to swim with them. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:39 | |
Do you know that I take my little eight-year-old, | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
and she comes swimming with us with the sharks? | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
We're very specific about when we put her in the water, | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
and how she goes in the water, and that's the same with divers. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
Some people might think that's a bit mad, | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
to put your eight-year-old in the water. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
Do you know what? She's grown up with it. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:54 | |
She's grown up swimming since was one-year-old, | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
when she learned to swim. | 0:23:57 | 0:23:58 | |
Gail thinks Durban's shark nets need to be removed, | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
and that we need to change our view of sharks, | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
because, far from being a menace, | 0:24:04 | 0:24:06 | |
sharks are crucial to the health of our oceans. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:08 | |
Why are they the most important fish in the sea? | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
Cos they're apex predators | 0:24:11 | 0:24:12 | |
and, unfortunately, that means that they're not used to being hunted. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:16 | |
They're not meant to have natural predators. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:18 | |
They are the top of the food chain, | 0:24:18 | 0:24:19 | |
so they keep everything else underneath them | 0:24:19 | 0:24:21 | |
balanced and healthy. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:22 | |
So it controls the ecosystem, really. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
That's exactly what it does. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
It keeps it balanced and, without that balance, | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
everything starts crumbling. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
It's not just her family that Gail takes swimming with sharks. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:35 | |
She also takes visitors out diving with the most feared of predators. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:40 | |
I'm a fairly new diver, and it has been suggested | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
that I should get into the water with you | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
and maybe meet one or two very small, tiddly sharks | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
that don't like chomping on humans. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:55 | |
Um... What's the level of risk? | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
It sounds quite a scary idea to me. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
It's scary, because for all your life you've grown up thinking | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
that if you got into shark-infested waters you're going to get eaten, | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
and that's not the truth. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:07 | |
I want to go out there and show you the truth. Let's go bust some myths. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
SIMON CHUCKLES | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
So, it was time to face my fears, and get up close and personal | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
with this apex predator. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
I haven't dived very much, in truth, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
so that adds to my... | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
general nervousness. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
Gail promised me she's never lost a customer. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
Before I had a moment for second thoughts, | 0:25:45 | 0:25:48 | |
it was time to take the plunge. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
When I say, go. Two, three, go! | 0:25:50 | 0:25:53 | |
This was actually my first scuba dive out in the open sea. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:07 | |
Immediately we plunged into another world. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
Gail led me to a shallow cave, | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
where she hoped we'd be able to close to sharks. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
We got into position and waited. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
And suddenly, there they were, ragged tooth sharks. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
Two metres long and armed with a terrifying mouthful of teeth. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:54 | |
But straightaway it was obvious we weren't on the menu. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
It was exhilarating to be so close to such magnificent creatures. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:19 | |
Gail, we saw sharks. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
We did. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
You got me to swim with sharks! | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
I did. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:53 | |
And they weren't really that interested. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
We were just a, sort of, an obstruction, | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
-a curious obstruction... -Yes. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:06 | |
..that they needed to get past. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:08 | |
But at no time did I feel, well, threatened by them, really. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:13 | |
They're looking at you. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:14 | |
They're trying to work out, what are you doing there? | 0:28:14 | 0:28:17 | |
-Yeah. -You're not competing for their food. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:19 | |
You're not trying to hurt them. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:21 | |
You're completely confusing to them. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:23 | |
It was an experience I'll never forget. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:27 | |
But so long as we all keep thinking sharks | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
are the villains of the ocean, | 0:28:30 | 0:28:32 | |
Gail will have an uphill struggle encouraging people to protect them. | 0:28:32 | 0:28:36 | |
I like the sea. I'm quite happy to be back here. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:42 | |
Terra firma. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:43 | |
Terra firma. | 0:28:43 | 0:28:44 | |
-Less of the terra and more of the firma, I say. -I love it. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:48 | |
As well as a thriving tourist industry, | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
Durban has one of the great ports of the Indian Ocean. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:02 | |
Every year, more than 4,000 ships from around the world | 0:29:02 | 0:29:06 | |
carry 75 million tonnes of cargo in and out of this harbour. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:10 | |
I'd arranged to hitch a ride up the east African coast | 0:29:15 | 0:29:18 | |
on a container ship bound for Mozambique. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:20 | |
I feel quite excited. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:25 | |
I've never done this before. | 0:29:25 | 0:29:28 | |
Hello! | 0:29:35 | 0:29:36 | |
-Hello! -How are you? -Fine, thank you. | 0:29:36 | 0:29:39 | |
I was boarding the Italian-owned Jolly Bianco, | 0:29:39 | 0:29:43 | |
200 metres long and 27,000 tonnes. | 0:29:43 | 0:29:46 | |
Right, let's go and meet the captain. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:54 | |
Look at this! | 0:29:54 | 0:29:56 | |
I'm not sure we're all going to fit in here. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:02 | |
'The ship was huge, but it didn't seem designed to carry passengers.' | 0:30:02 | 0:30:05 | |
You just press a button here. | 0:30:08 | 0:30:10 | |
OK, so this is how I'm going to travel to Mozambique. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:14 | |
I think I'm going to take a flight! | 0:30:14 | 0:30:16 | |
Goodness me! OK. Let's get serious, we're meeting the captain. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:25 | |
I found Captain Francesco Venicori up on the bridge, | 0:30:28 | 0:30:32 | |
overseeing the loading of cargo. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:34 | |
Where did you come from before here? | 0:30:35 | 0:30:38 | |
The voyage is starting in Genoa, it's our home port, Italy. | 0:30:38 | 0:30:42 | |
Right. OK. | 0:30:42 | 0:30:43 | |
Then Marseilles, Naples, Aqaba, Jeddah, Dar es Salaam, | 0:30:43 | 0:30:49 | |
Mombasa, Durban, then Maputo and then our way back to Italy. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:55 | |
Loading the Jolly Bianco took all night. | 0:30:59 | 0:31:02 | |
And then early the next morning, we were ready to hit the high seas. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:09 | |
But to navigate the busy exit from Durban harbour, | 0:31:12 | 0:31:16 | |
we needed a specialist pilot. | 0:31:16 | 0:31:18 | |
So that's how to arrive! | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
There are so many ships plying the Indian Ocean | 0:31:24 | 0:31:26 | |
and using this port that pilots are winched from ship to ship. | 0:31:26 | 0:31:30 | |
Steady, 039, please. Steady. | 0:31:30 | 0:31:33 | |
So you can go to starboard. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
It all looked a bit technical, so I kept well out of the way. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
We were finally on our way to Maputo, Mozambique's capital, | 0:31:54 | 0:31:58 | |
300 miles up the east African coast. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
There's been trade across the Indian Ocean for thousands of years, | 0:32:02 | 0:32:07 | |
long before the world's other great oceans were navigated. | 0:32:07 | 0:32:11 | |
Merchants from China, Arabia and India traded across these waters. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:15 | |
The Indian Ocean is once again | 0:32:15 | 0:32:17 | |
becoming the most important seaway in the world. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:20 | |
One million ships a year, | 0:32:20 | 0:32:21 | |
and more than half of all shipping container traffic, | 0:32:21 | 0:32:23 | |
passes through it. The sea lanes of the Indian Ocean | 0:32:23 | 0:32:27 | |
are criss-crossed by oil tankers from the Middle East, and ships | 0:32:27 | 0:32:31 | |
carrying consumer goods from China. | 0:32:31 | 0:32:33 | |
Wow! A whole canyon of containers. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:37 | |
There were 600 shipping containers on the Jolly Bianco. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:40 | |
But what on Earth's in all these giant boxes? | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
On this ship is the stuff of life. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:50 | |
Sugar, hides, paper, foodstuff, tiles, | 0:32:50 | 0:32:52 | |
paint, roof tiles, fruit juices, anthracite, mining equipment, | 0:32:52 | 0:32:55 | |
milk powder, tin plate, ethyl alcohol, canned food, | 0:32:55 | 0:32:58 | |
cotton lint, ceramics, lube oils, | 0:32:58 | 0:33:01 | |
steel, seeds, tobacco, ingots, rubber, | 0:33:01 | 0:33:03 | |
peptides, electrical accessories, | 0:33:03 | 0:33:05 | |
and other large mining vehicles, et cetera. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:08 | |
It's basically anything and everything. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:10 | |
Ooh, a whole car park, as well. | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
The deck below was also packed. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:17 | |
There's should be about 270 cars and trucks. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:23 | |
Oh, my goodness, look at this! | 0:33:25 | 0:33:27 | |
This is absolutely incredible. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:32 | |
This shipment of South African armoured personnel carriers | 0:33:32 | 0:33:36 | |
was being taken up the coast to Sudan | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
for the United Nations mission in Darfur. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:41 | |
It was a stark reminder we were about to enter a troubled region. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:45 | |
This is enough to equip an entire army, or a peacekeeping force. | 0:33:47 | 0:33:52 | |
But as trade across the Indian Ocean grows, | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 | |
ships face a deadly threat from the age-old enemy | 0:33:57 | 0:34:00 | |
of merchants and sailors - pirates. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:04 | |
The captain's chart showed dozens of attacks by Somali pirates, | 0:34:11 | 0:34:15 | |
around this stretch of the ocean, just in the previous two months. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:19 | |
The Jolly Bianco was heading | 0:34:19 | 0:34:21 | |
for some of the most dangerous waters on Earth. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:23 | |
Practically all the Indian Ocean. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:27 | |
And you have to take your ship through those waters. | 0:34:27 | 0:34:31 | |
In the middle. | 0:34:31 | 0:34:32 | |
It must be frightening. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:34 | |
Of course, yes, it's a serious problem. | 0:34:37 | 0:34:40 | |
30 years ago, when I started to do this job, pirates are what | 0:34:41 | 0:34:46 | |
you see in the movie and what you read in some books now, you know. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:52 | |
No ship is safe from attack. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:55 | |
Some of the tactics they use against the pirates are quite simple. | 0:34:57 | 0:35:01 | |
As you can see, they've got razor wire, here, | 0:35:01 | 0:35:04 | |
and that's along both sides of the ship, | 0:35:04 | 0:35:07 | |
and it's really meant to discourage anybody from getting onboard. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:10 | |
They also put cardboard over the windows, | 0:35:10 | 0:35:14 | |
so that there's not light emitting at night. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:17 | |
And that means the pirates can't see them as they pass at night, | 0:35:17 | 0:35:22 | |
the pirates don't come and attack. | 0:35:22 | 0:35:25 | |
Simple, but effective. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
I was getting off the ship before they would enter the danger zone. | 0:35:28 | 0:35:32 | |
I would be facing the perils of Somalia, | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
and the Horn Of Africa, later in my journey. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
I had another night onboard before we reached Maputo. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:44 | |
The following day, we arrived in the Mozambican capital. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
BOYS LAUGH | 0:35:57 | 0:36:00 | |
Maputo is home to almost two million people. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:06 | |
On the day we arrived, most of them seemed to be on the beach. | 0:36:06 | 0:36:10 | |
-So busy today. -Yes, it is. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:16 | |
I'd be travelling through Mozambique with my guide, | 0:36:18 | 0:36:21 | |
a conservationist called Carlos Mequaqua. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:23 | |
It's amazing the change | 0:36:25 | 0:36:26 | |
you will see through the trip up north from here. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:31 | |
In what way? | 0:36:31 | 0:36:33 | |
The beach will be more beautiful, | 0:36:33 | 0:36:36 | |
less people, and very beautiful water. | 0:36:36 | 0:36:41 | |
We headed north along the Indian Ocean coast | 0:36:46 | 0:36:49 | |
towards Inhambane, | 0:36:49 | 0:36:50 | |
a long day's drive from the capital. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:53 | |
We've got a few more hours on the road though, haven't we? | 0:36:53 | 0:36:56 | |
Maybe three more hours. | 0:36:56 | 0:36:58 | |
Three more hours. OK. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:00 | |
Hopefully we're going to get there during daylight. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:03 | |
Slow, slow, slow, slow! | 0:37:07 | 0:37:10 | |
But Mozambique isn't famed for its roads. | 0:37:11 | 0:37:13 | |
Ah, we're stuck in the sand. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:17 | |
Best to let some air out. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:21 | |
'It turned into a long night.' | 0:37:21 | 0:37:24 | |
Shall we give it a try? | 0:37:24 | 0:37:25 | |
ENGINE SPUTTERS | 0:37:25 | 0:37:27 | |
But eventually we limped our way towards our beds for the night. | 0:37:32 | 0:37:36 | |
7.35 on a Wednesday morning, | 0:37:56 | 0:37:59 | |
standing on a remote beach in Mozambique. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:02 | |
Such a thing of beauty. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:05 | |
There's a Mozambican writer who said, | 0:38:08 | 0:38:11 | |
"Mozambique is like a veranda onto the Indian Ocean." | 0:38:11 | 0:38:15 | |
It's absolutely stunning here. | 0:38:19 | 0:38:20 | |
CARLOS SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE | 0:38:26 | 0:38:29 | |
Carlos had brought me to a village near where he grew up. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
He wanted me to meet some fishermen | 0:38:32 | 0:38:34 | |
who specialise in a very particular catch. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:38 | |
It's a tiny boat, eh? | 0:38:43 | 0:38:44 | |
Yeah. | 0:38:44 | 0:38:46 | |
'The leader of the group was a young man called Nelson.' | 0:38:48 | 0:38:52 | |
They're going. | 0:38:52 | 0:38:53 | |
We followed Nelson and his crew to where they'd laid baited lines | 0:39:03 | 0:39:07 | |
the previous night. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:08 | |
-They're pulling now the line. -Yeah. | 0:39:12 | 0:39:15 | |
To see if they've got any catch. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:17 | |
Yeah, man! | 0:39:23 | 0:39:25 | |
I think they've got something. | 0:39:28 | 0:39:30 | |
Yeah, you can see. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:40 | |
-You can see it's massive. Wow! Wow! Wow! -Oh, my goodness! | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
-Oh, my good lord! -This is big. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:52 | |
Wow! It's a massive shark, eh? | 0:39:53 | 0:39:55 | |
It's huge, isn't it? | 0:39:55 | 0:39:57 | |
Sharks have to keep moving in order to breathe. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:05 | |
Trapped on their line for hours, this adult female shark had drowned. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:10 | |
Rolling around in the surf, the magnificent shark | 0:40:14 | 0:40:17 | |
became a pathetic and upsetting sight. | 0:40:17 | 0:40:20 | |
Wow! | 0:40:23 | 0:40:24 | |
Look at that! | 0:40:26 | 0:40:28 | |
'But I realised I was witnessing one of the great catastrophes, | 0:40:28 | 0:40:32 | |
'of not just the Indian Ocean, but our global seas, | 0:40:32 | 0:40:36 | |
'as the men went to work on their catch. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:39 | |
'Nelson and his men fish for sharks for one specific reason - | 0:40:41 | 0:40:46 | |
'to harvest one of the most valuable fish products on Earth.' | 0:40:46 | 0:40:50 | |
They're not interested in the meat on this creature, | 0:40:51 | 0:40:56 | |
they're just interested in fins. | 0:40:56 | 0:40:58 | |
Nelson, how much money will you get for the fins? | 0:41:04 | 0:41:06 | |
TRANSLATION: | 0:41:10 | 0:41:13 | |
Do you know who buys the shark fins? | 0:41:27 | 0:41:29 | |
Do you know what's done with them eventually? | 0:41:29 | 0:41:31 | |
In fact, the fins are usually shipped across | 0:41:35 | 0:41:38 | |
the Indian Ocean and on to China, | 0:41:38 | 0:41:40 | |
where the almost tasteless cartilage is put into soup. | 0:41:40 | 0:41:43 | |
What's particularly obscene about this situation is that | 0:41:45 | 0:41:51 | |
the entire trade in sharks globally, | 0:41:51 | 0:41:53 | |
which results in the deaths of millions of sharks every year, | 0:41:53 | 0:41:57 | |
is to feed or provide fins for shark fin soup, | 0:41:57 | 0:42:02 | |
a Chinese delicacy meant to symbolise, show wealth, | 0:42:02 | 0:42:06 | |
the wealth of the person who is consuming it. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:09 | |
Just like the abalone I saw being poached in South African waters, | 0:42:12 | 0:42:16 | |
sharks have become victims of the economic growth of China, | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
where delicacies that used to be available to just a few, | 0:42:19 | 0:42:22 | |
are now in huge demand. | 0:42:22 | 0:42:24 | |
More than 100 million sharks are being killed each year, | 0:42:24 | 0:42:28 | |
mostly for shark fin soup. There are now thought to be | 0:42:28 | 0:42:32 | |
just a few thousand great white sharks left on the planet. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:35 | |
Our oceans face a catastrophe. | 0:42:35 | 0:42:38 | |
My whole view on sharks has completely changed | 0:42:39 | 0:42:43 | |
in the last couple of weeks. | 0:42:43 | 0:42:44 | |
I've gone from being fearful of them to fearful for them. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:49 | |
They're an apex predator, | 0:42:49 | 0:42:52 | |
they keep a lid on all other marine life in our seas, in our oceans... | 0:42:52 | 0:42:56 | |
..and we're annihilating them. We're wiping them out. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:01 | |
And in doing so, we're threatening the entire marine ecosystem, | 0:43:01 | 0:43:06 | |
because sharks are the most important fish in the sea. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:11 | |
Even with a small boat, | 0:43:16 | 0:43:18 | |
a fisherman here can catch hundreds of sharks each year. | 0:43:18 | 0:43:21 | |
But the real damage to shark numbers is done further out to sea | 0:43:21 | 0:43:25 | |
where industrial fishing fleets from Asia and Europe catch millions, | 0:43:25 | 0:43:29 | |
slicing off the fins | 0:43:29 | 0:43:31 | |
and often chucking the body back into the water, | 0:43:31 | 0:43:33 | |
sometimes while the shark is still alive. | 0:43:33 | 0:43:36 | |
Villagers here are fishing to survive, | 0:43:43 | 0:43:45 | |
but Carlos is still keen to educate them | 0:43:45 | 0:43:48 | |
about the need to protect the Indian Ocean. | 0:43:48 | 0:43:50 | |
He runs a conservation and education programme | 0:43:50 | 0:43:54 | |
among the fishing communities along the coast. | 0:43:54 | 0:43:57 | |
First step is to lay on a kick-about to attract youngsters | 0:43:57 | 0:44:00 | |
to listen to his message. | 0:44:00 | 0:44:02 | |
MAN SHOUTS IN CELEBRATION | 0:44:07 | 0:44:11 | |
Carlos is trying to persuade people not to make their livelihood | 0:44:38 | 0:44:41 | |
by killing the spectacular marine life found in the Indian Ocean. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:45 | |
He wants them to find other ways of protecting | 0:44:45 | 0:44:48 | |
and profiting from the sea. | 0:44:48 | 0:44:49 | |
LIVELY PARTY MUSIC PLAYS | 0:45:17 | 0:45:19 | |
Then at the end of his talk, Carlos makes sure the music | 0:45:23 | 0:45:26 | |
gets pumped up loud. | 0:45:26 | 0:45:28 | |
These are just the people he needs to be talking to. | 0:45:31 | 0:45:35 | |
I'm standing here and I can actually smell fish. | 0:45:35 | 0:45:39 | |
These are fisher people. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:40 | |
If they're not fishermen, they're the fishermen of the future, | 0:45:40 | 0:45:44 | |
and getting this message across to them now is absolutely vital. | 0:45:44 | 0:45:48 | |
Even if it is with the help of a dancing competition! | 0:45:50 | 0:45:53 | |
Mozambique is one of the poorest countries around the Indian Ocean, | 0:46:08 | 0:46:12 | |
and its tourist industry is very underdeveloped. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:14 | |
It wasn't always like this. | 0:46:19 | 0:46:20 | |
Two hundred miles further up the coast, in Mozambique's second city, | 0:46:20 | 0:46:23 | |
Beira, I'd heard I'd find a relic of tourism from another era. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:27 | |
Oh, my goodness! There it is. Look! | 0:46:32 | 0:46:36 | |
The Grand Hotel, Beira. | 0:46:37 | 0:46:40 | |
Beira's ocean side Grand Hotel was built in the 1950s | 0:46:47 | 0:46:51 | |
when the country was still a Portuguese colony. | 0:46:51 | 0:46:53 | |
It had several hundred rooms, a huge swimming pool and a cinema, | 0:46:53 | 0:46:57 | |
and it was billed as the grandest hotel in Africa. | 0:46:57 | 0:47:00 | |
So look at this. It's quite a sight. | 0:47:01 | 0:47:05 | |
This is how it was in the 1960s? It looks amazing. | 0:47:05 | 0:47:09 | |
But then Mozambique's brutal war for independence | 0:47:15 | 0:47:18 | |
drove the rich tourists away, | 0:47:18 | 0:47:20 | |
and the hotel fell into immediate decline. | 0:47:20 | 0:47:22 | |
-So, this would have been the drive up to the hotel. -Yeah. | 0:47:26 | 0:47:32 | |
Mangori Felisberto offered to show me around. | 0:47:32 | 0:47:36 | |
Yeah, this was the main entrance. | 0:47:36 | 0:47:39 | |
Then the reception was somewhere here. | 0:47:39 | 0:47:43 | |
Wow! | 0:47:44 | 0:47:46 | |
This is amazing. Absolutely amazing. | 0:47:46 | 0:47:48 | |
Looking to the left and to the right, | 0:47:50 | 0:47:53 | |
you have these grand staircases that sweep upwards. | 0:47:53 | 0:47:56 | |
And there's this amazing sort of atrium here. | 0:47:58 | 0:48:03 | |
It still has a very grand feel about it. | 0:48:03 | 0:48:06 | |
The hotel may have been abandoned by tourists, | 0:48:12 | 0:48:15 | |
but it was clearly far from empty. | 0:48:15 | 0:48:17 | |
In fact, the rooms have become somewhat overcrowded. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:22 | |
CHILDREN BICKER | 0:48:24 | 0:48:27 | |
How many people... | 0:48:27 | 0:48:29 | |
how many people live here? | 0:48:29 | 0:48:32 | |
It's about 3,500. | 0:48:32 | 0:48:34 | |
-3,500 people live here now? -Yeah. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:41 | |
A long civil war followed independence from Portugal | 0:48:47 | 0:48:50 | |
and the hotel became a refugee camp for thousands of Mozambicans. | 0:48:50 | 0:48:54 | |
Since then, poverty has driven many more to find shelter here. | 0:48:54 | 0:48:58 | |
This used to be the swimming pool? | 0:49:09 | 0:49:12 | |
There's a man doing his washing, his laundry, | 0:49:13 | 0:49:18 | |
in what's left of the swimming pool. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:20 | |
There's little in the way of sanitation | 0:49:25 | 0:49:28 | |
and all the residents share one water pump. | 0:49:28 | 0:49:30 | |
Although the conditions within the hotel are pretty bad | 0:49:35 | 0:49:38 | |
this is very much a community. It's like a town within a town, really. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:43 | |
There are committees to organise various aspects of life here. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:49 | |
Oops! | 0:49:49 | 0:49:50 | |
The hotel's residents have even set up a system | 0:49:54 | 0:49:57 | |
of local government with elected leaders. | 0:49:57 | 0:50:00 | |
-Simon. Very nice to meet you, sir. -Joao. | 0:50:00 | 0:50:04 | |
'I met Joao Goncalo, who's the mayor of the hotel.' | 0:50:04 | 0:50:07 | |
How do you keep order and prevent fights breaking out | 0:50:08 | 0:50:12 | |
in a community packed into such a relatively small building? | 0:50:12 | 0:50:17 | |
-TRANSLATION: -If there are problems, the organisers have a meeting, | 0:50:20 | 0:50:23 | |
and then we have a meeting with all the residents. | 0:50:23 | 0:50:27 | |
We sit down and resolve the issue. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:29 | |
We have a head of Social Affairs, who resolves social issues. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:36 | |
We have a group who looks after hygiene. | 0:50:38 | 0:50:42 | |
And we have a security group, | 0:50:44 | 0:50:46 | |
who keep guard at night to keep out intruders. | 0:50:46 | 0:50:48 | |
Mozambique has suffered terribly in recent decades. | 0:50:56 | 0:50:59 | |
It's still desperately poor, but here people are doing what they do | 0:50:59 | 0:51:04 | |
even in the face of adversity - they're getting on with life. | 0:51:04 | 0:51:07 | |
It was time for me to leave the African mainland. | 0:51:14 | 0:51:17 | |
From the Maldives to Mauritius, the Indian Ocean is home | 0:51:17 | 0:51:20 | |
to the most famous holiday islands on earth. | 0:51:20 | 0:51:23 | |
My first taste of island paradise on this journey | 0:51:26 | 0:51:29 | |
was to be exotic and mysterious Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania. | 0:51:29 | 0:51:32 | |
My goodness, look at this! | 0:51:44 | 0:51:45 | |
This is what I think of when I imagine tropical beauty | 0:51:45 | 0:51:50 | |
and the Indian Ocean. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:51 | |
For tourists seeking warm seas and white beaches, | 0:52:01 | 0:52:04 | |
the island of Zanzibar is a huge draw. | 0:52:04 | 0:52:06 | |
For centuries, Zanzibar was a major centre of commerce in the Indian Ocean, | 0:52:19 | 0:52:23 | |
connecting East Africa and the rest of the world. | 0:52:23 | 0:52:27 | |
Jambo! | 0:52:30 | 0:52:31 | |
Merchants travelled here from far and wide to trade in spices and ivory. | 0:52:33 | 0:52:37 | |
Everywhere here you see the influence of the traders | 0:52:46 | 0:52:49 | |
who've been drawn to Zanzibar over the centuries. | 0:52:49 | 0:52:53 | |
There's elements of Portugal, | 0:52:53 | 0:52:55 | |
of the Phoenicians, of the Assyrians, of people from Oman | 0:52:55 | 0:52:59 | |
and the Arabian Peninsula, and of course black Africa as well. | 0:52:59 | 0:53:03 | |
So it's really a melting pot for the entire Indian Ocean. | 0:53:03 | 0:53:06 | |
But Zanzibar has a darker past as well. | 0:53:11 | 0:53:14 | |
It was also the centre of the Indian Ocean slave trade. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:18 | |
Dealers sent expeditions deep into eastern Africa to kidnap men, | 0:53:20 | 0:53:24 | |
women and children, who they brought here to sell on | 0:53:24 | 0:53:27 | |
to the countries of Arabia and India. | 0:53:27 | 0:53:30 | |
A church now stands on the site of the former slave market. | 0:53:30 | 0:53:34 | |
Oh, my goodness! | 0:53:39 | 0:53:40 | |
Oh, my good God. | 0:53:49 | 0:53:50 | |
So, these are the cells where slaves were held. | 0:53:54 | 0:53:58 | |
So, apparently in this room... It's not really much of a room, is it? | 0:54:02 | 0:54:08 | |
But this is where women and children would have been kept. | 0:54:08 | 0:54:12 | |
So anything up to 70, would have been crammed in here. | 0:54:12 | 0:54:16 | |
It's quite difficult to breathe in here even now, | 0:54:18 | 0:54:21 | |
and it's stiflingly hot. | 0:54:21 | 0:54:23 | |
What this must have been like with dozens of terrified human beings in, | 0:54:24 | 0:54:28 | |
I just can't even begin to imagine. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:31 | |
It's an awful, awful place. | 0:54:31 | 0:54:34 | |
Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, | 0:54:36 | 0:54:40 | |
but decades later the Sultan here in Zanzibar was still refusing | 0:54:40 | 0:54:43 | |
to end the slave industry, | 0:54:43 | 0:54:45 | |
so the Royal Navy threatened | 0:54:45 | 0:54:47 | |
to bombard the city to force him to close the slave market. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:50 | |
Britain saw Zanzibar as crucial to its dominance of the Indian Ocean. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:55 | |
They threatened another bombardment in 1896, | 0:54:55 | 0:54:58 | |
when the Sultan's nephew tried to seize power from their ally. | 0:54:58 | 0:55:02 | |
The Brits said to him, clear out, we don't want you here and gave him an ultimatum. | 0:55:02 | 0:55:06 | |
They said, if you're not out by 9am, we're going to turn up and start a war, basically. | 0:55:06 | 0:55:11 | |
The deadline passed and the bombardment began. | 0:55:11 | 0:55:13 | |
Within just a couple of minutes of the bombardment starting, | 0:55:19 | 0:55:22 | |
the palace here was ablaze and, within about 40 minutes, | 0:55:22 | 0:55:26 | |
the Sultan's nephew had fled. | 0:55:26 | 0:55:28 | |
It's officially recorded as the shortest war in history. | 0:55:29 | 0:55:33 | |
The islands of the Indian Ocean have always been tempting targets for world powers, | 0:55:36 | 0:55:41 | |
strategically placed to control the vital trade routes. | 0:55:41 | 0:55:44 | |
It was something I was looking forward to exploring | 0:55:48 | 0:55:51 | |
on the next stages of my trip. | 0:55:51 | 0:55:53 | |
This is the end of the first leg of my journey. | 0:55:59 | 0:56:03 | |
It's been an amazing trip so far, | 0:56:03 | 0:56:05 | |
and I feel I've learned a huge amount, particularly about sharks. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:08 | |
But I've got a lot further to go, | 0:56:08 | 0:56:10 | |
and a lot more to discover about the Indian Ocean. | 0:56:10 | 0:56:13 | |
'Next time, I explore the extraordinary Indian Ocean islands | 0:56:15 | 0:56:20 | |
'of Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles.' | 0:56:20 | 0:56:23 | |
If you're going to try and imagine paradise, that's it. | 0:56:23 | 0:56:28 | |
'I meet the armed forces defending paradise from pirates.' | 0:56:29 | 0:56:33 | |
It's the 21st century | 0:56:33 | 0:56:35 | |
-and you're going after pirates in the Indian Ocean? -Yep. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:38 | |
'And get a unique taste of the Indian Ocean.' | 0:56:38 | 0:56:41 | |
Bat? Yeah, bat. Vampires are not the bat. | 0:56:42 | 0:56:46 |