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The Indian Ocean, home to the world's most exotic islands... | 0:00:07 | 0:00:12 | |
..and beautiful and rare wildlife. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:16 | |
I'm travelling through 16 countries around the edge of this vast ocean | 0:00:19 | 0:00:23 | |
that stretches 6,000 miles from Africa to Australia. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:27 | |
Steeped in history, the Indian Ocean is vital to world trade. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:34 | |
It's a journey of extremes, | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
from stunning islands, | 0:00:38 | 0:00:40 | |
across pirate-infested seas, | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
to remote villages... | 0:00:43 | 0:00:45 | |
Salama. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
..and war-torn lands. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
-GUNSHOT -What was that? | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
This is a journey about much more than just what's under the waves. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:08 | |
It's about the lives of the millions of people... | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
..who live around this, one of our greatest oceans. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:17 | |
On this last leg of my journey, I'm travelling through Indonesia | 0:01:20 | 0:01:24 | |
and down the coast towards my final destination in the southwest of Australia. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:28 | |
In the beautiful waters off Bali, | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
I help to harvest an ocean wonder crop. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
Aaaaah! | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
In Jakarta, I go undercover | 0:01:39 | 0:01:41 | |
to learn more about the disturbing international trade in exotic pets. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:45 | |
You are not happy, are you? Poor things. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
And in the remote wilderness of Western Australia, | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
I have a close encounter with an ancient predator... | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
God, look at those teeth! | 0:01:55 | 0:01:56 | |
Cor! | 0:01:56 | 0:01:58 | |
..before I reach the end of my entire Indian Ocean journey | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
at spectacular Cape Leeuwin. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:04 | |
I'm starting this final part of my Indian Ocean journey here | 0:02:20 | 0:02:24 | |
at the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
This is Aceh, a beautiful region of Indonesia, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
which became known around the world | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
because of one of the biggest natural disasters in modern history. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
On Boxing Day, 2004, a huge earthquake | 0:02:44 | 0:02:49 | |
with the power of more than 20,000 atomic bombs | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
shook the Indian Ocean and triggered a tsunami. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
A giant wave rolled in here and almost wiped this region off the map. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:02 | |
The Indian Ocean tsunami hit the province of Aceh harder than anywhere else. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:09 | |
Almost 170,000 people lost their lives here. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:13 | |
The power of the giant wave tossed boats and even huge ships miles inland. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:18 | |
Some have been left as poignant reminders of the day the wave struck. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:22 | |
We're three miles inland here. Three miles. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:27 | |
I can see the sea in the distance on the horizon | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
and this ship carved its way through the houses | 0:03:30 | 0:03:34 | |
on the way to its resting place here. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:37 | |
But with the help of international aid, Aceh's been rebuilt. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:50 | |
It's once again a thriving centre of trade. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
Aceh juts out into the Indian Ocean, so, almost inevitably, | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
this became a great trading centre. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:09 | |
Merchants would travel from across the seas | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
to come here to buy spices, timber, ivory and gold. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:16 | |
In exchange, those merchants brought their religion here. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:19 | |
This is thought to be where Islam first got a foothold in Indonesia. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
It spread out from this island to the rest of the country | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
and Indonesia is now the most populous Islamic nation on the planet. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
The vast majority of the 250 million people in Indonesia are Muslim. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:38 | |
Aceh is one of the most conservative parts of the country | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
and here they've introduced Islamic or sharia law. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
MAN ISSUES ORDERS | 0:04:48 | 0:04:52 | |
Sharia law means all aspects of life are governed by an Islamic religious code. | 0:05:05 | 0:05:10 | |
This religious police squad is known as the Vice and Virtue Patrol. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:14 | |
So you're kindly going to allow us to come with you | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
on patrol, that's very good of you. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:18 | |
So, we're out on patrol with the squad. There's more vehicles following behind us. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:28 | |
Why do people call you the Vice and Virtue Squad? | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
TRANSLATION: We want the Koran To become a positive force | 0:05:34 | 0:05:37 | |
in people's lives. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:39 | |
We want religious law to govern our country. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
So, where are we heading to first? | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
We're patrolling an area | 0:05:50 | 0:05:51 | |
where we often find unmarried couples cavorting. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
SIMON: The religious law in Aceh says | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
that unmarried couples are not allowed out together without supervision, | 0:06:00 | 0:06:04 | |
and physical contact is out of the question. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
We're stopping already, not sure why. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:13 | |
What's he doing? | 0:06:13 | 0:06:15 | |
As we were driving along, he spotted couples down on the river bank here | 0:06:17 | 0:06:21 | |
and he's leapt off to go and, er... well, catch them, I suppose. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:24 | |
I think they saw him coming. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
So, there's a couple there who are racing off. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:29 | |
TRANSLATION: Yes, when we're on patrol, and we spot people breaking the law, | 0:06:29 | 0:06:33 | |
they just run from us, ashamed. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
So, do you suspect they would be an unmarried couple | 0:06:36 | 0:06:40 | |
who were having some sort of saucy courtship, then? | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
Look, there's more going away, they're racing off there on scooters. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:48 | |
TRANSLATION: Theyy wouldn't bother running away if they were married | 0:06:48 | 0:06:51 | |
or if they were brother and sister from the same family. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:56 | |
But are they really doing something so wrong? | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
Yes, according to Acehnese law, they are. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
SIMON: The Vice and Virtue Squad usually just issue youngsters with warnings. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:09 | |
But for persistent breaches of religious law, the punishments can be severe. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:13 | |
There, there, there! Hello! | 0:07:13 | 0:07:15 | |
There are public canings in Aceh, and religious hardliners | 0:07:18 | 0:07:22 | |
have called for adultery to be punished by death by stoning. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:25 | |
They've raced in there. I presume that...they've spotted somebody doing something quite serious. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:36 | |
So, look, this guy with the long hair, I think, is grassing... | 0:07:38 | 0:07:41 | |
grassing up some teenagers. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:43 | |
It looked like this young couple were in real trouble. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:54 | |
This is very surreal. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:13 | |
Looks like they're leading them away. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
She's being taken away. Does she know what she did? | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
What will happen to her? Where will you take her? | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
Scores and scores of people have come to see | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
this poor couple of kids being taken away. It's, er... | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
pretty much a public humiliation for them, I think it's fair to say. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:45 | |
And they're now being taken away to the religious police HQ. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
From my European perspective, it all seemed very odd and rather sad. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:53 | |
It just feels like in this corner of Indonesia... | 0:08:53 | 0:08:57 | |
..people are being denied some of the basic delights of being | 0:08:58 | 0:09:02 | |
a teenager and a young adult. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
The right to associate with who you want, the right to meet boys or meet girls. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:09 | |
RELIGIOUS CHANTING | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
-Take our life in our hands. You lead. -LAUGHS | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
It was time for me to head on with my guide, Shinta Okta. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:38 | |
-Hello, Shinta. -Hi, Simon. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:42 | |
Shinta's going to be my guide across... well, across Indonesia. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:47 | |
We're not going to visit every island because there are... | 0:09:47 | 0:09:51 | |
How many islands in Indonesia? | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
Almost 17,500. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:56 | |
-We must be accurate about this. -Yeah, yeah. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
No island should be missed. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
All right, but we're not going to be able to visit very many of them, because you were just telling me... | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
How long would it take if you visited an island a day? | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
48 years. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:08 | |
We haven't got that long, but we'll see a bit of the country. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:13 | |
Shinta took me to the fish market in the region's capital, Banda Aceh. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:24 | |
I've tried to visit as many fish markets as I can around the Indian Ocean | 0:10:26 | 0:10:30 | |
because they tell you so much about, not only life around the sea, | 0:10:30 | 0:10:34 | |
but life in it as well - what's happening to life in it. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
The fishermen told me they now have to travel as far as the sea off Burma to fish | 0:10:38 | 0:10:43 | |
because marine life in this part of the Indian Ocean has been severely depleted. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:48 | |
Good God! | 0:10:48 | 0:10:49 | |
He's bringing a ray in. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:52 | |
They've got a shark here. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
I would have just seen this as a frightening fish | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
when I started this journey. Now, seeing it here, | 0:10:58 | 0:11:02 | |
it's like seeing a lion or a tiger on a slab - | 0:11:02 | 0:11:06 | |
apex predator of the seas. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:08 | |
Still with its fins on, but not for long. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:13 | |
Since the start of my Indian Ocean journey, | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
I'd regularly seen local fishermen | 0:11:18 | 0:11:20 | |
pulling sharks out of the ocean and slicing off their fins. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:24 | |
Millions of sharks are taken from our seas every month, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:27 | |
and Indonesia is the major global player in this tragic trade. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:31 | |
Indonesia is the biggest shark-fishing and shark-finning country in the world. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:38 | |
They're the central ingredient in shark fin soup - a Chinese/Asian delicacy. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:44 | |
It's a fairly obscene trade, but... | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
you try telling that to a poor Indonesian fisherman who's trying to feed his family. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:54 | |
It's not just Indonesia's ocean wildlife that's under threat. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:06 | |
Ohh! | 0:12:08 | 0:12:10 | |
-Good to go? -Yeah, ready, sir. | 0:12:11 | 0:12:13 | |
On land too, these islands are home to endangered and beautiful animals, | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
including tigers, rhinos and orang-utans. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
I left Banda Aceh and headed to the neighbouring Indonesian island of Java, | 0:12:26 | 0:12:31 | |
the most heavily populated island on Earth, | 0:12:31 | 0:12:33 | |
in search of one very special creature. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:36 | |
Java was once cloaked in a giant and almost impenetrable rainforest. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:43 | |
But most of this habitat has been annihilated | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
by the growing human population. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:48 | |
Forests have been destroyed in Indonesia faster than anywhere in the world. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:53 | |
Look at that. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:56 | |
We're on the edge of a village now, | 0:12:58 | 0:13:00 | |
just a couple of hundred metres from where people are living, | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
and of course, they chop the trees to give themselves somewhere to farm. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:09 | |
It's not actually that we are close to the village, it's that the village | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
is too close to the forest. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
SIMON LAUGHS Yeah? | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
So, I mean, like, this is a problem of the population here in Java. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:21 | |
Karmele Sanchez is a Spanish veterinary scientist working for the charity | 0:13:21 | 0:13:26 | |
International Animal Rescue. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
She was taking me high into a protected pocket of rainforest | 0:13:28 | 0:13:32 | |
to see one of the rarest and most bizarre animals on the planet. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:35 | |
I think I've sweated about a pint already. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
Up here, Karmele and her team have built an enclosure, | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
where they hang bait to tempt the mysterious animal | 0:13:49 | 0:13:52 | |
down from the forest canopy. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:54 | |
So, now we wait. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:03 | |
As darkness fell, we switched our cameras to night vision. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:10 | |
KARMELE: Yes, there... Now. You see? Now, now, now... | 0:14:21 | 0:14:23 | |
You can see the eyes, yes. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
The Javan slow loris is among the 25 most endangered primates in the world. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:35 | |
In just three generations, numbers have collapsed by a half. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:39 | |
-He's coming down, he's coming down. -He's coming down?! | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
Hello. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
He spreads his weight carefully, look. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
With this wind, look how he can balance his body. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:56 | |
A nocturnal animal, the slow loris is a master tree climber. | 0:14:56 | 0:15:00 | |
Well, he's having a good scratch. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
You must get enormous satisfaction from seeing this. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:17 | |
I mean, this is what it makes everything worth. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:21 | |
For more than five years, Karmele and the team from International Animal Rescue | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
have been working to protect slow lorises. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:38 | |
She knows many of them by name. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:40 | |
Our visitor was called Willis. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
Willis - I think he's decided to come down the tree. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
You've got to see this. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:48 | |
Here he comes! | 0:15:48 | 0:15:50 | |
While Willis scoffed his treat, the scientists caught him. | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
The battery in his tracking collar needed replacing. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
Good lad. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
Then they did a few basic tests to check his health. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
That's a fantastic sign. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:22 | |
Bye-bye, Willis. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:28 | |
Willis is headed back up into the trees. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
It was a real...privilege to see this because it is a remarkable success story. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:43 | |
Around the Indian Ocean, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
forests are being cleared for farming and chopped for timber. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
Animals are losing their habitat and their numbers are collapsing. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:54 | |
But there's another huge threat to creatures like Willis - | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
the illegal global trade in exotic pets. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
So, how many lorises have you actually got here? | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
-90. -Where have they all come from? | 0:17:03 | 0:17:05 | |
They all come from the illegal wildlife trade. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:10 | |
-All of them? -All of them, yeah. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
They often arrive here with horrific injuries. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
Look at this. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:19 | |
This is a toothless loris. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:26 | |
And the reason it doesn't have any teeth there | 0:17:26 | 0:17:28 | |
is because somebody has cut its teeth out. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
Mm-hm, you see. Bad trading. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:34 | |
They're surely among the top ten cutest creatures on the planet. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:41 | |
And therein lies their problem. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
They may look cute, but they're wild animals with a painful and venomous bite, | 0:17:45 | 0:17:49 | |
unique among primates. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
So pet traders cruelly rip out their teeth with pliers before selling them on. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:56 | |
-Who's buying them? -It's normally people from middle class. | 0:17:56 | 0:18:00 | |
They just see them in the markets, they think they are cute | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
and they just buy them, they keep them as pets. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
-That's illegal, isn't it? -It is. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:07 | |
How do they get away with it? | 0:18:07 | 0:18:09 | |
The same as the animals... are not just traders, | 0:18:09 | 0:18:12 | |
they are sometimes big mafias and networks of people, | 0:18:12 | 0:18:17 | |
probably in quite high up positions, you know. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
It's a very profitable business. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:22 | |
It's a business worth up to 10 billion a year globally. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
Wildlife trade is definitely one of the top illegal activities | 0:18:26 | 0:18:32 | |
after drugs and arms. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
12 hours ago, we were up that mountain with Willis the loris. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:41 | |
Now we're down here with millions of people. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
Shinta and I headed towards Jakarta, | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
Indonesia's vast capital city, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
to find out more about this hugely damaging illegal trade in wildlife. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
This is the real Indonesia. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
I expected more seats. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:16 | |
More than 30 million people live in the area around this city. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:21 | |
Most of them seem to be on our train. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
Where the hell are they going? | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
-To the roof. -They're going to the roof? | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
Yeah. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:33 | |
I'll sit on your bag and you stand the whole way. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
What a gentleman, Simon(!) | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
HORN BLARES | 0:19:41 | 0:19:43 | |
Vibrant and exciting. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:49 | |
Jakarta's the centre of the booming Indonesian economy. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:52 | |
But I'd heard about a pet market in the centre of town | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
with a reputation for selling endangered species. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
It's an open street market, but I've been warned that violent criminal gangs control it | 0:20:06 | 0:20:11 | |
and our TV cameras would not be welcome, | 0:20:11 | 0:20:13 | |
so it was time to go undercover with hidden cameras. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:17 | |
My God. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:18 | |
The conditions they're being held in are totally inappropriate for any creature. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:27 | |
You are not happy, are you? | 0:20:29 | 0:20:31 | |
You poor things. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:32 | |
Thousands of creatures are sold here and many of them | 0:20:32 | 0:20:37 | |
are smuggled out of the country. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:38 | |
Among the birds and domestic animals, we saw cages containing long-tailed macaques, | 0:20:38 | 0:20:43 | |
leaf monkeys and even eagles in cramped, unhealthy conditions. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:48 | |
Within a few minutes, we'd spotted slow lorises. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:50 | |
So, this is an endangered slow loris. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:54 | |
It's rare, it's endangered... | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
...and it's for sale by the side of the main road. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:01 | |
500,000? | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
-So, that's less than £50. -Yes. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
£40. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:10 | |
I was told that traders in the area can supply orang-utans and even tigers, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:15 | |
creatures that are on the brink of extinction in parts of Indonesia. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
I think what's really amazing about that situation is those animals are for sale | 0:21:23 | 0:21:28 | |
next to the main road in the centre of the capital city. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
Why is the Indonesian government not doing something to stop it? | 0:21:32 | 0:21:36 | |
It was time to leave Java and head towards the Indian Ocean paradise island of Bali. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:52 | |
But I was bypassing the tourist resorts this area is famous for. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:02 | |
Instead, I took a boat | 0:22:02 | 0:22:04 | |
to the tiny island of Nusa Lembongan. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:06 | |
This place looks amazing. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
You can see there's a few huts here | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
for tourists who make it over to this island from Bali, | 0:22:18 | 0:22:23 | |
but the vast majority of the people here are involved not in tourism | 0:22:23 | 0:22:27 | |
but in a rather different trade. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
I'd come to this far corner of the Indian Ocean | 0:22:30 | 0:22:34 | |
to learn about an unlikely treasure of the seas, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:36 | |
found everywhere, that could have huge implications for all of us, | 0:22:36 | 0:22:40 | |
for how we eat, and for what we use to power our cars and vehicles. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
Simon, this is Wyan. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
Wyan? Simon. Very nice to meet you, sir. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
Wyan Simon and his wife Evelu are farmers. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
But they don't plough the land or tend animals. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
Hello. Simon. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:57 | |
Hello! Do I get a handshake? | 0:22:57 | 0:22:59 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:22:59 | 0:23:00 | |
Do I get a handshake? | 0:23:00 | 0:23:02 | |
Their crop comes out of the Indian Ocean. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:04 | |
Wyan took Shinta and I out to see his farm in the sea. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:19 | |
The water here is amazingly clear. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
It's like we're going over the top of a series of gardens. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:28 | |
There's seaweed, tied onto bits of rope, attached to the sea bed! | 0:23:41 | 0:23:49 | |
It's like an underwater allotment. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:51 | |
Captain! What do we need to do? What work needs to be done that I can help with? | 0:23:53 | 0:23:57 | |
SIMON LAUGHS | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
-OK? -OK, let's go! I'll help. -OK! | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
Wyan and the other islanders here grow edible seaweed, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:23 | |
and it's a pretty simple process. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:27 | |
Seaweed cuttings are tied onto a line of string. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
They grow by using sunlight for energy, | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
and by absorbing nutrients from the sea as food. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:37 | |
This doesn't need lots of land space to grow it, | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
it doesn't need awful artificial fertilisers, | 0:24:47 | 0:24:51 | |
it doesn't need lots of fresh water. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
It just grows in the sea. | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
Seaweed is amazing. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:04 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
Aaaaah! | 0:25:08 | 0:25:10 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:25:11 | 0:25:13 | |
Thank you, Simon. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:17 | |
This seaweed is something of a wonder crop | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
and many experts think we need to be eating a lot more of it | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
because it's so easy to grow and it's a good source of vitamins, | 0:25:24 | 0:25:28 | |
minerals and protein. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:30 | |
Perhaps most excitingly of all, | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
scientists have now worked out how to convert seaweed into ethanol, | 0:25:33 | 0:25:38 | |
which can be used as an alternative to petrol. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
It has...enormous potential. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:46 | |
Seaweed could actually help us to resolve some of our most pressing global issues. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:54 | |
You're already using seaweed extract | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
in dozens of products ranging from ice cream to cheese, | 0:25:57 | 0:26:02 | |
even in your toothpaste. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
The seaweed trade is already worth billions of pounds every year, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
but it's going to get a lot bigger. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
Wyan's seaweed is sold around the world | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
to China, Hong Kong and as far afield as Denmark. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
It's a good business to be in. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:18 | |
TRANSLATION: It's been brilliant since day one. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:24 | |
Now we can pay for our children's clothes, we can eat. We're very happy. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:28 | |
Family's happy, missus is happy, children are being educated. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:34 | |
-Exactly! -Everybody's doing well out of it. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
People are making a great living, not from fishing, | 0:26:46 | 0:26:50 | |
but from farming seaweed. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
Who'd have thought it, eh? | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
Every day, | 0:27:00 | 0:27:01 | |
the people of Nusa Lembongan give thanks | 0:27:01 | 0:27:03 | |
for the prosperity the Indian Ocean brings them. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
This is such a fantastic little story to encounter on our journey. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:15 | |
I've seen so much suffering and so many problems | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
as we've been travelling around the Indian Ocean. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:29 | |
We've visited so many communities that are just about clinging on, | 0:27:29 | 0:27:34 | |
even as the fish stocks they rely on are being wiped out. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
I'm really delighted to have found at least one solution to the problems | 0:27:38 | 0:27:43 | |
facing our oceans, and our world, here, | 0:27:43 | 0:27:45 | |
in this little corner of paradise. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:48 | |
Feels appropriate, somehow. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:50 | |
Whoa! | 0:27:51 | 0:27:52 | |
Magnificent sight! | 0:27:56 | 0:27:58 | |
The Indian Ocean rolling in. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:01 | |
I left Indonesia behind and headed to the last country on my travels, Australia. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:16 | |
My next stop was the Kimberley region of Western Australia. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:20 | |
I was 1,500 miles from the finishing line for my entire Indian Ocean journey. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:24 | |
And I'd arrived somewhere completely spectacular. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:31 | |
The Kimberley is more than three times the size of England | 0:28:31 | 0:28:35 | |
and one of the last remaining true wilderness areas on our planet. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:39 | |
That's where we're headed, down to that beautiful island. | 0:28:41 | 0:28:43 | |
This archipelago is made up of thousands of Indian Ocean islands, | 0:28:45 | 0:28:49 | |
most of them uninhabited. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:51 | |
I'd come to meet a few of the rugged outback types hardy enough to work here. | 0:28:58 | 0:29:04 | |
Bloody hell, Benno, what a place to work! | 0:29:04 | 0:29:06 | |
Pretty amazing, isn't it, mate? | 0:29:06 | 0:29:08 | |
Ben Little and his team are fish farmers. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:14 | |
He told me their cages were packed | 0:29:14 | 0:29:16 | |
with one of Australia's favourite fish, the barramundi - | 0:29:16 | 0:29:18 | |
apparently up to 45,000 per cage. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:22 | |
-There's one, certainly. -There's one. There's definitely more than that! | 0:29:22 | 0:29:25 | |
Oh, I've seen two. | 0:29:25 | 0:29:27 | |
45,000? | 0:29:28 | 0:29:29 | |
-Yeah. -Where the hell are they? | 0:29:29 | 0:29:31 | |
They're in there. When we get feeding, you'll see the fish come up. | 0:29:31 | 0:29:34 | |
MECHANICAL WHIRRING | 0:29:34 | 0:29:37 | |
He's firing the feed! I mean... | 0:29:39 | 0:29:42 | |
Oi, oi! | 0:29:43 | 0:29:45 | |
Mind the camera, sunshine! | 0:29:45 | 0:29:47 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:29:47 | 0:29:48 | |
-He's a cheeky bugger! -Yeah, he's deliberately doing that! | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
These are targeted! | 0:29:51 | 0:29:52 | |
They minimise the impact of their farm on this spectacular corner | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
of the Indian Ocean by monitoring the amount of food pumped into the cages, | 0:29:57 | 0:30:01 | |
reducing waste and pollution. | 0:30:01 | 0:30:03 | |
So it's good for business and for the environment. | 0:30:03 | 0:30:07 | |
We need Benno in here. | 0:30:07 | 0:30:09 | |
You can see a turtle in the water Just here. | 0:30:09 | 0:30:11 | |
-Coming up? Hello! -Keeping our ropes clean. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
-He's nibbling off all the algae. -One thing we don't have to worry about. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:20 | |
-That's great! -Yeah, they love it. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:22 | |
Fish farm and environment working in harmony. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:26 | |
Ah, it's great to see. | 0:30:29 | 0:30:32 | |
But some of the locals | 0:30:34 | 0:30:36 | |
are not so welcome. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:37 | |
The saltwater crocodile, or salty, is the largest croc in the world, | 0:30:39 | 0:30:44 | |
and the most dangerous. | 0:30:44 | 0:30:45 | |
-Just here, is that one there? -Yeah, these are small ones. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:51 | |
-Probably, maybe seven foot. -A small one? | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
Yeah. | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
Often more than five metres long and weighing as much as a ton, | 0:30:56 | 0:30:59 | |
these crocodiles are cunning, fearless and hunt almost anything that moves, | 0:30:59 | 0:31:04 | |
including workers at the fish farm. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:06 | |
At any given point in time, you can see them sitting on the collars of the cages, | 0:31:06 | 0:31:10 | |
like, sitting on the edges. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:11 | |
About two months ago, | 0:31:11 | 0:31:13 | |
I think we had one break through a net while there was a diver in the water. | 0:31:13 | 0:31:17 | |
Needless to say, he got out of the water pretty quick! | 0:31:17 | 0:31:20 | |
Yes, that's a pretty one-sided cage fight, isn't it? | 0:31:20 | 0:31:24 | |
-Should I be standing a bit further back from the edge? -No, I think you'd be fine. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
What do you mean, you THINK? | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
Well, no-one else has been done yet! | 0:31:29 | 0:31:31 | |
Let's just move a little bit away. | 0:31:31 | 0:31:33 | |
It kind of gets to the point where you step off a boat | 0:31:33 | 0:31:36 | |
and you're a bit unsure of where to look. | 0:31:36 | 0:31:38 | |
They tend to pop up out of nowhere and you're like, | 0:31:38 | 0:31:40 | |
you know, "Where did you come from?" | 0:31:40 | 0:31:43 | |
Definitely stalking us, for sure. | 0:31:43 | 0:31:45 | |
Saltwater crocodiles were once hunted to near-extinction, | 0:31:45 | 0:31:49 | |
but conservation efforts | 0:31:49 | 0:31:51 | |
have led to a recovery in their numbers and around here, | 0:31:51 | 0:31:54 | |
they've become a very real threat to the workers on the fish farm. | 0:31:54 | 0:31:58 | |
So, they've called in the croc catcher. | 0:32:02 | 0:32:04 | |
-Morning. Thank you. -Welcome to the Kimberley. | 0:32:06 | 0:32:09 | |
Thank you very much indeed. Marshall? Simon, nice to meet you. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:12 | |
How are you going, mate? | 0:32:12 | 0:32:13 | |
-Hello. Simon, nice to meet you. -Good to meet you, mate. | 0:32:13 | 0:32:15 | |
Mark Jones and his mates have years of experience | 0:32:15 | 0:32:18 | |
working with crocodiles in the Kimberley area. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:20 | |
These are their essential supplies. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:23 | |
Just for breakfast, I imagine! | 0:32:23 | 0:32:25 | |
I'm sure you're quite happy to share, aren't you? | 0:32:25 | 0:32:27 | |
Well... | 0:32:27 | 0:32:29 | |
SIMON LAUGHS | 0:32:29 | 0:32:30 | |
In this camp, they haven't had any crocs walk into their camp...yet. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:38 | |
But certainly in the other camps around the Kimberley, they are known to come in. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:43 | |
Is their concern justified? | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
Well, there's been a lot of people killed by them | 0:32:46 | 0:32:49 | |
and they are, as we say in Australia, as cunning as a toilet rat. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
Previously, they used to shoot the animals and indeed a licence was given here, | 0:32:53 | 0:32:57 | |
but now, they're coming to us and saying, | 0:32:57 | 0:33:00 | |
"Can you remove this animal?" and we do it in a way that saves the animal, | 0:33:00 | 0:33:04 | |
looks after the people here and both animal and human can coexist. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:10 | |
No matter how much many of us might fear them, | 0:33:10 | 0:33:14 | |
crocodiles are a vital part of the ecosystem here | 0:33:14 | 0:33:17 | |
and Mark works to control their numbers without harming them. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:20 | |
So, this is our vessel for the evening. | 0:33:22 | 0:33:25 | |
-Is it big enough? -So, this is luxury! | 0:33:25 | 0:33:28 | |
-Flippin' heck! -LAUGHS | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
I'd agreed to go out on a crocodile hunt at night | 0:33:31 | 0:33:35 | |
and it seemed I was going to be in the thick of the action. | 0:33:35 | 0:33:38 | |
You're right in the front, you're kneeling down, | 0:33:38 | 0:33:40 | |
I'm over the top of you with the harpoon. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:42 | |
You're near me with a weapon and I've got the light. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
So, I'm like the tethered goat. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:47 | |
Your last line of defence, if the crocodile was to come at you, | 0:33:47 | 0:33:51 | |
is to throw the light down its mouth. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:53 | |
Brilliant. You can just stop laughing, mate, all right? | 0:33:53 | 0:33:57 | |
It might work! | 0:33:57 | 0:33:59 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:33:59 | 0:34:00 | |
Anything above six foot is a dangerous animal, | 0:34:00 | 0:34:04 | |
so yeah, we do have to have our wits about us. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:06 | |
As the sun set and we switched our cameras to night vision, | 0:34:12 | 0:34:15 | |
the mood became more serious. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
Can I have everyone's attention, please? | 0:34:18 | 0:34:20 | |
When you find one, Simon, you must keep that spotlight on that animal's eyes. | 0:34:20 | 0:34:24 | |
If you remove it from his eyes, he'll then take flight. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:28 | |
We'll motor into the animal, heading straight into him. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
When we come up close to the animal, we'll cut the engine and we'll glide in, | 0:34:31 | 0:34:34 | |
hit it in the back...in the neck, it doesn't hurt the animal at all. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:38 | |
I'll have the lasso ready. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:39 | |
Once we've got that on and secured, he's ours. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:42 | |
In the darkness, we began searching, hunting the hunters. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:50 | |
Good luck, everybody. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:54 | |
THEY WHISPER | 0:35:05 | 0:35:07 | |
-I don't want to fall in. -Don't fall in! | 0:35:07 | 0:35:09 | |
-Don't fall in! -Rule number one! | 0:35:09 | 0:35:13 | |
-There. -Oh, yeah. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:14 | |
There it is. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:16 | |
-Shh! Shh! Straight ahead. -Straight ahead. Straight ahead. | 0:35:16 | 0:35:20 | |
Mark and the team hunt the crocs by mesmerising them with a bright light. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:24 | |
Then the plan was for us to drift in close enough to attach a line to it | 0:35:24 | 0:35:28 | |
with a harpoon. | 0:35:28 | 0:35:29 | |
We're getting quite close now, aren't we? | 0:35:29 | 0:35:33 | |
Keep on him, Simon. Keep on him. Keep on him. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:40 | |
Keep on him. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:42 | |
Keep on him, keep on him, keep on him. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:45 | |
All right, back off, mate, if you can. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:47 | |
All right. | 0:35:57 | 0:35:58 | |
They can hear the water lapping on the edge of the boat. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:01 | |
They're bloody clever, aren't they? | 0:36:01 | 0:36:03 | |
They've been around people, so they're very cagey. | 0:36:03 | 0:36:07 | |
Let it go. Let go, let go, let go. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:47 | |
Other hand line. Get the other hand line. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:49 | |
All right. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:53 | |
-He's out front. -Here he is. | 0:36:53 | 0:36:55 | |
Just go with it, don't pull too hard. Don't pull too hard. | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
SIGHS | 0:36:58 | 0:37:00 | |
There he is, on the surface there. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:05 | |
He doesn't seem overly concerned by the fact he's got a line in him. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:08 | |
It can't be hurting him because he's not thrashing around or anything. | 0:37:08 | 0:37:12 | |
The harpoon sits just under the tough skin on the back of the salty's neck, | 0:37:12 | 0:37:16 | |
holding it firm, but not harming it. | 0:37:16 | 0:37:19 | |
It's coming up, it's coming up, it's coming up. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:22 | |
-Right here. -There he is, just there! | 0:37:22 | 0:37:24 | |
Whoa! | 0:37:24 | 0:37:25 | |
Now it's just a case of waiting till he gets tired. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
There is a croc at the end of this line. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:32 | |
How big do you think he is, or she? | 0:37:34 | 0:37:36 | |
Eight to eight and a half feet, just under three metres. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:41 | |
What's the most stressful bit? | 0:37:41 | 0:37:43 | |
-This bit. -This bit. It's the most dangerous. | 0:37:43 | 0:37:46 | |
Steady, mate. Just watch the rope with that little death roll. | 0:37:50 | 0:37:55 | |
I don't want to sound grotesque, but an animal this size, | 0:37:55 | 0:37:57 | |
if it grabbed you by the hand and it death rolled you, | 0:37:57 | 0:38:00 | |
it would quite easily roll your arm out of the shoulder socket. | 0:38:00 | 0:38:03 | |
There's a lot of power in an animal this size. | 0:38:03 | 0:38:06 | |
It's getting tired now. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:09 | |
He's gone under. | 0:38:09 | 0:38:11 | |
There we go. Here we go. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
At the ready, there. | 0:38:14 | 0:38:16 | |
It's right in. Oh! | 0:38:20 | 0:38:22 | |
-Hear that clap of the jaws? -I didn't just hear it, I bloody saw it. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:26 | |
Careful, careful, careful, oh! | 0:38:26 | 0:38:28 | |
Right, next rope! | 0:38:28 | 0:38:30 | |
Quick! | 0:38:30 | 0:38:31 | |
God, look at those teeth! | 0:38:36 | 0:38:38 | |
God, it's ferocious! | 0:38:38 | 0:38:40 | |
He's tying himself up, anyway. That's good. | 0:38:49 | 0:38:52 | |
-He's done it for you, hasn't he? -Bring him up! | 0:38:52 | 0:38:56 | |
We're going to pull it in with us. We need to clear the decks. | 0:38:56 | 0:39:00 | |
Yep, deck is pretty clear. | 0:39:00 | 0:39:02 | |
-Right, guys. I'm going to bring him up and over. -I'll hold the torch. | 0:39:02 | 0:39:05 | |
I need the cameras back just a little bit. One, two, three. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
Up and over! | 0:39:08 | 0:39:10 | |
Right, one, two, three, go! | 0:39:10 | 0:39:12 | |
On his back! | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
Good God! | 0:39:19 | 0:39:21 | |
Put a little bit of weight on. | 0:39:21 | 0:39:23 | |
Bloody hell! You just pulled a bloody crocodile into the boat! | 0:39:23 | 0:39:26 | |
It feels like we are gnats on this creature's backside. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:33 | |
You can feel the power within it. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:35 | |
This is like touching Godzilla. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:37 | |
It's completely freaky. | 0:39:37 | 0:39:40 | |
What a beast! | 0:39:40 | 0:39:41 | |
-Good on you too, Simon. -Thanks, mate. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:43 | |
-Pretty good job for your first time, mate! -Thank you. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
Mark Jones runs a renowned wildlife sanctuary down the coast | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
called the Broome Crocodile Park. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:52 | |
The croc will be transferred there, where it could live without posing a risk to humans. | 0:39:52 | 0:39:56 | |
We're going to get Simon to sex the animal. | 0:39:56 | 0:39:58 | |
-OK. -LAUGHS | 0:39:58 | 0:39:59 | |
What we're going to do, Simon, is we're going to roll him over | 0:39:59 | 0:40:02 | |
and expose this animal's vent, or cloaca... | 0:40:02 | 0:40:05 | |
-OK. Right. -..so we can sex it. Right. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:07 | |
If we just expose the belly there, you'll see this vent. | 0:40:07 | 0:40:10 | |
-Can you see it? -Yeah, I see the vent. | 0:40:10 | 0:40:11 | |
OK, grab two of your fingers... | 0:40:11 | 0:40:14 | |
Oh, you're joking me. | 0:40:14 | 0:40:15 | |
..and finger it. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:16 | |
Can you feel a rod or is it just an open cavity? | 0:40:16 | 0:40:19 | |
No, I can feel something poking from the right. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
Let me have a go. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:23 | |
Yep, that's a boy. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:28 | |
-Sorry about that, buddy. -Yeah, erm... | 0:40:28 | 0:40:30 | |
don't hold it against us. | 0:40:30 | 0:40:32 | |
So, this croc is now going to go on a little journey to your sanctuary? | 0:40:32 | 0:40:36 | |
That's right, where he'll live and reproduce. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:38 | |
Have a happy life. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:40 | |
Thanks for letting us come out with you and see this. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:42 | |
It's been a fairly awesome experience. | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
The pleasure's been all ours. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:46 | |
-What happens now? -We go home and we have a beer! | 0:40:46 | 0:40:51 | |
Mark Jones is much more than some modern-day "Crocodile" Dundee. | 0:40:56 | 0:41:00 | |
He's a world expert in crocodile conservation | 0:41:00 | 0:41:03 | |
and a leading light in the campaign to preserve the great wilderness that is the Kimberley. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:07 | |
Back on the mainland, Mark wanted to show me more | 0:41:10 | 0:41:14 | |
of what makes the Kimberley so extraordinary. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
It's easy to forget the size of Australia. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:19 | |
The state of Western Australia on its own is vast. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:23 | |
If it were a country in its own right, it would be one of the ten biggest in the world. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:27 | |
It's 11 times larger than Britain. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:30 | |
I'd seen some amazing and remote places on my long journey | 0:41:34 | 0:41:38 | |
but the Kimberley has the most pristine coastline | 0:41:38 | 0:41:41 | |
in the entire Indian Ocean. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:43 | |
What a view! | 0:41:55 | 0:41:57 | |
LAUGHS | 0:41:57 | 0:41:58 | |
What a place! | 0:42:01 | 0:42:03 | |
This place is absolutely spectacular and completely pristine. | 0:42:05 | 0:42:10 | |
If you sat here all day, you'll see 200 or 300 whales come through with their calves. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:16 | |
We see manta rays regularly coming through here. | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
It's beautiful. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:23 | |
But, like many other areas of Australia, | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
the Kimberley sits on vast reserves of natural energy and mineral resources, | 0:42:28 | 0:42:32 | |
and giant multinational corporations are desperate to start digging them out. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:37 | |
What's being proposed for this stretch of coastline? | 0:42:37 | 0:42:40 | |
The big plan is to actually turn this into a major industrial plant. | 0:42:40 | 0:42:45 | |
The first thing will be a gas plant, but as the gas comes in here, | 0:42:45 | 0:42:49 | |
it can then drive the turbines of all the other industries | 0:42:49 | 0:42:52 | |
and it will grow very quickly. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:54 | |
And we know this because we've seen it in other parts of Australia. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:58 | |
600 kilometres down the road we have Port Hedland, | 0:42:58 | 0:43:01 | |
which is going to be the largest port in the world in 20 years' time, | 0:43:01 | 0:43:05 | |
bigger than Shanghai. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:07 | |
This will be bigger again. | 0:43:07 | 0:43:08 | |
Wouldn't most Australians say, "We want to be rich, | 0:43:08 | 0:43:12 | |
"we want to sell off our resources, it's our right"? | 0:43:12 | 0:43:16 | |
At what cost? China's certainly going to be better off for it, | 0:43:16 | 0:43:19 | |
India are going to be better off for it. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:21 | |
In this country, in 100 years' time, because of its short-sightedness, | 0:43:21 | 0:43:24 | |
we'll be left with a great big hole in the ground | 0:43:24 | 0:43:26 | |
and everybody scratching their heads, | 0:43:26 | 0:43:28 | |
hearing the old stories about these wilderness areas | 0:43:28 | 0:43:30 | |
and not seeing them any more. | 0:43:30 | 0:43:32 | |
This will be completely destroyed | 0:43:32 | 0:43:35 | |
and you will never, ever be able to bring it back. That's it. | 0:43:35 | 0:43:39 | |
Dozens of enormous industrial projects are now planned for the Kimberley. | 0:43:41 | 0:43:45 | |
It seems the insatiable global demand for energy and raw materials knows no limits. | 0:43:45 | 0:43:51 | |
The result here in Australia could be the ruining of a wilderness | 0:43:51 | 0:43:55 | |
of planetary importance. | 0:43:55 | 0:43:56 | |
It's not difficult to see what might lie in wait for the Kimberley. | 0:44:00 | 0:44:04 | |
A few hundred miles down the coast is the Pilbara, | 0:44:04 | 0:44:08 | |
a centre of Australia's amazing resource boom. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
This country is making vast sums | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
from selling off its iron ore, gas and natural wealth. | 0:44:14 | 0:44:17 | |
But of course, it's a messy, destructive business, needing trains, | 0:44:17 | 0:44:22 | |
vast mines, roads, huge ships and towns. | 0:44:22 | 0:44:25 | |
These are some of the longest trains in the world. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:36 | |
This is resources being shipped out, put on ships | 0:44:39 | 0:44:42 | |
and sent off to fuel the economies of China and India | 0:44:42 | 0:44:47 | |
and provide the rest of the world with consumer goods. | 0:44:47 | 0:44:52 | |
Here in the Pilbara region, huge mines have opened up | 0:44:53 | 0:44:58 | |
and the place is being industrialised. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:01 | |
HORN HONKS | 0:45:03 | 0:45:04 | |
They've taken wilderness and they've stripped it of all of its resources, | 0:45:07 | 0:45:12 | |
and people don't want that to happen in the Kimberley as well. | 0:45:12 | 0:45:16 | |
Oh, my God! | 0:45:22 | 0:45:24 | |
Look at this! | 0:45:24 | 0:45:26 | |
Ooh! | 0:45:27 | 0:45:29 | |
The scale of this is quite something, eh? | 0:45:35 | 0:45:38 | |
This is just a tiddler compared to what they're planning in the Kimberley, | 0:45:41 | 0:45:46 | |
and the gas plant they're planning there is just one of dozens of industrial projects | 0:45:46 | 0:45:52 | |
that are being proposed for that currently pristine region. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:56 | |
Using and selling off their natural resources | 0:45:59 | 0:46:02 | |
has brought great prosperity to Australians in recent years, | 0:46:02 | 0:46:07 | |
but the environment pays a heavy price. | 0:46:07 | 0:46:09 | |
It left me wondering how we can ask poor countries around the Indian Ocean | 0:46:11 | 0:46:15 | |
to protect their wildlife and forests | 0:46:15 | 0:46:17 | |
when wealthy Australians are exploiting what they've got. | 0:46:17 | 0:46:21 | |
I was on the home straight now, with the end almost in sight. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:31 | |
I headed south towards the city of Perth | 0:46:33 | 0:46:35 | |
and the finishing point for my entire journey at Cape Leeuwin. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:40 | |
This is glorious, look at it! | 0:46:42 | 0:46:44 | |
SAT-NAV: After 600 metres, cross the roundabout, second exit, then keep left. | 0:46:44 | 0:46:50 | |
You have reached your destination. | 0:46:50 | 0:46:52 | |
Windows up, grab those sunnies and don't let the seagulls steal your chips! | 0:46:52 | 0:46:56 | |
LAUGHS | 0:46:56 | 0:46:58 | |
As I'd circled the Indian Ocean, | 0:46:58 | 0:47:01 | |
I'd been privileged to see some incredible marine wildlife, | 0:47:01 | 0:47:05 | |
from magnificent sharks to giant manta rays. | 0:47:05 | 0:47:08 | |
But for me, one creature symbolises | 0:47:09 | 0:47:12 | |
both the mystery and the majesty of life in our oceans, and finally, | 0:47:12 | 0:47:17 | |
just offshore south of Perth, I was about to get close to it. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
There's at least half a dozen of them in the second wave! | 0:47:20 | 0:47:24 | |
They're actually coming to us, to the wave of the boat. Look at this! | 0:47:28 | 0:47:33 | |
They just cannot resist playing when a boat turns up | 0:47:33 | 0:47:36 | |
and creates a big wave behind! | 0:47:36 | 0:47:39 | |
LAUGHS | 0:47:42 | 0:47:43 | |
These wild bottlenose dolphins | 0:47:45 | 0:47:47 | |
are one of the most familiar creatures in the sea. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:51 | |
Highly intelligent and friendly, they live in groups | 0:47:51 | 0:47:53 | |
of between 6 and 60 animals, called pods. | 0:47:53 | 0:47:56 | |
We've drawn a crowd. | 0:48:00 | 0:48:02 | |
Let's go and say hello. | 0:48:02 | 0:48:03 | |
Dolphins have been closely studied in captivity and we know that, in the wild, | 0:48:18 | 0:48:23 | |
they enjoy human company. | 0:48:23 | 0:48:25 | |
But despite their willingness to approach us, | 0:48:26 | 0:48:29 | |
there's still so much we don't know about their life beneath the waves. | 0:48:29 | 0:48:32 | |
That was so exciting, I actually forgot to come up to breathe! | 0:48:40 | 0:48:44 | |
My lungs started to burst! | 0:48:44 | 0:48:46 | |
We don't fully understand even friendly dolphins | 0:48:53 | 0:48:55 | |
and we're a long way from understanding the rest of the mysterious marine environment. | 0:48:55 | 0:49:00 | |
But one thing my journey had shown me, beyond all doubt, | 0:49:03 | 0:49:06 | |
is that human impact on all our oceans is reaching a critical level. | 0:49:06 | 0:49:11 | |
Out there, | 0:49:16 | 0:49:18 | |
it's a free-for-all. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:19 | |
Nobody's really in charge and our seas are suffering from endless pollution and overfishing. | 0:49:22 | 0:49:29 | |
It's a bit like the Wild West. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:31 | |
So, before I reached the end of my epic journey, | 0:49:33 | 0:49:36 | |
I arranged to meet a world-renowned expert whose research is helping to change our understanding | 0:49:36 | 0:49:41 | |
of the Indian Ocean and our seas globally. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:43 | |
For most people, when they look at the ocean, all they see is the surface | 0:49:44 | 0:49:49 | |
and they have no idea how much lies beneath, | 0:49:49 | 0:49:51 | |
so for us, our research is really about pulling that curtain back, | 0:49:51 | 0:49:55 | |
that barrier, and allowing people to see and scientists to learn | 0:49:55 | 0:50:00 | |
about all the special things that we have. | 0:50:00 | 0:50:02 | |
-So, revealing the deep blue. -Indeed, indeed. | 0:50:02 | 0:50:05 | |
Professor Jessica Meeuwig is the director of the Centre for Marine Futures | 0:50:05 | 0:50:09 | |
at the University of Western Australia. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:12 | |
Really looking forward to this. It's a real opportunity to peer into the depths. | 0:50:12 | 0:50:16 | |
I get excited every time we go out because you never know what you're going to see. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:19 | |
Jessica specialises in marine biodiversity and fisheries ecology. | 0:50:20 | 0:50:25 | |
The Indian Ocean is the least studied of the world's oceans | 0:50:27 | 0:50:30 | |
and also one of the most biodiverse, so it's really important that we get out there and understand it. | 0:50:30 | 0:50:36 | |
One aspect of Jessica's research is using small, waterproof cameras | 0:50:38 | 0:50:42 | |
to document life under the sea | 0:50:42 | 0:50:43 | |
in areas of the Indian Ocean we know little about. | 0:50:43 | 0:50:46 | |
We call it pulling back the blue curtain | 0:50:46 | 0:50:48 | |
because that allows us to actually see below the surface of the ocean. | 0:50:48 | 0:50:51 | |
By people being able to see beneath the surface, | 0:50:51 | 0:50:54 | |
they can get excited, they can really enjoy it, | 0:50:54 | 0:50:57 | |
they can value it, and if they value it, they'll protect it. | 0:50:57 | 0:50:59 | |
This camera system means you're able to see | 0:51:01 | 0:51:03 | |
-what is actually down there. -Out there, and count them. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:06 | |
And because it's hard to sample fish, because they're in the ocean, | 0:51:06 | 0:51:09 | |
we actually don't have that basic information. | 0:51:09 | 0:51:12 | |
The camera's being lowered. | 0:51:17 | 0:51:20 | |
Jessica films at depths of more than 500 metres | 0:51:20 | 0:51:24 | |
to collect crucial research material. | 0:51:24 | 0:51:26 | |
Her team have already recorded more than 5,000 hours of footage. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:30 | |
This is footage from other cameras you've dropped down, | 0:51:30 | 0:51:35 | |
right on the floor of the ocean. | 0:51:35 | 0:51:38 | |
This is what gets me excited about being a scientist, | 0:51:38 | 0:51:41 | |
when I get to actually watch these things unfolding before my eyes. | 0:51:41 | 0:51:44 | |
So, it basically films on the sea bed for an hour | 0:51:44 | 0:51:48 | |
and we take the videos back to our lab | 0:51:48 | 0:51:50 | |
and we can figure out what species are out there, | 0:51:50 | 0:51:53 | |
how many of them there are and, most importantly, how big they are, | 0:51:53 | 0:51:56 | |
because one of the first signs of overfishing is when fish get smaller. | 0:51:56 | 0:51:59 | |
I was finishing my Indian Ocean journey | 0:52:01 | 0:52:04 | |
next to one of the most important areas of ocean on the planet. | 0:52:04 | 0:52:07 | |
It's now clear the sea here has greater levels of biodiversity | 0:52:08 | 0:52:12 | |
than even the Great Barrier Reef. | 0:52:12 | 0:52:14 | |
Almost every week, new species are being discovered. | 0:52:14 | 0:52:17 | |
Most of them are found nowhere else on Earth, | 0:52:17 | 0:52:20 | |
but less than 1% of the sea in this area is protected. | 0:52:20 | 0:52:24 | |
Around the planet, we're witnessing a collapse of marine life. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:30 | |
Two-thirds of the world's coral reefs are dead or at risk | 0:52:30 | 0:52:34 | |
and it's estimated up to 90% of the world's large fish have been annihilated. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:39 | |
If we don't change our behaviour, we'll be left with lifeless oceans. | 0:52:39 | 0:52:43 | |
Something that's really amazed me on this journey | 0:52:43 | 0:52:45 | |
is the almost cavalier way we are fishing the oceans to death. | 0:52:45 | 0:52:52 | |
That's how it's been described to me by several people I've met. | 0:52:52 | 0:52:56 | |
Do you think that's a fair description, and how is this happening? | 0:52:56 | 0:53:00 | |
Well, we're effectively emptying the oceans of fish. | 0:53:00 | 0:53:04 | |
We've got industrial-scale fleets | 0:53:04 | 0:53:06 | |
that have nets that are bigger than, you know, airplanes. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:11 | |
We drag these heavy metal things across the sea bed, | 0:53:11 | 0:53:15 | |
basically clear-felling everything in their way. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:18 | |
Can you imagine if we dragged something like that through a forest, | 0:53:18 | 0:53:21 | |
knocked down all the trees, took out all the birds and animals? | 0:53:21 | 0:53:23 | |
That's what we're doing to the ocean. | 0:53:23 | 0:53:25 | |
I mean, the fish have nowhere to hide. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:27 | |
We need to allow our fish stocks to recover | 0:53:29 | 0:53:32 | |
and that means implementing sanctuary zones | 0:53:32 | 0:53:34 | |
or national parks in the ocean. | 0:53:34 | 0:53:37 | |
We need some areas where the fish can be left alone to grow big, old and fat | 0:53:37 | 0:53:43 | |
and produce lots of more fish. | 0:53:43 | 0:53:45 | |
Is that one of the key solutions, then? | 0:53:45 | 0:53:48 | |
Absolutely, and Australia's actually at the forefront of this. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:51 | |
It's developing a system of national parks around the entire continent | 0:53:51 | 0:53:55 | |
and what's really critical in that is that it includes national parks | 0:53:55 | 0:54:00 | |
where you can't go fishing and you can't drill for oil and gas. | 0:54:00 | 0:54:03 | |
Protected marine parks where fishing is banned | 0:54:05 | 0:54:09 | |
ensure that fish have a place to breed. | 0:54:09 | 0:54:11 | |
And that means their numbers can recover from overfishing. | 0:54:11 | 0:54:15 | |
It's an idea that has overwhelming public support. | 0:54:15 | 0:54:18 | |
70% of West Australians want to see strong national parks in the ocean. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:24 | |
Public opinion, at least here in Australia, wants it, | 0:54:24 | 0:54:27 | |
but how do you persuade people off the... | 0:54:27 | 0:54:29 | |
desperately poor people on the coast of Mozambique, | 0:54:29 | 0:54:31 | |
or in Madagascar or off Bangladesh, | 0:54:31 | 0:54:34 | |
to accept national parks when they're struggling to survive? | 0:54:34 | 0:54:38 | |
Actually, in some countries, like the Philippines, | 0:54:38 | 0:54:40 | |
they have been willing to put aside significant areas | 0:54:40 | 0:54:43 | |
as sanctuary zones, where they don't fish, | 0:54:43 | 0:54:47 | |
and they're seeing that the fish numbers are increasing and coming back and spilling over, | 0:54:47 | 0:54:51 | |
so in poor countries, | 0:54:51 | 0:54:53 | |
we've actually seen some of the biggest successes. | 0:54:53 | 0:54:55 | |
That's quite... That's quite hopeful. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:57 | |
If they can do it, there's no excuse why Australia, Britain, America, Europe, can't as well, surely? | 0:54:57 | 0:55:04 | |
Absolutely. | 0:55:04 | 0:55:05 | |
We're increasing our understanding all the time | 0:55:05 | 0:55:08 | |
of how the marine environment works, | 0:55:08 | 0:55:10 | |
so no, I'm totally optimistic, but we do have to act now. | 0:55:10 | 0:55:13 | |
Now I hear it, the answer seems blindingly obvious. | 0:55:16 | 0:55:21 | |
We have national parks on land, of course we should have them in the sea as well. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:28 | |
They're not a silver bullet. It's not the single solution that's going to protect the seas, | 0:55:29 | 0:55:35 | |
but it is part of the solution, it is part of the answer. | 0:55:35 | 0:55:39 | |
We have got to protect life in our oceans, and national parks in the sea, | 0:55:39 | 0:55:44 | |
or marine sanctuaries, are part of the solution. | 0:55:44 | 0:55:48 | |
Here it comes! | 0:55:50 | 0:55:51 | |
Yup. | 0:55:53 | 0:55:55 | |
My journey had also convinced me | 0:55:55 | 0:55:57 | |
that we need more global co-operation to police the high seas, | 0:55:57 | 0:56:01 | |
the millions of square miles of international waters | 0:56:01 | 0:56:04 | |
that are currently being fished relentlessly. | 0:56:04 | 0:56:08 | |
The Indian Ocean is a spectacular region of our world. | 0:56:12 | 0:56:15 | |
Hundreds of millions of people rely on it to survive. | 0:56:16 | 0:56:20 | |
Preserving and protecting it is vital for the future of us all. | 0:56:20 | 0:56:24 | |
After months of travelling by land, air and sea, | 0:56:36 | 0:56:40 | |
I was finally nearing the end of my journey. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:43 | |
Cape Leeuwin is the point where Australians say the Indian Ocean ends. | 0:56:45 | 0:56:49 | |
My goodness. | 0:56:51 | 0:56:53 | |
That's the ending. | 0:56:55 | 0:56:57 | |
I've got a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:02 | |
Look! "Two Oceans Meet. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:17 | |
"Cape Leeuwin marks the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean." | 0:57:17 | 0:57:21 | |
Indian Ocean to the right, Southern Ocean to the left. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:24 | |
This has been my most exotic and extreme adventure. | 0:57:29 | 0:57:33 | |
And it ends just down here. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:37 | |
I've gone from the horrors of the front line in Mogadishu in Somalia | 0:57:41 | 0:57:46 | |
to the glory of the Maldives and the Seychelles. | 0:57:46 | 0:57:50 | |
I've been to 16 countries. | 0:57:50 | 0:57:53 | |
This journey has really taught me there's so much more to the Indian Ocean | 0:57:53 | 0:57:57 | |
than just glorious, gorgeous holiday islands. | 0:57:57 | 0:58:00 | |
It's a vast, tantalising, historical and absolutely vital part of the planet. | 0:58:01 | 0:58:07 | |
This is it! | 0:58:11 | 0:58:12 | |
This is the end. | 0:58:12 | 0:58:14 | |
The end of my journey. | 0:58:14 | 0:58:16 |