Scientists race to save an underwater paradise from big oil | Vamizi: Cradle of Coral | Full Film

thank you [Music] off the coast of Africa there's an oasis an ancient Eden where nature thrives Rich equatorial currents sweep across the Indian Ocean and meet the African continent here bringing food and life supporting some of the world's richest coral reefs dense with tropical adaptations endless schools of fish creatures small and large teeming cauldron of life [Music] [Music] however even in this remote corner of the world changes to the climate and oceans are beginning to have impact and man's need for food and fuel is putting pressure on this delicate Realm but a unique partnership is fighting to make sure that that doesn't happen local fishermen and conservationists are working together to find a way to preserve and protect this thriving ecosystem for generations to come and it's changing people's lives for the better [Music] foreign the east coast of Africa is legendary for its abundant schools of fish beautiful beaches magnificent coral reefs and a great diversity of marine animals whales Dolphins Turtles and sharks but in too many places this abundance is gone from Somalia to South Africa overfishing has taken its toll in the last 25 years but the island of amisi and the reefs that surround it have become a refuge and Sanctuary for thousands of species a wild Place relatively Untouched by the hand of man vermees is part of the karimbas archipelago a jewel-like chain around 30 Coral Islands just off the coast of Mozambique stretching some 400 kilometers North to the border with Tanzania and vimizi is one of the northernmost Islands at just 12 kilometers long and two kilometers at its widest point it's also the largest island in the chain with long untouched beaches Mangrove lined lagoons and Rich Blue Waters it really looks like paradise its relative isolation from Mainland Mozambique has preserved its wild nature and attracts unique species like humpback whales they travel thousands of miles from Antarctica to give birth and shelter their calves in these warm protected Waters they are joined by green sea turtles who travel up and down Africa's Coast to seek out these beaches to lay their eggs alongside them more than 400 species of fish live on the sprawling reefs endangered gray reef sharks being one of many who inhabit these reefs and deep Canyons man has had a presence in Mozambique in its islands for hundreds even thousands of years Swahili and Arab traders sail their Dows here seeking gold palm oil Ivory and slaves explore Vasco da Gama dropped anger in 1498 opening Mozambique up for European Commerce and establishing it as a colony of Portugal today Mozambique is a country emerging from Decades of war and heavy corruption which left the economy and the people devastated but all that is changing one of the largest natural gas finds in recent history has been discovered off the coast of Mozambique and might bring billions of dollars into the country in the next 20 years it is turning sleepy Villages into boom towns [Music] thriving coral reef systems like vemisi are directly in the path of the deep sea Drilling and the threat is loud and clear well it's right here a team of scientists in conservationists from all over the world are here working with the local communities to protect the mizi while the ecosystem is still healthy and strong we can't smooth the eggs too much so have to be as gentle as possible no I couldn't get there I had already been down for a minute in a bit I start swimming I'm going I'm not going anywhere did you hear them down there Tessa hemson has been scuba diving and free diving on the mises Reeves for years so she has a deep knowledge and understanding about how these reefs function foreign this place is extremely important to me because growing up in Africa I'm very passionate about the African condition they're incredibly big challenges in this region people need to be fed and reefs are declining at a rapid rate first step for Tesla and the rest of the team is to gather information about the apex predators in this area the research that's that I'm doing around vermeesi is just basically trying to find out where it is these these sharks that we have here are going how they're using our areas and with that knowledge then try to construct a conservation um plan that's actually going to effectively conserve them or give them a really good shot at maintaining their population in order to track their movements on the Reeves Tessa wants to place tags on several sharks once attached these tags will send out a signal telling her where the Sharks go how deep and how long they stay there so the scientists will know exactly where to put the boundaries for Neptune's arm a new Marine Park but placing a tag on a moving shark is no easy task so Tessa is teaming up with a partner who brings special skills to the business of shark tagging basically I was brought in to tag the gray reef sharks using modified spear guns we're doing it on a single breath of air freediving William winrum is a world champion freediver like the famous Japanese Pearl divers he Dives without scuba gear using only one single breath of air and he Dives deep achieving depths of 150 meters and can stay underwater for as long as eight minutes a few years ago he started using his skills to support ocean conservation using our breath hold skills and our ability to stalk and Hunt underwater to sneak up on the animals to place the tags it has proven in 90 percent of cases the most effective way good morning good William is anxious to get a first look at vermise's Famous reefs and the Sharks they'll be tagging we're good we got everything yeah Carl's have created this entire Island and they the reason that any of the structure around us exists so without the corals you don't have homes for fish you don't have homes or crabs you don't have homes for bigger fish that eat the little fish so the entire ecosystem absolutely depends on those corals being there the islands of the karimbas were once part of an ancient Great Barrier Reef that protected this coastline over millions of years Continental uplift and receding ocean levels exposed parts of the reef creating the islands that we see today just below these Crystal Blue Waters they are surrounded by vast magical Gardens of coral spreading out over a hundred kilometers [Music] David obura is a renowned specialist on coral reefs he's director at cordio a program dedicated to the study of coral reefs in this region Coastline in Mozambique than burmesi Island it's special in many ways and we're only really discovering those now in terms of what it means for coral reefs and it's clear that this is the highest diversity region in the whole West Indian Ocean here in the northern Mozambique Channel you have these huge circular currents and Eddies that set up and the way they interact with the coastline they create this really complex islands and Banks and I think that's one of the reasons why you just have so much abundant Reef life over here and so much vibrancy obura and other scientists believe these reefs may be the Cradle of coral what abura calls a mother Reef her mother reef is a sorcery for other reefs around it so you have the reproduction of the corals and the fish and other species on the reef gets transported to other places adjacent on the coastline it's very likely that burmizi is that David is diving several Reef sites around vimizi taking samples and identifying different species of coral his investigation will reveal much about the overall health of the reefs and how well they're able to respond to environmental threats like warming ocean temperatures and pollution especially during El Nino years corals reproduce through spawning a key indicator in David's research is an event called the kitakulu a coral mass spawning usually tied to the full moon during the Spring Equinox and corals are hermaphrodites they have both male and female sex organs during the mass spawning the individual Coral organisms simultaneously release their eggs and sperm in an explosion of life the fertilized eggs now larvae attached to hard surfaces below the water and eventually grow into new corals the release of the eggs attract many fish a mass bonding is very rare and occurs in only a few places in the world in fact Burmese is the only Reef in all of Africa where it has been observed if the mass spawning happens now it will mean that vermise's reefs are strong and continuing to grow which is vital for this region and for the overall health of coral reefs everywhere Tess and William are targeting the most spectacular part of the reef Neptune's Arm about a 40-minute boat ride from them easy it is rated one of the best dive sites in the world but the currents here can be strong wow that is ripping it looks like it Ebbs and flows I mean now it's kind of like in the bed but there's still this big pushing up upwelling Circles well we need to get in and check it out yeah they have entered one of the richest ecosystems in the world a marine Wonderland a rugged landscape of mountains canyons and valleys corals tumble down a thousand meter sheer wall and the upwelling of cold water from the deep helps keep the coral healthy and the fish population prospering we have what's called a mammalian diving reflex it's the same reflex as whales dolphins sea lions have it's just not quite as pronounced so when you hold your breath put your face in the water your heart rate's lows when you start to dive down your body shunts blood out of the arms and legs and prioritizes the Heart the lungs and the Brain safely prolong your time underwater so it's almost like we're meant to be in the sea just having seen a whole bunch of other reefs in the last two years that I've been studying and traveling quite a lot is coming back here you just realize what a unique spot this is the number of really big Predator tree fish on the reef the diversity of fish and how close you can get to them it really stands out for me now even more than before just how unique that is it's one of the most pristine remaining reefs that actually exist along this coastline Tessa is on the lookout for the top dogs in this food chain sharks although there are some Hammerhead and tiger sharks in the area the most common sharks seen on these reefs is the gray reef shark [Music] this medium-sized shark is typically about two meters long with a splash of white on the tip of its torso Fin and dark tips on all the others [Music] gray reef sharks are very social and are known to hunt in packs their favorite prey the schools of fish that live in and around the corn [Music] ER what I have definitely noticed is the drop in the number of sharks from the time when I first came here to now sharks are in trouble around the world scientists estimate that over 100 000 sharks are killed every day we have lost more than 90 percent of the world's sharks in just the last few decades due to overfishing in fact this is the last surviving gray reef shark population on mozambique's Coast and sharks don't bounce back quickly gray reef sharks produce pups only every other year Tessa believes that the rich Reeves of amisi may be the most important Nursery in East Africa for them we've had a couple of years when we've had little pups there and that's rare to find a site that sharks are using like that breeding science like that and Nursery science like that are rare and we get tiny little things I mean they're my new they're so cute they're like these little tadpoles and super curious and investigative not ferocious at all a site like that is key for for these populations sharks and other sea creatures meet up on the reefs daily to get cleaned and groomed small fish and shrimp queue up and pick patiently on the larger animals removing parasites dead skin and bacteria that accumulate overnight in return these small cleaners are off the menu no hunting and eating the service staff even though there used to be many more sharks here there is a resident pack left Tessa suspects that they're just swimming and hunting deep which is exactly what she hopes to confirm with the data from the tags but today again the currents are running strong Taz and William decide to return to home base and plan their tagging strategy from when you got out of it yeah okay crap closer to vamisi David abure is checking the reefs for a sign of stress or damage he has so far identified over 300 species of coral growing here the waters around vermisi islands are extra rich and the reason is because the energy and these circular currents that it is it creates a lot of activity in the water and productivity for the phytoplankton and the Plankton and so on but also what these Eddies do is they reach down and they touch the bottom they go down the continental slope and they pull up nutrients and sediments from the ocean floor and deliver it to the surface and that creates a huge richness for life in the shallows Carl's can grow to centuries old and this is one of the most stable tectonic Continental coastlines in the world it's been like this for 150 million years or more in that time so much change has happened elsewhere in the dinosaurs have gone extinct and now we have a lot of coral species being formed in the Indonesian region and they're coming across in the ocean currents from there and I think they're mixing with this older Fauna of corals from 30 million years ago and it seems the northern Mozambique Channel really is a place where all these species can survive but most coral reefs are not so lucky reefs around the world are experiencing massive die-offs under stress from warming oceans pollution or even the loss of too many fish Coral expels the algae that gives its beautiful colors resulting in bleaching Reeves can recover but many die and David knows that this is a biological hot spot that is completely unique and must be kept alive now when you see the numbers of increasing percentage of reefs are threatened a decreasing percentage are in really good health it's because we're adding One impact after another fishing pollution climate change and they don't have enough time to recover from one before the next one happens progressively coral reefs are increasingly threatened around the world this is an increasingly common sight what used to be colorful and mind-bogglingly Rich an equilibrium of life and the life support system for Humanity has now turned into an underwater Wasteland coral reefs are some of the oldest ecosystems on Earth and crucial to the stability of the planet they are sometimes called the rainforests of the ocean because they not only provide a home for thousands of species they also protect our coastlines from erosion and slow global warming by pulling carbon dioxide out of the air in fact seagrass beds and mangroves also help sequester carbon from the atmosphere it's all connected although a coral reef looks like it's made up of rocks and plants it is actually a complex structure called composed entirely of millions of tiny animals called Coral polyps the Stony corals form a hard skeleton of calcium carbonate when they die their skeletons remain and new polyps attached to them and grow soon they have created virtual underwater city this is prime ocean real estate coral reefs make up less than one percent of ocean habitat yet 25 percent of marine life lives here like the blue spotted Stingray or the Napoleon Wrasse high on the iucn red list of threatened species Garden eels [Music] were allard's clownfish hiding out in the Anemones and a spotted greasy grouper that watches for predators and prey on the Sandy Bottom nearby a juvenile blue Razor Rass mimics a bit of debris ING with a gentle surge some residents actually chew on their home the rare bump at parrotfish Rams its head into the reef breaking up the polyps for easy snacking although they cannot metabolize the coral so they discharge it a single bumpet can consume over five tons of coral in just one year which results in about 100 kilos of sand scientists say that these fish are responsible for about 70 percent of all the sand on the tropical beaches another great personality on these reefs is the one the locals have dubbed nuisance it's not dangerous just big curious enough for sporting 11 spines down its back and weighing in over 100 kilos the potato grouper can startle even the most experienced diver providing Exquisite color in the dark blue or Oriental sweet lips humpback Snappers and schooling Banner fish the lionfish whose venomous spines can puncture and deliver newer toxins battalions of neon fusliers and hundreds of others tucked deep inside the reef are some of the stranger inhabitants raise your tooth black spotted and giant moray eels colorful nudibranchs graceful creatures with extraordinary adaptations but the corals themselves offer up a stunning variety of shapes and colors from the Regal Staghorn and table corals which are building blocks of the reef to showy varieties like Galaxy Coral fan coral and cabbage Coral even in the world of medicine these reefs are of extraordinary importance because the diversity among corals is equally amazing on a chemical level this is one of our most valuable tools to develop new drugs for the future the local fishing Council composed of fishermen and villagers helped protect the community-run Marine sanctuary regular patrols conducted by the local Fisheries Council intercept fishermen and confiscate their fishing gear when they find them fishing illegally and on these islands Turtles and their eggs have also been a key source of food for Islanders my primary area of work in bemisi are the sea turtles we have green turtles nesting on the island and we've been monitoring them for over 10 years now on a daily basis and we have hawksbill feeding on the reefs around the island which we will start to monitor soon about 1500 people live in three villages on vamisi or located on the Eastern tip of the island they are called the people of the Coast or Moana people life is traditional here most people make a living by catching fish from their Dugout canoes or small dows there are a few small gardens but crops are limited because there's no fresh water on the island every drop the community uses must be brought in Daily by boat from the mainland in 2006 fishermen from Tanzania and other Mozambique provinces began to fish the rich Waters of the mises reefs alarmed that their fish dogs would be depleted the local Fisheries Council declared a three kilometer no fishing Zone around vimizi and people are also very engaged in Turtle conservation yeah so is that what that is sea turtles have very amazing life cycles from being little hatch things born on the beach they end up in the sea and they swim for days until they reach deep Waters and hide in algae beds well they will stay for a few years until they grow then they will move to their feeding habitats for a few decades it takes two or three decades to reach sexual maturity after which they will go back to the beaches where they were born to mates and nest and to start the cycle all over again and that's where the local communities come in to help locate Monitor and protect the nests so the hatchlings have a chance to make it to the Sea we started by working with the communities and seeing how the population was growing and they themselves became the biggest Protectors of sea turtles and still to this day they will tell you how important it is to keep the turtles around and they are the ones that love them the most foreign [Music] each year humpback whales set off one of the longest migrations in the world traveling thousands of miles from The Frigid Waters of Antarctica to come here to the protected bays and lagoons of the Mozambique channel to breed and give birth averaging 50 meters long and weighing anywhere from 25 to 40 tons these Giants of the deep were hunted to near Extinction before International whaling bands went into place in the 60s now their numbers are slowly on the rise they can frequently be seen here drifting on the surface and resting so we're gonna get another surface ring Melinda Ragdoll is a marine biologist with a wildlife conservation Society in New York specializing in Wales she's come here to find out more about the health and migrations of the humpbacks in these tropical lagoons calves need more water they they don't really want to be born down in Antarctica where they might have Cool Waters they don't have a lot of reserves obviously fat stores themselves so they come and give birth up here jalika in teca a research from Universidad lurio in Pemba keeps a data log on all sightings and contacts it's clear the whales are coming here in big numbers by taking small skin biopsies the team can learn about their overall health where they're going and what draws them to these calm lagoons Melinda has brought an old technology to her high-tech work crossbow fitted with a small Dart that's that strikes the whale below its dorsal fin and extracts a small skin sample before falling into the water it's about a centimeter plug taken out from the whale and it's a you know it's a massive animal usually up to 15 meters so I think it's more of a mosquito bite Melinda is concerned that the whales may be the first to feel the impact from the deep sea drilling for gas loud noise in the water can shatter their peaceful world [Music] there's a lot of noise generated from oil and gas activities strandings that have been loosely associated at least with potential large sources of noise there's kind of two effects it can have it can have a physiological effect and harm them by damaging their hearing or it can have this social effect where it's affecting how they can communicate and carry out their day-to-day lives and important activities that are really critical to their survival I think it is a mother and calf 500 meters Leslie they're very quiet the car flying across her Rostrum careful careful okay backpack neutral neutral let's get the dot huh it's fantastic we've really seen so many whales here a lot of mothers and calves whales that have just stayed in this Bay over multiple days and really shows us that this is a unique area it's it's obviously really good habitat for the whales whales are continuing to arrive and Melinda's confidence she'll be able to get good samples that will tell the tale of where these whales are going and how to protect them hmm [Music] [Music] the full moon is a sign that the kitakulu the coral mass spawning may happen soon but it's a secret affair occurring only at night and no one knows exactly what triggers it ten minutes after Sundown the daytime fish have scurred to shelter and the nighttime carnivores come out to feed and breed lionfish scorpion fish moray eels sharks and others take the night shift some fish change color darkening to camouflage themselves others change their entire bodies like this dog face puffer fish which becomes an unappetizing ball of spikes when threatened thank you most tucked themselves into crevices in The Reef to rest and to avoid to become the night's snack because the nocturnal Hunters are on the prowl some have bigger eyes to absorb as much light as possible as they watch and wait for prey this scorpion fish makes itself look like part of the reef an effective Ambush predator sharks use their Keen sense of smell and their sensitive Electro receptors just below their skin to detect their targets some creatures team up to catch dinner for corals finding the next meal is a little easier without leaving the comfort of home they extend their tentacles and feed on the night's Plankton Feast as it drifts down from the surface but even as the light goes out other lights begin to wink on as some of the reef animals begin to Glow brightly this Effect called bioluminescence is a chemical process similar to what happens in a glow stick there are many likely reasons for this strategy scaring or alerting Predators finding a mate or even feeding [Music] to the human eye it resembles neon fireworks but with the first race of sun creatures of the night scuttled back into their hiding places and the day begins again the stakes are high and tezon William are anxious to start tagging sharks at net so tiger these talks we have an amazing opportunity at the moment with William winraham and he's got a fantastic skill using a spear gun implants a tag just next to the dorsal fin of the sharks so he tags it without having to catch the shark without having to bring them to the surface we can avoid all that stress and and the regular taking process where we'd normally have to exhaust a shark to get it up to the surface and tag it so he just Dives down gets close enough to the Sharks and then takes them so you want to take that off my hands are wet once the tag is in place on the dorsal fin of the shark it will start sending out the signal which is picked up by receivers placed throughout the reefs scientists will be able to track where the shark goes and better understand Its Behavior foreign the currents are still running strong and since the shark population in the entire Western Union ocean is diminishing sharks are harder now to find and approach than ever Tess and William decide to use scuba gear today allowing the maximum time underwater to find and tag a shark they descend into the canyon Fortress of Neptune's arm and begin their search [Music] Tess and William know that the Sharks often hang out deep during the day but gray reef sharks rely on RAM ventilation water forced over their gills to get air that means that they must swim constantly in order to breathe they're hoping that a few hungry or curious sharks will venture Into the shallower Depths today foreign of Hide and Seek [Music] and then suddenly it's done they have their first tag that was an awesome session yeah it was great it worked it was amazing when we got in I couldn't see anything you know I knew where the boat had gone the visibility was like maybe a meter and a half and then I lost you and I was like where'd you go you were above me because I got in and I emptied the thing I was like the team is elated they've managed to collect data on two of the largest species here the gray reef shark and the humpback whale foreign Falls there's more good news fishermen are reporting that they're seeing the first release of the coral spawning the kitakulu has begun this unique event is rarely seen and Almost Never filmed no one knows how the corals coordinate but scientists believe that they may release a chemical which allows them to smell each other spawning whatever the secret is it has worked tonight the massive release of eggs and sperm resembles an underwater snowstorm ocean currents will spread the material over a broad area encouraging healthy genetic mixing and the sheer volume means that a good percentage of the new larvae Will Survive the night's predators vamisi is one of only a handful coral reefs in the entire world where Mass spawning occurs it confirms that the reefs are healthy and can continue to act as a mother Reef locally and globally it's very possible if this is the only place that happens then for sure those Coral Lobby are seeding other reefs all over the East African region and that's unheard of in East Africa [Music] the corals aren't the only creatures active at night little turtle hatchlings poke their snouts out of their shells and struggled toward the big sea these babies are the next generation of green sea turtles just a few of the 6 000 born on the mizi this year they face a tough journey and worldwide only about one in a thousand of these young Turtles survive to adulthood but the conservation team working with the Villagers are helping them beat the odds so they can come back here in 30 to 40 years and lay their eggs in safety this little guy goes down to the Sea and there's this old man that comes down for his morning walk as well and there was a storm the night before and all these starfish have been washed up on the beach and the little girls walking along and she's picking up the starfish and throwing them back in the sea the old man eventually catches up with her and says to you know little girl what are you doing there are thousands of starfish on the street you're never going to make a difference and she picks up the starfish and throws it back in the sea and says for that starfish I made a difference and that's it their mission has been successful but it's just one chapter in a long-term commitment [Music] vermisi is really an island of Hope going diving here and seeing the health of the corals after having some of them being impacted by global warming in one place unimpacted in others they are really rebounding back like I haven't seen in many other places the reefs in this region are a real hope for the rest of the West Indian Ocean in fact the gas industry is just taking off projections are that the reserve below the sea floor holds three trillion cubic meters of gas making Mozambique a major player in the global market the economy and the population are booming working together the local fishing Council and the conservation team aim to make sure that growth happens in a sustainable way new data is coming in from the shark and whale studies giving the team fresh information about what these animals need to survive and thrive here the coral reefs have been here for millions of years long before man walked the Earth protecting them preserving their beauty is a crucial investment towards a sustainable future that impacts not only this region but every place and every living thing on this planet from London to Mumbai to Buenos Aires if the community together with the conservation team can find a way to balance the needs of nature and the needs of man they hope to keep the reefs strong and flourishing for generations to come my four-year-old son he wants to dive and Surf and enjoy the sea the way I do I hope that I can help make it so that it's as beautiful then as it is now it will be the legacy of Our Generation the greatest challenge in human history save the Earth and thereby save ourselves what can we keep and what will we lose the place to begin is everywhere the time to begin is now good morning [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Journeyman Pictures

Views: 20,426

Keywords: Journeyman, Journeyman Pictures, Shimmering waters, Indian Ocean, Island, Vamizi, Coral reefs, Natural reserves, Pristine, Oil and gas, Marine biodiversity, Energy companies, Vibrant, Flourishing reef, Target, Conservationists, Race against time, Urgent, Dying coral reefs, Save Vamizi

Id: rNgApvIbh_Y

Length: 52min 10sec (3130 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 24 2023