Jersey - Sunny Island in the English Channel | Free Documentary Nature

[Music] wait wait tip 24 knots the crown jewel of the english channel the british island of jersey just off the french coast [Music] where money grows under palm trees and royal potatoes under seaweed and the world's oldest police force is manned by volunteers [Music] there are few places on earth where the mud flats are as wide as on jersey tony lag has to cross them every day to get to work [Music] three kilometers through the mud [Music] salt water corroding the brakes salt water corroding the chassis getting into the electrical system um you name it sea water will kill it tony needs a new car every six months on average [Music] his business rare seafood that has been a delicacy on jersey since time immemorial armor ear shells also known as the ugliest mollusks in the world yes let's see if i can get him off yes that one will be probably seven to ten years old so coming down here looking for feromas and taking them home for for tea where they would have been stewed for a fairly long time if you look at its mouth its face the front there they are pretty bizarre not a matter of whether you like it or not it's that's how it is and uh it probably thinks i'm pretty strange as well might be right wild omar are only allowed to be collected on 28 days a year tony legge is the first person to try and breed them in the mud flats he wants to bring farmed alma to the market he experimented for five years today he's ready these are the most expensive shellfish that you can buy probably anywhere um they're an extremely high quality meat this will be the first time that they've been placed on the market in jersey ever [Music] jersey is the largest of the british channel islands with two thousand hours of sunshine a year it is also known as the sunniest one side of the coast glides gently to the sea the other rises up steeply jersey is a dependency of the british crown but lies much closer to france it's only 25 kilometers to the french coast but six times as far away from england the center of the island is the capital saint helia a tax haven a heavenly top tax rate of 20 around 50 international banks are based here and 32 000 businesses [Music] off the shores of the island lie the richest fishing grounds in the region full of lobsters armor mussels and whelks but illegal fishing is threatening their populations there's a lot of work for the officers of the fishing patrol have you got him on ais it's not showing up any boats target 27 is a potting boat he's right right close in in the run to the rocks there so we've we in an area where we wouldn't take this boat we might go in with the sea rider the french boat was behaving suspiciously they stopped fishing the moment they saw the patrol boat in jersey's waters the fishing patrol has police powers they can stop and check any boat anytime these are welts there's a european size for welts is a length of 45 millimeters um so we need to check to make sure they're all correctly sized we've there's been concerns about the welt fisheries and we did have a few years ago quite a few cases of both retaining small undersized welts if you don't stick to the rules then there are fines of many thousands of pounds if there's a problem with for instance it's fishing in an area without authorization we will have to bring the boat back to saint helia all clear everything was in order with the french fishermen jersey lies in a strategically important position in the channel there are few islands with as many fortresses gory castle was built in the 13th century [Music] there are martello towers dating from the late 18th century when napoleon posed a threat and castles from the medieval period [Music] not to mention a lot of german bunkers from world war ii jersey was occupied by the wehrmachten forming part of the atlantic war some of the old bunkers now serve very different purposes the labyrinth system of corridors was falling apart until he came along dave cowbern found out that the bunkers can be turned to a good purpose namely to breed turbid these are my pets my family you know i give them tender loving care as the word ftlc at the moment we got six thousand from that size upwards to to a kilo kilo and a half and when we bring them in then about the size of a tea bag turbid are expensive and very difficult to breed the old bunker provides ideal conditions constant temperatures low light levels and lots of room here this is actually where the war ended the soldiers had dug all the tunnel out but they hadn't finished casing it in i wish they'd have stayed a bit longer than they might have dug that way and that way and i'd had a big complex you know dave has been breeding turbid for 13 years i've been a fisherman all my life and with the economics because that was my son's boat and that was my boat on the wall the economics and the costs were going up the prices were coming down the quarters were going down so we thought we'll try something new the next fortress is right in front of the bunker not for military purposes however built of sand i can see it's a matched m3 so that's the one on the other side well there's a window going in here a window going in there and there one here as well these are stairs that come down here he comes here every year he's a jersey man and his family live here and every summer or spring he comes and he builds a castle and all the creations and he does it for charity simon smith has even won sandcastle world championships his latest project is intended to be over three meters high i'm i'm so addicted to sand i can't i can't leave i'm here uh nearly 24 hours a day i'm in no rush because this is mine for me um i have lots of coffee breaks so uh and it depends on the weather if it's raining too much i'll stop and come back another day well i don't go away but always stay with it [Music] the castle should be ready in two weeks jersey's tides are the second largest in the world the waters can rise by 14 meters within a few hours [Music] the water comes faster than some expect in some places it advances by up to 10 meters per minute [Music] tony legg has to hurry too he quickly feeds his armor and then gets back to the island before high tide with the first farmed earshots this is their food this is laminaria digitata um one of their favorite foods [Applause] the alma is something that i was brought up as a child my grandparents were brought up as children going down trying to find almas in this wild environment and as a consequence it's always been something that i've wanted to bring to the next stage which is farming and i went to university to study marine biology and it's taken many many years to get to this final point this season ready to go it took five years to get to this day the salt water has destroyed 12 cars in this time this one's relatively recent this one is a 2003 and i bought this one six months ago and i think i might get another three months out of it it's a bit like recycling think of it as car recycling these are cars that have come almost to the end of their life but not completely and then they get used for proper economical use and for what they've been designed for rather than taking children to school tony's wife elsbeth is the expert in preparing alma ah here they are first almost look at that aren't they lovely they're good size aren't they absolutely brilliant wow ready to go so get cooking [Applause] tony and elsbeth want to sell the delicacies at three pounds apiece well they don't look very pretty to start with but the secrets in the taste jersey is a self-governing island while it belongs to the british crown it has its own notes and coins and its own constitution and its own police force the oldest in the world [Music] you gill is a typical jersey police officer still volunteering at the age of 70. he does a seven-day tour of duty every four weeks today with officer garnt good to see you you will yes very well what are we going to do then well what are you going to take on for road inspector i don't know garnet is one of those uh officers that every parish would love to have because he's been he was born you were born to paris i was born in the parish he lived in the parish all his life and he knows everybody everybody knows him he knows every road every lane every track every cow every horse just about i've been in the honorary police for 28 years the speed limit on jersey's so-called green lanes which are very narrow is 15 miles per hour pedestrians cyclists and horse riders all have priority over cars only nobody abides by these rules that's why you and garnet have taken position here [Music] morning ladies nice horse don't go speeding down there now [Music] there's a car quick seen us 17 yeah he was doing more than he should have done we would just give him words a little with the word good morning do you realize that this is a green light well when you see this sign green light 15 mil yeah 15 when you you were doing you were doing 17. okay be careful because it is 15 and there is people cycling and walking on the roads and horses it's difficult to always catch anybody because the time that they're speeding is always is never the time that you're trying to check with it just tenderizes them a little bit makes them softer to cook less chewy yes just just so that they flatten off and that's the secret of preparing alma you have to beat them like a steak i think you think they're already done yes i think small ones are done yes very difficult to describe it's definitely not fishy and it is an impossible thing too it's a truffly nutty slightly veal taste the minkes a reef 20 kilometers off jersey's coast long ago people took stone from here for their fortresses on the island today the minkes are a protected area in which there are strict fishing rules [Music] the officers on the patrol boat keep finding people not sticking to the rules one boat has been noticed by the officers it's catching lobsters they can only be taken if there are above a certain size small ones have to go back into the sea i'm gonna go on board in a minute and i'm watching as his pots come up here they have to have escape gaps in to let out the small lobsters i'll check when i get on make sure there's nothing obscuring them sometimes people can put cable ties across them or string to stop the lobsters getting out of them a boat registered in saint helia jersey measures every lobster total control in four seven wins and two meter day at sea waves a good day in the office it appears the fisherman kept to the rules he didn't manipulate his baskets we had a problem with a boat down here a few years ago um and we we caught him three times and he went to court and got fined and we caught him again but with the tires we were catching him as well it was foggy so he couldn't see us didn't know we were there till we were on the boat um that fisherman has now stopped fishing [Music] the turbid and the bunker need a lot of attention they take three years to reach the right size david colburn delivers his fish to the restaurants and markets on the island he's in the bunker every day he charges 16 pounds a kilogram very nice sir nice thick village on that one keeps me young if if i was i've i've worked all my life seven days a week so if i stop now what would i do sit in a chair become a vegetable plus you've met my little granddaughter so this is her when i retire if i can live another 15 years then she'll be big enough to take it over simon smith the sandcastle builder can't allow himself any mistakes sand is a tricky building material the secret in getting straight lines is to keep your head upright always in the rough winter months simon moves his sandcastle construction to india he's in his jersey home from april to october he used to work for the fishing patrol [Music] 19 years ago the doctor told me i had cancer and i had to go and have an operation chemotherapy but the chemotherapy wasn't going really that well and just to kill time i went down the beach and i started playing with the sand really and then what happened uh instead for building a sand castle i thought i'd try carving one and bingo found my hidden talon um i couldn't stop once i started making sculptures i just couldn't stop um i moved out of my house instantly straight into a van that was 19 years ago today he only builds on sand and lives of it he gets commissions from supermarkets and shopping malls that last 12 months [Music] i'm [Music] [Music] ah [Music] uh special mission for the police senior volunteer you gill is allowed to act as judge and hand down sentences proceedings take place once a week in the parish hall [Music] the voluntary police force of jersey was first mentioned 500 years ago it is thought to be the first in the world okay let's have a look see what we've got here where's the person's details misfirement looks like a mobile phone offence miss vibert was on the phone while driving this battle to justice in the old days it was used to indicate that you have arrested somebody so that you would tap them on the shoulder like that to show that they had been they were in trouble basically yeah miss fiber please from traffic offences to shoplifting to murder on jersey only volunteers like you gill can bring charges how are you this evening excuse me all right thank you okay before we start i need to caution you with anything you say at this hearing maybe taking down news at evidence but you don't need to say anything unless you wish to do so i have a report from the states police that you were stopped for using a mobile phone while you were driving that's correct what would you like to say is that correct i was using a mobile phone yes it just went off and i picked it up and answered it you picked up the mobile phone are you aware of the law i am yes and what does the law say miss vibrate you don't use a mobile phone when you're driving the fine can be up to 200 pounds but um since this is i believe your first offense i've never picked up a mobile phone in my car before i think a fine of a hundred pounds would be appropriate time please for that 10 47. thank you good jersey girl eh yes with the name like vivette we've been here for 700 years at least impressive it's something that's been a tradition here but also a very very good way of dealing with minor matters there you are in the private make sure that you pay your fine within the seven [Music] days seawater [Music] that means alternative vehicle thankfully we have a reserved vehicle the vehicle cost 100 pounds and lasted six months this is a 200 pound one uh it's twice the price of the the white one and twice as reliable one that works this was an expensive one this was many hundreds of pounds and it's very expensive to run it is a great vehicle on the beach but they do die he's lost four cars in the mud tony could just about be rescued from the tide by tractors tony's farmed alma come on the market for the first time [Music] five years hard work finally yes fantastic look at those that one's about 85-90 millimeters i'm extremely proud of this yes this this is this is it this is the culmination um finally got there very historic day this it is indeed yes the very first historic day of the jersey yes historic day for you yes right over to you then i can put them on the counter to sell sell today there's an introductory offer only two pounds fifty there they are they look pretty good don't they i'm pleased with that yeah i'm really pleased with that two pound fifty each 250 inch yes it's not so bad it is not too bad five years to get there yeah in my case [Music] these rare four horned sheep have been back for a few years jersey sheep used to provide the wool for well jerseys [Music] and the cows here produce particularly creamy milk four and a half percent fat but the potatoes are the most famous of all jersey royale kingly tubers which grow right by the sea christine haleo wants to harvest the best potatoes every year the smaller and tenderer the better this is the plant of the jersey royal to me the jersey royal is like a rolls-royce of potato there's no other potato like it it's got a beautiful delicate skin it's so gorgeous it's got a sweet nutty flavor and they just can't be beaten jersey royals are only harvested to order they are a delicacy throughout england they have to be eaten within four days otherwise they lose their aroma and this is thought to be unique they are fertilized with seaweed i think it just adds to the nutty taste obviously there's lots of salt in there maybe that helps the flavor as well the potato digging season lasts 12 weeks and generates 35 million pounds this is my husband you've come to see how he's digging today having a good day yes perfect okay the royal tubers cost up to six pounds a kilogram we're in my dad's field actually today they've been brought up on the farm my daughter has worked working the field worked in this field as well for years the harvest is time-consuming and strenuous proximity to the sea doesn't just bring advantages you get the easty winds north-easterly winds from that come from the sea and literally it's just you can have foliage like this and within three days you have nothing left because the wind comes is so strong and it's just bare ground and that's that's heartbreaking that is very heartbreaking at next day simon smith wants to remove the wooden casing of his sandcastle he's been awake for hours it's so peaceful here in the mornings and there's nobody about the cafe down the road opens at seven o'clock it's when you get a cheap cup of coffee 50p which is quite nice and if you're lucky in the mornings you get the occasional dolphins you can see out here it's also very good [Music] if the sand isn't compacted enough the whole castle collapses [Music] my heart doesn't feed 200 beats at 300 when i'm down there and they have collapsed before simon always takes away the casing first thing in the morning for that he wants to be on his own just in case it does collapse i don't want no witnesses i don't like people watching me do this bit it's like i don't know it's like one of those little secrets that you don't want people to know you know on the patrol boat david jetron and his team are concentrating a large catamaran on the horizon is behaving suspiciously we have a target that we've seen on the radar which we're pretty sure we've identified as a vessel that doesn't have a permit to fish in this zone so we're getting ready to go to intersect it see if it's fishing and probably board it but first it's watch and wait greg can i have those binoculars yeah the speed's up the speed is up just come up they have to catch the crew red-handed to have enough evidence for a prosecution speed drops down it's either picking up a net or maybe it's shooting a net at a lower speed so just keeping an eye on the radar on on what the boat is doing and if there's a sudden change in its pattern of movement then we may decide to either launch a sea rider head down in that or to head down in this boat suddenly the captain turns the boat he probably recognized the patrol boat on his radar it's heading away from us at about the same speed as we go towards it going roughly north it's going to be outside yeah that's sort of more the fishing patrol isn't allowed to intervene in the waters of the neighboring island guernsey they take up the chase at 33 knots nearly 60 kilometers per hour [Music] the catamaran has crossed the border 49 23 decimal 166 north 2 but once it's been recorded on the police's gps system it can be identified and the officers just saw how they threw something into the water there's another one further down there we're going to check for any gear fishing gear we see to see if it's possibly been laid by that boat that's just exited the area now they have to secure the evidence this is a welcome pot so what we were hoping to look for was some nets so it's just been baited with brown crab fish suspicious it's capped there was only a trap basket attached so this is quite unusual because normally you have the all the rope the weight a pot and your string of pots evidently the fisherman wanted to destroy the evidence i shouldn't be here it's not on their mind okay well we'll recover this string and then you want a few more parts the investigators find more fishing gear they're just a different design for the yellow one so what we're doing is we're confiscating them and returning the cat back to sea we're not sure what's going on here it's a bit strange because the original boat we were looking for was a boat that was netting and we couldn't find any nets in the area where he wasn't allowed to fish it may be that the first boat has brought that gear out for the welt boat and then the smaller welt boat will just work them as a string at a time a fine of several thousands of pounds could be levied [Music] the day's harvest has been brought in on christine elio's farm the neighbors are meeting up they talk a language that sounds a bit french and a bit english but one that neither french nor english people understand we are talking jersey french well they are i'm trying it is a what they call a patois of the island and this is what would have been spoken many years ago well not that many years ago all three of us were about six years old before we spoke english your parents that's all they spoke to you was jersey friends and then there was a period when you weren't allowed to use jersey french at school yeah it was forbidden at school so the trouble was the teachers didn't understand it so they they forbid it because you couldn't um sort of make comments on the teachers behind their backs lunch is nearly ready for christine and her husband jersey royal potatoes of course i spent about 20 years convincing him that when i cooked a curry it was meant to go with rice and when i cooked bolognese it was meant to have spaghetti with it and [Music] he went to see a doctor saying that he had um a bloated stomach sometimes after eating and the doctor said oh you mustn't eat pasta and you mustn't eat rice so now we're just back to potatoes but i actually think he probably paid the doctor to say that today the jersey royals are being served in two ways boiled and fried okay hi darling you ready for your lunch yeah what's for lunch well i've done these little ones perfect you like them yeah i like them love them just for you just for you yeah any pasta any rice no thank you no i didn't think so i don't like it buds every day potatoes everywhere every meal you can go and do some more when i got married i had to start eating rice and pasta and then unfortunately i must i had a funny stomach so i went to my doctor after years of trying to get me on pasta and rice it was a no-no i had to grow i had to eat potatoes finally simon sandcastle is finished 14 days work three meters high with luck it will last a year [Music] hello mr sandman how are you doing all right all right been working on the beach yep oh nice one tomorrow this is mr sandman andy andy who works on the beach and does his amazing amazing pictures absolutely stunning that bit there is um about 105 years old something like that i think it was my great great grandfather's been kicking around in the family for a while andy's art is even more ephemeral than the sandcastles he uses his great-great-grandfather's rake to make circles lines and patterns high art at low tide when the sea returns it all washes away [Music] i like the ephemeral nature of it as well you know the fact that it is gone by the tide and it is fleeting um it's it's yeah you know i think that's part of the attraction of it i think you know everything beautiful is fleeting even on jersey [Music] without you

Channel: Free Documentary - Nature

Views: 36,528

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), nature documentary, Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom, English Channel, Normandy, Atlantic Ocean, st helier jersey, St Helier, cotentin peninsula, Beach, Holidays, Vacation, Jersey Vacation, Travel Channel Islands, Channel Islands Vacation, Travel UK, England Vacation, Elizabeth Castle Jersey, Jersey War Tunnels, Saint Helier

Id: GCNiJUa51TU

Length: 43min 59sec (2639 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 09 2020