Return of the Bible Plagues Part 1: Deadly Waters | Full Documentary

[Music] the Bible called them plays today we call them natural disasters but they're actually one and the same and the biblical plagues are coming back thousands of years ago toxic algae made life difficult for humanity the algae poisoned the drinking water made cesspool stink and caused massive deaths of fish [Music] industrialization and globalization have made these algae more common than ever despite technical progress and modern science but committed scientists and ecologists are refusing to give up [Music] [Music] 3,500 years ago the Egyptian pharaoh had a dream he decided to build a new royal palace far away from the centres of government but the project was too large for the Egyptians alone they needed foreign workers so Pharaoh enslaved the people of Israel after long years of oppression the slaves demanded their freedom when Pharaoh refused to let God's people go Yahweh threatened to visit plagues on the Egyptians [Music] the Lord first terrified the Egyptians by threatening to poison the Nile the great river that supplied their entire livelihood Moses raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile and all the water was changed into blood the fish in an hour died and the river smells so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water blood was everywhere in Egypt what happens when when the Nile floods in September is that further down the sources of the Nile all the snow melts on the mountains and the waters rushed down and this red earth and these red soil particles are washed down as well so there's two reasons the Nile turns red one is the red soil particles but the Egyptians will be familiar with that every year so that turns are now read but not vivid red and so in addition to the red soil particles there was a special red el dry as well and the red algae bloomed and that's the deseo G which emit the toxins toxic algae are still around today this is what they look like they are single-celled organisms that can emit nerve poisons every day somewhere in the world people die of their toxins the algebra colors the water blood red or green but sometimes it is colorless and so remains invisible and unnoticed until it has done a great deal of damage northern Germany 2002 a reception at an upmarket restaurant the guests were enjoying the buffing [Music] including seafood dangerous seafood as it turned out [Music] after eating mussels 30 people fell ill with stomach cramps profuse sweating and vomiting they needed urgent medical care it hardly seemed possible mussels are among the most carefully monitored foods in Germany shellfish is usually tested where it is harvested in this case it was in Denmark but the first tests revealed nothing no one had complained about the samples and yet the poisonings happened something wasn't right it was a case for dr. Stefan F common at the Institute for ecology the study of fish in cooks - he and his team dissected some of the mussels pureed some parts prepared solutions spun them in the centrifuge and distilled them all using the latest techniques dr. F c'mon was able to find out how the mussels came to be poisoned as chromatogram sighs directors this new concept has honed as I give toxins Okara saw an emotional and heightened owned and Guba upset song doctor often the statements that only fact I've seen worse tetanus reliable testing is essential because al Joel toxins poison over 60,000 people around the world every year the toxins are found in fish mussels and other shellfish they have strange names ASP DSP or PSP and every one of them is on the increase ESP toxin on man citizen here Oscar furnaces cancer full of over height Abu Bakr coup de Gras day yes kappa cineq rasa metallo words fighters fell into some hang with in Farsi - Austin organ all here for muted man does PSP top salut is a he food is a forgive tone bar on as well PST forgiven thanked in a ligament i'm ribbon in an extremity eaten as a heist anything on order openin and cruising an and implement a encompass süleyman's a final description file saga met important the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremen - this is where the director of UNESCO is worldwide coordinating body for harmful algae professor allen sam bella draws all the threads together [Music] a French colleague has called about two deaths in Brittany it's still not clear whether they resulted from eating toxic oysters but one thing is sure a warning was issued in France about the danger from toxic algae shellfish growers protested against the official precautions until the two people died professor Sam Bella promises his French colleague technical support for any necessary tests the experts are working to coordinate their efforts alerts are arriving from every continent calls for help from Food Standards authorities fishermen and coastal communities in recent decades the number of incidents has multiplied our toxic algae spreading it's when these blooms are in high magnitude in other words they produce a lot of biomass or when they produce a high amount of toxin per cell that we start to see the negative effects being expressed but these tend to be rather unusual circumstances and what we'd like to do is to be able to predict these a little bit better to first of all understand what is the cause of the toxicity and then how can we predict them and model what will happen when these toxic blooms occur the Institute's researchers know they can't afford to wait for reports to filter through to them where there's a need they have to get out and take samples to try to understand what is happening in the environment aboard the research vessel hanker they're heading for the North Sea [Music] Allen Sam Bella a Canadian is based in Bremerhaven because it's the center of international algae research the poison of the algae he's searching for can be more dangerous than chemical weapons he and his colleagues are trying to find out why toxic algae are suddenly reproducing so quickly a lot more is going on in the depths of the North Sea than the researchers would like almost everywhere they encounter miniscule algae half animal half plant they're trying to determine the likely consequences of the algie's sudden growth Western Florida a holiday paradise on the Gulf of Mexico the coast is lined with luxury homes with spectacular sea views and here of all places there are frequent dangerous algae blooms the area is known to them in 2006 the effects were disastrous hundreds of thousands of dead fish from the beaches for the first sign of toxic algae poisoning sadly the fish were not the only victims [Music] through the fish the toxic microorganisms enter the seabirds food chain spelling death - gulls see Eagles and pelicans [Music] often the algae color the seed blood-red creating a so-called red tide but sometimes the algae bloom is a poisonous green as it is here algae of both colors are dangerous even large fish die after eating algae infested seagrass dolphins can't always avoid the algae either this dolphin was found dead off the Florida coast predators had mold its body but it's ugly wounds could not have been the cause of the animals death Alex Kostas takes samples for the pathology lab of the Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission it's not as common but in the last few years we've been getting more and more dolphins in 2004 we had a hundred and seven bottlenose dolphins died so animals get paralyzed and they can't they can't breathe at the surface or their diaphragm won't work and they even if they're at the surface they can't take a breath we think that was from from red stomachs full of little fish that eat algae and the fish tested very high for the toxin in red tide tissue samples will provide more precise information alex removes parts of the lungs and the liver and sends them to the laboratory [Music] the coasts of Canada run for thousands of kilometres the first settlers had their own experience of toxic algae the pioneer captain George Vancouver wrote of poisonings in his logbook does this mean that poisonous algae were always found here but are now spreading faster than ever before why should they be scientists think some species may have been introduced unintentionally in 1987 a hundred and twenty-nine Canadians were poisoned by algae infested muscles in a single incident three of them died it was a traumatic event for a country where much of the population lives on the coast Canada's muscle industry is a significant source of Employment and national income as the risks of harvesting wild mussels in the open sea become harder to judge aqua farming is becoming increasingly important 40 percent of Canada's mussels are now found the advantage is that it's easier to monitor but disadvantages that toxic algae can cause millions of dollars worth of damage in one hit mussel farmers often have to interrupt their harvesting John stares has been lucky his harvest area has been closed only once in the last two years but he has to make regular checks on his muscles [Music] toxic algae barely affect the muscles themselves they only harm the people who eat the shellfish when the toxin level is too high so every week the authorities test the mussels if the toxin level is too high the farmers stop harvesting until it returns to normal if there's enough clean water the mussels will recover we all test for toxicology once a week and they have to have three clean tests in a row and then they can open up again so nothing happens to the mussels they they continue to grow and live and so they just get a little bigger so yeah two weeks off we can paint your building or something if there's an outbreak of food poisoning the whole market for mussels collapses so the mussel farmers have a strong interest in monitoring algae growth it's the same for salmon farmers if the current carries colonies of algae into the salmon cages thousands of valuable salmon will perish it's a nightmare for the farmers in biblical Egypt all the fish in the river died and the river stank and the people could not drink of the water and Pharaoh called all his high priests and magicians to the banks of the Nile the magicians raised their staffs and applied their secret arts they feared the competition of the God they did not know and they set to work with all their might they too managed to turn the water into blood that they could achieve but however hard they tried they could not get rid of the algae that were already there well it said that the magicians were able to do the same thing for the first plague so you couldn't stop it but they also I mean it's a curious story in a sense I think maybe this this this lg's maybe bloom twice the LD came out and bloomed and the rappin of the new dial turned to blood and then they sought to die down and then the magician I think they struck the Nile with their staff and whole thing happened again so they demonstrated they could do this first play they couldn't do the later plagues but they couldn't stop the plague so that again the fact that these magicians could do it demonstrates it was a natural event Canada is Alan Sam Bella's home he studied toxic algae in Canada for many years before joining the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany now he's joining his former colleagues they're collecting vital new data [Music] professor Sam Bella and Stephan Kirsch beg of Dalhousie University are on their way to inspect some very special marker boys off the city of Halifax [Music] solar-powered computers in the boys recalled the water temperature the currents salinity and the presence of particles suspended in the water not just on the surface but also deep down on the ocean floor for the algae don't remain on the surface they colonized the whole of the water column the sensors on the ocean floor must be kept in good working order and they are regularly checked the sensors are fitted with photo cells that measure sunlight if too little light penetrates to the lower levels it's a strong sign of algae growth the photo cells must be cleaned continually because they quickly become covered in tiny algae in some cases the algae form a superficial layer on top of the water that's a so-called classic red tide where you can actually see a water discoloration but much more often the bloom is in fact subsurface you can't see anything from looking with your naked eye into the water column we can use this kind of instrumentation to track the bloom where it actually is how deep is it in the water column this is very important because if most of the biomass is below the surface it's invisible from the surface we want to know exactly where in the water column the the mass of the bloom is located it isn't possible to put boys along the entire coast so the researchers have developed mobile devices that emit light impulses reflections in the water supply information about the thickness of the toxic algae the devices are lowered into the water where they can check depths that are beyond the reach of the aqua farmers researchers know they may encounter toxic algae at any time then they must hope they found it early enough to raise the alarm the muscle farmers support these tests an efficient early warning system is crucial [Music] relatively few algae are toxic some are harmless while others are nutritious and beneficial and the same species may be toxic at one time and harmless at others no one knows why exotic species of algae are appearing more and more where they were never seen before often they are unintentionally introduced by man world trade is one culprit Freitas and tankers in coastal waters take on ballast water to stabilize them for long voyages especially when they're not fully loaded when they reach their destination they pumped the water out and with it billions of tiny stowaways that must then adapt to a new home in this way algae bacteria and fish eggs are spread from one continent to another they arrive in places where they have no natural predators laboratories regularly identify high levels of diverse microbes in ballast tanks the microbes include disease-carrying bacteria and toxic algae the coast of the island of elba the fishermen here have a big problem with an introduced pest [Music] Christian lot of the Hydra Marine Institute is charting the relentless progress of an exotic form of seaweed it's believed to have been released when an aquarium was cleaned elaborate exfolia come to us and home on essence mittelmeer Angus leopard invasion a koala in oomphel-mother knockoff fish museum for Minako or infant watt-hours cinnamon from finet kilometer namely under simit yard uncle Angus lap one here in the book from marina de Campo divers are about to search the sea floor 15 meters down [Music] the water looks clear but here to the green plague is growing [Music] cowell now per taxi folia is a mysterious marine plant that spreads an astonishing speed where there was once a variety of marine vegetation it creates a green desert it also destroys the habitats of many fish species [Music] the Hydra team measures the damaged area and maps the spread of the weed it's not only taking over the feeding grounds of native species it's also releasing toxins into the environment [Music] normally this tropical algae needs a water temperature of at least 20 degrees Celsius to survive but it has mutated to survive in much cooler water even in the Mediterranean winter genetic analysis has shown that all the caliper found in the Mediterranean is descended from the same original piece of seaweed a single branch of a single plant and there's no way to get rid of it my not physical epitaxy forum it's cooked for salads and baskets wise it's forgiving coop fires and zishe Tarkus gift for Phillip Phillip plans non-iron when I first met electrician home the sofa time or about forgiveness electrolyzer gifting a casa did an interesting clue August Bebel spies my net force of Tascosa Schwarz plastic foil Ian Dean Hanson marrow spoon oxidation emptiness lift vector name therefore acquire my Stefan CMAC call epitaxy fellows younam's resistant and can disregard sun and find room must feel better a puffin else feel anguish lambertian plants are indicate a iron as collie Appa the iron secured strategy devious must help this our highest and klein and flattened woman's iron condors a man of ala bashed against on it Alice are never is some Sheridan for charters were the field for Facebook midfield feeling how Han the script and horses to bow and a versa who know clients the Box took it easy I reckon I know a colony beacon devoxx an unfulfilled almondy was it said man the ayah starts a complete Australian their only chance is to spot a brand new colony before it has established itself then they may be able to get rid of it completely it's a colossal task [Music] [Music] the Nile a kind of historical test case for the spread of algae was crucial for the survival of the ancient Egyptians their dependence on it made them particularly vulnerable the Nile is the lifeblood of Egypt and it provided them with fresh water and of course if you didn't have fresh water you couldn't live when the water turned to blood the Nile began to stink the people and their animals could no longer drink from it the Egyptians searched desperately for alternatives so what the Egyptians did and maybe this is something I had learnt before they dug along the banks of the Nile and then they got drinking water so what happened there was that this impure water in the Nile was filtered by the sand on the banks of the Nile and they were able to drink this drinking water so that was that was a trip they had learned probably from history [Music] the ancient Egyptians already saw that deadly algae could be present in rivers far from the sea any body of water that is still or slow flowing is at risk any swimmingly can turn out to be a trap in still water algae may thrive - well especially if the water entering the lake contains nitrates and phosphates from untreated wastewater or from agriculture here the connection between human activity and algae growth is especially clear some of these booming algae are extremely toxic unfortunately it's very difficult to distinguish them visually from harmless members of the same species they cause nausea and serious illnesses Reiner Kamiya of the Austrian Institute for limnology is studying microorganisms in freshwater bodies near Salzburg to do so he breeds blue-green algae or cyanobacteria he has established that these algae can be directly harmful to humans in rincón water having say a feel fund is a gift in Bassett and for comped owned this is versatile as opium yet then canonized econsent atolan soothe we had the say mention of fur gift also he forgive Toombs fellows in piquant Larrick Optus our Carolee talked to Hawaii Infante on about the uncommon dog concentration and to standardize of Isis keith Ellison - the castration swim Thomas in the Izone ecosan in the labor - don't feel Kona blue-green algae which may also be red can attack reservoirs of drinking water in some countries this has led to frightening Li high rates of cancer [Music] that is why dr. Kamiya is studying endangered inland lakes such as the Monse in austria already special efforts have been made and not just in Austria to clean up Blake's like this but it's still too early to give the all-clear [Music] dr. Cormier take samples from a depth of 12 meters he has a theory he is noticed that some algae are able to descend to a safe place at the bottom of the lake and not die in the mud on the lake floor they can remain there in a kind of hibernation for decades until conditions on the surface become more favorable his theory proves correct there are hundreds of algae in every drop they have joined together in small groups called colonies in fact sea fish named is a famous on the roof for engine saying the other Cheyenne are taken and under karate but citiots all jean de zilker park is a gas permitting Volker patios a yet still tailing and off trip came dr. favor and relaxing home visiting it's neat obscene in Colonel on see how its interpreted in French in column doesn't is a stark dissipation stuck to be microscopic Anika another trick helps the blue-green algae survive in the deaths they transform the weak rays of sunlight into a luminous red they use this not for communication like other deep sea creatures but for photosynthesis scientists have just made this discovery [Music] in Florida too there is an alert the continuing fine weather of the late summer is aggravating the algae problem [Music] the water temperature is still high which encourages algae growth islands of poisoners algae form in the open sea with the risk that they will drift towards the beaches Fish and Wildlife Commission staff are taking samples at various points 15 miles offshore but they have to break off this is storm season a rapidly approaching tornado forces them to head back to shore [Music] but even the few samples they've been able to collect show that the situation is becoming serious [Music] on the beaches another algal bloom is already killing millions of fish [Music] in some places tons of dead fish are removed every morning Sarasota Beach is a holiday resort popular with both convalescing pensioners and families with children the water temperature is 30 degrees Celsius but many visitors find that their eyes start to water and almost everyone is coughing [Music] when single cells of the toxic algae burst in the spray of The Breakers they release 16 different neurotoxins highly dangerous nerve poisons everyone knows about it but it doesn't stop them going to the beach [Music] the Marine Laboratory has set up monitoring devices that are checked every two hours solid particles from the sea breeze are trapped in their filters in the air they have found a large number of neurotoxins which affect everyone in the nearby carpark doctors from the Mote Marine Laboratory stop visitors and measure their lung capacity before and after they've been to the beach almost everyone is affected people who are susceptible to asthma are most at risk [Music] initially you can exacerbate the asthma and that can make people so they have to start taking medications they miss work they miss school they have to go to emergency rooms and also we've also looked at whether it can cause increases in things like pneumonia bronchitis other respiratory diseases that are associated with asthma although the danger to health is well known none of the beaches is closed and no bans are imposed America is a free country they don't however have authority to make you get out of the water it's just a recommendation so you can still decide if you want to go in the water or not the study signs up volunteers for a period of months to wear a device that records how many poisonous cells they are inhaling this allows the scientists to establish the exact relationship between the neurotoxins and breathing difficulties [Music] and these are the tiny culprits hundredths of a millimeter long Karenia brevis they are found singly off the coast of Florida all through the year but when the numbers exceed a certain threshold the situation becomes critical an algae bloom can last for weeks or months recently one lasted longer than a year here a scientist is counting the organisms in some places the concentration is now more than a million cells per liter of water in Bremerhaven allen sem bella receives reports from all over the world every morning he is trying to put the different pieces of the puzzle together and it's becoming clearer and clearer which factors are most likely responsible for the growth of the algae certainly there is evidence over the last few decades of manmade changes to coastal zones that do appear to be related to the spreading or the introduction of bloom organisms and and one in particular that's been invoked is the nutrient enrichment putting more nutrients into coastal waters certainly does appear to favor some kinds of blooms which have harmful effects but which nutrients play a decisive part Alan's and Bella's colleague Gary Kirkpatrick is also keen to find out [Music] and we're better to do so than here in Florida where there are alarmingly frequent red tides the latest technology should help them this is a highly sophisticated underwater research vehicle originally designed for military use it's wireless and is designed to work entirely independently for several days using advanced electronics to investigate the ocean in depth the underwater probe is controlled from space by a satellite the men from the moat laboratory are using it for the first time [Music] they are trying to establish contact with the command center via a satellite link that should relay signals to the probe and collect the data from it the order to dive must be confirmed by the command center [Music] [Music] now the probe is on its own it will collect data for several days transmitting information about the presence of algae and the exact composition of the sea water temperature plays a key role that much is clear so it's also clear that climate change is directly involved civilization comes at a price certainly there are a lot more people living in Florida and living along the coast now and that means there's more material that humans are throwing away wastes and pollution and so on getting into the water all those things have potential to to impact the red tide but we don't have enough scientific evidence to say that it's one item or another [Music] so far there's not enough information but scientists hope the new data will show exactly who and what is responsible for the rapid growth of the algae blooms and once they know it may be possible to do something about it [Music] or in the worst case we will find out there's very little we can do other than find a weapon to fight toxic algae the scientists at the mote laboratory are looking into that question right now [Music] they're experimenting with ozone and clay and other substances to see if they can destroy toxic algae after this treatment many algae do sink to the seabed and die however plants and animals on the ocean floor suffocate and other sea creatures are killed as well so far chemical treatments have also proven unsatisfactory the side effects are too unpredictable on top of that the area to be treated is vast and the cost is enormous as is the disruption to nature we have hundreds and even sometimes thousands of square miles that are involved with a red tide bloom so economically and logistically it isn't feasible to even consider applying some agent over that large of an area an additional method for control of red tide would be biological control here various organisms such as bacteria which actually attack the red dead organism itself but if we'd have to be very careful when where and how such biological agents could be used and we'd have to be certain that didn't continue to cause a problem after the red tide was gone back in Bremerhaven the scientists are working on the biggest puzzle of all why do only some algae produce poison with a microscope Callen Sam Bella's colleague dr. Orban Tillman examines the mysterious single-celled creatures the Arizona House to become wedged in for trial inland into Zaman's pyramid unemployment an organist will freely give for example desert Ian's comment here for Oregon's good citizen universe gifter of scars amantha sunken event well the of the gift product soon as under a doge food and stuff an unknown plant and organist now skis on fear Tilman watches as algae appear to fire arrows paralyzing their victims with a nerve poison before dragging them away [Music] then he finds harmless algae that actually hunt the poisonous algae music montage weary iron captain satin elegant beautiful Josephus term of case resilience recline in C elegans Hassan Hebert I'm Nancy O'Dell mission is mostly on colossal coaster comedies of Casa and 2007 Zog an ensign a chloroplast their gift conveyor in the entire Quran [Music] so the poison of toxic algae is not always enough to ward off predators [Music] perhaps these indestructible single-celled suckers could be a miracle weapon against toxic algae a biological weapon algae versus algae there are thousands of varieties of algae and only sixty of them are toxic but every year these few tiny organisms are responsible for sixty thousand reported cases of poisoning a thousand of them fatal as well as four massive fish deaths is there a biological reason behind this certainly they're not produced to kill fish they're not produced to kill human beings at each shellfish they're not produced to kill whales or marine animals or to disrupt marine ecosystems they have some function and it could well be that in many cases the fact that they are toxic to to human beings and and seabirds may be somewhat of an artifact of the real reason why these compounds are being produced so what we would like to do is to be able to find the mechanisms of the toxin production and to determine what are really the ecological role of these compounds because they evolved presumably hundreds of millions of years ago they're not new they occurred before human beings were here and and probably will be there long after human beings are gone from the face of the earth the ancient Egyptians would not have been able to see the individual cells of the algae only their catastrophic effects but the message behind the poisoning of their lifeline the Nile must have got through to them it was a first warning that they had to do things differently [Music] I wouldn't see these as a warning sent by God because my belief in a God is a God who is a God of love and so I think these are disasters which are happening in a natural world but there's something we can do to prevent them and to minimize them and I think we have responsibility to do that so I think you know we have a responsibility to leave our world a better place for our children and grandchildren [Music] in the bible the plague of contaminated water abated after seven days but Pharaoh hardened his heart he would not let the Israelites go the fish stocks in the Nile were almost exhausted there were no fish left to eat the spawn of the frogs and the toads the next plagues culminating in the invasion of the stinging disease bringing flies were now inevitable [Music]

Channel: hazards and catastrophes

Views: 200,465

Rating: 4.6257758 out of 5

Keywords: Biblical Plagues science documentary, Biblical Plagues full documentary, Biblical Plagues documentary, Biblical Plagues earth documentary, Biblical Plagues, Biblical Plagues Bible, Biblical Plagues Bible Documentary, Biblical Plagues 10 Plagues, Biblical Plagues Humankind Documentary, Biblical Plagues History Documentary, Biblical Plagues Short Episode, Biblical Plagues coronavirus, Biblical Plagues Hazards & Catastrophes, Biblical Plagues Report, Biblical Plagues Sandstorms

Id: WaUNGhACsf4

Length: 48min 49sec (2929 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 26 2017