Track of the Tuna | Free Documentary Nature

the Mediterranean a mysterious ocean between three continents life pulses right beneath the surface day by day the historic fight for food and habitat ensues a clear hierarchy within a community of hunters and hunted with the exception of a few [Music] the great white shark we will follow this predator into a foreign rarely entered world with all kinds of mysteries wondrous phenomena and dangers we will encounter bizarre mystery mongers and some very curious types shoulder to shoulder with the oceans creatures we are chasing a mystery the mystery of the mating of the bluefin tuna [Music] our search begins in the Strait of Gibraltar the only connection between Atlantic and Mediterranean ocean here we cannot mr. tuna [Music] this maritime bottleneck between Africa and Europe is only 14 kilometers wide at the narrowest spot 1.5 million cubic meters per second of Atlantic Ocean rush into the Mediterranean and back out again at great depth between April and September bluefin Atlantic tuna swim through the Strait to spawn in the warmer Mediterranean waters [Music] a great white has killed a tuna he followed the school's the ferocious shark is never far from the tuna schools or castes are the main predators of tuna [Music] the cool Atlantic water is nutrient-rich ideal for the majestic marvel erase they filter plankton [Music] Willie Jack's also profit from the countless microbes lightning fast Atlantic Marlin prey on sardines a school of pilot whales has arrived these five to six meter long mammals give birth here and then also mate again right beneath the surface a stool of scans is trying to keep safe from dolphins and share waters by forming a rotating ball but the Predators know no mercy right after the Dolphins are satisfied Papa knows decide to feed on their weaker cousins suddenly they arrive bluefin tuna on the way to their spawning grounds the harbor of tarifa Doris France Albania arrived just in time in the small Spanish fishing village here in the Strait of Gibraltar the German marine biologist starts his journey to follow the tuna onboard of a fishing boats [Music] the hunt of the highly valuable fish is quite dangerous in the 60 kilometer long narrow strait between Africa and Europe the list of tragic accidents grows longer each year about 250 ships move past each other every day often fog and tricky currents play their own games here orcas make fishing very difficult these clever predators rub their own two-legged competitors of about 80% of the catch a whole army of snitches comes together here sharks are there almost immediately when the fishing boats arrive but also yellowfin tuna find bits and pieces once they're sold after family members are hanging on the hooks of the fisherman mackerel are used as bait to lure the tuna under the fishing hooks cinder blocks keep the bait floating and the currents at depth Oh Boreas wants to know if it's true that 80% of the catch is eaten by orcas and sharks he doesn't have to wait long for proof this bait has just been thrown in the water and is now being torn apart by two blue sharks mackerel are too small for the orcas they wait until the tuna has bit into a hook only in the last moments do they take their bite very frustrating for the fishermen this Moroccan has more luck he can live off the money he gets for this tuna for months the fisherman that the biologist goes along with are not concerned when a small great white shark takes their bait the fishing boats are not very popular here some ocean dwellers work up quite a rage a bottlenose dolphin shows his anger the orcas are the most dangerous he has killed a young dolphin [Music] excitement among the fishermen unfortunately only a shark again the tuna fishermen are angry but this is actually very dangerous for the shark population Boris takes a detour to Tangiers on the Moroccan African side of the Strait of Gibraltar typical oriental smells and offerings lure all biologists in the jumble of small alleyways in the bazaar but the biologist only has one goal to find the fish market he wants to find out the truth about reports which claim that Moroccan tuna fishermen catch 100,000 blue and macro sharks every year as so-called bycatch it seems these reports could be true the supplier seems surprisingly high in this market alone he counts 56 blue sharks ready to be auctioned off the bycatch market is booming especially the shark fins will get the fishermen high prices in Asia used as potency and beauty enhancing products a great business for these fishermen and that's almost every day of the year a three meter 50 long male macho shark the shark expert has never seen a Marco this large we leave Tangiers for a quick visit to the Atlantic coast our destination is the old harbor town north of Agadir Essaouira this place was also well known to the Phoenicians in the seventh century BC and also to the Romans later on for a long time as so era was the hub for caravans and is now one of the most important harbors in Morocco here the fisherman fish as much as the ocean will let them take and that is still quite a lot the reason for this richness of all kinds of seafood cannot be found in the colorful fishing boats that are waiting for the next trip to go out the reason lies way off coast out in the Atlantic cool deep seawater rises up to the surface and supplies large kelp fields with nutrients a mystical seemingly enchanted forest bluefin tuna and countless other ocean dwellers use these rich coastal areas to feed before they start their long journey through the Mediterranean the same goes for the blue sharks and even more dangerous macho sharks they follow the tuna in order to catch one of them every once in a while a long time predatory relationship that has never caused any harm to the tuna population [Music] the leftovers of the meal sink to the ocean floor rare guitar fish will make a meal of it we travel into the country to find out for how long sharks have been hunting tuna here in the Atlas Mountains close to Carib guy in a landscape of wild and untouched beauty in the debris of the river shore only a trained eye will find these rare fossilized treasures this piece let's assume as the evolutionary history that has taken place in these mountains the find is a shark tooth form and function offer a lot of information about its original owner 50 million years ago a shallow shelf ocean covered most parts of North Africa today's mountains used to be giant coral reefs here the ancestor of the great white used to patrol these reefs it's name is a todos habla kuis 10 metres long he was able to swallow tuna whole without tearing them apart a monster of ancient times that we can only imagine back to Gibraltar we follow the tuna on their migrations to the spawning grounds in the western and eastern Mediterranean [Music] borås decided to first stake a scuba-dive in the strait of gibraltar and gets a surprise large brown algae bends back and forth in the current this kelp is usually found in the Atlantic in this zone where the Atlantic and the Mediterranean mix we find the fauna and flora of both oceans an eagle ray can feel that the diver discovered him this species can be found in both oceans Barb's dick for something to eat the two bandit dreams are intensively shadowing the barbs in case a tasty morsel escapes the barbs the eagle ray is not the only one of his species in the Straits of Gibraltar cownose Ray's school and large numbers above the soft sand ground not the last surprise for Boris an anglerfish has left its hideout anglerfish this large have become rare their numbers have been reduced quite a bit because Anglo fish have become a favorite fish to eat Boris makes friends with a lesser spotted Doc fish this young shark has probably never seen such a strange creature not a friendship for life but an interesting encounter for both nevertheless in the waters around Gibraltar are several wrecks quiet witnesses of long-forgotten catastrophes but nature has long taken over the numerous nooks and crannies and has created an underwater paradise moray eels prefer this unusual habitat with its many hideouts sunfish show up also migrating from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean here in the bottleneck of the oceans their paths cross with those of the tuna both here for spawning and for many of them it's unfortunately only a one-way trip off the Spanish coastal town barbata many of the tuna gets stuck in a cunning trap a labyrinth our killer made along gill net system the Alma drama there is no getting out once caught in these nets the elements are killed or just knocked out with clubs and then thrown into the boats the smaller yellowfin tuna often escaped the giant trap barely freed and they're already feeding on the bits and pieces of the gruesomely killed tuna [Music] sharks such as Makos that are bycatch themselves profit from the fishermen throwing everything but tuna back into the sea [Music] the victims of the Alma drama often become the provisions for the journey of the survivors the bloody business continues in the harbour boris has driven to bar Banta where the catch arrives and is examined before it's sold mostly to Japan the bluefin tuna is one of the largest fish in the oceans it can grow up to four and a half meters long and can weigh as much as 700 kilograms but neither Boris nor the fisherman will ever get to see it's such a large specimen nowadays what is called to date is far from any previous record measurements most tuna end up on a hook before they can ever repre deuce for the first time at the age of 8 years old the populations are overfished and some even close to extinction [Music] in Japan wholesalers will earn as much as 70 thousand euros per tuna although the Spanish fishermen only get a very small portion of the money and is still a great business for them a dire future for the tuna [Music] we leave this straight and follow the tuna on their journey towards the northern Mediterranean our destination is a group of islands between the Balearic Islands and the Spanish coastline the Isla de Coulomb brightest are a protected national park and also a spawning ground for the tuna the small archipelago was created by a sunken volcano and what we see is what's left of the rim of the crater in order to step on these islands the Spanish regional government of Valencia has to give permission the same goes for scuba diving borås is greeted by a beautiful grupa because of their flavorful meat these fish have become rare in the Mediterranean a trader fish is curious about the reflection in the camera lens and decides to check it out with its strong jaws the waters around the column brightest also offer these rests a safe haven colorful and poisonous a scorpion fish yes Boris and his colleague Antonia Montiel put a toe cam in the water since not a single tuna has shown up yet they want to try to find them with the camera offshore this unique construction is made to be towed behind the boat in order to deliver shots of a wider area first command dolphins are the stars on screen curious as they are these intelligent toothed whales inspect the camera as a result Boris gets wonderful test shots Boris and Antonio are happy with the camera it works well but they still can't find tuna calm seas the man hope that maybe during the night they will discover the tuna Boris checks another special camera a pole camel with this camera he wants to observe marine life while they are drifting with the boat patience is most important after waiting almost all night finally bluefin tuna appear in front of the night-vision camera a highlight for the team in the starkness unfortunately they can't film any mating so far it's only known that the eggs are fertilized in the open water and that they float along for about two days during this time three millimetre long larvae develop in each egg that then hatch and grow very quickly Boris has left the islas collaborators and is flying towards Majorca between the column Britta said by Orca lived the tuna larvae and their main enemy the basking shark the tiny tuna larvae and the 13 meter long shark both live off the same food plankton several weeks after the tuna larvae hatch millions of them will end up as food in the mouth of the giant shark there is only one way to protect oneself against a certain death in the jaws of a basking shark and that is to grow quickly these giants only feed on very small plankton the tuna that's hatched in June will therefore be the size of a grown mackerel by September that way by July the basking sharks will have already lost their appetite for tuna larvae back on the East last column brightest Boris now makes his way towards Sicily the island of favignana is located of the western coast of Sicily and as part of the akkadian islands favignana has been the embodiment of tuna fishing for a long time the old tuna factory in the bay is a reminder of the golden past of 1874 and is now a museum Boras looks for the harbor the fishermen are preparing for the event of the year the matanza the population on favignana mostly lives off tourism and tuna here off the coast of favignana the tuna that spawn and the eastern Mediterranean get caught in a giant Gill net system similar to that of the Spanish alma drama but there is no escape from the chamber of death they camera their Laura to the fishermen pull up the net and the gruesome killing of the tuna can begin these are smaller specimens the pickings get smaller and smaller with each year the tuna population has been reduced by 92% Boris is allowed to dive inside the net he wants to take some video footage for his work this is a very risky undertaking in the line of duty for science it all seems calm these doom tuna swim along the net without any panic suddenly the mortar is sieving a giant white shark went for a tuna the hungry predators often end up in these tuna traps and then feed until they're delirious this was close our journey continues we follow the tuna through the Strait of Sicily on their way to the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean the Seaway between Sicily and Tunisia is also a highly frequented shipping route great white and Marco sharks are very common in this part of the Mediterranean they follow the ships and the tuna and make this Strait a very dangerous place several mostly tragic attacks have been recorded here the most gruesome happened about 100 years ago at the Cape of San Croce during a giant eruption of Etna the volcano covered the entire area with large amounts of hot ash and magma the streaming lava and highly destructive rain of hot ash cut off a family's wave from the beach the parents flee into the ocean with their child and there are attacked by a great white shark later the shark is caught and the fishermen find body parts of each family member Boris wants to search for great whites with a colleague at this fateful place during a clear night with a full moon they install a low-light camera with a motion sensor at the sea floor these shots of jellies show how sensitive the lengths of the cameras after installing the camera they surfaced quickly because these waters are twice as dangerous in the dark and then sometime during the night a shark actually dust passed by the camera but unfortunately not a great white it is a sixgill shark these sharks come up into shallow areas from great depth only during the night at sunrise boris is already out and about again on board of a Spadaro boat a swordfish fishing boat each bait has a light on it which is supposed to attract this fast predator swordfish react to any kind of light they are magically drawn to the lights that are attached to the long lines due to drastic overfishing the swordfish population in the Mediterranean has been reduced dramatically on board the fishing boats together with Boris as the renowned fisheries expert Giambattista Bello he tells Boris that the swordfish fishermen have seen tuna mate at night on the surface the first swordfish is on the hook the longline has brought in with a machine the line is 30 kilometers long each time they go out to fish so it fish are one of the largest species among the bone fish including their sword that can grow up to 4 meters and weigh up to 500 kilograms the average weight and length nowadays is much lower they continue on straight through the night a blue shark tries to get the swordfish caught on the hook he would never try this with a free swimming specimen the fishermen pull up the swordfish just in time he has already perished on the hook professor Baloo and Boris measure the animal the smaller size as the norm now the next fish is also small although this one has a few more pounds on its bones the scientific statistics clearly show the size of all animals that were caught during the last few years has been getting smaller and smaller full-grown swordfish are almost never found anymore the results of this night are very meager for the fishermen change of location malta is located southeast of the Strait of Sicily our next destination era also spawning grounds of the tuna and in addition one of the birthplaces of the great white shark the rock of Hitler in southern malta the borders around this maritime monument are protected great whites have been observed in the depths around Phillip borås and the shark expert Alex booty kick Troy everything in their power to observe mating tuna in the open ocean the steep rock walls goes straight down to 30 meters a grandiose underwater landscape opens up before Boris mobula race in the same family as the plankton feeding manta rays crossed through the rock gullies and affirmation suddenly tuna swim by but no sign of mating yet borås has around liver but skinful 230 volt electric current as an effect here this electric ray is not always fun they inspect each other with interest and caution on both sides and it's better to keep a bit of distance there's a false calm on the sand floor beneath the predator is lurking the trick of this rate will up a cloud of sand and then disappear suddenly an attack from an angel shark it appears out of nowhere the mackerel has no chance the angel shark is very well camouflaged during its slumber once Alex has seen it [Music] for this predator it is of vital importance to stay cool even if a curious scientist just has to find out if it's a female borås had better leave his hands off this tiger Maury Alex Buddha geek knows this area very well at this spot he found a tooth of the ultimate sea monster that lived here 5 million years ago [Music] chocka ruthless Megalodon the shark with giant teeth grew up to 13 meters long it hunted for whales the reason for its extinction is completely unknown it's believed that the evolution of its very specific food source is the reason why it became more and more difficult for the shark to hunt descents into the underworld into the realm of a cave shrimp bizarre-looking light-sensitive creatures with a tendency to show up in large groups countless shrimp inhabit the many caves around Malta [Music] the Moray Eel seems to like shrimp one is fixed on the divers behind a curtain of shrimp sensitive to the light this stingray leaves its hideout the predatory conger eel is one of the more curious ones [Music] for porous this is the icing on the cake a black Mouth catshark it lifts in greater depth and only rarely comes up to the shallow areas the journey continues from Malta to Italy the next destination is Cape San Felicia sílvio north of Naples the elongated bay of the small village of Sapodilla is another spawning ground for tuna and great weights and was the stage for a tragic dive in September 1962 in the harbour of Saba via the recreational diver Maurizio Sara goes out with two of his friends to Spearfish off Cape Felicia the three of them are out at sea every weekend they know these waters like the back of their hand but on this day everything will change Maori Tzu checks his harpoon he does not know that he is being watched from the deep the trio is out to spear grouper one of the friends stays with the boat the other two go down to be most efficient they split up [Music] the Gruber stays hidden therefore Sarah Spears the next best fish that he can find a tragic mistake [Music] the great white senses the blood of the fish and for Mauricio Sabah there is no escape 44 years later Boris is on board the research vessel minibikes and on his way to san finito with the help of experts and highly developed technical equipment he wants to search for sharks and tuna in these waters first of all they have to fill a container with baits the bait and stand attached to the remote operated underwater camera robot then a hill so the name of the robot is launched it is equipped with high-resolution cameras and is supposed to film pictures from life on the seafloor anxious faces in the operation control center a fill is operated from up here with a shark be attracted by it the lights pick up a large shark it's not a great white but a sixgill shark [Music] there are no known attacks on humans from these five meter long sharks who are mostly active at night but nevertheless they are still a bit dangerous a who is parked on the sea floor during the night a small redfish is temporarily blinded by the light he has his own lights with him a velvet belly shark the light creates bacteria that the shark carries with him in special light organs borås and the experts are excited the use of a hill is already a success but that's not all pictures that none of the experts have seen before a kangaroo catches an anglerfish with his mouth wide open the anglerfish tries to struggle but the strong jaws of the eel will not let go the next morning it has rained during the night but the conditions are great for diving the technicians checked the sub Remora they want to dive on a wreck that is close by the pilots even Popov and the biologist and cameraman Christian lot are sitting in the cockpit [Music] the launch of Remora with the crane on the back of the ship is always a difficult maneuver despite years of experience safety diver Jerome Costa loosens the strong hooks on which the five-ton sub is attached highest concentration also on the bridge Remora has to go down 150 meters even Popov maneuvers her directly through a school of tuna to the wreck of an Italian hospital ship from the Second World War during the last few decades countless organisms have settled on the ships many structures an artificial reef has developed first careful approach towards a biological metropolis all the different looks that the wreck offers give many diverse species the opportunity to live together and very close proximity the current here is rich in plankton and that supports the growth of this complex community a school of Mediterranean threat fish lives here a more rare customer after three hours the energy supply is running low Popov has to ascent the visits and this underwater paradise was worthwhile from Cape Felicia the journey continues southwards into the open water Minnie Beck's stakes course towards one the most dangerous underwater volcanoes in the world's oceans mobile erase make an appearance with giant leaps out of the ocean these massive race tried to get rid of their annoying fellow travelers they're trying to rid themselves of remoras but unfortunately only with limited success [Music] many Becks arrives at the destination here in the depth of the Tyrrhenian sea is a ticking time bomb the Mars silly cement a chain of several massive underwater volcanoes and meanwhile also part of extensive research projects a who starts from many begs to take a first look dive depth more than 500 meters a common swimming crab gets the shock of a lifetime when it sees the robot Joystiq keys and instinct is all chief engineer Fred Elkanah needs to pilot a hill skillfully he maneuvers the robot through the jagged lava ravines in 540 meters at the peak of the volcano [Music] surprisingly there is life and this Mars like underwater landscape a sea spider says hello to the camera and a school of large identic tries to rush by a filigree tree coral has settled on the rugged lava unique tubes come into sight a closer look they are a colony of tube worms a sensation the fact that they have settled here points toward high volcanic activity [Music] pure excitement a small tooth sand tiger shark appears on the monitors never before has such a shark been filmed at the steps these predators can grow up to four meters long and prefer to stay around island shelves and continental shelf breaks where they hunt [Music] after a little detour to the Marci Lisi mount we continue to follow the tuna towards the Adriatic coast to a straight between the Croatian islands brush and Schwar the shark an L during the summer this straight between the two islands as a true plankton soup ocean currents and sunlight led the microorganisms flourish and attract plankton feeders [Music] on the islands brush and Schwar time seems to move slower in this laid-back environment things had done slower and with care no sign of stress here but during the summer all that is over with basking sharks and tourists arrived at the same time these giant animals mingled with the bathing tourists and cross between swimmers and boaters sharks and people seem to have no fear of each other [Music] basking sharks and tuna seek out the far canal for the same reason plankton while the Sharks seemed everywhere and feeding non-stop the tunas stay hidden these bigmouth charts are closely related to the great weight but a completely harmless for humans they can grow up to four tons and are the largest fish of the oceans directly after the whale shark saltwater lampreys of parasites that like to attach to the basking sharks and hook themselves into the shark's skin but the jawless greater like mouths a 10 meter long basking shark has to feed on 500 kilograms of plankton each day per hour these gentle giants filter about 2,000 liters of water through their gills filtration system we leave the basking sharks behind and travel from the Adriatic coast to the Turkish Aegean the furthest eastern point where tuna larvae have been confirmed the montjuic bay in this idyllic Harbor with a picturesque Bay the turkey shark scientist Hakan Kappa Sokka from Istanbul is already waiting for his German colleague Boris Frenzel by me [Music] the two biologists want to find a very special inhabitant of the shallow coastal waters that Hakan is working on for a scientific project the boat drive to a secluded sytem of the bunch of Bay where Hawkins subjects live takes about one hour this area is strictly protected because the bunch of Bay is a protected area it is closed off to regular boat traffic this coastal region is a true biological jewel every summer sandbar sharks come into the bay their pregnant females Hakan doesn't know why they are here are they trying to get rid of skin parasites in the less salty water or will they give birth here open questions Boris and Hakan are only allowed to snorkel scuba diving is also strictly forbidden in this protected area in order to protect these rare sharks from tourists the entire area is now closed off to the general public outside far offshore the bluefin tuna gather for another long journey now it's July and they're finished spawning and will go back to the Atlantic following the track of the tuna we're also going back through the Strait of Gibraltar to the northwestern end of the strait to the sunny and very stormy coast Adela Luce a constant stiff wind and wild waves attract kite surfers from around the world to this historic coast on October 21st 1805 Admiral Nelson destroyed the Spanish French fleet here off cape trafalgar the expedition following the track of the tuna comes to an end here at Trafalgar viboras France alignment past the Kate Trafalgar the wide and seemingly endless Atlantic Ocean awaits the fish that have escaped the Alma drama the matanza and the longline fishermen their journey through the Mediterranean has finally come to an end all the fish have to do now is make it to a submarine rock barrier the threshold of spar till the actual border between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic they're more than enough food awaits the tuna on the other side of the rocks cruel nutrient-rich water comes up from the deep basis for a strong plankton development large schools of small crabs a feast for fish and countless other hungry sea dwellers which are then eaten by larger predators everyone here is hunter and hunted at the same time a natural hierarchy of species in which life and death balance each other out [Music] the evolutionary engine is running high and uncompromising contest between abilities and attributes the faster stronger more alert and clever they are the higher are the chances to come out ahead the Feast of the tuna after a long journey to spawn the starving tuna now find enough food at the entrance to the Atlantic but how much longer food eat three fishing nations want to catch 32,000 tons of tuna in 2007 despite expert suggestions that only 15,000 tons would be justifiable nobody can say at the current time what the consequences of complete eradication of tuna would be for cownose rays or house-door offense sharks and pilot whales we know for sure that the self-indulgent over-exploitation will have consequences and we will feel them not only at the sushi bar [Music] [Music] no matter what species once it's extinct nothing will be the way it was before many whale and shark species are equally as endangered as the bluefin tuna the fact that the tuna and shark populations are collapsing worldwide and that some are close to extinction is the fault of mankind alone we should think about that next time we order a tuna dish or the increasingly popular shark steaks [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary - Nature

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Rating: 4.6827855 out of 5

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, BBC documentary, Tuna, tuna fishing, white shark, tuna documentary, ocean documentary, wildlife documentary, ocean wildlife, bluefin tuna, High-definition Video (Film Format), Ocean (Geographical Feature Category), Great, Documentary (TV Genre), Fishing, Underwater, documentary - topic

Id: fDIJqV7KXM8

Length: 51min 32sec (3092 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 18 2019