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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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[suspenseful music playing]

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[water splashing]

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[man in Thai] When ships are
in the middle of the ocean…

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…where problems occur…

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they can throw you overboard

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into the sea.

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It is dangerous for you
to make this documentary.

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There are many risks.

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[sirens blaring]

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[in Thai]
If you're scared of dying, go home.

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[mid-tempo guitar music playing]

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My name is Ali.

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That's me.

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And for as long as I can remember,

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I've been fascinated
with dolphins and whales.

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My obsession with the ocean, though,

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was really born
out of watching documentaries

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from people like Jacques Cousteau,

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David Attenborough, and Sylvia Earle.

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Watching their films opened up
a whole new world for me,

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filled with an abundance of beauty,

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color, and life.

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I would dream of one day exploring
our thriving seas

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just like they did.

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Capturing images
of all the extraordinary wildlife

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that lived beneath the waves.

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After finishing college,
I'd been working on other documentaries,

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but at 22, I was ready
to embark on making my own film

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on just how incredible the oceans were.

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It's home for up to 80%
of all life on Earth.

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And with the vast majority of our seas
still unexplored till this day,

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for me, the oceans were
an indestructible source of inspiration.

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But not long into starting the project,

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this romantic vision that I always had
of the ocean completely changed.

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[reporter 1] …beached whale found
off the country's coast earlier this week

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had more than 30 plastic bags
inside its stomach.

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[reporter 2] It's the 29th whale of this
species to become stranded across Europe

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in the last two weeks.

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This represents the largest
stranding episode in the last 100 years.

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-[reporter 3] …washed up on a beach…
-[reporter 4] In the UK, 4 others died

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in a number of beachings nearby
in recent days…

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[Ali] When news started coming in
of whales washing up on beaches,

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even along the Southeast coast
of England where I lived,

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I was forced to confront
a side of the story I never knew.

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A story of just how huge our impact
on the seas had become.

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These animals washing up
with their stomachs filled with plastic

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was devastating not only
because of their incredible intelligence,

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but because they even help
keep the entire ocean alive.

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When dolphins and whales
return to the surface to breathe,

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they fertilize tiny marine plants
in the ocean called phytoplankton,

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which every year absorb four times
the amount of carbon dioxide

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than the Amazon rain forest does,

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and generates up to 85%
of the oxygen we breathe.

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So in a world concerned with carbon
and climate change,

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protecting these animals
meant protecting the entire planet.

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The way I saw it was
if dolphins and whales die,

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the ocean dies.

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And if the ocean dies, so do we.

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But with so many whales washing up dead,
the future looked bleak.

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Plastic was invading every last corner
of the world's seas,

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with huge floating garbage patches
accumulating in the middle of the ocean,

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like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

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In fact, today,

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the equivalent
of a garbage truckload of plastic

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is dumped in the sea every single minute,

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joining the over 150 million tons
already floating there.

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But this plastic breaks down into smaller
and smaller pieces known as microplastics,

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which now outnumber the stars
in the Milky Way galaxy

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by at least 500 times,

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and is seeping into every living creature
in the ocean.

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Essentially, our oceans
have turned into a toxic plastic soup.

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And worst of all,
I was a massive part of the problem.

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Although I signed petitions
and subscribed to ocean newsletters,

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I did nothing to actually protect
what I loved.

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So from then on,

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I did what any self-respecting
Jacques Cousteau wannabe would do.

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I became the plastic police.

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I donated to every ocean charity I could.

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[mouse clicking]

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Attended beach cleanups,

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and carried reusable cutlery
and a drink bottle wherever I went.

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My mission was simple.

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Stop the world from using
plastic toothbrushes,

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straws, cutlery, bottles, bags,

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or anything single-use plastic.

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And I was gonna stop at nothing
until my message was heard.

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-[line ringing]
-[woman] Seaside Fish and Chips.

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Yeah, hi. My name's Ali.

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I'm just wondering
if you'd swap out your plastic straws

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'cause it's killing whales
and baby sea turtles.

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[phone disconnects]

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Hello?

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But that didn't stop me
from tackling this plague of plastic.

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So, this is my first beach.
In just one hour,

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I've been able to collect
three whole bags full of plastic trash.

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There's takeaway food packaging,

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there's cutlery, there's straws,
there's everything.

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I even found Nemo.

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Onto the next beach.

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But no matter what beach I went to

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or how much I collected,

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there was always more plastic,
and more animals washing up.

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After months of this,

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and as I began to wonder if this really
was the best way to save marine life,

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I came across this.

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Japan has confirmed it will resume
commercial whale hunting,

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and is withdrawing from
the International Whaling Commission.

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[reporter] The country's whaling fleet
set sail for the Antarctic last Tuesday.

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Tokyo says it plans to kill
despite a worldwide ban.

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[Ali] So, this is the news
I woke up to today.

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The Japanese government want to
resume whaling in the Antarctic again.

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I knew that dolphins and whales
were dying accidentally from plastic,

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but I never dreamed
that they'd be targeted on purpose

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by an industry I thought
only existed in the history books.

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I did some research and found there's been
an international whaling ban since 1986.

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However, several countries have operated
under the radar for years,

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most notoriously, though, is Japan.

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Logistically, it was extremely challenging
to film or do anything

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about the whaling in Antarctica.

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But I found there was one place
in the south of Japan

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where this industry could still be seen
operating from the coast,

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in a place called Taiji,

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where each year over 700 dolphins
and small whales are herded into a cove

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for slaughter.

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I wanted to find out

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just how big of a threat
Japan's whaling practices were

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compared to plastic.

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So I set up a meeting
with one of the few activists

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who'd been involved in this issue
for years, a guy named Ric O'Barry.

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The Japanese government
go through a lot of trouble

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to make sure
that people don't know about this.

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If you went there,
and you didn't know what you were doing,

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you could get arrested,
and you could be in jail a very long time.

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Because they're trying
to get rid of people

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who are opposed to their war on dolphins.

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When you first show up in Taiji,

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immediately, the police are on you.

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They're at your hotel.
They're following you everywhere you go.

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You got the Yakuza,
you got the right wing,

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you got the government, the fishermen,
you got everybody against you.

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The room is bugged,
the telephone is bugged.

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The television
is actually photographing you

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while you're in your room.

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So you ask what, how--
What happens when you go to Taiji?

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Just know that all of those people
are watching you,

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and they are trying to figure out,

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"How do we take these people out?"

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[Ali] But if it's so risky to go,

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and there are other issues
affecting the entire ocean,

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like plastic washing up everywhere,
then why go to Taiji?

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Showing up in Taiji with a camera
is extremely important.

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If we can't fix this,

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what are you talking about,
saving the ocean?

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How can you do that?
You can't even fix this.

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This is the size of a football field.

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[suspenseful music playing]

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[Ali] My head was still
filled with questions,

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but with the dolphin hunt just starting,

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I knew that figuring out
what was going on in Taiji

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would give me a better understanding
of the bigger picture

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of how to save the ocean.

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Either I stayed home picking up trash
on beaches all day,

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or take a risk and find out
if there was a bigger threat to the sea.

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So I dropped all my other projects,

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packed my camera bags,
convinced my partner Lucy to join me,

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and with the mission to expose
what was truly happening to our oceans,

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got the next flight out to Japan.

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[suspenseful music continues]

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[siren wailing]

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[officer] Where are you going today?

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[Ali] Oh, we just arrived.
We're just visiting the area.

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[officers speaking Japanese]

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-[officer 2 in English] Holiday?
-Holiday. Yeah.

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Drive safe.

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Thank you.

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What the hell?

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From that point on,
we had an entourage of police,

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secret service, undercover cops,

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and the coast guard
following us everywhere.

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[ominous music playing]

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[phone buzzing]

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Is it the police?

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[Lucy] Yeah, they're out there.
Let's go out the back.

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-[car door slams]
-[engine revs]

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[Ali] So, arrived in Taiji,

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and first thing in the morning,
decided to head to the harbor.

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Pretty quickly,
boats start heading out to sea.

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There was about 13 of them in total,
and they were gone for several hours.

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When they returned,
they returned in formation

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and were billowing black smoke
from their exhaust pipes.

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And banging on poles in the water

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to try and scare a huge pod of dolphins
closer to land,

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and then maneuver them into a cove
where I'm standing above right now.

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It's impossible to see exactly
what's going on.

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There's a lot of splashing.

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There's people down there
wrestling these dolphins.

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Whatever is going on,
they don't want us filming.

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Police are trying to search for us.

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It's really tough conditions
to try and film this stuff.

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The Taiji dolphin drives
continue to be supported,

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underwritten, funded by
the marine park entertainment industry.

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A live dolphin really is very expensive.

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And so,

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the big ticket is catching
young dolphins and whales,

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and selling them to marine parks.

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What captivity in concrete tanks does

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is it takes away everything
that makes life worth living for them.

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Everything they need to do, they can't do.

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And everything they don't want to do,
they're forced to do.

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[Ali] I had enjoyed going to these
marine parks my whole life,

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but never even questioned how the animals
got there in the first place.

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But now, knowing it was connected
to industries like whaling

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made me pledge
to never go to these parks again.

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But every day in Taiji
was like Groundhog Day,

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witnessing boats go out,
dolphins driven in,

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and the inevitable capture
and mass slaughter of the pod

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again, and again, and again.

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Before we knew it,
we'd been in Taiji for over a week,

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but still couldn't figure out
why on Earth they were killing them,

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since dead dolphins don't perform tricks.

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Lucy, show me again
what you just found out.

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I've just been doing the maths
from the data online,

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and from 2000 to 2015,
for every one dolphin captured,

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at least 12 more were killed.
It doesn't make any sense.

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00:13:09,079 --> 00:13:11,332
I don't know why they're killing
all these dolphins.

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So, if the annual Taiji dolphin drive
is fueled by the captivity industry,

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it begs the question,

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"Why kill the dolphins
that aren't selected for captivity?"

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There's very little reason
to slaughter them.

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There's no market for dolphin meat.

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Why not just release them
back into the sea?

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And the answer to that question
is pest control.

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The fishermen view the dolphins
as competition.

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They feel that they eat too many fish,

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and if they get rid of the dolphins,

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there will be more fish available
for them to catch.

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Essentially, the slaughter
of these dolphins is a reaction

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to the overfishing
that's happening here in Taiji.

241
00:13:49,662 --> 00:13:53,249
[Ali] If this was true, that dolphins were
being blamed for the overfishing,

242
00:13:53,332 --> 00:13:56,335
then boycotting marine parks
wasn't gonna stop this.

243
00:13:56,418 --> 00:13:59,171
So to find out more,
we decided to visit a local fishing port

244
00:13:59,255 --> 00:14:00,965
just a stone's throw from Taiji.

245
00:14:01,549 --> 00:14:03,551
[suspenseful music playing]

246
00:14:04,552 --> 00:14:07,388
However, upon arrival, we quickly learned

247
00:14:07,471 --> 00:14:09,473
this wasn't just any fishing port.

248
00:14:13,519 --> 00:14:16,105
-[Lucy] Ali. Ali, what is it?
-[exhales]

249
00:14:17,147 --> 00:14:18,357
This is just tuna.

250
00:14:19,108 --> 00:14:20,526
This is the tuna industry.

251
00:14:21,402 --> 00:14:25,739
We had just stumbled across one
of the largest tuna ports in the world,

252
00:14:25,823 --> 00:14:27,825
which landed bluefin tuna,

253
00:14:27,908 --> 00:14:30,286
the most expensive fish on the planet.

254
00:14:30,369 --> 00:14:33,539
Just one of these fish sold
in Tokyo's fish market

255
00:14:33,622 --> 00:14:35,916
for over three million dollars.

256
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:37,376
I had read about these fish.

257
00:14:37,459 --> 00:14:39,169
They were like the cheetahs of the ocean,

258
00:14:39,253 --> 00:14:42,548
warm-blooded,
and can accelerate faster than a Ferrari.

259
00:14:42,631 --> 00:14:46,760
But due to high prices, the only direction
they were accelerating in

260
00:14:46,844 --> 00:14:48,095
was into extinction.

261
00:14:48,637 --> 00:14:52,141
Today, less than 3%
of the species remain.

262
00:14:52,224 --> 00:14:54,643
They were once thriving just decades ago.

263
00:14:59,690 --> 00:15:02,067
It's not just bluefin though,
it's all tuna.

264
00:15:02,651 --> 00:15:05,362
There's everything here.
This is sold around the world.

265
00:15:05,446 --> 00:15:09,617
This is a $42-billion-a-year industry.
And it's at threat from overfishing.

266
00:15:09,700 --> 00:15:11,702
Of course they're gonna
blame the dolphins.

267
00:15:11,785 --> 00:15:13,579
The excuse of killing dolphins

268
00:15:13,662 --> 00:15:16,790
for the crime of eating too many fish
was a lie.

269
00:15:16,874 --> 00:15:19,418
In reality,
what they were doing was killing dolphins

270
00:15:19,501 --> 00:15:21,170
as a scapegoat for the overfishing.

271
00:15:21,253 --> 00:15:23,839
That way,
they can continue participating

272
00:15:23,923 --> 00:15:26,091
in the multibillion-dollar tuna industry,

273
00:15:26,175 --> 00:15:29,136
and wash off
any ecological responsibility.

274
00:15:29,219 --> 00:15:31,764
I learned one of
the world's largest tuna companies

275
00:15:31,847 --> 00:15:33,265
belonged to Mitsubishi,

276
00:15:33,349 --> 00:15:36,769
who control 40%
of the world's endangered bluefin.

277
00:15:36,852 --> 00:15:38,687
Since they were based in Japan,

278
00:15:38,771 --> 00:15:41,398
we surprised them
by showing up at their head office.

279
00:15:42,441 --> 00:15:44,401
I was wondering
if we could do a quick interview.

280
00:15:44,485 --> 00:15:47,988
We have questions about why your company
is wiping out an endangered species,

281
00:15:48,072 --> 00:15:50,157
and how that's connected
to killing dolphins.

282
00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:53,786
-[woman] Our company refused, so…
-[man] Yeah.

283
00:15:53,869 --> 00:15:55,663
[Ali] Your company refuses all interviews?

284
00:15:55,746 --> 00:15:57,039
[woman] Yes, all interviews.

285
00:15:57,581 --> 00:16:00,834
[Ali] We're asked to turn our cameras off,
and leave immediately.

286
00:16:02,127 --> 00:16:03,420
Back at the fishing port,

287
00:16:03,504 --> 00:16:07,716
I noticed that tuna weren't the only
highly-prized species they were landing.

288
00:16:11,595 --> 00:16:13,847
Sharks were everywhere,

289
00:16:14,556 --> 00:16:16,850
and they were all having their fins
sliced off.

290
00:16:20,229 --> 00:16:21,855
[man] Turn off the video!

291
00:16:22,690 --> 00:16:25,067
Shut! [speaking indistinctly]

292
00:16:25,859 --> 00:16:28,445
-Camera shut!
-[Ali] Why don't you want me filming?

293
00:16:30,155 --> 00:16:34,159
[de Gelder] The shark-finning industry
is a multi-billion dollar industry

294
00:16:34,243 --> 00:16:37,955
and is oftentimes
heavily criminally involved

295
00:16:38,038 --> 00:16:40,082
and Mafia-esque run.

296
00:16:40,165 --> 00:16:42,793
They don't want people
with cameras sniffing around

297
00:16:42,876 --> 00:16:44,628
because they don't wanna get exposed

298
00:16:44,712 --> 00:16:47,214
for all of the shady things that they do.

299
00:16:47,297 --> 00:16:50,217
So sharks around the world
are being killed for their fins.

300
00:16:50,300 --> 00:16:53,554
These fins are being shipped to Asia,
and predominantly China,

301
00:16:53,637 --> 00:16:54,680
for shark fin soup,

302
00:16:54,763 --> 00:16:56,390
which is held as a status symbol.

303
00:16:56,473 --> 00:17:00,019
It has no nutritional benefits,
it really doesn't taste like much,

304
00:17:00,102 --> 00:17:02,855
and it can cost anywhere upwards
of $100 a bowl.

305
00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:05,190
[Ali] Seeing so many sharks finned,

306
00:17:05,274 --> 00:17:07,901
and being kicked out of the port
just for filming,

307
00:17:07,985 --> 00:17:09,403
only made me want to learn more.

308
00:17:09,486 --> 00:17:12,948
Since we had discovered all we could
about dolphin hunting in Taiji,

309
00:17:13,032 --> 00:17:16,702
we decided to follow the shark story
to try and understand what impact

310
00:17:16,785 --> 00:17:19,121
this industry was having
on the world's oceans.

311
00:17:20,664 --> 00:17:22,583
[traffic sounds]

312
00:17:22,666 --> 00:17:25,836
Just a hop over the ocean from Japan
is Hong Kong,

313
00:17:25,919 --> 00:17:28,130
otherwise known as Shark Fin City.

314
00:17:28,213 --> 00:17:31,091
We arrived to find streets
filled with shark fins,

315
00:17:31,175 --> 00:17:34,386
and huge quantities being offloaded
from trucks on every corner.

316
00:17:36,221 --> 00:17:38,557
We tried to film the fins up close,

317
00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:40,934
but were met
with the same response as before.

318
00:17:41,852 --> 00:17:42,978
Go, go! No, no!

319
00:17:44,229 --> 00:17:47,733
-[speaking Chinese]
-[Ali in English] We can't film?

320
00:17:49,276 --> 00:17:50,903
Are you gonna hit me with a chair?

321
00:17:51,904 --> 00:17:53,155
All right, we're going.

322
00:17:53,238 --> 00:17:54,990
[horn honking]

323
00:17:55,074 --> 00:17:56,241
-No photography?
-[man] No.

324
00:17:56,325 --> 00:17:58,368
-Why? Why you are filming?
-[Ali] Huh?

325
00:17:58,452 --> 00:17:59,953
Why you are taking the photo?

326
00:18:00,037 --> 00:18:01,663
You didn't get any permission.

327
00:18:01,747 --> 00:18:02,664
Delete the photo.

328
00:18:02,748 --> 00:18:03,582
Delete first.

329
00:18:03,957 --> 00:18:05,125
[Ali] Hey, hey, hey!

330
00:18:06,794 --> 00:18:10,047
Filming in Shark Fin City
was proving harder than we thought.

331
00:18:10,130 --> 00:18:14,551
So in order to see these fins up close,
we got ourselves some spy cameras.

332
00:18:15,552 --> 00:18:17,513
[indistinct conversations]

333
00:18:21,850 --> 00:18:23,560
-Wow.
-[woman speaking Chinese]

334
00:18:28,398 --> 00:18:30,359
I used to be scared of sharks as a kid.

335
00:18:31,110 --> 00:18:35,155
People should not be afraid
of having sharks in the ocean.

336
00:18:35,239 --> 00:18:37,991
They should be afraid
of not having sharks in the ocean.

337
00:18:38,075 --> 00:18:40,202
The sharks keep the oceans healthy.

338
00:18:40,285 --> 00:18:43,247
They keep the fish stocks healthy.
They keep the ecosystems alive.

339
00:18:43,330 --> 00:18:44,957
They keep the coral reefs alive.

340
00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:46,542
If we don't have these sharks,

341
00:18:46,625 --> 00:18:49,128
if these sharks
get finned into extinction,

342
00:18:49,211 --> 00:18:50,796
the ocean's gonna turn into a swamp.

343
00:18:50,879 --> 00:18:52,506
And guess who's gonna die next?

344
00:18:52,589 --> 00:18:53,423
Us.

345
00:18:53,507 --> 00:18:57,010
And a lot of people would think I'd
be the last person to stand up for sharks.

346
00:18:57,094 --> 00:19:00,722
I was attacked by a shark
after serving 12 years in the military.

347
00:19:00,806 --> 00:19:02,891
I was on a counter-terrorism exercise

348
00:19:02,975 --> 00:19:05,269
in Sydney Harbor,
and a bull shark attacked me.

349
00:19:05,352 --> 00:19:07,187
But knowledge dispels fear.

350
00:19:07,271 --> 00:19:09,982
And through necessity,
I learned about the plight of sharks

351
00:19:10,065 --> 00:19:13,068
through working
within the shark filming industry

352
00:19:13,152 --> 00:19:14,236
over the last decade.

353
00:19:14,778 --> 00:19:17,656
[Ali] It turned out sharks
were just as important

354
00:19:17,739 --> 00:19:18,907
as dolphins and whales

355
00:19:18,991 --> 00:19:20,659
in keeping the ocean alive.

356
00:19:22,494 --> 00:19:24,246
But for the first time ever,

357
00:19:24,329 --> 00:19:27,541
sharks were in danger of going extinct
because of us.

358
00:19:28,417 --> 00:19:32,171
Like bluefin tuna,
shark populations were crashing,

359
00:19:32,254 --> 00:19:35,257
with species like thresher, bull,
and hammerhead sharks

360
00:19:35,340 --> 00:19:39,011
losing up to 80 to 99%
of their populations

361
00:19:39,094 --> 00:19:40,721
in just the last few decades.

362
00:19:40,804 --> 00:19:44,474
And it was causing other unlikely species
to die out with them.

363
00:19:44,975 --> 00:19:47,853
Over the period
that we've been monitoring seabirds,

364
00:19:47,936 --> 00:19:49,938
since about 1950,

365
00:19:50,022 --> 00:19:53,692
the abundance of seabirds
has declined by about 70%.

366
00:19:53,775 --> 00:19:56,653
And if you look at how they feed,
you can understand why.

367
00:19:56,737 --> 00:19:59,948
And what they do is
they kind of lightly dip down to the sea,

368
00:20:00,032 --> 00:20:02,534
and they pick little fish off the surface.

369
00:20:02,618 --> 00:20:04,536
And where seabirds are doing their best

370
00:20:04,620 --> 00:20:07,122
is where predatory fish are driving shoals

371
00:20:07,206 --> 00:20:10,167
of tiny bait fish to the surface,
where the terns can get them.

372
00:20:10,250 --> 00:20:12,127
When you overfish the predators,

373
00:20:12,211 --> 00:20:14,504
they no longer drive the shoals

374
00:20:14,588 --> 00:20:16,965
to the surface,
so there's not enough food for the birds.

375
00:20:17,049 --> 00:20:20,385
So the loss of fish
across the world's oceans is bringing us

376
00:20:20,969 --> 00:20:25,682
into direct competition with whales,
dolphins, seabirds, for prey,

377
00:20:25,766 --> 00:20:29,019
and that's causing their populations
to decline even further.

378
00:20:29,686 --> 00:20:31,396
Sharks are apex predators.

379
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:33,815
So they're at the very, very top
of the food chain.

380
00:20:33,899 --> 00:20:35,734
They are what I call level one.

381
00:20:36,401 --> 00:20:37,819
They eat level two.

382
00:20:37,903 --> 00:20:40,239
They eat the poor,
the sick, the weak of level two.

383
00:20:40,322 --> 00:20:42,032
But when you take away level one,

384
00:20:42,616 --> 00:20:44,701
level two then overpopulates.

385
00:20:44,785 --> 00:20:46,703
And level two eats level three.

386
00:20:46,787 --> 00:20:48,580
So they'll actually overpopulate.

387
00:20:48,664 --> 00:20:51,959
They'll wipe out their food supply,
which is level three.

388
00:20:52,042 --> 00:20:53,752
And then, level two's got nothing to eat.

389
00:20:53,835 --> 00:20:56,213
So level two then disappears,
and they go extinct.

390
00:20:56,296 --> 00:20:58,632
And it carries on down the food chain,

391
00:20:58,715 --> 00:21:00,550
down to the smallest organisms.

392
00:21:00,634 --> 00:21:03,804
So when we talk about saving sharks
and how important they are,

393
00:21:03,887 --> 00:21:06,223
even though people
don't necessarily like them,

394
00:21:06,306 --> 00:21:08,642
they are that key
to the survival of our oceans.

395
00:21:08,725 --> 00:21:10,560
Around the world, on average,

396
00:21:10,644 --> 00:21:13,355
sharks kill about ten people per year.

397
00:21:13,438 --> 00:21:15,232
Now, comparatively speaking,

398
00:21:15,315 --> 00:21:20,487
we kill 11,000 to 30,000 sharks per hour.

399
00:21:21,071 --> 00:21:24,533
The crazy thing is,
almost half of those sharks killed

400
00:21:24,616 --> 00:21:27,494
are killed as bycatch
from commercial fishing fleets.

401
00:21:27,577 --> 00:21:30,789
And they're discarded as waste
back into the ocean.

402
00:21:30,872 --> 00:21:33,166
[Ali] Bycatch was
all the other marine life

403
00:21:33,250 --> 00:21:35,585
caught while trying to catch
a target species.

404
00:21:35,669 --> 00:21:38,171
And I was shocked to learn
that every year,

405
00:21:38,255 --> 00:21:41,341
at least 50 million sharks
are caught in nets this way,

406
00:21:41,425 --> 00:21:44,177
side by side with our favorite seafood.

407
00:21:45,721 --> 00:21:48,932
Studies estimate that up to 40%
of all marine life caught

408
00:21:49,016 --> 00:21:51,727
gets thrown right back overboard
as bycatch,

409
00:21:51,810 --> 00:21:54,855
and most of them die
before they even hit the water.

410
00:21:56,815 --> 00:21:59,776
So stopping shark fin soup
is only half the picture.

411
00:21:59,860 --> 00:22:03,447
The problem is
that eating fish is just as bad,

412
00:22:03,530 --> 00:22:06,158
if not worse
than the shark finning industry,

413
00:22:06,241 --> 00:22:09,995
because the shark finning industry
is strictly held in Asia,

414
00:22:10,078 --> 00:22:13,373
whereas everyone around the world
is eating fish.

415
00:22:13,457 --> 00:22:17,085
I refer to bycatch
as the invisible victims

416
00:22:17,169 --> 00:22:18,670
of the fishing industry.

417
00:22:18,754 --> 00:22:21,381
The industry will call bycatch
"accidental take,"

418
00:22:21,465 --> 00:22:24,259
but there's nothing accidental
about bycatch.

419
00:22:24,343 --> 00:22:27,637
It's factored into the economics
of fishing.

420
00:22:27,721 --> 00:22:31,350
In those fisheries where we have
a better understanding of bycatch,

421
00:22:31,433 --> 00:22:33,727
the numbers can be alarming.

422
00:22:33,810 --> 00:22:35,771
And so to give you one example,

423
00:22:35,854 --> 00:22:38,690
in Iceland, in a one-month fishery,

424
00:22:38,774 --> 00:22:42,319
that fishery caught
269 harbor porpoises,

425
00:22:42,402 --> 00:22:45,572
something like 900 seals
of four different species,

426
00:22:45,655 --> 00:22:47,949
and 5,000 seabirds.

427
00:22:48,033 --> 00:22:51,953
And that's just one little fishery
in one little part of Iceland.

428
00:22:52,037 --> 00:22:53,789
Taken across the world's oceans,

429
00:22:53,872 --> 00:22:56,958
the amount of bycatch is huge.

430
00:22:57,918 --> 00:23:01,546
[Ali] What made matters worse
was that this destructive fishery

431
00:23:01,630 --> 00:23:05,509
had been awarded for its
sustainable fishing practices for years

432
00:23:05,592 --> 00:23:08,762
by the very label I had trusted
whenever I bought seafood,

433
00:23:08,845 --> 00:23:10,472
the MSC blue tick.

434
00:23:11,139 --> 00:23:14,768
I contacted the charity who hand out
the labels about doing an interview,

435
00:23:14,851 --> 00:23:16,478
but I received no reply.

436
00:23:17,104 --> 00:23:18,021
In the meantime,

437
00:23:18,105 --> 00:23:21,525
I discovered there were already over
a hundred different fishing regulations

438
00:23:21,608 --> 00:23:24,027
on paper
for reducing this kind of bycatch.

439
00:23:24,111 --> 00:23:25,570
The problem was,

440
00:23:25,654 --> 00:23:29,199
with over four and a half million
commercial fishing vessels at sea,

441
00:23:29,282 --> 00:23:32,411
it was a problem governments
had practically given up on enforcing.

442
00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:34,246
Apparently, though,

443
00:23:34,329 --> 00:23:36,415
there was one vigilante organization

444
00:23:36,498 --> 00:23:38,417
who are filling this law enforcement void.

445
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:41,586
A volunteer-run group
who sail around the world

446
00:23:41,670 --> 00:23:42,671
and into harm's way

447
00:23:42,754 --> 00:23:46,466
in order to protect marine life
and bring ocean criminals to justice.

448
00:23:47,050 --> 00:23:49,177
The marine conservation group
Sea Shepherd,

449
00:23:49,261 --> 00:23:52,806
who have even sunk 13 whaling
and illegal fishing ships,

450
00:23:52,889 --> 00:23:56,643
and rammed a further five,
all without harming a single person.

451
00:23:58,353 --> 00:24:00,063
And by getting up close and personal

452
00:24:00,147 --> 00:24:02,065
with the industries that are
destroying the ocean,

453
00:24:02,149 --> 00:24:04,943
they have made some shocking discoveries.

454
00:24:05,026 --> 00:24:08,071
One of the recent discoveries
that Sea Shepherd has made

455
00:24:08,155 --> 00:24:09,656
is that on the Atlantic French coast

456
00:24:09,739 --> 00:24:13,994
up to 10,000 dolphins
are being killed every year by bycatch.

457
00:24:14,077 --> 00:24:17,706
So this is ten times more
than dolphins being killed in Taiji,

458
00:24:17,789 --> 00:24:18,999
and no one knew about it.

459
00:24:19,082 --> 00:24:22,085
This has been going on
for at least 30 years

460
00:24:22,169 --> 00:24:26,423
because the French government has been
very effective in hiding the problem.

461
00:24:26,506 --> 00:24:27,966
People love dolphins,

462
00:24:28,049 --> 00:24:31,219
and most of them have no idea
that when they eat fish,

463
00:24:31,303 --> 00:24:35,223
they're actually putting a death sentence
on the dolphin population in France.

464
00:24:41,271 --> 00:24:43,815
One of the most shocking things
that most people don't realize

465
00:24:43,899 --> 00:24:48,320
is that the greatest threat to whales
and dolphins is commercial fishing.

466
00:24:48,403 --> 00:24:51,615
Over 300,000 whales and dolphins
are killed every single year

467
00:24:51,698 --> 00:24:54,159
as bycatch of industrial fishing.

468
00:24:54,743 --> 00:24:58,497
[Ali] Well, what about sustainable labels,
things like Dolphin Safe tuna?

469
00:24:58,580 --> 00:25:02,375
For those of us who spend as much time
at sea as I do,

470
00:25:02,459 --> 00:25:07,047
uh, we realized that labels often obscure
what's really happening at sea.

471
00:25:07,130 --> 00:25:11,551
We caught tuna fishing vessels
who had slaughtered 45 dolphins

472
00:25:11,635 --> 00:25:13,094
to catch eight tunas.

473
00:25:13,178 --> 00:25:18,642
And that fishing vessel was
working for Dolphin Safe canned tuna.

474
00:25:18,725 --> 00:25:20,310
[ominous music playing]

475
00:25:20,393 --> 00:25:22,938
[Ali] I had learned
some shocking things so far,

476
00:25:23,021 --> 00:25:25,315
but this was just unbelievable.

477
00:25:25,398 --> 00:25:27,192
I couldn't verify these numbers online,

478
00:25:27,275 --> 00:25:29,194
and I was skeptical
to Sea Shepherd's claim

479
00:25:29,277 --> 00:25:30,612
against the organization.

480
00:25:30,695 --> 00:25:34,533
To find out for sure, I decided to meet
with the organization behind the label,

481
00:25:34,616 --> 00:25:36,326
the Earth Island Institute.

482
00:25:36,409 --> 00:25:39,371
What's the maximum number of dolphins
that can be killed in a net

483
00:25:39,454 --> 00:25:41,957
before the tuna is no longer Dolphin Safe?

484
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:44,167
Zero. [laughing] One.

485
00:25:45,085 --> 00:25:48,380
So, one dolphin and, you know, you're out.

486
00:25:48,964 --> 00:25:52,175
[Ali] So can you guarantee
that every can is dolphin-safe?

487
00:25:52,259 --> 00:25:53,343
Nope. Hm-mm.

488
00:25:53,426 --> 00:25:54,344
Nobody can.

489
00:25:54,427 --> 00:25:57,847
Once you're out there in the ocean,
how do you know what they're doing?

490
00:25:57,931 --> 00:26:00,684
Uh, we have observers on board.

491
00:26:00,767 --> 00:26:02,644
Uh, the observers can be bribed.

492
00:26:02,727 --> 00:26:06,356
[Ali] Wait, um--
Are your observers out at sea often?

493
00:26:06,439 --> 00:26:08,817
On a regular basis, no. Mm-mm.

494
00:26:08,900 --> 00:26:12,654
There's nobody out there witnessing
whether they kill dolphins or not.

495
00:26:12,737 --> 00:26:14,739
So how do you know it's dolphin-safe,

496
00:26:14,823 --> 00:26:19,202
especially when they're paying you
to license your Dolphin Safe label?

497
00:26:19,286 --> 00:26:22,163
What they're doing
is taking the captain's word for it.

498
00:26:22,247 --> 00:26:25,166
They look at the captain's log.
He says, "I didn't kill any dolphins."

499
00:26:25,250 --> 00:26:26,835
"Oh, okay. Here's your label."

500
00:26:26,918 --> 00:26:28,545
"That'll cost you blah-blah-blah."

501
00:26:28,628 --> 00:26:31,006
[Ali] So just--
just so I get my head around this,

502
00:26:31,089 --> 00:26:33,592
um, you have observers,
but they're rarely there,

503
00:26:33,675 --> 00:26:34,843
and they can be bribed.

504
00:26:34,926 --> 00:26:37,887
And so you can't guarantee
that Dolphin Safe tuna is dolphin-safe?

505
00:26:37,971 --> 00:26:42,142
That's certainly true
in terms of, uh, how the system works.

506
00:26:42,225 --> 00:26:45,437
[Ali] So, what are people meant to do now
if they want to protect dolphins?

507
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:47,772
What we tell them is
to buy Dolphin Safe tuna,

508
00:26:47,856 --> 00:26:50,191
tuna that's verified
by Earth Island Institute

509
00:26:50,275 --> 00:26:51,526
to be dolphin-safe.

510
00:26:51,610 --> 00:26:53,862
[Ali] But it's not guaranteed
to be dolphin-safe.

511
00:26:53,945 --> 00:26:55,989
Uh, nothing can guarantee
it's dolphin-safe.

512
00:26:56,072 --> 00:26:58,950
[Ali] Um, but if it's not guaranteed
to be dolphin-safe,

513
00:26:59,034 --> 00:27:00,702
why is it called Dolphin Safe?

514
00:27:00,785 --> 00:27:03,371
We can pretty well guarantee
it's dolphin-safe, yeah.

515
00:27:03,455 --> 00:27:05,707
[Ali] But you just told me
it's not guaranteed.

516
00:27:05,790 --> 00:27:08,418
It's not guaranteed
in the same way that, uh…

517
00:27:09,419 --> 00:27:13,173
The world is a difficult place sometimes.
[chuckles]

518
00:27:15,425 --> 00:27:16,801
[Ali] Conflict of interest?

519
00:27:16,885 --> 00:27:20,180
Yeah, I think it's a conflict of interest.
I also think it's fraud.

520
00:27:20,263 --> 00:27:23,642
So, I was working for them,
and I walked away from that.

521
00:27:23,725 --> 00:27:25,810
I was making more than $100,000 a year.

522
00:27:25,894 --> 00:27:28,772
Free life insurance.
Something I can't even buy.

523
00:27:28,855 --> 00:27:31,483
I left that because of their phony…

524
00:27:32,609 --> 00:27:35,820
Dolphin Safe tuna label.
I don't wanna be associated with that.

525
00:27:35,904 --> 00:27:38,114
[Ali] I couldn't believe
what I was hearing.

526
00:27:38,198 --> 00:27:40,617
The internationally recognized
seafood label

527
00:27:40,700 --> 00:27:44,287
was a complete fabrication
since it guaranteed nothing.

528
00:27:44,371 --> 00:27:47,999
At this point, I began to wonder
what else was being covered up.

529
00:27:48,583 --> 00:27:51,711
Even the groups
that are talking about marine plastic

530
00:27:51,795 --> 00:27:55,173
are highly reluctant to talk about
what a lot of that plastic is,

531
00:27:55,256 --> 00:27:58,259
which is fishing nets and fishing gear.

532
00:27:58,343 --> 00:28:00,762
We hear a lot
about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,

533
00:28:00,845 --> 00:28:04,599
and say, "Oh, isn't it terrible?
All our cotton buds and plastic bags

534
00:28:04,683 --> 00:28:07,644
are swirling around
in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

535
00:28:07,727 --> 00:28:10,063
Forty-six percent of it is fishing nets,

536
00:28:10,146 --> 00:28:13,149
discarded fishing nets,
which are far more dangerous

537
00:28:13,233 --> 00:28:15,944
for marine life than our plastic straws.

538
00:28:16,027 --> 00:28:18,446
Because, of course,
they're designed to kill.

539
00:28:18,530 --> 00:28:23,368
Now, this is so crashingly obvious,
why aren't we talking about it?

540
00:28:23,451 --> 00:28:28,081
Why aren't even the plastics campaigns
talking about fishing?

541
00:28:28,164 --> 00:28:30,125
[dramatic musical crescendo]

542
00:28:30,208 --> 00:28:32,168
[Ali] How had I not
heard about this before?

543
00:28:32,252 --> 00:28:35,213
Fishing vessels discard
a massive amount of ropes and lines,

544
00:28:35,296 --> 00:28:36,798
and this was a major problem.

545
00:28:37,382 --> 00:28:41,428
Today, even some of the most remote places
on Earth were awash with fishing gear.

546
00:28:42,512 --> 00:28:45,014
Like Henderson Island
in the Pacific Ocean,

547
00:28:46,474 --> 00:28:48,935
and Svalbard in the Arctic Circle.

548
00:28:49,894 --> 00:28:53,231
In fact, looking closer at some of
the whales that washed up in the UK

549
00:28:53,314 --> 00:28:54,482
when my journey began,

550
00:28:54,566 --> 00:28:57,694
I discovered fishing gear
was the main trash in their stomachs.

551
00:28:59,112 --> 00:29:02,657
This was the whale in the room
that no one was talking about.

552
00:29:03,867 --> 00:29:05,744
I even found that longline fishing

553
00:29:05,827 --> 00:29:09,080
sets enough fishing lines
to wrap around the entire planet

554
00:29:09,164 --> 00:29:12,333
500 times every single day.

555
00:29:14,419 --> 00:29:16,379
Although there isn't
a single fishery in the world

556
00:29:16,463 --> 00:29:18,506
that deliberately targets sea turtles,

557
00:29:18,590 --> 00:29:23,219
six out of seven species of sea turtle
are either threatened or endangered.

558
00:29:23,303 --> 00:29:26,598
Not because of climate change,
not because of ocean pollution,

559
00:29:26,681 --> 00:29:29,684
not because of plastics in the ocean,
but because of fishing.

560
00:29:29,768 --> 00:29:32,187
But this is an issue
that nobody wants to talk about.

561
00:29:32,979 --> 00:29:35,982
[Ali] Again, if this was true,
how come I'd never heard about it?

562
00:29:36,065 --> 00:29:39,402
All the headlines I'd ever seen
focused on plastic straws.

563
00:29:39,486 --> 00:29:41,696
So I decided to look into the research.

564
00:29:41,780 --> 00:29:45,533
A global study estimated
a conservative 1,000 sea turtle deaths

565
00:29:45,617 --> 00:29:47,243
from plastic per year.

566
00:29:47,327 --> 00:29:50,121
However, in the United States alone,

567
00:29:50,205 --> 00:29:54,334
250,000 sea turtles are captured, injured,

568
00:29:54,417 --> 00:29:57,712
or killed every year by fishing vessels.

569
00:29:57,796 --> 00:30:00,965
If a single sea turtle
with a straw in its nose went viral,

570
00:30:01,049 --> 00:30:03,301
then why wasn't this front page news?

571
00:30:03,968 --> 00:30:06,930
When I went on the websites
of leading marine organizations

572
00:30:07,013 --> 00:30:08,640
who tackle plastic pollution,

573
00:30:08,723 --> 00:30:11,601
I found pages and pages encouraging people

574
00:30:11,684 --> 00:30:14,020
to stop using everything from tea bags

575
00:30:14,103 --> 00:30:15,146
to chewing gum.

576
00:30:15,230 --> 00:30:16,940
But no mention whatsoever

577
00:30:17,023 --> 00:30:18,775
of what to do about fishing gear,

578
00:30:18,858 --> 00:30:20,860
that is if they even mentioned it.

579
00:30:20,944 --> 00:30:24,322
Instead, plastic straws
seemed to take up 99%

580
00:30:24,405 --> 00:30:27,742
of what these groups were talking about,
which became even more shocking

581
00:30:27,826 --> 00:30:32,914
when I found out plastic straws
only accounted for 0.03%

582
00:30:32,997 --> 00:30:35,083
of plastic entering the ocean.

583
00:30:35,667 --> 00:30:39,295
This was like trying to save
the Amazon rain forest and stop logging

584
00:30:39,379 --> 00:30:41,422
by boycotting toothpicks.

585
00:30:41,506 --> 00:30:43,258
It was barely a drop in the ocean.

586
00:30:43,341 --> 00:30:45,343
If fishing gear was such a huge problem,

587
00:30:45,426 --> 00:30:48,179
I wanted to know why
my favorite plastic organization

588
00:30:48,263 --> 00:30:49,389
wasn't talking about it.

589
00:30:49,472 --> 00:30:52,350
So, according to
the Plastic Pollution Coalition,

590
00:30:52,433 --> 00:30:55,645
what is the main source of plastic
in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

591
00:30:55,728 --> 00:30:56,813
Microplastics.

592
00:30:57,564 --> 00:31:00,733
Uh, for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,
I'm mostly finding microplastics.

593
00:31:00,817 --> 00:31:02,610
[Ali] Well, the latest study
actually showed

594
00:31:02,694 --> 00:31:04,988
that 46%
of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

595
00:31:05,071 --> 00:31:06,739
is fishing nets alone,

596
00:31:06,823 --> 00:31:10,159
and the majority of the other garbage
were other types of fishing gear.

597
00:31:10,243 --> 00:31:12,579
So wouldn't that be the majority?

598
00:31:12,662 --> 00:31:14,914
No, I wouldn't say…
I won't say the majority

599
00:31:14,998 --> 00:31:17,458
of the plastic in the jar is fishing nets.

600
00:31:17,542 --> 00:31:19,919
Um, it's-- it's a lot.
It's a-- it's a mix of things.

601
00:31:20,003 --> 00:31:22,046
[Ali] But a majority means over 50%,

602
00:31:22,130 --> 00:31:23,673
and fishing-related garbage

603
00:31:23,756 --> 00:31:25,717
in the patch is over 50%.

604
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:27,969
So wouldn't that make it the majority?

605
00:31:28,052 --> 00:31:29,512
Yeah. So if the-- if the--

606
00:31:29,596 --> 00:31:32,390
If it's close to 50%, that's, um, uh…

607
00:31:33,224 --> 00:31:34,559
Yes, plastic fishing nets.

608
00:31:34,642 --> 00:31:37,854
There is nothing that would compare
to that ratio as far as one item,

609
00:31:37,937 --> 00:31:38,771
you know.

610
00:31:38,855 --> 00:31:41,816
Uh, but the overwhelming, uh, thing is

611
00:31:41,900 --> 00:31:44,861
that it's-- it's plastic fishing nets.

612
00:31:44,944 --> 00:31:48,656
[Ali] Is there something that people
can do to stop this fishing net trash?

613
00:31:49,699 --> 00:31:53,578
Uh, one thing that you could do
is… is, uh, eliminate,

614
00:31:53,661 --> 00:31:57,582
or really, really reduce
your intake of-- of fish,

615
00:31:57,665 --> 00:32:00,627
and to really let those--
those populations rebound.

616
00:32:00,710 --> 00:32:04,339
But also, that will eliminate
as much materials being used

617
00:32:04,422 --> 00:32:05,506
to-- to get those fish.

618
00:32:05,590 --> 00:32:06,841
[Ali] Well, do you know why

619
00:32:06,925 --> 00:32:09,385
this important message
isn't on your website?

620
00:32:09,469 --> 00:32:12,138
I-- I don't-- I don't know.
I don't make the website.

621
00:32:12,221 --> 00:32:14,474
I mean, it'd be great for you
to talk to Dianna about it.

622
00:32:14,557 --> 00:32:16,893
She's the founder,
she's been in it, she's got the--

623
00:32:16,976 --> 00:32:18,770
She could probably
give you better answers.

624
00:32:20,521 --> 00:32:22,398
[Ali] So, Jackie was saying
that one of the ways

625
00:32:22,482 --> 00:32:25,443
to tackle the massive problem
of fishing nets in the ocean

626
00:32:25,526 --> 00:32:27,445
is to say no to eating fish.

627
00:32:27,528 --> 00:32:31,282
I was wondering why you haven't put
that important message on your website.

628
00:32:32,116 --> 00:32:34,535
A consumer message to eat less fish?

629
00:32:35,286 --> 00:32:36,663
Yeah, it's not my area.

630
00:32:36,746 --> 00:32:39,207
-It's not my area of focus. I hear you.
-[Ali] Yeah.

631
00:32:39,290 --> 00:32:41,084
I don't have time. We have an event.

632
00:32:41,167 --> 00:32:43,252
Can you turn off the cameras? Thanks.

633
00:32:44,337 --> 00:32:46,089
[Dianna] I'm not interested
in focusing there.

634
00:32:46,172 --> 00:32:48,466
I don't have an opinion about that.

635
00:32:49,175 --> 00:32:51,844
[Ali] I was talking about
what people can do to make a difference

636
00:32:51,928 --> 00:32:53,638
about fishing net trash in the ocean,

637
00:32:53,721 --> 00:32:56,224
and Jackie said to eliminate
or reduce fish consumption.

638
00:32:56,307 --> 00:32:58,977
-I asked if that was--
-[Dianna] She didn't say eliminate fish.

639
00:32:59,060 --> 00:33:00,728
-[Ali] She did.
-[Dianna] I know she didn't.

640
00:33:00,812 --> 00:33:05,608
…is, uh, eliminate or really,
really reduce your intake of-- of fish.

641
00:33:05,692 --> 00:33:08,695
-[Ali] She did. She--
-[Dianna] She didn't say eliminate fish.

642
00:33:08,778 --> 00:33:10,738
[Ali] I had no idea what was going on.

643
00:33:10,822 --> 00:33:12,615
Why was such a simple question

644
00:33:12,699 --> 00:33:14,575
receiving such backlash?

645
00:33:14,659 --> 00:33:16,828
My only option was to follow the money.

646
00:33:17,370 --> 00:33:18,371
So I did.

647
00:33:19,205 --> 00:33:21,541
And sure enough, there it was.

648
00:33:23,543 --> 00:33:26,045
Of course they're not gonna
talk about fishing nets.

649
00:33:26,129 --> 00:33:28,006
The Plastic Pollution Coalition

650
00:33:28,089 --> 00:33:31,467
is the same organization
as the Earth Island Institute.

651
00:33:31,551 --> 00:33:34,595
These are the same ones who are
behind the Dolphin Safe tuna label,

652
00:33:34,679 --> 00:33:37,432
who work with the fishing industry
to sell more seafood.

653
00:33:37,515 --> 00:33:40,601
No wonder why they don't talk about
the leading cause of plastic pollution

654
00:33:40,685 --> 00:33:42,061
in many parts of the world.

655
00:33:43,396 --> 00:33:45,398
Now, it's entirely right to say

656
00:33:45,481 --> 00:33:47,525
that we must use far less plastic.

657
00:33:47,608 --> 00:33:53,072
But even if not a single gram of plastic
entered the oceans

658
00:33:53,156 --> 00:33:54,949
from today onwards,

659
00:33:55,033 --> 00:33:58,244
we would still be ripping
those ecosystems apart

660
00:33:58,327 --> 00:34:01,831
because the biggest issue by far
is commercial fishing.

661
00:34:01,914 --> 00:34:04,208
It's not just far more damaging

662
00:34:04,292 --> 00:34:05,835
than plastic pollution,

663
00:34:05,918 --> 00:34:09,130
it's far more damaging than oil pollution
from oil spills.

664
00:34:09,714 --> 00:34:12,633
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico

665
00:34:12,717 --> 00:34:14,177
was the biggest in history.

666
00:34:14,260 --> 00:34:16,679
It gushed huge quantities of oil

667
00:34:16,763 --> 00:34:19,307
into the deep sea for a period of months.

668
00:34:19,390 --> 00:34:23,102
And everyone was appalled
at the death of wildlife on the beaches

669
00:34:23,186 --> 00:34:24,771
as the oil slopped ashore.

670
00:34:24,854 --> 00:34:27,857
But in fact,
the fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico

671
00:34:27,940 --> 00:34:31,319
destroyed more animals in a day

672
00:34:31,402 --> 00:34:34,322
than that oil spill did in months.

673
00:34:34,405 --> 00:34:37,533
Because large areas were closed to fishing

674
00:34:37,617 --> 00:34:40,411
because of the possibility
of being tainted by oil,

675
00:34:40,495 --> 00:34:42,288
marine life actually benefited

676
00:34:42,371 --> 00:34:44,665
from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

677
00:34:44,749 --> 00:34:47,001
because it got a respite from fishing.

678
00:34:48,002 --> 00:34:51,297
[Ali] I have a hard time accepting that
a fisherman on his little fishing boat

679
00:34:51,380 --> 00:34:53,216
-could be causing all this damage.
-Yeah.

680
00:34:53,299 --> 00:34:54,884
So, what's the deal?

681
00:34:54,967 --> 00:34:57,386
There's this image
of the fishing industry,

682
00:34:57,470 --> 00:35:00,473
which is deeply implanted in our minds
from childhood.

683
00:35:00,556 --> 00:35:01,891
It's a little red boat

684
00:35:01,974 --> 00:35:04,102
chugging across a sparkling sea

685
00:35:04,185 --> 00:35:06,229
with Captain Birdseye at the wheel,

686
00:35:06,312 --> 00:35:08,648
with his white beard,
and his twinkly blue eyes,

687
00:35:08,731 --> 00:35:10,024
and his fisherman's cap.

688
00:35:10,108 --> 00:35:14,070
And of course, what it really is,
is a death machine.

689
00:35:14,153 --> 00:35:19,242
This is a highly effective,
technological machine.

690
00:35:19,325 --> 00:35:23,830
You've got these massively powerful boats,
huge fishing ships,

691
00:35:23,913 --> 00:35:27,166
whose purpose is to mop up the animals

692
00:35:27,250 --> 00:35:31,045
which are at the basis
of the whole marine food chain,

693
00:35:31,129 --> 00:35:32,088
the fish.

694
00:35:33,131 --> 00:35:36,425
[Ali] Although I finally felt like I was
on the right track,

695
00:35:36,509 --> 00:35:38,302
I couldn't help but feel frustrated

696
00:35:38,386 --> 00:35:40,346
that the constant media
and global attention

697
00:35:40,429 --> 00:35:42,098
on plastics and fossil fuels

698
00:35:42,181 --> 00:35:45,309
were distracting from an industry
we hear almost nothing about,

699
00:35:45,393 --> 00:35:47,812
with a much, much greater impact
on the sea.

700
00:35:47,895 --> 00:35:48,980
Digging deeper,

701
00:35:49,063 --> 00:35:52,441
I discovered this was also true
when it came to coral reefs.

702
00:35:52,525 --> 00:35:56,529
With scientists predicting the loss
of 90% of reefs by the year 2050,

703
00:35:56,612 --> 00:35:59,949
the only mainstream narrative on why
reefs were dying was climate change.

704
00:36:00,449 --> 00:36:03,619
But hardly anyone was talking about
the fact fish were vital

705
00:36:03,703 --> 00:36:05,204
to keep corals alive.

706
00:36:06,873 --> 00:36:11,043
The ecosystem on coral reefs
is heavily based on recycling.

707
00:36:11,127 --> 00:36:14,463
When these animals excrete,
that is food for the corals.

708
00:36:14,547 --> 00:36:18,926
As fishermen come in and catch the fish,
not only is the fish suffering,

709
00:36:19,010 --> 00:36:23,306
but the products that the fish release
into the water is food for the corals,

710
00:36:23,389 --> 00:36:27,435
and the nutrients to replace them
and grow them up again will be lost.

711
00:36:27,518 --> 00:36:31,772
[Ali] Fishing has become the major threat
on many reefs around the world.

712
00:36:31,856 --> 00:36:33,941
From the Middle East to the Caribbean,

713
00:36:34,025 --> 00:36:37,778
where 90% of the large fish
which prospered there for millennia

714
00:36:37,862 --> 00:36:39,238
have now disappeared.

715
00:36:40,281 --> 00:36:42,909
So our oceans were clearly
at a turning point,

716
00:36:42,992 --> 00:36:45,369
and I needed definitive answers.

717
00:36:45,453 --> 00:36:47,246
I wanted to speak to conservationists

718
00:36:47,330 --> 00:36:49,332
who had spent their lives
trying to protect the sea,

719
00:36:49,415 --> 00:36:51,417
starting with meeting a living legend,

720
00:36:51,500 --> 00:36:54,295
and one of my all-time favorite heroes,
to tell me more.

721
00:36:54,378 --> 00:36:56,339
I'm Sylvia Earle, an oceanographer,

722
00:36:56,422 --> 00:36:59,008
explorer-in-residence
at the National Geographic,

723
00:36:59,091 --> 00:37:00,218
founder of Mission Blue,

724
00:37:00,301 --> 00:37:03,971
founder of Deep Ocean Exploration
and Research.

725
00:37:04,055 --> 00:37:06,390
So over the years, I've seen changes.

726
00:37:06,474 --> 00:37:07,475
I've been a witness

727
00:37:07,558 --> 00:37:11,896
to perhaps the greatest era
of discovery about the ocean.

728
00:37:11,979 --> 00:37:14,941
But at the same time,
the greatest era of loss.

729
00:37:15,024 --> 00:37:17,151
Since the middle of the 20th century,

730
00:37:17,235 --> 00:37:20,738
humans have succeeded
in extracting from the ocean,

731
00:37:20,821 --> 00:37:22,949
immense quantities of wildlife.

732
00:37:23,032 --> 00:37:25,993
The estimate is by the middle
of the 21st century,

733
00:37:26,077 --> 00:37:29,330
if we keep taking wild fish at the level
that we are today,

734
00:37:29,413 --> 00:37:30,998
there'll be no commercial fishing,

735
00:37:31,082 --> 00:37:33,834
because there won't be
enough fish to catch.

736
00:37:33,918 --> 00:37:36,504
In the middle of the North Sea
in the 1830s,

737
00:37:36,587 --> 00:37:38,923
a typical fishing boat
would be able to catch

738
00:37:39,006 --> 00:37:41,759
one or two tons of halibut every day.

739
00:37:41,842 --> 00:37:44,387
But today, the entire fishing fleet there

740
00:37:44,470 --> 00:37:47,765
catches about two tons of halibut
across the entire year,

741
00:37:47,848 --> 00:37:50,559
which means that halibut
is more than a thousand times

742
00:37:50,643 --> 00:37:52,645
less abundant today than it was then.

743
00:37:52,728 --> 00:37:55,064
We are at war with the oceans.

744
00:37:55,147 --> 00:37:58,109
And if we win this war,
we're going to lose it all,

745
00:37:58,192 --> 00:38:01,737
because mankind is not able
to live on this planet with a dead sea.

746
00:38:01,821 --> 00:38:06,701
It's the total industrialization
of fishing that is the problem here.

747
00:38:06,784 --> 00:38:09,328
We are pretty much destroying everything
at rapid speed.

748
00:38:10,329 --> 00:38:12,540
[Ali] Commercial fishing was essentially

749
00:38:12,623 --> 00:38:15,167
wildlife poaching on a mass scale,

750
00:38:15,251 --> 00:38:19,422
catching up to 2.7 trillion fish
every year,

751
00:38:19,505 --> 00:38:23,134
or up to five million
killed every single minute.

752
00:38:24,802 --> 00:38:26,429
No other industry on Earth

753
00:38:26,512 --> 00:38:29,098
killed anywhere near
as many animals as this trade,

754
00:38:29,181 --> 00:38:32,226
let alone wild species
that we barely understand.

755
00:38:32,310 --> 00:38:34,437
This has led to global fish populations,

756
00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:37,189
in some cases,
plummeting to near extinction.

757
00:38:37,273 --> 00:38:39,191
But perhaps one of the
most shocking facts of all

758
00:38:39,275 --> 00:38:42,194
came from one of the world's
leading fisheries experts

759
00:38:42,278 --> 00:38:45,323
estimating that if
current fishing trends continue,

760
00:38:45,406 --> 00:38:47,867
we will see virtually empty oceans

761
00:38:47,950 --> 00:38:50,119
by the year 2048.

762
00:38:50,202 --> 00:38:51,746
[dramatic musical swell]

763
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,501
The more I learned,
the more devastating this fact became,

764
00:38:57,585 --> 00:38:59,837
as I began to understand
just how interconnected

765
00:38:59,920 --> 00:39:01,839
each species were with each other,

766
00:39:01,922 --> 00:39:04,967
and even the role they play
in maintaining the chemistry of the ocean

767
00:39:05,051 --> 00:39:07,428
and our planet's atmosphere.

768
00:39:07,511 --> 00:39:10,222
It sounds just mind-blowing,

769
00:39:10,306 --> 00:39:13,517
but the power
of animals moving up and down

770
00:39:13,601 --> 00:39:17,021
through the water column,
in terms of mixing,

771
00:39:17,104 --> 00:39:21,025
is as great as all the wind, waves,

772
00:39:21,108 --> 00:39:24,403
tides, and currents in the seas combined.

773
00:39:24,487 --> 00:39:27,656
And this has a huge impact

774
00:39:27,740 --> 00:39:32,244
on the, the physics, the chemistry,
and the biology of the seas.

775
00:39:32,828 --> 00:39:34,288
[Ali] All this churning of the sea

776
00:39:34,372 --> 00:39:37,875
may be one of the ways the oceans
help absorb heat from the atmosphere.

777
00:39:37,958 --> 00:39:40,169
As animals swim through the water column,

778
00:39:40,252 --> 00:39:43,339
it creates a powerful down-welling
of the warmer surface waters

779
00:39:43,422 --> 00:39:45,216
to mix with the colder waters below.

780
00:39:45,299 --> 00:39:47,301
And although more research
needs to be done,

781
00:39:47,385 --> 00:39:50,888
the decimation of marine life
may be interfering with this process,

782
00:39:50,971 --> 00:39:53,349
and contributing
to warmer sea temperatures.

783
00:39:53,432 --> 00:39:56,060
The bottom line,
the oceans and the life within it

784
00:39:56,143 --> 00:39:59,146
play a much bigger role
in climate than we ever expected.

785
00:39:59,772 --> 00:40:02,650
And it turns out
that the life in the oceans

786
00:40:02,733 --> 00:40:06,237
is absolutely crucial
for holding on to carbon

787
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:09,990
and preventing it
from being released to the atmosphere.

788
00:40:10,074 --> 00:40:13,494
[Earle] We understand that leaving trees
or planting trees

789
00:40:13,577 --> 00:40:15,746
really helps the carbon equation,

790
00:40:15,830 --> 00:40:17,248
but nothing matters more

791
00:40:17,331 --> 00:40:20,960
than maintaining the integrity
of ocean systems.

792
00:40:21,043 --> 00:40:22,670
I mean, these big animals,

793
00:40:22,753 --> 00:40:24,088
even the little ones,

794
00:40:24,588 --> 00:40:25,798
they take up carbon.

795
00:40:25,881 --> 00:40:29,176
They sequester carbon
when they sink to the bottom of the ocean.

796
00:40:29,260 --> 00:40:31,887
The ocean is the biggest carbon sink
on the planet.

797
00:40:34,098 --> 00:40:37,351
If you want to address climate change,
the first thing you do

798
00:40:37,435 --> 00:40:39,103
is protect the ocean.

799
00:40:39,186 --> 00:40:42,022
And the solution to that is very simple:
leave it alone.

800
00:40:42,106 --> 00:40:44,442
I always equate it to
this being a spaceship.

801
00:40:44,525 --> 00:40:47,236
The Earth is a spaceship.
It's on a trip around the galaxy.

802
00:40:47,319 --> 00:40:49,572
It takes 250 million years
just to make one orbit.

803
00:40:49,655 --> 00:40:52,491
And every spaceship
has a life-support system,

804
00:40:52,575 --> 00:40:54,702
provides us with the food we eat,
the air we breathe,

805
00:40:54,785 --> 00:40:56,745
and regulates the climate,
the temperatures.

806
00:40:56,829 --> 00:41:00,374
That life support system is run by a crew
of earthlings,

807
00:41:00,458 --> 00:41:02,501
and there's only so many crew members
you can kill

808
00:41:02,585 --> 00:41:05,629
before the machinery begins to break down,
you run out of engineers.

809
00:41:05,713 --> 00:41:08,215
And that's what's happening,
we're killing off the crew.

810
00:41:08,299 --> 00:41:10,384
[ethereal music playing]

811
00:41:15,556 --> 00:41:18,517
[Ali] I discovered that one of
the most important crew members

812
00:41:18,601 --> 00:41:20,019
on this spaceship Earth

813
00:41:20,102 --> 00:41:22,146
were actually marine plants.

814
00:41:22,229 --> 00:41:24,523
Per acre, these coastal plants can store

815
00:41:24,607 --> 00:41:28,194
up to 20 times more carbon
than forests on land.

816
00:41:28,277 --> 00:41:32,781
In fact, 93% of all the world's CO2
is stored in the ocean

817
00:41:32,865 --> 00:41:35,910
with the help of marine vegetation,
algae, and coral.

818
00:41:35,993 --> 00:41:38,579
And losing just 1% of this ecosystem

819
00:41:38,662 --> 00:41:42,875
was equivalent to releasing
the emissions of 97 million cars.

820
00:41:43,417 --> 00:41:46,962
By, uh, continued extraction
of fish out of our oceans,

821
00:41:47,046 --> 00:41:48,964
you're essentially deforesting our oceans

822
00:41:49,048 --> 00:41:51,133
by not only removing the fish,

823
00:41:51,217 --> 00:41:52,593
but the act of removal,

824
00:41:52,676 --> 00:41:56,472
the methods of removal
are devastating to habitat, to ecosystems.

825
00:41:56,555 --> 00:41:59,975
And it's even more so there
because it's out of sight, out of mind.

826
00:42:00,059 --> 00:42:03,854
[Ali] Trawling was by far
the most destructive form of fishing.

827
00:42:03,938 --> 00:42:05,981
The largest trawl nets are so big

828
00:42:06,065 --> 00:42:07,691
they could swallow whole cathedrals

829
00:42:07,775 --> 00:42:10,236
or up to 13 jumbo jet planes.

830
00:42:10,319 --> 00:42:12,321
The nets drag heavy weights at the bottom,

831
00:42:12,404 --> 00:42:15,199
scarring the sea floor
that were once abundant with life,

832
00:42:15,282 --> 00:42:17,952
leaving nothing
but a barren wasteland behind.

833
00:42:18,035 --> 00:42:21,830
This was just like bulldozing
pristine Amazonian rain forest,

834
00:42:21,914 --> 00:42:24,291
except it was much, much worse.

835
00:42:24,375 --> 00:42:28,796
Every year, approximately 25 million
acres of forest are lost.

836
00:42:28,879 --> 00:42:32,633
This was equivalent to losing
about 27 soccer fields per minute.

837
00:42:32,716 --> 00:42:34,760
However, bottom trawling wipes out

838
00:42:34,843 --> 00:42:39,223
an estimated 3.9 billion acres every year.

839
00:42:39,807 --> 00:42:46,355
This was equivalent to losing
4,316 soccer fields every single minute.

840
00:42:46,438 --> 00:42:48,107
Tallied up across the year,

841
00:42:48,190 --> 00:42:50,651
this was equivalent
to wiping out the land area

842
00:42:50,734 --> 00:42:53,571
of Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland,

843
00:42:53,654 --> 00:42:57,157
Denmark, the UK, Germany, France, Spain,

844
00:42:57,241 --> 00:43:00,995
Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Iran, Thailand,

845
00:43:01,078 --> 00:43:03,539
and Australia combined.

846
00:43:04,456 --> 00:43:06,208
Where are the big environment groups?

847
00:43:06,292 --> 00:43:08,586
Why aren't they all over this like a rash?

848
00:43:08,669 --> 00:43:09,920
It's so obvious.

849
00:43:10,004 --> 00:43:11,672
It's just shouting in our faces.

850
00:43:11,755 --> 00:43:15,175
It is the fishing industry
that is destroying the fish

851
00:43:15,259 --> 00:43:17,303
and the rest of the life of the seas.

852
00:43:17,386 --> 00:43:20,306
How much more obvious does it need to be?

853
00:43:20,389 --> 00:43:23,100
And yet, for the most part,
they are silent.

854
00:43:23,183 --> 00:43:25,477
They're not speaking out against it.

855
00:43:25,561 --> 00:43:29,023
They are deliberately not engaging

856
00:43:29,106 --> 00:43:31,650
with the most important issue of all.

857
00:43:31,734 --> 00:43:33,444
Many, uh, researchers feel

858
00:43:33,527 --> 00:43:36,488
that we should be at about 30%
of our oceans being protected.

859
00:43:36,572 --> 00:43:41,160
But, in reality, we're at 5% now
of marine protected areas.

860
00:43:41,243 --> 00:43:43,412
But that's misleading because over 90%

861
00:43:43,495 --> 00:43:45,998
of those marine protected areas
still allow fishing.

862
00:43:46,081 --> 00:43:47,249
So in reality,

863
00:43:47,333 --> 00:43:49,877
less than 1% of all of our oceans
are being regulated.

864
00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:51,462
We hear a lot from governments

865
00:43:51,545 --> 00:43:53,297
about these marine protected areas.

866
00:43:53,380 --> 00:43:56,425
And one of the government ministers
was interviewed and asked,

867
00:43:56,508 --> 00:43:58,260
"In this particular protected area,

868
00:43:58,344 --> 00:44:01,096
what is the additional protection
you're actually giving it?"

869
00:44:01,180 --> 00:44:03,265
"Are you gonna protect it
against industrial fishing?"

870
00:44:03,349 --> 00:44:04,266
"No."

871
00:44:04,350 --> 00:44:06,185
"Are you gonna protect it
against oil drilling?"

872
00:44:06,268 --> 00:44:07,102
"No."

873
00:44:07,186 --> 00:44:09,271
"So, what are you actually
protecting it against?"

874
00:44:09,355 --> 00:44:11,774
"Well, we're going
to put some more restrictions

875
00:44:11,857 --> 00:44:12,983
on sea kayaking."

876
00:44:13,067 --> 00:44:14,068
Seriously?

877
00:44:14,151 --> 00:44:15,027
Kayaking?

878
00:44:15,110 --> 00:44:17,821
This was the only thing
she could come up with?

879
00:44:17,905 --> 00:44:19,823
It's an utter disgrace.

880
00:44:20,407 --> 00:44:23,911
[Ali] With virtually no marine protected
areas that didn't allow fishing,

881
00:44:23,994 --> 00:44:26,830
and global fish populations
on the brink of collapse,

882
00:44:26,914 --> 00:44:28,290
I began to question

883
00:44:28,374 --> 00:44:31,085
whether sustainable seafood
could even exist.

884
00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:34,004
I have looked long and hard,

885
00:44:34,088 --> 00:44:36,548
seriously, at trying to find an example

886
00:44:36,632 --> 00:44:41,512
of where a large-scale extraction
of wildlife is sustainable.

887
00:44:42,262 --> 00:44:43,305
[clicks tongue]

888
00:44:43,931 --> 00:44:47,267
It just doesn't exist.

889
00:44:47,810 --> 00:44:49,144
It's hard to say,

890
00:44:49,228 --> 00:44:51,355
"In some areas, fishing is okay,

891
00:44:51,438 --> 00:44:52,648
and in others, it's not."

892
00:44:52,731 --> 00:44:55,192
Because who will draw the line?

893
00:44:55,275 --> 00:44:59,488
How would you know if a fish is,
like, caught illegal,

894
00:44:59,571 --> 00:45:04,159
or is coming out of
a sustainable fishing method?

895
00:45:04,243 --> 00:45:06,662
Well, first of all, there's no such thing.
It's impossible.

896
00:45:06,745 --> 00:45:08,831
There's no such thing
as a sustainable fishery.

897
00:45:08,914 --> 00:45:10,749
There's not enough fish to justify that.

898
00:45:10,833 --> 00:45:12,459
Everything is now sustainable.

899
00:45:12,543 --> 00:45:14,878
It's not sustainable.
Just a marketing phrase, that's all.

900
00:45:15,462 --> 00:45:17,464
[Ali] So don't you agree
with organizations

901
00:45:17,548 --> 00:45:19,842
that recommend people
eat more sustainable seafood

902
00:45:19,925 --> 00:45:21,343
as a way to protect the ocean?

903
00:45:21,427 --> 00:45:23,303
No, I disagree with it completely.

904
00:45:23,387 --> 00:45:25,472
You know,
basically what they're trying to do

905
00:45:25,556 --> 00:45:27,891
is to appeal to the big tent.

906
00:45:27,975 --> 00:45:30,018
They want the people who eat fish
to support them.

907
00:45:30,102 --> 00:45:33,272
And this was a problem when I was
National Director for the Sierra Club,

908
00:45:33,355 --> 00:45:34,523
that was their problem.

909
00:45:34,606 --> 00:45:37,025
They didn't wanna come out
against hunting, against fishing,

910
00:45:37,109 --> 00:45:38,360
or against meat-eating.

911
00:45:38,444 --> 00:45:42,281
Because they thought they would
lose membership support if they did.

912
00:45:42,364 --> 00:45:45,075
A lot of these groups aren't interested
in solving the problem,

913
00:45:45,159 --> 00:45:47,453
they're interested
in exploiting the problem.

914
00:45:47,536 --> 00:45:50,873
There's a lot of groups out there,
climate change, conservation, whatever.

915
00:45:50,956 --> 00:45:53,917
It's a business.
It's a feel-good business.

916
00:45:54,001 --> 00:45:55,753
[Ali] I looked on Oceana's website.

917
00:45:55,836 --> 00:45:58,380
They were the world's largest
marine conservation group,

918
00:45:58,464 --> 00:46:00,174
but there wasn't a single mention

919
00:46:00,257 --> 00:46:02,634
of reducing or eliminating
seafood consumption.

920
00:46:02,718 --> 00:46:04,970
Instead, the organization recommends

921
00:46:05,053 --> 00:46:07,139
one of the best ways to save fish

922
00:46:07,222 --> 00:46:08,557
was to eat fish.

923
00:46:08,640 --> 00:46:11,351
Oceana were advocating
for sustainable fishing,

924
00:46:11,435 --> 00:46:14,396
so I decided to meet with the group
so they could explain what that meant.

925
00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:17,733
[Ali] What does sustainable fishing
actually mean? Who defines it?

926
00:46:17,816 --> 00:46:20,027
That's a really thoughtful question.

927
00:46:20,110 --> 00:46:21,361
Uh, sustainable--

928
00:46:21,445 --> 00:46:23,739
Sustainability is not defined as such.

929
00:46:23,822 --> 00:46:27,034
There is not a definition
of sustainability,

930
00:46:27,117 --> 00:46:29,077
as a whole, for fisheries.

931
00:46:29,161 --> 00:46:31,288
[Ali] Isn't it confusing, then, to say,

932
00:46:31,371 --> 00:46:32,790
"Eat sustainable fish,"

933
00:46:32,873 --> 00:46:34,792
if there's no universal definition for it?

934
00:46:34,875 --> 00:46:36,293
Uh, absolutely.

935
00:46:36,376 --> 00:46:39,254
No, the consumer can't
assess right now, uh, properly

936
00:46:39,338 --> 00:46:41,173
what fish is sustainable, what is not.

937
00:46:41,799 --> 00:46:43,342
Uh, there is full of advices,

938
00:46:43,425 --> 00:46:47,095
but it's true that the consumer can't
make an informed decision right now.

939
00:46:47,179 --> 00:46:49,056
[Ali] So if no one really knows
what it means,

940
00:46:49,139 --> 00:46:51,141
wouldn't a more effective strategy be

941
00:46:51,225 --> 00:46:54,102
to, say, reduce or eliminate
seafood consumption?

942
00:46:54,186 --> 00:46:56,355
Wouldn't that be the best for the ocean?

943
00:46:56,855 --> 00:46:57,981
[blows air]

944
00:46:58,065 --> 00:46:59,066
That's…

945
00:46:59,608 --> 00:47:01,568
I mean, it's difficult
to answer a question

946
00:47:01,652 --> 00:47:04,571
with such a deep reflection

947
00:47:04,655 --> 00:47:06,907
with, uh, so little time
to think about, right?

948
00:47:06,990 --> 00:47:10,118
Um, because we don't have a position
in that respect.

949
00:47:10,202 --> 00:47:11,954
We're never asked that question.

950
00:47:12,037 --> 00:47:13,789
[Ali] Oh, it would just be on the website.

951
00:47:13,872 --> 00:47:17,876
You know, "Number one thing you can do
for the ocean, reduce fish consumption."

952
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:19,795
-Something like that.
-Um…

953
00:47:20,379 --> 00:47:24,174
[Ali] I left the Oceana office with less
faith in the group than when I walked in.

954
00:47:24,258 --> 00:47:27,302
Disappointed that they were unable
to answer such a simple question

955
00:47:27,386 --> 00:47:28,720
about sustainable fishing.

956
00:47:28,804 --> 00:47:30,848
Perhaps contacting
governmental authorities

957
00:47:30,931 --> 00:47:32,182
would better answer my question.

958
00:47:32,266 --> 00:47:36,144
After all, it was the second-best
thing to do on Oceana's website.

959
00:47:36,228 --> 00:47:37,855
So I went straight to the top

960
00:47:37,938 --> 00:47:39,606
and managed to secure a rare meeting

961
00:47:39,690 --> 00:47:42,150
with the European Commissioner
of Fisheries and the Environment,

962
00:47:42,234 --> 00:47:45,237
who was recently passing laws
to ban single-use plastic.

963
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:48,323
What is the definition
of sustainable fishing?

964
00:47:48,407 --> 00:47:51,285
Imagine that you have money in a bank,

965
00:47:51,368 --> 00:47:55,706
you have capital, you put, I don't know,
€100 in the bank.

966
00:47:55,789 --> 00:47:58,292
That €100, which is the capital,

967
00:47:58,375 --> 00:48:00,252
is giving you interest.

968
00:48:00,335 --> 00:48:04,214
As long as you are taking the interest,
and spending the interest

969
00:48:04,298 --> 00:48:06,633
without touching the capital,

970
00:48:06,717 --> 00:48:09,261
then that is sustainability.

971
00:48:09,344 --> 00:48:12,681
As soon as you start taking away
the capital as well,

972
00:48:12,764 --> 00:48:15,976
then you've entered
the unsustainable cycle.

973
00:48:16,059 --> 00:48:18,437
[Ali] Well, using your economic analogy,

974
00:48:18,520 --> 00:48:21,940
today's oceans aren't only in debt,
but they're in a major depression.

975
00:48:22,024 --> 00:48:24,651
Shouldn't we just stop spending
what we can't afford?

976
00:48:24,735 --> 00:48:28,363
Obviously, we cannot go
to the other extreme, and say,

977
00:48:28,447 --> 00:48:31,700
"The only solution is not to fish at all."

978
00:48:31,783 --> 00:48:33,952
We cannot-- I don't think we can do that.

979
00:48:34,036 --> 00:48:36,663
But your government
are taking extreme measures

980
00:48:36,747 --> 00:48:38,582
to ban single-use plastic,

981
00:48:38,665 --> 00:48:41,376
when fishing causes far more destruction.

982
00:48:41,460 --> 00:48:44,546
So why is the fishing industry
getting special treatment from this?

983
00:48:44,630 --> 00:48:47,966
Yes. For me,
the idea is not to stop fishing.

984
00:48:48,050 --> 00:48:52,512
For me, the idea is
to do more sustainable fishing.

985
00:48:52,596 --> 00:48:54,806
To do more sustainable fishing.

986
00:48:54,890 --> 00:48:56,433
[Ali] More sustainable fishing

987
00:48:56,516 --> 00:48:58,727
meant doing more of something
that isn't working,

988
00:48:58,810 --> 00:49:00,520
and can't even be defined.

989
00:49:00,604 --> 00:49:03,065
I wondered though,
with no clear definition,

990
00:49:03,148 --> 00:49:06,944
where did that leave sustainable
certification groups, like the MSC,

991
00:49:07,027 --> 00:49:09,029
who still haven't got back to me?

992
00:49:09,112 --> 00:49:11,198
Oh, you mean
the Marine Stewardship Council?

993
00:49:11,281 --> 00:49:13,075
-[Ali] Yeah.
-Oh, God.

994
00:49:13,158 --> 00:49:15,953
Getting me onto the subject of the
Marine Stewardship Council, you know.

995
00:49:16,036 --> 00:49:16,870
Uh…

996
00:49:18,705 --> 00:49:19,915
[chuckles awkwardly]

997
00:49:19,998 --> 00:49:21,625
How much do I want to say?

998
00:49:21,708 --> 00:49:23,627
Well, they have certified fisheries

999
00:49:23,710 --> 00:49:26,630
that produce astonishing levels
of bycatch.

1000
00:49:26,713 --> 00:49:29,007
And those are ignored
because the level of kill

1001
00:49:29,091 --> 00:49:31,802
is considered to be "sustainable"
in itself.

1002
00:49:31,885 --> 00:49:34,179
But that's not what a consumer
is looking for.

1003
00:49:34,262 --> 00:49:36,974
They want to know that
no marine mammals are being killed,

1004
00:49:37,057 --> 00:49:38,600
no seabirds are being slaughtered,

1005
00:49:38,684 --> 00:49:41,061
in order to put that fish on their plate.

1006
00:49:41,144 --> 00:49:45,190
The label on the tin
isn't worth a damn in some cases.

1007
00:49:45,273 --> 00:49:48,819
They make it appear on paper
as if, uh, eating,

1008
00:49:48,902 --> 00:49:51,780
on one hand, uh,
sustainably-produced salmon

1009
00:49:51,863 --> 00:49:54,199
is, uh, better than killing
a bluefin tuna,

1010
00:49:54,282 --> 00:49:57,077
and therefore creates a justification
in the eyes of the consumer.

1011
00:49:57,160 --> 00:50:00,080
But that's like essentially saying
that it's more sustainable

1012
00:50:00,163 --> 00:50:02,249
to shoot a polar bear
than shooting a panda.

1013
00:50:02,332 --> 00:50:03,375
When in reality,

1014
00:50:03,458 --> 00:50:06,086
uh, neither one is sustainable,
and neither one is right to do.

1015
00:50:06,169 --> 00:50:07,921
So, do you think it's gonna be possible

1016
00:50:08,005 --> 00:50:10,465
to do an interview with the MSC
at any point?

1017
00:50:10,549 --> 00:50:12,718
[woman on phone]
Um, I don't think that's gonna work out.

1018
00:50:12,801 --> 00:50:15,053
Um, there's nobody in the office
at the moment.

1019
00:50:15,137 --> 00:50:16,596
There's loads of conferences on.

1020
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:20,267
[Ali] After having our interview request
turned down countless times over phone,

1021
00:50:20,350 --> 00:50:22,686
we decided to visit
their head office instead.

1022
00:50:22,769 --> 00:50:24,312
Hi, my name's Ali.

1023
00:50:24,396 --> 00:50:27,524
I've been trying to organize an interview
with someone at MSC for months now,

1024
00:50:27,607 --> 00:50:30,110
and I just had some questions
about sustainable fishing.

1025
00:50:30,193 --> 00:50:33,071
Would there be anyone around
I could speak to really quickly?

1026
00:50:33,155 --> 00:50:36,783
We were told to wait in the waiting room
while they found someone to speak to us.

1027
00:50:36,867 --> 00:50:39,911
But after half an hour of panicked looks
between the members of staff,

1028
00:50:39,995 --> 00:50:41,204
we were asked to leave.

1029
00:50:43,081 --> 00:50:46,251
[sighs]
Just got palmed off again by the MSC.

1030
00:50:46,334 --> 00:50:49,004
The world's largest
sustainable seafood organization

1031
00:50:49,087 --> 00:50:51,798
doesn't wanna talk to me
about sustainable seafood.

1032
00:50:53,633 --> 00:50:56,970
The only thing left to do
was to try and follow the money.

1033
00:50:57,054 --> 00:51:00,474
And it didn't take long
to find the massive conflict of interest.

1034
00:51:00,557 --> 00:51:02,142
One of the founders of the MSC

1035
00:51:02,225 --> 00:51:03,894
was the Unilever corporation,

1036
00:51:03,977 --> 00:51:06,188
who at the time
were a major seafood retailer.

1037
00:51:06,271 --> 00:51:10,317
And despite countless fisheries
clearly being depleted and destructive,

1038
00:51:10,400 --> 00:51:11,735
I could only find a couple

1039
00:51:11,818 --> 00:51:14,780
that had ever been denied certification
in over 20 years.

1040
00:51:14,863 --> 00:51:16,531
But most shocking of all

1041
00:51:16,615 --> 00:51:21,536
was learning that over 80%
of the almost £30-million-a-year income

1042
00:51:21,620 --> 00:51:24,081
was from licensing their logo on seafood.

1043
00:51:24,164 --> 00:51:27,542
Basically, the more blue ticks they
handed out, the more money they made.

1044
00:51:27,626 --> 00:51:29,294
So as far as I was concerned,

1045
00:51:29,377 --> 00:51:31,963
there was no way I was gonna
trust these labels again.

1046
00:51:32,047 --> 00:51:36,426
In fact, other attempts to
regulate the industry were also failing,

1047
00:51:36,510 --> 00:51:37,844
with government observers

1048
00:51:37,928 --> 00:51:40,889
who are given the task
of monitoring fishing activity on ships

1049
00:51:40,972 --> 00:51:44,267
being murdered at sea,
thrown overboard,

1050
00:51:44,351 --> 00:51:48,021
like Keith Davis,
a 41-year-old American observer,

1051
00:51:48,105 --> 00:51:50,982
who in recent years
went missing off the coast of Peru,

1052
00:51:51,066 --> 00:51:52,526
never to be seen again.

1053
00:51:52,609 --> 00:51:54,027
In Papua New Guinea,

1054
00:51:54,111 --> 00:51:57,197
18 observers went missing
in the space of just five years.

1055
00:51:57,280 --> 00:51:59,991
And in the Philippines, in 2015,

1056
00:52:00,075 --> 00:52:02,702
an observer by the name
of Ms. Gerlie Alpajora

1057
00:52:02,786 --> 00:52:05,247
received death threats
from the family of a tuna fisherman

1058
00:52:05,330 --> 00:52:06,957
who was arrested for illegal fishing.

1059
00:52:07,541 --> 00:52:10,502
Soon after, armed men entered her home,

1060
00:52:10,585 --> 00:52:14,047
and she was assassinated in cold blood
with a gunshot to the head

1061
00:52:14,131 --> 00:52:16,633
in front of her two young boys.

1062
00:52:17,884 --> 00:52:19,386
When we look at fisheries crime,

1063
00:52:19,469 --> 00:52:23,932
we have to look at it within the context
of transnational organized crime.

1064
00:52:24,015 --> 00:52:27,018
And the same syndicates
that are behind illegal fishing

1065
00:52:27,102 --> 00:52:30,897
are the same criminal groups
that are behind drug trafficking,

1066
00:52:30,981 --> 00:52:33,191
human trafficking, and other crimes.

1067
00:52:33,275 --> 00:52:37,571
If you get in the way of their business,
you are risking your own life.

1068
00:52:37,654 --> 00:52:41,158
But also don't be surprised at the extent
at which governments will go

1069
00:52:41,241 --> 00:52:43,160
to prevent you from exposing

1070
00:52:43,243 --> 00:52:46,913
the economic activities
that they subsidize at sea.

1071
00:52:47,664 --> 00:52:50,750
[Ali] A subsidy is taxpayer money
given to an industry

1072
00:52:50,834 --> 00:52:53,920
to keep the price of a product or service
artificially low.

1073
00:52:54,004 --> 00:52:55,881
And in an increasing number of countries,

1074
00:52:55,964 --> 00:52:59,426
more money was going out
than the value of fish coming back in.

1075
00:53:00,010 --> 00:53:01,761
So if you don't eat fish,

1076
00:53:01,845 --> 00:53:04,014
you're still sustaining fisheries

1077
00:53:04,097 --> 00:53:06,433
because you're paying for it
in your taxes.

1078
00:53:06,516 --> 00:53:09,186
So if you think about it,
it's really shocking

1079
00:53:09,269 --> 00:53:11,646
that we subsidize the fishing industry

1080
00:53:11,730 --> 00:53:15,525
somewhere in the region of $35 billion,

1081
00:53:15,609 --> 00:53:18,612
which is the same amount that,
according to United Nations,

1082
00:53:18,695 --> 00:53:20,947
we'd need to combat world hunger.

1083
00:53:22,449 --> 00:53:26,453
[Ali] Subsidies were originally started
as a means to ensure food security.

1084
00:53:26,536 --> 00:53:27,621
But ironically,

1085
00:53:27,704 --> 00:53:30,207
they are now the cause of food insecurity

1086
00:53:30,290 --> 00:53:31,917
in many developing regions.

1087
00:53:32,542 --> 00:53:35,545
[Hammarstedt] Fishing by the
European Union in places like West Africa

1088
00:53:35,629 --> 00:53:38,924
is driven by European Union subsidies.

1089
00:53:39,007 --> 00:53:41,885
And that means
that local businesses can't compete

1090
00:53:41,968 --> 00:53:45,347
with the economic might
of the European Union.

1091
00:53:45,430 --> 00:53:47,599
Really it's just a continuation

1092
00:53:47,682 --> 00:53:51,186
of a history
of plundering the African continent.

1093
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:56,191
[Ali] These intensive fishing operations
weren't only wiping out the fish,

1094
00:53:56,274 --> 00:53:58,818
they were also destroying economies.

1095
00:53:58,902 --> 00:54:00,362
In the United States,

1096
00:54:00,445 --> 00:54:03,782
up to one in every three
wild-caught fish imported

1097
00:54:03,865 --> 00:54:07,285
had been caught illegally,
and therefore sold illegally.

1098
00:54:07,369 --> 00:54:10,247
Stolen, often from countries in most need,

1099
00:54:10,330 --> 00:54:12,207
where there are now wars over the fish.

1100
00:54:12,290 --> 00:54:15,252
One of the causes
for the infamous pirates of Somalia,

1101
00:54:15,335 --> 00:54:17,254
now feared across the world,

1102
00:54:17,337 --> 00:54:19,214
was actually illegal fishing.

1103
00:54:19,798 --> 00:54:23,093
They were once humble fisherman
working to feed their families.

1104
00:54:23,176 --> 00:54:25,220
But when Somalia fell to civil war,

1105
00:54:25,303 --> 00:54:29,557
foreign illegal fishing vessels,
the real pirates of today's oceans,

1106
00:54:29,641 --> 00:54:32,143
invaded their waters
and began taking the fish,

1107
00:54:32,227 --> 00:54:35,146
effectively pulling food
from their mouths,

1108
00:54:35,230 --> 00:54:39,276
giving Somali fishermen no choice
but to move into another line of work.

1109
00:54:39,359 --> 00:54:41,778
This plundering
of the African Coast, though,

1110
00:54:41,861 --> 00:54:43,530
was happening across the continent.

1111
00:54:44,114 --> 00:54:46,783
And Sea Shepherd was on
a daring mission to end this,

1112
00:54:46,866 --> 00:54:48,159
working with governments

1113
00:54:48,243 --> 00:54:50,829
to track down and arrest
illegal fishing vessels

1114
00:54:50,912 --> 00:54:52,747
in places like Liberia.

1115
00:54:52,831 --> 00:54:54,833
[suspenseful music playing]

1116
00:54:57,627 --> 00:55:00,255
Despite the warnings of traveling
to this region of the world,

1117
00:55:00,338 --> 00:55:02,090
we decided to join Sea Shepherd

1118
00:55:02,173 --> 00:55:04,509
to get up close to the front line
of this problem.

1119
00:55:05,969 --> 00:55:09,973
We have mostly international fleets
coming from countries

1120
00:55:10,056 --> 00:55:12,767
where they've already depleted
their own local stocks,

1121
00:55:12,851 --> 00:55:16,646
and they're pushing further and further
away to try and make up for that.

1122
00:55:16,730 --> 00:55:19,774
And using more and more
sophisticated technology

1123
00:55:19,858 --> 00:55:21,443
to increase their catch numbers.

1124
00:55:21,526 --> 00:55:23,028
When we look at international fleets,

1125
00:55:23,111 --> 00:55:25,322
they come here,
and they either fish illegally…

1126
00:55:25,405 --> 00:55:27,782
And what they're catching
is worth huge, huge amounts,

1127
00:55:27,866 --> 00:55:29,576
so it's like a gold rush.

1128
00:55:29,659 --> 00:55:32,787
Our coastal waters had now become
a free-for-all,

1129
00:55:32,871 --> 00:55:36,291
until, quite recently,
when we decided to pay attention to that,

1130
00:55:36,374 --> 00:55:37,876
and try to police it.

1131
00:55:37,959 --> 00:55:40,587
For us, with the military,
when we go on these operations,

1132
00:55:40,670 --> 00:55:42,630
we assume the highest alert.

1133
00:55:42,714 --> 00:55:44,716
We know that it's piracy going on.

1134
00:55:44,799 --> 00:55:47,093
So indeed, it's a dangerous operation.

1135
00:55:54,184 --> 00:55:55,185
[Ali] Upon arrival,

1136
00:55:55,268 --> 00:55:58,355
it became clear
why the ocean around West Africa

1137
00:55:58,438 --> 00:55:59,814
was so worth protecting.

1138
00:56:01,358 --> 00:56:03,568
[ethereal music playing]

1139
00:56:03,651 --> 00:56:06,863
It was home to one of the last strongholds
of life in our oceans.

1140
00:56:09,032 --> 00:56:12,619
Teeming with rare and wonderful wildlife
of all kinds.

1141
00:56:16,164 --> 00:56:18,917
Countless species journeyed across
the Atlantic Ocean

1142
00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:21,211
to find themselves in these waters.

1143
00:56:21,920 --> 00:56:23,963
A refuge for mating and feeding.

1144
00:56:24,047 --> 00:56:27,592
Living in as close to harmony and balance
as I'd ever seen.

1145
00:56:28,676 --> 00:56:30,553
But there was another species,

1146
00:56:30,637 --> 00:56:34,140
journeying to these waters
for a very different purpose.

1147
00:56:36,601 --> 00:56:38,812
It didn't take long to witness
how Sea Shepherd

1148
00:56:38,895 --> 00:56:41,856
and the Liberian Coast Guard
tracked down and boarded fishing vessels.

1149
00:56:43,733 --> 00:56:46,820
[somber music playing]

1150
00:56:56,079 --> 00:56:58,998
Species I had never seen
in my entire life

1151
00:56:59,082 --> 00:57:01,960
were dying in the nets
before I could even appreciate them.

1152
00:57:02,669 --> 00:57:04,254
But the scenes continued below deck,

1153
00:57:04,337 --> 00:57:08,967
where it became clear that these vessels
were more like floating slaughterhouses.

1154
00:57:10,385 --> 00:57:13,012
This is the hold
of just one purse seiner ship.

1155
00:57:13,555 --> 00:57:17,183
And this is just the tip of the iceberg,
it goes down the whole size of the ship.

1156
00:57:17,267 --> 00:57:19,060
There could be
hundreds of thousands of fish.

1157
00:57:19,144 --> 00:57:23,106
Seeing how hard it is to get on this ship,
you need pretty much a military operation.

1158
00:57:23,189 --> 00:57:25,942
Plus, they could be fishing unsustainably,
and no one would ever know.

1159
00:57:26,025 --> 00:57:28,194
They could sell this
as sustainably certified.

1160
00:57:28,278 --> 00:57:32,365
So I just don't see how you could possibly
enforce sustainable fishing laws

1161
00:57:32,449 --> 00:57:34,576
with all these boats this far out at sea.

1162
00:57:36,077 --> 00:57:37,954
I just don't see how it's possible.

1163
00:57:45,044 --> 00:57:46,129
It's at nighttime

1164
00:57:46,212 --> 00:57:49,048
that illegal fishing thrives
under the cloak of darkness.

1165
00:57:49,132 --> 00:57:52,218
Vessels entering the waters
of other countries without detection

1166
00:57:52,302 --> 00:57:53,928
and stealing the fish.

1167
00:57:54,012 --> 00:57:57,891
But that was also prime time
for Sea Shepherd to do their work.

1168
00:57:57,974 --> 00:58:01,269
Yeah, we gonna board the vessel,
we have to do it as soon as possible.

1169
00:58:01,352 --> 00:58:02,479
[man on radio] Copy that.

1170
00:58:02,562 --> 00:58:05,982
So, Sea Shepherd have just spotted
a boat on the horizon.

1171
00:58:06,065 --> 00:58:07,233
It's on the radars.

1172
00:58:07,317 --> 00:58:08,902
Could be an illegal fishing vessel.

1173
00:58:08,985 --> 00:58:10,528
We're about to go and find out.

1174
00:58:10,612 --> 00:58:13,323
[suspenseful music playing]

1175
00:58:54,405 --> 00:58:56,991
[Ali] The ship was a Chinese trawler.

1176
00:58:57,116 --> 00:59:00,828
In its hold were huge quantities
of illegally-caught fish.

1177
00:59:00,912 --> 00:59:03,623
The vessel was detained and fined.

1178
00:59:03,706 --> 00:59:05,250
It was only one victory,

1179
00:59:05,333 --> 00:59:08,294
but it sent a clear message
to the other ships in the area,

1180
00:59:08,378 --> 00:59:11,339
that there were now real consequences
to their illegal actions.

1181
00:59:12,131 --> 00:59:14,551
Still on the illegal fishing vessel
after sunrise,

1182
00:59:14,634 --> 00:59:16,928
as the ship was getting ready
to be taken back to port,

1183
00:59:17,512 --> 00:59:19,305
I saw some men rowing up to the ship.

1184
00:59:20,265 --> 00:59:23,101
I remembered the piracy warning
from the Minister of Defense,

1185
00:59:23,184 --> 00:59:25,311
but these men didn't look like pirates.

1186
00:59:25,853 --> 00:59:29,232
Why were they risking their lives
in open waters on a small canoe?

1187
00:59:30,066 --> 00:59:32,151
Suddenly, I saw this.

1188
00:59:34,112 --> 00:59:35,280
They were hungry.

1189
00:59:38,491 --> 00:59:40,994
If you look along the coast,
these are people who've lived here

1190
00:59:41,077 --> 00:59:42,829
from time immemorial.

1191
00:59:42,912 --> 00:59:45,290
That's their livelihood,
that's their way of life.

1192
00:59:45,373 --> 00:59:49,085
But when we allow the industrial fishing
to come so close into their zone,

1193
00:59:49,168 --> 00:59:51,963
it doesn't give them a chance
to get a good catch out of there.

1194
00:59:52,046 --> 00:59:54,632
'Cause if he cannot catch
what he's supposed to catch

1195
00:59:54,716 --> 00:59:58,261
because a commercial vessel has come up
and scoop up everything from here,

1196
00:59:58,344 --> 00:59:59,846
he's destined to go further out.

1197
00:59:59,929 --> 01:00:01,806
These guys are out here
without life vests.

1198
01:00:01,889 --> 01:00:03,516
It's dangerous. Anything can happen.

1199
01:00:03,600 --> 01:00:06,436
You get kicked out of your boat,
or your canoe, that's it.

1200
01:00:06,519 --> 01:00:08,980
-[suspenseful music playing]
-[Ali] Fisheries workers at sea

1201
01:00:09,063 --> 01:00:11,357
have some of the most dangerous jobs
on Earth.

1202
01:00:11,441 --> 01:00:12,317
In context,

1203
01:00:12,400 --> 01:00:15,820
over 4,500 US soldiers were killed

1204
01:00:15,903 --> 01:00:18,698
in the Iraq War
over the course of 15 years.

1205
01:00:18,781 --> 01:00:20,366
But during that same time,

1206
01:00:20,450 --> 01:00:24,787
360,000 fisheries workers died
doing their job,

1207
01:00:24,871 --> 01:00:29,042
as an estimated 24,000 workers
die every year.

1208
01:00:29,125 --> 01:00:31,127
And West African canoe fishermen

1209
01:00:31,210 --> 01:00:33,338
happened to have
the highest mortality rates

1210
01:00:33,421 --> 01:00:35,590
of any fisheries job on the planet.

1211
01:00:36,591 --> 01:00:39,218
[Monbiot] Huge numbers of people
depended on the fish,

1212
01:00:39,302 --> 01:00:40,887
which is now mostly gone.

1213
01:00:40,970 --> 01:00:42,805
That's caused a great deal of hunger,

1214
01:00:42,889 --> 01:00:47,101
not just on the coast,
but up to a thousand miles inland.

1215
01:00:47,185 --> 01:00:49,270
So, what do people do
for fishing instead?

1216
01:00:49,854 --> 01:00:51,773
They'll hunt wild animals on land.

1217
01:00:51,856 --> 01:00:55,276
And that has not only had
devastating impacts

1218
01:00:55,360 --> 01:00:57,362
on animal life on land,

1219
01:00:57,445 --> 01:01:00,823
it also seems to have had
a very major impact on human life,

1220
01:01:00,907 --> 01:01:02,867
because it's the bushmeat trade

1221
01:01:02,950 --> 01:01:06,454
which is responsible
for the Ebola epidemics.

1222
01:01:06,537 --> 01:01:09,666
You can actually stand this up,
it's in the scientific literature.

1223
01:01:09,749 --> 01:01:13,002
The theft of fish stocks is enhancing

1224
01:01:13,086 --> 01:01:16,923
or causing Ebola outbreaks of West Africa.

1225
01:01:19,217 --> 01:01:21,427
[Ali] As our trip in Liberia
drew to a close,

1226
01:01:21,511 --> 01:01:24,472
I questioned whether there was
any alternative fishing method

1227
01:01:24,555 --> 01:01:26,432
that could provide some kind of solution

1228
01:01:26,516 --> 01:01:27,850
to both the environmental

1229
01:01:27,934 --> 01:01:30,687
and humanitarian ramifications
of this industry.

1230
01:01:30,770 --> 01:01:34,857
And a glimmer of hope presented itself
in the form of fish farming,

1231
01:01:34,941 --> 01:01:36,567
an industry with the reputation

1232
01:01:36,651 --> 01:01:39,070
of being an eco-friendly way
to feed the world

1233
01:01:39,153 --> 01:01:41,572
without all the problems
of wild-caught fish.

1234
01:01:42,448 --> 01:01:44,867
With no bycatch, no illegal fishing,

1235
01:01:44,951 --> 01:01:46,285
no sea-floor damage,

1236
01:01:46,369 --> 01:01:48,329
no killing of endangered species,

1237
01:01:48,413 --> 01:01:50,081
and no dangerous working conditions,

1238
01:01:50,164 --> 01:01:51,958
it was exactly what I was looking for.

1239
01:01:52,041 --> 01:01:54,168
Yeah, so a lot of people
jump to the conclusion

1240
01:01:54,252 --> 01:01:56,796
that sustainable seafood
comes from farming fish

1241
01:01:56,879 --> 01:01:58,339
and not high seas fishing,

1242
01:01:58,423 --> 01:02:00,425
but it's really not the case.

1243
01:02:00,508 --> 01:02:04,011
Uh, there's so many issues involved
with farming fish,

1244
01:02:04,095 --> 01:02:07,098
uh, being pollution, disease,
and we have to ask the question,

1245
01:02:07,181 --> 01:02:08,891
"What are these fish being fed?"

1246
01:02:08,975 --> 01:02:10,184
[Ali] What were they being fed?

1247
01:02:10,268 --> 01:02:13,604
The industry claim that to produce
one kilogram of farmed salmon,

1248
01:02:13,688 --> 01:02:16,441
only 1.2 kilograms of feed is needed.

1249
01:02:16,524 --> 01:02:20,403
But when I looked further,
I found the feed is heavily processed,

1250
01:02:20,486 --> 01:02:22,238
and is made of dried fish meal

1251
01:02:22,321 --> 01:02:23,865
and extracted fish oil,

1252
01:02:23,948 --> 01:02:26,993
which requires a massive amount
of fish to produce.

1253
01:02:27,076 --> 01:02:29,620
So in reality,
you need many times more fish

1254
01:02:29,704 --> 01:02:31,372
going into the farmer's feed

1255
01:02:31,456 --> 01:02:32,790
than will ever come out.

1256
01:02:33,374 --> 01:02:34,459
So fish farming

1257
01:02:34,542 --> 01:02:36,461
was just wild fishing in disguise.

1258
01:02:37,086 --> 01:02:39,213
And what made this even more shocking

1259
01:02:39,297 --> 01:02:42,467
was the scale fish farming
already operates at.

1260
01:02:42,550 --> 01:02:45,595
Today, around 50% of the world's seafood

1261
01:02:45,678 --> 01:02:47,805
is coming from farms like these.

1262
01:02:48,389 --> 01:02:53,060
Huge cages in the ocean
containing tens of thousands of fish.

1263
01:02:55,104 --> 01:02:56,773
So we decided to leave Liberia

1264
01:02:56,856 --> 01:02:59,358
and journey back to the UK, for Scotland,

1265
01:02:59,442 --> 01:03:02,195
one of the world's leading producers
of farmed salmon.

1266
01:03:02,278 --> 01:03:04,947
Since none of the major companies
wanted to speak to us,

1267
01:03:05,031 --> 01:03:08,242
we decided to meet with some of
the industry's whistleblowers instead.

1268
01:03:08,743 --> 01:03:11,329
The salmon farming industry
in Scotland is extremely powerful.

1269
01:03:11,412 --> 01:03:14,332
And we're talking about
billion-dollar multinationals,

1270
01:03:14,415 --> 01:03:17,668
which have the resources and the skills
to dominate the narrative,

1271
01:03:17,752 --> 01:03:20,922
and ensure that the only information
that gets out

1272
01:03:21,005 --> 01:03:22,715
is the information
they're comfortable with.

1273
01:03:22,799 --> 01:03:24,550
So when I went to document the issues,

1274
01:03:24,634 --> 01:03:27,261
ended up making my way out
to one of the farms.

1275
01:03:27,345 --> 01:03:31,390
And there, I filmed some of
the most severe sea lice infestations

1276
01:03:31,474 --> 01:03:32,809
that's ever been recorded.

1277
01:03:34,060 --> 01:03:37,772
[Ali] Corin was able to capture footage
of salmon being eaten alive

1278
01:03:37,855 --> 01:03:40,358
by an infestation of sea lice parasites.

1279
01:03:40,441 --> 01:03:43,611
A common reality of fish farming
across the world.

1280
01:03:44,195 --> 01:03:46,656
It was sad to think
that this incredible species,

1281
01:03:46,739 --> 01:03:48,866
which had evolved for millions of years

1282
01:03:48,950 --> 01:03:51,744
to migrate across entire oceans
and navigate up rivers

1283
01:03:51,828 --> 01:03:54,247
to reach the exact same spawning grounds
they were born in,

1284
01:03:54,330 --> 01:03:57,959
were now confined to swim in circles
in their own filth.

1285
01:03:58,960 --> 01:04:01,671
[Smith] So, it's estimated
that each salmon farm in Scotland

1286
01:04:01,754 --> 01:04:06,425
produces organic waste equivalent
to a town of 10 to 20,000 people.

1287
01:04:06,509 --> 01:04:08,928
And taken together,
it's estimated that

1288
01:04:09,011 --> 01:04:11,889
the Scottish salmon farming industry
produces organic waste

1289
01:04:11,973 --> 01:04:14,851
equivalent to the entire population
of Scotland each year.

1290
01:04:19,730 --> 01:04:23,109
[Ali] The next activist I wanted to meet
was Don Staniford,

1291
01:04:23,192 --> 01:04:27,905
who'd been going undercover to expose
the reality of fish farms for years.

1292
01:04:27,989 --> 01:04:30,032
And we agreed to go undercover with him.

1293
01:04:32,243 --> 01:04:34,495
[Staniford] So, we're here
at Marine Harvest Salmon Farm,

1294
01:04:34,579 --> 01:04:35,705
and it's disgusting.

1295
01:04:35,788 --> 01:04:38,374
This is the--
this is the stench of Scottish salmon.

1296
01:04:38,457 --> 01:04:41,544
This is where salmon go to die
from the farms.

1297
01:04:41,627 --> 01:04:45,965
Maybe 50% of the salmon are dying
from egg to plate, from hatch to catch.

1298
01:04:46,048 --> 01:04:48,050
And this is the Mortality Mountain.

1299
01:04:48,134 --> 01:04:51,262
This is a symptom
of factory battery salmon farming.

1300
01:04:51,345 --> 01:04:53,431
These fish are dying from anemia,

1301
01:04:53,514 --> 01:04:54,849
lice infestation,

1302
01:04:54,932 --> 01:04:56,350
infectious diseases,

1303
01:04:56,434 --> 01:04:58,019
chlamydia, heart disease.

1304
01:04:58,102 --> 01:04:59,270
This is welfare abuse.

1305
01:04:59,353 --> 01:05:02,315
So, far from being a panacea
for the world food problem,

1306
01:05:02,398 --> 01:05:04,609
salmon farming is a waste of resources.

1307
01:05:04,692 --> 01:05:06,527
It's biological nonsense.

1308
01:05:07,528 --> 01:05:09,155
[Ali] The stench was horrifying.

1309
01:05:09,238 --> 01:05:11,365
These weren't the bright orange
and pink salmon

1310
01:05:11,449 --> 01:05:13,117
I'd seen in the commercials.

1311
01:05:13,743 --> 01:05:15,286
So, farmed salmon,

1312
01:05:15,369 --> 01:05:18,706
without colorants being added to its feed,
would be completely gray,

1313
01:05:18,789 --> 01:05:23,044
to the extent that salmon farmers
can actually select from a color chart,

1314
01:05:23,127 --> 01:05:24,879
much like you get
when painting your house.

1315
01:05:24,962 --> 01:05:28,382
You can select the pinkness of the salmon
that you're gonna produce.

1316
01:05:28,466 --> 01:05:30,426
So it wouldn't be for me to say,

1317
01:05:30,509 --> 01:05:33,846
but it does seem like people are eating
gray fish that's painted pink.

1318
01:05:35,806 --> 01:05:38,517
[Ali] This was the real monster
in the lochs of Scotland.

1319
01:05:38,601 --> 01:05:41,062
But the environmental impact
of farming marine life

1320
01:05:41,145 --> 01:05:42,438
didn't end with fish.

1321
01:05:43,022 --> 01:05:46,817
One of the world's most important habitats
is mangroves.

1322
01:05:46,901 --> 01:05:50,780
Now, mangrove forests
are absolutely crucial storm barriers.

1323
01:05:50,863 --> 01:05:55,368
They protect communities
from storm surges, even from tsunamis.

1324
01:05:55,451 --> 01:05:59,664
And yet, 38% of the world's mangroves
have been destroyed

1325
01:05:59,747 --> 01:06:01,999
by shrimp and prawn farming.

1326
01:06:02,083 --> 01:06:06,253
However, it's the shrimp feed which is
having the greatest humanitarian impact,

1327
01:06:06,337 --> 01:06:08,756
because it depends on slavery.

1328
01:06:08,839 --> 01:06:11,258
We hear a lot about blood diamonds.

1329
01:06:11,842 --> 01:06:13,094
This is blood shrimp.

1330
01:06:13,177 --> 01:06:14,971
[ominous music playing]

1331
01:06:15,054 --> 01:06:18,349
[Ali] This recent aerial footage
shows a fisherman in Southeast Asia

1332
01:06:18,432 --> 01:06:20,726
writing a secret message to the drone,

1333
01:06:20,810 --> 01:06:22,478
out of sight of the captain.

1334
01:06:26,607 --> 01:06:30,152
Slavery at sea is a massive problem.

1335
01:06:30,236 --> 01:06:33,739
I think it's very hard
to give precise figures,

1336
01:06:33,823 --> 01:06:36,867
precisely because it operates
under the radar.

1337
01:06:36,951 --> 01:06:40,162
Those people
who are driving these abuses,

1338
01:06:40,246 --> 01:06:42,373
for obvious reasons,
don't want to get found out.

1339
01:06:42,456 --> 01:06:44,834
In that regard, I would point to Thailand.

1340
01:06:44,917 --> 01:06:49,046
So there are now somewhere in the region
of about 51,000 boats fishing

1341
01:06:49,130 --> 01:06:51,048
in Thai waters under the Thai flag.

1342
01:06:51,132 --> 01:06:56,804
They had to find a way of fishing
ever more cheaply to catch fewer fish.

1343
01:06:56,887 --> 01:07:00,349
And that's where
the inherent vulnerability begins.

1344
01:07:00,433 --> 01:07:05,730
Most of those boats would not be economic
without this free, cheap labor.

1345
01:07:08,315 --> 01:07:11,360
[Ali] I had no idea when I started
my journey that it would lead me here,

1346
01:07:11,444 --> 01:07:14,405
but it was hard to believe the
fishing industry could be this corrupt.

1347
01:07:14,488 --> 01:07:17,158
The information I was finding online
was conflicting,

1348
01:07:17,241 --> 01:07:21,370
so I wanted to ask the industry myself,
at an international seafood expo

1349
01:07:21,454 --> 01:07:23,664
open only to industry insiders.

1350
01:07:23,748 --> 01:07:25,499
We created fake business cards

1351
01:07:25,583 --> 01:07:27,710
for a fake seafood company to sneak in,

1352
01:07:27,793 --> 01:07:29,795
which actually worked,

1353
01:07:29,879 --> 01:07:32,089
and secretly filmed my interaction

1354
01:07:32,173 --> 01:07:34,341
with a representative from Thai seafood.

1355
01:07:34,425 --> 01:07:35,843
I was doing some research…

1356
01:07:35,926 --> 01:07:36,761
[man] Research?

1357
01:07:36,844 --> 01:07:41,057
[Ali] Research. And I found out
that a lot of, uh, Thai shrimp and prawns

1358
01:07:41,140 --> 01:07:43,434
are coming from slave labor.
People kidnapped--

1359
01:07:43,517 --> 01:07:45,186
-[man] Oh, no, no!
-[Ali] It's not true?

1360
01:07:45,269 --> 01:07:46,270
[man] No, not true!

1361
01:07:46,353 --> 01:07:48,522
-[Ali] Whoa! So they're lying?
-[man] Lying. [chuckles]

1362
01:07:49,106 --> 01:07:51,734
-[Ali] So there's no slavery going on?
-[man] No, no. [chuckles]

1363
01:07:51,859 --> 01:07:53,152
[Ali] So why would they say that?

1364
01:07:53,652 --> 01:07:56,530
[man] I don't know. You ask them that.
[chuckles]

1365
01:07:56,614 --> 01:07:59,200
-[Ali] Yeah. So it's--
-[man] Business, huh? It's business.

1366
01:07:59,283 --> 01:08:01,118
[Ali] Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, it's business.

1367
01:08:01,702 --> 01:08:06,415
[Ali] I was so fed up by all these
companies and NGOs bluewashing the truth,

1368
01:08:06,499 --> 01:08:08,834
but honestly, I didn't know what to think.

1369
01:08:08,918 --> 01:08:10,878
The only way I could find out for sure

1370
01:08:10,961 --> 01:08:13,380
if fishing slavery
was still going on today

1371
01:08:13,464 --> 01:08:16,300
was by actually speaking
to these fishing slaves ourselves.

1372
01:08:16,383 --> 01:08:20,471
[Ali] Would you say there's any
safety concerns for me making this film?

1373
01:08:21,222 --> 01:08:22,765
The safety concerns are serious.

1374
01:08:22,848 --> 01:08:27,061
And I think,
ignore them at your risk.

1375
01:08:27,144 --> 01:08:29,688
-You can see people are being murdered.
-[gunshots]

1376
01:08:29,772 --> 01:08:32,650
So some of those involved are murderers.

1377
01:08:32,733 --> 01:08:35,111
Somebody might kill you,
and that is possible

1378
01:08:35,194 --> 01:08:38,405
if you're foolish, and if you're
in the wrong place at the wrong time.

1379
01:08:38,489 --> 01:08:43,119
You can be victim of unfair
or unreasonable actions by the law

1380
01:08:43,202 --> 01:08:45,788
who have been paid,
i.e. a victim of corruption.

1381
01:08:45,871 --> 01:08:47,873
So you have to be extremely careful,

1382
01:08:47,957 --> 01:08:51,377
and the security protocols that you apply

1383
01:08:51,460 --> 01:08:54,755
may well mean the difference
between life and death.

1384
01:08:54,839 --> 01:08:57,258
[somber music playing]

1385
01:09:02,471 --> 01:09:03,889
[Ali] We arrived in Bangkok

1386
01:09:03,973 --> 01:09:07,101
with the details of a halfway home
for escaped slaves.

1387
01:09:07,184 --> 01:09:09,603
We knew that
just by filming these interviews

1388
01:09:09,687 --> 01:09:12,648
and shining a light on the
criminal activities in the country,

1389
01:09:12,731 --> 01:09:15,192
we were putting ourselves
and those around us at risk.

1390
01:09:16,443 --> 01:09:18,279
[translator, distorted]
Don't film my face.

1391
01:09:18,362 --> 01:09:20,364
I can be hunted down for helping you.

1392
01:09:21,115 --> 01:09:23,367
[Ali] All we could do
was cross our fingers,

1393
01:09:23,450 --> 01:09:25,327
and hope we got the answers
we were looking for.

1394
01:09:25,411 --> 01:09:27,788
[somber music continues]

1395
01:09:31,375 --> 01:09:35,212
[Ali] Could you start off by telling me
how long you were on these ships for?

1396
01:09:35,921 --> 01:09:38,465
[in Thai] I was at sea
for 10 years, 2 months, and 2 days.

1397
01:09:40,968 --> 01:09:45,806
I was scared, let me be straight with you.

1398
01:09:45,890 --> 01:09:51,729
Nobody could get off the ship,
there were guards that kept eyes on us.

1399
01:09:52,354 --> 01:09:56,400
[in Thai] I was at sea for six years.

1400
01:09:57,234 --> 01:10:02,406
I was so depressed
I tried to take my own life three times.

1401
01:10:02,990 --> 01:10:06,452
When I first met the captain on land,
we drank and had a good time.

1402
01:10:06,535 --> 01:10:09,330
But once I was on the ship
and the ship left the shore,

1403
01:10:09,413 --> 01:10:11,874
the captain changed from white to red.

1404
01:10:11,957 --> 01:10:14,752
He changed,
like we didn't know each other.

1405
01:10:14,835 --> 01:10:17,838
He bullied and abused me
like we didn't know each other.

1406
01:10:17,922 --> 01:10:21,675
He splashed us with boiling water
when we were sick and tired,

1407
01:10:21,759 --> 01:10:25,930
hit us whenever he wasn't happy
by using an iron bar,

1408
01:10:26,013 --> 01:10:29,350
and threatened us with a gun.

1409
01:10:31,101 --> 01:10:34,355
On the ship I was on,

1410
01:10:34,438 --> 01:10:38,776
sometimes they kept dead human bodies
in the freezers after killing them.

1411
01:10:39,860 --> 01:10:42,988
[in Thai] On my ship, boys dropped
into the sea and drowned.

1412
01:10:46,992 --> 01:10:50,788
I saw their dead bodies floating
on the water surface days later.

1413
01:10:51,622 --> 01:10:53,791
I felt sorry for their parents,

1414
01:10:53,874 --> 01:10:55,918
they would never know
of their son's death.

1415
01:10:56,460 --> 01:11:01,048
[in Thai] When ships are in the
middle of the ocean, where problems occur,

1416
01:11:02,091 --> 01:11:05,886
they can throw you overboard
into the sea.

1417
01:11:05,970 --> 01:11:09,932
They can just say to the authorities

1418
01:11:10,015 --> 01:11:13,560
that you were sick and fell into the sea.

1419
01:11:14,770 --> 01:11:18,315
People don't see how we catch seafood,

1420
01:11:18,399 --> 01:11:20,859
they only care for consumption.

1421
01:11:20,943 --> 01:11:26,740
A lot of the seafood we're consuming today
is from slavery,

1422
01:11:26,824 --> 01:11:29,410
from forced labor.

1423
01:11:29,493 --> 01:11:33,497
I would like to see everyone
stop supporting them

1424
01:11:33,580 --> 01:11:35,708
if that's possible.

1425
01:11:36,792 --> 01:11:39,336
[Ali in English] Would you be able
to take us to the slave ships,

1426
01:11:39,420 --> 01:11:41,422
or is it too dangerous to film?

1427
01:11:41,505 --> 01:11:43,007
[in Thai] Oh…

1428
01:11:43,090 --> 01:11:50,055
It's dangerous for you to make
this documentary, and film these ships.

1429
01:11:50,848 --> 01:11:53,517
[in Thai] If you're scared of dying,
go home.

1430
01:11:53,600 --> 01:11:56,603
[translator speaks indistinctly]

1431
01:11:56,687 --> 01:11:58,439
[Ali] At this point, off-camera,

1432
01:11:58,522 --> 01:12:01,358
we were notified that we had to end
the interview right then and there

1433
01:12:01,442 --> 01:12:02,943
as police were on their way.

1434
01:12:03,027 --> 01:12:06,030
Someone had reported us
for filming without permits,

1435
01:12:06,113 --> 01:12:08,240
and we needed to get out of there
immediately.

1436
01:12:09,616 --> 01:12:12,369
[police sirens wailing]

1437
01:12:18,834 --> 01:12:20,836
[suspenseful music playing]

1438
01:12:24,840 --> 01:12:26,925
[Ali] I was sad to be leaving Thailand
so suddenly,

1439
01:12:27,009 --> 01:12:30,012
knowing there were young men just like me
trapped on fishing boats

1440
01:12:30,095 --> 01:12:31,638
who'd never be able to go home.

1441
01:12:31,722 --> 01:12:35,351
But after risking our safety,
I felt powerless to do anything about it.

1442
01:12:35,434 --> 01:12:38,812
Especially knowing the authorities
were involved in covering it up.

1443
01:12:38,896 --> 01:12:41,690
[somber orchestral music playing]

1444
01:12:47,571 --> 01:12:50,115
Back home, it'd been weeks
since I picked up a camera.

1445
01:12:50,949 --> 01:12:53,160
The gravity of everything
had caught up with me,

1446
01:12:53,243 --> 01:12:54,912
and frankly, I was overwhelmed.

1447
01:12:55,621 --> 01:12:56,914
However, months earlier,

1448
01:12:56,997 --> 01:12:59,124
we had booked a trip to the Faroe Islands,

1449
01:12:59,208 --> 01:13:03,045
a small archipelago in the North Atlantic
that practiced an old form of whaling.

1450
01:13:03,128 --> 01:13:05,422
We'd booked the trip
back when I thought whaling

1451
01:13:05,506 --> 01:13:07,758
was one of the biggest threats
facing the ocean.

1452
01:13:07,841 --> 01:13:11,637
But after witnessing much greater impacts
and the human rights abuses that followed,

1453
01:13:11,720 --> 01:13:13,847
it seemed like a step backwards.

1454
01:13:13,931 --> 01:13:17,059
However, this particular form of whaling,
called a "Grind,"

1455
01:13:17,142 --> 01:13:21,105
had recently received attention in the
media as a sustainable form of whaling,

1456
01:13:21,188 --> 01:13:24,525
claiming the species of whale aren't
endangered and that hunting them

1457
01:13:24,608 --> 01:13:26,819
caused no environmental damage.

1458
01:13:26,902 --> 01:13:30,322
Whales were the whole reason I set out
on this journey in the first place,

1459
01:13:30,406 --> 01:13:33,409
and I was skeptical about how sustainable
it could possibly be.

1460
01:13:33,492 --> 01:13:37,287
So we decided to make one final trip
to the Faroe Islands,

1461
01:13:37,371 --> 01:13:39,498
in the hopes of
witnessing one of these hunts

1462
01:13:39,581 --> 01:13:41,125
and speaking to a whaler.

1463
01:13:41,750 --> 01:13:43,502
Some years on the islands,

1464
01:13:43,585 --> 01:13:46,088
a whale hunt may only occur
a handful of times.

1465
01:13:46,672 --> 01:13:48,674
Other years, none at all.

1466
01:13:49,466 --> 01:13:52,344
We patiently awaited
news of a hunt for ten days,

1467
01:13:52,428 --> 01:13:54,972
until finally, we received the call.

1468
01:13:55,055 --> 01:13:57,057
[phone ringing]

1469
01:14:00,185 --> 01:14:01,687
There's a Grind? How far?

1470
01:14:03,689 --> 01:14:04,523
Okay.

1471
01:14:05,816 --> 01:14:06,733
Hvannasund?

1472
01:14:06,817 --> 01:14:07,985
How do you spell that?

1473
01:14:08,068 --> 01:14:10,571
H-V… yeah.

1474
01:14:10,654 --> 01:14:11,947
S-U-N-D.

1475
01:14:12,906 --> 01:14:15,742
Yeah, I know where it is. Okay, okay.
See you later.

1476
01:14:33,886 --> 01:14:36,180
[ethereal music playing]

1477
01:15:26,772 --> 01:15:29,733
[men shouting in Faroese]

1478
01:15:40,994 --> 01:15:43,956
-[whale squeaking]
-[men continue shouting]

1479
01:15:48,961 --> 01:15:51,838
[ethereal music continues]

1480
01:16:54,735 --> 01:16:57,988
[singers vocalizing]

1481
01:17:38,945 --> 01:17:41,615
[music fades to silence]

1482
01:17:47,162 --> 01:17:49,873
[Ali] In the chaos
of everything that happened,

1483
01:17:49,956 --> 01:17:52,376
I finally understood sustainability.

1484
01:17:52,876 --> 01:17:56,588
It just meant that something
could continue on and on forever

1485
01:17:57,339 --> 01:18:00,175
regardless of how much
suffering it caused.

1486
01:18:00,258 --> 01:18:01,176
In reality,

1487
01:18:01,259 --> 01:18:03,970
the Grind was about as sustainable
as you could get.

1488
01:18:04,054 --> 01:18:06,473
But I began to wonder
whether sustainability

1489
01:18:06,556 --> 01:18:09,601
was truly the right goal
for how we took care of the ocean.

1490
01:18:13,146 --> 01:18:15,857
[Rasmussen]
So, I don't feel like I'm a bad person.

1491
01:18:15,941 --> 01:18:20,237
If somebody want to say, "Yeah,
you're a bad person for killing a whale."

1492
01:18:20,779 --> 01:18:24,449
Uh, I would rather kill one whale
than 2,000 chickens.

1493
01:18:24,533 --> 01:18:26,952
That's about the same amount of meat.

1494
01:18:27,536 --> 01:18:30,372
Uh, so if the world
wants to take 2,000 lives,

1495
01:18:30,455 --> 01:18:32,708
and we are taking one, you're welcome.

1496
01:18:33,208 --> 01:18:34,626
And at that point,

1497
01:18:34,710 --> 01:18:39,047
I feel like I'm a better person
than many other people

1498
01:18:39,131 --> 01:18:41,466
that are thinking about,

1499
01:18:42,050 --> 01:18:44,594
"Yeah, we had salmon
for dinner last night."

1500
01:18:44,678 --> 01:18:45,512
Yeah?

1501
01:18:46,012 --> 01:18:47,723
Four people, salmon,

1502
01:18:47,806 --> 01:18:51,017
that means two, three salmons killed.

1503
01:18:51,601 --> 01:18:55,689
Do you really feel good about yourself
killing two salmons

1504
01:18:56,231 --> 01:18:57,357
for eating dinner?

1505
01:18:58,150 --> 01:19:00,861
Uh, I can follow the thoughts
that people are saying,

1506
01:19:01,737 --> 01:19:04,197
"If you want to eat, don't kill anything."

1507
01:19:04,281 --> 01:19:07,951
Like, just eating vegetables, and fruits,
and stuff like that.

1508
01:19:08,034 --> 01:19:09,202
I can go along with that,

1509
01:19:09,286 --> 01:19:13,081
but I really can't go along with people
that are saying,

1510
01:19:13,707 --> 01:19:15,000
Uh, "You must not kill Grind."

1511
01:19:16,001 --> 01:19:19,129
And then, they are killing
or eating other animals.

1512
01:19:19,212 --> 01:19:22,340
For me, a fish, a chicken, a whale,

1513
01:19:22,424 --> 01:19:24,801
exactly the same value.

1514
01:19:24,885 --> 01:19:26,261
It has one life.

1515
01:19:27,095 --> 01:19:27,971
And…

1516
01:19:28,889 --> 01:19:31,433
some say it doesn't need to be taken
for getting food,

1517
01:19:31,516 --> 01:19:33,310
but that's what we are doing.

1518
01:19:34,394 --> 01:19:37,272
[somber orchestral music playing]

1519
01:19:40,358 --> 01:19:42,652
[Ali] Although I didn't agree
with everything he said,

1520
01:19:42,736 --> 01:19:44,196
the whaler had a point.

1521
01:19:44,279 --> 01:19:46,239
All this time, I had only looked at fish

1522
01:19:46,323 --> 01:19:49,576
and other marine life in terms
of sustainability and ecological impact,

1523
01:19:49,659 --> 01:19:52,704
but I never considered the lives
of these animals in their own right,

1524
01:19:52,788 --> 01:19:54,039
or whether they could feel.

1525
01:19:55,499 --> 01:19:59,669
To me, it's remarkable
that the question is even asked that,

1526
01:19:59,753 --> 01:20:02,255
"Do fish feel pain?"
[chuckles incredulously]

1527
01:20:03,256 --> 01:20:07,052
As a scientist, it's common sense.

1528
01:20:07,135 --> 01:20:09,137
They have a nervous system, fish do.

1529
01:20:09,221 --> 01:20:13,266
They have the basic elements
that all vertebrates have.

1530
01:20:13,350 --> 01:20:17,646
They have the capacity to feel on a level

1531
01:20:17,729 --> 01:20:19,856
that I almost can't imagine we can.

1532
01:20:19,940 --> 01:20:22,400
We feel pain, we feel touch.

1533
01:20:22,484 --> 01:20:25,862
But fish have a lateral line
down their sides

1534
01:20:25,946 --> 01:20:29,699
that senses the most exquisite
little movements in the water.

1535
01:20:29,783 --> 01:20:32,285
So you see a thousand fish
moving like one fish.

1536
01:20:32,369 --> 01:20:36,039
Those who say, "Doesn't matter what you
do to a fish, they can't feel anything."

1537
01:20:36,122 --> 01:20:40,043
Or that they-- Their consciousness,
they can't relate to pain,

1538
01:20:40,126 --> 01:20:42,254
or they can't sense danger in the future.

1539
01:20:42,337 --> 01:20:45,465
Well, they haven't really observed fish.

1540
01:20:45,549 --> 01:20:47,926
I think it's a justification

1541
01:20:48,009 --> 01:20:51,721
for doing dastardly things
to innocent creatures.

1542
01:20:52,681 --> 01:20:56,810
It's the only explanation I can think of
for treating fish

1543
01:20:56,893 --> 01:20:59,187
with such a barbaric attitude.

1544
01:20:59,771 --> 01:21:01,356
[Ali] So you don't eat fish?

1545
01:21:01,439 --> 01:21:04,526
Oh, I don't eat fish now, or any animal.

1546
01:21:05,652 --> 01:21:07,737
[Ali] A scientific panel
for the European Union

1547
01:21:07,821 --> 01:21:11,491
concluded that fish do in fact feel pain
and experience fear.

1548
01:21:11,992 --> 01:21:14,077
Just like dolphins and whales,

1549
01:21:14,160 --> 01:21:16,329
fish can also have complex social lives,

1550
01:21:16,413 --> 01:21:19,791
even teaming up with other species
to find food.

1551
01:21:19,875 --> 01:21:23,587
With research proving, once and for all,
the intelligence, memory capabilities,

1552
01:21:23,670 --> 01:21:25,213
and sentience of these animals,

1553
01:21:25,297 --> 01:21:28,258
fish, and even crustaceans,
were more like us

1554
01:21:28,341 --> 01:21:29,843
than we ever expected.

1555
01:21:29,926 --> 01:21:33,305
Fishes probably invented all
of the familiar senses to us.

1556
01:21:33,388 --> 01:21:35,265
Uh, they've been around a long time.

1557
01:21:35,348 --> 01:21:38,018
So they have excellent vision, hearing,

1558
01:21:38,101 --> 01:21:40,395
sense of touch, sense of smell and taste.

1559
01:21:40,478 --> 01:21:42,606
They have the right kind of pain receptors

1560
01:21:42,689 --> 01:21:45,901
for physical, chemical,
and heat types of pain,

1561
01:21:45,984 --> 01:21:47,736
the same three kinds that we have.

1562
01:21:48,528 --> 01:21:51,698
And also, there's evidence
that fishes show, uh, curiosity,

1563
01:21:51,781 --> 01:21:53,742
perhaps concern, perhaps, uh, fear,

1564
01:21:53,825 --> 01:21:56,536
when they can see other fishes
being taken out of their tanks,

1565
01:21:56,620 --> 01:21:59,164
and chopped up on a block
right outside the tank.

1566
01:21:59,247 --> 01:22:01,124
It could be family members,
or relatives,

1567
01:22:01,207 --> 01:22:04,502
or just individuals
who they've gotten to like over time.

1568
01:22:04,586 --> 01:22:08,798
There's emerging science on how animals
do use democratic decision-making.

1569
01:22:08,882 --> 01:22:12,552
One example is herrings, they have
a very curious way of communicating.

1570
01:22:12,636 --> 01:22:14,387
They actually fart to communicate.

1571
01:22:14,471 --> 01:22:17,641
So, if 60% of the herrings
in the school are farting,

1572
01:22:17,724 --> 01:22:20,602
then that means it's time to leave,
maybe not surprisingly.

1573
01:22:20,685 --> 01:22:23,813
But they actually use that
as a communication tool.

1574
01:22:23,897 --> 01:22:25,482
[Balcombe and Ali laughing]

1575
01:22:25,565 --> 01:22:27,651
[laughing] I can't keep a straight face.

1576
01:22:27,734 --> 01:22:29,194
[both laughing]

1577
01:22:29,277 --> 01:22:30,528
[Ali] As hilarious as that was,

1578
01:22:30,612 --> 01:22:34,032
I'd always been taught that seafood
was an important part of a healthy diet,

1579
01:22:34,115 --> 01:22:35,450
and I still had some questions.

1580
01:22:35,533 --> 01:22:38,745
[Ali] What am I going to miss out on
if I stopped eating seafood?

1581
01:22:39,537 --> 01:22:41,456
Well, what you're gonna miss out on,

1582
01:22:41,539 --> 01:22:43,124
if you stopped eating seafood,

1583
01:22:43,208 --> 01:22:45,710
is you're gonna miss out on
all that toxic heavy metal.

1584
01:22:45,794 --> 01:22:46,795
Mercury, right?

1585
01:22:46,878 --> 01:22:50,340
You're gonna decrease your intake
of dioxins and PCBs,

1586
01:22:50,423 --> 01:22:52,801
these other, you know,
persistent organic pollutants.

1587
01:22:52,884 --> 01:22:54,844
The aquatic food chain

1588
01:22:54,928 --> 01:22:59,099
is the most concentrated source
of industrial pollutants.

1589
01:22:59,182 --> 01:23:00,725
The thought of clean fish?

1590
01:23:00,809 --> 01:23:03,770
There's just dirty fish
and then dirtier fish.

1591
01:23:03,853 --> 01:23:06,690
And so if you look at the number one
source of dioxin exposure,

1592
01:23:06,773 --> 01:23:09,234
of toxic heavy metal exposure,
PCB exposure,

1593
01:23:09,317 --> 01:23:10,860
of hexachlorobenzene,

1594
01:23:10,944 --> 01:23:13,655
plastics compounds,
flame-retardant chemicals…

1595
01:23:13,738 --> 01:23:15,532
I mean,
you name your industrial pollutant,

1596
01:23:15,615 --> 01:23:17,325
it's found most concentrated in fish.

1597
01:23:17,409 --> 01:23:22,122
Again, because that's just where
the pollutants eventually end up.

1598
01:23:22,205 --> 01:23:25,250
Mercury is totally a toxicant
to the body.

1599
01:23:25,333 --> 01:23:28,795
Let's say mercury from some industry
pollutes the air or the water.

1600
01:23:28,878 --> 01:23:32,549
Small bacteria, plankton,
they start picking up on the mercury.

1601
01:23:32,632 --> 01:23:34,968
And then, small creatures eat those.

1602
01:23:35,051 --> 01:23:38,388
Then you've got the smaller fish
eaten by the bigger fish, and so on.

1603
01:23:38,471 --> 01:23:41,516
In essence,
this is called bioaccumulation.

1604
01:23:41,599 --> 01:23:45,103
So there's other things in fish,
it's not just omega-3 fatty acids.

1605
01:23:45,186 --> 01:23:50,025
Those contaminants oftentimes
outweigh the benefits of the nutrients.

1606
01:23:50,108 --> 01:23:52,902
A common belief is
that fish are the best source

1607
01:23:52,986 --> 01:23:55,530
of these essential omega-3 fatty acids,

1608
01:23:56,114 --> 01:23:59,909
but people don't realize
that fish don't make omega-3 fatty acids.

1609
01:23:59,993 --> 01:24:03,288
It's the algae cells
that are making the omega-3 fats,

1610
01:24:03,371 --> 01:24:05,999
and the fish swallow the algae cells.

1611
01:24:06,082 --> 01:24:10,045
And the algal DHA is what winds up
in the fish's flesh,

1612
01:24:10,128 --> 01:24:12,714
that when we kill the fish,
and crush its flesh,

1613
01:24:12,797 --> 01:24:15,842
and squeeze out the "fish oil"
for the omega-3s,

1614
01:24:15,925 --> 01:24:18,470
it was really algae oil
in there all the time.

1615
01:24:18,553 --> 01:24:22,515
So why not just eat the algae that has
those great benefits we're looking for?

1616
01:24:22,599 --> 01:24:24,726
Why even mess with the middleman,

1617
01:24:24,809 --> 01:24:26,436
and just eat the direct source.

1618
01:24:26,519 --> 01:24:29,606
We started New Wave Foods
with the mission to disrupt seafood,

1619
01:24:29,689 --> 01:24:32,901
not oceans,
by creating seafood from sea plants.

1620
01:24:32,984 --> 01:24:36,112
So you're not gonna miss out on taste,
it's there for you. It's delicious.

1621
01:24:36,196 --> 01:24:39,449
But you will miss the cholesterol,
there's no PCBs,

1622
01:24:39,532 --> 01:24:42,535
no mercury, no heavy antibiotics.

1623
01:24:42,619 --> 01:24:45,955
You get the things you want from seafood,
but none of the negative things.

1624
01:24:46,039 --> 01:24:47,499
Plant-based solutions, I think,

1625
01:24:47,582 --> 01:24:50,794
is definitely one of the best options
that we have to go forward.

1626
01:24:50,877 --> 01:24:55,006
Traditional animal agriculture,
raising cows and chickens on land,

1627
01:24:55,090 --> 01:24:56,382
have huge impacts in the ocean.

1628
01:24:56,466 --> 01:24:59,677
The runoff from those procedures
create dead zones in the environment.

1629
01:24:59,761 --> 01:25:02,388
And fishing and fish farming, too.
So if we can find alternatives

1630
01:25:02,472 --> 01:25:05,016
that are just as delicious,
just as healthy for you,

1631
01:25:05,100 --> 01:25:08,061
but better for the environment,
why wouldn't we do it?

1632
01:25:08,645 --> 01:25:10,647
[Ali] My journey had taken me far.

1633
01:25:10,730 --> 01:25:13,525
And despite witnessing
catastrophic destruction,

1634
01:25:13,608 --> 01:25:16,528
I had more admiration for the ocean
than ever before.

1635
01:25:17,028 --> 01:25:19,197
I felt empowered by what I'd learned,

1636
01:25:19,280 --> 01:25:21,908
and couldn't wait to put it into practice.

1637
01:25:21,991 --> 01:25:24,410
Although I still pick up trash on beaches,

1638
01:25:24,494 --> 01:25:27,580
and have embarked on a project
to continue investigating

1639
01:25:27,664 --> 01:25:30,041
and reporting on environmental issues,

1640
01:25:30,125 --> 01:25:32,293
with so many plant-based alternatives

1641
01:25:32,377 --> 01:25:35,630
emerging for almost every seafood product
I could imagine…

1642
01:25:37,173 --> 01:25:41,302
I realized the single best thing
I could do every single day

1643
01:25:41,386 --> 01:25:44,556
to protect the ocean
and the marine life I loved,

1644
01:25:44,639 --> 01:25:45,557
was to simply...

1645
01:25:46,182 --> 01:25:47,308
not eat them.

1646
01:25:48,518 --> 01:25:50,895
[Roberts] If we protect more
and fish less,

1647
01:25:50,979 --> 01:25:52,939
and restore that kind of balance

1648
01:25:53,022 --> 01:25:54,649
and healthy ecosystem,

1649
01:25:54,732 --> 01:25:57,986
they've got a good chance of making it
through the tough times ahead.

1650
01:25:58,069 --> 01:25:59,320
There is real hope here

1651
01:25:59,404 --> 01:26:03,491
because marine ecosystems
bounce back so quickly

1652
01:26:03,575 --> 01:26:04,534
if they're allowed to.

1653
01:26:05,118 --> 01:26:07,287
You would see the reefs coming back,

1654
01:26:07,370 --> 01:26:11,624
you would see
these incredible shoals of fish returning,

1655
01:26:11,708 --> 01:26:14,586
you would see the whales
returning to our coast.

1656
01:26:14,669 --> 01:26:17,046
This is within our grasp.

1657
01:26:17,130 --> 01:26:18,506
We can do this.

1658
01:26:18,590 --> 01:26:21,176
The prospects for marine recovery,

1659
01:26:21,259 --> 01:26:23,928
for rewilding, are incredibly exciting,

1660
01:26:24,012 --> 01:26:27,765
but it can only happen
if very large areas of sea

1661
01:26:28,349 --> 01:26:30,935
are closed to commercial fishing.

1662
01:26:31,019 --> 01:26:34,147
And while governments
are not prepared to take action,

1663
01:26:34,230 --> 01:26:37,442
and while the industry
is basically unregulated,

1664
01:26:37,525 --> 01:26:39,485
the only ethical thing to do

1665
01:26:40,195 --> 01:26:41,696
is to stop eating fish.

1666
01:26:41,779 --> 01:26:47,785
It isn't too late to take the best hope
we will ever have

1667
01:26:47,869 --> 01:26:49,913
of having a home in this universe.

1668
01:26:49,996 --> 01:26:53,333
To respect what we've got,
to protect what remains,

1669
01:26:53,416 --> 01:26:55,335
don't let any of the pieces escape.

1670
01:26:55,919 --> 01:26:58,338
Most of the positive and negative things

1671
01:26:58,421 --> 01:27:01,257
that bring about change
in human civilization

1672
01:27:01,341 --> 01:27:02,800
start with someone.

1673
01:27:03,509 --> 01:27:04,677
Some "one."

1674
01:27:05,511 --> 01:27:08,097
And no one can do everything,

1675
01:27:08,181 --> 01:27:11,893
but every one can do something.

1676
01:27:12,435 --> 01:27:13,770
And sometimes,

1677
01:27:14,270 --> 01:27:16,773
big ideas make a big difference.

1678
01:27:16,856 --> 01:27:18,816
That's what we can do.

1679
01:27:18,900 --> 01:27:21,569
That's what you can do right now.

1680
01:27:22,028 --> 01:27:24,489
Look in the mirror, figure it out.

1681
01:27:24,572 --> 01:27:25,531
Go for it.

1682
01:27:27,158 --> 01:27:29,494
["Whale Song" by Caravãna Sun playing]

1683
01:27:42,548 --> 01:27:45,134
♪ You see the truth ♪

1684
01:27:46,052 --> 01:27:47,845
♪ Always finds a way ♪

1685
01:27:49,013 --> 01:27:53,476
♪ To rise above the waves
And I'm scared ♪

1686
01:27:53,559 --> 01:27:55,895
♪ To see what I've become ♪

1687
01:27:56,521 --> 01:27:57,981
♪ All I was ♪

1688
01:27:58,481 --> 01:28:01,359
♪ Like a whale ♪

1689
01:28:02,151 --> 01:28:05,488
♪ Gasping for air ♪

1690
01:28:06,197 --> 01:28:10,118
♪ I'm diving deep ♪

1691
01:28:10,201 --> 01:28:12,078
♪ I'm diving deep ♪

1692
01:28:12,161 --> 01:28:15,081
♪ Motions of emotions
Motions of emotions ♪

1693
01:28:15,164 --> 01:28:19,127
♪ Motions of emotions
Motions of emotions ♪

1694
01:28:19,210 --> 01:28:23,089
♪ Motions of emotions
Motions of emotions ♪

1695
01:28:23,172 --> 01:28:27,135
♪ Motions of emotions
Motions of emotions ♪

1696
01:28:27,218 --> 01:28:29,846
♪ Take me over the oceans ♪

1697
01:28:29,929 --> 01:28:32,140
♪ That I believe ♪

1698
01:28:34,684 --> 01:28:40,982
♪ It's the only thing
That's been honest to me ♪

1699
01:28:43,109 --> 01:28:45,820
♪ Take me over the oceans ♪

1700
01:28:45,903 --> 01:28:49,532
♪ That I believe ♪

1701
01:28:50,700 --> 01:28:54,620
♪ It's the only thing
That's been honest ♪