Mission Blue Page #7

So what do I do?

We don't have to kill fish

to get the omega oils

that we really value and

that are good for us.

We can get them from the

plants that the fish eat.

Fish don't make

those oils anyway.

You know, menhaden are really

quite extraordinary fish.

What they in fact act as is the...

the kidneys of the ocean.

They're cleaning up the water of

excess phytoplankton and detritus.

And then on top of that,

they are the base of the food chain

for bluefish and striped bass

and all of these fish that are

incredibly valuable, incredibly tasty.

And as menhaden have disappeared,

so have these very valuable fish.

Once the menhaden are gone,

the Chesapeake Bay will not

be the same intact ecosystem.

This is the face of industrial

fishing in the Chesapeake Bay.

Fleets of boats, spotter

planes, and huge nets

that capture entire schools of

fish in a matter of minutes.

Get 'em in there!

Get in there! All

the way in there!

You guys come on this side! Let's get...

let's get in there.

Back away! It's dangerous! Go away!

Get out of there!

- Here we go.

- Got it?

I've looked at any number of charts,

graphs... numbers on a page.

I've seen lots of photographs of

industrial fishing operations.

But to actually be in the

water with the fish...

It was surreal...

to see those little

fish captured

in a way that is unlike anything

in the history of the planet

until we came along.

For a moment... I felt as if...

a piece of me was being ripped

out of the ocean as well.

Overfishing, it's an

amazing phenomenon.

Who would've ever thought

that people would be able

to fish so efficiently and so

effectively and so strongly

that we would reduce the stocks of

these species that were present

by the billions

to the point of obliteration

or near-obliteration?

But we have done it systematically

with enormous success.

We've done it to Atlantic tuna.

We've done it to sharks.

We've done it to cod.

We've done it to halibut...

to anchovies, to

herring, to sardines.

We've done it to...

just about every damn thing

you would ever wanna eat.

Good job, Bryce.

We have this idea, we humans,

that the ocean is so big,

so vast, so resilient,

it doesn't matter

what we do to it.

That was... that was crazy.

Our ignorance

is really the biggest

problem that we now face.

We now can learn

from the past...

and as never before,

do something about it

before it's too late.

Sylvia has a wish

for the planet...

what she calls her Mission Blue.

And it's really very simple.

Protect the ocean in the same

way we now protect the land.

In 1872, the United States began

establishing a system of parks...

that some say is the best

idea America ever had.

About 12% of the land around

the world is now protected,

but only a fraction of 1% of the

ocean is fully protected globally.

How did you come up with

the idea for Hope Spots?

On the land,

people have recognized places

that are in good shape,

but they're under

threat as hot spots.

Hot spots.

And I said, "Well,

we need to do the same thing,

of course, for the ocean...

but why don't we call

them Hope Spots?"

Because, if we take

action, recovery,

we're at least making them better

than they otherwise would be...

Cause for hope.

She's just asking people

to do everything in their power to

preserve large portions of the ocean.

Not pin pricks, but large

portions of the ocean.

That's a reasonable wish.

The biggest thing we've done to

change the oceans to date...

is kill things that live there.

And if you can say, "In this place,

we're not going to do that,"

that's really worth doing.

You know, the Hope Spots

can't just be pretty places.

The Hope Spots have to be places

where the potential is identified,

the threats are identified...

and some kind of concrete

action is taken.

This is Cabo Pulmo, Mexico.

For more than a century, it was

a thriving fishing village...

and then the tourists came...

and then the sport fishermen...

and then the industrial fleet

with their long lines and nets.

By the 1980s, so much had been taken

from the surrounding water...

that nothing was left.

In 1997, the people who live

here took the ocean back.

Together they created a Hope Spot

70 square kilometers around,

making it completely off limits to

fishing and dumping and drilling.

Okay, come on, come on, come on.

Since the protected

zone was established,

Cabo Pulmo has replaced

fishing with ecotourism

and the community is thriving.

Well, how is it possible that

this is our first dive together?

- I don't know, but it's true.

- It is true.

It is absolutely true.

The idea of protecting the

ocean to bring back the fish

is an idea whose

time has come...

and it's beginning to

work all over the world.

A Hope Spot is a place that

gives you cause for hope.

It's a big chunk of the planet... or

it can be a relatively small place.

Like Cabo Pulmo...

where... conscious

efforts have shown that

if you make an investment...

care for a place...

it can recover and be

a symbol for hope.

Bueno?

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

I think I wanna be a jack.

- You what?

- I think I want to be a jack.

You wanna be a jack?

Every place, even the small

places, make a difference.

But we need to scale up.

We need to think big.

Sylvia has invited me to join her

on a mission to Australia...

already home to one of the

largest Hope Spots in the world.

She's here to campaign for

one that's even bigger.

Whilst we were running this campaign, the

Global Census of Marine Life came out,

and it showed that Australia

had more marine diversity,

more marine species than any

other country in the world.

Like, 95% are just found there

and nowhere else on the planet.

Yeah, I was gonna say that.

- That's amazing!

- Yeah.

Sylvia wanted to

take me to a place

she'd been before

in the Coral Sea...

more than 100 miles out

into the open ocean.

Australia is a leader in terms of

establishing protection for the sea,

starting in the mid-1970s

with the establishment

of the Great Barrier Reef

Marine Park Authority...

and more recently, a

designation of the Coral Sea,

a large area that basically

hugs the Great Barrier Reef.

My first glimpse of the

Coral Sea underwater

was in the 1970s.

It was really pristine,

in the sense that little fishing had

taken place there at that time.

There are still large

areas of the Coral Sea

that are untouched

and unspoiled.

But making it a no

catch, no dump zone

is the kind of insurance that

is needed to keep it that way.

- Looks beautiful though, huh?

- Sure does.

You can kind of tell

why nobody's out here.

It's so far.

We've come out all this way

and all we find are ruins.

The place Sylvia remembered

so vividly is gone.

I am driven by what I know...

by the reality...

as a scientist looking...

at the evidence...

that my species, the world

I know, the world I love,

is in trouble.

People I know and love... may not

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