we have taken fish out of the ocean
faster than they can reproduce now 90%
of the large fish like the tuna and the
Sharks are gone we kill them in the last
100 years alone right now about the
third of the Fisheries of the world have
collapsed if we continue like this
before 2080 most of the Fisheries of the
world will have collapsed but not only
we take fish out of the ocean faster
than they can reproduce but also we are
doing it in a very destructive way these
are trawlers shrimp trawlers in the
South China Sea you can see their tracks
from a satellite photo in some places
for every pound of shrimp that is cut 10
pounds of other animals including fish
starfish all corals are killed and
discarded overboard and on top of that
we have pollution and now every year 8
million tons of plastic entered the
ocean and on top of that we have climate
change global warming which is making
the ocean warmer and more acidic which
is killing coral reefs everywhere this
used to be a coral reef now this is a
ghost of a coral reef dead broken coral
overgrown by seaweed and slime so in
2008 I moved to Washington and we
started by asking us the questions you
know the main question was are there
pristine places left in the ocean so we
found this place in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean the Line Islands seven of
these islands are uninhabited and off we
went for five weeks to places like this
millennium at all this is the size of
Manhattan that belongs to Cuba’s and as
soon as we jump in the water this is
what we see not only we saw healthy
reefs but lots of predators lots of
predators
you know you jump in the water and as
soon as your bubbles clear you are
surrounded by 1012 sharks if you go to
the African plains to the setting Getty
no you would expect to see hundreds of
thousands of wildebeest and zebras and
antelopes and all the animals that eat
the grass the herbivores and then just a
few thousand or a few hundred lions
right this is what we thought would
happen on the reef this is what we learn
in school this is what we found on
textbooks but when we went to a pristine
reef for the first time we discovered
then what we thought was natural was not
that biomass pyramid is upside down you
go to one of these pristine reefs and
more than half of most of the biomass
more than half of the biomass of fish is
accounted for by the top predators the
big guys on top of the food chain but
then we went to a reef with 5000 people
nearby and this is what we saw dead
coral no fish only 5,000 people were
able to do this now the question now is
how many people are enough to turn
something pristine into something that
is not so we decided to go to a place
with less people and test that question
so we went to the most extreme place
Pitcairn Island 52 people live on Pipkin
Island it belongs to the UK Pete Kern is
inhabited by 52 people the other three
islands are uninhabited which have in
the water and the visibility was
extraordinary but there are no fish
there were some fish but no sharks no
groupers North Nappers and then we had
to do it we had to go to these places
with our people and see what we found so
we want to place it like this Henderson
at all and we jump in the water and the
coral reefs were really really really
healthy spectacular and of course lots
of sharks the same thing we found on the
Line Islands we found here this inverted
biomass pyramid the place where the
predator dominate so there you go that
was our question answer even 52 people a
population as small as 52 are able over
time using just traditional fishing
methods are enough to turn something
pristine into something that is not
the korells were fine they didn’t have
the impact that the 5,000 Polynesians
had on that reef but but they were able
to remove over time all this large fish
that previously inhabited the reef
you
faster than they can reproduce now 90%
of the large fish like the tuna and the
Sharks are gone we kill them in the last
100 years alone right now about the
third of the Fisheries of the world have
collapsed if we continue like this
before 2080 most of the Fisheries of the
world will have collapsed but not only
we take fish out of the ocean faster
than they can reproduce but also we are
doing it in a very destructive way these
are trawlers shrimp trawlers in the
South China Sea you can see their tracks
from a satellite photo in some places
for every pound of shrimp that is cut 10
pounds of other animals including fish
starfish all corals are killed and
discarded overboard and on top of that
we have pollution and now every year 8
million tons of plastic entered the
ocean and on top of that we have climate
change global warming which is making
the ocean warmer and more acidic which
is killing coral reefs everywhere this
used to be a coral reef now this is a
ghost of a coral reef dead broken coral
overgrown by seaweed and slime so in
2008 I moved to Washington and we
started by asking us the questions you
know the main question was are there
pristine places left in the ocean so we
found this place in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean the Line Islands seven of
these islands are uninhabited and off we
went for five weeks to places like this
millennium at all this is the size of
Manhattan that belongs to Cuba’s and as
soon as we jump in the water this is
what we see not only we saw healthy
reefs but lots of predators lots of
predators
you know you jump in the water and as
soon as your bubbles clear you are
surrounded by 1012 sharks if you go to
the African plains to the setting Getty
no you would expect to see hundreds of
thousands of wildebeest and zebras and
antelopes and all the animals that eat
the grass the herbivores and then just a
few thousand or a few hundred lions
right this is what we thought would
happen on the reef this is what we learn
in school this is what we found on
textbooks but when we went to a pristine
reef for the first time we discovered
then what we thought was natural was not
that biomass pyramid is upside down you
go to one of these pristine reefs and
more than half of most of the biomass
more than half of the biomass of fish is
accounted for by the top predators the
big guys on top of the food chain but
then we went to a reef with 5000 people
nearby and this is what we saw dead
coral no fish only 5,000 people were
able to do this now the question now is
how many people are enough to turn
something pristine into something that
is not so we decided to go to a place
with less people and test that question
so we went to the most extreme place
Pitcairn Island 52 people live on Pipkin
Island it belongs to the UK Pete Kern is
inhabited by 52 people the other three
islands are uninhabited which have in
the water and the visibility was
extraordinary but there are no fish
there were some fish but no sharks no
groupers North Nappers and then we had
to do it we had to go to these places
with our people and see what we found so
we want to place it like this Henderson
at all and we jump in the water and the
coral reefs were really really really
healthy spectacular and of course lots
of sharks the same thing we found on the
Line Islands we found here this inverted
biomass pyramid the place where the
predator dominate so there you go that
was our question answer even 52 people a
population as small as 52 are able over
time using just traditional fishing
methods are enough to turn something
pristine into something that is not
the korells were fine they didn’t have
the impact that the 5,000 Polynesians
had on that reef but but they were able
to remove over time all this large fish
that previously inhabited the reef
you
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