Palau.
A tiny island nation
in the middle of the western Pacific Ocean.
It's home to one of the world's first shark sanctuaries:
a refuge from brutal fishing practices.
Fishermen are catching the sharks,
they are chopping off their fins,
and they're throwing the rest of the shark back in the water.
Pirates and poachers still prowl these waters
driven by the global black market in illegal fish.
Now, the war is on.
Palau is locked in a high-stakes battle at sea.
Just catching rogue fishing boats is not enough.
We're not sending them back
for them to be reloaded with crew, and fuel, and equipment
and be sent right back to Palau to get more of our fish.
We're not standing for it anymore.
It's a David-and-Goliath fight
that could determine
how the rest of the world defends its threatened seas.
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On the south-west reef of the Palau islands,
at a dive site known as Blue Corner,
something rare begins to unfold.
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Moorish idols gather in the thousands to spawn.
It's a ritual that happens just once a year
typically in the days leading up to the January full moon.
Moorish idols, they're beautiful reef fish,
when they aggregate all together
in individual numbers of upwards of 200 to 300
they're all moving altogether on the reef
backwards and forwards
making very distinct movements altogether
and it's a really beautiful dance to see.
A beautiful dance that invites predators.
Whitetip reef sharks circle the shoal.
Generally when we get spawning aggregations
we get predation on them.
It's a clear signal to the predators:
when they start to see greater numbers of that fish,
we generally then see greater numbers of predators there.
It's like someone rang the lunchtime bell.
Distinctive bars of yellow, white, and black
break up the outline of each Moorish idol.
Making it difficult for predators to tell
where one fish begins and another ends.
It's a method of defense known as disruptive colouration.
The elongated white dorsal fin
may make it appear larger to potential predators.
In spite of these defense mechanisms,
Moorish idols are vulnerable during spawning.
Only a small number will survive
the predatory onslaught of the next few days.
This spawning aggregation is an uncommon sight,
even in Palau,
where coral gardens regularly explode
with spectacular displays of marine life.
Palau is a collection of more than 200 islands
strung across the western Pacific
nearly 1,000 miles east of the Philippines.
Hundreds of miles of blue ocean surround the archipelago.
Few places on the planet are as isolated as Palau.
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About 20,000 residents
are scattered across just a handful of islands.
Most live in Koror, the main commercial hub.
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The entire country is less than 200 square miles,
smaller than the city of Chicago.
With very little industry generating pollution,
Palau's waters are exceptionally clean.
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More than half of its gross domestic product
comes from tourism.
Among the most popular destinations
are the mushroom-shaped Rock Islands:
ancient relics of coral reefs,
carved by wave erosion
and blanketed in untouched emerald jungle.
(Birds chirping in distance)
But the big draw lies beneath these shimmering lagoons:
one of the world's richest reef ecosystems.
Home to 1,500 species of fish,
500 species of coral,
and more than 100 species of sharks and rays.
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Palau's reefs house more fish, coral, and other invertebrates
per square mile than almost any place else on Earth.
It's known as the Serengeti of the Sea.
As you can see from the surroundings,
you've just got a beautiful, beautiful backdrop.
We have some very, very clean water here,
because our nearest landmass is probably 700 miles away
being the Philippines.
And it's one of those places
that's maybe not the easiest in the world to get to,
so our tourism isn't through the roof.
It's nowhere on the level of somewhere like the Bahamas.
So generally you're diving pristine waters,
lots of fish life,
and usually, not too many divers.
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A monster school of Blue-streak fusiliers
pours over the reef feeding on zooplankton.
Three major ocean currents converge on Palau
ferrying species from across the Indian and Pacific oceans.
But the abundance of life here is due to marine geology.
Palau sits on the tip of an underwater mountain
that formed 70 million years ago.
As a result you've got these beautiful ridges
that drop on both sides of Palau.
So you've got very deep trenches and amazing ocean geology.
You've got very cold nutrient-rich waters
coming up from the deep
and that's bringing really high productivity
on the shallower coral reefs.
And that attracts all that amazing marine life.
So you've got pelagic fish species,
huge schools of fish, amazing species of sharks.
It would be a very rare dive
that you didn't get to see a shark in Palau
and then depending on where and what time of day
and also what time of month,
we can see sometimes hundreds of sharks on a dive site.
But this paradise for predators was once a killing field.
By the mid-1980s,
shark fishing in Palau had grown rapidly,
driven by the rising demand for shark-fin soup,
a prized symbol of wealth in some Asian countries.
For years,
shark-finning boats prowled these waters with impunity.
Shark finning is a very destructive fishing practice
that is being done
because of the demand for things like shark fin soup.
And what's happening is-- with shark finning is that
fishermen are catching the sharks,
they are chopping off their fins,
and they're throwing the rest of the shark back in the water,
often alive.
Without their fins these sharks can't survive,
so it's completely destructive.
They're taking only a portion of the shark
and leaving the rest to die in the ocean.
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Shark finners ransacked these waters for decades.
Then, in 2009, the government of Palau took action.
It created one of the world's first shark sanctuaries,
making it illegal to catch sharks in its seas.
The shark sanctuary stretches over 230,000 square miles,
an area roughly the size of France.
Today,
sharks are a key attraction for the international tourism
that drives Palau's economy.
A lot of the divers come here
because they want to see the sharks.
They've decided to protect those populations.
It's not only helping the sharks ecologically,
but it's hugely benefitting Palau's economy.
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A study in 2012
measured the value of Palau's shark populations.
A live shark is worth more than $170,000 annually in tourism
or nearly 2 million over its lifetime.
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A dead shark might sell at port for about $100,
money that often winds up in the hands of a foreign poacher.
In a single year, a live shark can earn 1,000 times more
for Palau's economy than a dead shark.
Live sharks bring in $18 million to the economy each year.
That accounts for 8% of the gross domestic product in Palau.
So comparatively it doesn't weigh up.
The fishermen would essentially be making more by selling fish
to be consumed by these divers that are seeing the sharks
rather than catching the sharks themselves.
Living sharks represent a profitable
and renewable source of income for generations to come.
But banning shark fishing was a potentially dangerous move.
It might have jeopardized the lucrative sport-fishing trade
from Asia.
Instead, ecotourism,
where divers seek close encounters with sharks,
is on the rise
and the number of visitors to Palau
continues to increase each year.
In the last few years,
marine researchers have seen a marked change in these waters.
And what's happened is the shark populations
have stopped declining.
They are very healthy in these waters.
And sharks, as apex predators,
they are a key role in keeping the oceans healthy.
Sharks feed efficiently.
They target slow, sick, and weak fish,
preventing the spread of disease that could be devastating.
By preying on the weakest fish,
sharks strengthen the gene pools of prey species.
Since the largest and healthiest fish
are typically the most fertile,
the result is larger numbers of healthy fish.
But sharks also keep the overall populations of prey fish
in check.
A drastic decline in the number of large sharks
can have a ripple effect,
allowing prey populations to bloat
and upsetting the delicate balance
of the oceanic food web.
Sharks are perfectly designed for their role
as apex predators on the reef,
the result of more than 450 million years of evolution.
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Small organs in the snout called ampullae
detect the electrical outputs of other creatures.
And streamlined, torpedo-like bodies
allow them to swim quickly when pursuing prey.
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In Palau's culture,
the shark signifies bravery and strength.
Sharks often adorn traditional Palauan meeting houses,
called Bais.
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Marine researcher Maya Santangelo
is compiling data for an ongoing study
of Palau's resident shark population.
Okay.
3, 2, 1.
So what we're doing is
we're looking at individual sharks:
how many we're seeing, what the sizes are,
the sex of the sharks,
any specific behaviors we're seeing.
And we're also looking at how things like,
the number of divers,
environmental factors like temperature and current,
how that's affecting them.
And hopefully, what that's gonna do
is we're going to be able to produce a long-term data set,
be able to monitor these shark populations over time.
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As a protected sanctuary with a thriving shark population,
Palau is a vital resource for conservation.
Each year,
an estimated 100 million sharks are killed worldwide.
Because they take decades to mature and produce few young,
sharks are vulnerable to overfishing.
One third of oceanic shark species
are at risk of extinction.
Data compiled here
can encourage the creation of other shark sanctuaries
around the world.
Today at that site
we saw quite large groups of grey reefs,
so not just one or two here and there.
There were actually large schools all together.
Most of the common behavior that we see of them doing is
just patrolling behavior.
Patrolling behavior is a sign of the grey reef sharks
hanging around in their territory on the reef.
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These grey reef sharks have developed
a cooperative relationship
with the whitetip sharks on the reef.
The whitetips stick closer to the shallows
where they hunt
by forcing their flexible bodies into crevices on the reef.
The grey reef sharks venture farther into deep water.
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With an average length of less than 6 feet,
grey reef sharks aren't the largest fish in these waters.
But by swimming in packs, they discourage larger sharks,
such as hammerheads,
from trespassing on their territory.
Sharks' distant cousins, manta rays,
can be easily identified by the unique spots on their bellies.
But individual sharks are harder to catalogue.
Distinct features, such as mating scars on females,
help researchers tell one shark from another
and provide clues into seasonal behavior.
If we start to see a lot of sharks that have mating scars
we know in our long-term data set
that that is that time of year where they might be mating.
And then we can start to think in the future
how many months down the track
we might start to see lots of juveniles
after they've spawned.
The most important thing about diving with animals
as fascinating as sharks is that we're in their space.
We need to respect their space.
So if you compare diving with sharks,
they're apex predators,
you compare that to taking a stroll
through African plains with lions all around you.
We need to respect them, keep our distance from them.
If we relax and enjoy what we're seeing,
they'll be curious.
They'll come close to us.
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As an active marine researcher and dive guide working in Palau,
Paul Collins has made more than 5,000 dives.
Most of those spent with sharks
and I've never had a situation
where I decided I needed to leave the water.
Essentially, you're in their territory.
You're in their domain.
People paint this picture of shark as a hunter,
a killer.
Not at all.
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The powerful sweeping currents
that make these waters ideal for sharks
can be a challenge for divers.
To enable themselves to remain stationary while observing,
divers and researchers anchor themselves to the reef
rather than fight the current.
So instead of having to stay in one spot
swimming and struggling against the current,
we use a reef hook.
We attach ourselves to the reef and that lets us relax
and watch the shark show in front of us, basically.
So it keeps ourselves off the reef.
We're at a nice 45-degree angle from the reef
and we can sit there, relax,
conserve our air, conserve our energy,
and watch what's going on in front of us.
From December to March
a spectacular seasonal spectacle unfolds.
In the days leading up to each full moon,
certain fish gather in huge numbers to spawn.
It is their only opportunity to reproduce each year.
Depending on the species and the time of year,
numbers can vary from hundreds to thousands.
Typical mass spawning begins with fish migrating in numbers
to a set location used every spawning season.
For these Moorish idols,
that season peaks in January and February.
The fish will often aggregate for days before spawning.
They gather along the outer reef edge,
at a point where the current will sweep their eggs
out to the open ocean,
and away from the predators that stalk the reef.
Spawning, therefore, takes place during the outgoing tide,
and when tidal fluctuations are the greatest
in the days leading up to the full moon.
Moorish idols are pelagic spawners:
once a year,
they release their eggs and sperm into the water column,
where the currents will carry the fertilized eggs
out into open water.
The actual spawning of these fish
has never been filmed or photographed.
Whitetip reef sharks, moving in packs,
menace the fish.
These sharks have come from miles away
to feast on the spawning aggregation.
One of the most exciting things
about these spawning aggregations
is the fact that they do attract a lot of these predators.
The predators know there's a lot of reef fish there
for them to eat, so they take advantage of it.
Schooling is one way that fish defend themselves
from would-be hunters.
There is safety in numbers.
When the school is attacked by a predator,
the odds are low that any one fish will be the prey.
Fish on the outer edge of the school act as lookouts
to help protect the rest of the group.
Usually, predators,
when they come up to an aggregation
or a school of fish,
it will be a little bit overwhelming at first
seeing all these individuals moving altogether.
So what they'll do is they'll sit there, watch it,
look for one that may be slower or weaker
or even pick off a smaller group
and then go from there.
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Dawn on the eastern side of the archipelago.
At a remote location on the reef,
thousands of red snapper rise from the deep
to spawn on the outgoing tide.
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These guys turn up at this site for four days.
If you were to go to this site five days before the full moon,
you'd be lucky to see two or three fish.
You go there a couple of days later
and you could see in excess of 10,000 fish.
Paul Collins has spent more than four years
studying the moon cycles
and their effect on Palau's spawning aggregation sites.
He uses an acoustic measuring system
that bounces off the ocean floor to record water depth.
Data from three distinct red snapper sites
are compiled into a geographic information system
to create a 3-D model of each aggregation site.
What I found most interesting about especially the red snapper
is the three different locations,
they look almost identical underwater
in terms of their depth, their proximity to deep water,
their slope angle.
It's amazing.
It's though this is just the perfect habitat
for these species to spawn
and even though these fish probably are 100 miles away
from each other have never interacted,
they've chose the same type of site.
It could tell you a number of different things.
It might be that over the course of their evolution
that they've actually had the greatest success
by spawning at these sites.
Maybe it's these sites transfer the eggs offshore quickly,
so that they don't receive all the attention
from the reef predators.
It's a very, very good question
and it's an ongoing area for research.
When it's time to spawn,
males and females group in a cone shape
and race up the water column to within 40 feet of the surface,
where males and females release sperm and eggs simultaneously.
Sperm swim through the water to fertilize the eggs.
The spawning ritual lasts just seconds.
Only the fastest and strongest fish prevail.
The eggs of reef fish hatch into planktonic larvae
that float with the currents for weeks or months.
When the larvae are large
and fast enough to evade predators,
they return to the reef.
These sharks have arrived in large numbers
to feast on the spawning fish.
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A grey reef shark appears out of the blue
and swoops onto the aggregation.
Here on Palau's isolated coral reefs
predator and prey are locked in a daily battle for survival.
But aggregations like these face a far more destructive threat:
reckless overfishing.
Spawning aggregations come together
at predictable times and places.
And the fishing boats that pursue them are relentless.
Massive nets can rake up an entire school in no time.
Populations decline and fisheries disappear.
For centuries,
the human population on Palau has depended on these reefs
for its survival.
Food security,
having a reliable source of fish in the future,
is a government priority.
In 2014,
the tiny country that bravely led the way on shark protection
took its conservation efforts one step further:
they banned all foreign fishing within its waters.
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Palau is now home to the world's largest marine sanctuary,
a swath of ocean nearly the size of California.
It's hoped the ban on fishing will help stocks recover
from the brutally efficient fishing practices
that have plundered its seas.
The Napoleon or humphead wrasse
is a prized target of foreign poacher ships.
It's one of the largest fishes on the reef,
growing to 6 feet, weighing as much as 400 pounds.
In Hong Kong and southern China,
Napoleon wrasse are highly valued,
selling for more than $500 per pound.
Populations of Napoleon wrasse have declined 50%
just in the last 30 years.
Palau hopes the fishing ban will protect this endangered species
before it's fished out of existence.
But for a country with no military and no navy,
keeping predatory fishing boats at bay is no easy task.
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The Remeliik is a 100-foot-long, Pacific-class patrol boat
provided by the Australian government.
It's Palau's main weapon against an onslaught of illegal fishing.
At any given time,
Palau's territorial waters
contain as many as 50 fishing vessels,
including pirate ships
loaded down with their illicit haul.
We've captured vessels that have had illegally caught tuna,
illegally caught shark fin.
We've discovered just a few fins on some vessels
to hundreds of fins on others.
And recently, we've been capturing vessels
that have been coming closer to shore,
actually onto the reefs
and harvesting sea cucumber and reef fish.
So it's an alarming trend.
As Pacific Islanders, as Palauans,
we depend on the reef and these resources for our--
our livelihood.
And just one illegal large-scale vessel
coming in at night poaching a certain area of reef
could decimate it for years to come.
We are on this Philippine fishing vessel
alongside our dock.
The vessel was stripped of its fishing gears.
The fishing gears are in the containers on land.
The fish were sold and donated to the public.
Mainly, fish on board were tuna: bigeye, yellowfin.
Over 20 tonnes of fish was on board.
The boat is one of two illegal Philippine fishing vessels
apprehended by Palau Marine Law Enforcement
in 2015.
The two vessels had a total of 54 crew.
One vessel was sent back to the Philippines
with all 54 crew on board.
Marine officers seized this one and will attempt to sell it.
We're trying to protect our resources
from those who are not allowed to
or licensed to fish in our water.
It's a battle at sea.
One patrol boat is tasked with keeping guard
over nearly 200,000 square miles of ocean.
Catching offenders red-handed is difficult.
Illegal fishing boats sneak into Palauan waters,
fill their nets, then flee to high-seas pockets
where they're met by mother ships.
Pirates unload their illegal catch,
refill their boats with gas and ice,
then set off to do more damage.
They're getting crafty.
And I'm sure they have contacts here and other places
where they see the patrol vessel leaving
and then they inform their vessels
and possibly they move out of our waters for the time being.
And then once the patrol vessel's docked at berth
then they come back and it's business as usual.
And that's one of the downfalls of having one patrol vessel.
The Palau marine patrol uses a vessel monitoring system
to track legal fishing boats
and identify vessels operating illegally
in Palau's no-fishing zone known as dark targets.
When the Remeliik does capture a pirate fishing boat,
armed officers board the vessel.
If the hold contains illegally caught fish or shark fins,
officers make an arrest.
If the vessel gets boarded, if it gets detained,
if the catch gets confiscated,
for the owner that's really just the cost of doing business
in the fishing industry.
They'd probably just write that off
and already kind of take for granted
that a certain number of vessels are gonna be captured each year.
To prevent illegal fishing boats from entering Palauan waters
in the first place,
the government has taken extreme measures.
One of the ways we've been trying to deter
these illegal fishing activities is to--
to make it financially not viable for the mother company
to send them to Palau.
Last year,
after capturing six Vietnamese vessels within our reefs,
Palau made the decision to strip the vessels
of all hazardous and toxic materials,
all fuel and oil,
and then take them out to sea,
and then burn them in a show of strength
that we're not gonna tolerate poaching in our waters anymore.
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We're not sending them back
for them to be reloaded with crew,
and fuel, and equipment,
and be sent right back to Palau to get more of our fish.
We're burning the vessels at sea
with as little environmental impact as possible,
but basically sending a message to the international community
saying this is a huge problem.
We're not standing for it anymore.
Either stand with us
or this is what's gonna happen.
There's a lot at stake.
Palau needs to protect its domestic fishing interests
and the pristine reefs that harbor its natural wonders.
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Back at Blue Corner,
the steep coral wall explodes with life.
A large school of blackfin barracuda,
more than 100 strong, hangs in the current.
Barracuda are master predators.
They strike their targets with two rows of razor-sharp teeth
that shred fish into small pieces
for easy digestion.
It's a fiercely efficient technique
that has served barracuda well for the last 50 million years.
Finding yourself in a school of barracuda
is a really humbling experience.
They're quite large fish, up to 1 meter long,
so it's a complete school of predators.
Although they're dangerous hunters themselves
these barracudas swim in a school
to protect themselves from other predators.
There are always bigger fish in the sea.
On this coral shelf,
grey reef sharks prey on the barracuda.
But the sharks at Blue Corner might think twice
before charging after a solitary great barracuda.
Unlike most species of barracuda,
these are apex predators,
that reach lengths of 7 feet,
weights of 100 pounds,
and speeds of 35 miles an hour.
This guy doesn't have many enemies down there.
Very, very fast, very sleek fish.
An out-and-out predator really,
so it was a joy to see him come in.
You could actually count the individual teeth in there.
A little awe-inspiring to see how big the teeth were, so--
a beautiful animal to see and not one we see all the time.
The great barracuda has arrived at Blue Corner
for a specific purpose:
to visit its cleaning station.
It comes up to this area,
it stops in mid water and it sits there
and it opens its mouth nice and wide
and lets all the cleaner wrasse come in and out of its mouth,
along its gills, along the rest of its body,
and pick off any parasites it finds.
Cleaner wrasse are essentially
keeping the rest of the fish healthy.
They're picking off any parasites.
They're the little dentists and doctors of the reef.
The cleaning stations are a favorite spot
for Palau's large and majestic mantas,
the second largest fish in the ocean.
And there are other rays on the reef:
a marbled stingray,
and a feathertail stingray resting on the sandy bottom.
When we've seen one today, as we approached,
he had started to raise his snout a little bit,
the very point of-- of his body.
Only by 3 or 4 inches, but generally it's--
it's a warning sign.
It's a sign to tell you that he's not happy.
It's also a very good cue to realize
that he's about to take off and head away.
So as we approached today he did do exactly that:
lifted his snout and then came off the bottom, turned,
and then just disappeared off into the blue.
Lovely to see.
From majestic rays...
and stunning coral reefs...
to spectacular spawning rituals...
and mesmerizing schools of fish,
Palau is home to one of the most breathtaking
underwater ecosystems on the planet.
It is a beacon for marine conservation,
a place that protects the ocean's apex predators
from destructive fishing practices.
What was so special about Palau being the first shark sanctuary
was that it was a wonderful leader
for the rest of the world.
It was essential in getting the ball rolling
for the development of other marine protected areas
around the world.
So other countries have followed suit.
For example: Maldives, Honduras, the Bahamas
have now established shark sanctuaries.
So Palau has been very important in being a leader
in establishing other marine protected areas
and shark sanctuaries around the world.
A place where sharks are inextricably linked
to the culture
and where thrilling underwater encounters are on their terms.
We're seeing these animals
in their completely natural environment.
We don't need to orchestrate any feedings or specific cages
or any baiting to see these sharks.
We're seeing them just as they are which is really nice
and the sharks are used to us.
Physiologically, they're amazing animals.
Also, as divers, the more time we spend in the water
and more time we spend with sharks,
the more respect we gain for them.
So we realized why they're so important in the ecosystem,
why they should be there, and why we should protect them.
They're keeping the oceans healthy.
The best thing a diver can do is diving in a marine sanctuary.
So as divers
we're not only recognizing the ecological significance
of these sharks,
but we're also promoting this local economy of a community
that has decided to protect rather than hunt it's sharks.
What we're beginning to see in Palau is an increase in tourism.
So, for the Palau economy, that's a good thing.
We have to balance that in Palau with its impact on the reef.
Maybe policing it a little bit
and really instilling into the guides,
who are role models for people who come here,
that this is a pristine environment
and that we need to keep it a pristine environment
and that essentially the guides are the guardians of Palau
as underwater environment.
It would be like going to the Serengeti.
You don't drop your litter in the Serengeti,
so just appreciate where you are and leave no impact.
This remote Pacific island chain
is engaged in a David-and-Goliath battle
with powerful and illegal forces
that will no doubt continue well into the future.
The patrol boat operation here in Palau
has been essential in protecting our waters.
But it's just too large of an area
and we need to increase that capacity.
It's too large of an area to patrol with just one boat.
In spite of the obstacles,
Palau won't back down in the fight to defend its reef
from an assault by foreign poachers.
Palau's struggle to protect itself
will determine the future of this island paradise.
The tiny country that led the way on shark preservation
and banned foreign fishing
to give its threatened species a fighting chance
would be lost without its ocean.
It's essential to our survival basically.
Every day fishermen go out to catch fish
to feed their families.
Pacific Islanders are inherently connected to the ocean.
It's what defines us, it's what sustains us,
it's what makes us who we are
and an attack on that
is a direct attack on our livelihood.
It's who we are, really.
And without it, we'd be gone.
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