Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00They cover two-thirds of our planet.
00:07They hold clues to the mysteries of our past.
00:12And they're vital for our future survival.
00:18But the secrets of our oceans have remained largely undiscovered.
00:23I am with a six-year-old duck.
00:26Yes! Yes!
00:29Explorer Paul Rose is leading a team of ocean experts
00:32on a series of underwater science expeditions.
00:37For a year, the team has voyaged across the world
00:40to build up a global picture of our seas.
00:44We are doing some pretty uncharted research here.
00:47That is psychedelically awful!
00:49We're here to try and understand the Earth's oceans
00:52and put them in a human scale.
00:57Our oceans are changing faster than ever.
01:00I've never seen ice like this before.
01:04There's never been a better time to explore the last true wilderness on Earth.
01:19Eritrea, East Africa.
01:23The team is heading to the southern Red Sea.
01:26I feel like I'm a kid again. You know, you say,
01:28can you smell the sea?
01:32The Red Sea is technically an ocean
01:34because it was formed when the continents of Africa and Asia
01:37tore apart millions of years ago.
01:41Unlike the tourist diving mecca to the north,
01:44the southern part remains remote and untouched.
01:49By and large, this is unexplored.
01:51It's uncharted territory, particularly under the water.
01:56The southern Red Sea is one of the most important marine sites in the world.
02:02Home to a spectacular array of species,
02:05many found nowhere else on Earth.
02:10The team has come here to discover how this small sea
02:14could hold clues to the future of all our oceans.
02:20The Red Sea
02:24Environmentalist Philippe Cousteau Jr.
02:27wants to investigate whether these waters,
02:29some of the warmest on Earth,
02:31could help our oceans cope with the threat of global warming.
02:36We need to figure something out
02:38that is going to help all the other coral in the world.
02:41The Red Sea has long been a vital trading route.
02:45Maritime archaeologist Dr. Lucy Blue
02:48explores a shipwreck with a deadly cargap.
02:52This is amazing.
02:53There are just thousands and thousands of bombs here.
02:59Marine biologist and oceanographer Tooni Mato
03:03wants to witness something fundamental about our oceans.
03:07How they're born.
03:09If you don't dive in the Red Sea, all you see is that.
03:13That's all you see.
03:14You don't see ballooners.
03:16To understand anything about what happens in our planet's oceans,
03:20you have to get in.
03:27But 30 years of war have kept this unique stretch of sea
03:31virtually inaccessible.
03:35Now, for the first time,
03:36an expedition like this has been allowed in.
03:40Oh, yes. Hello, sir.
03:42Very good to meet you. My name is Paul.
03:44Well, this is just one little bit of paper,
03:46but it means a lot to us.
03:48I mean, there it is. That's our permit.
03:50It's a single permit,
03:51and it took us ten months to get this thing.
03:54It doesn't give us any protection
03:56against any of the other things
03:58that are probably going to go wrong on this trip.
04:00I mean, this is definitely an ambitious expedition.
04:03There's no doubt about it.
04:05For the first mission,
04:07For the first mission,
04:08Tuni and Philippe will investigate how our oceans formed.
04:15They're heading south to Djibouti,
04:17a country at the gateway of the Red Sea.
04:22Here, the world map is being redrawn
04:24as a completely new ocean is created.
04:30I'm fascinated by how the Earth looks today
04:34and why it looks today the way it does.
04:36And I'm also fascinated by this idea
04:38that actually the land is moving.
04:40It's constantly moving, constantly changing.
04:42But to actually go and experience that, I think, is really key.
04:49Right here, beneath this bay,
04:51huge tectonic forces have formed a crack beneath the Earth's crust,
04:55pulling apart the plates of Africa and Arabia.
05:00That process forms all our oceans,
05:02but this is one of the only places in the world
05:05where you can dive and see it in action.
05:08We've come here to witness something that's really, really special.
05:12We're hoping to basically witness the birth of an ocean
05:17because it is literally where a new ocean will form
05:20over millions of years.
05:22So it's splitting the land apart.
05:23It's splitting the land apart.
05:24And this area will one day flood with water
05:27from the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
05:29So we will be over two completely separate land masses.
05:32That is...
05:33That are moving away from each other.
05:34Are we going to be able to put...
05:35I mean, how close are they together? Do we know?
05:37I don't know.
05:38I want to see if I can, like, touch two continents at once.
05:42Yeah.
05:53On the seabed, they're looking for the opening, or rift.
05:57Go that way.
06:00I think it's over here.
06:05An incredibly dark opening.
06:08At least that's my impression of what a rift should look like.
06:13Ladies first.
06:15I'm going down.
06:18Descending into the rift that has opened up.
06:27They dive down, disappearing between Africa and Arabia.
06:36It just drops down into complete nothingness.
06:41Not quite what I expected at all.
06:46It's a tight squeeze through some of these passages.
06:51Got to be really careful.
06:56This rift has been formed by the action of the Earth literally ripping itself apart.
07:02Did you think of the amount of force that it would have taken?
07:07The narrowness of the rift shows that it's right at the beginning
07:11of a process that will continue for millions of years.
07:15Normally it's happening thousands of metres down,
07:18so it's extremely rare to see this so close to the surface.
07:23As the rift widens, magma from beneath the Earth's crust
07:27rises and solidifies to form a new ocean floor,
07:31gradually pushing the plates further apart.
07:35Let's put a hand on one continent each.
07:38I've got the Somalian plate on the end of my finger,
07:43and this is the African plate,
07:45and Philippe to the right has got the Arabian plate.
07:53Between us, we're actually spanning two continents.
07:57Over time, these two bits of rock will move away from each other.
08:02They're moving at a rate of about two centimetres a year,
08:05which is about the same rate as a nail grows.
08:09In millions of years, this gap could be as wide as the Atlantic.
08:14So this could be New York, and that could be London.
08:19As these plates pull apart, water floods in, creating the new ocean.
08:26Not many people get to be at the site of a new ocean.
08:29It's like seeing how the Red Sea once was.
08:34It's a pretty remarkable feeling, the beginning of an ocean.
08:42Pretty risky here.
08:44It's stunning.
08:46The reality of it is that those two bits will never touch again
08:49and will keep on moving and moving apart for pretty much eternity.
08:58Millions of years from now,
09:00hundreds of square miles could be covered by water, the new ocean,
09:05and it's already been named the Afar.
09:09Tuni and Philippe are heading back to rejoin the expedition in Eritrea.
09:14The plan is to sail north,
09:16to discover how the marine life of the Red Sea might help our oceans survive.
09:24Environmentalist Philippe is particularly concerned about coral reefs,
09:29the rainforests of the sea.
09:39Probably one of the most critical issues that ocean conservation is facing
09:43over the next decade or so is the loss of coral reefs.
09:48Coral is vital to the health of the ocean,
09:51harbouring a huge diversity of life.
09:55But rising sea temperatures across the world
09:58are causing much of it to suffer from bleaching,
10:01to turn white and die.
10:04Of all the coral reefs in the world,
10:06we've lost about 25% or gone.
10:10Another 25% are heavily threatened
10:13and we fear will be gone within the next 50 years or so.
10:20The Red Sea is the perfect place to study the impact of warming seas.
10:26Water temperatures here are among the hottest on Earth,
10:29reaching 34 degrees centigrade.
10:33We've got the monitor right here
10:36and we're going to submerge it maybe 10 metres underwater, about 30 feet.
10:42It's winter now and Philippe wants to find out what the corals are dealing with.
10:47The temperature is reading 27.8 degrees Celsius,
10:50so almost 28 degrees Celsius.
10:52That is too warm.
10:54That's just not an optimal temperature range.
10:56You know, it's wintertime.
10:58Winter, I don't like to see this at all,
11:00so I'm a little concerned about what's going to be going on down there.
11:04Joining Philippe is Eritrean marine scientist Jonathan Bokra,
11:09one of the few people to have spent any time on these reefs.
11:14I know basically the coral types here,
11:19so this is a great opportunity for me.
11:22Jonathan thinks there's something surprising about this coral
11:26and the team is now keen to investigate.
11:29I've been dreaming of getting into the Red Sea all my life,
11:33so the chance to do so now is pretty spectacular.
11:37And then to be able to do it here in Eritrea,
11:40where few people have ever dived before,
11:43let alone filmed before,
11:46is probably one of the most exciting dives of my life.
11:55With such high winter temperatures,
11:57there could be a lot of bleached coral.
12:06I can feel the water. I almost don't need a wetsuit, it's so warm.
12:15It is looking pretty beautiful.
12:18What a relief.
12:21Astonishingly, the coral is far from dead.
12:25It's flourishing.
12:28I'm so amazed at how healthy this coral looks.
12:32In all my experience, this coral should not be thriving the way it is.
12:39You see all the fish swimming in the water column.
12:42I mean, that's the symbol of a healthy, healthy reef.
12:48The first thing we need to do is to see what's down here and where it is.
12:52It's just so full of stuff here.
12:55It's really hard to do this because everything's overlapping.
12:58It's so dense and so rich, it's actually quite difficult to man.
13:05Coral reefs are the life support system of our oceans.
13:10Without them, a quarter of all known fish species would be under threat.
13:18There are small patches of bleached coral here.
13:22But according to Eritrean scientist Jonathan Bokre,
13:25even these damaged corals recover faster than you'd expect.
13:31What is so unique about these corals is that even in the extremely high water temperature,
13:36they manage to survive.
13:41Anywhere else in the world, these conditions would spell disaster for the corals.
13:46Something very unusual is happening here.
13:50It's important to find out what,
13:52because it might just help other coral reefs avoid the ravages of global warming.
13:59The water is really, really warm.
14:01There's no way, in my experience, that coral should be doing that well.
14:06But it is.
14:08We need to figure something out that is going to help all the other coral in the world.
14:12And if it's possible to do that here, this place is like a gold, solid gold mine.
14:18I mean, this is a gold coral because it hits platinum.
14:22Diamond coral, it's so valuable because if this holds that secret,
14:26well, then let's hope.
14:29To understand what's going on, they need to take small samples of the coral.
14:34Ready?
14:45Here you go. That's plenty. That's all we need from this one.
14:50Coral is a complex organism that's both plant and animal.
14:55Inside the animal part, the polyp, is a type of plant known as algae.
15:01It's this algae that gives the coral its colour
15:03and provides vital energy through photosynthesis.
15:08When water temperatures get too high,
15:10typically what happens is that the coral loses the algae.
15:14The algae is stressed to such a degree that it leaves the coral skeleton.
15:19This is coral bleaching.
15:22So the secret of these corals' ability to survive
15:25must have something to do with the type of algae that lives within it.
15:30One of the theories as to why this coral is able to survive
15:34in such high-temperature water
15:37is that it harbours a specific heat-tolerant algae.
15:43The special heat-resistant algae
15:45could be what's keeping this coral so vibrantly alive.
15:51It may be adapting to rising sea temperatures.
15:55If so, this Red Sea coral
15:58could hold the key to helping the rest of the world's coral too.
16:05The hope is that if we can isolate that algae,
16:08we can potentially grow it in the laboratory
16:11and literally inoculate other coral reefs around the world
16:14so that when they bleach,
16:16this algae can move in and the corals can survive.
16:21It may sound like science fiction,
16:24but leading coral scientists agree that heat-tolerant algae
16:28might one day provide a way to protect corals worldwide.
16:34I'm going to put that Varietes in there.
16:37I think it's mind-boggling to think that it's samples like these
16:40that could hold the key to global coral conservation.
16:43As climate change is encroaching, sea temperatures are rising,
16:47there's a lot of concern,
16:49and whatever is making these corals tick,
16:52hopefully it is this algae.
16:54Whatever it is, it's very exciting.
16:58The investigation doesn't finish here.
17:01There are more mysteries within the coral,
17:04but they can only be revealed under cover of darkness.
17:09While they wait, Lucy and Philippe have been invited to the nearby island.
17:14That would make an excellent frame in a boat.
17:17A limited resource is being destroyed by two stages.
17:21They're going to have a lesson in traditional Egyptian bread-making.
17:27And something very unique to each country.
17:29I've never even heard of this before, cooking bread in sand. I love it.
17:51Now that it's dark, they can dive.
17:55They're looking for evidence of another way
17:57these corals might cope with the extreme conditions here.
18:02A mysterious phenomenon which causes some corals to fluoresce, or glow.
18:10It'll be a complicated dive.
18:13Normally when we're on a night dive, we've got a nice bright white light, you know,
18:17but so that we, if there's any fluorescence at all, to help us see it,
18:21we've got these flashy blue lights,
18:23and it's the blue lights that will help us see the fluorescence.
18:26But of course, we have to turn the white ones off,
18:29so that's where it kind of doubles up the risk factor, we can't quite see.
18:35Nobody's ever had a chance to look for fluorescing coral in these waters before.
18:40As a marine biologist, Tooni will be the first.
18:43Scientists have a very difficult time getting here,
18:46because it's so logistically difficult, and it's so undived,
18:49that if we do get to see fluorescent pigments here,
18:52I think it will be a first for me to see them full stop,
18:56and a first in Eritrean waters as well, so it's a real kind of double winner.
19:00Three, two, one, go!
19:07There's no way of knowing what to expect.
19:10They may see none at all.
19:14OK, so these are sort of our sci-fi glasses, I guess, aren't they?
19:19The yellow goggles filter out specific wavelengths of light
19:23to help them see if any of the corals here do fluoresce.
19:27We've got blue lights on.
19:30With a regular dive torch, this is what you see.
19:36But with blue light and yellow goggles...
19:40Oh, look at that! It does work!
19:43Oh, wow!
19:46It just jumps out at you instantly.
19:50It's a bit of a surprise, isn't it?
19:53It's a bit of a surprise.
19:55Oh, wow!
19:57It just jumps out at you instantly, doesn't it?
20:04As soon as you pick the torch on,
20:06it just picks out different spots of coral.
20:09I've never seen anything like it.
20:11It reminds me of a 1980s disco.
20:14MUSIC
20:22This extraordinary phenomenon is produced by fluorescent pigments
20:26found in the tissues of a variety of coral species.
20:30That's, like, multi-coloured.
20:34There's a huge amount of fluorescence on the reef.
20:38I think we're freaking some of the fish out with our blue lights, by the way.
20:43Why corals fluoresce is a scientific mystery,
20:46but it might be one way they've evolved to deal
20:49with the intensity of the sunlight that's bombarding them.
20:53One school of thought is that it's likely that the fluorescent pigments
20:56in this particular coral we're looking at
20:58has a protective function for the very, very strong sunlight.
21:03The fluorescent pigments might be screening out
21:06some wavelengths of light, acting almost like a sunscreen.
21:13If these fluorescent pigments are actually protecting the coral algae
21:16from sun damage, then it means that there's a very good chance
21:20that these coral will remain healthy.
21:25The large amount of fluorescence could be another reason
21:28why these corals are coping in these hot waters.
21:37The marvels of the Red Sea never cease to amaze.
21:44Tony, what do you reckon?
21:46That was so cool.
21:48But to me, it was more like why it's working, why it's important.
21:52All the wonderful things that are happening in the sea
21:55that we don't understand, we don't have a clue about.
21:58I mean, that's the power of it for me.
22:00There's another secret bit to the recipe of survival.
22:03It doesn't give up its secret easily, that reef.
22:06Time to break the Egyptian bread.
22:08Make sure there's no sand in it.
22:10You have to bury it, so you build a fire,
22:13and then it goes down to the embers.
22:15And for the bread to break tuni.
22:18And then you put the...
22:20You've just cracked a filling.
22:23It's a little hard.
22:25There's no need to be rude now.
22:28There's no shortage of skills an expedition leader needs.
22:33I might put a jumpy filling on there.
22:36I do, yeah.
22:38And I'm not a trained dentist,
22:40but I have had some training via the Royal Air Force some years ago.
22:44So I've had some practice.
22:46When did you say some years ago?
22:48Well, that was in 91 I had the training, come to think of it.
22:51Let me just have a look myself.
22:53OK, where do you want me?
22:56Just open up and lean back a bit.
23:00This is an old tube, that's all we've got.
23:03Does that hurt?
23:05Don't move, don't move.
23:11It doesn't look too bad, you know.
23:14Sorry, Tony.
23:16Didn't want to push the...
23:18All right, well done.
23:22I'm sweating bullets.
23:24Me too.
23:29Today it's time to leave Eritrea and head north to Sudan
23:33to continue the exploration of this untouched part of the Red Sea.
23:38But there are fuel problems again.
23:40While we're trying to hurry things up here, it's late.
23:44It's an hour late.
23:46I haven't got much of a backup plan, actually.
23:48If the fuel doesn't arrive, we'll be stuck in these waters.
23:52As expeditions like this are so rare, the send-off has become a local event.
24:01I've been overrun by officials today, it's all important.
24:04We've now got the British ambassador arrived.
24:07I'm just going to go present my credentials.
24:12Hello, I'm Paul Rose, expedition leader. Nice to meet you.
24:15Really pleased to meet you.
24:16Yeah, how are you doing? All right?
24:18Would you like some tea or something?
24:20Oh, great, OK.
24:22At last, the promised fuel arrives.
24:26Well, we've got the fuel, thank heavens.
24:29I was very pleased to see the truck, so pleased to see the truck
24:32that I've temporarily forgot to check that it's the right fuel for us.
24:37Kenya.
24:39This fuel is marine diesel, yeah?
24:44With the right fuel on board,
24:46it's a traditional goodbye to the Eritrean chaperones.
24:49How good is that? We're on our way.
25:03The team is heading to the waters off the coast of Sudan,
25:06to a very special site.
25:11To an underwater village built by Philippe's grandfather, Jacques Cousteau.
25:17The journey is helped by the seasonal winds
25:20as they follow an ancient sea passage.
25:27The Red Sea's always been an important trade route.
25:30Used by the Egyptians and Romans, it became part of the spice route.
25:35But that's not all that was traded.
25:38There's evidence of slaves, for one, but tortoiseshell,
25:41and the best of all is elephants, particularly in the Ptolemaic period.
25:45You can just imagine them building these Hellenistic boats,
25:48transporting elephants up and down. Live elephants?
25:50Yeah, live elephants, so they were training them to use in their armies.
25:532,000 years ago, you may have been looking here,
25:55and there would have been boat passing full of elephants.
26:04It's halfway through the expedition,
26:06and everyone is exhilarated by what they've discovered.
26:10But preying on environmentalist Philippe's mind
26:13is the contrast between the southern Red Sea and other oceans he's explored.
26:20Seeing that balance between really healthy coral,
26:22very little bleaching, no real damage, human damage anyway,
26:27but in a way it reminds you that all the other reefs we dive on
26:32are in really bad shape because this is what they should look like.
26:36Sudanese waters are also unspoilt,
26:39and will offer the chance to look for rare creatures under threat in other oceans.
26:45But getting access has been complicated.
26:48There's a good buzz at the moment,
26:50but we've only got to have one official that hasn't been kept in the picture
26:54by other authorities or some little muddle like that,
26:58and we're going to be stuck here.
27:00And once you get that official,
27:02and we're going to be stuck here.
27:04And once you get stuck in these places, then you're really stuck.
27:10Next day, things take a turn for the worse.
27:13The seasonal winds have changed direction sooner than expected.
27:19Yeah, it's too bad. We've left the Siroccan island group
27:22and we're heading towards Port Sudan now,
27:25but we're being slowed up by this flipping wind.
27:28The boat's fighting a fierce northerly wind.
27:32If they don't get to Port Sudan in time to meet the authorities,
27:36they could be held in port.
27:49It's another 24 hours of ploughing through choppy seas
27:53before Port Sudan finally comes into sight.
27:57Yeah, we're close enough now. I need to pass the message.
28:00We've all got to get changed.
28:02We need long pants, out of respect of custom here.
28:07The Sudanese authorities rarely deal with an expedition of this size.
28:12The port officials and security want to board immediately.
28:16The Department of Security has also insisted
28:19that one of their men remains on board.
28:22The chap with the dark suit jacket and the cool-looking shades,
28:26he's got to be our man.
28:29As-salamu alaykum.
28:31As-salamu alaykum.
28:36While the authorities search the equipment,
28:39maritime archaeologist Dr Lucy Blue
28:42is drawn to one of her favourite subjects, shipwrecks.
28:46Wreck city up here.
28:49Wreck city up here. The graveyard.
28:51There's one over there, there's one here.
28:55Because of their shallow reefs, Sudanese waters are littered with wrecks.
29:00But Lucy's been researching an Italian cargo ship, the Umbria,
29:04which was sunk on purpose near the start of the Second World War.
29:10Her captain wanted to stop the British Navy
29:13getting its hands on her top-secret cargo.
29:17It's quite a brave thing to do, really,
29:19when you've got, you know, a crew of British officers on board
29:23actually rifling through your cargo and trying to detain you.
29:27I'm seeing parallels with the fact that we've got customs officials.
29:31Yeah, that's a very good point, actually.
29:35Oh, this is health, yeah, OK.
29:37Yellow fever, any deaths, any mice, rats, any infectious disease.
29:42OK, well, I'll go through this.
29:45See you later. Thank you.
29:51In World War II, the Red Sea was an important route
29:55linking Europe with India and other British colonies.
30:00Dive, dive, dive.
30:06The day Italy declared war on Britain,
30:09the captain of the Umbria decided to sink his own ship.
30:15The vessel itself is lifting at about 60 degrees,
30:19so you get this really distorted impression.
30:26I don't think I quite appreciated the scale of a 150-metre-long ship.
30:33Lucy wants to investigate the cargo it carried.
30:39She soon comes across artefacts that hint at life on board.
30:45Look at this!
30:47There are just thousands of wine bottles scattered all over
30:51what remains of this hold.
30:56La Donte Vito!
31:08This is a huge, vast space.
31:12It must have been the restaurant or the dining area or something.
31:17And you can still see the stumps from the bottom of the tables.
31:21It's really like entering into the lives of the people
31:24that were living on board here.
31:26It just looks completely eerie.
31:28I've just got images of Titanic going through my mind.
31:31When the Umbria left Italy, the country wasn't yet at war,
31:35so this was officially a neutral cargo ship.
31:39Oh, yes! Three Fiat Lungas!
31:44There's even glass! There's a driver's seat and everything!
31:48The boat's sitting at an angle
31:50and they've just fallen down on top of each other.
31:56But it's not the cars they're here for.
32:02It's the 5,500-metre-long ship.
32:08And 10 tonnes of cargo in the next hold.
32:18This is amazing.
32:20There are just thousands and thousands of bombs here.
32:25Just literally surrounded by stack upon stack upon bombs.
32:32In fact, there were 360,000 bombs on board this cargo.
32:39These aircraft bombs were en route to Eritrea,
32:43then part of Mussolini's Italian Empire,
32:46for use against the Allies in East Africa.
32:50It's easy to understand why the captain didn't want the British
32:54to get their hands on this deadly cargo.
32:57To see them laid out like this, it's just bizarre.
33:01Oh, no!
33:03The power! The power of destruction!
33:06It's still amazing this ship is a little bit overpowering.
33:12Over 600 crates of detonators are stacked separately,
33:16so these bombs shouldn't explode.
33:20But if they did, there's enough firepower here
33:24to destroy half of Port Sudan, over 20 miles away.
33:30The bombs are just overwhelming. They really are incredible.
33:34They're stacked, like, eight deep,
33:36and goodness knows, you know, into the hull, how deep they go.
33:39And it's just, you just think,
33:41what possesses man to want to, you know, just destroy?
33:45Just destroy on that scale.
33:59The team is due to visit one of the most audacious
34:02and extraordinary ocean bed experiments ever attempted.
34:07It was the brainchild of Philippe's illustrious grandfather, Jacques Cousteau,
34:12who spent years exploring these reefs.
34:16The Red Sea has always been a really important place in my family's work,
34:20and I've grown up with stories about the adventures that they had.
34:23I think it's almost like a pilgrimage coming here for me.
34:27It gives you an idea of the overall space, the village, the community, as it existed.
34:33Captain Jacques Cousteau dreamed up Conshelf 2,
34:37an underwater village built in 1963.
34:42It was designed to see if humans could live beneath the waves.
34:48Conshelf 2 is right off of Shabrumi, which is right up here.
34:53Yeah, it's quite a ways, actually, away from Port Sudan.
34:56But that was part of the idea. It was quite remote.
35:01It was a time of boundless scientific optimism.
35:04Astronauts were heading up into space,
35:07and now oceanauts were heading down to the seafloor.
35:11My father died in 1979, just six months before I was born.
35:15My grandfather wrote a letter to him, and he actually talks about Conshelf.
35:21Mon cher Philippe,
35:23I will always remember that day of July 1963
35:27when you joined the Conshelf 2 expedition along the Shabrumi Reef in the Red Sea.
35:31The sun was setting, but I would not give you time to relax.
35:35I was too impatient to show you our village under the sea.
35:39Hastily, we both donned our aqualungs, and slowly, sensually,
35:43we submerged into the welcoming water, as warm as our blood.
35:50We started for an unforgettable stroll with slow strokes of our long, stretched legs,
35:54and breathing deep lungfuls of air.
36:14This is it!
36:17God, I can't believe I'm here.
36:19I just can't believe it.
36:22Thinking back on what it must have been like 45 years ago,
36:29and kind of envisioning these oceanauts in silver suits,
36:33this was sci-fi!
36:35I mean, this was just before we landed on the moon.
36:37This was the first steps of humans living in an interplanetary space.
36:42Because it has a real sense of being placed here deliberately.
36:46And that is what's such contrast to what I usually find
36:49in terms of the remains of human culture or activities underwater,
36:54where they happen to end up there by default.
36:58The five divers, oceanauts, lived on the seafloor for a month.
37:03I want to see what's inside it, too.
37:05Yeah.
37:06I can't wait.
37:08Today, this is all that's left of the underwater village,
37:11the garage for their submarine.
37:15Wow. How do you actually get in, really?
37:18Well, there's an entrance over here, I think.
37:22This submarine would have come up underneath
37:24and slowly risen up into the area in here,
37:29this submarine garage.
37:32God, I can't believe I'm here.
37:38No one really understood the physiological or psychological effects
37:42of living at pressure.
37:46I mean, I don't know.
37:48I don't know what to say.
37:50I don't know what to say.
37:52I don't know what to say.
37:54I don't know what to say.
37:56I don't know what to say.
37:58The physiological effects of living at pressure.
38:02Here, they were at twice atmospheric pressure.
38:05Every morning, a doctor carried out medical tests.
38:09We know that cuts and nicks healed faster
38:13because of the increased pressure and the oxygen at depth
38:16that caused their body to recover.
38:21They even had someone come down to give them a haircut
38:23every once in a while,
38:25even though their beards and their hair grew slower at depth.
38:27It was so advanced for its time, wasn't it?
38:30It really, really was.
38:40Fresh food and water were brought down every day.
38:44Being French, they had wine and champagne,
38:48which was flat because under pressure the bubbles didn't expand.
38:53They did some of the first remote video capture of life underwater,
38:59videoing things that no-one had ever seen before.
39:05They observed new patterns of behaviour
39:07and discovered several new species.
39:11It was really cutting-edge science
39:13and provided an incredible amount of knowledge for us
39:16to take another step towards understanding
39:19the relationship we have with the oceans.
39:25By the end of the month, this bold experiment had proved
39:28that man could live underwater,
39:31although the space race was to turn everyone's thoughts
39:34to a different frontier.
39:38I kept your hand in mine to guide you from Starfish House,
39:41where oceanauts were having dinner,
39:43to the onion-shaped diving saucer garage.
39:49Twilight was turning to sheer darkness,
39:52and our structures became eerie shadows.
39:54The fish were just moving pieces of the sea.
39:58I was still holding your hand when we returned to the ladder.
40:01I felt strangely proud, not of what we had achieved,
40:04but because our dreams were always shared so intimately.
40:12I saw your shining face, proud to have something to give back to me,
40:15and I smiled,
40:17because I knew that pursuing rainbows in your plane,
40:20you would always seek...
40:30You would, uh...
40:37Because I knew that pursuing rainbows in your plane,
40:40you would always seek after the vanishing shapes of a better world.
40:48MUSIC PLAYS
40:58After two weeks at sea, the expedition is almost over,
41:02but there's one final mission.
41:05In many parts of the world,
41:07fishing has dramatically reduced the number of sharks,
41:10like these scalloped hammerheads.
41:12That's amazing. Look how many there are.
41:15I've never seen a school like that.
41:17Today, it's incredibly rare to see large groups.
41:21These were filmed over a decade ago.
41:24We don't know very much at all about hammerheads,
41:27and it's really kind of the luck of the draw these days.
41:30You know, even in places where you can still find them, it's hard.
41:35It's so difficult for scientists to get to this part of the world
41:39that there are no reliable figures on hammerhead numbers,
41:42so it's a great chance for Paul to see what he can add.
41:46I've been building up to this for a long time,
41:49not even just on this part of the expedition,
41:51but I've looked for them before in my life and not found them.
41:54There is a bit of pressure because it's an important expedition target,
41:58so I really, really, really want to find them.
42:01See you, buddy.
42:03There's little fishing in these waters,
42:06so could this be an important haven
42:08for fish that are jeopardised elsewhere, like hammerheads?
42:12Finding a large group might indicate the population here is thriving.
42:23Paul's heading to the edge of the reef.
42:26It's just unbelievably pristine. Look at it.
42:31Here, currents rise from the deep,
42:33carrying nutrients which encourage plenty of fish.
42:37Food for sharks.
42:43That's good. We've got some grey reef sharks swimming round me now.
42:48Fabulous things, aren't they?
42:51It's definitely shark territory.
42:54Grey reef sharks are agile, curious and often swim in packs.
43:01Paul needs to be careful not to get too close or make any sudden movements.
43:08While Paul is swimming against the strong currents at 40 metres...
43:13Richard!
43:14..there's a problem developing on the surface.
43:17Richard, what's going on?
43:19I have to report we have an emergency situation out here.
43:23We cannot pick up divers at the moment.
43:25Engine's down on the Zodiac,
43:27which means they can't go chasing the divers in case there's an emergency
43:31because the current's so strong.
43:33The engine on the rescue boat isn't working.
43:36The team is worried because Paul is deep underwater,
43:39swimming against strong currents,
43:41and if anything goes wrong, there's nothing they can do.
43:47But Paul is completely unaware of what's going on.
43:53A single barracuda comes to investigate.
43:58Above, a ball of them circle in the shallow.
44:04No-one is sure why they do this,
44:07but they could be herding their prey towards the surface.
44:13We're at 40 metres.
44:15It's just wonderful to be in the blue orb of the welcoming wet sea.
44:22No hammerheads, though.
44:24You've just got to happen to be very lucky
44:27and be in the same place at the same time.
44:31All right, Richard, we've launched our Zodiac.
44:34The best we can do is get that boat out to you and swap motors
44:38so that you've got a working motor on your Zodiac.
44:41They're on our way. We've done everything we can as fast as we could.
44:44Richard, over.
44:50Paul has been swimming against the current for two hours
44:53when he spots something very rare.
44:57That's pretty special.
45:01Can you believe it? That's a sailfish.
45:06Look at him.
45:08Over a metre long.
45:10It's very rare, that.
45:12These things are solitary fish
45:14and are very, very unusual to see here.
45:20He's got that dorsal spine up.
45:23That's a sign of aggression.
45:26Sailfish are the fastest fish in the oceans
45:29and can reach 68 miles per hour.
45:33But Paul has still not seen any sign of hammerheads.
45:38And with the boat trouble, the decision is made to halt the dive.
45:46Had a great dive, but no hammerheads.
45:51We've got some boating things to figure out.
45:54We don't do boating very well, in my opinion.
45:59It's really disappointing.
46:01At least I did get the hint of sharks.
46:04It felt like shark water to me.
46:06So we're going to do a dawn dive tomorrow.
46:09This is my mission on this expedition,
46:11to learn some more about the hammerheads.
46:15But we're seeing none today,
46:17a sign that hammerhead numbers in the Red Sea are declining.
46:215am, the last day of the expedition.
46:25Paul's final chance to look for hammerheads.
46:35He's heading back to 40 metres.
46:40Just bursting with life.
46:42Truly amazing.
46:44Completely out of breath.
46:46Just bursting with life.
46:48Truly amazing.
46:50Completely untouched.
46:53Which is why these waters are in pristine condition.
46:58Paul passes butterflyfish, feeding on the coral.
47:04Almost one in five fish species found here
47:07lives nowhere else on Earth.
47:10Suddenly, a rare silky shark comes close.
47:15Recognisable because of its shiny skin,
47:18it can grow to over three metres long.
47:31Paul has been drifting along the edge of the reef for nearly an hour.
47:36Then, something moves in the distance.
47:41Here you go.
47:43A school of hammerheads.
47:45There's about 30 of them.
47:52Look at that.
47:54Oh, I just see one of them right there.
47:57Look at that.
47:59Oh, I just see one of them right there.
48:02Look at that.
48:04Oh, I just see one of the rarest sights on Earth.
48:07A school of hammerheads flying through here.
48:14It's a distant sighting,
48:16but still exceptional to see them in such a big group,
48:20and a very good sign for their population here.
48:32What a gift.
48:34Thank you, the Red Sea.
48:46Are you sure he's giving the double thumbs up?
48:49Giving the double fish.
48:53What are you doing?
48:55Perseverance.
48:57Reveal.
48:58We've got to stop doing this last minute,
49:00or they're going to kill us.
49:02Fantastic.
49:03It really was great.
49:05There's about 30 odd of them.
49:0730?
49:09In many other oceans,
49:11a sighting like this would be a thing of the past
49:14because of overfishing.
49:16It's another reminder that this part of the Red Sea is unique.
49:21I've done over 6,000 dives,
49:23but it was truly a marvel.
49:25I have been looking for hammerheads for most of my diving life.
49:28There's something about them. I've never seen any.
49:31School of hammerheads flying through here.
49:34Just by witnessing it, recording our experiences,
49:38we have added to the science database here in the southern part of the Red Sea
49:42because so little has been done.
49:48It's a fantastic end to an expedition
49:51which has shown just how important the small sea is.
49:59The southern Red Sea gives you some indication
50:03of what the seas used to be like,
50:05and if we're lucky, what they could be like again in the future
50:09if they're managed properly,
50:11and we give them a little bit more respect.
50:13We are leaving this place richer in ourselves,
50:17richer in our knowledge,
50:19but there's so much that it holds that we don't understand,
50:24and that's so exciting.
50:27I came up from every dive I've done in Eritrea
50:30just feeling really, really positive,
50:33and I don't think I've had that sensation anywhere else in the world.
50:36Tony, what do you reckon?
50:40What we've learned in the Red Sea is that oceans can survive.
50:44It sounds odd, but oceans are fragile, and yet they can survive.
50:57The Red Sea
51:00The Red Sea
51:02The Red Sea
51:04The Red Sea
51:06The Red Sea
51:08The Red Sea
51:10The Red Sea
51:12The Red Sea
51:14The Red Sea
51:16The Red Sea
51:18The Red Sea
51:20The Red Sea
51:22The Red Sea