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tv   The Vanishing Vaquita  Al Jazeera  December 5, 2017 7:32pm-8:01pm +03

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an issue that has to be left for the policy in israel is to negotiate at a later stage that's one to i think the entire credibility of the united states as you know whatever is left of the credibility of the united states some of that could be sponsoring diplomatic talks and what have you around the world that would be completely finished and three and i think that's very important i think while the muslim and the arab world is so exhausted by conflicts on war whether it's syria libya yemen we were talking about that area i got to stand back some sort of war and i think prompts people are taking advantage of that that if you want to style but i think we will notice that the egyptian people despite everything that oppression the general and everything else that muslims will not take a sling lying down if not today tomorrow and that will have a major consequences for the united states of course very interesting to see how this all unfolds senior political analyst joining us here in doha we'll continue to
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follow this story and others here on al-jazeera of course throughout the evening coming up next it's inside story do stay with us. this is the fact this morning. on the planet money could soon be lost. with an international team of scientists is determined not to let that happen. now
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it's a race against time to try and save a species. without intervention how long do you give the i would say year to about us to this is the hail mary or is. this is a technique a show about innovations that can change lives we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity and we're doing it in a unique way this is a show about science by scientists. the vet keita is the most endangered marine mammal is a naturally elusive this has never been captured tagged was studied up close by marine biologists. techno is married to davison and chris would take a crisis that's an emergency plan to stave off extinction the gulf of california one of the most beautiful marine sanctuaries in the world it is here in the target
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gulf waters at the edge of the baja california desert the world's smallest cetacean has found a home. already but one of the. america that is in the motor. and the wreckage is found nowhere else right this is the only place that it exists yes exactly this is the only place this is a species. ok only we can find it here on the place in the mexico we are so lucky to have these as these are poised belongs in mexico you know if they but get them both here if you are. in a hole is an acoustic researcher for mexico's government sponsored rocky to rescue project today when his team plan to deploy several submerged pods or underwater listening devices the pods are used to track back keep us his research picked up
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the early warning signs that indicated the bucky the population was crashing the data is sent to researchers in san diego crystal dilworth has that part of the story tell me what is that the key to and why do you love them so much the cases are especially i think a lovely part because they have a nice paint job they have a sort of like black mascara black lipstick survive a god willing. view scientists have studied the key to as intended. as barbara taylor she heads up in advance genetic laboratory based at the u.s. national oceanic and atmospheric administration in san diego california her main partner renzo rowe has brought show who heads up the mexican project is equally passionate about saving the key to losing that in a way it's just a minute eunice a masterpiece if someone destroys the chicano or. whatever the
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world be exactly the same nothing is going to change you're going to wake up in the morning you're going to help but the world is going to be poorer in many many ways and i think that's a situation. i think where enzo and i always thought we could save them you know we knew it was one issue it was throughout was and we thought we could change it and it's. it's a hard thing to see you know hot it's not happening. so what is killing the vicky according to scientists the main culprit is gil net used to capture and another endangered species found the gulf of california a fish named. the environmental investigation agency demand for to be traced to china bird has sold illegally and we got a tip off about the concorde which is also in southern china on the coast which is
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said to be a major center for trade in. some chinese believe the dry swim bladder at the to twelve improve skin and liver conditions and figure a circulation and stops bleeding none of this has been proven medically but the illegal trade into twelve is extremely lucrative. twaddle fishing in the gulf is illegal because the same nets used to catch a trois ensnared akita they have decimated the key to population. davidson. the pro is that they will get a can of the take this this was in they work for the brain where they work if they can get in time with their hair here or there or their friends so obviously they work if i can do to raise to the surface and then they get thing where they just get stuck when they perish we're going to break.
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three adult since we started operation and two pre-born. and. all of them were neck and the results of the examination show that they're all die of us. and all had like marks of nets under so they dying because of the. pressure no way zero is captain of the sea shepherd a marine conservation group that voluntarily patrols the approach of four to twelve . five dead lucky to us were found in the gulf from january to may two thousand and seventy it's a horrific to see how much sea creatures are trapped on those nets it's heartbreaking what it is protected marine mammals are dying for no reason they're
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just dying to stood to live on it it's horrible. the story of the vacuum is a classic collapse of a species scientists began tracking but in the late one nine hundred ninety s. and we determined twenty years ago that the fishing ban was unsustainable for bakita said that they would we predicted that they would be declined in about this problem for twenty years. well i mean the people who originally found them found them dead on the beach. from fishing nets and said hey here's a porpoise nobody's ever found a porpoise here it can't be very common and it's dying in fishing nets and so yes he's was discovered because it was dying yeah it was found dead on beaches and in fishing dubs you know it's sort of odd that people wouldn't see it but the more you get to know this sharia animal the more you understand that you really have to know what you're looking for and you really have to look for them to see them because
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they avoid any motorized vessel and they're really small they're only in groups of one or two so they're really difficult to see they aren't like the flashy dolphins and come up and ride your bow and you know you get to see every aspect of their lives and porpoises are very shy they move away and so you really have to look for them with like really big binoculars with bucky just on the brink of extinction the team made a decision that was as bold as it was all day ships in order to save the bucky the remaining population now numbering less than thirty would have to be taken into captivity the plan was commanded in november two thousand and sixteen. at the eighth meeting of sort of an international committee to save the bucky the only option is separate. from the main reese factor about its killing them and those who are full time again it's at this point in time and also i mean they are of no ones but what we really know is that if we don't take them out on they would have given
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so this is the the lesser of two evils h yeah that's why it's black or white techno was given preliminary plans that spell out how to capture the elusive but keep us and bring them to the northernmost cove in the gulf where they would be held in sea pens and kept under guard twenty four hours a day seven days a week there are also plans for land based tanks systems and support apparatus to keep the captured porpoises alive in case of emergency where we've brought in this amazing team we're going to have about forty people from all over the world all with different levels of expertise and we have specialists and capturing harbor porpoises from denmark and the netherlands we have veterinarians that have worked with porpoises from hong kong to to the netherlands we have people who have specialized in taking capturing so we have that that team that we have the team of
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people who i work with that are experts in finding them will be using both acoustics and visual and we're even going to be bringing in maybe dolphins to help us try to track this really elusive species the u.s. navy's marine mammal program utilizes bottlenose dolphins to locate underwater sea mines little is known about the vacuum no one has ever tagged them or been able to study them up close the problem of how to capture them and large but during a scientific team meeting a breakthrough from a scientist who works with the navy program and who they didn't ever think of using maybe don't fence or miller and i mean. it's completely out of my my toolbox and he said well you know if they can find divers and objects in the water i'm sure they could find what you. next day we went to the navy facility years they trained the dolphins they took them to the golden gate in san francisco where they have
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harbor part of his swimming in the dolphins wherever to find it so when we solve that part who would seem to be the most difficult when i say well there we are there. i'm floating in the middle of the bucky the refuge area here in the gulf of california now this refuge was set up by the mexican government to protect the fact that the populations are what's left of them they've set up here because over the past several years through observation and through acoustic recordings this is where the rocky does really tend to hang out at least recently we've been out here for a while trying to see if we can find anybody that's no surprise to me that we haven't seen any and that really underscores how difficult and complex this mission is really going to be stuff as data analysis indicates the remaining bucket the population may be concentrating across three sections in the upper part of the gulf today's sea pod drop will try to confirm those locations so we've just arrived at
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one of the points where they're going to drop down a moring and attach to that is going to be the sea pato so it's the acoustic measuring device that they leave for four months here to measure and and pick up the sounds of the vacuum clicks so that's what we've done we've we've navigated here via via g.p.s. it's a really vast area and they've set up and they see it that much in place eighty seven they're going to put out eighty seven of the c. pods right now we're putting up the last eight. years. later back on shore stubble showed us a computer program that allows us to hear the bucky humans can hear the clicks because they're too high frequency but there's a way for you to modify them so that we actually could you have me listen to this of course like a walk around my. base in one five. and.
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wow for. the bucket the refuge measures in area sixty four by nearly one hundred kilometers along the upper third of the gulf of california when you are in it the refuge seems vast and problematic to police effectively. since two thousand and five fishing has been banned here but the real story is much different especially at night it is pretty dramatic and it is crazy every night it's so busy it never stops we have our amazing radars on our bridge of the same time going into friday markets and under us radars we can see the new activity at night because poachers really go out at night the night of march eleventh two thousand and seventeen was busier than most of the sea shepards farley mowat here on patrol for poachers spotted a small fishing boat in the back of the wreckage. and when we see
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a target ladies we can get our ship as close as possible and then the drone team is going to be ready to ride or drop the drone was able to film is illegal fishermen with what appeared to be a boat load of took twelve of the fishermen noticed the throne and began hurling objects at it then we get the fourth age. going to fishermen retreating to two odd minutes getting to a two hour bus i called though to tell them to position. tell them what we're seeing at the same time and and then they calm and they tried to arrest them the next day the ship cut another seemingly bolder group fishing in broad daylight this was the first time the drone was able to capture full daylight images of a boat load of coach to twelve and to a twelve ounce can the big problem is money just like always. illegal fishing activity for to i about brings out
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a lot of money because china is opening the black market that is attracting a lot of organized crime says the two of us and batteries sold like for more than twenty thousand dollars a kilo of course when you come to those fishing villages where the minimum wage is so low and they can make our five thousand dollars you know luckily we're there with one kill swim bladder. the mexican government has invested so far over a billion persons in compensating fishermen and from children go forward it isn't a scientist but he co-chairs the baccy the rescue program in mexico he created a plan to use economic incentives to keep you all nets out of the gulf for the past two years mexico has paid fishermen not to fish into alternative gear but don't kill the keita could be developed you can imagine going to the communities
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and trying to convince families not to go back and fish which is what they have been doing for generations that's who they are right as part of their identity i would say and that's the whole purpose also of these programs to have them go back and fish but being able to do so without arguing but you. it's important for mexico to save them to keep the from extinction and i would do if we went to the same efforts as china has been doing to save panda mexico's efforts have seen mixed results progress has been made but the numbers don't lie the bucket is almost gone there recently that we are where we are it's because our fish you know ferry does have failed to come with alternative fishing gear for two decades i mean that's incredible they haven't. been able to do it i can if i had twenty years ago if i had hired the mit creation lab or who would have already something. but the creature is barman has
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a monopole in bury the only one tests alternative here so with that's horrible. it is early morning and synonymous. techno has been invited to travel out to the pacific ocean to see where the bucket the rescue plan is truly taking shape these pens belong to bottle farms a mexican tuna farming company the bakkies a rescue team turned to them for help where where would the natural get these big problem we have the big then you're losing the back you know so we are aware of that we are delighted to be part of or it. is the operations manager of a why do you see an eagle a sea pen designed to give tourists an up close view of the tuna farming business this prime is currently located off the coast of ensign out of mexico on the pacific side of baja california and contains hundreds of bluefin tuna but before
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long it will be moved to the gulf of california and if all goes well with a back up the rescue effort instead of china there will be by keep us swimming within it be bunkered provided renderings of the redesigned bucket the pen which feature two observation tubs this tourist attraction will become a floating laboratory you know we're looking at the tuna in the observation area it struck me that they're feeling very close to the surface and that's not normally how they feed right. so they've had to learn a new way of feeding and that will essentially be the case for that i keep them i suppose so. as far as i know they like you know use. the same thing that the dolphins do of the open ocean and i mean they are eating small fish and that sweet things they are there for when those kind of organisms of the ocean differently they reckon. if you're going to learn how to eat the rocky the pen will
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be taken here to the northernmost end of the gulf in an area called much or a cove gustava showed us the area during our golf tour the blue building i'm sure is an old trim processing plant that will be converted to an on site veterinary care center so you think that's the best shot absolutely it's not only the best shot but it's the only shot that we have we're going to have facilities in the ocean we're going to have some oh so limited land and we're also looking to one of the. most important pieces of these projects was to have a facility right in the heart of the key. area where we can have vets where we can have twenty four seven care for but keep those there we can be monitoring them we can learn a little bit more about it but he thought there is a little opposition to the rescue plan within the scientific community the conservation groups led by the sea shepherd society believe the problem should be
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solved without captivity. he's always been fighting against captivates and cultivates and for me it's not a solution and first ship is not a solution because saving anymore is not having it in a swimming pool and it should be free and leaving its life and contributing to the eco system. maybe it's not working right now and plan b. those two means. there are many questions surrounding the capture program but if scientists are successful the next step in the process will be to try and breed that you keep scientists in san diego are getting ready these will be the ancestors of all the cute and into the future this breeding program so we need to make sure that we know what we've got and keep that variation that natural genetic variation in that population into the future philip morris and works with the to keep the rescue team. in san diego he's
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a research molecular geneticist is that the key to can be successfully bred in captivity he will have to figure out how to make the genetics work so that they keep a special because it lacks this genetic diversity that other species do how is it managed to survive for so long so what we believe happens in a population like species like the key to it is that they've been in a small population size for a long time so that bad person has slowly been purged from the species so that means they have less of the bad diversity they also have less of the good diversity . but in a stable environment like the northern gulf of california they've managed to survive and there is still diversity is not to say they have none because of this lack of diversity in the vicky is it possible to accidentally do harm to the species through the breeding programs that you're developing. yes yeah i mean there is no way to avoid that we're going to lose diversity. there's no way to avoid that
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because we're collapsing the population from thousands down to a few and then they're going to have to breed to some extent with the same individuals in order to build that population up. more and has been studying the the key to using tissue samples stored in the deep freeze at the san diego fisheries science center it's cold in here minus twenty degrees celsius and besides myself in this ok here there's about two hundred thousand tissue samples from a variety of marine small c s forty five of those samples are from the canada and that's the hope that those samples contain some still current and i think information that can help save that species and how long the samples temperature for these samples are about thirty years old now and we're still extracting d.n.a. from them. so we're hoping they're going to last a long time so it's like science evolves just the right time to be able to help the big key to right before it they go extinct the ability to culture cells and
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transform them is changing right now so that if we get living cells from the skins of of these acuteness are brought into captivity we can keep them alive in the lab we can transform them into any types of cells we want so even if we catch an animal . that may be too old to reproduce or only reproduce is once the fort it can't reproduce a more if we have those cells it's possible we can convert those into dam eats into sperm and egg cells in the future and use them put them back in the population as if that and a most alive. advanced genetics may end up being the game changer for that the key to san diego's frozen c two has played a key role in trying to save many nearly extinct species a porpoise and a right nasir might not seem to have that much in common but scientists here at the frozen zoo at san diego zoo global now working to save the norm. they're in white right now and techniques they developed could act as a blueprint to save that the key to we are pretty confident that if we get
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a good quality sample will be able to grow and successfully freeze the cells that's going to tell us more about the vicki to it's going to say something about its population history it will provide may be. very useful information about whether there's enough genetic diversity in the remaining population to allow it to recover and expand all of a writer is director of the frozen zoo it holds more than ten thousand living cell cultures if nothing else works the frozen samples would become a last resort for an extinct species the vicky is such an endgame at the end of the day all we may have are cells and we mustn't though. ignore that. were engaging in.
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an enterprise we don't know. time is running out for the science maybe its last hope but it comes with the price tag the rescue effort is expected to cost five million dollars u.s. national marine mammal foundation says it has four point five million on hand. in the mexican government the rest from private donors many of the scientists donating their time to give the keita a fighting chance for tech. or .
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green bacteria in an. innovation in the for what happened to experiments. and why does have. the world's largest humanitarian crisis millions caught up in civil war all
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jazeera world examines the roots of the conflict in yemen and a complex history that through a country into perpetual time. today is the old the separation of. the north and the south these dualisms are off about the history of. yemen the north south divide this time. al-jazeera is a very important source of information for many people around the world when all the cameras have gone i'm still here go into areas that nobody else is going to talk to people that nobody else is talking to and bringing that story to the forefront. kuwait has hosted a gulf cooperation council summit with two thirds of its leaders absent.

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