before i set off down south i'm going to find out a little about the journey i'm about to embark on tucked away in this maze of old london streets something quite extraordinary. ever since i was a boy i've been mesmerized by tales of the golden age of antarctic exploration of the early twentieth century names of polar explorers like roald amundsen and captain scott. well this is where some of those expeditions came to get their maps it was really because of the low good to see this is a kind of treasure trove of past exploration being come out of that. turns out mankind has forever been hooked on the concept of a mysterious continent at the end of the world. from the fifteen eighties is the

last of the classical worldview this is the world as it would have been understood by the ancient greeks and romans still got this great terrill stall it's called me to the unknown something less spin forward three centuries to the time of men like captain scott who died on his return from the south pole philip shows me a sledging match from that expedition is. this is what you used to place the food death has for the attempt on the pole incredible here we have been reaching the south pole and then of course the terrible trick. back to captain scott died here just demonstrates how hot it was then just how challenging it was that a far cry from today it was this period is known as the heroic age they were truly great heroes up until the one nine hundred twenty days there were

probably less than should think fifty or sixty people had actually ever stepped into the cold loop. of course no thousands are going every year. like many of the old explorers i first had footprint to our anus in southern chile but unlike them i'll be flying into antarctica to king george island at the northern tip here all join the greenpeace ship the arctic sunrise and head into the weddell sea with luck will reach our target the sixty fourth parallel which marks the northern edge of the proposed asian century an internationally supported marine reserve covering one point eight million square kilometers that would be protected from direct human impact like fishing oil drilling and deep sea mining. how times have changed immediately it's clear how connected the outer reaches of the antarctic continent to become the plane is full of tourists. what was once

a grueling journey of months maybe is now can be done in an hour and a half with lunch and if you. want to. be in the alps like that for fun. it's a cold murky arrival i'm surprised at how many people there are around dozens are coming in going to hear you know king george island and downscaling made it seem. like they don't. look so remote as more of a transport. you can see lots of turds. taking ribs out to inflatable boats out to meet cruise ships for the holidays i also hear a lot of research stations. with the weather closing in we need to get a move on. so

they can. pay over the next two weeks. thank you. write a. program. well we're on the way immediately heading for the proposed ocean sanctuary isn't any time to lose not just for the arctic sunrise winter is not far away and the ice will soon close in but it's cool so race against time to protect areas like the weddell sea before it's too late will maccallum it's a greenpeace campaign leader we're campaigning for will be the locals largest protected area. to question sanction an area of the battle say to be about five times the size of germany the proposal is already on the table it's already got the backing of the. scientists are saying we need to protect a third of the world's oceans at least every one to let fish stocks recover they

want to mitigate against the worst impacts of climate change and man thought is a great place to start in just nine months time in hobart australia the decision will be made by the antarctic ocean commission the international body responsible for the conservation of these waters on whether to accept the sentry proposal the aim of the expedition is to build the case that it needs to happen. yeah go by and the temperature drops significantly. on the bridge they're on high alert we're heading into dangerous waters tense times with skipper cool ruzicka you have what they call bertie bits growlers and icebergs depending on the size. but they can all damage a ship when you're steaming at night key thing about ice is avoiding it but now we're going to look for the ice and we will intentionally go into some of the ice and there is room down here now i think to push our way through a bit. far. to

cool climbs into the crow's nest transport leads through the ice. come through the ontology sound which i would buy sexy and talk to put into that we're not on the web will see but not yet at the point at which they want to protect it but to get that we've got to get through all this ice there's a lot of it around and we're finding these clear passages trying to wean you always through the ice. everyone on board is just willing the ship to make it into the proposed sanctuary the big problem is getting people to realize why they should care about the i'm talking to you know this is lot of light that most people have never come across will never come across and so being able to tell that story relies on us getting there are lots of us getting the footage back and tell talking about the importance of marine sanctuaries so the fact that they start to put out a recovery if we put these areas of them it's the fact that climate change will be not as bad if we manage suppose large areas of the ocean not that my.

dog has falls but there is no rest on the bridge for the captain and the night crew there is an illusion there are. flood lights on the bows show the ship now milledge dumped quietly against the ice and intentional maneuver for the remainder of the night but everyone is keyed up flying off. the next day at la. asked the arctic sunrise has arrived surrounded by some of the coldest most diverse waters there are and was all on board who may yet be the largest protected area on the planet rewelding good news very good news made it made it to this is for the sitting there now. there's someone other ships in this

entire space and you just go over this side and recently saw getting sort of tens of of ships both cruise liners cargo ships fishing vessels the moment you get through this sound as us there another ship out there and that's it and they're all whole area that's slightly scary yet terrifying. very exciting as well exciting kind of just makes the case that this is pristine this area is not developed his not call industry has never had industry sort of area that is kind of the most untouched even within and part of. our own are. not right now thank you for trying to wrap my brain around. what we're looking at here is felt yes sea ice is great icebergs to be the glass is

sweeping up james ross island at the weddell sea spent way to a distant proposed area pretty much all touched by human activity always scientific research is taking place it is an incredible sight but deeply troubling to classes have always collapsed and carved into the antarctic ocean however with global warming they're doing so with increasing speed and as the ice sheets retreat sea levels rise. this right here is humanity's problem for decades perhaps centuries ahead. it is laundry day off at sunrise and here's the thing we were taking being good citizens by wearing fleeces which is made out of recycled plastic golf bottles that

sort of thing but when you watch the. hundreds of thousands of microfiber as end up in the well the oceans so here are important it's wooden and not for girls. and of course plastic pollution in our seas is one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time and the team makes the most of a rare opportunity for research. these are some of the america's rules of the planet that would be appalling to do they could be blasting seriously greenpeace to conduct this is where i was taking samples from the water to see if any micro plastics have infiltrated this environment. just simply into the sea surface like west point was that maybe first so they're both taking something to be fully trusted more to. the. extent. they are sending us to find the this is very hopeful just the way the seas are very close

try a system and there's very few local sources of micro plastic fibers should be coming from however evidence is growing around the world from studies that like the plastic before the spikes treat the present releases and they all be found even by remote locations. you know it's a bizarre thing be a flayed on these wild remote and desolate war says feel quite exposed use p.g.p. g.p.s. or google map and zoomed out we could be a tiny speck in this. t.v. off the ice water. and yet beneath the surface of this magnet. since desolation is just t.v. with life and these are some of the remotest bruises on. and to see what lies below the expedition submarine is launched on board the antarctic specialist susan lockhart what she sees is a stunning underwater realm composed of all manner of life life not yet touched by

mankind but it's enormously at risk not least from the effects of industrial scale fishing it has one hundred percent coverage in the sea floor of organism has a great three d. structure which allows other organisms to come in and if they're and a really interesting species composition and all these factors make it really difficult for a community to recover after a disturbance such as bottom fishing we call these areas fundable marine ecosystem and the estimated fourteen thousand species on the seabed vulnerable not just to fishing but to other threats like warming sea temperatures and plastics pollution and that's why the expeditions all round research is so important in the bid to protect these waters all the scientific data will be compiled to form a body of evidence in support of the sanctuary proposal and presented to the antarctic commission in less than a year's time. but the team needs to find out more about the growing threats

encroaching on the region we leave the lonely waters of the weddell sea heading back through the antarctic sound a day shaped by the routine on board. everyone has different ways of filling sparrows from the top practice to running repairs of course looking for old guys. to get what's cooking today but they do it their way and best over. when you know that's an open window the customers there are the same every day and we share that with them it is not everybody who has you like this in their restaurant kitchen. he's afraid that's a way out here. later we had for sure making landfall on the south set the night and the tip of the antarctic peninsula. it's quite a relief to be back on dry land off but it's been careening around all over the

place and we welcome high colony of six. penguins share territory with the seals one making the most of the comfortable feathers of the melting juveniles. but here too evidence once again of how the world is closing in on antarctica a number of tourists twenty years ago it was around forty five thousand a year now it's more like thirty thousand. all like me desperate to see this wilderness while it's still here. despite myself i can't help the sense of unease in surprise about the sheer numbers. in a bit saddened by the. great big cruise ship. here in pristina on top of the care and lines of terrorists. is dormant volcano which is ridiculous because it's

a free will. but it does just demonstrate the. new accessibility that there is in the dangers in. these areas becoming tainted. by the footprint of humanity. makes day was steaming down the west coast of the antarctic peninsula. we are going approximately sixty miles south of west area both pretty violent where we see. three fish we want to go on. the vessels. from china ukraine and chile they're fishing for krill a small shrimp like creature which the whole ecosystem depends they are a keystone of the ocean cycle the diet of plankton helping to transfer c o two to the depths of the ocean. but krill is being harvested on a growing scale the fish feed and omega three or ships nets are out and they're in

the thick of the krill swarm the krill are obviously densely packed into this area up against the island is the basic just circling around the grounds to bring them out of the monks and over whales the fee to see them blowing and whale tails disappearance flicker is showing as we go about. the krill companies say they're tapping into a resource that is sustainable but the view on board is that that is what they said about other species like the bison in north america all called starts off new found and before both were decimated it's essential areas such as weddell sea are protected so stocks can replenish the proposal first area with the area thirty kilometers offshore off limits to fishing industry so when so that's a solution you can continue to fish in and out production but keep it outside of these areas currently being a protected areas because the reason they've been proposed it's because i saw

important the ecosystem down here. soon will begin the long journey home but this time to make another landing and the variety of species here on livingston island is just astounding. just like the folks at the heart. truly spectacular just a lot more diverse me having to use fish is a pain when it's time to trolls that open the seals went. until there's not been another landing of quite a variety when you look at this great ship that's really good and you're right here you should be teeming with life and is thriving right now and you can see all around us it's driving who knows what it was like a hundred years ago it was doing even better but right now it's still compared to

most other places on earth it's doing a lot better at the point of protecting it is to allow it to continue and that's why we haven't yet met this place up we have the opportunity to protect. the question that the the dynamics of this place around thoughts get changing you have the seal population expanding rapidly as a penguin die off in the east last year ice is changing krill populations are under threat tourism. i mean this is the last great wilderness one. needs protecting. it's time to head back in for five days we crossed the stormy seas of the drake passage to south america before heading home. an opportunity to consider the wonder

of what we've seen and the challenges that lie ahead in winning the protection of the precious part of our planet. and whether or not this protection will indeed be granted. in nine months time. after months of campaigning and intense lobbying by the greenpeace team it all comes down to hear how you vote on the island of tasmania in australia for the future of the way to see we've decided. this is where it's all happening the headquarters of the antarctic commission that protects and manages the planet's southernmost waters. everything from territorial claims to.