this is night line. >> reporter: tonight -- paradise in peril. islands teeming with wildlife that inspired the theory of evolution. now battling for survival. the galapagos islands, a flow of tourists and trash arriving on their shores. the race to preserve and protect the delicate balance of nature. plus, life in the slow mo lane. the smashing success. stunts and antics at a frame by frame speed. how this super slow show became a quick money maker. but first the nightline five.

number one in just sixty

>> reporter: good evening. thank you for joining us. some call it heaven on earth in the middle of the ocean. the galapagos, home to some of the most diverse species in the world and birthplace of darwin's theory of evolution. now threatened by its own popularity with tourists and a rising tide of trash. abc's maggie rulli is on an expedition there. >> reporter: staggering,

exquisite, and remote. the islands that inspired darwin's survival of the fittest could be facing a fight for their survival the galapagos. one of the few places to see nature up close and personal is now being challenged by its own popularity. 21st century threats like bucket list tourism and plastic pollution are threatening the very existence of some of the islands' most iconic animals. the beloved giant tortoises, blue footed boobies, and iguanas. and nearly everywhere you go, on a hike or a casual dip. there's wildlife at your fingertips. the animals charm visitors making the appeal of the islands even greater. and look at this. did it ever occur to you that sea lions love sleeping on benches? oh, they're snuggling in! are you kidding me right now, t! sea lions, they're just like us.

>> it's amazing how they prefer to live here in the town with the human! they have the whole island but -- >> reporter: they come up here! >> they are sleeping here in the pier, they're looking for nice boats just to rest. >> reporter: federico idrovo is part of the island's plan to protect this land. every visitor is required by law to hire a state sanctioned naturalist like him for all island visits. with 775 naturalists for the more than a quarter of a million tourists who visited last year, these are coveted and highly competitive jobs. >> we are not allowed to eat here on this island. it's a totally protected. if you need the bathroom, also please use it right now, we cannot use the bathrooms there. please never go outside of the trail. don't touch the animals. you can touch the vegetation but please don't destroy it. >> reporter: 29 year old federico is part ranger. almost 70% of the plants that we have here, is endemics and

native plants. >> then we have this solitary egg. that is uncommon that we found it. >> reporter: he's also part cop. you guides are no joke. i got off the trail earlier and someone else yelled at me. >> yeah because my job is not just to point you where is the iguana "that is a salty bush, this is the blue sky." my job is to control that everybody has to be inside the trail. nobody can eat here, please never take some souvenirs! >> reporter: we heard that repeatedly you can see that this beautiful and unusual beach is shining like. >> can we bring it home? >> no! we cannot bring anything from here those are galapagos national park rules. >> reporter: the number of visitors growing exponentially from just 5,000 fifty years ago. behind us now there's even a hawk, and you pointed out an iguana! >> i know, they're just sort of common for us. >> reporter: you're used to it by now, right! we meet lisa from wisconsin and judy from california who are halfway through their fantastic

expedition. how strict has your naturalist been with you in terms of making sure you don't get off the path. >> very strict, yes. but that's a good thing. it's a good thing. >> reporter: the webers also love having a personal guide. >> well, i thought it was awesome because we're kind of an intellectual family that likes to learn so there obvious we have been peppering him with questions. so it's been really nice. >> they're also focus on preservation and conserving the natural environment that exist around us. it's very unique. >> reporter: it sounds like you've always had this drive to conserve. was there a moment when you thought, i want to be a naturalist? >> i have a lot of knowledge in my mind. i have a lot of experience in my heart. i feel a lot of passion, and i wanna share it. >> reporter: there is so much commotion going on right now. wait, they're kind of coming close to you. >> yeah, it's because the male is here. >> reporter: the male is here. is this what happens? he just ruined the whole chill vibe of this place. >> everybody was sleeping, but now the male is like, "all right, where's my females?" >> reporter: but this is incredible.

i mean, we're just sitting here on this beach right now, and nature is happening all around us. there are sea lions everywhere, but they don't seem to care that we're here. >> well i think that is possible because we are living in a place where we are respecting a lot the animals inside of the galapagos. >> reporter: hi bud! it's the once in a lifetime thrill of these experiences that puts the region at risk. but it's something the world wildlife fund says can be managed. hugo arnal is the former wwf for ecuador. tourism is a double edged swords. it can be good, and it can be bad. so let's make sure that we manage tourism the best possible way, and we use tourism as a conservation tool. conservation isn't a nine to five job. that night at home with federico we saw how naturalists are responsible for reporting everything they see. i -- des -- describe what -- what i saw, and what was -- good and wrong. so for example,

sometime there is some people destroying vegetation. sometimes i found families with dogs. >> dogs are restricted because they can cause cross-contamination, and so can we. >> reporter: that's because each of the at least 14 islands here are so drastically different from one another. geologically and in the kinds of plants and animals that live on them. the most important threat to biodiversity on islands is invasive species. because of the long distances between the islands without tourism there'd be no cross-contamination. we don't want to bring germs, insects, parasites from this island to another island. a threat taken so seriously, people must pass through bio security checks every time they visit a new island. another unwelcome visitor from island to island is trash. when you come to experience the vast beauty of the galapagos, you probably don't stop to think about the enormous amount of trash that tourists and locals isnd'sra.vege a

most of all of latin america. mario piu is the director of a local recycling plant. so this recycling center can help save the environment, save the wildlife here in the galapagos? [ speaking in foreign language ] >> reporter: juan pablo munoz and his family of thre try to live with as little waste as possible. >> we're trying to -- to live as -- as -- as less plastic that we can. for example, our toothbrushes are wooden. all the diapers that we use for her are reusable diapers that you can wash. you can see our fridge, you see things that are wrapped in plastic. even though we are conscious, we -- we try to make the difference, but there's not -- there's no other options. as -- as you can see, we tried

to have all the toys that are made by wood, you know, by glass. but there's some items that you cannot escape. >> reporter: juan pablo knows first hand what's at stake. the only ones that are gonna be more affected about this problem is -- is our kids. and the kids of our kids. >> reporter: a marine scientist at the galapagos science center he showed us what alarms him the most. >> i am showing you a microplastic sample from the stomach content of a fish here in the galapagos. but if you look in deep, using the standard microscope, you will see microplastic in this sample. from the ocean, you don't need a microscope. as the wwf were eager for us to see. every single thing that floats eventually have the potentiality to arrive here. in the past it was wood, now it's plastic, you know? >> reporter: so where does all this plastic, all this trash come from? >> i mean, it comes from everywhere -- everywhere. literally it can -- can comes from -- from the states. it can comes from -- from -- from europe, it can comes from japan, it comes in from everywhere. on land, the amount is multiplied. >> reporter: seeing it up close, you see just there's so many

different types of trash in here, types of plastic. you have, like, a hard hat. gasoline containers. some type of bottling container. plastic bottle, plastic bottle, plastic bottle. so bottles, that's pretty much roughly the 80% of the debris that you find in the galapagos, bottles. one way or another, plastics is forever, so even -- even though you do the best thing to recycle it, it's gonna be a little bit of release of microplastics that is gonna end up in the air or in the ocean or -- >> reporter: what is microplastics? >> i want to show you that. >> reporter: look. oh, it's like -- oh, you can see it coming off in the air even. >> yeah, exactly. so i think you can make -- >> reporter: ugh. >> you see this? >> reporter: yeah. >> so this -- this -- >> reporter: you can see the dust of blue. oh my gosh, look at your hand! >> and that's the real problem. that's something that we don't know how to avoid. because we can easily clean this macro debris that we -- >> reporter: but how do you clean up dust? >> exactly. how do you clean dust? so the best thing to do is attack this problem from the source. before it arrive here.

because once it arrive here, it's probably too late to do something about it. >> reporter: how do you change the minds of people when we've all gotten so used to this disposable lifestyle? >> they need to see this! they need -- i think -- that's -- important that the -- that everybody actually understand that the most pristine places in this planet are like this full of plastic. for the island often called the laboratory of evolution, the stakes have never been higher. >> reporter: why should people in the middle of america care about the galapagos? >> there's no planet b, okay? and you have places in -- in the many different countries that are unique. that are fantastic. places that are so beautiful and so important that -- that they go beyond the political boundaries. and galapagos is one of them. politically, yes, galapagos belongs to ecuador. emotionally and in terms of heritage, it belongs to the world. >> reporter: for nightline, i'm maggie rulli on the galapagos

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>> reporter: now to the internet superstars operating at glacial pace. the slow mo guys have been quickly gaining traction. fusing science and tech in their mesmerizing videos. here is nightline's ashan singh with this flashback. i sh you in the face with this giant water balloon and see what happens. three, two, one! >> reporter: this isn't exactly what i signed up fo but

smashing things is what these guys do for a living. meet the slow mo guys. gavin free and dan gruchy. famous for making unbelievably slow motion videos of pretty much anything you can think of. what about you guys has gotten so many people to latch on? >> film a lot of stuff that just like, "oh, you see that everyday," but you've never seen it this slow. >> reporter: from smashing jello with a tennis racket. to jumping on a mouse-trap covered trampoline. they're capturing movements frame-by-frame showing viewers footage otherwise impossible to see with the naked eye. their often ridiculous stunts racking up billions of views and over 11 million subscribers on youtube. like jackass, but slowed down. the duo's been around since the beginning of youtube and

nowadays they're full blown celebrities making big bucks. did you guys ever think this was gonna get this big? >> there was no chance that i thought it was gonna get this big. cause that was seven years ago-ish. these would be unheard of numbers. >> reporter: tucked away in a small garage in austin texas, the slo-mo headquarters. >> okay, now this is my domain. >> this is where the magic comes from. >> reporter: endless props. odds and ends. stuff that would normally be collecting dust, absolute gold for the slow mo guys. >> this is actually full of about 1000 mouse traps. >> oh my god this is the 1000 mouse traps that you sat on. >> reporter: it all started back in london. two blokes doing ordinary teenager things. >> i would just make videos with different friends and i sort of found dan and i had the best banter on screen. so when it came time to start the slow mo guys he was the clear choice, and i've regret it ever since. >> yeah he has actually he's -- >> now i'm stuck with him. >> reporter: with gavin's access to a rare phantom slow motion

camera, and dan's undeniable panache on screen, the then teenage duo could film videos unmatched at that time. >> the guy i worked with, he had the only two phantom cameras in the country at the time and i realized i was 17 or 18 years old with access to this super expensive, super rare camera and that put us at a nice advantage. >> reporter: the camera, a phantom flex 4k, can cost around 150k. it can shoot so powerfully slow that filming for just five seconds can result in 19 hours of footage. most youtubers, "oh, i didn't expect it to -- had no idea this would happen." but this was always the intent to actually become well-known for doing slow motion. it's boomed into a major money maker. now, almost a decade later, they have their own youtube original series and get sponsored to produce content. >> we've done maybe 20 different companies we've worked with, and they basically pay us to make a video.

i've got a bass drum behind me, some water balloons, some paint cannons, i'm about to get the full slow mo guys experience. >> reporter: today's warmup. a lousy mousetrap, or so i thought >> all you've got to do when you're ready. >> reporter: in true slow mo guys fashion, we add a little glitter >> are you focused up and ready? >> i am. >> you are? hold on. >> look at his face. >> i'm nervous. >> are you nervous? >> i'm a little bit shook. >> alright, so i'm rolling a thousand frames a second. it's all on you. i'll try not to make you do this twice. >> also, don't move your finger out of the way, don't be a chicken. >> okay, three, two, one. ow! well first, you want to see what that looked like? >> let's take a look, let's take a look. >> gather around. >> gather around children. >> my finger's crushed but not my spirits, now it's time to really dive in. >> reporter: okay. so right now i'm getting suited.

they haven't told me exactly what's happening to me yet. but i have to imagine that it's messy. probably some paint. going to have to get this glitter off my finger for a long time now, lot of glitter lately. >> you good? >> you ready? >> i am ready. >> are you ready? here we go. >> oh. it got me in the face. >> that was actually a lot more than i was expecting. >> oh, really? >> it definitely worked. >> it tastes terrible. >> really bad. i can't wait to see what this looks like in slow-mo. >> oh my god, my face is covered. you can see it all over in the -- can i see this one in slow-mo? >> yeah, definitely. >> wow. >> you're just gone. >> it's really blowing you away there. >> look how happy dan is. see, dan is always this guy. >> you are sick. >> man, it's usually me taking it to the face. >> it's seriously you, it's seriously you. >> reporter: now that i'm full-grinch, they're gonna help me take a quick bath. >> well, i think i'm just gonna smash you in the face with this giant water balloon and see what happens. >> reporter: okay, we're really doing it slow mo guy's style, now. >> need to wash off that paint. >> reporter: you ready? three, two, one. does it get old? i don't think it gets old.

it's really cool to think you can make your living doing the most bizarre stuff. this wasn't a job several years ago. three, two, one. >> reporter: for nightline, i'm ashan singh in austin, texas. >> reporter: next, the sisters turning life's lemons into a life lesson. (door bell rings) it's open! hey. this is amazing. with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay? even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure.

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>> reporter: finally, the stars behind this sweet and sour duo. sisters hailey and hannah hager are hard at work in lexington, north carolina. selling homemade lemonade this summer. their stand appropriately named hailey and hannah's helping hands. raising money to pay off 40k in student lunch debt in their school district of davidson county. inspiring the community to stop for a cool drink and donate to a stirring cause. the duo selling enough to cut down the debt by more than a half. >> a very special thank you from mary and hannah's helping hands.

we're all rooting for you hailey and hannah! that's nightline. you can always catch our full episodes on hulu. good night, america.

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