narrator: in this special "21st century" show, 3 stories on the world's ocean. coral crusaders in the seychelles, plastics pollution a threat to us all, and saving the pacific's tuna. 115 islands in the indian ocean and over a million square kilometers of sea--the seychelles, tourist paradise and haven for fish. woman: we depend on our marine resource for everything. we don't have anything without

that. narrator: the ocean, a lifeline for the island's people. but for how much longer? woman: there has been a rise in ocean teerature, then you end up with dead corals. narrator: coral crusaders saving their reefs and their future for generations to come. woman: the seychelles, with the resources that we have, the marine resources, that's what we have. that's all we have really. and we depend on our marine resource for everything, whether it's economic activities or for tourism and fisheries. we don't

have anything without that. so i realized it was important to conserve the ocean when i'm growing up and understanding the relationship that the seychellois people have with the ocean, with the marine ecosystem, and how much we rely on it for our food 'cause most of our food comes from the sea. and i think i understood how important it was for us to protect it. woman: everything is connected to the ocean. we get food from

the ocean, protection from the ocean, our climate, our weather is driven by processes which are from the ocean. so everything we do in a way or another is connected to the ocean. it is an integral part of our lives. we're only 455 square kilometers of land compared to over a million square kilometers of ocean. ideally, you would call the seychelles a large oceanic state. the seychelles economy is driven by tourism and fisheries are the two main drivers of our economy. antat: the corals provide a home for different species in the ocean, macroinvertebrate, fish species, but they also provide for economic activities, including diving and snorkeling.

but at the same time, corals protect your coastline. there has been a rise in ocean temperature. and this has an impact on your corals becausthen this leads to coral bleaching, and then you lose the corals because then you d up with dead cols. when coral bleached, you observe the white corals, and once they're dead, they are usually taken over by tough algae. the resources that you had and the activities that you could carry out on a coral reef, then you've lost that. sims: most of the main challenges that our country is facing is related to climate change. the reefs closer to the inner islands are the ones that are most impacted from humans. these reefs are more likely to die off faster. what

you see is that fishermen, they have to go out further and for longer to catch the same amount of fish. the price of fish goes up, and people then have to pay more for fish, which is sad. i'm currently working on the seychelles marine spatial planning initiative. the plan will look to facilitate that we are able to continue with our fisries industry, with our tourism industry in a sustainable way to ensure that we can rely on these economies for future generations to come.

so iyou have the right protected areas, right size and right place, then this will minimize that impact, not only to our biodiversity, but to our economy and for the people of the seychelles. antat: we carry out diving activities with the intent of collecting data on coral reefs to ensure that the management of protected areas in seychelles is affective. we're really looking at the state of the corals, especially with such events as coral bleaching. we looked at coral, measured the corals. we looked at coral recruits and we also looked at macroinvertebrates. the idea is to use this data to look at effects on different activities on coral reefs, to

look at diseases, at pollution in coral reefs, most specific to protected areas, but also outside protected areas. mapping the reef, you can see the changes. we have this very long period of time where the temperature is really high and the corals cannot recover. so this has a huge impact on your marine resource on coral reefs. we have started a coral reef restoration project looking at other ways to try and restore coral reefs using the corals that are more resilient and growing these corals and putting them back on the reef. sims: snpa is one of our main key partners not only because they are the organization responsible currently for managing and enforcing marine protected areas, but they also

have several monitoring programs which arintegral in providing data to us. when it comes to future protected areas, ty will bthe key people for us to discuss with how well would we manage these areas and what is the best approach. antat: it's very important that we constantly have this good, healthy coral cover and... i want everything that i do shld make a difference and it should have an impact. i think it's a really wonderful feeling owing th whateve infoation yobring ba, it's going to contribute to the way we do conservation and tt's going to have a positive impact on marine conservation in seychelles.

narrator: the world produces more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. man: almost every piece of plastic ever made is still on the planet in some form or another. it's coating our lands and our oceans like a disease. woman: absolutely no doubt this bird died as a result of that plastic. second man: we really have to look at ourselves and say, do we deserve these beautiful ocean that was given to us?

man: plastic is wonderful because it's durable and plastic is terrible because it is durable. almost every piece of plastic ever made is still on the planet in some form or another. plastic production globally this year is expected to be more than 300 million tons, half of which we'll use just once and then throw away. by 2050, when the population explodes to almost 10 billion people, it's expected that plastic production will triple. the problem with that is is that today only a fraction of the plastic that we produce is recycled. the rest ends up in our environment, and it's coating our land and our oceans like a disease. garbage thrown away in the united states can make its way

to antarctica. plastic our coastal waters is lled into the center of massive wind-driven, churning circular gyres. therere many other ocean currents also diverting the trash all around the surface of the ocean. in reality, it's just one ocean with no boundaries. lord howe island is a world heritage site and home to migratory seabirds like the shearwater. seabirds are incredibly helpful because they act like an army of scientists. they travel thousands of miles across the ocean, they pick up plastic off the surface of the ocean, they bring it back to their rockeries where they feed it to their chicks, and that provides an incredible amount of scientific data in terms of where the plastic comes from,

its distribution, and how it breaks up on the ocean's surface. dr. jennifer lavers, she's devoted her life to studying the plight of seabirds. shearwaters are incredible birds. they migrate thousands of miles, stopping only here to breed. lavers: yeah, the stomach is very, very full, and if we look here, there's some very dark pieces, some very light white pieces. and if you see, you know, as i push on this, it's absolutely rigid, completely, completely full of plastic all the way up.

leeson: ugh, look at that. lavers: absolutely no doubt that this bird died as a result of that plastic. that is literally a gut full of pstic. it's quite alarming, isn't it? leeson: oh, it's awful. lavers: range of plastic types and colors. we've got everything from the blues and the reds to-- leeson: his stomach's just filled with it. big pieces, too. lavers: big, sharp pieces. leeson: oh, wow, look at the size of that big, black piece. lavers: that is an enormous piece of plastic. leeson: unbelievable. look at the size of that. jen, i counted 234 pieces of

plastic out of that one bird. is that a record? lavers: not even close, unfortunately. so for the species, the record is 276 pieces of plastic insidef one 90-day-old chick. that plastic when we weighed it out accnted for 15% of that bird's body ma, so that's a pretty scary statistic. if we translate that into human terms, it gets even worse. that would be equivalent to you and i having somewhere around 6 or 8 kilos of plastic inside of your stomach. it's equivalent to about 12 pizzas worth of food inside of your stomach. [birds calling]

that's quite a bit of plastic for just one little bird. the parents were trying to do the right thing. there's a lot of squid beaks in here, and this purple color is evidence of the squid ink. it's just a shame that every now and then they got it wrong and got it wrong in a bad way. [flies buzzing] it really is quite an overwhelming thing. i do have some pretty rough days, have to go home and really wrap my mind around where do we go from here? man: as a pacific islander, i know that the ocean is in deep

trouble. the ve authorave prediction shows that by the year 2050, there will be as much plastic as there is fish in the ocean by weight. every country uses plastic. we need to stop rationalizing that. we need to think about re-use of plastic. single-use plastic has got to be on its way out. and, you know, plastic shopping bags are a good example of that. your family does not need to use them. take a cloth bag with you when you go shopping and put your shopping in there. there's an equivalent of a large garbage truck every minute of every day backing up to the ocean and just dumping plastic into it. we really have to look at ourselves and say, do we deserve this beautiful ocean that was given to us?

narrator: it's a $5 billion a year industry and an economic lifeline for dozens of small island nations, but for how much longer? man: as a pacific islander myself, i would ask one question--will the next generation enjoy this industry as we do now? narrator: it's fished every day and in nearly every ocean on the planet. an immense volume is captured and processed to keep up with the insatiable global demand. it's served in trendy restaurants around the world and in tin cans for school lunches. they're among the most valuable

commodities in the ocean. it's tuna. yellowfin, big eye, albacore, and skipjack. 4 1/2 million tons of tuna are caught each year, and nearly half of the global supply is caught in the western and central pacific. it's a $5 billion a year industry and an economic lifeline for dozens of small island nations, but for how much longer? man: people consider the ocean an endless bounty, but the ocean is far from unlimited. narrator: technology is making it much easier to catch tuna, and that in turn is threatening a whole way of life. man: the pacific if so dependent on these fisheries' resources that a collapse could be devastating. and it might be decades for them to recover from that, if at all. narrator: the fisheries of the western and central pacific cover 40 million square kilometers. it's a vast area pulated by small island

countries, which, according to international law, own all of the fish within 200 miles of their coastline. but most countries can't afford navy ships or aircraft to patrol their waters, leaving their prized fishing grounds a target for ocean thieves. 17 of the countries are part of an alliance that help manage and protect their most valuable asset--fish. based on the solomon islands, a multinational task force for the pacific islands forum fisheries agency is trking some 2,000 commercial ships that are operating within the jurisdiction of the pacific island countries. man: so if you adjust the track. it's not licens so it suld not be doing the tracks. this is definitely not innocent passage. narrator: each ship transmits a signal that is similar to an aircraft ansponder, which provides vital clues as to whether the boat is operating

legally. man on radio: so as you can see out the front window there, the first fishing contact puts us right at 4-2 on my plot. narrator: despite these efforts, in the past 10 years, overall catch rates, both illegal and legitimate, have more than doubled. and while skipjack are still abundant, the prized bluefin is already overfished and big eye and yellowfin stocks are declining. that's why the un development program has worked with small island countries to bring in a fisheries convention and to manage fish stocks. andrew hudson is an ocean management expert with undp. hudson: the good newis the pacific island countries have taken concrete steps toward improving their understanding of the fisheries, improving and putting in place management regimes and monitoring compliance regimes that if they carry them forward in full, which i think they're capable of doing, could lead to true sustainability for those fisheries going forward. narrator: managing the tuna fisheries depends upon knowing more about what tuna do in the ocean. researchers for the

secretariat of the pacific community are tagging thousands of tuna with devices that will provide important data. tags tell scientists how far tuna travel, how fast they grow, and how deep they go for food. the tagging essentially allows the tuna to talk to scientists who will use the information to protect them from being overfished. woman: this one was in 2011 and we see it only now. narrator: more than ,000 tags have been released. nowhere are people more protective of their fisheries than in the western and central pacific. it's a way of life. it defines their culture. it's how islanders make their living and feed their families and without it, everything falls apart. in the coastal village of noro in the solomon islands, the morning commute consists of islanders boarding the company

van bound for the sole tuna processing plant. man: how many tons for today? second man: 60 tons. narrator: 25-year-old hearty matamaru is one of 1,700 solomon islanders making a living at the plant. matamaru: that's pretty good. yeah. nice cleaning. better than this one. it's really good. narrator: here, 100 metric tons of tuna are skinned, deboned, processed, canned, and packaged every single day. matamaru: this cannery, it's really important to the people here, to their lives, to their families, and to the surrounding communities as well. we are worried if the tuna stock is gone 'cause the job here depend very much on the fish that we have in our waters. narrator: the same tuna that provide jobs at the sole tuna processing plant also keep a small fleet of solomon fishing boats working. man: ok, guys, come on. let's go. narrator: the "solomon ruby" is

heading to sea in the hopes of catching 350 metric tons of skipjack tuna. man: "solomon emerald," "solomon emerald," copy. narrator: fishmaster junior delaverata grew up in the solomons and commands a crew of his fellow islanders. he says technology has become an essential tool in the boat cockpit. delaverata: it's quite easier now. when there's a spot of fish 100 meters away, the sonar can tell you the density of fish, how many tons there is, how deep it i and howar it is. narrator: it's not long before a large school of tuna are spotted. and the crew races to lay nets and gather the catch. before long, hundreds of tons of tuna start coming up over the rail. but this kind of modern technology is a double-edged sword.

delaverata: as a pacific islander myself, i would ask one question--will the next generation enjoy this industry as we do now? it's so very easy to catch fish. that's the worrying part. more boats, more fish harvested from the sea. narrator: for now, the western and central pacific is still the most productive fishery on the planet. but the risk of depleting stocks of tuna sends a signal that has to be heeded. hudson: we know very well now and the ocean is telling us very clearly that we need to find more sustainable approaches to ocean utilization. narrator: we know the oceans are talking to us. their message is that if we listen, they will continue to provide for generations to come.

they are everywhere in our environment. in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. they are in everyday products we use for personal care and cleaning. they are in our furniture, our children's toys, and the products we use in gardening and agriculture. and almost all of us have them inside our bodies. >> chemicals, right now, according to the best evidence we have, are contributing