NARRATOR: They cover two thirds of our planet.
They hold clues to the mysteries of our past.
And they’re vital for our future survival.
'at the secrets of our oceans have remained largely undiscovered.
PAUL ROSE: I am with a six gill shark.
Yes, yes!
NARRATOR: Explorer Paul Rose is leading a team of ocean experts
on a series of underwater science expeditions.
For a year, the team has voyaged across the world
to build up a global picture of our seas.
We are doing some pretty uncharted research here.
LUCY BLUE: That is psychedelically purple.
We are here to try and understand the earth's oceans
and put them in a human scale.
NARRATOR: Our oceans are changing faster than ever.
I've never seen ice like this before.
NARRATOR: There’s never been a better time
to explore the last true wilderness on earth.
Eritrea, East Africa.
The team is heading to the southern Red Sea.
PAUL: I feel like I'm a kid again.
You know you say, "Can you smell the sea?"
NARRATOR: The Red Sea is technically an ocean
because it was formed when the continents of Africa and Asia
tore apart millions of years ago.
Unlike the tourist diving Mecca to the north,
the southern part remains remote and untouched.
PAUL: 'y and large, this is unexplored.
It's uncharted territory, particularly under the water.
NARRATOR: The southern Red Sea is
one of the most important marine sites in the world.
Home to a spectacular array of species, many found nowhere else on earth.
The team has come here to discover how this small sea
could hold clues to the future of all our oceans.
Environmentalist Philippe Cousteau Jar
wants to investigate whether these waters,
some of the warmest on earth,
could help our oceans cope with the threat of global warming.
We need to figure something out
that is going to help all the other coral in the world.
NARRATOR: This sea is one of the most significant in human history.
Maritime archaeologist Dr Lucile is searching for evidence that it was here
that early modern humans first left Africa and populated the planet.
Well, that's fantastic.
NARRATOR: Marine biologist and oceanographer Toni Math
wants to witness something fundamental about our oceans,
how they’re born.
If you don't dive in the Red Sea, all you see is that.
That's all you see. You see blueness.
To understand anything about what happens in our planet's oceans
you have to get in.
NARRATOR: 'at 30 years of war have kept this unique stretch of sea
virtually inaccessible.
Now for the first time, an expedition like this has been allowed in.
Oh, yes. Hello, sir! Very good to meet you.
My name is Paul.
Well, this is just one little bit of paper
but it means a lot to us.
I mean, there it is. That's our permit. It's a single permit
and it took us 10 months to get this thing,
but it doesn't give us any protection against any of the other things
that are probably going to go wrong on this trip.
I mean, this is definitely an ambitious expedition.
There's no doubt about it.
NARRATOR: For the first mission, Toni and Philippe will investigate
how our oceans formed.
They’re heading south to Djibouti, a country at the gateway of the Red Sea.
Here the world map is being re-drawn as a completely new ocean is created.
I'm fascinated by how the earth looks today
and why it looks today the way it does.
And I'm also fascinated by this idea that actually the land is moving,
is constantly moving, constantly changing.
But to actually go and experience that I think is really key.
NARRATOR: Right here beneath this bay,
huge tectonic forces have formed a crack beneath the earth’s crust
pulling apart the plates of Africa and Arabia.
That process forms all our oceans.
'at this is one of the only places in the world
where you can dive and see it in action.
We've come here to witness something that's really, really special.
We're hoping to basically witness the birth of an ocean,
because it is literally where a new ocean will form over millions of years.
-So it's splitting the land apart? -It's splitting the land apart.
TOONI: And this area will one day
flood with water from the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
So we will be over two completely separate land masses
that are moving away from each other.
Are we going to be able to put... I mean, how close are they together?
-Do we know? -I don't know. I don't know.
I want to see if I can...
-Time will tell. Yeah. -...like, touch two continents at once.
NARRATOR: On the seabed, they’re looking for the opening or rift.
TOONI: Go that way.
I think it's over here!
An incredibly dark opening.
At least, that's my impression of what a rift should look like.
PHILIPPE: Ladies first!
TOONI: I'm going down.
Descending into the rift that has opened up.
NARRATOR: They dive down, disappearing between Africa and Arabia.
TOONI: It just drops down into complete nothingness.
PHILIPPE: Not quite what I expected at all.
It's a tight squeeze through some of these passages.
Got to be really careful.
TOONI: This rift has been formed by the action of the earth
literally ripping itself apart.
Just think of the amount of force that it would have taken.
NARRATOR: The narrowness of the rift shows that it’s right at the beginning
of a process that will continue for millions of years.
Normally, it’s happening thousands of metres down,
so it’s extremely rare to see this so close to the surface.
As the rift widens, magma from beneath the earth’s crust
rises and solidifies to form a new ocean floor,
gradually pushing the plates further apart.
PHILIPPE: Let's put a hand on one continent each.
I've got the Somalia plate on the end of my finger,
and this is the African plate.
So Philippe, to the right, has got the Arabian plate.
Between us, we're actually spanning two continents.
Over time, these two bits of rock will move away from each other.
They're moving at a rate of about two centimetres a year,
which is about the same rate as a nail growth.
NARRATOR: In millions of years, this gap could be as wide as the Atlantic.
So this could be New York and that could be London.
NARRATOR: As these plates pull apart, water floods in creating the new ocean.
TOONI: Not many people get to be at the site of a new ocean.
It's like seeing how the Red Sea once was.
It's a pretty remarkable feeling.
The beginning of an ocean.
TOONI: It's stunning.
The reality of it is that those two bits will never touch again
and will keep on moving and moving apart for pretty much eternity.
NARRATOR: Millions of years from now, hundreds of square miles
could be covered by water,
the new ocean, and it’s already been named the Afar.
Toni and Philippe are heading back to rejoin the expedition in Eritrea.
The plan is to sail north to discover why the Red Sea
is so important in our history.
And how its marine life could help all our oceans survive.
'at as one of the first teams allowed in here, nothing is straightforward.
Hello! Fuel is rationed in this country and the Memo is full,
and we need another 5,000 litres to complete the mileage.
I'm calling again about our fuel.
PAUL: The navy have given us a huge amount of support
and they’re going to put one of their people on board.
Hello! Really good to meet you. Welcome on board.
You look after us and we'll look after you. How's that?
(BOTH LAUGHING)
It’s not long before he needs to help out.
Just need a bit of a hand to see if...
NARRATOR: Filming has barely begun before soldiers put a stop to it.
PAUL: We don't want to film the ship or anything.
From the BBC Oceans expedition.
Oh, it is confirmed?
We can have the 5,000 litres? Well, that's fantastic.
How are you doing, man?
NARRATOR: With enough fuel promised for the journey,
it’s time to leave port and head off for the next target.
It’s a two-hour trip east,
and many thousands of years back in time.
PAUL: She's flying!
NARRATOR: Recent findings suggest
this was one of the first seas early modern humans ever saw
before making their way out of Africa and across the globe.
For maritime archaeologist Dr Lucile,
it’s a rare chance to investigate such ancient human activity.
I think it's really important because people don't really understand
the first time people encountered the sea.
They don't really understand what they did when they got there,
and this is some of the earliest evidence that there is
for early modern humans settling in a coastal environment.
NARRATOR: Lucy is hoping to find clues preserved here
about the first encounters our ancient ancestors had with the Red Sea.
I'm really finding it fascinating. I mean, it's like a big jigsaw.
You've got all these little pieces that,
well, not many of them actually, to put into the puzzle.
And, no... And I'm also interested in the nature of the finds
because they are very different from what you find
on most archaeological sites.
You haven't got ceramics, you haven't got building remains, you know.
It's a very, very different type of site.
NARRATOR: The hostilities may be over,
but this is still very much a military zone
and access is heavily restricted.
Soldiers watch their every move.
Wow, there's a lot of military bases there, aren't there?
All of that is the military encampment.
Pretty good guns up on top there, Lucy.
There's a bit of waving, let's do waving back.
That's always a good thing.
NARRATOR: Normally, they’d have to dive down to the seabed to look for clues
but here, the sea floor has come to them.
Over thousands of years,
earthquakes have raised up the ancient coral reef by 10 metres.
With it, a slice of history that’s 125,000 years old
has been pushed into daylight.
This is all old coral. I mean, look at some of this.
If there's any doubt at all about whether that's coral or not, you know.
NARRATOR: 'buried in this ancient coral, they’re hoping to find evidence
of early modern human activity.
LUCY: What we need is some sort of...
Let me just chuck a load of water onto it.
-Hey, Lucy! Look at that. -Yeah.
-Look at that bit. -Oh, yeah, yeah, that's more like it.
-That's got to be... -You've really got... That's fantastic.
-Look at that. Give it a spray. -Oh, that's beautiful.
LUCY: That's what we're looking for. PAUL: And this is sharp.
NARRATOR: It’s an ancient hand blade.
That can take skin off, no problem.
Yeah, well, be careful because you can. And, I mean, that's part of the reason
that we can tell it's not been moved, you know, by water action or the sea.
It's actually been deposited here in its original context
because it's still pretty sharp.
See, if you hold it that way, it doesn't feel quite right.
Hold it this way,
-you see that's curving down. -Yeah.
-And this is curving up. -Yeah.
So depending what you were going to do with it.
LUCY: Yeah, that's true. PAUL: You know, 'cause look at that,
that shape.
PAUL: That is a proper beautiful tool. LUCY: That's beautiful.
NARRATOR: This type of tool, made from volcanic glass called obsidian,
dates from the middle Palaeolithic period.
There's no other obsidian here so it must have come here
through some sort of human action.
NARRATOR: So early modern humans were definitely here
but is there evidence of their relationship with the sea?
LUCY: (LAUGHS) I think that's maybe what we've been looking for.
They’ve found what appears to be an ancient oyster bar.
Imagine if you're shucking all these oysters,
getting all the meat out of these oysters.
I mean, look how well that fits in.
You know, it just fits perfect, doesn't it?
LUCY: So, you can just imagine this whole area
where people have come, they've collected the shells,
they've processed them, they've eaten them
and then they've just thrown them on the floor.
And I think that's just... It's just fantastic.
You can see it in such a distinct horizon.
NARRATOR: Early modern humans
were probably driven from the central plains of Africa by drought.
They would have stumbled across the Red Sea
in their search for food and water.
It's very significant in a lot of ways because it shows one of the first,
if not the first, bits of evidence that we have
for human interaction with the sea, here on the Red Sea.
It's a really exciting feeling to hold some tools,
and the last man to use this was 125,000 years ago.
NARRATOR: These tools show how our ancestors
learnt to exploit the Red Sea.
For the first time, they had a food source
that didn’t rely on the climate.
And when sea levels dropped, these thriving coastal people
had the opportunity to cross this narrow sea out of Africa
and eventually populate the entire world.
LUCY: The Red Sea has always been a critical point of communication
and trade and transportation,
but I hadn't, until today, appreciated, you know, how incredibly early
that communication and contact with the sea started.
It just gives it such depth.
NARRATOR: That’s the past.
'at it’s what the Red Sea could tell us about the future of our oceans
that’s brought environmentalist Philippe Cousteau here.
Particularly his concern for coral reefs,
the rain forests of the sea.
PHILIPPE: Probably one of the most critical issues
that ocean conservation is facing over the next decade or so
is the loss of coral reefs.
NARRATOR: Coral is vital to the health of the ocean,
harbouring a huge diversity of life.
'at rising sea temperatures across the world
are causing much of it to suffer from bleaching,
to turn white and die.
Of all the coral reefs in the world, we've lost about 25%%%, are gone.
Another 25%%% are heavily threatened
and we fear will be gone within the next 50 years or so.
NARRATOR: The Red Sea is the perfect place
to study the impact of warming seas.
Water temperatures here are among the hottest on earth,
reaching 34 degrees Centigrade.
We've got the monitor right here and we're going to submerge it
maybe 10 metres underwater, about 30 feet.
NARRATOR: It’s winter now, and Philippe wants to find out
what the corals are dealing with.
PHILIPPE: The temperature is reading 27.8 degrees Celsius,
almost 28 degrees Celsius.
That is too warm. That's just not an optimal temperature range.
You know, it's winter time. Winter, I don't like to see this at all
so I'm a little concerned about what's going to be going on down there.
NARRATOR: Joining Philippe is Eritrean marine scientist, Jonathan 'ochre,
one of the few people to have spent any time on these reefs.
I know basically, you know, the coral types here.
So, this is a great opportunity for me.
NARRATOR: Jonathan thinks there’s something surprising about this coral,
and the team is now keen to investigate.
I've been dreaming of getting into the Red Sea all my life,
so the chance to do so now is pretty spectacular.
And then to be able to do it here, in Eritrea,
where few people have ever dived before, let alone filmed before,
is probably one of the most exciting dives of my life.
NARRATOR: With such high winter temperatures,
there could be a lot of bleached coral.
PHILIPPE: I can feel the water.
I almost don't need a wet suit, it's so warm.
PHILIPPE: It is looking pretty beautiful!
What a relief!
NARRATOR: Astonishingly, the coral is far from dead.
It’s flourishing.
PHILIPPE: I'm so amazed at how healthy this coral looks.
In all my experience, this coral should not be thriving the way it is.
You see all the fish swimming in the water column.
I mean, that's the symbol of a healthy, healthy reef.
PAUL: The first thing we need to do is to see what's down here and where it is.
It's just so full of stuff here.
It's really hard to do this because everything is overlapping.
It's so dense and so rich. It's actually quite difficult to map.
NARRATOR: Coral reefs are the life support system of our oceans.
Without them, a quarter of all known fish species would be under threat.
There are small patches of bleached coral here,
but according to Eritrean scientist Jonathan 'ochre,
even these damaged corals recover faster than you’d expect.
PHILIPPE: What is so unique about these corals
is that even in the extremely high water temperature
they manage to survive.
NARRATOR: Anywhere else in the world
these conditions would spell disaster for the corals.
Something very unusual is happening here.
It’s important to find out what
because it might just help other coral reefs
avoid the ravages of global warming.
The water is really, really warm.
There's no way in my experience that coral should be doing that well.
But it is.
We need to figure something out
that is going to help all the other coral in the world,
and if it's possible to do that here,
this place is like a gold... Solid gold mine.
I mean, this is a gold coral because it hits platinum.
Diamond coral, it's so valuable because if this holds that secret,
wow, then there's hope.
NARRATOR: To understand what’s going on,
they need to take small samples of the coral.
Here you go. That's plenty. That's all we need from this one.
NARRATOR: Coral is a complex organism that’s both plant and animal.
Inside the animal part, the polyp, is a type of plant known as algae.
It’s this algae that gives the coral its colour
and provides vital energy through photosynthesis.
PHILIPPE: When water temperatures get too high,
typically what happens is that the coral loses the algae.
The algae is stressed to such a degree that it leaves the coral skeleton.
NARRATOR: This is coral bleaching.
So the secret of these corals' ability to survive
must have something to do with the type of algae that lives within it.
One of the theories as to why this coral is able to survive
in such high temperature water
is that it harbours a specific heat-tolerant algae.
NARRATOR: The special heat-resistant algae
could be what’s keeping this coral so vibrantly alive.
It may be adapting to rising sea temperatures.
If so, this Red Sea coral
could hold the key to helping the rest of the world’s coral, too.
PHILIPPE: The hope is that if we can isolate that algae,
we could potentially grow it in the laboratory and literally inoculate
other coral reefs around the world so that when they bleach
this algae can move in and the corals can survive.
NARRATOR: It may sound like science fiction
but leading coral scientists agree that heat-tolerant algae
might one day provide a way to protect corals worldwide.
PHILIPPE: I'm going to put that pyrites in there.
I think it's mind-boggling to think that it's samples like these
that could hold the key to global coral conservation.
As climate change is encroaching, sea temperatures are rising,
there's a lot of concern
and whatever is making these corals tick,
hopefully it is this algae. Whatever it is, it's very exciting.
NARRATOR: The investigation doesn’t finish here.
There are more mysteries within the coral
but they can only be revealed under cover of darkness.
While they wait, Lucy and Philippe have been invited to the nearby island.
That would make an excellent frame in a boat.
A limited resource is being destroyed by Cousteau.
They’re going to have a lesson in traditional Egyptian bread-making.
It's something very unique to each country.
I've never even heard of this before, cooking bread in sand. I love it!
PHILIPPE: It smells so good.
LUCY: It's not every day you get to make bread on a beach, is it really?
PHILIPPE: (CHUCKLES) No.
NARRATOR: Now that it’s dark, they can dive.
They’re looking for evidence of another way these corals
might cope with the extreme conditions here.
A mysterious phenomenon which causes some corals to fluoresce, or glow.
It’ll be a complicated dive.
Normally when we're on a night dive,
we've got a nice bright white light, you know.
But so that we... If there's any fluorescence at all,
to help us see it, we've got these flashy blue lights
and it's the blue lights that will help us see the fluorescence,
but, of course, we have to turn the white ones off
so that's where it kind of doubles up the risk factor.
We can't quite see.
(TOONI GRUNTS)
NARRATOR: Nobody has ever had a chance
to look for fluorescing coral in these waters before.
As a marine biologist, Toni will be the first.
TOONI: Scientists have a very difficult time of getting here
because it's so logistically difficult and it's so unlived
that if we do get to see fluorescent pigments here,
I think it will be a first for me to see them full stop,
and a first in Eritrean waters as well, so it's a real kind of double winner.
PAUL: Three, two, one. Go!
NARRATOR: There’s no way of knowing what to expect.
They may see none at all.
Okay, so these are sort of our sci-fi glasses, I guess, aren't they?
NARRATOR: The yellow goggles filter out specific wavelengths of light
to help them see if any of the corals here do fluoresce.
PAUL: We got blue lights on.
NARRATOR: With a regular dive torch, this is what you see.
'at with blue light and yellow goggles...
PAUL: Oh! Look at that! It does work.
(TOONI LAUGHING)
Wow!
It just jumps out at you instantly, doesn't it?
As soon as you put the torch on, it just picks out different spots of coral.
PAUL: I've never seen anything like it.
TOONI: It reminds me of a 1980s disco.
NARRATOR: This extraordinary phenomenon is produced by fluorescent pigments
found in the tissues of a variety of coral species.
TOONI: That's, like, multi-coloured.
There's a huge amount of fluorescence on the reef.
I think we're freaking some of the fish out with our blue lights by the way.
NARRATOR: Why corals fluoresce is a scientific mystery.
'at it might be one way they’ve evolved to deal with the intensity
of the sunlight that’s bombarding them.
One school of thought is that it's likely that the fluorescent pigments
in this particular coral we're looking at
has a protective function from the very, very strong sunlight.
NARRATOR: The fluorescent pigments might be screening out
some wavelengths of light, acting almost like a sunscreen.
TOONI: If these fluorescent pigments are actually protecting the coral algae
from sun damage,
then it means that there's a very good chance
that these corals will remain healthy.
NARRATOR: The large amount of fluorescence
could be another reason why these corals are coping
in these hot waters.
PAUL: The marvels of the Red Sea never cease to amaze.
(SIGHS)
Toni, what do you reckon?
That was so cool.
But to me it was more, like, "Why it's working?
-"Why it's important?" -TOONI: Yeah.
All the wonderful things that are happening in the sea
that we don't understand, we don't have a clue about.
-I mean, that's the power of it for me. -Yeah, yeah.
There's another secret bit to the recipe of survival.
It doesn't give up its secrets easily, that reef.
NARRATOR: Time to break the Egyptian bread.
Make sure there's no sand in it. I don't want you guys...
You have to bury it so you build a fire, and then it goes down to the embers.
We built the fire.
NARRATOR: And for the bread to break Toni.
I've just cracked a filling.
LUCY: You've just cracked a filling?
(LUCY LAUGHING)
PHILIPPE: It's a little hard. LUCY: There's no need to be rude now.
I cracked a tooth, and my filling...
NARRATOR: There’s no shortage of skills an expedition leader needs.
I might put a temporary filling on there. I do, yeah.
I'm not a trained dentist but I have had some training by the Royal Air Force,
you know, some years ago, so I've had some practice.
When you say some years ago...
That was in '91 I had the training, come to think of it.
-Let me just have a look myself there. -Okay, where do you want me?
Just open up and lean back a bit.
This is an old tube, it's all we've got.
-Does that hurt? -Mom-hmm.
PAUL: Don't move, don't move.
It doesn't look too bad, you know.
Sorry, Toni.
Didn't want to push the...
-You're all right, well done. -Thanks.
-Bloody, I'm sweating bullets! -Me, too.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: Today it’s time to leave Eritrea and head north to Sudan
to continue the exploration of this untouched part of the Red Sea.
'at there are fuel problems again.
We're trying to hurry things up here.
It's late. We're... It's an hour late.
Haven’t got much of a back-up plan, actually. If the fuel doesn’t arrive,
we’ll be stuck in these waters.
NARRATOR: As expeditions like this are so rare,
the send-off has become a local event.
We've been over-run by officials today. It's all important.
We've now got the British ambassador arrive.
I'm just going to go present my credentials.
So, hello, I'm Paul Rose, expedition leader, nice to meet you.
Pleased to meet you.
-Yeah, how you doing, all right? -Very well, very well.
Would you like some tea or something? Or...
-I'd love a cup of tea. -Great, okay.
NARRATOR: At last, the promised fuel arrives.
Well, we've got the fuel, thank heavens.
Yeah, I was very, very pleased there to see the truck,
so pleased to see the truck that I temporarily forgot to check
that it's the right fuel for us.
Kenya.
It's... This fuel is marine diesel, yeah?
NARRATOR: With the right fuel on board,
it’s a traditional goodbye to the Eritrean chaperones.
How good is that? We're on our way.
(ALL SHOUTING FAREWELLS)
NARRATOR: The team is heading to the waters off the coast of Sudan,
to a very special site.
To an underwater village
built by Philippe’s grandfather, Jacques Cousteau.
The journey is helped by the seasonal winds
as they follow an ancient sea passage.
The Red Sea has always been an important trade route.
Used by the Egyptians and Romans it became part of the Spice Route,
but that’s not all that was traded.
There's evidence of slaves, for one, but tortoise shell
and the best of all is elephants, particularly in the Ptolemaic period.
You can just imagine them building these Hellenistic boats
-transporting elephants up and down. -TOONI: Not live elephants?
Yeah, live elephants. They were training them to use in their armies.
2,000 years ago you may have been looking here and there
and there'd be a boat passing full of elephants.
(MEN SINGING IN LOCAL LANGUAGE)
NARRATOR: It’s halfway through the expedition
and everyone is exhilarated by what they’ve discovered,
but praying on environmentalist Philippe’s mind
is the contrast between the southern Red Sea and other oceans he’s explored.
Seeing that balance between really healthy coral,
very little bleaching, no real damage,
human damage anyway, but in a way it reminds you that
all the other reefs we dive on are in really bad shape
because this is what they should look like.
NARRATOR: Sudanese waters are also unspoilt
and will offer the chance to look for rare creatures
under threat in other oceans,
but getting access has been complicated.
There's a good buzz at the moment but you've only got to have one official
that hasn't been kept in the picture by other authorities
or some little muddle like that, and we're going to be stuck here
and once you get stuck in these places, then you're really stuck.
NARRATOR: Next day things take a turn for the worse.
The seasonal winds have changed direction sooner than expected.
PAUL: Yeah it's too bad. I mean, we've left the Soaking island group
and we're heading towards Port Sudan now
but we're being slowed up by this flipping wind.
NARRATOR: The boat’s fighting a fierce northerly wind.
If they don’t get to Port Sudan in time to meet the authorities,
they could be held in port.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
(WIND HOWLING)
It’s another 24 hours of ploughing through choppy seas
before Port Sudan finally comes into sight.
Yeah, we're close enough now.
I need to pass the message, we've all got to get changed.
We need long pants out of respect of custom here.
NARRATOR: The Sudanese authorities
rarely deal with an expedition of this size.
The port officials and security want to board immediately.
The Department of Security has also insisted
that one of their men remains on board.
The chap with the dark suit jacket and the cool-looking shades,
he's got to be our man.
(GREETING IN ARABIC)
NARRATOR: While the authorities search the equipment,
maritime archaeologist, Dr Lucile,
is drawn to one of her favourite subjects, shipwrecks.
-Wreck city up here. -A graveyard.
There's one over there, there's one here.
NARRATOR: 'because of their shallow reefs,
Sudanese waters are littered with wrecks.
'at Lucy’s been researching an Italian cargo ship, the Umbria,
which was sunk on purpose near the start of the Second World War.
Her captain wanted to stop the 'radish Navy
getting its hands on her top secret cargo.
It was quite a brave thing to do really
when you've got, you know, a crew of British officers on board,
actually rifling through your cargo and trying to detain you.
I'm seeing parallels with the fact
that we've got customs officials downstairs rifling through our gear...
(LAUGHING) That's a very good point, actually.
Oh, these are health... Yeah, yellow fever, any deaths,
any mice, rats, any infectious disease.
Okay, well, I'll go through this. Okay, sir, see you later, thank you.
NARRATOR: In World War II, the Red Sea was an important route
linking Europe with India and other 'radish colonies.
MAN: Dive, dive, dive.
NARRATOR: The day Italy declared war on 'retain,
the captain of the Umbria decided to sink his own ship.
LUCY: The vessel itself is listing at about 60 degrees,
so you get this really distorted impression.
TOONI: I don't think I quite appreciated the scale of a 150-metre-long ship.
NARRATOR: Lucy wants to investigate the cargo it carried.
She soon comes across artefacts that hint at life on board.
LUCY: Look at this!
There's just thousands of wine bottles
scattered all over what remains of this hold.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
LUCY: This is a huge vast space.
This must have been the restaurant or the dining area or something.
And you can still see the stumps from the tables.
It's really like entering into the lives of the people
that were living on board here.
It just looks completely eerie.
I've just got images of Titanic going through my mind.
NARRATOR: When the Umbria left Italy, the country wasn’t yet at war
so this was officially a neutral cargo ship.
LUCY: Oh, yes! Three Fiat Lunges.
There's even glass, there's a driver's seat and everything.
The boat's sitting at an angle and they've just fallen down
on top of each other.
NARRATOR: 'at it’s not the cars they’re here for.
It’s the 5,510 tons of cargo in the next hold.
LUCY: This is amazing.
There are just thousands and thousands of bombs here.
Just literally surrounded by stack upon stack upon bombs.
In fact, there were 360,000 bombs on board this cargo.
NARRATOR: These aircraft bombs were en route to Eritrea,
then part of Mussolini’s Italian empire,
for use against the Allies in East Africa.
It’s easy to understand why the captain didn’t want the 'radish
to get their hands on this deadly cargo.
TOONI: To see them laid out like this is just bizarre.
LUCY: I know.
TOONI: The power,
the power of destruction that still remains in this ship
is a little bit overwhelming.
NARRATOR: Over 600 crates of detonators are stacked separately
so these bombs shouldn’t explode.
'at if they did, there’s enough firepower here
to destroy half of Port Sudan over 20 miles away.
LUCY: The bombs are just overwhelming, they really are incredible.
They're stacked like eight deep and goodness knows, you know,
into the hull how deep they go and it's just...
You just think what possesses man to want to, you know...
-Just destroy. -...destroy on that scale.
NARRATOR: The team is due to visit one of the most audacious and extraordinary
ocean bed experiments ever attempted.
It was the brainchild of Philippe’s illustrious grandfather,
Jacques Cousteau, who spent years exploring these reefs.
The Red Sea has always been a really important place in my family's work
and I've grown up with stories about the adventures that they had.
I think it's almost like a pilgrimage coming here for me.
Kind of gives you an idea of the overall space, the village, the community.
TOONI: You know, that looks really futuristic.
NARRATOR: Captain Jacques Cousteau dreamed up Consuelo II,
an underwater village built in 1963.
It was designed to see if humans could live beneath the waves.
Consuelo II was right off of Saab Rum, which is right up here.
Yeah, it's quite a ways actually away from Port Sudan
but that was part of the idea. It was quite remote.
NARRATOR: It was a time of boundless scientific optimism.
Astronauts were heading up into space
and now cocoanuts were heading down to the sea floor.
My father died in 1979, just six months before I was born.
My grandfather wrote a letter to him and he actually talks about Consuelo.
"Mon cheer Philippe.
"I will always remember that day of July 1963,
"when you joined the Consuelo II expedition
"along the Saab Rum reef in the Red Sea.
"The sun was setting but I would not give you time to relax.
"I was too impatient to show you our village under the sea.
"Hastily we both donned our aqualungs
"and slowly, sensually we submerged into the welcoming water,
"as warm as our blood.
"We started for an unforgettable stroll with slow strokes
"of our long stretched legs and breathing deep lung-falls of air."
PHILIPPE: This is it.
This is it.
God, I can't believe I'm here, I just can't believe it.
Thinking back to what it must have been like 45 years ago
and kind of envisioning these cocoanuts with silver suits.
This was sci-fi. I mean, this was before we landed on the moon.
This was the first steps of humans living in an alien environment.
LUCY: But it has a real sense of being placed here deliberately,
and that is what's such contrast to what I usually find in terms of
the remains of human culture or activities underwater
where they've happened to end up there by default.
NARRATOR: The five divers, cocoanuts, lived on the sea floor for a month.
PHILIPPE: I want to see what's inside it, too.
LUCY: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Today this is all that’s left of the underwater village,
the garage for their submarine.
LUCY: Wow. How do you actually get in, Philippe?
PHILIPPE: Well, there's an entrance over here, I think.
The submarine would have come up underneath and slowly
risen up into the area in here, this submarine garage.
God, I can't believe I'm here.
No one really understood the physiological
or psychological effects of living at pressure.
NARRATOR: Here, they were at twice atmospheric pressure.
Every morning a doctor carried out medical tests.
PHILIPPE: We know that cuts and nicks healed faster
because of the increased pressure in the oxygen at depth
that caused their body to recover.
They even had someone come down to give them a haircut every once in a while,
even though their beards and their hair grew slower at depth.
LUCY: And it was so advanced for its time, wasn't it?
It really, really was.
NARRATOR: Fresh food and water were brought down every day.
PHILIPPE: But being French, they had wine and champagne
which was flat because under pressure the bubbles didn't expand.
They did some of the first remote video capture of life underwater,
videoing things that no one had ever seen before.
NARRATOR: They observed new patterns of behaviour
and discovered several new species.
PHILIPPE: It was really cutting edge science
and provided an incredible amount of knowledge for us
to take another step
towards understanding the relationship we have with the oceans.
NARRATOR: 'y the end of the month this bold experiment had proved
that man could live underwater,
although the space race was to turn everyone’s thoughts
to a different frontier.
PHILIPPE: "I kept your hand in mine to guide you
"from Starfish House, where cocoanuts were having dinner,
"to the onion-shaped diving saucer garage.
"Twilight was turning to sheer darkness
"and our structures became eerie shadows.
"The fish were just moving pieces of the sea.
"I was still holding your hand when we returned to the ladder.
"I felt strangely proud, not of what we had achieved,
"but because our dreams were always shared so intimately.
"I saw your shining face proud to have something to give back to me,
"and I smiled,
"because I knew that pursuing rainbows in your plane,
"you would always seek...
(SNIFFS)
"You would...
"Because I knew that pursuing rainbows in your plane,
"you would always seek after the vanishing shapes of a better world."
NARRATOR: After two weeks at sea, the expedition is almost over,
but there’s one final mission.
In many parts of the world,
fishing has dramatically reduced the number of sharks,
like these scalloped hammerheads.
That's amazing. Look how many there are. I've never seen a school like that.
NARRATOR: Today it’s incredibly rare to see large groups.
These were filmed over a decade ago.
PHILIPPE: We don’t know very much at all about hammerheads
and it’s really kind of the luck of the draw these days, you know,
even in places where you can still find them, it’s hard.
NARRATOR: It’s so difficult for scientists
to get to this part of the world
that there are no reliable figures on hammerhead numbers,
so it’s a great chance for Paul to see what he can add.
Been building up to this for a long time,
not even just on this part of the expedition,
but I've looked for them before in my life and not found them.
There is a bit of pressure because it's an important expedition target
so really, really, really want to find them.
PAUL: See you, buddy!
NARRATOR: There’s little fishing in these waters,
so could this be an important haven for fish that are jeopardised elsewhere,
like hammerheads?
Finding a large group might indicate the population here is thriving.
Paul’s heading to the edge of the reef.
PAUL: It's just unbelievably pristine, look at it.
NARRATOR: Here currents rise from the deep,
carrying nutrients which encourage plenty of fish,
food for sharks.
PAUL: That's good, we've got some grey reef sharks
swimming around me now.
Fabulous things, aren't they?
NARRATOR: It’s definitely shark territory.
Grey reef sharks are agile, curious and often swim in packs.
Paul needs to be careful not to get too close or make any sudden movements.
While Paul is swimming against the strong currents at 40 metres...
PHILIPPE: Richard!
NARRATOR:...there’s a problem developing on the surface.
Richard, what's going on?
RICHARD: I have to report we have an emergency situation out here.
We cannot pick up divers at the moment.
PHILIPPE: Engine's down on the Zodiac which means they can't go
chasing the divers in case there's an emergency
because the current's so strong.
NARRATOR: The engine on the rescue boat isn’t working.
The team is worried because Paul is deep underwater,
swimming against strong currents,
and if anything goes wrong, there’s nothing they can do.
'at Paul is completely unaware of what’s going on.
A single barracuda comes to investigate.
Above, a ball of them circle in the shadows.
No one is sure why they do this,
but they could be herding their prey towards the surface.
PAUL: We're at 40 metres,
just wonderful to be in the blue orb
of the welcoming Red Sea.
No hammerheads, though.
You've just got to happen to be very lucky,
to be in the same place at the same time.
PHILIPPE: All right, Richard, we’ve launched our Zodiac.
The best we can do is get that boat out to you and swap motors
and so that you've got a working motor on your Zodiac.
They're on our way. We've done everything we can
as fast as we could, Richard. Over.
NARRATOR: Paul has been swimming against the current for two hours
when he spots something very rare.
PAUL: That's pretty special.
Can you believe it? That's a sail fish.
Look at him. Over a metre long.
It's very rare, that.
These things are solitary fish and are very, very unusual to see here.
He's got that dorsal spine up.
That's a sign of aggression.
NARRATOR: Sail fish are the fastest fish in the oceans
and can reach 68 miles per hour.
'at Paul has still not seen any sign of hammerheads
and with the boat trouble, the decision is made to halt the dive.
Had a great dive but no hammerheads.
We've got some boating things to figure out.
We don't do boating very well at the moment.
Really disappointing. At least I did get the hint of sharks.
It felt like shark water to me,
and so we're going to do a dawn dive tomorrow.
Yeah, this is my mission on this expedition,
is to learn some more about the hammerheads.
NARRATOR: 'at was seeing none today
a sign that hammerhead numbers in the Red Sea are declining?
5:00 am, the last day of the expedition.
Paul’s final chance to look for hammerheads.
He’s heading back to 40 metres.
PAUL: It's bursting with life, truly amazing, completely untouched.
NARRATOR: Which is why these waters are in pristine condition.
Paul passes butterfly fish, feeding on the coral.
Almost one in five fish species found here lives nowhere else on earth.
Suddenly a rare silky shark comes close.
Recognisable because of its shiny skin, it can grow to over three metres long.
Paul has been drifting along the edge of the reef for nearly an hour.
Then something moves in the distance.
PAUL: Here you go.
A school of hammerheads, there's about 30 of them.
Look at that!
We've just seen one of the rarest sights on earth,
a school of hammerheads flying through here.
NARRATOR: It’s a distant sighting,
but still exceptional to see them in such a big group,
and a very good sign for their population here.
PAUL: What a gift. Thank you, the Red Sea!
TOONI: He saw them. He's giving the double thumbs-up.
PHILIPPE: He's giving the double fins!
We knew it. Perseverance. We prevailed.
PAUL: We've got to stop doing this last minute stuff. It's going to kill us.
PHILIPPE: That's fantastic.
-It really was great. -Good for you, man.
There was about 30-odd of them.
TOONI: Thirty! PHILIPPE: Thirty!
NARRATOR: In many other oceans,
a sighting like this would be a thing of the past
because of over-fishing.
It’s another reminder that this part of the Red Sea is unique.
I've done over 6,000 dives, but, well, it was, you know, truly a marvel.
I mean, I have been looking for hammerheads for most of my diving life.
There's just something about them. I've never seen any.
A school of hammerheads flying through here.
PAUL: Just by witnessing it, recording our experiences,
we have added to the science database here in the southern part of the Red Sea
because so little has been done.
NARRATOR: It’s a fantastic end to an expedition which has shown
Just how important this small sea is.
The southern Red Sea gives you some indication
of what the seas used to be like
and, I mean, if we're lucky, what they could be like again in the future
if they're managed properly and we give them a little bit more respect.
PHILIPPE: We are leaving this place richer in ourselves,
richer in our knowledge
but there's so much that it holds
that we don't understand, and that's so exciting.
I came up from every dive I've done in Eritrea
just feeling really, really positive,
and I don't think I've had that sensation anywhere else in the world.
Toni, what do you reckon?
What we've learnt in the Red Sea is that oceans can survive.
It sounds odd but oceans are fragile and yet they can survive.
NARRATOR: Next time, the team explores the vast Atlantic.
They’ll brave the toxic world of our ancient oceans.
We are three and a half million years back in time.
NARRATOR: They’ll investigate the invasion of a deadly species
and try to protect a fearsome predator.
PHILIPPE: Sharks everywhere!