South Pacific: Fragile Paradise

Click here to watch this episode online at TVNZ until 20 November

The South Pacific is on the face of it still a healthy ocean. We depend on it, over 60 percent of the world’s fish catch comes from the Pacific, but like all oceans it has little or no protection so it may not stay healthy much longer. So what is being done to preserve its natural treasures, and what does the future hold for this fragile paradise?

This episode focuses on the environmental problems facing the South Pacific. Climate change threatens many islands, because they are low-lying and could be engulfed by rising seas. On Tuvalu, seawater bubbles up through the ground at high tides, making evacuation a realistic possibility. Oceans absorb half of all atmospheric CO2, but this turns them acidic, preventing sea creatures from building calciferous shells. The most immediate threat is overfishing. Reef damage by boats and tourism affects fish populations, but coral gardeners in Fiji have a solution. They harvest and grow corals artificially, then transplant them back to damaged reefs.

Different fishing methods are compared, from sustainable pole and line fishing practised by Solomon Islanders to long-line fishing, which has endangered albatross populations across the region. Commercial fishing vessels lay huge purse seine nets, large enough to catch 150 tonnes at a time. Cameras follow the action inside the net as a haul of yellowfin and skipjack tuna are brought to the surface. Greenpeace's flagship Esperanza patrols the high seas, unprotected pockets of ocean where fishing is unregulated. Less than 1% of the Pacific is protected, and yet up to 90% of its large predatory fish may have been lost already.

A Fijian community reef is proof that protection could yet work. Tourism benefits from divers prepared to pay for close encounters with bull and tiger sharks, and local fishermen benefit from increased stocks.

Click here to watch this episode online at TVNZ until 20 November