( intro music )
South Africa has one of the most sophisticated
and extensive networks of marine reserves on our planet.
Home!
My home. I get to go home.
You know, after ten years on the road
and I was gone sometimes 300 days a year.
I got a bit tired of not being home.
So, the next story that I proposed to
National Geographic
I wanted to actually tell the story about
our network of marine reserves.
Marine birds normally don't feature all that much
when we talk about marine reserves.
However, this is what happens when
they don't feature in management.
This is a picture that I took on slide from 2003.
It's a place called Malgas Island.
And I went back there for the article last year
and this is what I found.
Major decrease in nesting numbers because
even though this island is protected,
the fishing grounds are not.
The sardines and the anchovies that
these birds eat are overfished.
So, a lot of these youngsters die on the nest.
There's a place called Mercury Island in Namibia.
And this is the centerpiece of the Namib Island Marine Reserve.
And here for the first time, people are trying to
connect the nesting grounds and the feeding grounds
of these birds together.
Mercury Island has stable population of Cape Gannets.
You know, Bank Cormorants
the most endangered marine bird in Africa
stable population, only place.
Penguins, African Penguins.
They can't fly, so what happens is they can only swim
a certain amount of distance before they have to
go back and feed their chicks.
So, they are the first ones to abandon and starve.
Here...
these guys are not starving, are they?
( audience laughter )
Penguins heading out to sea.
You know, this looks like a really calm and beautiful scene.
It's, you know, sunny and
it's just this sort of an idyllic place
and this is what it looks like
when you're trying to take this picture.
Water is about five degrees and you're in this rock pool
and you're surrounded by massive Atlantic Ocean waves.
Assistant:
There's my assistant warning me there's a big wave coming.
So, I swim away from the picture, trying to save myself.
( sound of waves )
Assistant:
( audience laughter )
So I just try to swim back again and this goes on for hours.
And then he misses the flipping wave.
And here come the penguins.
( audience laughter )
I'm going, "What's going... you're supposed to be there."
It's a little bit dangerous there because
if you get washed out to sea, you're done!
There's another wave coming, I'm shooting and again...
( waves crashing on the rocks )
Anyway, you know
most marine reserves in Africa were actually
they work great for bio-diversity.
Except they were imposed on the local communities.
And so, even though, you know, they...
you know, biologically and scientifically they're amazing,
most local people do not benefit from these reserves.
Thus there's, you know, high levels of poaching
and there's actually a danger of these reserves
being opened up to fishing, because they serve no benefit
to the local people who live next to them.
And, a developing country like South Africa
you kind of have to marry
the needs of bio-diversity and people
if you want to have any chance of being sustainable.
So, I was looking for a few examples where
people and bio-diversity coexisted together...
you know, happily.
This is Ponta on the Mozambique-South African border.
This is the only marine national park in Africa.
And here, both sides of the border are protected
and these dolphins spend half their lives in Mozambique,
and half their life in South Africa.
And now, because of this new arrangement of conservation
their entire habitat is protected.
But the reason I went there is because
they have a really interesting perspective
on how they integrate people into the marine environment.
The rangers instead of, you know,
doing anti-poaching patrols
and arresting people, they built a school.
And they're teaching kids.
The philosophy there is we first have to give
the local residents a benefit
and the benefit here is education.
And this is a little video of them learning Portuguese.
( children reciting Portuguese vowels and sounds )
They also hold immunization clinic
and a nurse comes out once a month.
The adults love this service.
Kids not so much.
( audience laughter )
This little guy was not a happy chap, but again
you know, this is one of those great examples
where, you know, before enforcing regulation
they wanted to give the community benefits.
Further north in Mozambique, you know, Vamizi Island
again an interesting case-study where you have
a luxury resort and a fishing community on one island
and together they agree to protect
half of their coral reef from all fishing
and for last ten years.
And now the fishermen, the reserve is so good
it's actually exporting fish biomass
into the fishing zones on the outside
And now these guys are having a better catch than ever before.
So, again, you know, there are ways
to marry bio-diversity and people.
And this is what has to happen in South Africa
if these reserves are gonna have any hope in surviving
over the next five or ten years.
To end this evening
I want to kind of go back right to the beginning.
This was one of my favorite books as a child.
"Under the Red Sea"
He was an Austrian diving pioneer and biologist.
And you know, one of my biggest wishes as a kid was to
sort of, you know, be in one of
you know, in the situations that he found himself.
And, you know, putting this presentation together
I came across this image, and I went, "Sheesh.
I've already had those experiences."
So, you know, full circle, you know 12 years later and...
thank you all so much for coming.
( applause )