This is the extraordinary story of one man’s dream...
...to save the most over-fished sea in the world
Zafer Kizilkaya has almost single handedly...
...turned a ravaged bay in Turkey...
...into one of the most effective and thriving...
...marine conservation areas in the Mediterranean
It is like a heaven for me right now...
...there’s so much fish underwater now and there is so much life
His hope is to inspire others to bring marine life back...
...to one of the most famous but damaged parts of the ocean
We need to establish more no-fishing zones...
...even in the Mediterranean, the centre of civilisation
It’s a chilly December morning...
...on Turkey’s eastern-Mediterranean coast...
...and Zafer Kizilkaya is a man on a mission
Right now we are in the Akyaka no-fishing zone
He’s dedicated to enforcing the no-fishing zones...
...that he has helped create here in Gokova Bay
This is the most major spawning and nursery area
So that’s why we have to keep this area safe...
...from all kinds of fishing pressure...
...amateur, professional, any kind
Within just 20 minutes...
...Zafer and one of his rangers have spotted something suspicious
It’s all about the enforcement, you know...
...our rangers are day and night...
...just going for any kind of report...
...that there is an illegal fishing activity
You see he is leaving
Since marine conservationist Zafer set up the ranger system here...
...in partnership with the Turkish authorities...
...they’ve seen a significant drop in illegal fishing
It all began after Zafer first visited Gokova Bay in 2008...
...on a research trip from his home city of Istanbul
The damage he witnessed to marine life...
...compelled him to stay and devote his life to repairing this
I saw that this place is just, there is nothing underwater...
...it’s like a big nuclear war happened and everything has died
No fish, no invertebrate, no microbiology
I said this couldn’t be worse than that...
...and this was a kind of opportunity for me...
...as a kind of sign, you know
Zafer lobbied his government to make the bay a protected area...
...and ten years on his research suggests...
...marine life has increased by 800% within his no-fishing zones
But the revival faced another threat...
...new species of fish...
...coming into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal
These invaders were eating the native fishes’ food...
...and grazing parts of the seabed bare
So Zafer had to adapt and come up with an innovative solution
Invasive species we cannot get rid of...
...we have to learn how to live with them
The easiest way is just to consume them
To make this work, he had to hook the local population...
...into eating these unfamiliar fish...
...and that meant persuading people to change their diets
People don’t know how to cook them...
...so we prepared recipes and we printed them on the brochures
Then we organised a big festival
Zafer’s vision has delivered the bonus...
...of raising the incomes of local fisher people by 400%...
...and bringing a previously decimated industry back to life
Visit the fishing co-operative here...
...and you’ll find an array of invasive species for sale...
...caught outside the no-fishing zones
Zafer’s innovations have delivered for both people and planet...
...in this small bay
And he’s now working to create another marine protected area in Turkey
It looks like a lonely mission
Latest figures show just 0.04% of the Mediterranean...
...is a no-fishing zone...
...50 times lower than the average for the whole ocean
Zafer is going to need all the help he can get
We need to improve...
...we need to establish more no-fishing zones...
...but the more important thing...
...we should bring the enforcement right immediately...
...as soon as we establish them