Atlantic Salmon
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
ATLANTIC SALMON Lost at Sea takes the viewer on an epic journey through the oceanic kingdom of the Atlantic Salmon – king of fish – in an attempt to unravel the mystery of their life at sea. Populations of salmon are plummeting to critical levels, even go
Citation
Main credits
Brennan, Deirdre (film director)
Brennan, Deirdre (film producer)
Byrne, Gabriel (narrator)
De Buitléar, Éamon (film director)
Heminway, John (screenwriter)
Other credits
Cinematography, Rick Rosenthal; editing, Les Guthman; music, Denis Clohessy, Roy Milner.
Distributor subjects
oceans,marine biology,fishing,Documentary FilmsKeywords
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(suspensefull music)
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- [Gabriel] In the North
Atlantic and the great rivers
00:00:08.420 --> 00:00:10.970
that pour into it, there
is a legendary fish
00:00:10.970 --> 00:00:13.610
whose future is now on the brink.
00:00:13.610 --> 00:00:15.750
The Atlantic salmon.
00:00:15.750 --> 00:00:18.870
It travels thousands of
miles from river to sea,
00:00:18.870 --> 00:00:22.240
facing great risks and
then returning back again.
00:00:22.240 --> 00:00:24.030
- There's something very
special about the salmon.
00:00:24.030 --> 00:00:26.250
It's homing to its place of its birth.
00:00:28.340 --> 00:00:30.980
- [Gabriel] Once salmon leave
the streams of their birth,
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they live a phantom, unknown life at sea.
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Magically they reappear some years later,
00:00:37.510 --> 00:00:40.680
called back to the very
river where they were born.
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Whole communities once flourished
00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:45.400
on this bounty from the sea,
00:00:45.400 --> 00:00:47.460
but now something mysterious
00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:50.020
and deadly is happening to them.
00:00:50.020 --> 00:00:53.360
- We know that we send out a
lot of smolts to sea each year
00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:55.010
and they're just not coming back.
00:00:57.070 --> 00:01:00.620
- This is my way of life,
it's my family's way of life,
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and it's part of the fabric of Scotland,
00:01:02.580 --> 00:01:05.158
and you know, we want it to continue
00:01:05.158 --> 00:01:06.430
for many generations to come.
00:01:06.430 --> 00:01:08.800
- [Gabriel] Somewhere on
the salmon's epic journey,
00:01:08.800 --> 00:01:13.110
these remarkable fish are
now dying in huge numbers.
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- There's a mystery of smolts
either not coming back,
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and it's very important to understand
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where this mortality is occurring.
00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:23.550
- [Gabriel] In the last 30
years, returning populations
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of wild Atlantic salmon
have dropped by 70%.
00:01:28.810 --> 00:01:31.920
To save these salmon,
first we must find out
00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:34.330
what is happening to them.
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For some, the problem is clear.
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- Principally, the problem
is that we have been killing
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too many fish for too long.
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Government and scientists don't accept it,
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they don't recognize it.
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- [Gabriel] Others believe
there's more to understand.
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- The ocean's really a
big unknown for salmon.
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We have these big picture
ideas of what goes on,
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but we really don't
know any of the details.
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- I just implore anyone
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that can influence what's
going on at sea to do so.
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Pick up that ball and run with it.
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- [Gabriel] With livelihoods at stake,
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and a natural wonder
in danger of vanishing,
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now scientific detectives
race to solve the mystery,
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and for the first time ever,
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an international team heads
out into the North Atlantic
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to find why the wild Atlantic
salmon is lost at sea.
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(dramatic music)
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Our relationship with salmon
is ancient and powerful.
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The oldest known image of one
is carved 25,000 years ago
00:02:41.770 --> 00:02:44.080
on the ceiling of a cave in France.
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The Romans when they
invaded northern Europe
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marveled at its acrobatics
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and called it salar from the
Latin saliere, the leaper.
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Standing stones carved with its image
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are one of the few remnants
that an ancient people,
00:03:01.580 --> 00:03:05.310
the Picts, left behind
over 1000 years ago.
00:03:06.980 --> 00:03:10.440
- We're here at Glamis in
the precincts of the Kirk,
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and here next to me is
the great Glamis stone,
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which is world famous,
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largely because of this etched salmon,
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wild Atlantic salmon.
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Now this was probably
carved by a Pictish engraver
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about 12 to 1300 years ago.
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The Picts were here in
Scotland in the seventh,
00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:38.111
eighth, and ninth centuries,
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and their culture focused
on the natural environment
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in a very special way.
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If you look above the salmon,
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you'll see what people,
I think incorrectly,
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describe as a serpent.
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I don't think it's a serpent at all,
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I think it's an eel.
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And the thing about the eel and the salmon
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is that both migrate.
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They're fish that cross human boundaries.
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They're fish that pay no
attention to political frontiers.
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They travel the oceans,
the eels as we know
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go to the Sargasso Sea to spawn
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and where their young are
born and then they come back,
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and the salmon come here, and they spawn,
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and then the small fish
go to sea to get big.
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So this sense of the
community based culture
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attributing to these remarkable animals
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an almost mystical sense
of wisdom and understanding
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which they themselves
were unable to grasp.
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- [Gabriel] For millennia,
around the North Atlantic,
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people awaited the annual
return of the great fish.
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In Ireland and Scotland,
the salmon fishery
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was a way of life.
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It fed whole communities.
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The ancient fishing village of Claddagh
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at the mouth of Galway
Bay in the west of Ireland
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dates to pre-Christian times,
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and so valued were the
fish to the town of Galway
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that a watchtower was
built in the mid-1800s
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to announce the return of the
salmon to the Corrib River.
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Salmon not only filled
stomachs, it fed dreams.
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Taking this great fish on a gossamer line
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was soon a lifetime's thrill.
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Upper classes embraced a new sport
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and great estates flourished.
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Here in the heart of Scotland,
salmon angling was born.
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Fishing the wide Spey river
required its own rules.
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A custom fly rod and a unique cast
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to reach pools where the great
fish, fresh from the sea,
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had gathered.
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- My family has run and owned
and organized fishing here
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for centuries, not just decades,
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and my children have caught
their first fish on the river.
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I could show you the point where everyone
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caught their first salmon,
it's an iconic moment.
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- [Gabriel] 20 years ago, as
many as 3000 salmon were taken
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on this stretch of river.
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Today, catches are now less than 1000.
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- The fish are no longer there,
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and it's gone from harvesting a surplus
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to worrying about whether
there are any fish at all.
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The local economy is massively influenced
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by what goes on in this river.
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And even in the best of days,
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it can be quite an elusive salmon,
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but at the moment it's
particularly elusive.
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- Good luck, I'll see
you a few more years.
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(laughs)
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- [Gabriel] On both sides of the Atlantic,
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great salmon rivers are losing their fish.
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In the late 1800s a
daughter of Queen Victoria
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and her husband the
Governor General of Canada
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came to the Grand Cascapedia,
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bringing the sport of salmon
angling across the Atlantic.
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The river teemed.
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Soon dignitaries and
tycoons were attracted
00:07:06.410 --> 00:07:09.070
to this beautiful, remote area,
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for some of the largest of the
species came to this river.
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But that was over a century
ago, and much has changed.
00:07:20.760 --> 00:07:24.040
On the great fishing rivers
all around the Atlantic rim,
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salmon are disappearing fast.
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In the last two decades,
some new unknown disaster
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has emerged.
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Somewhere on the journey between
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young salmon heading out to sea
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and adults returning to spawn
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their numbers are being decimated.
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For scientists, the race
is on to find the cause,
00:07:45.280 --> 00:07:48.260
but if they fail, this
magnificent creature
00:07:48.260 --> 00:07:49.530
may soon be gone.
00:07:50.758 --> 00:07:53.520
- We had a recent, massive
decline in the return rates
00:07:53.520 --> 00:07:56.200
of wild Atlantic salmon from
the ocean to the rivers,
00:07:56.200 --> 00:07:58.430
and the key is to find out where and when
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the mortality is occurring
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that is causing the salmon to decline.
00:08:01.780 --> 00:08:04.030
Right now I must admit
I'm totally flummoxed.
00:08:05.563 --> 00:08:08.050
- Over the course of all
the different environments
00:08:08.050 --> 00:08:10.270
and over the course of the
life cycle of the salmon,
00:08:10.270 --> 00:08:12.508
there's a lot of different threats
00:08:12.508 --> 00:08:14.462
that can be impacting its productivity.
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A wide range of things are happening
00:08:16.460 --> 00:08:17.780
in the fresh water side.
00:08:17.780 --> 00:08:19.540
In the ocean, salmon
are dying in the ocean
00:08:19.540 --> 00:08:20.710
at relatively high rates,
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higher rates than we've seen
prior, and we don't know why.
00:08:24.540 --> 00:08:27.060
- [Gabriel] But today,
researchers are tracking salmon
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at every stage of their
remarkable life's journey.
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The many thousand mile migration
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from river to sea and back again.
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It's a challenging journey of discovery.
00:08:49.130 --> 00:08:51.770
Salmon evolved in the ocean,
00:08:51.770 --> 00:08:54.590
and for millennia, this was their home.
00:08:56.070 --> 00:08:59.030
Their life in rivers began
after the last ice age,
00:08:59.030 --> 00:09:01.730
when huge glaciers and sheets of ice
00:09:01.730 --> 00:09:03.870
covered much of the northern hemisphere.
00:09:05.170 --> 00:09:08.410
And when the Earth warmed,
the ice started to melt.
00:09:09.380 --> 00:09:12.860
As the glaciers retreated,
they gouged out the earth,
00:09:12.860 --> 00:09:16.320
causing deep trenches
that turned into rivers.
00:09:22.420 --> 00:09:25.980
One of the first fish to
colonize these new cold rivers
00:09:25.980 --> 00:09:29.560
was the Arctic chard, a
close relative of the salmon.
00:09:30.530 --> 00:09:32.540
They still thrive in the Arctic today.
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As the ice retreated, ancestral salmon
00:09:37.250 --> 00:09:41.230
pioneered new rivers all
over the North Atlantic,
00:09:41.230 --> 00:09:43.850
safe havens to lay their eggs.
00:09:45.660 --> 00:09:48.000
Over time they adapted to each river
00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:51.010
as a genetically distinct population,
00:09:51.010 --> 00:09:53.630
and today, no two rivers
00:09:53.630 --> 00:09:56.840
hold the exact same
genetic strain of salmon.
00:10:00.354 --> 00:10:02.937
(serene music)
00:10:07.010 --> 00:10:11.290
In a clear, protected
stream, buried in the gravel,
00:10:11.290 --> 00:10:12.580
are salmon eggs.
00:10:18.010 --> 00:10:20.600
This is where life begins.
00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:25.160
It is now early spring
and the eggs are hatching.
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Less than 1% of these eggs will survive
00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:31.120
to make their way to the sea.
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These newborns remain in their rocky nest
00:10:35.850 --> 00:10:37.390
for up to 12 weeks.
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Once they have consumed
their surrounding egg sacks,
00:10:41.640 --> 00:10:45.120
they are ready for the next
chapter of their lives.
00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:48.310
Feeding voraciously on microscopic life.
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Within a few months, they are transformed
00:11:00.140 --> 00:11:03.590
with distinct markings to help
them blend in with the river.
00:11:04.590 --> 00:11:08.290
They dart up to the surface
to catch a variety of insects.
00:11:08.290 --> 00:11:11.780
They will remain in the
rivers for one to six years,
00:11:11.780 --> 00:11:15.520
preparing themselves for the next stage.
00:11:15.520 --> 00:11:18.760
They take their cue in part
from water temperature.
00:11:19.620 --> 00:11:22.950
When warm enough, they set off downstream
00:11:22.950 --> 00:11:25.410
on the great journey to the sea.
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This is where the mystery starts.
00:11:33.640 --> 00:11:35.500
On the River Finn in Ireland,
00:11:35.500 --> 00:11:40.500
biologist Art Niven and his
team monitor the juveniles.
00:11:40.730 --> 00:11:43.190
A low level pulse of electricity
00:11:43.190 --> 00:11:45.960
temporarily stuns any fish,
00:11:45.960 --> 00:11:48.510
allow the scientists to count them.
00:11:49.510 --> 00:11:50.790
- We conduct a program,
00:11:50.790 --> 00:11:52.200
an annual program during the summer months
00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:54.890
of electrofishing to
collect the juvenile fish,
00:11:54.890 --> 00:11:57.240
and we can look at their age
class and their age structures,
00:11:57.240 --> 00:11:59.950
and we then release these fish
alive back into the river,
00:11:59.950 --> 00:12:01.450
so it vies us a unique opportunity
00:12:01.450 --> 00:12:02.870
to have a snapshot to see the health
00:12:02.870 --> 00:12:05.770
of the juvenile populations
within the river at that time.
00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:09.550
We also monitor the
chemical water quality.
00:12:09.550 --> 00:12:12.850
We collect water samples in a bottle
00:12:12.850 --> 00:12:15.500
and take them back to our
own laboratory for analysis.
00:12:16.420 --> 00:12:18.088
- [Gabriel] Art and his colleagues
00:12:18.088 --> 00:12:19.100
have found the river is healthy,
00:12:19.100 --> 00:12:21.040
with an abundance of youngsters.
00:12:24.031 --> 00:12:27.060
An extraordinary
transformation is happening
00:12:27.060 --> 00:12:29.330
in rivers and streams each spring.
00:12:32.110 --> 00:12:36.180
Juvenile salmon are growing
into what is known as smolts.
00:12:36.180 --> 00:12:38.210
Their bodies are becoming streamlined
00:12:38.210 --> 00:12:40.230
for long distance travel,
00:12:40.230 --> 00:12:42.920
and their coats are turning silver,
00:12:42.920 --> 00:12:45.300
camouflage for life at sea.
00:12:46.250 --> 00:12:50.480
Until recently, no one knew
their fate from this point on.
00:12:53.610 --> 00:12:56.100
On the far side of the Atlantic in Canada,
00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:58.790
some young fish are about to encounter
00:12:58.790 --> 00:13:01.500
this ingenious device.
00:13:01.500 --> 00:13:02.750
A smolt wheel.
00:13:04.110 --> 00:13:08.340
As the wheel turns, passing
fish are trapped inside.
00:13:25.540 --> 00:13:30.060
Biologist Jonathan Carr of
the Atlantic Salmon Federation
00:13:30.060 --> 00:13:32.590
inserts an acoustic tag in a fish.
00:13:45.090 --> 00:13:47.980
As they pass receivers placed downstream,
00:13:47.980 --> 00:13:51.720
they emit a ping that
identifies each individual fish
00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:55.300
by a number, thus allowing the biologists
00:13:55.300 --> 00:13:58.860
to determine how many
are making it downriver,
00:13:58.860 --> 00:14:01.770
into the estuary, and beyond.
00:14:01.770 --> 00:14:03.600
- These are the type of
receivers we put out,
00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:06.450
so as a fish is swimming
by with one of these tags,
00:14:06.450 --> 00:14:08.070
the receiver will pick up the signal
00:14:08.070 --> 00:14:10.210
and record right down to the second
00:14:10.210 --> 00:14:12.280
that this fish moved by and the tag ID
00:14:12.280 --> 00:14:14.420
to basically cover the width of the river
00:14:14.420 --> 00:14:17.440
so that we know exactly
when the fish is moving by.
00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:20.200
- [Gabriel] Jonathan has
tagged 40 fish today.
00:14:21.340 --> 00:14:23.440
The next day he heads downstream
00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:25.470
to the mouth of the Cascapedia
00:14:25.470 --> 00:14:27.530
to check the acoustic receivers.
00:14:33.420 --> 00:14:34.840
- It tells on the side of the screen here,
00:14:34.840 --> 00:14:37.530
39 out of 40 fish gone by this unit.
00:14:38.633 --> 00:14:40.080
Pretty good information.
00:14:41.270 --> 00:14:42.660
Most of them made it out.
00:14:42.660 --> 00:14:45.100
Some of these fish, after
release it only took
00:14:45.100 --> 00:14:46.160
a matter of one to two hours
00:14:46.160 --> 00:14:48.000
before they reached this point.
00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:50.730
And the release site
was about 10 kilometers,
00:14:50.730 --> 00:14:52.940
so these guys are moving pretty fast.
00:14:52.940 --> 00:14:56.498
- [Gabriel] So far, numbers
are reassuringly high,
00:14:56.498 --> 00:15:01.110
indicating that the real
dangers lie elsewhere.
00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:05.670
But on the nearby Miramichi River
00:15:05.670 --> 00:15:08.380
young fish are under
attack by a new predator.
00:15:09.855 --> 00:15:12.710
Once protected, the
striped bass population
00:15:12.710 --> 00:15:15.340
has recently exploded.
00:15:15.340 --> 00:15:17.810
Huge numbers of these voracious predators
00:15:17.810 --> 00:15:19.940
spawn in the Miramichi Bay
00:15:19.940 --> 00:15:23.202
just as the young salmon
are heading to sea.
00:15:23.202 --> 00:15:26.730
(suspenseful music)
00:15:26.730 --> 00:15:28.670
They don't stand a chance.
00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:36.380
Across the Atlantic, warming
seas lure southern fish
00:15:36.380 --> 00:15:39.670
such as the striped
bass to northern waters.
00:15:39.670 --> 00:15:40.940
Another challenge.
00:15:47.860 --> 00:15:50.100
Acoustic receivers tell us that only
00:15:50.100 --> 00:15:54.200
three out of 10 young
fish survive the Miramichi
00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:56.380
and make it past the striped bass
00:15:56.380 --> 00:15:59.200
and into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:03.610
But on the Cascapedia, only
250 kilometers to the north,
00:16:03.610 --> 00:16:06.410
there are no spawning striped bass
00:16:06.410 --> 00:16:09.910
and fully eight out of 10 survive.
00:16:10.920 --> 00:16:13.020
Farther out, the next set of receivers
00:16:13.020 --> 00:16:15.660
tells us that only 50% of adult salmon
00:16:15.660 --> 00:16:19.070
that have already spawned
and are returning to sea
00:16:19.070 --> 00:16:22.060
make it out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
00:16:22.060 --> 00:16:23.670
This is an ominous sign.
00:16:25.580 --> 00:16:29.520
Biologists know that 25% are
being eaten by predators,
00:16:30.610 --> 00:16:33.270
but they don't know what
is happening to the rest.
00:16:34.430 --> 00:16:37.480
Scientists haven't yet been bale to verify
00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:40.720
how many of the young
make it into the ocean.
00:16:45.060 --> 00:16:48.420
The survivors are now
ready for the estuary,
00:16:48.420 --> 00:16:52.950
a zone where fresh water
and salt water mix.
00:16:52.950 --> 00:16:55.250
In this disorienting world,
00:16:55.250 --> 00:16:58.210
their bodies complete the final change
00:16:58.210 --> 00:17:00.170
for life in salt water.
00:17:04.600 --> 00:17:08.490
But now, they encounter
yet another new threat.
00:17:10.290 --> 00:17:12.330
The Bay of Fundy, one of the most
00:17:12.330 --> 00:17:14.930
concentrated fish farm sites in the world.
00:17:15.950 --> 00:17:18.540
For a young salmon on its way to sea,
00:17:18.540 --> 00:17:20.940
these fish farms can be deadly.
00:17:27.810 --> 00:17:29.980
Food pellets sprayed into pens
00:17:29.980 --> 00:17:33.180
rain onto the sea floor
and mix with fish waste.
00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:44.410
Caged fish are checked regularly
for parasitic sea lice,
00:17:44.410 --> 00:17:46.700
which they can attract in large numbers.
00:17:47.870 --> 00:17:50.610
These parasites occur
naturally in the wild
00:17:50.610 --> 00:17:52.980
but proliferate around fish farms.
00:17:53.840 --> 00:17:56.460
They can savage populations of sea trout
00:17:56.460 --> 00:17:58.300
and migrating wild salmon.
00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:02.440
- Wherever open net and salmon
aquaculture is practiced,
00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:04.450
wherever there is large concentrations
00:18:04.450 --> 00:18:06.230
of these salmon farms,
00:18:06.230 --> 00:18:08.450
wild Atlantic salmon
are in serious trouble.
00:18:08.450 --> 00:18:10.260
The industry grew and grew and grew,
00:18:10.260 --> 00:18:12.180
and all of the wild salmon routes
00:18:12.180 --> 00:18:14.450
that flow into the Bay of Fundy,
00:18:14.450 --> 00:18:17.250
the wild ones decline,
decline to the point that now
00:18:17.250 --> 00:18:19.480
where once there were 40,000 wild salmon
00:18:19.480 --> 00:18:21.770
coming back to those
30 great little rivers,
00:18:21.770 --> 00:18:22.810
big salmon included,
00:18:22.810 --> 00:18:24.700
now there's just a few hundred.
00:18:24.700 --> 00:18:26.730
Probably the most significant threat
00:18:26.730 --> 00:18:28.250
open net and salmon aquaculture
00:18:28.250 --> 00:18:30.070
is when farm salmon escape,
00:18:30.070 --> 00:18:32.000
and they escape in the tens of thousands,
00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:34.600
sometimes hundreds of
thousands, every single year,
00:18:34.600 --> 00:18:36.100
and the ones that survive,
00:18:36.100 --> 00:18:37.670
when they get the urge to spawn,
00:18:37.670 --> 00:18:39.800
they're running up wild salmon rivers
00:18:39.800 --> 00:18:42.230
and interbreeding with wild fish,
00:18:42.230 --> 00:18:44.686
and just after a couple of generations,
00:18:44.686 --> 00:18:48.630
you've got a hybrid, and the
survival of those hybrids
00:18:48.630 --> 00:18:49.970
are very very poor.
00:18:49.970 --> 00:18:52.310
I mean, genetic changes are forever.
00:18:56.260 --> 00:18:58.940
- [Gabriel] When Jonathan
Carr isn't tagging fish,
00:18:58.940 --> 00:19:01.640
he's checking for escaped farm salmon.
00:19:08.770 --> 00:19:12.305
Scales show growth patterns
which instantly identify
00:19:12.305 --> 00:19:13.638
a farmed salmon.
00:19:15.265 --> 00:19:17.515
- Hey Graham, look at that.
00:19:22.271 --> 00:19:25.456
Graham, is it looking like a
wild salmon or a farm salmon?
00:19:25.456 --> 00:19:27.930
- Definitely an aquaculture
salmon based on the scales.
00:19:30.210 --> 00:19:33.120
- [Gabriel] Salmon aquaculture
began in the 1960s,
00:19:33.120 --> 00:19:35.630
with only a few commercial farms.
00:19:35.630 --> 00:19:38.230
But today this industry is producing
00:19:38.230 --> 00:19:43.230
an estimated 530 million
farmed fish annually
00:19:43.480 --> 00:19:45.600
compared to a dwindling population
00:19:45.600 --> 00:19:48.300
of only three million wild salmon
00:19:48.300 --> 00:19:51.270
throughout the entire North Atlantic.
00:19:51.270 --> 00:19:54.660
- Solutions would be to regulate
the industry more strictly,
00:19:54.660 --> 00:19:58.240
make sure that there is
reporting, enforcement,
00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:00.915
and make sure that we have
the very best practices.
00:20:00.915 --> 00:20:03.620
The ultimate solution
is closed containment.
00:20:03.620 --> 00:20:05.870
And whether closed containment on land
00:20:05.870 --> 00:20:08.340
or closed containment in the ocean
00:20:08.340 --> 00:20:11.430
so that the fish simply can't escape.
00:20:11.430 --> 00:20:13.630
It's a better operation for the industry
00:20:13.630 --> 00:20:15.370
as well as for the
environment and wild salmon
00:20:15.370 --> 00:20:17.950
because the farmer
controls his environment.
00:20:17.950 --> 00:20:19.080
If there is disease,
00:20:19.080 --> 00:20:20.890
there's no disease spread.
00:20:20.890 --> 00:20:23.060
Everything is self-contained, no escape.
00:20:26.260 --> 00:20:28.000
- [Gabriel] On both sides of the Atlantic,
00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:31.500
the survivors now head
into the open ocean.
00:20:31.500 --> 00:20:34.430
An ancient genetic code compels the salmon
00:20:34.430 --> 00:20:36.660
to migrate to the ocean,
00:20:36.660 --> 00:20:40.530
turning north towards their
distant feeding grounds.
00:20:40.530 --> 00:20:43.670
They travel near the surface
with other schooling fish,
00:20:43.670 --> 00:20:45.390
including herring and mackerel.
00:20:46.820 --> 00:20:49.130
Along the way, dangers abound.
00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:53.160
Attacks come from below and above.
00:20:53.160 --> 00:20:54.870
Easily spotted near the surface,
00:20:54.870 --> 00:20:57.040
they're vulnerable to diving birds,
00:20:57.040 --> 00:20:58.581
voracious blue fin tuna,
00:20:58.581 --> 00:21:00.560
and giants from the deep.
00:21:02.490 --> 00:21:04.760
But the presence of predators alone
00:21:04.760 --> 00:21:06.910
cannot account for millions of salmon
00:21:06.910 --> 00:21:08.380
disappearing each year.
00:21:09.860 --> 00:21:13.150
There is something fundamentally different
00:21:13.150 --> 00:21:14.930
in the ocean today.
00:21:18.690 --> 00:21:20.720
The Celtic Explorer is setting out
00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:22.600
from the west coast of Ireland
00:21:22.600 --> 00:21:24.480
into the North Atlantic
00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:27.940
on the final journey of a
three year research mission.
00:21:27.940 --> 00:21:32.940
SalSea, Salmon at Sea, is
the most ambitious program
00:21:33.390 --> 00:21:36.360
ever launched to study
wild Atlantic salmon.
00:21:39.218 --> 00:21:42.220
The scientists must discover their age old
00:21:42.220 --> 00:21:46.030
migration pathways up to
the Arctic feeding grounds
00:21:46.030 --> 00:21:49.240
and find clues about
what is happening to them
00:21:49.240 --> 00:21:50.560
along the way.
00:21:50.560 --> 00:21:53.520
- There are very few fish
that roam as far and as wide
00:21:53.520 --> 00:21:54.950
as the Atlantic salmon.
00:21:54.950 --> 00:21:58.330
It ranges from the very
edge of the ice fields
00:21:58.330 --> 00:22:01.400
right down to the orange
groves of northern Portugal.
00:22:02.610 --> 00:22:04.210
- [Gabriel] Finding these tiny salmon
00:22:04.210 --> 00:22:06.730
in the surface layers of the ocean
00:22:06.730 --> 00:22:08.708
is a daunting task,
00:22:08.708 --> 00:22:12.280
but the team has vital
intelligence from which to work
00:22:12.280 --> 00:22:13.800
based on known currents
00:22:13.800 --> 00:22:16.650
and the expected migration
speed of the fish.
00:22:21.810 --> 00:22:24.720
- We wanted to know how fast the fish went
00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:27.310
and we wanted to know the
direction they went in
00:22:27.310 --> 00:22:30.190
and what currents they used
when they were moving north
00:22:30.190 --> 00:22:31.630
through the Atlantic.
00:22:31.630 --> 00:22:34.540
And these models have done
an incredible job for us,
00:22:34.540 --> 00:22:35.990
because not alone have they told us
00:22:35.990 --> 00:22:37.780
the answers to those questions,
00:22:37.780 --> 00:22:39.460
but they have delineated,
00:22:39.460 --> 00:22:42.218
they have actually described
for us and mapped for us
00:22:42.218 --> 00:22:45.250
individual corridors
where very large numbers
00:22:45.250 --> 00:22:46.940
of salmon congregate.
00:22:46.940 --> 00:22:48.520
- [Gabriel] Before SalSea,
00:22:48.520 --> 00:22:52.100
almost no one had studied wild
salmon in the ocean before.
00:22:53.010 --> 00:22:56.400
Far out to sea, the Celtic
Explorer is on its mission
00:22:56.400 --> 00:22:58.250
to find the migration path.
00:22:59.173 --> 00:23:02.270
They follow the continental
shelf edge north,
00:23:02.270 --> 00:23:06.470
where there are strong currents
and a gathering of sea life.
00:23:06.470 --> 00:23:10.340
Searching for these small
fish in a vast ocean
00:23:10.340 --> 00:23:13.910
is something that has never
been attempted before.
00:23:13.910 --> 00:23:16.940
- People have told us,
well, salmon smolt at sea,
00:23:16.940 --> 00:23:18.360
they've never seen them.
00:23:18.360 --> 00:23:20.410
Even though I spent six
years in the Arctic,
00:23:20.410 --> 00:23:21.730
I've never seen salmon smolt,
00:23:21.730 --> 00:23:24.390
so hopefully this is going
to be something exciting.
00:23:28.060 --> 00:23:29.880
- [Gabriel] At regular
intervals they sample
00:23:29.880 --> 00:23:32.830
near-surface ocean
temperature and salinity.
00:23:35.940 --> 00:23:38.880
The plankton net collects available food,
00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:41.730
vital for baby salmon to
continue their journey.
00:23:41.730 --> 00:23:43.550
- The growth pattern of these fish
00:23:43.550 --> 00:23:46.100
can actually tell us how
well these fish are doing.
00:23:47.245 --> 00:23:49.160
- [Gabriel] The surface trawl is hauled in
00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:50.630
after hours of fishing.
00:23:53.780 --> 00:23:54.613
- The main thing is gonna be
00:23:54.613 --> 00:23:55.830
the fish coming through the hopper.
00:23:55.830 --> 00:23:58.150
When they start coming
in, they're gonna come in
00:23:58.150 --> 00:23:59.300
pretty fast and furious.
00:23:59.300 --> 00:24:01.420
So we need to sort them very quickly.
00:24:06.910 --> 00:24:09.520
- [Gabriel] The first trawls
are loaded with mackerel.
00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:11.880
Where are the smolts?
00:24:36.330 --> 00:24:39.490
Trawl after trawl brings
in thousands of mackerel.
00:24:45.500 --> 00:24:50.090
At last, deep among the
great mass of mackerel,
00:24:50.090 --> 00:24:52.990
they find a few young salmon.
00:24:54.620 --> 00:24:57.210
They are immediately
transferred to the lab below.
00:24:58.060 --> 00:25:01.230
A clip from each fin provides vital DNA.
00:25:03.690 --> 00:25:05.070
- These are very precious fish,
00:25:05.070 --> 00:25:07.180
so really I think this
is where the genetics
00:25:07.180 --> 00:25:08.640
comes into its own.
00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:09.940
Because they're so precious,
00:25:09.940 --> 00:25:11.750
we want to get as much
information as we can
00:25:11.750 --> 00:25:13.280
from those fish.
00:25:13.280 --> 00:25:15.570
This technology, this
technique, the genetics,
00:25:15.570 --> 00:25:17.920
will allow us to determine
the river of origin.
00:25:18.800 --> 00:25:21.140
- [Gabriel] The DNA
samples will allow them
00:25:21.140 --> 00:25:23.260
to trace the migration routes of salmon
00:25:23.260 --> 00:25:24.570
from different rivers.
00:25:24.570 --> 00:25:26.870
- When salmon go to sea,
they have a great ability
00:25:26.870 --> 00:25:28.984
to lay down in their scales
00:25:28.984 --> 00:25:31.610
the history of their journey at sea.
00:25:31.610 --> 00:25:33.670
And it's very much like
the rings on a tree
00:25:33.670 --> 00:25:35.390
but much more sophisticated,
00:25:35.390 --> 00:25:37.430
because not alone does it tell us
00:25:37.430 --> 00:25:38.790
where the fish went at sea
00:25:38.790 --> 00:25:41.290
in terms of the chemical
composition of the scale
00:25:41.290 --> 00:25:43.950
but it also tells us how
fast they grew at sea.
00:25:44.870 --> 00:25:46.950
- [Gabriel] Scale samples from each fish
00:25:46.950 --> 00:25:50.220
will be compared with
samples taken decades earlier
00:25:50.220 --> 00:25:53.670
to see if marine growth
has declined and why.
00:25:59.550 --> 00:26:00.830
We can look at their life histories
00:26:00.830 --> 00:26:02.400
in the period from when
they left the river
00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:04.470
to the period that they
arrived at the feeding grounds,
00:26:04.470 --> 00:26:05.880
What was the quality of the environment?
00:26:05.880 --> 00:26:07.660
So I think these are the kind of little
00:26:07.660 --> 00:26:09.740
pieces of the jigsaw that
we're starting to learn now
00:26:09.740 --> 00:26:12.860
that will be incredibly
valuable as we go forward.
00:26:12.860 --> 00:26:15.570
It allows then to say something about
00:26:15.570 --> 00:26:18.060
the conditions that
are in those locations.
00:26:18.060 --> 00:26:20.216
The plankton, the quality of the feeding.
00:26:20.216 --> 00:26:22.390
More importantly, the quality of the fish.
00:26:22.390 --> 00:26:24.160
Are the fish full?
00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:25.370
Are they starving?
00:26:25.370 --> 00:26:27.060
What's their condition?
00:26:27.060 --> 00:26:29.630
- [Gabriel] After days
of trawling and sampling,
00:26:29.630 --> 00:26:33.390
the team has found hundreds
of juvenile salmon.
00:26:34.390 --> 00:26:36.880
Scientists can now begin to piece together
00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:39.980
the journey to their North
Atlantic feeding grounds.
00:26:41.270 --> 00:26:44.056
Salmon from southern rivers leave first.
00:26:44.056 --> 00:26:48.130
They are joined by other
populations, river by river,
00:26:48.130 --> 00:26:50.040
as they head north.
00:26:50.040 --> 00:26:52.637
They arrive at the first feeding grounds.
00:26:52.637 --> 00:26:57.010
Some salmon will return to
their natal rivers after a year.
00:26:57.010 --> 00:26:59.080
Others will continue the journey
00:26:59.080 --> 00:27:01.490
to the feeding grounds off west Greenland.
00:27:03.544 --> 00:27:06.893
One of the Celtic Explorer's key findings
00:27:06.893 --> 00:27:09.550
is that many of the fish they sampled
00:27:09.550 --> 00:27:12.070
were thin and undernourished.
00:27:13.070 --> 00:27:15.640
The cause was distressingly clear.
00:27:17.020 --> 00:27:20.788
In some areas Celtic
Explorer's special plankton net
00:27:20.788 --> 00:27:22.850
came up completely empty,
00:27:24.070 --> 00:27:28.130
and the conclusion is simple and alarming.
00:27:28.130 --> 00:27:30.450
- There's probably large
scale climate forcing
00:27:30.450 --> 00:27:32.090
mechanisms that are occurring.
00:27:32.090 --> 00:27:34.460
Well documented changes
occurring in the ocean
00:27:34.460 --> 00:27:35.750
and the environment.
00:27:35.750 --> 00:27:38.600
Temperatures are getting warm,
it's changing current flows,
00:27:38.600 --> 00:27:41.040
it's changing prey distribution.
00:27:41.040 --> 00:27:43.130
- [Gabriel] The seas are changing.
00:27:43.130 --> 00:27:46.840
The SalSea project tells
us that salmon must adapt
00:27:46.840 --> 00:27:48.770
if they are to survive.
00:27:48.770 --> 00:27:51.990
They have already survived two ice ages,
00:27:51.990 --> 00:27:54.350
but can they now adapt as fast
00:27:54.350 --> 00:27:56.470
as the changing world they inhabit?
00:28:01.660 --> 00:28:04.160
SalSea discovered an unexpected threat
00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:06.400
facing European salmon.
00:28:06.400 --> 00:28:09.590
Commercial fishing
trawlers targeting mackerel
00:28:09.590 --> 00:28:13.560
were right in the migration
path of the young salmon.
00:28:13.560 --> 00:28:15.730
The discovery that the
trawlers were active
00:28:15.730 --> 00:28:19.760
in these migration corridors
underscores the urgent need
00:28:19.760 --> 00:28:21.900
to create protective seasons
00:28:21.900 --> 00:28:25.600
during which trawling would
be prohibited in these waters.
00:28:28.250 --> 00:28:33.250
Yet facing brutal odds, some
salmon do reach journey's end.
00:28:34.410 --> 00:28:38.440
Here, they encounter a
very different world.
00:28:39.400 --> 00:28:40.233
Greenland.
00:28:44.280 --> 00:28:46.060
After a grueling journey,
00:28:46.060 --> 00:28:48.760
the salmon that have made it this far
00:28:48.760 --> 00:28:51.640
at last find a safe haven.
00:28:53.621 --> 00:28:56.204
(serene music)
00:28:58.070 --> 00:29:01.950
These cold waters are incredibly fertile,
00:29:01.950 --> 00:29:06.950
and they feast on capelin,
fish rich in oil and protein.
00:29:08.490 --> 00:29:11.800
The salmon will feed here
for two to four years,
00:29:11.800 --> 00:29:14.450
sometimes growing to immense size.
00:29:17.270 --> 00:29:20.920
For thousands of years,
this was where they thrived.
00:29:23.010 --> 00:29:25.950
But then, just 50 years ago,
00:29:25.950 --> 00:29:30.020
a small band of fishermen
netting off west Greenland
00:29:30.020 --> 00:29:32.010
made a startling discovery
00:29:32.010 --> 00:29:36.050
when they came upon the
salmon's secret feeding grounds.
00:29:36.050 --> 00:29:39.070
And word traveled fast,
and soon fishing ships
00:29:39.070 --> 00:29:41.390
from all over Europe converged here.
00:29:42.550 --> 00:29:45.610
This remarkable footage, taken by angler
00:29:45.610 --> 00:29:50.110
and conservationist Lee Wulff,
documents the tragic tale.
00:29:51.990 --> 00:29:54.800
- [Lee] This is a 20 knot
ship, about 200 tons.
00:29:55.680 --> 00:29:59.260
In her hold, she has 36,000 salmon
00:29:59.260 --> 00:30:01.660
taken in a little over
a month of fishing here.
00:30:04.530 --> 00:30:09.530
Yard by yard, the 18 miles of
continuous net comes aboard,
00:30:10.450 --> 00:30:13.120
and with it come the salmon.
00:30:13.120 --> 00:30:15.980
- [Gabriel] In 1971, their catches peeked
00:30:15.980 --> 00:30:18.330
at nearly 800,000 salmon,
00:30:19.450 --> 00:30:22.540
and this set the salmon
on a downward spiral.
00:30:23.690 --> 00:30:27.470
Scientists calculated that in 1972 alone
00:30:27.470 --> 00:30:30.700
netters removed one third of all salmon
00:30:30.700 --> 00:30:32.370
swimming off west Greenland.
00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:37.330
Fortunately the crisis was recognized.
00:30:37.330 --> 00:30:39.790
The following year an
embargo was established
00:30:39.790 --> 00:30:42.140
on international boats.
00:30:42.140 --> 00:30:44.380
10 years later the North Atlantic Salmon
00:30:44.380 --> 00:30:47.050
Conservation Organization was formed
00:30:47.050 --> 00:30:50.050
as a formal international
treaty organization
00:30:50.050 --> 00:30:52.670
to protect the Atlantic salmon.
00:30:52.670 --> 00:30:56.220
By the late 1980s,
quotas were established,
00:30:56.220 --> 00:30:59.910
and a decade later, Greenland
has agreed not to export
00:30:59.910 --> 00:31:01.500
any salmon.
00:31:01.500 --> 00:31:05.000
It was a vital step in saving the species.
00:31:06.550 --> 00:31:08.810
- Described by some as a United Nations
00:31:08.810 --> 00:31:10.420
for the Atlantic salmon,
00:31:10.420 --> 00:31:13.780
NASCO houses members of most
North Atlantic governments
00:31:13.780 --> 00:31:16.300
with salmon interests, and additionally,
00:31:16.300 --> 00:31:18.620
about 40 non-government organizations
00:31:18.620 --> 00:31:20.850
from countries all around
the North Atlantic.
00:31:20.850 --> 00:31:23.260
One of the immediate
benefits of the NASCO treaty
00:31:23.260 --> 00:31:25.620
was that it established
an enormous protected zone
00:31:25.620 --> 00:31:28.170
free of fisheries for salmon
in the North Atlantic.
00:31:29.180 --> 00:31:31.410
- Greenland is the principal feeding area.
00:31:31.410 --> 00:31:33.810
The fishery is a problem
because it harvests salmon
00:31:33.810 --> 00:31:35.400
from all rivers.
00:31:35.400 --> 00:31:36.900
The fishery of Greenland was where
00:31:36.900 --> 00:31:40.500
all of the Atlantic salmon
from eastern Canada and the US
00:31:40.500 --> 00:31:43.160
congregate for a couple
or three years to feed,
00:31:43.160 --> 00:31:45.210
so that's the principal feeding area.
00:31:45.210 --> 00:31:46.320
It's a mixed stock fishery,
00:31:46.320 --> 00:31:48.310
so you have Atlantic salmon
00:31:48.310 --> 00:31:50.019
from a whole bunch of different rivers
00:31:50.019 --> 00:31:51.240
both sides of the Atlantic
mingling the ocean
00:31:51.240 --> 00:31:53.772
and there's no way for the Greenlanders
00:31:53.772 --> 00:31:55.533
when they put a net in the ocean
00:31:55.533 --> 00:31:58.820
to just focus their fishing
pressure on a healthy population
00:31:58.820 --> 00:32:00.380
as opposed to pulling up the nets
00:32:00.380 --> 00:32:02.785
and maybe they have a few salmon
00:32:02.785 --> 00:32:04.210
from the St. John River,
which is threatened,
00:32:05.058 --> 00:32:07.149
or the Penobscot River in
Maine, which is threatened.
00:32:07.149 --> 00:32:09.630
If they're going to have a
fishery at any sustainable level,
00:32:09.630 --> 00:32:12.220
you gotta think about the
future of the species,
00:32:12.220 --> 00:32:14.500
and I think they've realized
over the last number of years
00:32:14.500 --> 00:32:16.070
they've seen fewer and fewer fish,
00:32:16.070 --> 00:32:18.674
their quotas negotiated
by NASCO have been reduced
00:32:18.674 --> 00:32:21.040
year after year after year.
00:32:21.040 --> 00:32:23.240
The scientific advice is
there should be no fisheries,
00:32:23.240 --> 00:32:25.481
so even a very small
fishery is problematic
00:32:25.481 --> 00:32:29.690
for a lot of our salmons
runs here in eastern Canada.
00:32:29.690 --> 00:32:32.010
- [Gabriel] The Greenland
quotas were a sensitive issue
00:32:32.010 --> 00:32:33.597
for local fishermen.
00:32:33.597 --> 00:32:36.930
Conservationist Orri Vigfusson,
00:32:36.930 --> 00:32:40.130
in partnership with the
Atlantic Salmon Federation,
00:32:40.130 --> 00:32:42.243
began working with local fishermen
00:32:42.243 --> 00:32:45.130
in order to reduce catches of salmon.
00:32:48.109 --> 00:32:52.280
- 22 years ago set up the
North Atlantic Salmon Fund
00:32:52.280 --> 00:32:56.280
for the sole purpose of conserving salmon
00:32:56.280 --> 00:32:59.230
the fastest and the most effective way,
00:32:59.230 --> 00:33:02.500
i.e. using commerce to do this.
00:33:02.500 --> 00:33:06.550
Actually to pay fishermen not to fish.
00:33:06.550 --> 00:33:09.370
I buy back their fishing rights.
00:33:09.370 --> 00:33:12.880
I have raised millions and
millions of dollars this way,
00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:14.640
mostly from the private sector.
00:33:16.860 --> 00:33:20.120
We've been very successful in brokering
00:33:20.120 --> 00:33:23.090
commercial agreements with the fishermen
00:33:23.090 --> 00:33:28.090
who have voluntarily agreed
not to harvest the salmon
00:33:28.620 --> 00:33:32.250
in return for development
of other employment,
00:33:32.250 --> 00:33:35.570
other fisheries that are sustainable.
00:33:35.570 --> 00:33:37.040
- [Gabriel] Some small scale fishing
00:33:37.040 --> 00:33:38.490
does still happen here.
00:33:39.720 --> 00:33:43.000
Greenlander Johannes Heiland
is a traditional fisherman.
00:33:44.070 --> 00:33:46.941
Today he will stay close
to his island shore
00:33:46.941 --> 00:33:49.260
and will fish for salmon.
00:33:49.260 --> 00:33:53.230
His catch will only be
sold in local markets.
00:33:55.041 --> 00:33:58.041
(suspenseful music)
00:34:29.960 --> 00:34:33.420
Close by, other fishermen net cod,
00:34:33.420 --> 00:34:35.750
a fish that has recently rebounded.
00:34:42.220 --> 00:34:46.430
These men are the face of
Greenland fishing today.
00:34:55.870 --> 00:34:58.360
The SalSea program has
helped us to understand
00:34:58.360 --> 00:35:01.840
the migration paths to Greenland.
00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:05.380
But we still know very little
about the return journey.
00:35:06.650 --> 00:35:09.290
Marine biologist Tim
Sheehan and his colleague
00:35:09.290 --> 00:35:13.660
Rasmus Nygard are trying
the near impossible.
00:35:13.660 --> 00:35:16.230
To hook a large salmon in the ocean,
00:35:16.230 --> 00:35:20.910
reel it in safely, and fit it
with a satellite transmitter,
00:35:20.910 --> 00:35:23.260
then set it free.
00:35:23.260 --> 00:35:27.330
This is the first attempt to
track the salmon migration
00:35:27.330 --> 00:35:28.900
from Greenland waters.
00:35:39.995 --> 00:35:41.220
(laughs)
00:35:41.220 --> 00:35:43.250
- The ocean's really a
big unknown for salmon,
00:35:43.250 --> 00:35:45.900
and we know these kinda
general trends, where they go,
00:35:45.900 --> 00:35:47.650
they're feeding off of
the coast of Greenland,
00:35:47.650 --> 00:35:49.690
they're feeding in the Norwegian sea.
00:35:49.690 --> 00:35:51.900
We have these kind of big
picture ideas of what goes on,
00:35:51.900 --> 00:35:53.860
but we really don't
know any of the details.
00:35:53.860 --> 00:35:56.460
These different research
activities that we're undertaking,
00:35:56.460 --> 00:35:58.450
we're really trying to fill
in a lot of those pieces
00:35:58.450 --> 00:36:01.400
and give us a much better
idea as to what's going on
00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:03.570
not only in fresh water
but also in the ocean
00:36:03.570 --> 00:36:05.120
during the salmon's life cycle.
00:36:09.550 --> 00:36:11.570
These tags will give us a better idea
00:36:11.570 --> 00:36:15.130
as to the routes that they're
taking to migrate home,
00:36:15.130 --> 00:36:17.890
and by tagging them at
Greenland before they go home
00:36:17.890 --> 00:36:20.150
we can look at that second
half of the migration.
00:36:20.150 --> 00:36:22.240
- [Gabriel] The pop-off
tag has been designed
00:36:22.240 --> 00:36:25.410
to stay attached to the
fish for eight months.
00:36:26.320 --> 00:36:28.550
After that time, the tag is released
00:36:28.550 --> 00:36:31.070
and floats to the surface,
00:36:31.070 --> 00:36:32.930
and the information it carries
00:36:32.930 --> 00:36:35.820
is downloaded from a passing satellite.
00:36:35.820 --> 00:36:37.860
Now for the first time,
00:36:37.860 --> 00:36:40.350
Tim is able to trace the beginning
00:36:40.350 --> 00:36:43.700
of the salmon's journey
back from Greenland.
00:36:43.700 --> 00:36:46.390
It is an important step in this new track.
00:36:47.800 --> 00:36:50.170
Remarkably the fish dove far deeper
00:36:50.170 --> 00:36:55.170
than anyone predicted, some
700 meters into the dark abyss.
00:36:56.430 --> 00:36:58.440
- This is the first time
that this has been done.
00:36:58.440 --> 00:37:00.390
First look into the
environmental conditions
00:37:00.390 --> 00:37:01.660
that salmon are experiencing
00:37:01.660 --> 00:37:03.690
as they're off the coast of Greenland
00:37:03.690 --> 00:37:05.560
and as they begin their migration home.
00:37:05.560 --> 00:37:08.120
We can start looking at some
of the oceanographic conditions
00:37:08.120 --> 00:37:10.900
and in those areas at that
time, what has changed.
00:37:10.900 --> 00:37:12.900
Start forming hypotheses
as to what could be
00:37:12.900 --> 00:37:15.760
driving the mortality that
we're seeing in the ocean.
00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:18.090
- [Gabriel] The truth is,
we still know very little
00:37:18.090 --> 00:37:20.740
about the salmon's journey home.
00:37:20.740 --> 00:37:23.340
But we do know that the number of salmon
00:37:23.340 --> 00:37:24.870
returning to their rivers after
00:37:24.870 --> 00:37:27.770
their great North Atlantic migration
00:37:27.770 --> 00:37:32.770
has dropped by 70% in
the last three decades.
00:37:36.660 --> 00:37:39.320
It is now springtime.
00:37:39.320 --> 00:37:42.270
The great salmon that
have spent years at sea
00:37:42.270 --> 00:37:45.030
now return to the rivers of their birth,
00:37:45.030 --> 00:37:48.580
guided in part by the
distinctive scent of its waters.
00:37:49.570 --> 00:37:52.960
Now full grown, instinct drives them
00:37:52.960 --> 00:37:54.810
to fresh water to spawn.
00:37:56.820 --> 00:37:59.330
But this journey too is far from easy.
00:38:00.330 --> 00:38:03.220
In Scotland a resident pod of dolphins
00:38:03.220 --> 00:38:05.410
awaits their annual windfall.
00:38:06.816 --> 00:38:08.830
The strong currents in the Moray Firth
00:38:08.830 --> 00:38:11.680
virtually deliver the
salmon straight to them.
00:38:12.620 --> 00:38:15.580
Some are taken, but many escape.
00:38:17.550 --> 00:38:20.090
All around in North Atlantic coastlines,
00:38:20.090 --> 00:38:21.950
the great salmon runs have begun.
00:38:23.230 --> 00:38:25.160
A small commercial fishery operates
00:38:25.160 --> 00:38:27.170
in Montrose Bay, Scotland,
00:38:27.170 --> 00:38:30.190
a fourth generation family business.
00:38:30.190 --> 00:38:33.670
George Puller is part of a
deeply rooted Scottish tradition.
00:38:39.120 --> 00:38:43.390
- Our family business was
established in the late 1960s
00:38:43.390 --> 00:38:45.800
by my father and grandfather.
00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:49.140
At one time, there used
to be netting stations
00:38:49.140 --> 00:38:52.180
throughout Scotland almost on
every part of the coastline,
00:38:52.180 --> 00:38:54.100
but what has happened
was in the late '80s,
00:38:54.100 --> 00:38:57.720
the fish farms reduced the
price of the wild salmon so much
00:38:57.720 --> 00:39:00.840
because the customers didn't
really recognize the difference
00:39:00.840 --> 00:39:03.020
between a wild salmon and a farm salmon.
00:39:04.230 --> 00:39:07.660
Since then the wild salmon
has rallied in price,
00:39:07.660 --> 00:39:09.540
but the netting effort now
00:39:09.540 --> 00:39:13.210
is only about 5% of what it was in 1952.
00:39:13.210 --> 00:39:15.540
So there's only a handful
of people left in Scotland
00:39:15.540 --> 00:39:16.740
to do this kind of work.
00:39:18.690 --> 00:39:21.150
- [Gabriel] For centuries
these small scale fisheries
00:39:21.150 --> 00:39:22.260
were sustainable.
00:39:23.280 --> 00:39:25.760
Now along with the declining runs,
00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:27.210
their numbers have plummeted.
00:39:32.590 --> 00:39:36.190
George and his family
face a challenging future.
00:39:39.856 --> 00:39:43.313
- Our fishery here started
in the early 1800s,
00:39:43.313 --> 00:39:46.060
and it's part of the fabric of Scotland,
00:39:46.060 --> 00:39:48.496
and you know, we want it to continue
00:39:48.496 --> 00:39:49.946
for many generations to come.
00:39:51.230 --> 00:39:52.440
- [Gabriel] The Scottish government felt
00:39:52.440 --> 00:39:54.910
the threat to the salmon was so severe
00:39:54.910 --> 00:39:57.496
it recently placed a three year moratorium
00:39:57.496 --> 00:40:01.160
on any taking of wild
salmon in coastal waters.
00:40:04.670 --> 00:40:07.850
Small fisheries are not the
only communities to suffer
00:40:07.850 --> 00:40:09.700
as salmon stocks decline.
00:40:10.850 --> 00:40:13.480
Upriver the fabled sport of salmon angling
00:40:13.480 --> 00:40:14.780
is changing too.
00:40:23.660 --> 00:40:27.247
Angling for salmon is not
only the fabric of Scotland,
00:40:27.247 --> 00:40:31.660
it is the heart of life on the
rivers of Ireland and Norway,
00:40:31.660 --> 00:40:33.950
Iceland, eastern Canada.
00:40:36.010 --> 00:40:38.630
This is no overnight sport,
00:40:38.630 --> 00:40:42.420
but learned with lessons
accumulated over a lifetime.
00:41:17.680 --> 00:41:21.100
Atlantic salmon are already extinct
00:41:21.100 --> 00:41:22.950
in more than 300 rivers.
00:41:28.810 --> 00:41:32.160
Far up river the journey is almost over.
00:41:32.160 --> 00:41:34.760
Researchers are tracking
how many have survived.
00:41:36.997 --> 00:41:39.900
The waters of the
Miramichi River in Canada
00:41:39.900 --> 00:41:43.750
were famous for enormous
runs of Atlantic salmon.
00:41:43.750 --> 00:41:45.760
Just a few decades ago,
00:41:45.760 --> 00:41:49.620
25% of all salmon bound for North America
00:41:49.620 --> 00:41:52.750
came to this one river alone.
00:41:52.750 --> 00:41:57.270
100 kilometers upriver, Mark
Hambrook and fellow biologists
00:41:57.270 --> 00:42:00.640
are netting a protected pool in autumn
00:42:00.640 --> 00:42:02.420
to count the returning fish.
00:42:06.490 --> 00:42:09.280
The salmon have lost their silvery sheen
00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:12.830
and changed into their
striking spawning colors.
00:42:12.830 --> 00:42:15.150
The russets and browns of autumn.
00:42:16.670 --> 00:42:18.540
Among the few that return,
00:42:18.540 --> 00:42:21.950
they are finding a wide variety of ages.
00:42:21.950 --> 00:42:24.200
Some left for only one year.
00:42:24.200 --> 00:42:26.480
Others stayed away for up to four years.
00:42:27.770 --> 00:42:30.580
By spreading the risk over many ages,
00:42:30.580 --> 00:42:32.510
nature ensures the species
00:42:32.510 --> 00:42:35.210
is never brought down by one generation.
00:42:36.050 --> 00:42:41.050
However, every year,
fewer and fewer return.
00:42:41.570 --> 00:42:44.240
These are the fortunate ones.
00:42:44.240 --> 00:42:48.600
The concern is about those
many others lost at sea.
00:42:50.130 --> 00:42:52.200
Where once a half million adult salmon
00:42:52.200 --> 00:42:54.440
came here to spawn each year,
00:42:54.440 --> 00:42:57.780
now they number less than 40,000.
00:42:58.975 --> 00:43:02.170
This is a monumental decline.
00:43:08.710 --> 00:43:09.790
- Wild male salmon.
00:43:15.090 --> 00:43:18.500
So many set out, so few return.
00:43:19.440 --> 00:43:22.930
But we now know more about the
salmon's incredible journey
00:43:22.930 --> 00:43:24.130
than ever before.
00:43:24.990 --> 00:43:27.220
As the investigators compile the data
00:43:27.220 --> 00:43:29.230
and share their discoveries,
00:43:29.230 --> 00:43:32.780
a complex and alarming picture emerges.
00:43:32.780 --> 00:43:37.310
Young fish are leaving the
rivers earlier than ever before,
00:43:37.310 --> 00:43:39.790
triggered by warming waters.
00:43:39.790 --> 00:43:42.780
Salmon are cold water fish.
00:43:43.630 --> 00:43:46.710
- As the smolts grow,
and as they grow faster,
00:43:46.710 --> 00:43:48.470
they reach the smolt stage,
00:43:48.470 --> 00:43:50.130
the stage when they can go to sea,
00:43:50.130 --> 00:43:51.300
they reach that earlier.
00:43:51.300 --> 00:43:54.650
Sometimes a year earlier
than they did previously.
00:43:54.650 --> 00:43:59.190
The fish are then small fish,
but still ready to go to sea.
00:43:59.190 --> 00:44:01.560
But those small fish, once they go to sea,
00:44:01.560 --> 00:44:05.050
are much less fit, and
really the survival rate
00:44:05.050 --> 00:44:07.230
of these smaller fish when they go to sea
00:44:07.230 --> 00:44:09.740
is a lot poorer than
the bigger, older fish
00:44:09.740 --> 00:44:11.900
that we had in the past.
00:44:11.900 --> 00:44:12.740
- [Gabriel] They are challenged
00:44:12.740 --> 00:44:15.020
even before they make it to sea.
00:44:15.020 --> 00:44:17.220
Once at sea, the young salmon are unable
00:44:17.220 --> 00:44:20.760
to find the food they
need to grow and survive.
00:44:20.760 --> 00:44:23.700
The plankton and larval
fishes have moved north
00:44:23.700 --> 00:44:25.822
due to the warming waters,
00:44:25.822 --> 00:44:29.070
and salmon from southern
rivers have to travel farther
00:44:29.070 --> 00:44:31.560
and are weakened by the lack of food
00:44:31.560 --> 00:44:34.800
and are more susceptible to predators.
00:44:34.800 --> 00:44:36.970
Even adult salmon are finding it hard
00:44:36.970 --> 00:44:40.400
to find their preferred
food in a changing ocean,
00:44:40.400 --> 00:44:42.780
and when they return, many are not
00:44:42.780 --> 00:44:45.890
in optimum condition for spawning.
00:44:45.890 --> 00:44:48.130
These findings are all linked.
00:44:48.130 --> 00:44:50.870
The Atlantic Ocean is changing fast,
00:44:50.870 --> 00:44:54.280
and maybe faster than salmon can adapt.
00:44:54.280 --> 00:44:56.400
The salmon are getting lost
00:44:56.400 --> 00:44:59.400
in the wrong place at the wrong time,
00:44:59.400 --> 00:45:00.990
failing to find food
00:45:00.990 --> 00:45:03.750
or encountering enemies they never knew.
00:45:03.750 --> 00:45:07.130
Warming water lies at
the heart of the mystery.
00:45:08.190 --> 00:45:11.250
- What we now know is that
climate change has impacted
00:45:11.250 --> 00:45:14.933
directly and very severely
on Atlantic salmon at sea.
00:45:14.933 --> 00:45:17.110
Really the way it has done this
00:45:17.959 --> 00:45:20.390
is through the temperature
changes that have happened
00:45:20.390 --> 00:45:21.870
in the surface of the oceans.
00:45:23.067 --> 00:45:24.550
As a result of these temperature changes,
00:45:24.550 --> 00:45:27.890
we find that the plankton
is actually moving north.
00:45:27.890 --> 00:45:30.270
Species of plankton that are comfortable
00:45:30.270 --> 00:45:32.460
in water that is reasonably cool
00:45:32.460 --> 00:45:35.310
now find conditions to
be entirely unsuitable,
00:45:35.310 --> 00:45:38.190
and each year they're
moving further and further
00:45:38.190 --> 00:45:39.450
and further north.
00:45:39.450 --> 00:45:42.290
What we do know is that
conditions are changing,
00:45:42.290 --> 00:45:45.270
and always when you get
a big change in an ocean
00:45:45.270 --> 00:45:48.360
you're going to see an
increase in terms of mortality,
00:45:48.360 --> 00:45:51.630
as the fish changes
and as the fish adapts.
00:45:51.630 --> 00:45:55.480
20, 30 years ago, there
would've been in the region
00:45:55.480 --> 00:45:58.251
of seven or eight million
Atlantic salmon at sea.
00:45:58.251 --> 00:46:01.110
That's now down to about three million,
00:46:01.110 --> 00:46:03.780
and as far as we can see
it's continuing to drop.
00:46:04.970 --> 00:46:07.430
- [Gabriel] Changing ocean
conditions will require
00:46:07.430 --> 00:46:10.410
international cooperation
to protect the salmon.
00:46:11.690 --> 00:46:13.860
We must also turn to fresh water
00:46:13.860 --> 00:46:16.860
to make sure we have clean
rivers and estuaries,
00:46:16.860 --> 00:46:20.090
unobstructed passage, good spawning beds,
00:46:20.090 --> 00:46:22.690
and healthy nurseries for the young
00:46:22.690 --> 00:46:27.240
to send as many salmon
out to sea as possible.
00:46:27.240 --> 00:46:29.350
As the salmon are adapting and changing
00:46:29.350 --> 00:46:31.320
to the new ocean conditions
00:46:31.320 --> 00:46:33.880
we must reduce man-made pressure
00:46:33.880 --> 00:46:36.440
to give them time to adapt.
00:46:36.440 --> 00:46:40.580
One solution is to create
protected migration corridors
00:46:40.580 --> 00:46:42.890
from the remotest spawning beds
00:46:42.890 --> 00:46:45.770
all the way up to the
Arctic feeding grounds.
00:46:50.490 --> 00:46:53.390
But there are some stories of hope.
00:46:53.390 --> 00:46:55.790
People who are fighting for the species
00:46:55.790 --> 00:46:57.790
and making a difference.
00:46:59.751 --> 00:47:04.230
The Penobscot River in Maine
was once a great salmon river
00:47:04.230 --> 00:47:07.180
until dams blocked the
way for migrating fish.
00:47:09.210 --> 00:47:11.940
- I'm looking at a broken
river that we've had here.
00:47:11.940 --> 00:47:15.000
You know, for over 100
years we've had this dam
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:16.950
and then several other dams above it.
00:47:16.950 --> 00:47:18.760
You know, we've tried to build hatcheries
00:47:18.760 --> 00:47:20.860
to put fish in above these dams,
00:47:20.860 --> 00:47:23.130
but we've never really
addressed the problem
00:47:23.130 --> 00:47:25.420
that there are just too
many dams in this river,
00:47:25.420 --> 00:47:26.740
and the Veazie Dam here,
00:47:26.740 --> 00:47:28.420
this dam is at the head of the tide.
00:47:28.420 --> 00:47:30.480
100% of the spawning grounds
00:47:30.480 --> 00:47:32.320
for species like Atlantic salmon
00:47:32.320 --> 00:47:34.800
are all above this dam.
00:47:34.800 --> 00:47:36.310
These dams on the main stem river
00:47:36.310 --> 00:47:38.300
were built back in the 1930s,
00:47:38.300 --> 00:47:41.420
so since that time, salmon
have come to these dams
00:47:41.420 --> 00:47:43.430
and not been able to get any farther
00:47:43.430 --> 00:47:44.700
to their spawning grounds.
00:47:44.700 --> 00:47:46.700
Over time we've built fish ladders
00:47:46.700 --> 00:47:48.560
that largely haven't worked.
00:47:48.560 --> 00:47:51.130
We've had two studies in the
last decade that have said
00:47:51.130 --> 00:47:53.290
if we're gonna restore Atlantic salmon
00:47:53.290 --> 00:47:55.740
on these big rivers in
Maine like the Penobscot,
00:47:55.740 --> 00:47:58.860
we have to reduce the number of dams.
00:47:58.860 --> 00:48:01.450
And the Penobscot project does that.
00:48:01.450 --> 00:48:04.560
This project will remove
two big main stem dams
00:48:04.560 --> 00:48:05.930
and bypass a third dam.
00:48:05.930 --> 00:48:07.680
So we're addressing
the root of the problem
00:48:07.680 --> 00:48:10.870
for the first time in
this river in 183 years.
00:48:15.493 --> 00:48:18.330
- [Gabriel] In recent years,
heroic measures were taken
00:48:18.330 --> 00:48:19.450
to rescue salmon.
00:48:25.750 --> 00:48:29.080
Lift them over the dam
and release them upstream.
00:48:46.750 --> 00:48:49.750
These are some of the last
remaining Atlantic salmon
00:48:49.750 --> 00:48:51.210
in the United States.
00:48:52.480 --> 00:48:55.970
But today, this river
is about to be restored.
00:48:55.970 --> 00:48:58.580
The Penobscot River Restoration Trust
00:48:58.580 --> 00:49:01.300
was formed to buy three dams on the river,
00:49:01.300 --> 00:49:05.550
remove two of them, and build
a fish pass around the third.
00:49:05.550 --> 00:49:08.190
The first to go was the Great Works Dam,
00:49:08.190 --> 00:49:11.200
and then the Veazie Dam was breached.
00:49:11.200 --> 00:49:15.250
It opened up more than 1000
miles of spawning habitat.
00:49:16.150 --> 00:49:17.869
(applauding)
00:49:17.869 --> 00:49:20.430
- So today we celebrate
00:49:20.430 --> 00:49:24.270
the taking down of this
great dam behind us,
00:49:24.270 --> 00:49:27.416
but you'll be seeing a whole
new river here within one year.
00:49:27.416 --> 00:49:29.760
And when you see projects
like this taking place
00:49:29.760 --> 00:49:33.330
on the Penobscot River, it
inspires people to do even more.
00:49:36.100 --> 00:49:38.090
- [Gabriel] And when a dam
was removed in the nearby
00:49:38.090 --> 00:49:42.350
Kennebec River in Maine,
fisheries biologist Nate Gray
00:49:42.350 --> 00:49:46.860
witnessed just how soon life returned.
00:49:46.860 --> 00:49:49.490
- Because of the work
that we've done here,
00:49:49.490 --> 00:49:51.490
it's revitalized this river.
00:49:51.490 --> 00:49:54.435
The river is a living, breathing creature.
00:49:54.435 --> 00:49:57.480
The river herring here
are the prime driver
00:49:57.480 --> 00:50:01.040
of the marine and freshwater
ecosystem interface.
00:50:01.040 --> 00:50:03.310
The river herring are the
base of that food chain.
00:50:03.310 --> 00:50:05.090
The salmon smolt out migration
00:50:05.090 --> 00:50:08.490
almost perfectly coincides
and overlaps with
00:50:08.490 --> 00:50:11.980
the influx of this huge biomass
00:50:11.980 --> 00:50:13.810
of river herring going upriver.
00:50:13.810 --> 00:50:15.948
So you have the smolts dropping out
00:50:15.948 --> 00:50:17.494
trying to get out to the ocean
00:50:17.494 --> 00:50:18.327
and then you have the river herring
00:50:19.259 --> 00:50:20.092
pouring in at the same time,
00:50:20.092 --> 00:50:22.470
and any predators like cod
or haddock or you know,
00:50:22.470 --> 00:50:24.800
halibut that are hanging
out at the river mouth
00:50:24.800 --> 00:50:26.770
are much less likely to eat a salmon smolt
00:50:26.770 --> 00:50:28.720
because there's so many river herrings.
00:50:30.048 --> 00:50:33.370
And the restoration of
these keystone species
00:50:33.370 --> 00:50:35.110
could very well be the tipping point
00:50:35.110 --> 00:50:36.960
for salmon coming back to this river.
00:50:44.820 --> 00:50:46.900
- [Gabriel] In Iceland,
there's another story
00:50:46.900 --> 00:50:48.800
where humans are making a difference.
00:50:53.140 --> 00:50:56.770
This ancient landscape,
little touched by time,
00:50:56.770 --> 00:50:58.650
is a haven for salmon.
00:51:09.497 --> 00:51:10.830
But there are rivers with obstacles
00:51:10.830 --> 00:51:12.620
too high for them to overcome.
00:51:21.521 --> 00:51:24.530
One man decided to help nature along.
00:51:33.520 --> 00:51:36.280
- Yeah, we are now on
the River Tungufljót.
00:51:36.280 --> 00:51:38.580
It never had any salmon in the past
00:51:38.580 --> 00:51:41.010
because you can see
this big waterfall here,
00:51:41.010 --> 00:51:42.110
it's a huge waterfall,
00:51:43.060 --> 00:51:46.810
and the salmon were never
able to run the falls,
00:51:46.810 --> 00:51:49.560
they are simply just
too high for the fish.
00:51:49.560 --> 00:51:53.530
So what I did, I leased the
river for a long period of time
00:51:53.530 --> 00:51:58.530
and I decided to make a fish
ladder into the waterfall
00:51:58.690 --> 00:52:01.350
to enable the fish to go through the falls
00:52:01.350 --> 00:52:02.780
after the spawning ground.
00:52:05.320 --> 00:52:06.800
So we built the salmon ladder,
00:52:06.800 --> 00:52:09.300
but of course there were
no salmon to run the ladder
00:52:09.300 --> 00:52:11.480
because they had never been here.
00:52:11.480 --> 00:52:15.340
So I got some salmon start
from the neighbor rivers.
00:52:16.470 --> 00:52:18.950
So we released these 10,000 smolts
00:52:18.950 --> 00:52:21.960
and a year later, we got 60 salmon back,
00:52:21.960 --> 00:52:23.910
which I thought was quite unique.
00:52:23.910 --> 00:52:27.210
That was the first salmon
ever running this river.
00:52:27.210 --> 00:52:29.520
And we took all the 60 fish
00:52:29.520 --> 00:52:32.215
and we brought them up
to the fish hatchery
00:52:32.215 --> 00:52:36.860
and we nursed the eggs and
we got another 60,000 smolts
00:52:36.860 --> 00:52:38.330
from these fish.
00:52:38.330 --> 00:52:41.550
And we released 60,000 smolts
00:52:41.550 --> 00:52:46.550
and then we landed 2800
on this river, Tungufljót.
00:52:47.460 --> 00:52:50.920
So all of a sudden we have a
new salmon river in Iceland.
00:52:57.150 --> 00:53:00.880
It's quite unique what is
possible to do with nature
00:53:00.880 --> 00:53:03.110
if you help a little bit.
00:53:26.740 --> 00:53:29.960
- [Gabriel] And so the great
journey ends where it began.
00:53:38.300 --> 00:53:40.910
It has extended over thousands of miles
00:53:41.870 --> 00:53:45.300
and encountered every conceivable risk.
00:53:45.300 --> 00:53:49.290
What has made it possible
was a heroic will,
00:53:49.290 --> 00:53:52.040
the primal need to reproduce
00:53:52.040 --> 00:53:54.740
and pass on its genetic inheritance.
00:54:04.548 --> 00:54:05.900
But the question remains.
00:54:09.950 --> 00:54:13.740
Will one of the oldest
journeys soon come to an end?
00:54:18.230 --> 00:54:20.770
Or will the Atlantic salmon endure
00:54:22.170 --> 00:54:25.570
to inspire generations still to come?
00:54:38.727 --> 00:54:41.560
(accordion music)
