CAUGHT - Full Documentary

thank you foreign foreign [Music] [Music] most people think the ocean is the sea but in fact it is the planet there's a planet ocean it's not the planet Earth really it's water in continuous circulation sometimes it's in the sea and sometimes it's locked in ice sometimes it's underground sometimes it's in the clouds and sometimes it's in the cells of every plant and animal on the planet we are the ocean we're part of everything we're connected to everything everything is interdependent we're not

the great demigods that we think we are we're not better than other species [Music] we need them they make it possible for us to be what we are but we're killing them if I could sum up what's happening to the oceans in one word it would be declined decline of biodiversity decline of sea life decline of Health it's just you're seeing it everywhere across the globe you know seeing dirt populations plummet you're seeing total populations plummet Wildlife populations fish sharks Dolphins Rays every

thing is going down [Music] 300 years ago before the arrival of industrial fishing the ocean was full of life and it was like a normal sight to see whales passing by the coast for days and days and days and now when you have one will coming close to a harbor you have an article in the local press because oh well you know what we see now is is such a little piece of what the ocean used to be giant draggers the super trawlers the longliners the uh the giant Gill netters those are the problems this

industrialized fishing has got to be shut down [Music] there's simply no room on the planet for eight billion fish eating primates it's like world out of balance we're taking more in a 10-year period now than we took in the previous 100 years altogether people need to understand that they are an integral part of the ecosystem and if we keep killing the ecosystem we're going to ultimately kill ourselves [Music] it's important to realize the amount of Destruction that has already been made and to

understand that what we are trying to save now is like like the last piece of Life free [Music] [Music] age of Union has been investing in a lot of projects on the different continents a lot of projects in forest in the Amazon in the Congo also some bodies of water the St Lawrence River but I think it's really really important that we think about our oceans when we think about protecting ecosystems and protecting nature the ocean is really out of sight out of mind and that's the dangerous thing

is a lot happens to Marine wildlife and into our ecosystems that if they happen on land we would never allow it really the ocean or the sea is uh the wild west you know people can do whatever they want out there and they're not brought to Justice that's one of the reasons I set up Sea Shepherd was to go and intervene against those illegal activities the reason they can get away with what they're doing I thought was should be the reason we can get away with what we're doing if they're doing ille

gal activities and let's go out and interfere with them when I've met Paul and the first question he asked me was would you be ready to risk your life for a while and I'm like yeah I had never seen a whale at the time but I don't know it was so obvious to me when I first met Paul 22 years ago he gave a speech in Amsterdam and I didn't even know about c-shap at all Paul Watson and I was just blown away by him and what he had to say and videos that he showed and I knew that back then that I had to

join this organization and become part of it and help him to accomplish his mission it takes a really strong group of passionate individuals I've always said that the the three virtues that can save the planet are passion courage and Imagination and when you put those together things can change I feel a big relation in terms of age of Union and Sea Shepherd because we're driven by Passion we're driven by action the direct action that Sea Shepherd takes with regards to the oceans and with regard

s to Marine Wildlife takes so much determination it takes a tremendous amount of patience and now as they fight against unregulated and illegal fishing dolphin by catches we're seeing here off the coast of France it's utterly important for us to back them so that they have the proper resources to continue the fight in the ocean to continue to protect all of our marine ecosystems and all the life that lives inside of them we have to act in order to defend what's important on the planet of the edg

e of Union I've always been close to the ocean when I was a kid I would always be you know on the beach or in the water so when I discovered the shepherd back in 2010 I started discovering everything that c SharePoint was doing and all the issues the oceans were facing it was like saying that my playground was in danger so I was like okay well maybe I should get involved and try to do something to protect my playground and that's when I started getting involved with seashell Pearl what I really

like is that it's not only about the philosophy it's not only about the words and the speech it's also about the action that was going with it and that fits also my temper because like a fighting temper and I think we need to fight for our planet I mean this is like a battle against Extinction so it was really exciting four years ago when we studied the dolphin by catch campaign because it was happening right here in the Bay of bisque which was my playground what we discovered is that a lot of p

eople a lot of French people had no idea there was so many dolphins in the area a lot of people believe that dolphin is like a tropical you know animal but in fact there are thousands of them just out here uh you know a few miles away from Shore [Music] so the main goal of this campaign is to expose what's going on with the dolphins but also to explain people how fishing works because it's a very obscure world so we don't see it it's far out at Sea so even if now you're supposed to know if the f

ish has been caught by troller or game Nets and of that for most people it doesn't mean anything and when you're buying a fish that's been caught with a pelagic troller for example you don't know what the impact is and coming and doing this campaign we could film and show people you know how it works this year we decided with the edge of Union to focus on the super trollers because with this ship we can go further out at Sea and and get more footage of that and really expose this industrial fish

ing and the scale of it and the impact it has [Music] thank you we've been lucky in a way that at the beginning we came across these four super trollers including the marjories which is a second largest troller in the world and they were fishing not very far away from the coast and we observed like that massive patch of dead fish this images we've made went around the world like literally around the world it's been picked up in every single country we are talking about thousands of fish that hav

e died and the Target because it's pelagic fishing they are targeting the same species the dolphin eat and today we have Dolphins which we know are coming closer to Shore and are more in the fishing areas we just want to understand why they are coming here because here is a Minefield it's full of Nets and that's where they get cooked and why do they end up here maybe there's not enough fish out there because it's being caught by the super tourists foreign [Music] they have been a bycatch since t

he 80s 90s and then beginning of 2000 but it's really went out of control in 2016 and in 2017 the scientific apologies Observatory issued a press release saying that they were really worried to see the exploding number of dead dolphins washing up in French Shores [Music] and no one knew about it the more we fish the less there is fish in the ocean and the more these dolphins are going to Target the fish that are in our Nets because the ocean is nothing like it used to be before it's like the sha

dow of itself many fishermen were saying we have nothing to do with these Dolphins trendings these Dolphins died from the storms or they are sick or it's climate change and the good thing is that pillage is like made it really clear okay stop it over the hundreds of dead dolphins that we have analyzed over 90 percent of them were healthy dolphins and have clear signs of package it's a very easy thing to identify when you do the necropsy of a dolphin the scientists quality uh Agony of the deep th

ey try to free themselves from the net and that's why we can see like wounds that like really cut through their flesh because they push hard to try to get to the surface because they are mammals right so they need to breathe and then they don't drown actually they just stop breathing and their lungs literally explode inside it's a horrible death horrible and it's thousands of them every year they died from bycatch there is a competition between the fishing vessels and the Marine Traders right th

ey all seek for fish and because we have not selective fishing methods I mean these nets are not selective these nets are traps for all life not only the fish that are being targeted also the Predators that are feeding on these species [Music] thank you there have been scientific destinations that say that 70 of the seabirds have been destroyed by the fishing industry over the past 50 years it's crazy 70 and when we go at Sea we film actually even small fishing vessels you know within one hour c

apturing about 20 protected seabirds like one vessel one hour and there are hundreds of them in the area dolphins have that particularity to wash up on shore more than sharks more than sea birds so you see them more but even that the scientists estimated that only about 20 percent of the kills Dolphins at Sea worship and Shore so 80 just sink to the bottom of the ocean so this is only the visible part of the iceberg you to understand that dolphins are on the top of the food chain right they have

no Predators except from us Predator is a keystone species in an ecosystem and it manages to keep the biodiversity if you want to have a healthy ecosystem if you want to have many species and healthy populations of fish you need top predators [Music] they do say that once we notice a drop in the population it's already too late that's it they will not recover from it what the french fleets are doing is illegal and we've known about it for some time but trying to get people to understand that it

's happening that's been a real problem so I suggested to lamia in France you know we really got to get this in front of people's eyes so take some of those corpses those bodies of those Dolphins take them to Paris and put them in front of the Eiffel Tower that'll get their attention to the general public people are shocked they're like I mean we had to put a sign that says this is a real dead dolphin because people thought these were fake dolphins and people thought we don't have dolphins in Fr

ance what are you talking about do people make the connection between the fish and the shrimp on their plate and when they see a dead dolphin coming from a Sea Shepherd campaign obviously people are emotional we force them to connect because we have a banner that goes straight to the point and that says thousands of dolphins die each year so that you can eat fish right I mean this is and the story clear end of story and then but we have people like our volunteers actually talk to people and expl

ain what's happening and people are shocked they have no idea situation with dolphins until we got into this issue was that you have a very strong fishing Lobby that is pushing hard so that the logo doesn't change so that there is no more control at Sea and on the other side you have a general public that doesn't even know that we have Dolphins so when you are the politics who make decisions you're just gonna satisfy the one that is just pushing the hardest and you know that your population does

n't know so what we do is we set the spotlights on the issue and we make the situation less comfortable yes for the politics I truly believe that if the if the people care then the government cares definitely and if it's not a priority for people it will never be a priority for our leaders and governments because Dolphins don't vote but people who care for those things do votes and we need to make people who care for Dolphin know about the situation yeah when we did it in front of the National A

ssembly in Paris I mean this is like very symbolic place and the minister of the sea was there that day and we had all the media we had called transpress agency and there were four dolphins instead of the sea issued a video the next day saying that what we did was unacceptable that she was shocked and that she would look into it so that we will be prosecuted because this is not legal and my answer to that is well obviously what is shocking is not that we are exposing these Dolphins the shocking

part is that they are being killed in the first place and when we are being brought to the police and they tell us you have to sign what we call in France a low reminder and you are free to go I'm like I tell my team we are not signing a low reminder because we didn't forget the law and that law is made to protect Dolphins so we are actually enforcing and respecting the spirits of the law spirits of the lawsuit protect Dolphins and the problem is fishermen have the legal obligation to declare th

e bycatch and they don't do it less than five percent of fishermen actually declare the bycatch and none of them has ever been pursued people don't know about what's Happening Here people don't know how many dolphins are being killed the bycatch numbers are far greater than what the fishermen or the government want us to believe [Music] we're killing more Dolphins here on the French Coast than in the Pharaohs and in taiji in Japan combined every single year and it's happening out of sight what s

eashell patrons is doing it they're putting the spotlight on these atrocities and they're showing all of that dolphins that are being found on the beaches that are being found in the fishing nets that our crew are documenting out at Sea and all the beaches every single day and we're going to keep documenting this we're going to keep showing this until it stops we're not going to give up thank you it is illegal to intentionally catch a dolphin because it's a protected species it is legal to catch

it accidentally but yes when you see that there are so many dolphins around your boat and you put the net anyway the word accidental is it's like playing on words because we know that it happens it's very very frequent so how can we still say it's accidental there are two professions which are almost sacred when it comes to politicians fishing and farming they're afraid to uh they're going to get them upset and there's going to be demonstrations and kind of things like that and they don't want

to push it we have all of these laws and regulations the problem is a lack of Economic and political will to enforce them [Music] there's just a refusal both by France and by the European Union to do anything about it [Music] is depression [Music] is foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] Romeo foreign [Music] what we can do is to expose what is happening and push the government in France for legislative change so that they stop going fishing into the areas but they shouldn't be fishing this ti

me of year that they stop using fishing methods that are killing too many dolphins basically so what we're doing is we're showing to the world and the specialty French public what is happening in their backyard Fisheries in Europe only exist because of massive government subsidies so actually it's a drain on the taxpayer it's not making a profit for anybody but people want their fish you know and so they're willing to subsidize The Fishery and they're willing to tolerate uh these abuses in order

so they can have their fish dinners foreign it's the culture here to enjoy seafood and people love the fact that there's a richness of marine life but there's a disconnect there of the consequences well the various terms Seafood says it all right I mean we refer to the Sea Life see light because you know seafood and harvest it all objectifies the ocean it objectifies the animals so what we're trying to do is to you know to put the face back on the fish and the animals that are being killed you

wouldn't cross anyone's Minds to refer to Elephants or dogs in towns you know but for fish for sharks that's okay because we really consider them as a commodity I don't know how it is elsewhere but in France when you say you're a vegetarian very often they would they will offer you fish because we don't even think that this is an animal right you know fruit of the sea fruit of the sea exactly yeah like this is not fruit you know today the number one thread on the ocean is overfishing it's the fi

sh that's in our place it's not the fish that people eat for survival there is enough fish in the ocean for that the problem is that huge majority of people who could easily do without fish and who eat fish on a regular basis and don't even think about it the global consumption of fish has doubled the past 50 years I mean there is not enough fish in the ocean to satisfy this thing eight billion people cannot all have fish exactly conception right now is about 22 or 24 kilos per person of fish pe

r year and if you look at what the ocean can produce on a global scale and the global population we should consume eight kilos per person so we are like consuming three times more than we should so at the rate we are eating fish there is no way to fish it in a sustainable way when you eat a hamburger you're eating fish when you eat eggs and milk you're eating fish why because 40 percent of all of the fish is taken out of the sea is rendered into fish meal which is fed to chickens and to pigs and

to domestic salmon so we live in a world where chickens on factory farms eat more fish than all the puffins and albatrosses on the planet we live in a world where domestic house cats eat more fish than all the seals in the North Atlantic Ocean this is a world out of balance we have to we have to restore that we caught a vessel in the Gabon a few months ago especially for shrimp but they had 99.8 bycatch on boards so for one shrimp cocktail they were killing thousands of animals it's crazy but n

obody sees that they just see the shrimp cocktail that they're buying at the seafood place the seafood you know see live yeah so that's something that we're really trying to show to the people like you know for whatever you're eating there's a lot of suffering that goes behind it [Music] for many years I've been in the position of the one who really loves animals and who don't want to harm any animal and who still was eating animals so I know what it's like to have that um inside contradiction u

m and I know that it it doesn't work when people point the finger at you it didn't work on me I mean the change came from from inside because I felt too hypocritical and I think everyone wants to be in Alliance with what they believe in it's not a comfortable thing to do something that you know is in contradiction with your ethics and I don't think anyone is happy about being a part of destruction of the planet or inflicting so much pain to animals humans tend to be disconnected from their food

whether it be meat or fish or whatever it's uh don't really give it much thought as to where it comes from the way that fishing is done especially when you look at Super trawlers and very large scale fishing it's not sustainable and so there's got to be Alternatives that we have to start discussing we have to be open to it a lot of times I think people think that us other people are going to do it you know or the government's going to do it or technology is going to come in and save us it's alwa

ys somebody else but you know really it's uh each and every one of us it's our responsibility [Music] just one person can make a difference it really means doing what you do best with the abilities and skills that you have done a lot of activism my whole life I've done all kinds of engineering or did my apprenticeship in aircraft and then worked with plant Machinery but I'm 30 and this is the first time in my whole life I've done engineering with something that I care about I'm the first officer

and I'm also my biologist when you are aware of all the problems that we have at some point you can not just watch what is going on and not try to improve things my name's Jackie and I'm third mate on the age of Union if I don't do anything then I feel it's hopeless and you know I don't want to feel that when I'm out here you know I feel hopeful there's so many ways you can contribute and this is what makes the whole thing strong is that we can have all different types of talents and assets to

be as complete as possible and all focus on I mean what's the most important everything I mean really defending life when I'm old I don't want to look back at my life and say I just looked you know and did nothing that was I couldn't do that we all have to step back and think what happens when there are no more fish what happens when future Generations your own kin are not going to enjoy the same traditions in the same Wildlife that you do on the ocean and so I think we all have to think about h

ow do we protect that how do we protect that future there is no like magic formula so I would say the first thing is just to you know at least reduce the conceptions because we don't need to eat much and it used to be like that I mean our grandparents they didn't eat meat every day they didn't eat fish every day it was you know once a week or so and then you know over the years they've been developing all the Agriculture and so on that was able to produce cheap uh enough meat and fish so that co

uld be eaten on a more regular basis but maybe it shouldn't be that way you know this kind of uh industrialized fishing that is the problem don't support industrialized fishing all these companies are making money and still on the water because people are still buying their products every time you buy something you're voting you know you have power it's about every day every day what you're doing and and if you are choosing to buy one product instead of another you are supporting an industry ove

r another a type of fishing method over another and and all of that is having an impact multiply by the number of people that's how you can make things change at one point we thought the ozone layer was an unsolvable problem but with Collective action we were able to repair that now we're faced with climate change we're faced with biodiversity loss we're faced with all sorts of large sounding problems but nothing is too great of a problem that we can't solve collectively people need to find that

connection again to Nature and that can be done by just going out into the ocean by going out into the into the forest and just reconnect and get away from your computer get away from your Instagram and Facebook and just go out there and see what's happening It's A Beautiful World just experience it for yourself we're here because this is the right thing to do the right place to be and the right time to do it don't worry about the future focus on the present what you do in the present will Defi

ne what the future will be so that's all that's where your power is in the present and don't get distracted by what could be make the future what you want it to be the best you can [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]