04x05 - Saving the Sturgeon and Carol Farming in Key Largo

[bunniefuu]

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- [Announcer] Coming up next

on Jonathan Bird's "Blue World,"

Jonathan visits an underwater
farm where they grow coral.

But first, Jonathan joins
a team of biologists

working to save the sturgeon.

All of this today on
Jonathan Bird's "Blue World."

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Meet Jonathan Bird.

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One of the world's top underwater
nature cinematographers.

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Traveling the world on assignment

for all the major networks.

He is an Emmy Award-winning authority

on the underwater world.

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In freshwater or salt,
reefs, wrecks, or caves,

Jonathan documents the
world beneath the waves.

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Welcome to the "Blue World."

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- Caviar is one of the
most well-known delicacies

in the world.

An epicurean tradition dating back

to the ancient Greeks and beyond.

The Romans loved their caviar,

and today, a couple thousand years later,

people still go crazy for these
expensive salty fish eggs.

Caviar comes from an ancient
fish called a sturgeon.

Sturgeon are one of the oldest families

of bony fish in existence.

They've been around for
hundreds of millions of years.

[gentle music]

In fact, during the time of the dinosaurs,

there were sturgeons
swimming around in oceans,

rivers, and lakes.

[intriguing music]

Today there are 27 species
of sturgeon remaining,

and all of them are endangered.

In North America, sturgeon
used to be so plentiful

that they were considered
a nuisance to fishermen.

But in the mid-1800s,

the caviar industry discovered
the North American sturgeon,

and within 20 years they were nearly gone.

[soft piano music]

Now, more than 100 years later,

sturgeon stocks are only
just beginning to rebound.

[intriguing music]

To learn more about the sturgeon,

I've teamed up with Jen Hayes,

a biologist who did her PhD work

with the lake sturgeon in
the St. Lawrence River.

These days, Jen and her
husband David Doubilet

are underwater photographers

working on a story about the St. Lawrence

for National Geographic Magazine.

I tag along with Jen and David

as we explore the river where Jen grew up.

[gentle guitar music]

We pass a huge hydroelectric dam.

It generates clean renewable
power for the area.

[gentle guitar music]

But it does have an
environmental side effect.

[soft dramatic music]

Hydroelectric dams are usually
built in the parts of a river

with the most vertical drop.

This creates more elevation
of water behind the dam

to run the turbines.

But the places with the most vertical drop

are usually rapids with fast-moving water,

and that's exactly where
sturgeon like to spawn.

[soft piano music]

The rest of the river
has slow-moving water

and a muddy bottom.

The eggs sink into the mud and vanish.

What few rocks there are get
a coating of algae and plants,

not good for spawning.

[soft dramatic music]

With no rapids, the sturgeon have no place

to lay their eggs,

and that has made it tough
for this fish to reproduce.

[soft dramatic music]

New York State's Department
of Environmental Conservation

has undertaken an ambitious project

to help increase the number
of sturgeon in the river.

- Hi, Jon. How are you?
- Good.

I meet Roger Clinton, an
aquatic biologist with the state

who is out this morning with his team.

The team's job is part
research and part midwife.

They're collecting eggs
from healthy sturgeon

to raise them partly in captivity.

Dave, choice?

Certain areas of the river
have sturgeon present.

Roger and his team have
set nets to capture

both male and female mature sturgeon.

The end of the net is
marked with a red flag.

The nets catch fish as
they swim along the bottom,

but they don't harm the fish.

Gently, each fish comes aboard the boat

and goes into a holding tank.

[water splashing]

They keep plenty of fresh
oxygenated water in the tank

to keep the fish alive.

[water splashing]

When they have three or
four fish in the tank,

they head back to the dock.

The fish are measured,
weighed, and tagged.

[measuring tape clicking]

The biologists are building a database

to keep track of individual fish.

If they catch them in subsequent years,

they can compare notes
from the previous years

to learn how quickly they grow.

- [Roger] Okay. Yep.

- [Jonathan] The smaller
sturgeon go back into the river,

where they take a few minutes
to catch their breath.

Sturgeon can live to be over 100 years old

and weigh more than 200 pounds.

While these might look like big
fish, they get a lot bigger.

But big ones these days are rare.

[water rushing]

Since sturgeon are not
mature enough to produce eggs

until they're about 20 years old,

most of these fish are immature

and have to go back into the river.

They swim away slowly at
first, none the worse for wear.

[water rushing]

The larger fish, especially
females that have a lot of eggs,

go up the hill to a larger holding tank

with a pump recirculating fresh water.

A few mature males go into another tank.

Once they have enough fish
in their holding tanks,

it's time to make some baby sturgeon.

[water splashing]

First, a male sturgeon
is taken from his tank

where the team extracts
sperm using a syringe.

[fish thudding]
[indistinct chattering]

- [Dave] Turn that around.
- [Roger] Don't even pull.

- [Dave] You're good?

- [Jonathan] Then the fish is set free.

[water splashing]

Once they have samples of
sperm from several fish,

it's time to harvest some
eggs from the females.

My job is to hold the egg collection bowl

as a female sturgeon comes out of the tank

and her eggs are massaged from her belly.

This does not harm the fish at all.

And immediately after this process,

she's set free in the river.

- [Roger] Ready? See what comes a...

- [Jonathan] Oh, yeah.

Oh baby.

[indistinct bustle]

Talk about a science project.

Now the eggs are fertilized
with the sperm from the male,

and the biologists will attempt to create

the perfect conditions
to produce thousands

of healthy sturgeon babies.

- [Roger] Active sperm on eggs.

- All of these eggs are
going to be baby sturgeon.

And that's a lot of sturgeon

to put back into the population.

I'm using a feather to stir these eggs.

We've added an agent in there
that's sort of made of clay.

And we stir it around,
and this clay substance

helps the eggs to lose their stickiness.

The problem is that we
don't want sticky eggs.

In the wild, sticky eggs are good

because they stick to
the bottom of the river.

But in a hatchery,
sticky eggs are not good.

Next, the fertilized eggs go into bags

to be transported in
coolers to the hatchery.

They will be raised there

until they're about the size of your hand.

[indistinct chattering]

Once the baby sturgeon get to be about,

oh, about that big,
they release them here.

Raising fish in a hatchery
helps the dwindling st*lks

of sturgeon in the river,

but it doesn't do anything
to address their loss

of spawning habitat.

Fortunately, someone's working
on that problem as well.

I meet Ben Lenz,* an
environmental scientist

with a New York Power Authority.

He's part of a team that installed

an experimental spawning bed for sturgeon,

paid for by the Power Authority.

The location of the bed is a secret,

but Ben told us how to find it.

[playful music]

It is quite far from a dock
and we have a lot of gear.

So while Jen and David bring the boat,

the rest of the "Blue
World" team drives out

to a remote area near the
river to set up base camp.

[upbeat funk music]

Soon Jen and David arrive,

and we load the boat for a
dive on the spawning beds.

[upbeat funk music]

Cameraman Todd is along to film

the underwater action with me.

[upbeat funk music]

Jen's nephew Troy is captaining the boat

so Jen and I can dive
down to the spawning beds.

[upbeat funk music]

- Yeah, and he's doing a good job.

And there's a lot of species
on the bed right now.

There's redhorse that lay their eggs

just ahead of the sturgeon.

And things that come on the
bed to eat all the eggs.

It's like a fiesta. It's
like a big buffet of eggs.

When the sturgeon spawn

and the redhorse spawn, you'll have eels,

there's walleye, there's carp galore.

- We're diving close to a dam

in extremely fast-moving water.

This dive can be quite tricky,

as the current is too
strong to swim against.

We'll have to jump into the water upstream

from the spawning bed and drift down

until we get to it.

[indistinct chattering]
[water splashing]

We'll need to get lucky
to hit the spawning bed.

Underwater, the visibility
actually isn't bad for a river,


But the current is ripping.

There's no way I can swim against it,

but instead just tumble
along the river bottom.

All I can do is follow Jen downstream.

And even though the spawning
bed is a third the size

of a football field,
we completely miss it.

We surface without seeing any sturgeon.

Well, went down okay. Current was ripping.

I went flying by all these rocks

and stuff getting smashed into them.

Bubbles everywhere. And I
think we missed the sturgeon.

Well, I'll try again.

Troy positions the boat
a little closer to shore,

a tricky proposition in this much current.

- [Troy] We got to get
a little bit closer.

- [Jen] Okay. Let's try it.

- Ready?
- Okay.

[water splashing]

On the second try, we hit it just right

and the current carries
us out into an area

that doesn't quite look
like a natural river bottom.

That's because it's not.

The New York Power Authority
created this spawning bed

by dumping tons and tons of crushed rocks

onto a fast-moving section of water

to simulate the conditions of rapids.

They hope it would encourage
the sturgeon to spawn.

[gentle guitar music]

As we approach the beds, I start
to see sturgeon everywhere.

Using remote cameras towed by boats,

scientists learned that
sturgeon come to the beds

at certain times of the year,

but nobody has ever seen
them actually spawning.

[gentle guitar music]

This sturgeon is eating
the algae from the rocks.

[gentle guitar music]

Many of the sturgeon
have lampreys on them.

These primitive fish are like vampires,

attaching themselves to a sturgeon

and living off of its blood.

[intriguing music]

I grab onto a larger rock
and cling desperately

in the current, flapping
like a flag in the breeze.

This is definitely not an
easy way to film anything.

[gentle guitar music]

I only have one hand
available for my camera,

and I can barely hold it
in place in the water.

[gentle guitar music]

But sturgeon are all around me.

A gathering of this many fish would seem

to indicate spawning, but so
far there's no sign of it.

[gentle music]

A glance between the rocks
definitely shows evidence

of spawning.

[gentle music]

Sturgeon eggs.

This is why they're sticky,

to cling between the rocks in the current.

I can hear a strange sound.

It sounds like a clunking or a vibration.

I suspect it's coming from
the fish, but I can't see it.

Are the fish fighting?

I fight my way upstream,
holding onto the rocks

to pull myself against the current.

Then, just ahead of me, it happens.

The male vibrates his
body against the female.

Then he releases his sperm

just as the female releases her eggs.

[gentle music]

The fish are spawning.

And not only am I the first
person to ever see these fish

spawning on the artificial spawning beds,

but I've managed to somehow
film it in all this current.

[gentle music]

Sperm clouds the water,
fertilizing the eggs,

and the eggs sink to the bottom and stick.

The sound comes from the
male hitting the rocks

on the bottom as his body shakes.

So every time I hear that sound,

I know that somewhere
nearby a pair is spawning.

And I hear it a lot.

The spawning grounds definitely work.

After a while, the current
pushes cameraman Todd and I

off the edge of the spawning bed,

so we call it a dive
and head to the surface.

[gentle music]

Jen surface just before us.

She and David greet us
with a victory dance.

[cheerful music]
[Dave imitates cheerful song]

We can cover a lot of river
just getting our gear off

and climbing onto the boat.

[bright orchestral music]

That's just amazing.

Hundreds and hundreds of sturgeon,

all sort of getting together to spawn.

And as far as the eye could
see in every direction,

which actually is only about 20 feet,

there's sturgeon looking at you.

Very cool.

So at the end of a long
day of battling the current

to film a secret sturgeon spawning bed,

we bring the bow to shore
at our remote riverside camp

to warm up and celebrate

having proved that sturgeon
are in fact spawning

on these beds.

Over their millions of years on earth,

sturgeon have encountered
many obstacles to survival,

but humans are the greatest obstacle.

From overfishing to loss
of spawning grounds,

the sturgeon nearly didn't survive.

[soft dramatic music]

But now with efforts to
propagate the species

and rebuild their spawning grounds,

sturgeons are making a fantastic comeback.

It just goes to prove that
when people put their minds

to it, they can repair the
damage they've done to nature.

It just takes a little creative thinking

and the determination to do what's right.

[gentle music]

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- [Announcer] Don't go away.

Jonathan is about to
become a coral farmer.

[gentle music]

- [Jonathan] Coral reefs
are incredibly diverse

marine habitats that are
important to the health

of tropical ocean ecosystems.

Unfortunately, all over the world,

coral reefs are being threatened.

Coral is very sensitive to
temperature and water quality.

In some places, the reefs
are not looking very good.

In the Florida Keys,
several species of corals,

particularly staghorn coral,
which grows in shallow water,

have been hit hard by a
combination of storms,

disease, and predators.

Ken Nedimyer is doing something about it.

Ken is the founder of the
Coral Restoration Foundation

in Key Largo, and he has figured out

how to farm staghorn coral.

[gentle music]

Cameraman Tim and I grab
a flight down to Key Largo

to meet Ken and learn
how his coral farm works.

We meet up with Ken on
a sunny spring morning

for a day of checking up
on his underwater crops.

[gentle guitar music]

I give him a hand putting
his boat in the water.

[gentle guitar music]

Ken takes us less than a mile off shore

to the secret location of his coral farm.

- I thought it might be
fun to pick up some corals,

kind of show you what we do.

Pull corals off the trees, tag them,

and then bundle them,
kind of the whole routine,

and then we'll take them out
and plant them on the reef.

- [Jonathan] I thought I was
just going out to observe,

but clearly Ken has plans to try

to get some useful work out of me.

In fact, he's always looking
for volunteers to lend a hand.

We arrive on site and Ken
ties up to his mooring.

Next I get a briefing on
what to expect under water

and what I'll be doing to help.

- So we have 100 different genetic strains

of staghorn coral here.

- [Jonathan] Ken's weight belt contains

an unusual assortment of
tools for a scuba diver.

- Got these.

- [Jonathan] Chisel. Huh.

- In case we see sharks.

- Next, it's time to suit
up and hit the water.

[metallic clanking]

- Okay, I think I'm ready.

[water splashing]

The coral farm is only 25 feet deep,

and it doesn't look like any
coral reef I've ever seen.

The coral is being grown on structures

that Ken calls coral trees.

[gentle music]

These grunts are already treating

the coral trees like reefs.

[gentle music]

Each coral tree has a
bunch of small pieces

of staghorn coral hanging off of it

like Christmas tree ornaments.

[gentle guitar music]

Over time, the corals
get larger and larger

until they start to crowd each other.

[gentle music]

What Ken and I are going to do
is thin out the large pieces.

[gentle music]

Ken shows me the technique.

Basically, he's snipping
off pieces of coral

with a pair of wire cutters.

[gentle music]

Next it's my turn,

and it doesn't feel right
to be breaking coral.

This goes against everything
I've ever been taught,

but Ken assured me that it's
okay for the coral on the farm.

[gentle music]

And we aren't going to throw
away these coral cuttings.

Next, Ken and I are tying short sections

of fishing line on all
the pieces I cut off.

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

Then we start hanging
the cuttings on a tree.

Over the next year,
they will grow as large

as the pieces they were cut from.

[gentle music]

A local trumpet fish comes
in to inspect our work.

[gentle music]

And a resident grouper hides
under one of Ken's experiments.

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

Finally, we harvest a
dozen or so large pieces

of staghorn coral and
head back to the boat.

[gentle music]

That is a very impressive operation.

There's a lot of coral growing down there,

and it seems really happy

to be growing on those little coral trees.

Very neat.

Back on the boat, I fill a tub with water.

[water splashing]

So this is the coral that
we're going to transplant.

So you let them grow out.

Then you cut them off and hang more up

and let them grow out and...

- Everything out there started with...

All the coral would've fit in this bucket.

- [Jonathan] Really?
- The whole thing.

- [Jonathan] Next we move
the boat a few hundred yards

to a reef where we will
transplant the coral

we just harvested.

- [Ken] So this is a reef
called snapper ledge,

and there's a big ledge on it,

and there's lots of fish usually,

- But there's hardly any staghorn coral.

A lot of people ask why we
roll backwards off the boat.

And the answer's quite simple.

Because if you roll forwards,
you're still in the boat.

[water splashing]

Coral ready for transplant.

It's pretty amazing.

I don't think many people get to do this.

I'm going to be part of making a new reef.

Down on the bottom, Ken leads
me to a barren section of reef

that could definitely
use some staghorn coral.

[gentle music]

He starts by scraping off
algae and marine growth

to clear a section for the
newly transplanted coral.

[gentle music]

Next, he mixes up a
putty-like glob of epoxy

that can cure under water.

[gentle music]

Then he presses the staghorn
coral into the epoxy.

In a few hours, it will
be stuck permanently.

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

Now it's my turn to try the same technique

with the next piece.

If I don't scrape all the
way down to bare rock,

then the epoxy won't stick

and the coral will most likely die.

[gentle music]

Ken and I plant about a dozen
pieces of staghorn together

in an area about four feet across.

[gentle music]

It takes about half an
hour for the two of us

to plant all the coral we brought down.

[gentle music]

And when we're done,

the fish are already moving
into their new habitat.

[gentle music]

This is a piece of staghorn coral

that Ken planted a year ago.

It has already grown over
the epoxy and onto the reef.

It's doing well and growing quickly.

With our mission complete,
we head back to the boat.

[gentle music]

Thanks to the work of
Ken Nedimyer, we now know

that at least some species
of coral can be farmed

and used to replant damaged reefs.

[gentle music]

While this technique doesn't
address the threats to coral,

it does provide a new method
for restoring damaged reefs.

[gentle music]

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