My Mercury (2024)

[bunniefuu]

Yeah, well, here we are.

Five days on the island

already.

Things are going great.

The dunes all around.

Isolation all about.

But the work

is the most important thing.

And that's why I'm here.

I'm gonna do it.

Carry on, push through,

do the monitoring work.

Chase the seals. Never forget.

Never forget the seals

on Mercury Island.

So anyway,

this is just to say that

basically, this guy

is f*cking glad

to be back here for a while.

Down the mountain to the desert.

And then?

When we get to the desert...

When you first get to...

The first desert, you turn left.

You drive for about 300K,

then you get to the second

desert, and you turn right.

In 1988, I went

to visit my brother, Yves,

on an island off the Skeleton

Coast called Ichaboe Island.

We drove through

the Namib Desert to Lderitz,

which is the harbour

from which the boats leave

to go to the Guano Islands.

Yves is a nature

conservationist.

There are very few young men

who would have

wilfully signed up

to manage 50,000 gannets

on a remote island

where there was

absolutely nobody.

His enthusiasm for what he was

doing completely intrigued me,

and I wanted to go

and see for myself.

As we got closer and closer

to Ichaboe,

I could just smell

this pungent guano, birdshit.

And then the sounds.

It's a cacophony.

When you step

onto Ichaboe,

if you've got a passion

for seabirds,

it's mind-blowing;

the entire island being covered

from one end to the other

with an incredible gannet

population, at that time,

along with thousands of

penguins

and thousands of bank

cormorants and Cape cormorants.

Ichaboe Island

is just mesmerising.

Yves was a headman

on Ichaboe.

Headmen were first posted

to these bird islands

in the late 1800s,

after guano harvesters

mined the islands flat

and left nothing

for the birds to nest in.

By the time Yves got there,

industrial fishing

was forcing the birds

to travel further and further

to find food for their young,

threatening their survival

even more.

By protecting the seabirds,

my enigmatic brother had found

his niche as a conservationist,

and it was heart-warming

for me to see.

In the morning here,

it's the best time to come

and check who's male and female,

because you can see

all the footprints

on the females' backs.

You can see all the footprints.

From the males when

they copulate with females.

Then the male actually

on the female's back,

standing on the wings

and the back there.

And when the ground gets

nice and moist, like it is now,

you can see who's been

banging away at night.

Yves's exhilaration

with the natural world

was contagious.

I encouraged him

to video his experiences,

and I would film

whenever I could visit.

Later, he entrusted me

with his diaries.

After my visit, he wrote,

"14th September, 1988."

"My sister came to visit."

"At last, I could reveal

Ichaboe to someone else."

"There were bird densities

like I hadn't experienced."

"The cherry on the top

was when the gannets

obliterated a crayfish boat

from view."

"The snow-white orchestra

showing off

just before she left."

After I spent four years

on Ichaboe Island,

there was a survey vessel

going up to Mercury Island.

Mercury had been abandoned

for nearly 20 years,

and there was a seal problem

developing there.

Since I was the conservator

on Ichaboe,

my boss, Dr Williams, said,

"Can you please come with me,

and do an assessment

and a survey of the island,

and go and look

what's going on there?"

I was very excited to go there.

So I said,

"I'm jumping on that boat."

Of the island, author

Lawrence Green once wrote,

"Some forgotten shipmaster

showed a touch of genius

when he named Mercury Island."

"That bare rock

with the birds crying onto it

shakes like quicksilver

whenever the sea comes in

from the south-west

and dashes into the cave."

"This is the place

where one man after another

has gone mad."

Wildness.

Utter wildness.

I was absolutely astounded.

You don't get wilder than this.

Mercury is so remote

and so far from civilisation.

That augmented

the feeling of wildness.

It looks like a sleeping,

kind of crocodilian,

dinosaur-ish, weird creature.

The whole place was cosmic.

They dropped me

at the bottom of the jetty

and I climbed up the stairs,

and I was faced with this wave

of seals coming straight at me.

And I just stood there, frozen.

There was nobody on the island.

The whole settlement

was deserted.

We walked around the island,

went right up to the top,

and as far as we could go.

All we could see

was this complete imbalance,

with a seething mass of seals

everywhere

bumping into

every seabird colony.

It became a competition

for space.

We realised then

that the whole thing

would eventually

be colonised by seals.

No gannets, no penguins,

the whole island would have

just gone to the seals.

Should we just allow nature

to take its course?

Since we were the ones

that put it in the wrong place,

now there's only one species

on this planet

that can make it right,

and that's us human beings.

Then we made a plan, right

then.

Mercury Island

has to be manned,

and the seals

must be chased off,

if we wish to prevent

this local extinction.

I was the perfect person

at the perfect time

to go to the perfect place...

which was in total disorder.

"17th October, 1990."

"Animal and wild surround."

"The seals, like the sound

of a nightmare on repeat,

seem to be talking

in human sentences,

in between the growls, burps,

farts, whines, squeals, snorts,

raucous shouts

and hysterical laughter."

"How the birds have managed

to survive these conditions,

I don't know."

"Let me leave it at that

for tonight."

Yes, good morning, pal.

I'm here on Mercury Island.

It's unbelievable.

Un-believ-able!

What an absolutely...

...beautiful ball of a planet

this is!

I just can't believe it, man.

It's absolutely stunning!

And... there they go.

And now it's just me

and the dudes.

"Shout,

scream and whip."

"I've got 15,000 seals

to deal with."

"Ichaboe is a civilised world

compared with this lot."

"Once, this island would have

had a myriad of species

living in equilibrium."

"Unmanned, the seals

have made it their domain."

"With no one to deter them,

and no predators,

their numbers grew and grew."

"Their heavy bodies destroy

everything in their path."

Shoo!

Shoo!

And here we are!

The harsh realities thereof.

Had a wash, shower,

washed my hair.

Put on a set of new clothes.

Clean.

All spruced up and brand new.

This is where I am the king.

This is my domain.

It's out of the wind.

My perfect bowl.

We're in a little amphitheatre,

out of the wind.

Bank Rock...

and the sky!

Let... Let us walk along

this intricate little path here.

It's really a kind of path

that, er...

You need to have

goat's feet, man! Goat's feet!

You gotta be nifty on your toes,

you gotta make sure

you land with your...

Your foot's gotta be...

Sorry, just need to...

Yeah, sorry, Vid, I can't hold

your hand now, eh, because...

That's fair enough

without a video in your hand,

but when you have, er... Phew!

I really thought

I was gonna fall.

And I'm stuck here now.

I've just about had

heart failure here,

because I didn't have my feet

in the right place.

They have to be...

in the right place!

sh*t!

So you see,

that's the goat path.

Part of the Earth

man doesn't venture to

too often.

And when you do,

you do so with trepidation.

Yeah, and that's Uranus Cave.

The hollow mountain in the sea.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!

And that's Growler Rock.

He just growled. The Growler!

I call him the Growler,

you know? Ha!

Yes, most impressive,

most impressive.

Most impressive indeed!

So there we have the island

getting litten up.

And there's my friend,

Bank Rock.

That is the head

of the very beast.

With the eye

right in the centre.

And then get right onto the top,

like we're riding on its back.

There, by Jupiter Peak,

or on top of the Dragon's Spine.

Surrounded by all

this incredible isolation.

Splendid isolation

I don't need no one

The true essence

of island living

is to be by yourself.

And nobody else knows that

better than me.

"I have just

acupunctured the island

with about a hundred needles

that show the places

that need to be guarded

against the seal invasion."

"Magnetic Mercury attracts them

and the island

sure offers a haven

for those furry,

whiskered beasts."

"Niches and ledges everywhere."

"But the seals

have an alternative."

"The birds do not."

What a pleasure to have

a little thing like that around.

He just, like, softens your...

...softens

an island soul's heart!

Right, I'll put you back in

the, erm, studio.

There's a good lad.

And there are some penguins

in my room.

Let's go and see what

these little f*ckers are up to.

Eh?

There he is now.

All huddled up on my chest.

And I'm just gonna keep him

like this until he's dry.

Eh?

Our patient has reached

hospital status.

And we're gonna give him

a hot-water bottle.

Island-style hot Oros bottle.

There they are, both together.

The penguin chick

and the Oros bottle.

And it's gonna warm it up nicely

under the blanket

for him, there.

Finn has made

a dramatic recovery.

Hey! It was me that

saved your life, my friend.

Now you're all hot and excited

and full of beans.

Yeah.

We'll put you in the greenhouse

where there's a wet floor.

Well, that's how

a penguin chick recovers.

Yeah.

Seals are the most

radical animal in the world.

They are at the top

of their evolutionary scale

and that is what makes them

so amazing.

You can't imagine a better

seal.

It is the most agile creature.

Far more agile than a dolphin.

They've got a thick skin.

They've got a layer of blubber.

They've got an undercoat

of fur.

They've got a top coat of fur.

They're completely equipped

to deal with the cold.

They can dive deeper.

They can swim further.

They can stay longer out at

sea.

They are the most

incredible animals.

So, since there's

too many of them,

obviously they have an impact

on more vulnerable species,

like the gannets and the

penguins and the cormorants.

He's one fine little fellow,

this one. Alias Kingston.

And he's been brought up

for the last week or so.

Them dirty feet.

But he's doing all right.

Hey, it's breakfast time, pal.

And one day, you're gonna see

that swim past you, bru.

It's gonna swim past you

like that.

So now, let's have you. Come on.

Come on. Come on.

That's the way!

That's the way!

On Mercury Island,

I did the feeding and foraging

of bank cormorants.

They are the most important

bringers of nest material.

They swim out

to a particular bank,

that's why they're called

bank cormorants,

where seaweed grows,

and they rip it off the rock,

and bring it back

to the island.

It's crucial to have

the bank cormorants there

to be able to provide the other

birds with nest material.

These are so I know exactly

who you guys are, eh?

For penguins, I used to mark

a nest, mark the adults,

and when the eggs came out,

I used to mark them, as well.

A little bit shy this morning.

And you weigh them

every five days

from the day they hatch

until the day they leave.

They're incredibly

entertaining.

They've all

got individual characters,

especially if they're

surrounding your house,

and you see the same ones

every day.

And I did the same thing

with gannets, as well.

They only lay one egg,

so you weigh those chicks

from day one until day 95.

They're completely helpless

for the first two weeks

of their lives

and you just watch

this little thing grow

from a bald chick into its down

and then into its feathers,

and then getting ready

to fledge,

and watch its weight pick up

every day.

And for me,

it was just fascinating.

It drove me out there

every day for years.

Nothing! Nothing!

"Gannets

playing in the gale."

"They circle the island,

and I watch them twisting

necks, adjusting lenses."

"The blue accurate eyes

stare down at me inquisitively

as they make their sounds

to avoid collision of wings."

"I really, really love

gannets."

"Sometimes

I think I could stay forever."

"Strange how I miss

absolutely nobody."

"No one. Not a soul."

"Do I have something

others don't have?"

"Or do I lack something

others have,

so I can live like I do,

on a windblown, unfriendly

place, like Planet Mercury?"

We had four kids under five.

Five under eight.

We continued going

backwards and forwards

to Belgium

and... and South Africa.

Yvie was such

a weird little thing.

I didn't know what to do

with this child.

I mean, he wouldn't talk

until he was three.

He pretended he was a little

dog when he was small.

When I told him

to do something,

he would bark at me.

When he first went to school,

he was impossible,

he wouldn't do any work

whatsoever.

He'd sit in the classroom

and stare out of the window

and think about the sea.

I built a four-bedroomed house.

We put a hut for him

in the bottom of the garden.

He wanted that and he loved it.

I never worried about him

being by himself

because I just thought

he would know how to handle it.

It's water day.

Getting brought along

by the Tobias Hainyeko.

Sweet fresh water!

I think I'd better

get some clothes on.

Been kaalgat all day.

Water of love,

deep in the ground

But there ain't no water here

to be found

Yeah, well,

we had our re-supply,

and this is what the place

looks like afterwards.

Everything stacked up here.

And then over here, we're ready,

they can drop the H b*mb,

because the shop

is completely kitted out

with almost everything

imaginable.

The little shop on Mercury.

Here you make

all your purchases.

Erm... what can I say?

All alone on the bloody island

once again,

but that's the way

one wants it to be.

Sometimes

you just wanna get away,

you don't want anybody

to hassle you,

you don't want anybody

to be there.

You wanna run around kaalgat.

You wanna paint the buildings

bright purple.

You want to...

Anything.

You just can do anything.

That's the best part

of being alone.

Blue neon light,

I catch you on the morrow

I catch, catch me now,

I think I got your number

I don't care anyhow

I think about tomorrow

Ah, la-di-da-di-dee

Da-da, da-da, ta-deeda

Ta-da, ta-da, ta-da

Blue neon light

Da, da-da, da-da

Da-de-da, dada-da

My head's still full

of poison

What I do is insane

This is a party. This is,

basically, I'm having a party.

You got that, Vid?

I wake up in the evening

The sun is still around

I've had one beer

and one bottle of champagne!

Ain't seen no hide, no hair,

no... no...

nothing of another human being.

Nothing! Nothing!

Are there actually

human beings out there?

You want some, Vid?

You're the only one

with brains around here.

Maybe you shouldn't have some.

Another day

Already night

-Blue neon light

-Look at this eye.

Just look at this eye.

You have got a complex.

I know you're a reflection

of myself. But just watch it.

It's you!

A reflection of you, eh, guy?

It's right in the centre

of the lens!

It's the return of the fly!

Yeah!

All right, now,

that's it, that's it, that's it.

You... You got me there.

OK, yeah, all right. Well,

I'm gonna stop you there,

because, er, we've got some

serious dancing to do here now.

"I just went off

to make a vow to Bank Rock."

"No drink

for a two-week spell."

"I find it helps

if you make vows."

"A two-week break

will let me get nice and fit."

"Healthy body, healthy mind.

True words."

"The Otavi

seal colony is swelling

as the operation proceeds."

"It's starting to absorb

all those

who are fed up with me."

"Still, I must keep at it

from sunrise to sunset."

"Chasing, shouting,

whipping, stoning."

"I do need a bit of a break,

although sometimes,

when everything is right,

I don't want to leave here."

"After my last gannet fledges,

I'm ready. Not before."

"An island is finite.

That is its singular quality."

"It is whole

and there is an end."

"There are birds to count.

I can count all of them."

Three male juveniles.

"I draw conclusions,

then count again,

over and over."

Fifteen adults to one...

"To create order

like this, alone,

gives me a sense of control."

"As fickle as it might be,

as detached as the birds

really are,

if there were no numbers,

I'd have to invent them."

Seal got him.

And now I've got him.

He's recuperating fairly well.

Getting some

of his strength back.

But, yeah, that gash

is really quite something.

It's the fourth day now

that I've got him.

He's already putting on weight.

Ate seven fish yesterday.

But the fish is passing through,

so the internals

are not damaged.

He's still very shy,

still very scared.

But we're gonna get you right,

aren't we, mate?

"There's a supreme law

that governs life

here on Mercury."

"No seals allowed."

"There's no appeal, either."

"Cute pups are a menace."

"They draw their mothers

back to the island,

followed by other

pregnant females."

"The return of the seals

year after year

is a cycle that must be

broken."

"I certainly have my work

cut out for me."

It's a blistering-hot

morning.

It's nine o'clock in the morning

and it's already 30 degrees.

Penguins are all heading

for the water's edge.

They're right here

in front of the palace.

It's just a mass of penguins

coming down to cool off.

But what a beautiful day

for a human being.

I've been for my umpteenth swim

today.

The water's

a beautiful 14 degrees.

Enjoying a cup of tea.

But we're gonna go take a look

outside now.

And, erm, we're gonna

concentrate on the penguins.

Outside at the moment,

I've taken a look out there,

and it's just dying chicks.

And if you imagine yourselves

in a wetsuit,

and a pullover jersey

over that,

plus a hood and a balaclava,

that's how

a penguin chick feels.

So, let's go

and take a look out there.

The colony's still devoid.

All those nests empty.

Right till up there,

where normally

that is a mass of penguins.

A lot of them are here

in the shade of the house.

And here we have the classic

example of the suffering chick.

Abandoned, alone.

Yeah, that's the natural world.

It's a harsh and cruel world.

And we're gonna see

the carnage now

of this baking-hot day here.

One dead chick.

One dead study chick.

Another downy.

Yet another downy.

One dying downy.

Two over there.

There's two next door.

These two here.

More and more and more.

This is just

absolutely devastating.

And this is just one part

of the island.

"Perched on one of

my ledges over Hellfire Passage

as an orange orb sets.

What a day."

"I concentrated on

the seal scare in the nude."

"Got an all-over tan

and a bit of a burn on one side

of the pork sausage."

"That's nothing."

"More than 30 chicks

d*ed of heatstroke."

"Vid filmed the carnage."

"What a sh*t way to go."

Opto, what's your buzz, huh?

Yeah, he's had a hard time.

He can't walk properly.

He falls all over the show.

Old Opto,

short for "optimistic".

Poor old Opto

is full of seal-bite wounds

and going through the moult.

That's why he looks so scruffy.

There's a healing seal-bite

wound in his chest over there.

Right there.

And he's got another one

in the flipper.

But he looks decidedly scruffy

and unruly.

And hopefully,

we can make him feel better.

"The seals have brought

out every emotion in me."

"I fume at their persistence."

"They're making me cruel."

"I feel like a monster,

a monster inflicting my will

on the destiny of this island

that has been left

to nature's cruel logic."

"Then I remind myself

that the pure face of nature

left the scene long ago."

"Those seals won't relent."

"And this rock

is not just an island,

it's a pure blood beast."

"I wonder if I've gone crazy,

fighting off these seals

like they're a dark force."

"Or maybe that's what's keeping

me sane. Who knows?"

"There's no one here

to tell me."

"It's the day

of the innocents."

"Unweaned, abandoned pups

are weak,

exhausted, emaciated,

and hungry for mother's milk."

"I have to tell myself

that these consequences

are unavoidable."

"It's all to try and prevent

the penguins' extinction."

"I dreamt I was sick

and getting worse."

"A hard lump pushed out

of my chest on the heart side."

"I could make out my mother,

Jolle, and my little brother

watching me as I d*ed."

"How I wish I could meet

my forefathers,

who might have walked

this path before."

"To learn how I fit in,

what steps to take."

"If only my father could lead

me to other elders,

steer me to walk

a different path,

guided by those

I know so little about."

"Could he teach me something

good for a change?"

"In the very heart of Mercury,

a w*r rages

between sea and stone."

"Geological time accelerates."

"The centuries

are sculptured in rock."

"Here, I'm humble,

as in a cathedral,

and certain that one day,

even Mercury will be no more."

I think Yvie

wanted an anchor very badly.

He was really quite

a little rebel escapist.

He was always

running away and climbing

out the bathroom window

to get away from Claude.

Claude looked so nice

in those pictures.

It's hard to imagine

the ferocious creature

that he became.

"Today was one

of the most emotional days

of my life."

"I've never experienced

such a demanding situation."

"There is so much trampling

over penguins,

their nests, their eggs

and chicks."

"I can't bear it."

"Blood in the sea

feeds my anger."

"I too have made blood flow

like a river."

"Is it right? Is it wrong?"

"No wonder I had

my first nightmare in ages."

"There were steep slopes

of dogs pouring down in fear."

"They were seal-type dogs,

or dog-type seals,

moving en masse,

as they do in reality,

all to get away from me."

It looks like

a very nice, pleasant day

here on Mercury.

But we've had a seal

gone psychopathic,

taking out penguins.

All the empty nests.

sh*t.

f*cking seals!

And whatever seal

I come across now

is in for a tough time.

They can all go to hell!

I don't need this sh*t

on Mercury, OK?

I've taken out

three of the little fucks!

Except for one seal bitch

over there

who's gonna get her arse tanned

like there ain't no tomorrow!

You just don't know it,

you stupid cow!

f*ck!

Bye! Bye!

I don't wanna see these fucks!

Jeez, that's a bunch

of bloody bullshit, man.

A little tot of whisky.

Doesn't matter if it spills.

For those that aren't here.

There's a howling gale

going on outside here, yeah?

So, this is why

I'm trying these things.

I mean, you can't really

help me, yeah.

I just help...

I can't really help it.

Erm... And nor can you

really help me,

can you, Vid,

you f*cking assh*le?

Listen to the wind!

Woe betide the innocent ones

who fall into

the devil's cauldron.

Power, power, power!

That's not the way to do it!

Yeah, well, so what, eh?

f*ck the rest.

You're not supposed to behave

like a f*cking bozo.

If things are going bananas,

then they must be going great.

That's the way I feel about it.

I love you.

The whole damn

g*dd*mn lot of you.

All of you.

You funny little fellows.

You just don't know

how appreciated you are

by some of us

that live on this planet.

And I don't have to even mention

what I think about you

and how glad I am

to have you around here.

Whoopsie! Whoopsie!

Yeah.

OK, I'm sorry.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah!

We need adult penguins.

Let me tell you that, Vid.

Shall we see them

in the 22nd century?

I don't think

I'd be able to stand it.

No, it's not, it's not, it's...

This is the worst day

of my life.

Excuse me. I'm sorry.

I'm really sorry, yeah?

Switch off! Switch off!

"Unlike other visits

to the mainland,

the infinite desert now only

mirrors how desperate I am

for the world of touch

and talk."

"From here,

I can hold Mercury in my hand

and see myself split in two

parts that struggle to agree."

"I can see my body and my soul

wanting something other

than birds and waves,

wings, wind, rock and sky."

"I wonder if it's time

to lay down my weapons

and listen to myself."

"I've got to wrench myself

from this contained existence

where dreams and life

have begun to merge."

On that day!

Scheizer!

The anger that built up

suddenly burst.

I had a nervous breakdown,

panic-att*ck kind of thing.

And I had to be taken off

the island.

And I had to walk past

my gannet study colony.

"Sorry, guys,

I'm not gonna see you today."

"Nor you. Nor you.

Nor you. Nor you."

"I'll see you when I see you."

To have this perpetual

grinding thing in your brain,

which you had to do

every single day, for years...

At sunrise,

you get up, out of bed,

and immediately,

you are in the guano,

and fighting, fighting,

fighting, fighting!

What I was doing was wrong.

And nobody knows about it.

And... to get the story

right...

I had to k*ll the pups.

- Do you know that?

- No.

Oh, right. Do you know that?

-No.

-No, come on, Yves, man!

I had to k*ll all the pups.

And do you think

that affected your...

your, erm...

your sanity in that way?

Of course.

- Well, what...

- Who wants to do that?

Who wants to, every

single morning of your life,

k*ll every single pup

that was born overnight?

Today, tomorrow,

the next day, the next day.

No. Not cool.

Shouting and screaming

like a f*cking sergeant major

in the army,

as though seals are people.

That you can just regiment them,

to tell them, "Listen, f*ck off,

you're not allowed here."

But they don't know.

And they can smell

that there's a female up there

that's just had a pup.

So this one's gonna come up

and have a pup, so then...

And then you've gotta k*ll

those pups the next morning.

- Don't you know this story?

- No, of course not.

That's why you have

a nervous breakdown, if you...

What does it do

eventually to your psyche?

And that's what happened to me.

I couldn't handle it anymore.

But I knew that

that was the only way.

That was the only way.

They told me,

"You must do this."

And I very quickly realised,

if I do this,

I'm gonna get nowhere.

So, if you do that,

which was the right option

in a cruel fashion,

then you are going

to win the w*r.

And so I had to do that,

otherwise I would

have got nowhere.

Absolutely nowhere.

I felt very guilty.

To be so brutal,

to be so, so, so brutal,

it had to be inside me

somewhere.

That's why I was able to do it.

I lost weight, I was sick,

I had panic att*cks every day.

I ended up in hospital.

They got a replacement for me.

And that was it.

Only by going through

his diaries

have I realised the anguish

my brother endured

and the remorse

he was wrestling with.

But despite his fragile state,

he was determined

to go back to Mercury

to stop the seals

from breeding there.

Otherwise, all the sacrifices

would have been in vain.

Abandoning the birds

to their fate

was not an option for Yves.

I'd already

been in Walvis Bay

for about six months.

And there was a change

of governments

and the islands

were given to Namibia.

And the guy

who had taken my position

had decided

to stay with South Africa,

so the post on Mercury

was open.

I said, "I want it."

"My job on that island

is not finished."

Yes,

I've got old Yves here.

I don't know whether

you've got anything

you want to be brought out

to the island or anything? Over.

Yeah, put the bugger on!

It's about time

we heard from him.

We've been missing him.

He suddenly disappeared

off the air.

Yes, hello, Ichaboe.

Captain Quicksilver here.

Going back to the planet

very shortly,

so I'll see you tomorrow

and hand you all your goodies.

Is there any special things

that you want? Over.

Ja, Yves, very good

to hear your voice again

and look forward to getting you

back on the island.

So, we'll see you tomorrow.

Over.

Even though I was still

suffering from panic att*cks,

I'd said,

"I'm not gonna tell anyone."

"I'm just gonna see

what happens."

When something

gets taken away from you,

especially in that fashion,

unexpectedly,

then you realise

your work, your passion,

you will do it in a blizzard,

you will do it in a heatwave,

and nothing is gonna stop you

from doing it.

Nothing. Nothing.

And that's why

I went back there.

I said, "Thank you, dear God,

for bringing me back

to this beautiful place

where I've sweated and cried

and shed so much blood."

"The outside world

doesn't even exist!"

All the birds

are up already.

Cast your fears!

Cast your fears away!

Sink your tears

deep into Spencer Bay

Feels like I lived here

for a thousand years

Da-da, na-no

Well, back on Mercury.

Naturalist in exile.

And all the happier for it.

Everything's

pretty much the same.

Nice to have bankies around.

It's the one bird I really miss,

this guy.

That's it, steal his nest.

Steal his whole bloody nest.

And look who's parking

on the roof!

A whole row

of crowned cormorants.

What about this park bench here?

How's about we park here

and watch the sunrise?

It's built for ten.

Actually, I don't know if it's

actually very nice to sit on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it is.

Yeah, wonderful park bench.

All the hobos park...

f*ck!

Can you believe it?

The tin just... f*ck!

Yeah, well, here we are.

Five days on the island,

already.

Things are going great.

Wrap it all up.

Make your models.

Have your surf.

Take your rows across.

Make my bags. Do my macram.

You can practise your hobbies.

You can learn new things,

start new things.

You can do what you want.

But the work

is the most important thing.

And that's why I'm here.

Chase the seals. Never forget.

Never forget the seals

on Mercury Island.

Because we're gonna

be chasing them seals.

But this is the time

when we don't have so many

of them around.

But anyway,

this is just to say that

basically, this guy,

he's f*cking glad

to be back here for a while.

When I got back to Mercury,

I had to continue

to chase seals off the island.

But it was already much easier.

Eventually, I could see

that my efforts were working.

And after that,

it kind of gave me

a psychological confidence

over myself,

which made me feel,

"Hey, snap out of it,

you're gonna be all right."

Yeah, I'm quite looking forward

to it, actually.

Gives me a good chance

to get back into the whole

scene, you know. Over.

"Be as busy as possible."

Gonna work a bit of penguin.

First, a sip of tea

out of my penguin cup.

Those are my feet

covered in seal sh*t.

Eventually,

after losing their pups

two or three seasons in a row,

the seals slowly clicked on

to the fact

that this place

is not cool for seals.

So, now all we've gotta do

is apply a bit of control

without k*lling,

without culling,

so that the other species

can get their foothold back.

And then to see how the seabird

colonies just blossomed,

because the space

was now available.

There's a fine stack of penguins

for you.

Then there's a little friend

over here.

Come on.

Come.

Good little scratch there.

I'm burning up

all this f*cking sh*t.

This Mercurian wants to be pure

in the mind, you know.

And then what I'm gonna do

is I'm gonna make

another balcony here.

Yo, Vid, you're lucky you

haven't got a pair of arms

and a pair of legs,

cos you'd be helping me here.

She's nice. She's nice.

She's very nice.

But I don't wanna see her.

You're stuck with me, pal,

in this crazy job.

So, just do your job and film.

Right? Right!

Good, you little f*ck.

I was only joking, you know.

But when I'm alone like this,

you must accept

that you are the only one

that I can take it out on.

I hate to admit it,

but, like, half of these girls

I know off by heart.

Vid, switch yourself off,

my bru.

Here, this is the island, eh?

And we were standing

right there on the balcony.

And there's Boy-Boy.

He's been looking at the sea

all day.

Come on, in you go.

In you go, mister.

There you go!

New balcony.

And, of course,

doesn't take long for these guys

to click on, eh?

Here come the boys,

here come the boys,

here come the boys!

And it's a different kind

of dolphin.

It's a bloody big thing.

Wow, man!

Wow! Whoo!

Bottlenose, man! Ha!

You beautiful things!

God, I've never seen them

here before!

Catching them right through

this little gap here.

Action or what?

Action sh*ts. Action sh*ts.

Whoo-hoo! There they go.

And this is happening the entire

length and breadth of the cove.

What a life these guys

are having, man. Jeepers!

I wanna be a seal!

I wanna be a seal!

Those panic att*cks

lasted for four years.

And then I told myself, "You've

gotta be able to control this."

Once I could gauge

when it was gonna happen,

I could implement

what I had to do.

Suppress, suppress, suppress.

And it was gone.

That took four years

to heal that.

Don't we make

a pretty little pair?

He looks the same as me

and I look the same as him.

So, how's that, eh?

No dying on us, eh?

After the third year, I could

feel it was going right.

After the fourth year,

I could actually

start relaxing.

And in my fifth year,

I felt I had done my job.

All I could see

was this thriving island

with all the birds.

Thousands, thousands

and thousands

and thousands of birds.

And the seals, right there,

900 metres away,

colonised the beach

on the mainland.

On the island,

was this beautiful eco-system.

And so the whole of Spencer Bay

was pretty much in equilibrium.

I felt absolutely fantastic.

OK, Vid!

A good man took my place.

They don't have to do

what I had to do.

They can enjoy the island.

I hate k*lling things.

It's not what you want to do.

You don't wanna k*ll

this clever animal

that is so agile in the water

and so flipping agile on land.

Especially,

if you're a feeling person.

I only k*ll things

that I have to k*ll,

which would be problem animals

within the sphere of my work.

Otherwise,

I don't wanna k*ll anything.

By the time Yves left,

he had spent eight years

on Mercury.

One of his last diary entries

reads,

"Peering into the immensity

of the night sky,

what a universe we live in."

"How dare we put our planet

through the risks we do."

"Humans are so gifted,

yet so destructive."

"Should we merely observe

the outcomes of our folly?"

"Or is it our responsibility

to step in?"

"I hate man, yet I love him,

for I, too, am a man."

Stepping ashore

on the new world.

New world's full of kelp.

Well, here we are, eh?

Here we are.

New man, new world,

new pozzie, new everything.

New town.

New island.

I wake up in the evening

The sun is still around

The street seems to be busy

I hear the traffic sounds

Last night's been lousy

I had a lot to drink

Too many dry martinis

And cans of beer to sink

Another day

Already night

Blue neon light

Blue neon light

I could call my Rhianna

Ask her to meet me now

I think I lost her number

It's too late, anyhow

I could put on the TV

Or I could stay in bed

Decisions drive me crazy

Decisions drive me mad

Another day

Already night

Blue neon light

Blue neon light