Ocean Warriors

Episode 1

Enforcement

Sun, Dec 4, 2016 41 mins

At the farthest reach of the planet, Capt Peter Hammarstedt and Capt Sid Chakravarty of the environmental group Sea Shepherd risk their lives and the lives of their crew to patrol the Antarctic to stop illegal poachers. Aboard the ship, Bob Barker, Capt Peter finds the Thunder, a rogue fishing vessels so infamous that Interpol has an alert out for it. If they can successfully corner and shut down the Thunder, they could save masses of Antarctic toothfish from illegal slaughter. The poachers have a dangerous reputation and the Sea Shepherd captains know the mission will be risky. In Tanzania, the destruction of coral reefs by blast fishing - which uses explosives for mass kills - now threatens the legal fishing industry, which both supports and feeds some 18 million people along the coast. J.D. Kotze, a fishing crimes investigator and former South African police captain, joins an undercover team out to arrest the top explosives dealer and cut off the reckless industry at its root. "If we don't stop them," he promises, "there's going to be chaos." With a seafood industry worth $7 billion a year, Thailand is ripe for criminal fishing activity.The money induces trawling poachers to ravage the nation's traditional fishing grounds. Investigative journalist Jim Wickens meets with an angry fisherman who takes him, under cover of darkness, to a national park. There, they find a cluster of trawlers casting nets illegally and are met with hostility.