african wild dog endangered facts

narrator: it's the sam simon andits crew that are confronting the issues here head on. of course, their daywas a bit frustrating when you see this overwhelmingamount of nets that's out there, that there'still the fishermen going out and laying more nets. narrator: the samsimon's primary weapon in their fightagainst these gillnets is what they call a phantom ray.

the ray is set forseven, eight meters. narrator: the ray is droppedinto the water at a set depth. it drags a grapplinghook along the sea floor. when the hook catches anet, a thin breaker line attached to the ship snaps. this releases the ray and marksthe net's location with a buoy. man (on radio): sam simon,sam simon, this is viking. i can confirm for the net. i reckon there's a coupleof totoaba in the water there.

there must be six, sevencarcasses of totoaba floating by us right now. i guess the dealis that they cut the bladders out asquick as possible and throw the rest in the sea. now we're goingto launch the boat and go find out whether it isa totoaba net, or a long line, or any illegal fishing gearthat is in these waters. and then we're goingto retrieve it.

- can i come with you?- of course. the sea shepherd teamhave managed to scoop up the remnants of that net. and we're on our way tofind out what's in it. surrounded by deadcarcasses of totoaba that have been mutilated,its twin bladders taken out. they're everywhere. pia klemp: one, two. wow, that's tough, huh?

pia klemp: yeah, one, two. narrator: but the totoabaare far from the only victims of these nets. and the nature of the sea, therecould be anything in this net. we have been findingeverything from sea lions to dolphins tohammerhead sharks. not too long ago,we saw a whale. and it was almostlike an hourglass for how much thenet was strangling

the whale like halfway through. so it really is a whole loadof species that are caught up in this trade for the totoaba. right? the net doesn'treally distinguish who it's going to catch. so whichever animal swimsthrough these waters is sentenced to death. oh, here comes the shark.

pia klemp: oh, no. giacomo giorgi:oh, the hammerhead. oh, chris, itfeels pretty soft. giacomo giorgi:is it still alive? pia klemp: i don't think so. come here, baby. we are wiping out sharksfrom our oceans for their fins. in asia, they eatshark fin soup. and what happens is thata lot of fishing vessels

catch a shark, cuttheir fin, and then throw back their bodies. and finding a dead shark, adead hammerhead in this net is really heartbreaking. narrator: but theheartbreak here isn't reserved for marine life alone. as the sam simoncontinues its mission to remove illegal gillnets, thenearby fishing towns suffocate. [music playing]