1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,000 Will the excavation of a centuries-old shipwreck reveal a secret smuggling operation? 2 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:15,000 There happens to be about twice as much money on the vessel as should have been there. 3 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:22,000 When an entire Russian ecosystem is obliterated, could a strange ocean toxin be to blame? 4 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:28,000 Lots of marine wildlife starts washing up on the beaches, dead or sick. 5 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:36,000 And can satellites solve the 2021 mystery of a submarine that plummets to deadly depths? 6 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:41,000 What force could tear a modern submarine into three pieces? 7 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:49,000 The underwater realm is another dimension. 8 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:57,000 It's a physically hostile place where dreams of promise can sink into darkness. 9 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:09,000 I'm Jeremy Wade and I'm searching the world to bring you the most iconic and baffling underwater mysteries known to science. 10 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:15,000 The vast majority of our ocean is unobserved, unmapped and unexplored. 11 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:20,000 It's a dangerous frontier that swallows evidence. 12 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:23,000 You have nowhere to run. 13 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:30,000 Where unknown is normal and understanding is rare. 14 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,000 The submarine is the ultimate weapon of modern warfare. 15 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:53,000 And right now there are thought to be more than 500 manned subs in the world's oceans, ready to launch into battle. 16 00:01:53,000 --> 00:02:04,000 But when a sub with 53 crew disappears without a trace during peacetime in 2021, the international community is bewildered. 17 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:12,000 It quickly becomes a race against time to find the missing vessel and rescue the crew before it's too late. 18 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,000 April 21st, 2021. 19 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,000 A breaking story hits the news. 20 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:27,000 A submarine with 53 crew members on board is missing. 21 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:38,000 Attack submarine KRI Nangala 402 has disappeared in waters around 51 nautical miles north of Bali. 22 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:46,000 Indonesian Navy officials say they lost contact with the 200 foot long sub during a training exercise. 23 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:51,000 Its crew made contact to ask permission to execute a dive. 24 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:57,000 And then, radio silence. Where is the Nangala? 25 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:04,000 There's no war in this part of the world, so it's unlikely that the submarine would have been a victim of conflict. 26 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,000 What happened to the submarine? 27 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:13,000 With the world watching, a massive search and rescue operation gets underway. 28 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,000 A submarine has roughly three days of air. 29 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:21,000 If you still have power, you can possibly stretch it out a bit longer. 30 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:26,000 But the rule of thumb is if things go wrong, lots of things go wrong. 31 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:33,000 The Indonesian Navy deploys five aircraft and over 20 ships. 32 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,000 And they make a worrying discovery. 33 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:42,000 A large oil slick near the Nangala's last known position. 34 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:48,000 Oil on the sea surface is a very bad thing. It means oil in a contained system got out. 35 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:54,000 If oil is leaking out of a submarine, that usually means the pressure hull has been pierced. 36 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:00,000 Does this mysterious oil slick mean the Nangala is in critical condition? 37 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:05,000 If so, how could the sub's thick steel hull have been compromised? 38 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,000 It was constructed in Germany in the late 1970s. 39 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:13,000 Nangala was an old submarine. She was due to be replaced. 40 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:20,000 Over its long service, the sub underwent several refits, one as recently as 2012. 41 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:24,000 The integrity of the hull was flagged as a concern. 42 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:30,000 Submarine's lives are not measured in the years. It's measured in hull years. 43 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,000 How many more dives it can do and it can take. 44 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:38,000 And if a submarine reaches that number of dives, you do not send that submarine out there. 45 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,000 Nangala hadn't reached that point yet, but you wasn't far off it. 46 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:50,000 The Nangala is near the end of its career, but the sub was still fit for purpose. 47 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:54,000 The Indonesians have a good track record when it comes to submarines. 48 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:58,000 If they are unserviceable, they don't send them back in the water till they are. 49 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:05,000 With the Nangala missing for 24 hours, the international community rallies to Indonesia's aid, 50 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,000 launching a large-scale search. 51 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:14,000 After three days, hopes are diminishing for the survival of the crew. 52 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:22,000 Then on April 24th, the Indonesian Navy finds an array of debris they think has come from the Nangala. 53 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:31,000 Among the objects is a possible clue, a part of the submarine that is associated with the torpedo tubes. 54 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:39,000 We know it was out on a training mission. We know the training mission was in part for a torpedo practice. 55 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:46,000 Is it possible that the Nangala's explosive weaponry is somehow to blame for its disappearance? 56 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:55,000 According to the Navy, the Nangala had requested permission to dive to fire a torpedo shortly before contact was lost. 57 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:01,000 The last communication with the Nangala is at 4am. 58 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:05,000 This is when the officer authorized the firing of the torpedo. 59 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:13,000 Is it possible that the firing of the torpedo has somehow gone wrong, causing some sort of catastrophic explosion? 60 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:17,000 If so, it's not the first time this has happened. 61 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:29,000 In 2000, Russian submarine K-141, the Kursk, is taking part in a large-scale naval exercise loaded with a full complement of combat weapons. 62 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:38,000 During preparations to fire one of their torpedoes, fueled by hydrogen peroxide, a failure occurs, causing an explosion. 63 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:48,000 The blast blows a large hole in the hull, killing all but 23 of the 118 people on board. 64 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:56,000 While the Nangala's training exercise was also using live torpedoes, officials don't believe one went off. 65 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:05,000 During such a naval training exercise, surely ships would have had hydrophones in the water, yet no blast was detected at the time of the incident. 66 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:10,000 If there was an explosion, it should have been heard by these hydrophones. 67 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:18,000 It's not likely that a faulty weapons explosion caused the blast, in which case something else must have happened. 68 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:26,000 Soon after the debris is found, a search and recovery vessel surveys a possible target on the sea floor. 69 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:34,000 An ROV is sent down to investigate. The images instantly confirm everyone's worst fears. 70 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:44,000 The Nangala is found in a depth of 2,800 feet, which is far deeper than its maximum safe depths. 71 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:48,000 There's no hope for the 53 crew on board. 72 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,000 It's a tragic outcome for the submariners. 73 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:58,000 The only consolation for their loved ones now is to figure out exactly what went wrong. 74 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:08,000 And soon investigators discover a disturbing twist to the story. The submarine has been ripped into three pieces. 75 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:13,000 What force could tear a modern submarine into three pieces? 76 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,000 The Nangala is found on the sea bed. 77 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:21,000 It's hull ruptured and broken into three pieces. 78 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:27,000 Experts now suspect that the sub-sank to depths it wasn't built to withstand. 79 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:30,000 The Nangala is found on the sea bed. 80 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:33,000 The Nangala is found on the sea bed. 81 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,000 The Nangala is found on the sea bed. 82 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,000 The Nangala is found on the sea bed. 83 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:47,000 Experts now suspect that the sub-sank to depths it wasn't built to withstand, causing a violent implosion. 84 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:54,000 Indonesian officials are determined to find the cause of this catastrophe. 85 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,000 Was it a technical failure? Was it nature? It's a mystery. 86 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:05,000 There are limits to what the wreckage can reveal, so investigators must turn elsewhere for clues. 87 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:13,000 Satellite data taken around the time of the tragedy reveals the presence of a force under the ocean's surface called internal waves. 88 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:20,000 Right around the time of the tragedy, NASA's Aqua Satellite captures a ripple in the Lombok Strait. 89 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:25,000 Could this ripple be evidence for an internal wave occurring at the exact same time? 90 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:30,000 Internal waves occur where layers of water with different densities meet. 91 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:39,000 As currents move around the ocean, these layers can collide with geographical features on the sea floor, causing huge waves to form. 92 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:46,000 These invisible underwater waves can measure a staggering 500 feet from peak to trough. 93 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:55,000 They are much, much bigger and much, much slower than surface waves, but they disturb the inside of the ocean as they travel outward. 94 00:09:55,000 --> 00:10:01,000 And some say they're powerful enough to drag a submarine to perilous depths. 95 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:06,000 They can travel for miles and they can go at speeds of up to five knots. 96 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:09,000 You can't see very much evidence of them on the surface. 97 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:14,000 But how could an internal wave destroy a submarine? 98 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:22,000 A submarine has one job, which is to stay at the right depth. It's very easy to go sideways in the ocean, but up and down is critical. 99 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:31,000 In order to stay at a consistent depth, a submarine will adjust its buoyancy depending on the density of the surrounding water. 100 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:37,000 But if an internal wave envelops the vessel, that density can change in an instant. 101 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:41,000 If the water becomes more dense, it can push the submarine up. 102 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:46,000 But if it's suddenly less dense, the submarine can plummet. 103 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:53,000 That change in density could be enough to adjust the submarine's buoyancy in a way that it wasn't expected. 104 00:10:53,000 --> 00:11:02,000 Without taking some kind of quick action to mitigate the actions of the wave, a submarine could easily be pushed below its safe operating depth. 105 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:10,000 In June of 2021, the Indonesian government abandons plans to salvage the wreckage. 106 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:16,000 They claim the risk and difficulty of raising it from the sea floor is currently too high. 107 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:27,000 So we may need to wait a little longer to find out what really happened to the Nangala, and if internal waves were the invisible cause of its destruction. 108 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:31,000 Perhaps the truth will be found, but only at the bottom of the sea. 109 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:50,000 China, Russia and the US are spending big money to better understand internal waves and their potential impact on naval operations. 110 00:11:50,000 --> 00:12:03,000 While this invisible phenomenon could be responsible for the tragic loss of the Nangala, more evidence is needed to definitively say what forced her to take such a deep and deadly dive. 111 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:22,000 When it comes to merchants of the high seas, no one has been more successful than the Dutch East India Company. 112 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:30,000 In the 1700s, the company was worth an estimated $7.9 trillion in today's money. 113 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:44,000 A recently discovered shipwreck may finally reveal a hidden sign to the business in which sailors on board the ships were smuggling silver and playing the markets. 114 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:58,000 In 2005, a salvage team investigates the remains of a Dutch merchant ship 80 feet below the sea surface. 115 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:07,000 The Roseveg was lost off the southern coast of England on a treacherous 10 mile sandbar called the Goodwin Sands. 116 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:20,000 This ship disappeared. It was supposed to be sailing out to the Dutch held islands in Southeast Asia, and it turns out it never got further than the English Channel. 117 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:27,000 As they investigate the wreck, salvagers uncover a horde of unexpected riches. 118 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:35,000 It's found that this shipwreck has a cargo of silver, which is obviously highly valuable. 119 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:44,000 They find a thousand silver bars and around 36,000 silver dollars neatly stacked in chests. 120 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:52,000 These coins are the infamous pieces of eight, so called because they were worth eight Spanish reales each. 121 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:59,000 One coin is worth about $100 in today's money. That means there's over $3 million worth. 122 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:09,000 The ship was carrying silver for basic trade purposes. The Europeans wanted spices, they wanted porcelains, they wanted silks. 123 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:12,000 Where could you get them? The Far East. 124 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:20,000 The salvaged silver from the Roseveg is handed over to Dutch authorities. 125 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:30,000 But in 2017 a groundbreaking Dutch and English archaeological project revisits the Roseveg in a bid to study and preserve the wreck. 126 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:37,000 Using state-of-the-art equipment to survey the site, divers make an unexpected discovery. 127 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:46,000 A different type of silver not previously detected and it's not neatly stacked in chests, but scattered across the site. 128 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:51,000 What's unusual is it's actually found in individual piles all over. 129 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:56,000 This strange surplus silver doesn't belong with the ship's cargo. 130 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:03,000 Does analysis of the coins suggest a secret unofficial industry involving the Roseveg's crew? 131 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:07,000 Who were the men on board? Were they merchants or smugglers? 132 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:28,000 Archaeologists excavating a Dutch shipwreck find vast amounts of silver coins scattered across the surrounding seabed in bizarre clusters. 133 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:35,000 The loose piles of money indicate they were being carried by individual sailors when the ship went down. 134 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:39,000 And there's something very strange about the coins themselves. 135 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:46,000 We find coins everywhere and when we started to prepare these out we saw that they were also very different. 136 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:51,000 These don't resemble the silver found in the chests in 2005. 137 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:55,000 Bizarrely, many of them aren't even from the same century as the Roseveg. 138 00:15:55,000 --> 00:16:00,000 These coins turned out not to be those silver realas. 139 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:06,000 Some of the coins that they find are from the 17th century, which is a fourth century before the ship takes sail. 140 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:11,000 Even stranger, many of the coins have holes drilled through them. 141 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:23,000 We think those holes were there to put on a string and put it around your neck or maybe sew it into your clothes so nobody would see that you did have coins on board of the ship. 142 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:27,000 We had never seen that before. We had never seen those coins with those little holes. 143 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:38,000 Official records show the Roseveg should have been carrying 300,000 Dutch guilders worth of silver. 144 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:43,000 Now it's thought the ship was actually carrying double that amount. 145 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:49,000 There happens to be about twice as much money on the vessel as should have been there. 146 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:57,000 Why was there so much concealed silver on board and who was carrying it? 147 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:05,000 In 1740, the Roseveg's crew are employees of the Dutch East India Company, also known as the VOC. 148 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:08,000 Its business is global trade. 149 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:16,000 Compared to the world's wealthiest companies of today, the VOC is still the biggest corporation ever to have existed. 150 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:25,000 They owned these ships and shipping routes and the VOC were really very, very wealthy and very, very powerful. 151 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:36,000 Individuals on board are forbidden from bringing their own silver to trade, but it would have been very tempting given the high demand for the precious metal in the Dutch East Indies. 152 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:41,000 Silver was worth far more in the East Indies than in the Netherlands. 153 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:49,000 In some places it's more valuable than others. In the East Indies it's 30-40% more valuable than in Europe. 154 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:56,000 Anyone making the trip would be in a position to play the market, buying low and selling high. 155 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:04,000 If you didn't get caught and made it back from the East Indies with your goods intact, you could make a staggering fortune. 156 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:13,000 The sheer amount of illegitimate coins among the wreckage proves there were smugglers on board who hoped to cash in big. 157 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:22,000 In 2018, archaeologists excavate artefacts as unveil key details about the people on board. 158 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:29,000 Can any of these objects tell us who had secret plans to play the silver market? 159 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:36,000 We have oil lamps on board. We've even found complete wine bottles with the corks still on it. There's personal items. 160 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:41,000 There is a nice writing set. There are candles on board. 161 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:50,000 It's such a rare find to see one of these ships. We hear about them in history, but to actually see the tangible evidence. 162 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:57,000 Although many are well preserved, some of the nearly 300-year-old items are harder to examine. 163 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:06,000 The team find giant concretions, lumps of artefacts fused together over the centuries by sediment and iron rust. 164 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:11,000 Researchers believe they contain more smuggled silver. 165 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:18,000 Can x-rays help the team look inside and uncover the truth about the Roseveg smugglers? 166 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:24,000 Using these technologies, it could be possible to better understand the distribution of the coins on the ship, 167 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:29,000 and by doing that we can get a better sense of who these people were and what their story was. 168 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:35,000 The Roseveg crew range from high-ranking officers to deckhands and even soldiers. 169 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:41,000 Determining who was carrying the coins and who wasn't seems like an impossible task. 170 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:46,000 Can new scientific techniques identify these secret smugglers? 171 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:51,000 The Roseveg team are now excavating the ship. 172 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:56,000 The Roseveg team are now excavating the ship. 173 00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:00,000 The Roseveg team are now excavating the ship. 174 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:07,000 In 1740, Dutch trade ship the Roseveg sinks just one day into its journey. 175 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:17,000 The team now excavating the ship finds human remains among the artefacts, evidence of the 237 who perished. 176 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:22,000 But it's the strange silver coins in the wreckage that really get their attention 177 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:32,000 and suggest a secret smuggling plot who among the crew was on the take. 178 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:37,000 Some of the smuggled coins are bound up in large concretions with other artefacts. 179 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:44,000 Breaking them apart could destroy them, so the team uses special techniques to look inside. 180 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:48,000 The archaeologists keep the artefacts in special tanks of water. 181 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:52,000 They're also using x-ray techniques to take a look at the artefacts without taking them apart or damaging them. 182 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:57,000 We can't start to chisel a concretion if we don't know what's in there. 183 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:05,000 So we really have to look into the object and only then we can see that it is a coin, the coin is of silver. 184 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,000 So we have to be very careful to chisel it out. 185 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:15,000 They discover that many smuggled silver coins are mixed in with personal accessories like buckles and beads, 186 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,000 and they're found across a wide area. 187 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:23,000 The shipwreck is spread out over 600 feet on the seabed. 188 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,000 How do you bring it all together to help it make sense? 189 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:34,000 The excavations give the team a wealth of information, but it's not enough to identify the smugglers. 190 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:38,000 Who exactly were they and how much were they carrying? 191 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:42,000 Researchers must turn to the archives. 192 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:46,000 By scouring historical records, sometimes you can find a paper trail. 193 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:56,000 All these things have a little traces to somebody, and that's exactly what we did with the help of a lot of people 194 00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,000 who are searching for those guys. 195 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:03,000 Cross-referencing the date of the ship's departure against bank records, 196 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:08,000 they uncover evidence of large and highly suspicious loans. 197 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:17,000 Daniel Ronsier, the Roseveg's captain, borrowed 17,000 Dutch guilders just before the ship sailed. 198 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:22,000 The equivalent of $200,000 in today's money. 199 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,000 And he wasn't alone. 200 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:29,000 Some normal sailors had quite a lot of money with them. 201 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:34,000 That's how we found out that there was not just a little bit of smuggling money on board, 202 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:37,000 there was loads of smuggling money on board. 203 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:42,000 Working for the VOC was one of the toughest and most dangerous seafaring jobs. 204 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:51,000 Did the rewards outweigh the risks for the 237 men who went down with the Roseveg? 205 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:56,000 If you were caught with this silver, having it confiscated would be punishment enough. 206 00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:07,000 You would return home heavily in debt and face debtor's prison or worse. 207 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:14,000 And the wreck of the Roseveg may still have more to tell us. 208 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:21,000 The archaeologists have only found the stern of the ship and so a large section is still unaccounted for. 209 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:32,000 Has it been ravaged by the sea or is it waiting somewhere on the sea floor yet to be discovered? 210 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:39,000 Over the centuries, 246 Dutch VOC ships have sunk to the bottom of the sea. 211 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:44,000 If silver smuggling was as rife on these ships as researchers now believe, 212 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:50,000 there could be millions of dollars worth of illicit treasure hiding in the deep. 213 00:23:50,000 --> 00:24:09,000 The world's coastlines are teeming with life with the majority of ocean creatures swimming near our shores. 214 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:16,000 People thrive here too with 40% of the earth's human population living close to a coast. 215 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:24,000 So what happens when this crowded zone becomes a toxic wasteland? 216 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:42,000 The Kamchatka Peninsula. A pristine and remote wilderness with towering volcanic peaks and dark sweeping beaches. 217 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:49,000 Kamchatka's shores are where eastern Russia meets the vast North Pacific Ocean. 218 00:24:49,000 --> 00:25:02,000 In September 2020, several surfers are enjoying the waves when suddenly they're hit by a strange sickness. 219 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:12,000 Surfers in the water describe a variety of adverse reactions including nausea, headaches and burning and itching eyes. 220 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:21,000 Some report what feel like chemical burns. More than 15 surfers are hospitalized. 221 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:25,000 They report the incident to local authorities. 222 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:32,000 But within 24 hours Kamchatka's waters go from bad to worse. 223 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:37,000 Video captured by beachgoers reveals a scene of mass death. 224 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:43,000 Lots of marine wildlife starts washing up on the beaches. Dead or sick. 225 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:51,000 It didn't matter what level of animal life in the sea you were talking about. Everything was dying. 226 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:57,000 Underwater footage shows the sea floor is now a marine graveyard. 227 00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:03,000 Even stranger, some creatures look like they've been boiled alive. 228 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:09,000 Scientists estimate some 95% of sea life has been wiped out. 229 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:16,000 There's something deadly in the water here but we don't know what. Could this be a man-made disaster or an act of mother nature? 230 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:29,000 As the bizarre incident gains global attention, international observers suggest there is one culprit capable of causing such widespread death and destruction. 231 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:34,000 Kamchatka's mighty volcanoes. 232 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,000 One hypothesis is that volcanic activity could be to blame. 233 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:44,000 Kamchatka has over 300 volcanoes densely packed across the peninsula. 234 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,000 Well over 20 of these volcanoes are known to be active. 235 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:53,000 They can erupt with explosive force. 236 00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:58,000 But it's the toxic gases they spew that can be just as deadly. 237 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:08,000 Around 20 miles from Kamchatka's beaches, Karimski Lake lies next to a volcano that was once thought to be extinct. 238 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:13,000 But on January 2nd 1996, the volcano erupts. 239 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:19,000 A sulfurous plume rains down, transforming the nearby lake into a toxic soup. 240 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:23,000 An ecological catastrophe ensues. 241 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:27,000 The water in the lake becomes extremely acidic. 242 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:33,000 All but the most simple versions of algae and bacteria cannot survive in this environment. 243 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,000 Everything else dies. 244 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:46,000 But around the time of Kamchatka's mass sea life deaths, there are no reports of the seismic shockwaves that usually accompany an eruption. 245 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:51,000 So volcanic activity is ruled out as the cause. 246 00:27:51,000 --> 00:28:00,000 Instead, Russian officials suggest a different natural phenomenon could be to blame for this bizarre, watery disaster. 247 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:06,000 Satellite images reveal a strange yellow discoloration along the coast. 248 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:13,000 It prompts Russian researchers to link the catastrophe to a known ocean killer, algal blooms. 249 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:19,000 It's like a cancer of the ocean. It sucks up all the oxygen, all the nutrients. 250 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:25,000 It will take over an entire ocean if it is not controlled. 251 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:30,000 In the US, red tides ravish coastlines each year. 252 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:39,000 Blood-coloured microorganisms produce toxins that accumulate in shellfish, making any creatures that eat them sick or even worse. 253 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:46,000 This feeds on through the chain of marine ecosystem, all the way up. 254 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:54,000 Other species of blue-green algae called cyanobacteria can also release harmful toxins. 255 00:28:54,000 --> 00:29:05,000 Humans who come into contact can suffer skin irritation, fevers and breathing difficulties, the same symptoms experienced by the Kamchatka surfers. 256 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:10,000 Did they encounter toxic algae as it washed ashore? 257 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:22,000 Some people think that Russian officials are quite keen to push this idea that algal blooms are to blame in order to move the attention away from possible other reasons for it. 258 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:27,000 It seems that this might not be the full story. 259 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:37,000 Environmental scientists conducting their own separate investigation find something shocking, evidence of industrial chemicals in the water. 260 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:46,000 A secret source leads the scientists to a site near Kamchatka's coast known to harbour decades-old industrial waste. 261 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:53,000 Could it be that some of the chemicals that were dumped here because they were deemed too toxic for industry are related to this problem? 262 00:29:53,000 --> 00:30:00,000 Are thousands of dead sea creatures in fact the victims of a sinister man-made disaster? 263 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:19,000 On the coast where Russia meets the North Pacific, a deadly poisonous soup has wiped out 95% of ocean life. 264 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:25,000 Can water analysis reveal the identity of the mysterious killer? 265 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:36,000 Such a mass die-off of marine creatures is unusual and strange and needs to be investigated. 266 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:43,000 Samples from the ocean reveal concentrations of several unexpected toxic agents. 267 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:49,000 Two-four dichlorofenol is a compound used in pesticides. 268 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:54,000 Highly corrosive, it causes severe skin and eye damage in humans. 269 00:30:54,000 --> 00:31:03,000 Another tetrachloromethane, banned because of its toxicity, can cause liver and kidney failure. 270 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:07,000 What we're seeing here is some kind of pollution event. 271 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:11,000 But where did it come from? 272 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:18,000 Just five miles inland, there's an isolated industrial compound called the Koselsky Chemical Landfill. 273 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:23,000 For decades, this site has been used to store barrels of poisonous and hazardous chemicals in the ground. 274 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:27,000 The site is in a derelict condition. 275 00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:31,000 The chemicals are actually seeping into the groundwater. 276 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:42,000 If any of these toxic substances get into the groundwater, it makes sense that they would flow into the ocean, right where this massive die-off occurs. 277 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:52,000 Despite evidence linking the Koselsky Chemical Landfill to the mass marine deaths, Russian officials publicly deny it. 278 00:31:52,000 --> 00:32:02,000 Then in 2021, in a strange turn of events, authorities announced plans of a cleanup operation. 279 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:10,000 It seems odd that they would make plans to clear out and liquidate this facility just months after these claims. 280 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:22,000 With Russian officials refusing to admit guilt, environmentalists are now closely monitoring the beaches at Kamchatka, amidst fears that the toxic waters could return. 281 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:30,000 This is a real problem because this area is so rich in the ecological system. 282 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:39,000 It has some fantastic wildlife. It's very important that we need to protect these waters. 283 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:52,000 Whether it was an act of nature or industrial neglect, the Sea Life Massacre along the Kamchatka coast should serve as a warning. 284 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:59,000 The world's coastlines are a turbulent and blurred boundary between land and water. 285 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:09,000 In a place where humans and ocean creatures must coexist, where and when will the next toxic disaster strike? 286 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:15,000 The Sea Life Massacre 287 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:25,000 Across the vast blue expanses of our planet, there's a bizarre invasion underway. 288 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:33,000 Multiplying armies of jellyfish are taking over large areas of the world's oceans, where they've never been seen before. 289 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:42,000 Why are these freakish gelatinous life forms suddenly dominating our seas? And what could it mean for us? 290 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:58,000 Jellyfish have been around for 500 million years. They not only populate our coastlines, but they've also been found up to two and a half miles deep underneath the ocean. 291 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:06,000 Jellyfish are freaky. We have no real understanding of them. They have no brain as far as we can tell. 292 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:14,000 They may be very simple life forms, but venomous tentacles make jellyfish some of the most fearsome underwater inhabitants. 293 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:22,000 I've handled one of the world's deadliest creatures, the box jellyfish. 294 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:31,000 No one should approach these translucent terrors without extreme caution. This one has enough venom to kill 50 people. 295 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:37,000 I still can't compute the deadliness of the venom of this thing. This would kill people in a very, very short time. 296 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:55,000 These toxins are found in a cell that we call nematocyst, which are like little daggers. As the tentacle rubs up against you, it's like a harpoon. 297 00:34:55,000 --> 00:35:01,000 And that injects a toxin into the victim. You're in a bad situation there. 298 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:08,000 Not all species have lethal stinging power, but in huge numbers they present a different kind of danger. 299 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:19,000 Studies now show that some 2,000 different species of jellyfish are turning up at unexpected times of the year in greater volumes than have ever been seen before. 300 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:23,000 One of the most bizarre phenomena in today's natural world are jellyfish swarms. 301 00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:29,000 Increasing jellyfish numbers around the world has puzzled scientists for decades. 302 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:41,000 Researchers aren't sure why this is happening, but one leading theory is overfishing, which has depleted our oceans worldwide. 303 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:48,000 With the fish gone, the jellyfish have access to all the food, so therefore their numbers grow exponentially. 304 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:57,000 And in a frightening twist, this jellyfish plague is wreaking havoc on some of the most dangerous structures on the planet. 305 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:05,000 For a non-thinking animal to take down a nuclear power plant is pretty phenomenal. 306 00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:22,000 Across the world, multiplying armies of jellyfish are overwhelming our oceans. 307 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:26,000 And now they threaten our coastal infrastructure. 308 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:35,000 July 2020, in Israel, workers mount a massive cleanup after thousands swarm a coastal power station. 309 00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:43,000 Video footage from the power plant reveals images of hundreds of blue jellyfish being swept down the chute and into a bin. 310 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:56,000 The plant needs a constant supply of cold seawater to run, and its complex filter systems are no match for the mysterious onslaught of jellyfish seemingly intent on shutting it down. 311 00:36:56,000 --> 00:37:01,000 These washed in from the Mediterranean blocking the critical cooling system. 312 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:07,000 If the cool-down system goes down, that means trouble for the power plant. 313 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:17,000 It would be a costly setback for a coal plant, but for a nuclear power station, a jellyfish invasion has the potential for catastrophe. 314 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:26,000 In the last decade, four countries have been forced to shut down nuclear plants because of jellyfish swarms. 315 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:32,000 Without cold water to cool their reactors, meltdown is a real possibility. 316 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:37,000 Jellyfish can literally take out a nuclear power plant. It's crazy. 317 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:43,000 Why do these gelatinous zombie hordes seem to home in on our nuclear reactors? 318 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:47,000 Is there something in the water that's attracting them? 319 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:54,000 What is now known is that these strange creatures absorb radioactive compounds from the ocean. 320 00:37:55,000 --> 00:38:00,000 In 2015, scientists discovered radiation in three sets of jellyfish. 321 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:05,000 Could there be a connection between radioactivity and these bizarre jellyfish invasions? 322 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:13,000 Scientists think these ocean drifters somehow accumulate radio-nucleides, radioactive atoms found in the sea. 323 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:20,000 When radioactive compounds accumulate in sea jellies, we could have a really big problem. 324 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:26,000 It's called bioaccumulation. This contamination can travel through the entire food chain. 325 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:35,000 Jellyfish are the world's filtration system. They go through the oceans and they pick up everything that's flowing through it. 326 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:40,000 So if the world's oceans have radiation in them, they're going to pick it up. 327 00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:45,000 Could this radioactivity be affecting jellyfish evolution? 328 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:50,000 Scientists are now finding that jellyfish all over the world are getting bigger. 329 00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:58,000 Over the last four years, the shores of Japan have been invaded by the giant Nomura jellyfish. 330 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:07,000 Growing to more than six feet in diameter and reaching over 400 pounds in weight, they are truly gargantuan. 331 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:14,000 In 2009, a Japanese fishing trawler was sunk by giant Nomura jellyfish. 332 00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:23,000 They were the size of cars and there were hundreds, if not thousands of them, all around the trawler, overwhelming it. 333 00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:32,000 To limit the destruction caused by these enormous creatures, scientists are desperately trying to predict where swarms will occur. 334 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:40,000 The problem really with jellyfish is that they appear out of the blue and we can't really predict when they're going to come or where they're going to come. 335 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:51,000 Scientists know that overfished areas of the ocean allow jellyfish to thrive and multiply, but there might be even stranger forces driving them towards our coastlines. 336 00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:55,000 Jellyfish swarms could be controlled by the moon. 337 00:39:55,000 --> 00:40:02,000 In 2016, a research scientist mixed inroads into why and where jellyfish blooms may occur. 338 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:06,000 He finds that they may be connected to the lunar cycle. 339 00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:14,000 Data shows that big swarms occur in the days before and during a full moon, but we have no idea why. 340 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:23,000 We do know many other animals, including to an extent humans, are impacted by the lunar gravitational fields. 341 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:31,000 There's no obvious way to fight back against this sinister wave of slime. 342 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:40,000 In fact, it's thought that as the world's human population increases, so will the environmental conditions that favour jellyfish. 343 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:49,000 But we don't have enough historical data to determine if this is a natural fluctuation or if the jellyfish army is here to stay. 344 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:53,000 New species of jellyfish are discovered every year. 345 00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:58,000 They are on our coastlines. They're two and a half miles down in our oceans. 346 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:02,000 They're everywhere. They seem to be evolving and more seem to be coming about. 347 00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:09,000 What's the next chapter in the evolution of this resilient and long-living type of species? 348 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:18,000 In a final terrifying twist, it's now thought that our gelatinous adversary has the ultimate weapon in its arsenal. 349 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:20,000 Immortality. 350 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:30,000 Humans have very clear age limits because our cells begin to regenerate slower and we lose our ability to grow new tissue in the way we would when we were babies. 351 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:37,000 Jellyfish, on the other hand, don't have those mechanisms, so if some people theorise, they might be able to live forever. 352 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:44,000 We really don't understand them. They could be the key to unlocking eternal life. We don't know. 353 00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:55,000 The rise of the jellyfish shows no signs of slowing down. 354 00:41:55,000 --> 00:42:02,000 Experts now think that within 40 years, they'll be the dominant species in many marine ecosystems. 355 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:10,000 Unless we find a way to stop it, this spineless invader is in line to become the new King of the Ocean.