"The Suez Canal." "An immense ditch linking the eastern end of the Mediterranean the Indian Ocean." "It was designed and promoted and its advantages were obvious. 800 miles off its voyage if only it could cross the isthmus of Suez." "there were doubters." "Some people said that the difference in level between the two seas was such one would drain into the other. and the work started in 1859." "Thousands of locally recruited labourers set about the job shovels and baskets. and de Lesseps' plan was to link them so that less than half the total length had to be dug from dry land." "it was ten years before the work was completed and the first ships were able to sail through the canal. on the far eastern corner here in the foreground dark with cultivation." "They sailed down to the lakes in the centre of the isthmus and then on to the Red Sea. and it swarms with fish." "There are far more species of marine organisms here which by comparison is something of an impoverished backwater. there was nothing to prevent species from these overcrowded waters and they did. and then eventually they began to appear in the Mediterranean." "and it's very good eating." "And since the cooks of the Mediterranean they provide a very good record of the spread of this fish through the Mediterranean." "it was unknown here. here in the island of Cyprus." "000 miles west of Suez." "The rabbit fish is another of these immigrants." "And it's not just fish that have made the trip." "comes from the Red Sea." "over 100 species of one kind or another and the number is still growing." "But while some immigrants in the Mediterranean there was one that very severely damaged that other essential ... the drink." "Grape vines grow wild in many parts of the world. and they are afflicted by a tiny aphid called phylloxera induces galls. more or less nonstop. which eventually leave the gall and crawl away to create homes of their own. clamber down the stem into the ground" "and attach themselves to the roots." "kill the rootlets the whole vine. without necessarily returning to the leaves. probably on the roots of North American vines that were being imported for the breeding of hybrids." "French vineyards began to die." "the leaves of the French vines and the insects concentrated almost entirely on the roots." "They were so small that for some time they were not even noticed were dying." "It was a national disaster." "a scientific committee found the culprit and the solution." "Some species of American vines were immune to attacks on their roots. grafted onto them." "but it worked. but there are some connoisseurs who will tell you has never really recovered." "there were many invaders into the Mediterranean." "like the red soldier fish." "like the phylloxera aphid." "But perhaps the most influential and lethal of all came down from the north." "the Mediterranean coasts basking in the warm sun." "were among the first to recognise and celebrate their charms. was long and expensive. the wealthier and the more adventurous moved across to and there they discovered more romantic villages and exotic peoples." "the popularity of the Mediterranean grew." "And then came a development that made it an even more exciting and attractive place to a whole new group of holidaymakers." "the Mediterranean world was about as unknown and unexplored as the remote Amazonian jungles." "men had floated across the surface of the sea but that was really about all." "Jacques Cousteau invented this ..." "... the demander." "a whole new world was on our doorstep." "The sensation of being able to move effortlessly was intoxicating." "And so was the sight of so many totally new creatures that seemed to bear no relation whatever to the pallid corpses one might occasionally see on a fishmonger's slab." "these creatures had never before seen two-armed mammals trailing plumes of bubbles and many were not in the least alarmed by them." "they dived deeper and found more and more excitements. was only too predictable. have reaped a rich harvest from their sea." "were caught in great quantities by traditional methods." "relying on their intimate knowledge and their understanding of with rich catches." "The sea seemed inexhaustible. in order to accommodate so the demand for fish grew greater and the number of fishing boats increased." "the catches from the inshore waters got smaller." "They were being badly over-fished. and find fresh grounds were introduced ... boats like these." "which fishes by scraping the bottom of the sea and they're very efficient." "the catches were good." "they began to fail." "These new grounds were being over-fished." "they introduced even bigger boats ... boats like these." "These boats can stay out at sea for weeks on end." "But they are so expensive to run they're not interested in the less valuable fish. so boats like these are devastating indeed. can't work for long in a sea as small as the Mediterranean. they're getting into Tunisian waters. so there's a very big problem." "And this ... is another." "The opening of the Suez Canal turned a sea no more than a blind alley leading off the Atlantic Ocean into a major international highway." "Then oil was discovered in the Middle East and a major new element was added to the traffic." "a procession of gigantic tankers ferry oil from the eastern end of the Mediterranean to the industrial centres of western Europe." "An accident to one of these could devastate the seas and accidents happen every year." "one of these huge tankers collided with a freighter close to Istanbul." "caught fire." "300 feet into the air." "the cargo continued to burn. is still seeping from the wreck." "000 tonnes of oil either accidentally from collisions or wrecks or deliberately by tankers washing out their tanks at sea." "the rocks were being coated sticky tar. from some of the most fashionable in the world." "Most living organisms are poisoned by such filth." "mussels. but they also absorb bacteria that can cause virulent diseases in human beings." "where no plants are other scavengers. they will poison you." "typical of these polluted areas not edible ... the black brittle star." "it's almost the only large organism that survives in any numbers." "it swarms over the sea floor." "Healthy coastal waters can look like this." "thronged with fish." "The thickets are even richer than they seem at first sight." "For these are the nursery grounds where the young of many Mediterranean fish can hide from predators and find the tiny micro- organisms on which they feed. live almost nowhere else." "filter feeding." "Sea urchins nibble algae. and indeed nowhere else." "Grey mullet prospect and rummage looking for edible particles." "that's good to eat." "depend on an abundant and healthy concentration of micro-organisms which they take in through their pipe-like mouths. so freeing its tail to be hooked onto twigs of coral or twined around posidonia leaves so that the seahorse can maintain its position" "in the swirling currents of the coastal waters." "complicated community all dependent on the posidonia." "stretches of posidonia are dying." "Sewage is only part of the problem." "can be a killer." "This was once all green weed." "But sediment coming down and settling upon it is slowly killing it with this blanket of filth... ... and everything disappears." "it was clear that the Mediterranean was dying." "Something had to be done." "The United Nations called a conference to which all states with a Mediterranean coastline were invited." "They declared that they would take action." "they reassembled in Genoa. rich and poor." "be nothing more than talking shops." "has this one actually done? which are finding out exactly all of which you have to do if you're going to establish international laws and agreements to control it." "it has totally outlawed it has created procedures to deal with such as a wrecked oil tanker." "But there's a lot more to be done if we're going to control pollution in the Mediterranean." "And what about the lands around this polluted sea?" "They have been maltreated by man for much longer." "000 years ago." "They built great cities in North Africa they cut down more and more of the forests." "the aqueducts dried and the rich farming land was wrecked. to a few sheep and goats." "The waters of the Nile enabled Egypt to escape these misfortunes." "But now even it is imperiled." "once stood on an island and meticulously reconstructed only a few years ago." "it would have been submerged." "engineers have built one just below stream which have greatly raised the dam upstream has flooded the valley for 300 miles" "000 people who lived there have had to abandon their fields and their homes and be resettled elsewhere." "The benefits brought by the high dam have been colossal." "Its turbines provide about half of Egypt's electrical power were catastrophic." "But it's not added to the size or fertility of the cultivated lands in the way its builders promised. they drop the sediments which fall onto the lake floor. they evaporate very quickly. it has lost nearly a third of its water" "and nearly all of its silt. there is now less water to irrigate the land." "and the soil is no longer as well fertilised as it was." "So artificial fertiliser has now to be used." "and that uses a significant part of the power the dam was built to provide." "before the dam was built used to advance every year as the annual deposit of silt was added to it." "That growth has now stopped and in places the delta is actually being eroded away." "Nor is that the end of the cost. there is much less there for the fish to feed upon. and the country gets less than half the tonnage than it did before the dam was built." "Chemical fertilisers are now being used all round together with pesticides and insecticides." "But those poisons are very stable chemically." "They accumulate in the bodies of birds that feed on the insects and eventually poison them." "not fully apparent. and total extinction of these birds." "They are bald ibis." "Syria and Algeria." "there are only two colonies of them left." "A pathetic group of eight nesting outside and this slightly larger colony on remote sea cliffs in Morocco. but these species still survive in wild parts of Africa and central Europe." "But this bird seems only to thrive dry climate of the Mediterranean." "it's gone forever." "The creation of fertility does not necessarily depend on the use of artificial fertilisers." "that bakes beneath a cloudless sky may seem irredeemable." "But even this can be brought to life. the Israelis have had spectacular success." "This kibbutz has been a leader in finding ways to make the desert bloom. they produce a succession of rich crops through the year." "a kind of giant grapefruit." "Beside that plot stands a group of date palms." "bagged with black plastic netting and will fetch excellent prices." "also do well and will add to the variety of fruit that now comes from a land that was once considered the most barren and inhospitable desert anywhere around the Mediterranean. and the forests around the shores were originally extremely rich" "in game of one sort or another." "as much for the meat it produced." "That tradition continued right through the Middle Ages." "a reflection of a man's virility. are rarely eaten." "honey buzzards migrate north guns await them. built on sites that have been the jealously guarded possessions of particular families for centuries." "There is little attempt to conceal them." "The birds have to come this way;" "it's the shortest route across simply puts them within the range of another." "Another honey buzzard." "A dead honey buzzard." "This hunt is illegal." "come up to the hills and to check their progress." "The forestry authorities responsible for upholding the law do their best to stop the shoot but this slogan says:" ""Long live the hunt it's nearly impossible to suppress this longstanding tradition." "Mechanical lures attract songbirds." "A few hunters maintain that these tiny corpses but the impulse to kill seems a more likely explanation for their actions." "not in the poorer countries Italy." "several hundred million wild birds of man." "The forests themselves are now endangered." "Fires rage through the summer. a campfire that got out of control." "But the authorities say that as much as 80% are started deliberately by those who want a legally protected forest destroyed so the land can be used for profitable development." "in seeing trees burn." "Putting them out requires all the ingenuity and technical muscle that man can muster." "it may not be enough." "000 gallons at a time." "Some add special fire- extinguishing chemicals to their load. 170 square miles of land were devastated by these fires. we also drain it." "Wetlands and marshes around the sea have been the one place where you could rely on finding an abundance of wildlife." "They survived that way because people thought they were not worth the cost of reclamation." "That is no longer the case. and the wetlands are disappearing fast. and may even be left to rot." "Other stretches along the coast are being turned into holiday complexes to cater for the huge number of us who now make the annual migration south to sea and sun." "hotels stand beside almost every beach and an almost continuous line of buildings runs for 200 miles along the coast of southern France and Italy." "no quiet reed bed can any longer be considered safe from development. 60 million people visited the Mediterranean shores during the short few months of the holiday season. and more and more facilities are built to accommodate them." "yet another marina. yet this is a recently acquired enthusiasm." "the wealthy ladies who strolled here prided themselves on their milk-white complexions and wore clothes of elaborate awkwardness to make it clear that they were totally unacquainted with the outdoor life." "just the same kind of people strive to get a skin colour that gives the impression only lasts for a week or two." "wildlife strives to maintain a place." "looking for a nesting site in one of the Greek islands." "Loggerheads come up to lay under the cover of darkness and the near continuous noise to dig their nests." "The turtles' needs are no secret." "are well known and this is the most important of those they still use." "A notice asks visitors to keep away and give the turtles the privacy they need." "It's used for target practice." "Many of the turtles that are brave enough to climb up the beach and go back to the sea with their eggs unlaid." "the rich wild world does still survive. can still nest there. with a wingspan of over seven feet. the improvement of farming practices has deprived it of food over much of its former range." "only a few hundred pairs are left in all western Europe." "Shallow lakes and lagoons that were once common have now largely gone. and you will find half a million birds. and are busy feeding in the first light." "Virtually the entire European population of wild greylag geese come down here to feed. and many other species." "this is a vital wintering ground." "an essential staging post on their long migration route between southern Africa and Europe." "But others want the precious waters of Lake Ishkul." "Local people would like to build dams across the rivers that feed it and use the water to irrigate their farms and supply the hotels that are now being built in order that Tunisia should get its share of the tourist bonanza. they will survive." "This is one of the last patches of truly natural forest to be found around the sea. the northern shores by later people who wanted more farmland and more timber." "around the Plitvice Lakes in Yugoslavia in the east has therefore become specially precious. and among the trees wander most of the big animals with which man shared the forest during prehistory." "and dissolve it away to form deep caverns." "they deposit the lime again which dams the streams and forms a series of spectacular waterfalls and lakes. and men want to do that." "they are allowed to take their share." "The deltas of Mediterranean rivers were once tangled wildernesses. you can see what they were originally like." "for it was in such that men first found and it grows here still." "It's also a place of great beauty." "Damselflies mating; the male has seized the female's head and fertilised her." "she will deposit her eggs into the water." "hunting for tadpoles and frogs." "terrapins flourish. and they both live here." "Islands in the Mediterranean are popular places." "they have remained virtually uninfluenced by man." "The Sporades stretch eastwards from the Greek mainland and this is one of the most remote of them." "and severe storms blow up with little warning." "but that has now been abandoned almost to themselves." "Two of them are Mediterranean specialities." "the Mediterranean's unique version so common farther north." "having greenish legs tipped with black and yellow." "Eleonora's falcon is the other of the island's unique birds. and she passed the law protecting falcons from human interference during the breeding season. rather than a concern for conservation in general." "This bird was named in her honour when it was first recognised by science during the 19th century." "but comes to the Mediterranean to breed. but now it has extra mouths to feed." "Its nests are strategically placed on migration routes across the sea and it catches warblers and other small birds for its chicks." "But the island's rarest inhabitant lives in the clear seas around its coast." "The monk seal." "Fishermen have always regarded it as their enemy." "it sometimes got entangled in their nets and caused expensive damage." "its soft skin fetched good prices so they killed it whenever they got the chance. it is still hunted." "and pounding waves close to the waterline." "And this is one of the last places where this rarest of the Mediterranean mammals can find safety. and it needs to have quiet beaches where it can haul itself up for rest." "it needs to have gently shelving beaches where it can have its pups." "can't swim. and drown it." "sandy beaches have now been claimed by others." "Now the seals must use places like this. which is why this little pup and survives." "it's just old enough to play in the breakers." "It was in the lands around this sea 000 years ago human beings first discovered how to tame animals and cultivate plants." "that they also first learned during that process?" "no matter what their political philosophy recognised that they simply had to get together and agree if they were to save these wild landscapes and the animals and plants that live in them." "That that perhaps is just one more lesson that the Mediterranean could offer to the world." "For surely these things are among our the last glimpses we have of mankind's first Eden."