Africa Shoot: Ghana Part 2

This morning we arrived back in Jamestown to shoot the return of the local fishing fleet. We gained permission to shoot from the Fisheries Council and were guided by two ambassadors, Akonte and Niikommey. We were also met by Lamtui (a.k.a. Apna). Apna is a bit of a local celebrity. Officially he would be called a Canoe Group Leader. Unofficially, he is a gang leader, and it was obvious that he was held in very, very high esteem. As we filmed, our guides and our production fixer, Teddy Sabutey, negotiated with each canoe group, paying tribute as we moved.

Typically, we were met with a great deal of shouting, anger and hand waving, which lasted about a minute until everybody realized that we were being escorted. As soon as nerves were settled, we were then greeted by big smiles, cheers and laughter. This scene repeated itself over and over again during our shoot. At first, the rough and tumble atmosphere was a little unnerving, but very quickly we got into what would become the dominant rhythm of the day. (Incidentally, and it should come as no surprise, but it was pointed out that most Ghana's great boxers come from fishing communities. Having spent a few short hours in Jamestown, it's easy to see why that's the case.)







As the boats were being pulled in, the fishers sang beautiful sounding chants that were actually typically very off-color and vulgar. Many of the chants were made up on the spot, but some catch on and become part of the local "tradition."

The Jamestown community is predominantly made up of the Ga Tribe, approximately 85%. The other large majority come from the Fente Tribe.

Virtually all of the fishers are men. It was pointed out that in Jamestown there is one woman who goes out on the boats. Women make up the majority of the buyers and they await the return of the fleet each morning. Negotiations take place right on the shore as the boats land and the women load the fish that they buy into large metal pots. Many of the fish wind up at the market, which is less than a mile away, although we did film a woman buy from a fisher, turn around, take two steps and sell her entire take. (Sometimes the lines of commerce are very short!)

Among the fish we saw coming off the boats: tuna, mud crab, shrimp, giant sea snails, cassava, red fish, herriing, baracuda, and octopus.
As were were finishing our shoot, we were approached by a very angry fisher who shouted at us in native Ga, "When you are finished and get what you want, put fish back in the ocean!" In essence, he was trying to tell us that he had gained nothing from our presence. If only he knew our goal.

Among the fishers of Ghana, we came across another Pittsburgh Steeler fan!

In the afternoon, we headed north looking for baboons in the countryside about 45 minutes of Accra.


Moses Sam, Cole Burton and Justin Brashares, our featured scientists, join the search.


Stephen Aflo, a five year field guide of the Ghana Wildlife Division served as our guided. Stephen helped us try to find any of the fifteen troops that live within the Shai Hill Reserve.

With luck and skill, Stephen lead us to a troop of baboons that are habituated to humans.

Africa Shoot: Ghana Part 1

One hour into our first flight, and nine more hours to go before reaching London. In all it would take us 17 hours of flying time to reach Ghana, our first shooting leg in our trip to Africa.

On our first day in Accra, Ghana's capital, we scouted a local fish market near the town of Jamestown. The market is one of the biggest in the area and sold lots of fresh and dried fish. People were very reluctant to have their pictures taken here. Even taking pictures of the food was off limits.

We did manage, with guarded permission, to get this picture of dried fish from the market. Fish is a major source of animal protein for people living on the coast, which should come as no surprise. But what is surprising is that fish is a primary source of animal protein for people living thousands of miles from the coast in the desert regions of the Sahel -- and in some desert communities it is THE primary source of animal protein.

Moses Sam is a biologist working for the Ghana Wildlife Division. Moses is interested in large terrestrial animals, such as elephants, and the pressures that they're under do to fishing. Moses helps lead the effort of surveying and tracking Ghana's terrestrial wildlife, and he was part of the team that documented a sharp decline in land animals, linked to lack of fish. As fish is less available, people turn to "bush meat," as a source of protein.

The harbor at Jamestown in Accra, just down the hill from the market, is a major launching site for the Ghana fishing fleet, which consists largely of heavy wooden boats that are made by hand. We hope to shoot the return of the fleet on Wednesday morning and we are in negotiations with the local fishing chief for permission to do so. The harbor is extremely colorful and very crowded with ships, people, small homes and small shops. We've been told that this location can also be a little dangerous, but all of the people that we met were happy to see us and talk about their lives.

The fleet fishes everyday except Tuesday, which according to local custom is a day of rest for the fishers (and the fish.) Here fishers prepare for departure Tuesday night, when they will head for the waters around two in the morning.

A boat under construction at the Jamestown harbor. The wood is very light weight and called Wa Wa. It comes from the interior on trucks is guided down a very precarious road to the coast.
James Amarfey Qudye has been fishing here for more than 30 years. He was delighted to speak with us on our visit. He told us that at times from Jamestown he can look out across the waters to see the trawlers from the EU that sneak into Ghana's waters from neighboring countries where they are fishing legally to illegally fish in Ghana. Illegal fishing is a big problem for Ghana -- and in fact the world. The FAO has estimated that as much as 25% of the world's fish catch is landed and sold by illegal fishers.

During the scout, our assistant camera, Chad Djubek, and our Director of Photography, Mark Knobil, were enlisted to help bring in one of the smaller boats. (Both Chad and Mark are from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In fact 4 out 5 of our crew our from Pittsburgh, which caused the Ghana government concern, having so many Steeler fans in their country.)

Mexico Shoot: Strange Days and Coral Connections

As we are winding up a spectacular shoot here in Mexico - here are some highlights:

• the first day we were here we scouted the cenote called "Yaax Muul" (mayan word) in the jungle. It was raining and we were EATEN by mosquitos. It was a toss up who had more bites - David Elisco or our sound guy, Dino . . .




• day two- We had a great shoot in Cancun and decided to stay overnite to be near the Cancun airport to shoot aerials the next morning.

• day three - When we woke up it was POURING RAIN - we got up at 5:30 am to go to the airport and ended up talking to the pilot for awhile and canceling the helicopter . . . oh well! We moved on to other things!

• It's Saturday, and this is the first day both the topside and underwater crews are working . . . The topside crew gets up again at 5:30 am to go to the Cancun airport, and the weather is really iffy.

Mark Shelly and I are with the underwater crew, and we are giving the topside crew weather reports by phone. We recommended they wait for awhile, which was great because the weather cleared up and the topside crew had a great aerials shoot!!!!

When Mark, our guest, Shari Sant Plummer, and I get to the marina to load boats - the boat owned by the scientific institute that our scientist, Roberto Iglesias-Prieto is with, that is on loan to use for the day, doesn't look good. The crew is bailing out the back with coffee cups, and the scientist we are shooting that day, Mario Rebelledo, tells me we have a "little situation," but it should be cleared up "soon!"
Miraculously, the boat finally gets bailed out and works, and we head out - to shoot Mario and his assistants taking water samples from a zone in the ocean where the fresh water is coming up. Mark and Ernie are both shooting, and all goes great!

Ernie is shooting the boat going overhead, and Mark keeps telling the boat captain to "get closer! get closer!" The captain is shaking his head and says something in spanish to our support diver - I ask him what he said, which was "that crazy man in the water with the camera has a death wish!" But of course Ernie gets the shot, no problem.


• Sunday - this is our big CENOTE SHOOT DAY - the day we're all secretly dreading! However, all goes really well. Ernie shoots the cave divers (Sam Meacham and Trish Beadows) in the cavern of this beautiful cave - the topside crew shoots in the cave and on land - with jibs, rafts, and all of our lights powered by generators in the jungle! Great day for everyone.




• Monday - everyone has an off day. The topside crew is shooting in Roberto Iglesias's lab in Puerto Morelos and the Underwater Crew is shooting coral reefs. Must have been an odd moon phase . . . topside crew wrestles with pouring rain, Roberto just got in the night before from the Czech republic, cameraman Mark Knobil hasn't slept because he keeps moving rooms to find one with an air conditioner that works! The underwater crew is wrestling with huge currents and then some of their gear is stolen! But . . . Ernie and his local AC (Pietro) prevail with getting their gear back without a fist fight!

• Tuesday - MUCH better day for both crews!!
Both crews are together shooting Roberto Iglesias Prieto topside and underwater researching the coral reef. Roberto's 15 year old son is with us, as he is an aspiring director! Both crews get great footage. We go to Roberto's very beautiful home in Puerto Morelos this evening and shoot him singing - it is a special evening as his whole family is there, and the kids are very excited to have a movie crew in the living room! Roberto's wife is fantastic and shows us the dance for the music he is playing.

• Wednesday - is INTERVIEW day for the topside crew, and the underwater crew goes to the biosphere to shoot the beautiful mangrove forest. Ernie just rolled in tonight and says the mangroves are great . . . they would have shot a beautiful coral reef but were blown out by wind and rain - oh well!


• thursday - the topside crew is going to Sian Kaan to shoot Mayan Ruins, and then we are WRAPPED.

Scout Trip: Canada (Day 1)

ON A GRAY DAY IN THE BAY OF FUNDY
Thierry Chopin and Shawn Robinson head down the dock on their way to check on their kelp and mussel rafts that adjoin some of the salmon pens on a fish farm in the Bay of Fundy.
A rope of kelp almost ready for harvest. Completely ready for snacking, and not bad either.
Net pens like these can hold thousands of fish. Unlike most of the fish farm pens in this part of the Bay of Fundy, these pens are filled with cod.

At Yale's Institute for Biospheric Studies

Mark Shelley (Executive Director) checking in today from New Haven, Connecticut, where I will be on a panel with other environmental media producers at the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies. The panel is going to discuss the problems we face in bringing good environmental science in the mass media-- and why there isn't more/better coverage of environmental science.

I'm going to show a short segment from Strange Days that worked well with audiences and shows one way we've tackled the challenge. But it also helps question of why we don't see more/better environmental science coverage: the simple answer is because it's hard to do well. This sequence I'll show was one of the most difficult for us to produce. It involved atmospheric modeling that is trying to simulate and predict the effects of CO2 on major global weather patterns. Mathematical modeling has been a taboo for most television broadcasting as being to nerdy, boring, esoteric. It seems that modeling represents all that is horrible in people's minds about bad science classes (it is both science AND math-- ouch). So we boldly took it on for a couple of reasons: they are critical in our ability to evaluate our role in affecting climate (and other systems), they can provide scientific veracity to the naysayers of climate change, they can help to predict how we need to react and prepare for the future scenarios, and they can be incredibly cool and visually interesting. Here is the sequence:

The sequence ended up working well with audiences, and helped literally tens of millions of people worldwide understand why climate change has the potential to create all kinds of problems for us we might never have imagined. But making that sequence work wasn't easy.

In trying to communicate any environmental science issue, we know from research that it's important to help audiences put complex information into a bigger context. Our role is to turn science into story-- to convey the information in ways that help people connect the dots, to make sense of the details, to help see why the science matters. And doing that right requires navigating a minefield between concepts and what comes out the tv screen. And it involves working with a huge number of players-- funders, production partners, advisory board members, audience research, producers, the scientists, writers, editors, and finally the broadcasters themselves. In every step, we are trying to protect the original concept and take the elements from each that will enhance that concept. As much as I don't like sports analogies, it is much like carrying the football from your one yard line. In this game, however, the defenders want to change the ball, add stuff to it, and in some cases, even take it away. By the time you get over the goal, you hope that what you were carrying is in some way reflective of the ball that you had way back when you started.

That process for Strange Days took three years and an awful lot of money. But when it was delivered, we had the opportunity to present four hours of good environmental science to those millions of people. And we even got away with one very complex atmospheric model.

Scout Trip: Mexico (Day 2)

PLEASURE IN CANCUN
SAND AND SUN
CANCUN is an invented city that was designed 37 years ago. The Mexican Caribbean is today a tourist destination that attracts 7 million people every year. And the number is growing… Tourists come for the white beaches, the sun, the fun…


THE OTHER SIDE TO CANCUN
In Cancun, every morning shortly after sunrise, workers rake and cart away sea grass that has washed up on the shore to make sure that the beaches are clean for the tourists. (The grasses are actually very beautiful.) Aesthetics of cleanliness are very important -- notice the man's white suit. Ironically, while the beaches are clean, scientists have real questions about water quality in both the marine and fresh water systems. (One day while swimming, David and Ana found themselves in some untreated sewage and quickly made their way to the beach.)


MEET GABRIEL, BORN IN THE YUCATAN AND HAS WORKED IN CANCUN FOR 17 YEARS. GABRIEL'S COLONY...NO WATER, NO ELECTRICITY, AND NO ADDRESSThis is the other face of Cancun: no water, no electricity, no basic services… not even addresses thirteen minutes from the beaches of Cancun.


ANA RIDES THE BUS

After a hard workday, the workers leave the ‘Zona hotelera” to go back home. A 6 pesos-bus ride connects both realities.


MEET DR. ROBERTO IGLESIAS-PRIETO, SCIENTIST
Dr. Roberto Iglesias-Prieto is concerned with water quality of both the freshwater and marine systems. He's working with colleagues to better understand the underground rivers system of the Yucatan, which is home to the largest underground river in the world. It's suspected that much of the river system is being harmed by pollutants which seep through the soil, enter the rivers, and pollute drinking water before arriving in the sea. To learn more, visit: http://www.icmyl.unam.mx/ Dr. Iglesias-Prieto has dedicated much of his life investigating the cryptic lives of corals. And his work is showing how another pollutant, CO2, may be compromising the future of coral reefs the world over by playing a factor in rising ocean temperatures. According to Dr. Iglesias-Prieto, rising ocean temperatures can inhibit coral's ability to build their hard skeletons, and it can lead to a chain of events that eventually leads to starving the coral to death.

Scout trip: Mexico (Day 1)

Ana, Brook and our fixer Claudia plan another day as we have breakfast. Ana gets to work scouting and doing some "on the street" interviews. (Her Spanish is really good and she helps us incredibly, like . . . on the first day when we got pulled over by the police because she didn't have a seat belt on!)
On the first day, after scouting a helicopter and meeting with the pilot, the crew takes a cab ride to meet cave diver and explorer Sam Meacham at his house.

MEET SAM MEACHAM, CAVE DIVER Sam is really cool! His work exploring underwater caves is amazing, and he gives us a bunch of footage and offers to work with us in any way he can. (We like Sam. And Sam likes us.)

COZUMEL

David swims . . .
Cozumel, far from the tourist crowds . . .