you're watching news i'm sarah kelly in berlin you have been joining us for special programming this hour we have been talking about germany marking the day fades nov ninth when some of the nation's most important historical events took place the birth of a new german republic in the wake of baltimore one the fall of the berlin wall and the night of the broken glass when the nazis and their supporters carried out a nationwide attacks on the jewish population thank you so much for joining us on this day have a good one. letter we were wrong when we were now eighty percent of americans at some point in our lives will experience hardship listening.

when christopher columbus discovered cuba's amazing flora and extraordinary abundant turquoise fishing waters he declared that this was the most beautiful land he'd seen anywhere in the world. he couldn't possibly know the extent of the wonders that lay just a few feet beneath his but. five centuries later he says you don't just. mean that. you want to say the only jungle you sure you were just. sixty years of isolation embargo and lack of resources. the cubans to carry out ecologically driven policies eliminating pollution from heavy industries and chemicals from agriculture and industrial fishing. the consequences of this imposed isolation is

a hurry. both exceptional and surprising. cuba has remained a natural paradise unique in the world. but on this island the size of switzerland the downside is that the lack of money and resources has meant cuban scientists have not always been able to extend their research over the whole of the territory. and all of a sudden the march of history sets off again. america. the island's isolation is coming to an end and it's predicted that in the next five years tourism will rise from three to seven million visitors a year for a country with barely eleven million inhabitants neither the population nor the island's ecosystems are prepared for this. along with eduardo eyebright you leslie fernandez and alexia lewis thirty also scientists from the department of ecology a

caught up in a race against the clock. they have no more than two or three years to find the indispensable zones of reproduction highlight the species in danger and root out the animals that cause harm to. a huge task which will make it easier for the natural environment to absorb the avalanche of tourists walk reserving the unique character of the island. i. biologist leslie fernandez is amused whenever

a rare handful of tourists turn up on one of the six hundred deserted islands of the queen's gardens archipelago. they're all aware of how lucky they are to set foot on this natural reserve they feel like they've arrived on virgin island where the animals never having encountered humans will be nothing but friendly. at the last thing that the queen's gardens are one of the best preserved regions not only in cuba but in the whole of the caribbean going to understand that this region resembles what the caribbean looked like several hundred years ago today a careful and sustainable tourism model is developing it is epic and that the right management procedures are being put into place so that tourism and the natural world can cohabit here and that would at kill.

if it looks like the land base to go on as a posing for photographs or if the cuban who one of the last descendants of a now extinct rodent family a cheerfully accepting food from the tourists it's because this is all about the animals observing the humans and not the other way around. lesley has spent two years recording the behavior of a photographers and animals and has come up with figures limiting the number of tourists how much they can feed the animals and how often they can visit the archipelago this allows the animals to maintain their natural lifestyle despite the presence of visitors. at full tilt and head leaning. the future. sure of the queen's garden this. last in line if the management norms which we've set up here are put in place then the future will be. and the new marvelous.

war went well very good i would say. but for that these decisions must be respected. otherwise there's a risk of losing what is still the jewel of the caribbean in a full. taking advantage of these timeless moments of trying none of the tourists are aware that there's a real menace circling the island. in all likelihood this crocodile was driven away by a tropical storm or by the construction of new seaside resort and has found its way

from florida to cuba a distance of three hundred miles. per hour. just like many tourists this new common set out looking for a haven of trying when achieved. but in the case of this crocodile it was a life threatening quest for this journey of two to three weeks in the high seas is a tough challenge for a cold blooded animal who time is easily. thanks. i. is this cicutto crocodile also known as the american crocodile had come alone the cuban ecosystem would have no problem assimilating it into its rich natural world. as it goes deeper into the mangroves familiar sounds seem to catch his attention.

getting closer it comes across a colony of cousins from mexico quechua rico and florida. these american crocodiles are sea water and swim species which can grow up to twenty feet long and weigh half a ton. the americans are roaming around the territory of the native cuban crocodile the wrong with. these a much smaller animals two point five meters long and weighing less than one hundred kilos and his population betty number three thousand. this makes them the rarest crocodiles in the world. eduardo habra is in charge of the natural reserve of the south at a swamp and his job is to ensure that the american crocodiles do not encroach into

the five hundred square kilometer territory of the cuban crocodiles. he's partnered by a good start to reintroduce two hundred cuban crocodiles from his breeding farm into the wild last year their aim to extend the wrong litter is natural territory and fight against their extinction. let's try and find the eggs. really you get here i think i can feel some here. yes and over here too. ok let's take away the earth it seems the nest. oh i've got one here look. here there are several all together that would be careful don't pull them out too much

and i'd say they're eggs which are less than fifty days old so that means we can work with them because the embryo will already be fairly strong. but we have to handle them carefully because the way we hold them has an influence on the temperature and side the egg. which look at the color on top and look at the size. that means that it's a fertile embryo. because when the eggs are laid many of them are on fertilized. egg i want to leave. this is an eighty five point sixty five millimeters. forty two point sixty seven percent you see when you see it.

best with how much is it one hundred grams. so i'd wonder we're going to reconstruct a nest but be really careful because in our research on the cuban crocodile population as well as counting them and localizing them above all we have to be extra careful with the nests. it is absolutely vital that the two men put each egg back in its precise place in the nest which is warmer in the center than on the sides with crocodiles the temperature of the egg determines the future sex of the animal below thirty one degrees it will be a female. over thirty two degrees a male. forty days later the baby crocodile bites through the shell with a temporary tooth that will soon fall out and cools out whimpering for its mother.

the mother's response is to entice them into the water. stay. oh oh oh. yes for the first six months ninety percent of the movie even bragged editors such as vultures snakes or cannibalized by male crocodiles for us us. cattle having made it to the river the

safest place for them where their mother lying on the river that can keep an eye on them the babies then have to avoid a major danger being carried away by the current and losing the protection of their parents. for the first two years until they reach fifty centimeters long and become too big for most of their predators they live under the type protection of their mother. luckily there are also protected by the biologists of the natural parts otherwise the species would not survive alongside the huge american crocodile. in the six thousand square kilometers of mangrove swamps which surround these

little crocodiles are far from lenglen. this is where the young of more than one thousand two hundred different animal species make their first time steps. without the mangrove two thirds of cuban aquatic species would simply disappear. to go wouldn't be the natural paradise that it is without the languorous they protect the coastlines from damage by cyclons and tropical storms after the. aims they help to filter out the mud which is the principal cause of the choking and destruction of reefs which can be observed in almost all of central america. and.

once they get past the juvenile stage during which they're too small to defend themselves ocean fish swim out to the place where the rest of their lives will unfold. the two thousand kilometers of coral reef which surround the island of cuba . whereas half of the coral reefs around most of central america have disappeared the cuban reef which is considered the richest reef in the world has been totally preserved thanks to the slow development of the island.

to this fragile ecosystem houses more than nine hundred species of fish fifty types of coral and two hundred types of spawn much. however the price of fame could be fatal. seventeen reefs adding up to nearly eight hundred kilometers in length and now open to fans of scuba diving and the. on this ever increasing. faced with the predicted arrival of mass tourism and the lack of a proper hotel infrastructure the government is authorized the local population to build a certain number of guests koreans in private houses. without access to modern materials

due to the embargo with the builders a force to turn back the clock to old forgotten techniques there rediscovering a surprising maritime heritage. a loaf hello how are you very well what's the rock like not too hard. a bit difficult. when you work with rocky you ever find sea fossils yes yes we do find some in fact come and see what we found here. if you think it's a buy valve got a fossilized shell forcedly so we will say it's proof you know that there's marine sediments. and in this and i'm stone did you find anything else absolutely we've found lots of things. look here's a fossil which seems very rare. but all that's really interesting. if you

would only it's a tooth from a shark which lived here thirty million years ago during the place to see an era but do you know is how more political scene was from up until the arrow which came to an end a million and a half years ago. it was a huge i when i was on we this is a very interesting discovery. but i'm going to show it to one of my friends who is a shark specialist. so all the fossils found are for marine animals you know because this is limestone is entirely composed of rain sediment. this was the ocean floor before cuba appeared before it will see the angles everything which sank to the bottom accumulated here and helped to create this particular type of rock among . its own really doing some major work here. for the for the island of cuba or ever existed a shark measuring nearly fifty meters called the mega aladin three times as big as

the largest great white shark of our era dominated the ocean depths for more than twenty million years. and then the gallatin is the largest predator that ever existed. a force of nature when forty tons under the long as an articulated truck. the species became extinct a million and a half years ago having no suitable prey to feed on. but sharks are still widely prevail and around cuba including the silky shark which took over when the may galligan became extinct.

ninety percent of the world shark population has been wiped out in the last fifty years. and forty million of them a still being hunted every year. but cuba is in no way affected by the situation the island is a real refuge for all tropical shot species. in fact the island is probably the last remaining productive unberth zone for many of them. this is the job assigned to noel lopez he dives every day for months amongst the sharks to try and section off the key mating and rearing areas so that scientists from the protected marine parks can more easily prohibit any commercial shark fishing. to achieve this they're going to try something innovative so that they can study the sharks without having to catch them.

was. the sharks coming towards them a silky sharks animals which a two metres fifty and reputed to be fairly aggressive involved in half a dozen attacks a year. but no well stays calm because he's developed a secret trick. the.

shark skin is covered with ultra sensitive senses which allow the animals to detect the slightest movement within a range of about one hundred meters. by squeezing and folding the end of the shark's fin know all in juices a sudden influx of information which the animal feels right through its body this totally confuses the message is reaching the brain the shops instantly fall into a state of paralysis catatonia. this gentle method enables the divers to work out the length agency of the animal without having to catch it and remove it from the water.

what the divers have noticed is that the different shots observed in this part of the reef are exclusively females. even better is that one of them has a metal tag that's alexi root is the cuban shock specialist who placed on her. so when she being all this time. more such will be necessary. for. this test which is being carried out many dozens of times as always come up

with the same result there are only females since they take themselves away from the males when it's time to give birth this would suggest that there's a rearing area close by. so this reef will be classified as untouchable for the four months corresponding to the birth cycle. of the term eduardo wants to be able to prove that cuba is indeed one of the red bird thing areas in the caribbean for silky shocks. time is short and in the hope of confirming his theory he's going with alexei rule as the specialist deep into the heart of loss selling us. his baby ocean shots of being born in the southern part of the island and it would be in this environment protected from predators that they would have spent the first few months of the lawyers. at

ft. thanks. to hours on end the fishermen search every nook and cranny of the last sunniness. to. get the organ that there's a shark here look over there over there on the right taken the bait. on the line. and. take it. to cut. cut. cut. cut.

cut out of the bowl the dirty with the head on the side that's all first i need you to tell me how long it is right up to its fin eighty four centimeters. i want to be mom let's find out what sex it is. you got to drive down and it's a male to hold it by its head while i think. lifted up when you see the claspers. you both male sharks and rays are easily recognizable since they're the only marine animals to have to penises the evolutionary remains of pelvic fins a little the two organs a never in use at the same time you think you know much the thing again they. give me the outer measurement point out are those two centimeters no more.

so now let's give it a number. we're going to use a tag with the plastic head which is important. it was thought it was you know. i'm like my marker goes right in the middle of the first dorsal fin a little gently in the shark feels nothing. you simply just need to tell us that the tag is holding ok. number on the marker write it down i'll spell it out ok c d yes zero zero zero one four. take the hook out of the multi just have to pull perfect right up. this cataloguing of sod i don't shots will be carried out over the next two years and should help to confirm the presence of a reproductive area. from

now on protecting the reef means no commercial fishing no permanent building projects a no water sports over the thousand square kilometers of last salinas. but in fact tourist complex is one of the major issues that the ministry of ecology have to deal with. on the northern coast of cuba. on the coyotes blanco's make up a group of islands twenty two kilometers long.

it's. a succession of hotels and natural results which were constructed horridly and don't always conform to correct environmental standards. because blank us are home to mangroves and royal palm trees as what is being an important reserve for more than seventy species of birds five of whom are native to cuba. this archipelago is an almost perfect example of how tourism and nature can be integrated something cuba would like to extend elsewhere. but some hotels were built too close to the coastline and therefore to rectify past

mistakes the regional authority has taken a radical decision concerning one of its own state from hotels. a few. hours. from now on in montanans us province it's tourism which must adapt to nature and not the other way around. in order for nature tourism to succeed the ecology ministry has some alternative ideas. such as floating hotels. by definition mobile each otello nice days a few years in the same place. then moves

a few miles away to another spot and so on. ten floating hotels house the same number of guests is a five story building with one hundred fifty. the impact of tourism is therefore spread out and short lived in any given area. nature can then take all the time it wants to recover once the mobile structure has moved on. alan. claimed

the was to egypt staying in these hotels in the heart of the wilderness is a unique experience since it enables tourists to come into direct contact with some of the area's remarkable animals. such as the town's. noel's expertise means he can offer tourists the chance to dive with shallow. but it's a complex operation. shots within a radius of less than a kilometer are attracted by the low frequency sound of the motors and by the commotion caused by divers and they soon arrive. then to keep their attention bait

is used. but only a small amount to avoid creating a feeding frenzy which would force the divers rapidly out of the water. once the shock starts winning calmly around the divers a box filled with hate is lowered into the water. the predatory nature of sharks is stimulated that means that they are instinctively seek out where. the smell of the food is coming from while knowing that it's not from the divers. but in order for this technique to work all year round no well has to change area and shop group for each dive. it's a technique based on the curious nature shots and it enables divers to take some

incredible photos in safe conditions and without interfering with the sharks natural behavior. but dangerous still exists. if a shot becomes frustrated at not finding enough food it could suddenly attack a diver or worse the shots could associate boat divers and food together. even just going swimming would become risky. in the interests of cuba's natural habitat no well in the office of marine parks once again have put in place extremely strict measures to regulate this perennial activity.

in this aquatic paradise there's an issue which needs no well and leslie's urgent attention. it's hard to imagine that one of the central american reefs worse might mazz was caused by just six fish who escaped from a florida aquarium during hurricane andrew in one thousand nine hundred. the lionfish originally from the pacific has no natural predator in the atlantic. and each female lays two million eggs a year. in ten years lion fish have invaded the whole of the caribbean including

cuba and. half of the species present in the reef today are in danger of being replaced by this passed. it's a huge problem for which there doesn't seem to be a solution. but back in the familiar surroundings of the queen's gardens noel has patiently been developing a most of regional idea. he discovered that in their native pacific lionfish is eaten daily by groupers and shells.

so that caribbean cousins just need to be persuaded that line fish are perfectly edible prey. the extremely poisonous spines of what worry the predators. the groupers have to work out that their palates made of cartilage will protect them from the spines but there's only one way of finding out. although.

after months of trying mission accomplished. the sharks are more easily persuaded. they also have pallets of cartilage which don't get damaged by the venomous spines . after three years of hard work and patience it seems that no well in his teens approach has successfully taken off and been emulated along the hundred fifty kilometer queen's

gardens reef. so now indigenous fish can slowly but surely return in numbers. faced with the ever advancing wave of tourism leslie and noel a never short of imagination when it comes to inspecting and protecting the health of the coral. they've come up with the most remarkably inventive technique. it enables them to inspect nearly two hundred kilometers of wreath and one hundred dives.

coral toilets are animals similar to jellyfish which stick to surfaces and form a line stone skeleton around themselves. the accumulation of billions and billions of these animals make up the coral reefs. fire luminescence is the light produced by certain living organisms and healthy corals produce this light although it's not easy to see it. an intense blue light activates lucy family and the chemical compound which creates luminescence so by wearing a yellow mask which blocks out the blue spectrum the coral appears in a completely different aspect.

i mean yellow or orange red. each friday of coral has its own vibrant color. the. seen from this angle it's hard not to agree that the cuban reefs are full of life. but at the same time it's clear that the slightest touch of any bit of coral means destroying dozens of problems. two hundred thousand divers today five hundred thousand in five years' time how many more in twenty years the reef won't be able to survive in the long run.

which is why the national center for protected areas has taken its latest decision there are to be no more dive centers set up in cuban marine parks and the numbers of divers will be limited annually this is the only way that this particular wonder of nature will be preserved for future generations the bugan people both proud and aware of their country's natural riches don't expect to save you and this ecological paradise will gradually become a jewel rarer by the year and who knows if the younger cuban generations will be able to offer the same assistance as their parents and safeguard their unique country for generations to come to hand over will they give in to the ever increasing pressure from those in search of the thrills and sensations which interfere with the fragile natural balance. only time will tell.

you on a. scar's cover and forget women in russia have to live with violence sexism and oppression the same and violence is no liberation. where putin's petri arche rooms today women's rights were already gaining traction a hundred years ago. people here don't have a clue that feminism but there are women who want to instigate change in everyday life for justice and equality. under the skin of russia's women starts

nov thirteenth on g.w. . it was a human made cataclysm. the first global disaster of the twentieth century. want to end all wars cost millions of lives. world war one. marks the hundreds anniversary of its end. what is humankind learned from the great war. as it learned anything at all. is real peace and possibility. nineteen. not forgotten w.'s november focus.

this is news live from berlin. thank you for joining us through joining our special coverage of anniversary events marking the eightieth anniversary of kristallnacht known in english as the night of broken glass a two day program that foreshadowed the horrors of the holocaust on the night of november ninth one thousand nine hundred thirty eight the nazis and their supporters launched attacks on the jewish population.