The magnificent Channel island of Jersey

The crown jewel of the English Channel, the British island of Jersey, just off the French coast, where money grows under palm trees and royal potatoes under seaweed, and the world's oldest police force is manned by volunteers. There are few places on earth where the mudflats are as wide as on Jersey. Tony Legg has to cross them every day to get to work. Three kilometres through the mud. Saltwater corroding the brakes, saltwater corroding the chassis, getting into the electrical system, you name it, seawater will kill it. Tony needs a new car every six months, on average. His business? Rare seafood that has been a delicacy on Jersey since time immemorial. Orma, ear shells, also known as the ugliest mollusks in the world. Yes, yes. That one will be probably seven to ten years old. So coming down here, looking for ormas and taking them home for tea, where they would have been stewed for a fairly long time. If you look at its mouth there, its face, the front there, they are pretty bizarre. It's not a matter of whether you like it or not, that's how it is, and it probably thinks I'm pretty strange as well. Might be right. Wild orma are only allowed to be collected on 28 days a year. Tony Legg is the first person to try and breed them in the mudflats. He wants to bring farmed orma to the market. He experimented for five years. Today he's ready. These are the most expensive shellfish that you can buy, probably anywhere. They're an extremely high quality meat. This will be the first time that they've been placed on the market in Jersey, ever. Jersey is the largest of the British Channel Islands. With 2,000 hours of sunshine a year, it is also known as the sunniest. One side of the coast glides gently to the sea, the other rises up steeply. Jersey is a dependency of the British Crown, but lies much closer to France. It's only 25 kilometers to the French coast, but six times as far away from England. The center of the island is the capital St. Helier, a tax haven. A heavenly top tax rate of 20%. Around 50 international banks are based here and 32,000 businesses. Off the shores of the island lie the richest fishing grounds in the region, full of lobsters, orma, mussels, and whelks. But illegal fishing is threatening their populations. There's a lot of work for the officers of the fishing patrol. Target 27 is a potting boat. He's right close in amongst the rocks there. So we're in an area where we wouldn't take this boat. We might go in with the sea rider. The French boat was behaving suspiciously. They stopped fishing the moment they saw the patrol boat. In Jersey's waters, the fishing patrol has police powers. They can stop and check any boat, any time. These are whelks. There's a European size for whelks. It's a length of 45 millimeters. So we need to check to make sure they're all correctly sized. There's been concerns about the whelk fishery. And we did have, a few years ago, quite a few cases of boats retaining small, undersized whelks. If you don't stick to the rules, then there are fines of many thousands of pounds. Did you find them? No. If there's a problem with, for instance, it's fishing in an area without authorization, we will have to bring the boat back to St. Helier. All clear. Everything was in order with the French fishermen. Jersey lies in a strategically important position in the Channel. There are few islands with as many fortresses. Gorry Castle was built in the 13th century. There are Marcello Towers, dating from the late 18th century, when Napoleon posed a threat. And castles from the medieval period. Not to mention a lot of German bunkers from World War II. Jersey was occupied by the Wehrmacht then, forming part of the Atlantic Wall. Some of the old bunkers now serve very different purposes. The labyrinth system of corridors was falling apart until he came along. Dave Cowburn found out that the bunkers can be turned to a good purpose, namely to breed turbot. These are my pets, my family. You know, I give them tender, loving care, is the word, F-T-L-C. At the moment, we've got 6,000, from that size upwards to a kilo, kilo and a half. When we bring them in, they're about the size of a teabag. Turbot are expensive and very difficult to breed. The old bunker provides ideal conditions, constant temperatures, low light levels, and lots of room. And this here, this is actually where the war ended. The soldiers had dug all the tunnel out, but they hadn't finished casing it in. I wish they'd have stayed a bit longer, then they might have dug that way and that way, and I'd have had a big complex, you know. Dave has been breeding turbot for 13 years. I've been a fisherman all my life, and with the economics, because that was my son's boat, and that was my boat on the wall, the economics and the costs were going up, the prices were coming down, the quotas were going down, so we thought, we'll try something new. The next fortress is right in front of the bunker, not for military purposes, however. It's filled with sand. I can see it's a matched M3. It's a matched one on the other side. Well, there's a window going in here, a window going in there, and there. One here as well. These are stairs that come down here. He comes here every year. He's a Jersey man, and his family live here. And every summer or spring, he comes, and he builds the castles and all the creations, and he does it for charity. Simon Smith has even won Sandcastle World Championships. His latest project is intended to be over three meters high. I'm so addicted to sand, I can't leave. I'm here nearly 24 hours a day. I'm in no rush, because this is mine for me. I have lots of coffee breaks, and it depends on the weather. If it's raining too much, I'll stop and come back another day. Well, I don't go away, but I always stay with it. The castle should be ready in two weeks. Jersey's tides are the second largest in the world. The waters can rise by 14 meters within a few hours. The water comes faster than some expect. In some places, it advances by up to 10 meters per minute. Tony Legg has to hurry too. He quickly feeds his Orma, and then gets back to the island before high tide. With the first farmed ear shells. This is their food. This is laminaria digitata, one of their favorite foods. The Orma is something that I was brought up as a child. My grandparents were brought up as children going down, trying to find Ormas in this wild environment. And as a consequence, it's always been something that I've wanted to bring to the next stage, which is farming. And I went to university to study marine biology, and it's taken many, many years to get to this final point. I guess these are ready to go. It took five years to get to this day. The salt water has destroyed 12 cars in this time. This one's relatively recent. This one is a 2003, and I bought this one six months ago. And I think I might get another three months out of it. It's a bit like recycling. Think of it as car recycling. These are cars that have come almost to the end of their life, but not completely. And then they get used for proper economical use and for what they've been designed for, rather than taking children to school. Tony's wife, Elsbeth, is the expert in preparing Orma. Here they are, the first Ormas. Look at that, aren't they lovely? Look at that, they're fat. Wow. They're a good size, aren't they? Absolutely brilliant, wow. Ready to go, so get cooking. Tony and Elsbeth want to sell the delicacies at three pounds apiece. Well, they don't look very pretty to start with. The secret's in the taste. Jersey is a self-governing island. While it belongs to the British Crown, it has its own notes and coins and its own constitution. And its own police force, the oldest in the world. Hugh Gill is a typical Jersey police officer, still volunteering at the age of 70. He does a seven-day tour of duty every four weeks, today with Officer Garnett. Hi, Garnett. Good afternoon, sir. Good to see you, you well? Yes, very well. What are we going to do then? Are you going to take on for road inspector? I don't think so. Garnett is one of those officers that every parish would love to have, because he's been, you were born in the parish? I was born in the parish. He's lived in the parish all his life, and he knows everybody. Everybody knows him. He knows every road, every lane, every track, every cow, every horse, just about. I've been in the Honorary Police for 28 years. The speed limit on Jersey's so-called green lanes, which are very narrow, is 15 miles per hour. Pedestrians, cyclists, and horse riders all have priority over cars. Only nobody abides by these rules. That's why you and Garnett have taken position here. Morning, ladies. Good morning. Nice horse. Don't go speeding down there now. Here's a car, quick. He's seen us. 17. Yeah, he was doing more than he should have done. We will just give him words of advice. A little bit of word of advice. Good morning. Well, when you see this sign, green lane. 15 miles, yeah. 15, well, you were doing 17. Okay, but be careful, because it is 15, and there is people cycling and walking on the roads and horses. It's difficult to always catch anybody, because the time that they're speeding is never the time that you're trying to check them. It just tenderizes them a little bit. Makes them softer to cook. Less chewy. Yes, just so that they flatten off a little bit. That's the secret of preparing orma. You have to beat them like a steak. I think that one's already cooked. You think they're already done? Yes, I think small ones are done. I think that one's already cooked. Yes, yep. Do you want to taste it? Oh, go on then. Mm. Very good. Ah. That's perfect. They're there, yes. Very difficult to describe. It's definitely not fishy, and it is an impossible thing to, it's a truffle-y, nutty, slightly veal taste. The Minkes, a reef 20 kilometers off Jersey's coast. Long ago, people took stone from here for their fortresses on the island. Today, the Minkes are a protected area in which there are strict fishing rules. The officers on the patrol boat keep finding people not sticking to the rules. One boat has been noticed by the officers. It's catching lobsters. They can only be taken if they are above a certain size. Small ones have to go back into the sea. And I'm watching as these pots come up here. They have to have escape gaps in to let out the small lobsters. I'll check when I get on, make sure there's nothing obscuring them. Sometimes people put cable ties across them or string to stop the lobsters getting out. A boat registered in St. Helier, Jersey. Well, that's my business, but that's my son, yes. He's coming out. He said he started about three months ago. He's been on here with me, so. David Jetram measures every lobster. Total control in four seven winds and two-meter waves. Day at sea, isn't a good day? It appears the fisherman kept to the rules. He didn't manipulate his baskets. Boat down here a few years ago, and we caught him three times and he went to court and got fined and we caught him again. But with the tides we were catching, it was when it was foggy. So he couldn't see us, didn't know we were there until we were on the boat. That fisherman has now stopped fishing. The turbot in the bunker need a lot of attention. They take three years to reach the right size. David Cowburn delivers his fish to the restaurants and markets on the island. He's in the bunker every day. He charges 16 pounds a kilogram. Yeah, very nice, sir. Nice thick fillets on that one. It keeps me young. If I was, I've worked all my life, seven days a week. So if I stopped now, what would I do? Sit in a chair, become a vegetable. Plus you've met my little granddaughter. So this is her when I retire. If I can live another 15 years, then she'll be big enough to take it over. Simon Smith, the sandcastle builder, can't allow himself any mistakes. Sand is a tricky building material. The secret in getting straight lines is to keep your head upright, always. In the rough winter months, Simon moves his sandcastle construction to India. He's in his Jersey home from April to October. He used to work for the fishing patrol. 19 years ago, the doctor told me I had cancer and I had to go and have an operation, chemotherapy, but the chemotherapy wasn't going really that well. And just to kill time, I went down the beach. And I started playing with the sand, really. And then what happened, instead of building a sandcastle, I thought I'd try carving one. And bingo, found my hidden talent. I couldn't stop. Once I started making sculptures, I just couldn't stop. I moved out of my house instantly, straight into a van. That was 19 years ago. Today, he only builds on sand and lives off it. He gets commissions from supermarkets and shopping malls. Ta-da, that last 12 months. Special mission for the police. Senior volunteer, Hugh Gill, is allowed to act as judge and hand down sentences. Proceedings take place once a week in the parish hall. The Voluntary Police Force of Jersey was first mentioned 500 years ago. It is thought to be the first in the world. Okay, let's have a look. See what we've got here. Where's the person's details? Miss Vibert? Looks like a mobile phone offence. Miss Vibert was on the phone while driving. This baton de justice, in the old days, it was used to indicate that you have arrested somebody, so that you would tap them on the shoulder like that to show that they were in trouble, basically. Miss Vibert, please. From traffic offences to shoplifting to murder. On Jersey, only volunteers like Hugh Gill can bring charges. How are you this evening? Excuse me. All right, thank you. Okay. Before we start, I need to caution you that anything you say at this hearing may be taken down and used as evidence, but you don't need to say anything unless you wish to do so. I have a report from the state's police that you were stopped for using a mobile phone while you were driving. That's correct. What would you like to say? Is that correct? I was using a mobile phone, yes. It just went off and I picked it up and answered it. You picked up the mobile phone. Are you aware of the law? I am, yes. And what does the law say, Miss Vibert? You don't use a mobile phone when you're driving. The fine can be up to 200 pounds. But since this is, I believe, your first offence... I've never picked up a mobile phone in my car before. I think a fine of 100 pounds would be appropriate. Time, please, for that. 10.47. Thank you. Good Jersey girl, eh? Yes, with a name like Vibert, we've been here for 700 years at least. Hmm. Impressive. It's something that's been a tradition here, but also a very, very good way of dealing with minor matters. There you are, Miss Vibert. Thank you. Make sure that you pay your fine within the seven days. Seawater. That means alternative vehicle. Thankfully, we have a reserved vehicle. The vehicle cost 100 pounds and lasted six months. This is a 200 pound one. It's twice the price of the white one and twice as reliable. One that works. This was an expensive one. This was many hundreds of pounds. And it's very expensive to run. It is a great vehicle on the beach, but they do die. He's lost four cars in the mud. Tony could just about be rescued from the tide by tractors. Tony's farmed Orma come on the market for the first time. Five years hard work. Finally. Yes. Fantastic. Look at those. That one's about 85, 90 millimetres. Fantastic. I'm extremely proud of this. Yes. This is it. This is the culmination. Finally got there. Very historic day this. It is indeed. Yes. The very first farmed Orma. So historic day for Jersey. Yes. Historic day for you. Yes. Right, over to you. Over to me then. I can put them on the counter to sell. Sell. Today, there's an introductory offer, only £2.50. There they are. They look pretty good, don't they? I'm pleased with that. Yeah, I'm really pleased with that. £2.50 each. £2.50? £2.50 each, yes. It's not so bad, is it? No. Not so bad. Got five years to get there. Yeah. In my case, it would always be... These rare four-horned sheep have been back for a few years. Jersey sheep used to provide the wool for, well, jerseys. And the cows here produce particularly creamy milk, 4.5% fat. But the potatoes are the most famous of all. Jersey Royale. Kingly tubers which grow right by the sea. Christine Haleo wants to harvest the best potatoes every year. The smaller and tenderer, the better. This is the plant of the Jersey Royal. To me, the Jersey Royal is like the Rolls-Royce of potato. There's no other potato like it. It's got a beautiful, delicate skin. It's so gorgeous. It's got a sweet, nutty flavour. And they just can't be beaten. Jersey Royals are only harvested to order. They are a delicacy throughout England. They have to be eaten within four days, otherwise they lose their aroma. And this is thought to be unique. They are fertilised with seaweed. I think it just adds to the nutty taste. Obviously, there's lots of salt in there. Maybe that helps the flavour as well. The potato digging season lasts 12 weeks and generates £35 million. The Royal tubers cost up to £6 a kilogram. We're in my dad's field, actually, today. They've been brought up on the farm, my daughter has. Worked in the field, worked in this field as well, for years. The harvest is time-consuming and strenuous, proximity to the sea doesn't just bring advantages. You get the easterly winds, north-easterly winds that come from the sea. And literally, it's just... You can have foliage like this, and within three days, you have nothing left. Because the wind comes, it's so strong, and it's just bare ground. And that's heartbreaking. That is very heartbreaking at all. Next day, Simon Smith wants to remove the wooden casing of his sandcastle. He's been awake for hours. It's so peaceful here in the mornings, and there's nobody about. The cafe down the road opens at seven o'clock. It's when you get your cheap cup of coffee for 50p, which is quite nice. And if you're lucky in the mornings, you get the occasional dolphin, as you can see out here. It's also very good. If the sand isn't compacted enough, the whole castle collapses. My heart doesn't beat at 200, it beats at 300 when I'm down here. And they have collapsed before. Ta-da! Simon always takes away the casing first thing in the morning. For that, he wants to be on his own. Just in case it does collapse, I don't want no witnesses. I don't like people watching me do this bit. It's like, I don't know, it's like one of those little secrets that you don't want people to know, you know? I'd say that the net is so easy to cut. On the patrol boat, David Jetram and his team are concentrating. A large catamaran on the horizon is behaving suspiciously. We have a target we've seen on the radar, which we're pretty sure we've identified as a vessel that doesn't have a permit to fish in this zone. So we're getting ready to go to intercept it, see if it's fishing, and probably board it. But first, it's watch and wait. Greg, can I have those binoculars, please? Yeah. Speed's up. Speed is up. Just come up. They have to catch the crew red-handed to have enough evidence for a prosecution. 11 knots. Eight knots. A bit better. If its speed drops down, it's either picking up a net or maybe it's shooting a net at a lower speed. So just keeping an eye on the radar on what the boat is doing. And if there's a sudden change in its pattern of movement, then we may decide to either launch a searider, head down in that, or to head down in this boat. Suddenly, the captain turns the boat. He probably recognized the patrol boat on his radar. It's heading away from us at about the same speed as we're going towards it, going roughly north. It's gonna be outside. Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. The fishing patrol isn't allowed to intervene in the waters of the neighboring island, Guernsey. They take up the chase at 33 knots, nearly 60 kilometers per hour. The catamaran has crossed the border. 49, 23, decimal 166 north. Two, 12. But once it's been recorded on the police's GPS system, it can be identified. And the officers just saw how they threw something into the water. There's another one further down there. We're going to check for any fishing gear we see to see if it's possibly been laid by that boat that's just exited the area. Now they have to secure the evidence. This is a whelk pot. So what we were hoping to look for was some nets. So it's just been baited with brown crab, dogfish. Suspicious, it's capped. There was only a trap basket attached. So this is quite unusual because normally you have all the rope, the weight, a pot, and your string of pots. Evidently, the fishermen wanted to destroy the evidence. Shouldn't be here. It's not on there, Mike. Okay, we'll recover this string and then we'll look at a few more pots. The investigators find more fishing gear. They're just a different design to the yellow one. What we're doing is we're confiscating them and returning the cat back to sea. We're not sure what's going on here. It's a bit strange because the original boat we were looking for was a boat that was netting and we couldn't find any nets in the area where it wasn't allowed to fish. It may be that the first boat has brought that gear out for the whelk boat and then this smaller whelk boat will just work them as a string at a time. A fine of several thousands of pounds could be levied. The day's harvest has been brought in. On Christine Elio's farm, the neighbors are meeting up. They talk a language that sounds a bit French and a bit English, but one that neither French nor English people understand. We are talking Jersey French. Well, they are, I'm trying. It is what they call a patois of the island and this is what would have been spoken many years ago. Well, not that many years ago. All three of us were about six years old before we spoke English. Your parents, that's all they spoke to you, was Jersey French. And then there was a period when you went to school and you weren't allowed to use Jersey French at school. It was forbidden at school. The trouble was the teachers didn't understand it. So they forbid it because you couldn't sort of make comments on the teachers behind their backs. Lunch is nearly ready for Christine and her husband, Jersey Royal Potatoes, of course. I spent about 20 years convincing him that when I cooked a curry, it was meant to go with rice. And when I cooked bolognese, it was meant to have spaghetti with it. And he went to see a doctor saying that he had a bloated stomach sometimes after eating. And the doctor said, oh, you mustn't eat pasta and you mustn't eat rice. So now we're just back to potatoes. But I actually think he probably paid the doctor to say that. Today, the Jersey Royals are being served in two ways, boiled and fried. Hi, darling, you ready for your lunch? Yeah, what's for lunch? Well, I've done these little ones. You like them, don't you? Yeah, I like them, love them. Just for you. Just for you, yeah. Any pasta, any rice? No, thank you. No, I didn't think so. Don't like it. Five for every day. Potatoes every day, every meal. You can go and dig some more. When I got married, I had to start eating rice and pasta. And then, unfortunately, I had a funny stomach. So I went to my doctor. After years of trying to get me on pasta and rice, it was a no-no. I had to grow, I had to eat potatoes. Finally, Simon's sandcastle is finished. 14 days work, three meters high. With luck, it will last a year. Hello, Mr. Sandman. How are you doing? All right? I'm working on the beach. Oh, nice one, nice one. This is Mr. Sandman. Andy, Andy who works on the beach and does these amazing, amazing pictures. Absolutely stunning. That bit there is about 105 years old, something like that, I think. It was my great-great-grandfather's. Been kicking around in the family for a while. Andy's art is even more ephemeral than the sandcastles. He uses his great-great-grandfather's rake to make circles, lines, and patterns. High art at low tide. When the sea returns, it all washes away. I like the ephemeral nature of it as well. You know, the fact that it is gone by the tide and it is fleeting. I think it's part of the attraction of it, I think, you know? Everything beautiful is fleeting, even on Jersey.