Deep Sea
Transcript
01:00♪♪
01:10♪♪
01:20♪♪
01:32These are not visitors from an alien planet.
01:37Nor are they science fiction.
01:40They are real.
01:43Creatures of our own world.
01:49And their destiny is linked to ours.
01:54♪♪
02:04♪♪
02:14♪♪
02:26Coral mountains rise more than half a mile
02:29from the floor of the Caribbean Sea.
02:33They were built inch by inch over centuries
02:37by billions of coral animals.
02:40But the animals didn't do it alone.
02:43Tiny plants living inside the coral
02:46capture energy from the sun to make its food.
02:51Neither plant nor coral can survive without the other.
02:57And that's the key.
02:59The whole reef community is built on relationships.
03:04♪♪
03:08Little fish live here.
03:11♪♪
03:15And big fish eat little fish.
03:20He's a hundred-pound black grouper.
03:24And he's always hungry.
03:27♪♪
03:34But for the community to remain in balance,
03:37the prey needs a fair chance at survival, too.
03:42And nature provides some ingenious ways to even the odds.
03:48Take the frogfish.
03:50He hides from predators by looking like a sponge.
03:55♪♪
04:00In his disguise, the frogfish can sit back and attract lunch
04:04with a fishing pole mounted on his forehead.
04:08♪♪
04:16Glassy minnows.
04:18Like Quicksilver.
04:22That black grouper on the ledge is hoping to catch one.
04:26♪♪
04:34The shimmering school dances for good reason.
04:38It's very hard for the grouper to isolate a single minnow.
04:42And he often fails.
04:44♪♪
04:51There's more diversity here than anywhere else on Earth.
04:56And every single citizen, from the tiniest fish
05:00to the ferocious tiger shark,
05:03must depend upon others to survive.
05:06♪♪
05:11The balance between predator and prey is always shifting.
05:16But the community stays healthy and whole
05:19because there are so many different relationships
05:21between so many species.
05:24Sometimes, even the coral itself is prey.
05:28♪♪
05:32The crown-of-thorns sea star.
05:35He eats coral.
05:37Too many of these could wipe out an entire reef.
05:40♪♪
05:44The triton trumpet snail hunts sea stars.
05:49Although the snail is almost blind,
05:52it can smell the sea star's trail.
05:56Those nasty thorns are full of venom.
06:01But the snail is immune.
06:05What's that?
06:07It's called a proboscis,
06:09and he'll use it to drill through the star's leathery hide.
06:14Then he'll inject a venom
06:16that will dissolve the sea star from the inside out.
06:20So the triton trumpet snail helps save the coral.
06:25And that helps keep the reef's ecosystem in balance.
06:33Even different species you'd think would be enemies
06:36often help each other.
06:39This is a cleaning station.
06:41Sort of a dermatology clinic.
06:45The spotted coney is the patient.
06:48The little cleaner gobies move over his skin,
06:52removing and eating parasites.
06:56Both species benefit.
06:59It's called symbiosis.
07:04Another cleaning station.
07:06Away from this spot,
07:08the barracuda might swallow the little Spanish hogfish whole.
07:16When he's being cleaned,
07:18the barracuda seems to call a truce.
07:22The cleaning station is a sanctuary.
07:28Green sea turtles love coming to this reef
07:32near the island of Hawaii.
07:35It's sort of an undersea sanctuary.
07:39It's a great place to spend the night.
07:43It's a great place to spend the night.
07:47It's a great place to spend the night.
07:51It's a great place to spend the night.
07:55It's sort of an undersea spa.
07:58Amazingly, it's only the size of a living room,
08:01but even coming from miles away,
08:04they somehow manage to find this special spot.
08:10When algae accumulates on their shells,
08:12it can really slow them down.
08:15But the reef fish give them a good scrub.
08:18In exchange, the turtles give the reef fish
08:21a healthy vegetarian feast.
08:26Some don't even wait their turn.
08:29They swoop in close to other turtles to steal away the school.
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09:33With her shell beautifully polished,
09:36she now returns to her migrations,
09:39which may take her thousands of miles away
09:42through the trackless open sea,
09:46where jellyfish drift through liquid skies.
09:57That pulsing is how it swims.
10:00Each pulse also forces tiny animals inward,
10:04where they are stunned and consumed.
10:11Thousands of different species of jellyfish
10:13ride the currents like sailors in a gale.
10:18Most are solitary travelers.
10:25But moon jellies sometimes swarm together in astonishing numbers.
10:35They know not what lies in wait below.
10:44A monster jellyfish ensnares them in a venomous web
10:48that can stretch more than 30 feet across.
10:57The stinging filaments slowly drag them in
11:00toward the translucent bell,
11:03where they will be dissolved and digested.
11:08For some mysterious reason,
11:11it's called the fried-egg jellyfish.
11:14Ocean currents can sweep entire oceans
11:17and cause a huge amount of damage to the environment.
11:21They are a great source of water pollution.
11:25And the most dangerous of all,
11:28they are the ones that are the most dangerous.
11:31The most dangerous are the ones that are the most dangerous.
11:35They are the ones that are the most dangerous.
11:38They are the ones that are the most dangerous.
11:42Ocean currents can sweep entire kelp forests
11:45away from California's Channel Islands
11:48and out into the open sea.
11:51The drifting kelp rafts are a favorite gathering place
11:55for one of the strangest creatures in the ocean.
11:59It's called a mola mola.
12:06This one's about five feet across,
12:09but he can grow to more than 4,000 pounds,
12:13mostly on a gossamer diet of jellyfish.
12:21But molas don't come here for food.
12:25They come here to be cleaned by half-moon perch.
12:31It's a cleaning station in the open sea.
12:40Looks like this time the entire family came along.
12:57Currents are as vital to life underwater
13:00as rain is to life on land.
13:03Along the North Pacific coast,
13:06they sweep nutrients up from the depths
13:09to nourish a dense growth of plankton.
13:14The basket star has sensed the current
13:17and opens serpentine arms to snare passing tidbits.
13:37Barnacles are feasting, too.
13:41They stick out their furry little legs to catch food.
13:49The translucent creatures clinging to the kelp
13:52are called nudibranchs.
13:55They come in a thousand varieties.
14:01They're close relatives of the common garden slug.
14:05But much more beautiful.
14:11These are hooded nudibranchs.
14:14They use their hoods to scoop in water,
14:17then slowly squeeze out all but the food.
14:36The hairy arms of feather stars
14:39are great for combing out food.
14:42But in a pinch,
14:45they're even better for escaping from marauders.
14:58The marauder is a sun star.
15:02And it will eat a feather star
15:05if it can catch one.
15:19But it much prefers to dine on juicy shellfish,
15:23especially sea scallops.
15:31The marauder is a sun star.
15:34And it will eat a sea scallop
15:37if it can catch one.
15:43The marauder is a sun star.
15:46And it will eat a sea scallop
15:49if it can catch one.
15:56The marauder is a sun star.
15:59And it will eat a sea scallop
16:02if it can catch one.
16:30Did that one bite back?
16:45What an intriguing landscape.
16:48It's home to one of the oddest relationships ever
16:51between a predator and its prey.
16:54It's actually a forest of animals
16:57known as tube anemones.
17:00They protect themselves
17:03with stinging cells hidden in their tentacles.
17:06But there's a predator who covets those stingers.
17:12It's a rainbow nudibranch.
17:15And he's a thief.
17:18He eats tube anemone tentacles.
17:28But he doesn't digest the stinging cells.
17:31Instead, he'll pass them on into the feathery gills on his back
17:35where they continue to live.
17:38So now the stolen stingers protect him.
17:51The sun star is back.
17:54And he'll devour a nudibranch,
17:57stolen venom and all.
18:02But like any good thief,
18:05the nudibranch has a getaway plan.
18:24He's running out of time.
18:49The Irish Lord.
18:52He can hide from his enemies and his prey.
18:59It's not so easy for the crab to hide.
19:03But he has great defenses.
19:05Sharp pinchers and a rock-hard shell.
19:08The Irish Lord may have bitten off more than he can chew.
19:25Before he can swallow his dinner, the crab will have to release that death grip on his upper lip.
19:30And now, a rare close-up look at the domestic life of the California mantis shrimp.
19:44He's only 10 inches long, but he's much stronger than he looks.
19:51He's gathering muscles for dinner.
19:54He's got incredibly powerful claws.
19:57In fact, those claws are as fast as a .22 caliber bullet.
20:02That makes him the most powerful animal for his size in the world.
20:08He's using his claw like a hammer to smash open the muscle.
20:12Now he's off to grab some more.
20:27Uh-oh, here comes trouble.
20:36He won't be safe in his burrow.
20:38If he's cornered there, the octopus can inject a poison that will kill him.
20:44Something tells me he won't go down without a fight.
20:54His display is a warning.
20:57Don't mess with me.
21:08If the octopus still doesn't get the message, maybe a shot to the chops will set him straight.
22:08A thousand miles north, in the frigid waters of British Columbia, lives an octopus that is truly a sea monster.
22:18The giant Pacific octopus.
22:23This one weighs about 50 pounds, but he may grow up to weigh more than 200.
22:29With tentacles that could stretch more than 20 feet across.
22:38He's a master of disguise.
23:05As he moves, he changes both his color and texture to match his surroundings.
23:17This octopus is on the hunt.
23:23And his favorite food is crab.
23:34His eyesight is only fair, but the lightest brush against his prey, and the octopus attacks.
24:05He's a master of disguise.
24:08He's a master of disguise.
24:11He's a master of disguise.
24:14He's a master of disguise.
24:17He's a master of disguise.
24:20He's a master of disguise.
24:23He's a master of disguise.
24:26He's a master of disguise.
24:29He's a master of disguise.
24:31He's a master of disguise.
24:52He extracts every morsel of crab meat.
24:58Then ejects the remains.
25:02Then ejects the remains.
25:08In the kelp forest, there is an ever-changing balance between predator and prey.
25:15But dramatic shifts can cause entire ecosystems to crumble.
25:23For instance, sea urchins eat kelp.
25:28But if the urchin population explodes, the kelp could disappear.
25:38Once again, there are animals that help preserve the balance.
25:46One of them is the wolf eel.
25:52Certainly a face only a mother could love.
25:58Though he looks like an ogre, he's important to this whole community.
26:07Wolf eels eat sea urchins.
26:11And there's supper.
26:27The wolf eel is one of the most popular fish in the world.
26:32It's the most popular fish in the world.
26:35It's the most popular fish in the world.
26:38It's the most popular fish in the world.
26:41It's the most popular fish in the world.
26:44It's the most popular fish in the world.
26:47It's the most popular fish in the world.
26:50It's the most popular fish in the world.
26:53It's the most popular fish in the world.
26:56It's the most popular fish in the world.
26:59So as the wolf eel dines on urchins, he helps protect the forest.
27:04Just as the triton trumpet snail helps protect the coral reef.
27:09Night falls.
27:12And with it begins the largest migration on earth.
27:20Attracted by moonlight, vast swarms of plankton gather on the shore.
27:26And with it begins the largest migration on earth.
27:30And with it begins the largest migration on earth.
27:34Attracted by moonlight, vast swarms of plankton rise up from the deep.
27:43And following right behind them.
27:47The night hunters.
27:51Giant manta rays.
28:03They can span 18 feet, wingtip to wingtip.
28:09They feed only on plankton.
28:12Scooping up millions of tiny prey in a single pass.
28:19No ocean predator is more graceful.
28:33No ocean predator is more graceful.
28:36In the sea of Cortez, nocturnal fish come up to join the feast.
28:58In the sea of Cortez, nocturnal fish come up to join the feast.
29:07And rising to feed on them, the creatures of your nightmares.
29:17Humboldt squid.
29:20Some are more than 6 feet long and can weigh as much as 130 pounds.
29:30They change their color several times each second.
29:33Maybe it's excitement.
29:39Maybe it's a threat.
29:43Maybe even rage.
29:48They'll attack almost anything.
29:51Sharks.
29:53Humans.
29:55Even each other.
30:03They'll attack almost anything.
30:06Sharks.
30:08Humans.
30:10Even each other.
30:12Sharks.
30:14Humans.
30:16Sharks.
30:18Humans.
30:20Sharks.
30:22Humans.
30:24Sharks.
30:26Humans.
30:28Sharks.
30:30Humans.
30:31Sharks.
30:33Humans.
30:35Sharks.
30:37Humans.
30:39Sharks.
30:41Humans.
30:42A shipwreck lies on the ocean floor off North Carolina.
31:02It's a desert here with few natural reefs.
31:13Now the wreck itself has become a reef, a shelter for these little fish.
31:19For some, not so little.
31:34The sand tiger shark.
31:50They like to hunt here, but there's a surprising bond between the sharks and these small fish.
32:00Instead of hiding from the shark, schools of small fish gather round, using him as protection
32:07from tuna, jacks, and other predators.
32:12So the sharks provide another kind of sanctuary for small fish as they travel from wreck to
32:18wreck across this desert of open sand.
32:28Between lemon sharks and remoras, it's easy to see who benefits.
32:33By hitching a ride on the shark, the sucker fish can count on finding food.
32:40We're not used to thinking of sharks as helpful creatures.
32:48It may not be obvious, but the coral reef owes its very survival to sharks and other
32:55large predators.
32:57They're part of the balance.
33:00We know the balance is always shifting, but now it's falling apart.
33:27In the last 50 years, 90% of all the big fish have been taken from the ocean.
33:40We are taking more than the ocean can give.
33:50We now know that the killing of sharks is one reason why coral reefs are dying.
34:00Overfishing is decimating one species after another.
34:07Entire ecosystems have begun to unravel.
34:19But every year, eight nights after the full moon in August, something miraculous happens.
34:32Tonight in the Gulf of Mexico, on the flower garden banks, the entire coral reef will spawn.
34:50Precisely one hour after sunset, coral polyps begin jetting spawn into the night sea.
35:03Brain corals begin releasing tiny packets of eggs.
35:09Then star corals.
35:16How is it that millions of tiny polyps from all these corals choose this single moment
35:23on this single night to spawn?
35:30How do animals that have no eyes to see or brains to think coordinate this event with
35:36such precision?
35:39That remains a mystery.
36:01These drifting galaxies are the future of the coral reef.
36:09Most will be lost in the depths, but with luck, a few tiny coral larvae will settle
36:16somewhere far away and give birth to new reefs.
36:21And new life.
36:39Not so long ago, we knew almost nothing about the creatures living in this ocean world.
37:06Now we are beginning to acquaint ourselves with them.
37:17This young right whale is as interested in us as we are in him.
37:23At last, we're beginning to learn how important all species are to each other, above and below
37:40the surface.
37:41And it's clear that our own destiny is linked to theirs.
37:53This is a story about a young whale.
37:56He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:00He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:03He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:06He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:09He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:12He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:15He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:18He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:21He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:24He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:27He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:30He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:33He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:36He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:39He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:42He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:45He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:48He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:51He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:54He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
38:57He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
39:00He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
39:03He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
39:06He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
39:09He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
39:12He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
39:15He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
39:18He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
39:21He was born in a coral reef in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.