4/12/2024 0 Comments Blue planet seas of life the deepBut our ocean system, in relative equilibrium for millennia, is changing at a worrying rate. Ocean currents move heat around our planet and maintain a climate favourable for life. Here, in winter, pods of orcas use dramatic tail slaps to stun herring, and humpback whales follow the noises to find the feast. ![]() But in the Arctic, a warm current from the south keeps some Norwegian fjords ice-free all year round. Toward our planet's poles, the ocean's surface is locked in ice. Females change gender, and a new male challenges an older male to a face-off. ![]() But when a female reaches both a critical body size and age, it can undergo an extraordinary metamorphosis. At the start of summer a male mates with the females. In Japan, a kelp-covered shipwreck is home to the Asian sheepshead wrasse, or Kobudai. In temperate seas around the globe, spring brings greening oceans. But when they find them, the whales team up with the dolphins to form super-pods - a formidable army to take advantage of the bounty of these seasonal seas. Predatory false killer whales off the coast of New Zealand are in search of dolphins. Where the plankton thrive, fish thrive too, and ocean travellers will migrate thousands of miles to take advantage of these productive seas. Phytoplankton produce as much oxygen as all the plants on land and lie at the base of marine food chains everywhere. At night, in a previously unseen event, tiny organisms that light up when disturbed react to their wingbeats, creating an enchanting bioluminescent firework display. In spring thousands of mobula rays gather in Mexico's Sea of Cortez. Here, unlike the tropics, the seas change with the seasons. Sun heats the sea, creating rain, winds and huge storms that drive up towards higher latitudes. The tropical oceans drive our planet's weather. Fledglings must eventually take to the wing, but danger lurks beneath the waves - metre-long giant trevally fish leap clear out of the water to snatch the birds. In the Seychelles, half a million terns nest on an island. On another reef, a tusk fish demonstrates a surprising level of ingenuity - tool use - as it uses corals as an anvil to break open clams. Starting in the tropical coral reefs - the most diverse ocean habitat - a baby dolphin is taught the secrets of a coral reef, as its family rubs against a particular gorgonian which may have medicinal properties. Using cutting-edge technology, One Ocean takes us on a journey from the intense heat of the tropics to our planet's frozen poles to reveal new worlds and extraordinary never-before-seen animal behaviours. New aerial footage reveals, for the first time, the truth to a centuries-old sailors' legend of the 'boiling seas' - the spectacular feeding frenzy of 90kg tuna and dolphins smashing through the lantern fish shoals turning the sea white with foam.In recent years, our knowledge of life beneath the waves has been transformed. We witness super pods of up to 5,000 spinner dolphins racing to herd vast shoals of lanternfish, briefly caught at the surface where it is thought they spawn. Sometimes there is a brief explosion of food in this marine desert, but ocean hunters must be fast to make the best of this bonanza. The jelly-like Portuguese man-of-war can harness sail power to fish with its deadly tentacles. Jellyfish cross entire oceans feeding on whatever happens to tangle with their tentacles. Over half of all animals in the open ocean drift in currents. ![]() Here they remain until adulthood, adrift on the high seas in relative safety away from coastal predators. They leave the crowded waters of the coast and head to the open ocean, where they use floating debris like logs as life rafts. Only recently have we begun to solve the mystery of where baby turtles disappear to in their early years. With special pressure-proof cameras, we witness record-breaking feats of endurance as they hunt for squid a kilometre down into the abyss. They live for 80 years, and we are only now beginning to learn the extraordinary complexity of their language of clicks - thought to coordinate the whole family in everything from childcare to hunting. Sperm whales have the largest brains in the world. Every animal in the big blue must find their own unique way to survive. We witness feats of incredible endurance, moments of high drama and extraordinary acts of heart-wrenching self-sacrifice. ![]() This episode reveals what it takes to survive in this savage and forbidding world. Yet it's home to some of the biggest and most spectacular creatures on earth. It's a vast marine desert where there is little to eat and nowhere to hide. The big blue is the world's greatest wilderness, far from shore and many kilometres deep.
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