1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:25,000 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 1 00:00:31,540 --> 00:00:34,670 Away from all land 2 00:00:35,420 --> 00:00:36,960 the ocean. 3 00:00:38,170 --> 00:00:41,800 It covers more than half the surface of our planet 4 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:46,840 and yet for the most part it is beyond our reach. 5 00:00:50,180 --> 00:00:53,140 Much of it is virtually empty 6 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:56,690 a watery desert. 7 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:09,160 All life that is here is locked in a constant search to find food 8 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,540 a struggle to conserve precious energy 9 00:01:13,700 --> 00:01:16,420 in the open ocean. 10 00:01:36,140 --> 00:01:39,310 The biggest of all fish 11 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:43,940 thirty tons in weight, twelve meters long 12 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:46,650 a whale shark. 13 00:01:47,700 --> 00:01:54,250 It's huge bulk is sustained by mere microscopic creatures of the sea 14 00:01:54,790 --> 00:01:56,500 Plankton. 15 00:01:58,330 --> 00:02:02,460 Whale sharks cruise on regular habitual routes 16 00:02:02,670 --> 00:02:05,880 between the best feeding grounds. 17 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:13,720 In February, that takes them to the surface waters 18 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:16,770 far from the coast of Venezuela. 19 00:02:19,940 --> 00:02:22,230 Others are already here. 20 00:02:23,070 --> 00:02:28,110 Baitfish have come for the same reason to feed on the plankton. 21 00:02:28,700 --> 00:02:33,660 The whale shark has timed it's arrival exactly right. 22 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:39,330 Oddly, the tiny fish swarm around it. 23 00:02:47,170 --> 00:02:49,970 They're using it as a shield. 24 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:57,560 Other predatory fish are lurking nearby. 25 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:05,980 Yellowfin tuna. They seem wary of the giant. 26 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:17,450 The shark dives, as if to escape from such overcrowding. 27 00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:27,210 Now the tuna have a chance to attack the unprotected baitfish 28 00:03:39,390 --> 00:03:40,520 but then 29 00:03:40,730 --> 00:03:43,520 back comes the giant. 30 00:03:50,030 --> 00:03:54,030 It has taken a vast mouthful of the baitfish itself. 31 00:03:54,240 --> 00:04:00,200 Plankton, it seems, is not the only food for a whale shark. 32 00:04:10,550 --> 00:04:14,050 Both shark and tuna feast together 33 00:04:29,980 --> 00:04:32,610 but the tuna must be wary. 34 00:04:36,620 --> 00:04:40,910 Even they can end up in the whale shark's stomach. 35 00:04:49,250 --> 00:04:53,590 Predators here must grab what they can, when they can 36 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:56,680 for such events do not last long. 37 00:04:59,810 --> 00:05:02,680 The dense shoals, on which so many depend 38 00:05:02,850 --> 00:05:06,310 gather only when water conditions are perfect. 39 00:05:20,660 --> 00:05:25,500 Many predators spend much of their time cruising the open ocean 40 00:05:25,620 --> 00:05:28,040 endlessly searching. 41 00:05:32,590 --> 00:05:38,010 Plankton feeding rays do so, gliding with minimum effort. 42 00:05:52,820 --> 00:05:55,900 The oceanic whitetip shark 43 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:01,370 another energy efficient traveler. 44 00:06:03,700 --> 00:06:09,380 It specializes in locating prey in the emptiest areas of the open ocean 45 00:06:09,500 --> 00:06:13,090 patrolling the top one hundred meters of water. 46 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:26,680 Taste in water, is the equivalent of smell in the air. 47 00:06:26,850 --> 00:06:32,230 An oceanic whitetip is able to detect even the faintest trace. 48 00:06:35,900 --> 00:06:38,320 Small pilot fish swim with it. 49 00:06:38,530 --> 00:06:41,870 The shark can find prey far more easily than they can 50 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:45,790 and they'll be able to collect the scraps from it's meals. 51 00:06:50,790 --> 00:06:54,170 It's long, fixed pectoral fins 52 00:06:54,300 --> 00:07:00,180 enable it to soar through the water, with the least expenditure of energy. 53 00:07:04,970 --> 00:07:09,560 This shark has found a school of rainbow runners. 54 00:07:09,890 --> 00:07:12,690 It would eat one, given the chance 55 00:07:12,860 --> 00:07:16,860 but rainbow runners are swift and agile and not easily caught 56 00:07:20,530 --> 00:07:22,910 so, it bides it's time. 57 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:29,040 There's a chance that, eventually, it may spot a weakened fish that's catchable. 58 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:34,130 The hunter 59 00:07:34,460 --> 00:07:36,670 endlessly waiting. 60 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:50,230 Excitement far from land. 61 00:07:59,740 --> 00:08:03,450 A school of dolphin five hundred strong. 62 00:08:19,340 --> 00:08:24,180 They've sensed there's food around, and they're racing to catch up with it. 63 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:37,570 The news has spread. Now a number of schools are on their way. 64 00:08:51,660 --> 00:08:54,080 They're heading towards the Azores 65 00:08:54,170 --> 00:08:58,540 volcanic islands a thousand miles west of Portugal. 66 00:09:09,430 --> 00:09:12,680 The dolphin scan the water ahead with their sonar. 67 00:09:12,810 --> 00:09:15,100 They're close to their target. 68 00:09:23,690 --> 00:09:25,200 This is it. 69 00:09:25,450 --> 00:09:27,660 Scad mackerel. 70 00:09:30,530 --> 00:09:34,830 It's difficult for a single dolphin to catch the fish. 71 00:09:35,790 --> 00:09:39,790 To avoid wasting energy the work as a group. 72 00:09:47,010 --> 00:09:51,640 They drive the fish upwards, trapping them against the surface 73 00:09:53,810 --> 00:09:57,520 and there, other predators await them. 74 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:02,940 Cory's shearwaters. 75 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:08,530 They're waiting for the dolphin to drive the prey closer to the surface. 76 00:10:18,620 --> 00:10:24,710 Now the shearwaters can dive down on them, descending to twenty meters or more 77 00:10:29,090 --> 00:10:33,220 and the dolphins block the baitball's retreat. 78 00:11:04,300 --> 00:11:08,340 The dolphins leave as soon as they've had their fill 79 00:11:12,970 --> 00:11:19,440 and, at last, the mackerel sink below the diving range of the birds. 80 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:48,880 As the Sun disappears, a profound change takes place in the ocean. 81 00:11:50,090 --> 00:11:53,760 Deep water plankton start to rise from the depths 82 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:58,890 and another hungry army prepares to receive it. 83 00:12:23,250 --> 00:12:26,540 Every night, wherever conditions are right, 84 00:12:26,670 --> 00:12:33,550 countless millions of creatures from the deep migrate to the surface, seeking food. 85 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:46,650 A baby sailfish, fifteen centimeters long 86 00:12:46,730 --> 00:12:49,230 snaps up everything in it's path. 87 00:12:49,820 --> 00:12:54,610 In three years' time, it'll be one of the oceans most formidable hunters 88 00:12:54,780 --> 00:12:57,280 weighing sixty kilos. 89 00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:01,700 Just now, however, it's very vulnerable. 90 00:13:44,500 --> 00:13:48,130 These manta rays are giants. 91 00:13:48,580 --> 00:13:53,210 Eight meters across and weighing over two tons. 92 00:13:56,260 --> 00:14:03,640 The blade-like projections on either side of the head help to steer plankton into the manta's mouth. 93 00:14:23,450 --> 00:14:28,670 Dawn returns, and the plankton sinks back into the depths. 94 00:14:30,710 --> 00:14:35,170 If we are to follow, we must use a submarine. 95 00:14:38,430 --> 00:14:45,310 As we descend into the darkness, the pressure builds, the temperature falls. 96 00:14:48,850 --> 00:14:53,980 Below five hundred meters, new, mysterious animals appear. 97 00:14:59,490 --> 00:15:05,950 Their bizarre shapes help them to remain suspended in the dark space. 98 00:15:09,170 --> 00:15:14,500 Some resemble creatures familiar from shallower waters 99 00:15:22,220 --> 00:15:26,020 others defy classification. 100 00:15:31,270 --> 00:15:37,070 All around, organic particles drift downwards. 101 00:15:38,030 --> 00:15:45,160 Marine snow, detritus from the creatures swarming in the sunlit waters above. 102 00:15:46,950 --> 00:15:52,120 The snow is food for many animals here, like the sea spider 103 00:15:52,420 --> 00:15:56,590 a small relative of shrimps and crabs. 104 00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:14,560 Those strange leg-like appendages are feathered, to stop it from sinking. 105 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:19,650 They can also enmesh marine snow 106 00:16:19,900 --> 00:16:23,950 which it wipes carefully into it's jaws. 107 00:16:39,710 --> 00:16:45,300 A sawtooth eel hangs upright and motionless. 108 00:16:47,970 --> 00:16:52,810 Gazing ever upwards, it watches for prey, silhouetted against the faint 109 00:16:52,890 --> 00:16:56,730 glimmerings of light from the surface. 110 00:17:02,490 --> 00:17:08,620 Days may pass before prey swims close enough for it to strike. 111 00:17:13,620 --> 00:17:17,710 Farther down still, the blackness is complete. 112 00:17:18,500 --> 00:17:24,010 No vestige of sunlight can penetrate as far as this. 113 00:17:27,050 --> 00:17:33,600 Food is very scarce and nothing can afford to waste any energy. 114 00:17:36,310 --> 00:17:40,230 A dumbo octopus simply flaps a fin 115 00:17:40,610 --> 00:17:46,410 no need for the jet propulsion used by it's shallow water relatives above. 116 00:18:17,310 --> 00:18:23,150 The weirdest, in this world of the strange, vampyroteuthis 117 00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:27,110 the vampire squid from hell. 118 00:18:31,620 --> 00:18:36,830 Disturb it and it only retreats a little distance. 119 00:18:39,830 --> 00:18:44,340 Go after it, and it has a special defense. 120 00:18:48,050 --> 00:18:52,350 To see what it does, you must switch off the lights. 121 00:18:54,810 --> 00:18:59,100 The vampire squid has lights of it's own. 122 00:19:01,190 --> 00:19:08,240 Bioluminescent bacteria shine from pockets on it's arms to confuse it's predators. 123 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:11,200 Are those eyes? 124 00:19:15,580 --> 00:19:18,160 In fact they're spots at the end of it's mantle. 125 00:19:18,370 --> 00:19:21,960 A bite there, would leave the head unscathed. 126 00:19:24,300 --> 00:19:32,050 The threat diminishes, and vampyroteuthis disappears into the blackness. 127 00:19:47,650 --> 00:19:50,030 At last, the sea floor. 128 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:57,700 Over two miles down, the pressure here is three hundred times that at the surface. 129 00:19:58,450 --> 00:20:05,250 It takes several months for marine snow to drift down as far as this. 130 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:13,090 As you travel away from the rocky margins of the continents 131 00:20:13,140 --> 00:20:16,760 an immense plain stretches ahead. 132 00:20:19,430 --> 00:20:22,440 It extends for thousands of miles 133 00:20:22,810 --> 00:20:25,690 gradually sinking downwards. 134 00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:39,540 There are faint trails in the ooze, signs that even here there is life. 135 00:20:46,630 --> 00:20:49,510 These are what made some of them 136 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:55,220 sea urchins sifting the accumulating drifts. 137 00:20:59,060 --> 00:21:02,230 Shrimps standing on elegant tiptoe 138 00:21:02,350 --> 00:21:06,360 fastidiously select the particles that appeal to them 139 00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:22,290 but, in the deep sea, as everywhere else if there are grazers, there are hunters. 140 00:21:31,210 --> 00:21:37,600 A monkfish, almost indistinguishable from the sand on which it lies. 141 00:21:42,270 --> 00:21:49,020 Why waste energy chasing around, if you can attract prey towards you with a lure? 142 00:22:07,710 --> 00:22:10,750 Maybe that one was a bit big. 143 00:22:13,550 --> 00:22:20,680 The monkfish can wait, for days if necessary, until the right sized meal turns up. 144 00:22:24,230 --> 00:22:29,360 Scavengers on the other hand, have to move around to find their food. 145 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,740 Crabs can detect the faintest of tastes in the water 146 00:22:35,740 --> 00:22:41,410 and that helps them locate the latest body to drift down from above. 147 00:22:42,580 --> 00:22:46,250 Eels are already feeding on the corpse. 148 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:57,630 Isopods, like giant marine woodlice a third of a meter long 149 00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:00,550 are ripping into the rotting flesh. 150 00:23:01,850 --> 00:23:05,270 Over the next few hours there'll be frenzied competition 151 00:23:05,350 --> 00:23:09,310 between scavengers of all kinds to grab a share. 152 00:23:39,590 --> 00:23:44,430 Just occasionally, there is a gigantic bonanza. 153 00:23:53,610 --> 00:23:56,610 The remains of a sperm whale. 154 00:23:57,190 --> 00:24:00,200 It died five months or so ago. 155 00:24:00,490 --> 00:24:05,370 There's little left but fatty blubber clinging to it's bones. 156 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:11,830 It's flesh has nourished life for miles around 157 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:15,210 but now the feast is almost over. 158 00:24:20,050 --> 00:24:26,720 Spider crabs, a meter across, still pick at the last putrid remains. 159 00:24:34,150 --> 00:24:39,610 A few weeks more, and nothing will be left, but bare bones. 160 00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:45,830 The crabs will have to fast, until the next carcass drifts down. 161 00:24:52,460 --> 00:24:57,340 But not all food comes from the sunlit world above. 162 00:24:58,210 --> 00:25:05,090 The floor of the Atlantic Ocean is split in two by an immense volcanic mountain chain 163 00:25:05,180 --> 00:25:10,640 that winds unbroken for forty five thousand miles around the globe. 164 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:20,360 In places, it's riven by great fissures, from which superheated water 165 00:25:20,530 --> 00:25:25,570 loaded with dissolved minerals blasts into the icy depths. 166 00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:44,550 Clouds of sulfides solidify into towering chimneys, as tall as a three story house. 167 00:25:48,970 --> 00:25:53,270 At four hundred degrees this scalding cocktail of chemicals 168 00:25:53,310 --> 00:25:57,310 would be lethally toxic to most forms of life 169 00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:04,360 but astoundingly, a particular kind of bacteria thrives here 170 00:26:04,860 --> 00:26:10,200 and feeding on the bacteria, vast numbers of shrimps. 171 00:26:20,090 --> 00:26:23,760 So, beyond the farthest reach of the Sun's power 172 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:28,680 a rich independent community exists, that draws all it's energy 173 00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:32,350 directly from the Earth's molten core. 174 00:26:47,660 --> 00:26:52,490 On the other side of the planet, in the western Pacific bordering Japan 175 00:26:54,040 --> 00:27:01,500 the dragon chimneys, another series of hot vents, erupting in the darkness. 176 00:27:08,130 --> 00:27:14,430 Here, more, but different bacteria thrive in a similar way. 177 00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:24,190 And here, too, more crustaceans, but quite different species 178 00:27:24,150 --> 00:27:27,320 from those around the hot vents in the Atlantic. 179 00:27:33,740 --> 00:27:38,460 These are squat lobsters, clad in furry armor 180 00:27:38,580 --> 00:27:42,880 jostling with one another beside the jets of superheated water 181 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:47,210 for the best places, from which to graze on bacteria. 182 00:27:53,510 --> 00:27:59,060 These vents, too, like those in the Atlantic are isolated oases 183 00:27:59,190 --> 00:28:04,360 so widely separated, that each community is unique. 184 00:28:14,910 --> 00:28:20,580 Cross to the other side of the Pacific, to the deep near the Galapagos Islands 185 00:28:20,750 --> 00:28:25,290 and there are yet other fissures venting superheated water. 186 00:28:31,180 --> 00:28:36,260 One and a half miles down, at a site known as Nine North 187 00:28:36,390 --> 00:28:42,900 towering chimneys support a spectacular display of giant tubeworms. 188 00:28:48,610 --> 00:28:51,320 These vents give off so much energy 189 00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:55,450 that some of the worms reach three meters in length. 190 00:28:55,780 --> 00:28:59,870 They're the fastest growing marine invertebrates known. 191 00:29:04,790 --> 00:29:11,170 All told, over fifty different species have so far been found living here. 192 00:29:15,510 --> 00:29:20,600 The inhabitants of these bustling communities may grow at speed 193 00:29:20,810 --> 00:29:27,190 but their existence can also be short, for the vents do not erupt indefinitely. 194 00:29:27,690 --> 00:29:32,150 Suddenly, unpredictably, they may become inactive. 195 00:29:36,990 --> 00:29:40,490 Nine months have passed at Nine North. 196 00:29:40,910 --> 00:29:44,420 What were only recently chimneys teeming with life 197 00:29:44,580 --> 00:29:49,710 have turned into cold, sterile mineral monuments. 198 00:29:53,170 --> 00:29:56,550 Some eddy, deep in the Earth's crust 199 00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:59,930 diverted the volcanic energy elsewhere 200 00:30:00,060 --> 00:30:05,060 and, an entire microworld was extinguished. 201 00:30:13,030 --> 00:30:18,820 In places, volcanoes have erupted to build great submarine mountains. 202 00:30:19,490 --> 00:30:23,960 There are thought to be around thirty thousand such volcanoes 203 00:30:24,290 --> 00:30:29,590 some, measured from the sea floor, are taller than Everest. 204 00:30:35,510 --> 00:30:40,930 Sheer cliffs soaring to drowned volcanic peaks. 205 00:30:52,690 --> 00:30:56,150 Powerful currents sweep up the mountains' flanks 206 00:30:56,200 --> 00:31:01,200 transporting nutrients from deep water towards the summits. 207 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,960 The hard rock provides excellent anchorage 208 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:11,880 for communities of great variety and stunning color. 209 00:31:13,750 --> 00:31:21,600 Soft corals, several meters across collect the marine snow as it drifts past. 210 00:31:23,890 --> 00:31:28,020 Whip corals stretch out into the current. 211 00:31:30,230 --> 00:31:35,230 Giant sponges filter nourishment from the cold water. 212 00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:53,250 A richly varied community flourishes here 213 00:31:53,590 --> 00:32:00,640 sustained by the nutrients and detritus in the icy currents that flow around the peak. 214 00:32:05,470 --> 00:32:09,770 Yet it is all blossoming on an extinct volcano 215 00:32:09,890 --> 00:32:13,360 a mile below the reach of the Sun. 216 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:43,970 A nautilus. It spends it's days hiding four hundred meters down 217 00:32:44,050 --> 00:32:49,810 But as night falls, it ascends up to the reefs, to look for food. 218 00:32:54,980 --> 00:33:02,320 It's graceful shell contains gas filled floatation chambers, that control it's depth. 219 00:33:04,660 --> 00:33:09,870 It's powered by a jet of water, squirting from a siphon 220 00:33:11,660 --> 00:33:17,380 but it travels shell first, so it can't see exactly where it's going. 221 00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:26,350 It's nearest living relatives are squid and octopus 222 00:33:26,470 --> 00:33:31,350 which, over evolutionary time, have both lost their shells 223 00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:36,360 and the octopus has become one of the nautilus' major predators. 224 00:33:36,810 --> 00:33:39,860 It's a master of disguise. 225 00:33:46,030 --> 00:33:49,410 The nautilus keeps well clear of them. 226 00:33:51,750 --> 00:33:56,330 It's small tentacles carry highly developed chemical sensors 227 00:33:56,460 --> 00:34:01,420 which can detect traces of both predators and prey. 228 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:11,430 It uses it's water jet to dig in the sand. 229 00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:22,650 Because it devotes so little energy to swimming, it only needs a meal once a month. 230 00:34:27,740 --> 00:34:34,580 Got something. And just as well. Dawn is approaching and it has to puff it's way 231 00:34:34,540 --> 00:34:38,130 back, to deeper waters. 232 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:05,490 Thirty miles away, shoals of squid are jetting upwards towards the surface. 233 00:35:06,950 --> 00:35:12,200 By night, they seek small fish among the plankton, but they're cautious. 234 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:22,800 Pacific spotted dolphin. 235 00:35:26,590 --> 00:35:29,300 They're guided by their sonar. 236 00:35:34,100 --> 00:35:39,730 The dolphin, as so often, are working as a team, synchronizing their attacks 237 00:35:39,900 --> 00:35:42,110 to confuse their prey. 238 00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:09,550 As dawn approaches, squid and fish and plankton retreat downwards, to shelter in the darkness. 239 00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:38,830 Some of these isolated volcanoes 240 00:36:38,830 --> 00:36:45,590 rise as much as nine thousand meters from the sea floor, reaching close to the surface. 241 00:36:49,220 --> 00:36:53,050 Around these peaks invigorated by daily sunshine 242 00:36:53,140 --> 00:36:58,560 marine life flourishes in spectacular abundance. 243 00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:12,820 Fish crowd here, because the volcano forces nutrients to the surface 244 00:37:13,030 --> 00:37:16,580 encouraging the plankton to bloom. 245 00:37:35,470 --> 00:37:38,470 An oceanic wanderer, a mola mola 246 00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:44,020 stops by to be cleaned by reef fish, at the sea mount edge. 247 00:37:51,900 --> 00:37:57,700 Butterfly-fish pluck string-like parasites from it's flanks. 248 00:38:04,210 --> 00:38:08,840 The huge fish lives on jellyfish over a thousand meters down 249 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:12,380 where the water is twenty degrees colder 250 00:38:13,090 --> 00:38:17,600 so, a brushup near the surface, allows it to warm up 251 00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:22,140 before making more deep water forays. 252 00:38:29,150 --> 00:38:35,110 The summit of this volcanic mountain rises above the surface of the sea. 253 00:38:35,950 --> 00:38:38,570 It's Ascension Island 254 00:38:38,950 --> 00:38:47,830 eight hundred miles from any other land, a welcome vital haven for long distance travelers. 255 00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:56,550 Frigatebirds spend months continuously airborne at sea 256 00:38:56,760 --> 00:39:02,470 but at nesting time, they come to Ascension from all over the ocean. 257 00:39:06,810 --> 00:39:10,820 The island's barren slopes of volcanic ash and lava 258 00:39:10,900 --> 00:39:15,740 might seem to offer perfectly good sites for a nest 259 00:39:16,860 --> 00:39:21,530 but the frigates choose an even more isolated site 260 00:39:23,120 --> 00:39:29,250 Boatswain Bird Island, a lonely pillar, just of Ascension's coast. 261 00:39:37,510 --> 00:39:42,180 Frigates are the world's lightest bird, relative to their wingspan 262 00:39:42,430 --> 00:39:47,440 and they can soar for weeks on end with minimal effort. 263 00:39:51,270 --> 00:39:56,400 They seem much more at home in the skies, than in a crowded colony on land 264 00:39:56,740 --> 00:39:59,530 but nest, they must. 265 00:40:01,240 --> 00:40:06,540 They come from all over the Atlantic to this, their only colony. 266 00:40:09,790 --> 00:40:12,000 There are boobys here, too. 267 00:40:17,170 --> 00:40:23,760 To raise their young, seabirds worldwide seek such remote islands. 268 00:40:34,520 --> 00:40:38,280 Swimmers also come to Ascension to breed. 269 00:40:39,820 --> 00:40:43,990 A female green turtle approaches the coast. 270 00:40:46,830 --> 00:40:50,410 She's not eaten once, in two months. 271 00:40:51,830 --> 00:40:55,920 She may have traveled one thousand miles from her feeding grounds 272 00:40:56,210 --> 00:40:59,550 the greatest journey of her kind. 273 00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:10,810 Many others are here, too, resting on the sandy sea floor 274 00:41:10,810 --> 00:41:16,400 awaiting the darkness of night, when it'll be safer to visit the beaches. 275 00:41:22,490 --> 00:41:26,660 Eggs that were laid a few weeks ago, at the start of the season 276 00:41:26,700 --> 00:41:29,200 are beginning to hatch. 277 00:41:41,720 --> 00:41:44,510 Most hatchings happen at night. 278 00:41:45,140 --> 00:41:50,220 Now, in the light of day, the young are extremely vulnerable. 279 00:41:56,110 --> 00:41:59,400 They must get to the sea as soon as possible 280 00:42:01,820 --> 00:42:05,620 but their trials have only just begun. 281 00:42:18,500 --> 00:42:23,010 Many will drown in the pounding waves. 282 00:42:47,870 --> 00:42:53,620 During the next twenty years, the vast majority will inevitably die 283 00:42:53,750 --> 00:42:58,210 but those that survive will, eventually, as their mothers did before them, 284 00:42:58,420 --> 00:43:02,800 return to the very same beach where they were hatched. 285 00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:06,720 How they find their way back 286 00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:12,560 across thousands of miles of open ocean, we still have no idea. 287 00:43:20,940 --> 00:43:23,650 A frigate soars. 288 00:43:24,780 --> 00:43:27,610 Somewhere, beneath the surface below, 289 00:43:27,860 --> 00:43:30,620 there is the food it must have. 290 00:43:31,240 --> 00:43:33,160 But where? 291 00:43:34,870 --> 00:43:37,120 Those that fly above the ocean 292 00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:42,250 must be able to read the signs of fresh supplies, or perish. 293 00:43:45,590 --> 00:43:51,720 A hundred miles from the Mexican coast, and keen eyes have spotted movement. 294 00:43:56,350 --> 00:44:02,190 Sailfish, three meters long, are closing in on prey. 295 00:44:07,900 --> 00:44:12,450 They will only use just enough energy to make their kill 296 00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:15,870 never wasting a fin stroke. 297 00:44:20,370 --> 00:44:25,170 Nearly a hundred sailfish have surrounded a single school of baitfish. 298 00:44:25,130 --> 00:44:30,010 It's very rare to see so many of these hunters in one place. 299 00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:37,850 To herd their prey, the predators raise their huge dorsal fins. 300 00:44:56,370 --> 00:45:01,040 A mistimed strike by one sailfish, could fatally damage another 301 00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:06,460 but each continually changes it's color, from blue, to striped, to black 302 00:45:06,750 --> 00:45:12,680 that warns it's companions of it's intentions and also confuses the prey. 303 00:45:15,510 --> 00:45:21,770 As the shoal is driven nearer the surface, it comes within the range of the seabirds. 304 00:45:36,490 --> 00:45:42,040 Out here, in the open ocean, there is nowhere for the baitfish to hide. 305 00:46:26,130 --> 00:46:29,960 Sailfish live a high obtain life. 306 00:46:30,420 --> 00:46:34,090 To survive, they must find prey daily 307 00:46:34,510 --> 00:46:39,680 so their entire existence will be spent on the move. 308 00:46:50,650 --> 00:46:58,070 Over ninety percent on the living space for life on our planet, is in the oceans 309 00:46:58,660 --> 00:47:02,500 Home to the biggest animal that exists 310 00:47:02,620 --> 00:47:05,290 or has ever existed. 311 00:47:06,710 --> 00:47:09,750 the blue whale. 312 00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:20,390 Some weigh nearly two hundred tons 313 00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:24,270 twice the size of the largest dinosaur. 314 00:47:29,150 --> 00:47:36,240 Despite their great size, we still have little idea of where they travel in the vast oceans 315 00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:40,780 and none at all of where they go to breed. 316 00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:14,980 The largest animal on Earth feeds almost exclusively 317 00:48:15,230 --> 00:48:21,530 on one of the smallest krill, shrimp-like crustaceans. 318 00:48:22,660 --> 00:48:28,540 They take many tons of water into their ballooning throats in a single gulp 319 00:48:28,710 --> 00:48:32,500 and sieve out what it contains. 320 00:48:38,720 --> 00:48:45,720 Every day, each one swallows some four million krill. 321 00:48:47,890 --> 00:48:55,150 Such gargantuan harvests depend on the continuing fertility of the oceans 322 00:48:57,490 --> 00:49:02,160 But global changes now threaten the great blooms of plankton 323 00:49:02,240 --> 00:49:04,910 on which the whales depend. 324 00:49:07,080 --> 00:49:10,040 Once and not so long ago 325 00:49:10,500 --> 00:49:14,710 three hundred thousand blue whales roamed the oceans 326 00:49:15,380 --> 00:49:20,300 now, less than three percent of that number remains. 327 00:49:24,470 --> 00:49:28,180 Our planet is still full of wonders. 328 00:49:28,470 --> 00:49:35,270 As we explore them, so we gain not only understanding, but power. 329 00:49:36,940 --> 00:49:41,990 It's not just the future of the whale that today lies in our hands 330 00:49:42,200 --> 00:49:48,790 it's the survival of the natural world in all parts of the living planet. 331 00:49:49,870 --> 00:49:54,580 We can now destroy, or we can cherish. 332 00:49:57,000 --> 00:50:04,140 The choice is ours. 330 00:50:15,779 --> 00:50:30,779 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud