The Blue Planet 1x5

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As the days grow longer, billions of microscopic plankton bloom under the blazing sun. Here in the temperate seas, three-ton basking sharks graze among forests of giant kelp - the fastest growing plant in the world. The forests harbor thousands of other animals, including sea otters, brilliantly colored anemones, squid, and exquisite leafy dragons. But as the year wears on, storms rage in the icy sea... a desperate challenge for the animals that remain.

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1. There are some seas where fish swarm in millions...

2. and plankton blossoms in vast clouds

3. The sheer quantity of life here is unmatched anywhere in the oceans

4. These are the most productive seas on earth

5. They are the Seasonal Seas

6. The Seasonal Seas border the Temperate parts of the world,

7. where conditions change through the year

8. The seasons also affect the underwater world

9. The power of the sun is constantly changing

10. In the far north during the Summer there are long hours of sunlight,

11. but in Winter that dwindles and eventually there can be weeks of darkness

12. The summers are warm and gentle, the winters racked by savage storms

13. In conditions like this life of any sort has to struggle to survive

14. January on Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia in North America

15. Grey Seals have managed to get ashore through the crashing breakers

16. Gales here can blow for days on end

17. Sable Island has the world's largest colony of grey seals

18. 100,000 come here to breed each year, just when the weather is at its worst

19. To add insult to injury, the pups,

20. having suckled for only 18 days are then abandoned

21. Their mothers must return to the sea to find food for themselves

22. As yet unable to dive, the pups are marooned

23. and sustained by nothing except their fatty blubber

24. It will be five weeks before they are strong enough to swim,

25. but by then it will be early spring and the ocean will be teeming with food

26. By May, Spring has reached the coasts of Scotland

27. Underwater it arrived rather earlier

28. During March, the seas had warmed enough to trigger a magical transformation

29. These are Phytoplankton, tiny floating algae,

30. each much smaller than a pinhead

31. And they multiply with amazing speed to produce more annual growth

32. than all the plants on land put together - 6 billion tonnes of it

33. This immense bloom spreads across the face of the ocean

34. and within a couple of months turns vast areas of it a dense green

35. Animal life reacts to the blooming sea

36. Although these polyps look like small anemones,

37. They're about to change into something else

38. As they separate, they reveal themselves to be tiny, common jellyfish

39. They are less than 3 millimetres across

40. Within a few months they will have assembled into vast swarms

41. Minute copepods are part of their staple diet

42. These appear every spring in vast numbers and graze on the Phytoplankton bloom

43. Their beating legs create currents that sweep the little algae

44. into the basket-like filters around their mouths

45. On this microscopic scale, water is so viscous that

46. the Phytoplankton can't swim against the current

47. Whilst feeding, sensors on the copepod's antennae give warning of dangers ahead

48. Lighting by lasers reveals that feeding copepods leave wakes behind them,

49. rather like jet trails in the sky

50. Slightly larger floating predators

51. are able to use these trails to find their prey

52. A close call - but some predators are simply too large to avoid

53. Jellyfish!

54. They may appear to be delicate as well as beautiful, but they are deadly hunters

55. With every pulse of the delicate bells plankton-rich water

56. is drawn into their lacy throats and pushed out again,

57. leaving behind copepods stuck to the membranes

58. A single sea-nettle jellyfish only a few centimetres

59. across can collect thousands of copepods in a day

60. So the killing power of giants like these is hard to estimate

61. Each of these jellyfish weighs up to 30 kilos

62. and has tentacles stretching over 8 metres

63. But there are even greater dangers awaiting the copepods

64. By the late spring the baby common jellyfish are fully grown

65. They gather in millions, forming immense swarms hundreds of metres long,

66. which filter out all the small planktonic animals in their path

67. Nevertheless, there are such astronomic numbers of copepods

68. that enough will survive to form swarms of their own

69. A basking shark

70. This huge eight tonne fish feeds on plankton and nothing else

71. Every hour it filters a thousand tonnes of seawater through its gills

72. Numbers of these shark appear when the bloom is at its peak

73. and travel along those water currents where the plankton is thickest

74. Even so, the supply of plankton is so abundant

75. that another group of animals' is able to share in the feast

76. - animals that live on the seafloor

77. Every centimetre of rock is covered with invertebrates of some kind

78. - anemones, sea squirts, Gorgonians,

79. all trapping plankton from the passing water

80. Not all life in the Seasonal Seas depends upon the plankton

81. It's early spring in British Columbia

82. Seaweed has started to grow slowly in the cold water

83. As the hours of sunlight increase and the water warms,

84. these small plants turn into great beds of bull kelp

85. The immense 30 metre long strands have small gas filled floats

86. which keep them high in the water within reach of the energy-giving sunlight

87. Further south the sunshine is more powerful,

88. so here, on the coast of California, the biggest kelp of all can grow

89. This is giant kelp and by midsummer each plant

90. is growing in length by nearly a metre a day

91. The main stem is fixed to the bottom 35 metres below

92. by a small but immensely strong holdfast

93. Fully grown, these gigantic plants are a hundred metres long

94. and they form vast marine forests

95. Great schools of fish find sanctuary here

96. These are blacksmith fish

97. They are plankton feeders and whenever it seems safe

98. they head off into open water to feed where the plankton is thickest

99. But at the first hint of danger...

100. they rush back to the safety of the forest

101. Fish are not the only creatures that shelter here

102. Californian sea otters gather in the kelp forest to rest and snooze in safety

103. To prevent themselves being carried away into dangerous open water,

104. where the big predators cruise,

105. they anchor themselves by winding straps of kelp around their body

106. Sooner or later, they have to find food

107. and that lies on the seabed a long way below them

108. Sea otters, however, can stay underwater for

109. up to 10 minutes and that's ample time to find the shellfish they need

110. Many of the smaller creatures that live in these forests, such as urchins,

111. graze on the kelp and can seriously damage it if their numbers are unchecked

112. The sea otters, however, feed on some of these grazers

113. and prevent them getting too numerous

114. So, in effect, the Sea Otters are the guardians of the forest

115. Garibaldi fish do not, in fact, damage the kelp

116. If anything, they help it by picking off tiny animals

117. that in places encrust the leaves

118. They graze on bryozoans, tiny colonial animals,

119. which build their colonies like a patchwork of white skins on the leaves

120. When night falls there are fewer predatory fish around

121. and the bryozoans emerge from their white shelters

122. Now, just like coral polyps they start filtering out

123. the plankton under cover of darkness

124. They are not the only animals to venture out at this time

125. This is an amphipod, just two centimetres long and it does eat kelp

126. In turn, it is excellent food for many predators

127. To protect itself it produces silk, just like a spider,

128. and uses it to sew together two sides of a kelp frond and so form a shelter

129. This one is in particular need of a secure home. She's a mother

130. There are over fifty youngsters clustered on her abdomen,

131. so her home is becoming somewhat cramped

132. They will soon be old enough to leave and now whenever she can,

133. she kicks them out to get a taste of the outside world

134. Dawn

135. Beds of eel grass grow in the shallows between the kelp forest and the shore

136. A harbour seal has found sanctuary here,

137. and is sleeping after a hard night's foraging

138. But not for long

139. A male seal gives a wake up call

140. More seals are attracted from all directions

141. It's June, the time when young male harbour seals

142. start their strange mating displays

143. One listens attentively to the grunting noises made by the other

144. These calls are almost certainly a way of establishing

145. which of the two will be dominant

146. But if the animals are closely matched in size and experience

147. - grunts won't settle the issue, the rivals will have to come to blows

148. And seals can be surprisingly violent

149. In a month's time the breeding season will start

150. and then fights will be in earnest

151. But now in mid-summer these exchanges are harmless

152. They're just playing

153. Many of the creatures that shelter in the kelp

154. have to venture out in order to feed

155. A bat ray, for one

156. Unlikely though it seems, the sandy floor of the open sea is,

157. for the bat ray, a rich feeding ground

158. There is food hidden within the sand

159. and the bat ray has a special technique for finding it

160. It uses jets of water to blow the sand aside and expose small invertebrates

161. A kelp bass hangs about alongside, waiting for scraps

162. Other hunters are also on the prowl

163. The fan tailed sole

164. There are mantid shrimps here, living in tunnels

165. But once again, hunger compels them to venture into the open

166. That, of course, is a gamble

167. They will either eat...

168. or be eaten

169. A sea slug, called Janolus

170. Its colours suggest that it's poisonous and so it is,

171. to everything except another kind of sea slug

172. the predatory Navanax

173. Navanax pulls itself along the trail of slime that Janolus leaves behind it

174. Once caught, Janolus rolls into a ball...

175. All Navanax gets is a few yellow tentacles

176. And Janolus is swept to safety by the current

177. It's now mid-summer and the sun is shining at full strength

178. The increasing warmth is the cue for an Atlantic lobster

179. to start on a long journey

180. She has spent the winter 250 metres down, far beyond the reach of the storms

181. But it was cold down there and now she needs to find warmer water,

182. so she's marching towards the shallows

183. They, however, are 150 kilometres away

184. After a month of walking she finally arrives at her favoured sand bank

185. But she's not the first here

186. Dozens of other lobsters have already dug themselves homes in the sand

187. and they don't intent to surrender them to newcomers

188. Size counts for everything in these battles

189. The new arrival is in urgent need of a pit and since she weighs a hefty 7 kilos,

190. she stands a good chance of getting one

191. She's won

192. These battles continue for the next two months and they're crucial,

193. for the females must have both shelter

194. and warm water if they're to raise their young

195. For the last seven months, each of these females has been carrying

196. around about twenty thousand fertilised eggs

197. But their task is approaching its end

198. The warmth of the shallows is speeding the eggs' development

199. Two more months and the eggs are ready to hatch

200. At first, they're not very good at swimming

201. But within a few minutes the babies are able to set off in a purposeful way

202. At this time of year the sea is full of larval animals

203. - this one is a 1 day old lobster

204. And this ... a 3 week old crab, just ready to start its life on the sea floor

205. Its feet touch the bottom for the first time

206. At this stage in its life it's a vegetarian, with a taste for sea lettuce

207. As it grows, so it will repeatedly moult and expand into a bigger, thicker skin

208. The chances are it will be eaten, but if it survives for five years

209. it will have become a magnificent armoured giant

210. Now it eats meat and special adaptations enable it to hunt in the dark

211. Its jointed feet are covered in sensors,

212. which detect the slightest chemical change in its surroundings

213. And as it walks through the darkness its feet can, literally taste the sand

214. As soon as it finds suitable food,

215. it passes it forward to its powerful crushing claws,

216. which make light work of the soft flesh

217. And those claws are also very useful for defence

218. A one and half metre long common octopus glides by

219. The jet propelled giant is both powerful and very clever

220. With octopus about, it's risky for even a crab to be in the open

221. Even in the dark, the octopus's eyes are sensitive to the slightest movement

222. Against a hunter like this, the crab's claws are useless

223. Late summer in South East Alaska

224. The water is still warming and mysid shrimp are swarming near the surface

225. It's a final feast for Pacific salmon,

226. returning to the coast from the open Pacific

227. They are heading inshore to breed and they arrive in huge numbers

228. They have to swim far up the rivers to spawn,

229. but this river's level is still too low

230. - they'll have to wait until rain causes it to rise

231. So, for now they are trapped in the sea,

232. close to the shore, the worst place to be

233. A three metre long salmon shark, a close relation of the great white

234. This one has sensed minute electrical signals from the salmon nearby

235. Shark can maintain their blood temperature at a higher level

236. than the surrounding sea water

237. And that means they have the energy to be quick

238. Quicker even than salmon

239. Early autumn in Vancouver Island in Canada, 600 miles to the south

240. The ocean temperature is slowly dropping

241. Forty metres below the surface,

242. this year's baby herring are feeding on the last of the summer's plankton

243. Their movements attract attention from the skies above

244. Gulls can't dive, so for now the fish are still safe

245. But there are birds which can dive

246. Auklets and murres swim effortlessly down beneath the school

247. The panic herring a force towards the surface

248. They gather into a giant defensive ball of swirling fish

249. The commotion attracts Yellowtail rockfish

250. They too are hunters

251. The marauding fish scatter the herring

252. Repeated attacks split the ball into numerous smaller groups

253. Now it's easier for the divers to keep

254. the confused fish penned at the surface

255. and there even the gulls can get at them

256. Attacked from all sides, the little fish have virtually no chance

257. More and more divers are attracted to the scene

258. They harry the shrinking numbers of herring right down

259. to the very last individual

260. Far bigger predators cruise here, too

261. Pacific white-sided dolphin

262. But the dolphin are mainly nocturnal hunters

263. - during the day they concentrate on socialising

264. They display by releasing streams of bubbles and they play games...

265. games like pass the seaweed, for example

266. Exactly eight months ago in the winter off the west coast of Scotland

267. an egg was laid - and securely fixed to a strand of kelp

268. Inside, a tiny embryo started to develop

269. Protected by the tough egg case, it endured the worst of the winter storms

270. By summer it was half grown

271. Now at last, in the late autumn - it's nearly ready to hatch

272. A fully formed miniature shark swims free

273. This year's plankton will soon die but the young dogfish

274. is so well developed that it can't hunt immediately for larger prey

275. The days are getting shorter now

276. In British Columbia the water begins to chill

277. This bizarre looking creature is searching through the kelp for food

278. This is Melibe - the hooded sea slug

279. It catches plankton with its net-like head

280. As winter approaches plankton is becoming scarce,

281. but Melibe is an assiduous searcher

282. It can swim

283. It flaps away to look for a better feeding spot

284. But its search is becoming increasingly difficult

285. Within the next two weeks most of the plankton will have disappeared

286. As the sunlight becomes ever more feeble

287. - the kelp starts to die, gradually rotting away to nothing

288. Soon it will be winter

289. But 9,000 miles to the south the sun is rising on a new spring day

290. The southern hemisphere too has Temperate regions

291. - and now the plankton is beginning to bloom around Tasmania

292. Just as in the north, the Southern Seasonal Seas

293. also have areas of rich green water...

294. with their own kelp forests

295. and their own swarms of plankton

296. Some of the inhabitants of these seas live only in the southern hemisphere

297. This is one of them - the handfish - that strolls around on modified fins

298. But when needs must - it can resort to tail power

299. Every summer visitors come to the shallows around Tasmania

300. These are Australian squid - about half a metre long

301. They are here to breed

302. The larger males compete for the attentions of a female

303. displaying towards her and to one another by putting on a ballet,

304. during which they continually change the colour of their costumes

305. Eventually they form pairs

306. A male passes a packet of sperm across to the female

307. After the eggs have been fertilised, they are deposited in tough,

308. rubbery egg cases that other creatures find poisonous

309. Within three weeks the babies are ready to hatch out

310. They are already able to change colour

311. - but they're not quite so good at swimming

312. There is another animal here that is a rather more devoted parent

313. This is a male leafy sea dragon,

314. an exquisitely decorated relative of the sea horse

315. He is carrying his partner's eggs around with him

316. They would be a highly nutritious snack for any predator that found them

317. But that's not easy because the eggs are attached

318. to their father's perfectly camouflaged body

319. They could scarcely be in a safer place

320. By November, 10,000 miles to the north, winter has arrived

321. Norway now gets less than 5 hours of daylight in every twenty four

322. The temperature is falling rapidly

323. But despite the cold, the sea is far from deserted

324. Every winter, 500 million tonnes of adult

325. herring seek shelter in these deep waters

326. They will stay here for four months, living entirely on the fat

327. they accumulated during the summer feasts of plankton

328. But they are not alone...

329. Orca's his small pod is part of a population

330. of some five hundred killer whales

331. that specialise in hunting North Atlantic herring

332. Using their echo-location they have detected a shoal

333. of herring 50 metres below them

334. With enough air for a 10 minute dive...

335. they swim deep below the herring and drive the fish upwards

336. Bubbles stream from the rising fish

337. as gas in their swim bladders expands and escapes

338. Even an orca finds it difficult to catch a healthy herring

339. But they have a devastating weapon all their own

340. They use their tail to club the fish with waves of water pressure

341. Then it's simply a matter of collecting the stunned casualties

342. The herrings have no chance and both orca and gulls will eat as much as they can

343. - every day for the next four months

344. But there are so many fish wintering here, over 5 billion individuals,

345. that the losses are almost unnoticeable

346. Violent as this Winter weather may be

347. - it's essential for the renewal of the riches of the Seasonal Seas

348. Out in the open oceans, the surging waters stir up nutrients from the depths

349. By the end of winter the Seasonal Seas will be full of minerals once more,

350. ready for the return of the sun and the next great plankton bloom