![]() ![]() Despite these harsh conditions, there is life-an astounding variety of creatures that will boggle your mind. The further we dive down from the surface, the less new food is available, making the fight to survive that much more challenging. At this depth, we’ve reached the average depth of the deep-sea floor, a place that may start to get a little muddy. By 13,000 feet (4,000 meters), the temperature hovers just below the temperature of your refridgerator. Any light still filtering down has diminished to appear completely black, leaving only animals and bacteria to produce the light found here. Dive deeper and the weight of the water above continues to accumulate to a massive crushing force. By 650 feet (200 m) all the light is gone to our eyes and the temperature has dropped dramatically. As you dive down through this vast living space you notice that light starts fading rapidly. ![]() But the deep sea remains largely unexplored. In Monterey Bay, California, the giant shoals draw in thousands of dolphins, sea lions and humpback whales who all race to claim their share of the feast.Below the ocean’s surface is a mysterious world that accounts for over 95 percent of Earth’s living space-it could hide 20 Washington Monuments stacked on top of each other. Microscopic algae flourish into vast blooms, providing a feast for plankton-feeding fish like billions of anchovies. Unlike the mangrove forests and prairies of sea grass, its existence in the open seas is only temporary. In a surprising story of betrayal, a male shrimp will abandon his mate of possibly 20 years, trading up for a larger female.Īnd there is one other green sea that supports more life than all the rest combined. But in the mangroves of Western Australia lives a deadly assassin - the 40cm-long zebra mantis shrimp. Straddling the boundary between land and sea, they provide shelter for the juvenile fish. The richest nurseries of all are the mangrove forests. Vast numbers of the ocean's baby fish start their lives in the green seas. A weedy seadragon sets out on an epic quest to give his young the very best start in life. Even raising your young can be tough in such a competitive place. A smaller, sneaky male uses subterfuge, even pretending to be a female, to confuse rivals and get his girl. But even among these giant cuttlefish, the largest of their kind, it's not always size that counts. Soft-bodied and weakened, they must avoid the patrolling four-metre-long stingrays.įurther along the coast, the greatest gathering of cuttlefish in the world takes place, as males battle it out for the right to mate. The army marches into the shallows and starts to pile one on top of each other, building mounds over a metre high. With the first full moon of winter, strange creatures emerge from the deep - spider crabs. Once a year, one sea meadow in Australia is overrun by an extraordinary invasion. In this way, sharks have become surprising allies in the fight against climate change - as a patch of sea grass is 35 times more efficient at absorbing and storing carbon than the same area of rainforest. By keeping turtles on the move, tiger sharks prevent the seagrass meadows from being overgrazed. ![]() Here, grazing green turtles are stalked by tiger sharks. Off Western Australia, vast prairies of seagrass extend to the horizon. In warmer waters another green sea takes hold. In a filming first, we reveal great rafts of sea otters now numbering in their hundreds. Today, thanks to protection, sea otter numbers are recovering, along with the health of the forest. And with them gone, urchin numbers rose, destroying many forests. Back in the late 1800s, sea otters were hunted for their thick pelts to near extinction. All is not entirely lost, thanks to the return of a ravenous forest resident - sea otters. But urchins can swarm in vast numbers and even attack and fell the kelp forest itself, creating vast 'urchin barrens'. When spiny urchins invade and graze their crops, the Garibaldi desperately pick them off. In clearings, bright orange male Garibaldi fish guard territories of short turf seaweed. To outwit her nemesis, the pyjama shark, she uses ingenious tactics, never filmed before.Īlong the Pacific coast of North America stand, at 60 metres high, the largest and perhaps most diverse kelp forests in the world. Almost a hundred different species of shark patrol these waters, driving one resident - the common octopus - to become the ultimate escape artist. The most bountiful kelp forests are found off the tip of southern Africa, where two great oceans collide. They are the most abundant but fiercely competitive places in the ocean to live. Here sunlight powers the growth of enchanted forests of kelp, mangroves and prairies of sea grass. It's our green seas, not the blue, that bring life to our oceans. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |