After watching the first two episodes of Blue Planet II , One Ocean and The Deep , on the big screen a couple of months ago, the urge to visit the denizens of the deep is strong. The chance to listen to Sir David Attenborough soothingly state mind-blowing facts or introduce strange creatures with their extraordinary behaviour was too good to miss.
The second season of the award-winning documentary, which was first aired last year, premiered on Sony BBC Earth on June 25. Shot over 1,406 days with 125 expeditions across 39 countries, Blue Planet II has music by Hans Zimmer.
Each of the seven episodes in the show deals with a different aspect of the ocean. The first episode One Ocean , featured the tusk fish using a particular coral to open clams and a 1,000 strong hunting party made up of false killer whales and dolphins among others. The second episode, The Deep , makes use of technology to reveal unimaginable creatures and contours of the deep. From the transparent-headed barrel eye fish to the Mariana Trench, which gives a new meaning to the word deep as it can comfortably accommodate Mount Everest.
Coral Reefs reveals the bustling world of reef city with its safer suburbs, a turtle spa, (a particular rock that has been worn smooth by visiting turtles, for blennies and surgeon fish to pick off algae and parasites from their shell) the horrific meter-long bobbit worm and the cuttlefish that mesmerises its prey by changing colour and to the clown fish colony looking for a safe place for a nest. The scary part of climate change is also revealed in the bleached corals caused by a rise in temperature. All is not lost though and there is hope in the synchronised spawning that takes place on one magical moonlit night.
Big Blue starts with a bang, a feeding frenzy, where spinner dolphins, tuna, rays and sword fish hunt lantern fish and at the end of 15 minutes all that is left is what Attenborough describes as a “silvery confetti of scales.” Filming the highly poisonous and suitably weird Portuguese man o war is dangerous but the results are definitely worth it.
The sperm whale teaching its calf to hunt squid in depths of 800 meters using sonar is fascinating while pilot whale grieving for its dead calf (possibly killed by contaminants) is heart breaking. A crate of plastic ducks that fell into the ocean and has fetched up shores far and wide while underlining the danger of plastic to our oceans also shows the way the oceans function while “the currents feed a giant circulatory system.”
The massive forest at the bottom of the ocean is the focus of Green Seas . The kelp forests and it is inhabitants like the sea urchin, the patient garibaldi fish, the clever octopus that disguises itself with shells to escape the pyjama shark (the clip went viral), the tiger shark, the moulting mass of spider crabs, and the unfaithful giant sting ray all find starring roles in the never-ending saga on the ocean floor.
Coasts feature the ever-changing coastline with creatures that have adapted to the changes. There are starfish that hunt limpet in rock pools, crabs that race against the tide and scary octopus and murray eel to graze off the rocks. There are fish like blennies that have given up the sea to become land dwellers and penguins who have given up land to take to the sea. Penguins come on land only for their catastrophic moulting. And there is the sea that “carves endless cathedrals of stone.”
The final episode, Our Blue Planet while talking of how we are harming the environment with plastic (albatross chicks bringing out plastic), over fishing and noise pollution (the talkative clownfish cannot hear each other), also shows stories of hope including the leatherback turtles in the Caribbean, the almost-successful hunt for where whale sharks deliver on Darwin Island and the return of the sperm whale in Sri Lanka.
There are lessons to be learnt from pop culture. In Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park , Ian Malcolm says , “The planet is not in jeopardy. We are. We haven’t got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.” Blue Planet II shows us the how and why of the saving stakes.
Blue Planet II airs every night on at 9 pm on Sony BBC Earth
