Great Barrier Reef - Natures Miracles (s01e01)

[Music] the east coast of Australia up to 200 kilometers offshore a line of surf Rises out of the open ocean beneath the surface creating these breaking waves is the most magical marine environment on earth I'm Monty halls and marine biologist and diver and have always been fascinated by the scene for me there's always been one place that is the epitome of everything that's wonderful about the marine environment it's a true global icon ms a mecca for anyone who's ever heard the word chorim the Great Barrier Reef [Music] stretching for over 2,000 kilometers of the tropical coast of Australia it is quite simply the largest living structure on the planet [Music] it's made up of almost 3,000 different reefs each one with a different personality and it's so much more than just calm [Music] but the Great Barrier Reef is most famous for its underwater world here there is more life than almost anywhere else on earth many of the creatures are exquisitely beautiful but some seems straight out of science fiction [Music] while others can kill in an instant and just when you think you know the reef it changes every second every hour every day and every year it's a world of continual surprises [Music] this is the amazing story of an ever-changing natural miracle the Great Barrier Reef the Great Barrier Reef is so large that it can be seen from space quite an achievement considering the size of the creatures that built it a system that is the Great Barrier Reef is created by animals that are tiny although they might look like plants actually they're animals called polyps each polyp is like a tiny upside-down jellyfish sitting in a stony cup they live together in colonies like underwater tower blocks they respond to touch temperature currents and the cycles of the Sun and Moon and their tiny movements combine to give each colony a rhythm of its own [Music] you the polyps can't build the reef alone for this they need partners that are even smaller within each polyps tentacles and millions of tiny brown dots each is a microscopic plant which transforms sunlight into food and energy for the corals it's a miraculous partnership that allows the corals to turn minerals in the water into limestone building their stony skeletons in this way each colony grows if we were able to watch a reef over several years would see a continually growing marine metropolis its intricate architecture provides homes for thousands of creatures even though coral reefs cover less than 1% of the world's oceans they contain a quarter of all known marine life and the Great Barrier Reef is the biggest of them all a small vividly remember my first time allegory I'm 20 years ago and the moment my heard of the water I knew what I wanted to do the rest of my life [Music] even if I spent my entire life underwater I still couldn't hope to see all the species that live on this roof [Music] I'm 34 species of shark afraid the sheer number of creatures that live here makes the reef as hectic as any human city with a rhythm of almost perpetual rush hours [Music] imagine all this activity this constant ebb and flow of life continuing for over 2,000 kilometers [Music] [Music] it's hard to believe that such a huge solid structure hasn't always been here but compared with the rest of Australia this reef is very young what would it look like well for a start it wasn't even under water this area would have been covered in hundreds and hundreds of miles of eucalyptus and paper bark forests and there wouldn't been a fish in sight it was a land abounding with the animals of the Australian Plains Aboriginal people would have lived here to hunting the wildlife in areas that are now deep under water then at the end of the last ice age ice at the poles melted and sea levels rose all around the world flooding this low-lying coast this happened only 10,000 years ago in fact stories of the great flowers still passed down in Aboriginal culture as the sea Rose corals began to grow on the rocky fringes of the continental shelf creating the Great Barrier Reef we see today these shallow tropical waters are clear and warm perfect conditions for corals to thrive [Music] sheltered behind this long strip of reef a lagoon was born an area of protected water larger in size than the whole of Great Britain and a new coastline - with shallow sandy waters the rising sea also cut off areas of high ground creating the 600 islands that dot the lagoon some are little more than rocks others substantial mountains covered in woodland the first British person to see that was Captain Cook who stood here in 1770 and for the first time realized the scale of the Great Barrier Reef he also realized the scale of the problem that faced him for cooking his men without the benefit of modern charts and sonar it represented nothing more than a deadly labyrinth but it's exactly this complexity and the sheer size of the reef that has created so many opportunities for life there are fish of almost every imaginable kind coral eaters plant-eaters plankton eaters the hunters and the hunted bluefin trevally powerful predators that hunt in packs one minute apparently minding their own business the next charging their prey with a sudden rush working together they create confusion [Music] the trevally departs as quickly as they arrived and the colourful reef fish regroup again to feed [Music] beyond them silver baitfish never let down their guard they shimmer like a thousand tiny mirrors swirling as one amorphous mass to confuse any attackers [Music] it's their only defense against this a shark mackerel these are the greyhounds of the ocean they need all their speed and agility against this ghostly school that is here one moment and gone the next [Music] [Music] despite the dangers small fish have to risk leaving the protection of the reef to feed and perhaps none is bolder than this little wrasse this gigantic grouper is many thousands of times her size and an aggressive territorial predator with one of the largest mouths on the reef but she's not deterred from approaching what she's about to do seems almost suicidal she's feeding on tiny blood sucking parasites which is why the grouper allows this [Music] nevertheless the wrasse has to regularly vibrate her fins against the inside of his mouth just to remind him not to swallow a single wrasse can eat an incredible 1,200 parasites a day and she's not fussy where she finds them without this decontamination the grouper would quickly become infested this service is so valuable that the grouper is a regular client visiting several times a day but even he has his limits on the reef that seemed to be an almost infinite variety of ways of feeding some fish even cultivate their own food so they're very protective of it there's fish species are so good at defending its particular party agree that it's responsible for more attacks on diverse than any other and that's their species here this is a wild battle and it's a constant gardener nurturing and coring for a pouch of algae much of the algae growing on the sandy seabed is edible so the damsel farms it in green patches encouraging some species nipping down others and gently transforming the landscape around her after all this hard work she doesn't look kindly on trespassers anything that swims too close is chased away [Music] [Applause] but is she brave enough to try to see me off understand Oh John I can't be trouble she can't scare me but she just doesn't give up just listen to this this is one feisty little fish while damsels maintain areas of reef by nurturing other fish destroy it bumphead parrotfish each the size of a small sheep they have a tough beak and gigantic jaw muscles that work like bolt cutters it might seem like a lot of hardware for a diet of soft algae and coral polyps but the only way to get at them is by shearing off chunks of the coral rock a second set of internal teeth then grinds the coral into a fine paste a single bump head can chew up to five tons of coral every year which they excrete back onto the reef as sand as fast as the reef grows parrotfish break it down again creating a continually changing environment the constant remodeling of the reef by ravenous parrotfish is nothing compared to the effect of the ocean this is the reef crust and it's the point where the waves generated by the open ocean in the park it's an unstoppable force wait they made a big storm to be here would be suicide illustration the power of tropical storms and cyclones regularly whippin from the Pacific Ocean the surf smashes into the reef pulverizing the coral below waves and currents move the rubble and sand around and shape it into beautiful small islands known as coral case [Music] you some come and go in a matter of days others build and grow and can last for years as plants take root and protect them from the elements [Music] the first glance it might seem that Assange caves are pretty inhospitable environment but actually it can support life in abundance [Applause] today it's rare to find a cave free from humans and mainland predators but this is one of the best Raine Island it's home to thousands of birds and in the center of the island they jostle for the best available space nowhere else on the roof are they found in such numbers and such variety frigate birds red footed boobies and Caspian turns in fact 84 different species are found here it's also the largest green turtle breeding ground in the world having mated offshore thousands of females haul themselves up the beach to lay their eggs the record is 26,000 turtles in a single night they turn a remote desert island into a crowded frenzy of nocturnal activity [Music] wind and waves have created an island that for the moment at least has just the right conditions to support this incredible spectacle but the island still changes every year every season and the reef itself never stays the same for long twice a day life along the length of the Great Barrier Reef has to cope with complete upheaval as the rhythm of the moon causes tides to flood and drain the reef [Music] [Applause] [Music] during the lowest tides the water runs off and whole sections of living coal that would normally be under water are exposed [Music] the level of water on the reef top decreases dramatically getting ever shallower and going from a stable environment to an ever-changing hostile one it's almost as though some mighty force has lifted the reef right out of the water these are extreme conditions as the exposed corals start to heat up the tiny polyps retract inside their stony skeletons for protection then they secrete mucus it acts as a sunscreen and there's no skimping on quantity an area no larger than the size of a coffee table can produce 5 litres of the stuff as the tide retreats to the edge of the reef it cuts off pools of water for most animals like the sea cucumbers and starfish the best way to survive is by taking refuge in these rock pools with the tropical Sun beating down the exposed flat is one of the most hostile environments on the reef for a fish caught out here it should mean certain death but not for this one it's an epaulette shark it can't breathe out of water but it survives here by shutting down some parts of its brain and increasing the blood supply to others not only that it can walk on land these abilities make it a specialized reef top hunter maneuvering around the confined space of a rock pool its master of all its surveys nothing is safe not even animals hiding under the sand it scans for smells and for tiny electric signals given off by the bodies of hidden creatures it's detected a crap it doesn't need sharp teeth because it simply sucks up its prey the epaulette isn't the only shark able to adapt to a change of the tides when the sea returns it brings cool oxygenated water back to the reef the relief though is short-lived larger sharks gather at the reefs edge waiting to get at the freshly accessible hunting grounds as the water rises more and more creatures take the opportunity to feed in a new area for the Sharks fish that can normally outrun them a temporarily caught in the shallows trapped between sand and surface with few places to hide lemon sharks hugged the shore surrounded by schooling baitfish for the moment they seem to have little interest in all this food around them they're simply waiting for help young trevally they dart for the fish causing them to panic and break ranks by putting themselves in the midst of the shoal the sharks are in a perfect position to exploit their chaos for a hungry lemon shark no water seems too shallow the Sharks are able to use these special tactics to feed inshore because of the rhythm of the tides which change conditions every few hours the cycle of day and night also has a dramatic effect on everything that lives on the reef [Music] there are many enduring mysteries about the Great Barrier Reef particularly at night but this is one of the more enchanting ones so watch this this coral is fluorescing under ultraviolet light it's this amazing light show and it covers pretty much the whole of the reef crest okay look at this look at this vivid vivid colors doesn't look real looks like some bizarre sort of galactic broccoli is what it looks like one theory is that these magical colors are in some way caused by the corals natural sunscreen but despite lots of very clever people looking into it no one really knows why this happens and the same goes for much of the nighttime activity here [Music] [Music] [Music] Shh hurry during the day Shh is a very different place of hurry for night the atmosphere changes completely Shh the day shift is not off the night shift is gone to work it's mean and moody and the animals here mean business [Music] just as in human cities there's a new cast of characters after dark octopus emerge from their holes to stalk their prey a tiny soul improves his chances of survival by mimicking a toxic flatworm some of the strangest nocturnal creatures are relatives of the starfish like this feather mouth sea cucumber sifting food from the sand another is the basket star it comes alive at night throwing out thousands of arms to filter food from the plankton rich current these animals can live for a very long time I've talked three five years and those records of these guys being seen guys are tonight and the same place for over 15 years the day shift is still here of course it's just hidden but it's difficult to find somewhere big enough to hide if you're the size of a turtle this green turtle found himself a little ledge and is tucking it for the evening hello big fella he's a big tray of crumbly crumb cake at night many fish sleep resting in safe nooks and crannies on the reef without eyelids they enter a trance-like state barely moving other than to keep water flowing through their gills but they do give off a scent and that means they can be found this cone snail catches its prey in one of the most surprising ways imaginable and specializes in killing fish it sniffs them out whilst they're sleeping this goat fish may be asleep but it's aware of its surroundings first the snail must sneak close enough to bring its secret weapons into play the snail appears to release chemicals that paralyze its victim the goat fish seems powerless to escape as it swallowed alive moments later a venomous barb inside the snail puts the fish out of its misery in a place where even seashells are deadly remaining undetected is essential if you want to survive the night and simply hiding is not enough just a hint of your scent wafting into the current can attract trouble but the poor fish has come up with a very elegant solution in the form of a sleeping bag made out of membrane it stops the smell running along the reef and being picked up it's a very good way if you're a parent fish of ensuring you got a good night's sleep no one has ever filmed the parrotfish making its cocoon before it starts by exceeding a layer of mucus around its body it then draws water into its mouth and pushes it out of its gills blowing up the mucus bubble around it within half an hour the fish is completely enveloped in a slimy cocoon which traps its smell but not all the reef hunters are fool [Music] whitetip reef sharks do you smell to find their prey but if that doesn't work they have another sense they can detect an animal's bio electrical energy the tiny electrical signals given off by even the smallest ELISA twitching muscles [Music] this resting parent fish risks discovery every time it moves a thin or what's its gills as the Sharks pass it holds its breath but sharks don't give up that easily whitetips are the perfect size and shape for hunting in these cramped spaces [Music] they're snake-like bodies can wriggle into crevices and they can fold their dorsal fin flat to squeeze through small holes if discovered a sleeping parent fish wouldn't stand a chance once the first shark has caught its prey the smell and commotion attracts others you find yourself in moderately strange situation to God this is one of them I'm in a grave with a little shocked but very well designed to be in here but I'm not sure I am from me you [Music] because of their sophisticated senses and remarkable physique white it's a great reef hunters at night they turn it into an art form better than all other sharks we expect sharks to be hunters but after dark the reef itself becomes one giant predator by day corals may be passive and plant-like but by night they become active hunters they snatched tiny animals from the current immobilizing them with stinging tentacles just like their relatives the jellyfish [Music] and they're highly competitive here to individual polyps are fighting for possession of a single unfortunate creature [Music] at night the korells don't just hunt when territory's at stake whole colonies go to war with one another once a Korell senses another is too close it launches a barrage of stinging cells and the enemy returns fire it's a war of numbers a coral with the greatest firepower will win [Music] eventually the coral on the right forces its opponent to retreat [Music] yet another small part of the wreath has been changed every night this goes on from one end of the Great Barrier Reef to the other day and night the reef is always changing but that's nothing compared to the impact of the seasons in summer warmer water means more food making it the best time to bring new life into the world a pair of Noddy terns fly close together over an island on the reef these are two mates reaffirming their bond not in signal to each other continually during courtship both in the air and after landing once in the trees the performance changes they bow their heads repeatedly it's pretty clear how they got their name once they started courting they don't like any interruption to reinforce their relationship the male has to collect nesting materials and the females are famously fussy so he chooses his present carefully a vent twig it seems is just the thing a few more of them and they'll have a nest if you can call it that ready for their single chick Nadi's a devoted partners and often remain together season after season beneath the waves the summer warmth triggers fish to cords in bicolor parrotfish the larger male leads a tender underwater ballet to woo a partner you the urge to breathe spreads across the roof these are surgeonfish single females dart to the surface pursued by groups of competing males [Music] as each female releases her eggs the males are greatest to fertilize the puff of white sperm [Music] the rising water temperature also sets the conditions for the most remarkable event on the reef on only a few summer nights each year and triggered by a particular phase of the Moon the corals spawn [Music] this is the world's largest synchronised breeding event on any one of these nights trillions of eggs and sperm are released flooding the entire 2000 kilometer length of the reef [Music] by spawning at this precise moment the corals have caught a lull in the tide allowing sperm and eggs of the same species to meet and fertilize they form baby corals as the tidal currents pick up they're spread far and wide [Music] the young corals joined billions of other baby creatures floating in the plankton [Music] a baby grouper only a centimeter in length that will one day grow into a giant over 2 meters long most reef animals have tiny babies like these carried at the mercy of the currents many have some ability to direct themselves and even the young corals can swim to a degree propelling themselves with microscopic hairs [Music] each one of these could grow into a whole colony and start a new career this living suit represents the future of the reef just one glassful has so much potential it's remarkable to think that such a structure as the Great Barrier Reef large enough to be seen from space and yet complex enough to support the inter woven lives of thousands of different species is wholly dependent on my new fragile forms such as these the reef is a dynamic place in constant flux influenced by the forces of geology weather wind and waves the rhythms of the Sun and Moon [Music] yet its future depends on fragile young life forms that must survive in the face of these powerful natural forces and find somewhere safe to settle and grow there can be few tails in the natural world quite so remarkable and this is just the start of what makes the Barrier Reef so great only 7% of the ecosystem is coral the rest is covered with rain forests and rivers Lagoon swamp and Shaw [Music] these are home to some of the world's strangest creatures [Music] in the next program we explore the fascinating worlds in wildlife beyond the reef and discover their connections to this most magical place jános jewels of Wales is here on BBC HD tomorrow evening with a long hall glass of Welsh water that's at 7:00 [Music]

Channel: Cyntia011

Views: 207,507

Rating: 4.749495 out of 5

Keywords: Palestine, Gaza, Jerusalem, juifs, israel, mossad, agents, traitre, usa, amerique, syria, syrie, islam, mohammed, ramadan, eid, christian, chrétiens, massacre, meurtre, egypte, liban, lebanon, iran, shiite, shia, hezbollah, marie, jesus, issa, dieu, livre, coran, bible

Id: b_d3LFvc8HQ

Length: 58min 57sec (3537 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 10 2012