Oceans | China Wild 5/5 | Go Wild

China a country the size of Europe with every kind of landscape every kind of habitat every kind of climate and we animals of many different types rare Exquisite and endangered live in unique ecosystems in remote isolation and alongside people [Music] but today both these habitats and the extraordinary species who live within them are increasingly faced with [Music] challenges as people race to find Solutions [Music] to preserve China's Wild [Music] Beauty oceans cover more than 2/3 of our planet its surface and what lives within them remains largely a mystery we've explored less than 5% of the world's oceans and off the coast of China the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea are rich in Beauty in mysterious creatures and in extraordinary ecosystems from the rich diversity of the shoreline to the Waters of the wide expanse from the multicolored glory of the coral reefs to the darkest depths thousands of meters below the surface known as the abyss this is the South China Sea these tiny islands are the Northern rim of what's known as the coral Golden [Music] Triangle 30,000 square km of coral reef one of the most biodiverse places on the planet underwater corals look like a multicolored Rock Garden of different plants a miniature Forest of brightly colored trees but in fact corals are tiny animals called polyps their bony skeletons are on the outside of their bodies and they link up with the skeletons of other polyps to create larger creatures which then behave as if they were are a single organism they catch Plankton to eat with the tentacles around their [Music] mouths corals grow very slowly even the fastest growing will only extend by around 15 cm a year as a result some coral reefs are extremely old experts have worked out that the oldest have taken around 50 million years to [Music] form it's April in the South China Sea the coral breeding season [Music] when the full moon arrives it's time for one of Nature's Most entrancing [Music] events Coral polyps can't move to mate so the entire Colony releases eggs and sperm simultaneously these float to the surface in a blizzard of color they cluster in swarms on the ocean surface now they must join together to create embryo Coral [Music] lar in a miracle of nature the polyp sperm will only fertilize an egg from a different parent from their own it's a race against time most of these tiny eggs and sperm can only survive for a matter of [Music] hours if they haven't joined together in that time they will [Music] die but this color ization is deceptive it's the result of an extraordinary relationship between coral and a single celled plant called [Music] zeneli zaneli is an algae that lives inside the coral and it's the algae that gives the corals their Technicolor Brilliance Coral polyps only get a small proportion of their nutrition needs from Plankton the rest comes from their resident colony of zaneli that photosynthesize food out of sunlight the way plants do and that's why corals generally live in shallow water it's not such a nutritious habitat for them but there's plenty of sunlight for their zoan thanks to this special relationship between animal and plant coral reefs flourish and so they're able to play a vital role in our oceans they only cover 1% of the seabed yet coral reefs are home to a quarter of all Marine creatures in the [Music] ocean in fact coral reefs are not only one of the oldest they're one of the most biologically diverse eco systems on [Music] Earth home to creatures like this giant clam it also depends just like coral on its resident colony of zaneli they provide around 3/4 of of its food and their color protects the clam from UV [Music] radiation darting around the reef is a red toothed trigger fish it's the star swimmer of all the fish on the reef its unusual fins help it execute tight turns [Music] and put on Sharp bursts of [Music] speed the coral provides shelter for its [Music] residents crevices and overhangs accommodate nurseries for shs of young [Music] fish and for a timid clown fish Coral is the perfect hiding [Music] place the spectacular lion fish uses crevices for a different Reon reason to Ambush its prey the poisonous spikes on its back deter potential attackers it's the overlord of this territory with almost no natural enemies besides its regular inhabitants The Reef also plays hosts to guests from afar this Ray has come riding on ocean currents but he won't stay here for [Music] long today this beautiful and important habitat is under threat from many directions this is the crown of thorns starfish it's the Coral's number one predator and recently the number of crown of thorns outbreaks where their numbers grow exponentially has been increasing scientists aren't sure exactly why but one reason is The Disappearance of its main Predator the Triton the consequence of over [Music] fishing around the world more than half our coral reefs are threatened when corals are under stress from sea temperature rise for example they expel their zaneli as a result they lose their color it's called Coral [Music] bleaching and then without the algae to help them create food and provide them with oxygen they die now a team of young scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences is trying to find ways to restore the coral ecosystem in the South China [Music] Sea in April the sea h here is usually calm so that makes it the busiest time for the [Music] team Jang Yu Yang and his colleagues need to complete their work here before the summer typhoon season [Music] arrives their plan is to collect d damaged corals from the seabed and then relocate them to safer places where they can flourish Jang dives into the water to check whether the location they've identified from the surface is [Applause] suitable the water here is clear so the sun can penetrate and the zaneli will be able to do their [Music] work it's also sheltered from damaging big waves but there's a problem the seabed here is Sandy there's nothing for the coral polyps to fasten onto [Music] so jang's team have come up with a smart solution man-made underwater trees with branches and dangling Twigs they attach the Coral at a relatively shallow depth this way the sunlight can penetrate and provide the fuel for the zaneli to power the Coral's growth but attaching tree towers to the seabed is no easy task they have to drive Nails 40 cm long and 1.8 cm thick into the Rock it's skilled work and takes great strength normally a diver's tank of air lasts 90 minutes but it runs out after just 20 when you're doing work like this sometimes if the rock is exceptionally hard it can take the team an hour to fix a single [Music] nail the coral has died this was once an expanse of colorful coral reefs until the crown of thorns starfish arrived efforts like these aren't enough to reverse the worldwide destruction of coral [Music] reefs only by maintain maintaining a healthy Marine ecosystem can we create a friendly environment for Coral polyps to continue the greatest construction project on Earth sailing northwards from the South China Sea you arrive at China's East sea here Islands stand high on one of the widest Continental shelves in the world the color of the water here is a mysterious deep blue deterred by rapid currents fishing boats seldom Venture into this area Plunge Into The Ocean here and the seabed is more than 2,000 M down soon darkness rains this habitat the deep ocean is called the abyss compared to the Vivid Coral of shadow allower Waters the seabed seems Barren deserted It seems impossible life could flourish at such [Music] depths Chinese scientists aboard This research vessel will use an underwater robot named Discovery for the very first time to explore these hidden depths encased in armor to survive the pressure in the abyss the robots can dive deep down to 4,500 M below the surface it's armed with spotlights an ultra high definition camera and a mechanical arm for collecting samples Discovery can go where humans can't to bring us back news from an alien world it's a long [Music] journey the robot descends through the darkness every 10 m of depth generates pressure equivalent to one atmosphere finally Discovery reaches the [Music] seabed this deep ocean world seems deserted and then a fish emerges from the Gloom then another illuminated by Discovery spotlights more ghostly inhabitants of this alien land the seabed is dotted with small bright white creatures immobile they're sponges they have the simplest body structure of any multicellular animal there are very few nutrients here on the seabed the creatures who live at these depths subsist on what's known as Marine snow debris from dead animals and Plankton falling from [Music] above sponges have made clever adaptations to this nutrient poor world they stay motionless to conserve energy and gather food by simply letting sea currents flow right through their bodies and yet even here where there are so few creatures there are places that simply team with life clusters of animals thousands strong these are yellow shelled muscles attaching themselves to this deep ocean rock the same way their shallow water cousins cling to rocks on the shoreline moving among the muscles are Alvin shrimp named after the deep sea Rover Alvin that first spotted them in 1986 there are hundreds of crabs so shiny and white that they've been given the name porcelain [Music] crabs and these equally strange [Music] creatures with their claws and their six legs they look like hairy crabs but in fact they're a species that's also CL to the [Music] Lobster life can sustain itself even at these depths but the reason why there are so many creatures clustered at this precise place on the seabed is remarkable and was completely unknown until late last century like the land the ocean floor has valleys and mountains it even has volcanoes Rifts in the seabed where heat from deep inside the earth pours out these pools of black and white smoke are in fact hot fluid bursting out of the volcano as a mixture of lava and seawater the these underwater volcanoes are known as black smokers and they are the reason why there is such a proliferation of creatures here the water here is 350° C and it contains large quantities of metal sulfides [Music] bacteria that thrive on heat gather around these black [Music] smokers they take the minerals and chemical compounds spewing from the vents and turn them into chemical [Music] energy then the microbes release new compounds that the other residents of the seabed can use to feed themselves these bacteria that make life here possible are known as extremophiles lovers of extreme conditions and they may have been among the earliest forms of life on Earth their work turning volcanic plumes into fuel on the seabed has certainly given rise to some bizarre looking creatures and for the moment they're a bit of a mystery even to the scientists studying them [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] to learn more about these life forms our team of scientists have sent the ROV discovery on a mission down to the black smokers to collect samples of all different kinds for further [Music] study most precious of all they seek samples of the unique creatures which cluster here around the hydrothermal [Music] vents it's a tricky and delicate operation they must take care not to injure the creatures they collect sometimes the team get lucky and sometimes they [Music] don't the team carefully unload the samples brought back from the depths Clues to help us understand a habitat that's one of the strangest on the planet [Music] it's November and Hoopa swans have flown in from the north as temperatures Begin to Fall across Northern China and Siberia they'll spend the whole winter here in Shallow lagoons of the Yellow [Music] Sea this is the largest wintering site for the Hoopa swan in all of Asia and what draws them to these lagoons is this seagrass a meadow [Music] underwater swans are among the hundreds of species that feed on this flowering underwater plant and on the insects and algae that cling to [Music] it being a buffet for Birds fish and turtles is only one of the sea grass's many services to the [Music] Sea this Meadow creates oxygen it slows down Coastal erosion it soaks up nutrient runoff from [Music] Farmland and it provides a nursery for all kinds of sea creatures this baby bass is only 3 months old the seagrass meadow is the perfect home for [Music] him there's plenty of plankton for him to eat here and he can hide from predators well camouflaged by the play of sunlight and Shadow on the long grass [Music] just like grass on land seagrass Withers in Autumn and is washed ashore people in this part of northern China [Music] have always used seagrass to thatch their [Music] homes first they dry the seagrass on the sand [Music] to get a good thatch they layer it on the roof up to 4 M thick in places a single thatched roof can take 5,000 kilos of dried seagrass but once it's finished this roof will be moth [Music] resistant and will keep the house cool in summer and cozy in [Music] winter seagrass is in Decline worldwide the main cause is human activity over fishing and fertilizers leaking from the land into the sea this leads to Blooms of algae which block the sunlight seagrass needs to [Music] survive biologists from the Marine Research Institute the Chinese Academy of Sciences come here every other month to collect samples of seagrass they transplant it to areas where the plant is in [Music] Decline they hope to turn this underwater desert into a magical underwater Prairie [Music] The Tide is coming in when it reaches high tide it's time for the fishing boats of hang Shan Village in Shandong Province to set sail they head out to an area offshore where they previously placed their [Music] Nets the Nets are left hanging from floats they're hoping to catch that oceangoing prey jellyfish jellyfish are one of the oldest creatures in our seas they evolved at least 650 million years ago they live in every ocean from Coastal Waters to the deep sea they're carnivorous and are voracious eaters as they have few natural enemies jellyfish are dominant in the ocean food [Music] chain in less than 30 minutes the boats are fully loaded and the fishermen head back to shore Laden with their [Music] catch sometimes when conditions are favorable jellyfish numbers will suddenly increase dramatically it's known as a jellyfish bloom in the past this would happen here every 20 years or so but recently it started happening every year in July there's a fishing ban in the Yellow Sea but this research boat has been granted access for a special mission on board a team of marine scientists who are hoping to find out the reasons behind these repeated jellyfish [Music] blooms a jellyfish's body contains a large volume of water so it's very difficult to detect them using optical or acoustic instruments so the scientists use an old-fashioned method they drop their Nets over the side and at regular intervals examine what they've caught after half an hour they pull the net out of the water they haul in dozens of jellyfish and just a few crabs and smaller fish [Music] it's the same story next time and the time after that at last a net that's bulging with all types of fish and few jellyfish this simple exercise clearly shows that where jellyfish are abundant few other sea creatures can flourish scientists from the Marine Institute Chinese Academy of Sciences are focusing their research on the early stages of the jellyfish life cycle the larae of jellyfish are called Hydra they're tiny and start life attached to reefs they can lie dormant for up to 40 years wai waiting for the right moment to emerge Hydra can reproduce asexually this means 100,000 germ cells can become several billion [Music] Hydra and through further division can reach dozens of billions [Music] whether they lie on the seabed or develop into jellyfish depends on the sea [Music] temperature jellyfish do have natural enemies like this turtle but overfishing of tuna and other big fish has enabled jellyfish numbers to increase and as they can thrive in warmer temperatures and lower oxygen they flourish at the expense of other sea [Music] creatures for Farmers spring is the season to sew but for these fishermen it's time to harvest 80% of the world's kelp is produced in China the Sango Bay at the western edge of the Yellow Sea produces China's best kelp [Music] this giant seaweed isn't native to China but it grows well here fishermen fasten kelp to ropes floating on the surface this way the seaweed is more exposed to the sun which it needs for photosynthesis the fisherman must Gather in all the kelp by June once the sea temperature rises above 15° the seaweed will start to rot kelp is in demand as a vegetable but it's also used as a biofuel artificially raised kelp like this grows thicker and wider leaves than wild kelp [Music] but it's underwater that the secret to this kelp Farm's success can be [Music] seen between the kelp leaves are nets and inside the Nets are scallops kelp and scallop turn out to be perfect Neighbors [Music] as the kelp photosynthesizes it absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen which the scallops need to grow then the scallops excrete nitrogen and phosphorus essential in turn for the Healthy Growth of the kelp [Music] the fishermen Ferry their Harvest ashore and dry it on the sand [Music] the ocean is Mankind's most precious Food Bank unlike seasonal crops on land marine food is available year round even in the depths of a severe [Music] winter in China's Northern y Yellow [Music] Sea in midwinter fishermen dive for a delicacy that's greatly sought after across Asia the sea cucumber it's been called the living fossil of the ocean a sea cucumbers have lived on the ocean bed for 600 million years today below a depth of 5,000 m they make up 90% of all life on the ocean [Music] [Applause] floor in the shallower Waters here divers can pick the sea cucumbers right off the seab bed 20 M down [Music] [Music] the sea cucumber has no brain and only limited ability to sense light it has few weapons against potential predators and it can only squirm along the seabed slower than a [Music] snail but SE cucumbers play a crucial role in the ocean ecosystem they are the cleaners of the seabed they eat the decaying matter that collects there breaking it down in their digestive [Music] system without sea cucumbers the ocean would be a much dirtier place and the water less clear [Music] the diver returns with a full [Music] load now the fisherman must sort the sea cucumbers according to size they'll only keep those longer than 30 cm the rest they'll throw back into the sea [Music] with a new tank of air the diver plunges back into the water again for round [Music] two oceans cover 2/3 of our planet's surface and yet for most most of us they are truly a hidden world this is a complex ecosystem beautiful and Wild on China's Southern Shoreline warm shallows bathed in lifegiving sunlight give rise to spectacular corals and offer safe havens for sea creatures of all kinds in the deepest stretches of the Yellow Sea forever plunged in darkness like deserts and volcanoes China's seas are home to life in all its diversity some animals so extraordinary that they stretch our imagination and challenge the assumptions of science others both charming and familiar [Music] all bear witness to the Beauty and the complexity that is China's ocean world [Music] [Music] [Music] want to run through the woods and an animal [Music]

Channel: Go Wild

Views: 12,771

Keywords: orf universum, documentary, blue chip, natural history, secrets of nature, planet earth, wildlife, free documentary, watch full documentary, nature films, wildlife films, go wild, nature, natura

Id: jzIXDbvZ6lw

Length: 49min 9sec (2949 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 29 2024