Pelagos, a Mediterranean Sanctuary | Go Wild

we're off the coast of marsill France in the Mediterranean the world's largest semi-enclosed sea it represents less than 1% of our planet's total ocean surface but it's home to almost 10% of the world's Marine biodiversity for mankind this offshore Zone remains largely unknown often uninhabited and sometimes hostile it presents an opportunity no doubt for a whole population of nomadic organisms tiny and giant this group of beings occupying the upper zone of the water near the surface is called the [Music] pelagos a few years ago pelagos gave its name to a sanctuary for marine mammals the simultaneous presence of a large number of animals in the midst of ongoing threats from human activities LED France Monaco and Italy to take action and protect a marine habitat of 34,000 square [Music] miles in this now preserved area biodiversity once again finds an environment where it can [Music] flourish and these creatures sometimes Voyage to the rest of the Mediterranean this species could be called the ambassador of this Pelos Sanctuary the fin [Music] whale 66 ft long and weighing 44 tons the second largest animal on the planet it's migrating it's the end of winter this whale is hurrying North it travels almost 125 m a day to meet up with its fellow Finn [Music] Wales in the middle of the deep blue our fin whale may cross paths with a loggerhead turtle like the fin whale the turtle needs to surface to breathe the loggerhead turtle is the most common turtle species in the Mediterranean and it's not uncommon to spot one especially when they spend long hours sleeping on the surface soaking up the sun's Rays a few pilot fish act as warning Sentinels in exchange the turtle offers them protection for a few days or [Music] weeks in this vast pelagic environment associations between different species are even more frequent than on the coast and species stick together to survive in this immensity in which resources are scarce [Music] [Music] this loggerhead turtle has also been colonized by a cluster of barnacles fixed Crustaceans that feed by filtering tiny particles from current these organisms are highly adapted to pelagic life but find few available supports to settle in on the Open [Music] Sea as it wanders the loggerhead's shell becomes covered with algae it's not ideal for [Music] hydrodynamics this young Turtle malts once a month its old skin is torn to shreds gradually replaced by a new layer of keratin to get rid of these cumbers growths the turtle can count on another sea traveler the surprising Columbus [Music] crab it can swim perfectly well in open water but only over short distances so it doesn't leave the turtle side providing it with room and board there's benefit for each of them the crab cleans the turtle of its dead skin of animals that are hanging on an excrement the turtle in return protects the crab by Sheltering it between its limbs or under its [Music] shell [Music] each at their own pace the turtle and the fin whale make their Way North our whale in turn is [Music] sleeping which is not as easy as it sounds the simple Act of breathing is not automatic the fin whale's brain must command its lungs and diaphragm to contract it's impossible to sleep otherwise it won't be able to [Music] breathe that's why cations rest one cerebral hemisphere at a time so they were always aware of their [Music] breathing [Music] it breathes every 5 to 10 minutes expelling a powerful jet of air several [Music] times having rested the fin whale must now feed to continue its Journey northwards almost 2 tons of krill are needed every day to satisfy the whale's appetite a flick of the tail a burst of acceleration to 125 mph and The Rock H captures an enormous pocket of water which it filters through its baline plates each catch yields about 20 PBS of krill this tiny crustacean is one of the planet's greatest sources of protein it is the best known example of Plankton which are organisms that can move but are unable to propel themselves against the [Music] current the term Plankton refers to this way of floating [Music] these tiny animals are the basis of underwater [Music] life the Northwest Mediterranean is rich in Plankton firstly because the wind known as the mistl blows and pushes the upper layers of the water southwards bringing mineral salt up to the surface from the [Music] depths the ligurian current disperses [Music] them and then there's the Mediterranean seabed carved out by huge Canyons just like those on land the ocean currents of the abysses follow the relief of these immense under water valleys bringing with them minerals from depths of almost 8,000 ft this is the preferred food of the algae and bacteria that make up phytoplankton in contact with the light they grow and multiply at Breakneck speed creating a planktonic [Music] bloom at the end of winter this phenomenon is Amplified by the addition of organic matter from the [Music] earth we're in the ran Delta rainfall from the mainland has flowed down to the river loading itself with nutrients and plant [Music] waste the rivers flow into the sea carrying Waters rich in biomass and waste of all kinds these rafts float for long periods on the surface following the currents before sinking to the depths young fish like these yellow taals are vulnerable in Open Water to hide from approaching Predators they gather around branches that have drifted offshore like this blue [Music] shark or these May May [Music] offshore a piece of waste can provide temporary shelter for young [Music] fish these are pelagic cousins of the large Mediterranean Brown [Music] grouper [Music] the days are getting longer the sun is getting stronger and its light accelerates the development and abundance of phytoplankton boosted by this abundant biomass other plantonic organisms make their appearance and within a few days a baly of strange and surprising animals unfolds before before our eyes summer filter feeders like this pelagic jellyfish or these salps which live in colonies hanging together in a [Music] [Music] chain [Music] others are predators like these red spotted tenores equipped with sticky filaments that enable them to hunt small [Music] prey still others combine different ways of feeding like this fried egg jellyfish capable of catching food with its short tentacles but also of living in symbiosis with the algae that give it its violet [Music] color it offers a refuge for this school of juvenile horse mackerel [Music] fish eggs or in this case squid eggs are also placton organisms incapable of fighting surface current like these small valela that resemble little sailing ships which become a giant animal's [Music] Delight it is unlike any other fish both in shape and in the way it swims the Sunfish is the largest bony fish in the [Music] worlders I can [Music] see [Music] the the strangely enough to feed its body which often weighs over a ton the Sunfish prefers low energy source prey such as valela and other gelatinous Plankton like [Music] jellyfish and when food becomes scarce it doesn't hesitate to dive into much cold or deep Waters afterwards it will lie on its side on the surface to warm up in the [Music] [Music] Sun our fin whale continues its meal it is certainly aware of the Plankton blooms but scientists are still wondering how did it hear the Plankton Sizzle did it taste the water to detect its prey did it emit low frequency sounds to echolocate its environment so far we have many questions and few answers dolphins are also present moving in front of the rock Hall's mouth to catch any Krill that escaped the whale's Bine plates they consume much less settling for just 11 lb of krill yet the Plankton tried to escape difficult to fight it takes a lot of catches to satisfy the whale's appetite The Rock quil's throat has long spreading grooves this adaptation enables it to remain lean and hydrodynamic to move move between two feeding phases The Rock contributes on its own scale to the circulation of nutrients and organic matter in the Mediterranean its excrement enriches the water and facilitates a new planktonic cycle the Dolphins have abandoned the Rockall to join their [Music] group there are the small blue and white [Music] dolphins and then there are the common dolphins with their yellow and gray hourglass-shaped flanks these two species sometimes weighing 200 lb are capable of diving to depths of over 650 ft to find find food this ability has enabled them to survive and adapt consuming far more squid than their Atlantic cousins as they are faced with dwindling fish stocks on the [Music] surface because the Mediterranean remains one of the world's most heavily fished maritine regions with over 60% of its stocks overexploited the food chain is being threatened at the very top the Mediterranean blue fin tuna almost disappeared overfished for many years until the 2000s the blue fin tuna owes its survival to a drastic reduction in fishing quoters today stocks are slowly beginning to recover thanks in particular to their ability to reproduce at four years of age compared with 8 years for their Atlantic cousins anees has suffered the same fishing pressure as their predators their stocks have declined considerably but they Remain the preferred food of blue fin [Music] tuna joining forces in the face of the threat The anies Gather to form a compact [Music] ball [Music] but the tuner are not impressed they all attack at once the ball finally yields to the multiple assaults scales and lifeless fish sink to the [Music] depths they'll become a meal for other species further down the water column or take their part in the great cycle of nutrient [Music] formation this young blue fin tuna didn't follow his fellow fish he's bitten into the wrong prey one that's taking him to a disastrous [Music] fate this amateur fisherman doesn't realize that even if he releases the fish he's just caught it's probably already too late for the tuner this young tuna is not mature enough to reproduce and will not contribute to the Regeneration of the species amateur sport fishing accounts for only 1% of blue fin tuna catches in the Mediterranean the majority goes to professional fishermen who are now subject to quotas since the species is endangered although fishing pressure is easing somewhat in the Mediterranean particularly on Commercial species covered by population management plans 73% are still [Music] overexploited trollers dredged the seabed for some years now they have been accompanied by Bon noose Dolphins who take advantage of the situation to make their own [Music] Catch 10 ft for 660 lb the bottlenosed Dolphins don't hesitate to make a few Fays into the Open Sea to [Music] feed [Music] for them a fishing boat is often synonymous with an easy [Music] meal [Music] [Applause] in principle however they have a more Coastal lifestyle than their counterparts most of the time bottlenose dolphins require quench shallow Waters where they find shrimp cuttlefish squid Calamar and above all fish that make up their varied diet their technique is Unstoppable leaving little chance for their prey the first sighting takes place at slow speed then the dolphin speeds up and closes in on the fish hidden in the rocks [Music] others prefer to sink into the thick posidonia Meadow an excellent hiding place for fish but not enough to escape the bottlenose dolphin [Music] sonar they bombard the seagrass with extremely fast high frequency echolocation sounds which inform the dolphin's brain through its [Music] jaw they transform these sounds into images at a distance or in the dark this Marine Mammal can detect its prey anywhere sound travels five times faster in water than in air the seab bass has no chance of [Music] escape this echolocation phenomenon is how many satachi move around their habitat [Music] in these Coastal Waters where common bottl noos dolphins live the Mediterranean monk seal was still swimming just over 50 years ago commercial fisherm considered it to be a direct competitor and they decimated it over many years only a few few rare specimens survived the species became wary of humans and if young seals are naturally curious they have learned to hide in caves to survive now protected the species is considered critically endangered with less than 500 individuals living mainly in Greece but the good news is that some monk seals are now venturing out to sea colonizing narrow areas of the Western Mediterranean [Music] Basin our fin whale continues northwards on the last leg of its Journey perhaps the most perilous to where Marine shipping traffic is very dense container ships cargo ships oil tankers and ocean liners of all kinds are plying the Waters of the pelus [Music] sanctuary some animals retain bitter traces of their encounters with [Music] man this fin whale is weak and emanated its tail was cut off by a propeller and caught in a [Music] net unable to sound or feed properly its life ends near the French [Music] [Music] Coast every year 50 Rockall whales fall victim to collisions in the Mediterranean and yet there are few in number barely a few thousand individuals in constant decline this is not the case for the number of ships which is increasing year after year the Mediterranean represents just 1% of the ocean's surface but it handles 30% of the world's Maritime trade citations and pilot whales in particular are sensitive to the ever increasing number of ships as was the case with this unlucky whale whose dorsal fin was partially torn off [Music] longf pilot whales are extremely sociable animals living in close-nit groups of several dozen [Music] individuals they communicate through gestures and sounds as well as by releasing bubbles from their blo holes at the top of their [Music] skulls [Music] [Music] these whales have spent the night hunting squid as Darkness Falls the Plankton Rises to the surface and the squid feed on it pilot whales lie in Ambush to devour them and don't hesitate to sound for them and then pursue them sometimes as deep as 1,600 [Music] ft last night's fishing was good as evidenced by this whale's morning excrement stained Black by the ink of the calop pods the day will be devoted to rest and [Music] socialization the clan is led by a matriarch an experienced female who can live for up to 80 [Music] years the young pilot whales are fed for up to 2 years by suckling their mother's milk from the mamory slits at the bottom of their [Music] bellies as for these sperm whales a female is about to give birth she clicks to let her group know that she'll need their help to cope with this feel and above all to protect the newborn when it's [Music] [Music] born the sperm whales gather around her to help her carry out her Mission the birth is [Music] imminent the sperm whales push the female and roll her over to help trigger the [Music] birth [Music] a sperm whale jumps several times is this a signal to alert other sperm whales there are now around 20 of them around the female the blood from the placenta appears in the bubbling sea [Music] two calves are born at the same [Music] time Rizzo's dolphins are attracted to the sperm whales with whom they share a taste for squid they have white stripes all over their bodies inflicted by their fellow Dolphins during amorous jousts or other rather muscular social activities these marks are permanent and remain on the Dolphins bodies for life in fact as they age they become even whiter risso's dolphins are animals of the Open Sea averaging 10 ft in length and even though they're much smaller than sperm whales they don't hesitate to pester or even attack [Music] them [Music] to keep their young safe the sperm whale Clan immediately adopts a daisy Blossom position all the adults stick their heads in the center and hold the young at the surface Tails outstretched ready to strike the reso's Dolphins have managed to isolate a few individuals and are circling them the sperm whales defend themselves with powerful tail strikes but the Dolphin's tarity knows no bounds one of the Dolphins charges towards a sperm whale and strikes it with its tail fin right in the stomach area the attack is designed to cause the sperm whale stress so much so that it regurgitates its food this way the dolphin can enjoy a good meal without having to [Music] hunt the sperm whale doesn't regurgitate anything but expels a cloud of excrement the Riso Dolphins lose interest and swim away calm returns and now it's a sea devil that's come to pay them a visit this time they have nothing to fear from this cousin of the manay this male is in a hurry because he has sensed the presence of a female it's Mating Season time to find his [Music] soulmate but for the moment the female devilfish which can reach a wingspan of 12 ft is busy filtering Plankton by channeling water into her open mouth [Music] she doesn't seem inclined to mate a male manages to join her then a [Music] second they are quickly repulsed by her Wing [Music] slaps is she testing the two suitors the female gives the first male a chance for a seductive [Music] dance [Music] the male gains ground and positions himself horizontally in front of the female to block her path [Music] this ballet can last several hours as the female is not easily [Music] persuaded the sea Devil's actions are still very poorly understood this large vertebrae has a very low reproductive rate with only one young for a gestation period of a year or more [Music] their movements and Gatherings are still a mystery to scientists this is the first time that such a large concentration has been observed in the Mediterranean mating season is also in full swing for loggerhead [Music] turtles the the male Turtle has also met a female but like the devilfish he's not out of the woods yet the female keeps rolling onto her back refusing [Music] him the spurned male is left to continue his search for another female [Applause] after crossing the Mediterranean from south to North our fin whale has reached the end of its migration [Applause] he has found his fellow whales in the waters of the Pelos Sanctuary for a few weeks the whales meet up reproduce and swap their solitary existence for a communal life at the end of summer they will once once again swim South to spend the winter of the magreb coast and give [Music] [Music] birth [Music] our trip off the coast of the Mediterranean revealed a great deal of biodiversity in a sea that was thought to be very impoverished it's reassuring to come across large groups of animals just a few miles off the [Music] coast species cross path and interactions [Music] abound in this vast Mediterranean ecosystem these nomadic animals have revealed impressive capacities for adaptation diving into the deep finding their way in the dark feeding finding a mate or defending themselves but our knowledge is still incomplete because many Mysteries remain like the creation of the Pelos sanctury conservation efforts over the last few decades seem to have benefited certain species dolphin and sperm whale populations are holding steady [Music] the situation is more alarming for fin whales numerous collisions with boats and the decline in its favorite food Krill due to Rising water temperatures could well prove fatal more generally preserving these different species requires us to learn about biodiversity in order to take it into account more effectively so many challenges to be met in the waters of the pelagos [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] he

Channel: Go Wild

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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: uOMzR0x6PJI

Length: 52min 3sec (3123 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2024