South Pacific - Episode 03: Endless Blue

Description

The third programme begins in the tropics, where a white sperm whale calf stays close to its mother. The 19th century story of the Essex, with its whalemen stranded in their lifeboats after a sperm whale attack is used to illustrate the difficulty of surviving in the open ocean. The currents which circle the South Pacific support huge shoals and an incredible variety of life, but much of the centre is an ocean desert. Nutrients are trapped at depth by the thermocline, making the windless surface clear but barren. Life can be tough for large predators. Some, including short-finned pilot whales, can dive to great depths to hunt squid. Others, like rare oceanic whitetip sharks, track the whales hoping for scraps or a chance to seize a young calf. The waters around the Galapagos teem with life thanks to the cool, nutrient-rich Antarctic current. Underwater footage shows penguins, manta rays and sea lions feeding. The sea lions work together to divide shoals into smaller bait balls, and blow bubbles into the reef to scare fish out. Seabirds are great ocean wanderers, but all must return to land to breed. On French Frigate Shoals, frigatebirds take sooty tern chicks from their nests, whilst offshore a dozen tiger sharks snatch any unfortunate black-footed albatross chicks that get their maiden flight wrong. Dusky dolphins and bull sperm whales are filmed in the waters off New Zealand, where an exhausted whale beached in a shallow bay is guided back out to sea by rescue boats.

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