Blue planet the seas of life series#

At a hydrothermal vent system in the middle of the Atlantic, seawater and rock react under extreme pressures and temperatures to produce complex hydrocarbons - the building blocks of life itself. One of these geysers might even hold the secret to all life on earth. We discover new species every time we visit these strange new worlds. Shrimps hover on the fringes of billowing clouds of volcanic chemicals, so hot they could melt lead. Hair-covered crabs feed on gushing plumes of otherwise toxic hydrogen sulphide. It has always been our ambition to get inside that white space, and now we are there the. And at these volcanic hotspots, extraordinary micro-worlds blossom into life, completely divorced from the energy of the sun. I explored the Antarctic deep seas for Blue Planet II and it was like going back 350 million years.

It was a fascinating look into our oceans, and any fan of nature shows watched every episode because of its production quality and sheer breadth of coverage.

Blue planet the seas of life series#

Tectonic plates rip apart or collide in mighty clashes. Back in 2002, the BBC produced a great nature documentary series titled 'The Blue Planet - Seas of Life' which aired in the United States on the Discovery Channel (if I recall correctly). Only three human beings have ever reached here, and yet there is still life to be found in these deep sea trenches. From here we journey on down to the deepest place on earth - the Mariana Trench - almost 11 kilometres from the surface, a vast chasm that ruptures the deep sea floor. Yet even eight kilometres down, where the basic chemistry of life was once thought impossible, we find strange species swimming through the darkness. The sheer weight of water above creates almost unendurable pressures. The deeper you go, the more extreme conditions become. There are fish that walk instead of swim, worms that feed exclusively on bones and shrimps that spend almost their entire lives imprisoned with their mate in a cage of crystal sponge. Food is hard to come by and finding a mate is even harder, but life adapts in ingenious ways. On the desert wastes of the abyss, a whale carcass generates a frenzy as slow-moving sharks as big as great whites fight for what may be their first meal in a year. We encounter savage hordes of Humboldt squid hunting lanternfish in the depths and coral gardens flourishing in absolute darkness, with more species of coral to be found in the deep than on shallow tropical reefs. We discover alien worlds, bizarre creatures and extraordinary new behaviours never seen before. Large, color photographs appear on every. Although the books layout and hefty proportions make it akin to a high school textbook, the pacing of the content is uniform and completely readable. This episode takes us on an epic journey into the unknown, a realm that feels almost like science fiction. Three members of the BBCs production crew for the television series, 'The Blue Planet,' form Voltron for this splendid companion book. Scientists already think that there is more life in the deep than anywhere else on Earth. We have barely begun to explore it, and yet it is the largest living space on the planet.

The deep is perhaps the most hostile environment on Earth, at least to us - a world of crushing pressure, brutal cold and utter darkness.