All language subtitles for Oceans.Weirdest.S01E01.WEBRip.x264-ION10

Love.

So wide you can't get around it.

So deep, you can't get under it.

And so weird,

You can't understand it.

Just like the sea.

The Sea of Love.

Mum.

Dad.

Couple of kids.

Domestic bliss.

The parents dance together every day.

They've been together for years.

Her graceful moves still move him.

The vivid blue of his feet
still sends her heart aflutter.

Like it did the first time.

They could do this all day.

But the kids are squabbling.

They need to be fed.

A final flutter of goodbye,
and Dad is off.

His job is dangerous.

But he who has a "why"
to live for can cope with any "how."

He joins the hunting squadron.

A shoal of fish is the target.

A call synchronizes the attack.

He dives at over fifty miles per hour.

Headfirst.

His skull is air-cushioned.

His neck held arrow straight
to stop it snapping on impact.

But it's the pounding surf
and mid-air collisions

that are the most dangerous.

He'll do anything for his family.

Mum waits patiently
for Dad to return.

Booby parents take it in shifts
One hunts, the other guards.

So there are lots
of other parents on their nests.

Like Marjorie next door.

And Jerry two doors down.

And Stephanie at...

Jerry, two doors down.

Coooah.

Look at those feet.

They're just so blue!

Any dip in the booby's health
will dull the color.

That means that Jerry is a stud.

And he knows it.

Let's see if he's a good dancer.

The dance has a set structure
with room for improvisation.

Mostly it's about the feet.

But for that extra bit of panache.

Twigs.

Boobies don't build nests,
so this is purely a symbolic gesture.

Perhaps an evolutionary echo.

But if you want to see how well
a pair is getting along,

it's all about the synchronization.

Ah, quite well, it would seem.

Don't worry, it's not Dad.

His belly's full and he's heading home.

First job is to feed the chicks.

Oh, no.

Seems like one of the kids is dead.

Where's Mum?

Now, you'd think this would be
a terrible experience for a booby.

But it's actually
just normal family life.

When food isn't plentiful,
one chick usually dies.

It's only sensible.

As for cuckoldry...

Dad doesn't seem to mind.

They just keep dancing.

Their partnership is reaffirmed.

Now it's time for Mum to head to sea.

And Dad looks after the chicks.
Sorry, chick.

And Marjorie next door.

You might be the most attractive weirdo,

but what's the point
if no one knows about it?

Meet the attention seekers.

Mobula rays are busy.

They have to strain a lot
of water to get their daily calories.

With such demands,

how do you find the time
to find that special someone?

Simple.

A party.

A big party.

Once a year in the Sea of Cortez,
the mobula rays gather.

They really gather.

In the tens of thousands.

But we've all been there.

Huge crowd.

How do you get noticed?

You show off.

It's unknown why they jump.

A belly flop seems to be
considered perfect form.

So perhaps it's about making a big noise.

Attracting more rays?

Signaling fitness?

Or it could be a hunting method.

It's a short party,
only lasting a few hours.

But like the best parties,
it helped make a lot of babies.

Where some see a featureless seabed,

others see a blank canvas.

A white spotted pufferfish.

He's not satisfied with his work.

His skillful fins throw up
strategic clouds.

To be blown by the current.

The finest grains settle in the middle.

He can't stop.

The tide would blur the sharpness.

Finally, his work is ready.

To impress a lady.

A female checks it out.

If she swims to the center,
she's interested.

The courage of the artist is rewarded.

Mating is swift.

A peck on the cheek.

The flurry of sand hides the spawning.

And like that, she's gone.

Ardour is replaced by responsibility.

He guards the nest.

Fanning the eggs.

Art is not important now.

His work will disappear
with the shifting tides.

He cares for the eggs
for the next six days.

Then the artist will begin
his next masterpiece.

But the ocean isn't
all sweetness and light.

There are weirder approaches
to love.

Some are so loving
they just don't know when to stop.

The Givers.

These tentacles
belong to the sea cucumber.

They catch the sea's detritus
and suck it off like a lollypop.

They're a diverse bunch,
coming in all shapes and sizes.

But they all perform
a valuable cleaning service to the sea.

But what goes in, must come out.

It's at the rear end of the sea cucumber
where the real action happens.

The sand it excretes
is actually cleaner than when it went in.

And this is only
one of the services its butt performs.

Ah, it's not finished.

Yeah, it's still not finished.

Hang on, that's not a...

Yes, the sea cucumber's butt
is also a house,

for a pearlfish.

When the sea cucumber
breathes in, the pearlfish just...

Oh, gosh. I'm so sorry,
I forgot to explain about the breathing.

Yes, the sea cucumber breathes
through its butt.

Drawing in water and extracting oxygen
using internal respiratory trees.

So when it opens up,
the pearlfish swims right on in there.

It seems it's not doing any harm.

Just using the sea cucumber
as a safe haven.

Because sea cucumbers are often toxic.

But when a predator does take an interest,

the butt bites back.

This is called defensive evisceration.

It ejects parts of its sticky
respiratory system at predators.

It's a bit like throwing
your lungs at a mugger.

Except you shot them out of the other end.

Now, you're probably asking yourself:

How does it breathe when it just
threw its respiratory system at a fish?

It grows back in a matter of weeks.

Then, of course, there's mating.

Tricked ya.

That happens out of its head.

'Course it does.

Synchronized with the phases of the moon,

the sea cucumbers rear up as one.

Spurting eggs and sperm out of
their heads and into the current.

Trusting the sea of love
to bring them together,

and begin the next generation.

The seahorse is a delightfully weird fish,

that completely breaks the mold
when it comes to pregnancy.

But first, let's just take a minute
to marvel at them.

Small fins on the sides of its head
help it steer.

While it's propelled by a delicate fin
on its back.

Delicate equals not great for swimming.

That's where the prehensile tail comes in.

It allows them to latch on, and let
those fins concentrate on looking good.

Also, when it comes to eating.

Gorgeous. Let's see that again.

In three hundredths of a second,
it sucks in prey,

so long as its small enough
to get into its tiny mouth.

Anyway, back to the mating.

It all begins with a dance.

Many seahorses mate for life.

The dance is a daily occurrence that
seems essential to their bond.

And then they mate.

We don't have any footage of this
particular species of seahorse mating.

Here's some old footage of other species.

The female lays her eggs inside
the male's brood pouch.

This is the only animal family
in which the male gets pregnant.

Now, the female can go off...

...and channel her energies
into producing more eggs.

That means she's got to eat.

Lovely.

It makes sense!

She shares the energy costs
of reproduction with the male.

And when it's time for birth,
male seahorses go into contractions.

Different species produce from
two hundred to seven hundred young.

Less than one per cent
will make it to adulthood.

While the male's been pregnant,

the female's been forming
the new batch of eggs.

Males can be pregnant again
on the same day as they gave birth.

You thought that was sweet.

But just you wait.

In the game of love, there are those
that steal your heart.

Meet the romantics.

Rockhopper penguins are unlikely heroes.

Funny looking.

A little ungainly.

But romantics at heart.

They must climb a giant cliff
to reach everything they hold dear.

A loyal partner.

A hungry chick.

Love will overcome.

A misstep is just a temporary setback.

A fall is just
a little more cliff to climb.

The scars on the rock hint at the traffic.

This migration happens every day
during the breeding season.

And has done so since time immemorial.

At the top, her partner sings a greeting.

Their chick is big now.

It needs lots of food...

...which mom heroically vomits up for it.

Mum returns to the sea.

Her partner and chick are completely
dependent on her

for the first 25 days or so.

With one leap into her true element,

she is transformed.

Ungainly one moment, graceful the next.

A giant brain.

Camouflage.

A deadly strike.

The broadclub cuttlefish.

She has eggs inside her she needs to feed

and fertilize.

Ah, here comes a male now.

Oh, he's tiny.

But she seems receptive to his advances

and a mating ritual begins.

He inserts a specialized arm
near the female's mouth

and deposits his sperm.

It might seem strange that
she's mated with such a small male.

But females mate with multiple partners,

so mating is no guarantee
that the offspring will be his.

When it comes time to lay,
fire coral will make the perfect nursery.

But this female only has one arm...

...which makes placing her eggs
safely in the coral difficult.

Some fall on the seafloor,
doomed in the current.

But a few are planted in the coral.

She'll never see her offspring.

She'll die before they hatch.

But let's leave these charmers behind

and get a bit darker.

Nature is all about balance.

We've met the romantics...

so there must be an opposite.

The life of a female sea lion
doesn't seem that desirable.

She has to live on the Auckland Islands,
near the Antarctic circle.

And she seems to be
in a dysfunctional relationship.

Her boyfriend is three times her size.

He absolutely doesn't care about her pup.

In fact...

he's its biggest threat.

And he's not even monogamous.

He's got 24 other girlfriends.

But like a lot of relationships,
it's complicated.

Let's back up.

The male sea lion has spent the year
jacking himself up on a high protein diet.

He is swole.

But it's not vanity.

He needs every pound because...

This.

Bloody battles erupt across the beach...

as the males stake their claims
to territory.

He is now a dominant male...

and ready for the ladies.

The female arrives a few weeks later.

She's also been working hard,

hunting all year to feed the pup
developing inside her.

It must be nice to come ashore,
the year's work done.

What the...

Remember those defeated males?

It hasn't stopped their hormones
from running hot.

Even without territory,
they're still determined to mate.

But she wants a male
that's fought and won.

To get to him,
she has to run the gauntlet.

She makes it through the blizzard
of partially combusted testosterone

and settles with the dominant male.

He provides protection.

Any male that strays into the territory
will be dealt with in short order.

And if she decides
she doesn't like his behavior,

there are other dominant males
to choose from.

Handsome.

She gives birth...

and they mate.

But she can't stay
within the male's protection forever.

Her fat reserves are diminishing.

She must go fishing.

But the frustrated males
are still waiting.

What's the answer?

Safety in numbers.

The females bunch together...

and make a break for the sea.

It's effective.

But the sexually frustrated no-man's-land
will still be there when she returns.

Every time she leaves
the protection of the dominant male,

she's hounded by males
that just won't take the hint.

So the harem is a place
of relative safety and order.

And the dominant male
has proved his fitness.

Fitness that next year's pup will need
to survive the harshness...

of the Southern Ocean.

This is a sea hare.

It's a hermaphrodite,

a hermaphrodite mullet.

A male at the front,

but the rear end is all woman.

And it's in search of a mate.

With no eyes, it must sense its way.

It's not an exact science.

Once they find each other...

they mate.

One fertilizes the other,

but it doesn't end there.

Another sea hare turns up

attracted by a powerful pheromone
called attractin.

Each attaches its penis head
to the previous hare's exposed lady-butt.

And pretty soon...

We're not sure, but we think

there are four
in this sea hare centipede...

releasing even more attractin.

And pretty soon...

Apart from the slug at the front
and the slug at the back,

all of them both fertilize
and get fertilized.

A pretty fair trade-off
in the gene passing competition.

While some lovers go weird, others go far

In the Sea of Love.

There are those that go
to incredible lengths to find love.

Meet the Voyagers.

On an island just south of New Zealand,

a deadly horde emerges.

They march...

and march...

and m...

This is actually a romantic story.

Bear with us, we will get there.

It takes up to an hour
to reach their destination.

The cliff edge,

a suitable take-off zone.

In the air, they leave
their gracelessness behind.

This is the sooty shearwater's element.

These birds are some of the most
accomplished fliers on the planet,

migrating as far as Alaska every year...

for this.

Krill.

Tiny shrimp in huge abundance.

Their wings transform
into flippers as they dive.

Once they've eaten enough, it's home time.

But wings for swimming
and long-distance flying

are a liability in the dense forest.

There's no other way to say this.

It's a crash landing.

Time for the zombie march again.

Now it's the romantic bit,

the other reason they flew
halfway around the world.

Sooty shearwaters can pair
for multiple breeding seasons.

They've spent the year apart,

perhaps on opposite sides
of the Pacific...

before reuniting here

in this hole in the mud.

See? It's a romantic story.

This is a very special larva.

Only a few days old, it's already
beginning the journey to reproduce.

Microscopically small, hair-like cilia
propel it though the water.

It finds a nice spot...

and settles down.

It's joined by others.

They transform into polyps,

no larger than a grain of rice.

Little tentacles reach out into the ocean,

grasping at whatever
tiny plankton floats past.

It can take them years
to reach the next stage.

For an unknown reason,
millions of polyps change at once,

elongating, growing disc-like segments.

The top one twitches.

They are what we know as jellyfish.

But they are simply
the breeding phase of the life cycle.

In a few months, the sea nettle jellyfish
grows several hundred times in size.

Sixteen feet of stinging tentacles.

It will spawn in sync
with the other sea nettles...

creating the new larvae
that will begin the cycle again.

Speaking of cycles,
pick a comfortable gear

because the next weirdo
is taking us on quite the tour.

Water can drip,

or flow,

or crash,

to overcome any obstacle.

All it needs is time.

Just like love.

New Zealand's Southern Alps.

High rainfall

cascades into spectacular lakes.

Lakes filled with love.

Hang on.

This is Ocean's Weirdest.
How's that relevant?

To answer that question,
we have to go here.

Far north in tropical waters...

there's a whole lot of loving going on,

and it makes this.

Zooplankton.

Tiny creatures.

Some of them are the larval stages
of other creatures.

An ocean current sweeps them south.

The tiny larvae transform at sea

and make their way
into New Zealand's estuaries.

Glass eels.

About three inches long.

As it adapts to the freshwater,
it transforms again,

turning into a dark, juvenile eel
called an elver.

It's got to get to that lake.

It's a long journey for a tiny eel.

They can migrate over 80 miles inland.

And then those waterfalls...

no problem.

Finally, it reaches the lake.

Already filled with eels
of different ages.

Weirdly, it seems that this influences
the gender of the young eel.

High eel density, more become male,

low eel density, more become female.

It's a girl.

Now she just has to survive and grow big.

But that will take a minute.

She's grown to six feet long

and she's sexually mature.

It's time for her to make the return trip.

Getting down the river is easy enough.

But to get to the sea,

she has a huge land barrier to cross.

No problem.

The skills she practiced as a juvenile
come in handy once more.

This effort is minimal
compared to the journey ahead of her.

It will take her about six months

to make it back
to the tropical breeding grounds.

It's a huge undertaking
that might seem weird.

But like all of
our creature's adaptations,

it is a fully functioning solution

to the riddle of surviving
in these seas of love.