All language subtitles for Great.Blue.Wild.Series.1.09of11.Giants.of.Palau.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

Palau.

A remote and tiny island chain
near the equator

is home to one of the world's
richest reef ecosystems.

It is also home to giants.

Massive Second World War
wrecks

harbor dark secrets
on the ocean floor.

I turn around,

there's a huge monster wreck
behind me.

My heart went whoomp.

Undersea trenches,

deep enough
to swallow mountains

offer a glimpse
into the abyss.

The old phrase that

"we know more about the surface
of the moon and Mars

than we know about the bottom
of the ocean" holds true.

And large
and mysterious creatures

soar through its azure waters.

You turn around
and all you see

is these big, gaping mouths
coming out of the blue.

It's basically like a mouth
with wings on it coming at you.

Here, in this
land of the giants.

(♪♪♪)

(♪♪♪)

(♪♪♪)

At the southern end
of the Palau islands

near a dive site
called German Channel,

manta researcher
Mandy Etpison

prepares to descend
into the blue.

(♪♪♪)

During the German occupation
of Palau,

prior to the First World War

miners blasted and dredged
a channel here

to create a shipping route
between the islands.

Today, strong currents
carry plankton

to the mouth of the channel,
making it an ideal feeding site

for one of the ocean's
most graceful and gentle giants.

The manta ray.

One of the largest creatures
in the sea survives by feeding

almost entirely on
one of the smallest.

It's sort of like
a bottleneck

so the plankton
gets concentrated here

and that's why
it's famous for mantas.

So we're hoping
to see mantas obviously

and, if we're lucky,
maybe a new individual

that hasn't been recorded yet

so we can add it
to our database.

Mandy began
the Palau Manta ID Project

in 2009.

Identifying each animal
by the spots on its belly.

The spot formation on a manta
is as unique as a fingerprint.

We started taking pictures
of the bellies

to identify the mantas
and trying to show,

especially Palau government,

that we don't need
to hurt the animals

or tag them to be able
to find out more about them.

We've identified over 280
right now.

Five years ago,
nobody would have believed

we have that many mantas
in Palau.

This simple ID project
can do a lot.

By tracking the numbers
and movements of mantas,

Mandy
and the UK based Manta Trust

can identify
any population decline

caused by illegal fishing,

and whether or not tourism
may be driving mantas away

from German Channel.

Tourism is on the rise
in Palau,

a collection
of more than 200 islands

nearly 1,000 miles east
of the Philippines

in the Western Pacific ocean.

The tourists that flock here
to explore its natural wonders

contribute about $125 million
to the economy,

more than half of Palau's
gross domestic product.

Hundreds of miles
of sky-blue ocean

surround the archipelago.

Limestone islands,

blanketed in thick
and pristine jungle

rise like mushrooms
from the sea.

They appear to be
floating gardens.

Scuba divers
from across the globe

are drawn to Palau

for what lies beneath
the emerald lagoons:

One of the world's richest
reef ecosystems.

These coral gardens overflow
with 1,500 species of fish,

500 species of coral,

and more than 100 species
of sharks and rays.

Palau's seas may contain
more species of marine life

than anywhere else on earth

and provide researchers
an exceptional window

into a vanishing
underwater world.

The explosion
of marine life here

is due to marine geology.

Palau sits on the tip
of an underwater mountain

that formed
70 million years ago.

Far below the island peaks

currents crash
against the drowned mountain

then surge upward,
carrying the nutrients

that underpin
the oceanic food chain.

There is another reason
for the sheer numbers of fish

that throng these waters.

Palau has a long history
of conservation.

For centuries,
Palauans have lived in harmony

with the sea,

never taking more
than they needed.

In 2009,

Palau created the world's
first shark sanctuary,

making it illegal
to catch sharks in its seas.

Then in 2014, it expanded
its conservation efforts

and banned all foreign fishing
within its waters.

Palau is now home to the world's
largest marine sanctuary,

a swath of protected ocean
nearly the size of California.

Marine-law officers patrol
the Palauan seas

on the lookout
for illegal fishing vessels.

As a result, the big fish
that have been all

but wiped out in some areas
of the Pacific

are still very much alive
in Palau.

(♪♪♪)

Hefty grey reef sharks.

Five-foot-long
Napolean wrasses.

And of course,
manta rays:

The marine giants
that patrol these seas.

Though smaller than
their oceanic cousins

reef mantas are still among
the largest fish in the sea.

They have an average wing span
of 11 feet

and reach weights of more than
3,000 pounds.

Mantas have exceptionally
large brains

specifically the region
responsible for hearing, touch

and vision.

They are highly social
and curious about humans.

If you've been diving
a long time

you interact
with different animals.

You can see the difference,
for instance,

between a guppy
or a Napoleon wrasse.

The Napoleon wrasse,

you can tell
there's somebody home.

There's an intelligent being
in there

and it's the same with mantas.

When you look at them
and you start realizing

they're actually,
in my opinion

they can recognize
certain dive guides.

They will go over a dive group

and go straight
for the dive guide,

and especially
the newborn mantas

they will play with divers
when it's not too crowded.

You can see
it's an intelligent animal

like a dog or a cat
and they can learn.

At German Channel,
mantas swim against the current

to feed on large concentrations
of plankton

swept into the channel entrance.

Fins curving around its face
direct water

into the manta's large,
open mouth.

You turn around and all
you see is these big, gaping
mouths

coming out of the blue.

It's basically like a mouth
with wings on it coming at you.

It's an amazing sight.

Tissue between
the manta's gills

sift tiny crustaceans
and plankton from the water.

A manta is like
a giant filtering machine,

capable of vacuuming up
more than 400 pounds of plankton

in a single week.

At times, manta feeding
can be a dizzying display.

Depending on the current
and the wind direction,

sometimes they'll feed
by themselves and roll.

They call it "barrel rolling".

It's like an underwater ballet.

Really nice to watch.

The manta may look like
it's chasing its tail

but by rolling,
it pushes more plankton

into its waiting mouth.

When the current is strong
usually right before a full moon

mantas adopt
an entirely different

but equally captivating
feeding strategy

known as "train feeding".

So you can get anywhere
from 2 to 20 or 200

if there are that many,
feeding together in a train,

which is an amazing sight.

They'll just keep going
back and forth across the line

where the plankton gets trapped.

(♪♪♪)

One of the largest creatures
in the sea,

mantas are also
one of the most mysterious.

Research into their mating
and birthing behavior

has barely begun.

For hundreds of years,
mantas were simply known

as "Devil Fish"
due to their imposing size

and bat-like appearance.

But they're very, very gentle

like when the current's strong
sometimes

and you're taking photos
or video

it's very hard
to stay out of their way,

especially when there's
that many of them.

So when you're free diving
you dive down to take a picture,

they'll come straight at you,

and sometimes you get thrown
in their path basically.

And they'll just very gently
lift their wing

and try not to touch you.

They're very careful
with people, which is amazing.

They could just slap you,
you know, if they wanted to.

Mandy believes that
physically tagging mantas

can cause harm
to these gentle giants.

A manta's skin is like rubber

and wounds can take years
to heal.

Even though they might be
able to recover from it,

it leaves scars.

And by photographing the mantas
at German Channel

we've seen how long it can take
for those scars to heal.

By photographing them
every season

you can start seeing
those results.

So we prefer to not
do actual tagging.

Previous tagging studies
enabled scientists

to track the movement
of mantas.

Photo IDs can't do that,

but Mandy has developed
an alternative

that is unveiling more secrets
of their behavior.

She places time-lapse cameras
at the cleaning stations,

spots on the reef
where small fish rid the mantas

of dead skin and parasites.

It takes pictures
every 10 seconds or 30 seconds

and normally we put four or five
around a cleaning station

and then when you pick it up

you've got thousands of pictures
to go through.

(Camera clicks)

In the previous year,

Mandy was able to identify
44 new mantas

from thousands
of time-lapse photos.

It's a lot of effort,
but worth it in the end.

Because instead
of acoustic tagging

where you can just see a beep

how many times
a manta passed by,

you can actually see the manta,
what they're doing

and learn about their behavior
at the same time

without hurting them.

Mantas are curious creatures

and will closely inspect
the cameras

left behind on the reef.

When we put
the time-lapse cameras

we start realizing that
they're immediately aware

of something changing
in their cleaning station

so they come up to the cameras

and they unfold
their cephalic flaps

which are sort of like feelers
for them also.

So they're doing like this
to the camera

to see like what is this thing

that's sitting
on my cleaning station.

So those are the kind of things

you would never find out
any other way.

Today at German Channel,

one of the busiest manta sites
in Palau

there are no mantas to be seen.

Currents,
which should be incoming

based on the moon cycle
have switched to outgoing.

Which means no plankton
is flowing into the channel,

and that means fewer mantas.

Mandy spots something
on the bottom.

A feathertail stingray,

buried up to its eyes
in the sand.

Finally,
she sights a large male manta.

It's one called Uncle Fester,
a regular at German Channel

that has fed here
for at least 10 years.

On this day, Mandy sights
just three other mantas.

One pregnant female already
logged in the database

and two others that passed by

without stopping
at the cleaning station.

Mantas may be large,

but they are dwarfed
by another giant

living in the waters of Palau,

its barrier reef.

Coral reefs are the world's
largest living structures,

made up of millions
of tiny plant-like animals

known as "coral polyps".

Reefs begin
when a polyp attaches itself

to a surface on the ocean floor

then divides
into thousands of clones,

which secrete
a calcium carbonate skeleton.

Together, the polyps act
as a single, immense organism.

Coral reefs
are always growing.

When coral dies,

it leaves behind
the rock-like skeleton.

The next generation of coral
grows on the old skeleton.

Coral reefs are the rainforests
of the sea.

They cover fewer
than 2% of the ocean floor

and yet they provide
food and shelter

for about one-quarter
of all ocean species.

One billion people
depend on coral reefs

for food and income
from fishing and tourism.

Reefs also provide protection
from hurricanes and typhoons.

The Palau Reef
believed to have formed

about two million years ago

may be the most essential giant
in these waters.

The bone-white beaches
of the low-lying Rock Islands

are built from sand
that originated as coral.

Reef animals
like this Parrotfish

feed on coral and algae

that grows
on the surface of the reef.

The parrotfish's hard,
beak-like teeth bite off

not just the coral
but its hard skeleton as well.

The pulverized
hard-coral material

ingested by the fish passes
through its digestive system

and is deposited
back into the ocean

in clouds
of fine white coral sand.

One parrotfish can produce
200 pounds of sand

in a single year.

These Rock Islands
built by coral sand

and topped by lush
and untouched Pacific jungle

are a major tourist draw.

(♪♪♪)

Palau is a country
of just 20,000 people.

In 2015, it received more than
150,000 visitors.

This tiny island nation
is struggling to find a balance

between the profit
tourism generates

and its impact on the reef.

You know,
if you have one or two people

and they go there and they do
a little bit of damage,

it's not a big deal.

But if you have thousands
and thousands of people

doing that every day,
then eventually

we would destroy the corals
and destroy the structure.

The research we're doing
is to look at these sites

that are visited by tourists

and try to look at their impact
on the reef communities,

including the corals
and the fish and the animals

that live around the reef.

(♪♪♪)

Today we're trying to look
to see the impacts of snorkelers

on shallow coral reefs.

So with Palau's tourism boom

we've seen
an increase of tourists

on our snorkeling reefs

and a lot of them have
as we've noticed

have very little
or little confident

swimming skills.

So we want to see

if that has any impact
on the corals

and if they're breaking corals
or standing on them

and the effects of that.

To determine the health
of the coral at this site,

Evelyn uses a sampling square,
called a quadrat.

She throws it randomly,
50 to 60 times at a given site.

When the quadrat lands
on the lagoon floor,

she photographs the area
within the frame.

Researchers study the photos
for evidence of coral damage

and compare the sample photos
taken at busy snorkeling sites

With those taken at sites
untouched by tourists.

Initial research
by Dr. Golbuu's team reveals

that the reefs
at crowded snorkeling sites

are dominated by broken coral

which seriously threatens
the health of the reef.

But the team is studying
more than just corals today.

Gary is going to be
counting fish today.

He's one of our experts
at the Coral Reef Center.

He knows a lot
of our fish species.

The common names,
their Palauan names,

as well as their Latin names.

So what he will do is

he will go
and measure any fish

that comes within
five-meter radius of him.

It's what we call
a stationary fish count.

So he'll stay in one spot
for 3 minutes

and he'll count
any commercially important fish

that comes in
that five meter-radius

and then write down their sizes
in centimeters.

The fish count,
like the reef survey,

is designed to assess the impact
of tourism on the lagoon.

Although it's prohibited,

tour operators have been known
to feed fish

to attract them
to tourist snorkeling sites.

Hand-feeding fish makes them
associate humans with food

and can interfere with their
natural feeding cycles.

This study will help determine
the effect fish feeding has had

on both the size
and numbers of fish

in the lagoon.

On a global level,
coral reefs face a threat

far greater than tourism.

Ocean acidification.

Humans have produced
more and more

carbon dioxide emissions

through the burning
of fossil fuels.

More than one-quarter
of carbon dioxide

pumped into the atmosphere
is dissolved into the oceans

where it upsets
the chemical balance

making water more acidic.

This acidification threatens
the survival of the animals

on the reef.

The skeletons
of most marine organisms,

including crustaceans and fish
are made from calcium carbonate.

If the acidity
of the water increases,

there are fewer carbonate ions
in the water

and it becomes harder
for these animals

to form a skeleton.

Acidity can be increased
to the point

where even coral
can no longer make a skeleton.

Even before that stage,
the struggle to make a skeleton

can leave coral weak
and vulnerable.

So you might have a coral,
but it's not strong,

like, a little storm
and it would break.

Or, you would have
very high bio-erosion.

A lot of other organisms
will be able to live inside

and break the skeleton
of the coral.

It's yet another threat
on the Palau Barrier Reef

that was already stressed
by reckless overfishing.

For decades,
foreign fishing vessels

plundered these seas,

brutally raking fish
from the reef.

The reef is an ecosystem

and you need corals
and you need fish

and if you take all the fish
from the system,

then you will affect the reefs.

It will affect its health,

and its recovery
from disturbance.

And so that is one
of the main issues

that we need to ensure that

we still have enough fish
in the reef

to allow the reef function
to continue.

(♪♪♪)

(♪♪♪)

Not all of Palau's reefs
are two million years old.

Some are relative youngsters

that can be traced back
just 70 years,

to a time when battles raged
over Palau's tropical skies.

At the bottom
of Malakal Harbor

a massive, broken skeleton
appears slowly from the blue.

It is the Iro,
a Japanese navy tanker

that met its doom
during the Second World War

when US airplanes
rained explosives

on the Japanese fleet.

Over the decades,
the Iro has transformed

into an artificial reef.

Providing shelter for prey,
food for predators,

and a breeding ground
for the hard and soft corals

that have taken hold
of the ship.

She's a spectacular wreck
to dive now.

She is teeming with life

and it's just
an amazing wreck dive

because you have
all that history.

You have all that drama
of the sinking of the vessel

and now,
70 years-plus years later,

you look at it
and it's just the most

beautiful, spectacular reef
there is around there.

The Iro sits upright
in its watery grave,

130 feet below the surface.

It's a colossal wreck,
nearly 500 feet long,

weighing upwards
of 14,000 tons.

And remains largely intact,
except for the damage caused

when a massive explosion
in the engine room

sent the ship to the bottom.

On the bow,
sits a turret gun,

its barrel and armored shield
draped in soft coral.

Wrecks like the Iro provide
a stable setting for coral.

Corals spawn
in the water column.

Eggs are carried by the current
and can land anywhere.

The shallow depth,
warm water,

and relative stillness
of this lagoon

make an ideal breeding ground
for the algae

that cements coral reefs
together.

The Iro is alive
with stony staghorn coral.

Ivory tube sponges.

And black coral trees.

Fish make their home on
or near the wreck as well.

Clouds of fry...

Lionfish...

And Pacific spadefish.

Three masts reach
toward a distant sky

and provide an ideal surface
for sun-seeking organisms,

including huge colonies
of bubble tip anemones.

A close relative
of both jellyfish and coral

the bubble tip anemone
is equipped

with sweeping
venom-filled tentacles

that ensnare passing prey.

The slightest touch
triggers the tentacles

which inject
a paralyzing neurotoxin

into its victim.

But not to the tomato clownfish
nestled inside its tentacles.

To defend itself
and ensure it has enough to eat,

the bubble tip anemone forms
an unlikely alliance.

A layer of mucus
on the clownfish's skin

makes it immune
to the anemone's lethal sting.

It's a symbiotic relationship,

the anemone
protects the clownfish

from predators,

and snacks
on its leftover meals.

In return, the clownfish
drives off intruders

and cleans the anemone
of parasites.

The coral-encrusted Iro
is just one of more than 60

Second World War wrecks
in Palau.

In March 1944,

US Navy planes appeared
high above the islands

bombarding the Japanese fleet
with rockets and torpedoes

and sending most of its vessels
to the bottom.

The coordinated attack
was code-named

"Operation Desecrate One".

In September, 1944,
the Island of Peleliu

was the scene of one
of the bloodiest battles

of the Second World War.

US marines made
an amphibious assault

on these beaches

to liberate the island
from Japanese forces.

Fighting lasted for months
and took the lives

of 10,000 Japanese
and 1,800 American soldiers.

Today the island
is surreally peaceful.

Although scattered
amid the lush vegetation

are the reminders
of past horrors.

A crippled
Japanese fighter plane

reclaimed by the jungle.

A gutted US marine
landing craft,

corroded by the elements.

And sobering memorials
to the thousands,

Japanese and American,
that spent their final moments

on what was once
an island paradise.

Francis Toribiong
is a native Palauan

who grew up on the islands
in the years following the war.

He founded Palau's first
dive operation

and in the 1980s,

helped discover
more than 30 Japanese wrecks...

Including the 285-foot-long
Chuyo Maru.

Like the Iro,
it sits upright

and is overgrown
with corals, sponges

and oysters.

The Chuyo Maru
was a coastal freighter,

sent to the bottom
during Operation Desecrate One

and discovered by Toribiong
in 1989.

I follow the line down
and there's nothing there.

I turn around,

there's a huge monster wreck
behind me.

My heart went whoomp.

I got scared.

Actually I got
a little bit scared

because it's a huge thing
right behind me.

I did not see it because
I was going down this way.

That was exciting.

I mean that completely changed
my way of diving.

Today when I take people diving

I don't try to explain
everything.

I talk about safety,
the depth, time,

and how we go around this way

and I tell them
that's good enough.

I don't want to go beyond that.

Why?

I say I want you to have
that excitement like I do.

I want you
to have that feeling.

It's hard to explain,
but when things are in the water

for last 50-some years,
70 years,

and then the first time you go
it's a really exciting dive.

The Chuyo Maru
shares its watery grave

with a mystery ship.

Its true name remains unknown,

no records of the ship
can be found

in Japanese navy archives.

Though like most wrecks
in Palau

it was sunk along
with most of the Japanese fleet

during Operation Desecrate One.

Today, it's known simply
as the Helmet Wreck,

or Depth Charge Wreck
for the dozens of bombs

found in its hold.

Divers are warned not to touch
any of the charges.

Many of Palau's wrecks
are laden with live ammunition

that can explode if disturbed.

In fact, it's illegal for divers
to take anything

from Palau's sunken
historical treasures.

The Depth Charge Wreck
is a trove

of Second World War artifacts.

The cylinder poking out
of the wreck is a clinometer

used to measure
the height of clouds

to predict incoming storms.

These Sake bottles

and a corroded
Japanese gas mask

are grim reminders
that men died here

in what is now a living museum
of the sea.

When I take the Japanese
diving there

I can see
they have a goose bump.

They tell me
a little bit eerie.

That's the way they do,
I respect that.

It's a part of history

and part of our relationship
with Japan

and something that people
need to understand

that we need to respect
other people.

These once-mighty wrecks
won't last forever.

Saltwater corrodes and eats away
at the steel skeletons.

Eventually, the lagoon
will swallow these remains.

Over the eons, saltwater erosion
has also carved stunning caverns

and tunnels into Palau's
limestone geography.

(♪♪♪)

Hidden 12 feet
below the surface

Chandelier Cave is one
of the largest cave systems

in Palau.

At one time,
it was an open-air cave,

on the surface
of the Rock Islands.

After the last ice age,
oceans rose

filling the cave with seawater
and concealing the entrance.

Stalactites,
formed from calcite

deposited by water dripping
from the cave ceiling,

hang like glittering
light fixtures,

giving Chandelier Cave its name.

Inside the cave
there is no sunlight

to nourish plankton.

Free from these
microscopic organisms,

the water is crystal clear.

At Siaes Tunnel
divers drop down

to enter a chamber
that reaches depths

of more than 140 feet.

(♪♪♪)

Even this far
below the surface

sunlight penetrates the tunnel

to illuminate gorgeous
orange sea fans

and lionfish nibbling
on soft corals.

Palau is a jumping-off point
for some of the deepest diving

in the Pacific.

It sits atop what is essentially
a sunken mountain range.

A steep drop-off,
more than 30,000 feet deep

fringes the islands.

This is The Palau Trench.

It just drops off
and it plummets into the abyss

and very, very close
to shore as well.

So people always talk about
the Marianas Trench,

the deepest part
of the planet.

That's a challenger deep.

That's nearly 300 kilometers
off shore.

We've got massively deep water

within 15 or 20 kilometers
of our shoreline.

So it's very, very unique.

The Palau Trench
is deep enough

to completely submerge
Mount Everest.

Scuba divers typically descend
about 130 feet,

less than half of 1%
of the depth of the trench.

Divers have only just scratched
it's surface.

What is known about
what's down the Palau Trench?

Honestly very, very little.

The old phrase that
we've all heard that

"We know more about the surface
of the moon and Mars

than we know about the bottom
of the ocean" holds true.

Collins has compiled
a 3D map of the trench

from satellite-derived
gravity data

and sonar measurements
collected on dives.

The green shows
the Palau islands

just the tip of a massive
underwater mountain.

You can see that
some of these sheer walls,

they plummet miles,
literally miles,

two or three miles before
they might have a slight shelf

and another feature
and, again,

before they just plummet
into the abyssal plain

at over 9,000 meters deep.

Once we look over the edge
of that reef,

sometimes it's a little daunting

because you have
the beautiful colors,

the shallow waters,
and you just look over

and it's literally looking
down a cliff.

And especially knowing
how deep that is.

So sometime it can be
a little bit daunting

and a little bit disorientating
but it's also a bit thrilling.

A short boat ride
from Siaes Tunnel

lies a marine environment
so spectacular

it's considered one
of the seven underwater wonders

of the world.

Palau is home to more than
50 marine lakes.

When glaciers melted
at the end of the last ice age

10,000 years ago

ocean levels rose,

filling low-lying areas
with seawater.

Fissures and tunnels
in the limestone

connect these saltwater lakes
to the ocean.

Beneath the surface
of a 100-foot-deep marine lake

on the uninhabited coral island
of Eil Malik

is an astonishing sight.

(♪♪♪)

Millions of rippling jellyfish
pack the fluorescent-green water

their shimmering bodies
casting a luminescent glow.

This is Jellyfish Lake.

These golden jellyfish
have thrived in the lake

for more than 10,000 years.

In this closed system,
there are few predators.

So the jellyfish have lost
their need to sting.

They possess stinging cells,

just not ones powerful enough
to cause serious harm to humans.

Getting to swim through
that many jellyfish

is a pretty weird
but wonderful experience.

When you find
a very dense patch of them,

the whole lake is essentially
pulsating with these jellyfish

so it's very cool to see.

They're not harmful,

unless you have
very sensitive skin.

They're very soft,

they're just doing
their own thing cruising along.

There's another,
even more remarkable way

in which these jellyfish differ
from their cousins

in Palau's nearby ocean lagoons.

Most species of jellyfish,
like this moon jelly,

drift serenely
on ocean currents

just as their ancestors have

since before the age
of the dinosaurs.

The five million specimens
at Jellyfish Lake

are far from passive.

They may look like
their drifting aimlessly

but in fact
they're on a journey.

Migrating almost a mile,

they follow the same path
and same schedule every day.

As the sun rises in the east,

the jellyfish swim
toward its life-giving rays.

They have to make the trek,
to survive.

The body of each jellyfish
contains a crop of algae,

its main source of food.

The algae processes sunlight
to produce sugar

that feeds the jellyfish.

For hours,
they swim east toward the sun

pumping water
through their bells,

and rotating counter-clockwise

to provide even exposure
to the sun

for the algae in their bodies.

Trees that surround
and shelter the lake

also cast shadows
on the surface.

The jellyfish
must avoid the shade.

They need to absorb
as much sunlight as possible

to maximize the energy
created by the algae

within their bells.

So what they do is they
follow the sun around the lake

so at a given time
during the day

they'll be in the brightest spot
of the lake

finding the most food.

As the sun begins
to set in the west,

the dense bloom of jellyfish
reverses course

and heads back
to the western shore.

All this swimming
churns up nutrients in the water

that form the base
of the lake's food chain.

When the sun disappears
into the horizon,

the jellyfish sink 50 feet down,

where nitrogen-rich waters
help sustain the algae

in their bodies,

before ascending to the surface
before dawn

to start their complex migration
once more.

Of Palau's 52 marine lakes,

five are home
to persistent populations

of golden jellyfish.

Fragile creatures,
they have shown

an outstanding ability to adapt
in these land-locked lakes,

lakes that were once connected
to the ocean

that defines and sustains
this tiny island nation.

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For thousands of years,

Palauans have depended
on their coral reef

for survival.

It's such a diverse habitat.

So if we lose that,

we've really lost
a lot of our ocean,

a lot of the biodiversity
in our ocean.

Billions of people
live near the coast

and they depend on coral reefs,
so all of those.

And especially us
on these small islands,

we would be severely affected

and our way of life,
you know, it's totally changed.

It would be a devastation to us,
you know, not to have the reef.

These Pacific islanders
hold to traditions

of deep respect for the sea.

Yesterday,
one of my customer asked me,

"Francis, don't you get tired

of coming out here
in the ocean?"

And I said: "It's amazing."

Not one day is the same
as another day, never the same.

The cloud, the sun,
the rain, the wind,

the tide, the movement.

"So never the same
so that's why

I don't get tired of going
to the ocean."

In these protected waters

that contain more species
of marine creatures

than almost any place else
on earth,

long-lost war wrecks claimed
by the power of the ocean

burst with energy
and life.

Yawning trenches plunge
into unseen depths,

and manta rays soar,

here, in this exotic
land of the giants.

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