All language subtitles for BBC Blue Planet UK (2019) - 05 Eng

The oceans are places of wonder.

Blue Planet 2 showed us the beauty

and extraordinary
behaviour of marine life,

whilst highlighting how fragile
and threatened our seas have become.

Now, as Blue Planet Live carries out
a health check on

the world's oceans, we are
staying closer to home.

Our British seas are rich, varied,
and key to our island heritage.

But how are our lifestyles
affecting them?

Whoa!

We'll meet the unsung heroes
dedicated to protecting our waters,

and the wildlife that relies
on them.

If we don't look after nature,
nobody else will.

And celebrate the scientists

striving for solutions
to the challenges.

Plus, we'll meet the crabs
with a flair for style...

They're dressing up in seaweed
as a means of camouflage. Yes.

..and delve into our very own
deep sea coral reefs.

This is the most important
deep sea coral, I think,

in the whole world,
and this is just off Scotland.

So, dip into our UK waters
and see them

like you've never seen them before.
BOTH: Welcome to Blue Planet UK.

Hello, and welcome to what is our
final Blue Planet UK. What a week!

What a week, indeed.
And whilst we've been here,

there's been teams all around
the world checking in on the state

of our oceans on Blue Planet Live,
but for us, it's been what's

going on here and looking into more
detail about our own UK marine life.

That's right.
It's a real amazing place.

Now,
it's not just about the wildlife,

it's about our connection
with the oceans,

and we've come back to Scotland,
to St Abbs,

on the south east coast,
because this is an area that is

steeped in a rich history
of fishing. So much of it.

And even just round the corner here
is the St Abbs Lighthouse,

and that was built right on the
edge, and the idea was to protect

the ships from the cliffs
that are so often in fog.

Nowadays,
these lighthouses are automated,

but back in the day, the lighthouse
keepers had this really privileged

access, a special connection with
the oceans, as we'll find out later.

I was a lighthouse keeper
from 1976 till 1992.

You'd see things that
other people don't see.

A wonderful feeling, to be
associated with the sea like that.

Also today, we unlock the secrets
of the deep at Edinburgh University.

We're actually looking at an area
probably around 1,500 metres,

so that's 1.5km deep.

Chris reveals his personal
connection to the coast.

I like black and white birds,
simple.

And many of our seabirds
are black and white,

so things like Arctic tern.
What a shape!

And, in a world exclusive,
Blue Planet UK brings you a sight

not witnessed in our waters
for 50 years.

A great wall of herring going round
and round me, like a dark shadow.

It's fantastic.

St Abbs is famed for its
clear waters and great visibility,

and one of the creatures
that you might come across

in the shallows around here
is the snake pipefish.

Now, these fish aren't great
swimmers, but they can swim

forwards and backwards,
which is quite a neat trick.

Now, the numbers have been booming
in recent years, which sounds like

good news, but it has implications
for the seabird colonies.

You see, snake pipefish have rigid,
bony structures,

and it makes it difficult for young
seabirds to swallow them,

so they're not always
the perfect food.

Now, pipefish are related to another
creature that people believe have

almost mythical qualities, and
Blue Planet UK went down to Devon

to meet a man
who's dedicated his life to them.

I remember the very first time
I saw a seahorse in the wild.

Absolutely amazing.

I mean, they are one of these
creatures that defies

all the rules and regulations.

They're supposed to be a fish,
they are actually a true fish,

but they have everything
that is non-fishlike.

The most famous aspect of seahorses
is the male getting pregnant.

And when he actually gives birth,
he gives birth in a flurry,

and it's a really quick flurry,
and it can be over in seconds.

As soon as they're born, that's it,
they're gone. They're on their own.

There's no parental care whatsoever.

In fact, the male just disappears
back down to the sea bed.

Not concerned any more.

People come up to me and they say,

"We don't have seahorses here,
do we?

"They're a tropical fish,
aren't they? They can't live here."

And I say, "No." There are more
seahorses living in cold water than

there are in tropical waters.

If you take, for instance, somewhere
like Studland Bay in Dorset,

every year, there are thousands
of people visiting that beach.

It's not very deep, the water.

It's probably two, three metres
deep at the best.

And yet, right by their feet,
in amongst the sea grass,

there's seahorses.

We've got these two
amazing species here.

We've got the spiny seahorse,

and we've got the
short-snouted seahorse.

And they are literally right round
the British Isles,

up to the Shetland Islands.

Seahorses have this very,

very unique fingerprint on
either side of the head, so we can

identify individual seahorses, from
dots and lines all over their heads.

Having seen so many in the wild now,

I truly believe each individual
seahorse has its own personality,

not maybe the way humans have,
but some of them are really bold.

They'll sit there and they'll say,
"Who are you?" sort of thing.

And other ones shy down. You've got
to be really careful with them.

They have this ability to change
colour, very much like cuttlefish.

If they're stressed, they go
a really dark colour, really black,

if they're courting,
they could go white,

they can go light colours,
they can go yellow.

So, the colour depends on the mood
that they're actually in.

Their eyesight is amazing.
They can see in full colour,

just as well as you and I can.

It's no coincidence
that seahorses are found on

so many coats of arms and emblems,

because they are this mystical
sort of looking creature.

In Chinese language, seahorse
actually means "dragon's child,"

so they have this lovely
sort of connection to dragons,

even in Chinese language.

They are a passion,
purely because they're so unusual.

We think we know
everything about them, but we don't.

We've literally just scratched
the surface about seahorses.

It would get boring if we knew
all the answers about them,

but we don't.

How beautiful were those seahorses?
I love seahorses.

And do you know what's really
amazing is that there's

all sorts of species found
all around the world,

and they're often associated
with this sort of thing.

This is a piece of coral that was
found for scientific research, but

I want you to guess, Steve, where
this coral might have come from.

Well, coral's coral.

You're thinking Australia, tropics,
that kind of thing.

I was hoping you were going to
say that! You're wrong.

Argh! This is actually from
UK waters. Can you believe that?

It's a cold water specialist,

but not just that -
it was found 200 metres deep.

And this species of coral will
create habitats for loads

and loads of other species,
and to find out more about them,

I went to Edinburgh University
to meet the team

who are unlocking
the secrets of the deep.

Sea creatures at home amongst
the coral beds.

But not in the ocean.

In a lab,
where Murray Roberts studies them.

Many of the specimens
under investigation here

were gathered on an expedition of
deep waters off the west coast

of Scotland, exploring life
at depths of up to 1.5km.

The team use a remotely operated
vehicle, or ROV,

fitted with robotic arms
to collect their finds.

And Murray has hours
of fascinating footage.

You're about to launch it,
is that right?

It's being launched at the moment.
You'll see the splashdown

just in a second. There we go.
That's it. Underwater.

And this is the start of its journey
now, down to the deep-water

coral habitats that are hundreds

of metres beneath the ship.

And the really exciting bit is that
we'll see things on the

sea floor that have never
been seen before.

Absolutely nobody's laid
eyes on them?

No-one's ever seen these
deep sea areas before.

So this is almost like exploring
outer space, but this is our planet.

This is our planet,
and this is just off our back yard.

This is the deep sea off Scotland.
Touchdown.

This is touchdown, and we've landed
right onto one of these

deep-water coral reefs.

So, what you can see is a
whole colony of deep-water coral.

It looks like a tropical coral reef.
This is lophelia, is it?

This is lophelia. This is the coral
that makes all the big

reef structures in the
North Atlantic, so you can see

that same really complicated
skeleton that makes up the coral,

and that's the structure that all
these other species use as a home.

That is a mind-blowingly huge
structure.

I mean, it is actually genuinely
quite exciting to see

this species in its natural habitat.

This is the most important deep sea
coral, I think, in the whole world.

Really? And look at it.

We normally associate coral
with, like, tropical reefs,

needing lots of sunlight.

How on Earth is this species
surviving down there with

no light at all? There's no light,
but if you look really closely,

you can see tiny little particles
that are flowing past the corals.

The corals grow into
the water currents,

and they feed from the food
in the water currents.

They feed from tiny plankton,
minute shrimp, little plant cells

called phytoplankton that are
moving past these corals.

You can really see,
it's like a thick soup of nutrients,

I suppose, just all flowing past the
coral structure. It's exactly that.

The coral itself is also
creating habitat, presumably,

for all kinds of species.
Yes, the skeletons the corals grow,

when they die off quite naturally,
they remain intact

and it's that structure that's
a city beneath the sea

for the other animals to latch onto,
and find a place to live.

From the footage alone,
it's hard to get a sense of scale,

but Murray has a specimen
picked from the sea bed which really

puts things into perspective.

Let me just get the lid off here
and show you this. Oh!

That is smelly!
But, my goodness me! Look at this.

This is the deep sea red crab.
Very abundant in the North Atlantic.

Look at the size of this.

I'm going to put it back
because we need to keep it

in the preservative,
which doesn't smell too great!

Yeah, that is pretty powerful!
Do you know what really strikes me

about that is I would normally
think something

that lives in the deep sea,
something that lives in the

dark and cold water would grow
very slowly,

and getting to that size would be
quite an achievement.

This is one of the surprises.

The deep oceans of the world
are actually quite productive,

because they're tightly coupled
to the surface ocean,

and the surface ocean
in the North Atlantic,

where that plankton is growing,
is very, very dynamic.

That food is focused down in these
coral areas really quickly.

The cold water reef makes
a home for a huge

number of species at various depths.

Octopus and Chimaera,
or rabbitfish.

Murray's team went even
further into the depths,

reaching the Logachev Mounds.

The landscape here starts to get
eerily sparse.

But it's not without its surprises.

Seamounts are underwater
extinct volcanos.

Right. And this is west of Scotland.

We're actually looking at an area
probably around 1,500m deep,

so that's 1.5km deep,
and we've found hundreds

if not thousands of these egg
cases on the side of the seamount.

And here is one of them.

It's an extraordinary sight,
30cm long.

So, what species is this, now that
you've got this back in the lab?

Have you been able to ID it?

Yes, it's called Bathyraja,
this particular deep-water skate.

And they're laying their eggs
1.5km deep,

where the sea water is particularly
rich in oxygen.

We think that's really important

for the development of the embryos
inside these egg cases.

We think, as part of climate change,
the oxygen levels in the water

are going to drop, and that could be
bad news for this skate species.

They may seem like alien landscapes,

but what we do directly
affects these habitats.

Since the Industrial Revolution,

we have massively increased
the level of carbon dioxide

in the atmosphere,
and how that affects sea life

is difficult to illustrate,
but I have some help.

Laurence has this really neat
experiment where a rubber tube

and a beaker can actually
shed light on the whole thing,

so, Laurence, tell me
what I'm supposed to do.

Yes, so this beaker here
represents our ocean.

So, we can use this little tube,
and by blowing into the tube,

you will increase the carbon dioxide
in our mini ocean, and we will see

how this increase in carbon dioxide
in the ocean affects the acidity,

which this instrument measures.
OK. Well, into the ocean I go. Yeah.

This number is going down,

which means that the acidity
is increasing.

Gosh, that's happening very quickly.
Yes.

And so this has very important
implications for cold water corals,

because they're
made out of limestone.

And this limestone would then
dissolve, which could have

major implications for the animals
that use these corals as a habitat.

It's sobering to think
that our actions can affect life

found in some of our deeper waters.

But with scientists exploring
these uncharted territories,

we may be able to gain
a greater understanding

of how to protect them
in the future.

It is so cool, seeing those deep
sea creatures, but do you know?

If you come down to the shores,

you'll see all kinds of things,
like this shore crab right here.

Now, they share a really
similar strategy,

in fact, exactly the same strategy
as those deep sea crabs,

as Miranda Krestovnikoff found out
for The One Show.

A grisly scene lies scattered
across a beach in North Wales.

Heaps of washed up crabs
littering the shore.

Walking along this beach,
I'm struck by what appears to be

a dramatic loss of life,
but looks can be deceptive.

What looks like a dead crab
is in fact a discarded shell,

the remnants of the moult
of the common shore crab,

a truly remarkable feat of nature.

Common shore crabs live all around
the coasts of Britain and Ireland.

They're found from
the high tide mark,

all the way down to a depth of 60m,
and they feed on anything

they can find, including dead fish,
and even other shore crabs.

They're clearly a very
successful species,

but their design has a flaw,
which makes moulting a necessity,

as crab expert
Professor Simon Webster explains.

They don't grow in a linear fashion
as we do, because they have

this hard shell, an exoskeleton,
so their growth is intermittent.

So their skeleton's on the outside.

Yes, it is on the outside,
and so every year,,

the have to shed this
and then expand to their final size.

So it's like,

if I was a child and I was wearing
clothes that were too small for me,

I literally couldn't grow
until I'd sort of got rid of them.

That's a perfect analogy.

Every part of the crab's body
is encased in the hard skeleton,

including the delicate
and complicated mouth parts,

the stalks of the eyes,
and the antennae,

which the crab uses to smell
in the water. Even these small

and delicate structures must be
removed from the rigid exoskeleton

during moulting,
and Simon's been studying how that

happens in his lab
at Bangor University.

So, talk me through this incredibly
complicated process.

The whole process is triggered
by a series of hormones.

There are two phases. The first
phase, we call the passive phase.

Here we have one that's begun
to crack its shell open.

It's decalcified its shell,
and you can see here this line.

It's called the epimeral line,

and this is an area of
much thinner shell.

And this is like a sort of
perforated seam. Yes, exactly.

Right, and it's going to expand
underneath that,

and that's going to open up. Yes.

And then,
what happens after that breaks?

Then, the crab undergoes a period
of what we call passive ecdysis,

or moulting.

Here is one which has now
taken on a little bit of water,

and it's beginning to open up.

The final active phase of the moult
takes about 15 minutes,

so we're setting up a time lapse
camera to film the action.

The crab drinks in more
and more water, causing it to swell.

The carapace opens up, and the crab
extracts itself by pushing

and compressing
all of its appendages repeatedly,

until it finally wrestles free.

If the crab doesn't get out quickly,
it will become trapped,

and die in the old shell.

This is the exoskeleton
of a newly-moulted crab,

and this is the chap
that's just come out of it.

You can see he's a lot larger than
the old shell, about 20% bigger.

And if I touch him,
he's absolutely as soft as jelly.

It can take a few weeks
for the shell to harden.

Juvenile crabs have to endure this
vulnerable state every few months,

as they grow, but even
adults will moult once a year.

For females, this soft shell period
is the only time they can mate.

Amorous males pick up the females
and carry them around,

in the process keeping them safe
from predators.

Moulting also allows animals with
exoskeletons to do something

which we vertebrates can
only dream of.

Besides allowing the crab to grow,
moulting also allows regeneration

of lost limbs, so you can see that
this one's only got one front claw.

At every subsequent moult,

missing limbs will grow back
a little bit more.

After a couple of years,
they should have completely regrown,

an amazing act of regeneration,
taking place all around our shores.

So, next time you come across a
common shore crab shell on a beach,

remember the remarkable feat
of animal escapology

that created every single one
of these.

Crabs are cool!

And what makes them
even cooler is that

each and every one behaves
slightly differently.

And I'm here at
St Abbs Marine Station to find out

a little bit more
about crab personality.

So, I've got Karen with me,

who's going to tell me
all about crab personalities.

Karen, one thing I will say is.
I've been saying this all along -

invertebrates have personalities,

and now it looks like
you can prove this.

Well, I'm trying to prove that.
I agree with you.

I've been thinking that many,
many years

when observing crabs in the field
and mangroves in Australia,

that I could actually tell
who's who,

just by their personality,
and years ago,

my supervisor didn't believe me,

so I decided I need to follow up on
this and here at the Marine Station,

we decided to look at whether
they do have personalities or not.

We run tests with them.

One would be - how do they react
to a novel object, for example?

Is it an exploratory type
who looks at it and says,

"I want to explore what it is.

"Could it be food?
Or could it be a shelter?"

Or is it a shy personality
that says,

"Hm, I don't know this
and I'd rather stay away"?

And there's a really hi-tech way
that you do this.

I've got this plastic brick,
and apparently,

there's a bit of a technique here.

I've got to submerge it,
and then let go.

And there you have it.

The drop!

And now we wait! I'm actually
trying to stand back now,

because I don't want to distract
him. I don't want him to see me now.

That's good. But you know this
individual. You know this is

a bold and brave crab,
because you've filmed this before.

When we did it before,
it was one of the fastest reacting.

Playing around and taking it,

carrying it all round this
little tank, actually.

And if it was a shy crab, now,
you've filmed that as well, right?

Yes, shy crabs didn't do a thing.
They didn't touch it.

They walked around it,
and gave it a look,

and wandered around from corner
to corner,

where they like to seek
a bit of shelter,

but in contrast to the brave one,
never went straight for it.

So, Karen, of course,
I know it feels like a game,

plastic toys with crabs, but this
is what it's about, isn't it?

Yeah, that's true. What you see here
is a creel, crab pots,

so what sort of crabs
go inside this trap?

Is it just any crab,
or is it just the boldest ones,

the exploratory ones,
that these pots are catching?

So, what does that
mean for the whole population,

if all we're doing is
catching brave crabs?

Well, obviously, there are fewer
brave crabs out there,

so the problem would only really
arise if we found,

and that's step three
now of our research,

if brave crabs also tend to be
those that grow fastest

and reproduce at a higher rate,
then obviously you could decrease

the productivity of the population
over time and then,

that would obviously be bad
for the fishery as well.

So, in an ideal world, what you want
is brave crabs, shy crabs,

and everything in between. Exactly.

It's clear that British waters
have an awful lot to offer,

in terms of wildlife,

but we need to be mindful of that
balance with human activities.

Exactly. And there's been a lot
of damage done,

but the situation can be reversed,

as Springwatch's Iolo Williams
found out

when he went to the Isle of Arran
off the west coast of Scotland.

Lamlash is an idyllic coastal
town on the Isle of Arran,

with pristine views
out into the Firth of Clyde.

These waters were once
one of Europe's most commercially

productive fishing areas, and
Lamlash held international

sea angling festivals, celebrating
thriving populations of white fish,

including herring, cod, and haddock.

But in the 1980s, the tide turned.

I remember fishing in 1986,
and we'd catch

so many fish that we wouldn't
know what to do with.

But the year after that,
we went out, and caught nothing.

A change in the law allowed bottom
dredging close to the UK coast,

coinciding with the introduction
of a new destructive type

of scallop dredger.

There was factory boats coming in,
and hoovering everything out

the sea bed. It was horrible.

It was a fishing revolution that
eventually saw the Clyde

labelled as a marine desert
by scientists.

Fish stocks fell
by a devastating 96%.

But the passion of two local divers
who couldn't bear to watch

an entire ecosystem disappear saw
the creation of COAST,

the Community Of Arran Seabed Trust.

Local diver Howard Wood was one of
those determined to make a change.

When did you first dive these
waters, Howard? 1974.

And if I would have come with
you on that first dive,

what would I have seen?

Dozens of flatfish, plaice,
scabs, even big turbot.

Thornback rays, cuckoo rays,
shoals of pollock.

I only really appreciated
what I'd seen as a teenager

maybe 10, 15 years later,
when it was starting to disappear.

But you weren't happy to just sit
back and watch all this happen.

You actually took action,
didn't you? My friend,

Don MacNeish, he kept poking me,
saying, "We need to do something".

Don had come back from New Zealand
with the idea of no take zone,

which is an area that no marine life
or plants can be taken out of.

And we tried to do something.

As two or three people,
nobody really took much notice,

and so we realised we really needed
the community on board.

They say that, when you try
and establish any kind of marine

protection area, the people to
persuade are the local fishermen.

How did they react?

We knew them,
and we knew them very well,

and some of them were our friends.
So, it wasn't that difficult

to actually convince the
local fishermen.

But even with the local fishermen
on board, it took a further 13 years

of lobbying, letters, and phone
calls to persuade those in power.

In 2008, the first ever no take zone
in Scottish waters

was established around Lamlash Bay.

We were ecstatic. It was absolutely
great. We held a small celebration.

We've campaigned for 13 years
to get this no take zone,

but in reality, this is the start.

It's like a living laboratory,

what happens when you leave the sea
to just naturally change,

do what it wants to do.

Now, it's been ten years
since the no take zone was granted,

so I suppose the big question is
- has it worked?

Dr Bryce Stewart from the University
of York has been carrying out

research and surveys in this
protected area for the past

ten years,
documenting its recovery.

Are you seeing a lot more marine
life in the no take zones now,

compared to the areas
immediately around them?

We're seeing much higher
biodiversity, overall,

in the no take zone.
It's about 50% higher.

And also, for some particular
species, like lobsters,

there's more than double
the number in the no take zone.

And scallops as well,
and both the scallops

and lobsters are much bigger
as well, which is really important.

So, this must have a knock-on effect
for the fishermen.

Yeah, that's what we think is
going on, particularly for those

key species, lobsters and scallops.

Because they're much bigger, the
females are producing lots of eggs,

and those eggs are hatching,
the larvae is spreading out

in the currents,
and reseeding the fishing grounds.

So, by protecting just
these small areas,

you can actually have a big benefit.

And for Howard the benefit includes
seeing more on his dives once again.

It's absolutely fantastic,
to go down for a dive.

"What are we going to see? What's
going to have changed this year?"

It's only 2.6 square kilometres,
but it has numerous different types

of habitats, so it's great
seeing things spread out.

We've seen a real good range
of different types of nudibranchs,

which divers get very excited about,
because of all the colour.

Last Monday, I had a great
experience with a pleurobranchus,

which is also commonly known
as the highland dancer...

..and some fantastic octopuses, in
amongst the bright pink live maerl.

It's such a joy to see.

If you were watching Blue Planet UK
earlier in the week, you would know

that the humble herring,
after decades of overfishing,

seems to be making a comeback.

Last year, fishermen in Gairloch
noticed that they were

coming back to spawn,

and it appears that, this year,
numbers are even higher.

It was too exciting a challenge
to turn down, so we sent

underwater cameraman Andy Jackson to
see if he could capture the herring

on the seabed,
or even better, spawning.

The west coast of Scotland has some
of our most fertile waters,

and the fishing village
of Gairloch lies at its heart.

Last year's news about the herring
is exciting for locals

like biologist Peter Cunningham.

This winter, he's been keeping
an eye out for the species,

and he's heard that fishermen have
spotted signs of their return

to the area.

Cameraman Andy Jackson went out
on a mission with Peter

to try and track the herring down.

I've never filmed a shoal
of herring before,

and nor has anyone else in the UK.

50 odd years since they were around.

Oh, look at that sunshine.

A cracking day.

But even when you know the fish
are in the area,

before you can film them,
you need to find them.

Not an easy feat
in the wild Scottish waters.

Well, that's surprising -

no fish, so the fish
must have scattered.

Day two and it's flat calm -
perfect.

But there's not a herring in sight.

They haven't come into the
shallow water yet to spawn.

We're maybe just
a few days too early.

It's day four,

and the forecast
was absolutely bang on.

There's no way
we're going anywhere today!

Finally, the skies are clear.

We spotted the gannets.
The gannets were the main clue.

The gannets and the seals
are hunting.

It's a sure sign
that fish are about.

There is a huge number
of seals here.

I think they're mostly grey seals.

This is exciting, seals and gannets
in the same place,

and they're feeding.

But are they herring?

With bad weather forecast soon,
it's a tense moment.

Out of the murk,
there is a glimmer.

This extraordinary sight hasn't
been seen off Britain's coasts

for 50 years.

I've been surrounded by herring.

A great wall of herring going round
and round me like a dark shadow,

it's fantastic.

Whoa!

A true natural wonder,

but Andy still hasn't found
what he came here for.

Will he see the herring spawn?

Over the next couple of weeks
Andy stayed on.

He was determined to capture
that sequence he was really after,

and this is what he got.

Just after dawn, Andy dives again.

This time the fish
are too busy to be afraid.

The reason?

The water is murky with the magical
sight of herring eggs

which settle on the seabed.

In a few weeks,
millions of embryos will be visible.

No-one has ever filmed herring
breeding here before.

These pictures are unique.

More eggs this year should mean
there's more fish the next.

The future looks bright
for the herring.

This is their second year
spawning here,

and their numbers are greater
than in decades.

Andy's perseverance
has finally paid off.

He's almost lost for words.

It's all a bit much at the moment,
I can't take it all in.

It's just so fresh.

You know, we've been trying to
do this for the last two weeks,

and then suddenly, you know,
you go out, you get up early,

there's a window in the weather,
you go out and you do it,

and it's all over,
and we're finished.

I'm stunned!

What can I say?

Stunned.

GILLIAN: What a beautiful sight.

Now, behind me is
St Abbs lighthouse,

and if there was one historic job
that meant you got to see everything

that went on out at sea,
whether it was whales breaching,

or a fishing fleet,
it was that of a lighthouse keeper.

Nowadays, of course,
lighthouses are all automated.

The one behind me,
the lighthouse keeper left in 1993.

And that's just a year before
one of Scotland's most remote

lighthouses was automated.

My name is Ian Duff.

I was the lighthouse keeper
from 1976 till 1992.

When I was a little boy, I said

I wanted to be a lighthouse
keeper when I grew up.

To be a lighthouse keeper at
these places in Scotland

allows you access to places
that most normal people

don't ever get to see,

or live in.

You see things that
other people don't see -

the puffins would walk into the
lighthouse accommodation.

A wonderful feeling to be associated
with the sea like that.

On a wild day,

in the morning, we would stand in
the door for two hours

till lunchtime, just watching the
power of the sea breaking over

the grating, or jumping back in if
the sea was going to hit the door

which is 30 feet up.

One day, I was to go ashore, the
helicopter landed on the helipad,

and a giant freak wave just broke
over the top of the

lighthouse helicopter and injured
one of the keepers who was coming on

to replace me.

I mean, all the time I was at
Duncansby, you could see,

year on year out, more plastic fish
boxes and other bits of plastic

that washed in. I even collected
a plastic milk bottle,

and I took it home because it had
a lighthouse on it,

and it came from Norway,
funnily enough.

When I was at Pladda, they were
still hunting for sharks

at that particular time, and
one day, we saw, when we looked

through the binoculars, they had
a shark on deck of the boat,

and they were cutting it up -

hopefully never see anything
like that any more.

Quite often seen basking sharks
at Hyskeir.

That's a nice place
to view them at Hyskeir,

because the water, the sea at
Hyskeir used to be

a different colour from the sea
at Skerryvore,

it used to be a lovely
aquamarine sort of green.

I do miss being a lighthouse keeper.

I think it was a great honour to be
at these lighthouses

when they were manned.

I just loved waking up
on a summer's morning,

or being on watch on a summer's
morning, at a place like Skerryvore,

seeing all the seals lying in the
rock and at peace with the world.

And then, of course, in the winter
time when the sea's breaking up

over the tower door, you stand,
awe-inspiring...

Watching the waves
breaking past you.

It's a great honour to be
a lighthouse keeper

in that environment, I think.

What a beautiful film,
and you have all been sending us

beautiful pictures, as well,
from across the country

right around our coastlines,

and here is a selection
of just a few of them.

Someone who's checking up
on the health

of the world's oceans
is Chris Packham.

He's in Mexico right now,
but his heart is always at home.

Before he left, he explained why
he champions the British Seas.

Now, all week, I've been meeting
people who get into the sea,

either because they feel a spiritual
connection with it,

a need to immerse their body, to
connect with a purer form of nature,

or because they're fascinated
with the extraordinary marine life

that's living just out there.

That's them, and I'm me,

because if I'm very honest with you,
I'm frightened of that.

You know, historically, in my family

people have drowned in those oceans.

I'm not a great swimmer.

But I still feel a closeness
to the sea because of the creatures

that I admire that prosper
in that environment,

and principally the birds,
of course.

Now, when it comes to birds,

all birds are equal,
but some are more equal than others

and the ones that, for me,
are the better ones

are the ones
which are simplest in their form.

So, I'm not a kingfisher man,
I'm not a puffin bloke,

all that colour,
all of that mess, no.

I like black and white birds,
simple,

and many of our seabirds
are black and white.

So, things like arctic tern.

What a shape!

What a beautiful natural
construction they are,

with their long wings
and their tail streamers.

And I love to photograph them,
because against the light,

with it shining through
their feathers, they glow.

And then you've got bigger,
more powerful species,

things like gannets
with their beautiful faces,

that cappuccino wash,

those beautiful almost sort of
Art Deco lines that run

around the eyes and down the beak,

but you're still looking at the sea,

you're looking at that powerful beak
which breaks their entrance

into the water when they're plunge
diving at speeds of up to 40mph.

And then, of course,
when you see them in the air,

those wings,

strong and powerful.

But if I have one favourite
seabird to photograph,

it would be the northern fulmar,

because, really, they're a
Northern Hemisphere albatross,

a little bit smaller, of course,
and they've got very stiff wings.

They look a bit wooden
when they're flying and gliding,

and from a photographic
point of view,

we're talking about a grey bird,

so you've got to do something
with that, using the light,

using the water.

It's always a challenge,
when you take something

that you feel so
passionately about,

that you love the shape
and the form of, the movement...

Everything about it.

And you're trying to capture it in
one photograph and say all of that,

that's why photography
is so difficult,

and particularly when you're working
with these sorts of elements.

And, I suppose, that's a challenge
that connects me to the sea.

It's the birds that are an
intrinsic part of that environment,

and I love photographing them.

I haven't got a decent
photograph yet,

but I'll be working hard
for the rest of my life.

GILLIAN: Don't forget to watch
Chris, Liz and Steve

on Blue Planet Live this weekend.

They have already witnessed some
incredible spectacles, and no doubt

they've saved the best till last.

Well, fingers crossed,
let's hope so.

We've had a fantastic time
here on Blue Planet UK,

not just learning about the
marine life on our doorstep,

but how human interaction can have
such an impact on it.

Well, all that's left to do is to
say a huge thank you to everyone

that's taken part in the series,

and we're going to leave you
with the highlights.

Bye. Bye-bye.

That's my first haul.

My goodness me!

I can't believe you call this a job!