All language subtitles for Our Planet (2019) - 01x06 Eng

[radio static]

[beep]

[indistinct radio chatter]

[David Attenborough] Just 50 years ago,

we finally ventured to the Moon.

For the very first time,

we looked back at our own planet.

Since then, the human population
has more than doubled.

This series will celebrate
the natural wonders that remain

and reveal what we must preserve

to ensure people and nature thrive.

Dolphins...

panicking.

They're being hunted
by false killer whales.

[birds cawing]

Dolphins are faster in short bursts.

But their hunters have stamina.

Just as the killer whales close in,

the dolphins make a sudden turn
to evade their predators.

These extraordinary events
are taking place far from land,

where few of us ever venture.

This is the ocean
beyond the boundary of any country...

largely ungoverned, wild, and lawless.

Nothing symbolizes
our relationship with the high seas

better than the blue whale.

Weighing 200 tons and 30 meters long,

these are the largest animals
ever to have existed.

Yet much of their lives
is still a mystery to us.

Blue whales live far out to sea,

roaming every ocean
from the tropics to the poles.

We have only recently discovered

a few special places
where they come close to shore.

The Gulf of California,

on Mexico's Pacific coast.

This is a sanctuary for blue whales.

[whale huffing]

Meet the world's biggest newborn...

a baby blue.

Just a month old,

she's already eight meters long
and weighs six tons.

Her mother shelters her
with a protective fin.

They caress one another,
cherishing their close bond.

These are the most intimate images
ever captured

of a blue whale mother and her calf.

This female will give birth
only once every two or three years,

so each baby blue is extremely precious.

The calf will grow three tons a month.

Once, there were
more than 300,000 blue whales,

but last century,
they were hunted relentlessly,

and only a few thousand survived.

Blue whales are now protected,

and their numbers are slowly increasing.

Soon, this calf will leave
these sheltered waters

to roam the high seas.

We once thought that the high seas
were simply too vast for us to damage,

but we now know that her ocean home
is under threat as never before.

Out here in the big blue,
there remain a few pristine places

to remind us
how rich the oceans can still be.

Spinner dolphins.

In the Pacific, off the coast
of Costa Rica, Central America,

they are starting to gather
in great numbers.

Spinners live in pods,

groups of individuals
linked by complex social relationships.

[dolphins clicking]

The dolphins constantly touch
and talk with one another,

using a language of clicks and whistles.

[dolphins clicking and chittering]

They are shadowed by yellowfin tuna.

The tuna rely on the dolphins
to find food.

Everyone is searching for the same prey...

lantern fish...

the most numerous fish on the planet.

No longer than your finger,

lantern fish spend most of their time
hiding in the deep.

So, despite their astounding abundance,
we don't fish for them.

They are one of the few fish
that still thrives.

As they close in on their prey,
the dolphin pod gets bigger and bigger.

This pod could be 10,000 strong.

For every one at the surface,
20 swim below.

[dolphins clicking]

Using echolocation, a type of sonar,

the dolphins detect lantern fish
in the depths

and drive them to the surface.

They patrol the underside of the shoal

to stop their prey
escaping back to the deep.

[clicking and chittering]

Once the dolphins have had their fill,

there's still plenty more
for other predators.

Mobula rays swoop in.

To maximize their catch,
the rays attack in formation.

A wall of mouths scooping up their prey.

Because we don't fish for them,
lantern fish and their predators thrive.

All these hunters have barely made a dent
in the great shoal.

Most life in the open ocean
is concentrated in a thin surface layer,

where the power of the sun
has its greatest effect.

These sunlit shallows
are fertilized in a surprising way.

As the dolphins produce waste,
they play a vital role,

recycling nutrients from the deep
up to the surface.

[dolphins chittering]

This marine manure

helps to fuel the basis
of all life in the open ocean.

Phytoplankton...

microscopic drifting plants.

They combine nutrients in seawater
with energy from the sun

to create the very foundation
of every food chain out here.

So all animals, from the smallest fish
to the largest whale,

ultimately depend
on these tiny plants for food.

And in turn, the phytoplankton
benefits from the nutrients

produced by these animals.

Crucially, phytoplankton also produce
half the oxygen in the air we breathe.

So, no matter where you live,

you can thank
these exquisite little plants

for every other breath you take.

In ideal conditions,
they can bloom to such an extent

that great swathes of the ocean
turn green.

Surprisingly, phytoplankton
also play a vital role in cloud formation.

[thunder rumbling]

Moisture evaporating from the ocean

condenses around
tiny particles created by the plankton.

These droplets combine
to grow into colossal clouds.

They can rise 20 kilometers
into the atmosphere.

These oceanic clouds
reflect the sun's energy back into space,

helping to protect the Earth
from rising temperatures.

Not only do the oceans
produce half the oxygen we breathe,

they also drive the weather and climate,

transporting life-giving fresh water
around the world.

[thunder rumbling]

The high seas
are the life-support system of our planet.

They have such power
simply because they're so vast.

The oceans cover two-thirds of the globe,
and that's just the surface.

They're also immensely deep.

We can only journey
to this unexplored space

in special submarines
that can withstand the crushing pressure.

The average depth of the oceans
is nearly four kilometers,

and the deepest point more than ten.

The deep makes up 95 percent
of all the space available for life.

This alien world
is home to weird and mysterious creatures.

Few are stranger than this one.

For years, we only knew they existed
from the occasional one washed ashore.

They have hardly ever been seen alive.

An oarfish.

Ten meters long.

Hanging vertically

and using rhythmic waves
along their dorsal fin,

oarfish commute easily
between the surface and the depths.

Below 200 meters, there's not enough light
for plants to grow,

so deep-sea animals depend on
food sinking down from the surface...

marine snow.

A crown jellyfish
drifts with tentacles outstretched

to ensnare pray.

They live in every ocean,
to depths of seven kilometers.

The deep is so vast that these could be
the most abundant of all jellyfish.

We used to think
the deep supported little life,

but scientists now believe

there are ten times more animals
living here than previously thought.

So, there must be many
yet to be discovered.

This deep-water crustacean, Cystisoma,
is as clear as glass.

It hides in plain sight.

In this twilight zone,

invisibility can be the difference
between finding a meal and being one.

Its huge eyes strain to see in the gloom.

No light penetrates
below a thousand meters.

In this darkness,
animals create their own light...

bioluminescence.

A glowing lure entices victims
into this dragonfish's terrifying teeth.

On most expeditions down here,
we are surprised by something new.

A deep-sea anglerfish.

Her extraordinary array of sensors

will detect even the faintest movement
by prey tempted to her lure.

Here, in the deep midwater,
predators play a patient game.

Eventually, we reach the bottom,

nearly a thousand meters down.

The deep-sea plains
cover more than half the Earth's surface,

and yet we know more
about the surface of the Moon.

Chimaera,
an ancient relative of the shark,

up to two meters long.

Few species of this size
can make a living on the barren seafloor.

Moving slowly to conserve energy,

they use special electrical sensors
around their mouths

to search for scarce prey
buried in the sediment.

Rocky outcrops rising from the seafloor
can be oases in this desert.

This ragged-tooth shark
has come here for good reason.

Five hundred meters down
off the coast of Florida,

a rare hot spot of life.

Lophelia, deep-sea coral reefs.

We used to think that corals

were only found
in the warm, sunny shallows.

But, astonishingly, deep-sea reefs
cover a greater area of the seafloor

than their shallow-water relatives.

These underwater forests

provide shelter and food
for a rich community of marine life.

They're also vital nurseries
for many deep-sea creatures.

The corals are made up
of many anemone-like individuals,

polyps that live in colonies
connected by a hard skeleton.

The polyps
have stinging cells in their tentacles

to snare passing prey,
their only source of food.

But they don't always
get to keep their catch.

A bristle worm has set up home
within the coral.

It checks the polyps
for a freshly caught morsel...

and steals it from the coral.

But this theft
is actually a protection racket.

Urchins attack and eat the corals.

Time for payback.

The urchin may have protective spines,
but the worm has a shocking weapon,

and goes on the attack.

The urchin has been seen off,

and the worm has saved its home.

Like most deep-sea animals,

these corals grow extremely slowly.

Some reefs may be 40,000 years old.

Despite being so far beneath the surface,
these corals are still within our reach.

Deep-sea fishing nets
dragged across the seafloor

reduce the fragile reefs to rubble.

Half of all deep-sea corals
have already been destroyed.

It will take centuries
for these communities to recover.

Beyond the boundary of any one country,

the high seas
are wild and barely protected.

Wildest of all, the Southern Ocean,

home of the albatross.

Albatross live solitary lives
far out to sea.

They can travel
hundreds of kilometers a day,

often for weeks at a time,
searching for food.

A dead sea lion is a rare opportunity.

Giant petrels are the first to arrive.

They use their powerful beaks
to rip the carcass open.

Known as sea vultures,

they are the top scavenger
in Antarctic waters.

[cawing]

Black-browed albatross
have an extraordinary sense of smell

and can follow a scent
from 20 kilometers away.

The black-browed
must grab mouthfuls when they can.

They are bullied
by the more aggressive giant petrels.

Wilson's petrels are too small to compete

and pick off scraps
from the edge of the frenzy.

These delicate little petrels
are the most numerous of all seabirds

because they're found in every ocean.

[cawing and squawking]

It's only when
these normally solitary birds

gather like this

that we can appreciate the wealth of life
supported by the high seas.

A wandering albatross is last to arrive.

It dwarfs the other birds
and uses its great size

and three-meter wingspan to dominate.

Even the giant petrels back off.

The wanderer finally gets its share.

In recent years,
albatross and other seabirds

have been in decline.

Their need to travel great distances
exposes them

to the dangers of a poorly regulated
and overexploited ocean.

It's a problem
for all hunters of the high seas.

These giants cross entire oceans
in their search for food.

They can grow over three meters long
and weigh half a ton.

Bluefin tuna.

They're streamlined to perfection
and built for speed.

They hunt in great packs, hundreds strong.

The target: a school of anchovies.

They gently corral the anchovies
into a tight ball at the surface,

careful not to cause panic.

And then they attack.

This is a highly coordinated hunt.

The tuna take turns,

striking from the same direction
to keep the anchovies on the run.

After a mouthful, each bluefin peels off
to take its place at the rear.

Wave after wave continues the assault.

With their power and devastating pace,

bluefin tuna are one of the ocean's
most impressive hunters.

They are also
the most prized fish in the sea.

So valuable
that a single bluefin can sell in Japan

for over a million dollars.

So, perhaps it's inevitable

that they have been fished
almost to extinction.

Bluefin tuna
are not the only ones in peril.

Decades of unsustainable fishing

have left many fish stocks
in serious decline.

A third have collapsed altogether.

Plastic pollution
is a grave issue for our oceans,

but industrial overfishing
is far more dangerous.

If we continue to harvest the seas
in this way,

it's not just fisheries
that will collapse.

The whole ocean system could follow.

One hundred million sharks
are killed every year,

just to make shark fin soup.

Ninety percent of all large ocean hunters
have disappeared.

Without them at the top of the food chain,
the whole community of marine life

is declining
and changing beyond recognition.

Squid are increasingly replacing fish.

We have severely depleted
both their predators and competitors,

so squid are taking over,

an indication
of a serious imbalance in the oceans.

Squid breed quickly
and have lots of fast-growing young,

so they can rapidly exploit the gaps
left by the fish that we have harvested.

They lay their eggs in cases
on the seafloor.

The young develop even faster
in these warm, shallow waters.

With such drastic changes
in the marine menu,

predators are having to adapt.

Sea lions prefer to eat
more energy-rich prey,

like anchovies and sardines,

but with these in short supply,

they're forced to rely more
on a diet of squid.

We, too, will be forced to change
the seafood we eat

if we continue to fish as we do.

But if we harvest the oceans
in a sustainable way,

they can be marvelously productive

and will provide us
with an abundance of food.

There are already signs
that the ocean has the power

to recover astonishingly quickly.

Humpback whales.

They live in every ocean,

traveling the high seas,
from their polar feeding grounds

to the tropics, where they breed.

[whale song]

Yet whales have not always enjoyed
such freedom.

Once, there were
more than a hundred thousand humpbacks

in the oceans,

but last century,
they were hunted to near extinction.

Just a few thousand
survived the onslaught.

A huge public outcry

finally led to a ban
on commercial whaling in 1986.

Since then, the number of humpback whales
has been steadily increasing.

They're returning
to their ancestral feeding grounds,

like these off the coast of South Africa.

[whale song]

They are gathering to take advantage
of a seasonal abundance of krill,

tiny shrimp-like crustaceans.

The whales take in
great mouthfuls of water,

trapping the krill
on sieves of hairy bristles

that line their jaws.

Each whale can eat over a ton a day.

With food so plentiful,
fur seals come to claim their share.

[whale song]

These extraordinary scenes
were unimaginable just a few years ago.

They form super-groups, hundreds strong.

This is the greatest gathering of whales
seen for a century.

Whales recycle nutrients
that enrich surface waters,

which fuel the growth of phytoplankton,

and they, in turn, feed krill
in a perfect self-sustaining cycle.

We now know that a healthy community
of great hunters,

whales, dolphins, tuna, and sharks,

is essential
for a fully-functioning ocean.

And a functioning ocean
is vital to the health of our planet

and humanity.

In a remarkable recovery,

humpback whales have almost returned
to their original numbers.

But during that time,

we have done more harm to the oceans
than ever before in human history.

Only with global cooperation

will our oceans
recover and thrive once again.

We saved the whales
by international agreement.

Now, it is time to save our oceans.

Please visit ourplanet.com
to discover what we need to do now

to protect the high seas.

# I can hear the whole world
Singing together #

# I can hear the whole world
Say it's now or never #

# 'Cause it's not too late
If we change our ways #

# And connect the dots to our problems #

# I can hear the whole world
Say we're in this together #

# We're in this together #

[vocalizing]