The Deep
Series producer Mark Brownlow describes this as the “ science fiction episode ”. The crew use manned submersibles to capture scenes from the abyssal zone , including scenes of marauding Humboldt squid hunting in the depths below the Galapagos Islands . Episode producer Orla Doherty spent more than 1,000 hours in the submersible , filming phenomena such as brine pools , bizarre ‘ lakes ’ at the bottom of the see that present a death trap to passing creatures . Her team even managed to film an eruption of giant bubbles from a methane volcano , an event never previously witnessed . There are deep sequences of sperm whales and sixgill sharks in the Azores and weird octopus off the Antarctic Peninsula , where the team was the first to descend in a manned submersible to 1,000 metres .
Coral Reefs
As with the original Blue Planet , it was inevitable that an episode would be given over to coral reefs , which are home to a quarter of all marine species . The episode opens with a cheeky green turtle in Borneo using trickery to jump a cleaning station queue . The programme is a whistle stop tour of some of the world ’ s great coral reefs , taking in Egypt , the Maldives , French Polynesia and Indonesia , where they film the hookjawed Bobbit worm , a true creature of nightmares . In a key sequence a grouper communicates with an octopus to flush a reef fish out into open water . “ Not only is this behaviour challenging our understanding of what a fish knows ,
BLUE PLANET
but it ’ s also making scientists rethink the definition of animal intelligence ,” says researcher Yoland Bosiger .
Big Blue
As with the original , BPII has an episode devoted to the vast desert that of the open ocean , with its teams spending the equivalent of two months underwater . The list of filming locations for this episode is huge , and involves a roll call of megafauna , including sperm whales hunting in the abyss ( filmed with suction cameras ) and whale sharks journeying to birthing zones . SCUBA ’ s Sarah Conner was involved in the filming of a key sequence involving lanternfish and mobula rays off Costa Rica . Lanternfish are deep sea dwellers , but were thought to venture to the surface at certain times of the year to spawn , when they are hunted by a raft of predators . The team used a research vessel with a helicopter to watch for signs of a ‘ boiling sea ’ of lanternfish and their predators ,
PHOTO ©: JASON ISLEY
Above : Sunlight breaks through a kelp canopy
Above right : The cheeky green turtle in Sipadan , Borneo
Below : A methane volcano in the Gulf of Mexico
PHOTO ©: JOE PLAKTO
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