NARRATOR: The secret world
of the ocean floor
is a violent and
mysterious place.
This is a
crab-eat-crab world
of cannibals,
alien invaders,
and creatures
that never grow old.
But a sea change
is coming
to this murky world.
On the jagged coast
of Canada's Eastern shore.
A delicate and diverse
ecosystem thrives
on the fringes
of the continent.
Welcome
Welcome
to the Wild Wild East.
NARRATOR: Along the Americas'
northeast coast,
creatures living
in the ocean depths
shape life
above them.
Crustaceans
and other creatures
hauled from the briny deep,
bring wealth
and international acclaim
from chefs and foodies.
Speculating on the secret life
on the ocean floor
is the stock and trade
of fishermen,
who need to know where
the catch is.
But to most people,
what's really happening
down there
is a mystery.
Down below
is every bit as wild
as above
the surface.
With brutal battles
for territory,
bizarre animal behavior,
and struggles for survival
The most famous
deep sea denizen
of the Wild, Wild East
is the iconic
American lobster.
It's summer, and the lobsters
are in the warm shallow waters
close to the coast.
Come winter,
shallow waters are
chilled by the brutal cold
of the frigid air above.
Lobsters move out into
the Atlantic to deeper water,
where the temperature
is more constant.
Lately ocean temperatures
are changing on a global scale,
More and more
American lobsters
are being found
further north,
possibly fleeing rising
ocean temperatures
caused by
climate change.
The lobsters' migration
north is bad news
for the U.S. fishery,
and is leading to
record catches
on Canada's
East coast.
What crawls into
these traps today
could wind up
in fancy restaurants,
cooking pots
and dinner plates
anywhere from
Denver to Dubai.
But 100 years ago,
lobster wasn't
a glamorous meal.
It was considered
food fit only for poor people
working
along the coast.
That's because dead,
uncooked lobster
breaks down and
becomes toxic quickly
and so it couldn't be
shipped inland.
These days,
modern fishing boats
with saltwater tanks
on board
and live-shipping
by air
have changed
everything.
As a matter of law,
to preserve
the lucrative industry,
fishermen around here
are masters of
the lobster's anatomy.
Juveniles, judged by the length
of a particular shell segment,
must be released,
so they have a chance to breed.
Egg-bearing females
like this,
with thousands of shiny black
eggs clinging to her underside,
are tossed back too.
Only one egg in ten thousand
will make it to adulthood,
so returning a female lobster
to the water today
is an investment in
the future of a fishery
already facing change.
Down below,
the world of the lobster
is dark
and mysterious.
Life on
the murky bottom
means lobsters
sense the world
mostly through
touch and scent.
They use their long antennae
and powerful sense of smell
to find food and
identify other lobsters.
Their eyes are made of
thousands of little lenses,
but they can only sense
movement and shadows,
and not much else.
Lobsters come in
a broad palette of colors,
but they are mostly
brownish green,
camouflaging
with the ocean floor.
The red color
lobsters are famous for
comes from a pigment
bound in proteins
while the lobster
is alive.
The proteins break down
with heat,
so you only see
that bright scarlet color
once the lobster
is cooked.
Lobsters crawl
around on ten legs,
including the big ones
with the claws up front.
They have a reputation
as scavengers,
but the truth is they will
eat just about anything,
fish, crabs,
and even other lobsters,
especially in places
where populations are high.
Lobsters can be
left or right handed,
depending on which side
the large crusher claw is on.
This one
is a lefty,
and this one's
a righty.
The crusher claw is strong
enough to break open a crab,
a clam or a mussel,
while the other
smaller, more agile claw
on the other side,
scrapes out the meat.
Lobster DNA is programmed
for limitless growth,
but that doesn't mean
they live forever.
Lobsters have to molt
their shell every year.
And the bigger the lobster,
the more energy it takes.
Some get
so big
they die of exhaustion
while molting.
The lobsters that end
up on most dinner plates
are one-pounders,
just kids by
lobster standards.
About 8 years old.
Along the shores
of the Bay of Fundy,
lobsters aren't the only
wild-caught creatures
making waves
on menus.
The east coast
scallop fishery
is worth hundreds
of millions of dollars.
Scallops may not look like
swift swimmers,
but underwater
they reveal
some remarkable
maneuvers.
The scallop
is a bivalve.
Its shell is made of
two symmetrical halves,
connected
by a hinge.
The shells protect
their soft internal organs,
the ones
prized by chefs,
and by predators
like this northern sea star.
The starfish's legs
are covered with hundreds
of tiny tubed-shaped feet,
each one has
a suction cup at the tip.
Moving in concert,
all these little feet
let the starfish locomote
across the ocean floor.
It can use its suction cups
and powerful legs
to pry open
the scallop's shell
and eat
what's inside.
But the scallop
has a few tricks of its own.
Unlike most other
bivalves,
scallops can jump
and even swim,
if only for
short distances.
They achieve tiny
jet-propelled bursts of speed
by clapping
their shell together
and forcing water out.
It's thanks to their powerful
adductor muscle.
That's actually
the part of the scallop
most people
are familiar with.
A tight squat cylinder
of white muscle.
The scallop's
orange roe,
which chefs call
"the coral"
is also considered
a delicacy.
Scallops and crabs are both
popular menu items
for the American
lobster, too.
Rock crabs are an important
part of the food web here.
In some places they make up
50% of the lobster's diet.
They're also
an important prey item
for other rock crabs.
Cannibalism
is a fact of life
for crustaceans
on the ocean floor.
That's why crabs and lobsters
aren't farmed commercially
like other valuable
sea species.
Put too many of them
close together
and they start
eating each other.
The shallower waters
close to shore
are rough
and tumble places.
Waves and tides turn
and churn
the rocky bottom
and toss about the creatures
that live here.
This Acadian hermit crab
protects itself from
the elements and predators
by living in shells
left by dead snails
and other molluscs.
The shells protect
the soft abdomen
of these ten-legged
crustaceans,
which aren't
exactly crabs,
but are a sort of
distant cousin.
Hermit crabs
are true scavengers,
eating algae, plants,
and even other hermit crabs
that have died.
Nowadays, there's
a new predator on the scene,
who sends the hermit crabs
scurrying away.
This is nothing less
than an alien invasion
of these waters.
The green crab
is moving north.
A native of Europe,
the green crab
has been wreaking havoc
on North America's
eastern waters since arriving
in ship's ballast nearly
two centuries ago.
They're notoriously
hard on plant life,
tearing up delicate
meadows of eel-grass
as they seek out
their prey.
Eelgrass forms valuable
underwater habitats
by collecting sediment
in shallow estuaries
and tidal areas.
The ribbons of grass form
a protective nursery
for juvenile fish
of several species.
These fish feed the birds,
and so on,
onward and upward
through the food web,
and it all begins
here in the eelgrass.
Green crabs move in,
chopping the eelgrass
with their claws
as they hunt
for fish and clams,
and they reduce these meadows
to underwater deserts.
In Canada's Kejimkujik
National Park,
fishery workers and
park officials
are waging war against
these green invaders.
The green crab first
appeared here in the 1950s.
The damage is
clearly visible
in these shorn-off
stalks of eelgrass.
Until recently,
fishery officials
encouraged lobster
fishermen
to catch the
destructive green crab
to use as bait.
Bait's a big expense
for lobster fishermen.
Lobsters
love eating crabs.
Everybody wins,
right?
Dead wrong.
The plan turned toxic,
because green crabs carry
bacteria and other pathogens
that are dangerous
for lobster.
Researchers discovered
that in places
where the green crab
flourishes,
the lobsters are catching
those same diseases.
The crab-borne illnesses
affect the lobsters' shell,
and make them
more likely to die
before they can be
shipped off to customers.
The green crab out-competes
and displaces native crabs,
and a lobster cannot
resist a crab dinner,
whether in a trap
or on the ocean floor.
Even though this green crab
escapes with his life,
his species could become
a major threat
to the American lobster
and the people
who depend on it.
To keep this problem
from becoming a disaster,
fishery officials
and park staff
are catching every
green crab they can,
using jury-rigged
lobster traps.
There's no market
for green crabs here,
so these
will be donated
to a wildlife
rehabilitation centre
as food for birds
and raccoons.
Officials keep close tabs
on the crabs,
measuring and tracking
every specimen they catch.
This is a male.
You can tell from that
lighthouse shape on its belly.
This one is a female.
That beehive-shaped flap
is where she would hold
up to 185,000 eggs.
The numbers
have been stacked against
the park staff from
the beginning.
This is the great
blue hope.
Blue crabs are native
to North America,
but never used to be found
this far north.
In the last few years,
Park officials
discovered them
in the waters near
Kejimkujik National Park.
Tipping the scales at
four times the weight
of their
green cousins,
these blue bruisers
breed faster,
compete for
the same food,
and don't
rip up the eelgrass.
And like all these
cannibalistic crustaceans,
they love to eat
other crabs,
including
the green invaders.
To make a good
thing even better,
blue crabs are a valuable
commercial species.
Between the blue crabs
and the trapping efforts
officials say they're seeing
progress in the park.
When they first started
this program,
they were catching up to
one thousand crabs per night,
per trap.
These days they
only average about seven.
Eelgrass
is flourishing,
fish numbers are
going up
and the shorebirds
are returning.
Besides
invasive parasites
and winding up on
somebody's dinner plate,
the biggest threat
to the lobster
is other lobsters.
As if cannibalism
wasn't enough,
lobsters are also
territorial,
and will fight
at any provocation.
Lobsters make their homes
in rocks and crevices
in the ocean floor.
They back
their way in,
and guard the front door
with their claws.
To encourage the growth
of artificial reefs,
government officials
deliberately sink
concrete structures
called reef balls.
Lobsters are often
the first tenants to move in.
In places where
populations are high,
lobsters come to
blows in battles over territory.
This lobster
lost his crusher claw,
probably in a turf war with
somebody bigger and badder.
Somebody
like this.
This Big Blue fella weighs
almost 20 pounds.
Most of his weight is in
his massive, powerful claws,
smaller rivals
know not to mess with him.
Lobsters learn to
recognize each other
by the smell of
their urine,
and will not fight one
that has defeated it already.
A lobster
has two bladders,
one on each side
of its head.
Big Blue squirts
a plume of urine
out through a nozzle
right under its eyes,
chasing smaller lobsters
out of their hiding spots,
just to remind them
who's the boss around here.
The smaller lobsters
take flight.
They back
down in a hurry,
using their tail muscle
and tiny fins
called swimmerets on
their underside
to propel themselves backwards
through the water.
Having bullied
the smaller lobster away,
Big Blue settles
into his home.
To the winner
go the spoils,
but there's always
another challenger.
If the contenders
are more evenly matched,
and haven't fought
before,
the fight takes on
the ritualistic overtones
of a martial arts
match.
This lobster isn't
as large as Big Blue,
but he's making a move
on his territory.
The lobsters size
each other up,
claw to claw,
nose to nose,
streaming urine
into each other's faces.
The chemicals in the urine
trigger aggressive posturing.
Big Blue stands on
the tips of his legs,
huge claws open,
ready to inflict deadly damage.
The smaller lobster knows
he's outmatched,
and begins backing off.
But Big Blue wants to leave him
with a lasting impression.
The upstart won't challenge
the champion again.
A lobster Big Blue's size
has thousands of showdowns
like this on his record.
He could be
more than 50 years old.
Nobody is sure exactly how
long a lobster can live,
but some think their life span
could exceed 100 years.
They don't get feeble
or slow as they get older,
just bigger, stronger
and more fertile.
Big Blue is just
entering his prime,
with decades and
thousands more battles
still ahead of him.
The waters of the North Atlantic
are changing.
As the ocean warms,
species are on the move,
and traditional fisheries
are under attack
from toxic invaders.
It's a world
few people ever see,
and fewer understand.
Yet it's incredibly
important,
both for the complex
relationships
between species and
for economic reasons.
For creatures
like the American lobster
to have
a bright future
we need to shine a light
into the darkest depths
of the Wild, Wild, East.
♪ THEME MUSIC ♪
