above as well as under the water
sperm whales schools of mobula raised
blue sharks find rich feeding grounds in
the channels between the islands
nutrient-rich reefs draw in life
blue whales seek out tons of krill in
ocean depths here around the Azores
Europe's wild Island
a family of false killer whales cruise
the ocean on the lookout for prey
a blue shark patrols alone
scholtes confused single predators
but when they meet false killer whales the water boils
an individual false killer whale dives
down with its prey
a blue shark comes late to the feast
drawn by scent molecules
but this muscle presents a problem
with jaws not made for chewing it'll
never swallow this tail fin
most fish force water through their
gills to breathe this shark can't so it
has to keep moving
near the surface another blue shark is
demolishing a tuner this job its teeth
can do shaken take
fragments streaming from its gills float
to the surface a little extra for the
seabirds
not all the remains go up spread by the
current the center draws a moray eel
from its cave
seabream triggerfish and painted comas
are on its tail
the ocean around the Azores is not
shorter flesh
and yet above the water the islands
themselves have no large wild animals
when Portuguese sailors landed on the
Azores in 1427 these first humans found
no vertebrates at all except birds and
two small species of that the birds
evolved over time this variant of the
grey wagtail lives only on the Azores
with head feathers a different color
from its European relatives whole
islands have changed too
Santa Maria must have been much warmer
ones
many of these ocean fossils belong to
extinct species that once lived in
warmer waters
the water temperature may have fallen
but not the diversity of species
after nearly six centuries of human
habitation the seas around these
volcanic islands are still largely
unexplored this is the world of the
anglerfish a thousand meters down this
pink frog mouth ignores the pressure of
a hundred kilos per square centimeter
other deep dwellers are less easy to
name in the darkness it's easy to
underestimate your prey it has to fit
into your stomach
a sixgill is one of the largest deep-sea
sharks but at night it swims to the
shallows to feed the spider crab lives
in darkness it has never seen this kind
of light nor has its coral community
beyond the scorpion fish and pass the
deep sea sponges there's an unknown
world
imagine the Atlantic between Europe and
America 8 million years ago pressure
along the mid-atlantic ridge forces the
continental plates apart
volcanoes pierce the surface on both the
Eurasian and the American side
the Azores
most of the volcanoes are dormant water
not lava fills their craters
sometimes only crater edges rear from
the sea worn down by the elements
spawned by the sea there too they will
return
for now its craters that dominate the
landscape
gases still escape from fumaroles on
some of the 1,700 volcanoes heat brings
water almost a boiling point
a massive eruption hit Fire Island 60
years ago
humans couldn't live in this lunar
landscape hundreds followed the Sun to
America on the volcano's slopes life had
to begin again birds were pioneers on
naked rock
wind and birds still bring seeds from
over the sea some come floating
humans brought the Hottentot fee and
plants create the first soil on bare
rock
an active volcano will destroy life
dormant or extinct it can create it
above and below the water
the underwater cliffs of foamy gush are
the summit of a volcano over all the
waters of Europe's wild islands are home
to more than 1500 species this is the
spiny starfish
there are 530 fish species like the
damsel fish swarming along reef ledges
the grouper is a formidable loner
it's giant mores scare off intruders
the bard hogfish is a lot prettier than
its name
it's a protogynous hermaphrodites like
its cousin the grouper it starts off
female until it reaches a certain length
then it becomes a male aggressively
defending its territory
the archipelago's weather changes to up
to four seasons in a single day
and when the winds blow above down below
no one is safe the storm surge tears
into the seafloor
but turbulence won't deter European
yields from their brain
they're adaptable living equally happily
in salt and in freshwater this is just
swell
heavy surf stirs up food
for some that means come out and eat for
others take cover
the powerful grouper hides in his rock
bottom
in churning waters it's tough to spot
your prey but the common terns have no
choice
the first chicks have hatched and
they're waiting to be fed elsewhere
adults are still brooding the nest a few
pieces of dried grass hardly visible the
parents sit in turn the three leaves
their beak both dagger and tweezers is
perfect for catching small fish
3000 pairs breed here
typically each couple lays three eggs
the chicks are fed for four weeks to let
you fly as well as their parents
then they're ready for takeoff on the
long journey to South Africa
under the water survival can depend on
staying still very still like a
wide-eyed flounder
with his general purpose military
markings the Guinean pufferfish doesn't
mind being seen the atlantic lizard fish
doesn't bother with disguises at all
it's simply shimmies into the sand this
may fool both his prey and its predators
but it went through the puffer fish
Patrol
the shamefaced Krab folds its pincers to
protect its gills and digs itself in
leaving no opening for the plump
flatfish
by
a starfish fleas at top speed from a
marauding snail
the Triton snail feeds mainly on
echinoderms like the purple sea star
it's no big deal for an octopus no
pickings for it here
sacrificing an arm the starfish gets
away
it's escaped with its life and the limb
will grow again
these wild islands in the Atlantic are a
freshwater reservoir vast amounts of
seawater vaporize in the warm ocean air
and freed of salt they unload onto the
Atlantic islands
the Comintern flies between two worlds
fishing in the sea and in the lakes
humans brought the freshwater fish to
these islands
water flows straight off the impervious
lava rock
but peat moss sucks up huge quantities
of water like a sponge taking it in
through every surface deprived of oxygen
the dead parts of the moss never rot the
extremities keep on growing and the moss
colonizes more and more of the bare rock
just beneath more than 270 caves pierced
these wild islands dark and cold
perfect for isopods crustaceans that
have their breathing organs in their
legs or for cyanobacteria a life-form
that has existed for nearly 4 billion
years
cooling lava drops create amazing shapes
shark's teeth
it's a hollows secret world just waiting
to be fooled past the undersea threshold
of the Azores it's permanent night
perfect for a nocturnal common stingray
it's not alone here sliding over the
cavern walls unicorn shrimp in the
camera light comas and scorpion fish
snatch of their prey
the brown Moray Eel is cleaning up on
the cavern floor the shrimps come up
from deeper waters to spend the winter
for some it's a short winter the females
packed with blue eggs are especially
sought-after
the shrimp's also live off crustaceans
their own species what's left of the
moray eels dinner first eat your
neighbor then take time for a spot of
grooming
nearby on the rocks an octopus with a
human face reaches out
the Stingray glides back to the ocean
passing the hundreds of bristle worms
growing in front of the cavern
their tentacles trap particles from the
passing current to eat or to construct
the tubes they live in
deeper down is a mysterious place a rare
sight in the Azores a garden of soft
corals they don't make chalk
exoskeletons like their tropical cousins
the currents carry plankton down to
their home on sunken sea mounts
the venomous buried enemy is active only
at night
during the day it contracts once
scientists couldn't agree whether corals
were plants or animals so they called
them and phase OA flower animals
no doubt about these all the flowers on
Europe's wild islands arrived from
somewhere else
hydrangeas came from Asia natural
boundaries between fields they're a
symbol of the Azores hundreds of stone
walls create hundreds of microclimates
for the vines the settlers brought in
the 15th century
400 years later the vineyards were
abandoned as Islanders left for America
the stone walls became a playground for
Madeira lizards they were brought here
by seafarers to those wines are now
fashionable again in nearly a thousand
hectares more than 2,000 acres of
ancient vineyards on the island of pica
have been declared a World Heritage Site
by UNESCO the ruts of ox carts once the
islands only transport they dragged
firewood and building materials for
houses and stone walls and they carried
the new wines down to the coast to ship
to Europe but at a cost beneath these
waters is the strangest most dangerous
place on the Azores they call it the
anchor graveyard scores of great iron
anchors lying on the seabed when an
Atlantic storm hit the only way to save
your ship from the rocks was to cut the
anchor rope fast and dash for the open
sea the iron left behind has become a
rusting reef for a multitude of
creatures these anchors are coated by
algae and tube worms
a shark's outline protects hiding fish
the grim looking sea Robin feels its way
the three front spines of its pectoral
fins have their own receptor cells for
finding food the Mediterranean morays
mouth is mournful but it's my make the
call of the sea Robin the swim bladders
a common octopus
discreetly searches for food
it will fit in anywhere while bearded
fireworms clear up the corpses in the
anchor graveyard
they are the mobile relatives of the
immobile tubeworms
the octopus has found another spot to
test its camouflage skills above water
to human presence is everywhere even in
the craters
any straight line means a wall one that
protects the grazing horses and cattle
by keeping the grass short these
domestic animals help the seasonal
visitors that have been coming here for
thousands of years their ruddy Turnstone
digs to find fresh food black-bellied
plover fly in from Russia on their way
to their winter quarters in South
America and South Africa the ruddy
Turnstone drops in from the arctic the
northern wheat here arrived from Canada
by Greenland the American pivot drifted
in from North America the Blackbird well
it's here all year round
it's an endemic variety the male is
darker and gracia than its mainland
cousin
birds have to transport their own weight
a little body can be a big advantage on
a long journey but wait doesn't matter
to other migrants they are supported by
water
comeback whales migrate between the
Arctic and the tropics they make a
hunchback when they dive hence the name
a powder fin whales the blue whales
closest relatives the two species can
interbreed
they swim back and forth between arctic
and subtropical waters
fin whales blue whales have their
blowhole in the center of a renessa noir
will actually remove them if their
skulls
sperm whales have theirs on the left
baleen whales spend long periods sieving
krill and plankton from the waters of
the Azores
they leave their excreta behind them
it feeds vegetable filer plankton animal
plankton eat the phyla plankton and at
the other end of the food chain are fish
and the whales themselves but a great
deal of whale food comes from deeper
down
meanwhile not all the creatures of the
Eternal Darkness had permanently
banished to the depths every night
countless organisms leave the realm of
the bizarre anglerfish and rise into
shallower waters colossal amounts of
krill joined them on the upward journey
a nightly vertical migration salps and
bioluminescent comb jellies illuminate
the greatest movement of biomass on
earth all here to harvest the vegetable
plankton or get eaten themselves this
innocent-looking blob is anything but a
Portuguese Man O War is a colonial
organism a conglomeration of products
serving different functions one polit is
the sale innumerable other polyps repel
invaders or catch booty with tentacles
that stretch up to 30 meters on the
right a SAP has become ensnared venom
from stinging cells kills the prey the
tentacles drag it to the mouth
selves are tunicates or sea squirts more
closely related to us than to jellyfish
delicate bands of muscle rhythmically
contract pumping water through the salps
body filtering its food its Alps built
into chains and can direct themselves
through the water
a chain can be up to a meter or longer
unlike sounds many jellyfish have
venomous tentacles but they too have
predators they're one of the favorite
foods of loggerhead sea turtles on their
five-year journey from the Florida beach
where they were born they swallow
innumerable jellyfish immune to the
venom but there's another hitch comb
jellies have no sting cells but in the
water they look a lot like drifting
plastic
and that's the problem the turtles try
to eat plastic and it kills them
this is a great jellyfish hunter at up
to three meters in length the ocean
sunfish particularly relishes the
Portuguese man-of-war
but that too catches other jellyfish the
sunfish can dive this heaviest of all
bony fish tears its prey apart in the
depths the Manowar must stay on the
surface but it's a most effective hunter
the core is Shearwater
also as a successful strategy at least
in its familiar world
it deposits its eggs in leashes high on
the rocky cliffs no surf no high tide
can reach its young but now they face a
new danger stray cats
a female Shearwater laid a single egg in
May pity there's only one looks like a
bad strategy now they can't adapt to an
unwanted gift brought by humans
on the island of Corvo more than 80% of
predated chicks other victims of cats
there's nothing the adult birds can do
they spend the whole day out over the
sea by contrast periphyton a mix of
algae bacteria and microbes stay where
they grow ruled by time and tide some
quickly find a home on flotsam and
jetsam attached and yet mobile they
drift across the ocean goose barnacles
fix onto hard surfaces their sirree
grasp plankton from the water no matter
what it's made of marine debris attracts
life-forms
one of the oceans fastest swimmers likes
to stay close to flotsam that mahi my
because floats and boys provide
protection in the open sea some species
may have survived ocean transfer as
passengers on floating debris
when she a water breed dusk brings a
deafening chorus parent birds calling to
their young as they return from the sea
the birds recognize each other's cries
seventy five percent of all the world's
shearwaters breed in gigantic colonies
on the Azores
the name Madeira lizard says it all
this creature originated on a distant
Island the Madeira wall lizard is very
common on the Azores it's one of the few
reptiles found on these islands and it's
very fond of nectar invertebrates and
vegetable matter complete its diet
just across the bay is the domain of a
giant
this is the whale shark the world's
biggest fish that's what 12 meters of
muscle and cartilage say about the whale
shark like mobula rays it's mainly a
plankton eater but also eats crustaceans
and small fish the rays rolled fins on
their foreheads direct the plankton into
their mouths
mob you raise a part of the manta ray
family they cruise in small groups
shadowed by fish using them as cover and
picking up their leftovers
flying in slow motion the Rays dance
through the ocean around the volcanoes
above there's something stirring on the
cliffside
a core is fuel to leaves the nest niche
for the first time he doesn't know a
thing about flying but his parents have
stopped feeding him he has to learn to
fly as fast as possible or he'll never
have a meal again
he needs a takeoff point with a fair
wind
even on the rocks he looks unsteady
a fellow Shearwater learns the
difference between flying and falling
if you're already on the surface of the
sea there's nowhere further to fall but
getting aloft is even more difficult
wings over water that's the right idea
taking off from the sea in a side wind
tough even for the experienced
it's now or never lock up your courage
embrace the win and off to South America
on the azores you're either coming or
going in December with the shearwaters
long-gone male sperm whales are
returning from their feeding grounds in
the Arctic waters they meet males who
were too young to make the journey and
mothers with their young calves born
while they were away while the mother
dives for food her calf stays on the
surface it'll be two years before he
dives with the group
the whales will seek giant squid at a
depth of a thousand meters and 18 meters
are weighing in at 50 tons
sperm whales are the world's biggest
toothed whales
the car will remain alone for up to an
hour defenseless against a possible
attack by killer whales
finally the group returned from the deep
the calf is once more under the
protection of its mother she will feed
it for two years during this time she
won't fall pregnant
now the whales can take their ease
preferably hanging vertically in the
water
someday the calf will join the long
migration to the Arctic before returning
to Europe's wild islands the Azores
