Deep Sea 3D Page #3

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This octopus is on the hunt.

And his favorite food is crab.

His eyesight is only fair...

...but the lightest brush against his prey,

and the octopus attacks.

He extracts every morsel of crabmeat...

...then ejects the remains.

In the kelp forest,

there is an ever-changing balance...

...between predator and prey.

But dramatic shifts can cause

entire ecosystems to crumble.

For instance, sea urchins eat kelp.

But if the urchin population explodes,

the kelp could disappear.

Once again, there are animals

that help preserve the balance.

One of them is the wolf eel.

Certainly a face only a mother could love.

Though he looks like an ogre...

...he's important to

this whole community.

Wolf eels eat sea urchins.

And there's supper.

So as the wolf eel dines on urchins,

he helps protect the forest.

Just as the triton trumpet snail

helps protect the coral reef.

Night falls...

...and with it,

begins the largest migration on Earth.

Attracted by moonlight...

...vast swarms of plankton rise up

from the deep.

And following right behind them...

...the night hunters:

Giant manta rays.

They can span 18 feet,

wingtip to wingtip.

They feed only on plankton...

...scooping up millions of tiny prey

in a single pass.

No ocean predator is more graceful.

In the Sea of Cortes...

...nocturnal fish come up

to join the feast.

And rising to feed on them...

...the creatures of your nightmares:

Humboldt squid.

Some are more than 6 feet long

and can weigh as much as 130 pounds.

They change their color

several times each second.

Maybe it's excitement.

Or maybe it's a threat.

Maybe even rage.

They'll attack almost anything.

Sharks, humans...

...even each other.

A shipwreck lies on the ocean floor

off North Carolina.

It's a desert here, with few natural reefs.

Now the wreck itself

has become a reef...

...a shelter for these little fish.

And some not so little.

The sand tiger shark.

They like to hunt here.

But there's a surprising bond

between the sharks and these small fish.

Instead of hiding from the shark,

schools of small fish gather round...

...using him as protection

from tuna, jacks and other predators.

So the sharks provide another kind

of sanctuary for small fish...

...as they travel from wreck to wreck

across this desert of open sand.

Between lemon sharks and remoras...

...it's easy to see who benefits.

By hitching a ride on the shark,

the suckerfish can count on finding food.

We're not used to thinking of sharks

as helpful creatures.

It may not be obvious...

...but the coral reef owes its very survival

to sharks and other large predators.

They're part of the balance.

We know the balance is always shifting...

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