
National Geographic: Ocean Drifters
- Year:
- 1993
- 100 Views
The human mind
has always had a fascination
Following the stars across the seas,
early explorers
imagined that they might meet
weird creatures in undiscovered lands.
They never guessed
drifting in the same currents
were life forms far stranger
than anything they could imagine.
of pressure and darkness
have given rise to creatures
as different as on another planet.
Their whole existence is shaped
which sweep them endlessly
around the biggest living space
in the solar system.
At the edge of this alien world,
here in Florida,
from the beach itself.
It can take these hatchlings three days
to claw their way up
from nests buried two feet deep.
They may look like land animals now,
but sea turtles have evolved
for 80 million years
to be riders of the ocean currents.
These loggerhead turtles,
no larger than a child's hand,
are about to embark on a perilous
As they head down the beach,
they're already reading
the earth's magnetic field
Only one hatchling in a thousand
will survive to adulthood
and ride the currents back to
this beach to breed.
It's among the most extraordinary
odysseys in nature.
This is the story of one loggerhead's
journey into the unknown world
of the ocean drifters.
Like a windup toy, the hatchling swims
relentlessly out into the ocean.
The waves tell her which way to go
away from shore and from
predators stalking the shallow water.
Danger causes her to tuck in her limbs
disguising herself as floating debris.
The shark doesn't see her and swims on
As she heads toward the safety
of deep water,
the hatchling joins a rich tide
Every rock and weed is home to
a different species.
Coastal waters are the fertile
breeding ground for the oceans.
Florida may produce five million
loggerhead hatchlings each year.
In some coastal species,
from a single female.
The eggs of this sea urchin
from a nearby male
swirl together in a fertility dance
on the ocean floor.
Huge quantities of eggs and
larvae produced along the coastline
will be drawn into the ocean currents.
Most will become food
Setting their offspring adrift
might not sound like good
parental care.
But it's a valuable survival mechanism
for many coastal species.
It lets them populate new areas
and encourages the exchange
of genetic material.
All through the night, instinct
drives the loggerhead to push on.
The outpouring of new life
on the continental shelf below her
is just as persistent.
With the bellows like action
of her pleopods,
It's a reproductive blizzard.
The lobster's larvae have evolved
a flattened shape;
it suits them for the drifting life
as ideally as a snowflake.
After 36 hours of swimming,
the hatchling is growing tired.
In the clear water 30 miles off
the Florida Coast,
she reaches the edge
of the Gulf Stream,
and finds shelter in the drift lines
of sargassum weed.
whole life floating on the open sea,
held up by small air bladders.
The sargassum provides a haven
in a vast, featureless world.
All kinds of creatures
find harbor here.
For the first time in her life,
the loggerhead can rest.
But the stillness is an illusion.
The winds have piled up the sargassum
weed in drift lines
along the edge of one of the most
powerful currents in the world.
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Citation
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"National Geographic: Ocean Drifters" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2021. Web. 23 Jan. 2021. <https://www.scripts.com/script/national_geographic:_ocean_drifters_14556>.