As mentioned in previous posts, each Blue Planet 2 episode has had a strong conservation message of its own, told from the perspective of the affected animals. This episode, however, will have quite a different tone and a serious message to share, featuring stories from the perspectives of the animals themselves and the scientists studying them. Our Blue Planet will explore the human impacts on some of the most loved characters from the series, something Executive Producer, James Honeyborne viewed as a natural conclusion to the series. Expect to see the corals, turtles and albatrosses back again, but this time to tell the heart-wrenching stories of their lives in a rapidly changing world. Sir David Attenborough is also expected to feature heavily throughout the episode, with his own personal look at the problems facing our oceans, along with scientists and conservationists from around the world, including our very own Dr Jon Copley. As one of the chief scientific correspondents to the series, Jon will appear in the upcoming episode to express his personal experience of our changing ocean, most likely regarding Antarctica, where he was a member of the team that descended to 1,000 m in the Alucia submersibles for ‘The Deep‘ episode.

Experience Dr Jon Copley’s Antarctic adventure as scientific correspondant for Blue Planet 2.

It is now (almost) universally recognised that human activity is having a profound effect on our blue planet and that the ocean is experiencing great change at an alarming rate. The problems that marine fauna face are widespread and ever-increasing – warming, acidification, overfishing, noise pollution, seabed mining, ecotoxicology and plastic pollution – each a human-induced threat. In 2017 alone, a great number of studies have been published exploring the effect of these threats on marine life, including on the recovery of the North Atlantic right whale, the effective functioning of both tropical and cold-water coral reefs, and the distribution of Southen Ocean seabirds. I predict the strongest message from the episode is likely to concern plastics, something which Sir David feels strongly about. A changing ocean is not only a threat to the marine environment – as we’ve seen in each previous episode, all life is intertwined with the ocean so any change can heavily effect humans too, from the decimation of fish stocks to rising sea levels. I, therefore, believe that the upcoming episode will have a profound effect on the audience, after all, the episode is titled Our Blue Planet.

As with the final episode of Planet Earth 2, there will also inevitably be a message of hope. Conservation and citizen science success stories are being shared by individuals around the world – from the recovery of kelp forest ecosystems in Monterey Bay (as seen in Green Seas) to the protection of sea turtle nesting beaches by Caribbean communities, these accounts are sure to be highlighted towards the end of the episode. Let us not forget the progress made at home too – the implementation of Marine Protected Areas and Special Areas of Conservation around the UK has allowed our marine wildlife to bounce back, and local initiatives to rescue stranded marine mammals and conduct beach cleans are helping to combat our plastic pollution problem.

As ever, feel free to share any comments or questions regarding Our Blue Planet – I hope you enjoy the final episode of the amazing series, Blue Planet 2!

The post What to expect from Blue Planet 2 – Our Blue Planet appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

Whilst studying at the University of Southampton, I’ve learned a lot about the ecology of our coasts, specifically that of sandy and rocky shores. During a field course to the Dale Peninsula in West Wales, we explored the challenges that coastal fauna face on a daily and seasonal basis – over-exposure to heat in rockpools during the ebbing tide forces crabs and other coastal invertebrates to take shelter under seaweed like bladderwrack; the high wave action of exposed shores can be rewarding in terms of food and oxygen supply, but also risky for animals without top adhesive properties; and the race for space in a competitive rocky shore environment leaves a distinctive, territorial pattern of limpet home-ranges across each boulder. During this week’s episode, expect to see similar stories of the daily life-and-death struggle of coastal animals, specifically those that live along diverse rocky shores and in vibrant rock pools; and, of course, lots of gorgeous time-lapse footage.

Since the coast forms such an important oasis for seabirds like puffins, sanderlings and penguins, I believe that the lives of seabirds will feature heavily in this episode. Penguins are obviously a fan-favourite, but the heartbreaking sequence on wandering albatrosses in Big Blue captured the public’s imagination too. Puffins are also marvellous birds, with incredibly strong wills – they must travel for miles to find food to feed their young that nest along the clifftops of the coast, dealing with challenges like battering weather and competition from other seabirds along the way. However, puffin populations are in danger, with many fledgelings suffering from starvation due to shifting fish populations and resultantly increased competition (yet another impact of a warming climate). Expect to see some seabird family drama in this weeks episode!

Coasts are also the closest and most accessible marine environment for us as humans – in the UK, you are never more than 70 miles from the sea. We have a close connection with our coasts, both socially and economically – many of us visit the beach regularly for surfing, sunbathing and rockpooling, but coasts around the world are also lined with industrial ports and fisheries. This human element of the coast is likely to be highlighted during the episode, most probably continuing the pattern of displaying human impact on the wildlife. Expect to see a sequence much like that seen in the final episode of Planet Earth 2, Cities, where the tragic story of light pollution impacts on Hawksbill turtle hatchlings unfolded.

Feel free to share any comments or questions regarding Coasts – I hope you enjoy the episode!

Inspired by the episode? Help us clean up our coasts!

The post What to expect from Blue Planet 2 – Coasts appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

When we think of the ocean we largely picture a vast, blue wilderness, as witnessed in last week’s episode of Blue Planet 2 – Big Blue. This week we’ve been promised a glimpse inside the ocean’s ‘Green Seas‘ – the most productive, and arguably most important expanses of the marine environment.

During my time studying at the University of Southampton, I’ve learned a great deal about our ‘green seas’. Phytoplankton, or microscopic marine algae, drives all photosynthetically-derived life in our ocean and forms the basis of global marine food webs, playing a role in the oceans similar to that of plants on land. Phytoplankton blooms occur seasonally and are especially characteristic of the temperate North Atlantic Ocean, coastal waters, and sub-polar regions – some phytoplankton blooms are even seen from space!  These blooms provide temporary, bountiful feasts for zooplankton (consisting of gelatinous animals, larvae, and microscopic invertebrates), and in turn, smaller plankton-feeding ‘bait’ fish like anchovies, sardines, and herring. As we saw in the Big Blue’s ‘boiling seas’, large shoals of small fish can attract the ocean’s largest and greatest predators including dolphins, whales, seals and sharks, so expect to see another spectacular feeding extravaganza in this episode.

Another ‘green sea’ likely to make an appearance are the great giant kelp forests of the north-east Pacific, a personal favourite of mine. During our first-year marine ecology lectures, we learnt about a phenomenon coined the trophic cascade, and a specific case study from the kelp forests off the west coast of the USA. A trophic cascade occurs when a top predator is removed from the food web, thereby freeing the lower trophic levels from predation and allowing their herbivorous populations to thrive. In the kelp forest case study, the predacious sea otter was removed from the system, hunted almost to extinction by humans during the 18th and 19th century for their thick fur pelts. As a result, herbivorous sea urchins were allowed to thrive in numbers, grazing on the giant kelp to such an extent that vast areas of the dynamic and diverse kelp forests were cleared, and ‘urchin barrens’ left in their wake. Thankfully, legislation was put in place and conservation programmes successfully established to protect the remaining sea otters, allowing sea otter populations, and consequentially the health of the entire kelp forest ecosystem, to fully recover. This is possibly one of the greatest conservation success stories of all time, so I fully expect the tale to be told by the Blue Planet 2 team (not to mention that sea otters are undeniably adorable!).

Green seas also play an important role in the global carbon cycle and in controlling atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Phytoplankton absorb carbon dioxide for photosynthesis on a scale equivalent to that of terrestrial forests, and transfer about ten gigatonnes of carbon from the atmosphere to the deep sea each year, via the biological carbon pump. I hope this episode not only highlights the importance of our ‘green seas’ on an ecological scale, for example with mangrove forests providing nurseries for many fish species, but also on a global climatic scale, with each ‘green sea’ ecosystem a significant and altogether vital carbon sink.

Feel free to share any comments or questions regarding Green Seas – I hope you enjoy the episode!

The post What to expect from Blue Planet 2 – Green Seas appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

Known as the world’s greatest wilderness, the ocean is a vast environment stretching over 70% of the world’s surface. In contrast to the sheltered reefs and coastal shelves that border our shores, the open ocean is not unlike a desert with little food and protection for marine life; yet some of the ocean’s most remarkable species make this ‘big blue’ their home. These animals have thrived here by exploiting specialist ecological niches, such as the fast-swimming striped marlin that navigate the open ocean in search of their widely-dispersed prey, sardines, or the three-metre-long oceanic sunfish that specialise in jellyfish hunting.

Expect to see the day-to-day problems and perils that these animals face – raising your young in this wilderness can be a huge challenge, leaving scientists perplexed about where and how many species accomplish such a task. It is well-known that sea turtles, for example, lay their eggs in the sands of specific beaches across the world; however, we are still unsure where the hatchlings go for several years of their life after they make their dash to the freedom, and dangers, of the sea. As ever, advancements in technologies such as satellite tracking juvenile sea turtles is helping to progress the study of open ocean animals.

Another scene we’re likely to enjoy is a feeding frenzy of dolphins, tuna, and sharks, as a shoal of smaller fish trapped near the surface provides a momentary but plentiful feast in the wilderness. Whilst this scene of ocean predators attacking large bait balls (tightly packed shoals of small fish) is one that we have previously experienced through The Blue Planet, the Blue Planet 2 team has taken the frenzy to the next level with new aerial technology revealing the truth behind ‘boiling seas’.

I am also confident that this episode will continue to reinforce a key message from previous episodes, that despite its enormity, we are having a large and undeniable impact on our ocean and the marine life within. We have previously seen the detrimental effects of climate change through the eyes of a walrus mother and calf struggling to find sea ice in the warming Arctic, deep-sea trawling devastating cold-water coral reefs, and distressing scenes of coral bleaching along the Great Barrier Reef. Marine litter, especially plastics, is another increasing threat to life in our ocean, with around 8 million tonnes of plastic dumped into the ocean annually. It is therefore unsurprising that plastic has quickly become one of the most worrying and serious impacts that we are having on the marine environment – blanketing surface waters in some regions (for one, the great Pacific garbage patch is twice the size of Texas) and mimicking food sources like jellyfish for many marine animals. After experiencing making Blue Planet 2, Sir David Attenborough recently stated that plastics are one of his biggest concerns for the ocean, urging global action for the reduction of plastics consumption, so expect some heart-wrenching footage of its effect on the ‘big blue’.

Feel free to share any comments or questions regarding The Big Blue – I hope you enjoy the episode!

Inspired by the episode? Get involved in ocean conservation!

The post What to expect from Blue Planet 2 – Big Blue appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .