There's an ocean, where giants gather to feast
where people battle the planet's roughest seas.
It stretches nearly 10,000 miles from Arctic, to Antarctic
from tropical shallows, to mysterious depths
It's an ocean of extremes.
The engine room for storms a thousand miles across
Yet also, a sanctuary for the vulnerable.
People and animals brave this unpredictable ocean.
Risking it all for rich rewards.
This is the Atlantic, the wildest ocean on Earth.
It's January in the far north of the Atlantic off the coast of Arctic Norway.
The air temperature is ten degrees below freezing.
The land is lifeless, locked in ice.
But beneath the surface of the ocean, the water is stirring.
Billions of Herring have arrived from the open ocean to spawn
and their presence attracts giants.
Humpback whales...
massive fin whales...
hundreds of orcas.
Animals travel hundreds, even thousands of miles
for this once a year event.
A feast that will last for just a few weeks.
This extraordinary gathering is only possible
because of one of the planet's most powerful forces
A force whose origin lies half a world away from these Norwegian waters...
... the Gulf Stream.
An underwater current of warm water
fifty miles wide
that cuts through the ocean for thousands of miles.
The Gulf Stream shapes all life in the North Atlantic.
From the Arctic, to the Caribbean.
The Gulf Stream is driven by winds and it begins here
where the open ocean meets the reefs of the Caribbean Sea.
Sheltering here are animals that will soon travel to the Arctic
On the same journey as the great current.
Every winter, these reefs north of the Dominican Republic
are filled with the song of humpback whales.
HUMPBACK WHALE SINGS
This female humpback came here this time last year to mate.
Eleven months later, she's returned because these waters are warm, and calm
sheltered by the surrounding reefs.
The perfect place to have her baby.
This calf was born just a few days ago, weighing in at a healthy one ton.
For now, while his mother rests, the calf explores his new world.
But he's so young that he tires easily.
He'll need to be a much stronger swimmer before he can leave this sanctuary.
His mother lifts him to the surface to breathe.
There is very little food here for the mother to eat
so she won't be able to produce milk for much longer.
Soon, they will have to leave.
There are many dangers ahead. Orca attack, collisions with ships.
His mother's back is lined with scars from a boat propeller
but the young calf faces an even more immediate threat
from a very dangerous animal.
Male humpbacks come here every year looking for a chance to mate.
They compete amongst themselves for access to the females.
Their rivalry can be very dangerous.
Some females in these waters are looking for a mate
but not this mother with her vulnerable young calf.
If she doesn't shake off the testosterone charged males
her calf can be crushed to death in a scrum of thirty—ton bodies.
The males chase her down
jostling to get into position to try and mate with her.
The calf struggles to keep up.
The mother guides her calf up for a breath
and uses her body as a block to protect him from the males.
The males become more aggressive as they battle for access.
Their five metre long fins, edged with sharp barnacles, are swung like clubs
Their bodies can be weapons too.
A breach could severely wound a rival
or crush a calf caught up in the fight.
The calf is exhausted.
but finally, his mother, who's bigger and stronger than the males
gets her message across.
The males move on.
The calf is now six weeks old
his mother has done well to keep him safe this far
but her energy supplies are dwindling.
She needs to leave the breeding grounds and head north.
Fortunately, her baby's diet of around two hundred litres of milk a day
coupled with lots of playtime, have built his strength.
Now he too, is strong enough to breach.
He's ready to face the open ocean.
His mother leads him away from the nursery.
They're headed to the fertile waters of Norway's distant shores.
It's a journey they must embark on.
The great Gulf Stream will help carry them on their way.
The Gulf Stream is driven by winds
which blow across the ocean, pushing water before them.
From the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, the winds blow north
driving the current towards the United States.
Off the Florida coast, the Gulf Stream grows in strength
as it's squeezed against the land.
Just off shore from the beaches of Miami, flows a current
one hundred times greater than all the world's rivers combined
and it's a busy highway, packed with giants.
Thousands of three metre long bluefin tuna hitch a ride every spring
travelling north from the Gulf of Mexico to their summer hunting grounds.
Swordfish, marlin and their cousins, sailfish, also jump on board.
The sailfish's thousand mile summer migration takes about a month
but unlike the whales, they find something to eat along the way
This floating mat of sargassum seaweed is a perfect place to find food.
Sargassum gives its name to a nearby sea, the Sargasso
a huge region at the heart of the Atlantic
where sailors fear to travel
because of stories of ships trapped forever, in huge mats of the weed.
In reality, these floating islands provide food and shelter
for hundreds of small fish, and that makes them a rich hunting ground.
Sailfish can sprint at up to sixty miles an hour, able to chase down the fastest prey.
How they catch their prey has only recently been discovered.
The sailfish uses its long bill to flick a fish out from the shawl
throwing it off balance, before striking.
The Gulf Stream and the winds that blow it, aren't just relied upon by wildlife.
People have used the Gulf Stream winds for hundreds of years.
When Christopher Columbus set foot on the New World in 1492
he opened up a world of opportunities.
For hundreds of years, treasures and natural riches
were shipped back and forth across the Atlantic
driving the colonisation of America and changing the course of human history.
And none of that could have happened without the Gulf Stream winds.
From the Caribbean, the winds push the current north and then east towards Europe
with such consistency that sailors could rely on them to cross thousands of miles of ocean.
Even today, sailors use this ancient trading route.
The crew of this Dutch ship use the winds to ship rum, chocolate and coffee beans
from the Caribbean back to Amsterdam.
The Tres Hombres has no engine. She's entirely reliant on winds and currents.
so the crew have to respond to every change in the breeze.
We're ready to wear ship.
CAPTAIN: Standby on the braces, standby on the main.
The crew work in shifts, twelve hours out of every twenty—four.
It's hard work, but it has its rewards.
SAILOR: You feel very connected to nature
because you constantly feel the waves on the ship.
And you feel the wind on your own back.
It's the dolphins visiting you.
You feel exactly what your ancestors felt.
The same waves, the same winds.
So, it's, it's beautiful.
But as in ancient times, harnessing the Atlantic's natural power
means putting your life on the line.
Over the centuries, more than six hundred ships have been wrecked
along just one short stretch of America's Atlantic coast
Where the Gulf Stream flows perilously close to land.
The treacherous sandbanks off the Barrier Islands off North Carolina
are known as the graveyard of the Atlantic.
But there may have been some survivors from the wrecks here.
No one's certain how they got here, but many believe that their ancestors
made it to shore from shipwrecked galleons of Spanish conquistadors.
For the last five hundred years, horses descended from Spanish stock
have lived completely wild on these islands
Today, the fertile grasses of the salt marshes support over a hundred horses.
Once domesticated, now completely wild.
They live in small groups of mares and foals, over which stallions battle for access.
With these horses, there's a critical challenge.
The water that surrounds them, is too salty to drink.
To quench their thirst, they must first dig.
These horses are survivors.
They'll even swim between islands in search of fresh grazing.
Marooned for centuries on this Atlantic outpost
these Spanish horses are a living reminder
of the role the Gulf Stream has played in human history.
Off shore from the Barrier Islands
the Gulf Stream has helped to carry these humpbacks
for over a thousand miles from the Caribbean.
This mother and calf have joined forces with a male
perhaps to give them some protection against the increasing threat from orcas.
They have done well to make it this far
but the mother may not have eaten for six months
and her milk won't last much longer.
Luckily, the Atlantic is about to deliver salvation.
As the Gulf Stream passes the northern United States
a meeting of the waters helps to drive an extraordinary transformation.
A cold current pushes down from the Arctic along the coast
carrying icebergs with it.
The mingling of the two currents helps to bring nutrients to the surface
sowing the seeds for an explosion of life.
Bluefin tuna are one of many Gulf Stream travellers
that end their summer migration off New England and eastern Canada
some of the richest seas on Earth.
This rich stretch of ocean also supports seabirds in their millions
and huge numbers of marine mammals.
Crab seals travel together on the hunt for fish.
Every spring, these fertile seas turn into a rich green soup
across hundreds of miles as billions of tiny plants burst into life.
A plankton bloom.
Individually, these plants are too small for the naked eye to see.
But in such huge numbers, they are the basis for these incredibly rich seas.
Tiny animals feed on the tiny plants.
These in turn are preyed on by even larger animals
and so on, up the food chain.
Any animal or plant that can't swim against the current is called plankton.
Most of these are tiny
but this fertile region can provide enough food for the colossus of the planting world.
This is a lion's mane, the largest jellyfish in the world.
Its body alone can be wider than a man is tall.
Its stinger covered tentacles can be longer than a blue whale
catching anything from tiny shrimps, to fish, to other jellyfish.
This is a creature most would go out of their way to avoid.
But one remarkable animal swims all the way from the Daribbean
to southern Canada in search of it.
In the waters, off the island of Nova Scotia
people are on the lookout for these mysterious ocean predators.
Zoologist, Mike James, and boatman, Blair Fricker
have worked to study and protect these animals for sixteen years.
But to study them, they first have to find them.
BLAIR: We just start watching, just start looking.
Sometimes, we see one, on a nice day, and never see him again.
And you can't believe that he got away from you.
Blair and Mike are searching for a giant of its kind.
But just because it's giant, doesn't make it easy to find
BLAIR: I think I just saw him, two o'clock.
Right there.
See where I'm pointing? —Yep. — Definitely him.
MIKE: Oh, she's taking a pretty good turn, there.
There she goes.
BLAIR: The problem is they're not staying.
They're just coming up for breath and really trucking along.
There are a few jellies, eh?
MIKE: All done?
RADIO: Did you see anything more? —MIKE: Nah, it's been a while.
BLAIR: There he is, just under the surface. Come up again, I think.
Success at last, but this is an animal that takes a lot of skill and strength
to bring on board without doing it harm.
BLAIR: We'll get her in headfirst. —MIKE: Hang on, hang on.
A leather backed turtle.
At up to nine hundred kilograms in weight, this is the largest sea turtle in the world.
Mike estimates that over a thousand turtles come to Danadian waters every year.
He's tagged over three hundred, so they can be identified if they're caught again.
MIKE: Oh, she's really big.
Every turtle gets measured.
MIKE: 148.2
The longest ever recorded was nearly twice as long as this one.
So that's a metre plus around the neck.
Leatherbacks have a crucial advantage over other, smaller sea turtles.
Unusually for reptiles, they can generate body heat
which their huge bulk helps them to retain.
That means they can swim beyond the warm Gulf Stream
and deep into the bountiful northern seas.
And Mike has recently revealed
what the leatherbacks get up to in the murky depths.
He's fitted small cameras to the backs of some of his turtles.
Leatherbacks have excellent eyesight
helping them track down the lion's manes in the green plankton soup.
But Jellyfish are mostly water.
A big animal needs to eat a lot of them to survive
and Mike has discovered that turtles feed from dawn to dusk
eating nearly three quarters of their own body weight in jellyfish everyday
all through the summer.
These giant reptiles thrive here because of the incredibly fertile seas
that the Gulf Stream has helped to create.
And that fertility also sustains huge numbers of a more familiar sea creature.
The waters off New England and eastern Canada are incredibly rich in fish
but today, these sand eels are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Out of the murk, a stream of bubbles begins to surround the shawl.
The panicking fish gather even tighter together.
Beneath the shawl, a scream, louder than a jet engine, pierces the water
driving the fish upwards.
HUMPBACK WHALE CRIES
The net of bubbles draws tighter as the predator rises around the fish in a spiral.
It's the humpbacks.
After up to six months of fasting, they're making the most of their chance to feed.
HUMPBACK WHALE CRIES
Humpbacks are the only animal that traps its prey in a bubble net.
The whales have a mouthful of giant strips of baleen
a fingernail like material.
They gulp in huge mouthfuls of seawater and fish
and force the water back out through the baleen's sieve, trapping the fish inside.
Across a huge stretch of the ocean, hundreds of whales gather to gorge themselves.
There is so much to eat here
that the whales can put on enough fat over the summer months
to last them the whole year.
But not all of the humpbacks that set off from the Caribbean
end their migration off the North American coast.
Some swim much further
heading for even greater riches on the far side of the Atlantic
where the Gulf Stream is also heading.
Off the northern coast of America, the winds begin to blow due east.
That pushes the Gulf Stream across the Atlantic towards Europe.
As it leaves America, the Gulf Stream is up to ten degrees warmer than the sea just to the north.
The warm current warms the air above it, which creates a difference in air pressure
leading to even stronger winds.
This helps whip up the notorious rough seas of the north Atlantic.
As well as creating turbulent weather, the Gulf Stream, once again, drives life.
The flow of the current churns nutrients up from the sea floor
and enriches the north Atlantic, creating a feast for seabirds.
Gannets fly hundred of miles in their fishing trips.
They hit the water at up to fifty miles an hour
and swim down as much as twenty metres in pursuit of their prey.
There are rich rewards to be had in this fertile ocean
but misjudge the conditions out here, and the Atlantic's power can destroy you.
And that goes for everything and everyone.
All around the ocean, from Canada, Iceland, France, and the British Isles
men and women brave the elements and head out to harvest the seas.
Scottish Skipper, Davey Milne, has been fishing the Atlantic for thirty—five years
and is still in awe of its power.
DAVEY: I've a great respect for the sea.
We're in just like a bathtub really, compared with the Atlantic ocean. It's massive.
Davey is skippering his bathtub into waters he knows well
but he still makes use of the latest sonar and radar to help find the fish
and keep an eye on what the elements have in store.
The weather comes from the west, brought by the same winds
that blow the warm Gulf Stream waters over from the Americas.
Davey and his crew of six
seek out the places where the current drives the nutrients most strongly to the surface
creating the most fertile fishing grounds.
But fishing these rich waters is a very dangerous job.
Trawlermen lose their lives every year while here.
For Davey and his crew
it's a daily battle with one of the most hostile environments on Earth
Winds blowing over two thousand miles of ocean
build up towering Atlantic swells, taller than a house.
But for these fishermen, this is just a typical day at the office.
Davey fights to keep the boat steady
while the massive net, filled with up to fifteen tonnes of fish
is hauled in by the men on deck.
The catch is mostly haddock, with the occasional huge cod.
Trawlermen have to work to strict quotas
while arguments rage about how much fish they should be taking
Today though, they'll be lucky to take any more fish at all.
Off the coast of Canada, a storm has swept down from the Arctic.
The spiral of storm clouds has been blown towards Europe, whipping up the seas.
As the swell builds, the skipper starts to monitor the western horizon more closely.
Davey will soon have a decision to make
when the conditions get too dangerous to carry on fishing.
DAVEY: You've always to be mindful you've men's lives in your hands, basically.
And... it only takes one large lump of sea and you're gone.
Stronger winds mean bigger waves.
Seamen have a way to describe how rough the sea is.
They call it the sea state.
DAVEY: You'll usually get rough, very rough, or high.
Then you get phenomenal.
And phenomenal's, phenomenal! Heh, heh.
The storm has grown very quickly
the winds reaching hurricane strength by mid—Atlantic.
Powerful storms that form this fast are called weather bombs
and they can catch fishermen off—guard.
This is rough, even by trawlermen standards.
Davey knows there are masses of fish right beneath him
but he has to weigh up the risks of staying out.
He decides to turn back.
Turning side on to the waves is just about the most dangerous manoeuvre a boat can make.
DAVEY: And that's when your seamanship comes in.
You make a decision...
You make a decision and it's gotta be right. There's no room for error.
Davey's ship isn't the only one heading home through the gathering storm.
As the trawlermen make it to the shelter of their harbour
the storm crashes into the coastline.
Through Autumn and Winter, storms batter Europe.
Nowhere feels their force more than the coast of Ireland.
Reaching up to over two hundred metres, the Cliffs of Moher
are pummelled by over a thousand tonnes of water in every wave.
If you could harness the energy of just one storm
it could power the whole of the UK for the Winter.
But no one's come close to harnessing this.
Storms bring destruction on a huge scale, but the churning seas bring up nutrients
which drive huge Summer plankton blooms
crucial for the marine life of the British Isles.
Ten metre long basking sharks swim up from the depths of the ocean.
Second largest fish in the world, they feed on nothing but tiny plankton.
Seabirds thrive, breeding in their millions.
Puffins flock in from the open ocean, where they've spent the winter.
They raise their young at cliff top burrows
fishing by day in the fertile seas.
Today's meal is a beak full of sprats.
And there's plenty of food, too, for travellers who have braved the stormy Atlantic crossing.
Some of the humpback whales, who spent the Winter in the Caribbean
feed off the coast of Ireland in the Summer.
The Gulf Stream helps to whip up the storms that make these waters so rich
but the great current also brings warmth.
As it approaches Europe, the Gulf Stream splits.
Part of the warm water flows south towards Africa
but the rest, now known as the North Atlantic Current, flows north, past the shores of Europe.
The sea off the British Isles
is ten degrees warmer than at the same latitude at the other side of the Atlantic.
So animals thrive here that are usually more at home further south.
Like a pink sea fan and the European cuttlefish.
These close relatives of squid and octopus
breed in the waters off southern England every Summer.
The warm current is now thought to have less influence
on land temperatures in the British Isles than people used to believe.
Adding perhaps just a degree or two to Winter temperatures.
But further north, it has a significant effect.
Norway's five to ten degrees warmer than other places at the same latitude
because of a combination of the ocean current and the warm westerly winds
that have blown with it, across the Atlantic.
Those winds are no longer the only thing driving the current
as it flows on even further north, far beyond the Arctic Circle
to the edge of the frozen Arctic Ocean.
At the edge of the ice, a strange process takes place that draws the current up here.
As the sea water freezes, it squeezes out its salt
making the unfrozen water around it extremely saline.
This super salty water is heavier, so it sinks towards the seabed
setting up a circulation as the warmer water from the Gulf Stream is sucked in to replace it.
Everywhere else in the Arctic, the sea freezes over in Winter.
But here, the Gulf Stream's warmth
keeps a vast expanse of the North Atlantic ice—free, all year round.
This combination of nutrient rich water and unfrozen sea
creates the arena for one of the Earth's great wildlife spectacles.
It's January and over a billion herring have gathered to spawn off the coast of Norway.
It's a feast for any predator that can reach it.
For the humpback whales, it's a reward
for their five thousand mile swim across the Atlantic.
Humpbacks can't get to most of the Arctic in Winter.
They can't travel beneath the ice, because they need to breathe.
Here, the Gulf Stream has opened up a rich hunting grounds
but catching the fish isn't easy.
The whales struggle to surround in bubble nets such a huge mass of fish.
And now, the humpback's deadliest enemy enters the fray.
Hundreds of orcas swim in from the open ocean
moving in pods up to thirty strong.
But these deadly predators aren't here to eat humpbacks
they're after the fish.
And they have an extraordinary technique for catching them.
First, they must work as a team
coordinating their movements using clicks and whistles.
ORCAS CRY
They break off a section of the mega shawl into a more manageable ball.
Some whales circle the herring, herding them together.
While others swim deep and push the ball of fish up towards the surface.
The water boils with herring, desperate to escape their fate.
It's now the orcas deploy their heavy weaponry.
A six ton orca slaps its tail with awesome destructive power.
Under the water, tail slaps are used to stun the herring.
Some fish come to quickly and escape back to the safety of the shawl.
But most are picked off by the orcas, one by one.
Soon, the water glitters with fish scales
as the orcas methodically consume the ball of fish.
By breaking up the herring into a smaller shawl
the orcas have done the humpbacks a favour.
turning the usual relationship between the animals on its head.
Everywhere else on Earth, orcas are the humpbacks' biggest enemy
but here, the humpbacks cash in on the colossal fish supper.
And the humpbacks aren't the only ones to gate crash the orcas' party.
Massive fin whales, eighty foot long
can swallow three thousand herring in a single gulp.
Deadly enemies feed side by side.
A unique scene, only possible here, because of the warmth of the Gulf Stream.
For just a few weeks, the humpbacks will eat their fill
before the herring move on.
It's a wonderful spectacle, but its future is hard to predict.
As our climate warms, more and more fresh water flows
into the Atlantic from Greenland's icecaps.
This makes the sea less salty.
And there are signs that the salinity driven circulation
which draws the warm current north may be slowing down.
For now, at the end of the feeding season
the whales begin their long journey south, back to the Caribbean
where the cycle of their lives will begin again.
Lives that are shaped by the awesome power of the Gulf Stream
The driving force for life, throughout the rich northern seas...
...of the Atlantic.
It's January, in the Norwegian town of Åndalsnes
far above the Arctic Circle.
Off shore, one of nature's great spectacles is about to unfold
as hundreds of whales gather to gorge themselves.
But as the camera team test their equipment
they realise just how hard it's going to be to operate here.
Director Lucy Wells, is particularly worried about the lack of light.
Actual filming time, we may get an hour a day at the moment.
Um... which isn't very much and potentially could be quite frustrating
because if there's lots going on, but it's too dark
there's nothing we can do, we can't film anything.
The other big challenge will be the cold.
With temperatures well below freezing
hypothermia and freezing scuba equipment are very real dangers.
The team are particularly keen to film orcas feeding
and within an hour of leaving shore, they get lucky and make first contact.
The orcas are herding a herring shawl into a ball
exactly what the team were after.
LUCY: Wow.
With just an hour's daylight, the crew rush to get in the water
MAN: Go.
LUCY: Wow, they're everywhere!
Day one, and already the team have their first shots of the orcas.
And soon, the orcas have company.
Oh, there's a humpback just coming close. Look how close he is!
Here, you get two whale species for the price of one
and it looks like the humpbacks are following the orcas around
The team are thrilled.
This has never been filmed before.
The humpbacks seem to take advantage of the orcas' herding skills.
Woo! —A great start.
but the team soon realise that the humpback's presence
might not be such a good thing, after all.
Their main goal is to film the amazing herding and tail slapping behaviour
that the orcas here use to catch herring.
But every time the team find feeding orcas...
... the humpbacks soon turn up
and drive the orcas away.
TEAM MEMBER: It's that direction, we just have to...
Despite the team's best efforts
the humpbacks have become a pest and show up again...
...and again.
It's a challenge for cameraman, David Reichert.
We're seeing humpbacks going back and forth all the time, down there
but just not seeing the, the feeding event.
This soon becomes a big problem for the team.
Any moment, the herring could leave, followed by the orcas
and the team's mission will be a failure.
It's ten past one. I reckon the latest we can go is probably quarter to two.
There's not really much time at all and so far today, we haven't got anything.
With morale already low, something happens that reminds the team
of just how dangerous it can be to dive here, in mid—Winter.
One of the divers gives the signal to be picked up.
Something is very wrong.
It's PB, the second underwater cameraman, and he's clearly struggling.
It's every diver's worst fear.
His breathing equipment has frozen, starving him of air.
If that had happened deeper underwater, it could have been fatal.
The problem's quickly sorted out, but the team are shaken.
The only camera that's getting close to the orcas is the team's mini helicopter.
But with the teams current run of bad luck, they should have foreseen some trouble.
Thomas, the pilot, skilfully flies the helicopter
straight into the smallest sign in the harbour.
He is mortified.
Luckily, the rest of the team see the funny side
and mount a rescue mission.
You can see the propellers going around in the water.
We can have a nice funeral.
LAUGHTER
It was my toy. I'm going home.
Morale is good, but the team have now lost the only camera that was filming any orcas.
The divers are gonna need some luck.
Quite a lot of action in front of us, guys.
LUCY: We have just come across a group of orcas.
No humpbacks, which is a good thing.
It's... dare I say it, looking encouraging.
But so far, every kind of good situation we've come across
that on the topside we thought is amazing
they've come up and it hasn't been good for them.
It's a tense wait.
TEAM MEMBER: Come on...
LUCY: Come on...
But today, everything happens on cue.
The cameras start rolling and finally, the team capture
the amazing behaviour they came here to film.
DAVID: It is magical.
The herring ball towers above you
and the scales of the herring catch the light and they just flicker like diamonds.
And then the orcas move up to them and push them
gently nudge this ball up to the surface...
...where they can pin it up there and then they come in and attack.
This is one of the most spectacular natural events I've ever seen.
Job done. —Yes!
Thank God!
They've had to overcome some very tough conditions
but through perseverance, and a bit of good luck
they've managed to document one of the most remarkable scenes in the whole of the Atlantic.
From a surface feeding frenzy...
... to the crushing depths of the abyss.
Meet the strange animals of the world's longest mountain range
far beneath the surface.
And discover the origin of the world's youngest ocean.