Circle the globe with National Geographic on an underwater voyage powered by earth’s great ocean currents - the incredible superhighways of marine life.
You’ll plunge into an alien world where millions of sea creatures, from tiny seahorses to poisonous jellyfish, from squids and octopus to enormous sharks, spend their entire lives adrift, circling the planet on currents that can carry them 100 miles a day.
Some of the animals are familiar, like the fragile, just-hatched loggerhead turtle you’ll follow as she swims for her life to avoid the deadly dolphin fish. Others are almost too strange to believe, like the Portuguese Man-o-War. This strange creature raises its own sail to catch the wind and ‘trawls’ for fish with its venomous 50-foot-long tentacles.
Ocean Drifters dives into the eerie darkness at 3,000 feet in a high-tech sub as scientists study the strange, glow-in-the-dark phenomenon called bioluminescence. Animals like the sea cucumber somehow turn on their own lights - sometimes brightly enough to illuminate the inside of the sub - in what is thought to be a form of deep sea communication.
Down deep we meet up with a deep-sea octopus known as Dumbo and a big red comb jelly. At this depth, 460 species exist in a space the size of the average living room. Various other gelatinous creatures and jellyfish drift along, some pulsating, some mesmerising, all incredibly beautiful.
Meanwhile, the turtle tries to eat a Portuguese Man-o-War and decides it’s too spicy. He also encounters garbage. According to the narrator, 13 tons of trash per minute are heaved overboard by ocean vessels. Chemical waste is also problematic.
How the little turtle will survive is anyone’s guess. Although this is an incredibly soothing video, that does not mean it doesn’t also offer a strong political message. To learn about our planet and to stop polluting our waters seem like reasonable goals.
EXCLUSIVE: This DVD also contains an exclusive, 20 mins long bonus film ‘Turtle Rescue’, produced by National Geographic.
Reviews:
“I’ve seen many National Geographic documentaries, but for me, this one ranks as my favourite. Ocean Drifters presents the most amazingly beautiful photography of marine life. You will be amazed and touched by the beauty and elegance of the life which exists in our world deep in the depths of the sea. After watching it, I almost felt like dropping all my career choices and becoming an Oceanographer so that I may experience such worlds for myself (to me, it was that moving). Add the perfection that is Keith David’s voice as the narrator, and a very beautiful and haunting musical score, and you have a documentary which accurately presents the beauty of nature.”
“This beautifully photographed program follows the migration of a newly hatched loggerhead sea turtle as she evades predators, dines on jellies (including the deadly Portuguese Man-of-War) and navigates the bizarre floating meadows of the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the most remarkable footage, however, is filmed in the mid-depths as we follow the research of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute’s Edith Widder and her submersible work on bioluminescent creatures. Glowing siphonophores and jellies light up the black depths like miniature galaxies and slow-motion fireworks displays. Elegant close-up filming of minute planktonic larvae and wonderfully pulsating jellies makes this program a pleasure to watch again and again.”
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