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From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free. Jacques Yves Cousteau
I used to think an ocean of soda existed, but it was just a Fanta sea. Bec Hill, Ellipses, Edinburgh Festival 2014
The gravitational force of the moon creates a bulge of water in the oceans. As the moon orbits the Earth it drags this bulge around the planet creating high and low tides. Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Do We Really Need the Moon? BBC 2011
If the moon were just a little closer than it is today the tidal bulge would grow. Low tides would be lower; high tides would be higher. ibid.
Consensus that the first life-forms were single-celled organisms that lived in the oceans. The Universe s1e6: Spaceship Earth, History 2007
For hundreds of years scientists believed that sunlight was the only energy source for life. But within the past few decades new research has proven them wrong. Boiling water temperatures found around hydrothermal vents on the sea floor were once believed to be incompatible with life, but recently scientists have discovered that the areas around these black smokers are perfectly suitable for a flourishing underwater community. Instead of the sun, these creatures take their energy from the heat, gasses and minerals emitted from the vents. These highly tenacious life forms are known as extremophiles. The Universe s3e5: Alien Faces, 2008
Most of the world’s oceans were purple too. Iain Stewart, How to Grow a Planet I: Life from Light, BBC 2012
They really are the lungs of the ocean. It’s remarkable what the humble grasses had achieved by five million years ago – a once forested planet was now dominated by open plains. Eight different species of grasses covering a quarter of all land. They’d selected which animals would live or die. And they’d fundamentally altered oceans, playing a crucial role in our make-up of our atmosphere. Iain Stewart, How to Grow a Planet III: The Challenger
In 1977 life was thought to be tied to the sun. No-one thought at that time that life could form around a hydrothermal vent. Dr Peter Ward
This underwater city is one of the most bizarre environments on our planet. It’s built around a hydrothermal vent, a volcanic opening in the Earth’s crust that pumps out clouds of sulphurous chemicals and water heated to nearly three hundred degrees Celsius. And somehow life has found a way to thrive in these extreme conditions. Brian Cox, Wonders of the Solar System: Aliens, BBC 2010
The largest animals there have ever lived have lived in the sea. Brian Cox, Wonders of Life IV: Size Matters, BBC 2013
Life began in the sea. David Attenborough, Life on Earth V: Conquest of the Waters, BBC 1989
A number of different ways of propelling themselves through the water. ibid.
The Hammerhead shark is said to be particularly sensitive. ibid.
The Ray has flattened its body to an extreme degree. ibid.
The Basking Shark grows to a length of fifteen metres. ibid.
Open water fish often form vast shoals. ibid.
Many species have never been filmed. ibid.
Salmon … a paragon among fish. ibid.
Away from all land: the ocean. It covers more than half the surface of our planet. And yet for the most part it is beyond our reach. Much of it is virtually empty. A watery desert. All life that is here is locked in a constant search to find food. David Attenborough, Planet Earth e11: Ocean Deep, BBC 2006
Below five hundred metres new mysterious animals appear. ibid.
The weirdest in this world of the strange: Vampyroteuthis – the vampire squid from hell. ibid.
The floor of the Atlantic Ocean is split in two by an immense volcanic mountain chain that winds unbroken for 45,000 miles around the globe. ibid.
Home to the biggest animals that exist or has ever existed: the blue whale. Some weigh nearly two hundred tons, twice the size of the largest dinosaur ... The largest animal on Earth feeds almost exclusively on one of the smallest: krill. ibid.
The biggest of all fish: thirty tons in weight, twelve metres long. A whale shark. Its huge bulk is sustained by mere microscopic creatures of the sea: plankton. ibid.
The ocean is by no means uniform. Differences in depth, temperature, sunlight and currents pose particular challenges. One and a half miles down these hydrothermal vents spew out super-heated water at 450 degrees Centigrade from cracks in the Earth’s crust. Despite the enormous pressure, total darkness and scoldingly high temperatures the ancestors of all life may have evolved from a place just like this. David Attenborough, Life e8: Creatures of the Deep, BBC 2009
Humboldt squid: two meters long they have a local reputation as man-eaters ... This is a pack of hundreds. ibid.
A swarm of one hundred thousand stinging jellyfish might seem a daunting prospect for a predator. But not for this one. A huge Fried Egg Jellyfish. It is a killer. Its weapons are harpoon-like cells that cover its tentacles. ibid.
These are spider crabs. They spend most of their lives in deep water. But once a year off the coast of southern Australia a quarter of a million crabs set off on a long journey to the shallows. ibid.
This cuttlefish is one of the cleverest animals in the ocean. She has a very large brain. In fact it’s larger for her size than that of most fish or reptiles ... Cuttlefish can make very dramatic changes to their skin pattern in order to signal their moods. ibid.
The coastal waters of British Columbia: home to this four-metre long Pacific Giant Octopus. She is a formidable predator. ibid.
Out of the depths comes one of the largest and most aggressive star-fish in the ocean – Pycnopodia, a giant sea-star the size of a dustbin lid. It’s a hunter. ibid.
The most impressive invertebrates may seem to be the giants but in fact it’s some of the smallest that can make the biggest impact. Every square inch of this island has been created by an every-growing living super-structure – a coral reef. It’s taken thousands of years to reach this size. And it all began with creatures smaller than a pin-head. ibid.
Corals are in fact extremely aggressive. And will fight to the death to expand their territory ... Then, just once a year, a few days after the November full moon, the corals take part in a mass spawning event. ibid.
Deep in the oceans life had begun. The latest theory is that chemicals spewing from underwater volcanic vents solidified and created towers like these, and this produced the conditions needed for the first cells to form. David Attenborough’s First Life 1/2, BBC 2010
Life originated in the ocean. After an immense period of time some creatures managed to crawl up on to the land. Those animals may seem to us to be very remote, strange, even fantastic. But all of us alive today owe our very existence to them. David Attenborough’s First Life 2/2
There are three hundred million tons of krill in the Southern ocean. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet III: Summer, BBC 2011
Its [submersible] searchlights revealed a whole community of hitherto unknown animals … More of these astonishing eco-systems have now been discovered elsewhere. Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild II: Understanding the Natural World, BBC 2012
Dwarfed by the vast expanse of the open ocean the biggest animal that has ever lived on our planet. The Blue Whale – thirty metres long, and weighing over two hundred tons ... Its tongue weighs as much as an elephant. David Attenborough, The Blue Planet I: Introduction, BBC 2001
Our planet is a blue planet; over 70% of it is covered by the sea. The Pacific Ocean alone covers half the globe. ibid.