Creatures of the Deep: Episode Description

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Watch a cuttlefish ward off rivals.

Watch nemertean worms and sea stars.

More "Creatures of the Deep"

Deep-sea marine invertebrates are extraordinarily diverse. In this episode, carnivorous Humboldt squid change color like flashing neon signs and attack a school of fish in a coordinated hunting maneuver, while vast numbers of giant spider crabs emerge from the deep and congregate in the shallows to molt.

Time lapse cameras capture starfish, sea urchins and monster worms devouring a seal carcass in an astonishing frenzy of predation.

The female Pacific giant octopus scours the ocean floor for a safe place to hide and lay her eggs. For the next six months she does not leave her den, but guards her eggs, keeping them oxygenated, free from disease and safe from predators.

Gradually she starves, and in her last act of devotion blows water over her eggs to help them hatch. Then, she dies.

TELEVISION FIRSTS

Massive numbers of Humboldt squid cooperatively hunting for sardines at night.
Thousands of pink starfish, urchins and monster nemertean worms feeding on a dead seal under permanent ice in Antarctica, filmed over a month in tracking time lapse photography.
A mass spider crab molt where thousands of crabs come together to shed their too-tight shells and mate.
Giant starfish devouring a dead giant Pacific octopus, filmed in time lapse.

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