'Planet Earth: Blue Planet II' Recap - 'Green Seas'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

​THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK... 

Perhaps the best part about watching a quality documentary series, is the fact that a great one will in essence, ignite your mind and your sense of wonder. Because once you learn something that you never knew before, the possibilities suddenly become endless and you’re hungry to see what other incredible facts and discoveries await you and that’s precisely where I am with Planet Earth: Blue Planet II. I simply cannot get enough from this wonderful show and when I tuned in last night, I was more than ready to see what new wonders about our oceans this series would unveil and my goodness, once again this series did not disappoint.
 
Because last night’s tale took us into the heart of the kelp forests and grass seas that populate our oceans and while one might not expect floating kelp to be an interesting subject, the fact that both of these places have thriving communities of wildlife made ‘Green Seas’ a fascinating story through and through, one that left no stone unturned when it comes to how these magnificent places are formed and where one can find them in our world. But truly, the majesty of this episode went far beyond the incredible visuals on the display. Instead what made this story so memorable was the fact that once again we were privy to seeing just how intelligent marine wildlife can be.
 
Case in point, the octopus that this episode highlighted, since this little dude demonstrated stunning reasoning and skill when it comes to survival in his particular kelp forest. When a predator known as the Pyjama Shark came knocking, he found ways to fight back by jamming his tentacles into the gills of his attacker, cutting off the shark’s oxygen supply and freeing him for a quick moment and as it turns out, this octopus had more tricks up his sleeve. Because when his attacker came back around for another attempt, this little guy actually managed to create a suit of armor made out of shells he found on the ocean floor in order to evade the shark once again and I won’t lie, of the many examples this show has brought forth in regards to how smart these creatures really are, this one has to be my favorite by far.

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(The Octopus in his 'suit of armor')

​However, while I think we all would have been fine watching the adventures of the kelp octopus for the entirety of the show, there were other parts of our world to explore and learning to be had and well, before this particular tale, I was completely unaware of the vast fields of seagrass near Australia where green turtles feast. Nor did I have a clue exactly how hard the Garibaldi fish works to keep sea urchins out of its territory and for that matter how dangerous said urchin is to these magnificent places since they have been known to deplete these forests courtesy of their voracious appetite and often times what truly saves these forests from ruin, is the sea otter since they find the urchin to be quite the delicacy. 
 
However, those are the just the top stories that stand out in my mind since this episode also covered how sea dragons deal with their young, and how the giant spider crab migrates in herds toward shallow waters to molt when they out grow their shells, since there is safety in numbers. If anything, this episode was nothing more than an incredible learning experience through and through and I’m quite frankly blown away by how much was packed into this particular tale. Either way, this was just another magnificent chapter in this beautiful saga and already, my mind is still hungry for more, so once again, I’m counting down the minutes until Saturday’s episode where it seems we will learn more about how our oceans interact with the coastlines. Until then.  

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