Ocean

VHS cover

*Ocean* is the tenth episode of the third season of Eyewitness. The topic is about the oceans, the animals of this habitat and human efforts to cross and explore them. The episode first aired on 17th October 1997.

Ocean is based on a book that was first published in 1995, and has been republished on several occasions including in 2004, 2014 and 2021.

## Episode

### Introductory sequence

A water droplet appears which reflects the Eyewitness Museum before dropping. A second drop appears with a leaping dolphin inside it; the camera zooms inside the drop – the splash created by the landing dolphin bursts up and covers the screen, leaving it white.

### Episode outline

Click here for the full transcript for Ocean.

Oceans cover two-thirds of the Earth’s surface, but much of it remained unexplored. Creatures of the deep were shrouded with mystery, and myth abounds in the sea. In the past 150 years, we have explored the ocean much further and our knowledge is growing in leaps and bounds.

Today there are five oceans – the Arctic, Southern, Indian, Atlantic and the largest, the Pacific. In ancient times, people had no idea of the scale of the oceans, with beliefs that included a river surrounding a single giant continent and the world being flat with a waterfall at the edge.

The next section looks at how the oceans have changed in the past and the present. The supercontinent Pangaea was surrounded by a single ocean called Panthalassa. On the ocean floor, land is being created and destroyed along plate boundaries. All the oceans remain linked.

Life began in the oceans, and a huge diversity of species remain here. These include coral reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef, the whale shark and huge shoals of small fish that support the rest of the food chain.

The ocean appears blue because other colours penetrate the water less easily. Even blue light can only travel to about 500 metres down. Like light, we were unable to explore the depths and even on the surface currents made ocean travel difficult. For the most part, early civilisations remained separate from each other.

The next section looks at attempts to map the ocean, fuelled by global trade. Currents are driven by ocean salinity, with huge quantities of salt stored in the oceans.

Ocean currents are used by migrating animals such as sharks, while human attempts to map currents and winds, including by releasing messages in bottles, helped slash the sailing times of ships.

Water holds onto heat very well and smooths out global temperature differences. Ocean storms can develop where hot and cold air meet, creating large and destructive waves. The shifting of land and sea has resulted in fossils of marine creatures ending up inland and is also implicated in the flooding of Atlantis. Ocean levels vary with temperature, with a rise in temperature potentially causing widespread flooding. Up to a tenth of the world’s water is locked up in polar icecaps.

Humans have always collected the bounty of ocean life. Originally, fishermen followed dolphins to find tuna but would accidentally catch the dolphins. Now, fishing technology has become so advanced there is a risk of fishing the oceans clean.

The first confirmation of life in the deep came from the 1870s when HMS Challenger made a full-scale study of the ocean which collected nearly 4,500 new plant and animal species. The problems with wayfinding and telling the time when at sea are shown, as is the early attempts to measure the depth of the ocean. Today, depth is measured using sonar.

The oceans can be very noisy, with animals such as shrimps and humpback whales using sound to easily communicate with others of their species. While the animals of the deep can be mysterious, another ocean mystery is that of the Bermuda Triangle. Just as things disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, some ocean animals seem to disappear when they go on long migrations.

Human migration across the oceans, from the early Polynesians to the more modern event of the Blue Riband race, are looked at. Today, a ship can cross the Atlantic in just over three days. Nautical speed is measured in knots.

Humans need protection to explore the oceans. This section traces the history of underwater exploration, including the wooden diving bell from 1690 and 1830s hard-helmeted divers. Stories of deep-sea exploration were popularised by works of fiction. In 1943, Jacques Cousteau invented the scuba and allowed untethered exploration. A big problem for ocean exploration is water pressure, which increases with depth. In the 1930s two Americans, Beebe and Barton, set a new depth record by diving in a bathysphere. Deeper in the ocean, new forms of life were identified, including those that create their own light.

We knew the distance to the moon before we knew the depth of the oceans. It wasn’t until 1960 that a scientist from Switzerland created a craft capable of reaching the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest point of the ocean at nearly 11,000 metres. In 1977 a new community of creatures that gather around deep-sea vents was discovered. This challenged the idea that all life needed life – photosynthesis has a rival in chemosynthesis.

Currently, only one twentieth of the ocean floor has been mapped. There may be millions more species waiting to be discovered, but we can only temporarily visit their world. We can be sure of only one thing – our knowledge of the deep is still little more than a drop in the ocean.

## Animal species filmed for the programme

### Studio footage

* Blacktip reef shark, *Carcharhinus melanopterus*
* Common octopus, *Octopus vulgaris*

### Stock footage

* Common bottlenose dolphin, *Tursiops truncatus*
* Sea nettle jellyfish, *Chrysaora achlyos*
* Sea goldie, *Pseudanthias squamipinnis*
* Gentoo penguin, *Pygoscelis papua*
* Golden trevally, *Gnathanodon speciosus*
* Potato grouper, *Epinephelus tukula*
* Masked pufferfish, *Arothron diadematus*
* Skunk clownfish, *Amphiprion akallopisos*
* Reef lobster, *Enoplometopus sp*.
* Southern stingray, *Hypanus americanus*
* Chevron barracuda, *Sphyraena qenie*
* Lion’s mane jellyfish, *Cyanea capillata*
* Common lionfish, *Pterois miles*
* Whale shark, *Rhincodon typus*
* Atlantic herring, *Clupea harengus*
* Humpback whale, *Megaptera novaeangliae*
* Deep sea anglerfish, Ceratioidei
* Dusky dolphin, *Lagenorhynchus obscurus*
* Squid, Decapodiformes
* Blue shark, *Prionace glauca*
* Long-snouted seahorse, *Hippocampus guttulatus*
* Weddell seal, *Leptonychotes weddellii*
* Spinner dolphin, *Stenella longirostris*
* Yellowfin tuna, *Thunnus albacares*
* Atlantic spotted dolphin, *Stenella frontalis*
* Common prawn, *Palaemon serratus*
* Leatherback sea turtle, *Dermochelys coriacea*
* Brown fur seal, *Arctocephalus pusillus*
* Fangtooth, *Anoplogaster cornuta*
* Splitfin flashlightfish, *Anomalops katoptron*
* Comb-jelly, Ctenophora
* Sea gooseberry, *Pleurobrachia pileus*
* Giant tube worm, *Riftia pachyptila*
* Vent crab, Decapoda

## Credits

* Director and Writer - Ben Southwell
* Music - Guy Dagul
* Graphics Director - Jean Cramond
* Graphic Design - Steve Cope
* Camera - Robert Payton and Peter Welch
* Set Design and Visual Effects - Chris Reynolds and Andy David
* Research - James Redshaw and Emma Goude
* Production Co-ordinators - Jessica Powell and Bella Thoyts
* Production Team - Nikki Weston, Jackie Byrne and Sara Forfar
* Unit Manager - Teresa Watts
* 3-D Animation - Paul Kavanagh
* Off-line Editor - Frank Riches
* Online Editor - Andy Barker
* Dubbing Mixer - Steve Hudson and Kian Wong
* With thanks to:
	+ Brighton Sealife Centre
	+ Dr. Edith Widder

## Making this programme

The sequence of the encounter between the diver and the octopus was filmed at Brighton Sealife Centre, where a tiny submersible camera was lowered into the tank with the model diver. The hero of the Ocean programme was to be a bathysphere. Combining designs from historical fact and fiction, the model makers worked to create a craft that would look good on camera and perform underwater. For an important shot, the director wanted to see the bathysphere emerge from the ocean. A large tank was filled with water and the model was held down in it. After a couple of takes in which it capsized the final show, filmed in slow motion, caught the moment of surfacing perfectly. Professional ice sculptors were brought in again to create a temple from the city of Atlantis. After thirty minutes, the temple was complete and ready for the studio. It was placed under hot lights, allowing only one chance to capture the melting process which would make up the final effect. The crew worked fast to ensure the temple would remain in one piece long enough – to their surprise, the ice took days to completely disappear.

## Home media releases

As well as being released on VHS, Ocean was released as a DVD in the USA and as one of the free DVDs provided with the UK's Daily Mirror newspaper.

Ocean America-release DVD coverEyewitness Ocean Daily Mirror DVD cover

**Writing staff**: Anne MacLeod • Ben Southwell • Ben Steiner • Brian Meehl • David Hanson • David Stafford • David Helton • George Bloom • Lynette Singer • Mike Tomlinson • Paul Thomas • Stan Cullimore
**Directors**: Gavin Maxwell • Justine Kershaw • David Hutt • Andrew Jackson • Justin Hardy • Ludo Graham • Jerry Foulkes • Derek Hall • Sanjida O'Connell • Caius Julyan • Bonni Cohen • Leanne Pooley • Edwina Vardey • Alexandra Beazley • Sam Hodgkin • Karen Walsh • Jack Weber • Richard Simkin • Alex Hearle • Brian Cummins • Ben Southwell
**Composers**: Guy Michelmore (season one) • Guy Dagul (seasons two and three)

**Season One**: Cat • Fish • Horse • Dog • Jungle • Bird • Amphibian • Insect • Shark • Elephant • Reptile • Dinosaur • Skeleton
**Season Two**: Desert • Tree • Ape • Mammal • Butterfly and Moth • Volcano • Rock and Mineral • Seashore • Pond and River • Weather • Arctic and Antarctic • Prehistoric Life • Shell
**Season Three**: Flight • Bear • Sight • Island • Survival • Mountain • Monster • Human Machine - Plant • **Ocean** • Planets • Life • Natural Disasters