Vibrant planetary background

October 29, 2010

Marine Wildlife!

A while ago, I bumped into some brilliant marine wildlife videos and made a post about it (here). On further searches, I discovered even more great videos from BBC that gave incredible insights into marine biology. The video below contains another spectacular capture of the giant "bait balls" (a term by fishermen) that attract countless varying predators. Once again, I am amazed by the technology used to capture this with crisp clear audio and video.



It is interesting to note that fishes form bait balls as a giant defensive formation to intimidate predators but it does not seem to effect tunas, birds, or sharks. I wonder which predators the formation does ward off or perhaps it is just not very effective anymore. The second video provides not only further additional insight on the great underwater food chain but also focuses on some specifics about sharks.



It is amazing how the ecosystems work as seen in the video. The concept of fishes aiding sharks by clearing fungal infections shows how intelligent ecosystems can be. I'm surprised the fishes did not fear becoming dinner and helped the sharks in close proximity instead. Many people also mentioned it must of took the camera man a lot of guts to capture a video that close but I am not sure if that was just an automated video capture or was it done by a live person. If it was done by a live person then that is truly one brave diver doing an extremely wild job working with thousands of sharks.

14 comments:

anon1337 said...

I love Blue Planet, get to see some incredible things. This world is amazing.

Skimbosh said...

See? Balling up is generally ineffective. Go for the throat. Unless it is a shark.

Secret Guide to Shaving said...

I'm a big fan of BBC. Its like they have a standard in airing their stuff. Very seldom find something on BBS that sucks.

ModerneFusion said...

In the end the most interesting things are always animals. I remember seeing the video of a bird who could imitate the sound of a chainsaw.

Anyway, very cool blog! come check mine out when you have a chance :)

dzikrk said...

It's amazing O.o

Christine said...

oh my god. this is just a WALL of fish! Oo

Telia Tuli said...

Its an amazing world we live in.
People rarely seek out the treasures it has to offer.

Dex said...

Damn, that school of fish got owned from all sides. I wonder if it wouldn't be better for them to disperse, and regroup later

Rezden said...

Great videos. I love nature. I wonder who that formation scares as well, lol.

David Davidson said...

I always thought that the formation of bait balls worked with the logic "someone is going to get eaten but the chances of me being eaten are smaller if the ball is bigger".

SWOOP! said...

Cool video. It's weird to think that there is so much we know nothing about.

HenryG said...

that's amazing, the massive murder looks so pretty.

rancour said...

I am constantly in awe as to how synchronized nature can really be, thanks for the vids

aZZo said...

hate sharkes (shivers)

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