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| View Larger Image | Coral Seas | Video On DemandDirected By: Alastair Fothergill
Also With: Alastair Fothergill (Producer), Martha Holmes (Producer), David Attenborough (Writer)
| 1 New starting at: | $1.99 |
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| | Binding: | Video On Demand | | Run Time: | 49 minutes | | Studio: | BBC | | Release Date: | July 29, 2008 | | Genre: | Nonfiction | | Synopsis: | Life on a coral reef starts with one coral larva that lands in the right place and grows. Soon it's a coral head, cemented and secure on the seabed. A tiny alga that lives in its tissues allows the coral to grow night and day and as more corals settle, a reef develops. Overcrowding follows as corals expand and soon they're fighting - digesting their neighbors alive under cover of darkness. A hard, limestone skeleton protects corals, but bumphead parrot fish bite straight through rock and coral with their powerful jaws. These fish erode the coral and the material they swallow comes out the other end as fine sand. On a single reef they can produce tons of sand every year. This soft sand forms beautiful tropical white beaches and eventually creates tropical islands. A sinister crown of thorns starfish slides on to a coral, spreads its stomach over the polyps, and digests them whole. The only protection a coral can hope for is a small crab that takes up residence in the coral's branches and uses its pincers to nip the starfish to see it off. Night on the reef is a tough time. Moray eels slither around the corals hunting by smell. Whitetip sharks use their electrical sense to trace any movement in the sleeping fish. Feeding frenzies disturb the otherwise eerie calm of the reef. An entire reef can be destroyed by one big storm: hundreds of years of growth wiped out in a few hours. But out at sea, new life continues to develop and, in time, coral larvae return to colonize the rubble and a new reef grows on the wasteland. | | Sales Rank: | 22,734nd |
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