The Blue Planet Episode Guide

Episode Guide

• Season 1 Episode 11: Making Waves: The Making of Blue Planet

  The making of David Attenborough's ground-breaking series exploring the Earth's vast oceans, which cover 70 per cent of the planet's surface

• Season 1 Episode 9: Deep Trouble

  Marine biologist Martha Holmes investigates how modern fishing technology is seriously depleting stocks worldwide and posing a threat to the survival of many species. Professor John Shepherd of Southampton University is also on hand, revealing why he believes supplies of many fish, including mackerel, sole, plaice and herring, could soon run out

• Season 1 Episode 8: Coasts

  Exploring the wealth of marine life that inhabits the ocean's edge, dealing with the dangers of an ever-shifting environment. David Attenborough observes nesting seabirds in east Russia, Patagonian killer whales, Newfoundland caplin fish, walruses, and Brazilian green turtles - which make their annual pilgrimage to a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic to lay their eggs. Last in series

• Season 1 Episode 7: Tidal Seas

  David Attenborough investigates the opportunities tides create for marine life, showing giant stingrays gliding on currents for a rest, South African sea snails surfing the waves in pursuit of a tasty meal, crabs playing football on a beach, and bottlenose dolphins embarking on a dangerous game of catch. In the oceanic world each turn of the tide can mean life or death for its inhabitants

• Season 1 Episode 6: Coral Seas

  Veteran naturalist David Attenborough explores the fragile marine community of the coral reef, where all creatures, including the corals themselves, have to fight for survival. From tiny beginnings, the reef grows and develops over hundreds of years, providing support for innumerable species - yet one storm can threaten the entire ecosystem

• Season 1 Episode 5: Seasonal Seas

  David Attenborough explores the most densely inhabited seas on the planet. Variations in temperature due to the year-long cycle of the sun mean there is a vast array of marine life which changes according to the season, from seals, sea otters and sharks in the winter, to lobster and salmon in the summer, dolphins in the autumn and the walking handfish in spring

• Season 1 Episode 4: Frozen Seas

  Marine life at the poles, where temperatures frequently fall to a numbing -40C. Even when the sun reappears, its weak rays take a long time to melt the ice. He describes how wildlife including seals, whales, polar bears and penguins overcome the elements to survive through long, frozen winters. Narrated by David Attenborough

• Season 1 Episode 3: Open Ocean

  Predators and prey in the open oceans come under the scrutiny of David Attenborough. Marlin track down a shoal of sardines as a sei whale scoops up the leftovers, dolphins herd mackerel and attract the attention of a glamorous sailfish with the resonance of their sonar, and giant sunfish queue up to allow other species, including seagulls, to feed on their parasites

• Season 1 Episode 2: The Deep

  Camera crews journey to the deepest parts of the ocean for the first time to explore the lives of its inhabitants, including fearsome predators with huge teeth, strange jellyfish and deep-sea sharks that lurk among the gigantic submerged mountains and volcanoes. David Attenborough narrates

• Season 1 Episode 1: Ocean World

  David Attenborough presents an exploration of Earth's vast seas, which cover 70 per cent of the planet's surface. In the first episode, millions of squid appear off the coast of California, gannets, whaler sharks and dolphins hunt migrating sardines in the Indian Ocean, and thousands of turtles make the annual pilgrimage to lay their eggs in Costa Rica