Hawaii Giants Deadly Pole to Pole

My name's Steve Backshall...

..and this is Deadly Pole To Pole.

Ohh!

From the top of the world to the bottom...

Whoa! Ha-ha!

..deadly places,

deadly adventures

and deadly animals.

And you're coming with me, every step of the way!

Aaaargh!

This is Hawaii, the most isolated island chain on Earth.

It's a place of big waves, big animals and mighty forces of nature.

It really is a lethal version of paradise.

Hawaii is a series of volcanic islands in the middle

of the Pacific Ocean, over 2,000 miles from the United States.

'The tropical waters around Hawaii are home to marine monsters.'

Whoa!

'And I'm here on the hunt for a hot-blooded heavyweight.'

Wow!

'Tracking down devils in the moonlight...'

Look at that!

Ohhh!

'..and getting toasted on a giant volcano.'

Aghhhhh!

It's on fire, and I'M on fire! Ow!

Hawaii may be known for its gnarly surfers,

but we're off in search of a beast that's a master of the open ocean.

The humpback whale,

one of the largest creatures on the planet,

and they're here for a reason.

The first thing we need to do is to find a whale.

And that really shouldn't be too hard.

There are literally hundreds of them here.

What we'd really like to see is when the males come together

and start competing for the attention of a female.

It's known as the heat run, and it's pretty explosive.

WHALE CALLS

Humpbacks are normally thought of as gentle giants.

But at this time of year, around Hawaii, they show their savage side.

It's the one chance for males and females to partner up.

Thousands of whales have travelled

halfway across the globe to find a mate here.

But the males have to do battle to see who gets the girl.

And this is the heat run.

'Our aim is to film a group of gladiatorial whales both above

'and below the surface.

'And not get squished in the process.

'It's going to take a lot of searching to find the right group,

'and luck to get into the water at the right place at the right time.'

Ohh! Oh, wow!

These mega beasts are warming up for action.

This magnificent behaviour is known as tail slapping,

for very obvious reasons. The sheer size of the flukes

on the tail of this animal mean that this sound is going to be

carried over enormous distances.

You can hear it now even above the water,

but underneath the water, it's going to travel further and faster.

This is almost certainly a way of males communicating with each other.

And it's probably a sign of aggression.

'This whale could be issuing a challenge,

'throwing down the gauntlet.

'But we need to film the battle that follows.' Whey!

Oh, my goodness, there it is!

'So we're working with two whale researchers.

'Any footage we get will be good data for their studies.'

CAMERA CLICKS

It's going to be really important for us

to listen to what we're hearing from Joe and from Jill.

They're the real experts in these waters.

These animals are so big and they're so intent on breeding

that they could potentially be dangerous to us.

So we really need to be very, very cautious and careful

before we think about getting in the water.

'Without Joe and Jill's knowledge of these whales,

'we wouldn't see action like this.'

Whoa!

Wow!

Yes!

Almost completely leaving the water!

Imagine the force and speed it must take

to drive an animal like that out of the water.

When these 40-tonne beasts fight it out,

the heat run can get seriously dicey.

We're into the middle of the afternoon on our first day.

We've seen some incredible behaviour from humpback whales,

but we haven't yet had our ideal opportunity to jump in

with whales that are actually competing over a female.

But we're not giving up on it yet.

'I'd never seen so many humpbacks in one place, but it's still

'going to be a challenge to find the right clashing group.'

Oh!

All of a sudden, we can see some activity which is definitely

different from everything we've seen before.

There are at least three males tailing one female.

Could be even more than that.

And this is exactly what we were hoping to find.

It's a case of the males vying for position,

battling for their right to be the one that gets to breed.

Go, go, go!

Ohh!

Fabulous!

It's all kicking off.

We need to get close to film before they power off into the blue.

But they're just too quick.

With their mighty tail flukes, they can even outrun our motorboat,

let alone me.

Within seconds, all signs have gone.

The mighty whales have vanished.

But there were other speedy shapes zipping along behind them.

Spinner dolphins - the most acrobatic of all dolphins.

But not what we're looking for.

I'm not sure how we managed to miss them.

We did have a real unexpected surprise though,

but no sign of humpbacks.

How five animals of that size, 30-odd tonnes, can just disappear

and then pop up again, like, 200m off in the distance, is beyond me.

The same story plays out again

and again over our two days of searching.

-Go right! CREW MEMBERS:

-Right!

Go right, Steve!

And they move so fast! You wouldn't believe that an animal of that

size could put on such a surge of pace and keep it up as well.

This is such hard work.

They are going like the clappers.

'It's all down to guesswork.

'Trying to predict which way they'll go

'and dropping in where we think they'll swim.'

This is definitely the group we want.

You can see all of the competitive behaviour from the males.

Slapping each other with their tails,

leaping practically on top of each other.

This is the heat run.

The action we've been searching for.

One single female being pursued by scores of fiery suitors.

Somehow, we have to drop in close enough to film but not

so close that we get tossed out of the water like rag dolls.

Once underwater, the scale of these mega beasts is revealed,

like runaway nuclear submarines.

From down here, it's clearer to see there are several determined males

all in pursuit of just one female.

This is an endurance race like no other.

They have the largest fins of any animal and use them

to batter their rivals.

This is when humpbacks really show their brutal side.

Whoa!

Their tail, too, becomes a mighty weapon.

It's been a titanic spectacle.

The strongest or most persistent will eventually get the girl,

but by then, they'll be miles away.

'And we've been as close as we'd ever want to be

'to these battling giants.'

That was what we've been waiting for.

I lost count of how many whales there were there.

Maybe six?

And the female just being gunned down by these outriders.

Some of them right up close to her, some of them drifting behind,

jostling for position.

But they were knocking absolute bells out of each other. It's...

It's mad. Crazy.

There is no doubt in my mind that these animals are deadly.

With drive and determination to find a mate...

..deceptive speed...

and surprising aggression,

a runaway humpback will stop at nothing.

'We're staying out at sea for our next mission.

'But this time, for a moonlight dance

'with one of nature's true devils.'

It's a very sinister thing, getting into the water when it's dark

and moody and spooky.

It feels like something you shouldn't be doing,

jumping into the sea at night.

Well, I'm down in the darkness, and I can't see anything as yet.

Though the water's quite clear,

you can see that it's filled with what looks like snow.

And most of this is actually tiny, tiny animals - plankton.

'And the creature we're looking for feasts on hundreds

'of thousands of these mini animals every day.'

I can already make out some strange shapes in the darkness!

Oh, my goodness!

Look at THAT!

I am utterly speechless!

I didn't expect anything like this!

Whoa!

Ha-ha-ha-ha!

These are manta rays.

What a phenomenal beast. And they're everywhere!

I thought we might see...

..four or five.

But there must be 30!

'These sinister-looking animals have been known as sea devils.

'They get this name from their horn-shaped head fins, which they

'use to funnel plankton into their cavernous mouths.'

And the mantas are feasting.

Oh, my goodness, it nearly took my head off!

And this isn't phytoplankton, it's not plants, it is zooplankton.

Tiny baby animals.

'Thousands of litres of sea water

'are driven through each manta's mouth each day.

'The plankton is then filtered through sponge-like tissues

'called gill rakers.'

And as they swim towards you,

you're gazing down into this vast open mouth...

..as it sucks up food.

It's extraordinary to think that an animal of this size

can feast on something this tiny.

Is there anything that looks more like an alien spaceship

on the planet?

If there is, I can't think of it.

They may be relatives of the sharks,

but they're utterly harmless to humans.

Mantas are social animals and have the largest brain of any fish.

They use their extended pectoral fins to flap,

fly and glide through the water.

It's one of the most hypnotic ways of getting about in nature.

It does seem to be a very easy, very energy-efficient way of moving.

They just fly through the water.

They're like an undersea version of Batman.

Every once in a while, they swim into you and they hit you.

And they have very much the same skin as their shark cousins.

One direction, it's very smooth, the other direction,

it's incredibly sandpaper rough.

And it feels like it's going to take all your skin off!

And I guess they're kind of like a flattened shark,

almost like a pancake version of one.

Ohhh! Ha-ha-ha-ha!

They kind of...swim towards you and you can't tell if they're

going to back out at the last second or not.

I've been clouted a few times.

But, I have to admit, I don't really mind.

This is brilliant! Ha-ha-ha-ha!

They are sucking up plankton in extraordinary amounts,

maybe 30 kilos a day.

If that isn't a display of predatory behaviour,

then I don't know what is.

And I think that makes them deadly.

Deadly and very, very beautiful.

Some mantas can reach 7m in wingspan.

With beautiful and efficient underwater flight,

hoovering up to 30kg of baby animals each day...

..mantas are giant, gentle gymnasts of the ocean.

But in Hawaii, it's not just animals that are deadly.

The very landscape can be, too.

Hawaii is a volcano hotspot, literally.

It's home to the largest and most active volcanoes on Earth.

This is nature's most powerful force.

Molten rock exploding from the depths of the Earth,

scalding, scorching, burning and vaporising everything in its path.

In terms of wielding destruction on a mighty scale,

volcanoes really have no equal.

They're probably the deadliest thing we've ever featured.

But to really appreciate how they work,

you need to get close enough to really feel the burn.

And there's a place up the coast where we can do just that.

Ohhh, wow!

That is unreal.

I've been working with deadly animals for most of my life,

and they don't really frighten me.

But there's something about this that really puts the hackles up

on the back of my neck.

Wo-o-o-ow!

There are very few places on the planet where you can see

something like this.

Lava pouring molten rock directly into the sea.

I mean, can you imagine how hot it has to be to melt rock,

to turn rock into liquid so it's like treacle?

'When the lava hits the ocean, the water instantly boils

'and sends up plumes of superheated steam into the air.'

Wow. 'It's likely that this is what it would've looked like

'at the birth of planet Earth.'

What we're looking at here is Hawaii being born.

This is new rock coming to life, forming the very island itself.

It is a true inferno.

It's one of the most exciting but possibly the most chilling

and overpowering things I think I've ever seen.

'All of Hawaii's islands were formed by volcanoes like this.'

Over millions of years, layers of lava from beneath the Earth's crust

have formed this island chain.

And it's still happening now.

Several miles inland is an active, erupting volcanic caldera.

But the only way to approach is by air.

On our way to the source, the lava's destructive power is clear.

Wow!

You can really see here where the trees meet this

morass of black rock.

There, it's alive. You can see the trees are singed and black.

But here, beneath me,

everything's been destroyed by this unstoppable river of lava.

The blackness, the devastation, just goes on for miles,

as far as the eye can see.

It's like flying over the surface of some alien planet.

That is stunning.

Ohhh!

You could see where all the molten rock is coming to the surface.

Can you get a shot of that, Luke?

You can see the perfect round crater where all of this molten rock

has come up from the hotspot beneath the crust

and has flown up to the surface.

From here, the lava is flowing in lava tubes,

almost like tunnels or caves, right down to the coast.

And I can feel the heat.

Even with the rotors above us blowing it away,

it's still coming up like a furnace towards us.

It's a magnificent sight, but really actually quite frightening.

OK, the next thing we want to do

is to land on some of this black pavement.

I want to really feel it beneath my toes.

We'll be taking great care where we walk,

but I'm hoping to find out quite how hot this lava really is.

It's kind of a strange sensation, walking along with the rock

underneath your foot crackling and popping.

It's almost like walking on rice crispies.

'Below my feet are new rocks made from cooled lava.

'It's hard, dark, moulded like cast-iron.

'But what we really want is some fresh, still liquid lava.

'This heat-sensitive camera will help us pinpoint where to head.

'The camera shows a river of lava on the horizon flowing just

'beneath the surface.

'The rocks might look black and cold, but on this screen,

'we can see that they're actually scorching.

'So hot that it's maxed out our camera at 550 degrees Centigrade.

'But I'm pretty sure the lava's hotter than that.'

We're definitely getting closer to our hotspot.

All of a sudden, I've just been hit by a wall of heat.

And there is our first explosion of lava.

Look at that, flooding out.

Now, somehow, I've got to figure out a way to get close enough to that

to measure out quite how hot it is.

And I'm guessing it's pretty hot.

I don't think I want to get any closer than this.

So this is a unique opportunity

to actually measure how hot this rock really is.

I've got here what is essentially a very, very expensive,

very, very tough thermometer.

So I'm going to go in, whack a hole in this hot lava here,

and just place the thermometer inside.

And Simon the sound recordist here is going to be standing

back at a safe distance to record how hot it is.

The only safety equipment I've really got is a pair of oven gloves.

And I have to be honest -

at the moment, it really doesn't feel like enough.

Pffft!

Erm, I am totally out of my comfort zone here!

I have to admit, I'm a bit scared! I've come over all completely wussy.

Erm, but I guess I should give it a go.

OK.

-Oh...

-Oh!

-Yeah.

-Right, that's really, really hot. Erm, right, come on, Backshall.

Agh!

Agh!

Have you got a reading?

Er, 29... Whoa! 106...

Arghhhh!

Did you see how hot that went?

Yeah, just, I mean... It was, like, 29 and it jumped up to over 1,000.

-Just went "boom".

-Wow.

So 1,136 degrees C is pretty intense,

but it's very difficult to get your head around quite how hot that is.

Luckily, I do have a way of putting it into real familiar human terms.

We're going to make toast.

Can anyone see? Is it going brown?

Yeah, that's definitely the one side done.

Aghhhh!

Hey! It's on fire, and I'm on fire!

Ow!

Well...it's a little bit overdone.

I don't usually have my toast quite that charred.

Still tastes pretty good, though.

Hawaii has one of the most active volcanoes on Earth,

reaching temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Centigrade

and lava flows that tear across the landscape.

The volcanoes of Hawaii are a true destructive force.

Join me next time as I continue my journey on Deadly Pole To Pole.