Food Glorious Food Barney's Barrier Reef

Australia, home of the possum, surfer dudes, strange lingo,

lots of sunshine and the bonza barrier reef!

It's the biggest, most spectacular coral reef in the world.

What's more, every creature is linked to another.

Just imagine one, huge family tree dating back 18 million years.

From the miniscule to the mammoth, to the miraculous.

They're all connected, in Barney's Barrier Reef!

Imagine living in one great, big food hall, where food...

is around every corner.

Thank you.

Where you can eat out all day, every day.

Thank you.

The reef feeds on itself 24 hours a day. From veggies...

..To meat-eaters.

Solitary diners...

..To pack hunters.

All sea creatures hungrily line-up for this ocean banquet.

It's one noshtastic place. Lovely.

Food, glorious food.

Nice, in Barney's Barrier Reef!

These are corals, the big daddys of the reef,

trying to feed their sun addiction.

Yes, corals are strange.

They're animals, but they feed mainly using the sun, like plants.

-They're helped out by their little friend, zooxanthellae.

-The what now?

OK, here's the science bit.

Listen and learn.

Zooxanthellae are tiny plants.

Ah, OK. How tiny, Dr Barnacles?

Very tiny. In fact, there are one million zooxanthellae

per square centimetre of coral tissue.

That's about the size of your finger nail.

Wow! That's ridiculously tiny.

Zooxanthellae take in energy from the sun

and convert the sunlight into sugars which the corals absorb.

So that's why these big boy corals stretch out like

tourists on an overcrowded beach.

Wow! That's some monster coral.

That one's table coral. Corals are surprisingly competitive -

pushing each other out of the way, trying to get the best sun spot.

-Oh, these white ones are weird.

-Yeah, these poor corals are ill.

They're suffering from coral bleaching,

because the water got too warm for the zooxanthellae

to stay inside the coral tissue.

They need the zooxanthellae to grow and be healthy.

Hang on, if they need sunlight to eat, then what do they do at night?

At night, the corals turn into meat eaters. They use their tentacles

-to sting tiny passing animals before gobbling them up.

-Weird!

So they're like meat-eaters at night and sun-aterians during the day!

So who's our next ocean nosher?

Wow, now that's a clam. A bit bigger than the ones you see in Brighton.

That's because they're giant clams.

Giant clams!

You could disappear in that big boy.

Well, almost. They can weigh up to 227 kilogrammes.

Wow, that's like 2.5 Barney's and a Gemma!

Clams also feed using those zooxan-whatsits.

-It's called zooxanthellae.

-OK, I'm gonna call them zoes.

They're also competing to get the best spot in the sun

so their zoes can feed them through their skin.

But just in case they miss out on any nosh, they also feed on small animals

and plants known as plankton.

-Like little ocean snacks?

-Yeah, and they do this by passing water through

one hole and out through another.

So they eat through their skin and also through a separate hole.

That's well greedy.

I guess it is but that's why they're GIANT clams!

And why they live for over 70 years.

Maybe the secret to a long life is sunlight and plankton.

So coral should live for ages too, then.

Yeah, because they both eat lots through sunlight and zooxanthellae.

-That's a giant bat fish.

-They may look like bats swimming

-through the water, but they're called manta rays.

-Good morning.

They swim quite gracefully.

They're one of the biggest animals in the ocean.

They can grow up to 7.5 metres!

That's four and a bit Barneys! 1, 2, 3, 4, bit.

-My, Manta, what a big mouth you have.

-All the better to eat and eat!

In fact, they're constantly eating.

Their wide mouth filters as much water as possible.

We can't see them eating anything. Those fish got away lightly.

Well, this is weird - they're the biggest of all the ray family

and one of the biggest animals in the ocean.

But, they eat the smallest animals.

-What?

-They eat plankton, which is...

about a billion times smaller than the average manta ray!

A billion, that's weird. That's like me eating sesame seeds to survive!

-How come they're so big?

-Well, they eat loads and loads.

Those flaps are designed to funnel the water into the mouth

so they can filter the plankton out.

They make look amazing, but they're just eating machines.

Nice life, eh? Clams and manta rays have a huge appetite for plankton,

those tiny ocean nibbles.

And weirdly, they both grow massive and live a long life.

So plankton connects the clam and manta ray.

-A spotty whale!

-The appearance of said mammal

may suggest whale, but I'd like to introduce the whale shark.

Is it a whale or a shark?

Please enlighten me, Dr Barnacles.

It's a shark that has been named a whale shark, cos although it looks

like a whale, it's actually a shark. And rather confusingly,

despite being a shark, it has the personality of a whale.

The personality of a whale?

-What's that?

-I'll take over now, Dr Barnacles.

Whale sharks are pretty chilled animals.

They're quite shy and rarely come to the surface.

When they do, it's to eat.

What do they eat? Turtles? Fish?

Humans?

No, no. These guys are gentle giants. They eat plankton.

This plankton stuff must be really good.

If you thought the manta eating plankton was weird,

this is triply weird.

Whale sharks are huge.

They can grow up to 20 metres long and weigh 34 tonnes.

They even have bigger mouths than the manta ray.

34 tonnes!

That's as big as a massive truck, and they eat something microscopic!

Their spots are unique to each animal. A bit like fingerprints.

If you have an ocean line up, each one could be identified separately.

Manta rays and whale sharks are the biggest eaters in their class.

The manta eats the most in the ray family,

the whale shark in the shark family.

They're connected because they're both gigantic plankton gobblers.

From the biggest gobs... to the smallest tooters.

Butterflyfish may look colourful and cute but

they're more than just pretty.

They're up there with the greediest gobs.

Their little pipe mouth allows them to suck up the tastiest snack in the

-reef, the coral polyps.

-They're like the caviar of the reef.

Even if they do look a little... strange. Like an upsidedown jellyfish

living in a tea cup with its mouth at the top, surrounded by tentacles.

And the butterflyfish pretty much have the polyps all to themselves,

as other fish with bigger mouths can't get into them.

Their bristly teeth allow them to get into the juicy bits.

They also eat parasites - nasty, bloodsucker things

that cause fish to be ill.

So they have a taste for caviar and parasites. Lucky for the fish, eh?

Not so lucky for the caviar polyps.

It's no wonder some butterflyfish live to be 35 years old.

Wow, 35 - that's long in fish years. Like us living to 400 years old!

They're called butterflyfish because they flutter round the coral

looking for juicy polyps. A bit like butterflies fluttering around

-flowers feeding on tasty nectar.

-They may have the smallest chops

in the ocean, but they're just as greedy as whale sharks.

Who's our next ocean nosher?

It's the amazing swimming fish display.

"And to the left and to the right."

These are called plankton-eating tuna.

They're putting on a delightful display.

It's a bit like line dancing, or those airplane displays.

Their talents don't stop there.

# Ahhhh-h-h-h... #

If only Simon Cowell could see them he'd sign them on the spot.

# Eee-ee-ee-ee-eee... #

Actually they may look like they're putting on a talent show,

but they're opening their mouths wide to eat as much as possible.

So we have another greedy guzzler!

-Yep. They catch their plankton using formation dancing.

-Plankton again -

I feel like I'm missing out!

It's their way of driving plankton into their rather large gobs.

Crafty!

So the whale shark and plankton-eating tuna must be linked

-by their big appetite.

-They're connected by their big gobs.

There's plenty of tasty stuff to eat in the ocean. If you like plankton.

From the Zoo-thingummyjigs to performing tuna,

let's run through our connections.

First, the crowding coral used the zooxanthellae to

convert the sun's energy into sugar.

That's good.

It gives them their daily food fix.

Like the giant carnivorous clams, who use the zoes as well,

but also have a taste for plankton.

The tasty plankton also feeds the massive mouths of the manta

and the strange-but-true whale shark.

From the largest mouths to the smallest, with the butterflyfish.

# Like the singing and dancing plankton-eating tuna... #

who make a meal out of getting their dose of dinner.

Who's our next ocean chomper?

Meet the fairy basslets.

It's like a reef aquarium!

The fairy basslets are like the goldfish of the reef.

Very common but also very pretty, and they come in lots of colours.

-Not to mention there are loads of them.

-They hang out in schools.

Most of them are female.

All basslets are born female and turn into male later on in life.

-They get the best of both worlds!

-Hmm, if you say so!

The males are purple and the females are orange.

They don't look greedy - they're tiny!

These gals are team feeders.

They form a wall so they can gulp the plankton as it passes.

You're kidding. They eat plankton? I'd never have guessed(!)

It's amazing how so many species rely on food that's microscopic.

The plankton-eating tuna and

fairy basslet fish both eat the apparently delicious ocean plankton.

Look, it's like a fish lightsabre!

Now it's raining fish.

This is a silverside baitfish ball.

Lots of little fish that move in synch, making flashes of light.

They get together to nosh on plankton.

All that, caused by fish half the length of a pencil!

Their silver colour and fast swimming create these

amazing silver flashes and patterns,

and more importantly, help to confuse their predators.

-Who are...?

-The mackerel mob.

-They'll never catch the baitfish -

they look like they can swim faster than the speed of light.

Mackerel are some of the fastest fish in the ocean. They can swim

between five and 18 body lengths per second in short bursts.

That's like a person swimming 100 metres in 5.5 seconds -

eight times faster than the Olympic record.

-That's superpower.

-Mackerel need this swimming skill

to catch their food and escape their predators.

Their silvery bodies and super speed help prevent them becoming

dinner for hungry whales or sharks.

The plankton is being eaten by the baitfish. The baitfish is eaten by

the mackerel and the mackerel has to keep an eye out for a shark.

All in the same part of the ocean!

It's like they dine at the same restaurant but off different menus.

One eats the food and the other eats...the other diners.

The connection between fairy basslet and mackerel

is that a wall of mouths is their favourite place to dine.

Who else is linked to the fairy basslet?

Try to guess the name of this next fish.

Pink wobble fish? Rocking pink fish?

I'll give you a clue. "Rooa-a-a-ar!"

Rhinoceros fish!

Close. These are rhinopias fish.

I can see the resemblance.

Although, I have never seen a pink rhino.

He might be wondering what those blue/green fish taste like.

You'll have to move fast to catch one!

How did he do that?!

-His rocking was just a ploy?

-Kind of.

His jaw is hinged. It folds in nicely when his mouth is closed, but can be

thrown a long way from his body, allowing them to suck up the fish.

His eyes are bigger than his belly!

He might have a fish in his throat!

Like a frog, but it's a fish!

Definitely time to move on.

So the rhinopias is a suction sucker. They use their jaws to suck in their

food, like the fairy basslets.

Even if they can't fit their meal in their mouth.

Suction links the fairy basslets

and rhinopias fish.

Ah, two little cardinal fish playing in the reef.

Er, one little fish wondering how to escape.

Let me introduce the stupendous swallowing stonefish.

He is not the best looking or the fastest in the reef, but he has

one specialist skill.

He is crafty. He lies in wait and gobbles up unsuspecting fish.

He settles down next to a rock...

Or stone - he is a stonefish.

-Even his eyes are camouflaged.

-He has telescope eyes on top of his head.

He can bury himself in the sand.

He is so quick, they haven't got a chance.

When it comes to eating, Stoney is super-fast, but hardly

moves the rest of the time. When he does, he is not exactly streamlined.

So how do they move so fast at lunchtime?

They have amazing suction power.

Their chances of missing are pretty slim.

He gets to eat what he wants, when he wants, thanks to his stone-like looks

and super suction mouth.

He is a stealthy hunter who does not have to move far to eat,

a bit like the rhinopias, who can dine on whoever he wants.

So our rhinopias is

linked to our stonefish because they both have expandable jaws.

Cool, who's next?

My, Grandma, what wonderful, deadly, venomous locks you have.

All the better to sting you with!

Sharks, crocs, sea snakes, I can handle those guys,

but this geezer I cannot.

Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Yep - the box jelly fish.

It would only take one of his 5 billion stinging cells to lay you

out. Imagine if you got wrapped in those tentacles!

What kind of animal lets everyone see what he's eating?

It's not that he wants us to see him eating breakfast, but a

box jelly fish is see-through because that's the best way of sneaking up

on food without being noticed.

The fish goes into its mouth, then to the stomach where it is processed.

What do you mean, "processed"?

It breaks down the food into a kind of half-eaten broth

which it then sends down to its tentacles and finishes digesting.

Ew! Most animals, including us, use their stomach to digest. Not him.

No wonder he has such long, flowing tentacle locks.

The stonefish and box jelly are linked because they both stealthily

hunt down their favourite foods.

These are some of the best lookers in the ocean - bright, colourful

and graceful, like pretty flowers.

But they are called anemones, living animals who set up camp on coral

and rock.

They may look pretty at first, but this character is an extreme anemone.

You would not want to sniff this pretty flower!

Its tentacles are filled with deadly venom.

As this fish is about to find out!

These gluttons hardly move.

They don't have to.

They stop passing fish with their pretty but deadly tentacles.

The fish get swallowed whole!

Now you see it, now you don't.

What's more, and anemone's mouth doubles up as a bottom!

They eat prey whole through their hole!

Hee-hee! Whole through their hole!

They are real greedy bloaters.

They sit all day and gobble up whatever floats past.

If they fancy a light snack they nibble on plankton and tiddlers.

So anemones are not fussy eaters.

They will demolish anything through their bottom.

It's another case of venomous tentacles.

The box jelly and anemone are connected because they bring home

fish for tea thanks to their tentacles.

Food, glorious food! Time for a Reef Cap.

The wall-feeding, plankton-chomping fairy basslets

are linked to the rhinopias, as both of them use suction to suck up food.

Mackerel are also linked to fairy basslets because they

all eat in the same ocean diner, but on different menus.

The rhinopias and stonefish both have expandable jaws.

Stonefish are linked to the box jelly through their sly hunting style.

The box jelly and anemone both like to fish fish with their tentacles.

Look at this little shrimp, how cute?!

He is the harlequin shrimp,

but I call him Jeff, the court jester shrimp.

-with his funny outfit.

-He's playing with a starfish!

I don't think so. He's actually eating the starfish!

Don't be ridiculous! A shrimp can't eat a starfish.

Look how big it is!

Now it is your turn to learn not to judge by appearances.

Mr cutie-pie shrimp is a starfish killer.

Hasn't he bitten off more than he can chew?

No, he can handle this, even though it is three times his size.

His legs are like sharp scissors or needles designed to unpick

the starfish - a bit like unpicking thread.

Look at him go - he really has that down to a fine art.

I'm beginning to feel sorry for the starfish.

To be eaten is bad enough, but to be eaten by something three times

smaller than you is humiliating!

It would be like me eating a small cow on my own!

He obviously can't eat the starfish all at once

so has a trick up his sleeve to help his lunch stay fresh for longer.

He does not kill it, he just nibbles

at it so it stays alive, sometimes for weeks.

He's eating him while the dude is alive! That is super-duper gross!

Although the starfish doesn't seem too bothered by

the fact the shrimp is picking him to bits.

Nothing like a fresh seafood meal - for weeks on end.

The harlequin shrimp eats something three times his size

and the anemone eats fish and anything else he can gobble up.

So the link between shrimp and anemone is monster appetite.

It's an ocean hedgehog, but not as exciting!

You always think slow means dull.

-Not necessarily true.

-Yes, true! Slow, dull. Fast, fun.

Exterminate, exterminate! It's a Dalek! I love that kind of stuff.

As ever, there is a lot more to this spiky creature than meets the eye.

He might look like a ball of spikes but each one has a purpose.

Other than being pointy and sharp?

The long, pointy ones are sometimes toxic and for self-defence.

The shorter spines help the urchin walk and protect itself.

Then there are the pincer ones with a claw at the end, which the urchin

uses for removing things from its body, like this green algae.

That's all very interesting, but what

does this have to do with eating?

-Look at this.

-Are those teeth?

-Yep.

-And where are they?

Underneath the urchin in this strange mouth, in the centre of its body.

-It has five teeth.

-They're like human teeth on a sea urchin!

They allow the urchin to scrape algae off rocks as they are moving.

They nosh on the move - no wonder they move so slowly!

Their weird, human-like teeth are sharp tools to help them nosh

on algae to their heart's content,

just like the harlequin shrimp uses its sharp legs.

The harlequin shrimp and sea urchin both use sharp implements to cut,

-scrape and gobble up food.

-Like having in-built knives and forks.

What is this, the fish with human mouth show?

He has a mouth like a person!

He has a human mouth, but needs a good check-up.

Although, those bottom gnashers look super sharp.

-All the better to...eat sand with?

-This is the titan triggerfish.

He looks like he's eating sand,

but look again. He is flapping his fins to fluff away the sand.

He's on the search for tasty worms or morsels hiding away.

And now he's eating rock?

That's coral rubble - he's not eating it, although he might

accidentally swallow a bit.

He is moving bits of rubble to look for food.

No wonder Jaws had so many fishy friends!

They're looking for any crumbs he might leave behind.

After a hard day's work, it's nice for the toothy triggerfish to curl

up next to the cleaner shrimp, who might clean his pearly whites!

So our toothy triggerfish is linked to our toothy sea urchin as they

both have weird, human-like mouths and teeth.

Teeth connect the urchin and titan triggerfish.

Who else is linked to the urchin?

Yeah, nice, chilled music.

Perfect for this island vibe.

But these guys are a little too chilled!

-They look like balls of weed.

-Smack! You are looking at a smack!

-You might want to elaborate.

-These guys are upside-down jellyfish,

known together as a smack of jellyfish.

Jellyfish? They look like sea plants or anemones.

Not all jellyfish are deadly killers like the box jelly fish.

But these guys do have a trick up their tentacles - they can

release stinging cells into the water and sting you without touching you!

Like their own stinging ray gun!

They're not deadly like the box jelly, but they are as greedy.

And they're sun worshippers, like the coral.

I bet the zooxanthellae is hiding somewhere!

They have zoes in their tentacles.

They help to transform sunlight into sugar through the syn's rays.

This is why they live upside-down and in shallow water,

to get the maximum sun time.

So they just bask in the sun and eat at the same time?

They don't even have to move. What a nice life!

Smack - quite an aggressive name for such chilled animals.

So the sea urchin and upside-down jellyfish

both get energy from algae through the zoes.

And the upside-down jellyfish also connects back to the

coral through their mutual friend, the zooxanthellae.

What a banquet!

Let's go for one final Reef Cap of our ocean noshers.

We started with the sun-loving corals and their friends, the zooxanthellae.

-At last!

-I knew it all along it, I was saving it!

The corals link to giant clams, with their

big appetite, as they filter plankton with the zooxanthellae.

-Plankton is our plat du jour, dish of the day.

-I don't want it!

The mantas also munch on it, despite their huge mouths,

just like the gargantuan whale shark.

From the largest mouths to the smallest, with the coral guzzling

butterfly fish, and plankton is on the menu for plankton-eating tuna.

-They eat in schools like the fairy basslets.

-Supreme suction power!

But for best in show, it has to be the mackerel and bait ball gang,

all dining at the same restaurant using their wall of mouths,

-like the fairy basslets...

-Who are also linked to the rhinopias.

-Looks like a rhino, sucks like a vacuum cleaner.

-.

Talking about suction, what about the stealthy stonefish?

One gulp, and his dinner has disappeared.

At least it is a quick death for the fish, unlike this fellow who has been

sucked up by the sly box jelly fish.

Could be worse - imagine being eaten by a bottom mouth!

The pretty anemone seems to have a bottomless gut.

For pure greed, no one beats

the harlequin shrimp - pretty in pink but he can eat for Australia.

And no one can beat the creepy central mouth of the sea urchin.

Which has teeth like a human and the

toothy titan triggerfish. Chomping on the rocks to nosh algae is no problem

for this geezer.

The upside-down jellyfish also likes algae, but basks in the sun and

waits for the zooxanthellae to turn sunlight into something more tasty.

That links to our first greedy guts, the coral.

What a feast!

Ocean chompers know how to dine in style.

Which reminds me, it's your turn to wash up!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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