Hawaii Deadly on a Mission: Pole to Pole

This is Hawaii, an isolated island chain battered by Pacific waves

where even the land and the sea itself seem to be deadly!

My name's Steve Backshall.

Whoa!

'And I'm on a mission, searching for...'

Deadly places, deadly adventures,

and deadly animals.

Oy...!

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

Arghhhh!

'As our pole-to-pole quest heads south,

'we dance with a devil in dark night seas.'

Look at that!

'Find a near-invisible high-speed hunter.'

Yes...!

'And feel the burn of the planet's most lethal force.'

Aaaagh!

'From Mexico, the expedition has tacked west,

'to islands forged in the furnace of volcanism. Hawaii.

'This is 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 dominated and shaped by the sea -

'so that's where our adventure begins.

'We're in search of a species of shark that has, so far,

'managed to elude me.

'A true open-sea wanderer.

'The oceanic white tip.'

The oceanic white tip is a deep-sea shark.

It's what's known as a pelagic fish, one that sticks to the open ocean.

'But Hawaii has some of the biggest waves on Earth.

'So, it's sunscreen and seasickness tablets all round.'

It's a very, very big ocean.

Well, the Pacific's the largest ocean in the world,

and we're looking for one, just one, solitary shark.

This is going to be so hard.

'To find the oceanic white tips,

'first we have to find pilot whales,

'as the sharks are known to follow them.'

They're moving in this direction, and if there is a shark

it's going to be behind them, tailing them over in that direction.

-Steve, go!

-Yeah, OK.

'To find prey like squid,

'the pilots dive down into the eternally dark depths

'on a single breath.

'Oceanic white tip sharks often tail them,

'hoping to pick up bits of squid the whales leave behind.

'They also prize pilot whale poo.

'Diving in with them is our best chance -

'but as we search the blue behind them, there's no sign of a shark.'

So we got our first glimpse of pilot whales.

They are absolutely gunning it, they're moving at tremendous speed.

'This is going to be really hard work.

'Over the next two days we drop in alongside dozens of pilot whales,

'without any sign of a shark.

'At least a part of the problem

'is that numbers of these sharks are in serious decline.'

Sharks all over the world are in trouble,

but oceanic white tips are probably the species that's most vulnerable.

In this part of the ocean, as much as 70% of their numbers

have disappeared, due entirely to human fishing and hunting.

So much sea to search, so few sharks,

and with weather like this,

really our chances are very, very slim.

'Maybe this was a challenge too far.'

It's our final day, and we've got our weather window.

The sea is much flatter, much more calm.

I think everyone's feeling very optimistic.

We are not giving up until we absolutely have to.

Fingers crossed!

'With the sea flat calm,

'it's much easier to see fins breaking the water.'

Pilot whales, we have a pod of pilot whales.

'One last chance.

'If there is an oceanic white tip here,

'we need to be very careful.

'Sharks very rarely attack humans -

'but this species is considered to be one of the few

'that can be genuinely dangerous.'

'Behind them, nothing. And the last day's near done.

'But then, suddenly...'

Round the other side! On the other side!

Shark on the other side.

Well, I've spotted a shark, I think, but...

'It's a dark silhouette that isn't a pilot whale.'

We have a shark!

Our first oceanic white tip!

'We're buzzing with excitement, but need to keep our cool.

'The huge white-tipped pectoral fins are like wings,

'helping it soar through the water.'

Two! There's two of them!

'The pilot whales are long gone.

'They're now hanging around to see if we could be food.

'These sharks are cousins of the great white shark.

'In fact, they used to be known as the lesser white shark.

'They're much more inquisitive than their notorious cousins.

'We can't afford to take our eyes off them for even a second.

'In the open ocean, food is scarce.

'These sharks may have to fast for many weeks.

'So, whenever they find something that might be edible,

'they're hard-wired to give it a try.'

She seems really interested in the cameras,

and she's just testing them out, seeing if they might be good to eat.

They have to do it with their teeth and with their snout.

'This shark has taken time out of hunting to interact with us,

'so I want to make sure she doesn't leave hungry.

'And those are some of the sharpest, most serrated teeth

'in any shark's mighty mouth.'

This has been an absolutely extraordinary experience.

We really had to work for it.

This critically endangered, unbelievably beautiful animal

of the deep open sea

is, without doubt, deadly.

'After sunset, we prepare our kit for a dive with a devil of the deep.

'These giants come together to feed in the black night waters.'

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.

'Zooplankton is made up of tiny swimming creatures,

'and the young of much larger marine animals.

'Our target feeds on hundreds of thousands of these every day.'

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

Oh, my goodness!

Look at THAT!

I am utterly speechless!

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!

'Mantas are also known as devil fish, or sea devils.

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

'which they use to funnel plankton into their cavernous gullets.'

The mantas are feasting!

And as they swim towards you,

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

as it sucks up food.

Oh, my goodness... It nearly took my head off!

'Thousands of litres of sea water

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

'The plankton's then filtered through sponge-like tissues

'called gill rakers.'

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

It is zooplankton.

Tiny baby animals.

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

can feast on something this tiny.

Ohhh.. Ha-ha-ha!

I'm being clouted a few times.

Though I have to admit I don't really mind. This is brilliant!

HE LAUGHS

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.

It'd be very tempting for me to spend

all of my time in Hawaii out at sea,

but there's one extraordinary inland predator that's so unique

I simply couldn't miss it.

'To find it, we're leaving Kona Island

'and heading north to the smaller island of Maui.

'After big waves and sharks,

'Hawaii's damp forests might look a little tame.'

But don't be fooled. There is a hidden killer lurking here.

But it's so fast and so good at not being seen,

that I probably won't even be able to see it with my naked eye.

'It's cryptic, camouflaged -

'I could be staring at one right now and not know it.'

I could be here for a while.

Right, come on, Backshall.

'I didn't think it would be this hard!

'There must be hundreds of them here.'

Every single place you look

starts to turn into what you're searching for.

It completely messes with your mind.

Yes!

Got one.

It's so brilliant.

Honestly, I could've been staring at this plant for ages and not seen it.

Lying along the edge of this leaf here,

lying perfectly flush with it and exactly the same colour

is a caterpillar.

And believe it or not, this is what I'm considering as our next

Deadly contender.

But our normal camera I don't really think's going to cut it.

'Instead, we're going to use a slow-motion camera.

'Without it, the split-second strike would be as good as invisible.

'Caterpillars of the 150-odd species of moth and butterfly

'feed on plants.

'Except this one.

'This is Eupithecia.

'It may be that because Hawaii is so isolated

'with so few ants and wasps,

'that this caterpillar has evolved to take their predatory place.

'It's evolved a taste for blood.

'They don't eat plants at all - just insects -

'and that's what we want to try and film.'

Now, the way it catches its prey is very, very special indeed.

We could wait here for hours just hoping that a tiny little cricket

or something comes past. It's probably not going to happen,

so instead I've got this.

It's a little stick with an eyelash glued to the end of it.

And what I'm going to try and do is trigger the predatory response

of this caterpillar.

Wham! That was instantaneous.

'The camera can play the moment back eight times slower than real life.

'Step two is to see this mini-beast catching real food.'

Yes! That is just fabulous!

Ah!

Ohhhh!

-It's brutal.

-That is so quick.

-Yeah.

'The caterpillar's strike is triggered

'when prey wander too close to their tail end.

'Their pincer-sharp legs raise into the air,

'forming a stabbing basket which envelops the bug

'in a lethal embrace.

'It's all over in a tenth of a second,

'faster than the blink of an eye.'

Well, I have to say it may be tiny, it may be almost invisible

but this carnivorous caterpillar is utterly unique,

and, without a doubt, deadly.

We're heading back out into the waves

for one final Hawaiian water quest.

Our mission, to find an open ocean giant - the humpback whale.

One of the largest creatures on the planet,

they're normally gentle giants.

But at this time of year around Hawaii,

the males show their dark sides.

Hundreds of them have travelled

halfway across the globe to find a mate.

But there's no gentle flirting in humpback courtship.

This is the heat run,

a dramatic, dynamic battle to breed.

'Our aim is to film a group of gladiatorial whales

'both above and below the surface.

'And not get swatted like flies.

'The second we set to sea, the whales are everywhere.'

Ohh! Wow!

'And they are flexing their mighty muscles.'

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.

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

And it's probably a sign of aggression.

'It's a clarion call to arms,

'drawing in combatants for the battle ahead.'

Imagine the force and speed it must take

to drive an animal like that out of the water.

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.

Oh!

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

different from everything we've seen before.

'Normally, whales are careful not to hit a human nearby.

'But these are consumed - intent on breeding.

'A clout from a humpback tail would be catastrophic.

'We need to predict where they'll thunder past

'and be close enough to film

'but not so close that we are in actual danger.

'It's a lethal lottery.'

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.

'The action we've been searching for.

'One single female being pursued by scores of fiery suitors.

'Once underwater, the scale of these humpbacks becomes clear.'

There are half a dozen determined males

all in pursuit of just one female.

All she can do is flee.

They have the largest fins of any animal and males use them

to batter their rivals.

This is when humpbacks really show their brutal side.

Whoa!

Their tail is used to bludgeon their rivals

with a force that would splinter our boat.

The strongest or most persistent

will eventually secure the right to mate.

The rival suitors may have to wait

till next year for another chance.

That was what we've been waiting for.

I lost count of how many whales there were there.

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.

With drive and determination to find a mate...

deceptive speed and surprising aggression,

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

The islands of Hawaii are the tips of giant volcanic peaks,

rising straight up from the Pacific sea bed.

It's a volcano hotspot,

and home to the largest and most active volcanoes on Earth.

Here, nature itself can be deadly.

Molten rock exploding from the depths of the Earth,

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

In some places, it even pours straight into the ocean.

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

'and sends up plumes of superheated steam.'

There are very few places on the planet

where you can see something like this.

Lava pouring molten rock directly into the sea.

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

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

Hawaii is geologically newborn.

Lava-fuelled sea mounts that have sprung up over this

mid-Pacific volcanic hot spot. And the process continues today.

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.

But here, beneath me,

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

Ohhh!

You can see the perfect round crater

where all of this molten rock

has come up from the hotspot beneath the crust

and has flowed up to the surface.

And I can feel the heat,

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.

'We'll be taking great care where we walk,

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

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

'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.

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.

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.

Reaching temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Centigrade,

with lava flows that can create worlds

and then just as quickly destroy them,

volcanoes are an unstoppable deadly force of nature.

Having experienced the ultimate force of our planet, our

expedition is now going to the other side of the American continent...

..to the Caribbean...

for dangling cave serpents,

to analyse the anatomy of a shark bite...

and to swim with crocodiles.