0:00:03 > 0:00:05Scotland...
0:00:05 > 0:00:08a paradise for wildlife
0:00:08 > 0:00:10and a cameraman's dream.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18This country, with its rugged mountains and endless coastline,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21has produced a generation
0:00:21 > 0:00:23of the best wildlife cameramen in the world.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31For decades, five filmmakers, all rooted in Scotland,
0:00:31 > 0:00:35have travelled the globe to bring home incredible images,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38shaping our understanding of the natural world.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43How did these men learn the incredible skills
0:00:43 > 0:00:46needed for catching the natural world in action?
0:00:47 > 0:00:50What is it that prepared them for travelling the globe
0:00:50 > 0:00:54and enduring the toughest of environments?
0:00:57 > 0:01:00In this series, these five cameramen
0:01:00 > 0:01:02will share their extraordinary stories
0:01:02 > 0:01:04and the secrets of their trade.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06Secrets often learned from filming wildlife
0:01:06 > 0:01:09in the wildest parts of Scotland.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14But this time the camera is on them.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33The seas and oceans cover
0:01:33 > 0:01:36almost three quarters of the Earth's surface.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48But until recently the underwater world was a mysterious place -
0:01:48 > 0:01:51little understood and only rarely visited.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55Two remarkable Scots have helped change
0:01:55 > 0:01:58our understanding of the deep -
0:01:58 > 0:02:00Doug Anderson...
0:02:00 > 0:02:02Oh, it's moments like that we do the job for!
0:02:04 > 0:02:05..and Doug Allan...
0:02:05 > 0:02:07That was just magic!
0:02:09 > 0:02:13Between them they have captured some of the most awe-inspiring
0:02:13 > 0:02:17images of ocean life to have ever appeared on television.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35Filming wildlife underwater is a highly-specialised job.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39Whether the subject is a tiny fish or a baby sperm whale,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43it's a very different experience from filming animals on the surface.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45WHALE CLICKS
0:02:45 > 0:02:49Underwater wildlife is all about getting close to your subject.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52You have to be able to follow them, you have to be able to work
0:02:52 > 0:02:56close to them, so that needs a whole different set of almost
0:02:56 > 0:03:01body language field skills around your animal than you do
0:03:01 > 0:03:05topside, where you can stand away, or you can hide and where you often
0:03:05 > 0:03:08use a long lens to, you know, to get big close-ups of your animals.
0:03:08 > 0:03:13So, underwater wildlife is very different from topside wildlife.
0:03:17 > 0:03:18Filming underwater means that
0:03:18 > 0:03:21a cameraman is completely exposed to danger.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25And filming certain species like oceanic white tip sharks can
0:03:25 > 0:03:28therefore be a hazardous business.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35When Doug Anderson set out to film these three-metre long predators
0:03:35 > 0:03:39for Planet Earth, he had never been in the water with them before.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42But he had an idea what they might be like.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45I roughly think of them like little dogs you know.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47And some little dogs are nice little dogs
0:03:47 > 0:03:50and some little dogs are nasty little dogs!
0:03:50 > 0:03:55Doug and the crew faced a real challenge in trying to locate
0:03:55 > 0:03:59these open-water wanderers in the vast expanse of the ocean.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Time to throw the little dogs a bone.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06What we've done is we've set up a chum line, which is basically
0:04:06 > 0:04:10a case of hanging like an onion bag full of the most disgusting
0:04:10 > 0:04:12offal that you can think of - the stuff that they couldn't even face
0:04:12 > 0:04:17putting into Turkey Twizzlers - and waiting for some sharks to turn up.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22It took us a long time to find those guys.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25And when we found them, there was
0:04:25 > 0:04:29a part of me that wished it would stop quite quickly, you know.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33White tips are known man-eaters...
0:04:33 > 0:04:35Oh, he's huge!
0:04:35 > 0:04:39..notorious for attacking torpedoed sailors in the Second World War.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47'In the water they are flighty and unpredictable.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52'They can switch from being quite chilled out
0:04:52 > 0:04:55'to really hot and aggressive and bumpy.
0:04:55 > 0:04:56'They like to give you a nudge'
0:04:56 > 0:04:58and then give you another nudge and give you another nudge
0:04:58 > 0:05:00and they're sort of pushing you.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05Each nudge just takes you to the next level of awareness.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12A part of the trick with filming a shot like that in the open ocean
0:05:12 > 0:05:16is keeping yourself down so you can get the photography right.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27They're much easier to film when there's just one or two of them,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30cos you can kind of keep an eye on them, whereas with three,
0:05:30 > 0:05:31you're constantly counting.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34It's like having three kids in the supermarket, you know, you're like,
0:05:34 > 0:05:38"One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two... Aaaargh!" You know?
0:05:39 > 0:05:43You turn around and, nine times out of ten, the third one is just
0:05:43 > 0:05:45right on your shoulder blades.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49When things do change, when you get that shift in behaviour,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53then you need to be out of there and the filming needs to stop
0:05:53 > 0:05:56and that's the balance.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03Amazing!
0:06:03 > 0:06:04Totally amazing!
0:06:18 > 0:06:21In his career as an underwater wildlife cameraman,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24Doug Anderson has travelled the world,
0:06:24 > 0:06:28from the blue waters of the tropics to the ice floes of the poles.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31But there's one place
0:06:31 > 0:06:34that means more to him and his family than any other,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38the Isle of Arran on the west coast of Scotland.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40'Arran's where I came as a child,
0:06:40 > 0:06:44'it's where I had my first experiences with the ocean.'
0:06:44 > 0:06:47My dad made me a wet suit when I was about eight years old.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51'It was ill-fitting and cold, but got it on, a couple of sessions,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55'and, you know, sort of, I was away. It's what I did when I came here.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58'Those first moments, I think, that people have with the ocean,'
0:06:58 > 0:07:02wherever it is, are formative, and it's immediate.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10'For me, it was putting on a half mask and putting my head underwater.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12'It was a really important moment for me,
0:07:12 > 0:07:16'and it's something that I've carried on into the rest of my life.'
0:07:18 > 0:07:22For Doug, snorkelling was just the first step
0:07:22 > 0:07:25towards exploring the underwater world.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28He was soon learning how to dive.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30Today, he's back in Arran,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33visiting the man who took him on his first diving trips,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36his uncle, Don MacNeish.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40Taking anybody for their first dive is...
0:07:40 > 0:07:43like a rite of passage, basically.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47And I turned to you and said, "Well, what did you think of that, Doug?"
0:07:47 > 0:07:50And, you know, "Yeah, it was all right."
0:07:50 > 0:07:52HE LAUGHS
0:07:52 > 0:07:56Then just a little smile at the side of his face appeared,
0:07:56 > 0:07:58and I thought, "Yeah, he's hooked."
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Yeah, I was!
0:08:01 > 0:08:04It was amazing, that experience,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07cos I remember that first dive so clearly,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10being about 40 feet, you know, looking up at the surface,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14reasonably clear water, and just watching waves and just thinking,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17"That's what it looks like", you know?
0:08:17 > 0:08:20It's just an extraordinary change.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23You know, it's really a kind of a polar change
0:08:23 > 0:08:27in the way that you understand the ocean, and it happens all at once.
0:08:28 > 0:08:34'I've been diving for a long time now, but I'm an image-maker, really.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37'My work is making pictures.'
0:08:37 > 0:08:39And, really, the first part of that job is about
0:08:39 > 0:08:41trying to unpick the behaviour,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44about getting to know the location, and the animal, and the subject,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47and the way it behaves, and getting into the water every day,
0:08:47 > 0:08:49'and getting to know it a little bit at a time.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51'That's wonderful.'
0:08:55 > 0:08:57For the Life programmes,
0:08:57 > 0:09:01Doug made a series of dives over several evenings
0:09:01 > 0:09:04to unravel the mating behaviour of Australian cuttlefish,
0:09:04 > 0:09:06a highly-intelligent species
0:09:06 > 0:09:10whose love lives are full of elaborate deception.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14'Its courtship, the patterns, the intrigue.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16'I mean, it's Shakespearian.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20'There are big males, big butch males,
0:09:20 > 0:09:24'that kind of muscle around and grab females.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27'And there's these other tiny little males'
0:09:27 > 0:09:30that are specialist in pretending to be female.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35These cross-dressing males hold their tentacles up
0:09:35 > 0:09:38in a typically dainty female posture.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41They even change their colour to mimic the females.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44It's all so that they can creep in
0:09:44 > 0:09:47and secretly seduce the butch male's partner.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52But for the little sneaks, the stakes couldn't be higher.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55'If the big male knew they were there,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58'they would kill them and eat them.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00'But, once they get in, they drop their guard,
0:10:00 > 0:10:03'and they're mating with the females,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06'literally right underneath these big protective males.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09'It's like Macbeth, you know?'
0:10:09 > 0:10:11And it's all happening right in front of you,
0:10:11 > 0:10:13and covering it is just a dream.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15'Everywhere you look, something interesting and wonderful
0:10:15 > 0:10:17'and beautiful is happening.'
0:10:30 > 0:10:35The seas and oceans are full of natural wonders.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39But perhaps the most awe-inspiring is this...
0:10:41 > 0:10:42..the blue whale.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Up to 170 tonnes in weight,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50they're the biggest animals to have ever lived on our planet,
0:10:50 > 0:10:52dwarfing even the dinosaurs.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57But, despite their immense size, they are fast-swimming.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01And, because of centuries of hunting, they're now very rare.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08In all his four decades of experience as a wildlife cameraman,
0:11:08 > 0:11:12Doug Allan had never managed to film a blue underwater.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15But, on a trip to Sri Lanka for Ocean Giants,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19he hoped to finally get a shot of this elusive titan.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23'Blue whales have to be on everybody's dream list,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26'they are the biggest animals in the world, but they're not easy.'
0:11:26 > 0:11:29They always just seem to be interested in one thing,
0:11:29 > 0:11:31and that is usually travelling.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36Doug's first attempt to get up close to a blue
0:11:36 > 0:11:40only underlined the extent of the challenge.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42This is going to be difficult.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46You know, those whales were... They didn't stop, they just kept on.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51'Our only chance to get what we could of blue whales'
0:11:51 > 0:11:54was to get in front of them when they were at the surface,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57and then hopefully get them as they swam past.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02'It took a long time to get in the right position.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06'Eventually, we got a shot where this enormous blue
0:12:06 > 0:12:07'sort of appeared underneath us.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10'And this blue whale was probably about 80-feet long,
0:12:10 > 0:12:12'so much bigger
0:12:12 > 0:12:15'than any other animal I had been in the water with.'
0:12:17 > 0:12:18'You know, it's like a train,
0:12:18 > 0:12:22'it's like a train with lots of carriages on it, going past.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25'You can't actually see the whole animal in one go.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28'And it just has these mighty, powerful sweeps and then, bumph,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31'and it's away and into the blue.'
0:12:39 > 0:12:41'It was certainly the biggest whale that I've ever seen.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44'It just looked enormous underneath me.'
0:12:44 > 0:12:47I've waited a long time to see a blue underwater,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49and that was just magic.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Doug Allan's career-long quest to film a blue whale
0:12:58 > 0:13:02highlights one of the most important and least glamorous qualities
0:13:02 > 0:13:04that a wildlife cameraman needs -
0:13:04 > 0:13:07sheer dogged persistence.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11'It's not just about the days where it all works.'
0:13:13 > 0:13:15In fact, it's really about all the other days,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18you know, where you wake up and you put in the hours
0:13:18 > 0:13:21'and you've got barely enough time back in your bunk
0:13:21 > 0:13:24'to warm up properly before the next day happens,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27'and you get up the next day and do it again.'
0:13:27 > 0:13:29And it's just like clam diving.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35Clam diving was Doug's first professional job underwater.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37He was only in his early 20's
0:13:37 > 0:13:40when he started out in this notoriously tough industry.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Working off the west coast of Scotland,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45he had to put up with gruelling conditions,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48but he also made lasting friendships.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52Doug, good to see you!
0:13:52 > 0:13:54Today, Doug is meeting up
0:13:54 > 0:13:58with one of his oldest friends from the clam boats, Martin Gorevan.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02'The first time you go clam diving on the west coast of Scotland,
0:14:02 > 0:14:04'it really is an experience.'
0:14:04 > 0:14:08It's 100 feet of water, it's dark and deep and dangerous
0:14:08 > 0:14:10- and you're by yourself, and...- Yeah.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14You do three dives a day, and each dive was half-an-hour to an hour.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17'If the weather was good, you kept going until you couldn't do it any longer,
0:14:17 > 0:14:21'so the longest stint you'd do is maybe 10 to 15 days on the trot.'
0:14:21 > 0:14:24'Once you get good at it, you start feeling increasingly safe
0:14:24 > 0:14:26- 'but learning it is hard.'- 'Yeah.'
0:14:26 > 0:14:28'If you spend a bit of time there, you just sort of think,
0:14:28 > 0:14:30"I've done some hard hours up here,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33"and whatever it is I do now, it's liable to be easier." You know...
0:14:33 > 0:14:35It's the experience, as well, though,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38the range of experiences you would have had diving.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40I use it, I mean, I use that every day at work,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43you know those skill sets that I learnt there.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47It's what made me a diver, basically, you know? That time, those hours.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53After four years of this demanding work, Doug knew he had to get out.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57He still loved diving and he had a passion for photography.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59But what to do next?
0:15:01 > 0:15:04Inspiration came from a fellow Scot, Doug Allan,
0:15:04 > 0:15:08who, at the time, was filming for Life In The Freezer.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11'I remember seeing Doug Allan's name coming up on the credits,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15'and I was just like, "Well, he knows a lot more about cameras than me,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18"and he's also got the field craft." I was like, "How can I fix that?"
0:15:18 > 0:15:21So, I found out from someone where the Natural History Unit was,
0:15:21 > 0:15:25was Bristol, and I was like, "Right well, I'd better move to Bristol."
0:15:25 > 0:15:27And so that's literally what I did.
0:15:27 > 0:15:33Doug Anderson's big break came on a shoot for the Blue Planet series.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35He was part of a camera team
0:15:35 > 0:15:39filming one of the ocean's fastest creatures, Striped Marlin,
0:15:39 > 0:15:42feeding on a shoal of sardines.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46The surprise arrival of a 20-tonne sei whale on the scene
0:15:46 > 0:15:49gave him the chance to get some unexpected footage.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53'I was just running a little bit of film, and all I could see
0:15:53 > 0:15:56'was the head of this sei whale, just crashing through frame.'
0:15:56 > 0:16:00So, it was one of the most wonderful wildlife experiences of my life,
0:16:00 > 0:16:02but at the time it was also one of the most stressful,
0:16:02 > 0:16:06'cos I thought I'd run out of film.'
0:16:06 > 0:16:10So, just about now, I'm hearing the film coming off the core
0:16:10 > 0:16:14in my camera and just wondering how much of that shot I got.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20After the shoot Doug had to wait a nail-biting month
0:16:20 > 0:16:21before the film was developed
0:16:21 > 0:16:25to find out if he had got the key close-up.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28It turned out that his luck was in - but only just.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31The last shot came up, and the whale came up,
0:16:31 > 0:16:35'and then engulfed the shoal and then kind of fell away from me.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40'And then the tail left frame, and the whole thing went black.'
0:16:40 > 0:16:44There was six frames, which is about that much,
0:16:44 > 0:16:48between the tail leaving frame of the sei whale
0:16:48 > 0:16:49and the end of the roll.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53You know, and I was just... I just could not believe it.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55I was 29-years-old and this is like,
0:16:55 > 0:16:58for a wildlife cameraman, for a young wildlife cameraman,
0:16:58 > 0:17:00it's like scoring a goal in the FA Cup.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08For wildlife cameramen, the shot is everything.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11They'll put up with all kinds of hardships and hazards
0:17:11 > 0:17:14to bring home the best footage.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19But this focus on the job can involve some tricky dilemmas,
0:17:19 > 0:17:22and occasionally some less-than-gallant behaviour.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27I was diving with Sue, Sue was my wife at the time,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30and we were filming humpback whales in Tonga.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39'And, purely by accident, this whale came in contact with Sue,
0:17:39 > 0:17:44'and I think the whale had forgotten about Sue being there
0:17:44 > 0:17:48'and really got a big surprise at contacting something in the water.'
0:17:48 > 0:17:53It flicked its tail really hard, and this whacked Sue in the leg
0:17:53 > 0:17:55'and she dropped the camera.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58I could see Sue at the surface. I could also see the camera,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02which I knew there was a lot of good stuff on, heading for the depths.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06So, I had to make a call - rescue Sue or get the camera.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09'So I made the only call a cameraman could...'
0:18:11 > 0:18:13I got the camera up.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18Given the remarkable footage of humpbacks
0:18:18 > 0:18:20that ended up in Planet Earth,
0:18:20 > 0:18:23perhaps Sue might forgive Doug's sense of priorities.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29The shoot certainly demonstrated the difficulty of filming
0:18:29 > 0:18:32these lively heavyweights at close quarters.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39But even filming small animals brings its challenges,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42as Doug Anderson discovered on location off Tobago
0:18:42 > 0:18:44for the Life series.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49His mission was to try to capture super slow-motion images
0:18:49 > 0:18:53of flying fish skimming over the waves.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55The action is impressive this morning.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Unpredictable, but impressive. But it's distant.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01You know, it's not happening next to the boat today.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04Look, look, look. Loads!
0:19:04 > 0:19:08The only thing for it was to get out amongst the flying fish
0:19:08 > 0:19:09in a small inflatable.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11All right, let's go!
0:19:11 > 0:19:15This time, Doug and the team met with more success.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20'We put this, like, £100,000 camera in a bin bag.'
0:19:20 > 0:19:23HE LAUGHS
0:19:23 > 0:19:25'Oh, I just had the most amazing afternoon.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27'Tonnes of flying fish.'
0:19:27 > 0:19:29I hadn't a clue what I was doing.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32The whole thing happens faster than you can think,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35so I was literally kind of pointing at a patch of ocean
0:19:35 > 0:19:38'and then just whip-panning and just pre-setting the focus,'
0:19:38 > 0:19:41and hoping these fish would fly somewhere near focus
0:19:41 > 0:19:43and, of course they did.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53He had managed to capture images never before seen,
0:19:53 > 0:19:56flying fish taking to the air.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00That was amazing!
0:20:00 > 0:20:03We spent a long time in that wee boat today. Thanks.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06The last two hours were just off the scale.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08We were just getting shot after shot.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19Having succeeded in filming flying fish on the surface,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21it was now time to go underwater.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24Here, Doug could film the fish
0:20:24 > 0:20:28swarming around a floating palm frond to spawn.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36'There are just fish everywhere.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39'The females are spawning these sticky massed eggs.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41'The males are coming in clouding them with sperm,
0:20:41 > 0:20:44'and this thing just gets thicker and thicker and thicker.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47'And all the females want to get inside it,
0:20:47 > 0:20:51'cos that's the best place to put your eggs.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53'And there's females dying in there,'
0:20:53 > 0:20:56and the whole thing's getting heavier and heavier the whole time,
0:20:56 > 0:20:59'so they know they've got to spawn on it before it sinks,
0:20:59 > 0:21:01'because once it sinks, it's gone.'
0:21:05 > 0:21:07Oh, it's moments like that we do the job for!
0:21:07 > 0:21:11Everything was right. The light was right,
0:21:11 > 0:21:13blue water,
0:21:13 > 0:21:17the four tonnes of flying fish all going mental!
0:21:19 > 0:21:23Doug was naturally feeling very satisfied with his day's work.
0:21:23 > 0:21:28But the skipper, Barry, seemed to have something else on his mind.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30RADIO CRACKLES
0:21:30 > 0:21:34'Barry is this unbelievably relaxed guy.'
0:21:34 > 0:21:37But I could see him getting a tiny bit agitated,
0:21:37 > 0:21:39and it's like, "Oh, what's going on?"
0:21:39 > 0:21:42And he was like, "Man, I've got to, I got to check the rudder," you know?
0:21:42 > 0:21:44And I was like, "Really? Oh, OK. Go ahead."
0:21:44 > 0:21:46I didn't really know what he was talking about.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48We're all sitting in the back deck and he came up,
0:21:48 > 0:21:52he'd kind of cut off what was part of this spawning mass.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57'The fish had started to spawn on the rudder of the boat.'
0:21:57 > 0:22:01I cleaned this off, like, five minutes ago. Right? Right?
0:22:01 > 0:22:06Now the problem is there are too many flying fish around us.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09If we go through the night with the lights on and stuff,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11more and more and more will keep coming.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14What they're doing here is, they're laying on the boat now.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18The boat has become their object, and that is not good.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21So, basically, you're worried that if we just stay on this drift,
0:22:21 > 0:22:23we're going to sink the boat?
0:22:23 > 0:22:28Five hours from now, that will be 3,000 pounds in the back here.
0:22:28 > 0:22:29They will sink the boat.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31OK, so we're going to leave, you're saying?
0:22:31 > 0:22:33Yeah, we can't stay here!
0:22:33 > 0:22:37Not in your wildest dreams do you expect to be on a boat
0:22:37 > 0:22:42in Tobago that was at risk of sinking through the spawning of flying fish!
0:22:42 > 0:22:44Just...you know!
0:22:44 > 0:22:47But those are the good times, you know, definitely.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52Some wildlife shoots, though, are not so happy.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58For the Blue Planet series, Doug Allan spent six gruelling hours
0:22:58 > 0:23:02on the plunging deck of a boat following a pod of killer whales
0:23:02 > 0:23:05hunting down a grey whale and her calf.
0:23:07 > 0:23:12Years on, the images haven't lost any of their power to shock.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14'We were all absolutely knackered,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17'not just from holding the camera steady
0:23:17 > 0:23:19'and holding it on your shoulder all that time,
0:23:19 > 0:23:23'but just, the emotional content was pretty harrowing.'
0:23:25 > 0:23:26'What the orcas were doing
0:23:26 > 0:23:30'was trying to separate the female from her calf.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32'It was just mayhem, really.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35'The calf was struggling to take a breath.'
0:23:35 > 0:23:39The female too, and yet these big killer whales, there, you see? Bang.
0:23:39 > 0:23:44'Right on top of the calf, and just drive it down deep under the water.'
0:23:46 > 0:23:49'Look, it's actually riding on the back of the calf.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52'And it follows it round and follows it round.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56'It was inevitable, from about two hours in,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59'that these killer whales were not going to stop.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01'They had one thing on their mind,
0:24:01 > 0:24:06'and that was to get the calf and to eat it.'
0:24:06 > 0:24:11And it was just absolutely nature, red in tooth and claw.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21'Eventually, we knew the calf was dead
0:24:21 > 0:24:24'because all the killer whale activity stopped,'
0:24:24 > 0:24:29and they were simply diving back, diving up and down the same place.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33'And the female, well, there was nothing for the female to do
0:24:33 > 0:24:36'except to carry on to the north and, I suppose, eventually,
0:24:36 > 0:24:38'finish her migration.'
0:24:40 > 0:24:43'When we discovered the calf the following day,
0:24:43 > 0:24:47'I dived with it and I could see that the only thing
0:24:47 > 0:24:51'that had been eaten was the lower jaw, and the tongue.'
0:24:56 > 0:24:59'It was tough watching it
0:24:59 > 0:25:01'but this is what happens in nature.
0:25:01 > 0:25:02'We just happened to be there
0:25:02 > 0:25:05'while this rare event was happening in front of us.'
0:25:11 > 0:25:16The world's oceans are the scene of titanic life-or-death struggles.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19But hidden beneath the waves are stories
0:25:19 > 0:25:22that are the very opposite of brutal.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27In the shallow seas off Australia,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30Doug Anderson filmed the wonderfully graceful
0:25:30 > 0:25:35and tender courtship of the tiny, weedy sea dragon.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38'I loved filming the sea dragons.'
0:25:38 > 0:25:40It's genuinely one of the most beautiful,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43intimate moments I've had in wildlife.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47'They're a cryptic species
0:25:47 > 0:25:49'and I think that's what so special about this sequence.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52'They spend most of their life trying to look like a piece of weed
0:25:52 > 0:25:54'and not get eaten,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58'and just for these tiny moments of their life history,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02'hours in their year, they get together and dance.'
0:26:02 > 0:26:05And being there for that is just amazing.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08You know, I just can't, I can't describe it.
0:26:13 > 0:26:14'It's just around dusk,
0:26:14 > 0:26:17'so you've just got this tiny window of light
0:26:17 > 0:26:20'before things just get too dark.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22'They perhaps have been checking each other out all day
0:26:22 > 0:26:24'and the males and females come together
0:26:24 > 0:26:27'and they start doing this mirror dance.'
0:26:32 > 0:26:35'It's really special. I remember filming this.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37'The males just come underneath
0:26:37 > 0:26:39'and they do this rhythmic head-butting,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42'the females sort of go on their sides and rock slightly,
0:26:42 > 0:26:44'and then they go back to mirror
0:26:44 > 0:26:47'and then they'll do another pirouette and another dance,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49'and they just, it keeps on going.'
0:26:54 > 0:27:00'Very often it's the small stuff that I just get so much enjoyment out of.'
0:27:00 > 0:27:04So, I left there very satisfied with this one, yeah.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17On the Isle of Arran, Doug has returned to the spot
0:27:17 > 0:27:19where his love of the ocean was first born.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26He's taken his daughter, Holly, and is teaching her how to snorkel.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28You all right, my dear?
0:27:28 > 0:27:31Giving her a taste of the same breathtaking world
0:27:31 > 0:27:34that inspired her father's career.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40'I've spent my whole life in the ocean, really, my whole adult life.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44'It's always a good place to go for solace or relaxation,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47'or invigoration. It's a place of opportunity.'
0:27:51 > 0:27:55'I really hope I can give my children enough good experiences
0:27:55 > 0:27:59'with the ocean to give them a respect for it,'
0:27:59 > 0:28:01and everything that's in it.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08Sharing their experiences of the world's environments,
0:28:08 > 0:28:11and encouraging our respect for the creatures that live in them,
0:28:11 > 0:28:15has been the job of a group of gifted wildlife cameramen.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17They've faced great hardships
0:28:17 > 0:28:21to bring the wonders of the natural world to our screens.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25But in all this, one thing has remained unchanged -
0:28:25 > 0:28:27their own sense of awe
0:28:27 > 0:28:31at the richness and fragility of the planet we all share.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd