Boundless Seas, The

[Music] in the beginning ians of time and darkness nothing in the vast reaches of space a few lights appeared [Music] great clouds of dust and gases moved silently in cold darkness in that incredible void materials formed masses appeared one was a sun a nuclear furnace was born as the sun grew in size its gravitational pull increased [Music] and it captured other planetary masses to orbit around itself [Music] for half a billion years or more the earth third planet from the sun was a cold and lifeless body slowly inside the whirling sphere internal temperatures began to rise heavy metals condensed melted and sank into the global center forming the red-hot molten core that exists today enormous interior heat carried materials upward pushing them to the surface melted rocks lava cooled and formed a crust then eruptions and earthquakes cracked the crust forcing it up and down the crust buckled and pushed against itself forming mountains and plains on the cooling surface gases and water vapor trapped in the rocks and fire released by the intense heat grows into the air forming clouds [Music] which condensed and fell back to earth creating rains which fell incessantly eroding the rocks and filling the earth [Music] rains pounding down on a smoking earth for millions of years the rains fell more atmosphere was formed from steam and the pounding waters wore away mountains and made great canyons between the mountains until three quarters of the earth's surface was water finally the rains cleared the clouds parted and the sun shone through it was a time for life to begin on earth and in boundless seas [Music] [Applause] [Music] we don't know exactly how our solar system was formed after all that was about five billion years ago but we do know how unique we are for life as we know it our planet is not too hot and not too cold and we possess what no other planet in our solar system possesses liquid water water filling the oceans and the seas all interconnected and one boundless body of water covering 75 percent of the earth's surface the oxygen we breathe most of it comes from the ocean that surrounds us [Music] in 1969 we made our first successful visit to another planet when we put men on the moon we knew there was no water there and no life our astronauts had to wear special space suits because of the temperatures and in order to breathe [Music] when we landed instruments and tv cameras on mars there is practically no atmosphere or oxygen no signs of life and no water this is how important our ocean is to us without liquid water at an atmosphere there'd be no oxygen to breathe there'd be no green fields there'd be no life as we know it on earth everything on planet earth is linked together we know now that we must learn about our ocean to care properly for its resources and to make sure that we don't spoil it to early man this ocean was a thing of beauty but also an insurmountable barrier representing terrors unknown when man finally overcame his fears the ocean became a highway for travel commerce and adventure but the depths of the ocean remained a mystery for not until the end of the 19th century did a fully scientifically equipped vessel set forth to explore the oceans in 1872 hms challenger left england to circle the globe scraping the bottoms of the seas its nets brought up more than 4 000 creatures that had never before been seen by man so great was the amount of new knowledge that it took years to compile and publish the data today ships of science abound both on the sea and beneath it physicists biologists meteorologists geologists chemists and more combine their love for the sea with their scientific curiosity this is the research submarine alvin which is jointly funded by the national science foundation the national oceanic and atmospheric administration and the u.s navy and i'm dr robert ballard of the woods hall oceanographic institution in massachusetts we are now preparing for a two mile dive to the atlantic ocean floor and your launch stations man your launch stations these explorations have given us a new and interesting picture of the ocean floor as shown on this topographic map although we call it the floor it is far from smooth actually it's divided up into large basins by an immense underwater mountain range we've explored the ocean floor along this mid-ocean ridge this though it is underwater is the largest mountain range on earth higher than many mountains on land longer than the rockies the andes and the himalayas all put together unlike mountain ranges on land these are split lengthwise right down the middle a giant crack or rift as much as twenty miles wide fifteen thousand miles long cutting into the earth's upper layers the alvin and crew are now ready to dive lulu alvin my hatch is shut oxygen's on blowers running leaks and grounds are normal surface ident lights and beacon are armed and ready to die permission to dive this is lulu a roger depth of water three five zero zero meters per mission granted to dive have a good one over roger diving this tiny craft and its crew are going down twelve thousand feet into the mid-atlantic more you ridge that britiated one we saw in the last dive yeah that's the outcrop that i could work on huh okay you see it yeah that's just right about there right underneath that uh that white you see an enemy yeah i'm bringing the arm around okay see the arm yet yeah yeah it's just coming into view okay okay they're exploring this rift area for clues to the origins of the earth here it is the actual rift zone such rifts periodically release erupting lava this is one of the most remarkable events ever observed fiery lava is pouring out of the side of the rift a crack in the earth's crust far below the surface [Music] such sights and sounds had never been seen or heard by earth people although the volcano's roar is still hurt on land in many parts of the earth as it is on iceland [Music] iceland is near the upper end of that great underwater mountain range the atlantic ridge where creation is still going on so common here that people and animals accept this as a way of life at night even the sheep pause to watch curiously we can see the top of one of those rifts or cracks in the earth's crust that has pushed its way up through the surface a process that has widened the area of iceland with every eruption new rock is being added to the earth's crust new water to the atmosphere and the oceans off the coast of iceland is a highly visible example of the power of this rift in 1963 a ship captain converging on what he thought was a burning freighter found a new growing island the result of lava leaking out and piling up in a shallow section of the rift eventually growing to over 50 square miles this island was named surtsey after the nordic god surter with all this lava coming up and all this shifting there has to be motion and there is the accumulating lava causes growth all along the ridge pushing the edges farther apart a weaker edge gives way to a stronger growing edge and keep in mind that these rifts extend around the entire globe if we look at an overview we see that the earth is made up of a series of constantly moving surfaces called plates whose motion is instigated by the rifts generally these movements are slow moving the american plate west about two inches a year but occasionally there will be sudden enormous movement along the rift [Music] these movements cause the great disasters the names of which still stick in our mind names of earthquakes and volcanoes pompeii krakatoa san francisco managua and here in guatemala but there are other movements in the sea that are not so violent in fact they're a benefit the sea is a mighty engine of circulating currents these currents affect our atmosphere and are pathways for the movement of sea life of all sorts large bodies of water in the tropics catch and hold the sun's heat these waters move toward the poles bringing warmth to the colder latitudes as you see by this map one of the best known to us is the gulf stream from the gulf of mexico it runs up along the east coast of the united states till it veers to the east and turns across the atlantic where it again hits land and divides part of it going up the coast of europe and part of it down the coast of africa the tempering influences of currents are extreme iceland far up in the north atlantic is brushed by an arm of the gulf stream here we see a reasonably moderate climate where farming and villages make up a viable community at the same time and in the same latitudes actually even a bit more southerly the tip of greenland is a frozen mass of inhospitable ice fields the reason greenland is untouched by any moderating currents currents are often called rivers of the sea but they're hundreds of times larger than any rivers on land the kuroshio [Music] north pacific and california currents become the 9 000 mile long north equatorial current the longest west flowing current in the world i'm dr van dorn of the scripps institution of oceanography when we watch a wave moving across the ocean it appears that all the water in the wave moves with it but actually the water that composes the wave does not advance across the sea at all as can be observed in a laboratory waveform each water particle rather than moving along in the direction of the wave describes a circular or elliptical orbit with the passage of the waveform and returns to very nearly its original position the wind blows against the flag and airways move across it but the cloth doesn't move across the face of the flag in much the same way does wind act upon water to create most waves if the huge masses of water that comprise a wave actually move navigation would be impossible a wave born of wind far out at sea grows to its full height on the energy of the wind as the waves pass out of the storm area their height diminishes the distance between successive crests increases and the sea becomes a swell as the swell enters shallow water it feels the drag of the ocean's bottom its speed slackens and the wave height steepens then with a spilling tumbling rush of water falling into its trough it dissolves in a seething confusion of foam the most damaging storm wave effects known to us are associated with hurricanes because wind stress also piles water against the shores far above the normal water line we fly over hurricanes plot their courses using cameras and radar spawned at sea hurricanes caused devastation on land as well as the oceans in andhra pradesh india a storm tide driven by hurricane force winds in november 1977 wiped out 10 cities and killed 20 000 people there are other waves seismic sea waves called tsunamis one of the most destructive forces of nature the extreme shocks of underwater earthquakes cause swells in a way similar to hitting this plastic tank of water [Music] in the deep ocean far from land they're barely visible but they travel about 500 miles per hour nearing the shore in shallower water the height of the tsunami builds floods the coast battering everything in its path and then withdraws taking with it houses and people carrying them all far out to sea in 1946 people on the beaches of hawaii were puzzled and the noise of the breakers still the waters receded leaving a strange quiet they were unaware that the behavior of the water was in response to an underwater earthquake that had occurred more than 2 000 miles away then the water came back rising rapidly the rise carried the ocean waters 25 feet above normal levels the waves of the tsunami swept toward the shore with great turbulence francis p shepherd of the scripps institution was there we were awakened about 6 30 by a tremendous roaring noise that we could hear the water rushing around the front of our house suspecting it was a tsunami i ran to the back of the house my wife was with me he heard waves come up and smash in the plate glass in the front of the house and saw the refrigerator go shooting past us on the left-hand side and looking to the right i saw that my neighbor's house had been completely demolished by the by the water tsunami did great damage houses were carried out to sea people were swept away and drowned it had taken the waves less than five hours to reach the hawaiian chain 2200 miles from the quake traveling at almost 500 miles per hour among the great forces that affect the sea are the tides the amounts of water affected by tidal movements are enormous into nova scotia's bay of fundy alone 100 billion tons of water are carried by the tidal motions twice each day in the upper reaches of the bay several miles from the ocean even grasslands are covered for a short time twice a day by the high tides and in san felipe mexico on the sea of cortez a 30-foot tide periodically replaces fisherman's trucks with large fishing vessels working close to shore tides are the result of gravity's pull by both the sun and the moon on the earth's ocean every drop of sea moves to the pool of gravity even though the sun is much larger the moon has the greater pull because it's closer of course at new moon when the sun and the moon are in line gravity's pull is greatest brings the highest tides the full moon and the tides combine to aid the life cycle of the southern california grunion a small silvery fish the length of a man's hand [Music] not only has the grunion come to know the daily rhythms of the tide but it's adapted its spawning habits to the monthly tidal cycle by which certain tides sweep higher on the beach than others the grunion takes advantage of the highest tide of the season to come onto the beach to spawn to lay its eggs and to fertilize them then they leap into the crest of the following wave and return to the sea leaving behind a mass of eggs buried in the sand [Music] since the grunion has chosen the exact time when the tide is highest successive waves don't reach the eggs they lie undisturbed until two weeks later when the highest tides return these new high tides wash over the incubated and hatching eggs and the newborn grunion catch the waves that bear them out to sea oysters mussels and barnacles oh their very existence to the tides which sweep in bringing the food which they're unable to grow and search for the ocean is the earth's greatest storehouse of minerals the whole land mass of earth contained light and heavy minerals then when the first rains came they began wearing away the rocks and carrying more minerals into the sea this runoff means mineral deposits in the shallower waters of the continental shelf here dredges can bring up vast amounts of tin phosphorus iron and titanium submarine volcanoes discharging through craters directly into the sea pour in boron chlorine sulfur iodine and all minerals including silver and gold when the ocean waters rise over the land deposit their sediments and at last withdraw we are left with areas rich in salts and minerals there for the harvesting one of the greatest stockpiles of minerals in the world came from the evaporation of a great inland sea in the western united states in the 1870s teams of 20 mules each hauled borax from here across the desert to the railroads years later the recovery of other substances began bromine lithium salts of potassium and sodium this area now yields a major share of the potassium chloride found in the united states plus a large share of all the borax and lithium salts produced in the world wherever great oil fields are found they may be related to past or present seas the great oil fields are reservoirs of oil trapped in the sedimentary rocks laid down under the seas that invaded this part of the land some 200 to 600 million years ago in recent years oil geologists have focused in a new direction under the sea offshore wells are producing oil in california and louisiana all around the gulf of mexico atlantic coast and other offshore wells are bringing up oil from the persian gulf and in the north sea between norway and england there's far more oil under the ocean than there is under land but of course it's harder to get to it there and to get it out an exploration crew from an american company discovered the field of rich oil reserves under the north sea between norway and england this is the north sea on a good day it didn't get any smoother when the construction crew arrived [Music] they must work their way down through two or more miles of ocean before they can even start drilling but modern technology wins in time drill rig becomes the pumping station over discovery well number one the north sea project has become a veritable city at sea including a seven-story hotel with recreation facilities for a thousand workers all of europe benefits as it supplies much of the needed energy to england and to the continent from amdon pipelines feed the roar holland belgium and france bringing continued life support from the sea to this part of the world the worldwide petroleum reserves at sea are great but what of the power from the sea itself the ocean contains a number of sizable potentials for power production scientists and engineers are constantly at work to develop better methods to harness energy winds and waves temperatures currents tides the sea it's never at rest this is our heritage we are beginning to live in harmony with the oceans of earth we are finding more ways to utilize the resources of the seas our work now is only a beginning to help us to care for the enormous wealth held in trust for the world by the boundless seas [Music] all life is linked to the sea from a first spark that formed a living cell and grew in complexity it has always been this narrow band between land and sea that all life has in common it is a continuing cycle of birth growth death and change and it is all this that has given us the incredible profusion of life on this planet all dependent upon the sea this land i stand on is our continent it's one of earth's many continents out there is earth's ocean it's all one ocean near to shore a portion of the continent extends out under the water we call that the continental shelf here's what the continental shelf looks like from philadelphia to boston some of the shelf's bottom is rocky some sandy and some a deep ooze the shelf ranges from only a few feet to 600 feet deep or more it extends in some places from five to 800 miles offshore [Music] beyond that is the continental slope reaching into deep water the continental shelf holds 90 percent of the earth's wealth in fish more oil and gas than our continents minerals every kind we know on land and a new frontier for adventuring people to explore it doesn't take a marine biologist to know that the sea has an incredible profusion of life changing seasons on the ocean are much the same as on land with spring's arrival the air and water warm the light gets stronger nutrient-rich deep water rises and all green life bursts into luxuriant growth this is the spring blooming of the seas and at no other time of the year will the sea pasture be so rich so green with the elements of life [Music] the kelp and underwater plant life provides food and protection for the fish that live in these forests their very coloring provides them with protection these are the great coral reefs hazards to ships but home for an unbelievable display of shallow water sea life found in warm tropical waters the coral is formed of tiny sea creatures that secrete a substance which becomes limestone [Music] an incredible variety of creatures fill the sea some float and never swim others move only when they have to the medusas have a grace we won't see on land some live in the bottom sands and some adhere to rocks taking on the color of the rock for protection there is the solitary majesty of the giant manta ray [Music] and there's the dancing and playing of great schools of fish yes life on the continental shelf and beyond in deep water far outnumbers life on dry land in a wonderland of fantastic life forms all life in the ocean depends on a food chain that begins with plants called phytoplankton phyto is a greek word that means plants plankton means to wander and these are one-celled plants so small that they can be seen only under powerful microscopes and they float in the water and wander with the currents there are so many of these tiny plants that they probably equal the amount of all the vegetation on dry land like the plants on land these phytoplankton use the sun's energy to take non-living materials that they find such as carbon and nitrogen and convert this into food this is the amazing process by which non-living or inorganic chemicals become living plants what we call organic material as we know this requires heat and light from the sun thus we find that ninety percent of the seas life occurs in the narrow upper band that light can penetrate feeding on the phytoplankton are vast collections of tiny animals called zooplankton zooplankton means the animal wanderers of the sea and they too drift with the currents they're the next important step in the food chain because by feeding on the phytoplankton they turn plants into animal protein here tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill feed on the plankton carrying the food chain one more link these creatures in turn are eaten by squid and small fish at each step in the food chain the size of the animal increases down here you can't trust appearances what looks like a beautiful undersea flower is a sea anemone those petal-like tentacles have poison in them it looks good enough to eat to the fish until gotcha the would-be eater gets eaten similar in color to the anemone the spiny sea urchin is a tough nut to crack but it's the wily sea otter's favorite lunch actually this way of life exists in all of nature but it isn't all violence in the world of the sea any diver will tell you that many sea creatures are curious by nature shy but friendly some even try to get into the act when we take pictures and they have their own organized society some big fish and little fish hunt together the little fish quite comfortable and safe with his imposing friend a unique case is the damsel fish he can play in the poisonous anemone because his skin secretes a protective coating you may be surprised to find that fish have distinct personalities rocky the jaw fish on the left is pretty mad sneaky a newcomer in the neighborhood has stolen all of his door stones rocky intends to have them back he stages a reprisal raid sneaky puts up a bluff that's his second mistake like some humans who don't want to get involved other residents stay out of the way [Applause] little rocky is only a jaw fish but he knows how to defend his home [Music] there are some fish that people fear some are fantasies but some are real perhaps no greater monster exists to man's mind than the shark [Music] for as long as man has been on the ocean the shark has stirred this fear but shark attacks on man are actually quite rare [Music] like his cousins the skates and the rays he doesn't have a true skeleton of bone but rather of cartilage this puts his development back to that time of the world before there were actual back bones the shark strangely enough is not susceptible to many diseases that plague man such as cancer ongoing research is now supplying us with valuable information and chemicals from this supposed monster many of these fish could not exist without the help of the others that's why they form huge groups called schools these schools allow for safety in numbers also they keep the group together for breeding which can't rely on random meetings in this huge expanse now we combine the ever drifting current riding colonies of plankton and the schools of larger fishes and sea life this plus the movement back to the breeding grounds all result in the mass circling movements throughout the sea called migrations perhaps one of the most precise migrations is that of the green sea turtle who circles the entire south atlantic from feeding grounds off brazil and africa the turtle rides a south equatorial current to a tiny island in the mid-atlantic called ascension to lay its eggs on the beach a precise piece of natural navigation which still amazes us oceanographers have found out the ocean is not a silent world with underwater microphones we've learned that fish talk to each other we've already singled some voices out the black grouper see catfish listen to these sea lions [Music] sea lions and seals are part of a large group of sea-oriented mammals these spend most of their time ashore entering the water mainly to feed and for breeding our favorite conversation was though are the dolphins this one comes around to talk with the camera through he says it again trying to make his human friends understand the dolphin can kill a shark can find a lost diver in seconds and can tow three times its own weight [Music] the dolphins are mammals and they have to surface periodically to breathe the dolphins seem to feel a natural kinship to humans we can only imagine what an amazing information source these fellows will be if we ever develop a truly two-way conversation someday we hope to learn to understand them as well or better than they understand us the whales are also mammals and thus are air breathers like the dolphins they're fully seabourn animals and quickly perish it out of water too long the california gray whale is typical of many species that have been brought to near extinction by unlimited commercial whaling international treaties now protect them and they are making a comeback among the rarest and the largest of the whales is the humpback as they breach the surface they are most acrobatic a scientist who has been studying and filming the humpback at close range is dr lee tepley yes humpbacks are not only large but they are extremely graceful with their long flippers they sometimes seem to soar rather than swim these sounds are the songs of the humpbacks [Music] [Music] the songs are made up of a series of tones which form complex themes one song may last up to 30 minutes and may be repeated again and again the songs are thought to be the mating calls of the male humpbacks there is the possibility that whales are among the most intelligent life forms on earth next to man but we will never really know unless we continue our efforts to protect them from extinction [Music] yes the ocean has many faces part of its fascination is a result of our curiosity the urge to explore our darien is boundless from as far back in time as we can search we've had the desire to explore far away places perhaps no place on earth is this more true than the earth's frozen north and south poles this is the age of the oceans and we study them all even here even through the winters the probes go [Music] on the surface and even under the ice slowly cautiously this submarine crew stayed glued to the controls watching the bottom of the ice pack slip by the ice overhead is 60 feet deep and extends a thousand miles in all directions [Music] but then in march of 1959 the uss skate broke through the ice and american scientists emerged to walk the all-white loneliness at the north pole it was a noteworthy achievement once more man had faced the unknown allowing him to expand his knowledge of the sea and in the antarctic to see teams with a rich soup of plankton that brings penguins and other sea life [Music] ungainly on land the penguins in the water are as agile as fish the penguins can travel below the water's surface for 10 to 30 yards then they shoot into the air in a wide arc returning to the surface of the ice certain penguin species have their land stations along the shores wherever the sea is cold and full of shrimp and fish while the seas abound with life-giving food millions of people are underfed or starving as the world population increases farming on land will only provide a portion of the necessary food but the oceans are teeming with food of all kinds such as tuna what's the best way to handle these resources while new techniques are being devised to catch more fish we also wish to protect them from becoming extinct one way to help is to increase the supply of seafood by farming in osaka japan is one of the largest shrimp ranches in the world under the supervision of dr morosaku fujinaga world authority on shrimp here shrimps are raised for commercial markets in spawning sheds a series of circulating salt water tanks house the shrimp eggs a female shrimp will lay up to one million eggs at a time and in the open sea most of these eggs will be eaten by fish six to ten months later in the outdoor growing ponds they will mature into as much as four and a half tons of shrimp to the acre the result is large russia shrimp ready for market here's one of the most amazing phenomenon in the water world the salmon are returning from the open sea to the very same stream where they were born recognizing and studying this process has led to a method of increasing the sea bounty a salmon hatchery has been constructed near a large paper mill in springfield oregon warm water from the paper mill heats the nearby hatchery [Music] the warm water makes the salmon eggs hatch and grow faster than they would in nature the fish are fed special foods and vaccinated against disease then the small salmon called smolts are transferred by truck to a coastal saltwater facility here the fish learn the location of the facility so they'll return to it as adults then they're released to the sea to grow to full size for the next three to five years they'll lead complete normal lives in the sea some become part of the ocean food chain others are caught by commercial and sport fishermen but by instinct some always make it back to the place where they were released a number of the fish will be used as brood stock the eggs are saved and fertilized for the next crop the rest of the salmon are harvested and processed supplying a much needed source of protein [Music] it's not only fish we're after we also harvest plants an important resource is the giant kelp due to the abundance of nutrients in seawater kelp is the fastest growing plant in the world the kelp harvest is regulated though it grows as tall as the tallest trees it's unlawful to cut kelp any deeper than four feet under the surface this protects the plants and the fish following harvesting the kelp is dehydrated and processed to preserve the valuable chemicals the results are used in a variety of food dairy and medical products it's even used in penicillin and as a substitute for blood plasma there's another product from the sea that may prove to be one of the most important of all fresh water take our two largest cities new york is right on the atlantic on the other side of the continent los angeles fronts on the broad pacific and yet with all this water both cities have had duration water to their inhabitants [Music] today entire towns are being supplied with water desalted from the sea and the day will come when we can make green areas in need of fresh water now our research takes us to that strangest place of everything and every place in the sea perhaps nothing is more alien than that deepest bottom zone in some cases almost seven miles down we have found that the bottom is not a wasteland it takes a tremendous amount of mineral wealth to run the modern world and we find the ocean bottom is rich with ores many companies are now trying methods of mining these resources ships drag behind them cables miles long with attachments like vacuum cleaners these bring up mineral-rich rocks called nodules [Music] this country now imports many minerals in the case of one mineral manganese we import more than 90 of what we use yet the ocean floor has more than 500 billion tons of manganese off our pacific coast is enough copper to last the world several thousand years enough cobalt for at least two thousand years even more important is the high nickel content slowly we're learning how to mine this resource [Music] a mineral prospecting boat rock eater trolls with its electronic gear in the control room an operator watches for signs of minerals divers find promising rock and bring up specimens the dredging operation begins rock is drawn up crushed washed and separated the sea floor even yields semi-precious stones such as industrial diamonds further proof of the value of ocean mining three quarters of the earth's surface are covered with oceans yet less than five percent of the depths of that ocean has been explored some of our most advanced observations will come from outer space in june 1978 at vandenberg air force base a rocket was launched placing in orbit a satellite named csat the first of an extensive ocean surveillance program [Music] these spacecraft specially designed for oceanography will view the ocean from an altitude of 500 miles or more studying and photographing electronically the oceans of the world csat circles the earth 14 times a day covering 95 percent of the world's ocean area every 36 hours in a single day it took more measurements than were previously taken in decades csad orbited seldom visited regions where great storms are born and mature and sent back images similar to these oceanographic satellites like csat will help improve weather forecasts they will give us information on sea surface winds wave heights and lengths ocean currents and sea temperatures and they will chart storms and ice fields the seaside start of a new era in ocean exploration [Music] and this research continues daily you've seen how the oceans work and what resources they bring us we've explored the world of the fishes and the sea mammals how we're trying to understand them and help them maintain their balance in the sea of course we haven't been able to show you everything but we have brought you some of the more unusual things about it we hope we've given you something to talk about think about discuss maybe someday you'll have a chance to do something for this ocean of ours our lives the lives of all living creatures are inseparably tied to the ocean it behooves us to cherish and protect the health of the seas and so research continues new answers are being found and each one provides us with new questions new mysteries to be solved new exciting areas to explore in this most favorable worlds a continuing search a process as unending as eternal as the boundless seas [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you