Beautiful people underwater

Telly review

Three-fourth of the earth’s surface lies beneath a blue melange of seas and oceans, which we have only barely begun to explore. Within the depths of these waters lie the world’s most extraordinary life forms, which have developed highly-specialised adaptations to survive in a world of immense variety and extremes.

In The Magic of the Big Blue on Animal Planet, we are taken on a bizarre expedition and introduced to many of nature’s phenomenal creations, their stories and secrets. Just how much do we understand ‘the big blue’ is the question that the show attempts to answer. The journey begins in Asia, and in the later episodes, covers the breathtaking continents of Australia and Oceania, South America, Europe, Africa, North America and the Antarctica.

In the episode on Asia, we get to see how the south-eastern corner is lined by a chain of islands with several active volcanoes, whose slopes attract the ocean’s most elusive creatures, and how Mother Nature’s workshop has produced some of her most inventive designs ranging from the ingeniously adapted to the beautiful and the ugly.

The episode then takes us to the western side of Philippines, which is known as the beach capital of the world. The coral reefs that colonise within its water, transform the barren 40,000 sq km of land into living palettes of paint, where every inch of living space is hotly contested for, and only the fittest survive. Next, we travel into the seas that surround Acura Island, the world’s largest coral reef that houses almost half the species of corals in the world.

Towards the end of the episode, we stray into the mysterious depths of the caves that lie beneath Sipadan, a Malaysian national park. It is amazing to note that this island is called the turtle capital of the world. The caves beneath the island are nicknamed the turtle tomb as they house the skeletal remains of several turtles. This labyrinth, meant only for the extremely adventurous, resembles an ogre’s lair, as the twisting tunnels and the countless dead ends have led to the downfall of several turtles that had sought refuge in them.

The episode on Asia introduces us to so many special varieties of fish and coral that we are left spellbound. The show also introduces us to the art of camouflage that helps sea creatures blend seamlessly into their surroundings. The moses sole fish matches its surroundings so precisely that it might as well be invisible, the ghost-pied fish impersonates sea weeds, the feather sea star can easily be mistaken for a plant, the cuttlefish releases specialised pigments called chromatophobes to confuse both predators and prey.

A special reference is made to the pygmy sea horse, which seems to have perfected the art of illusion. At two-and-a-half centimetres, this creature is camouflaged so well that it was overlooked by scientists for a long time. The show introduces us to many such amazing facts, making us wonder how we lack the knowledge about these creatures.

If this is Asia’s underwaters, try the waters that surround Australia and Oceania. Australia, the smallest continental landmass on Earth, is surrounded by 7,000-odd islands. The show takes us on a fascinating journey around Palau Archipelago, Papua New Guinea and Fiji that bear the scars of human conflict. The rusted underwater remnants of World War II bring us face to face with human suffering and the consequences of war.

The fact that the seas in this area are labelled shark sanctuaries and hence home to a large number of sharks, including the grey-tip, black-tip and white-tip, is educative. Corals and fishes of different sizes, shapes and colours have made these seas their home and coral reefs serve as a medicine cabinet as the chemicals released by them have found to be a cure for several ailments like cancer, arthritis and Alzheimer’s, which further increases the need for us to preserve them.

Narrated by Richard Lintern, The Magic of The Big Blue is an awe-inspiring adventure through the lens of Dariusz Sepido, one of the world’s most acclaimed underwater photographers. This show is definitely something that should not be missed, every day, at 8 pm on Animal Planet.