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29 November 2009
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The Blue Planet - Coral Seas

Life on a coral reef starts with one coral larva which lands in the right place and grows. Soon it's a coral head, cemented and secure on the seabed. A tiny algae that lives in its tissues allows the coral to grow night and day and as more corals settle, a reef develops. Overcrowding follows as corals expand and soon they're fighting - digesting their neighbours alive under cover of darkness.

The Blue Planet reveals the battles fought in the coral seas.
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Corals are protected by a hard, limestone skeleton, but bumphead parrot fish bite straight through rock and coral with their powerful jaws. These fish erode the coral and the material they swallow comes out the other end as fine sand. On a single reef they can produce tonnes of sand every year. This soft sand forms beautiful tropical white beaches and eventually creates tropical islands!

A sinister crown of thorns starfish slides on to a coral, spreads its stomach over the polyps and digests them whole. The only protection a coral can hope for is a small crab which takes up residence in the coral's branches and uses its pincers to nip the starfish to see it off.

Night on the reef is a tough time. Moray eels slither around the corals hunting by smell. Whitetip sharks use their electrical sense to

trace any movement in the sleeping fish. Feeding frenzies disturb the otherwise eerie calm of the reef.

An entire reef can be destroyed by one big storm: hundreds of years of growth wiped out in a few hours. But out at sea, new life continues to develop and, in time, coral larvae return to colonise the rubble and a new reef grows on the wasteland.

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