[documentary] ASIA - BBC | Beneath The Waves

[Davide DB]

On 3 November, the BBC will air the first episode of the documentary series ASIA. The first episode will be totally dedicated to the sea.

Here the trailer of the series:

 

 

All the episodes:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/asia-everything-you-need-to-know

 

A detailed explanation of what we will see in the first episode:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/asia-episode-one-beneath-the-waves/

 

In particular the dangerous aggregation and spawning of Moorish idols and the ruthless hunting of sharks.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0k0msnl

 

And the spawning aggregation of dusk sharks in front of a power plant in Israel.

We also reported on it here months ago...

 

 

 

 

[bghazzal]

The amazing footage Moorish idol spawning and grey reef shark chase was filmed in Palau (Blue Corner and Siaes' Corner) in January 2023.
The spawning itself is a yearly event, but the actual chase is very difficult to catch as the Moorish idols (which congregate on the reefs for a few days in the Ngemelis area) dash from the reef into the blue when conditions are right. It's hardly a secret (nice footage on Youtube as well) but capturing the chase in this way is a really fantastic!
I'm really happy to see this footage made it into the series!

Other than a standard cinecam in a Gates housing, they used a floating pole with GoPros (in flat profiles, I'm sure 😁), as well a special boat mounted camera rig for the chase.
I really hope there will be BTS footage, as I saw the rig being setup on one of our boats when I was working there, but not the actual finished product.

Heré's some additional info from the BBC site:

 

Filming feats

• The extraordinary behaviour of the Moorish Idols being chased by grey reef sharks was captured using a range of highly specialised cameras, including one developed specifically for this type of event that can be anchored to the side of a moving vessel and controlled from the deck, rather than having to be in the water, allowing an insight into the behaviour of the fish not possible any other way.
• The team achieved a ground-breaking feat by filming inside the intense whirlpools of Komodo National Park, capturing unprecedented footage for the sequence on the Indonesian Throughflow.
   

  What was the most difficult sequence to capture?

  The sharks hunting the Moorish idols. It's never been filmed before. During our research phase we discovered that Planet Earth III had tried to film the event and not managed it. So yes, the odds were stacked against us. The timing of the event is critical. It only happens once a year, and no one really knows what the exact triggers for it are.

  But in the run up to it you have these incredible few days where the numbers of sharks just build and build off the edge of the reef, and the numbers of the Moorish idols, which are the little reef fish that are waiting to spawn, build and build as well. And there's this kind of cat and mouse game going on as both drift up and down the reef.
   

  How did you actually film it?

  It was incredibly complex. As filmmakers, you need to cover it from every angle. To follow the main chase, you have to have drones in the air, so you can get that aerial view. You've also got to have multiple boats in the water because when it does kick off, a lot of the action happens at the surface. We had a specially rigged “pole-cam” camera system, which was attached to the side of the boat to actually capture the running event.
   

  Did you use divers as well?

  Yes. You've got to have divers in the water waiting for it to happen, spending as much time underwater as they possibly can. But as soon as the chase starts, you haul them out of the water very quickly. There is no way you could film it as a diver. One reason is that the event is running at about 4 or 5 knots, which is far too fast for even an Olympic swimmer, let alone a diver with a great big underwater camera in front of him. The other reason is obviously the sharks.
   

  There were 200 or more grey reef sharks, and they were hitting everything, even the side of the boat. If anything got in their way, they would try and take a chunk out of it. It's an impossible thing to cover from a dive perspective. So you need to put your eggs in lots of different baskets and film it in as many ways as you can.
   

  How did you marry your different filming devices?

  The game really is combining aerial drone shots with footage from the boat. We always had a drone in the air. We would bring one in to change the battery, and in the time we were doing that, we sent another one up, so we kept swapping them out. Not only were the drones filming, but they were giving us really accurate locations as well. If the boat drifts off, or the Moorish idols leave the side of the boat and you can't see them very well, then you just go to the drone find out where they are.

  The boat had a top deck, and the action at the surface to start with was so profuse – you had splashing and sharks leaping out the water – that it was quite easy to spot and follow them. It's when the numbers of the Moorish idols dwindle significantly that you really need the drones to stick on top of them so that you don't lose them.
   

  What were the biggest challenges of the shoot?

  The sharks kept changing direction. They often came straight at the boat. A number of times the Moorish idols used the shadow of the hull of the boat as shelter, so all the sharks would then pile into the side of the boat. We'd have to turn all the engines off and sit there until the idols went again.
   

  Finally, returning to the incredible sequence of the grey reef sharks hunting the Moorish idols, how do you reflect on that now?

  Going for that sequence at all was a really big punt. But on a mega-landmark series, you need to be very ambitious. It's a pretty nerve-wracking process doing that. But you have an enormous sense of relief when it turns out well. You get a huge glow of pride that you actually did it. The team pulled it off. Everybody did such a good job that it was an incredible success. It’s now the opening sequence of the whole series. In years to come, when I look back over my career, that's something that's going to go down as one of the really big moments.

   

Beyond  Palau, I'm really looking forward to the Komodo NP sequences, where they apparently filmed inside whirlpools.
I wonder where - There can be massive whirlpools just off the sides of Batu Bolong in central Komodo, but otherwise north of the park can be really intense (Golden Passage, etc)

Here's the technical description:
 

To film the intense whirlpools of Komodo National Park, the team used a specially constructed floating camera rig, operated by cinematographer David Reichert, who was dressed in multiple life jackets, as well as additional safety equipment and a support team nearby with throw-ropes in case of need. The team also operated a pole-cam from the main vessel to capture additional shots. These innovative approaches provided a unique perspective and also resulted in split-shots showing these whirlpools in action, offering viewers a rare and thrilling glimpse into these dynamic underwater phenomena.

But the Komodo sequence seems to also focus on reef manta rays, so for the mantas that would mostly be central, Karang Makassar and Mawan, and maybe Cauldron up north?

 

Other goodies to look out for include firefly squid footage from Toyama bay, which has some of the best black water diving in Japan, and sea krait footage from the Banda Sea which is most likely from the Gili Manuk area...

 

Really looking forward to this one (and BTS footage...) I must say!

Edited November 3 by bghazzal

[bghazzal]

Well, it's out and pretty stunning as expected 🤩

 

Unfortunately, as far as I can see the BTS footage is focused on the whirlpools in Komodo, with no Palau sequence behind the scenes making-of... Hopefully on another BTS sequence, then 😶🤞
 

As I was writing above, other than the mantas footage shot at Karang/Taka Makassar (another central Komodo classic - though I do wonder why they didn't go for mantas at Mawan or even at Cauldron / Shotgun, where they're regularly spotted in nicer settings than cleaning stations in reef rubble...) - they did go shoot the whirlpool sequence at central Komodo National Park's Batu Bolong, which is also shown in the BTS sequence.
It's a little confusing because the aerial shots used also jump to North Komodo (Gili Lawa Laut, Golden Passage) but the exciting whirlpool surface scene was shot at Batu Bolong, in the center of the park.

Batu Bolong (which means "pierced rock", due to the hole/arch seen on the surface of the islet) is a world famous site, footage of which you've probably seen if you've ever watched a video / seen pictures shot in the park (iconic shots of anthias shooting out of a stunning hard coral garden in the shallows...).

And it's actually a relatively easy dive site where simply you zigzag up  a slope from 25meters-ish to the surface.

The main issue with this dive site is that a powerful current directly hits the rock  - and while you're always diving the lee side / protected area, this direct hit creates powerful down-currents whirlpools on the sides of the protected area, sucking down to a depth of 80m+...

As a guide, your role is to make sure the site is safely diveable (which it isn't always...) and, underwater, to know when to stop your group and make the turn to head towards the other side.
This is done by reading the site: watching current lines on the surface, reading fish behaviour - GTs and other large fish swimming in the current for instance - as well as fixed elements like seafans, drifting particules, and just generally feeling / conservatively estimating the pull of the current...

But if the tide switches (in central Komodo NP, the main current flows north to south on a falling tide, and from south to north on a rising tide) - which it can sometimes do very quickly in the area - you can end up in pretty nighmarish situations underwater, as the protected area shrinks (the rock isn't really round, but actually oval...), which is why timing is very important.

On a good day, however, when it's not too crazy, you can actually follow the tide change, making careful progress on the tip of your fins - and go all the way around the rock at slack tide...

Here are some maps I drew back in the day - not really works of arts I know, but they might help will make more sense of the above:

 

On wild and crazy days, it's like a river and the site is undiveable (strong currents bounce around on the islands in Komodo like on a pinball deck, so when it's strong, it can get a little crazy, no real protected area, back headings, bubbles pulled down etc....)

And on the surface, strong currents also creates issues for entries (which need to be efficient) and especially upon surfacing, as divers can get pulled to the side current lines,  where less powerful boats will struggle to manoeuvre safely.
So checking the site from the surface if the current looks a little iffy is also a major responsability.

This is phone clip I took of Batu Bolong a few years back (when I didn't know how to lock focus on a phone apparently...), showing the site in generally undiveable conditions, the current lines looking like white water rapids.... 😅
 

Now what the BBC crew did in this series - and that's pretty brave - is to film on the surface, right in the current lines and whirlpools that form on both sides on the rock...

Keep in mind that while the dive site itself is not particularly difficult, there have been quite a few underwater accidents / fatalities at Batu Bolong, with divers going too far towards the sides and getting pulled down - there was also a rumour that someone had voluntarily gone in the whirlpools with a tech setup, basically to see what happens... I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it would be very dangerous as the washing machine could certainly be life threatening, redundancy and depth-compliant setup or not.

These whirlpools are also infamous in Komodo National Park for the issues they create on the surface, and everyone working there has seen divers surface a little too close to the sides when the flow is picking up, and get pulled into the current, towards the whirlpools...

The whirlpools can certainly suck a diver down when it's really strong, something I haven't seen luckily, but I've seen people having issues with the traction while climbing the ladder and needing an extra pair of arms to be pulled out of it, and also slow boats struggling to manoeuvre and push out of the current after a late pick up...
Not great, so this is generally something we try to avoid by surfacing in the center of the protected area, especially when current is strong or picking up.

And for this sequence, what the BBC crew actually go for it, with a life-jacket reinforced flotation rig, and head straight towards the whirlpool and film it, which is pretty gnarly!

Capture from the BBC Earth Asia 1 behind-the-scene sequence, heading for the whirlpools of Batu Bolong with the rig...

Nice one 🤙 - Next step would be actually diving the washing machine downcurrent to wherever it takes you I guess? Underwater drone or GoPros on stick perhaps?

cheers

ben

 

Edited November 4 by bghazzal

[Davide DB]

Wow, I live in the Mediterranean, which is a basin of water by comparison, and currents are rarely a problem.

The only place where currents are raging and dangerous is the Strait of Messina where we dive at the strangest times with tide tables. Here the current easily reaches 6 knots, and depending on the geography of the coast and seabed, impressive whirlpools form that are spectacular to watch.

The Greek legend of the monsters Scylla and Charybdis originates here

[bghazzal]

Wow - impressive - 6 knots+ !!!  Biggest I've seen are the tidal whirlpools in the Naruto Strait between the Shikoku (Tokushima) and Awaji island in Japan...
But diving there would be a death sentence... Here are some hair raising Japanese whirlpool clips 😵

Back to BBC Earth Asia, here's a review I find a little bland but which ends on this rather pertinent observation:

"It is notable that, in this first episode at least, Asia has toned down the rhetoric that permeated Planet Earth III, for example, of the Anthropocene and human-induced destruction. Here, the rampant industrialisation of the planet has tweaked delicate ecosystems, rather than ravaged them: see an Israeli power station that pumps out water that is 10C warmer than the surrounding seas. While there is little mention of what those heated waters have done on a larger scale, it does point out that it has accidentally benefited the pregnant female dusky sharks that now gather in the area.
It mentions busy shipping routes and polluted seas but, largely, this is more gentle, less urgent, than some of its preceding series. I just wonder if a lack of urgency is really what the natural world needs now."

Source:  https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/nov/03/asia-review-another-david-attenborough-masterclass-in-beautiful-tv
 

 

Edited November 4 by bghazzal

[Nikolausz]

Any suggestion how to watch it from Germany?

[Davide DB]

4 minutes ago, Nikolausz said:

Any suggestion how to watch it from Germany?

 

.... vpn 😇

[Nikolausz]

5 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

 

.... vpn 😇

probably that's the easiest way

 

[Davide DB]

13 hours ago, bghazzal said:

Here are some maps I drew back in the day - not really works of arts I know, but they might help will make more sense of the above:

 

 

 

Time to start a dive spot drawing contest here 😉

 

[Troporobo]

The BBC’s iPlayer requires registration and confirmation of a UK television license (ok, sure 🙄).  I’m able to watch with NordVPN set to the UK. 

[bghazzal]

8 hours ago, Davide DB said:

 

Time to start a dive spot drawing contest here 😉

 

hehehe, yeah saw that - I actually know this particular map base they're using on Coralia liveaboard, actually copied it myself, before going 3D instead 😁

Here's the original, created by Mermaids liveaboard IIRC

https://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info/viewpage.php?page_id=862
 

Humble study copy:


👨‍🎨🎨🤣


 

Edited November 5 by bghazzal

[Davide DB]

IMHO the two best stories are the Moorish idols and the Mudskippers.

BBC succeeds as usual in creating real stories by artfully editing the images. The stories about the Sea Bunny and the collaboration between snakes and fish for hunting are also very good but the first two mentioned are incredible. I can imagine the enormous amount of footage required to edit these stories. However, credit must be given to the skill of the BBC that manages to make a nudi walk interesting. It is by no means easy. However, I got the impression that some scenes are filmed in the aquarium but I could be plain wrong. Unfortunately, BBC chose to show only the BTS of the whirlpools.