WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:17.000
(Music)

00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.000
"Stories from the Sea"

00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:25.000
"Fish Tale: My Secret Life as Plankton"

00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:29.000
(Music)

00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:32.000
How did I get here?

00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:35.000
Well, it's a stranger story than you might think.

00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:39.000
I came from a world of drifters,

00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.000
a place few humans have ever seen.

00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:45.000
The world of plankton.

00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:49.000
I came from a batch of a million eggs,

00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:52.000
and only a few of us survived.

00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.000
When I became a larva,

00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:59.000
I moved among other drifters.

00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:06.000
"Plankton comes from the Greek planktos for wandering"

00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:10.000
My fellow plankton came in all sizes,

00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:13.000
from tiny algae and bacteria

00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:16.000
to animals longer than a blue whale.

00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:21.000
I shared my nursery

00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:24.000
with other embryos and juveniles,

00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:28.000
from clams and crabs to sea urchins and anemones.

00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:33.000
(Plankton noise)

00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:37.000
We drifting animals are called zooplankton.

00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:40.000
The most common animals here

00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.000
are copepods and krill.

00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:48.000
You could search the world over,

00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:51.000
but you'd never find a place more diverse than my childhood home.

00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:55.000
A teaspoon of seawater

00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:58.000
can contain more than a million living creatures.

00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:04.000
It can be a pretty tough existence, though.

00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:06.000
Trillions are born here,

00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:09.000
but only a few make it to adulthood.

00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:16.000
He may be no larger than a pin head,

00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:20.000
but this crab larva is an arrow worm's worst nightmare.

00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:35.000
(Plankton noises)

00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:40.000
Epic battles between carnivores like these are just one way to get food.

00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:45.000
But the real powers of this place come from phytoplankton:

00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:48.000
single-celled life

00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:51.000
that transforms sunlight and carbon dioxide into

00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.000
edible gold.

00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:04.000
Phytoplankton are the base for the largest food web in the world.

00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:08.000
During the night,

00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:11.000
many animals like me would rise up from the depths

00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:14.000
to feed on this sun-powered feast.

00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:18.000
(Plankton noises)

00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:22.000
I was part of the largest daily migration of life on Earth.

00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:26.000
During the day,

00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:30.000
I'd return to the darkness, where I'd join my bizarre companions.

00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:35.000
(Plankton noises)

00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:38.000
Cannibals, like this sea butterfly mollusk,

00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.000
that eats its next of kin.

00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:46.000
And comb jellies,

00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:49.000
that beat cilia like rainbowed eyelashes.

00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:58.000
Some of these snare their prey with sticky tentacles,

00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:02.000
while others just take a bite out of their cousins.

00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:06.000
And siphonophores

00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.000
that catch prey with toxic fishing lures.

00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:18.000
But my favorite would have to be the crustacean Phronima;

00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:23.000
its monstrous looks inspired the movie "Aliens."

00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:27.000
It can catch tiny bits in its bristles,

00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:30.000
but prefers larger prey like salps.

00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:38.000
With two sets of eyes, this female prowls the deeper water.

00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.000
Prey in hand,

00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:47.000
she performs one of the strangest behaviors in the entire animal kingdom.

00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:53.000
With body parts from her victims,

00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:56.000
she delicately assembles a barrel-like home

00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:00.000
feeding her young until they can drift off and survive on their own.

00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:09.000
Best of all, they make the perfect snack for a small fish like me.

00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:14.000
Here among the plankton,

00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:17.000
the food web is so tangled and complex,

00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:21.000
even scientists don't know who eats whom.

00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:25.000
But I do.

00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:31.000
At least now you know a bit of my story.

00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:35.000
There's so much more to me than just a tasty meal.