Arabian Seas

The seas of Arabia are alive with carnivores.

Sharks and rays patrol the coral reefs,

hunting down their prey.

Toxic fish disguise themselves

to ambush the unwary.

And bizarre armored predators

devour the vulnerable.

These are the Carnivores of the Coral Garden.

In the remote northwest corner of the Indian Ocean,

the seas around Arabia

are among the richest in the world.

Nowhere is this more evident

than in the coral gardens off the coast of Oman.

Here a rare upwelling of cold water

brings nutrients to the surface

and, with it, an explosion of life.

The Sultanate of Oman

is on the south-eastern coast

of the Arabian Peninsula.

The country has over 200 square miles of coral reef

in its coastal waters.

Unlike some of the world's more famous coral reefs,

Oman's remain largely unexplored.

But spend a day here

and the carnivores will reveal themselves,

each with its own special tactics to survive.

It's dawn.

A top carnivore looks for a place to rest

after a night of hunting.

A zebra shark,

an apex predator in the Gulf of Oman

and a permanent resident of this reef.

Growing up to eight feet,

this solitary shark is no threat to fish or humans...

..but crustaceans and mollusks had better beware.

This carnivore prefers prey that hides in the crevices of the reef at night

and in the sandy sea floor.

Up close, this one reveals

its distinctive spotted skin pattern.

It more closely resembles a leopard than a zebra.

But this is an adult.

The zebra shark begins life with dark stripes

and that's how it gets its name.

As a juvenile grows,

the dark bands gradually morph into small dark blotches on a yellow skin.

It's unusual for an animal to be named for its juvenile markings.

This radical change of pattern is common among carpet sharks,

the order of animals to which the zebra shark belongs.

Fully grown, this adult's tail, or caudal fin,

is almost half the size of its entire body.

It's inefficient for high-speed or long-distance swimming.

But this carnivore doesn't migrate like many other sharks.

It also doesn't need speed to catch its mostly slow-moving prey...

..but it does need agility.

The tail, along with fixed pectoral fins,

enables it to carefully navigate around the reef.

Although solitary by nature,

the zebra shark is rarely alone.

This female has a number of carnivorous freeloaders in tow this morning.

Remora fish often travel with sharks.

They stick close to their host

to feed on its parasites and dead skin.

But this nocturnal hunter will soon take a break.

She'll rest in daylight hours and resume her hunting later.

On the hunt for the same hard-shelled prey...

..is a close relative of the shark,

a stingray.

Also largely nocturnal,

this one cruises menacingly over the sand

looking for a final meal.

Rays are essentially sharks

with flattened bodies and extended tails.

Stingrays have a venomous barb on theirs,

which they can flick over their heads

at a would-be attacker.

A sting can be excruciatingly painful

but human fatalities are extremely rare.

Despite their dangerous reputation,

they rarely use their tails for aggression or defense.

This black-blotched stingray

presses its body flat

and churns up the sand in an undulating movement

to unearth prey hiding under the surface.

It doesn't strike it lucky the first time,

so circles round to try again.

The stingray has large spiracles behind its eyes,

openings through which it draws water in.

It blows it out through its underside gills,

creating turbulence in the sand.

Like the zebra shark,

this bottom-feeder can crush even the most hard-shelled prey.

It has up to 90 rows of teeth in its mouth.

Its journey around the reef looks almost effortless.

Its large, rounded pectoral fins

are fused with its body,

creating a circular disk.

It swims by, creating an undulating wave of movement,

which ripples down its body and propels the stingray forward.

At up to six feet across

and weighing more than 300lbs,

the black-blotched is one of the world's largest species of stingray.

The global population is unknown

but here in Arabian waters,

they're a rare sight.

This one takes a moment to rest.

But it will need to find a more private place to relax

during daylight hours.

Even with a barbed tail,

lying out on an exposed reef can be dangerous.

In a murky reef crevice,

a second stingray settles into its daytime hideaway.

But the stingrays are not the only ones seeking shelter.

A couple of nervous and also nocturnal squirrelfish

are trying to avoid the emerging daytime predators.

The zebra shark also needs a place to rest by day.

Her size means she has little to fear out in the open.

But what's remarkable about this shark

is that she can breathe whilst stationary on the seafloor.

Pelagic sharks, those found in open ocean like great whites,

would die if they stopped swimming.

Their continuous movement forces oxygenated water across their gills,

enabling them to breathe.

But the zebra shark can pump her own water.

Small mouth movements draw it in through her mouth

and push it out through the five gill slits

on either side of her head.

This action is known as "buccal pumping."

Facing into the fast-flowing sea current

makes this even easier.

She props herself up on her pectoral fins

to lift up into the current.

Like the stingray,

she also has spiracles behind her eyes

to help her to breathe by drawing water in.

This adaptation is unique to bottom-dwelling sharks and rays.

Zebra sharks like this exposed part of the reef

with its strong sea currents.

In these Arabian waters, the secretive hunters

are an unusually common sight during daylight.

Above the reef is an archipelago of rocky, uninhabited islands.

These are the Damaniyat Islands.

Lying nine miles off the north coast of Oman,

the islands were the first in the country

to be officially protected in 1996.

They are now one of 14 marine nature reserves in Oman.

From the sea they may look barren and unwelcoming...

..but life does exist here.

Seabirds use these islands to rest on and feed from.

The rocky shores provide homes for crabs.

At certain times of year even sea turtles will nest here.

But it is the fringing coral reefs in the water around the islands

that attract the greatest variety of species.

As the sun rises and the nocturnal hunters wind down,

the daytime carnivores emerge from their night-time hideaways.

The goatfish is one of the busiest in Arabian waters.

This one actively digs for worms, crustaceans

or other small invertebrates it can find.

It uses the long barbels protruding from its chin

to detect prey as it rifles through the sediment.

Its distinctive colored markings give this one its name.

Yellow-striped goatfish.

The goatfish is not alone.

Spinecheeks loiter nearby.

This one is keeping a close eye what the goatfish is unearthing.

It does none of the work

but waits patiently,

ready to reap the rewards of the goatfish's vigorous efforts.

The spinecheek gets its name

from an almost invisible backwards-pointing spine

just behind its eye.

This carnivore is a type of bream

but unlike his more familiar cousin, the sea bream,

which lives in deep water,

the spinecheek prefers these food-rich sandy shallows.

All fish have a lateral line running along each side of their bodies.

In most fish it's not easy to see.

But the patterning of the spinecheek makes it more visible.

Running from nose to tail beneath its distinctive dorsal stripes.

The row of small pores leads to a line of fluid beneath the skin,

which enable the fish to feel changes in water pressure.

This helps them to detect predators and prey...

..and also helps schools of fish to synchronize their movements.

The goatfish rarely gets any "alone time" for hunting.

If it's not the spinecheek then it's a black-spotted butterflyfish.

This butterflyfish lives only in Arabian waters.

It prefers to eat coral

but it's not going to turn down

the chance of a free meal.

At last, the smaller of the two goatfish

strikes it lucky.

It's hit a patch of tasty invertebrates under the sand.

The two tuck in to their well-earned feast,

finally away from the attentions of their lazier followers.

Not all of the coral garden carnivores

are easy to see as they hunt.

Expertly camouflaged somewhere in the middle of the rocks and coral

is one of the cleverest carnivores in the Arabian Seas.

Blending perfectly with its surroundings,

a scorpionfish conceals itself as a piece of coral.

Only the slightest movement