The Rite of Passage (Mała matura 1947)

In a far corner of South-East Asia,

lies the Coral Triangle.

A cluster of the richest coral reefs, in the world.

Undersea cities crammed full of life.

As in any crowded metropolis,

there is fierce rivalry for space,

for food

and for a partner.

But the reef is also a place full of opportunity.

A cuttlefish.

It specialises in hunting crabs.

But a large crab is a dangerous quarry.

It has powerful claws.

The cuttlefish, however, has a remarkable talent.

Its skin contains millions of pigment cells

with which it can create ever-changing colours

and patterns.

And that apparently hypnotises the crab.

A cuttlefish may be clever,

but a shark is bigger.

And it eats cuttlefish.

Time to disappear.

Back to the hunt.

A new target, but the same mesmerising technique.

For those that manage to establish themselves in these bustling

undersea cities,

there can be great rewards.

Corals build themselves homes of limestone,

in the warm, clear, shallow seas of the Tropics.

Their reefs occupy less than one tenth

of one percent of the ocean floor.

Yet, they're home to a quarter

of all known marine species.

They are complex,

infinitely variant structures,

providing all kinds of homes for their many residents,

from penthouse suites,

to backstreet dens.

Here, on Australia's Great Barrier Reef,

a coral grouper lives by hunting for small fish.

But how do you get a meal here,

when you're too big to squeeze into crevices?

And the grouper also has a rival,

one which is highly intelligent,

and seeks the same kind of prey.

An octopus.

It can reach into really narrow cracks.

Even so,

its prey often escapes.

What if they could work together?

The grouper turns pale,

and tries to attract the octopus's attention.

It performs a head stand.

Not only is the grouper signalling to the octopus,

it's indicating where the prey is hiding.

The octopus reaches inside.

The fish take fright.

And swim straight into the grouper's jaws.

Sometimes, the octopus gets the reward,

sometimes, the grouper does.

Two very different species

have discovered that teamwork can bring success,

in reef city.

Teamwork, in fact, is the very foundation of life

on the reef.

The corals themselves also rely on a partnership.

But one of a much more intimate kind.

Corals are colonies of anemone-like animals,

polyps.

Some as small as grains of sand.

Living inside the tissues of each polyp,

are minute plant-like cells, invisible to the naked eye.

By day flourishing in tropical sunshine,

the plant-like cells provide the polyps

with up to 90% of their food.

And when it's dark, the polyps continue to feed

by using their tentacles to grab edible particles drifting by.

The polyps also extract calcium carbonate from the sea water,

and use it to build a stony housing for themselves.

Coral colonies can continue to grow for centuries.

Possibly millennia.

And they can build structures that can reach the size of a house.

The biggest of their cities, is the Great Barrier Reef.

It runs for over 1400 miles along the coast of North East Australia.

Activity in coral reefs, wherever they are, never ceases.

At dawn, the day shift begins.

Accompanied by a chorus of submarine song,

created by fish, shrimps, and other inhabitants of the reef.

Every resident in this city, has its role.

Scavengers, like the sea cucumber,

recycle the waste of others.

These parrot fish, bite off chunks of coral

and crunch it to extract the contents.

And then, excrete the rest as sand.

Green turtles, here in Borneo,

pay regular visits to a particular patch of coral.

This little female is up early and one step ahead of the others.

Turtles travel long distances along the reef in order to get here.

This is their destination.

Turtle Rock.

Generations of visiting turtles have worn a hollow in its top.

This is home to blennies

and surgeon fish.

They clean the visitors picking off any algae, parasites and dead skin,

that they can find.

Other client are close behind.

A queue is forming.

The big males barge their way in.

And the smaller female is forced out.

She takes a quick turn around the block,

while the others are squabbling.

And then, she sneaks back in.

So the cleaners get a nutritious meal,

and their customers are freed of their parasites and other encumbrances.

And it's now thought, that a spot of pampering at a cleaning station

may even reduce stress.

The lands of the Middle East are so hot and dry,

that much of their surface is almost lifeless.

But here in the Red Sea,

Coral Reefs flourish wonderfully.

The waters offshore,

are almost as rich in life as a rainforest.

And some animals come to the reefs

simply for rest and relaxation.

The family of bottlenose dolphins

are resting on the reef

after a night's feeding offshore.

Whilst the adult and their babies sleep,

the adolescents set of the explore...

...and they appear to make up games.

You might call this one, "Catch the coral."

The rules aren't entirely clear.

They pick up different bits of broken coral,

and drop them.

Some fall fast.

Others sink more slowly.

And some seem to be descending in a way

that pleases everybody.

Only the most successful city residents can afford the luxury of playing games.

But, such games do that their value.

They may help the youngsters develop the coordination and the agility

that they will need when they start hunting in the open sea.

Every reef has a sharply defined boundary.

Its city walls.

On the outer side is the drop off.

These ramparts protect the city from the ocean waves.

But twice a day, the walls are covered by the incoming tide.

In the Bahamas, the rush of the water creates a truly strange phenomenon.

Seamen once told tales of a giant sea monster,

lurking here deep inside the reef,

that would drag sailors to their doom.

Today, we know it is in fact a whirlpool created by the incoming tide

rushing over deep coral caves.

These currents bring in fresh supplies of microscopic food to the reef

from the open ocean.

And in the Maldives, on the biggest tides,

one particular coral lagoon

become so flooded with plankton,

that it attracts hundreds of ocean giants.

Manta Rays.

With three meter wing spans.

With their huge sloth like mouths wide open

they filter out the plankton.

And the mantas create a vortex of their own

that further concentrates their food.

This behaviour has been called the manta cyclone.

Then the tide changes,

and the supply of food is cut of.

The mantas leave the lagoon.

Life on the sheltered side of the reef is tranquil and peaceful.

In these suburbs, any creature wishing to escape

from the bustling crowds of reef city,

can find plenty of space.

On the other hand,

there is nowhere to hide.

That, at night,

makes it a dangerous place.

Nocturnal predators, such as this lion fish,

patrol the reef edge.

The hunter has become the hunted.

A bobbit,

a giant carnivorous worm

with jaws as sharp as daggers.

It has an ancestry that stretches back more than four hundred million years.

It's a meter long.

It tastes for scent.

And feels for movement.

Dawn, and with light, the reef becomes a safer place.

Little bream return to foraging.

The bobbit might still be hungry.

But now in daylight the odds have shifted.

The bream can see the bobbit.

Instead of retreating,

they join together to blow away the sand covering the worm.

So, taking away its advantage of surprise.

By revealing the bobbit's hiding place,

they will all be able to feed more safely.

But it pays to remember

there is a bobbit about.

Out here, on the sand flats,