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to see.
I have been blessed with two places that I can call home.
The city of Eilat is the southernmost city in Israel.
It lies across from the neighboring city of Aqaba in Jordan.
Eilat is located on the northern tip of the Red Sea.
It is a sea surrounded by desert.
About 7,000 miles from Eilat and the Red Sea, almost half a global way, is St. Croix,
an evergreen island surrounded by the Caribbean Sea.
St. Croix is the largest of the three U.S. Virgin Islands.
I've had the privilege of studying with great teachers in my life.
But the greatest of them all is the one thing that binds the tropical lushness of St. Croix
and the desert of Eilat together.
It is the sea.
This documentary is about what the sea has taught me to see.
Some of the animals you will see live in the Caribbean, some in the Red Sea.
The oceans of the world connect both.
Because of the great distance, many similar animals have evolved somewhat differently.
But in the end, all our seas and oceans are one.
It's all one.
We are all one.
It all begins with coral reefs that grow off beaches like Eilat and St. Croix.
The coral reef is an oasis in a blue desert.
It's a place that attracts many different creatures.
On the sandy plains that lead the way to the reef, many surprises await.
If the water is very still, sometimes I get to see this phenomena.
There's a squid around and the squid has spread its ink as a diversion against a predator
attack.
I look around because I love dancing with the squids.
Squids aren't usually seen alone, they are very complex social creatures.
This baby squid is only one inch long, he is trying to hold himself against the current.
If this baby seahorse lets go of his grip, he might find himself washed onto shore.
Dolphins sometimes search for food in the sand.
They detect a prey with sonar.
When there is no one around, garden eels stretch out of their holes to feed.
These eels retreat deep into their holes as soon as they sense danger.
The dolphin will search for a hole in the sand and then stick his nose inside, hoping
to catch one.
These feed on the sandy bottom, and so the ray's mouth is located on the bottom of its
body.
This ray is looking for crustaceans like shrimps or crabs hiding in the sand.
When a shrimp feels that there is danger in the area, he disappears fast.
While I was shooting this stingray at night, it came to check me out.
The stinger on the stingray's tail gives this fish its name, but it will only use the
stinger as a last resort when threatened.
The goatfish has two fillers beneath his mouth.
He uses them to search for food and to push animals out of their holes.
Because even if you have a shell to protect you, it's not enough, so you'd rather hide
under the sand.
This box crab is looking for exactly that.
He is using his legs for more than just walking, he is sticking them very deep in the sand
and using them as fillers.
When this crab started to bury himself in the sand, I was sure that he was pulling a
disappearing act on me.
But it seems that that wasn't the case.
Instead, he came up with a nice juicy clam that he cracks open and eats for dinner.
Many different kind of predators bury themselves in the sand, waiting for an innocent prey
to go by.
Even with a trained eye, it's hard to see them.
The torpedo ray stuns his prey with an electric shock.
He feeds on small fish and crustaceans.
Another predator that likes to bury himself in the sand is the lizardfish.
In the foreground, looking like an innocent plant, is the sea anemone.
The anemone is a living creature.
It's a sit and wait predator that uses venomous tentacles to catch and paralyze its prey.
It pulls its captured meal into its mouth, which is located in the center of its tentacles.
Because of my light, this anemone is catching so many fish, that it hardly has any free
tentacles left to catch more.
At the reef, we find relatives of the anemones, the corals.
A coral is actually a colony of many individuals that are called polyps.
Like the anemones, they have stinging cells along their tentacles to help them catch their
prey.
Most thorny corals are active only at night, and when day breaks, they retract and the
colony becomes motionless for the whole day.
Many animals have adapted to take advantage of the venom of others, like the nudibranch,
which is a snail with no shell, that uses the poisons from its food to protect itself.
To show their toxicity and word of predators, these naked snails shine in vivid colors.
The scorpion fish is usually invisible to the eye.
It only exposes its colorful side when it feels danger.
As if to say, I am very poisonous, do not mess with me.
Don't be fooled by the fish on the left, look at the one on the right, can you see it?
If you're not familiar with eels, they can look pretty intimidating.
Some mistake eels to be snakes, but they're not, these are fish.
Eels, like most fish, have their gills on the side of their head, and since their eyesight
is poor, they have extended nostrils on top of their mouth to help them locate their prey.
Even though they sometimes can be seen during the day, eels feed at night.
This footlong rabbit fish was sleeping, not aware of danger.
Minutes later, he is swallowed whole by a giant moray eel.
The puffer fish family is poisonous to many other fish.
If this eel eats this sharp-nosed puffer, he will probably die.
You can see his hesitation, and how he comes to his senses and leaves the puffer alone.
When a puffer senses danger, in order to intimidate predators, he inflates his body by inhaling
water.
The variety of shapes, colors, and textures at sea is beyond our wildest imagination.
This triangular fellow is a honeycomb cowfish, a member of the trunkfish family.
Out of curiosity, many animals will approach me and check me out, even though I am so much
bigger than they are.
But unfortunately, I have to breathe out, and the sound of my bubbles scares them away.
Juvenile trunkfish look like floating dice.
They have transparent fins, invisible but very effective.
Next to this sleeping parrotfish, you see a young spotted boxfish.
Parrotfish are not found in the Caribbean Sea.
If you think that this baby box is funny, wait till you see an adult male.
Another fish I can only approach when he is sleeping is the parrotfish.
In order to hide themselves, some parrotfish sleep inside crevices.
The camouflage of others makes them appear to be one with the reef.
Another type of parrotfish blows a cocoon made from his own mucus to conceal his scent
and get a good night's sleep.
Any protection is good when there are predators wandering around in the night.
This cuttlefish is looking for prey.
Squids and cuttlefish have two folded long tentacles that are used for catching prey.
The rest of the tentacles are used for mating and feeding.
The cuttlefish lives close to the sand, unlike his close relative, the squid, who hovers
over the reef like the helicopter of the sea.
The squid is a nocturnal predator with large eyes and ever-changing colors.
And on a good night, we get to dance.
A relative of the squid and the most intelligent and very bright, either on land or underwater,
is the octopus.
An octopus can change his body size, shape and texture, he can change colors and he can
swim by using his own jet-like engine.
The octopus sucks in water through his hood, he sprays it out through a siphon.
The mechanics are the same as those of a jet engine.
The octopus is propelled in the opposite direction to where the siphon points.
Here you can see how it works.
The octopus has the amazing ability to control each of the individual suction cups that are
located all along his eight arms.
He uses these suction cups to catch his prey or to build himself a den.
At night, the octopus is out and about, searching for food in the coral reef.
He wraps his arms around the coral head, leaving his prey very little chance of escape.
When the octopus catches his meal, he uses his suction cups to bring it to his beak-like
mouth, which is located in the center of his body.
Moving to the other side of the globe, we'll get to see an octopus catch a much bigger
fish.
That's it, he's got it.
Because of my presence, the octopus won't eat this big fish even now, preferring to
take it to a safe haven.
It is unbelievable that with all the octopus's color-changing sophistication, he only sees
in black and white.
How does he adapt his camouflage colors to his surroundings?
Well, it's still a mystery to science.
All kinds of octopuses have to watch their step all the time.
Because for eels, dolphins, sharks and many others, this curious creature is a delicacy.
While some cruise above, others cruise below.
This territorial guy came a long way to let me know that I am not welcome in his territory.
He's not afraid of me, the lionfish is the show-off of the venomous scorpion fish family.
Although some members of the scorpion fish family can be found in the Caribbean, the
lionfish does not live there.
Here's a soapfish, at night, hoping to get lucky and catch a meal.
This crab doesn't know that in a second, it will have to protect its life.
The frogfish is definitely the master of camouflage in the sea.
Not only is camouflage his only defense, it helps him to catch his prey.
This is a red sea frogfish.
He has evolved to be about 16 inches long, which is about 4 times the size of his counterpart
in the Caribbean.
The side fin of the frogfish have evolved to serve as feet.
In order not to give his camouflage away, he sits in the same spot most of the time.
The frogfish's gill openings are located at the back of his feet.
He uses the first spine of his dorsal fin to attract fish that think the tip of that
spine is a worm, just like a fishing rod.
When the fish approaches, the frogfish stretches his mouth open and swallows them whole.
On rare occasions, one can see the frogfish moving.
He doesn't like to swim, afraid to give his camouflage away.
He prefers to look like a sponge, kind of drifting on the bottom.
The frogfish can swim, but would rather not, because when he does swim, it takes him a
lot of effort to pump water through his mouth and then shoot it out through his hidden gills.
Adapting strange shapes is a key for survival.
The trumpetfish uses its elongated body to merge with the coral reef.
Like this trumpetfish, many fish are capable of changing the color of their skin to get
them closer to their prey.
Having an elongated body is useful for the needlefish as well.
It swims on the surface of the water, ready to charge at fish that swim by.
Some hunters always hover around the reef, like the barracuda.
The barracuda is a fast predator with very sharp teeth.
It will approach divers out of curiosity just to check them out.
Two jacks and a hawkfish, in a strange dance.
The eagle ray is always in motion, flying around above the reef.
This ray is about 15 feet long.
But at sea, even if you are a big predator, you're not safe.
A small virus or parasite can be a deadly enemy.
There's always a balance.
I've even had the privilege of seeing sharks, since there has been no feeding involved in
the making of this video, I had to film this shark from a long distance.
People are not a part of a shark's diet, although on rare occasions, accidents happen.
One day these dolphins showed up out of nowhere.
Very curious, very playful.
Next to me was a branch of a palm tree lying on the sand.
These guys came along to check it out.
Here we go!
All these magnificent animals, like many others, have a dear price to pay to the carelessness
of us humans.
Over 100,000 marine mammals and sea birds die every year from plastic litter.
The plastic blocks the airways of the animal and chokes it to death.
It was such an amazing surprise to meet these wonderful creatures at night.
With some species, I can be sure that when I see one, another one is going to be around.
It is fascinating to see how many underwater couples are believed to mate for life.
Those males will give me a signal as if to say, leave my girlfriend alone.
In the Red Sea, we find the Skelfin Anthias, who look a little bit like goldfish.
The Skelfin Anthias are all-born female, but some of them will turn into males according
to the needs of the species.
If they become male, their golden color will turn purplish.
Mating rituals are always fun to watch.
Like this bird-race who is calling his mate with a dance.
If he's attractive enough, she'll come.
This meal is at the expense of the eggs of a small Arabian damselfish.
Butterfly fish and races all gather around to eat the eggs.
Eggs and newborns are a part of the food of many animals.
But nature has ways of keeping a balance.
Many will be eaten, but some will survive, and the species will continue.
After getting stung in the neck by a Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish one night, this is what
I found myself surrounded by at 80 feet deep the following night.
Jellies and plankton come up from the deep.
Plankton is the root source of food for all the animals in the sea.
Plankton is microscopic plants and animals, some of whom will develop into the babies
of the future.
Some jellyfish are extremely venomous, like this box jellyfish, but even their poison
does not protect them against specialized predators such as sea turtles.
Jellyfish are the relatives of anemones and corals.
In the coral, only the outer tissue, the polyps, are alive, while underneath the living polyps
are the skeletons of the polyps' ancestors.
Until the 18th century, people thought that corals were plants, but they are animals.
To see them in action, we have to look at night.
It is then that the polyps send their tentacles out to catch the prey.
A coral colony will grow a maximum of one inch per year.
Corals have been around for more than 200 million years.
They have survived all the changes that the planet has seen.
But yet, they are very fragile animals.
When people touch corals, or stand on them, the coral dies.
Living corals are a main source of food for many species.
The parrotfish feeds on algae that lives inside the coral.
Parrotfish scrape away the coral's hard skeleton with their sharp, fused beak-like mouth.
Stony corals build a coral reef.
They were also used as building materials on land as well.
The 18th century Danish sugar mills on St. Croix are living examples.
Sometimes when I stick my head under the water in St. Croix, I get to see these lovely reptiles.
It takes more than 20 years for females to reach sexual maturity and be able to lay eggs.
During the day when the turtles are active, they have to go up for air every 20 minutes
or so.
At night, when their metabolism is slow, they can stay down for hours.
The sea turtle is a light sleeper.
This one noticed me when I arrived with my lights and it started swimming away, which
is usually what happens.
But all of a sudden, it showed me its bottom part.
I'd never seen something like this happen.
It then made a U-turn and charged toward yours truly.
I was very insulted.
Here, let's watch it again.
On another night, I got to see an old sea turtle sleeping.
I started to approach and it didn't move.
At first, I thought it was dead, but it was very much alive.
The reason that this poor turtle couldn't see me is that something had ripped out one
of its eyes.
There are seven kinds of sea turtles in the world, and all of them are on the verge of
extinction.
Turtles and other animals mistake plastic bags to be jellyfish.
They eat the bag, it blocks their stomach, and they die.
This hawksbill turtle can easily be identified by the zigzag shape along the sides of his
armor and his beak-like mouth.
The hawksbill turtle enjoys eating sponges.
Sponges are one of the most primitive animals that we can find on the reef.
Sponges filter food by pumping water in through the little holes on their bodies, then letting
the water out through the large center hole.
Since most fish don't eat sponges, decorative crabs cut small pieces of sponge and glue
them on their backs as a camouflage protection.
On the way back from the reef, on the sandy plains, I found this hermit crab.
It adapts a shell and makes it its home.
When the crab outgrows a shell, he looks for a new, empty shell to move into.
Some hermit crabs glue sea anemones on their shells for extra protection.
When the crab moves to a new shell, he relocates the anemones with him.
The hermit crab is not the only creature that has a use for empty shells.
Many babies hide inside shells as protection from predators.
This is a good reason why we shouldn't take shells out of the sea even if they're empty.
The spiny lobster has an external skeleton for protection.
As you can see, I had a very intimate moment with this one.
Lobsters can live up to 25 years and reach a weight of 10 pounds.
On one night a year, the lobsters of the Red Sea form a line and walk toward their mating
ground.
I was fortunate to be in the water when these slipper lobsters did just that.
It's interesting how the slipper lobster of the Caribbean evolved to have such vivid colors,
while the relatives on the other side of the globe have not.
For animals at sea, danger is a daily routine.
Lobsters and crabs stay very close to the reef so they can escape when danger comes.
I had the privilege of discovering what experts say is likely to be a new species to science.
It is unbelievable to me that it is still possible to discover new species.
It just shows us how much we still need to learn about the sea.
Snake eels travel along the bottom, looking in crevices to find their prey.
Snake eels aren't snakes, they're fish.
Another fish that lives very close to the bottom and glides above the sand is the flounder.
The flounder is born like a normal fish, swimming vertically, but at a very young age his body
falls to the side and the eye closest to the sand travels to the other side of the head.
On the sandy bottom there are often seagrass areas, and seagrass is exactly what a green
turtle likes to feed on.
The seagrass is a home for many creatures.
It is a very important habitat since it is used as a nursery for many reef fish.
Often when I ask children if this is a fish, they mistakenly say that it's not.
It is a horse.
But it is a fish with a very strange appearance.
Its only protection is its camouflage.
The seahorse is pretty much as shy as a fish can get.
When the sea is very calm, one may get to see the seahorse swimming.
The seahorse's transparent fins give him the appearance of floating.
However the seahorse relies much more on his anchoring tail than on his swimming abilities.
A relative of the seahorse is the ghost pipefish.
He swims in the same manner as the seahorse, but the difference is that he is purely a
drifter.
While some fish will clean themselves by rubbing against the sand, others collaborate with
different species and go into what we call a cleaning station.
It is much like a cowwash place, a fish will come by, settle down and then the cleaner
shrimps will climb on top of the fish and clean it.
This is a great example of many underwater symbiotic relationships, the relationship
between two completely different species that is beneficial to both.
In this example the shrimp gets a meal out of the clean up and it's good for the fish
because the shrimp removes algae and parasites from his body.
An amazing symbiotic relationship that occurs in the Red Sea is between the clownfish and
the sea anemone.
At night, the sleeping clownfish is protected by the venomous tentacles of the anemone.
During the day, the clownfish protects the anemone from fish who would try to eat it.
The polyp colonies of the coral have their own symbiosis.
Every polyp has many microscopic algae within it.
The polyps and the algae nourish each other and build a reef.
While this might be pretty, it's really pretty sad.
When there is too much organic material in the water due to sewage and other pollution,
a destructive kind of algae covers the coral and the coral cannot survive.
When there is pollution in the water, the whole coral colony goes into stress.
The polyps stop feeding and reproducing.
This leads to the death of the colony, and eventually to the destruction of the reef.
So many creatures find a safe haven in the living corals, both day and night.
While corals can live thousands of years, these days it is rare to see a living colony
that old.
More and more, the old corals that we see are dead, completely dead, and becoming naked
stoned with no life around.
Part of the problem is due to global warming.
Most is thanks to us, and to the way we treat the environment.
Many times, divers cause damage without even realizing it.
Damage can be avoided by keeping a safe distance from the reef.
Mankind has always thought that the sea is so big, we can throw anything into it and
it will disappear.
The truth is that our waste accumulates, and destroys habitats.
The size of the litter does not matter.
Animals do not recognize artificial things.
For them, everything is natural, and a potential source of food.
Even by refusing a plastic bag when we don't really need it, we are already helping nature.
And every little bit counts.
The populations of all the animals that we have seen are declining.
Their future depends on us.
The actions of each and every one of us will determine if our children will get to enjoy
this magical kingdom too.
We need the sea alive for much more than just its beauty.
Millions of people get their food and earn their livelihood from the sea.
And in the last few years, coral reefs have been recognized as a prime source of new natural
substances that might be useful in treating human diseases.
I have used two distant locations, the Red Sea and the Caribbean, to show that no matter
where we live, we are all connected on the same planet.
It is our beautiful home.
Let's take care of it.
It's worth it.