Each evening begins with an
optional
social hour and pot luck supper at
6:30 pm,
followed by the film at
7:30 pm,
followed by a discussion at the end of the film.
Wednesday, December 2 at 7:30 pm
March
of the
Penguins
In the harshest place on
Earth, love finds a way
!
Experience a journey like no
other on the planet. Emperor
penguins in the thousands
brave icy winds, freezing
temperatures, and starvation
in this incredible true
story of the penguin life
cycle. They are birds,
but do not fly. They
are aquatic animals, but
they are not swimming --
they're marching!
Every year they march day
and night into the driest,
coldest continent on Earth.
Driven by the over-powering
urge to reproduce, the
penguins travel in single
file hundreds of miles,
crisscrossing Antarctica
under the harshest
conditions on Earth.
Breathtaking photography
captures the transcendent
beauty and staggering drama
of devoted parent penguins
taking turns guarding their
egg and trekking to the
ocean in search of food
where predators hunt them
and storms lash them.
Their amazing journey is
documented in this
heartwarming
film. It's a story of
family and the power of
love.
:
the vast blue expanse that
dominates our planet while
still remaining largely
unexplored and mysterious.
We actually know less about
the oceans than we do about
the surface of the moon, yet
they cover 2/3 of our world.
They are an integral part of
the Earth's life cycle,
influencing weather systems
and supporting an enormous
range of life. Explore
the sheer scale, power, and
complexity of the mysterious
oceans that govern our blue
planet by watching this
documentary film series on
the oceans,
Blue Planet.
This episode of Blue Planet,
narrated by
David
Attenborough,
looks at how ocean life is
regulated around the globe
by currents and the varying
position of the sun.
Near a Pacific seamount,
there is a large
concentration of marine
animals because when the
current makes contact with
the submerged rock, it
forces upwards plankton and
other edible organisms.
This in turn attracts other
fish to the area that are
higher up the food chain,
like tuna, and those that
are higher still, such as
silky sharks. Off
South Africa, a similar
situation occurs every June
when sardines migrate and
are pursued by a caravan of
various predators. The
South Atlantic waters are
the roughest, and storms
also churn up nutrients to
the surface there.
These feeding grounds have
led to the world's largest
albatross breeding colony,
on Steeple Jason Island,
west of the Falklands.
Phytoplankton forms the
basis of all sea life, and
every night some 1,000
million tonnes of creatures
ascend from the deep to
search for food. Lunar
phases can also have a
bearing on events and the
mass arrival of Ridley sea
turtles on a Costa Rican
beach is shown in this
awesome film. Herring
initiate the most productive
food chain, providing
sustenance for humpback
whales, and Stellers, and
California sea lions.
In addition, their eggs are
nutrition for many, both
above and in the sea.
Grey whales make one of the
longest migrations of any
marine mammal (some 19,000
kilometres) and are ambushed
by killer whales, which have
learned their journey
routes.
This beautiful film
surveys the effects of the seasons on the
world's temperate seas
─
the most productive on Earth. This is
another fine episode of the BBC nature
series,
Blue Planet,
narrated by
David
Attenborough. Sable
Island near Nova Scotia boasts the largest
colony of grey seals which breed there when
the weather is at its worst. The pups
remain marooned for weeks until the spring,
when they are strong enough to swim.
Spring also heralds the bloom of
phytoplankton
:
it provides food for copepods, and they in
turn are prey to jellyfish, which assemble
in vast, million-strong swarms. On the
Californian coast, giant kelp flourishes and
by summer grows at the rate of a meter a
day. Shafts of sunlight radiate
through a green sea. The blazing light
is the vital source of energy used by the
countless billions of plankton. The
temperate sea provides a sanctuary for
shoals of fish and sea otters, the latter
anchoring themselves to the seaweed when
resting and keeping its grazers in check by
eating them. Late summer in Alaska
sees Pacific salmon heading inshore to
breed. However, the level of their
favored river is too low and they are forced
to wait in the open sea, where they fall
prey to a salmon shark. Early autumn
near Vancouver Island, and the temperature
drops slowly. There, the last of the
year's baby herring become the focus for a
feeding frenzy by diving auks and murres and
marauding rockfish. Pacific
white-sided dolphins also inhabit these
waters and, when not hunting nocturnally,
socialize during the day. As winter
arrives in the north, adult herring seek
shelter but are hunted by orca which club
the fish with their tails to subdue them by
creating waves of pressure.
The coral reefs are
so crowded that they play host to a
perpetual battle for space, even among the
coral itself. A coral starts life as a larva that
becomes a polyp. Having multiplied, it
hardens into a limestone skeleton and grows
to form a reef. As the community flourishes,
animals develop relationships with one
another and such a place can feature a huge
variety of ocean life. Although corals feed
nocturnally on plankton, sunlight is vital
because even though they are animals, each
contains millions of single-celled algae. This in turn is the favored sustenance of
the humphead parrotfish, whose jaws are so
powerful that it erodes much of the reef
into fine sand. Algae also grows on the top
of the reef and a battle for grazing rights
between shoals of powder blue and convict
tangs is shown, the former being initially
overwhelmed by the latter's weight of
numbers before regaining the upper hand. The
night-time hunting of a marbled ray alerts
other predators and a group of whitetip reef
sharks moves in, from which few are safe. Several breeding strategies are examined,
including the acrobatic habits of brown
surgeonfish and the colorful courtship of
the flamboyant cuttlefish. Humpback whales
are visitors to the reef and males establish
their seniority by the loudness and strength
of their song. Being fixed to the seabed,
corals must synchronize their reproduction
with lunar phases and the rising spring
temperatures.
This film compares oceanic life in the
Arctic and Antarctica. The winter in
these regions brings temperatures of minus
50°C and frozen seas
─
creating the biggest challenge to life.
However, there are polynyas in the Arctic
which are free of ice owing to the pressure
of currents on either side and such places
do provide refuge for some species, like the
walrus and the bowhead whale. A pod of
belugas is shown
:
their movements are limited to a single hole
in the ice
─
putting them at risk of attack from polar
bears. Everything changes with the
arrival of summer when melting ice brings a
variety of migratory visitors. At the
other end of the planet, in the Antarctic,
winter is even more harsh, but emperor
penguins and Weddell seals stay throughout.
Under the sea ice, krill shrink in size and
revert to their juvenile form in order to
save energy. Chinstrap penguins travel
to the north, beyond the ice, but return
during the spring to breed. Having
managed to get ashore, they have to walk a
great distance to find a nest site, and the
most favored is Zavodovski Island, an active
volcano whose warmth keeps ice from forming.
Further south, as the icebergs break up,
humpback and minke whales appear, their
target the abundant krill. The leopard
seal is the Antarctic's top predator. It is
most effective underwater, and emperor
penguins propel themselves at speed through
its territory. Nonetheless, it almost
invariably makes a kill.
