FREAKS OF THE SEA | The Ocean's Top Predators

In the oceans of our planet lurk creatures weirder than our wildest dreams or our scariest nightmares. This freak of the sea uses a bizarre expanding head to gobble its food. Who'd believe that a fish actually uses a fishing rod to catch fish? There are creatures that relentlessly scour the seafloor and the most ornately venomous of hunters. We're going to see cannibalistic squid and the strangest of shark with a snout like a medieval weapon. We meet an ugly sea cow with a mythical past and amazing creatures that actually create their own electricity. In fact some ingenious marine animals have been harnessing the power of electricity for millions of years long before humans. We think of electricity and water as two things that simply don't mix but in the sea the combination works to great effect for both defence and attack. Take the example of the electric flame scallop. They use pulses of electricity to create the illusion of danger to help deter predators but wind up the charge to around 200 volts and we have the ruthless electric numbray. It may look harmless as it swims over the South Australian seabed but the fish following behind could be in for a real shock because when buried beneath the sand we witness its terrifying hunting technique. Here it is again with the action slowed down. What makes the numbray so unique is that when it captures a fish it actually zaps it with a powerful electrical current which is the equivalent of the shock you'd get from most domestic appliances. Hit with 200 volts the prey is totally immobilized. The ray is then able to gulp its hapless victim at leisure. Scientists believe such creatures are able to generate and store electricity thanks to some very clever use of bacteria and the equivalent of tiny batteries. The power of the 50 amp electric charge is clear from its impact on this fish juddering in its final death throes. But why did the ray spit out the fish? Watch again and all becomes clear. When it struck the ray actually caught two fish not one. Even this grotesque sea freak can't gobble down two at the same time. So electricity and water really do mix to nightmarish effect. Evolution also seems to have been way ahead of man when it comes to another common domestic application. This creature has its own built-in vacuum cleaner to hoover up prey. Literally anything that gets in its way. It's known in the scientific world as the Malibi nudibranch. It's found in the shallower seas of Papua New Guinea. It's the strange expanding head which is almost transparent a bit like a replaceable plastic hoover bag that makes it so weird. Malibis are fairly simple carnivorous animals that catch small crustaceans, fish and plankton. The fine sensors on the rim of the hood also act like the brushes on a vacuum cleaner head ensuring that it cleans up pretty well everything in its path. People who've kept them in fish tanks often reported a strange fruity smell in the room. Scientists have now shown that the Malibi nudibranch produces a chemical compound as a defense mechanism making it very unpleasant for any predator to eat. The Malibi really is the perfect housekeeper on the reefs of Papua New Guinea. Ugly, bizarre, lumpy, hairy, warty. Just a few of the descriptions given to one of our star sea freaks. This is the frogfish. A fish that no longer looks anything like a fish. A tropical marine critter that lurks among the reefs of the islands of Indonesia just waiting for a meal. They come in many varieties all with strange but subtle variations. Some have strange appendages which help them blend seamlessly into the background. Frogfish like this hairy pinkish specimen take camouflage to new extremes. Almost every square centimeter of its body is covered with fleshy nodules enough to make our skin crawl. Most can barely swim so have to walk everywhere. Even their fins have developed more like feet and toes. They've almost entirely lost their ability to swim like normal fish. They have no shell or spines to defend themselves so rely on their amazing camouflage and their ability to remain motionless as disguise from potential predators. Appearing as just a lump of sponge on this coral outcrop. This frogfish has evolved in a completely different way to the rest of its family. Rather than living on the seafloor it makes its home among the sargassum weed and other flotsam at the surface. Its camouflage makes it difficult to spot as it preys on other small sea creatures that themselves seek shelter in the weed. As they can't move fast enough to catch their prey, the frogfish's camouflage fools their victims too and instead of pursuing their prey they entice them with a built-in lure. An ingenious adaptation which is really a part of the dorsal fin that scientists call the Elysium. In fact it works exactly like a fishing rod. The frogfish really does fish for other fish. Some lures resemble shrimps, some are more like fat juicy worms and when their victim has been drawn in by the lure they pounce with the lightning speed of the fastest mouth in the sea. This frogfish is making the most of a stroke of luck. The camera lights have attracted a small school of fish and the frogfish is gorging himself on this unexpected feast. And look at its stomach, so fast is the speed of the strike that its victim is still alive wriggling around inside its belly. Despite being gorged the frogfish still tries for more. Its success rate isn't especially high but when the frogfish does manage to catch a fish it does so in the blink of an eye, almost too fast for the camera. Only by slowing down the picture do we get an idea of just how fast the frogfish can gulp its prey. A true sea freak in every sense. We meet our next sea freak in the warm waters of the Red Sea in Egypt. No one has ever called the dugong beautiful. Yet amazingly these blubbery creatures growing as long as three meters and weighing as much as several men are believed to have been the basis of legends of mermaids. Known as the cow of the sea the dugong is the planet's only marine herbivore, feeding by uprooting seagrass with its muscular snout. Their slow plodding existence makes them an ideal home for another sea freak, remoras, that cling by a sucker to get a free ride plus protection from being associated with a large sea creature that few others will attack. The dugong is a mammal and must always return to the surface to breathe. It's a strange evolutionary quirk that this air-breathing animal has taken to the sea to graze. All they do all day is just eat seagrass and nothing else. The concern is that seagrass habitats around the world are under threat and that could be bad news for the dugong. Another weird sea creature which faces an uncertain future is the far more attractive leafy sea dragon. To ensure survival in the dangerous colder waters of the south coast of Australia the leafy sea dragon has perfected the art of camouflage with the exquisite and delicate prowess of an eccentric fashion designer. Perfectly at home disguised among the lush foliage the sea dragon even appears to play to the camera as befitting a true fashion model. But the sea dragon has to be on its guard. It would make a tasty meal for this cuttlefish, a voracious predator and itself something of a freak. It's only in the sea dragon's outlandish design that it finds protection. Its fronds breaking up the lines of its body so that rather than standing out it blends perfectly into its weedy sea floor home. If you just saw one in a plain aquarium it would look the most fantastic and unbelievable creature. As soon as you see one in their natural environment in amongst all the fronds of the kelp in which they live it suddenly all makes perfect sense. Sea dragons are among the best camouflaged animals in the ocean. Ironically the very design that gives them camouflage in their undersea environment has made them desirable collector's items to man. They're only found in a very limited range off the shores of southern Australia where they are protected by law. To date no captive breeding program has been successful so it'd be a fair bet that any found in aquariums or private collections have been taken from the ocean and the demand for them is phenomenal. Google leafy sea dragon for sale and you'll come up with 18 million hits so the pressure on populations in the wild of this delicate creature is considerable. A weirdly beautiful freak of the sea. There's no swimming off the pier here tonight because underneath this jetty off the desert shores of the Red Sea is an aggregation of perhaps one of the most venomous of reef fishes, the lionfish. Anyone stung by their poisonous spines will experience extreme pain, headaches, vomiting and breathing difficulties. But as the lionfish patrol the shadowy nooks and crannies of the reef at night the smaller fish need not worry so much about the venomous spines. These are almost entirely for defensive purposes and it's the dorsal spines which carry the poison. Sleepy prey can easily be caught off guard by the speed with which these voracious predators pounce. Lionfish are prolific creatures that can dominate a reef system. In 1992 a hurricane caused just six of them to be washed from an aquarium into the sea off Florida. These have now multiplied a thousandfold and caused havoc on reefs as far as the Bahamas where they have no natural predators. Their numbers continue to increase and lionfish are now decimating the fish life of the seas of the Caribbean. A freakish million to one mishap causing one of the deadly freaks of the sea to run riot over the reefs. They say beauty is only skin deep but the stonefish seems to have gone out of its way to defy the laws of attractiveness in the realm of sea freaks. It's bad enough that the stonefish is almost impossible to see when camouflaged on the reef. When lurking hidden just below the surface of the seabed it's impossible to spot unless it moves. Their ability to remain absolutely motionless is legendary. The tiny pipefish wriggling across the face of this stonefish clearly has no idea just how perilous its situation is. While these hermit crabs scurrying across another stonefish are totally oblivious to the monster lurking beneath them. If a swimmer were to make the mistake of standing on a stonefish the consequences can be as dreadful as falling victim to a medieval plague. That's because these obnoxious looking critters have venom to match their cosmetic disfigurement. A venom so toxic it can cause liver failure, paralysis, anemia and even hemorrhaging. It almost seems as if the oceans are home to an endless variety of danger in all shapes and sizes and none more so than the fish that terrifies more than any other, the shark. And this is the classic shape that we think of when anyone mentions the word shark. Streamlined body, sharply pointed head containing rows of sharp teeth gliding through the ocean on fins like the wings of a fighter plane. These sharks calling off a remote part of the Solomon Islands and working themselves into a feeding frenzy. In many ways the shark is the pinnacle of evolution, the perfect predator. But there are many variations on the shark theme and some of its family members are freaky in the extreme. The hammerhead shark has evolved with eyes protruding at the most extreme points of their bizarrely shaped heads. Some scientists believe far from being primitive the hammerhead is actually the most advanced of the sharks. One of the planet's biggest fish is the giant basking shark cruising through the sea with its huge mouth wide open. Although coming from the same branch of the shark family as the ocean's deadliest predator the great white, meat is not a part of its diet. Instead it survives on plankton strained from the ocean. Then there's the thresher shark with its long sweeping tail as long as its body. We still can't explain why these sharks have evolved in this particular way. This freakish member of the shark family is called an epaulette shark, a night hunter shy rarely seen spending the daytime concealed among the corals. Crawling lizard-like over the nighttime seafloor to hunt the epaulette shark is better known as the walking shark and for obvious reasons because this unusual shark's fins are evolving into legs that it uses to walk, preferring to do so than to swim. From a family of the most notorious fast swimming predators here's a species of shark as different from the popular conception as can be imagined. It's an opportunity to observe evolution actually occurring. Maybe this is how the very first creatures evolved as they left the sea and colonized the land so many millions of years ago. Wobbegongs, also known as carpet sharks, spend the daytime lying around the reef. Clear evidence to dispel the myth that sharks must keep moving in order to breathe. Ornately patterned, the frilly bearded appendages around their mouths have a dual role to break up the shape of the resting shark and also to be used as sensors when hunting. Our next freak shark may have the name angel but this shark is far from angelic. It lies hidden in the sand with devilish cunning ready to ambush its prey. A small school of fish known as scad is totally oblivious to the danger. Now it's simply a waiting game. When it happens the strike is ruthlessly efficient. Here it is again, this time slowed down. The angel has a good success rate, each strike taking just eight hundredths of a second. The angel shark is a sea devil in disguise, a killing machine that shows no mercy to its unsuspecting victims. And who'd have guessed that this strange looking predator was also a shark? In fact it's a saw shark, so named because of its long serrated snout. This rarely seen deep water shark is believed by science to kill its prey by slashing them with this jagged saw-like weapon. But this is just theory as no one has ever witnessed them feed. In this bizarre world of sea freaks, appearances can be deceptive and surprising. This twisting swirling mass belongs to the body of the longest creature in the world, even greater in length than any of the big whales. It goes by the less than catchy name of siphonophore and grows to around 40 meters, that's as long as two school buses. It's actually a mass of individual animals, all joined together in one long colony of transparent jellies. Amazingly they all seem to have specific roles, from those at the head and tail, whose job it is to create movement, to the dozens of other body parts which are responsible for eating and reproduction. But don't be fooled by appearances, it's related to the jellyfish and is likewise equipped with deadly stinging cells which cover its body, providing an excellent defense against a myriad of would-be predators. A weird and rare giant of the ocean. Off the wild coast of South Africa during the summer months an underwater spectacle takes place within a short distance of the shore. Here in the cold murky waters we meet one of the more familiar freaks of the marine world, the squid. Once a year they gather in their hundreds of thousands with a single purpose, to mate and to spawn. Locally these squid are known as chocker and the massing of large numbers is called the squid run. The males tend to congregate at dawn for this ritualistic competition for the attention of females. This culminates with the laying of eggs in clumps on the seafloor. The embryonic young can be clearly seen. Squid have no body protection, their only defense mechanism is to expel an ink cloud and to use their natural jet propulsion to escape. Inevitably such an aggregation of creatures attracts a variety of predators that prey on both the squid and their eggs. In the background a ragged toothed shark lurks. Astonishingly however one of the greatest risks to the squid is other squid. Cannibalism is not uncommon among them. Here several squid are gradually devouring another still struggling squid, slowly eating it alive. The dribbles of ink that it is still weakly emitting are far too late to save this victim of its own kind. When we meet the squid at night this torpedo shaped marine oddity reveals something of its biological ingenuity when it comes to disguise and predatory prowess. By utilizing ingenious colour changing cells called chromophores it radiates an iridescence and appears more like an alien from another world. In the world of the bizarre colour plays a vital role in this round-the-clock battle for survival. Here in the more vibrant reefs of the Indian Ocean life happens at a more sedate pace for these brightly coloured inhabitants. They belong to a family called nudibranchs which literally means naked gill but actually it's just a fancy name for sea slugs. For something so exotic in appearance perhaps sea slug would seem like an insult. They are among the most colourful animals in the sea and have even attracted a big following. Believe it or not there are societies all around the world dedicated to studying these strange but unintelligent life forms which come in a range of the most exotic shapes and sizes. In all cases the naked gills are the part of the animal that looks like a small flower, a throwback to early evolution perhaps but evolution has also been kind in helping to protect nudibranchs. They're able to make clever use of the poisons in the sponges on which they feed by absorbing the toxins without harming themselves and in turn use it as part of their own defences. Not only that they can copy the colours for camouflage. Another bizarre twist of evolution has resulted in the solar-powered nudibranch. It provides a home to dozens of single-celled algae which convert sunlight into energy. So the algae get a free home and the nudibranch benefits from a cheap source of energy and it probably needs the energy and big supplies when it comes to mating. Nudibranch sex can take up to five days and some species end up laying hundreds of thousands of eggs even millions. But there's no more graceful nudibranch than the largest of them all the aptly Yes it's a big red sea slug but who'd begrudge it the more exotic name when you see it performing so elegantly on the reef at night. In the warm nighttime tropical ocean we can also observe how another of nature's weird creatures reproduces. The sea cucumber's spawning is more like a smoking volcano pouring thousands of eggs out to drift in the plankton. There are many different types of sea cucumbers and this is the freakiest. Its alien-like tentacles work like a conveyor belt relentlessly shoveling particles of sand into its mouth from which it extracts tiny morsels of food. Remarkably considering that it does nothing but go round eating the waste of everything in the sea the sea cucumber's biggest enemy is man's taste for the unusual. Such is the demand that a ton of dried sea cucumber can fetch as much as a million dollars. It's the kind of exploitation that endangers their very survival in some countries. It's the same story for one of the most popular freaks of the sea the seahorse whose similarity to a miniature horse have made it both endearing and highly desirable in certain cultures. It's sold as a delicacy homeopathic remedy and also to the aquarium trade. Seahorses are beautiful delicate little animals whose freakishness comes from this unusual anatomy. In the dim and distant past seahorses were believed to be mythical beasts that transported the gods on their horse-like backs. The reality is less mythical but equally intriguing. Today their strangeness is more attributed to their highly unusual breeding behavior. Not only are they devoted couples who pair for life there is another quirky twist in the seahorse tale. For it is the male who takes on the motherly role of pregnancy which lasts for up to three weeks. At the end the pouch of the male seahorse bursts with life. As many as 150 tiny identical replicas of their parents flood into the sea. A close relative of the seahorse is the ornate ghost pipefish. It looks remarkably similar to the seahorse only with much more elaborate camouflage. Unlike the seahorse however the female has the enlarged pelvic fins or special pouch for carrying the eggs. Like the seahorse they rely on their strangeness to blend seamlessly into the background. Back at the surface off the English coast we meet a truly strange fish which actually looks like it's only half a fish. It's called the sunfish or Mola Mola as they're known scientifically, another ocean giant. This bizarre shaped fish really is a total quirk of evolution. Although they grow to a massive size, they're the largest bony fish in the ocean, they survive solely on a diet of jellyfish, a food source so low on protein that the sunfish must feed constantly to survive. This is why they're always spotted at the surface and where their common name sunfish originated. Early fishermen believed that they were there to bask in the warmth of the sun. Sunfish are considered a delicacy in Japan, Korea and Taiwan but sale of their flesh is banned by European law. Eight thousand miles away are some genuine stars in this marine freak show, this time just 20 meters below the surface of the Pacific Ocean among the islands of Indonesia. This deadly predator is surely mother nature at her imaginative best, a design worthy of a Hollywood fantasy. It's called an Ambon scorpionfish and it can't even swim. But why has fish design evolved these strange creatures that actually look nothing like we imagine a fish to be? In the animal world design or form is referred to as morphology. It's the theory that over millions of years fish shapes evolved to suit the specific environment in which they live, resulting in some bizarre designs. This is another type of scorpionfish which clearly demonstrates extremes of morphology, having evolved the most vicious of spines. Again resident in shallow tropical seas, this sea freak is almost gothic in design. A fishy concoction of spines and deadly poison, it carries the scientific name inimicus. But turn back the clock to the mid 19th century when they first became curiosities of the aquarium trade and you'll find much more suitable names for this scary looking character. Everything from sea goblin and bearded ghoul to demon and devil scorpionfish. With its antiquated array of hairy appendages and gruesome fins, it could so easily be the star in a fantasy film, the undersea equivalent of the horrid orcs in Lord of the Rings perhaps. Fitting when you consider the real meaning of the word inimicus is the enemy. Often concealed just below the sand, this is an enemy whose beady eyes are constantly on the lookout for poor unsuspecting victims, which it disables with stingers that can cause excruciating pain. No wonder they can amble along unglamorously using their fins like feet without worrying about becoming a meal themselves. It's not surprising when you meet these mini marine monsters that the deep provides such fertile reserves to feed our wildest imagination. The warm shallow tropical reef is a kaleidoscope of colour. But take a closer look, hiding beneath a table coral in the remote Bismarck Sea is one of the ocean's most brightly patterned freaks. The rhinopias is the holy grail of fish for underwater photographers. It's another member of the scorpionfish family. While other scorpionfish rely on their protective spines as defence, the rhinopias' bright and varied colour patterns and lacy appendages help it to blend into the rich colours of the reef. One of the most familiar animals of the sea is the crab, which is found in hundreds of different forms in all corners of the world. With so many varieties, it's perhaps not surprising that evolution has produced crustaceans in the extreme. Who'd have guessed that this freakish character is in fact a crab, but one with hair? Not surprisingly, it has been given the name of orangutan crab. This is another type of crab, a weird skeletal creature that has evolved over time to fill a specific and specialised undersea niche. Another crab carries on its head pieces of the seaweed on which it feeds, so that it becomes indistinguishable from its surroundings. As we go deeper, thanks to the remotely operated cameras of the oil industry, we've chanced upon the unique deep-sea behaviour of an especially aggressive crab. Picture quality isn't great, but the spectacle makes it worthwhile. At a depth of around 400 metres near the Shetlands off Scotland, the cameras spy what the scientists are calling the murderous crab. It's devised a brutal way of devouring its prey. Having caught one of the krill attracted by the lights of the submersible, the murderous crab uses its small but powerful pincers to decapitate its victim. Only then can it manage to eat its meal. Scientists who watched this grisly feeding method found that the murderous crab was successful in one strike out of every ten. Once the krill is caught, death is swift and brutal. With the video slowed down, we can see just how violent and deliberate the execution is. A deep-sea freak with an appetite to die for. Our next excursion takes us even deeper into the icy waters off Scotland. This time the remote camera shows a real life and death struggle in the deep, filmed for the first time ever. Great swarms of krill prove irresistible to a school of cod, the perfect prey for a monstrous monkfish lurking out of sight on the seabed. Monkfish are huge animals, growing up to three metres in length, but until these pictures of this big-mouthed animal trying to swallow a large cod, no one had ever witnessed it feeding in its natural habitat. This fight to the death, however, is a classic case of if at first you don't succeed, try and try again. When the monkfish catches the large cod sideways, it soon becomes clear that this battle is going to end in stalemate. As the next meal may not come along for anything up to three months, it's vital that the monkfish learn the lesson, or face starvation. Eventually it does get it right and manages to gulp down a whole cod head first, and all on camera. Our seas are proving a rich source of the strangest creatures on earth, yet the deep ocean has barely been explored. How many more surprises are in store? Few specimens survive the journey to the surface, leaving scientists with mostly dead animals to study. This creature is called an isopod, and reveals just a glimpse of the freaks of nature that exist in this dark and cold world below. In the lab at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, they've nicknamed this one Darth Vader, because it looks so much like the evil character in the film Star Wars. They're found in various forms, both on land and in the ocean, but in the deep ocean they grow to massive sizes. The scientific term is abyssal gigantism. To give you a sense of scale, the isopod on its back, commonly found on beaches, is a midget in contrast to its deep water relative. We've perhaps explored just one percent of the seabed below a few hundred metres, so the deep really is the largest and biggest untouched frontier left on the planet. Who knows what freaks are prowling the world's oceans, never before seen by human eyes. Perhaps indeed even stranger than anything we can muster in our wildest dreams, or scariest nightmares.