ORF-E
English
1 x 52 min
Worldwide

It’s a gigantic underwater mountain range, rising in mid-Atlantic – only a few peaks touch the surface, or reach still higher to build nine green gems, forming the islands of the Azores.These volcanic rocks, the only toehold between Europe and America, are of extraordinary beauty. The steep shelf of the Azores is both playground and mating ground for several kinds of whale. Here groups of males meet females, the males on their never-ending migration from Arctic to Antarctic and back again. It’s not just sperm whales, humpback whales or grey whales that break the surface – blue whales, the world’s biggest animals, come here too, to feed from the vast biomass produced and re-produced in the depths of the oceans. Drifting up from the deep sea, the plankton and krill attract huge schools of fish and squid. And now the dancers of the deep are on their way. Fast and elegant, curious but cautious, the blue sharks follow current and prey to join the hunt.

一座巨大的水下山脉，耸立在大西洋中部。只有少数几座山峰可以达到海面或者更高的地方，最终形成九颗绿色宝石：亚速尔群岛。这些异常美丽的火山岩是欧洲和美洲之间仅存的小立足点。亚速尔群岛陡峭的大陆架是多种鲸鱼玩耍和交配的地方。在这里，一群雄性抹香鲸在从北极到南极永无休止的迁徙中遇到了雌性抹香鲸。座头鲸和长须鲸会破水而出——蓝鲸也会来到这里，追逐海洋深处产生的丰富食物。浮游生物和磷虾从深海漂流上来，吸引了大量的鱼类和乌贼。僧帽水母在海面上危险地漂流，而海底洞穴里生活着同类相食的虾、蝠鲼和海鳗。在这些岛屿上，火山上长满草的火山口是冰岛、俄罗斯和北美鸣禽的冬季栖息地，而它们崎岖的外墙则是科里海鸥的聚居所。