Original subtitles

(smooth soaring music)

Downloaded from YTS.MX

- [Narrator] It is the ultimate fish.

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

(birds chirping)

One of the fastest, the most powerful,

a fish that navigates the wide Atlantic

traveling farther than any other.

A fish that's capable of remarkable social behavior,

that's actually warm-blooded like us.

It's the hottest fish in the ocean

to scientists and fishermen.

Now, for the first time, we enter its mysterious world

to witness behavior never before captured on film.

A hot tuna known as bluefin.

(moves into pensive piano music)

The open ocean is a world of extremes,

home to the impossibly large

and the incredibly small.

With the shift of its currents,

the sea turns from feast to famine.

Each creature is designed to out-compete the competition.

Here, evolution has blazed a radical course

but even by the measure of the open ocean,

there's one animal that outdoes them all,

the Atlantic bluefin tuna.

It's one of the largest predatory fish in the sea.

It can span over three meters

and weigh almost 700 kilograms.

It's pure muscle, strong as a tank,

yet it can race at up to 80 kilometers per hour.

People know tuna as food.

Few know the real power,

intelligence and grace of the bluefin.

It is so fast and so elusive

that it has rarely been filmed swimming freely in the wild.

Marine biologist and filmmaker Rick Rosenthal

has devoted most of his career to documenting marine life.

One experience forever changed him.

In 1998, Rick was on an assignment in the middle

of the Atlantic in the Azores.

An astonishing encounter awaited him

just off the archipelago.

It happened as he captured a remarkable spectacle.

- [Rick] Right offshore here,

swimming in the great feeding grounds

with common dolphins, mackerel,

sardines and Cory's shearwater.

It was a wild scene out there,

one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.

- [Narrator] The dolphins are herding sardines and mackerels

with the help of seabirds taking wing underwater.

They corral their prey into a spinning bait ball.

The dolphins use echolocation to find

and then disorient the fish with sound bursts and bubbles.

- [Rick] Diving birds coming down as deep as 45, 50 feet

and hundreds of yellowfin tuna

and dolphins rounding up the bait,

a grand feeding extravaganza going on

right before your eyes.

- [Narrator] Rick has entered a secret world

to capture a kaleidoscopic vision

of the sea's great creatures exploding before him,

but then the waters part

for a sight even more extraordinary.

(tense music)

- [Rick] Giant bluefin were coming up out of the deep,

eating in the mackerel patches.

1,000-pound bluefin tuna that dwarfed the dolphins coming up

through the bait balls, taking mouthfuls,

swimming right by them.

That was a real high point for me in filming in the ocean,

first shots of giant bluefins ever

in the wild naturally feeding.

- [Narrator] No one had ever filmed what Rick saw that day.

It set him on a fateful course.

Bluefin populate seas the world over

but these waters are a favorite.

The Azores are an ocean crossroad,

nine volcanic islands that rise

where three continental plates collide.

Marine life and current systems

from around the Atlantic converge here,

creating a biological hotspot.

- Currents that roll around here, they're highways.

During the spring and summer

there's shoals of bait fish around here,

sardines and mackerels.

(gentle music)

It's a natural lunch wagon for tunas to come here

and fatten up and to stay here for a while,

not just the giant bluefin but albacore,

skipjack tuna, yellowfin tuna, and even bigeyes.

They all come together here.

You can't find that anywhere in the world,

and these islands are just magnets

for free-swimming animals.

- [Narrator] Or so they were.

Rick has returned to the Azores year after year

but today the spectacular bait balls are seldom seen,

and so, apparently, are the bluefins.

Once they seemed invincible,

supremely powerful emblems of a healthy sea.

- In the last few years,

there's been only a few bluefins seen out here

where 10 years ago we could swim

with giant bluefins right offshore.

Today we're not finding them again.

- [Narrator] Now Rick is on a quest.

He wants to know what has become of the giant bluefin.

(gentle somber music)

One answer is surfacing up and down the shores

on both sides of the Atlantic.

Fishermen once considered bluefin worthless.

Big tuna were notorious for ruining nets,

or worse, dragging good men to their death.

That was long ago.

Today, a lucky fisherman is living large,

very large, almost 500 kilograms' worth.

It's the beginning of bluefin season

in Canada's Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

The catch is tagged and processed.

The industry operates on a strict quota.

Each registered fisherman is allowed

just one or two bluefin a year.

40 years ago, bluefin tuna were sold for a pittance

but now the world has a taste for sushi.

(machinery whirring)

Tuna is big business.

Recently one bluefin sold for a record 557,000 euros,

ounce for ounce twice the price of silver.

Buyers are on hand to bid.

Within 48 hours, today's catch may end up

in exclusive restaurants in Tokyo, New York or Paris.

Its value rides on texture, color,

and most importantly, weight.

Being big is the bluefin's undoing.

Nature has made this species the perfect catch

by saddling it with size.

(gentle somber music)

For the bluefin, what's the advantage?

Why and how did it come to be so enormous?

The answer is old as the first bluefin.

Its ancestors evolved in warm subtropical seas.

Indeed, that's where many still begin life.

The Gulf of Mexico is one of the few places

where Atlantic bluefin reproduce.

Where the Caribbean Sea flows into it,

the waters are concentrated.

The currents surge, carrying with them small fish,

larvae and eggs.

Predators follow from the sea and the sky.

Rick is drawn here too to find out

what made the bluefin grow to such an evolutionary extreme.

These waters are a spawning ground for many species of tuna.

Skipjack are small and plentiful.

These are the tuna that end up in cans on our kitchen shelf.

They flourish in large numbers.

The skipjacks' spawn lasts for month.

The more eggs they release,

the better their chances of success.

The same goes for yellowfin.

Day after day for weeks,

the water grows cloudy with their eggs.

This is the tuna that prompted an uproar

over fishing practices deadly to dolphins.

It's a spectacular hunter,

even taking to the air to catch flying fish.

(birds chirping)

(water splashing)

Food comes easily to yellowfin but in this fertile nursery,

the real war for survival is waged over reproduction.

Every species has to prevail over its competitors.

The bluefin's approach to reproduction

gives it a singular edge

(gentle music)

but its strategy is fraught with challenges.

Collectively, bluefin produce far fewer eggs

than the other tunas and they came here

to spawn just once, in the spring.

Surging currents gather all the eggs in masses.

For the bluefin, that presents an opportunity.

There are far fewer of their eggs

amid the countless billions of others.

By sheltering their young amid the mass spawn,

they keep them hidden from predators.

Each egg is only a millimeter across.

Within two days it hatches and begins growing.

By the time it reaches adulthood,

it will have increased in size by a billion times.

The bluefin makes up for its smaller spawns

by getting big fast.

That's how it gains an advantage, though now,

all the tuna species face an even bigger challenge,

the struggle to stay alive.

Threats loom large, right up to the largest fish in the sea.

The whale shark can weigh up to a menacing 30 tons

and it has an appetite to match.

It plows through the water,

swallowing countless tuna eggs and larvae.

That mouth is a monstrous two meters across,

perfectly adapted to skim the surface.

This is the largest gathering of whale sharks in the world

and if the tuna survive this gauntlet, they'll face others,

including threats from above.

Seabirds hunt these waters year-round for small fish.

Bluefin must now grow large and quickly.

After nine days, less than half the tuna hatchlings survive.

They have one place to hide.

(gentle music)

Floating mats of Sargassum weed are a nursery.

Here, young fish at their most vulnerable

find cover and camouflage.

Fish go here to disappear.

What better place for Rick to look for them?

(gentle music)

Amid the flurry, it's nearly impossible

to pick out the bluefin.

An unlikely challenge for a fish that will,

soon enough, dwarf the others.

- Underneath this Sargassum weed,

I'm specifically looking for juvenile fish

and it's really difficult to pick out baby tunas.

There are thousands of fish

swimming right around my swim fins.

I feel like the Pied Piper at times

swimming underneath these mats of Sargassum weed.

I'm gonna break the Sargassum weed line.

Hundreds and hundreds of juvenile fish underneath there.

Jack, little tunas, mahi-mahi, triggerfish,

that's the nursery right there, boy, it looks fantastic.

- [Narrator] But the warm currents of the Caribbean

don't offer the kind of food bluefin need to grow.

To become a giant adult,

they must brave a journey to richer waters.

Their odds of success are one in 40 million.

Survival now depends on a fabled current,

the Gulf Stream.

This is the dynamo of the Atlantic,

driving 100 times as much water

as all the rivers on Earth combined.

Marine creatures are able to hitch a ride

without expending much energy.

That works well enough for ocean drifters.

The warm waters of the Gulf Stream have plenty

of plankton for appetites this undemanding.

Loggerhead turtles eat jellyfish

but up the food chain, everything changes.

Larger predators like sharks and dolphins rely

on the Gulf Stream as simply a conveyance.

They ride it to the waters they prefer

where prey is more plentiful.

(animals squeaking)

Along the way, their hunger only grows.

Small fish that do stray here are tempting fate.

The competition to hunt them is fierce.

(tense orchestral music)

Sailfish are relentless.

By the time they finish slashing through a bait ball,

hardly a fish remains.

Other species of tuna may stay

in the Gulf Stream all their lives

but once the bluefin get big enough,

many follow the lead of those large predators and move on.

To keep eating and growing, they'll embark

on a mysterious lifelong migratory journey northwards.

(smooth pensive music)

At Cape Hatteras, midway along the American coast,

the warm Gulf Stream meets up

with another powerful ocean river.

The Labrador Current flows with cold water from the Arctic.

Where the titanic forces of these two systems collide,

their churning waters bring together

two distinct marine communities,

creating one of the riches feeding grounds in the Atlantic.

(birds chirping)

(Darren speaking faintly)

Rick is here to find tuna.

Local sport fishing captain Darren Callaghan

knows just where to take him.

- Look at the birds, right on this edge, they know it,

and we can see it today.

- That's the change, that's where those two currents

are compressed against each other.

There's about 40 degree difference

in temperature on side or the other.

You got a green side over there and a dark blue side here.

- [Narrator] So where are the bluefin?

Darren takes Rick to the likely answer

where the Gulf Stream and Labrador Current meet.

- [Darren] You down all right?

(gentle pensive music)

- [Narrator] Here, the tuna face a crossroad.

They can either stay in the warm water

veering off towards Europe or switch to cool currents

which they can follow up the coast,

but then the only tuna that can survive the cold

of the north are large bluefin.

When they surpass 200 kilos,

bluefin are robust enough to thrive

in a remarkable range of temperatures,

high and low, to exploit feeding grounds

other tuna species couldn't survive.

- Length is 40 to 60 feet, right under the boat,

swimming in a nice circular pattern, real released.

Fish between 40 and 120 pounds.

Big school, just milling right down there,

they came right up, real relaxed, so they're here.

- [Narrator] But being big is not enough.

As the bluefin peel away

to leave the other tuna in their wake,

they now press against the currents and new challenges.

To ply these waters, they need to draw

upon another even more impressive resource.

- Yeah, yeah. - Travel along at 100 knots

on a good day-- - In this little plane.

- To go out to Georgia--

- [Narrator] How do the bluefin cope

with so many different and demanding conditions?

To find them along their way north,

Rick needs another perspective.

Spotter pilot Wayne Davis will be his eyes

500 meters above the Gulf of Maine.

- [Wayne] Clear.

(engine revving)

- [Narrator] His plane has a single engine,

an extra tank of fuel and no room for error.

Local fisherman hire experienced pilots

like Wayne to guide them to bluefin

sometimes hundreds of miles from shore.

Tuna rarely come to the surface.

Even when they do, spotting them isn't easy.

Wayne can fly a whole day without seeing a single bluefin.

Today, he's in look.

- [Wayne] All right now, down to starboard side,

two o'clock, I see maybe a quarter to a third of a mile,

no, there's three schools

and you fall right between two of 'em.

- Looks like some tuna breaking there, I think we got 'em.

(bright music)

- [Narrator] Wayne has found a school of giants.

From the air, he captures behavior

even scientists don't see.

(camera shutters snapping)

Bluefin succeed by joining forces.

(camera shutters snapping)

Like geese flying in a chevron,

they rely on each other to move faster

(camera shutters snapping)

and travel farther.

Swimming in formation,

(camera shutters snapping)

they can better find prey, avoid predators, conserve energy.

(camera shutters snapping)

(camera shutters snapping)

Bluefin are capable

of remarkably sophisticated social behavior.

No other fish is known to do this.

(gentle music)

(camera shutters snapping)

These bluefin aren't traveling alone.

They're following a pod of humpback whales.

- [Wayne] There's quite a charge of 'em out here,

the small ones, the big ones,

right around some humpbacks too.

It's probably south of you like five miles.

- [Darren] All right, well, it's actually--

- [Wayne] Yeah, very good.

- [Narrator] Scavenging crowds of seabirds reveal why.

The whales are feeding.

(birds chirping)

(water splashing)

The 10-meter-long humpbacks make shallow dives,

blasting the bait fish with a virtual barrage.

They bomb them with bubbles.

(camera shutters snapping)

(camera shutters snapping)

The turbulence acts as a net, trapping the bait fish.

The whales strain hundreds of liters of water

through their mouths, sifting for prey.

Snapping jaws and slashing tails alert Rick

that the whales are going to make another feeding dive.

Humpback whales are protected.

Rick knows he has to keep his distance.

Suddenly he sees them, a school of giant tunas.

They torpedo through bubble nets

that have effectively snared Rick.

He manages to pull away but the whales change course

straight towards him.

Two humpbacks surface next to Rick.

A third surprises him with a narrow miss.

(birds chirping) (water splashing)

- Wuh-ho, was that something?

Fun with the tunas.

They're right below me,

tunas are going towards the humpback whale.

Here comes the sand lance, the bait fish.

I'm looking down and the next thing I know,

I'm in the net, bubbles are right back at me.

I can't get out, the bait fish,

the sand lance are rocketing up to get away from the whales.

I could see white water like a washing machine.

Here comes the big whale right next to the camera,

food in the mouth.

That's the closest I've been to being swallowed

by a humpback whale.

(water splashing) (bird chirping)

- [Narrator] Humpbacks and other great whales

like these finbacks can roam between feeding grounds

from the tropics to the poles.

How can they endure such a wide range

of ocean temperatures and depths?

They're warm-blooded.

Few fish can that make that claim, among them, the bluefin.

It has a secret weapon,

the ability to regulate its body temperature.

(gentle music)

The bluefin tuna is an evolutionary marvel,

a fish that stole the mammals' fire.

Being warm-blooded opens the way for it

to hunt in almost any waters

where there's plenty of prey and few predators.

But for every animal that finds a new niche,

there's an opportunity for another.

(gentle music)

A predator of bluefin, a marine mammal

with the unlikely name, the false killer whale.

Gentle as it appears, there's nothing false

about how deadly it is.

It's well-equipped for killing.

Over time, this predator adapted

to gain an edge over another.

Its ancestors became even faster, larger, more powerful,

a formidable adversary and one

of the few predators of the bluefin.

The veil of bubbles that surrounds them reveals one

of their most decisive weapons.

They communicate by vocalizing.

(whales chirping)

No one eats alone.

A hunter shares its kill with the group.

An enormous bluefin that's over two meters long.

Like wolves, false killer whales are social,

hunting in groups up to 100 strong.

The sight is rare.

False killer whales laying siege to giant bluefin,

a vision never before captured on camera.

And yet the false killer whale

is not the bluefin's biggest threat.

We are.

Fishery managers monitor the bluefin population.

In just 50 years, the number has fallen by 75%.

Nowhere has that shortfall hit harder than the waters

where the giant bluefin gather as they migrate north.

The Gulf of Saint Lawrence is a magnet for fish

and for fishermen.

(birds chirping)

This is a great basin, flush with opportunities.

Fresh water from the Great Lakes flows in,

providing a potent mix of nutrients.

(water splashing)

The result, plankton, prey fish, birds,

and in turn, predators, in the water and on boats.

(fishermen speaking faintly)

These fishermen aren't after tuna.

They're netting herring and mackerel,

the same fish the bluefin prey on.

The locals know where to find the bluefin.

Rick has climbed aboard hoping he'll get the chance

to swim with some giant tunas.

- [Rick] Whenever I'm filming in the open ocean,

I seek out the advice of professional fishermen.

It's a real collaboration.

I jump in the water and see things

from a different perspective

and they help to guide me to wherever the fish are.

(water splashing)

- [Narrator] It's a dangerous place to swim,

and not just for fish.

(gentle eerie music)

- [Rick] When you're diving around all those boats

with nets, it's a bit spooky.

If you get tangled in a net, no one's gonna help you.

Fisher will never know you're down there.

There's tons of fish that are killed in that net

and so you're just another 170 pound.

- [Narrator] Diving around nets without a tank is risky,

but then Rick is rewarded.

He's not the only one testing these waters.

Not bluefin but a bonus, minke whales are shy

and rarely captured on camera this close

but the sight is also a cause for concern.

- [Rick] When minke whales are feeding around those nets,

in their gluttony to take this free food,

they're playing a dangerous game.

They can be entangled in a net.

- [Narrator] To the minke, this concentration

of prey is no different than a bait ball,

and just as irresistible.

The net is a windfall and not just for minke whales.

The overflow rains through the water column

like manure to feed another community below.

To bottom-dwellers, gravity is the great provider.

Nothing goes to waste.

Every morsel draws a crowd.

(moves into playful music)

That's the decided advantage to having a claw.

The lobsters aren't big on sharing,

but there's no honor among thieves.

Down here, you've got to watch your back,

be it for bad luck or good.

Above as well, fish loosened

from the net are easy pickings for gannets.

(serene orchestral music)

But where are the bluefin?

A short swim away from the nets, they appear out of nowhere.

- [Rick] When you're filming in this green water

and suddenly a big giant comes outta the gloom,

you're astounded that a fish could be this big.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] It may be the bluefin have actually learned

to avoid the dangerous nets,

a stroke of highly intelligent adaptive behavior.

When they do find a fish adrift, they approach with caution,

perhaps to first confirm there's no hook and line attached.

Bluefin are as smart as they are elusive

for fishermen and filmmakers alike.

- [Rick] Filming tunas is very different

than the other open ocean filming that I normally do.

The tunas are just moving so quickly.

It may be one chance.

You may only get two minutes and never see it again.

- [Narrator] It's an animal built for speed.

To simply survive, it must travel the length

of its body every second.

That's because it must continuously flush water

across its gills to keep them oxygenated.

Driving it on is that hot-blooded metabolism,

fueled by a furious appetite.

To be warm-blooded it has to eat a lot

and to eat a lot it's got to move fast

and far.

At the end of autumn, the bluefin head offshore

following the great shoals of bait fish.

Where they go is a mystery.

This may hold the answer,

a strange beacon out of the blue.

- [Barbara] When the light blinks, it tells us

that the tag is deployed.

- [Narrator] Scientists today are discovering

the secrets of the bluefin.

- That's where you go.

Barbara Block is studying

the tuna's mysterious migratory paths

and she's got the perfect tool,

a transmitter that pings her their whereabouts.

- [Barbara] These prop-up satellite tags have now been put

on numerous bluefin tuna and they're really quite a package.

What they do is take data on life,

on pressure, on ambient temperature.

Then it will transmit its stored date up into satellites.

- [Narrator] It's a GPS for bluefin,

not to tell it where to go but to tell us where it went.

The challenge is attaching one to a tuna.

Dr. Block recruits expert fishermen to help.

The kite minimizes drag on the live bait

so it can swim more naturally.

- [Barbara] Do you wanna lift that up a little while?

- [Narrator] Waiting for a strike can take all day.

- [Man] One big thrash.

- One big bite.

(suspenseful orchestral music)

- [Man] Coming up.

Watch him, Dennis, he's coming in towards us now.

- [Narrator] A bluefin struggling for its life

will fire up its muscles so vigorously,

it can actually cook its own flesh.

- [Man] Wait, whoa, whoa.

- [Narrator] On the other end is a giant upwards

of 180 kilos and full of fight.

(crew speaking faintly)

Now they've got to keep it.

(crew speaking faintly)

- [Man] Pull in your hand a little bit, Dennis.

- [Barbara] Very big fish, very big.

- [Man] Hold her, Dennis.

(crew speaking faintly)

- [Man] Catch it, Robbie, I got this.

- [Barbara] One, two, three, pull.

- [Narrator] The team needs to work fast.

(crew speaking faintly)

- [Barbara] 130 and 82.

- 130 82. - 130 82.

- [Narrator] In a few months time,

a mechanism in the transmitter will automatically eject it

along with its wealth of data.

- [Barbara] Go on the other side of it.

One, two, three, four.

(crew speaking faintly)

It's done, guys.

- Good job. - Well done, Dennis.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] To date, scientists have gathered data

from thousands of tuna.

The result, a staggering revelation.

There are several groups of bluefin on either side

of the Atlantic but the surprise is how far they travel

and that they mingle,

so fishery managers must now rethink

how they count bluefin populations.

There are actually even fewer than was thought.

Some bluefin circle the Atlantic

on an odyssey of over 16,000 kilometers,

one of the longest fish migrations on Earth.

How do they navigate back and forth

across the open ocean?

One answer is the pineal eye on the top

of the bluefin's head,

a transparent window into their brain

that lets them steer by the sun.

The giants also follow scent trails

and temperature gradients.

A bluefin may grow as old as 40 years,

traversing the Atlantic many times in its long life.

Satellite tags have tracked a number

of giants to these distant waters.

Rick has returned to the Azores.

It's been over a decade since he last saw bluefin here

and the spectacular bait balls.

Most local fishermen are skeptical,

but one captain claims he's seen thousands

of schooling bluefin.

It could be the chance Rick's been waiting for.

The sighting was far out to sea,

so Rick enlists the best crew the Azores can offer.

(crew speaking faintly)

It will be risky to head so far offshore.

Ocean conditions are unstable this time of year.

Then the weather turns foul, too rough for any small craft.

To be able to film, Rick needs clear skies and calm seas.

Finally the weather breaks

but after 16 days, the tuna could be long gone.

- [Rick] We gambled, we didn't know

if the tuna had stayed out there.

It was a real crapshoot that we'd even be able to get there,

let alone find them.

It didn't look promising.

- [Narrator] But 100 kilometers from shore, a hopeful sign.

(birds chirping)

- [Rick] We started to see action,

explosions on the surface.

- [Man] They're coming up, they're coming up.

There we go again.

- [Rick] The big bait ball.

- [Man] It is, from there to there.

- [Narrator] For Rick, it's a sight long coming.

- I'm getting my camera.

- [Narrator] Only one could outdo it, the sight under sea.

- Big bait ball, Lee.

- [Lee] Yeah.

- [Rick] I had my chance, just grab the camera, get in,

go, and away, I just kept swimming.

(suspenseful orchestral music)

I just kept chugging along and I could see tunas,

all these dark torpedoes rocketing by me.

In the distance, frothy water,

hundreds, hundreds of bluefin tuna of different sizes,

120 pounds up to 700, 800-pound fish.

Big giant as well as smaller fish.

It's like bombs going off, white water, tunas,

fish cutting through the water.

So I didn't wanna get hit by one of these big tuna moving

at 20, 30 miles an hour, chasing bait.

It was wild, they were clobbering the mackerel

and just cutting through the water

and they're stirring it up with their tails

and their feeding scales so it was a classic feeding frenzy.

It was primordial.

- [Narrator] Both giants and immature bluefin

swimming together is reason for hope.

Big adults mean the population

is healthy enough to reproduce.

Younger fish bode well for the future.

Here at least, the bluefin have have found refuge.

- [Rick] Is this really a safe haven

that commercial fishermen haven't found?

I don't know.

- [Narrator] The bluefin tuna has outlasted the eons

to be master of its seas,

but there's one appetite evolution has left it ill-equipped

to endure, ours.

- [Rick] Tunas are emblematic of a healthy open ocean,

just like the great billfish or sharks are.

(gentle orchestral music)

The giant bluefin tuna is right on a threshold.

Their numbers in the Atlantic are shockingly low.

If they disappear, this planet will not be complete anymore.

It's now or never.

(gentle piano music)