Episode 4 | Oceans

On a month-long mission in the Solomon Sea, a team aims to tag as many Skipjack Tuna as possible to find out where they go and various unknown elements of Tuna life history. All the data will help to know where in the ocean to protect.

Renowned shark scientist Doc Gruber is midwife to a 10-foot lemon shark female and helps her to deliver several shark pups.

Tiger sharks feast on dead turtles at Raine Island, Australia. The sharks are drawn there by the abundance of dead turtles which have died due to sheer numbers by being buried or turned over in rock pools. The turtles return annually to lay eggs on the same beach they hatched from.

Just after birth, the newborn lemon sharks are measured, tagged and a DNA sample is taken before the young sharks are returned to the mangroves. This provides information to an ongoing database to back up theories that lemon sharks return to the same location they were born to give birth themselves.

Jeremy Jackson is a marine ecologist, paleontologist and a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a Senior Scientist Emeritus at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in the Republic of Panama. He has published over 150 scientific publications and has written seven books. He is behind the theories of the Rise of Slime in the oceans. Photos ©Monroe County Public Library, FL.

Doc Gruber is a shark biologist and founder of the American Elasmobranch Society. Doc Gruber is a recognized authority on shark science. He has specialized in shark behavior, anatomy, sensory systems and tracking. Gruber is perhaps best known for his studies on habitat selection and homing behavior of lemon sharks and eagle rays around the Bimini Shark Lab.

Using ‘the claw’ that Richard Fitzpatrick designed with knowledge of tonic immobility, he manages to tag a dangerous man-eating tiger shark. Information from the tags in helping to create a better understanding of the annual movement of the predators.

Starting on the most pristine reef on Earth, home to more predators than prey, Sanjayan draws on his own ocean experiences to reveal a vibrant community of scientists, engineers and fishermen who are providing solutions that can help restore the oceans in astonishing ways. Premieres February 12, 2015 at 10/9c.