Blue Planet II

A female olive ridley sea turtle embarks on a journey, swimming thousands of miles, to return to the very beach where it hatched a decade ago. At one beach in Costa Rica, she and other turtles have gathered in their hundreds of thousands to lay their eggs on dry land.

On particular islands in the Galápagos, there are shallow coves with many inlets and alleys. Here, a group of bachelor male sea lions has developed a unique hunting behaviour that allows them to take massive protein-rich yellowfin tuna. The sea lions work together to herd the tuna into the cave. One male will then seal off the exit, while the rest pick off the trapped fish one by one. With this extraordinary technique, these sea lions increase their chances of growing into full-sized breeding bulls come the mating season.

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Yellowfin tuna are challenging prey, weighing in at around 60 kilos and reaching speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. Despite this, a group of bachelor male sea lions in the Galápagos has developed a group hunting technique, whereby they deftly herd the tuna into a shallow cove where the fish have less room to outmanoeuvre the predators.

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Red rock crabs face a daily challenge on the tropical shores of Brazil as they race against the clock to reach their seaweed-covered feeding grounds before the tide comes in again. These agile crabs leap from rock to rock, avoiding the water where opportunistic predators such as chain moray eels and octopuses lie in ambush.

The chain moray eel is a specialist crab hunter. Its blunt teeth are perfectly adapted for gripping and crushing a crab's shell. On the coast of Brazil, the receding tide unveils fresh seaweed, food for red rock crab. As the crabs attempt to reach the feeding grounds, moray eels ambush the crabs as they attempt to reach the feeding grounds, even slinking between pools of water to reposition themselves for the hunt.

The Brazil reef octopus is another ambush predator that the red rock crabs on the tropical shores of Brazil have to contend with as they traverse the rocks along the coast to reach the feeding grounds exposed by the low tide.

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Atlantic puffins shares cliffs in the Arctic with guillemots, where both species breed and raise their chicks. These cliffs provide a safe haven for nesting, with numerous nooks and crannies accessible only from the air. Puffins often mate for life and both parents share the responsibility to raise their puffling. The parents may fly as far as 30 miles to reach good fishing grounds, where they routinely diving up to 40 meters deep to catch fish. However, their journey home is fraught with danger, as they must evade agile Arctic skuas that attempt to mob the birds of their hard-earned catch.

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Guillemots, like puffins, are skilled fishermen and must venture into the ocean to find food for their young in their cliffside nests. Their short wings suit them for diving below the surface to find fish.

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Arctic skuas are highly opportunistic. They target puffins and guillemots returning from the sea with their hard-earned catch to the coastal cliffs in Norway where they breed. Their longer wings grant them exceptional speed and maneuverability in the air.

The Pacific leaping blenny has remarkably adapted to a terrestrial lifestyle on remote Pacific islands. These fish choose nest holes atop limestone cliffs, where they can feed on algae without competition from sea-dwelling fish. Though they are poor swimmers, they must remain close enough to the water so that they remain damp, since they breathe through their skin. A male blenny colours his body a deep black and his fins in a flashy orange in order to attract nearby females. A female who is interested will climb up to join the male in the relative safety of his nest, laying her eggs and allowing him to fertilise them.

King penguins return to South Georgia's beaches each spring, navigating through a beach full of elephant seals to reach their colony and their hungry chicks. Adult penguins possess a sleek, tightly packed coat of feathers that allows them to thrive in freezing subantarctic waters, but loses efficacy over many months. Now, these penguins must undergo a "catastrophic moult", a process in which they shed and replace all four layers of their plumage. For the next month, they will remain land-bound and be unable to feed, but once complete they will be ready to return to the sea, to feed.

It's springtime on the beaches of South Georgia and the elephant seal breeding season is in full swing. Massive four-tonne bulls engage in fierce battles to establish dominance and control over their harems. These clashes can pose a threat to other animals in the vicinity, such as king penguins who must cross the beach to reach their chicks in the colony inland.

Every January, tens of thousands of sharks, including spinner sharks, congregate in the warm shallows off Florida's Palm beach as a pit-stop during their northward migration. This is the largest assembly of coastal sharks on Earth but, in recent times, they face numerous challenges such as pollution, habitat degradation, and fishing pressures, forcing them to adapt not only to their natural environment but also to the human-induced threats that now surround them.

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Every January, tens of thousands of sharks, including blacktip sharks, congregate in the warm shallows off Florida's Palm beach as a pit-stop during their northward migration. This is the largest assembly of coastal sharks on Earth but, in recent times, they face numerous challenges such as pollution, habitat degradation, and fishing pressures, forcing them to adapt not only to their natural environment but also to the human-induced threats that now surround them.