Blue Plant

[rockyracoon]

Just watching this lovely programme and was wondering how they know if the lights on the cameras affect the life on the seabeds . They’ve just been down to the Mariana Trench where it must be pitch black. The fish must be startled.

[Buenchico]

Light isn't going to make the slightest of difference to plants which don't have any chlorophyll.

[choux]

Blue Planet ;)

[rockyracoon]

What abouth the fish, though.

[choux]

They feed on the blue plankton ...

[Old_Geezer]

They probably don't have chlorophyll either.

[Buenchico]

Aha!

Choux has explained the typo in your post!

It's likely that research has shown that shown that the eyes of deep sea fish only respond to certain frequency ranges (possibly towards the ultra-violet end of the spectrum). Using camera lights which only use frequencies outside of the spectrum visible to those fish won't disturb them at all.

[sapelesam]

Listening to the commentary, the Mariana Trench footage was a simulation from previous surveys. So, no danger to sea life there.

[Ken4155]

Must admit, it's the only programme on tv right now that can have me sat with mouth agape in awe. Cannibal squid, Black and Decker worms burrowing into whalebone and a fish with a see through head. Don't see them every day of the week. Well, not in Burnley-By-The-Canal anyway:-)

[Barmaid]

Light and colour does change. I went 26m under the sea in a submarine recently. My coral pink nail varnish went a deep burgundy. Weird. Amazing experience tho.

[Islay]

I was going to say if its a blue plant it must be very cold or very rude!!

[Ellipsis]

The first two episodes have been amazing and next week's looks fantastic too, from the preview.

My only complaint is that you often don't get a sense of scale. You can't tell if some of these fish are the size of your thumb or the size of a car.

[jno]

the sea filters out colours as you go deeper - red then yellow then green then blue.

[rockyracoon]

I’m a div! I didn’t realise that I’d typed plant. I must have reread it about 10 times looking for the typo.