Great Barrier Reef

The first film explores the complex structure of the coral reef itself and the wildlife that lives on it. So vast it's visible from space, the reef is actually built by tiny animals in partnership with microscopic plants. It's a place full of surprises, always changing, responding to the rhythms of weather, tide, sun and moon. Within this magical and intensely crowded world we reveal how the amazing reef creatures compete and co-operate - from deadly fish-hunting snails to sharks that can walk on land, fighting corals and parrot fish that spin sleeping bags every night. Remote cameras, cutting edge underwater macro and digital time-lapse photography, have captured many sequences have never been filmed before, providing completely fresh perspectives on this extraordinary natural wonder.

The Great Barrier Reef as a whole coverse an area larger than Great Britain but amazingly only 7% of it is coral reef. The rest is a variety of interconnected habitats including the world's oldest jungle, hundreds of islands, mangrove swamps, mysterious deep water gardens, vast sand flats and meadows of sea grass - all full of amazing wildlife. A giant deep-water lagoon connects all of these, and many of the creatures that live in it are almost impossibly weird - from giant hammerhead sharks to the bizarre 'pearl fish' that lives its live up a sea cucumber's bottom. Marine life here also exists in spectacular profusion, as on the 100 year old shipwreck of the SS Yongala, the greatest wildlife wreck on earth. The connections between all these environments mean that, not only do they depend on each other but, without them the coral reef itself would not survive.

The Great Barrier Reef is vitally linked to the rest of the planet in many ways. Creatures travel for thousands of miles to visit in spectacular numbers, including tiger sharks, great whales, seabirds and the largest green turtle gathering on the planet. Alien creatures that are rarely seen, like nautilus, also rise out of the deep to visit the reef's warm waters. Weather systems travelling from across the Pacific also affect the whole reef, including mighty cyclones that bring destruction and chaos to the coral and the creatures that live on it. And it is weather patterns and climate change on a global scale that are likely to shape the future of the Great Barrier Reef and all its wildlife.