Biscayne: Coral Reefs and the Florida Keys (Full Episode) | America's National Parks | Nat Geo

Just below Miami, hidden beneath the waves, is a giant nursery - Biscayne National Park - where thousands of animals come to rear their young.

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Biscayne: Coral Reefs and the Florida Keys (Full Episode) | America's National Parks | Nat Geo
https://youtu.be/5KsV53mwhI0

National Geographic
https://www.youtube.com/natgeo

The Florida coast is host to one
of the biggest gatherings of animals

in the United States.

Mullet in the millions

heading south past Miami Beach,

toward a very special national park.

A journey that is fraught with danger.

The mullet have ten miles to go
before they reach Biscayne National Park.

But first they need to run
a gauntlet of predators.

Biscayne National Park.

Right on the doorstep of Miami.

These inviting waters are home
to Florida's most iconic animal.

The manatee.

They're here thanks to one

of the most important
habitats on the planet.

Seagrass meadows,

the rain forests of the sea.

They provide oxygen

and lock in carbon with their roots,

helping to protect our natural world.

For a manatee mom and her calf,

it takes somewhere special
to provide everything they need.

Warm, shallow, sheltered water

and seagrass, lots of it.

Mom needs to eat around 66 pounds a day.

Luckily, almost half of this park is seagrass.

Once full, she can relax and feed her calf.

The family will spend the summer
hunting for the best grazing.

Their travels take them past the park's islands,

its tropical mangrove forests

and further north past Miami.

But it won't be easy.

Finding good grazing in Florida's waters

is becoming difficult for manatee moms.

In polluted water, algal blooms
smother the seagrass meadows,

preventing sunlight from reaching them
and cause the grass to die.

Florida has lost 50%
of its seagrass beds since the 1950s.

As a result, manatees are declining too.

But along a coastline struggling
to preserve this precious habitat,

Biscayne's seagrass meadows
are a vital oasis.

Manatees are not alone
in depending on the seagrass.

It's also home to one
of the park's smallest inhabitants.

The dwarf seahorse,

just one inch tall.

And a surprisingly bad swimmer.

To keep from being swept away,
they use their tails to hold on.

They feed by sucking in passing food.

So quick, that if you blink,
you'll miss it.

But it's their love life
that causes a stir.

In the seahorse world, males have babies.

His partner merely drops her eggs

into his kangaroo-like pouch,

leaving him to do the rest.

Eleven days later...

...birth starts.

Once out, the little ones
are on their own.

Some are reluctant to leave
the safety of Dad's pouch,

even during birth.

Their instinct to hang on is strong.

Dad gives birth
to up to 16 young at a time.

By fish standards, seahorses
have a fairly high survival rate.

Coral Barrier Reef

But the future of these tiny critters

is heavily reliant on the health
of the seagrass beds.

Luckily this youngster's new home
is within the protected waters

of Biscayne National Park.

95% of it is underwater.

The park's seagrass beds
and resident seahorses

are kept safe
from the wild Atlantic Ocean...

...by the third largest coral reef
in the world.

The Florida Reef rises up
out of deep water,

creating a protective wall 360 miles long.

Shielding six million people
from waves and storm surges.

The true unsung hero
of Biscayne National Park.

The coral barrier reef
marks the park's Atlantic edge.

American Crocodile

On its western boundary
lies an unlikely sanctuary

for one of the park's largest predators.

Meet the American crocodile,

weighing in at 400 pounds
and 10 feet long.

Classic ambush hunters,

nothing is off the menu
for this crocodile.

Unlike her more fearsome
Australian and African cousins,

he's no man-eater.

Hers is a story of hope and survival.

By the early '70s there were less than
300 American crocodiles left in Florida.

Now there are thousands.

Thanks to an unlikely savior.

In the 1970s, Turkey Point's
nuclear power station

was built next door to what
would become Biscayne National Park.

It's now home to nearly a quarter
of the American crocodile population.

Their fierce reputation
does them a disservice.

Croc moms are surprisingly caring.

Eleven weeks ago,

she buried around 30 eggs
in this shallow nest.

Hatchlings

She's checking on her brood
with increasing regularity.

Listening for the sound of chirping
within the eggs.

Hatching has started.

The sound of their siblings
chirping from inside the eggs

spurs the hatchlings
to stage a mass breakout.

The hatchlings are nearly a foot long.

Equipped with sharp teeth
and ready to go.

But this great escape
isn't so easy for everyone.

Breaking out of the tough shells
is hard work.

He'd better hurry.

Mom is waiting
to carry them to the water.

Without her help and protective presence,

he'll be vulnerable.

Best not get left behind.

Even if your sibling walks all over you.

For hatchlings struggling to escape,

Mom will step in to help.

For this little guy,
there's no need to shout for Mom.

Freedam

The American crocodile's future
here at Turkey Point is looking bright.

With the addition of these newborns,

numbers are on the rise.

Between the park and the power station,

the crocodiles have over 170,000 acres
of protected area to roam.

More than enough space
for this clutch of growing youngsters.

Mangroves

Every corner of Biscayne National Park
provides shelter and a home.

The salt water-loving mangrove
forests are no different.

Rising from the sand, they're one
of Biscayne's most valuable resources.

These tangled trees absorb
the power from storm surges...

...protecting the coastline
and millions of people

from destructive waves and erosion.

Alongside the seagrass,
mangrove forests are a powerful tool

in the fight against climate change.

They can store five times more carbon
than tropical forests like the Amazon.

The role they play here is priceless.

Above water, birds roost in the branches.

Lemon Shark

Underneath, mangroves hide a secret world,

with easy pickings...

for those in the know.

The tightly packed roots of the mangroves

are a perfect location for a fish nursery.

A safe and sheltered home to grow up in
before leaving for the reef beyond.

But every neighborhood has its troubles.

A juvenile lemon shark
cruises Biscayne National Park,

here to learn one thing:

how to hunt.

The fish have the size advantage
in this deadly game of hide-and-seek.

The lemon sharks need to be patient.

Luckily, he's got the time.

He will hunt in the safety
of the mangroves

until he's seven or eight years old,

before moving out to live and hunt.

Loggerheads

Along Florida's sandy coastal shallows.

Fish aren't the only ones

to use Biscayne National Park
as a nursery.

Under cover of darkness...

...and undeterred
by an encroaching lightning storm,

an old traveler returns
to the beaches around Biscayne.

A female loggerhead turtle.

She's traveled thousands of miles

to lay her eggs on the beach
where she hatched.

Once in position,

she digs a deep enough hole
to fit in over 100 eggs

Over 40% of the world's
loggerhead nests are in Florida.

During the summer months,

nearly 100,000 nests
will be dug by returning turtles.

Eggs laid and buried,
her role as mom is done.

It's exhausting work

when you're not designed
for a life on land.

From here on,
her offspring are on their own.

Mom returns to her life
as an ocean wanderer.

It will be at least two years
before she's back to lay again.

But it will be over 20 years

before her daughters
are mature enough to return.

Although dominated by water,

the park isn't only about marine life.

Elliott Key

There are 4,000 acres
of offshore Island Keys.

Running through the heart
of Biscayne National Park

sits the largest, Elliott Key.

This tropical island is home
to a fragment of hammock forest,

an ecosystem that once stretched
all the way through the Florida Keys.

Dense, damp and tangled,

this is now one of the rarest habitats
in North America.

For millennia, Elliott Key was used

as a seasonal settlement
by the Tequesta people,

and then by fishermen.

In the 1960s, developers started
plowing a highway through the island.

Public backlash
and the establishment of Biscaynea

as a national monument
in 1968 halted the work.

Today, the overgrown highway
is delivering some very special cargo.

This is the Schaus' swallowtail butterfly.

Their undulating flight
is perfectly evolved

to navigate the tangled, ancient trees.

They can even fly backward,

handy when avoiding avian predators.

It's a sight which nearly disappeared.

When a survey was done in 2012,
only four were found in the wild.

Thanks to the work of the Florida Museum
of Natural History,

these butterflies
can again be seen flying free.

1,650 captive-bred swallowtails
have been released.

Today another 53 will join them.

Some are pair bonded and ready to help add

to the wild population of Elliott Key.

Over the next three weeks,
they will mate, lay eggs, and die,

establishing the next generation.

Maybe soon this dancing butterfly

will not need their human matchmakers.

Loggerhead

Back at the beach,
under the cover of darkness,

the loggerhead hatchlings
have left the nest,

following their mom's route
down the beach and out to sea.

All except one.

She's alone and vulnerable.

She goes for it, following
in the flipper prints of her siblings.

But there's something
lurking in the darkness.

A ghost crab.

Hatchlings can be easy prey.

Especially when she's on her back.

By luck or instinct,

flicking sand in her attacker's eye
turns out to be...

...the perfect defensive move.

Dawn

Free at last, she needs to get a move on.

With dawn comes
a much higher risk of predation

from passing birds and raccoons.

She's running out of time.

She's made it.

And just in time.

She now faces an epic journey.

With Biscayne National Park far behind,

she's heading out
to the Sargasso Sea in the mid-Atlantic.

There she will feed amongst
the vast rafts of floating seaweed

until big enough to navigate
the oceans on her own.

stiltsville

As the hatchlings head out to sea,

they may spot a curious sight.

Perched on sandbanks a mile offshore

sits a collection of wooden houses
called Stiltsville.

Built during the Prohibition Era,

it was used as an offshore speakeasy
for drinking and gambling.

At its peak, Stiltsville
consisted of 27 houses.

A community promoted as being

"dedicated to sunlight, salt water,
and the well-being of the human spirit."

Today, things are quieter
in the national park

and a different kind of wildlife stops by.

Cormorants, much like
the humans before them,

use Stiltsville as a handy hangout

for drying off and preening
between fishing trips.

Biscayne National Park
is a place on the very edge.

Its isolated, battered islands
have a unique timeless quality,

despite its proximity
to a bustling modern metropolis.

It provides peace and sanctuary
to visitors as well as the wildlife.

At the peak of summer,
temperatures climb toward 90 degrees.

The sun at its height...

... is also at its most powerful.

Visitors need to remember their sunscreen.

Underwater, even the locals are not immune

to the sun's strong rays.

To protect from
the bleaching power of the sun,

the park's coral community have developed
their own extraordinary type of sunscreen.

Living inside the corals' cells

are microscopic algae
called zooxanthellae.

Fueled by the sun,
the algae photosynthesize,

giving the coral reef its color.

Despite being sun-loving,

the algae can be easily damaged
by too much ultraviolet light.

Their strategy?
To make their own sunscreen.

They produce a protein
which absorbs the light

and re-emits it in other colors.

Only visible to human eyes...

... under a special blue light.

The results are cosmic.

The fluorescent pigments absorb
the sun's damaging wavelengths of light

and emit them as colorful light,

protecting the algae.

It's so much more
than a beautiful spectacle.

In areas where the reef is shallow,

with no escape
from the midsummer sun,

this is a lifesaving strategy,

revealing the remarkable resilience
of these tiny superheroes

of the reef.

The hot summer sun on the warm water

can also trigger
a reaction above the water.

Mile-high cumulonimbus clouds
bubble up above the warm ocean,

creating a thunderstorm,

heavy with rain,

heading for Biscayne National Park.

The arrival of the rain
and the rising tide

threatens a community of thousands.

The storm may have passed,

but water levels continue
to rise around a nest of fire ants.

This aggressive, invasive species
has few predators,

but the rising water
will easily drown the ants in their nest.

Time to evacuate.

The ants have an ingenious solution.

Following chemical signals
and an unspoken plan,

the entire colony starts banding together,

forming a living raft.

No one is left behind.

The large queen,
along with her precious larvae and pupae,

are kept safe and dry in the middle.

The rest of the ants
continually rotate position.

And when underwater,
air pockets allow them to breathe.

They can remain like this for weeks.

But as soon as the raft
hits anything above the water,

the colony will de-raft,

and construction of a new nest begins.

Biscayne's visitors
change with the seasons.

Some prefer the heat,

others the cool of winter.

The wildlife is no different.

Early fall, and the mullet are running.

Millions of the banana-sized fish

have arrived to travel south
along the coast of Florida...

...catching unwary swimmers by surprise.

Normally found in the rivers and estuaries

of the Carolinas, Florida and Georgia,

the mullet are now traveling south...

...past the white sands
and the high-rises of Miami Beach,

toward Biscayne National Park.

Their aim: to spawn in the warm waters
off southern Florida.

But a gathering of this size
does not go unnoticed.

Predators are lured in
by the possibility of a feast.

Sharks and tarpon patrol the edges,

waiting for the perfect moment.

The mullet have nowhere to go but up.

Tarpon attack from the side,
the sharks from below.

Birds pick off fish
trapped against the surface.

But even with this many hunters,

the fish have the odds
stacked in their favor.

There are 10,000 fish per hunter.

There's safety in numbers.

For most, anyway.

Their huge numbers serve another purpose.

When the time comes to spawn,
it works best if everyone goes together.

A mass spawning, creating and sending

the next generation of mullet
out into the blue.

Biscayne National Park stands
at the very forefront of our battle

with a changing climate.

Fighting for there is an army

of passionate, dedicated
scientists and volunteers...

...working to ensure the future
of the park and its wildlife.

In doing so, Biscayne
will continue to protect

both the human and animal inhabitants
of Southeast Florida.

A reminder that America's national parks
are there for all of us.

Captioned by Side Door Media Services