The Changing Sea: One Ocean, Episode 4

With dramatic footage of underwater sea life and interviews with scientists, narrator David Suzuki takes viewers on a sea voyage that examines environmental issues impacting the oceans. El Niños are becoming more persistent, thus warming the oceans which causes species to migrate. For example, as squid move from water off the coast of Mexico to British Columbia, native fish species become prey for the squid and local fishers are seeing a decline in their catches. Warmer water also impacts plants and animals, such as the giant kelp forests and animals that feed on them such as sea otters. One of the four chapters that comprise this program examines dead zones—areas of the ocean with low oxygen that causes massive die-offs of fish and other sea creatures. Global warming, which is one of the reasons for these problems, also accounts for a change in the acidity levels of the ocean that results in the death of coral reefs across the globe. Food chains are being impacted and species are becoming extinct. The narrator asks us, what will we do to alleviate the situation? The chapter divisions make this a classroom friendly program that will enhance general science and environmental science classes studying oceanography.–Patricia Ann Owens, Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, Mt. Carmel