LogFAQs > #983453183

[1984] S03E05: The Face of the Deep

Another water episode, this one explores the strange lifeforms that call the Sargasso Sea home. I thought the Portugeuse man-o'-war was kinda cool due to its stingers' length (up to 100+ feet), but then they talked about a predatory sea slug that can eat the stingers whole, without triggering them, and can fire them at enemies itself. Water hasn't been this metal since Isis' Oceanic.

They also go into the history of the sea a little, mentioning how (in an apocryphal tale) Columbus' crew, on the brink of mutiny, decided to continue westward after the drifting seaweed they hauled up had crabs in it. They didn't really delve into other famous incidents, though, such as Donald Crowhurst's disappearance as he fudged numbers while "circumnavigating" the world. (For CEmen who know, the Wikipedia article on missing people through recorded history is my fave article.)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/da8ef459.jpg

Overall, a nice episode, even if it went a little too hard on the sargassum's myriad plankton habits (even for me, that's a little boring). The strange environment where so many things depend on floating seaweed in the North Atlantic gyre is interesting, though -- miles of nothing else laterally and miles of open water below. Kinda sucks that humanity pollutes it with their cast-off trash (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_garbage_patch), but maybe all the barnacles and baby squid will appeciate their new plastic life rafts.