Pop your knotted hanky on and roll up your trousers for an hour of rock pooling with our favourite TV palaeontologist, Professor Richard Fortey, who we last saw presenting Survivors: Nature's indestructible Creatures. This time he's joined by an enthusiastic band of marine biologists as they jump into the rocky crevices of Britain's beeches to reveal startling behaviour and new insights into how animals cope with intertidal life. Many popular rock pool species have survived for hundreds of millions of years and this film aims to show why they do love to be beside the seaside...
I personally find rockpools enchanting habitats that every child should be allowed to explore, and I hope that this film encourages people to do just that. When I spoke with Richard Fortey earlier today he told me how much he had enjoyed filming. "I learned many new things" he said "I was fascinated by the adaptations of the glass shrimps. They stay in the pools when the tide retreats, and have a behaviour that allows them to continue to breathe by beating their limbs and stirring oxygen into the water."
The Professor's Wellies
I personally find rockpools enchanting habitats that every child should be allowed to explore, and I hope that this film encourages people to do just that. When I spoke with Richard Fortey earlier today he told me how much he had enjoyed filming. "I learned many new things" he said "I was fascinated by the adaptations of the glass shrimps. They stay in the pools when the tide retreats, and have a behaviour that allows them to continue to breathe by beating their limbs and stirring oxygen into the water."
The Professor's Wellies
As for behind the scenes, Richard didn't enjoy discovering that his wellies were leaking, "but I had to keep them on for the sake of continuity no matter how sore my feet became". Simon Williams, the producer, confessed "I made him wear them for up to 10 hours each day. His blisters were huge. I had to buy him beer to ease the pain". Richard, Simon says sorry!
Other than leaky wellies, Simon told me that their "biggest challenge was the amount of filming we had to do in such a short amount of time". "We only had 7 days to get all the contributors and their experiments in the lab and we had 6 days to film all the beach scenes - this included contingency days for bad weather. That's not an easy task when you realise just how busy academics are and what a bad Summer we had in 2012. We had no idea if any of the animals were going to do their stuff in the lab. Luckily they got into the spirit of it."
"The best bit for all of us in the crew was learning so much from leading rock pool scientists and seeing up close all the incredible behaviour that goes on around our rocky shore. None of us will be able to look at limpets ad anemones in the same way again."
Other than leaky wellies, Simon told me that their "biggest challenge was the amount of filming we had to do in such a short amount of time". "We only had 7 days to get all the contributors and their experiments in the lab and we had 6 days to film all the beach scenes - this included contingency days for bad weather. That's not an easy task when you realise just how busy academics are and what a bad Summer we had in 2012. We had no idea if any of the animals were going to do their stuff in the lab. Luckily they got into the spirit of it."
"The best bit for all of us in the crew was learning so much from leading rock pool scientists and seeing up close all the incredible behaviour that goes on around our rocky shore. None of us will be able to look at limpets ad anemones in the same way again."
Don't miss the film - 9pm, 16th April on BBC Four.