Seasonal Seas

The evening begins with an optional social hour and pot luck supper at 6:30 pm,
followed by the film at 7:30 pm, followed by a discussion at the end of the film.

SEASONAL SEAS

This beautiful film, another part of the Blue Planet: seas of life series, surveys the effects of the seasons on the world's temperate seas ─ the most productive on Earth. Sable Island near Nova Scotia boasts the largest colony of grey seals which breed there when the weather is at its worst. The pups remain marooned for weeks until the spring, when they are strong enough to swim. Spring also heralds the bloom of phytoplankton: it provides food for copepods, and they in turn are prey to jellyfish, which assemble in vast, million-strong swarms. On the Californian coast, giant kelp flourishes and by summer grows at the rate of a meter a day. Shafts of sunlight radiate through a green sea. The blazing light is the vital source of energy used by the countless billions of plankton. The temperate sea provides a sanctuary for shoals of fish and sea otters, the latter anchoring themselves to the seaweed when resting and keeping its grazers in check by eating them. Late summer in Alaska sees Pacific salmon heading inshore to breed. However, the level of their favored river is too low and they are forced to wait in the open sea, where they fall prey to a salmon shark. Early autumn near Vancouver Island, and the temperature drops slowly. There, the last of the year's baby herring become the focus for a feeding frenzy by diving auks and murres and marauding rockfish. Pacific white-sided dolphins also inhabit these waters and, when not hunting nocturnally, socialize during the day. As winter arrives in the north, adult herring seek shelter but are hunted by orca which club the fish with their tails to subdue them by creating waves of pressure.

Wheelchair accessible around the corner at 411 28th Street

$5 donations are accepted