Gannets: The Wrong Side of the Run (2010)

• 81%
• 2010
• Documentary
• Graeme Duane

At the tip of Africa two oceans collide, creating one of the most productive eco-systems on the planet. Here, one of the largest shoals of fish known to man form the basis of two food chains that split and extend for 100's of miles. After the sardines part at Cape Agulhas, each shoal passes it's own critical point. On the west coast of Africa, this is Malgas Island, a traditionally energetic hub of life dominated by the presence of the supreme sardine hunter, the Cape gannet. On the opposing coast, the shoals pass Bird Island, the eastern equivalent of Malgas. Circumstances on the two bird colonies are very different; on the west we see dwindling numbers of sardine, whilst on the east, Bird Island is the inverse. While the Malgas Gannets battle to raise chicks amid skirmishes by Kelp gulls and hungry seals, the Bird island gannets move to intercept huge volumes of sardines. What transpires is one of the greatest marine feeding events on the planet, and in these two parallel scenarios, we see how one environment is mutating under pressure, while the other experiences a bumper season. Will the gannets of Malgas island adapt to their changing world? Can the disappearing sardine stock survive, and in turn support the wide array of marine predators that rely heavily on it. The breath-taking landscape, action and predation sequences are strengthened by solid natural history behaviour with an environmental comment.