(wind whistling)
(majestic orchestral music)
The polar regions at Earth's extremes
may seem immune to the impact of human activity.
In this hostile terrain life exists
the way it did at the dawn of our planet.
But today the unique fauna here
is threatened by climate change.
Even so, many species here are known to thrive
in richness and diversity,
while others have yet to be discovered.
Documenting this world above and below the ice
is the goal of this expedition to Antarctica.
(waves crashing)
The Astrolabe heads for the white continent.
On board are scientists from France's Polar Institute,
and this year they're joined by two wildlife photographers.
Their sole mission, to showcase the marvels of Antarctica,
to walk and even dive in the realm of the emperor penguin.
(wind whistling)
(ice crunching)
(gentle music)
Laurent Ballesta is an oceanographer.
For the first time, this biologist will explore
the mysterious seas beneath this desert of ice.
But revealing this hidden side of Antarctica
is a challenge no one has yet mastered.
Vincent Munier is at home on icy terrain.
He's a passionate outdoorsman and an expert
at flushing the most ferocious creatures from their lairs.
Ready for this world of extremes,
he sets off in search of the lord of these lands,
the emperor penguin.
No country may lay claim to any of this land.
In 1959, 12 nations created a reserve
dedicated to peace and scientific study.
Since then, 53 countries have ratified the Antarctic Treaty.
Look at that.
It's amazing.
But we're coming in a bit too fast.
Watch out.
We're going to hit!
(ice crunches)
Just did.
Wow.
I've never felt this far away from home.
You're in your element here, right?
No, not at all.
Frankly, it's the first time I've been to Antarctica.
Yeah, yeah.
Two months are going to fly by, no?
I can tell you, it feels like the countdown begins today.
(exciting music)
For 45 days, the photographers will track
young penguin chicks as they develop,
from feedings, to their first swim in the frigid seas.
Too ambitious a goal?
It all depends on the state of the pack ice
and when it will break up.
The Astrolabe is stuck in the ice.
Laurent and Vincent will have to travel
the final 10 kilometers by air.
They head for the French Dumont d'Urville Station
located on the archipelago of Point Geology in Adelie Land.
(helicopter whirring)
This is it.
Did you see that?
Amazing!
(penguins vocalizing)
The photographers share the rock
with a colony of Adelie penguins,
a smaller more common species than the emperor penguin.
They're not quarreling here.
This is Antarctic courtship.
The divers unpack their three tons of equipment
while Vincent Munier
stuffs everything he needs into his sled.
Yes, I'm leaving camp.
Heading for nunatak.
Copy that.
(slow piano music)
The adventure begins above the ice,
but will soon head below it.
After 11 days at sea, Vincent longs for solitude,
a little space to clear his head,
look around, and get to know the place.
(wind blustering)
(camera clicking)
In this vast pristine land,
the photographer sets out to explore virgin territory.
Nothing will stop him,
especially once he's had his first encounter
with Antarctica's most celebrated species,
the emperor penguin.
(penguins chirping)
The colony's 7,000 members are spread out
over several kilometers of pack ice.
These penguins are icons of the Antarctic
and the only birds to reproduce
midwinter in the Southern Hemisphere.
The tallest adults can grow to a height of one-meter-20.
(penguins chirping)
We're clearly in another world.
It's just incredible to get so close to these animals.
I usually spend most of my time trying to hide,
to be well camouflaged and lie in wait.
But here all you need is a little time
and you can get very close to them.
Sometimes they even come to us.
The adult can locate
its three-month-old offspring
thanks to the chick's unique voiceprint.
The youngsters haven't yet shed their gray down
for waterproof plumage.
(chick chirping)
As soon as they connect, the adult feeds the hungry chick
with fish regurgitated from its stomach.
It's hard to imagine that the ocean lies
directly beneath their feet.
(gentle music)
The pack ice is unpredictable, in perpetual motion,
and subject to changing weather patterns.
And in several days or weeks,
this sea of ice will have broken up.
Laurent Ballesta can't dive alone here.
He needs heavy logistical backup,
and open water is several kilometers from base camp.
The closer they get, the greater the risk
they won't make it through with their vehicle.
And even though this team is highly experienced
in extreme expeditions, the slightest error
could compromise their first dive,
especially one this dangerous.
(speaking foreign language)
(radio beeping)
Take a good look around you for cracks,
because you're getting close to some.
Okay, thanks.
Copy that, we'll check it out.
We should be in the water within half an hour.
The wind should die down.
We'll keep an eye out and act quickly
if we see that it's starting to move.
The greatest danger is getting separated
from the main pack ice,
set adrift on a floating ice block,
and there are fractures everywhere.
(speaking foreign language)
To succeed in a mission this complex,
Laurent is supported by a team of seasoned divers.
There's Tibo and Cedric on lighting,
the cameraman Jeannick,
and Emmanuel, the expedition doctor
who monitors their health throughout.
I'm too scared it'll unplug.
The heating better work well.
With wetsuits 12 millimeters thick
to keep them dry, the length of a reasonable dive
in minus 1.8 degree water
is 45 minutes before hypothermia sets in.
Thanks to the wetsuits' built-in heating units,
they hope to spend more than three hours below exploring.
A long slow ascent for decompression stops
is key to restoring safe oxygen levels in the blood
and preventing diving sickness.
(gentle music)
We're protected from the cold,
but sacrifice a lot of mobility.
We're so shielded from the elements
that it's almost impossible to move.
I feel like a novice diver.
And I'm having a hard time just staying balanced.
You have to understand that the first meters over ice
are difficult for marine life.
It's low-key there,
sparsely populated without much variety.
Because there are changes in salinity
when the ice forms and melts,
it's like poison for marine animals.
Then there's the friction of the ice,
which can really destroy everything.
Only the hardiest and the most mobile
can escape its deadly vice and survive here.
(graceful piano music)
And already the first surprises,
and the first questions as well.
This tiny crustacean,
is it a parasite on the jellyfish or its passenger?
I think this jellyfish is a symbol
of what awaits us further below,
worlds of totally different scales all closely intertwined.
I never imagined I'd get to see them.
Their existence is so ephemeral.
But here they are, the famous ice fingers.
These stalactites of ice, or brinicles,
are upside down chimneys.
They eject very cold salty water
trapped when the pack ice was formed.
When this cold water is expelled,
it freezes everything around it instantly.
That's how the stalactites grow
several meters long in just a few hours
only to disappear the next day.
Push over there.
We found the ice fingers!
Oh, Amazing!
We found the ice fingers!
It's amazing.
You see how it smoked?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
For half an hour I didn't even feel cold.
But this first dive does reveal
some serious issues with their gear.
The cold is a major obstacle
for the men and their equipment.
It's also key to getting them further and deeper.
(penguin squawks)
If the pack ice remains stable,
the team will return to explore this open water
created by a very strange phenomenon.
It's called a polynya, a stretch of water
that never freezes, even in winter.
Somewhat like a small inland sea,
the polynya forms when powerful winds
sweep across the Antarctic continent.
The ice steadily breaks up before thick pack ice
has time to solidify, so it's driven into the open sea.
(wind blustering)
A permanent underwater corridor
connects this water to the ocean depths.
For the region's nesting birds,
it's a vital source of nourishment.
(birds chirping)
The existence of this Antarctica oasis
is no secret to the emperor penguins.
(camera clicks)
These giant birds depend on access
to this polynya for their survival.
Without it, they couldn't feed themselves or their chicks,
but that's exactly the challenge these penguins face now.
Climate change linked to global warming
could cut them off from this small inland sea.
It's a matter of life or death for the youngsters.
They'll be weaned before the coming breakup of the ice,
any day now.
(graceful piano music)
I admire their grace,
and I'm probably a little jealous,
since I'm so uncomfortable in this bulky wetsuit
and this heavy gear.
Below the ice, they're incredibly elegant.
It's wonderful.
When I think that they can free-dive to 500 meters
and stay there for 30 minutes in this icy water.
I'd love to do that.
They're fully streamlined for swimming,
their wings that become fins,
their perfect torpedo-shaped profile,
and their feet and tail that act as rudders.
The trails of bubbles in their wake
as they fly through the water,
that's air caught in their tiny feathers.
And that thin film of air creates both insulation
and a layer of lubrication that allows penguins
to accelerate at lightning speed.
It's also very practical to escape from predators.
(penguin vocalizes)
(bubbling)
(Laurent breathing heavily)
Laurent and his team continue their dives.
Even so, they're still not ready
to try their luck in the deep.
(speaking foreign language)
(sighing)
I feel like we spent the day in the water.
I can see it's difficult,
but I'm still envious,
until I see the state you're in after the dive,
then, a bit less so.
(playful orchestral music)
This is a strategic spot
for the two photographers.
The emperor penguins long marches start and finish here
in a perpetual parade back and forth to the colony.
These adults are returning
from a long fishing trip in open water.
They may have swum anywhere from 200 to 1,000 kilometers,
gathering fish that they store in their stomachs
without ever digesting them.
But their efforts don't stop there.
This year they'll walk 10 kilometers
over the ice to join their chicks.
In recent years,
they have had to travel more than 80 kilometers.
(penguin vocalizes)
During those seasons, the polynya didn't form.
It's a sad paradox.
The Earth is warming but a surplus of ice
is what killed off the emperor penguins.
The mortality rate, typically around 50%, jumped to 95%.
To understand why, just follow the scientists
on this enormous glacier that extends
from the Antarctic continent to the penguin colony.
It's magical.
This icy behemoth is under high surveillance.
Thanks to a series of sensors,
researchers can measure its thickness
as well as the speed that it is melting into the sea.
Will that let you see
the drift of the glacier?
We measure it from day to day
so we can determine if the movement's regular
or only sporadic.
That way we can track the annual speed.
Now it's about 400 meters a year.
But over the past 10 years or so, the speeds have doubled.
Here, like everywhere across Antarctica,
glaciers hold the planet's greatest reserves of fresh water.
They drift in the form of gigantic rivers of ice
invisible to the naked eye.
(graceful music)
Like faucets, these rivers propel the ice
toward the sea in the form of icebergs.
But as the planet warms,
these glaciers are now speeding their way to the ocean.
Each year they release millions of cubic meters
of additional fresh water,
but this fresh water freezes more easily than salt water.
As a result, the pack ice thickens in great sheets,
which spells disaster for the emperor penguins.
(motor whirring)
Today, Laurent's team bores through
the thick sections of pack ice that trap icebergs.
They'll look for biodiversity in the underwater ecosystem.
The ice is too thick,
much thicker than we thought.
Yeah, I can't believe
it's more than two-meters deep here,
and there's maybe another meter-80?
I'm heading back.
Two-meters deep and still no ocean.
The ice is probably four-meters thick.
In conditions like this,
launching a dive is impossible.
(majestic music)
Laurent has to find an iceberg trapped in the pack ice.
It would be a little thinner there
thanks to the massive mechanical force
exerted by the iceberg in its clutches.
Nine-10ths of the iceberg is hidden there,
invisible from the surface.
Icebergs are so huge.
I wonder what we can do to see the whole thing.
(lively music)
Given the visibility,
Laurent knows he can't shoot
the entire iceberg as one single image.
First he'll construct a giant grid using ropes
so that he can get the true sense of scale.
That way he can position himself in space
using fixed reference points.
Then he'll take several hundred shots
that he'll assemble digitally.
Finally, he'll adjust them to present
a complete portrait of this ice giant.
The result is striking, despite the icebergs modest size.
It's only 60-meters wide and 30-meters tall.
This is the first full photo ever made
of an iceberg's hidden face.
The calm of the deep contrasts sharpy
with the frenzy of activity on the surface.
Penguins trek freely between the colony
and the open water with few casualties.
This year the cycle of ice
is less dramatic than in previous times.
Meanwhile, the planet warms, the glaciers melt,
and the pack ice continues to thicken and spread.
It's a problem for the penguins,
and even more troubling,
global warming will soon change
the way world climate functions.
Everything depends on the summer ice-melt here.
(ambient music)
Without vast enough pack ice,
there won't be enough energy to keep
the giant water pump circulating
in the depths of the planet's oceans.
This marine current serves as the air conditioner
and regulator of our atmosphere.
In recent years, the atmosphere of Earth's urban areas
has gotten progressively worse due to industrial activity.
And as the air quality declines a little more each year,
so does public health.
It's a vicious cycle with humankind
both as victim and perpetrator.
(footsteps crunching)
Meanwhile, Antarctica's isolation allows us
to believe that the continent has been spared
from atmospheric pollution,
and that its wildlife remains unharmed.
When you see how pristine this world is,
how removed from human reach, you tell yourself,
finally, a place where man hasn't sunk his claws
or exploited it in any way.
But no.
The scientists are telling us they've found pesticides
and pollutants from human activity
in the stomachs of birds, penguins, and seals here.
And that bubble we imagine we're in here
doesn't really exist.
(solemn piano music)
The divers continue to explore
sections of the pack ice,
wondering if they'll ever make it into the water.
After a chat with Vincent Munier,
who's been observing seals,
Laurent is inspired to try out the natural openings
the marine mammals have been using.
(speaking foreign language)
He'll use a gap between a flow and the ice shelf
to slip his way under water.
Preparing for this endeavor is a lot like cave diving.
Rule number one,
they must absolutely not get lost
under this thick ceiling of ice.
The divers unravel a lifeline
that connects them to the surface
and allows them to thread their way back to the exit.
(ice creaking)
(ice groans)
It sounds to me like
the rhythmic moaning of an animal,
but it's actually the pack ice
cracking to the rhythm of the swells.
It's unreal.
(gentle music)
Today is the 10th dive,
but the first minutes are always the hardest.
Sometimes I think we'll never really get used to it.
Luckily each dive is like stumbling
onto a brand-new gold mine.
Honestly I've never experienced anything like it elsewhere.
It's a lot richer than I ever thought.
I can't imagine what awaits us further below.
It's going to be exceptional.
(low-pitched humming)
And all of a sudden I hear a new echo
bursting through the wailing of the ice.
It's the song of a Weddell seal.
(seal vocalizing)
(playful music)
(seal vocalizing)
Somewhere nearby there's got to be a big male hiding,
and I'm wondering why he's singing like that.
Maybe to announce to his presence to a female,
or maybe just to let us know
that we've encroached on his territory.
Between the time the first divers exit
followed immediately by Laurent,
the hole has begun to fill with shards of ice.
A few minutes more and the gap would've closed.
That's because the pack ice
is always moving with tremendous force.
The situation reminds the team how dangerous it is
to navigate this universe of extremes.
In Antarctica the slightest error can be fatal.
I saw the most beautiful light ever,
yellow, green, orange, it's kind of crazy, right?
I mean, I'm shooting all these amazing panoramas
and you forget about the cold.
Even when you can no longer move your fingers,
you just keep working.
When I'm shooting, nothing distracts me,
but there've been times I've dropped the camera.
The light is just so magical,
with a mother and a calf in fairytale setting.
(sighing)
I'm gonna get changed.
The groaning of fracturing ice
that Laurent had heard under water
intensifies under the summer sun.
It's been three weeks since the two photographers
began documenting this annual drama.
The pack ice is increasingly unstable,
and water is closing in on the emperor penguin colony
where the young chicks continue to mature.
(soft ambient music)
They're now four-months old,
barely four more weeks until they become waterproof.
(penguin chicks chirping)
(penguins vocalizing)
Every time there's a gust of wind,
you feel like you're in a blizzard.
There's so much down floating everywhere.
Some of them look absolutely mad
running around with feathers flying.
They're trying to shake the down off their beaks
but can't manage, it's pretty entertaining.
In any case, this is it.
In two or three weeks, they'll be waterproof.
And I really hope we'll still be here when they leave.
That will be epic.
(graceful piano music)
This great departure won't be airborne.
It's time for these water birds
to get their first taste of the ocean
where they'll be swimming all their lives.
The ice will soon shrink beneath their feet.
With any luck, not too early or too late.
The storm keeps everyone indoors.
They use the time to begin prepping
for what will undoubtedly be the mission's
most ambitious deep-water dives.
(speaking foreign language)
Should anyone get the bends,
first aid is thousands of kilometers away,
so the team has brought the very first
portable hyperbaric chamber.
It would be used to treat any diver
who fails to make adequate decompression stops,
and could potentially suffer a fatal stroke.
The victim, usually unconscious,
lies in this chamber where pressure is increased
to levels corresponding with his dive.
When testing the limits of human physiological response,
you have to prepare for the worst case.
Outside the storm rages on,
while the men stay warm, all but one of them.
(wind blustering)
The emperor penguins felt this storm coming.
They begin to huddle together, just in case.
Even at 100 kilometers per hour,
the wind doesn't seem to ruffle these birds' feathers.
It's always moments like these
when nature unleashes its fury
that Vincent finds most satisfying.
He's fascinated by the strength and courage of these animals
in the face of these punishing winds.
(wind whipping)
When the wind speed reaches 150 kilometers per hour,
the stoic birds gather a little closer
to conserve precious body heat.
It takes patience to wait out a major storm like this
that can last for several days.
At 170 kilometers per hour,
the penguins again tighten their formation.
As many as 14 have been counted
squeezed into a square meter.
Helping each other stay warm to survive
is a behavior unique to these birds.
(foreboding music)
This storm lasts 36 hours,
but every member of the colony makes it through.
The violent winds have weakened the pack ice
and water now flows a lot closer to the base camp.
But the chicks still aren't ready,
though most of the remaining ice has become very thin.
The good news,
Laurent doesn't have to go far to attempt his deep dive.
A 70-meter dive in Antarctica would be a first.
This one is scheduled to last more than three hours.
Spending even a few minutes at that depth
will require more than 2 1/2 hours of decompression stops,
no matter how badly the diver
may be suffering from the cold.
For Manu, the team doctor,
long anxiety-filled hours are just beginning.
(soft piano music)
He'll have no idea what's really happening below.
His worst fear?
An emergency buoy rising from the deep with an SOS.
In reply, he would send two large canisters of oxygen
in the hopes it would buy the men enough time
to surface safely.
It's such a different world down here.
The surface is a desert of ice,
harsh, inhospitable, monochromatic,
and here, there are gardens of delicate
luxuriant color, life.
It's as if these gardens have been waiting forever
for someone to explore them.
They seem timeless.
Unlike the first few meters below the surface,
where icebergs and pack ice destroy everything,
down here the conditions are more stable.
Here the rumblings of storms and creaking ice
are like far-off whispers,
so these gardens can blossom and flourish
to their heart's content.
And all of these organisms are animals,
whether they're branchy, tree-shaped, or bushy,
they're animals that look like plants.
They get their nourishment by filtering seawater.
The majority of the species that live here
are found in no other ocean but this one.
The reason for these endemic species
is primarily the immense Antarctic circumpolar current
moving clockwise around the continent.
With a flow rate 150 times greater
than all the rivers in the world combined,
it's the strongest current in the world.
These icy waters block heat from the north
and prevent any aquatic larvae
from entering or leaving that ring.
The flora and fauna of the Antarctic
have thus been isolated from the rest of the world
for millions of years.
Two hours and 45 minutes after making their descent,
the divers resurface.
It's quite an achievement.
(gentle piano music)
This 70-meter dive bodes well for the ones to follow.
They'll want to take advantage while conditions are good.
The ice seems stable for now,
and the weather is fairly mild.
(animals vocalizing)
(birds chirping)
Vincent has taken up residence
with the emperor penguin colony.
Someone signals that it's time to depart.
The adults begin to file out of the colony,
leaving the chicks to their own destinies.
Soon the young penguins will be so hungry
that they'll be forced to follow suit
and head for open water.
Vincent will stay close.
He's managed to blend in so well
that he's become part of the landscape.
The summer sun has been heating the pack ice
which continues to break apart.
It's good timing, now that the Adelie penguin eggs
are showing signs of life.
Very soon, the parents will need fish for their hatchlings.
The proximity to open water will make life easier.
Departure is in the air for the men as well.
Two months after their arrival,
Laurent and Vincent will soon exit this world of ice.
And it's time for the young emperor penguins
to take their big leap.
(exciting music)
Only four days left until the team leaves Antarctica,
and they have yet to attempt their main deep dive.
The rock they'll explore is now about
10 kilometers from base camp surrounded by open water.
With the pack ice now gone,
the only way to get there is by helicopter.
It will take several trips to transport
the hundreds of kilos of equipment
critical for this deep dive.
Those logistics alone will take six hours.
(saw buzzing)
We're really well set up
on this little patch of ice,
which itself is balanced on a rocky peak
that descends 200 meters below.
But, we're right at home here.
All of the real pioneering
underwater polar exploration
will take place on this one dive.
Descending to such great depths
requires superhuman energy.
Even for divers in excellent physical condition,
it's all about mindset.
(graceful orchestral music)
We're gliding the length of this rock.
It starts out smooth but is quickly covered
in a thick forest of brown kelp beds called Laminaria.
50 meters further below,
where the light begins to fade a bit,
we come to a valley of sea feathers.
They stretch as far as the eye can see.
And in the midst of these feathered creatures
are tens of thousands of scallops.
These filterer shellfish are barely 10 centimeters long,
but here in Antarctica, they're nearly 90 years old.
Several times we encounter pure-white giant sea slugs.
Then unexpectedly we cross paths with a truly rare creature,
the tiny Antarctic octopus,
which has never been photographed alive until now.
But it's when we hit 70 meters
that things really get wild.
Invertebrates clearly begin to thrive in this zone.
Suddenly the diversity is spectacular,
each animal stranger than the next.
Coral, anemones, sponges of all sizes and shapes.
But also starfish, crustaceans, and even some fish.
I never found this in any other ocean.
The greater the depth,
the greater the biodiversity it harbors.
A rich, well-balanced world operating in slow motion,
in a time-space continuum that eludes us completely.
I always choose our diving locations
keeping in mind the long hours of ascent
that we spend in freezing water.
So I make sure we always follow
the contours of the rock up to the surface
so that the exploring can continue
and we forget the freezing cold.
For all of these weeks, I feel like I've never stopped,
as if this entire trip were one long dive,
the most difficult one of my life, I think,
only to finish triumphantly
here at the foot of this little island
I'd been dreaming of for years.
(breathing heavily)
There are a lot easier dives.
I'm exhausted.
Shit.
Down there, my head was freezing.
My entire body was freezing.
It's really cold on the bottom.
But the life on that slope, mesmerizing.
(graceful orchestral music)
Some 72 hours left to savor this magical place,
and everyone hopes the young emperor penguins
will finally make their move.
(penguins chirping)
At last, they realize that their parents aren't coming back,
that they're on their own now.
Now it's their turn to follow the footsteps of the adults
pointing them toward the open water.
(lively orchestral music)
This year the ice pack has shrunk
so there'll be no fatalities.
This last step is a tough one.
Instinctively they know this new environment
may be dangerous.
Vincent has front-row seats
and is ready for the show to begin.
These may be his last photographs of the trip.
(gentle music)
None of the divers want to miss this incredible moment.
They're all hanging out around the launching pad.
It could be a matter of minutes, or days.
Everyone's ready,
and no one cares how long they have to wait.
This is exactly what they've come so far to see.
(penguins vocalizing)
(dramatic music)
Finally they take the plunge.
Hunger will quickly turn them into efficient ocean hunters.
Following this march of the penguins,
there's a lengthy swim.
All the young birds will spend five years in these waters
before returning to the ice shelf where they were born,
to give birth.
This especially benign season
shouldn't overshadow the cruel reality
of nature's imbalance at the polar extremes.
Antarctica's health is precarious,
yet our own wellbeing depends
on its environmental stability.
Over the course of this expedition
photographer Vincent Munier
will have discovered an unlikely Garden of Eden
conveyed in nuanced and subtle shades of white and gray,
a world easy on the eyes but icy to the touch.
And Laurent Ballesta has exposed us to an incredible
new world of contrasts and unexpected landscapes.
Ocean depths as luxuriant as tropical jungles
despite the desert of ice that flourishes above.
It's nature's subtle balancing act
that ensures life's ongoing existence.
If we human beings finally realize that,
we may be inspired to protect the polar regions
as if our lives and our future truly depended on it.
(slow orchestral music)