RED CEA

- [Narrator] The Red Sea. A special idyll of the Orient. A place of silence, strength and diversity. The Red Sea is famous for its high salt content which especially contributes to clear water. Algae can't spread easily here. This is why its broad coral reefs can be considered a true paradise for divers. We can find lots of highlights of marine life here. There are a lot of colorful shoals of fish, popular anemone fish, basses, vigilant morays, odd pufferfish, and, of course, elegant turtles. The biggest attraction is colorful coral reefs shining in the sunlight. From the Earth's orbit, we can clearly spot the elongated form of the Red Sea. It is a narrow sea, 2,240 kilometers long, up to 2,604 meters deep, that borders the Indian Ocean and lies between Northeast Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The Red Sea contains about 200,000 cubic kilometers of water. Its surface is spread over 438,000 square kilometers and the water is on average 538 meters deep. A good question would be why it is called the Red Sea. There have already been several interpretations for it since antiquity. On the one hand, blue algae grows in this stretch of water. ost all of these fish are females. Usually, only one fiftieth of the group are male. At first, adult fish are always females that later turn into males. But that mostly just happens if a male fish dies. If that is the case, the strongest female of the group transforms into a male fish in just a couple of days, to take its place. Another resident of the reef is the soft coral. Even though it is related to the stone and fire coral, it has a totally different structure. It gets its stability from inner water pressure. Its limbs and strains are not covered in polyps. Those are located at the ends of the arms. The soft corals' colors are usually brown, yellow or green. If it lives in the shadows, it has a bright red, orange or purple color. Mostly, they are located on the edges of reefs, overhangs or on the ceilings of caves. Corals are really important for a lot of fish. They provide shelter for small and normal sized ones. That's why they are almost always surrounded by huge swarms. If there's an enemy, they can instantly hide between the branchy corals and are almost unreachable for big predators. The coral's ability to emit stinging poison is a huge advantage here, too. Although, the fish have to be careful not to come into contact with the defense polyps, because otherwise they themselves might be the victims. Because of natural barriers and because of the environment influencing those animals in a special way, many unique species which can't be found anywhere but the Red Sea have developed over millions of years. One of those creatures is the popular clownfish. This genus here is also known as Red Sea anemonefish. They eat plankton and algae and are comparatively small. 15 centimeters is the maximum. The clownfish lives closely in a so-called symbiosis with anemones. That means, as we have just learned about the corals, that two different species both profit from living together. Surprisingly, clownfish are able to live with are toxic. Why doesn't it disturb the clownfish? Very simple. It possesses a slime layer which protects it from the deadly poison. The anemonefish protects the anemone, driving out predators like, for example, butterflyfish. In return, the anemone protects the rotting carcasses. But still, bigger morays are pretty modest about the search for food and so only.