We have a field trip on Thursday, January 29th. We are so excited to watch "Wild Ocean" at the IMAX Theater in Ft. Lauderdale. We are also going to tour the Museum of Discovery and Science. This will provide enrichment for our students and let them actually SEE many of the things we have been learning in science class! Read below to learn all about the movie...
Wild Ocean: Where Africa Meets the Sea
Africa's Wild Coast WILD OCEAN is an explosive, symphonic giant screen film about man and nature that captures one of the world's greatest spectacles. Each year a massive feeding frenzy takes place in the oceans of South Africa as billions of fish migrate up the KwaZulu-Natal Wild Coast. Breaching whales, frenzied sharks, herding dolphins, and diving gannets compete in an epic underwater struggle for survival.
While the migration has provided a food source for both life in the sea and the people living along the African shores, global warming trends and over fishing have threatened the very existence of this great migration. The food chain in the ocean connects the tiniest organisms to the greatest whales. The predators of the ocean thrive upon enormous shoals of pelagic fish. These fish, in turn, depend upon the plankton that rises in the oceanic upwelling's, born of the decaying bodies of the fallen predators. This circle of life has developed and evolved over millions of years.
For the last few hundred years, however, there has been another predator in the ocean: one that takes enormous shoals in one sweep, and does not give back to the sea in any way ... this predator has broken the circle ... it is a predator that mistakenly considered the ocean an unlimited resource.
Ever since the early 20th century, as fishing has become more efficient and grown in scale, entire fish stocks have collapsed … one by one. Some say the fish have disappeared due to natural cycles, others say climate change is taking its toll, dramatically changing the ocean's ecology. But there is little doubt that over fishing has damaged the ecosystem.
However, there is a place on earth where man attempts to fit into the food chain, pursuing "sustainable" fishing practices in an attempt to preserve one of the most incredible migrations and feeding frenzies on the planet. In South Africa, business, government and the local people have joined forces in an attempt to protect this great and invaluable migration. This is where Africa meets the Sea.