- 6 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:25The
00:26birth of an iceberg is an unforgettable spectacle. Newborn birds can be as heavy as the largest
00:34cruise ships. And their shapes are beyond even an architect's imagination.
00:45It really looks like an ice sculpture in the ocean, an enormous ice sculpture. Beneath
00:53them is a world only the brave dare explore. I am scared. I'm not fearless. This is a
01:01risk I'm taking. As the burks melt, they become a mobile ecosystem of marine life.
01:08It is very difficult to track icebergs. What you see here in the map, the icebergs that
01:13come from Greenland will have a very hard journey on the way here. Only the mightiest survive
01:19the trek to North America. When they arrive, they show their dark side.
01:24Oh my God! Oh my God!
01:27Engineers test shipbuilding materials designed to survive collisions at sea.
01:36While scientists are improving our ability to predict an iceberg's path. Crashes with icebergs
01:43didn't end with a Titanic. All icebergs have destructive potential. But they're also at the
01:50mercy of nature's forces. We can have icebergs vanish in 10 days that were a million tons.
02:06It was actually quite shocking floating there amongst this debris field of what was once this
02:11this incredible incredible thing. There's something about these towering structures. When you're in their
02:24presence, you feel awe.
02:40Almost all icebergs we see in Canada are born far away from several glaciers in western Greenland.
02:46One of the most active is an ancient river of ice called the Equi Glacier. When winter ends,
02:51this mother delivers her offspring right into the salt water. The process is called calving.
02:57It's a little like a whale giving birth to a calf.
03:05But you don't want to be too close when this baby's born.
03:08Our captain keeps us a kilometer back from the glacier wall.
03:21It's a little like a river. It's a little like a river. It's a little like a river.
03:34Hundreds, sometimes thousands of bergs parade down the fjord.
03:40Bo Albregson has lived here for 25 years. He's never lost his sense of awe.
03:49I can say that the glacier is actually the most productive glacier on the northern hemisphere.
03:55And it is moving very fast, around 40 meters a day.
04:02And every year we have a production of ice from that
04:06specific glacier of 45 cubic kilometers.
04:11That's as if Toronto were covered in 20 stories of ice.
04:19Most icebergs are certainly born in or carved from the glacier front in the summertime.
04:24Because it's when we have most of the water coming from the inland ice as meltwater running beneath the glacier.
04:34All glaciers are made of fresh water. They start off as layers of snow that compact into ice over centuries.
04:42Gravity then draws the ice downhill toward the ocean, where it breaks off in what can look like an avalanche.
04:49Even more intense than seeing an iceberg born is hearing it. It's not a silent berth.
05:06It's not a silent berth. It's not a silent berth. It's not a silent berth.
05:11Our audio technician uses a special microphone called a hydrophone.
05:15I'm going to hear what calving sounds like under the sea for the first time.
05:20For my graduate research, I spent countless hours over many years with headphones on, attached to a hydrophone, listening to
05:30the sounds of the sea.
05:32And not too long ago, in the 1950s, Jacques Cousteau made a film called The Silent World.
05:38And some scientists really had this idea that beneath the waves, it was quiet.
05:46And now using this hydrophone, we're able to be dropped down into this world that is so loud and full
05:54of life.
06:07Wow, okay, so it's hard to describe. It just feels like there's so much energy behind this sound.
06:18Calving is one of the loudest sounds in the Arctic Ocean.
06:24The Akui icebergs fall from the same height as a 10-story building.
06:29Some of these bergs are as big as cathedrals.
06:36They're carried along by currents in the water.
06:38It can take a year for them to travel a highway this crowded.
06:46They hit a huge traffic jam right where the water is most shallow.
06:50The young bergs can be stuck here for months.
06:53Eventually, they melt or split or just get shoved through.
07:04Finally, they get a taste of the open road in Disco Bay.
07:15Even after they start to shrink, these icebergs are spectacular structures.
07:21Some have spires pointing to the sky.
07:24Others have peaks that look like mountain ranges.
07:29As they get closer to the coast, they start attracting fans.
07:33What a lovely morning.
07:37I'm so happy I can go out here just enjoying those magnificent icebergs.
07:47They're stunning.
07:50I wonder what story they could tell.
07:57I think icebergs have taught me awareness and being in the moment.
08:09Greenland's icebergs are stars.
08:12People from all over the world pour into the town of Ilulisat to see them with their own eyes.
08:23The icebergs just give you peace and silence in your body and the feeling is amazing to be here
08:29and never witnessing anything like this before.
08:34The first time I saw icebergs, I actually teared up.
08:39It was so amazing to see, you know, the magnificent size of it, the colors, different forms.
08:49Icebergs are amazing.
08:55It's thrilling to see the midnight sun light up the surface of a berg.
08:59And what's around them is pretty remarkable, too.
09:10They attract phytoplankton, tiny plant-like algae.
09:14The foundation of a marine food chain that goes all the way up to the largest animals in the ocean.
09:27It's one of the reasons why there's an abundance of fish.
09:39It's one of the reasons why there's an abundance of fish.
09:58There's a lot of halibut, enough to feed the community and provide income.
10:04More than a hundred fishers bring their catch here.
10:15So the nurturing of tiny marine life that begins under an arctic iceberg
10:20produces one of the most sought-after fish in the world.
10:27So we send them to Danmark, to Oldborg.
10:31And from Oldborg to Japan and China.
10:52Jorgen Christensen lives much as his ancestors did.
10:56He's a hunter, a fisher, and a champion dog sledder.
11:28It's getting warmer.
11:30The inland ice is getting smaller.
11:33The glacier has drawn, and the front of the glacier is now standing on the ground.
11:40The glaciers are not that tall anymore, and they are retreating.
11:44So that retreat is the cause of the smaller icebergs we see now.
11:50Size aside, there's a bounty of icebergs this year.
11:55And they're on the move, gifting fresh water as they go.
12:00We want to understand the life journey of an iceberg, from its birth in Greenland,
12:05to its adventures in Canada, to wherever it meets its final fate.
12:09We've seen the challenges icebergs face in the Arctic.
12:12But their struggles don't end there.
12:17Oh my gosh.
12:19Oh, scary!
12:31After they set out from Greenland, this year's generation of icebergs heads into Baffin Bay.
12:36It's the start of a long trip, 5,000 kilometers.
12:41That's like traveling all the way across Canada.
12:46But they can't do it under their own steam.
12:50Larger birds are mostly carried by currents.
12:52Smaller ones get pushed around by the wind.
12:56Steve Bruneau teaches at Memorial University.
12:59He has a real passion for icebergs.
13:03Studying icebergs has been, you know, a part of my life for quite a few years.
13:09On the east coast of Canada, we have a very fast-moving current from the north that comes to south.
13:19If we have miserable northeast winds, we'll tend to have icebergs being driven by the wind
13:25and by the surface currents show up on our shore.
13:34Their arrival is quite a thrill for people who have icebergs on their bucket list.
13:47Each iceberg is unique.
13:49They capsize.
13:50They melt.
13:52They're just exciting.
14:05Ed Kane is pretty excited to see them too.
14:08But they're less of a novelty for him.
14:11They're his livelihood.
14:12He's one of the last of the old-time ice harvesters.
14:17Should have knocked that stout off first, see?
14:24Ed collects ice that falls off icebergs.
14:26It's melted and used to make drinks like iceberg beer.
14:30It's Newfoundland, not Disneyland.
14:32You've got to be pretty swift.
14:34And you've got to be on your toes.
14:44The ice we got makes good vodka, good wine, good cider, and good water.
14:50So that's what we're all about.
15:02I mean, I never thought I would be drinking iceberg beer.
15:06What is in this?
15:07A little bit of snow from Greenland from a long time ago.
15:11Right.
15:12And what is a long time ago?
15:13You know, it could be anywhere from a few thousand years to a hundred thousand years old,
15:18depending on where it breaks off from the ice front.
15:21Why would anyone want to bottle it?
15:23So, you know, the water would have fallen as snow pre-Industrial Revolution,
15:28and there's certainly very little in the way of contaminants in it.
15:34Does this ancient glacier iceberg water taste any different to our tap water of today?
15:43Well, we should test that theory, shouldn't we?
15:44I agree.
15:45Cheers.
15:46Cheers.
15:47Two icebergs.
15:47Icebergs.
15:52Pieces of icebergs can end up in a bottle, but that's not the fate for most of them.
15:57A lot of icebergs keep going along what's called Iceberg Alley.
16:04We've heard there are some amazing bergs in Twillingate Harbour.
16:08We want to choose one to call our own.
16:11So, Steve and I head out to take a look.
16:18Are we seeing them more than we used to?
16:20The statistics are difficult to actually prove out because the variability from year to year
16:25has been huge for well over a hundred years.
16:29Is that water kind of flowing off of it?
16:32Yes, it is.
16:33That's melt water for sure.
16:34With the air temperature like this, it would be melting pretty quickly.
16:37Well, this berg has shed lots of pieces and it's deteriorating pretty quickly now
16:41because you can't see it getting smaller unless it actually calves pieces of ice.
16:46And it clearly has recently because around us are many pieces of fragments
16:50that have all been shed from that berg.
16:52Okay, so that big piece of ice and that one and that one,
16:56you think these are all parts of this iceberg?
16:59Absolutely, yeah.
17:02So, it's likely all these smaller bergs were originally one iceberg.
17:07The reality is icebergs start melting as soon as they're born
17:11and they often break up when they get to Newfoundland.
17:15The further south they go, the more they fall apart.
17:28But I have to say, even in pieces, our berg is stunning.
17:36Now I'm wondering what they look like underwater.
17:39As a marine biologist, I know some incredible sea life can gather around icebergs.
17:44But diving under one is extremely risky.
17:49Not something I'm trained to do.
17:51So, we're working with an elite dive team.
17:54Jill Heinerth will take the lead.
17:56She's a Canadian legend in the world of underwater exploration.
18:04Hi, Sarika!
18:06It's so good to meet you, finally.
18:09Yeah, this is very important.
18:11I am the hands and the eyes for scientists.
18:15Going to places where they can't go to,
18:17maybe going to places that nobody's ever been before.
18:20So, I bring back the goods, the samples, the data,
18:23and pass it off to a scientist that might spend the next 10 years
18:26studying something that I've brought them.
18:29Nick Hawkins will be close behind Jill.
18:32He's one of Canada's top nature cinematographers.
18:36The last 10 years I've worked as an underwater cinematographer.
18:39And this is actually going to be the first time that I'm up close and personal underwater with an iceberg.
18:55One of Newfoundland's most experienced dive teams is supporting us.
19:00There's a lot to consider when preparing for a dive this dangerous.
19:09I do a lot of things that people might think are scary to them.
19:13But I think that the risks that I take are worth it.
19:16Worth it for data, for information, everything else.
19:18But it is in the top of my mind that this is a risk I'm taking.
19:24If a berg starts to flip, the only warning might be a sudden sound, like a gunshot.
19:30Even the biggest bergs like to do somersaults.
19:34Oh, there's a berg.
19:36Wow.
19:42The big question is, which of the sibling bergs should we film under?
19:46We need one that's not too tall and not too tippy.
19:50All right, so we're looking at this berg here, Jill.
19:53The thing I like about this is, like, not a lot of overhangs.
19:57Who thinks it could fall in our head?
19:58Like, this is really far into its evolution.
20:02All right, feel good?
20:04You ready?
20:05Yep.
20:05Yeah, let's do it.
20:07Let's do it.
20:10The team settles on this iceberg.
20:13It's strong and it's stable.
20:16If anything goes wrong, hand signals can be a lifesaver.
20:21So, Johnny's are fearlessly here.
20:23I'll do the navigation.
20:25Yeah.
20:25When we get into a situation, we're not going to go any real overhangs for any extended period of time.
20:31Right.
20:31So, if Jason gets caught up, that's going to be our signal to come back out.
20:35Uh-huh.
20:36And then, when you do surface, and if you still find that you're, and I give you the signal.
20:42Yeah.
20:42Like that, that means move away.
20:43Yeah.
20:44Then, keep swimming on the surface away because I don't want to go in too close to the bird while
20:48I'm picking you up.
20:59How are you doing, Nick?
21:00I'm good.
21:00Well, it feels like we're going to the moon.
21:02Good luck.
21:06Nick has never done a dive quite like this.
21:09He's relying on Jill's experience.
21:12And I'm talking that through with Jill and saying, okay, you know, there is a danger zone.
21:16This is the danger zone.
21:17This is what happens if we hear, you know, cracking and noise.
21:37It's not an easy dive, really, to jump in and swim along.
21:42You can be dragged down by vertical currents or pushed back up.
21:47Jill and Nick have to quickly figure out how to work together.
21:50Once they're underwater, there's no communication with the surface.
21:55There are signs everywhere that the birds in this bay are coming to the end of their lifespans.
22:01Everyone's on high alert.
22:45going to the end of the water.
22:46So, if you're working with the water, you know, you see it.
22:50iceberg fizzing and maybe a couple little cracks but when you hear these louder and deeper like
22:56retorts they resonate in your sternum they're loud incredible you know it's like it's like
23:06diving along the side of a skyscraper and that's when i saw johnny the safety diver's light
23:10shining trying to get my attention and that's when i say okay it's time to pull away
23:15the divers are worried that the ice above them is about to give way newfoundlanders
23:21in particular know just how unpredictable icebergs can be
23:42our divers resurface after they're scared near the ice wall
23:48we're all relieved no one was hurt in fact the team is determined to go back in
23:54after they've rested up there's good reason for people here to be wary of icebergs
24:00i was shocked to discover there's still a hazard today even small ones like ours is this a pretty
24:07busy port yeah so do you ever see icebergs around here oh yes certainly icebergs can be very close
24:14just outside the narrows so is that a little bit dangerous then with all this valuable cargo around
24:20here over the last 200 years there's been over 600 ship collisions with icebergs so collisions happen
24:28unbelievable yeah so what is actually the most dangerous part of an iceberg part you can't see
24:37we've invited a canadian oceanographer juliana marsong to join us
24:43she can explain why we often hear the expression it's just the tip of the iceberg
24:49nine tenths of the iceberg is actually submerged this is a result of the relationship between
24:57the density of the ice and the density of the water the density of the ice is around 900 kilograms
25:03per
25:08meter cubed so if you put 900 over a thousand you get 90 of the iceberg submerged and this is
25:18what's
25:18dangerous now as it melts its geometry will be altered this iceberg has a center of gravity and a center
25:28of
25:28buoyancy when those centers are not aligned they will produce this rotational force that will make the
25:35iceberg flip sometimes what we see on the ocean here it's actually what was the bottom of an iceberg
25:42yeah but they are going to roll many many times during their lives it's not just happens once or twice
25:51the titanic went down southeast of saint john's in fact the city helped with the recovery of bodies
25:58a new exhibition just opened curated by a local diver larry dale larry you are a submersible diver i was
26:07fortunate enough to make a dive to titanic and also fortunate enough to meet james cameron who's been a
26:12good friend to me for several years and has gifted me some items from the movie which i have on
26:17display
26:17oh and this model shows what titanic would have faced april 14 1912 and you can see the scale here
26:25you know based on what we know and i mean if we were to just look at this from above
26:29that iceberg
26:31doesn't look very big at all but once you see it from down below oh my gosh i mean that's
26:37enormous
26:37and plus as you see in this model it was a starry night there was no moon the scale it
26:42underwater it's
26:43like hitting a building seeing the props from the movie you can't help but think about what a loss
26:49this was more than 1500 people died like steve said collisions with icebergs are still happening
26:58as recently as 2024 a cruise ship hit an iceberg off alaska
27:03oh my we hit some iceberg we hit some ice oh my god oh my god obviously a big shock
27:16but everyone
27:17was okay just a few kilometers away from the exhibition at memorial university bruce quinton
27:23is recreating the impact of a ship hitting an iceberg using pendulums that weigh four and a half tons
27:30i love this machine this is our large world-class double pendulum apparatus that we use to test
27:37ship interaction with ice and particularly icebergs we can get up to a mega newton of force in this
27:43which if you wanted to convert that into the weight of full-size suvs that would be about 50 full
27:49-size suvs
27:51i'm going to be over here i'm going to record the data this is the switch to release the pendulums
27:58oh my
27:58gosh you give us a count and say go and we're on are we ready three two one
28:13we are testing different arrangements of structure we're testing different materials we're testing
28:17different ice shapes and we're testing different impact energies the combination of strength and
28:22flexibility is what we're looking for meanwhile juliana is studying how icebergs move it's part
28:29of wider research into how climate change is affecting the ocean she's developing a computer
28:35model that could help forecast an iceberg's trajectory so models like the one that i work with
28:41are like the models used by weather forecasting so we are running what we call a hindcast that's a
28:48simulation that represents what happened a few years ago with icebergs we have equations that describe
28:55how they will move how they will melt so essentially all this computer code is trying to solve this
29:02complicated equations and that's why we use what we call high performance computing those are facilities
29:10that have towering computers that work together so this is a field where artificial intelligence is
29:16becoming becoming more and more important where we feed all this information with satellite images
29:22and teach the ai to identify what is iceberg in that image
29:31even with the use of artificial intelligence it could be years before computer models can more
29:37accurately predict where an iceberg is headed
29:41back in twilling gate our divers are refreshed and eager to get in the water
29:47i'm in the boat right behind them i've asked jill to bring me up a sample of the marine life
29:53around
30:03our iceberg and as we swim there's this halo around the bird kind of making it look a glowing green
30:12it's all the plankton it's life it's a biological soup enveloping the berg
30:19it's like going to another planet what are these they're so alien
30:49it's a global health system and what are these they're so alienated
30:52it's like we have to get more and more prepared
30:54they've been down for a while i feel like they probably saw amazing things and they probably
30:59heard a lot too because here on the boat we could hear a lot popping and fizzing and cracking
31:06but i'm hoping that jill and nick got some good plankton
31:10how did it go you guys absolutely fantastic it was amazing so did you do a plankton tow we did
31:16yeah so we can look and see what we got yeah awesome can't wait
31:22i am trying to flush the plankton from the inside of the net down into the jar just to conserve
31:29as
31:29many as we can and we're using the same water that it came from right yeah i mean these animals
31:36must
31:36be really microscopic they're so small yeah they are so small all right let's do it there's something
31:43going in there okay looking forward to getting back onto land and getting this under the microscope
31:49it's funny right this looks like drinking water you would not hesitate to drink that
31:55but it's alive it is absolutely alive so it's it's like a thick soup that's enveloping the burr because
32:03either it's attracted to the minerals that are being released or it's attracted to the fresh
32:08water i don't know exactly wow wow look at that this looks this looks like algae right like a tiny
32:18piece
32:18of algae maybe but a very colorful one yeah okay so there's a couple and those would be rotifers yeah
32:27that was definitely a rotifer definitely a rotifer what exactly is a rotifer it's like a giant mouth on the
32:33end of a football and the cilia the little fingers are sort of spinning and stuffing things into its
32:40big fat body so it's almost like the iceberg is a nursery for life yeah pretty much yeah
32:55back in the lab juliana shows us how underwater currents help create the perfect nursery for new
33:02phytoplankton so you can see on the side here where the plume is coming up it's the stirring things a
33:09little bit the stirring is what it will bring up the nutrients from the bottom of the ocean up what
33:16you can also see in the aquarium now is that the top part of it of the water column is
33:23very very blue
33:24that's where the plume the melt plume is accumulating on the surface of the water not on the bottom is
33:33the water that is coming out of the iceberg that is fresh and wants to stay at the top because
33:38fresh
33:38water is less dense so the phytoplankton not only need the nutrients it also needs light so if that
33:46layer keeps the phytoplankton near the surface better for them the next day jill and nick are back
33:56underwater they want to show us the currents juliana was talking about
34:03jill's planning to release a non-toxic dye near the ice wall
34:07it should make the fresh water currents magically appear
34:22it's just just so beautiful to see it streaming out of the bottle and then being carried
34:27by the current it's just otherworldly
34:51scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how icebergs affect the marine ecosystem
34:58freshwater currents bring nutrients from deep underwater up to the surface where the phytoplankton
35:03live icebergs also offer shelter for sea creatures
35:09the dark streak in our berg suggests it contains nutrients that could nourish marine life
35:17as the days go by the team becomes more and more fascinated by the world below our berg
35:25what's below is what's so incredible it's actually grounded on a slope we might come back tomorrow
35:33and it's tipped up on its side and you're seeing an entirely different face of the berg so i think
35:38that's
35:39one of the most beautiful things is that changes every minute
35:46sometimes the tide will free a berg that's stuck on the ocean bottom
35:52then it might head out of the harbor and on to new adventures further south but that's not exactly
35:59what happens here
36:13our berg has braved wind water currents and scorching sunshine
36:22now it's facing a new challenge an overnight rainstorm from off the atlantic
36:37when the sun comes up the next day the iceberg that delighted our divers has disappeared
36:45all that's left are small chunks called growlers
36:48just floating on the surface like wreckage from a plane crash
37:04it was actually quite shocking there's all these little pieces that i you know i even got to get
37:09in the water in this kind of field of shards of of ice and little bits and you know you're
37:15floating
37:16there amongst just this debris field of what was once this this incredible incredible thing
37:24it was kind of sad to go out after the big storm and then find that our berg was gone
37:33we guess our berg was three years old
37:37the largest iceberg currently is 39 years old so they it's it's pretty old right now
37:46but most most icebergs won't last that long they will last maybe around a year
37:53if they get stuck in a very cold region they might last for like five or even 10 years north
37:59of greenland
38:00for example if they are unfortunate enough to get bathed in warmer waters they will melt very fast
38:21they had a wonderful journey a very long life sure they lost part of themselves throughout the way but
38:30hopefully those parts helped life flourish in the oceans right so just like us we leave little bits
38:39of ourselves throughout our journey and hopefully by doing that we sustain and uplift others around us
38:49more than 450 icebergs were spotted off newfoundland and labrador in just one day this past spring
38:57some people wonder whether this is a disappearing phenomenon scientists don't really know
39:05it's possible more melting could mean more icebergs at least in the near future
39:11but it's pretty likely icebergs aren't going to have as long a lifespan or travel as far
39:19if they don't get as far south then you lose that potential source of minerals to this part of the
39:26ocean
39:27for the kalalith the inuit people of greenland icebergs have deep meaning they are sentinels of a
39:34disappearing way of life it's hard to watch the glaciers shrink and the snow melt earlier
39:40um
39:52uh
39:53uh
39:53uh
39:53uh
39:55It was possible that it was a little bit lonely.
39:56It was a bit complicated to have a hard time in time...
40:00...and it took a long time to go to the village.
40:07It was a young man who was a child...
40:13...and I was so happy...
40:14...but I was happy with that.
40:19...and I had a long time...
40:19...for a long time.
40:20I was happy to have a long time...
40:23...but I had to leave the village...
40:24...and I had to take...
40:34Most people don't realize that I'm kind of an artist first, and it was maybe my love
40:41of art that brought me to the underwater world.
40:46Icebergs are yin and yang, light and dark, birth and death.
40:54And maybe that's why I like to sketch them with just a pen.
41:01I don't want their image and their importance to be lost.
41:06I want as many people as possible to understand that this is like a living thing that's supporting
41:13the ocean, the very lungs of the planet.
41:21You have these moments underwater where you try to pull back from filming and just look
41:27at where you are.
41:28And it's just this reminder of how beautiful our world is.
41:35It's the immensity of nature, and it just really hits home.
41:49It's a wonderful thing to know that the world has been in existence for so long that the
41:56molecules that make each and every one of us up have at some time been a part of the hydrological
42:01cycle, which has no doubt been a part of the glacial ice sheet, the inland ice sheet, and
42:08probably a floating iceberg, there's actually a little bit of iceberg in every one of us.
42:26When an iceberg breaks away from its mother glacier, in a sense, that iceberg has already started
42:38to die because it's being eroded away by the ocean.
42:43Pieces are breaking off.
42:45And so there's something about this larger than life being breaking down and floating away that speaks to us.
42:58It makes you reflect on life itself.
43:28Take a shoulders and deep into yourulgy nature.Runnynsing
43:45went through. Yes, it makes
43:47you feel beautiful. In the wilderness It
43:47too builds at little darkness. And it's creating
43:47a whole Of my world's lives with such as some one of us as this is. Amazing things are useful
43:47to what we told you about. It's times the physical
43:47with such as some people are dead. It tsunami tells you may
43:52be этот optimism in the mountains. It's now that time
43:52never really sommes back! It was amazing, never
43:54enough. It's하겠습니다. It's
43:57a distinct aim to the world
Comments