Product Details

• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Nat'l Geographic Vid
• VHS Release Date: July 8, 1997
• Run Time: 35 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304475438
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,765 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In an extraordinary odyssey on the incredible superhighways of marine life, Ocean Drifters makes the point that humans are obsessed with space when, in fact, we don't even know our own planet very well. Most of the world is ocean, and yet the sea remains a conundrum as alien as any far-flung planet. Thirty miles off the coast of Florida, the Gulf Stream serves as a superhighway. A newborn turtle somehow makes it from his nest in the sand to this most powerful current, and viewers are introduced to his friends and foes at a party where it's "hard to distinguish guests from dinner." Down deep we meet up with a deep-sea octopus known as Dumbo and a big red comb jelly. At this depth, 460 species exist in a space the size of the average living room. Meanwhile, the turtle tries to eat a Portuguese man-of-war and decides it's too spicy. He also encounters garbage; according to the video, 13 tons of trash per minute are heaved overboard by ocean vessels. Chemical waste is also problematic. How the little turtle will survive is anyone's guess. This is an incredibly soothing video, though that does not mean it doesn't also offer a strong political message. To learn about our planet and to stop polluting our waters seem like reasonable goals. --Cristina Del Sesto

Product Description

Circle the globe with National Geographic on an underwater voyage powered by earth's great ocean currents - the incredible superhighways of marine life. You'll plunge into an alien world where millions of sea creatures, from tiny seahorses to enormous sharks, spend their entire lives adrift, circling the planet on current that can carry them 100 miles a day. Some of the animals are familiar, like the fragile, just-hatched loggerhead turtle you'll follow as she swims for her life to avoid the deadly dolphin fish. Others are almost too strange to believe, like the Portuguese Man-o-War. This strange creature raises its own sail to catch the wind and "trawls" for fish with its venomous 50-foot-long tentacles. You'll dive into the eerie darkness at 3,000 feet in a high-tech sub as scientists study the strange, glow-in-the-dark phenomenon called bioluminescence. Animals like the sea cucumber somehow turn on their own lights - sometimes brightly enough to illuminate the inside of the sub - in what is thought to be a form of deep sea communication. Join National Geographic for this extraordinary odyssey into the unknown world of OCEAN DRIFTERS.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An underwater ballet performed by otherworldly creatures, August 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: National Geographic's Ocean Drifters [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This beautifully photographed program follows the migration of a newly hatched loggerhead sea turtle as she evades predators, dines on jellies (including the deadly Portuguese man-of-war) and navigates the bizarre floating meadows of the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the most remarkable footage, however, is filmed in the mid-depths as we follow the research of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute's Edith Widder and her submersible work on bioluminescent creatures. Glowing siphonophores and jellies light up the black depths like miniature galaxies and slow-motion fireworks displays. Elegant close-up filming of minute planktonic larvae and wonderfully pulsating jellies makes this program a pleasure to watch again and again.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for all ages, October 25, 2001

By 

Currahee (South Mississippi) - See all my reviews

This review is from: National Geographic's Ocean Drifters [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ocean Drifters deserves to be ranked with the top biological documentaries of all times. The crew of National Geographic deserve to be congratulated. I show it to each of my marine science classes in order to give them an appreciation of the diversity of planktonic life. The almost one hour video traces the path of a loggerhead turtle as she hatches and takes trip around the North Atlantic Gyre. The video explores critical fact concerning ocean circulation, biodiversity and discusses a variety of planktonic lifestyles. People of all ages will appreciate the plight of the sea turtle and I am always amused by the gasps of the first time viewers.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ocean Drifters... via the loggerhead's tale, February 3, 2006

By 

R Schmidt (Honolulu, HI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: National Geographic's Ocean Drifters [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Q- When is a video on ocean drifters not a video on ocean drifters?

A- When it is a video on loggerhead sea turtles.

This is not entirely correct, but close. Ocean Drifters is about organisms... large and small, shallow and deep, that live in our oceans as opposed to the nearshore environments. You follow a newly hatched loggerhead as she emerges from the sand, races for the ocean, goes through a day of frenzied swimming, and settles back for a year of drifting in the ocean gyres.

The story switches back and forth between the loggerhead and jellyfish, snails, fish, and the strange organisms that live in the deep oceans. It discusses ocean management challenges: trash, chemical spills, and discarded fishing nets.

As we look for life on distance worlds, we shouldn't forget the mystery and diversity of life that exists in our oceans... the ocean drifters.