David Attenborough, beloved British presenter and the calming yet aristocratic narrator of both Blue Planet and Planet Earth— arguably the greatest nature documentaries ever—is just one of the exciting aspects of the forthcoming Blue Planet II.
Among the multitude of magnificent and truly mind-blowing shots on the first episode of the second season, appropriately titled ‘Green Seas,’ is an army of hundreds of thousands of spider crabs marching along the sea grass plains. In the depths of the sea, they bring to mind the Mind Flayer in Stranger Things 2.
The audience is given a never-before-seen super closeup view as the crabs clamber all over one another creating enormous mounds, shedding their shells along the sea bottom of Australia’s Mornington Peninsula.
In a somewhat gnarly time-lapse shot we can see how they shake off their old shell and emerge underneath a softer shell, which only hardens after several days and allows them to grow larger.
Camera operator Alex Vail explained in a blog post how he dived to the surface to get the shot. “The crabs didn’t seem concerned about our presence and I would often find one or two clambering over my legs while filming,” he said.