Introduction: Behind the Scenes - The Making of "Big Pacific" (01:32)

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See footage of scientists and video crews filming the Big Pacific series.

Locating Sand Circles (05:52)

Dive master Kimiaki Ito discovers the circles, and works with scientists to determine they are white pufferfish nests. The Public Broadcasting Service crew set out to capture their week long building process. Seasoned cameramen Peter Kragh and Ernie Kovacs are guided to locations and dive to film them the next day; the shoot requires constant dives and special equipment designed to avoid disturbing the underwater creation.

Filming White Pufferfish (07:18)

The crew rigs up lighting and special equipment; close-up shots reveal a chin tongue used to push sand into place. A typhoon temporarily halts shooting, but the nests survive; females arrive and spawning occurs. As the circles erode, males guard the eggs until they hatch.

Snake Island (09:42)

Safety is critical to the crew; they prepare to visit Shedao, the island home of over 20,000 pit vipers. The reptiles fast and sleep most of the year. The team selects shoot sites and the snakes wait for their meals to fly within reach.

Aerial Videography (02:10)

Drones make dangerous aerial filming possible. At Milne Bay, Kragh sets-up his equipment and discovers an audience of tribal members.

Lost Equipment and Crew (08:01)

The Big Pacific production takes the first drone footage of Nan Madol; Kovacs loses the equipment while filming and must retrieve it within two hours. After tracking it to a rural pig farm, he searches the jungle in the dark. See aerial shots of the Papua New Guinea site.

Palawan Bombing (07:35)

The Big Pacific crew films various predators. While capturing Dugongs in Palawan, they hear booms of illegal dynamite fishing. The Coast Guard guide confiscates the perpetrator's boat; the crew finds the sea cows alive the next day.

Unexpected Species (04:38)

Malpelo Island is one of the world's premiere dive sites. The crew sees a rare Ragged Tooth Sand Tiger Shark, and biologist Sandra Bessudo wants to track it with a satellite transmission tag. She makes several dives, but fails to relocate it; she saves the life of a young booby.

Catching the Silver Dragon (05:44)

On Hangzhou Bay, an annual tidal wave forms when the spring tide meets the Qiantang River current. The crew searches for the best shooting locations. They race the tidal bore up river, abandoning their vehicle to capture back waves crashing.

Credits: Behind the Scenes - The Making of "Big Pacific" (00:33)

Credits: Behind the Scenes - The Making of "Big Pacific"