Blue Planet II TV crew capture incredible sight of a fish leaping from the water to attack a BIRD
BLUE Planet II TV crews may have captured one of their most incredible sights yet: a vicious fish leaping out of the water trying to snatch a flying seabird.
Sir David Attenborough's latest nature doc will air on October 29 - two decades after the original Blue Planet stunned viewers and redefined the documentary genre.
The upcoming seven-part season took four years to film, with crews searching along the planet's coasts and deep beneath the waves in search of the oceans' most magical spectacles.
And it sounds like they've found some.
reports that crews returned from their ocean voyage with a world first: images of a hungry fish species leaping feet above the waves to pluck a bird right out of the sky.
As you'd imagine, the fish in question, called a giant trevally, is an enormous beast capable of growing to 80kg, bigger than many sharks.
And the predatory fish have now been caught out attacking low-flying seabirds, something nobody knew they were capable of.
A filmmaker managed to snap a mid-air shot of the hefty fish as it leapt towards a tern flying six feet above the water's surface.
With the BBC playing it coy, it is unknown whether they got any actual footage of the fierce fish snatching birds from the sky - but it's highly likely that they did.
Snapped in the Seychelles, the crew risked massive financial losses by chasing around the giant trevallies without proof of what they were capable of.
Miles Barton, who directed the sequence, said: "A fish that launches itself, missile-like, to try to take birds from the air sounded too extraordinary to be true.
"Despite it being a fisherman’s tale with no photographic evidence to back it up, I decided it was worth taking the greatest risk of my 30-year career.”
Another revelation coming from the doc is just as stunning: fish have worked out how to use tools.
Australia's orange-dotted tuskfish has reportedly been captured on camera treating a solid piece of coral as an anvil, using the hard outcropping to break into mussel shells.
Narrator David Attenborough, 91, said: "The amazing thing is how every film and every series has found new things.
“There were details on fish behaviour which I thought were completely new. You suddenly saw this fish which is more intelligent than you imagined. It was extraordinary.”
