Wild Caribbean reef fish anywhere in the Caribbean. The final island to be featured is Trinidad, cut off from South America by rising sea levels 2,000 years ago. Its island fauna include many mainland species such as red howler monkeys, capuchins and scarlet ibis. Coral reefs, which thrive in the warm, shallow waters around Caribbean Islands, are the subject of the second programme. Hard corals are the reef-builders, and grow their tough external skeletons by extracting nutrients from algae growing within them. Time-lapse footage shows coral polyps emerging at night to trap drifting plankton. Marine life featured includes Caribbean reef squid, octopus
Caribbean Sea covering about , most of which are located off the Caribbean Islands and the Central American coast. Among them stands out the Belize Barrier Reef with an area of which was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996. It forms part of the Great Mayan Reef also known as the MBRS and being over in length is the world's second longest. It runs along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. During the past ten years, unusually warm Caribbean waters have been increasingly threatening Caribbean coral reefs. Coral reefs support some of the most diverse marine habitats in