Tokyo, June 23, 2025 – NHK and NHK Enterprises are happy to announce that the BBC and PTS, the Taiwanese public broadcaster, have acquired NHK’s doc “Deep Ocean: Kingdom of the Coelacanth,” co-produced with ZDF/ARTE and OceanX in collaboration with CMMAI. The doc is known for its success in conducting a 72-hour consecutive observation filming expedition, and for succeeding in capturing, in 8K, the world’s first-ever video images of a group of coelacanths and their behavior indicative of reproduction.


Deep Ocean: Kingdom of the Coelacanth
(1 x 52 min., 2024-2025) 
 

©NHK in co-production with ZDF/ARTE and OceanX

The team who first filmed the giant squid in its natural habitat in Legends of the Deep reassemble to set for the new adventure of capturing a living fossil, coelacanth. Dr. Iwata Masamitsu from Japan and Dr. Kelly Sink from South Africa have joined the team as coelacanth experts. The destination is off the coast of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. The mysterious ancient fish measuring nearly 2 meters long that has lived unchanged for 400 million years. As a coelacanth is nocturnal in the deep sea, it is rarely found and its behavior has been shrouded in mystery. After years of negotiations, the research was conducted aboard the cutting-edge OceanX submersible research vessel. While a long-term observation is planned using multiple submersibles, is the team able to accomplish the world's first 72-hour close submersible observation of coelacanths? The program unveils the secrets of the evolution of coelacanths that survived extinction in the deep sea.

NHK’s Deep Ocean team has created eight documentaries including this, and David Attenborough has narrated all the English versions. For this particular episode, he commented: “I have a special affection for the species. A live ten-minute programme about the discovery of a living one in South Africa back in the nineteen fifties, was in fact the first programme I ever actually directed. So I count it a real privilege to be invited to speak the English words of the first film to do the job.” 

Executive Producer of NHK’s Deep Ocean project, Hiromichi Iwasaki, who has been working on the project since 2009 which eventually led to the success in capturing the world’s first Giant Squid living in its natural habitat in 2012, commented: “Following our success with the giant squid, our next endeavor was to capture the elusive coelacanth in its deep-sea habitat. Anticipating that such a feat would require long and continuous observation, we collaborated closely with dedicated researchers to devise our approach. It took us a decade to realize. Although the project faced two postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this period allowed us to develop an advanced 8K deep-sea imaging system. As a result, we were able to achieve the highest visual quality throughout the entire series. 

I am deeply grateful to the engineers and scientists who contributed to the development of our equipment, to our co-production partners who offered unwavering support to the very end, and to the coelacanths themselves, whose unexpected behaviors enriched our understanding and brought the project to life.” 

NHK’s “Deep Ocean” team, which is known for its success in capturing on film the Giant Squid in 2012, has brought us various scoops from the deep sea. There are eight documentaries created by the team so far including the well-known “Legend of the Deep: The Giant Squid (2013)” which was sold worldwide. Both the BBC and PTS are among the broadcasters that have acquired several programs from the Deep Ocean slate.

About NHK
NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) is Japan’s sole public service media organization. Funded by receiving fees from Japanese households, it has a reputation for impartial, high-quality programs. The broadcaster is also a content power house that creates programs in almost all genres, including news, documentaries, children’s and educational programs, music, entertainment, culture, animation, and drama. Known as the pioneer of HD broadcast, NHK now actively produces programs in 4K and 8K. www.nhk.or.jp/corporateinfo/

About NEP
NHK Enterprises, Inc. (NEP) is the international distribution/production affiliate of NHK. We represent innovative, high-quality content that range from animation/anime, drama, documentaries, children's & education, factual entertainment to non-scripted/scripted formats, and are committed to bring compelling storytelling as NHK spearheads technological advancements in 4K/8K and beyond.
https://pf.nhk-ep.co.jp/