(soothing music) - The deep sea is actually full of light, but the light is not sunlight coming down from the surface,
it's light that is produced by a wide variety of
animals that live there. I'm Steve Haddock and I'm a
senior scientist at MBARI. I study bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is the term
that we use for living light. Bio, meaning life, and
luminescence, meaning light. You're probably familiar
with bioluminescence through the example of a firefly. In the ocean, many, many organisms are able to produce bioluminescence. The organisms living in
the deep sea are living in a largely dark environment, but they need some ways to
communicate with each other. And the most efficient and effective way to do that in the ocean
is actually to use light. (soothing music) At MBARI, we're trying to take the latest in technological developments
and use it to answer centuries old questions about how and why organisms bioluminesce. Scientists and engineers
have teamed up to mount a low light camera on a
remotely operated vehicle. And this allows us to film bioluminescent light in
its natural environment. Every time we go to
sea, I get excited about the possibilities of what we're going to see with our low light camera. One example of an organism that uses bioluminescence to find
food is the anglerfish, that uses the light from the
lure to attract prey to it. And the anglerfish can
use this to attract prey, just like moths would
come to a light bulb. We're starting to find that some squid are thought to use glowing tentacles that they dangle down to attract prey. And we even found a siphonophore, which are these long
jellyfish-like creatures, that uses bioluminescent lures to attract fish in the deep sea. The red crown jelly creates this pinwheel of light as part of its display. And that initial
bioluminescence is thought to serve as a burglar alarm. The way that works is if a
predator, like say a shrimp, comes along and is starting
to nibble on that jelly, it will start its pinwheel of light, and that might attract
another predator like a fish or a squid that wants to eat that shrimp. A burglar alarm is one
of the best examples of how bioluminescence can be used as a defensive tool for an organism. Other organisms use
bioluminescence as a smokescreen to distract their predator
while they escape. Your predator's confused,
and its attention is drawn to this cloud of sparkles,
while you are jetting away. In the deep ocean, most
organisms that are bioluminescent produce blue or blue-green light. And we think this is because that light travels best through water. But there is one spectacular
exception to that, which is the gossamer worm. And this worm swims through the water with these undulating paddles,
and when it's disturbed, it produces a golden
sparkle that just looks like pixie dust floating
through the water. We don't know why it produces yellow light instead of the blue-green light that almost all other
bioluminescent organisms produce. (soothing music) It's surprising after literally centuries of studying these organisms
that there's still some very fundamental questions
which we have yet to answer. And I'm hoping that as we see more organisms in their natural environment, it will help us unlock the
mysteries of how they communicate and how they use this light to survive.
