Deep Ocean: Lost World Of The Pacific Part 2 - David Attenborough Documentary HD

these images taken less than five years ago with the first ever recorded of that almost mythical inhabitant of the deep sea the giant squid its body is over twice the height of a man its tentacles four times that length no one before had seen it alive in its natural habitat filming it was a historic triumph now the scientists and cameraman who captured these amazing pictures have teamed up once again to explore still further the least known part of our palate they're armed with the latest a deep-sea technology and a new highly sensitive camera that can record pictures in near total darkness the team is heading for a deep-sea Gorge off the coast of California and this time they hope to reveal another of the oceans astonishment creatures that glow in the deep [Music] so wretched so bright so thick so dense it's so many different kinds of luminous displays and with them the bizarre animals that prey on [Music] this is a journey to the Earth's darkest frontier [Music] to try and unravel some of the secrets of these extraordinary living lives on the west coast of California 200 kilometers south of San Francisco lies Monterey Bay world-famous for the richness of its marine life cold Pacific currents bring an abundance of nutrients into the bay would support great numbers of sea mammals whales seals [Applause] and drifting among the floating kelp sea otters floating leisurely on their backs cracking open shellfish on their stomachs [Music] beneath the surface of the sea is the largest underwater Canyon off the coast of North America over 3,000 meters deep and rivaling in size the Grand Canyon [Music] the jagged walls of the Monterey Canyon drop down steeply and create a unique underwater landscape [Applause] the cold sheltered waters provide a home for many deep-sea animals and new species are still continually being discovered between 200 and 1,000 metres deep light gradually diminishes into blackness this is the twilight zone where little sunlight penetrates many of the creatures that live here produce their own light [Music] the expedition plans to dive down into this zone granted by dr. Bruce Robeson who's worked in Monterey Bay for many years and is a world expert on deep-sea animals we have been studying this place for 25 years and yet we still find new animals it is like treasure hunting you never know the nature of the treasure Robertson himself has made many discoveries in Monterey Bay over the years but he knows well that exploration here has only just begun and all kinds of astonishment may await now the team will deploy his specially designed research suppressible for their first exploratory dive its unmanned but it carries a camera that sends pictures to the surface by a cable here we go a pair of inquisitive seals come to check out the strange machine it slowly descends into deeper waters now it's entered the twilight zone so little light from the surface reaches these depths that to our eyes it's virtually pitch-black it's time to turn on the sub-sites [Music] it's a strange ribbon like Rome we column whittle worms and they are they are really fun to watch because they go through all of these contortions and they and they make spirals in circles and loops well that's they they seem never to tie themselves into a knot that they can't get out of and then another strange creature [Music] now it's a cell the cell is in fact not one individual but a chain of nearly 50 linked together CSULB's are generally kilter feeders that suck water in through their tubular mouths and filter out tiny food particles DJ let's stop one then Robeson has spotted something else in the darkness it's a kind of comb jelly called burrowing [Music] rows of tiny beating hairs run the entire length of its body it's a magical sight but it's not bioluminescence the shimmer is mainly reflected from the light coming from the submersible a small squid appears in the headlights [Music] it hangs in the water waiting for prey to get caught on its long tentacles and it has a remarkably large eye for such a small animal many creatures here have huge eyes they need to be able to follow prey or pick up the shape of a predator in the near darkness and there are plenty of those around in the open ocean there is no place to hide [Music] the submersible is now halfway into the twilight zone they're hoping to see one still little-known creature that lives at this particular depth and here it is a fish called the barrel I it's extraordinary head is encased in a transparent dome so that you can look right inside its eyes within the transparent shield are enormous and point upwards Robeson first encountered this bizarre animal over a decade ago at this point we were very very excited because no one had ever seen one of these alive before only specimens that had been caught in Nets and as we watched it we realized that it looked very different than all the specimens that had been collected by Nets this transparent dome over the eyes had never been seen before when you catch these in a Nets that's all scraped off it was an extraordinary discovery and the strange fish with a see-through head would make the headlines while the transparent shield was thought to protect the eyes it was a puzzle as to how the fish could catch prey with its forward-facing mouth if it can't see what it's feeding on it was a mystery that Robeson would also solve some years later [Music] many of the creatures in the deep like the barreleye fish defy imagination and here's another the Black Sea devil [Music] it's a kind of angler fish with a bony rod and a luminous lure hanging from it perched on the top of his head [Music] every dive down to these depths brings new discoveries [Music] it's a black fish though oh right there excellent right MCO it's a deep sea dragon fish the red spot just below the eye is a photo for a light emitting organ even Robeson has never seen it in action before [Music] good let's do it the sub has a special suction device will do it's a mine catchy oh but it's not easy [Applause] Robeson wants to bring it to the surface so that he can study it closely now he'll have to act quickly with the enormous pressure change the fish may not be able to produce its light for long the deep-sea dragon is only ten centimeters in length but Robeson is keen to find out how its light producing organ works to seed the photo for in action they'll need some highly specialized equipment the red light emitted by the photo floor is too weak to register on an ordinary camera but the team has developed one that is 600 times more sensitive tested outside on a clear night it produces an astonishingly sharp image of the stars so it should be able to detect the light produced by bioluminescent animals the team have set up a filming tank in a dark room with water that's kept at the same temperature as the deep ocean with any luck the dragon fish should behave relatively naturally in these conditions under normal lights the fascinating creature lives up to its name it looks truly fearsome and the two photophores are clearly visible under each eye but in the dark the photophores like up they go in unison one red and the other blue and then a surprise [Music] this is something that no one has ever seen before that's unexpected and it's interesting oh it's a spectacular display but what is its function it could be to frighten off a predator but no one knows we may not find the answer for many years yet by luminescence isn't limited to the ocean it's found in creatures on land even in the air fireflies flash their lights to attract a mate some woodland fungi glow bright green attracting insects maybe to distribute their spores and at certain times of the year beetle larvae emerge from termite mounds and illuminate them like Christmas trees but in the deep ocean 90% of the creatures produce light and we still know very little about why they do so the only way to find them in the pitch black is to shine our own lights on them but when we do that it's impossible to see the much weaker living lights that the animals themselves produce so studying the phenomenon is extremely difficult [Music] the mysteries are how they use it what are they saying to each other with that light the problem was that we never had a camera that we could take down and use to record bioluminescence and that's why it was so important for me to go down and see with my own eyes now Robeson and his team have an opportunity to use the latest technology to tackle the problem they'll be working from the elucha the same research vessel that helped the film team find the giant squid [Music] and fertile engines the high sensitivity camera system that took two years to develop will now be really tested the crew carry out last-minute checks on the submersible before it's dived into the Monterey submarine canyon at the kind of depths at which they'll be operating every precaution has to be taken the camera is carefully installed on a mount attached up to the outside of the submersible at last everything is in place and they're ready to go I'm excited like boy I I know I'm gonna have a lot of fun Robeson has spent a good part of his career exploring the ocean depths but he still gets excited before each dive welcome [Laughter] after his submersible the Nadia has been lowered into the water a second so the deep Rover is also launched yes and the dive begins their aim is to descend to a depth of 600 meters into the middle of the twilight zone soon the light levels start to fall and they enter a dark blue world [Music] [Music] control control and a day that's 200 meters descending oven yeah there's quite a long one there's that yes this may look like a piece of string but in fact it's a huge colony of living creatures linked together they're called siphonophores and are relatives of the jellyfish sac carnivores are very unusual creatures they are a colony of individuals all connected to one another we have found individuals that were 40 meters long longer than a blue whale the longest creature on earth the individuals of the front contract and expel water simultaneously so slowly moving the colony forward by jet propulsion the rest of the chain extend hairlike tentacles to catch passing prey there may be hundreds if not thousands of individuals in a single chain [Music] each one performs a particular function and occupies a particular place within the colony much like the organs in our bodies this super colony works as a team but how individuals communicate with each other and coordinate their movements is still a mystery [Music] oh there's color Bonnyman there is very pretty reducing carbon emissions long but it's a strong swimmer and as the sub gets closer it puts on a ton of speed see he just dropped his tennis ball cool you got it the small jelly sheds his tentacles on purpose it's a ploy to confuse predators while our eyes follow the discarded appendages collarbone EEMA makes its escape control control in the deer passing five seven zero meters descending over the sub is nearing the 600 meter mark oh stop and it forms in FTAIA so story that's an owl fish it seems to be scared of the subs bright lights so the COO decide to switch them off they turn on a much weaker light adjust the sensitivity of the camera and the fish comes into view again like many deep-sea creatures the Alpha SH has huge eyes which can detect the faintest trace of light including the Living Light of its prey the fish uses the very minimum of energy and simply hangs in the water waiting for prey to swim by not having a camera with this sensitivity is very exciting because of the things that may reveal things that we don't even know we're here may appear for the first time again because we can really Oh an air isn't Paris it's the bureau a comb jelly again in the submersibles headlights it shimmers with refracted colors but what would it look like if the lights were off sure in the dark the railway produces the most astonishing intricate pattern of light all along its body this is bioluminescence the striking red torpedo is a paraphilia jellyfish it's a voracious hunter that uses stiff tentacles to catch its prey but it also has another trick up its sleeve that's a very luminescent animal when it is stimulated okay so is not to scare it they switch to a red light which the Jedi can't detect and then it starts a totally different performance it starts to eject the tiny blue particles they drift away leaving a trail of twinkling blue lights what is going on [Music] the crew tried to keep away from the jelly but the currents created by the submersible of disturbed its response is to reject its living lights it seems that if threatened Paris fella tries to trick a predator into following the glowing trail and so enable the jelly itself to escape oh there's a tomorrow at work yes the transparent world seems to crawl through the water with its bristly legs but when disturbed it also ejects glowing lights many other bioluminescent creatures make an appearance and the crew are able to capture their displays with the new camera [Music] living in this twilight zone depth ranges is very challenging for the animals that choose to live here because there are no rocks or trees or holes in the ground where animals can hide it's a truly three-dimensional space without boundaries or borders light is an extremely important way that the animals deal with the challenges of living here [Music] the team have been underwater for nearly eight hours it's time to come up to the surface it's two days into the expedition and they're awaiting the arrival of a visitor dr. Edith Widow is a world expert on bioluminescence she's worked with robeson many times over the years anyway I need our help I can hear her yeah winner was part of the john squid expedition in 2012 she had developed an electric jellyfish that emitted flashing lights similar to that used by deep-sea creatures that had helped a team to attract a giant squid so they could film it alive for the very first time now witih has brought along some new gadgets that she's developed specially for this expedition this is one of them she calls it a splash screen if deep sea creatures unknowingly swim into it she thinks they'll produce bioluminescence and their special camera should then be able to film it I can't wait to try out the new splash because in I didn't know what I was seeing and I hope in time I've gotten so I can identify a lot of the animals by the types of flashes they produced but I think that's going to be even easier to do now [Music] Widder will work from ii submersible the deep Rover and Robeson gets ready to head down in the Nadia again on this dive they're planning to descend right to the ocean floor control robot my depth seven seven zero meters on bottom elect after an hour they have made it the sea floor is thronged with fish nutrients falling to the bottom and accumulating there attract a great variety of animals this small little seat panelist there yeah Alex and that's where sea pens are Connor allowed creatures that anchor themselves to the seafloor they prefer deep waters where they're less likely to be uprooted by ocean currents [Music] but they're not safe from the robotic arm of the submersible that when touched they glow this is a different kind of see PEM it produces a blue pulsating light winner is keen to try out the new splat screen to see if that will stimulate animals to glow that they might otherwise miss be ready for the screen oh yeah [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] as their eyes adjust to the darkness they see the first faint cloud it's a jellyfish and as it comes closer winner is able to identify it and the ultra sensitive camera is able to record its complex light display as it touches the screen it produces a spectacular strobing of blue light witness suspects that the function of this display isn't to scare off the enemy it may convey another message now she brings her electric jellyfish into action it's programmed to emit the same pattern of light as a taller allo right camera reveals that the blue flashes quickly attracted large fish and a gigantic deep-sea predator a Pacific sleeper shark nearly 3 meters long it's not a threat to the Jenny it seems to be preying on the smaller fish that are in fact the jealous real enemies so the Jenny's flashing lights may be acting as a call for help a kind of living bullet alarm it has this remarkable ability to produce this pinwheel of light and so clearly if it was a scream for help then you would think that that pattern should be very attractive to large predator it's an intriguing idea in the meantime Bruce Robeson is in the Nadya and making his own discoveries stop pending forms in FTAIA this is a viperfish a fearsome predator and it too creates light you see those spots along his belly those bioluminescent organs rows of small photophores run along the length of its underbelly and produce blue light from below the fish lights up like an airport runway interestingly many deep sea creatures generate light on their undersides why should this be so it seems that the lights may actually help to camouflage the animals from predators lurking beneath them one creature that uses its lights to this effect is the far fly squid [Music] hundreds of tiny photo falls illuminate their bodies why don't these bright lights attract redditors a small amount of light from the surface filters down into the twilight zone so from below a black silhouette would be clearly visible and make an easy target for deep-sea meatus a predator from down below looking for a meal might see the body of an animal silhouetted against the lighted waters above and would use that silhouette as a guide to strike and feed on but the squids lights prevent that by breaking up its silhouette through a thick layer of water this effect is even more pronounced and by controlling the intensity of its own light to match the background the animal blends into its surroundings so contradictory though it may sound light in fact concealers many animals who live in in this part of the ocean eliminate that threat by producing light along their bellies and erasing their shadows so that they cannot be seen but there is one predator that's not deceived by this trick the barrel I it has evolved its own special hunting technique it hangs almost motionless in the water with its large eyes directed upwards searching for the faint silhouettes of prey overhead eyes are green because they contain a pigment that screens out bioluminescence that other animals use to hide with so it's not fooled by the the counter illumination of that fire in essence although no one has ever seen how the barreleye hunts robeson has studied the animal closely and come up with a theory it feeds on small krill another painting some prey tried to hide by using bioluminescence but seen through the eyes of the power line the deception has not worked the hunter can clearly see its prey the barreleye approaches stealthily from below and as it rises to the level of its prey it rotates its eyes [Music] eternal darkness has caused creatures that live here to evolve all kinds of shapes and strategies that are utterly different from those we use ourselves and one of the key elements is the ability to create light they just seem strange to us because we are so accustomed to living in a very different world some are virtually blind and rely on other senses to catch their food while others have particularly large eyes that enable them to see in the dimmest of light they've all evolved their own ways of dealing with the darkness but most of them used bioluminescence in some way or other so perhaps it's not surprising the nature's greatest light show happens in the one place where there is continuous darkness [Music] control control right passing three zero zero meters deep rover is slowly heading upwards with the splat screen still extended it lights up with the glow of small creatures that come into contact with the net by freezing the image from the camera it's possible to identify some of the animals that are creating the light these are copy pods small crustaceans just a few millimeters long when threatened they can discharge a bioluminescent liquid they are one of the most abundant creatures in the ocean and the main source of food for many fish these small creatures may provide a clue to understanding why bioluminescence is so widespread in the deep ocean [Music] it's long been a mystery as to how deep-sea animals produce light but science has now believed to find some of the answers most deep-sea animals produce bioluminescence with the molecule called seal in Terezin when this reacts with certain enzymes in their bodies it produces light so bioluminescence may seem like magic but in fact is the result of a straightforward chemical reaction but there is nonetheless one Lister most deep-sea animals themselves cannot produce this light-emitting substance so where does it come from a Japanese researcher yuuichi oba may have found the answer obba has been studying deep-sea copepods and he's discovered that one particular species is able to make Ceylon Terezin within its body it's called mat Rydia pacifica we still don't know how many others can do the same but it's a clue as to where the luminous molecule could have come from but how is it that the same molecule is also found in many other deep-sea creatures well it appears that it's spread through the food chain copy paths are the main source of food for many shrimps and small fish so the seal in Terezin molecule will be transferred into the bodies of their predators the shrimp in turn may pass on the molecule to their predators squid and larger fish which in turn are eaten by even larger hunters [Music] so the light emitting molecule could have spread from prey to predator and so through the whole community of deep-sea animals it's an extraordinary thought that the living light produced by some of the smallest creatures in the sea could be the basis for the incredible light shows in the ocean [Music] the precise function of bioluminescence may vary some use it to intimidate their enemies others to hide from predators or to call for help but the meaning of many of their messages still remains a mystery [Music] as the expedition draws to a close the team propeller for one last dive to watch a particularly spectacular event it happens every night as the Sun drops below the horizon it's a time when vast numbers of deep-sea creatures rise towards the surface the team are hoping to film the spectacle and the light show that goes with it and to do that properly they will deploy both submersibles when we get up to 200 meters or maybe a hundred we should coordinate and if there is a thick layer of luminescence yeah we should try to shoot each other as we as we drive through it the submersibles are launched one is still right as they descend deeper and night falls they once more enter the world of darkness and it's not long before they're traveling through a large swarm of krill bad just going up the small crustaceans are on their daily migration up to the surface where they will feed on plankton others have also been hiding in deep waters to avoid predators now there's a mass migration of animals up towards the surface where food is more abundant but this vast migration attracts some bigger hunters it's an electric torpedo ray they usually live down near the bottom but at night it comes up to feed it's 5:30 p.m. and the Sun has set the submersibles are in position control control and I did that 200 meters with robot the submersibles are hanging motionless at a depth of 200 meters but to really see what they've come for they need to turn off all the lights let's give it a try [Music] the first glowing lights appear and the show begins [Music] with every passing minute the firework display gets bigger the subs are now surrounded by light on all sides [Music] [Music] wave after wave of living lights well up from the deep [Music] copepods and krill Ninomiya there is a suggestion millions of glowing marine creatures continue to appear and amongst them could well be other strange life-forms that we've not yet encountered [Music] the underwater night sky is now illuminated by hundreds of shooting stars [Music] the show continues for over two hours and when they come back up to the surface the scientists are ecstatic very interesting that you can actually see the different colors but scientists have yet to discover the meaning of many of these living lights and how and why they are produced most of the animals in this vast vast volume make light and that much of it we still don't understand what it's used for that's a huge mystery we have only begun to explore and we continue to find new discoveries every time we go into the ocean so yes we've only begun to find out what's down there to learn how these pieces of a gigantic puzzle fit together and work as an ecosystem yes we're we're just getting started [Music] the deep oceans and their mysterious light producing creatures have long been out of our reach now with the help of new technology and the latest research we're beginning to unravel some of their secrets but many mysteries remain and were still a long way off from understanding just what makes these marvelous living lights glow in the abyss [Music] [Music]

Channel: Wisdom Land

Views: 1,623,843

Rating: 4.7972097 out of 5

Keywords: David Attenborough, Sea, Underwater, Bioluminescent Creatures, Bioluminescent, bioluminescence, Squid, habitat, Pacific, Ocean, Deep, deep-sea, giant squid, luminous, Indonesia, Dive, Diving, submarine, exotic, caves, Documentary, encounter, fossil, Life, Animals, Fish, Expedition, Explore, unknown, Mystery, Marine Biology, Mysterious, Strange, Weird

Id: QDnKz-V04bw

Length: 52min 8sec (3128 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 03 2018