0:00:00.975,0:00:04.011
The Kraken, a beast so terrifying

0:00:04.011,0:00:07.108
it was said to devour men and ships and whales,

0:00:07.108,0:00:11.035
and so enormous it could be mistaken for an island.

0:00:11.035,0:00:13.291
In assessing the merits of such tales,

0:00:13.291,0:00:16.176
it's probably wise to keep in mind that old sailor's saw

0:00:16.176,0:00:19.799
that the only difference between a fairytale and a sea story

0:00:19.799,0:00:22.436
is a fairytale begins, "Once upon a time,"

0:00:22.436,0:00:27.669
and a sea story begins, "This ain't no shit." (Laughter)

0:00:27.669,0:00:29.447
Every fish that gets away

0:00:29.447,0:00:31.595
grows with every telling of the tale.

0:00:31.595,0:00:34.082
Nevertheless, there are giants in the ocean,

0:00:34.082,0:00:36.111
and we now have video proof,

0:00:36.111,0:00:40.733
as those of you that saw the Discovery Channel documentary are no doubt aware.

0:00:40.733,0:00:43.370
I was one of the three scientists on this expedition

0:00:43.370,0:00:45.566
that took place last summer off Japan.

0:00:45.566,0:00:48.062
I'm the short one.

0:00:48.062,0:00:52.120
The other two are Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera and Dr. Steve O'Shea.

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I owe my participation in this now-historic event

0:00:55.650,0:00:57.456
to TED.

0:00:57.456,0:01:00.531
In 2010, there was a TED event called Mission Blue

0:01:00.531,0:01:03.265
held aboard the Lindblad Explorer in the Galapagos

0:01:03.265,0:01:07.107
as part of the fulfillment of Sylvia Earle's TED wish.

0:01:07.107,0:01:09.896
I spoke about a new way of exploring the ocean,

0:01:09.896,0:01:14.673
one that focuses on attracting animals instead of scaring them away.

0:01:14.673,0:01:16.969
Mike deGruy was also invited,

0:01:16.969,0:01:20.524
and he spoke with great passion about his love of the ocean,

0:01:20.524,0:01:22.937
and he also talked to me about applying my approach

0:01:22.937,0:01:25.593
to something he's been involved with for a very long time,

0:01:25.593,0:01:29.027
which is the hunt for the giant squid.

0:01:29.027,0:01:32.907
It was Mike that got me invited to the squid summit,

0:01:32.907,0:01:37.032
a gathering of squid experts at the Discovery Channel

0:01:37.032,0:01:41.821
that summer during Shark Week. (Laughter)

0:01:41.821,0:01:44.237
I gave a talk on unobtrusive viewing

0:01:44.237,0:01:46.780
and optical luring of deep sea squid

0:01:46.780,0:01:48.557
in which I emphasized the importance

0:01:48.557,0:01:53.807
of using quiet, unobtrusive platforms for exploration.

0:01:53.807,0:01:56.532
This came out of hundreds of dives I have made,

0:01:56.532,0:01:58.858
farting around in the dark

0:01:58.858,0:02:01.636
using these platforms,

0:02:01.636,0:02:05.219
and my impression that I saw more animals

0:02:05.219,0:02:07.100
working from the submersible

0:02:07.100,0:02:10.020
than I did with either of the remote-operated vehicles.

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But that could just be because the submersible has a wider field of view.

0:02:13.390,0:02:15.079
But I also felt like I saw more animals

0:02:15.079,0:02:16.930
working with the Tiburon than the Ventana,

0:02:16.930,0:02:19.115
two vehicles with the same field of view

0:02:19.115,0:02:21.153
but different propulsion systems.

0:02:21.153,0:02:25.184
So my suspicion was that it might have something to do with the amount of noise they make.

0:02:25.184,0:02:27.440
So I set up a hydrophone on the bottom of the ocean,

0:02:27.440,0:02:30.600
and I had each of these fly by at the same speed and distance

0:02:30.600,0:02:33.032
and recorded the sound they made.

0:02:33.032,0:02:34.669
The Johnson Sea-Link -- (whirring noise) --

0:02:34.669,0:02:37.264
which you can probably just barely hear here,

0:02:37.264,0:02:40.864
uses electric thrusters -- very, very quiet.

0:02:40.864,0:02:44.219
The Tiburon also uses electric powered thrusters.

0:02:44.219,0:02:49.298
It's also pretty quiet, but a bit noisier. (Louder whirring noise)

0:02:49.298,0:02:52.501
But most deep-diving ROVs these days use hydraulics

0:02:52.501,0:02:55.939
and they sound like the Ventana. (Loud beeping noise)

0:02:55.939,0:02:59.365
I think that's got to be scaring a lot of animals away.

0:02:59.365,0:03:01.858
So for the deep sea squid hunt,

0:03:01.858,0:03:04.015
I proposed using an optical lure

0:03:04.015,0:03:06.175
attached to a camera platform

0:03:06.175,0:03:10.943
with no thrusters, no motors,

0:03:10.943,0:03:13.552
just a battery-powered camera,

0:03:13.552,0:03:16.572
and the only illumination coming from red light

0:03:16.572,0:03:19.064
that's invisible to most deep-sea animals

0:03:19.064,0:03:21.756
that are adapted to see primarily blue.

0:03:21.756,0:03:23.018
That's visible to our eye,

0:03:23.018,0:03:26.359
but it's the equivalent of infrared in the deep sea.

0:03:26.359,0:03:29.200
So this camera platform, which we called the Medusa,

0:03:29.200,0:03:31.329
could just be thrown off the back of the ship,

0:03:31.329,0:03:36.915
attached to a float at the surface with over 2,000 feet of line,

0:03:36.915,0:03:40.994
it would just float around passively carried by the currents,

0:03:40.994,0:03:45.391
and the only light visible to the animals in the deep

0:03:45.391,0:03:49.378
would be the blue light of the optical lure,

0:03:49.378,0:03:53.158
which we called the electronic jellyfish, or e-jelly,

0:03:53.158,0:03:56.018
because it was designed to imitate

0:03:56.018,0:03:58.274
the bioluminescent display

0:03:58.274,0:04:01.619
of the common deep sea jellyfish Atolla.

0:04:01.619,0:04:05.180
Now, this pinwheel of light that the Atolla produces

0:04:05.180,0:04:08.163
is known as a bioluminescent burglar alarm

0:04:08.163,0:04:10.441
and is a form of defense.

0:04:10.441,0:04:13.622
The reason that the electronic jellyfish worked as a lure

0:04:13.622,0:04:16.525
is not because giant squid eat jellyfish,

0:04:16.525,0:04:20.954
but it's because this jellyfish only resorts to producing this light

0:04:20.954,0:04:23.331
when it's being chewed on by a predator

0:04:23.331,0:04:26.010
and its only hope for escape

0:04:26.010,0:04:28.985
may be to attract the attention of a larger predator

0:04:28.985,0:04:31.047
that will attack its attacker

0:04:31.047,0:04:33.590
and thereby afford it an opportunity for escape.

0:04:33.590,0:04:37.482
It's a scream for help, a last-ditch attempt for escape,

0:04:37.482,0:04:40.890
and a common form of defense in the deep sea.

0:04:40.890,0:04:43.003
The approach worked.

0:04:43.003,0:04:46.514
Whereas all previous expeditions had failed to garner

0:04:46.514,0:04:48.962
a single video glimpse of the giant,

0:04:48.962,0:04:53.627
we managed six, and the first triggered wild excitement.

0:04:53.627,0:05:06.845
Edith Widder (on video): Oh my God. Oh my God! Are you kidding me?Other scientists: Oh ho ho! That's just hanging there.

0:05:06.845,0:05:09.981
EW: It was like it was teasing us, doing a kind of fan dance --

0:05:09.981,0:05:12.026
now you see me, now you don't --

0:05:12.026,0:05:15.029
and we had four such teasing appearances,

0:05:15.029,0:05:20.438
and then on the fifth, it came in and totally wowed us.

0:05:20.438,0:05:24.711
(Music) Narrator: (Speaking in Japanese)

0:05:24.711,0:05:34.553
Scientists: Ooh. Bang! Oh my God! Whoa!

0:05:36.999,0:05:39.253
(Applause)

0:05:39.253,0:05:44.107
EW: The full monty.

0:05:44.107,0:05:45.452
What really wowed me about that

0:05:45.452,0:05:47.626
was the way it came in up over the e-jelly

0:05:47.626,0:05:49.946
and then attacked the enormous thing next to it,

0:05:49.946,0:05:53.252
which I think it mistook for the predator on the e-jelly.

0:05:53.252,0:05:55.671
But even more incredible was the footage shot

0:05:55.671,0:05:58.316
from the Triton submersible.

0:05:58.316,0:06:01.100
What was not mentioned in the Discovery documentary

0:06:01.100,0:06:04.546
was that the bait squid that Dr. Kubodera used,

0:06:04.546,0:06:08.148
a one-meter long diamondback squid

0:06:08.148,0:06:10.860
had a light attached to it, a squid jig

0:06:10.860,0:06:13.444
of the type that longline fishermen use,

0:06:13.444,0:06:15.482
and I think it was this light

0:06:15.482,0:06:18.031
that brought the giant in.

0:06:18.031,0:06:19.496
Now, what you're seeing

0:06:19.496,0:06:24.594
is the intensified camera's view under red light,

0:06:24.594,0:06:28.716
and that's all Dr. Kubodera could see when the giant comes in here.

0:06:28.716,0:06:31.171
And then he got so excited,

0:06:31.171,0:06:34.666
he turned on his flashlight because he wanted to see better,

0:06:34.666,0:06:36.850
and the giant didn't run away,

0:06:36.850,0:06:40.091
so he risked turning on the white lights on the submersible,

0:06:40.091,0:06:42.627
bringing a creature of legend

0:06:42.627,0:06:47.598
from the misty history into high-resolution video.

0:06:47.598,0:06:50.866
It was absolutely breathtaking,

0:06:50.866,0:06:53.795
and had this animal had its feeding tentacles intact

0:06:53.795,0:06:55.260
and fully extended,

0:06:55.260,0:06:58.512
it would have been as tall as a two-story house.

0:06:58.512,0:07:01.171
How could something that big

0:07:01.171,0:07:05.771
live in our ocean and yet remain unfilmed until now?

0:07:05.771,0:07:09.395
We've only explored about five percent of our ocean.

0:07:09.395,0:07:12.531
There are great discoveries yet to be made down there,

0:07:12.531,0:07:17.153
fantastic creatures representing millions of years of evolution

0:07:17.153,0:07:19.250
and possibly bioactive compounds

0:07:19.250,0:07:23.065
that could benefit us in ways that we can't even yet imagine.

0:07:23.065,0:07:26.113
Yet we have spent only a tiny fraction

0:07:26.113,0:07:29.482
of the money on ocean exploration

0:07:29.482,0:07:31.889
that we've spent on space exploration.

0:07:31.889,0:07:35.534
We need a NASA-like organization for ocean exploration,

0:07:35.534,0:07:38.369
because we need to be exploring and protecting

0:07:38.369,0:07:40.961
our life support systems here on Earth.

0:07:40.961,0:07:47.193
We need — thank you. (Applause)

0:07:47.193,0:07:50.047
Exploration is the engine that drives innovation.

0:07:50.047,0:07:53.018
Innovation drives economic growth.

0:07:53.018,0:07:54.541
So let's all go exploring,

0:07:54.541,0:07:57.642
but let's do it in a way that doesn't scare the animals away,

0:07:57.642,0:07:59.975
or, as Mike deGruy once said,

0:07:59.975,0:08:01.761
"If you want to get away from it all

0:08:01.761,0:08:03.375
and see something you've never seen,

0:08:03.375,0:08:06.960
or have an excellent chance of seeing something that no one's ever seen,

0:08:06.960,0:08:08.490
get in a sub."

0:08:08.490,0:08:10.696
He should have been with us for this adventure.

0:08:10.696,0:08:12.503
We miss him.

0:08:12.503,0:08:17.719
(Applause)