1 00:00:00,975 --> 00:00:04,011 The Kraken, a beast so terrifying 2 00:00:04,011 --> 00:00:07,108 it was said to devour men and ships and whales, 3 00:00:07,108 --> 00:00:11,035 and so enormous it could be mistaken for an island. 4 00:00:11,035 --> 00:00:13,291 In assessing the merits of such tales, 5 00:00:13,291 --> 00:00:16,176 it's probably wise to keep in mind that old sailor's saw 6 00:00:16,176 --> 00:00:19,799 that the only difference between a fairytale and a sea story 7 00:00:19,799 --> 00:00:22,436 is a fairytale begins, "Once upon a time," 8 00:00:22,436 --> 00:00:27,669 and a sea story begins, "This ain't no shit." (Laughter) 9 00:00:27,669 --> 00:00:29,447 Every fish that gets away 10 00:00:29,447 --> 00:00:31,595 grows with every telling of the tale. 11 00:00:31,595 --> 00:00:34,082 Nevertheless, there are giants in the ocean, 12 00:00:34,082 --> 00:00:36,111 and we now have video proof, 13 00:00:36,111 --> 00:00:40,733 as those of you that saw the Discovery Channel documentary are no doubt aware. 14 00:00:40,733 --> 00:00:43,370 I was one of the three scientists on this expedition 15 00:00:43,370 --> 00:00:45,566 that took place last summer off Japan. 16 00:00:45,566 --> 00:00:48,062 I'm the short one. 17 00:00:48,062 --> 00:00:52,120 The other two are Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera and Dr. Steve O'Shea. 18 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:55,650 I owe my participation in this now-historic event 19 00:00:55,650 --> 00:00:57,456 to TED. 20 00:00:57,456 --> 00:01:00,531 In 2010, there was a TED event called Mission Blue 21 00:01:00,531 --> 00:01:03,265 held aboard the Lindblad Explorer in the Galapagos 22 00:01:03,265 --> 00:01:07,107 as part of the fulfillment of Sylvia Earle's TED wish. 23 00:01:07,107 --> 00:01:09,896 I spoke about a new way of exploring the ocean, 24 00:01:09,896 --> 00:01:14,673 one that focuses on attracting animals instead of scaring them away. 25 00:01:14,673 --> 00:01:16,969 Mike deGruy was also invited, 26 00:01:16,969 --> 00:01:20,524 and he spoke with great passion about his love of the ocean, 27 00:01:20,524 --> 00:01:22,937 and he also talked to me about applying my approach 28 00:01:22,937 --> 00:01:25,593 to something he's been involved with for a very long time, 29 00:01:25,593 --> 00:01:29,027 which is the hunt for the giant squid. 30 00:01:29,027 --> 00:01:32,907 It was Mike that got me invited to the squid summit, 31 00:01:32,907 --> 00:01:37,032 a gathering of squid experts at the Discovery Channel 32 00:01:37,032 --> 00:01:41,821 that summer during Shark Week. (Laughter) 33 00:01:41,821 --> 00:01:44,237 I gave a talk on unobtrusive viewing 34 00:01:44,237 --> 00:01:46,780 and optical luring of deep sea squid 35 00:01:46,780 --> 00:01:48,557 in which I emphasized the importance 36 00:01:48,557 --> 00:01:53,807 of using quiet, unobtrusive platforms for exploration. 37 00:01:53,807 --> 00:01:56,532 This came out of hundreds of dives I have made, 38 00:01:56,532 --> 00:01:58,858 farting around in the dark 39 00:01:58,858 --> 00:02:01,636 using these platforms, 40 00:02:01,636 --> 00:02:05,219 and my impression that I saw more animals 41 00:02:05,219 --> 00:02:07,100 working from the submersible 42 00:02:07,100 --> 00:02:10,020 than I did with either of the remote-operated vehicles. 43 00:02:10,020 --> 00:02:13,390 But that could just be because the submersible has a wider field of view. 44 00:02:13,390 --> 00:02:15,079 But I also felt like I saw more animals 45 00:02:15,079 --> 00:02:16,930 working with the Tiburon than the Ventana, 46 00:02:16,930 --> 00:02:19,115 two vehicles with the same field of view 47 00:02:19,115 --> 00:02:21,153 but different propulsion systems. 48 00:02:21,153 --> 00:02:25,184 So my suspicion was that it might have something to do with the amount of noise they make. 49 00:02:25,184 --> 00:02:27,440 So I set up a hydrophone on the bottom of the ocean, 50 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:30,600 and I had each of these fly by at the same speed and distance 51 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:33,032 and recorded the sound they made. 52 00:02:33,032 --> 00:02:34,669 The Johnson Sea-Link -- (whirring noise) -- 53 00:02:34,669 --> 00:02:37,264 which you can probably just barely hear here, 54 00:02:37,264 --> 00:02:40,864 uses electric thrusters -- very, very quiet. 55 00:02:40,864 --> 00:02:44,219 The Tiburon also uses electric powered thrusters. 56 00:02:44,219 --> 00:02:49,298 It's also pretty quiet, but a bit noisier. (Louder whirring noise) 57 00:02:49,298 --> 00:02:52,501 But most deep-diving ROVs these days use hydraulics 58 00:02:52,501 --> 00:02:55,939 and they sound like the Ventana. (Loud beeping noise) 59 00:02:55,939 --> 00:02:59,365 I think that's got to be scaring a lot of animals away. 60 00:02:59,365 --> 00:03:01,858 So for the deep sea squid hunt, 61 00:03:01,858 --> 00:03:04,015 I proposed using an optical lure 62 00:03:04,015 --> 00:03:06,175 attached to a camera platform 63 00:03:06,175 --> 00:03:10,943 with no thrusters, no motors, 64 00:03:10,943 --> 00:03:13,552 just a battery-powered camera, 65 00:03:13,552 --> 00:03:16,572 and the only illumination coming from red light 66 00:03:16,572 --> 00:03:19,064 that's invisible to most deep-sea animals 67 00:03:19,064 --> 00:03:21,756 that are adapted to see primarily blue. 68 00:03:21,756 --> 00:03:23,018 That's visible to our eye, 69 00:03:23,018 --> 00:03:26,359 but it's the equivalent of infrared in the deep sea. 70 00:03:26,359 --> 00:03:29,200 So this camera platform, which we called the Medusa, 71 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:31,329 could just be thrown off the back of the ship, 72 00:03:31,329 --> 00:03:36,915 attached to a float at the surface with over 2,000 feet of line, 73 00:03:36,915 --> 00:03:40,994 it would just float around passively carried by the currents, 74 00:03:40,994 --> 00:03:45,391 and the only light visible to the animals in the deep 75 00:03:45,391 --> 00:03:49,378 would be the blue light of the optical lure, 76 00:03:49,378 --> 00:03:53,158 which we called the electronic jellyfish, or e-jelly, 77 00:03:53,158 --> 00:03:56,018 because it was designed to imitate 78 00:03:56,018 --> 00:03:58,274 the bioluminescent display 79 00:03:58,274 --> 00:04:01,619 of the common deep sea jellyfish Atolla. 80 00:04:01,619 --> 00:04:05,180 Now, this pinwheel of light that the Atolla produces 81 00:04:05,180 --> 00:04:08,163 is known as a bioluminescent burglar alarm 82 00:04:08,163 --> 00:04:10,441 and is a form of defense. 83 00:04:10,441 --> 00:04:13,622 The reason that the electronic jellyfish worked as a lure 84 00:04:13,622 --> 00:04:16,525 is not because giant squid eat jellyfish, 85 00:04:16,525 --> 00:04:20,954 but it's because this jellyfish only resorts to producing this light 86 00:04:20,954 --> 00:04:23,331 when it's being chewed on by a predator 87 00:04:23,331 --> 00:04:26,010 and its only hope for escape 88 00:04:26,010 --> 00:04:28,985 may be to attract the attention of a larger predator 89 00:04:28,985 --> 00:04:31,047 that will attack its attacker 90 00:04:31,047 --> 00:04:33,590 and thereby afford it an opportunity for escape. 91 00:04:33,590 --> 00:04:37,482 It's a scream for help, a last-ditch attempt for escape, 92 00:04:37,482 --> 00:04:40,890 and a common form of defense in the deep sea. 93 00:04:40,890 --> 00:04:43,003 The approach worked. 94 00:04:43,003 --> 00:04:46,514 Whereas all previous expeditions had failed to garner 95 00:04:46,514 --> 00:04:48,962 a single video glimpse of the giant, 96 00:04:48,962 --> 00:04:53,627 we managed six, and the first triggered wild excitement. 97 00:04:53,627 --> 00:05:06,845 Edith Widder (on video): Oh my God. Oh my God! Are you kidding me?Other scientists: Oh ho ho! That's just hanging there. 98 00:05:06,845 --> 00:05:09,981 EW: It was like it was teasing us, doing a kind of fan dance -- 99 00:05:09,981 --> 00:05:12,026 now you see me, now you don't -- 100 00:05:12,026 --> 00:05:15,029 and we had four such teasing appearances, 101 00:05:15,029 --> 00:05:20,438 and then on the fifth, it came in and totally wowed us. 102 00:05:20,438 --> 00:05:24,711 (Music) Narrator: (Speaking in Japanese) 103 00:05:24,711 --> 00:05:34,553 Scientists: Ooh. Bang! Oh my God! Whoa! 104 00:05:36,999 --> 00:05:39,253 (Applause) 105 00:05:39,253 --> 00:05:44,107 EW: The full monty. 106 00:05:44,107 --> 00:05:45,452 What really wowed me about that 107 00:05:45,452 --> 00:05:47,626 was the way it came in up over the e-jelly 108 00:05:47,626 --> 00:05:49,946 and then attacked the enormous thing next to it, 109 00:05:49,946 --> 00:05:53,252 which I think it mistook for the predator on the e-jelly. 110 00:05:53,252 --> 00:05:55,671 But even more incredible was the footage shot 111 00:05:55,671 --> 00:05:58,316 from the Triton submersible. 112 00:05:58,316 --> 00:06:01,100 What was not mentioned in the Discovery documentary 113 00:06:01,100 --> 00:06:04,546 was that the bait squid that Dr. Kubodera used, 114 00:06:04,546 --> 00:06:08,148 a one-meter long diamondback squid 115 00:06:08,148 --> 00:06:10,860 had a light attached to it, a squid jig 116 00:06:10,860 --> 00:06:13,444 of the type that longline fishermen use, 117 00:06:13,444 --> 00:06:15,482 and I think it was this light 118 00:06:15,482 --> 00:06:18,031 that brought the giant in. 119 00:06:18,031 --> 00:06:19,496 Now, what you're seeing 120 00:06:19,496 --> 00:06:24,594 is the intensified camera's view under red light, 121 00:06:24,594 --> 00:06:28,716 and that's all Dr. Kubodera could see when the giant comes in here. 122 00:06:28,716 --> 00:06:31,171 And then he got so excited, 123 00:06:31,171 --> 00:06:34,666 he turned on his flashlight because he wanted to see better, 124 00:06:34,666 --> 00:06:36,850 and the giant didn't run away, 125 00:06:36,850 --> 00:06:40,091 so he risked turning on the white lights on the submersible, 126 00:06:40,091 --> 00:06:42,627 bringing a creature of legend 127 00:06:42,627 --> 00:06:47,598 from the misty history into high-resolution video. 128 00:06:47,598 --> 00:06:50,866 It was absolutely breathtaking, 129 00:06:50,866 --> 00:06:53,795 and had this animal had its feeding tentacles intact 130 00:06:53,795 --> 00:06:55,260 and fully extended, 131 00:06:55,260 --> 00:06:58,512 it would have been as tall as a two-story house. 132 00:06:58,512 --> 00:07:01,171 How could something that big 133 00:07:01,171 --> 00:07:05,771 live in our ocean and yet remain unfilmed until now? 134 00:07:05,771 --> 00:07:09,395 We've only explored about five percent of our ocean. 135 00:07:09,395 --> 00:07:12,531 There are great discoveries yet to be made down there, 136 00:07:12,531 --> 00:07:17,153 fantastic creatures representing millions of years of evolution 137 00:07:17,153 --> 00:07:19,250 and possibly bioactive compounds 138 00:07:19,250 --> 00:07:23,065 that could benefit us in ways that we can't even yet imagine. 139 00:07:23,065 --> 00:07:26,113 Yet we have spent only a tiny fraction 140 00:07:26,113 --> 00:07:29,482 of the money on ocean exploration 141 00:07:29,482 --> 00:07:31,889 that we've spent on space exploration. 142 00:07:31,889 --> 00:07:35,534 We need a NASA-like organization for ocean exploration, 143 00:07:35,534 --> 00:07:38,369 because we need to be exploring and protecting 144 00:07:38,369 --> 00:07:40,961 our life support systems here on Earth. 145 00:07:40,961 --> 00:07:47,193 We need — thank you. (Applause) 146 00:07:47,193 --> 00:07:50,047 Exploration is the engine that drives innovation. 147 00:07:50,047 --> 00:07:53,018 Innovation drives economic growth. 148 00:07:53,018 --> 00:07:54,541 So let's all go exploring, 149 00:07:54,541 --> 00:07:57,642 but let's do it in a way that doesn't scare the animals away, 150 00:07:57,642 --> 00:07:59,975 or, as Mike deGruy once said, 151 00:07:59,975 --> 00:08:01,761 "If you want to get away from it all 152 00:08:01,761 --> 00:08:03,375 and see something you've never seen, 153 00:08:03,375 --> 00:08:06,960 or have an excellent chance of seeing something that no one's ever seen, 154 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:08,490 get in a sub." 155 00:08:08,490 --> 00:08:10,696 He should have been with us for this adventure. 156 00:08:10,696 --> 00:08:12,503 We miss him. 157 00:08:12,503 --> 00:08:17,719 (Applause)