Deep ocean mysteries and wonders - David Gallo

In the deepest, darkest parts of the oceans are ecosystems with more diversity than a tropical rainforest. Taking us on a voyage into the ocean -- from the deepest trenches to the remains of the Titanic -- marine biologist David Gallo explores the wonder and beauty of marine life.

You know, I had a real rough time in school with ADD,

and I have a PhD.

I earned a PhD, but it's tough to pay attention to

biology, geology, physics, chemistry -- really tough for me.

Only one thing grabbed my attention.

And it's that planet called Earth,

but in this picture right here you'll see that

Earth is mostly water -- that's the Pacific.

70 percent of Earth is covered with water and you could say,

"Hey I know planet Earth. I live here."

You don't know Earth.

You don't know this planet because most of it's covered with that --

average depth is 2 miles.

And when you go outside and look up

at the like the Empire State building, Chrysler building,

the average depth of the ocean is 15 of those

on top of one another.

We've explored about 5 percent of what's in that water.

"Explored," meaning for the first time go peek and see what's there.

So what I want to do today is I want to show you

some things about this planet, about the oceans.

I want to take you from some shallow water down to the deep water,

and hopefully, like me, you'll see some things

that get you hooked on exploring planet Earth.

You know things like corals, you've seen plenty of corals,

those of you that have been to the beach, snorkel,

you know corals are amazing places to go --

full of life, some big animals, small animals, some nice,

some dangerous, sharks, whales, all that stuff.

They need to be protected from humanity.

They're great places, but what you probably don't know about

is in the deep ocean, the very deep part of the ocean,

we have volcanic eruptions.

Most volcanoes on Earth are at the bottom of the sea --

more than 80 percent -- and we actually have fire,

fire deep inside the ocean, going on right now.

All over the world, in the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean,

in this place, the ocean floor, the rocks actually turn to liquid.

So you actually have waves on the ocean floor.

You'd say nothing could live there, but when we look in detail,

even there, even in the deepest, darkest places on earth, we find life,

which tells us that life really wants to happen.

So, pretty amazing stuff.

Every time we go to the bottom of the sea,

we explore with our submarines, with our robots,

we see something that's usually surprising,

sometimes it's startling and sometimes revolutionary.

You see that puddle of water sitting there.

And all around the water there's a little cliff,

there's a little white sandy beach.

We'll get closer to it. You'll see the beach a little bit better,

some of the waves in that water, down there.

The thing that's special about this water is that

it's at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

So you're sitting inside of submarine looking out the window

at a little pond of water beneath the sea.

You know we see ponds, we see lakes, we see rivers --

in fact right here is a river at the bottom of the ocean

going from the lower left to the upper right.

Water is actually flowing through there.

This totally blew our minds: how can you have this at the bottom?

You're in the ocean looking at more water.

And there's animals that only live in that water.

So, the bottom of the ocean --

I love this map because it shows in the middle of the ocean there's a mountain range.

That mountain range is the greatest mountain range on Earth.

It's called the Mid-Ocean Ridge --

50,000 miles long, and we've hardly had a peek at it.

Hardly had a peek at it.

We find valleys, many thousands of valleys

larger, wider, deeper than the Grand Canyon.

We find, as I said, underwater lakes, rivers, waterfalls.

The largest waterfall on the planet

is actually under the ocean up near Iceland.

All that stuff in that 5 percent that we've explored.

So the deal about the ocean is that

to explore it you've got to have technology.

Not only technology, but it's not just Dave Gallo

or one person exploring. It's a team of people.

You've got to have the talent. You've got to have the team.

You've got to have the technology and in this case it's our ship, Atlantis,

and the submarine, Alvin.

Now, inside that submarine -- this is an Alvin launch --

there's three people. They're being wheeled out onto deck.

There's 47 other people. The team work on that ship

making sure that these people are okay.

Everybody on that submarine is thinking one thing right now:

should I have gone to the bathroom one more time?

Because you're in there for ten hours --

ten hours in that little sphere.

Three of you together and nobody is going to be around you.

You go into the water and once you hit the water it's amazing.

There's a lovely color blue that penetrates right inside you.

You don't hear the surface ship anymore,

you hear that pinging of a sonar.

If you've got an iPhone you've got sonar on there --

it's that same pinging that goes down to the bottom and comes back up.

Divers check out the sub to make sure the outside is okay,

and then they say "Go,"

and down you go to the bottom of the ocean and it's an amazing trip.

So for two and a half hours you sink down to the bottom.

And two hours of it is totally pitch black.

And now we thought that nothing could live inside that world

at the bottom of the ocean.

And when we look, we find some amazing things.

All the way down -- we call it "the mid-water" from the top

of the ocean down to the bottom -- we find life.

Whenever we stop and look we find life.

I am going to show you some jellies here because

they're absolutely some of the coolest creatures on Earth.

Look at that thing just flailing his arms around.

That's like a little lobster.

That one is like all these animals with their mouths hooked together.

They're colonial animals.

Some animals are tiny, some can be longer than this stage.

Just amazing animals and you can't collect them with a net.

We have to go there with our cameras and take a look at them.

So every time we go, new species of life.

The ocean is full of life.

And yet the deepest part of the ocean --

when we go to that mountain range, we find hot springs.

Now we were sure, because this is poisonous water,

because it's so deep that it will crush the Titanic

the same way you crush an empty cup inside your hand.

We were sure there would be no life there at all.

Instead we find more life and diversity and density

than the tropical rainforest.

So, in one instance, in one peek out the window of the sub,

we discover something that revolutionizes the way

we think about life on Earth, and that is

you don't always have to have sunlight to get life going.

There's big animals down there too -- some that look familiar.

That guy's called Dumbo. I love him. Dumbo's great.

This guy, oh man I wish I had more footage of this.

We're trying to get an expedition together to go look at this

and maybe in a year we'll have that.

Go online and look.

Vampyroteuthisinfornalis. The Vampire Squid.

Incredibly cool.

In the darkness of the deep sea he's got glowing tentacles,

so if I'm coming at you like him, I put my arms out in the the darkness

so all you see are these little glowing things over here.

In the meantime, I'm coming at you.

When he wants to escape, he's got these glowing pods

on his butt that look like eyes.

He's got glowing eyes on his butt. How cool is that?

It is just an amazing, amazing animal. (Laughter)

Vampire squid, when it gets protective,

it pulls this black cape over its whole body,

curls up into a ball. Outrageous animal.

This ship, "the ship of dreams" -- a hundred years ago

this coming April, this ship was supposed to show up in New York.

it's the Titanic and I co-led an expedition out there last year.

We are learning so much about that ship.

Titanic is an interesting place for biology

because animals are moving in to live on the Titanic.

Microbes are actually eating the hull of Titanic.

That is where Jack was king of the world right there on the bow of Titanic.

So, we're doing real good and what's exciting me is that

someday we're making a virtual Titanic so you can sit there at home

with your joystick and your headset on,

and you can actually explore Titanic for yourself.

That's what we want to do --

make these virtual worlds so it's not Dave Gallo

or someone else exploring the world; it's you.

You explore it for yourself.

So here's the bottom line.

The oceans are unexplored

and I can't begin to tell you how important that is

because they're important to us.

Seven billion people live on this planet

and all of us are impacted by the sea because the oceans

control the air you breathe, the water you drink,

the food you eat.

All those are controlled in someway by the ocean

and this is a thing that we haven't even explored --

five percent.

The thing I want to leave you with is

in that 5 percent I showed you some cool stuff.

There's a lot more cool stuff every dive we go out on

in the ocean, we find something new about the sea.

So what's in that other 95 percent?

Did we get the exciting stuff or is there more out there?

And I am here to tell you that the ocean is full of surprises.

There's a quote I love by Marcel Proust:

"The true voyage of exploration is not so much in seeking new landscapes,"

which we do,

"but in having new eyes."

And so I hope today by showing you some of this,

it's given you some new eyes about this planet,

and for the first time I want you to think about it differently.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

(Applause)