How we found the giant squid
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0:01 - 0:04The Kraken, a beast so terrifying
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0:04 - 0:07it was said to devour men and ships and whales,
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0:07 - 0:11and so enormous it could be mistaken for an island.
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0:11 - 0:13In assessing the merits of such tales,
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0:13 - 0:16it's probably wise to keep in mind that old sailor's saw
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0:16 - 0:20that the only difference between a fairytale and a sea story
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0:20 - 0:22is a fairytale begins, "Once upon a time,"
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0:22 - 0:28and a sea story begins, "This ain't no shit." (Laughter)
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0:28 - 0:29Every fish that gets away
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0:29 - 0:32grows with every telling of the tale.
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0:32 - 0:34Nevertheless, there are giants in the ocean,
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0:34 - 0:36and we now have video proof,
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0:36 - 0:41as those of you that saw the Discovery Channel documentary are no doubt aware.
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0:41 - 0:43I was one of the three scientists on this expedition
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0:43 - 0:46that took place last summer off Japan.
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0:46 - 0:48I'm the short one.
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0:48 - 0:52The other two are Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera and Dr. Steve O'Shea.
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0:52 - 0:56I owe my participation in this now-historic event
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0:56 - 0:57to TED.
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0:57 - 1:01In 2010, there was a TED event called Mission Blue
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1:01 - 1:03held aboard the Lindblad Explorer in the Galapagos
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1:03 - 1:07as part of the fulfillment of Sylvia Earle's TED wish.
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1:07 - 1:10I spoke about a new way of exploring the ocean,
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1:10 - 1:15one that focuses on attracting animals instead of scaring them away.
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1:15 - 1:17Mike deGruy was also invited,
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1:17 - 1:21and he spoke with great passion about his love of the ocean,
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1:21 - 1:23and he also talked to me about applying my approach
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1:23 - 1:26to something he's been involved with for a very long time,
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1:26 - 1:29which is the hunt for the giant squid.
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1:29 - 1:33It was Mike that got me invited to the squid summit,
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1:33 - 1:37a gathering of squid experts at the Discovery Channel
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1:37 - 1:42that summer during Shark Week. (Laughter)
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1:42 - 1:44I gave a talk on unobtrusive viewing
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1:44 - 1:47and optical luring of deep sea squid
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1:47 - 1:49in which I emphasized the importance
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1:49 - 1:54of using quiet, unobtrusive platforms for exploration.
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1:54 - 1:57This came out of hundreds of dives I have made,
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1:57 - 1:59farting around in the dark
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1:59 - 2:02using these platforms,
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2:02 - 2:05and my impression that I saw more animals
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2:05 - 2:07working from the submersible
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2:07 - 2:10than I did with either of the remote-operated vehicles.
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2:10 - 2:13But that could just be because the submersible has a wider field of view.
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2:13 - 2:15But I also felt like I saw more animals
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2:15 - 2:17working with the Tiburon than the Ventana,
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2:17 - 2:19two vehicles with the same field of view
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2:19 - 2:21but different propulsion systems.
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2:21 - 2:25So my suspicion was that it might have something to do with the amount of noise they make.
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2:25 - 2:27So I set up a hydrophone on the bottom of the ocean,
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2:27 - 2:31and I had each of these fly by at the same speed and distance
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2:31 - 2:33and recorded the sound they made.
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2:33 - 2:35The Johnson Sea-Link -- (whirring noise) --
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2:35 - 2:37which you can probably just barely hear here,
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2:37 - 2:41uses electric thrusters -- very, very quiet.
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2:41 - 2:44The Tiburon also uses electric powered thrusters.
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2:44 - 2:49It's also pretty quiet, but a bit noisier. (Louder whirring noise)
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2:49 - 2:53But most deep-diving ROVs these days use hydraulics
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2:53 - 2:56and they sound like the Ventana. (Loud beeping noise)
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2:56 - 2:59I think that's got to be scaring a lot of animals away.
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2:59 - 3:02So for the deep sea squid hunt,
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3:02 - 3:04I proposed using an optical lure
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3:04 - 3:06attached to a camera platform
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3:06 - 3:11with no thrusters, no motors,
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3:11 - 3:14just a battery-powered camera,
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3:14 - 3:17and the only illumination coming from red light
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3:17 - 3:19that's invisible to most deep-sea animals
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3:19 - 3:22that are adapted to see primarily blue.
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3:22 - 3:23That's visible to our eye,
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3:23 - 3:26but it's the equivalent of infrared in the deep sea.
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3:26 - 3:29So this camera platform, which we called the Medusa,
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3:29 - 3:31could just be thrown off the back of the ship,
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3:31 - 3:37attached to a float at the surface with over 2,000 feet of line,
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3:37 - 3:41it would just float around passively carried by the currents,
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3:41 - 3:45and the only light visible to the animals in the deep
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3:45 - 3:49would be the blue light of the optical lure,
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3:49 - 3:53which we called the electronic jellyfish, or e-jelly,
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3:53 - 3:56because it was designed to imitate
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3:56 - 3:58the bioluminescent display
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3:58 - 4:02of the common deep sea jellyfish Atolla.
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4:02 - 4:05Now, this pinwheel of light that the Atolla produces
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4:05 - 4:08is known as a bioluminescent burglar alarm
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4:08 - 4:10and is a form of defense.
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4:10 - 4:14The reason that the electronic jellyfish worked as a lure
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4:14 - 4:17is not because giant squid eat jellyfish,
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4:17 - 4:21but it's because this jellyfish only resorts to producing this light
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4:21 - 4:23when it's being chewed on by a predator
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4:23 - 4:26and its only hope for escape
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4:26 - 4:29may be to attract the attention of a larger predator
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4:29 - 4:31that will attack its attacker
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4:31 - 4:34and thereby afford it an opportunity for escape.
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4:34 - 4:37It's a scream for help, a last-ditch attempt for escape,
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4:37 - 4:41and a common form of defense in the deep sea.
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4:41 - 4:43The approach worked.
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4:43 - 4:47Whereas all previous expeditions had failed to garner
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4:47 - 4:49a single video glimpse of the giant,
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4:49 - 4:54we managed six, and the first triggered wild excitement.
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4:54 - 5:07Edith Widder (on video): Oh my God. Oh my God! Are you kidding me?Other scientists: Oh ho ho! That's just hanging there.
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5:07 - 5:10EW: It was like it was teasing us, doing a kind of fan dance --
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5:10 - 5:12now you see me, now you don't --
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5:12 - 5:15and we had four such teasing appearances,
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5:15 - 5:20and then on the fifth, it came in and totally wowed us.
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5:20 - 5:25(Music) Narrator: (Speaking in Japanese)
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5:25 - 5:35Scientists: Ooh. Bang! Oh my God! Whoa!
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5:37 - 5:39(Applause)
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5:39 - 5:44EW: The full monty.
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5:44 - 5:45What really wowed me about that
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5:45 - 5:48was the way it came in up over the e-jelly
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5:48 - 5:50and then attacked the enormous thing next to it,
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5:50 - 5:53which I think it mistook for the predator on the e-jelly.
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5:53 - 5:56But even more incredible was the footage shot
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5:56 - 5:58from the Triton submersible.
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5:58 - 6:01What was not mentioned in the Discovery documentary
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6:01 - 6:05was that the bait squid that Dr. Kubodera used,
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6:05 - 6:08a one-meter long diamondback squid
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6:08 - 6:11had a light attached to it, a squid jig
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6:11 - 6:13of the type that longline fishermen use,
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6:13 - 6:15and I think it was this light
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6:15 - 6:18that brought the giant in.
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6:18 - 6:19Now, what you're seeing
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6:19 - 6:25is the intensified camera's view under red light,
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6:25 - 6:29and that's all Dr. Kubodera could see when the giant comes in here.
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6:29 - 6:31And then he got so excited,
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6:31 - 6:35he turned on his flashlight because he wanted to see better,
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6:35 - 6:37and the giant didn't run away,
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6:37 - 6:40so he risked turning on the white lights on the submersible,
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6:40 - 6:43bringing a creature of legend
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6:43 - 6:48from the misty history into high-resolution video.
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6:48 - 6:51It was absolutely breathtaking,
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6:51 - 6:54and had this animal had its feeding tentacles intact
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6:54 - 6:55and fully extended,
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6:55 - 6:59it would have been as tall as a two-story house.
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6:59 - 7:01How could something that big
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7:01 - 7:06live in our ocean and yet remain unfilmed until now?
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7:06 - 7:09We've only explored about five percent of our ocean.
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7:09 - 7:13There are great discoveries yet to be made down there,
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7:13 - 7:17fantastic creatures representing millions of years of evolution
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7:17 - 7:19and possibly bioactive compounds
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7:19 - 7:23that could benefit us in ways that we can't even yet imagine.
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7:23 - 7:26Yet we have spent only a tiny fraction
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7:26 - 7:29of the money on ocean exploration
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7:29 - 7:32that we've spent on space exploration.
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7:32 - 7:36We need a NASA-like organization for ocean exploration,
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7:36 - 7:38because we need to be exploring and protecting
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7:38 - 7:41our life support systems here on Earth.
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7:41 - 7:47We need — thank you. (Applause)
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7:47 - 7:50Exploration is the engine that drives innovation.
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7:50 - 7:53Innovation drives economic growth.
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7:53 - 7:55So let's all go exploring,
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7:55 - 7:58but let's do it in a way that doesn't scare the animals away,
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7:58 - 8:00or, as Mike deGruy once said,
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8:00 - 8:02"If you want to get away from it all
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8:02 - 8:03and see something you've never seen,
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8:03 - 8:07or have an excellent chance of seeing something that no one's ever seen,
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8:07 - 8:08get in a sub."
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8:08 - 8:11He should have been with us for this adventure.
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8:11 - 8:13We miss him.
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8:13 - 8:18(Applause)
- Title:
- How we found the giant squid
- Speaker:
- Edith Widder
- Description:
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Humankind has been looking for the giant squid (Architeuthis) since we first started taking pictures underwater. But the elusive deep-sea predator could never be caught on film. Oceanographer and inventor Edith Widder shares the key insight -- and the teamwork -- that helped to capture the squid on film for the first time.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 08:38
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How we found the giant squid | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for How we found the giant squid | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How we found the giant squid | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How we found the giant squid | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for How we found the giant squid | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How we found the giant squid | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for How we found the giant squid | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for How we found the giant squid |