Underwater astonishments David Gallo

[Music]

[Applause]

we’re gonna go on and dive to the deep

sea and anyone that’s had that lovely

opportunity knows that for about two and

a half hours on the way down it’s a

perfectly positively pitch-black world

and we used to see the most mysterious

animals out the window that you couldn’t

describe these blinking lights a world

of bioluminescence like fireflies dr.

Edith Witter she’s now at the ocean

research and conservation Association

was able to come up with a camera that

could capture some of these incredible

animals and that’s what you’re seeing

here on the screen

that’s all bioluminescence like I said

just like fireflies there’s a flying

turkey under a geologist by training but

I love that and you see some of the some

of the bioluminescence they used to

avoid being eaten some they used to

attract prey but all of it from an

artistic point of view is just

positively amazing and a lot of what

goes on inside there’s a fish with

glowing eyes pulsating eyes

some some of the colors are designed to

hypnotize these lovely patterns and then

this last one one of my favorites is

pinwheel design just absolutely amazing

every single dive that’s the unknown

world and today we’ve only explored

about three percent three percent of

what’s out in the ocean already we found

the world’s highest mountains world’s

deepest valleys underwater Lakes

underwater waterfalls a lot of that we

shared with you from the stage and in a

place where we thought no life at all we

find more life we think and diversity

and density than the tropical rainforest

which tells us that we don’t know much

about this planet at all there’s still

97% and neither that 97% is empty or

just full of surprises but I want to

jump up to shallow water now and look at

some creatures that are positively

amazing do cephalopods head foot as a

kid I knew them as calamari mostly but

this is an octopus this is a work of dr.

Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological

lab and just fascinating how how

cephalopods can with their eyes

incredible eyes sense their surrounding

look at light look at patterns here’s an

octopus moving across the reef finds a

spot to settle down curls up and then

disappears into the background tough

thing to do

in the next bit we’re going to see a

couple of squid these are squid now

males when they fight if they’re really

aggressive they turn white and these two

males are fighting they do it by

bouncing their butts together which is

an interesting concept now here’s a male

on the left and a female on the right

and now if the male has managed to split

his color of coloration so the female

only always sees the kinder gentler

squid in him and the males of the other

we’re gonna see it again let’s take a

look at it again watch the coloration

white on the right brown on the left he

takes a step back so he’s keeping off

the other males by splitting his body

and comes up on the other side bingo now

I’m told that’s not just a squid

phenomenon with males but I don’t know

cuttlefish I love cuttlefish this is a

giant Australian cuttlefish and there he

is

is droopy little eyes appear but they

could do pretty amazing things too here

we’re gonna see one backing into crevice

and and watches watches tentacles you

just pulls them in makes them look just

like LG disappears right into the

background positive amazing here’s two

males fighting once again they’re

they’re smart enough these cephalopods

that know not to hurt each other but

look at the patterns that they can do

with their skin okay just an amazing

thing here’s an octopus sometimes they

don’t want to be seen when they move

because predators can see them and here

this is this guy actually can make

himself look like a rock and looking at

this environment can actually slide

across the bottom using the waves in the

shadows so he can’t be seen he does

blends right into the his motion blends

right into the background

the moving rock trick so we’re learning

lots new from the shallow water still

exploring that deep learning lots from

the shallow water as a good reason why I

mean the shallow water is full of

predators here’s a barracuda and if

you’re an octopus or a cephalopod you

need to really understand how to use

your surroundings to hide in the next

scene you’re going to see a nice coral

bottom and you see that an octopus would

stand out very easily there if you

couldn’t use your camouflage use your

skin to change color and texture because

some algae in the foreground and an

octopus

in that amazing now Roger spooked him so

it’s he took off a cloud of ink land so

when he lands the octopus says look I’ve

been seeing best thing to do is get as

big as I couldn’t get that big brown

makes his eye spot very big so he’s

bluffing let’s do it backwards I thought

he was joking when he first showed it to

me I thought was all graphics so here

here it is in Reverse watch the skin

color watch the skin texture just an

amazing animal can change color and

texture to match the surroundings watch

them blend right into this LG one two

three now he’s gone and so am I thank

you very much

[Applause]