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]