- 7 months ago
Documentary, Animal Planet, Predators in the sea of Cortez: The Humboldt squid
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00Deep in the waters of the Sea of Cortez, far below the sunlit surface, lurks a creature the locals call the Red Devil.
00:13It is armed and dangerous. Its writhing limbs come equipped with a thousand suckers, each full of flesh-tearing teeth.
00:22These devils come in the dark of night, rising from the abyss to within a few hundred feet of the surface.
00:34They are large, aggressive, in-your-face squid, called the Humboldt.
00:39They're one of the most formidable predators in the ocean, and almost nothing is known about them.
00:45To cameraman Bob Cranston, the Humboldt have become an irresistible challenge.
00:56He's one of the few who've descended into their midst, at depths where others fear to follow.
01:06But his last encounter was a close call.
01:09It was three years ago, in these very waters, Bob's goal was to film these beasts up close in the open ocean.
01:23The usual white filming lights create a circle of light that acts like a wall, keeping the squid at bay.
01:30So Bob descended with red lights that diffuse almost immediately.
01:39Suddenly, the squid were too close.
01:44For an instant, it seemed they would tear him apart.
01:47It was an intense encounter that only fueled his fascination for the Humboldt.
02:08They came right for me, with no fear.
02:12That got my adrenaline going.
02:16Suddenly, I was really interested in everything about these guys.
02:20I wanted to meet more of their kind.
02:26Squid and their relatives live in every ocean.
02:29Getting to know the family will take Bob on quite a journey.
02:33And if diving with red devils is anything to go by, he'll need the help of some top-notch guides.
02:40His quest far to the north, in the dark, cold waters of the Pacific Northwest.
02:44In the maze of bays and inlets along the coast of British Columbia, there dwells the giant of its kind, but it's secretive and very hard to find.
03:00Bob's asked Dr. Peter Ward for help.
03:08Peter is a paleontologist and an expert on the origins of this creature.
03:12He has decades of experience in these waters, and there's no substitute for local knowledge.
03:20So Bob, I've got some maps of the underwater area we're going to go see tomorrow.
03:24The nice thing about this, these are really high-quality side-scan sonars, and they give images in great detail from these.
03:34We can pick out caves or dens, really, where the creatures that we seek can be found.
03:39Face-to-face with my camera.
03:41Whatever.
03:43Bob's been filming underwater for more than 30 years.
03:47He's one of the best at very difficult diving.
03:50It's a rebreather, a closed-circuit rebreather.
03:54The carbon dioxide is pulled out, add a little oxygen, it comes back and you breathe it.
03:59Same as the guys who walked on the moon.
04:01It's really cool.
04:03I can stay down there with the creatures and film them for as long as I can stay on the cold.
04:10The water registers 47 degrees.
04:13Without a dry-suit, a diver could slip into unconsciousness from the cold in just half an hour.
04:18Water-flip zipper.
04:22Same zipper they use in spacesuits.
04:25Only in a spacesuit, I think they pressurize it.
04:27In this suit, you get vacuum-packed.
04:32Get all these fancy lights.
04:34I think that one means low.
04:37Getting a little warm.
04:39Get in the water soon.
04:40Get in the water soon.
05:01These gloomy green depths are called the Emerald Sea.
05:03And although cold, they are rich in oxygen and nutrients.
05:08The combination allows creatures to reach enormous size.
05:16Down at 60 feet, Bob and Peter pick up a trail of broken and discarded shells.
05:22A dead giveaway.
05:23Something strong and very hungry has come this way.
05:28And often.
05:29The crab should show more caution.
05:43It's up against a devious and determined predator.
05:47Therab is a dangerous and determined predator.
05:48The crab is an dangerous and determined predator.
05:50The crab is a dangerous and determined predator.
06:22As Bob approaches, his quarry appears to have found him.
06:39A giant Pacific octopus.
06:42Eight arms of sinewy muscle lined with grasping suckers reach out.
06:52And gently explore the strange intrude.
06:58A giant can reach 20 feet from arm tip to arm tip and weigh in at 200 pounds.
07:17It's the largest octopus in the great clan called the cephalopods.
07:22The group that unites the octopus and squid.
07:27It's an ancient tribe.
07:29The first large predators in the sea.
07:33To this curious female, we're a brand new species.
07:37Cephalopod means head-footed.
07:56A good beginning in deciphering the octopus's amazing design.
08:00The head and body are encased in a large, soft sack.
08:05And the foot, derived from its distant relatives, the clams and snails,
08:10has become a siphon, a water jet, to propel it in any direction.
08:14A long time ago, its ancestors were a shell.
08:25But the octopus has given that up.
08:28Yet for creatures with such tasty flesh, the lack of protection presents a problem.
08:33The cephalopod solution, the most extraordinary skin in the animal kingdom.
08:45In an instant, it can change color, pattern, and texture.
08:51And with no bones to confine its shape, the creature can virtually disappear.
08:56Another female lies sequestered in her den, tending to her brood of eggs.
09:13She lays up to a hundred thousand just once in her life.
09:17When they hatch, she will die.
09:20These clever, curious creatures won't live long at all.
09:27Their entire lifespan is no more than three or four years.
09:45The transparent babies are no bigger than a grain of rice.
09:50But within a year, they'll be giants.
10:01While the lives of these complex beings are all too brief,
10:05their line reaches back 500 million years,
10:10long before sharks began swimming the seas.
10:16This will be a great spot, right in here.
10:20Peter Ward has spent 35 years delving into cephalopod family secrets.
10:26He's brought Bob to a special outcropping of rocks.
10:29They were once well submerged in a much warmer sea
10:32and still hold a record of that long ago time.
10:36Fossils are found in these rocks.
10:37Fossils of relatives of the octopus, actually.
10:40They're called ammonites.
10:41And how old are they?
10:4480 million years in age.
10:4680 million years.
10:47That's true.
10:49That is old.
10:51Back in those days, cephalopods made beautiful curved shells.
10:55If you dig long enough and hard enough,
10:58you can find some beautiful stuff.
11:00This is an ammonite.
11:03It's a fossil that is actually the direct ancestor of octopus.
11:07So this is an ancient cephalopod.
11:10It's related to the chambered nautilus.
11:12So the tentacles sat here and swam about.
11:14A shell is a mobile home and a defense against predators.
11:20But it's so cumbersome, it makes swimming difficult.
11:24Of the almost 1,000 kinds of cephalopods alive today,
11:29only the nautilus still wears one.
11:33It's a living fossil,
11:35puffing along the reefs of the Indo-Pacific
11:38as though nothing has ever changed.
11:44Bob returns for one last dive with the octopus.
12:03I couldn't resist bringing her a treat.
12:07All cephalopods are carnivores,
12:10and they love crabs.
12:11This creature actually reached out to me.
12:15I could sense her interest,
12:17her intelligence.
12:18I could see it in her eyes.
12:23There's something about the eyes of these animals
12:26just draw human observers in,
12:28and especially with the octopus and the cuttlefish,
12:30they definitely make visual eye contact with you
12:33and maintain it.
12:35Dr. John Forsyth studies these creatures'
12:38amazing physiology and complex behaviors.
12:41And I've come in and played games with octopus
12:43where I'll duck down and they'll raise up
12:45and look at me,
12:46and then I'll raise up and they'll duck down.
12:48And this will just go on for 15 or 20 minutes
12:51like this guy.
12:51I can barely see him over there,
12:53but when I look up,
12:54see, he's coming up.
12:58Because I think they look for our eyes.
13:00I think they try to make contact with our eyes as well.
13:03And I think that's what draws us into watching these animals.
13:06Whereas a fish,
13:07sometimes I look at a fish,
13:08and I'm not sure where it's looking.
13:10They just have these blank, cold stairs.
13:12But with a cephalopod,
13:13it's really never like that.
13:18At the National Resource Center for Cephalopods
13:21in Galveston, Texas,
13:23John maintains quite a collection.
13:29There are several kinds of octopuses,
13:32a school of small squid,
13:35and another relative,
13:40the cuttlefish.
13:43For John,
13:44the eyes of a cephalopod
13:46are not just the windows to its soul.
13:49They tell you a lot about how the animal lives.
13:53The octopus has a rectangular pupil
13:56that captures light reflected off the sea floor.
13:59Squids' large, round eyes
14:02are adapted to seeing darting prey
14:05in the twilight of the open ocean.
14:09Cuttlefish dwell in both worlds,
14:12and their complex eyes
14:13can actually change shape
14:15to accommodate their travels.
14:17But it's not in their eerie eyes
14:25that cephalopods reveal their inner feelings.
14:28It's in their remarkable skin.
14:34Millions of tiny sacks of pigment
14:36called chromatophores dot their skin,
14:39each controlled by minute muscles.
14:42With a little flexing,
14:44a cephalopod can flash
14:45with rippling bands of color.
14:55Any sort of excitement,
14:57danger, desire, aggression, passion,
15:00and their skin lights up.
15:15For creatures with no vocal abilities at all,
15:24this is the way they communicate
15:26in a language of light and color.
15:35And like an octopus,
15:37a cuttlefish can transform its texture,
15:39matching its surroundings,
15:43hiding in plain sight.
15:45Given their camouflage capabilities,
15:48it's no wonder we're still learning
15:50just how many kinds there are.
15:57One of the hot spots for new discoveries
15:59is the narrow Lemba Strait
16:01off North Sulawesi
16:02in the island chain of Indonesia.
16:06It's a pretty scenic spot.
16:10John and Bob have come here
16:12looking for new species of cephalopods.
16:16It's a place primed for strange adaptations.
16:20In the shallow warm water,
16:22light and temperatures remain constant.
16:24But the channels,
16:26inlets, bays, and lagoons
16:27create many small separate habitats,
16:30and that leads to high diversity.
16:35This is John's fourth trip
16:37to Lemba Strait.
16:38And each time,
16:40something surprising turns up.
16:42He's brought Bob
16:43to a spot called Ritaklari,
16:45which in local slang means
16:47the muck.
16:54At first glance,
17:05it's a vast, flat disappointment.
17:17But wait here quietly,
17:19and a lot of what looks like sand
17:21begins looking back.
17:24From the still of the muck
17:36to the roaring straits,
17:38a lot of effort goes into
17:39not standing out.
17:42Drifting reeds
17:43are actually floating razorfish.
17:50And the end of a few branches
17:52turn into ornate ghost pipefish.
18:07Out in the high-speed tides
18:09and swirling eddies,
18:10fish work hard
18:11to keep their footing
18:12digging into the bottom
18:13with spine-like fins.
18:15But even creeping along
18:21on the seafloor,
18:22you still have to make a living.
18:30A harmless-looking weed
18:32rolling in the current
18:33is a hairy frogfish
18:35trolling for a meal.
18:37It comes equipped
18:49with its own strange lure.
18:51just like a shepherd.
19:13Home
19:14to another
19:19to another
19:20The sand offers the best retreat, but the crab has already been spotted.
19:32A marginated octopus is the perfect little predator here.
19:37Good camouflage.
19:40Good eyesight.
19:46Good grip.
19:50The soft-bodied octopus has one more weapon up its sleeve to subdue the crab's claws.
20:12Venom.
20:13It finds a chink in the crab's armor, injects a neurotoxin, and the struggle is over.
20:20In such an open setting, the trick for every creature is to find some place to hide.
20:37An octopus fits in just about anywhere, and John finds one tucked into a piece of discarded pipe.
20:51Perhaps there is something in cephalopod memory that recalls having a shell.
20:55Bob and John find this little octopus ambling along with a dark brown bottle tucked under his arms.
21:05The bottle turned out to be his home, and he took it with him everywhere.
21:09So I thought I'd offer him a new fancy place, and see if he's interested in trading spaces.
21:15You can do this.
21:16You can do this.
21:29You can do this.
21:33I began to worry he might get confused by this clear glass and wouldn't remember how
21:58to get back out.
22:01But after a few minutes, he slipped through the opening and went straight back to his
22:06old brown bottle.
22:08He'd made his choice.
22:11I think the clear glass was a little too bright.
22:14And besides, there's no place like home, especially when you can take it with you.
22:31In the husks of old coconut shells, they find the pearl-like eggs of one of John's favorite
22:43creatures.
22:44It's a tiny cuttlefish that's seldom seen after it hatches.
22:51It remains so small and well camouflaged that it takes great practice to find it.
23:03Down on the sea floor, it appears to walk across the bright stones, its rippling colors
23:13blending in and standing out.
23:16It's called the flamboyant.
23:21The flamboyant cuttlefish is really in a class by itself even among cephalopods in a lot of
23:27ways.
23:28First of all, the vibrant, dynamic, bright colors, the brilliant yellows, the magentas,
23:33the pinks and browns.
23:37It adds on top of that these passing clouds of color as it's stalking, looking for prey.
23:43And of course that's happening in living skin.
23:45A lot of these animals are surprisingly bold.
23:57The flamboyant actually seems to like being under the lights.
24:01It begins hunting as soon as we start filming.
24:12My video lights attract little shrimp and crustaceans.
24:16Perhaps the cuttlefish can even see better in the lights as well.
24:24It's only when John sticks out an enormous hand that we see the scale of this little hunter.
24:35Next to a six foot humboldt and a giant octopus, it's hard to believe it's one of the family.
24:46Not far away, a small octopus has been eyeing the scene.
24:52John reaches out for a better look.
24:55Every time I touch one of these animals, I'm not gripping it or holding it.
24:59My intention is never to frighten the animal in any way.
25:02However, I am trying to keep it close to where I can get a good look.
25:06But at the same time, the animal knows at any moment it can get away if it wants to.
25:21This octopus gets away all too soon.
25:24John thinks it may be a brand new species never seen before.
25:35I don't know Bob, I'm not sure what that is, but it could be a new one.
25:39I think it could be a new species.
25:41I wasn't expecting to see that.
25:42It's not something you've seen before, huh?
25:43No.
25:44No, I'm not sure what that would be.
25:45It's a cool little critter.
25:50The waters of Sulawesi are full of new discoveries, and one is an octopus designed with a special
26:01brand of disguise.
26:05It lives in the same waters as the banded sea snake, whose bold stripes announce its potent
26:11venom.
26:18These are banded arms that can make the same impression.
26:21When disturbed, the octopus flashes and intensifies the stripes, becoming a sea serpent, coiled and deadly.
26:47The creature has not yet been named by science, but it is known to be a fraud.
26:53It's a shy, nocturnal octopus, and unlike the snake, its venom is virtually harmless.
27:00Its stripes are simply a ruse to intimidate would-be predators.
27:13The real killer is a delicate, jewel-toned creature, the blue-ringed octopus.
27:23The flashing blue neon is no false alarm.
27:26Its poison can immobilize every muscle in the human body.
27:30There is no antidote.
27:32But all it's really after is a crab.
27:38The
27:59The Blue Ring is notorious along the coast of Australia, but it's one of Dr. Mark Norman's favourites.
28:16As curator of marine invertebrates at Museum Victoria, his fieldwork in all seven seas has revolutionised what we know about cephalopods.
28:24It's really hard to estimate how many species of cephalopods or in particular octopuses we have worldwide because we're still in the period of discovery.
28:37They thought there was about 100 species of octopus in the world, and we've found 150 new species in the last 10 years through the Indian and Pacific Oceans and Australia and up through Asia.
28:48And these groups of animals, it's not hard to find new species. Almost everything we touch is new.
28:54Bob wants to get close to the Blue Ring in the wild.
29:03So Mark, this is a shortcut to the beach?
29:05Yep, it's a great place to collect crabs.
29:08Through the graveyard, eh?
29:09Yep.
29:11So are these the bodies of the people who have been bitten by Blue Ring octopus?
29:15No, very few people have died from Blue Ring bites.
29:17He's more likely to have died choking to death on his calamari meal at the local pub.
29:24So this is where the crabs live.
29:27Yep, they hide up here at low tide under the rocks.
29:30As the guide to the Blue Ring, Mark starts Bob off with their prey.
29:35Lots of little crabs.
29:37Yeah.
29:38You need a nice juicy one.
29:40There you go.
29:42A few of the claws on that.
29:44That'll take your arm off.
29:45You can appreciate why the octopus has to get rid of the crab's claws as quick as possible.
29:54Knock them out.
29:54When the octopus bites them, it actually goes for those soft gaps in the junctions,
29:59like the elbows where the arm is a bit thinner,
30:02or else they bite them right on the eyeball,
30:04and the poison goes straight down the eyeball and into the brain.
30:07So they end up paralyzing the animal instantly and putting these claws out of action.
30:20The dive begins after dark, when Blue Rings are most active.
30:25And it's not off some wild remote beach.
30:28The deadly Blue Ring lives just beneath the town pier.
30:32Blue Ring octopus are an extremely venomous animal,
30:54and if I was to be bitten, I would probably be dead within three minutes.
31:00Your body would start stiffening up, and you'd lose the capacity to breathe.
31:05You'd lose the capacity to wave or walk or run away.
31:08You'd run out of oxygen, and you'd suffocate.
31:14But these little animals are really shy, really secretive,
31:18and the last thing they want to do is attack humans.
31:21They don't eat humans.
31:22They don't drag people out of their cars and drag them down the beach.
31:24They just feed on crabs.
31:30But tonight, not even a crab could catch its attention.
31:34This is a male.
31:36And he's just found a female.
31:40Two wild Blue Rings are preparing to mate.
31:42They keep their colors subdued to avoid attracting attention,
31:53especially from competing males.
31:55No flashing their electric blue.
31:59A temporary aquarium helps Bob film what happens next.
32:03After a few minutes of courtship,
32:10the male gently slips a special arm into the female's gill slit.
32:16He's depositing a packet of sperm,
32:19which she will use later to fertilize her eggs.
32:27It's the end of their relationship,
32:29and most likely the end of his brief life.
32:33That was all he needed to accomplish.
32:40Just beneath the very same pier
32:42is another cephalopod almost never seen in shallow water.
32:46New research finds that they, too, pack a poisonous punch.
32:50But their bright little stripes have earned them a harmless nickname,
32:54the pajama squid.
32:56I think these cephalopods are the closest to the cartoon characters.
32:59They're little black and white suits,
33:00and their little frilly lashes behind their eyes,
33:04and the yellow on the top of the eyes.
33:06They're just straight out of a comic book.
33:12The pajama squid seem to have taken a cue from the Blue Rings.
33:16Males grab any passing female,
33:21and then they try as hard as they can to reposition them
33:25so that they're face-on ready to mate,
33:27sort of suckers to suckers.
33:28The mating season is also picking up off Australia's southwestern coast.
33:51In one small bay, giant cuttlefish have begun to assemble.
33:56They leave deep water and enter the shallows once a year for three to four weeks.
34:00The males are three feet and massive,
34:16with eight flowing arms and one all-consuming purpose.
34:26A much smaller female takes refuge in the rocks.
34:29The males waste no time taking on their rivals.
34:39They flash and ripple with aggression.
34:41Their control is so subtle
34:43that they can isolate and flex just the flank facing the opposing male.
34:48The other flank communicates a solid, dependable side to any nearby female.
34:53One male has claimed her and takes possession.
35:00He'll guard her now, keeping her beneath him until she is ready to lay her eggs.
35:05Jules, you around here somewhere?
35:18Bob is heading for this far-flung coast, but before diving with these giants,
35:30he needs to brush up on the subtleties of cuttlefish communication.
35:34Julian Finn is a leading expert on the intense social dynamics of the cuttlefish.
35:44He comes to this junkyard to scrounge up special equipment for an interesting experiment.
35:50Hey, Jules, over here, Bob.
35:55Oh, okay.
35:56Oh, there you go.
35:58Yeah, bloody hell.
35:59It's, uh...
36:00You and old cars?
36:01Oh, yeah, I love them.
36:02I've got a number of old cars and plenty of treasures in this place.
36:06Cuttlefish speak a visual language, and Julian wants in on the conversation.
36:12Also, I've got a few ideas about making something to use on these cuttlefish in Wyala, trying
36:19to get a bit of a different shot, so...
36:21Looks like junk to me.
36:23Meanwhile, the cuttlefish continue to gather.
36:38Their complex communication escalates into a kaleidoscope of colors.
36:47Opponents toss each other in the rolling tide, and things start getting rough.
36:58The violence can rip up their all-important skin, sabotaging a male's chance to impress
37:03and intimidate, and someone's nursing a torn-off tentacle.
37:16In a temporary standoff, a large male guards his female from two other heavyweights, while
37:21a little male, too small to take seriously, hovers on the sidelines.
37:36The two males on shore get set to join the fray.
37:39Well, here you go, Jules.
37:40I just wanted you to know that my camera's bigger than yours.
37:43Mine's a bit different than yours, sir.
37:45Well, yours has a hubcap on the front.
37:47What I'm hoping to do is film the male's reaction to another male, but instead of having
37:53another male there, I'm going to have its reflection.
37:58It's when males are the same size that trouble starts, and Julian will present one with its
38:03very own reflection.
38:06He's studying the displays and the intense competition.
38:10He intends to provoke a fight.
38:16He approaches a large male who immediately responds.
38:36The cuttlefish becomes increasingly absorbed with his own image.
38:39But instead of a conflict, the story takes a surprising turn.
38:48The small, unimpressive male has sneaked in and begun mating with the unguarded female.
38:54He's not signaled, nor flashed, nor dazzled.
38:57He simply grabbed the female for his own, making every attempt to look as much like her as possible.
39:09The aggressive male makes no headway with the mirror and finally moves off to resume his
39:14duties.
39:22He's still distracted, still flashing, and doesn't recognize that his female is mating right
39:28under his nose.
39:30The little male looks so like another female, he doesn't see the threat.
39:41At last, he senses something's wrong and moves in to reclaim his female.
40:02To reestablish their relationship, he presents her with the gift of a crab.
40:15With so much going on in cuttlefish society, Julian will be experimenting for a long time
40:21to come.
40:39Julian's attempt to interact with the cuttlefish and crack their code has given Bob a daring
40:44but dangerous idea.
40:47Deep in the waters of Mexico, the mighty humbled squid flash their own mysterious signals and
40:54Bob is determined to dive with them again.
40:58He intends to engage these aggressive predators by imitating their behavior with a display all
41:04his own.
41:10Mark Norman and Julian Finn think he's close to crazy.
41:13Sure, you've got the blurring octopus that can kill you within a few minutes, the poison,
41:18yet there's something scarier about a squid that can rip off your flesh and tear out your
41:23throat, so to speak.
41:27I think you'd be really sensible to work with shark cages with those animals because the stories
41:32I've heard of these massive animals that will effectively skeletonize a cow in a minute because
41:38they're such voracious predators.
41:44Bob Cranston has no intention of taking this advice.
41:47His whole goal is to interact with these squid on their terms in their world.
41:53In the small town of Santa Rosalia, on the edge of the Sea of Cortez, being a fisherman takes
42:08a certain courage.
42:09A few people, you know, every other year somebody dies.
42:12I have a friend that they found floating in the ocean last year.
42:17It's lucky they found him because, you know, the carnivorous, they'll eat you.
42:20I mean, they will eat you.
42:21The squid will eat you.
42:22The squid will eat you.
42:23If you fall into the ocean, they'll get you with their tentacles, you'll drown, and then
42:26they'll, you know, all the rest of them will just eat you.
42:36With their dread, these fishermen face the Humboldt on a nightly basis.
42:41Bob will need their help if he hopes to find when and where the squid are rising.
42:52When the Humboldt flash on and off, Bob intends to flash right back.
42:57I don't know.
43:00This is a flashlight, big flashlight for squid.
43:07We're gonna...
43:09Estos loco.
43:10Estos loco, si?
43:15Bob knows, perhaps better than anyone, just what Humboldt are capable of.
43:22But it's not fear that he feels.
43:31It's an intense fascination for such alien creatures in a world so different from our own.
43:41For me, there's just something about these animals.
43:46Maybe it's because this type of diving in itself is a great challenge.
43:50It's hard to work at these depths.
43:52I've managed to go down and physically touch these fantastic creatures.
43:57But somehow, they're the ones that have taken a hold of me.
44:10He's 12 miles from shore.
44:12Aside from his assistant cameraman, there'll be no backup down below and no source of help at all topside.
44:19There's not so much as a radio on this little boat.
44:26These are small boats.
44:27It's a big ocean.
44:28There's a language barrier between me and the fisherman who think I'm crazy to dive in the water anyway.
44:34If I disappear and drift away from this boat, the fisherman will just think the squid ate me and they won't even bother coming to look for me.
44:44Yet Bob has confidence in his own experience and in his plan.
44:48I've made up this light tube and filled it with strobe lights.
44:55The idea is that the humble squid flash for communications.
45:01They flash at each other.
45:02They flash at the divers.
45:04And so I hope to elicit some kind of a reaction from these animals with this light tube.
45:11They flash at each other.
45:16Beneath the boat lies a thousand feet of open water and sea monsters.
45:22I don't know.
45:52Bob descends. His homemade lightsaber, a beacon, in the utter darkness. Right away there's a complete surprise. Mobula rays. They're seldom seen in a school like this. Already the night has taken on unexpected possibilities.
46:22With his depth gauge reading 150 feet, Bob figures he's in squid waters. He powers up.
46:40A giant swarm of pink krill mobs the lights. Suddenly Bob's in the middle of a midnight feeding frenzy.
46:52Then, rocketing up from below, Humboldt squid.
46:56A giant swarm of pink krill mobs the lights. Suddenly Bob's in the middle of a midnight feeding frenzy.
47:04Then, rocketing up from below, Humboldt squid.
47:16They're flashing red and white. Bob tries to get clear of the krill into better visibility. And he's caught the squid's attention.
47:28They're flashing red and white. Bob tries to get clear of the krill into better visibility. And he's caught the squid's attention.
47:44I'm transfixed by this enormous eye up from the deep.
48:12I can sense this creature thinking. But I can't imagine what.
48:19A minute later. Contact. The squib grabs hold, testing the light the only way it can.
48:36The feel of hard plastic must come as a surprise. And it circles me as though curious.
48:51Then, it comes back for more. This time, the aggression is gone.
48:58The aggression is gone. It just seems interested. Amazing.
49:05Amazing.
49:06We play for a moment.
49:20Then, suddenly, it's over.
49:28The fishermen are relieved just to see me alive, but I climb back in the boat knowing
49:52something remarkable has just happened. I danced with the devil down in the deep and I'm already
50:01thinking about the next dive.
50:19It's certain that Bob will return to dive again with the mysterious Humboldt, perhaps with
50:25a new strategy on how to make contact. He's just at the beginning of this extraordinary
50:33quest.
50:35But who will he meet next time in the waters below? Friend or foe?
50:49There you are.
50:55You can do that.
50:58There you go.
Comments