The ocean depth is something you and me can't observe on a daily basis, even though it has so many curious things! For example, how do ocean animals sleep? They don't have comfy places to sleep on, do they? By observing the whales, scientists discovered that these mammals only sleep for about 10-15 minutes a day. And they don't move or breathe at that time...
00:00Lions, dogs, cats, all these mammals sleep in pretty comfortable positions, but not whales.
00:06They look like giant floating loaves of bread, which is a scene one diver accidentally came across in the Caribbean Sea.
00:13Six whales were just standing upright with their tails pointed down at a depth of about 65 feet below the surface.
00:21Scientists discovered that when sperm whales take a nap, they stay in this position for 10 to 15 minutes.
00:27They don't move or breathe, but these creatures spend only 7% of their time asleep, far less than other mammals.
00:35Usually, they either rest peacefully in the water or relax, slowly swimming next to other marine animals.
00:42When they're moving and sleeping at the same time, they're actually taking a nap.
00:46These animals can't go too deep and need to stay close to the surface.
00:50Great white sharks sleep and hunt at greater depths, which means one less thing to worry about when taking a quick nap.
00:57Plus, it gets pretty cold the deeper you go, and whales need warmer environments that can help them maintain the temperature of their large bodies.
01:06When alone, dolphins enter a stage of deep sleep.
01:10It usually happens at night and lasts for only a few hours at a time.
01:14While sleeping, the animal floats at the surface.
01:17It shuts down half of its brain, I can relate, together with the opposite eye.
01:22The other half is at a low alert level, awake and ready to react if some unwanted visitor comes closer.
01:29The part of the brain that is awake also sends signals when it's time to go up to the surface to take a breath of fresh air.
01:37Marine mammals have the blowhole.
01:39That's a flap of skin they can open and close whenever they want.
01:42People breathe automatically.
01:45Your body knows what it needs to do even when you're sleeping.
01:48But whales and dolphins have a voluntary breathing system.
01:52It means they need to consciously go to the surface to get some air.
01:56And one part of their brain needs to always be awake to inform the animal it's time to go up.
02:02Whales and dolphins can hold their breath way longer than other species.
02:06They also have a higher tolerance for carbon dioxide and can take in more air.
02:11Their red blood cells store more oxygen, too.
02:15Whales and dolphins' blood goes only to those body parts that really need oxygen.
02:20If a whale only uses its brain, heart, fins, and some other muscles needed for swimming at the moment,
02:26those will also be the only body parts that will get the oxygen.
02:30Digestion or other functions can wait.
02:33The ocean is not a place where you can relax and peacefully fall asleep.
02:36While sleeping, fish reduce their activity.
02:40Their metabolism becomes slow.
02:42Some of them keep floating in the same spot.
02:45Others find a safer place among corals or in the mud.
02:49Early in life, dolphins learn to make a unique whistle that helps others from their pod to identify them.
02:55That means these specific whistles are their names, and dolphins do respond to them.
03:00Clams have feet.
03:03It looks like a large tongue that sometimes protrudes from the shell.
03:06But that's actually the foot.
03:09And it's relatively long compared to the length of the animal.
03:12Clams use this limb to dig themselves in the sand.
03:16The blue whale is the largest living animal.
03:19And it's also larger than the majority of dinosaurs used to be.
03:22They can grow to more than 100 feet long and have a weight of almost 200 tons.
03:28That's like 50 adult elephants.
03:30A blue whale's tongue alone can weigh more than one elephant.
03:34Such a giant surely needs to eat a lot.
03:36Half a million calories in just one mouthful.
03:40The blue whale's heart is the size of a small car and weighs 1,300 pounds.
03:45To move the blood through such a giant body, the heartbeats are so strong, you can hear them even from 2 miles away.
03:53The heart of a whale beats only 8 to 10 times per minute.
03:57The whale is one of the loudest creatures out there.
03:59Its call can go up to 180 decibels, which is as loud as a jet plane.
04:05Almost 95% of jellyfish's body is made of water.
04:09For comparison, the human body is 60% water.
04:12It's probably not a surprise since jellyfish don't have a heart, blood, eyes, or brain.
04:19The other 5% of their body weight is proteins, muscles, and nerve cells.
04:24Jellyfish have been around for more than 500 million years.
04:28This makes them older than dinosaurs.
04:30These creatures haven't changed much, and today's jellyfish are pretty much like their ancestors.
04:35These creatures live in the ocean, but in 1991, more than 2,000 jellyfish polyps were taken into space.
04:44Scientists wanted to see how they would react in the environment with no gravity.
04:48The jellyfish reproduced and created 60,000 new polyps.
04:53But unfortunately, those couldn't function normally after getting back to Earth.
04:57One species of jellyfish can literally live forever.
05:01As it grows older, the critter goes down to the seafloor to become a polyp again.
05:06And that polyp turns into a new jellyfish with the same genetics.
05:11Greenland sharks can live 500 years.
05:14This is an animal with almost the longest lifespan among vertebrates.
05:19Sperm whales are sociable creatures.
05:21They spend their life surrounded by their family.
05:23These animals support one another and have close friends they remember well,
05:28even if they don't see each other for a long time.
05:32Electric eels have small eyes that are not so effective in environments with no light,
05:37so they mostly rely on their electric organs.
05:40Those consist of 6,000 cells.
05:43Eels use them to stow power, similar to batteries.
05:46These creatures use electricity, like bats use their radars or dolphins their sonar.
05:51An eel can also produce enough electricity to power a panel of light bulbs.
05:57There's a small tropical archer fish that can learn to recognize human faces.
06:03This fish has an interesting ability to spit small jets of water from its mouth.
06:08Researchers showed the fish the image of two different faces placed side by side.
06:13One was unknown, and the other was familiar.
06:16The fish was supposed to spit water at the familiar one.
06:19The creature took the right guess more than 80% of the time.
06:24Every year in the winter, great white sharks that live along the California coastline disappear.
06:30It feels as if they take a vacation for 30 to 40 days.
06:33The animals go to a point halfway between Hawaii and Mexico.
06:38They might do it to get some food, relax, or hang out with their buddies from other areas.
06:43The spot is now called the whale shark cafe.
06:46Some types of sharks, like makos, whale sharks, or white sharks, breathe in a very specific way.
06:53It requires them to swim all the time.
06:56They also need to move quickly and with their mouth open.
06:59This way, the oxygen can enter and reach their gills.
07:03Sea sponges are some of the most primitive animals.
07:06They're immobile, don't have a mouth, eyes, bones, brain, heart, lungs, or any other organ whatsoever.
07:12And still, they're alive.
07:15There's such a thing as a sea unicorn.
07:18That's an animal called the narwhal.
07:20Its horn is actually a tooth that can grow up to 10 feet long.
07:24Manatees, also known as sea cows, are distant relatives of elephants.
07:29Their weight can go up to 1,000 pounds.
07:32These creatures are vegetarian and need to eat around 10% of their total weight on a daily basis.
07:38That's lots of sea salad.
07:39In some cases, manatees share space with alligators, but they get along pretty well.
07:46You can even find a photo from Florida where an alligator rides a manatee's back.
07:52Frogfish have special fins that help these creatures walk along the sand.
07:57They're very useful in shallow waters.
08:00A ghost pipefish is hard to see, but once you spot it, you're bound to get really surprised.
08:06Its head makes up over 40% of its body.
08:10Crabs don't feel like wasting time on such formalities as putting foods in their mouth.
08:15That's why they taste it with their feet, which is where their taste buds are.
08:20Marine iguanas are the only lizards on our planet that like spending time in the ocean,
08:25even though they mainly live on land.
08:27They're herbivores that feed in shallow waters and swim like snakes.
08:31Iguanas use their long claws to hold on to the bottom when they need to graze.
08:36Green turtles can cross over 1,400 miles when migrated.
08:41They try to find the perfect spot to lay their eggs.
08:44Penguins sort of fly when they're underwater, reaching a speed of 25 miles per hour.
08:50More than 5 million years ago, I've heard – I wasn't around then – deep sea worms and humans had a common ancestor.
08:58So we still share 70% of our genes with these creatures, and with sea stars, squid, and octopuses.
09:06The ocean covers over 70% of our planet, and over 80% of it is unexplored.
09:13More than 1 million species live there.
09:15But there are not only animals.
09:173 million shipwrecks are lying all over the ocean floor, hiding mysterious stories.
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