- [Scientist] And deck, permission to go ahead and release.
- [Scientist] Yes, go ahead.
(serene music)
- [Scientist] I know I've said this before,
but once you zoom in,
there's like a million things to see, it's great.
- [Scientist] But you can even see
the lobster's little feeder antennas.
- Aw. - Little feathers.
- [Scientist] Oh yeah, so that's mostly how it eats?
- [Scientist] Yeah.
- [Scientist] It doesn't use its claws for anything?
- [Scientist] To hunt?
- I'm not sure. - Nope.
- To battle. - Just to haunt our dreams.
(speakers laughing)
- It's so adorable. - They could be more sensory.
- [Scientist] Oh, right, right.
- [Scientist] They're using their claws
to hold up everything to their mouth.
They use them to sense and taste.
- [Scientist] Fuzziest-looking squat lobster we've seen.
- Are we done with this guy? - I don't know.
- Yeah. I guess so. - Yeah.
- [Scientist] I could watch it for a while,
but let's be done with it.
- And done. - A stunning shot.
- [Scientist] So theoretically,
this would be the third sighting of this jelly.
- Yeah. - Right.
- [Scientist] Ever.
- Ever? - Ever.
Ever, ever. - Ever, ever.
- [Scientist] So, we saw one last week.
Where was the first sighting?
- [Scientist] I think it was about eight years ago.
- [Scientist] Okay.
- [Scientist] Okeanos Explorer.
- [Scientist] Megan, do you remember
what this thing was called?
- [Megan] It's a Narcomedusa.
- [Scientists] Narcomedusa?
- [Megan] Bathykorus, more specifically.
- [Scientist] So beautiful.
So, you can really see there
that modified frill, as we call it.
It's a fin attachment
that's used to bring them up in the water column,
I believe to avoid predators
and to find new spots on the sea floor with lots of food.
Sea cucumbers are super cool,
that they eat with these paddle-like appendages
in front of their face,
that are kind of like sticky paddles
that they put down in the sediment
and then bring up into their mouth,
like you were licking off food off your palm.
Just like palming your food, and stick it in your mouth.
You can see a couple of those tentacles there,
and the mouth.
- [Scientist] Looks like this one's also got
some kind of associate that's just spinning out of view now,
but it might have had a parasitic copepod
or something similar on its back.
- [Scientist] So cool. Look at it.
All its feeding tentacles tucked in,
except those little tubes coming around to its mouth.
Hello, friend.
Great flying, Dan. - Aw.
All curled up, like it's ready to take a nap.
- [Scientist] Yeah.
- [Scientist] Or maybe it's just being shy.
- Oh. - Aw.
- [Scientist] Aerodynamic.
- [Scientist] Hydrodynamic.
- [Scientist] It's coming right for us.
- [Scientist] Whoa, that's a cool view.
- [Scientist] So cool.
- [Scientist] Whoa.
You are such a beautiful creature.
- [Scientist] Oh, it really is coming right for us.
- [Scientist] Ah, Yoda worm.
Yay.
- [Scientist] What is this? An acorn worm?
- [Scientist] Did you say acorn worm?
- [Scientist] Yep. It's a type of acorn worm.
This might be in the genus Yoda.
Yeah, these are really nifty-looking creatures.
- [Scientist] Yeah.
- [Scientist] So, is that like
the track coming from behind it,
or is that like-
- [Scientist] Yep, that's its poop basically.
- [Scientist] Okay.
- [Scientist] So just like the sea cucumber,
it ingests sediment,
processes it through its intestine,
and then leaves a circular fecal trail.
- [Scientist] All right, let's start
getting those species IDs out.
- [Scientist] Let's go.
- [Scientist] We're in kind of a really diverse area
for sponges, it looks like.
- [Scientist] Oh, yeah, and there is a yellow coral.
Can you maybe pan to the left a little bit?
Ooh. Okay.
So, this looks like a Plexaurid. Plexaurid.
We haven't seen this type of coral yet, I believe.
Tunicate. Oh my God, this is a great shot.
Tunicate in the background as well.
Mushroom coral, of course, in the back too.
And a bamboo, a branched bamboo.
And that stalked sponge.
- [Scientist] Are these demo sponges or glass sponges?
- [Scientist] So, these are all glass sponges.
From what I can tell,
this dive has really been all sponges.
So, really cool neat little rock right here.
- [Scientist] Ooh.
This looks like one of those flying squirrel suits.
- [Scientist] A weird one.
- [Scientist] Yeah.
- [Scientist] Yeah, I don't know if I've ever seen
this one before.
- [Scientist] It's playing dead.
- It's munching on something. - What are you doing? Oh.
- Faceplant. - It has a little urchin.
It's holding a small urchin.
- Ooh.
- [Scientist] So I still think this is
probably some type of Pteraster.
Oh, it's probably a Hymenaster.
But it's a little bit different coloration,
and I don't know how much the coloration varies among these,
but I think this is some type of Hymenaster,
which is still a type of slime star.
- [Scientist] Oh, a slime star.
- [Scientist] But this is not the ones, I would say,
that look all that normal to me.
- [Scientist] Whoa.
- [Scientist] Full zoom.
- [Scientist] So it does not appear to be
eating the urchin,
at least not in this moment.
It might be attempting to eat it,
and it's having trouble negotiating through its spines.
Or it might have just run over it by accident.
- [Scientist] I feel like it's showing off for us.
- [Scientist] Yeah. Ooh.
- [Scientist] Well, to a terrestrial organism,
it certainly is.
(speakers laughing)
That's a big one.
That's one of the biggest ones I've ever seen.
- [Scientist] Geez.
- Ah. - Sorry.
- [Scientist] What is that thing again?
- [Scientist] It's a solitary hydroid.
- [Scientist] Come down a little faster for me.
- [Scientist] It does look very alone out here.
So that little- - It's flat out there.
- [Scientist] Orange thing inside, that's also a part of it?
- [Scientist] I am not sure.
After we get a second of prettiness here,
I'd like to zoom in closer,
'cause that looks a little weird to me.
- [Scientist] So, because this is a hydroid,
it's part of the Cnidarian family, correct?
- Yep. - Go ahead, Darrall.
- [Scientist] Wow.
- [Scientist] Is that an anemone inside of a hydroid?
- [Scientist] Oh my gosh. Look at that gorgeousness.
- [Scientist] That's certainly different.
- [Scientist] What are we looking at in the center there?
Like, it looks like sunflower seeds, except clearly not.
(someone laughs)
- [Scientist] Yeah, so looking at my reference pictures,
it is,
I've seen that mainly retracted,
but that is part of the organism.
This is a Corymorphidae.
Just never seen the central tentacles
extended that far before.
- [Scientist] So those are tentacle,
so all of those are just different variations of tentacles?
So we've got the outside tentacles,
the bright orange tentacles,
and then the little tentacles
that look like sunflower seeds.
- [Scientist] I don't know enough about the anatomy of this,
but yeah, I believe all three of those
are parts of the organism.
- It's just chilling there. - Hello.
- [Scientist] All Chaunacops highlights, all the time.
- Gotcha. - Love it.
- [Scientist] That's cool.
- Chauna what? Cops? - Chaunacops.
- [Scientist] Deep in contemplative thoughts.
- [Scientist] Yep.
(speakers laughing)
- [Scientist] Staring into the void.
- [Scientist] We've all had that day.
- [Scientist] Yeah.
- [Scientist] I wanted to be a shark when I grew up,
but here I am, hmm.
(speakers laughing)
- [Megan] Fun fact, all the big Chaunacopses are girls.
- [Scientist] What!
- [Megan] The males have really extreme sexual dimorphism.
They're small and parasitic, and so all the big ones-
- Interesting. - Females.
- [Scientist] Oh, so all the big Chaunacops are female?
- [Scientist] Hey, girl.
- [Scientist] Thanks for bringing the facts, Megan.
- Right. - Welcome.
- [Scientist] It's still there.
- Yeah. - Yep.
All right, carry on. - It's not moving at all.
- [Scientist] Cool how she's got her fins
kind of wedged in there.
- Right. - Yeah.
- [Scientist] Standing up for her own ground.
- Yep. - You think, hunting?
- Waiting. - Waiting for?
- Just waiting. - Waiting.
- [Scientist] It's like she's chilling for us.
- [Scientist] Waiting.
- [Scientist] Oh, oh, oh! She just ate.
- [Scientist] What!
- Yeah. - Prediction.
Go back. - What?
- [Scientist] Go back.
- [Scientist] Are you serious?
- [Scientist] Yeah, her like whole jaw extended out.
- Wow. - And we missed it?
- [Scientist] That was amazing.
- Do it again! - What!
- [Scientist] We blink, we miss it.
Okay, folks at home, rewind. That was awesome.
- [Scientist] Rewind, rewind, highlight, highlight.
- [Scientist] (indistinct) test right here.
Oh. - Oh.
- Oh. - There it goes.
- Oh. - She's tensing.
- [Scientist] Gonna go for it, gonna go for it.
Wait, wait a minute. - [All] Oh.
- [Scientist] Aw, yeah.
- Oh! - There's the lure.
- [Scientist] Not the lure!
- [Scientist] That was pretty neat.
- [Scientist] So we got a really high-density,
or high-diversity community here.
See just about most of the major taxa here.
We've got Chrysogorgias in multiple flavors.
We've got Primnoids in multiple flavors.
We've got Paramuriceas, we've got Anthomastus.
We've got, like, probably a couple bamboos behind us.
So we've got a whole host of different things here.
So we're gonna take an eDNA sample here.
- [Scientist] Brian, key question of the whole expedition.
Why do you think this spot has so much life?
- [Scientist] This particular spot? I don't know.
That is one of the things
that scientifically drives me crazy,
and I don't have a really good mechanistic answer.
And the big picture answer is
probably the current here is ideal for corals, broadly.
But what that actually means- - Zoom in there, Darrall.
- [Scientist] in terms of periodic flow,
steady flow, speed of flow,
you know, all those kind of things,
I don't have answers for.
And that is something that, you know,
I would say it's one of the major drivers
of some of my research questions,
is trying to understand that particular question
of why this rock, and not that rock.
- [Scientist] Can you turn on the pan and tilt light?
Uh, what Niskins do we have?
- [Scientist] Niskin 4, looks good.
- [Scientist] That's a good Atalanta shot.
- [Scientist] Yeah.
- [Scientist] Uh-huh.
- [Scientist] So as we're moving through this
just really impressive coral field,
it's a good time to remind people
that the area we're operating in right now
is part of the US exclusive economic zone
north of the US territories of Palmyra and Kingman Reef.
And this area currently is under consideration
for a proposed national marine sanctuary,
and the public comment period to get people's input
closes, I believe, June 2nd.
And the link is on Nautilus Live.
And there's a writeup on NautilusLive.org
about what that means, and ways to participate.
But this is a really relevant time period
for us to be here, collecting this data,
which is gonna get fed
right into the federal decision-making process
about whether this area should qualify
as a new national marine sanctuary.
- Those are so pretty. - It's an Atalanta shot there.
- [Scientist] Yep. Yeah.
Uh, Katie, you wanna flag that Atalanta shot
for a highlight?
- [Scientist] I sure can.