- [Narrator] Tonight we are on the hunt
for something truly bizarre.
As I hope to encounter
the aliens of the reef.
(intense music)
(majestic music)
- What's going on everybody?
And welcome back to another Blue Wilderness adventure.
Here on the edge of the Caribbean Sea at night.
Now we're at Grand Cayman Island
and we did come here to swim
with Stingrays at Stingray City, and that was awesome.
We saw all kinds of cool reef fish
and of course got up close and personal
with those giant rays.
But, if we truly want to see something unique,
something really bizarre,
the best time to do that is at night.
So what we're gonna do is we're gonna
get our dive gear ready,
head out in the darkness of the sea,
and get up close with some of the most
alien-looking creatures you can imagine.
Before we can make our descent, we had to swim
away from shore out to deeper water.
The visibility along the way was poor
and churned up by the waves making this process
much more nerveracking than usual.
(creepy music)
Plunging into dark water is without question disorienting.
And it isn't until you regain your visibility and bearings
that your instincts to turn back retreat
and allow you to press forward further into darkness.
My eyes struggle to scan the empty space around me
for a glimpse of anything.
But just like that, we have our first visitor.
Drawn in by my camera lights,
I find these Caribbean Reef Squids stunning.
And very interesting to observe.
Oddly enough, it actually might be
as equally interested in me.
They can by quite the characters
and are extremely intelligent.
It's mesmerizing how its bright coloration
and translucent skin glimmer as it flutters its fins
against the dark inky water.
Isn't it incredible how it can remain
in perfect position with so little effort.
Closely related to octopus and cuttlefish,
these torpedo-shaped cephalopods have ten appendages
set in front of two very large complex eyes.
And while Caribbean Reef Squid are normally
social creatures, seeing one all alone isn't that uncommon.
Wow, they really are something.
What an interesting creature to kick off tonight's dive.
It's a surreal sensation to descend into the black abyss
of the ocean at night.
Some would argue this scenario would easily rank
as their greatest fear.
And I wouldn't necessarily blame them.
Your first night dive can be scary.
Luckily our camera lights are strong and almost create
a force field literally pushing back the fear of the unknown
and establishing the reality that exists in front of us.
I learned long ago that a strong sense of curiosity
can be the best defense against any fear.
Curiosity, like our dive lights, can illuminate our minds
to focus on what we can see instead of imagining
what figments may exist beyond the shadows.
And in this world, almost anything my light touches,
brings my curiosity to a boil.
The weightlessness of diving
combined with this foreign landscape
feels like nothing less than a space odyssey.
So in the spirit of worlds beyond our imagination,
tonight we are on the hunt for something truly bizarre.
As I hope to encounter the aliens of the reef.
(mellow music)
Between the maze of shapes and spectrum of vivid colors
that make up the coral reef,
it's inhabitants are equally as colorful and unusual
and as I get closer to the reef,
many of the smaller creatures start to reveal themselves.
Like this Arrow Crab.
As are most of its other crab cousins,
this one is an opportunistic feeder hunting for worms
and other easy prey.
But if that doesn't look like an alien,
I'm not sure what does.
Okay, let's move on and see what we can find
on the other side of the reef.
Oh wow, so in complete contrast to the Arrow Crab,
here we have a huge Reef Spider Crab,
also known as a Channel Clinging Crab.
This species of spider crab are commonly found
in waters off of Florida, the Bahamas,
and various Caribbean islands
but this one is by far the largest I've seen.
We're currently at about 60 feet below the surface
but these crabs can actually be found, get this,
in excess of 100 feet.
A depth we don't often explore for marine life.
But maybe we should search for some deep water creatures
on a future dive.
The walls of the reef are really impressive,
covered in brightly colored sponges that tower up
at steep angles, giving way to flatter coral beds.
Wait, what was that?
I heard a crunch.
Like some sort of popping sound.
Whoa, that's what I heard.
That grunt just smashed that smaller,
oh and look at that!
There's an octopus.
Did you see it before it changed color?
That's a Caribbean Reef Octopus, and a big one too.
This is definitely the all star creature of the night.
Now they can be extremely difficult to find.
But once spotted will flicker with color.
And these color displays are remarkable.
It's both attempting to blend in with the reef
to camouflage itself,
and just when I get close enough, does that.
That is a defensive display.
See it flash white and blue
and balloon up to appear larger than it really is?
It's incredible how adaptive these creatures are.
Not only able to change color, but also able
to change their shape and skin texture completely.
Seeing these behaviors is very rare.
This is actually the first time I've ever witnessed it.
Now let's talk about danger.
All octopus are venomous, including this one.
And use their beaks to inject their prey
with a toxic saliva that paralyzes them
while they're consumed.
However, unlike their smaller cousin,
the blue ring octopus, this species does not have
a lethal bite when it comes to humans.
But besides their venomous ways, and bizarre appearance,
these animals are indeed strange, having three hearts,
360 degree vision, and possessing inexplicable intelligence
has some scientists suggesting that these creatures
are indeed aliens from another world.
In fact, there are few fossil records to suggest otherwise.
But we'll save that debate for another video.
Okay, well our computers are telling us
it's time to return back to the surface,
but what an epic way to end our adventure.
For more photos and videos of this dive,
make sure to follow me on Instagram, @realmarkvins.
And I do respond to questions,
so make sure to comment and ask away.
Wow, that was by far the biggest octopus
I've personally ever seen out here in the Caribbean
and by far the biggest one
we've ever featured on this channel.
And it showed us all kinds of crazy displays,
I mean it changed color a dozen times,
it went from blues to reds to oranges to stripes
and then it had those brilliant dominance displays
where it ballooned up and tried to make itself
look bigger on the reef.
That was incredible.
I cannot believe we just witnessed that.
And how about that Caribbean Reef Squid.
That's nothing to shake a stick at either.
That was pretty awesome to see the bioluminescence
cascading up and down its fins.
And I hope everybody at home enjoyed tonight's
night adventure just as much as we did.
The crew and I are absolutely exhausted.
We're gonna get this gear off
and head back home for the evening.
But if you haven't yet, make sure to subscribe
and hit that notification bell
so you don't miss a second of the adventures ahead.
There's a lot more coming up on Blue Wilderness.
I'm Mark Vins.
Be brave.
Stay wild.
We'll see you on the next dive.
While a person's first night dive
can be a frightening ordeal,
I have found that any journey
through this mystical landscape
will quickly replace feelings of fear with pure excitement.
These days whenever I have a chance to dive at night,
I find myself jumping at the opportunity, literally.
Just as long as my light batteries are fully charged.
If you enjoyed our journey to discover
the aliens of the reef, make sure to check our the time
we explored Tiger Beach at night
and were able to get extremely close
to a nine foot lemon shark.
And yes, those teeth are very sharp,
just in case you were wondering.
And oh hey, have you signed up
to become a Brave crew member yet?
If not, click the Join button on the channel home page
so you don't miss out on exclusive members only videos
and other exciting perks, only for our biggest fans.
So I'm shown a few people photographs of this vehicle
and what we're going to be doing today.
And everybody seems to be very concerned
by how large the opening at the front of the Spock is.
Now is there a chance that a shark's
gonna come up to the Spock and like.