(soothing music)
- The deep sea is actually full of light,
but the light is not sunlight coming
down from the surface, it's light that is produced
by a wide variety of animals that live there.
I'm Steve Haddock and I'm a senior scientist at MBARI.
I study bioluminescence.
Bioluminescence is the term that we use for living light.
Bio, meaning life, and luminescence, meaning light.
You're probably familiar with bioluminescence
through the example of a firefly.
In the ocean, many, many organisms
are able to produce bioluminescence.
The organisms living in the deep sea are living
in a largely dark environment,
but they need some ways to communicate with each other.
And the most efficient and effective way
to do that in the ocean is actually to use light.
(soothing music)
At MBARI, we're trying to take the latest
in technological developments and use it to answer
centuries old questions about how
and why organisms bioluminesce.
Scientists and engineers have teamed up to mount
a low light camera on a remotely operated vehicle.
And this allows us to film
bioluminescent light in its natural environment.
Every time we go to sea, I get excited about
the possibilities of what we're going
to see with our low light camera.
One example of an organism that uses
bioluminescence to find food is the anglerfish,
that uses the light from the lure to attract prey to it.
And the anglerfish can use this to attract prey,
just like moths would come to a light bulb.
We're starting to find that some squid
are thought to use glowing tentacles
that they dangle down to attract prey.
And we even found a siphonophore,
which are these long jellyfish-like creatures,
that uses bioluminescent lures
to attract fish in the deep sea.
The red crown jelly creates this pinwheel
of light as part of its display.
And that initial bioluminescence is thought
to serve as a burglar alarm.
The way that works is if a predator, like say a shrimp,
comes along and is starting to nibble on that jelly,
it will start its pinwheel of light,
and that might attract another predator like a fish
or a squid that wants to eat that shrimp.
A burglar alarm is one of the best examples
of how bioluminescence can be used
as a defensive tool for an organism.
Other organisms use bioluminescence as a smokescreen
to distract their predator while they escape.
Your predator's confused, and its attention is drawn
to this cloud of sparkles, while you are jetting away.
In the deep ocean, most organisms that are bioluminescent
produce blue or blue-green light.
And we think this is because that light
travels best through water.
But there is one spectacular exception to that,
which is the gossamer worm.
And this worm swims through the water
with these undulating paddles, and when it's disturbed,
it produces a golden sparkle that just looks
like pixie dust floating through the water.
We don't know why it produces yellow light
instead of the blue-green light
that almost all other bioluminescent organisms produce.
(soothing music)
It's surprising after literally centuries
of studying these organisms that there's still
some very fundamental questions which we have yet to answer.
And I'm hoping that as we see more
organisms in their natural environment,
it will help us unlock the mysteries of how they communicate
and how they use this light to survive.