[James Cameron] The Ocean.
the last frontier on earth.
So much is unexplored
and unexplained.
To change that
a kickass team of insanely
talented specialists is
setting out to push the
frontiers of what we know
about our oceans.
[Zoleka Filander] Oh my gosh.
[James Cameron] Zoleka Filander,
deep sea scientist.
[Zoleka Filander] Being a
deep-sea researcher means
having front row tickets to
the best movie that everybody
wants to watch.
[James Cameron]
Melissa Márquez
[Melissa Márquez]
Straight ahead, 12:00.
[James Cameron]
Shark biologist.
[Melissa Márquez] We just saw
what no one has seen before.
[James Cameron]
Eric Stackpole
[Eric Stackpole] Scan now!
[James Cameron] Ocean
tech innovator.
[Eric Stackpole] I love
building tools that allow us
to see things in ways
we've never seen before.
[gasps]
[James Cameron] And Aldo Kane
[Aldo Kane] This is insane.
[James Cameron] Former
Royal Marine; special ops.
[Aldo Kane] It doesn't get
any more cutting-edge
exploration than this.
[James Cameron]
Their secret weapon
the OceanXplorer.
The most technologically
advanced research vessel
ever built.
There's never been a more
urgent need to understand
our ocean and the animals
that call it home
Because their lives
and ours depend on it.
This time the team ventures into
the realm of ancient ice giants.
[Melissa Márquez]
Oh shark, shark.
[theme music plays]
[James Cameron] The
OceanXplorer is headed
where most ships fear to go.
The ice, of the Arctic Ocean.
[Melissa Márquez] A bit
in disbelief that
we're actually here.
[Eric Stackpole] Yeah I'm
just trying to take it all in.
[James Cameron] A treacherous
journey, to a hostile world.
[Zoleka Filander] Being one of
the few people that are here,
that comes with
great responsibility.
[Aldo Kane] Yeah.
[Eric Stackpole] This is
definitely an area that has
never been covered that well
before, the instruments that
we have on board are perhaps
gonna be the first
to see this stuff.
[Melissa Márquez] Such an
amazing opportunity to leave
such a lasting impact, in ways
that hasn't been done before.
[James Cameron] Just 500
miles from the north pole.
They've reached
the ship's limit.
All that lies ahead of them
is an ocean covered in ice.
This frozen world
may seem barren.
But beneath the ice, lies a
thriving underwater world.
Where long-lived giants roam.
Living up to 200 years,
the bowhead whale has the
longest lifespan of any mammal.
And even more extraordinary,
the Greenland shark,
the longest living vertebrate,
can survive for an
astounding 500 years.
Extreme creatures,
dominating an extreme world.
The foundation of
the whole ecosystem
ice.
The team's first mission, is
to get beneath the ice and
find evidence of the life that
allows these Arctic
giants to thrive.
Former Commando
Aldo Kane starts the search.
[Aldo Kane] The plan is, is that
I want to dive under the ice.
This is the furthest north
I've ever been, this will be
the coldest water dive I've
done, the highest north dive
I've ever done.
[Dive Crew] Our visibility is
dropping down to under a mile.
[James Cameron] Aldo will
be joined by underwater
cinematographer
David Reichart.
[Aldo Kane] The plan will
be that you and I go in,
underneath, into the ice.
[James Cameron] On the
underside of the ice,
Aldo and David hope to find
algae, a critical first step
in the Arctic food web.
[Aldo Kane] The ice is closing
in quite a bit round about us.
[Dive Crew] 3, 2, 1.
[splashing]
[Aldo Kane] That's uh, me in
the water now so we should
push in under the ice
and see what we can see.
Over.
[David Reichart] Look at all the
tiny little creatures in here.
[Aldo Kane] The water
temperature's around
minus 1.5 at the minute.
[David Reichart] If you look
into the light, you see this
halo of these tiny little
threads everywhere,
which is the ice as
it starts to form.
[Aldo Kane] This is so cool.
[David Reichart] Aldo lets
go take a look at this uh,
under this zone over here
it's a little bit darker
definitely indicates some
kind of a algae or something.
[Aldo Kane] Yeah David that
looks like some algae
there doesn't it?
[James Cameron] But before
Aldo can take a sample,
the freezing water
creates a big problem.
[David Reichart] I'm having
a freeze-up I'm coming up.
[James Cameron] David's
regulator has frozen.
[Aldo Kane] David's having a
free flow we're coming up!
We're coming up.
We're coming up!
[James Cameron] Now both their
regulators have frozen open,
the air is rushing
from their tanks.
It's an emergency situation,
they have to abort the dive.
[Dive Crew] 3, 2, 1, up.
[Aldo Kane] Both
David and I jumped in
we thought we could
see the algae but
um, David had a free-flow,
frozen regulator
and I had a free-flow,
frozen regulator,
we were about here
on the ice actually,
so 5 or 6 meters in,
and that's it,
that's the end of the dive.
[James Cameron] Aldo's
found algae under the ice
now deep-sea researcher Zoleka
takes the search for life
to the next level.
[Zoleka Filander] It's too
dangerous to take the
piloted sub under the ice,
so we are gonna deploy the
ROV to see what's down there.
[James Cameron]
The ROV is the ship's
remotely operated vehicle,
capable of diving to
almost 20,000 feet.
[Zoleka Filander] Copepod!
Here!
Look at them go.
So tiny.
It's great that we got this
on camera guys, super great.
[James Cameron] Zoleka and
the ROV team have been able to
find copepods.
Tiny shrimp-like creatures
that punch well above their
weight in the
Arctic food chain.
[Zoleka Filander] They are
the grazer of the algae
under the ice.
[James Cameron] Each spring,
as algae starts to grow on the
underside of the ice, billions
of these quarter-inch long
copepods rise from the
depths to graze upon it.
They in turn become food for
many other ocean creatures.
[Zoleka Filander] It's really
hard to conceptualize or
imagine that the bowhead
whales, one of the largest
ever to roam the oceans, is
feeding on this crustacean.
[James Cameron] The team has
found signs of life in these
waters, and it all
hangs on the ice.
No ice no algae.
No algae no copepods.
No copepods
no bowhead whales.
These Bowhead whales
can weigh up to 100 tons.
Of all the animals on the planet
only the blue whale is heavier.
Their massive head is
up to 20 feet long,
and can create a breathing hole,
by smashing through solid ice,
up to two feet thick.
Bowhead whales have a mouth
so big you could drive
a school bus into it.
But they feast on the tiniest
of creatures, scooping up
almost two million
copepods in every mouthful.
Bowhead whales live across
the Arctic with numbers
in the tens of thousands.
But here, the Spitsbergen
population was hunted
to near extinction.
Their numbers were thought to
be reduced to a few handfuls.
[James Cameron] In the 100 years
since commercial whaling ended
in the Arctic, the
Spitsbergen bowheads
have barely been
seen or studied.
The team's next mission is to
find out how this population
is doing now?
Joining our team are Arctic
marine mammal scientists
Kit Kovacs and
Christian Lydersen
who've been studying the polar
region for over 40 years.
[Kit Kovacs] Bowheads in the
Spitsbergen population are
modestly famous in
conservation terms,
because they were the first
whale population in the world
to be decimated.
Everything about bowhead biology
is pretty slow and conservative.
At more southerly latitudes,
animals tend to live faster,
they eat more quickly, they
have babies more often,
they have more babies
in each pregnancy.
Our Arctic animals slow
and steady is the rule.
[James Cameron] These gentle
giants like to take their time.
They move slow
they breed late, at 25
and have young
just twice a decade.
[Eric Stackpole] Kit and
Christian have this really
cool piece of equipment that
uses compressed air to fire a
satellite tag into the skin of
a whale, while taking a biopsy
sample at the same time.
This thing's pretty cool, but
we're going to have to fire it
from a moving helicopter.
Finding these bowhead whales
in the ice is not easy,
Kit and Christian tell me it can
take them 50 hours before they
even find their first bowhead,
so this is going to take
a long time I think.
[helicopter whirring]
[Christian Lydersen] We want to
go at 300 feet around 60 knots.
[Eric Stackpole] What
should I be looking for?
I mean are they usually in,
kind of amidst these chunks of
ice or are they usually
in larger open spots?
[Christian Lydersen] It depends
on what they are doing.
[Kit Kovacs] Everybody's
looking for anything black
and anything moving.
[Christian Lydersen] Anything
you see actually that
looks suspicious.
[Eric Stackpole] Makes
this extra challenging.
[Kit Kovacs]
Always think positive.
[Eric Stackpole] Good
advice Kit thank you.
So do they only survive, do
they only live where there's
the presence of ice on the
surface, or do they venture
further away where
you can't find any ice?
[Kit Kovacs] They'll tip-toe
out from the ice up to
200 kilometers for short periods
in our area, but for the vast
majority of their time
they are well into ice,
sometimes in what would be
considered 100% ice cover.
[Eric Stackpole] Wow.
[Kit Kovacs] There's an animal
at the surface here,
right under us now.
[Eric Stackpole]
Oh yeah I see it.
[Kit Kovacs] He's subsurface
right now but I can still see
where he is. 11:00.
[Eric Stackpole]
This is happening!
- Two of them.
- Two of them?
[Eric Stackpole] 9:00. Yeah.
[Pilot] Quick turnaround.
[Christian Lydersen]
There's, there's three.
[James Cameron] Positive
thinking has paid off.
Three Bowheads
in one location!
[Kit Kovacs] Ok,
let's get one of them.
[Pilot] You want me to come
in a little faster? We ok?
[Christian Lydersen]
Much, much lower.
[Kit Kovacs] 70.
[Christian Lydersen]
Much, much lower!
[Kit Kovacs] 60.
[Christian Lydersen] It's
coming, it's coming, come on,
go down, go down, go down!
[dart firing]
[Kit Kovacs]
Great hit Christian.
[James Cameron] The locator
tag is successfully attached,
but the biopsy sample needs to
be scooped out of the water.
[Eric Stackpole]
Alright we got it!
[Kit Kovacs] Christian
are you ready for
liquid Nitrogen please?
- So you take off this.
- Ok.
[James Cameron] This tissue
sample is precious,
they quickly store it
in liquid nitrogen.
[Eric Stackpole] Ok.
[James Cameron]
It's a huge win
And with another bowhead still
at the surface they have a
chance to double
down on the success.
[Pilot] I'm gonna come
at it from behind here.
[Christian Lydersen]
It's coming up again?
Yes, he is.
Let's go down,
go down, go down.
[dart firing]
[Eric Stackpole] Yes number two.
- [Pilot] There's another one right there.
- [Christian Lydersen] There's another one?
[Pilot] Yeah, right in front
of us, right in front of us.
[Kit Kovacs] 40, 30
[Christian Lydersen] He
will come up again,
let's go closer, closer.
[dart firing]
Both tags on!
[Eric Stackpole]
OK, three deployed.
[James Cameron] Tagging three
bowheads in one helo mission
is an extraordinary success.
[Christian Lydersen]
We've been extremely lucky.
[Kit Kovacs] This is an
amazing, amazing day.
[Christian Lydersen] We're out
here in the middle of nowhere
and uh, and we just hit
the, the pot of gold.
[Eric Stackpole] Of course I
know this is the beginning of,
of where the science really
happens because now we have
these biopsy samples.
[helicopter whirring]
[James Cameron] In the ship's
lab, Kit prepares the tissue
sample from the Bowhead
whale for genetic analysis.
[Kit Kovacs] Here's our, our
bowhead sample, this is
our black treasure.
The DNA, these days, is one
of the most exciting analysis
that you can perform.
[Eric Stackpole] Is this kind
of similar to like, if I do
one of these where I spit
into a tube and send it into
a genetic analysis place
they can tell me where my
ancestors came from?
[Kit Kovacs] Exactly.
[James Cameron] Just like a
do-it-yourself ancestry kit,
DNA samples will show how
related these whales are.
A small group that was taken
to the brink of extinction,
you'd expect a low
genetic diversity.
[Eric Stackpole] Is it true,
they thought that this
group of bowheads there
was fewer than 10?
[Kit Kovacs] I think between
1940 and 1980 there had been
three sightings, so they
suggested that there was
a very tiny population.
We thought they were all
completely gone, but clearly
there were some individuals
that had a strong preference
and a very strong affiliation
with sea ice and they survived
that really heavy
period of exploitation.
[Eric Stackpole] That
disposition probably was the
thing that allowed them
to survive through
all this whaling?
[Kit Kovacs] No question about
it, it was their saving grace.
[James Cameron] Christian and
Kit's research is showing a
far larger and more
genetically diverse group
than we expected.
They now estimate it could
be as many as 350 bowheads.
That's a lot more
than a few handfuls.
The Spitsbergen population
must have survived out of the
hunters reach,
protected by the ice.
But the very thing that
saved them, the ice,
is now their
new problem.
It's disappearing
and fast!
In the past 40 years the
amount of summer ice cover
in the Arctic has
shrunken by almost half.
In just a fraction of the
bowheads long lives,
their ice world has
transformed around them,
and it continues to shrink
at an increasing rate.
[Aldo Kane] It's changing
quickly, its changing so
quickly it's quite saddening,
you know by the time my son is
my age this environment
won't be here this,
it won't look like this.
[James Cameron] The team now
wants to meet another giant,
which also depends on the Arctic
ocean freezing every year,
and incredibly this one
lives almost twice as long
as a bowhead whale.
So they travel to the islands
of Svalbard, which is a known
hotspot for the
mysterious Greenland shark.
These cold-loving giants are
the only sharks to be found
year-round in Arctic waters,
feeding and scavenging
on the fish and mammals,
that depend on the ice.
Like the bowhead whale,
the Greenland shark thrives
in the icy water.
And is the longest
living of all vertebrates.
Which means there could be
Greenland sharks swimming
in the Arctic today,
that were alive when
the Mayflower sailed.
But very little else
is known about them.
[Aldo Kane] These sharks
are not very well studied
there's a number of
reasons why not
one, they're deep sea sharks,
technology hasn't really been
there before to,
to understand them,
and two we are in
the high Arctic,
just operating
here is difficult.
[birds cawing]
[James Cameron] The team's
shark biologist Melissa Márquez,
is going to lead the mission
to gather crucial data.
[Melissa Márquez] It's
really hard to get access to
Greenland sharks just because
of how remote they are.
Every single interaction that
we have with these animals is
extremely valuable,
it's once in a lifetime data
that either is gonna help
validate the very little we
know about these sharks,
or it's going to cause
a lot more questions with
no answers because
this is a first.
[Eric Stackpole] We've teamed
up with these scientists
Nigel and Eric, who are
experts in this field.
Maybe we can work
together to unlock a mystery.
[Eric Ste-Marie]
Hey, how's it going?
[Eric Stackpole] Hey!
Welcome to the OceanXplorer.
[Eric Ste-Marie]
Great meeting you.
[Eric Stackpole] Yeah
welcome, welcome aboard.
[Nigel Hussey]
Pleased to meet you Eric.
[Eric Stackpole]
Welcome aboard.
[Nigel Hussey] We've come here
to try and demystify or
try and understand the
Greenland shark.
[James Cameron] The team
gathers in the mixed reality lab
to share what little is
known about these
hard to study creatures.
[Melissa Márquez] So one of
the coolest things I think
that I find about
these sharks is their age.
[Nigel Hussey] So, they
do hold the record as the
longest-lived
vertebrate on the planet.
The estimated age at the
moment is 392 years,
plus or minus 120 years.
[Eric Stackpole] So wait, that
would be over 500 years old!
[Nigel Hussey] Yeah.
The largest size is confirmed
for them is about 6.4 meters.
[Eric Stackpole] Wow,
that's nearly 20 feet long.
[Nigel Hussey] Exactly.
[Melissa Márquez] They've
got these kind of infamous
eye parasites, that make
it a little bit hard to see,
if not makes them blind.
[Eric Ste-Marie] Almost all
Greenland sharks actually will
have these eye parasites
attached to their cornea.
These sharks live often in
deep waters where light is
not very strong and so they
might not need to rely on vision
as much as some other species.
And so we think that they
rely quite heavily on smell
in order to find food and and
possibly to navigate as well.
[Nigel Hussey] It probably
remains one of the least known
of all species on the planet
and what we really
want to try and understand
is what is the feeding behavior
of Greenland sharks?
[James Cameron] Working with
Nigel and Eric, the team wants
to attach motion sensors to
the sharks, to gather data on
how they move underwater.
This could offer valuable
insight on how the sharks feed.
[Eric Ste-Marie] In this
study, we're planning on
putting some accelerometer
tags on Greenland sharks.
We'll be able to detect the
number of tail movements,
whether the shark is
swimming up or down.
Detecting those fine scale
behaviors we're hoping that
we can give us a bit
more insight into the lives
of these really
mysterious animals.
[James Cameron] The team hopes
to attract the sharks from the
icy depths by
putting out baited lines.
[Nigel Hussey] What we'll do is
we'll drop off an anchor first.
Bait.
[Aldo Kane] Right,
first knot coming round.
Clear!
Mark position.
[Melissa Márquez]
Marking that.
[Eric Ste-Marie] These
conditions are perfect for
tagging so I actually
hope we get a few sharks.
[Melissa Márquez] When
we're tagging animals,
we're thinking about doing the
most humane way possible.
We're thinking about the
wellbeing of the animal,
so with Greenland sharks
what we've actually got is
a specialized hook
that reduced injury.
[birds cawing]
[anticipatory music]
[Eric Ste-Marie]
Feeling good about it.
Every so often
there's a good tug.
[Nigel Hussey] It feels like
we've got something on the line.
[Eric Ste-Marie] I'm
definitely feeling a tug.
[Melissa Márquez] So an
actual like shark tug?
[Eric Ste-Marie] Yeah. Yeah.
[Nigel Hussey] We might be
lucky we might be lucky!
[Aldo Kane] Yeah I
can see it, shark.
Shark coming uplooks big!
There's a lot of
weight on that.
[Nigel Hussey]
This is a big animal.
[Eric Ste-Marie]
Look at that tail.
It's a massive, massive shark.
[Nigel Hussey] Ready
with that body strap.
You ready Aldo?
[Aldo Kane] Yeah coming in.
[Nigel Hussey] Ok.
Alright. Yep.
Woah.
Ok.
[grunting]
[Aldo Kane] It is strong
when it, when it moves.
[grunting]
[Nigel Hussey] Ok
it's a female yeah?
[Melissa Márquez] Yep!
So this is water activated?
So as soon as it
goes into the water?
[Eric Ste-Marie] Yeah exactly,
so I'll submerge it and
ten seconds later it'll start
logging acceleration,
also depth and temperature.
Yep.
[James Cameron] The motion
tag will stay attached to the
shark for three days, recording
every detail of its movement,
hundreds of times per second.
[Melissa Márquez] We ready
for a measurement?
[Nigel Hussey] Yep.
[Eric Ste-Marie]
Ok is she straight?
Straighten her out.
- Yeah.
- Yeah perfect.
[Eric Ste-Marie] Perfect.
Ok 370.
[Melissa Márquez] 370!
[Eric Ste-Marie] 370. Yeah.
[Melissa Márquez]
Dude almost 4 meters.
[Eric Ste-Marie] Almost.
[Aldo Kane] Ok
releasing from the middle?
Body straps off.
Ok all clear of the red rope?
[Nigel Hussey] Ok so we're
just gonna let it go yeah.
[Aldo Kane] Swimming away.
[dreamy dramatic music]
[engine rumbling]
[James Cameron] In the
ship's lab, analysis of the
Greenland shark tag data
reveals intriguing results.
[Eric Ste-Marie] Each one of
these peaks represents a
full back and forth
movement of the shark's tail.
It took about 6 seconds for
the shark to do one full
back and forth motion.
So quite slow.
At certain points the shark
does increase its tail beat
frequency, meaning it
starts swimming faster.
So, what we're interested in
is trying to figure out what
it's doing during those times,
when it is exhibiting burst
swimming or more
rapid tail beats.
[Nigel Hussey] We can only
predict that that maybe is
some response to stimuli.
We need factual observations
of what the animal is doing.
[James Cameron] To find out
what's causing this change in
speed, Melissa sets up an
experiment that could
prove irresistible to
Greenland sharks.
[Melissa Márquez] Oh nooo!
[Eric Ste-Marie]
Mm, they look fresh.
[Melissa Márquez] Don't even!
We're gonna be doing a
food fall experiment.
Essentially, we're gonna put
a bunch of bait down on the
bottom of the ocean
and see what shows up.
Hopefully it's
Greenland Sharks.
If Greenland sharks
aren't attracted to this,
I don't know what will.
[Nigel Hussey] To my knowledge
this is the first time that
this type of experiment
has been conducted.
Cage is going down.
The food fall experiment with
these different sizes of prey
basically allows us to
see ok, how firstly,
does the shark
approach the prey?
Secondly, when the animal
actually takes the prey,
does it consume it whole?
Does it suck up the prey item?
These are key questions
we'd like to answer.
The dinner bell's ringing.
[Melissa Márquez] Well hopefully
the sharks like this.
[James Cameron] For their
final mission, can the team be
the first people to ever witness
Greenland sharks feeding?
24 hours after sending the
bait cage to the sea floor,
Melissa and Nigel prepare to
make the same journey in
one of the ship's subs.
[Nigel Hussey] First
time uh to get into a sub.
[Melissa Márquez] We just
need to get down there,
observe their behavior,
and see them in-situ and
maybe see a little
bit of feeding.
[Nigel Hussey] Ready to go.
[Pilot] Come on down man.
[Nigel Hussey] Very exciting
to get down underwater and
go into the natural world of the
Greenland sharks and see these
animals behaving on this
bait-fall experiment so,
we'll see what we see.
[radio chatter].
[Pilot] S O S O,
Neptune venting now.
[James Cameron] From mission
control, Zoleka and Eric watch
a live feed of the dive.
[Nigel Hussey] It's like a
scuba dive but without the
contact from water.
Ah it's just surreal.
[dramatic music]
What depth are we at now?
[Melissa Márquez] 180.
[Pilot] Uh 180 meters.
[Nigel Hussey] Oh come on
sharks, we've got to see
sharks, we have to see sharks.
[James Cameron] The mission
control the team is
also on watch.
[Zoleka Filander] My duty is
to log any observations that
we might see.
For us to collect this data,
this is really gonna like take
the whole understanding of the
species to a whole new level.
So it is, it is
quite something.
[James Cameron] As they
descend into the darkness,
the sub team has no idea if they
will encounter Greenland sharks,
or what their reaction
to the feast might be.
[Pilot] I've got about
50 meters to the cage.
[radio chatter].
[Pilot] There it is
[Melissa Márquez] Oh yeah.
[Pilot] I have cage
in sight, dead ahead.
[Melissa Márquez] There.
Mm.
[Nigel Hussey] No sharks.
[Pilot] I thought there would
be something here, you know?
[Melissa Márquez] Mmn.
[Nigel Hussey] It
just seems odd.
[James Cameron] It's
an unexpected start
the bait is untouched.
[Melissa Márquez] Oh, oh!
Shark, shark!
[Nigel Hussey] Oh my word,
that's just incredible.
[Pilot] He's going to
check out the cage.
[Nigel Hussey] Tail fin
is hardly moving.
[Melissa Márquez] Oh come on
you can smell it, I
know you can smell it.
Go for it!
Oh right on the nose.
[James Cameron] This is not
just a first for Nigel and
Melissa, this is a
first for science.
No one has ever sat and
watched a Greenland shark
in its natural
environment before.
[Melissa Márquez] Look, it's
got the parasite on its eye.
[Nigel Hussey] Yep,
parasite's on there.
It navigated quite well
round the front of
the sub there though.
[Pilot] I think he's not so
blind as he pretends to be!
[James Cameron] The shark's
behavior is totally unexpected,
it's not going straight
for the bait.
[Melissa Márquez] I've never
seen that in another
species of shark.
Is it maybe because it can't
see that well, if it bumps
into it and it doesn't feel
like what it would normally
eat, it'd be like 'naw
this isn't what I want'
and it'll back up?
[Nigel Hussey] You know
[Melissa Márquez] So even
though it smells like it?
[Nigel Hussey] Yeah, but you
would still think it would
explore around so I'm a
little bit surprised.
[James Cameron] Shark
biologist Melissa has a plan
to tempt Greenland
sharks to the bait.
[Melissa Márquez] There's no
current to kind of really
help it out?
[Nigel Hussey] Hmm.
It's a very good point.
[Melissa Márquez] I think
we've got to get in there and
take some fish and go kshhh.
[Pilot] I mean I've
got a manipulator.
[Melissa Márquez] Stir it up!
[Pilot] Turning
on the hydraulics.
[intense music]
[Melissa Márquez]
Give it a little shake.
Yes that, do that.
Cause a little
bit of a ruckus.
[Pilot] Think that's enough?
[Melissa Márquez] I mean
it's got a nice plume.
[Pilot] That
looks like it smells!
[Melissa Márquez] Perfect!
Come on sharks.
[dramatic music]
[Nigel Hussey] Oh my word!
[Melissa Márquez] Male!
It's just massive.
[Eric Stackpole] Here we go.
[Pilot] Look at his eyes.
[Nigel Hussey] That's like it's
actually looking directly at us.
[Pilot] Oh my god!
[Melissa Márquez]
Oh my goodness!
[Nigel Hussey] Now
can we go on the bait?
[Melissa Márquez] Come on
come back around baby
eat something!
[Nigel Hussey]
There, there, there!
[Melissa Márquez] Come on!!
[Pilot] He wants it.
[Nigel Hussey] Yes.
Yes, yes yes yes.
- Oh there we go, there we go.
- Oh yes.
- He's got it.
- He's got it.
[Pilot] He's pretty quick, I
thought you said these guys
were slow.
[Nigel Hussey] k*ller
instinct finally kicked in!
That is pretty
strong movements there.
[Melissa Márquez] Exactly.
It's almost pinning the bait
down to open up this carcass.
[Nigel Hussey]
That is incredible.
[Melissa Márquez] Oh
just look at it go!
[James Cameron] This
is brand new behavior.
The team is making
observations they could
only have dreamed of.
[Nigel Hussey] To me it's
always like this conceptual
idea with time.
- Yeah.
- With longevity.
So we're looking at a
behavior now in our time,
but relative in their time
what does that mean?
[Melissa Márquez] Mmm.
We just saw what no one
has ever seen before!
[Nigel Hussey]
We have, we have.
[Melissa Márquez]
I call this a success!
[Nigel Hussey]
I think we done good!
To actually witness and see an
animal that you've committed a
huge amount of time, blood,
sweat and tears to studying
it, it, yeah it's indescribable
how fabulous it is.
[Melissa Márquez]
It's incredible!
This is the first time anyone's
ever seen a Greenland shark
in situ like this
and actually feeding!
[James Cameron] The team meets
to figure out the meaning of
what they've just witnessed.
[Melissa Márquez] Is there
anything that you guys have
kind of seen with this data,
with our observations that you
think might lend to
them living so long?
[Nigel Hussey] The key in the
data we've got here, uh, is,
you know the fact that these
animals live life in
the slow lane.
Maybe naively I'd always
thought that if I was a
Greenland shark and somebody
put a goldmine of food for me
on the sea bed, I
wouldn't mess around.
[Melissa Márquez]
Just dive into it.
[Nigel Hussey] Yeah I would,
swim in there and consume,
you know as much as possible
and it did the opposite.
The Greenland shark came in
and it patrolled, you know
around the
arena, it sort of
[Melissa Márquez]
Checked us out a little bit.
[Nigel Hussey] Yeah,
it, it checked us out.
[Melissa Márquez]
Checked out the other sub.
[Nigel Hussey] Yeah it was
sort of surveying you know
its environment.
[Eric Stackpole] You kind of
wonder about, you know does
that have anything to do
with how they manage risk?
You know we're seeing
something that lives a very
long time, and I, I can't help
but wonder if it's because
they're so cautious that
that helps them not get into
situations that,
that cause them to die?
[Nigel Hussey] Yeah.
That's a that's a
really good point.
[Eric Ste-Marie] Like most
things in life, not everything
has one answer or one solution
and it's probably a bit of
everything, from the
environment to metabolic rate,
to physiology there's a
million different factors
that play in, but it's important
to then at the end take a step
back and realize that
there's just so many
factors going into it.
[Zoleka Filander] Yeah, yeah.
[Aldo Kane] If in
doubt, zoom out.
[laughing]
Do you guys think then
you've gained quite a lot
of information and data?
[Eric Ste-Marie] Each one of
these observations is like a
gift for us to really
get the gears turning.
[Zoleka Filander] He's like
Yeahhhh.
[Aldo Kane] So it's
been a success then?
[Eric Ste-Marie] Yeah!
[James Cameron] The combination
of the teams' efforts and
the ship's incredible tech
have allowed them to
explore the high Arctic,
where few have gone before.
They've gathered valuable
data that's changed our
understanding of a
whole population of whales.
And captured unique
footage of an elusive shark.
[Aldo Kane] This mission has
shown just how much we still
have to learn about these two
amazing Arctic species,
their environment is
changing so quickly,
we're running out of time.
[Eric Stackpole] It's been
great to be on this mission
and being able to see these
animals that are so hard to
observe and live so long.
[Melissa Márquez] The Arctic
is special and unique.
There's a bit of magic here
that you can't really find
anywhere else.
[James Cameron] Preserving
the ice is the only way to
keep life in balance here.
We have to turn things around
while we still have time.
Not just for the future of
these amazing ice giants,
but for our future too.
Welcome to our World! Where we serve you cookies to ensure you get the best viewing experience on our site.
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
01x06 - Ice Giants
Watch/Buy Amazon
Follows a research vessel exploring 80% of Earth's uncharted oceans, combining scientific documentary with dramatic footage capturing the thrill of ocean discovery across six high-stakes adventure episodes.
Follows a research vessel exploring 80% of Earth's uncharted oceans, combining scientific documentary with dramatic footage capturing the thrill of ocean discovery across six high-stakes adventure episodes.