Original subtitles

So far in blue wilderness,

we've explored the world of sharks,

huge sharks, and lots of them.

But there is, of course, much more

to see in the world's oceans than just

its top marine predators.

Today, we are going to investigate the remains

of our very first shipwreck.

This dive site near Grand Bahama,

known to locals as the Sugar Wreck,

consists of the scattered remains

of an ill-fated molasses steamer,

of which we know very little.

However, wrecks such as these are

actually quite common throughout the Bahamas in the Caribbean.

And what makes this site particularly interesting

isn't it sunken treasure, but is the abundance of marine life

that now calls the ship home.

These wrecks often form micro habitats, almost

like an artificial reef, that can become hotspots for divers

to view an incredible diversity of species.

And little did I know, amongst the wreckage,

we would have the most unexpected wildlife encounter

I had ever experienced.

Ready?

This is always the exciting part, getting clipped in.

So once you're done that means you're

ready to get in the water.

All right.

All right, guys.

It's time to dive the Sugar Wreck.

It's pretty shallow, but we're gonna get a lot of bottom time.

Diver down.

Upon entering the water,

we saw the wreckage right away.

The long metal panels and ribs of the hull

scattered the sea floor.

Not much was recognizable.

That is, until we saw the anchor.

Judging by its size, this was one massive vessel.

And of course, along with the ship was an abundance of fish.

The fields of debris were absolutely cloaked

in a cape of marine creatures.

Schools of snapper and yellow grunts

made up the majority of the fish surrounding the site.

But on closer inspection, we were

able to identify angel fish, filefish,

pesky invasive lionfish, and we even found a large conk.

Have you ever seen their eyes before?

Whoa, how crazy is that?

And of course, no dive is complete without a good shark

sighting.

One particular reef shark became very interested in us.

Actually, maybe a little too interested.

Watch out, buddy.

But like every adventure, we were on the lookout

for something special.

Any time we have cameras in our hands,

we're always looking for something that intrigues us,

something that truly stands out from the crowd,

and almost makes you point the lens in its direction.

And you never really know when that's going to happen.

But when it does, filming gets really exciting.

Suddenly, from under the wreck, I

spotted a small porcupinefish.

What a cool creature.

These little guys have so much personality

I had to try for a closer look.

But as soon as I got closer to the spiny fish,

it floated out into the open and began to slowly head

to another part of the site.

But not too quickly, just a slow gentle

cruise in another direction.

And for some reason, I felt as if it wanted me to follow it.

Don't ask me why, but this moment reminded me

of one of my favorite scenes from the Disney movie,

"The Sword in the Stone," the one where

young Arthur follows Merlin around the lake

after they both turn to fish.

Yeah, that one.

So I thought, let's see where this goes.

And just as I had hoped, the little fish

was leading me right towards something much bigger.

As we cruised together across the wreckage,

I lost sight of Mario and found myself on a side of the wreck

we had not yet explored.

The debris here was much larger and more cavernous.

The cracks in the wreckage were deep.

And its contents were hidden from sight.

Then suddenly and without warning,

the fish dove into a crevice.

And in an instant, it was gone.

To be honest, I felt a little let down,

because I'd hope we'd take a rest so I could get some better

footage, and so had Mario, who at this point

had caught up to us and had actually been following

along the entire time.

We both looked back toward the hull fragments

where our new friend had disappeared.

And then out of the shadows, emerged

a truly giant porcupine fish.

It was huge.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

Never before had I seen one so enormous.

But to my amazement, there were actually more of them.

One by one, they popped out of hiding

to inspect us and say hello.

In fact, before long, I realized that we were completely

surrounded and absolutely being swarmed by huge porcupine fish.

What luck.

Not only would we be able to get some amazing footage,

but we were also about to witness some unique behaviors.

Porcupinefish, also known as blowfish,

and have a tropical waters and reefs all over the world.

Not to be confused with their cousins the pufferfish,

porcupinefish can easily be distinguished by the visible

spines covering their bodies.

They do tend to be primarily found

amongst reefs, and in this case, shipwrecks,

and feed on a variety of hard-shelled vertebrates,

like urchins, crabs, mollusks, and shrimp.

Their beak-like mouths are specifically designed

for these kinds of prey.

And of course, their most famous trait

when agitated, is the ability to inflate their bodies

and erect their spines outward to fend

off any would-be predators.

But the spines themselves are not venomous.

And while impressive, we hopefully

wouldn't be seeing any of these displays

today, because our goal was to remain

in the presence of the fish and disturb

them as little as possible.

However, I must say, these spot-finned porcupinefish

were by far the largest ones we had ever seen.

And one of them was particularly huge and also very dominant.

It was almost the size of a watermelon,

if you could believe it.

My guess is we had stumbled upon a colony of porcupinefish

and we're observing some courtship behaviors.

But the fish themselves did genuinely seem curious

about us and our presence.

Almost like you'd expect a dolphin to behave,

the fish were surprisingly playful.

They would swim up and almost invite contact.

The experience was absolutely surreal.

In general, I would never advise anyone to make

contact with the reef fish.

But this circumstance was clearly special.

And since I was wearing gloves to protect both myself

and the fish, I gently reached out my hand,

and they got even closer.

In fact, they got so close, they would almost make--

One actually made contact with me.

I couldn't believe it.

Like a puppy, it seemed to enjoy brushing its belly

and head against my glove.

This was by far, the most unexpected interaction

we could have ever predicted.

And it wasn't just one either.

They all began to join in.

I was literally palling around with a school of porcupinefish.

After about 10 minutes of enjoying each other's company,

our air was beginning to run low.

So I gave Mario the signal.

We both said our goodbyes and headed back toward the boat.

All right, well, we're back on the boat.

The Sugar Wreck was amazing.

We saw sharks.

We saw all kinds of fish.

I certainly didn't expect to get surrounded by porcupinefish.

But on today's adventure, that's exactly what happened.

I'm Mark Vins.

Be brave, stay wild, and we'll see you on the next dive.

The state of Florida

has long been a wellspring of adventure

for the brave wilderness crew.

Even ranging back to our earliest days,

we've been exploring this state's

natural wonders, well before we even had a YouTube channel.

And from the crocodiles of Turkey Point

to the creatures of the Everglades,

one thing is for sure--

Florida's habitats are robust and full of unusual species.

And it just so happens today's adventure

takes us back to one of its beautiful,

but hidden natural springs.

In the past, you've seen us target these locations

to film one of Florida's largest marine species, the manatee.

But what if I told you there's something else living

amongst the crystal clear waters,

something you can't see, but exists by the millions,

and something that might also not even be from this world?

Today, we aim to show you an unexplainable creature from one

of Earth's smallest dimensions.

Hey, everybody. I'm Mark Vins.

And we are back in the state of Florida

for another adventure in one of their natural springs.

Today, I'm joined by my good friend, Hunter Hines--

or excuse me, Dr. Hunter Hines.

Hunter, why don't you tell everybody

what you're a doctor of?

All right, so my PhD is in microbiology.

Microbiology-- so I think

that pretty much gives it away that we're not

looking for big animals today.

We are looking for the smallest creature

that we've ever featured on "Brave Wilderness."

But in order to find these creatures,

we can't do it on land.

We've got to get out there and get in the water.

And you have some sample tubes here.

Ready to go.

And what exactly are we looking to find

and put into these samples?

Yeah, we're looking for tardigrades today.

Tardigrades-- also known as a water bear.

And we're going to find out a little bit later

why they get that nickname.

And we're also going to answer the question,

are these animals immortal?

And are they from outer space?

I know that sounds silly.

But believe it or not, there are actually rumors

out there for good reason that these might

be aliens living amongst us.

So without further ado, let's get our snorkel gear

together, get out in the water, and find us some tardigrades.

So what are we looking to put in these collection tubes today?

Not just water.

We want to look for algae--

No, we're going to dive down and collect algae,

cyanobacteria.

These are microbial mats on the very bottom of this spring.

Right.

And I'm guessing by the number of collection

tubes we have here in this bag, we

have to take all these samples.

Because you really never know what

you get until you're in the lab under the microscope.

Yeah.

This is the shallow portion of the spring.

There's actually a deeper portion in the back

where we're gonna have to do some free diving.

We'll do it, yeah.

OK, and that's the boil.

That's the boil where all the water comes from, yeah.

There'll be a current down there too.

- Oh, fun. - Yeah.

OK, cool.

We're gonna knock out the easy work first.

And then, we're gonna head to the boil

and challenge ourselves a little bit.

So let's get in the water.

Though it may sound refreshing,

the 72 degree water of this spring

is actually quite frigid.

But it's home to numerous types of life for millions

of microorganisms, to fish like gar, tilapia,

and the bizarre pleco fish.

And if you come here during the winter months,

these hidden pools are also home to a population

of Florida manatees.

As you may have guessed, we can't exactly bring microscopes

from the labs into the spring to pinpoint where

the tardigrades are living.

So we will aim to canvas the entire body of water, where

Hunter conducts his permitted research,

taking small samples from a variety of locations.

They're hard to see from the surface.

But as soon as you enter the water,

you'll notice the bottom is covered

in moss-like blankets and material

growing in every direction.

There's an interesting one right there.

These are called microbial mats, a multi-layered sheet

of microorganisms that are the feeding

ground of the water bears.

So hopefully, we were at the right place,

because from our view, the mats were everywhere.

However, collecting these samples at the bottom

is definitely easier said than done.

This spring is a unique ecosystem

and solely exists due to a boil at the center of the spring,

which pumps 146 million gallons of water each day

from an underwater cavern.

The constant flow of new water creates

a strong circular current, which makes

swimming and collecting our samples all the more difficult.

It's not that easy.

It's actually a lot more difficult

than I thought it would be.

And I'm glad I'm getting the practice

now, because we're about to do some free diving up to 40 feet.

And that's going to take a little more skill.

So I'll give that to you, Hunter.

I'll take the GoPro.

All right, we're almost to the deepest part of the spring.

And from what I hear, some of the best

places to find the tardigrades.

All right, let's go.

As we filled our last samples,

our final test came into sight.

We had reached the entrance to the boil.

We finally made it.

I've got one last large collection tube here.

And this one's going to take a little effort.

It's pretty deep.

It's like a catacomb of fallen trees.

So this is where the good stuff is.

We're gonna go for the gold on the final large collection

tube of the day.

All right, here we go.

I'm gonna give you the GoPro, Hunter.

I'm gonna put the mask on.

All right, wish me luck.

Here we go.

There it stood,

a craggy log snagged crater, 10 feet wide,

and really, who knows how deep.

The depth of its entrance was nearly 20 feet

below the surface.

And due to the low oxygen levels in the water,

it made this particular location a natural breeding

ground for water bears.

And from what Hunter tells us, huge water bears.

The tricky part was going to be free diving

against the strong current from the boil,

while maintaining a steady hand to collect good samples.

And oh yeah, no scuba here.

I was going to need to hold my breath a lot.

But after a few successful plunges into the deep,

I collected a good amount of samples

from mats lining the walls.

That's a sample from the boil.

That's the one.

That's going to be the big water bears on that one.

All right, time to head to the lab.

I got a little swimming to do before we get there, though.

Hopefully it was worth the effort,

because both Hunter and I were exhausted.

But that wasn't going to stop us today.

We were determined to find these tardigrades.

Oh, man.

What a swim.

That was awesome.

Well, we did it.

We filled all the collection tubes.

Hunter, you feel good about it? Really good.

All right, so now, we just got to get back to the lab

and see what we found.

All right.

All right, let's do it.

Here they are, the samples, may be immortal creatures, maybe

aliens.

Let's find out.

After packing up from our expedition,

it was time to head back to Hunter's lab

At the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

in Fort Pierce, Florida.

There, we would prepare our samples for various slides

to be viewed under the microscopes, some pretty

high-tech microscopes too.

And then, we would truly learn what was

living in our collection tubes.

And I find this to be one of the most exciting aspects

of microbiology, because every expedition has the chance

of making a new discovery.

Let's start with step one.

What's the first step? - All right, have a seat.

OK, cool.

Got to sit down.

Can you tell I'm excited?

The scientist has asked me to take a seat.

All right, you can open that up for me.

Now, we're going to actually get down to the sediment bag.

Oh, I see what you're doing.

I knew going into this

that there was a slim chance of actually finding water bears.

It's like finding a needle in a haystack, a microbial haystack.

Fortunately, with Hunter's experience

and our determination to dive deep into the boil,

we collected some of the best samples possible.

And lo and behold, managed to find a surprise

in the very first preparation.

That's like a lot of pressure off.

Like, you know, like we did all this work.

And I'm like, if we didn't find at least one water bear--

Maybe only found one.

Don't let that one out of your sight.

All right.

I'm going to put this over the water bear.

All right, so see?

That sucked right up.

Put it on our next slide.

So now, we're going to put a cover slip over it

very carefully.

Now, in your hands is three tardigrades.

Oh, wow, three?

I thought we were just getting one.

All right, now we're gonna put the slide

on the big microscope.

Now, we're gonna try to find our tardigrade again.

Let me know when you see it.

Oh, see something.

Wow!

Oh, my goodness.

Look, you can definitely see the pulse.

Yeah, you were swimming with these today.

I mean, they're all over.

You know, I swallowed a little water down there.

Well, then you definitely

have more than one tardigrade inside you right now.

Oh, are they going to be there forever?

You should name them.

Name them?

They're like my-- my new friends for life?

I hope not.

I'm sure you'll be fine.

OK.

You know, I think we can go ahead and establish

why they're called water bears.

It looks like little bear.

It looks like a little bear with claws.

And they happen to live in water.

Scientists are very clever.

Yeah, water bear.

Looks like a bear, lives in the water, water, bear.

That's why they get their name.

A lot of times when you're looking at things

under a microscope like this, you're

looking at very primitive life.

This is a micro animal animal.

So this is the brain.

The brain-- you can actually see it really well.

Is it now-- does it have a nervous system as well?

Yea, central nervous system.

Central nervous system, great.

So it's all coming-- all the motor

function's coming from here?

Yeah.

And you can see the eyes--

one eye, two eye--

and is this really the primary function

of the claws for grabbing food?

Or is it just for everything and holding--

So the claws are really just to grab on

to the food they're feeding on.

They have these sucking mouth parts,

and they kind of shoot out.

And that's what grabs they--

Like a proboscis?

Yeah, very similar.

Like kind of-- a little bit like

a blood worm that has a mouth part that's [inaudible]...

This is a "hangry" water bear.

And it looks a little rambunctious.

So we want to find one that's maybe had a full meal

and is down to take a nap.

Yeah, is hanging out.

Yeah, so let's go and do that.

I feel a lot of pressure for some reason.

I don't know why.

I don't feel like I should have this much pressure.

It's like-- - You're sweating.

I say, It's like, am I back in school?

Yeah.

Oh, all right.

Oh, wow, yep.

I seen one.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah, very good.

Very good.

Didn't you-- I--

we were researching the other day,

and we heard the eggs are actually really hard to find.

Really?

So it's a very good sign, yes.

Yes!

OK, so shall I extract this one?

This is not as easy as it looks, folks.

Are we OK?

Let's take a look.

Maybe.

Maybe.

Hey, it's my first time.

You want to sit in the captain's chair?

OK, captain's seat.

It's going right for the advanced.

Oh, nailed it.

That's there.

Wow!

Here we have a mamma tardigrade.

That's my bear.

That is amazing.

How do you feel?

I feel really accomplished.

It is not an easy process at all.

You're gonna push the prism in right here.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Just push it til it clicks.

OK.

Until you get a click here.

It's clicked.

Obviously the click.

And when do we time travel?

This is where the--

When does the DeLorean take off?

OK.

Now, we're gonna move this to six.

Right there?

Yeah.

I'm beginning to feel like I don't know what I'm doing.

Look at that. Beautiful.

Apparently, I'm doing something correct.

Check this out.

OK, the world's smallest bear right there--

right there on screen.

That is so cool.

It just goes to show you, life exists everywhere.

You know, sometimes on brave waters

we're looking for big stuff.

But now, we might need to rethink things,

because there's a lot of small stuff too.

Take a look.

So tardigrades actually shed their exoskeleton.

So the old tardigrade mamma's skin is where these eggs stay.

It kind of protects them.

OK, so tell me about crypto biosis.

Yeah, so crypto biosis--

this animal can basically shut down its entire metabolism.

So it goes to an almost death-like state.

Nothing is functioning.

Nothing is happening.

It's not moving.

And it can stay in the state for a very long time.

Importantly though, it can turn this off and come

back to life, if you will.

And how many years can it do this?

At least 20.

20 years?

So it can be dead, almost, but not die.

That's-- that's what I'm hearing, folks.

Is that what you're saying?

Yes, but it's not immortal.

We could kill this tardigrade right now.

We're not gonna do it.

But tardigrades can die.

But they're very good at surviving.

Let's pivot to question

number two, is this an alien?

I know that there is a lot of research

being done with this specific creature in space.

And it can live in space, correct?

Yeah, it can survive the ionizing

radiation in space, yeah, and the vacuum of space as well.

OK, so can it possibly travel

through space to get here?

I mean, is that a stretch?

I don't know.

So I think it's better to flip it.

So if you want to send a creature off

of Earth into space, I think tardigrade

is your number one choice.

OK, that's a more sound way to put it.

I don't think we're gonna get a definitive answer

today, certainly not from the doctor here, because I mean,

he has a reputation.

But given its special traits, this creature

has a lot to offer, not only science, but humans.

Like, cause you know, we're interested in space travel.

This creature clearly is suited for it.

What can we learn from this?

How do we protect our DNA in space?

I mean, radiation really damages us.

It doesn't affect the tardigrade.

It also has DNA.

So what is it doing?

And how can we apply that to human health?

And that's a question we can hopefully answer

by looking at these creatures.

Man, that is so cool.

Well, Hunter, Doctor, thank you for having us down today.

That was amazing.

I'm Mark Vins.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

Let's take another look at those claws.