Original subtitles

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.

Oh my gosh.

Zoleka Filander, deep sea scientist.

Being a deep sea researcher means

having front row tickets to the best movie that everybody

wants to watch.

Melissa Márquez...

Straight ahead, 12:00.

Shark biologist.

We just saw what no one has seen before.

Eric Stackpole...

Scan now!

Ocean tech innovator.

I love building tools that allow us

to see things in ways we've never seen before.

And Aldo Kane...

This is insane.

Former Royal Marine; special ops.

It doesn't get any more cutting-edge

exploration than this.

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.

Okay here we go. 2:00, 2:00.

This time the team track sperm whales,

down into an alien world.

What is that?

Full of fantastical creatures.

No, ho, oh!

.

The OceanXplorer is heading for deep water.

Just off the Azores.

A chain of tiny volcanic islands in the middle of the Atlantic.

And a rich oasis for an abundance of marine life.

Every summer nearly 1,000 sperm whales gather here.

They're easily identified by

their distinctive sideways spout.

These whales spend most of their lives deep below the surface.

But using the full scope of the OceanXplorer's tech,

the team hopes to shine a light on their lives down

in these black depths.

Standby 9:00.

Sperm whales were hunted here as recently as

1987 and they live up to 70 years,

so some of them may still remember that.

They're understandably nervous around boats.

So Aldo and Melissa approach cautiously.

You got your eyes on them?

They're sneaky I tell 'ya.

Oh my God, they're right underneath us.

They're right underneath us.

Wow, look at that.

It's a whole family pod.

That's gorgeous.

That is a first for me.

Yeah!

Sperm whales are the largest toothed predator

on the planet.

To study these giants up close and personal

Aldo and Melissa join them beneath the waves.

Getting under the water and

just seeing this giant animal,

you can feel it looking at you,

trying to figure out what the heck you are.

But they won't have long.

Sperm whales spend just 20% of their lives at the surface.

When they dive, it's phenomenal.

One swoosh of their tail and they are gone.

These whales are diving a mile deep for up

to an hour at a time.

The buoyancy of their huge lungs and the thick blubber

should make that almost impossible,

but not only do they manage it they make it look effortless.

But exactly how they dive so deep has never been filmed.

If the team can get a camera on a whale it

could further their understanding.

They recruit the help of Rui Prieto.

A world leading whale biologist,

he's been studying them in the Azores for over 20 years.

We want to see what they are actually doing, uh,

while they are underwater.

Eric sets to work helping Rui build

a camera tag that can withstand the immense pressure

of a sperm whale dive.

Okay, so this is the power system and then,

we've just got the little camera.

You know, the whole thing looks pretty simple but I mean

the thing that keeps going through my mind is, you know,

we're gonna have, you know, maybe one window and one chance

of putting this together the right way.

So do you think that's something we can do?

Fingers crossed, right?

I guess we'll find out.

If they can pull this off,

they'll get the first ever footage

of a deep sperm whale dive in the Azores.

- Can you swing it? - Yeah.

Let's turn a whale into a cameraman.

You have a green light.

Copy green light.

Green deck we're off.

We need to start looking for blows, okay?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Oh looks like there could be

something over there.

Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

I count 11 whales here.

All in a tight cluster.

Okay, here we go.

2:00, 2:00, you should have a pretty good eye.

300-400 meters.

Breaching.

No, ho, oh!

We think breaching might be a form of

communication between a sperm whale family,

however sometimes it might just be the teenagers fooling around

and you know, blowing off some steam.

Let's go there very slowly.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Is that speed okay?

Need to gain a little bit on them because

they are almost diving.

When you're piloting a boat this close to whales,

there's absolutely no room for error!

You're dealing with a live animal.

So the whole thing has to be 110% perfect

or it's an aborted mission.

That's it.

- Well done. - Well done dude. Tag on.

OceanXplorer this is Eagle Ray over.

Eagle Ray, OceanXplorer.

Go ahead.

Tag deployed and we will mark location on the GPS.

Copy that. Nice work!

The tag is designed to release after

eight hours, and send a signal to help the team locate it,

somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic.

It is an intense feeling to spend

all this time on something and then watch it just go into

the abyss on the back of a whale.

Oh what's this directly in front of us?

Confirm you have visual on the tag?

Affirmative we're looking at something

orange in the water, it could be the tag.

Roger that...

We are making our way to your location now, over.

Oh I see it!

We have visual on the tag.

Little bit more Aldo.

Yeah, there you go. Right there.

- You got it? Heavy. - Yep got it.

I'm dying to know. How does the tag look?

The tag does look in good condition and

the camera looks like it is still dry.

Yes!

All right, great job guys.

Should I cut this?

Yes, please.

Now, it could be some water inside so we need to be careful.

Very slowly. Very carefully.

I'm like, excited and nervous

at the same time, you know,

like did everything work properly?

Did the batteries last?

Yes. Yes.

- Got it? - Take it off.

It's dry. Okay.

And then there's our SD card.

- You got it? - I, I got it.

This is it.

This is what we've been working all this time for.

Let's plug this to the computer and see.

- Okay, yeah. - Okay.

Anything that comes off this thing is new.

Oh my God!

That's the, the blowhole and it's going down

because it's, it's getting darker.

As they dive, sperm whales

undergo an incredible transformation.

The pressure of the water compresses their lungs and

with less volume inside,

they become less buoyant,

allowing them to dive faster with minimum effort.

As she dives faster, the force of the water pushes

the camera sideways.

At 450 feet it flips.

- It's pointing backward? - Yes, it's pointing backwards.

We can actually see the flukes beating.

Eric and Rui are the first people ever to see

a sperm whale use its body and tail flukes to dive

into the deep.

I'm learning a lot about how they actually

flex their, their flukes.

It's very slow. It's very calm.

Then at 900 feet the whale's behavior changes.

Look, the tail's stopped moving.

Yeah it's, it, it's called gliding.

They use the, the, the momentum that they have

to glide and keep energy.

- I see. - And I've, I've never seen it.

So it, it, it's just amazing.

Its tail may have stopped moving but

this whale is still diving.

With gravity doing the work,

it can save energy and preserve precious oxygen.

Listen.

It's hunting. This is the hunting sound.

Yeah.

Sperm whales use sound to hunt in the dark.

When their sonar clicks hit an object and bounce back,

the whale can locate a target over a mile away.

It's getting lighter in the background

you notice that?

Yeah. Yeah. The, the water is becoming clearer.

No luck this time,

so the whale begins its journey back to the surface.

I hear a different,

a slightly higher pitched clicking.

Yes. It was a coda.

It's communicating with its family

just like morse code for whales!

Another one.

Someone is answering.

Each family unit has a unique, "Coda,"

that can be heard from up to two miles away.

- Wow, two, two! Two. - Two! Another one!

This is how a surfacing whale reconnects

with its family.

So you hear the coda's,

and then the other one comes in.

Yeah. Yeah. Do we know that they do this?

We know that they talk to each other using codas,

but I've never seen them come together.

Oh! I can't believe we got this all.

They are completely interacting.

Nothing like that has ever been filmed.

It's just amazing.

We're seeing something that has

never been seen before.

These huge whales, going to a part of the world that we know

almost nothing about and we get a first person view.

I'm right next to Rui and he's spent his entire life trying to

understand these animals and this is something

he's never seen before.

Once back at the surface some sperm whales

spend their time socializing.

Re-establishing family bonds.

Others grab a quick power nap.

But their time together is brief.

After just 15 minutes, they'll dive again,

in their never-ending pursuit of prey.

Sperm whales eat up to a ton of squid a day.

And with nearly 1,000 sperm whales here,

that's a lot of squid.

So what kind of squid are hiding down there in the depths

that could satisfy such voracious appetites?

To find out, the team need to get down there themselves.

The mission will be led by Zoleka,

the OceanXplorers' deep sea researcher.

For this mission,

I'm partnering with Edie Widder,

one of the world's most experienced deep sea biologists.

- You ready to dive? - Yes!

SO Neptune, we are ready to shut hatches.

SO Bridge. You are clear to roll sub out.

Edie's been pushing the envelope in

ocean exploration for over 40 years.

That's Neptune in the water.

Venting now.

Depth 2.0 meters. Vents secure, descending over.

Every time we dive into the deep,

we are heading into the unknown.

We are explorers and this is our spaceship.

600 feet down

the team enters the twilight zone.

A world dominated by darkness,

and alien creatures.

Oh look at that.

Look at that.

What are you seeing?

It's a glass squid.

A rare sighting.

Being transparent that's a defense mechanism.

It's such an amazing adaptation.

You see it a lot in the ocean,

but you don't see it much on land.

At 1500 feet,

they find even more signs of life.

- What is that? - Where? Where?

Look, turn to the right, turn to the right.

It's ink. But it's so much.

Oh my God!

Oh yeah. That's a massive plume of ink.

Where is the squid though?

- Oh squid. - Squid!

A bird squid.

- Hello. Hello.

And this one has attitude!

- Oh my gosh. Beautiful. Oh look at it.

I think he's trying to eat Zoleka.

Yeah. I'm squid food.

As the sub dives to 2500 feet,

Zoleka spots something extraordinary.

Oh my word.

Is that a whiplash squid?

Look how exquisite it is.

All squid can change color by expanding

or contracting cells in their skin called chromatophores.

Do you think, do you think

it's signaling to other squid?

Yoo!

Is this an alarm signal?

How does one even decode what we're really seeing here?

I'd like to think I'm a level-headed scientist but wow.

When you come across an encounter like this,

it's absolutely stunning, absolutely stunning.

This is why we do it Edie.

Sperm whales do prey on whiplash squid but

they're so small, they'd need to eat thousands every day.

At 3300 feet, they approach the boundary of the midnight zone.

The midnight zone is pitch black

and it's freezing.

But as hostile as this place is,

this is where the sperm whale finds its food.

So it's important that we go take a look down there.

But the sub reaches its maximum dive depth.

It can't go any further.

Control, control, Neptune

passing five zero meters, clear to surface.

If they want to search the midnight zone for

larger sperm whale prey the team will have to

mobilize the ship's ROV.

A remotely operated vehicle.

The ROV is capable of going to depths of

20,000 feet.

So getting to 5,000 feet where the sperm whales are going,

should be no problem at all.

Melissa baits the ROV with

deep-water squid's favorite meal,

other squid.

And that is a squid ready to be lifelike

in the water column.

Through its tether to the ship,

the ROV sends back a live picture.

Exploring the deep you often see something

that you have never seen before, but you hope that you're gonna

see something no-one has seen before.

Lights off.

Oh, incoming, incoming, here we go.

- Keep, whoa. - Whoa!

What is that?

Bingo. Kitefin shark.

The squid lure has drawn in more than

the team bargained for.

He looks like a good size.

These guys can get up to like 30 pounds on average.

Sperm whales, yeah they do eat them but actually have

a preference for squid.

After hours in the deep and just one encounter

with the kitefin, the team wonders if the noise from

the ROV could be scaring off the squid.

Time to try a different approach.

Marine biologist Nathan Robinson has the perfect

camera rig for this mission.

The angler is a stealth camera,

makes no noise.

It's also very light sensitive so this

actually really is perfect for seeing animals in the deep sea.

Going down.

Okay, keep letting it go.

Lowering the angler on a fishing line may

look low tech, but this is our secret weapon.

It can dive to 6,500 feet and then just sit there completely

silent and still, so as not to scare away any wildlife.

The angler is armed with an E-Jelly.

An LED array that mimics the defense mechanism of

the Atolla jellyfish, which lights up when threatened to try

and attract an even larger predator in

the hope that it will scare off the attacker.

After hours in the deep, the rig is ready to be retrieved.

Only once back aboard, will the team discover if

their covert mission has been a success.

Right, you ready to bring it to the lab?

Yeah.

Okay. So now we're going down to the bottom.

Oh my God, what a catch.

These flying squid are known

sperm whale prey.

We've been seeing a ton of squid,

conducting these hit and run attacks on the bait

and the E-Jelly.

They are large, very nutritious food items for

something like a sperm whale.

Hours into the footage,

Nathan and Eric spot something even larger,

and they gather the rest of the team.

Just watch this.

What the heck!

That is a really big squid.

So this species is the third largest

in the oceans.

Dana octopus squid is the, the common name.

It's got light organs on the ends of its arms,

that are like the size of lemons.

Look at them! They're glowing so bright.

Why would you have such bright lights there?

- To blind you. - Oh!

It's like a deer in the headlights...

Yeah.

So you've got your little critter,

your crustacean that you want to eat,

you shine these big kinda lemon size lights right at it,

it can't see what's coming from what direction

and then bam you take it down.

Weighing as much as a full-grown gorilla,

a sperm whale only needs to hunt five of these giants a day.

This is actually the most common, uh,

species that sperm whales eat in terms of weight.

This is actually, this is staple food.

- This is, exactly. - This is number one.

This is what they're eating, yeah.

But they've hardly ever been seen.

I'm actually pretty sure this is

the first footage we have of dana octopus squid,

in the Atlantic.

This is amazing.

Thanks to the deep-water team,

we've seen squid down there large enough to feed this

huge population of sperm whales.

But what's fueling this rich ecosystem?

It's all down to the tiniest organisms in the ocean.

When deep ocean currents hit the island's underwater slopes,

nutrient rich water is forced up toward the surface.

These nutrients feed microorganisms that form

the base of the food web,

and the more there are,

the more life this ecosystem can support.

To find out just how rich these waters are Edie and Zoleka

once again take a dive into the deep.

The density of this microscopic life is difficult

to judge in these dark waters

but Edie has a magic trick to reveal it.

600 meters.

Oh I hope this works.

Okay, you ready?

We're ready.

Three, two, one. Lights coming on.

Nothing.

Let's drop down.

Control, Neptune. We are descending.

Okay let's try it again.

Okay three, two, one, lights coming on.

It worked!

Wow!

Bioluminescence in action.

It's like I'm wrapped in a blanket of stars.

This is the base of the food chain.

The fish eat the plankton and the squid eat the fish and

then the sperm whales are feeding on the squid.

This is where it all begins.

Smallest to the biggest.

That's fantastic.

Edie's witnessed this bioluminescent phenomenon

her entire career, but has never had the technology to

share it with the world...

Until now.

Wow. Thanks Edie, we got it.

It's like having seen UFOs and

now suddenly there's evidence.

Okay. Can we do that again?

Absolutely.

Without this abundance of tiny life,

the squid and the sperm whales couldn't survive here.

It's very, very humbling to think that

no matter how tiny you are you can do gigantic things.

Control, control. Neptune's ascending over.

Clear to surface.

Clear to surface.

Welcome back Neptune.

Blow your tanks.

Well did you enjoy that dive?

Oh. Are you kidding!

That was actually on my bucket list.

You know, as I get older, every expedition I go on,

I figure this might be the last

and if this is the last it's the best.

It's just been absolutely amazing.

In their time here in the Azores,

the team has captured the first ever images of

a sperm whale diving into these deep waters.

This is the culmination of a huge amount of

effort and many sleepless nights,

but at the end of the day we got those few minutes of

incredibly priceless footage

that made the whole thing worth it.

It was awesome!

They've added to the image catalogue of

the squid that feed the sperm whales.

Thanks to the OceanXplorer,

we've been able to dive deep into the world of sperm whales

here and discovered this interaction between them and

massive squid that's never really been observed

here before, which is pretty mind blowing.

And they've documented the normally

invisible riches that fuel this entire ecosystem.

It's fabulous!

I am one of the few people to witness

a bioluminescence light show and I'm so excited to share

this with the world.

That is mind blowing.

We've still got so much to learn about these whales

but seeing them live in harmony they could definitely

teach us a thing or two.

No, ho, oh!

From the largest,

to the tiniest creatures.

The team has made significant discoveries here in the Azores.

Nothing like that has ever been filmed.

A rich hotspot for life in the Atlantic,

and a blueprint for healthy oceans everywhere.