1Have you ever wanted to take a dive into the deepest parts of the ocean?
2Well, today you're gonna have this opportunity.
3Now, how good are you at holding your breath?
4Not that good?
5Well, not to worry!
6Hop aboard my submersible craft and join me in the voyage to the depths.
7Ready? Let's dive!
8Right now, just below the surface, you see that life is thriving here.
9Fish and marine animals abound, and... hey there, swimmers are waving at us!
10But we won't be staying here for long. Bye-bye!
11At 65 feet, there's a whole new world opening before your eyes.
12Shallow coral reefs are standing beautifully not far from the shore,
13and hey, there are people here again.
14It's scuba divers this time though.
15Water pressure isn't kind to divers without special equipment,
16130 feet is the depth where we say good-bye even to recreational scuba divers.
17It's the maximum allowed for them.
18Take care, guys!
19200 feet, and here's the first orca.
20These whales inhabit the relatively shallow waters of almost every sea and ocean in the world.
21Did you know that they're the apex predators, by the way?
22It means they have no natural enemies, and no one can take them down.
23At 230 feet, we meet whale sharks,
24the largest known fish species, weighing up to 60 tons.
25And they're also quite long-livers;
26well, yeah, I guess their livers are long at that,
27but actually, it's about their life expectancy.
28They can live about 130 years.
29Now, look outside!
30If here's a scuba diver, it's a real pro,
31because at 330 feet, they'll have to be very cautious not to get decompression sickness.
32It occurs if you rise too quickly to the surface.
33And if you're lucky, you can also see a giant Pacific octopus.
34It dwells in cool water starting this deep
35and going down as far as 6,600 feet.
36And now we're entering the dark part of the ocean.
37At 490 feet, just 1% of the light from the surface reaches us.
38All the rest is absorbed by water.
39Everything that's deeper will get darker and darker still.
40Oh, look!
41At about 660 feet, there's a giant oarfish circling our submersible.
42These creatures are believed to be the source of all sea serpent sightings and also a lot of alliteration.
43Sometimes they swim up to the surface and freak out sailors and swimmers.
44No wonder!
45These fish can reach 36 feet in length.
46Enough to scare the heck out of me, for example.
47Okay, now we're at 980 feet,
48and wait, what's that huge and gangling thing out there?
49Oh, I get it! It's a Japanese spider crab.
50Why a spider, you ask?
51Well, just look at those legs, and the answer will come to you without further prompts.
52By the way, there's almost nothing more to them than legs;
53the body of such a crab is normally just one and a half feet across.
54Going deeper now, and at 1,640 feet,
55you're going to see the last of the blue whales.
56No, not really the last of them, I mean, that's the deepest they can swim.
57They don't really need to dive that deep for food,
58which they have in abundance in shallower waters,
59but they still can.
60I guess it's just for the sake of showing how awesome they are.
61After all, they're the largest creatures in the history of Earth,
62both in the sea and on land.
63Shh! You hear this?
64These are the sounds fin whales are making to talk to their friends many miles away.
65They can do this thanks to the SOFAR channel or deep sea channel,
66that generally starts at 1,970 feet but can vary in depth.
67It's a layer of water where the speed of sound is at its minimum,
68and sound waves can go thousands of miles before disappearing.
69At the depth of 2,723 feet,
70we've reached the point where the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world,
71would not even show its tip on the surface if it were put underwater.
72Hey, let's try that!
73Now we're entering the really interesting part of the ocean,
74where no sunlight reaches us, and strange creatures dwell.
75One of those is the giant squid.
76Yes, that legendary type.
77It inhabits the depths of 2,950 feet.
78Just imagine a creature with eyes the size of frisbees!
79Sperm whales hunt down these beasts, but they certainly can fight back.
80What a sight it would be to see such an encounter!
81And that's where pitch darkness finally falls on us: the midnight zone.
82The pressure here is so huge that if you somehow end up being here without a submersible,
83well, you'll simply be crushed in a couple of seconds.
84And that without seeing a thing, too.
85Umm... not the best of prospects.
86Anyway, at 3,600 feet, there's West Mata,
87one of the deepest ocean volcanoes in the world.
88Its last eruption was in 2009,
89and it was even filmed by a remotely operated vehicle.
904,200 feet down below,
91and we see the ferocious great white sharks.
92These ultimate predators feel great at such a depth.
93Their eyesight is rather poor, and they navigate by scent,
94so they really don't need sunlight to hunt down their prey.
95"I don't see you, but I'll still eat you!"
96Also, the leatherback turtles, the largest turtles in the world, dive at the same depth.
97I wonder if they do it to tease the great whites.
98Oh, see those huge nets?
99That's because we're now at the depth of 4,900 feet,
100where the catch-all fishing method is used.
101The nets are here to be dragged along the ocean floor,
102catching everything unfortunate enough to be caught.
103I'll let you decide how detrimental this is to the ocean life here.
104At 6,000 feet, if we were in the Grand Canyon,
105we'd be sitting at its lowest and deepest point.
106Imagine that all the crevasses have been thoroughly filled with water,
107and you'll get the perfect picture.
108Now, if we're really careful,
109then at the depth of 6,600 feet,
110we'll be able to see the black dragonfish,
111a nightmarish creature that dwells in the deep and dark parts of the ocean.
112And trust me, it's better off staying right here.
113It looks like something from a horror movie,
114and I'd rather it never crossed my path.
115At 7,400 feet, we'll be saying goodbye to sperm whales.
116This is the deepest point they can dive, and frankly, they have no real business at such a depth.
117Maybe they hunt the black dragonfish, of course, or it hunts them.
118Nah, the difference in size is too big.
119Sperm whales can reach 62 feet in length,
120which makes them the largest toothed whales in the world.
121Not many creatures can counter that.
122It's good that our submersible has a powerful floodlight.
123Without it, we wouldn't have been able to see the astonishing beauty of the deep-sea coral reefs
124located at the depth of 9,900 feet.
125They can be found in every ocean,
126and it's a pity they can't be seen without special deep-sea diving equipment.
127Okay, going deeper still, and at 12,100 feet,
128we reach the average depth of the world ocean.
129From now on, the journey into the real depths begins.
130The general ocean floor has been passed,
131so now it's time to delve into the abyss.
132Now, at 15,000 feet, the monsters out of your worst nightmares pop up.
133Anglerfish, for example, will scare the heck out of anyone.
134Its long and crooked teeth, along with a growth on its head that lures the prey,
135is enough to instill fear even in the bravest.
136But perhaps even more terrible is the creature called the black swallower.
137It's an eel-like beast that has a very stretchy stomach,
138and it can swallow prey that's twice its size.
139Look down below, and you're going to see the deepest shipwreck ever found:
140SS Rio Grande in the South Atlantic sunk in 1941
141and went as low as 18,900 feet.
142No wonder it was only found 55 years later.
143And now the deepest and darkest part of the ocean begins.
144We're diving into the Mariana Trench.
145Officially, it begins at about 19,700 feet deep.
146It's both the least explored and the most fascinating area for the scientists and adventurers alike.
147What lies at the bottom of it?
148Well, we're about to see.
149But while we're not there yet, I'll show you something else.
150For example, here's the deepest fish ever found.
151It's called a snailfish, and it dwells at 26,000 feet.
152Its body is translucent, so you can actually see right through its skin.
153Well, I must say I'm glad we didn't turn off the lights after all.
154This little guy is surprisingly cute for a creature that can withstand such pressure.
155Going lower and deeper,
156you won't see any other kind of fish or vertebrate animal whatsoever.
157The pressure is just too much for such creatures.
158But there are shrimps and other invertebrates, not to mention microbes,
159that can dwell even in the deepest part of the ocean.
160And that part is the Challenger Deep.
161It's the bottom of the Mariana Trench,
162and its depth is 35,853 feet.
163Yes, we've arrived at the very bottom of the Earth.
164Few people have been here, and very little is known about it yet.
165But scientists aren't going to stop,
166and there's hope we'll soon find out what secrets the depths of the ocean hold.