マリアナ海溝への冒険！

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Ever wanted to take a dive into the deepest parts of the ocean?
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Well, today you’re gonna have this opportunity!
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Now, how good are you at holding your breath?
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Not that good?
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Well not to worry.
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Hop on board of my submersible craft and join me in the voyage to the depths!
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Ready?
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Let’s dive!
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Right now, just below the surface, you see that life is thriving here.
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Fish and marine animals abound, and — hey there! — swimmers are waving at us.
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But we won’t be staying here for long.
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Buh-bye!
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At 65 ft, there’s a whole new world opening before your eyes: shallow coral reefs are
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standing beautifully not far from the shore.
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And hey, there are people here again!
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It’s scuba divers this time, though.
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Water pressure isn’t kind to divers without special equipment.
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130 ft is the depth where we say goodbye even to recreational scuba divers — it’s the
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maximum allowed for them.
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Take care, guys!
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200 ft — and here’s the first orca!
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These whales inhabit the relatively shallow waters of almost every sea and ocean in the
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world.
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Did you know they’re the apex predators, by the way?
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It means they have no natural enemies and no one can take them down.
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At 230 ft we meet whale sharks — the largest known fish species, weighing up to 60 tons.
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And they’re also quite long-livers: well yeah I guess their livers are long at that,
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but actually it’s about their life expectancy: they can live about 130 years.
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Now look outside: if you see a scuba diver, it’s a real pro, because at 330 ft they’ll
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have to be very cautious not to get decompression sickness.
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It occurs if you rise too quickly to the surface.
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And if you’re lucky, you can also see a giant Pacific octopus — it dwells in cool
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waters starting this deep and going down as far as 6,600 ft.
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And now we’re entering the dark part of the ocean: at 490 ft, just 1% of the light
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from the surface reaches us.
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All the rest is absorbed by water.
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Everything that’s deeper will get darker and darker still.
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Oh, look!
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At 660 ft, there’s a giant oarfish circling our submersible.
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These creatures are believed to be the source of all sea serpent sightings, and a lot of
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alliteration!
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Sometimes they swim up to the surface and freak out sailors and swimmers.
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No wonder: these fish can reach 36 ft in length — enough to scare the heck out of me, for
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example.
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Okay, now we’re at 980 ft and… wait, what’s that huge and gangling thing out there?
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Oh, I get it, it’s a Japanese spider crab!
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Why a spider, you ask?
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Well, just look at those legs and the answer will come to you without further prompts.
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By the way, there’s almost nothing more to them than legs: the body of such a crab
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is normally just 1.5 ft across.
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Going deeper now, and at 1,640 ft you’re going to see the last of the blue whales — no,
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not really the last of them, I mean, that’s the deepest they can swim.
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They don’t really need to dive that deep for food, which they have in abundance in
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shallower waters, but they still can.
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I guess it’s just for the sake of showing how awesome they are.
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After all, they’re the largest creatures in the history of Earth — both in the sea
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and on land!
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Shh…
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You hear this?
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These are the sounds fin whales are making to talk to their friends many miles away.
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They can do this thanks to the SOFAR channel, or Deep Sea Channel, that generally starts
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at 1,970 ft, but can vary in depth.
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It’s a layer of water where the speed of sound is at its minimum, and sound waves can
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go thousands of miles before disappearing.
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At the depth of 2,723 ft we have reached the point where the Burj Khalifa, the tallest
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building in the world, would not even show its tip on the surface if it were put underwater.
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Hey let’s try that!
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Now we’re entering the really interesting part of the ocean, where no sunlight reaches
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us, and strange creatures dwell.
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One of those is the giant squid — yes, that legendary type.
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It inhabits the depths of 2,950 ft.
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Just imagine the creature with eyes the size of frisbees!
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Sperm whales hunt down these beasts, but they certainly can fight back.
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What a sight it would be to see such an encounter!
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And that’s where pitch darkness finally falls on us.
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The Midnight Zone.
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The pressure here is so huge that, if you somehow end up being here without a submersible,
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you’ll simply be crushed in a couple of seconds.
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And that without seeing a thing too.
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Not the best of prospects.
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Anyway, at 3,600 ft, there’s West Mata — one of the deepest ocean volcanoes in the world.
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Its last eruption was in 2009, and it was even filmed by a remotely operated vehicle!
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4,200 ft down below, and we see the ferocious great white sharks — these ultimate predators
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feel great at such a depth.
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Their eyesight is rather poor, and they navigate by scent, so they don’t really need sunlight
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to hunt down their prey.
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“I don’t see you, but I’ll still eat you.”
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Brr.
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Also, the leatherback turtles, the largest turtles in the world, dive at the same depth.
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I wonder if they do it to tease the great whites?
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See those huge nets?
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That’s because we’re now at the depth of 4,900 ft where the “catch-all” fishing
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method is used.
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The nets are here to be dragged along the ocean floor, catching everything unfortunate
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enough to be caught.
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I’ll let you decide how detrimental this is to the ocean life here.
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At 6,000 ft, if we were in the Grand Canyon, we’d be sitting at its lowest and deepest
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point.
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Imagine that all of its crevasses have been thoroughly filled with water, and you’ll
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get the perfect picture.
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Now, if we’re really careful, then at the depth of 6,600 ft, we’ll be able to see
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the black dragonfish — a nightmarish creature that dwells in the deep and dark parts of
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the ocean.
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And trust me, it’s better off staying right there!
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It looks like something from a horror movie, and I’d rather it never crossed my path.
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At 7,400 ft we’ll be saying goodbye to sperm whales — this is the deepest point they
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can dive, and frankly, they have no real business at such a depth.
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Maybe they hunt the black dragonfish, of course, or… it hunts them?
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Nah, the difference in size is too big: sperm whales can reach 62 ft in length, which makes
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them the largest toothed whales in the world.
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Not many creatures can counter that.
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It’s good that our submersible has a powerful floodlight — without it, we wouldn’t have
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been able to see the astonishing beauty of the deep-sea coral reefs located at the depth
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of 9,900 ft.
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They can be found in every ocean, and it’s a pity they can’t be seen without special
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deep-sea diving equipment.
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Okay, going deeper still, and at 12,100 ft we reach the average depth of the World Ocean.
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From now on, the journey into the real depths begins — the general ocean floor has been
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passed, so now it’s time to delve into the Abyss.
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I won’t tell you not to be afraid because the scariest creatures of the deep dwell here,
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below the Midnight Zone.
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And it doesn’t end there: the pressure on the upper limit of the Abyss, at 13,100 ft,
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is like a whole regiment of elephants stomping on you.
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Not that you’d have the time to feel it, though.
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At 15,000 ft, the monsters out of your worst nightmares pop up.
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Anglerfish, for example, will scare the heck out of anyone — its long and crooked teeth
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along with a growth on its head that lures the prey are enough to instill fear even in
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the bravest.
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But perhaps even more terrible is the creature called the black swallower.
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It’s an eel-like beast that has a very stretchy stomach, and it can swallow prey that’s
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twice its size!
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I don’t know about you, but I’d rather switch off the lights not to see anything
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this deep in the ocean.
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What?
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You want to see it all?
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….Alright, if you insist…
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Look down below and you’re gonna see the deepest shipwreck ever found: SS Rio Grande
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in the South Atlantic sunk in 1941 and went as low as 18,900 ft.
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No wonder it was only found 55 years later!
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And now the deepest and darkest part of the ocean begins: we’re diving into the Mariana
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trench.
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Officially, it begins at about 19,700 ft deep.
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It’s both the least explored and the most fascinating area for the scientists and adventurers
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alike.
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What lies at the bottom of it?
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Well, we’re about to see, but while we’re not yet there, I’ll show you something else.
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For example, here’s the deepest fish ever found: it’s called a snailfish, and it dwells
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at 26,000 ft.
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Its body is translucent, so you can actually see right through its skin.
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Well, I must say I’m glad we didn’t turn off the lights, after all — this little
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guy is surprisingly cute for a creature that can withstand such pressure.
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Going lower and deeper, you won’t see any other kind of fish or vertebrate animal whatsoever
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— the pressure is just too much for such creatures.
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But there are shrimps and other invertebrates — not to mention microbes — that can dwell
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even in the deepest part of the ocean.
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And that part is the Challenger Deep.
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It’s the bottom of the Mariana trench, and its depth is 35,853 ft.
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Yes, we’ve arrived at the very bottom of the Earth.
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Few people have been here, and very little is known about it yet.
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But scientists aren’t going to stop, and there’s hope we’ll soon find out what
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secrets the depths of the ocean hold.
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How about you?
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Would you dare explore the ocean on your own, if you had a chance?
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Let me know down in the comments!
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Hey, if you learned something new today, then give this video a like and share it with a
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friend.
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But don’t go deep diving just yet!
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Just click on this left or right video and enjoy!
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Stay on the Bright Side of life!