WEBVTT 00:00:08.360 --> 00:00:12.600 Today as I predicted, lots and lots of starfish action. 00:00:12.600 --> 00:00:19.000 These are called slime stars because these are able to project mucus out as a defense 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:20.410 mechanism. 00:00:20.410 --> 00:00:24.080 Years ago this one was collected by the Pisces five submersible. 00:00:24.080 --> 00:00:30.090 And brought up and I was physically examining it and it produced a prolific amount of slime 00:00:30.090 --> 00:00:31.210 while I was doing so. 00:00:31.210 --> 00:00:35.370 There is just a lovely picture of it that I have floating around twitter someplace. 00:00:35.370 --> 00:00:40.280 We don't really know a lot about hymenaster, but they occur all around the world from the 00:00:40.280 --> 00:00:41.710 arctic to the antarctic. 00:00:41.710 --> 00:00:44.380 Mostly in cold water habitats. 00:00:45.860 --> 00:00:51.080 This is Chris Mah and I'm a researcher at the National Museum of natural history in 00:00:51.080 --> 00:00:52.600 the invertebrate zoology department. 00:00:52.600 --> 00:00:57.810 I'm currently aboard the Okeanos Explorer which is seven hundred and ten nautical miles 00:00:57.810 --> 00:01:00.380 southwest of Honolulu. 00:01:00.380 --> 00:01:05.140 My expertise is actually in sea stars, I study sea stars and their relatives. 00:01:05.140 --> 00:01:10.150 And I've actually described a good number of the species that we are seeing. 00:01:10.150 --> 00:01:16.350 I've only seen many of these animals as dead white specimens in a drawer at the natural 00:01:16.350 --> 00:01:20.720 history museum in Washington DC or at other museums all around the world, and to see one 00:01:20.720 --> 00:01:25.180 alive to see it's original color is quite a revelation. 00:01:25.340 --> 00:01:28.880 Oh that's lovely. 00:01:28.880 --> 00:01:30.900 This is gilbertaster. 00:01:30.900 --> 00:01:35.479 The first time it was recorded from the Hawaiian Islands it was in nineteen oh six. 00:01:35.479 --> 00:01:40.920 I've seen maybe one or two of these and now I'm actually seeing one alive. 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:45.130 I'm almost brought to tears. 00:01:45.130 --> 00:01:47.450 I've never seen this alive before. 00:01:47.450 --> 00:01:54.380 And it really is just as beautiful as I thought it would be. 00:01:54.380 --> 00:01:55.380 It's my old friend. 00:01:55.380 --> 00:01:58.360 It is, I think I even know what this one is. 00:01:58.360 --> 00:02:01.979 At one point this was thought to be one of the rarest sea stars known until we started 00:02:01.979 --> 00:02:04.560 to see them all over the deep sea. 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:08.590 This is called hymenaster, they are simply bizarre. 00:02:08.590 --> 00:02:13.230 We're looking at the arm tip, and those are all of the tube feet that are emanating from 00:02:13.230 --> 00:02:14.230 the tip. 00:02:14.230 --> 00:02:19.010 And those are usually used to help sense where the animal is going. 00:02:19.010 --> 00:02:24.740 They have this bizarre surface texture which is kindof filled with all of these big puffy 00:02:24.740 --> 00:02:25.740 ridges. 00:02:25.740 --> 00:02:30.360 These are related to slime stars but other than that they are really kind of poorly known. 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:34.470 They are a mystery, there are the sea stars from the jurassic that are vaguely similar 00:02:34.470 --> 00:02:39.290 to these, so there's just a lot bizarre things about them. 00:02:39.290 --> 00:02:42.180 Very strange kind of animal. 00:02:43.920 --> 00:02:49.640 We are exploring the deep ocean because of the numerous important aspects that are found 00:02:49.650 --> 00:02:50.680 at this depth. 00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:57.230 So from the biology perspective there are many undescribed species which live at this 00:02:57.230 --> 00:02:58.230 depth. 00:02:58.230 --> 00:03:00.630 Things that are potentially important to humans. 00:03:00.630 --> 00:03:06.790 Some of the new species may harbor new secrets that might inspire industry, but also are 00:03:06.790 --> 00:03:12.140 important for fisheries and other conservation measures. 00:03:12.140 --> 00:03:16.220 Looks very much like hippasteria muscipula which is a species I described a few years 00:03:16.220 --> 00:03:17.220 ago. 00:03:17.220 --> 00:03:20.110 Predatory on bamboo corals before. 00:03:20.110 --> 00:03:24.110 Looks like they might actually now feed on Hexacorallia. 00:03:24.110 --> 00:03:26.980 Yeah, see some of the damage. 00:03:26.980 --> 00:03:30.390 I bet that's post star fish eating damage. 00:03:30.390 --> 00:03:33.920 Some nice views of the pedicellaria though. 00:03:33.920 --> 00:03:37.020 There's our claw shaped structures that are on the underside. 00:03:37.020 --> 00:03:41.319 I've never been able to figure out what they use them for. 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:45.860 But in a lot of ways this is just as valuable as discovering a new species, discovering 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:47.830 what some of these structures do. 00:03:47.830 --> 00:03:51.480 These have been observed on sea stars since they were described. 00:03:51.480 --> 00:03:54.220 In some cases, the seventeen hundreds or so. 00:03:54.220 --> 00:03:57.090 Noone really knows what they do exactly. 00:03:57.090 --> 00:04:02.099 A Choriaster perched on top of a stalk like that. 00:04:02.099 --> 00:04:04.100 It's almost like. 00:04:04.100 --> 00:04:08.890 Looks like a plump chicken on a stick to me. 00:04:08.890 --> 00:04:11.443 I didn't even think of that until you said that. 00:04:11.443 --> 00:04:14.550 You're never going to see that as a starfish again. 00:04:14.550 --> 00:04:18.950 It's a whole chicken. 00:04:18.950 --> 00:04:25.890 But this is a novel ecological observation, to me that's really amazing. 00:04:25.890 --> 00:04:27.380 The chicken star. 00:04:27.380 --> 00:04:31.710 No we are not calling it that. 00:04:31.710 --> 00:04:35.040 Not calling it that. 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:40.370 This is our final dive of Laulima O Ka Moana which is the title of our cruise: Partnerships 00:04:40.370 --> 00:04:41.370 in the sea. 00:04:41.370 --> 00:04:46.300 I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to cohost Okeanos Explorer again. 00:04:46.300 --> 00:04:49.130 But it's been a delightful two and a half weeks. 00:04:49.130 --> 00:04:51.200 Two and a half weeks? 00:04:51.200 --> 00:04:52.640 It's been more than that-three weeks?. 00:04:52.640 --> 00:04:54.320 I've been at sea for a month.