WEBVTT 00:00:03.661 --> 00:00:07.521 I'm really excited that NOAA's bringing the ship back into the 00:00:07.521 --> 00:00:15.441 Pacific. The Pacific is huge. Launching D2. Even though we 00:00:15.441 --> 00:00:21.381 spent three years going all around the Pacific, that still 00:00:21.381 --> 00:00:25.861 means that we just scratched the surface. 00:00:26.661 --> 00:00:30.841 It's like you have to wash your car and all we did is we washed 00:00:30.841 --> 00:00:35.081 one headlight so far. That's it! We gotta get to the rest of 00:00:35.081 --> 00:00:39.001 the car. We've gotta get some more. 00:00:44.661 --> 00:00:49.001 What brought us to the Pacific originally, back in 2015, was a 00:00:49.001 --> 00:00:52.521 foundation of information that was missing. And we were working 00:00:52.521 --> 00:00:55.561 under a campaign called CAPSTONE. CAPSTONE stands for 00:00:55.561 --> 00:00:58.841 the Campaign to address Pacific Monument Science, Technology, and 00:00:58.841 --> 00:01:03.881 Ocean NEeds. We were asked to come into the area in order to 00:01:03.881 --> 00:01:09.181 help expand the exploration footprint. Many people when 00:01:09.181 --> 00:01:12.541 they hear the term monument, think of things like Mount 00:01:12.541 --> 00:01:17.661 Rushmore. But there are also monuments in the ocean that are 00:01:17.661 --> 00:01:21.581 called marine monuments, and these are areas that are 00:01:21.581 --> 00:01:28.681 particularly important to try to preserve. We had no idea 00:01:28.681 --> 00:01:32.521 what animals were living at these depths in these different 00:01:32.521 --> 00:01:36.201 parts of the Pacific. 00:01:37.661 --> 00:01:42.561 There were so many firsts for all of us and with the amazing 00:01:42.561 --> 00:01:47.281 cameras that the Okeanos Explorer has on D2, you 00:01:47.281 --> 00:01:50.961 can zoom in and see things that we've never seen before, just 00:01:50.961 --> 00:01:55.661 some amazing animals. Oh 00:01:55.661 --> 00:02:01.101 Yeah. You can see it's starting to regrow! Yeah. The most 00:02:01.101 --> 00:02:05.581 memorable things for me, there's this little bitty type of 00:02:05.581 --> 00:02:09.421 jellyfish that when we first saw it, it looked like it had 00:02:09.421 --> 00:02:15.181 been captured by a coral polyp. As it turns out, this tiny 00:02:15.181 --> 00:02:19.341 little jellyfish lands on the coral and starts eating the 00:02:19.341 --> 00:02:25.861 polyp. It's not the other way around. Which is "what?!" It was 00:02:25.861 --> 00:02:30.661 really extraordinary. For us, when we're able to be there 00:02:30.661 --> 00:02:33.781 with the remotely operated vehicles and in situ just 00:02:33.781 --> 00:02:37.461 passively observe them, it's a really great opportunity for us 00:02:37.461 --> 00:02:39.461 to learn a little bit more about what their day-to-day 00:02:39.461 --> 00:02:41.861 life looks like. How do they interact with the environment 00:02:41.861 --> 00:02:45.381 around them? How do they interact with the other animals 00:02:45.381 --> 00:02:48.901 around them? I love that we get the opportunity to do that 'cuz 00:02:48.901 --> 00:02:51.461 frequently, we find out that there are things beyond what we 00:02:51.461 --> 00:02:55.961 expected down there which is really exciting. Pilot drive aft and 00:02:55.961 --> 00:03:02.281 center line. Copy, driving aft and center line. Every dive, 00:03:02.281 --> 00:03:04.441 every time that we're mapping an area, we're gaining new 00:03:04.441 --> 00:03:10.361 knowledge. The maps are helping us understand what the seafloor 00:03:10.361 --> 00:03:13.401 looks like as we try to build a global map of the seafloor 00:03:13.401 --> 00:03:17.561 And then we can start building the picture of what 00:03:17.561 --> 00:03:23.081 the ecosystem looks like. A lot of the ecosystems are driven 00:03:23.081 --> 00:03:26.281 and controlled by the geologic factors. So, you have to 00:03:26.281 --> 00:03:29.721 understand what the geology looks like in order to place in 00:03:29.721 --> 00:03:36.501 context those ecosystems that you're looking for. 70% of our 00:03:36.501 --> 00:03:44.641 planet is water. Specifically, most of it is deep sea. And yet 00:03:44.641 --> 00:03:48.481 we know almost next to nothing about what's going on in the deep 00:03:48.481 --> 00:03:52.401 sea. The way I sort of like to put it, is if you don't know 00:03:52.401 --> 00:03:55.121 anything about the deep sea, you don't know a whole lot 00:03:55.121 --> 00:04:00.321 about the planet that you're living on. The deep sea is very 00:04:00.321 --> 00:04:05.121 likely playing an absolutely crucial role to the planet's 00:04:05.121 --> 00:04:10.601 health. But we don't know that because we haven't been down 00:04:10.601 --> 00:04:18.161 there enough. And then now in particular the protection that 00:04:18.161 --> 00:04:22.481 the deep sea has always had are disappearing because our 00:04:22.481 --> 00:04:26.121 technology is developing to the point where commercial 00:04:26.121 --> 00:04:33.561 exploitation is becoming possible. So, it's a race but 00:04:33.561 --> 00:04:37.361 in this particular case, we have a chance to understand 00:04:37.361 --> 00:04:42.921 what the impacts might be on these deep-sea environments 00:04:42.921 --> 00:04:48.441 before exploitation actually begins. And that's one of the 00:04:48.441 --> 00:04:51.481 reasons why I think it's so important to learn what's down 00:04:51.481 --> 00:04:55.561 there and understand what's going on.