TED2013
Edith Widder: How we found the giant squid
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Humankind has been looking for the giant squid (Architeuthis) since we first started taking pictures underwater. But the elusive deep-sea predator could never be caught on film. Oceanographer and inventor Edith Widder shares the key insight -- and the teamwork -- that helped to capture the squid on film for the first time.
Edith Widder - Marine biologist
Edith Widder combines her expertise in research and technological innovation with a commitment to stopping and reversing the degradation of our marine environment. Full bio
Edith Widder combines her expertise in research and technological innovation with a commitment to stopping and reversing the degradation of our marine environment. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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The Kraken, a beast so terrifying
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it was said to devour men and ships and whales,
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and so enormous it could be mistaken for an island.
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In assessing the merits of such tales,
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it's probably wise to keep in mind that old sailor's saw
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that the only difference between a fairytale and a sea story
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is a fairytale begins, "Once upon a time,"
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and a sea story begins, "This ain't no shit." (Laughter)
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Every fish that gets away
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grows with every telling of the tale.
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Nevertheless, there are giants in the ocean,
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and we now have video proof,
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as those of you that saw the Discovery Channel documentary are no doubt aware.
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I was one of the three scientists on this expedition
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that took place last summer off Japan.
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I'm the short one.
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The other two are Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera and Dr. Steve O'Shea.
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I owe my participation in this now-historic event
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to TED.
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In 2010, there was a TED event called Mission Blue
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held aboard the Lindblad Explorer in the Galapagos
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as part of the fulfillment of Sylvia Earle's TED wish.
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I spoke about a new way of exploring the ocean,
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one that focuses on attracting animals instead of scaring them away.
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Mike deGruy was also invited,
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and he spoke with great passion about his love of the ocean,
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and he also talked to me about applying my approach
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to something he's been involved with for a very long time,
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which is the hunt for the giant squid.
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It was Mike that got me invited to the squid summit,
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a gathering of squid experts at the Discovery Channel
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that summer during Shark Week. (Laughter)
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I gave a talk on unobtrusive viewing
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and optical luring of deep sea squid
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in which I emphasized the importance
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of using quiet, unobtrusive platforms for exploration.
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This came out of hundreds of dives I have made,
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farting around in the dark
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using these platforms,
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and my impression that I saw more animals
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working from the submersible
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than I did with either of the remote-operated vehicles.
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But that could just be because the submersible has a wider field of view.
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But I also felt like I saw more animals
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working with the Tiburon than the Ventana,
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two vehicles with the same field of view
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but different propulsion systems.
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So my suspicion was that it might have something to do with the amount of noise they make.
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So I set up a hydrophone on the bottom of the ocean,
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and I had each of these fly by at the same speed and distance
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and recorded the sound they made.
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The Johnson Sea-Link -- (whirring noise) --
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which you can probably just barely hear here,
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uses electric thrusters -- very, very quiet.
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The Tiburon also uses electric powered thrusters.
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It's also pretty quiet, but a bit noisier. (Louder whirring noise)
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But most deep-diving ROVs these days use hydraulics
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and they sound like the Ventana. (Loud beeping noise)
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I think that's got to be scaring a lot of animals away.
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So for the deep sea squid hunt,
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I proposed using an optical lure
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attached to a camera platform
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with no thrusters, no motors,
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just a battery-powered camera,
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and the only illumination coming from red light
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that's invisible to most deep-sea animals
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that are adapted to see primarily blue.
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That's visible to our eye,
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but it's the equivalent of infrared in the deep sea.
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So this camera platform, which we called the Medusa,
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could just be thrown off the back of the ship,
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attached to a float at the surface with over 2,000 feet of line,
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it would just float around passively carried by the currents,
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and the only light visible to the animals in the deep
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would be the blue light of the optical lure,
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which we called the electronic jellyfish, or e-jelly,
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because it was designed to imitate
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the bioluminescent display
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of the common deep sea jellyfish Atolla.
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Now, this pinwheel of light that the Atolla produces
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is known as a bioluminescent burglar alarm
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and is a form of defense.
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The reason that the electronic jellyfish worked as a lure
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is not because giant squid eat jellyfish,
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but it's because this jellyfish only resorts to producing this light
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when it's being chewed on by a predator
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and its only hope for escape
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may be to attract the attention of a larger predator
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that will attack its attacker
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and thereby afford it an opportunity for escape.
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It's a scream for help, a last-ditch attempt for escape,
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and a common form of defense in the deep sea.
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The approach worked.
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Whereas all previous expeditions had failed to garner
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a single video glimpse of the giant,
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we managed six, and the first triggered wild excitement.
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Edith Widder (on video): Oh my God. Oh my God! Are you kidding me?Other scientists: Oh ho ho! That's just hanging there.
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EW: It was like it was teasing us, doing a kind of fan dance --
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now you see me, now you don't --
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and we had four such teasing appearances,
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and then on the fifth, it came in and totally wowed us.
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(Music) Narrator: (Speaking in Japanese)
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Scientists: Ooh. Bang! Oh my God! Whoa!
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(Applause)
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EW: The full monty.
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What really wowed me about that
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was the way it came in up over the e-jelly
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and then attacked the enormous thing next to it,
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which I think it mistook for the predator on the e-jelly.
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But even more incredible was the footage shot
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from the Triton submersible.
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What was not mentioned in the Discovery documentary
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was that the bait squid that Dr. Kubodera used,
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a one-meter long diamondback squid
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had a light attached to it, a squid jig
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of the type that longline fishermen use,
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and I think it was this light
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that brought the giant in.
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Now, what you're seeing
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is the intensified camera's view under red light,
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and that's all Dr. Kubodera could see when the giant comes in here.
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And then he got so excited,
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he turned on his flashlight because he wanted to see better,
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and the giant didn't run away,
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so he risked turning on the white lights on the submersible,
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bringing a creature of legend
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from the misty history into high-resolution video.
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It was absolutely breathtaking,
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and had this animal had its feeding tentacles intact
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and fully extended,
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it would have been as tall as a two-story house.
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How could something that big
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live in our ocean and yet remain unfilmed until now?
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We've only explored about five percent of our ocean.
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There are great discoveries yet to be made down there,
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fantastic creatures representing millions of years of evolution
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and possibly bioactive compounds
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that could benefit us in ways that we can't even yet imagine.
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Yet we have spent only a tiny fraction
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of the money on ocean exploration
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that we've spent on space exploration.
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We need a NASA-like organization for ocean exploration,
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because we need to be exploring and protecting
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our life support systems here on Earth.
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We need — thank you. (Applause)
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Exploration is the engine that drives innovation.
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Innovation drives economic growth.
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So let's all go exploring,
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but let's do it in a way that doesn't scare the animals away,
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or, as Mike deGruy once said,
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"If you want to get away from it all
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and see something you've never seen,
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or have an excellent chance of seeing something that no one's ever seen,
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get in a sub."
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He should have been with us for this adventure.
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We miss him.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Edith Widder - Marine biologistEdith Widder combines her expertise in research and technological innovation with a commitment to stopping and reversing the degradation of our marine environment.
Why you should listen
A specialist in bioluminescence, Edith Widder helps design and invent new submersible instruments and equipment to study bioluminescence and enable unobtrusive observation of deep-sea environments. Her innovative tools for exploration have produced footage of rare and wonderful bioluminescent displays and never-before-seen denizens of the deep, including, most recently, the first video ever recorded of the giant squid, Architeuthis, in its natural habitat.
In 2005 she founded the Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA), which is dedicated to protecting aquatic ecosystems and the species they sustain through the development of innovative technologies and science-based conservation action.; In an effort to protect and revitalize the ocean she loves she has been focusing on developing tools for finding and tracking pollution -- a major threat to all of our water ecosystems and ultimately to human health. She was awarded a MacArthur "genius" grant in 2006.
In 2012, Widder was among the team that filmed the giant squid (Architeuthis) for the first time in its home ocean.
Edith Widder | Speaker | TED.com