Mission Blue Voyage
Mike deGruy: Hooked by an octopus
Filmed:
Readability: 3.8
1,151,885 views
Underwater filmmaker Mike deGruy has spent decades looking intimately at the ocean. A consummate storyteller, he takes the stage at Mission Blue to share his awe and excitement -- and his fears -- about the blue heart of our planet.
Mike deGruy - Filmmaker
Mike deGruy filmed in and on the ocean for more than three decades -- becoming almost as famous for his storytelling as for his glorious, intimate visions of the sea and the creatures who live in it. Full bio
Mike deGruy filmed in and on the ocean for more than three decades -- becoming almost as famous for his storytelling as for his glorious, intimate visions of the sea and the creatures who live in it. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
I first became fascinated with octopus at an early age.
0
0
3000
00:18
I grew up in Mobile, Alabama --
1
3000
2000
00:20
somebody's got to be from Mobile, right? --
2
5000
2000
00:22
and Mobile sits at the confluence of five rivers,
3
7000
3000
00:25
forming this beautiful delta.
4
10000
2000
00:27
And the delta has alligators crawling
5
12000
2000
00:29
in and out of rivers filled with fish
6
14000
2000
00:31
and cypress trees dripping with snakes,
7
16000
2000
00:33
birds of every flavor.
8
18000
2000
00:35
It's an absolute magical wonderland to live in --
9
20000
3000
00:38
if you're a kid interested in animals, to grow up in.
10
23000
3000
00:41
And this delta water flows to Mobile Bay, and finally into the Gulf of Mexico.
11
26000
4000
00:45
And I remember my first real contact with octopus
12
30000
3000
00:48
was probably at age five or six.
13
33000
2000
00:50
I was in the gulf, and I was swimming around and saw a little octopus on the bottom.
14
35000
3000
00:53
And I reached down and picked him up, and immediately
15
38000
3000
00:56
became fascinated and impressed by its speed and its strength and agility.
16
41000
3000
00:59
It was prying my fingers apart and moving to the back of my hand.
17
44000
4000
01:03
It was all I could do to hold onto this amazing creature.
18
48000
2000
01:05
Then it sort of calmed down in the palms of my hands
19
50000
3000
01:08
and started flashing colors,
20
53000
2000
01:10
just pulsing all of these colors.
21
55000
2000
01:12
And as I looked at it, it kind of tucked its arms under it,
22
57000
3000
01:15
raised into a spherical shape
23
60000
2000
01:17
and turned chocolate brown with two white stripes.
24
62000
3000
01:20
I'm going, "My gosh!" I had never seen anything like this in my life!
25
65000
3000
01:23
So I marveled for a moment, and then decided it was time to release him,
26
68000
3000
01:26
so I put him down.
27
71000
2000
01:28
The octopus left my hands and then did the damnedest thing:
28
73000
4000
01:32
It landed on the bottom in the rubble
29
77000
3000
01:35
and -- fwoosh! -- vanished
30
80000
2000
01:37
right before my eyes.
31
82000
1000
01:38
And I knew, right then, at age six,
32
83000
2000
01:40
that is an animal that I want to learn more about. So I did.
33
85000
3000
01:43
And I went off to college and got a degree in marine zoology,
34
88000
3000
01:46
and then moved to Hawaii and entered graduate school
35
91000
2000
01:48
at the University of Hawaii.
36
93000
2000
01:50
And while a student at Hawaii, I worked at the Waikiki Aquarium.
37
95000
3000
01:53
And the aquarium had a lot of big fish tanks
38
98000
2000
01:55
but not a lot of invertebrate displays,
39
100000
2000
01:57
and being the spineless guy, I thought, well
40
102000
3000
02:00
I'll just go out in the field and collect these wonderful animals
41
105000
3000
02:03
I had been learning about as a student
42
108000
3000
02:06
and bring them in, and I built these elaborate sets and put them on display.
43
111000
3000
02:09
Now, the fish in the tanks were gorgeous to look at,
44
114000
4000
02:13
but they didn't really interact with people.
45
118000
3000
02:16
But the octopus did.
46
121000
2000
02:18
If you walked up to an octopus tank,
47
123000
2000
02:20
especially early in the morning before anyone arrived,
48
125000
2000
02:22
the octopus would rise up and look at you
49
127000
2000
02:24
and you're thinking, "Is that guy really looking at me? He is looking at me!"
50
129000
3000
02:27
And you walk up to the front of the tank. Then you realize
51
132000
2000
02:29
that these animals all have different personalities:
52
134000
4000
02:33
Some of them would hold their ground,
53
138000
2000
02:35
others would slink into the back of the tank and disappear in the rocks,
54
140000
4000
02:39
and one in particular, this amazing animal ...
55
144000
2000
02:41
I went up to the front of the tank, and he's just staring at me,
56
146000
3000
02:44
and he had little horns come up above his eyes.
57
149000
2000
02:46
So I went right up to the front of the tank --
58
151000
2000
02:48
I was three or four inches from the front glass --
59
153000
2000
02:50
and the octopus was sitting on a perch, a little rock,
60
155000
3000
02:53
and he came off the rock and he also came down right to the front of the glass.
61
158000
4000
02:57
So I was staring at this animal about six or seven inches away,
62
162000
3000
03:00
and at that time I could actually focus that close;
63
165000
3000
03:03
now as I look at my fuzzy fingers I realize those days are long gone.
64
168000
4000
03:07
Anyway, there we were, staring at each other,
65
172000
2000
03:09
and he reaches down and grabs an armful of gravel
66
174000
3000
03:12
and releases it in the jet of water entering the tank
67
177000
3000
03:15
from the filtration system,
68
180000
2000
03:17
and -- chk chk chk chk chk! -- this gravel hits the front of the glass and falls down.
69
182000
3000
03:20
He reaches up, takes another armful of gravel, releases it --
70
185000
3000
03:23
chk chk chk chk chk! -- same thing.
71
188000
3000
03:26
Then he lifts another arm and I lift an arm.
72
191000
3000
03:29
Then he lifts another arm and I lift another arm.
73
194000
3000
03:32
And then I realize the octopus won the arms race,
74
197000
3000
03:35
because I was out and he had six left. (Laughter)
75
200000
3000
03:38
But the only way I can describe what I was seeing that day
76
203000
4000
03:42
was that this octopus was playing,
77
207000
3000
03:45
which is a pretty sophisticated behavior for a mere invertebrate.
78
210000
4000
03:49
So, about three years into my degree,
79
214000
2000
03:51
a funny thing happened on the way to the office,
80
216000
3000
03:54
which actually changed the course of my life.
81
219000
2000
03:56
A man came into the aquarium. It's a long story, but essentially
82
221000
3000
03:59
he sent me and a couple of friends of mine to the South Pacific
83
224000
3000
04:02
to collect animals for him,
84
227000
2000
04:04
and as we left, he gave us two 16-millimeter movie cameras.
85
229000
3000
04:07
He said, "Make a movie about this expedition."
86
232000
3000
04:10
"OK, a couple of biologists making a movie --
87
235000
3000
04:13
this'll be interesting,"
88
238000
1000
04:14
and off we went. And we did, we made a movie,
89
239000
2000
04:16
which had to be the worst movie ever made
90
241000
2000
04:18
in the history of movie making,
91
243000
2000
04:20
but it was a blast. I had so much fun.
92
245000
2000
04:22
And I remember that proverbial light going off in my head,
93
247000
2000
04:24
thinking, "Wait a minute.
94
249000
2000
04:26
Maybe I can do this all the time.
95
251000
2000
04:28
Yeah, I'll be a filmmaker."
96
253000
2000
04:30
So I literally came back from that job,
97
255000
2000
04:32
quit school, hung my filmmaking shingle
98
257000
2000
04:34
and just never told anyone that I didn't know what I was doing.
99
259000
3000
04:37
It's been a good ride.
100
262000
2000
04:39
And what I learned in school though was really beneficial.
101
264000
2000
04:41
If you're a wildlife filmmaker
102
266000
2000
04:43
and you're going out into the field to film animals,
103
268000
2000
04:45
especially behavior,
104
270000
2000
04:47
it helps to have a fundamental background
105
272000
2000
04:49
on who these animals are,
106
274000
2000
04:51
how they work and, you know, a bit about their behaviors.
107
276000
3000
04:54
But where I really learned about octopus
108
279000
2000
04:56
was in the field, as a filmmaker
109
281000
2000
04:58
making films with them,
110
283000
2000
05:00
where you're allowed to spend large periods of time
111
285000
3000
05:03
with the animals, seeing octopus being octopus
112
288000
3000
05:06
in their ocean homes.
113
291000
2000
05:08
I remember I took a trip to Australia,
114
293000
2000
05:10
went to an island called One Tree Island.
115
295000
3000
05:13
And apparently, evolution had occurred
116
298000
2000
05:15
at a pretty rapid rate on One Tree,
117
300000
2000
05:17
between the time they named it and the time I arrived,
118
302000
3000
05:20
because I'm sure there were at least three trees
119
305000
2000
05:22
on that island when we were there.
120
307000
2000
05:24
Anyway, one tree is situated right next to
121
309000
2000
05:26
a beautiful coral reef.
122
311000
2000
05:28
In fact, there's a surge channel
123
313000
2000
05:30
where the tide is moving back and forth, twice a day, pretty rapidly.
124
315000
3000
05:33
And there's a beautiful reef,
125
318000
1000
05:34
very complex reef, with lots of animals,
126
319000
3000
05:37
including a lot of octopus.
127
322000
2000
05:39
And not uniquely
128
324000
2000
05:41
but certainly, the octopus in Australia
129
326000
2000
05:43
are masters at camouflage.
130
328000
2000
05:45
As a matter of fact,
131
330000
2000
05:47
there's one right there.
132
332000
2000
05:49
So our first challenge was to find these things,
133
334000
2000
05:51
and that was a challenge, indeed.
134
336000
2000
05:53
But the idea is, we were there for a month
135
338000
2000
05:55
and I wanted to acclimate the animals to us
136
340000
2000
05:57
so that we could see behaviors without disturbing them.
137
342000
3000
06:00
So the first week was pretty much spent
138
345000
2000
06:02
just getting as close as we could,
139
347000
2000
06:04
every day a little closer, a little closer, a little closer.
140
349000
2000
06:06
And you knew what the limit was: they would start getting twitchy
141
351000
2000
06:08
and you'd back up, come back in a few hours.
142
353000
3000
06:11
And after the first week, they ignored us.
143
356000
3000
06:14
It was like, "I don't know what that thing is, but he's no threat to me."
144
359000
2000
06:16
So they went on about their business
145
361000
2000
06:18
and from a foot away, we're watching mating
146
363000
2000
06:20
and courting and fighting
147
365000
2000
06:22
and it is just an unbelievable experience.
148
367000
3000
06:25
And one of the most fantastic displays
149
370000
2000
06:27
that I remember, or at least visually,
150
372000
2000
06:29
was a foraging behavior.
151
374000
2000
06:31
And they had a lot of different techniques
152
376000
2000
06:33
that they would use for foraging,
153
378000
2000
06:35
but this particular one used vision.
154
380000
2000
06:37
And they would see a coral head,
155
382000
2000
06:39
maybe 10 feet away,
156
384000
2000
06:41
and start moving over toward that coral head.
157
386000
3000
06:44
And I don't know whether they actually saw crab in it, or imagined that one might be,
158
389000
4000
06:48
but whatever the case, they would leap off the bottom
159
393000
3000
06:51
and go through the water and land right on top of this coral head,
160
396000
3000
06:54
and then the web between the arms
161
399000
2000
06:56
would completely engulf the coral head,
162
401000
2000
06:58
and they would fish out, swim for crabs.
163
403000
2000
07:00
And as soon as the crabs touched the arm, it was lights out.
164
405000
3000
07:03
And I always wondered what happened under that web.
165
408000
2000
07:05
So we created a way to find out, (Laughter)
166
410000
3000
07:08
and I got my first look at that famous beak in action.
167
413000
3000
07:11
It was fantastic.
168
416000
2000
07:13
If you're going to make a lot of films about a particular group of animals,
169
418000
3000
07:16
you might as well pick one that's fairly common.
170
421000
2000
07:18
And octopus are, they live in all the oceans.
171
423000
2000
07:20
They also live deep.
172
425000
2000
07:22
And I can't say octopus are responsible
173
427000
2000
07:24
for my really strong interest
174
429000
2000
07:26
in getting in subs and going deep,
175
431000
2000
07:28
but whatever the case, I like that.
176
433000
2000
07:30
It's like nothing you've ever done.
177
435000
2000
07:32
If you ever really want to get away from it all
178
437000
2000
07:34
and see something that you have never seen,
179
439000
2000
07:36
and have an excellent chance of seeing something
180
441000
2000
07:38
no one has ever seen, get in a sub.
181
443000
3000
07:41
You climb in, seal the hatch, turn on a little oxygen,
182
446000
2000
07:43
turn on the scrubber,
183
448000
2000
07:45
which removes the CO2 in the air you breathe, and they chuck you overboard.
184
450000
3000
07:48
Down you go. There's no connection to the surface
185
453000
2000
07:50
apart from a pretty funky radio.
186
455000
2000
07:52
And as you go down, the washing machine
187
457000
2000
07:54
at the surface calms down.
188
459000
2000
07:56
And it gets quiet.
189
461000
2000
07:58
And it starts getting really nice.
190
463000
2000
08:00
And as you go deeper, that lovely, blue water you were launched in
191
465000
3000
08:03
gives way to darker and darker blue.
192
468000
3000
08:06
And finally, it's a rich lavender,
193
471000
2000
08:08
and after a couple of thousand feet, it's ink black.
194
473000
3000
08:11
And now you've entered the realm
195
476000
2000
08:13
of the mid-water community.
196
478000
3000
08:16
You could give an entire talk
197
481000
2000
08:18
about the creatures that live in the mid-water.
198
483000
2000
08:20
Suffice to say though, as far as I'm concerned,
199
485000
3000
08:23
without question, the most bizarre designs
200
488000
3000
08:26
and outrageous behaviors
201
491000
3000
08:29
are in the animals that live in the mid-water community.
202
494000
3000
08:32
But we're just going to zip right past this area,
203
497000
2000
08:34
this area that includes about 95 percent
204
499000
3000
08:37
of the living space on our planet
205
502000
2000
08:39
and go to the mid-ocean ridge, which I think is even more extraordinary.
206
504000
3000
08:42
The mid-ocean ridge is a huge mountain range,
207
507000
3000
08:45
40,000 miles long, snaking around the entire globe.
208
510000
3000
08:48
And they're big mountains, thousands of feet tall,
209
513000
2000
08:50
some of which are tens of thousands of feet
210
515000
2000
08:52
and bust through the surface,
211
517000
2000
08:54
creating islands like Hawaii.
212
519000
2000
08:56
And the top of this mountain range
213
521000
2000
08:58
is splitting apart, creating a rift valley.
214
523000
3000
09:01
And when you dive into that rift valley, that's where the action is
215
526000
3000
09:04
because literally thousands of active volcanoes
216
529000
3000
09:07
are going off at any point in time
217
532000
2000
09:09
all along this 40,000 mile range.
218
534000
2000
09:11
And as these tectonic plates are spreading apart,
219
536000
3000
09:14
magma, lava is coming up and filling those gaps,
220
539000
3000
09:17
and you're looking land -- new land --
221
542000
3000
09:20
being created right before your eyes.
222
545000
2000
09:22
And over the tops of them is 3,000 to 4,000 meters of water
223
547000
3000
09:25
creating enormous pressure,
224
550000
2000
09:27
forcing water down through the cracks toward the center of the earth,
225
552000
3000
09:30
until it hits a magma chamber
226
555000
2000
09:32
where it becomes superheated
227
557000
2000
09:34
and supersaturated with minerals,
228
559000
2000
09:36
reverses its flow and starts shooting back to the surface
229
561000
2000
09:38
and is ejected out of the earth like a geyser at Yellowstone.
230
563000
3000
09:41
In fact, this whole area
231
566000
2000
09:43
is like a Yellowstone National Park with all of the trimmings.
232
568000
3000
09:46
And this vent fluid is about 600 or 700 degrees F.
233
571000
3000
09:49
The surrounding water is just a couple of degrees above freezing.
234
574000
3000
09:52
So it immediately cools,
235
577000
2000
09:54
and it can no longer hold in suspension
236
579000
2000
09:56
all of the material that it's dissolved,
237
581000
2000
09:58
and it precipitates out, forming black smoke.
238
583000
3000
10:01
And it forms these towers, these chimneys
239
586000
2000
10:03
that are 10, 20, 30 feet tall.
240
588000
2000
10:05
And all along the sides of these chimneys
241
590000
3000
10:08
is shimmering with heat and loaded with life.
242
593000
3000
10:11
You've got black smokers going all over the place
243
596000
2000
10:13
and chimneys that have tube worms
244
598000
2000
10:15
that might be eight to 10 feet long.
245
600000
3000
10:18
And out of the tops of these tube worms
246
603000
2000
10:20
are these beautiful red plumes.
247
605000
2000
10:22
And living amongst the tangle of tube worms
248
607000
3000
10:25
is an entire community of animals:
249
610000
2000
10:27
shrimp, fish, lobsters, crab,
250
612000
2000
10:29
clams and swarms of arthropods
251
614000
2000
10:31
that are playing that dangerous game
252
616000
2000
10:33
between over here is scalding hot and freezing cold.
253
618000
3000
10:36
And this whole ecosystem
254
621000
2000
10:38
wasn't even known about
255
623000
2000
10:40
until 33 years ago.
256
625000
2000
10:42
And it completely threw science on its head.
257
627000
3000
10:46
It made scientists rethink
258
631000
2000
10:48
where life on Earth might have actually begun.
259
633000
2000
10:50
And before the discovery of these vents,
260
635000
3000
10:53
all life on Earth, the key to life on Earth,
261
638000
2000
10:55
was believed to be the sun and photosynthesis.
262
640000
2000
10:57
But down there, there is no sun,
263
642000
2000
10:59
there is no photosynthesis;
264
644000
2000
11:01
it's chemosynthetic environment down there driving it,
265
646000
3000
11:04
and it's all so ephemeral.
266
649000
2000
11:06
You might film this
267
651000
2000
11:08
unbelievable hydrothermal vent,
268
653000
2000
11:10
which you think at the time has to be on another planet.
269
655000
3000
11:13
It's amazing to think that this is actually on earth;
270
658000
2000
11:15
it looks like aliens in an alien environment.
271
660000
3000
11:18
But you go back to the same vent eight years later
272
663000
3000
11:21
and it can be completely dead.
273
666000
2000
11:23
There's no hot water.
274
668000
2000
11:25
All of the animals are gone, they're dead,
275
670000
2000
11:27
and the chimneys are still there
276
672000
2000
11:29
creating a really nice ghost town,
277
674000
2000
11:31
an eerie, spooky ghost town,
278
676000
2000
11:33
but essentially devoid of animals, of course.
279
678000
2000
11:35
But 10 miles down the ridge...
280
680000
3000
11:38
pshhh! There's another volcano going.
281
683000
2000
11:40
And there's a whole new hydrothermal vent community that has been formed.
282
685000
3000
11:43
And this kind of life and death of hydrothermal vent communities
283
688000
3000
11:46
is going on every 30 or 40 years
284
691000
2000
11:48
all along the ridge.
285
693000
2000
11:50
And that ephemeral nature
286
695000
2000
11:52
of the hydrothermal vent community
287
697000
2000
11:54
isn't really different from some of the
288
699000
2000
11:56
areas that I've seen
289
701000
2000
11:58
in 35 years of traveling around, making films.
290
703000
3000
12:01
Where you go and film a really nice sequence at a bay.
291
706000
3000
12:04
And you go back, and I'm at home,
292
709000
2000
12:06
and I'm thinking, "Okay, what can I shoot ...
293
711000
2000
12:08
Ah! I know where I can shoot that.
294
713000
2000
12:10
There's this beautiful bay, lots of soft corals and stomatopods."
295
715000
2000
12:12
And you show up, and it's dead.
296
717000
2000
12:15
There's no coral, algae growing on it, and the water's pea soup.
297
720000
3000
12:18
You think, "Well, what happened?"
298
723000
2000
12:20
And you turn around,
299
725000
2000
12:22
and there's a hillside behind you with a neighborhood going in,
300
727000
2000
12:24
and bulldozers are pushing piles of soil back and forth.
301
729000
3000
12:27
And over here
302
732000
2000
12:29
there's a golf course going in.
303
734000
2000
12:31
And this is the tropics.
304
736000
2000
12:33
It's raining like crazy here.
305
738000
2000
12:35
So this rainwater is flooding down the hillside,
306
740000
3000
12:38
carrying with it sediments from the construction site,
307
743000
2000
12:40
smothering the coral and killing it.
308
745000
2000
12:42
And fertilizers and pesticides
309
747000
2000
12:44
are flowing into the bay from the golf course --
310
749000
3000
12:47
the pesticides killing all the larvae and little animals,
311
752000
3000
12:50
fertilizer creating this beautiful plankton bloom --
312
755000
2000
12:52
and there's your pea soup.
313
757000
2000
12:54
But, encouragingly, I've seen just the opposite.
314
759000
3000
12:57
I've been to a place that was a pretty trashed bay.
315
762000
3000
13:00
And I looked at it, just said, "Yuck,"
316
765000
2000
13:02
and go and work on the other side of the island.
317
767000
2000
13:04
Five years later, come back,
318
769000
2000
13:06
and that same bay is now gorgeous. It's beautiful.
319
771000
3000
13:09
It's got living coral, fish all over the place,
320
774000
2000
13:11
crystal clear water, and you go, "How did that happen?"
321
776000
3000
13:14
Well, how it happened is
322
779000
2000
13:16
the local community galvanized.
323
781000
2000
13:18
They recognized what was happening on the hillside and put a stop to it;
324
783000
3000
13:21
enacted laws and made permits required
325
786000
2000
13:23
to do responsible construction
326
788000
2000
13:25
and golf course maintenance
327
790000
2000
13:27
and stopped the sediments flowing into the bay,
328
792000
2000
13:29
and stopped the chemicals flowing into the bay,
329
794000
2000
13:31
and the bay recovered.
330
796000
2000
13:33
The ocean has an amazing ability
331
798000
2000
13:35
to recover, if we'll just leave it alone.
332
800000
3000
13:38
I think Margaret Mead
333
803000
2000
13:40
said it best.
334
805000
2000
13:42
She said that a small group of thoughtful people
335
807000
2000
13:44
could change the world.
336
809000
2000
13:46
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
337
811000
3000
13:49
And a small group of thoughtful people
338
814000
2000
13:51
changed that bay.
339
816000
2000
13:53
I'm a big fan of grassroots organizations.
340
818000
3000
13:56
I've been to a lot of lectures
341
821000
2000
13:58
where, at the end of it, inevitably,
342
823000
2000
14:00
one of the first questions that comes up is,
343
825000
2000
14:02
"But, but what can I do?
344
827000
2000
14:04
I'm an individual. I'm one person.
345
829000
2000
14:06
And these problems are so large and global, and it's just overwhelming."
346
831000
3000
14:09
Fair enough question.
347
834000
2000
14:11
My answer to that is don't look
348
836000
2000
14:13
at the big, overwhelming issues of the world.
349
838000
3000
14:16
Look in your own backyard.
350
841000
2000
14:18
Look in your heart, actually.
351
843000
3000
14:21
What do you really care about that isn't right where you live?
352
846000
3000
14:24
And fix it.
353
849000
2000
14:26
Create a healing zone in your neighborhood
354
851000
2000
14:28
and encourage others to do the same.
355
853000
2000
14:30
And maybe these healing zones can sprinkle a map,
356
855000
2000
14:32
little dots on a map.
357
857000
2000
14:34
And in fact, the way that we can communicate today --
358
859000
3000
14:37
where Alaska is instantly knowing what's going on in China,
359
862000
3000
14:40
and the Kiwis did this, and then over in England they tried to ...
360
865000
2000
14:42
and everybody is talking to everyone else --
361
867000
2000
14:44
it's not isolated points on a map anymore,
362
869000
2000
14:46
it's a network we've created.
363
871000
2000
14:48
And maybe these healing zones can start growing,
364
873000
2000
14:50
and possibly even overlap, and good things can happen.
365
875000
3000
14:53
So that's how I answer that question.
366
878000
3000
14:56
Look in your own backyard, in fact, look in the mirror.
367
881000
3000
14:59
What can you do that is more responsible
368
884000
2000
15:01
than what you're doing now?
369
886000
2000
15:03
And do that, and spread the word.
370
888000
3000
15:06
The vent community animals
371
891000
2000
15:08
can't really do much
372
893000
2000
15:10
about the life and death
373
895000
2000
15:12
that's going on where they live, but up here we can.
374
897000
3000
15:15
In theory, we're thinking, rational human beings.
375
900000
3000
15:18
And we can make changes to our behavior
376
903000
3000
15:21
that will influence and affect the environment,
377
906000
3000
15:24
like those people changed the health of that bay.
378
909000
2000
15:26
Now, Sylvia's TED Prize wish
379
911000
3000
15:29
was to beseech us to do anything we could,
380
914000
3000
15:32
everything we could,
381
917000
2000
15:34
to set aside not pin pricks,
382
919000
2000
15:36
but significant expanses
383
921000
2000
15:38
of the ocean for preservation,
384
923000
2000
15:40
"hope spots," she calls them.
385
925000
2000
15:42
And I applaud that. I loudly applaud that.
386
927000
3000
15:46
And it's my hope that some of these "hope spots"
387
931000
3000
15:49
can be in the deep ocean,
388
934000
2000
15:51
an area that has historically
389
936000
3000
15:54
been seriously neglected, if not abused.
390
939000
3000
15:57
The term "deep six" comes to mind:
391
942000
2000
15:59
"If it's too big or too toxic for a landfill,
392
944000
3000
16:02
deep six it!"
393
947000
2000
16:04
So, I hope that we can also keep
394
949000
2000
16:06
some of these "hope spots" in the deep sea.
395
951000
3000
16:09
Now, I don't get a wish,
396
954000
3000
16:12
but I certainly can say
397
957000
3000
16:15
that I will do anything I can
398
960000
2000
16:17
to support Sylvia Earle's wish.
399
962000
2000
16:19
And that I do.
400
964000
2000
16:21
Thank you very much. (Applause)
401
966000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mike deGruy - FilmmakerMike deGruy filmed in and on the ocean for more than three decades -- becoming almost as famous for his storytelling as for his glorious, intimate visions of the sea and the creatures who live in it.
Why you should listen
Mike deGruy was a graduate student in marine biology when he first picked up a 16mm film camera. Thirty-plus years on, his company, the Film Crew Inc., travels the oceans making underwater films for the BBC, PBS, National Geographic and Discovery Channel. He dived beneath both poles and visited the hydrothermal vents in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. And as you can imagine, he collected many stories along the way.
An accomplished diver and underwater cinematographer, deGruy also became a go-to host and expedition member on shows like the recent Mysteries of the Shark Coast with Céline Cousteau and Richard Fitzpatrick. (He was a regular on Shark Week -- and a shark attack survivor himelf.) But his first passion was cephalopods, and in fact deGruy and his team were the first to film two rarely seen cephalopods, the nautilus and the vampire squid, in their home ocean.
Mike deGruy | Speaker | TED.com