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				Into the Deep, Part 1 Alan Alda joins explorer Bob Ballard for a look at the technologies that have opened up the farthest reaches of the ocean.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: MAN: You can be anywhere you want through telepresence, so I decided, "Why not here?" ALDA: One recent afternoon, I found myself walking along a hillside overlooking the Connecticut River in the company of one of the world's greatest explorers, Bob Ballard. ALDA: How long do you think it will be before you're... under the ocean and never leaving your house? BALLARD: Right now, probably any time I want to do it. Really? ALDA: After 30 years of extraordinary successes opening up the mysteries of the deep ocean, Ballard now advocates a new kind of exploration, using remote control. BALLARD: Oh, yeah, but I won't have to... ALDA: It's the latest phase of a career that spans more than a hundred ocean expeditions, including at least a couple of scientific revolutions. We're going to devote this program to those expeditions, to those revolutions and to revealing the inner workings of our planet. ALDA: You seem to have been present at some of the greatest discoveries... and not only about the ocean, but about the planet. My strength is in the technology I developed. I've sort of used the technology as my passport to explore anything. And so, I have a love of geology, but I have an equal love of anthropology. And, fortunately, they're all under water. ( Alda laughing ) I got the only, you know, key to the car, so to speak, and that's been how I've been able to be at a particular point in human history when we've gone beneath the sea. TECHNICIAN: Have a good one. ( hatch hinges creaking ) TECHNICIAN: Sealing the hatch. PILOT: Hatch is secure. ALDA: This is the Alvin, a three-person submersible that's made more deep-ocean discoveries than any other sub, often with Ballard on board. Launched in 1964, Alvin is still going strong, diving for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Alvin's sister ship, the Turtle, was retired from the Navy in 1997. ALDA: Why is this called the Turtle? BALLARD: Well, it was really one of the earlier submarines; the first submarine ever built in America was the Turtle. Oh, really? BALLARD: And it attacked the British in the Revolutionary War. ALDA: Bob Ballard was a Woods Hole scientist for 30 years, while also a U.S. Navy officer, so he knows both subs well. All right. BALLARD: So this is the sail, and this actually floods, once you get out at sea. This is the important part, this is the hatch. Two inches thick... So, what keeps the water from going in here? Well, it's actually tapered. If you look at the hatch, it's like a porthole, and pressure pushes them down. In fact, you're most vulnerable at the surface. That's the most dangerous time. You don't have the pressure seating it. BALLARD: All right, well, let's get down inside here. So watch your step. ALDA: The heart of these deep-diving subs is the crew compartment-- a six-foot diameter steel sphere, built to withstand enormous forces. BALLARD: Absolutely a sardine. ALDA: My God, it's tiny! BALLARD: Oh, yeah. ALDA: Alvin can dive to 14,000 feet, where the water pressure outside is two and a half tons on every square inch of the sphere. ALDA: How long does it take you to get all the way down? Well, the average depth of the ocean is 12,000 feet. It takes you two-and-half hours each way, so you're talking five hours just commuting to work. And if you go even deeper, its even longer. PILOT: ID light on, request permission to dive. TECHNICIAN Roger. You're clear to dive. Depth here is 25-20. PILOT: Roger. Alvin diving. ALDA: With two 500-poundballast weights, the Alvin sinks at a steady 80 feet a minute. Gary, can you give me a vector to the target please? ( dispatch repeats over speakers ) ALDA: Sub and mother ship communicate with an acoustic phone, that echoes as it broadcasts sound directly into the water. TECHNICIAN: ...But you're 90 meters away. Target is at 0-8-0 degrees. Roger. Thank you. ( from speakers ): Roger. Thank you. ALDA: On the way down there's very little to do, and nothing to see unless you use the lights, but that consumes battery power that you'll need at the bottom. Eventually the pilot slows the sub's descent by dropping first one weight, then the second. PILOT: Okay, altitude is about 18 meters. Drop the second weight. You'll be able to hear it. ( speaker crackling ) Boom. BALLARD: You pop this, and then if you've done your ballast calculations right, you should stop. But everyone lies about their weight. Oh, you mean personally. Yeah, everyone lies, so I say, "Wait!" "Wait, Alan, you told me you were 180 pounds..." And we're still going! So then you have to go to what's called a "variable ballast system," and that's where you make up for the lying. And you start pumping ballast, and that will then take water outside and put it in a bag and that the bag, like a bladder, will expand and makes your volume bigger, and that slows you down until you finally get what's called "neutral trim." Now you're completely neutral; you're not falling or rising, and then you spend the last hundred feet and you drive down. When you get down there, you're really cold, huh? Oh, freezing. See, this hull is just two inches of steel and outside in the deep sea it's four degrees centigrade, I mean, it's just above freezing. And the ocean is like a giant heat sink. It just sucks the heat out of the submarine. Only thing that keeps you warm is your instrument panel. We can't afford the power to run a heater, because we're battery operated. ALDA: Maneuvering just above the bottom with their multiple propellers, deep submersibles like these have given scientists their first good look at the mysterious 70% of our planet that's covered by deep ocean. PILOT: This is Alvin, at the bottom. ALDA: It's been a slow process-- sometimes too slow for Bob Ballard-- but since the 1960s, it's truly a whole new world that's been revealed. BALLARD: We're going to a world that's totally dark-- complete darkness. We're going to be within a few feet of it, and it's... and there's no roads, so we're off track. ALDA: Yeah. We're going through the... over the ground and up and over and cliffs and walls and things like that. You don't want to go fast. In fact, the typical speed is like a half a mile an hour, and that's why it's so painfully slow. You get down here and if you're lucky, in three hours of bottom time you'll cover a mile. ALDA: In 1869, a hundred years before Alvin's launch, the French writer and ocean sailor Jules Verne published his classic story of the renegade scientist who travels the world's oceans in his fabulous submarine, Nautilus. None of Captain Nemo's technology existed at the time, of course, although in Hollywood's 1916 version the self-contained diving suits were a genuine technical advance. The adventures of Captain Nemo and his crew were an inspiration for generations of ocean explorers, including Jacques Cousteau and Bob Ballard. While some features of the Nautilus brilliantly foreshadowed later developments, Jules Verne did get one thing wrong-- the question of pressure. The design of submarines like the Nautilus, capable of accommodating large crews, developed rapidly during the Second Word War. Yet even the best of the German U-boats were limited to a depth of about 700 feet, and today's large submarines can go no deeper than a few thousand feet. It was Otis Barton, an engineer from Massachusetts, and his collaborator, William Beebe, who first solved the problem of how to reach extreme depths. The solution was to dive in a small, massive sphere-- they called it a "bathysphere." A spherical form offers the most effective resistance to the crushing pressures at depth. In a series of dives off Bermuda in the 1930s, they shattered the existing depth record of 525 feet, established by a diver in an armored suit. The bathysphere was simply lowered from a barge, a risky business since any fault in the cable would lead to a fatal plunge to the bottom. Beebe, who was a curator of birds at the Bronx Zoo, was greeted with disbelief when he reported seeing strange new creatures in the depths. We'll have a story about how right he was later in the program. It was the peculiar subs called "bathyscaphs," conceived by the Swiss balloonist Auguste Piccard in the 1930s, that finally reached the deepest part of the ocean-- the 35,000-foot Challenger Deep off Guam. A huge tank of gasoline provided flotation, so you didn't need a suspension cable. Bathyscaphs were safer, but very unwieldy, as Bob Ballard discovered. BALLARD: We were going in slow, but it's like if I just sort of took my hand and I had enough force to go right through this couch, you'd just see this... Well, that's what happened; the front of the submarine came down and I'm looking at it, and it's just the metal and everything... its just twisting in my eyes, like a giant just slowly, just very slowly, taking the submarine and just ripping it open. And then I see avgas... coming out. What's that? That's the flotation gasoline. We ruptured our tank. How did this turn out? Did you live? Well, here's what happened, you know. We then... he dropped the whole... then you could drop the whole door and he dropped ten tons. When he saw that, I said "Avgas!" When I yelled "Avgas," he dropped the doors open and we dropped ten tons. Now-- we're at 20,000 feet. It's a six-hour trip home. And here's what happens: you're leaking your gasoline and you start decelerating and then you start back down. Well, they had in the sub a little calculator-- you know one of those little LED displays? ( imitates electronic chirping ) Freezes up on a number? And so every few seconds, it was going... ( imitates gauge ) and telling you your ascent rate. Well, there was enough uncertainty in the calculation that it depended upon whether you were an optimist or a pessimist. You could get whatever you wanted out of those numbers. You didn't know whether you'd make it to the top before you lost the gasoline, which gave you the buoyancy. And then you'd go negative. And so we're looking... No one spoke. It was the most silent experience I've ever had. And we all looked at those numbers. For six hours? For six hours. ( imitating gauge ) And we were decelerating, because we were losing flotation. But we had enough to get home. ALDA: It was a technical breakthrough in the '60s that allowed the Alvin and her sister ships to shrink down to a practical size. Instead of a huge gasoline flotation tank, they used a new material called syntactic foam, packed inside a fiberglass shell. BALLARD: And what they were able to do is get rid of the gasoline, by taking... silicon, and they atomized it, and they made these little microspheres of glass with a little air in them. Billions of them. And it's sort of like a powder, but it has tremendous strength, but it weighs less than half of what seawater weighs. So by adding this foam, this is what basically makes the submarine float. ALDA: It turned out that the small, deep-diving subs were the perfect answer to a big question-- how to explore the vast undersea mountain range called the Mid-Ocean Ridge. During the decade of the 1950s, depth-sounding surveys had gradually revealed the Ridge as a 42,000-mile-long mountain range sometimes rising 15,000 feet above the sea floor, snaking around the globe between the continents. It's the largest geological feature on Earth. BALLARD: It really wasn't until 1960 that we knew that there was a great mountain range beneath the sea. But we didn't know how it got there. We didn't know the role it played in the earth-- until plate tectonics came along in the late '60s-- that we realized that it was actually the site of crustal creation, that it was along the axis of this great mountain range that the earth creates its outer skin, through this process called sea-floor spreading. And so we were the first human beings to go down in submarines and explore this mountain range. ALDA: The pictures of lava formations on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that Ballard filmed from the Alvin left no doubt that the mid-ocean ridges are volcanoes which create the earth's crust. And the next question was, where's the heat? In 1977, Ballard provided the answer with the discovery of hot water vents, 8,000 feet down on the Galapagos Rift. Then came the totally unexpected. Clustered around the vents were what seemed to be giant clams-- life, in the black ocean depths. It was the dawning of a scientific revolution which Ballard and the Alvin would pursue for the next several years. This picture you have =@>@.@?@.@on the wall. What is that a picture of? That is the moment of discovery of these life-forms. I think it's my proudest moment. People think maybe it was the Titanic. Actually, it wasn't. We didn't discover the Titanic, we knew it existed. It was the discovery of hydrothermal vents, these exotic creatures. See, prior to our discovery of hydrothermal vents in 1977, we thought all life on our planet was due to the sun-- that the photosynthetic energy we get from the sun, that plants capture, turn into organic matter that animals then eat, and then we eat the animals, was it. Yeah. But then we discovered in the total darkness, in a world alien to anything we can think of, creatures that were living not off the energy of the sun, but the energy of the earth itself. ALDA: It was not until 1979 that Ballard was able to get back to the Galapagos Rift, and uncover the tremendous variety of life that lives around the vents-- the tube worms, mussels, crabs, even fish that shelter in the warm, volcanic currents. On the '79 expedition, Ballard, who's a geologist, was able to bring astonished biologists to see the vent life-forms for the first time. It was the beginning of a whole new branch of biology, still going strong, which has figured out how the vent life makes a living down here in the dark. It's turned out that it's the composition of the water emerging from the vent's that's the secret. These creatures were living off of chemicals... BALLARD: Exactly! Down in the... Poisonous, toxic... Poisonous to the rest of us. Absolutely, particularly hydrogen sulfide-- H2S. Fill this room with H2S, we're toast. So are the plants. Everything dies. But there was a creature, a bacterium, that had figured out, over eons of time, how to duplicate photosynthesis in the dark by oxidizing this poisonous gas. And a whole new life system came into being-- a life system that is now, we think, where life began on Earth. ALDA: It's believed the early Earth contained widespread hot spring environments like this-- both on land and in the ocean-- long before the earliest photosynthesizing organisms, like algae, began to evolve. So perhaps the sulfide-loving bacteria we see at the vents might be related to the earliest life-forms on the planet. Hundreds of hydrothermal vent fields have now been found around the globe, even though only about one percent of the likely areas have been surveyed. The kind of bacteria which all vent life depends on was new to science. These bacteria can extract energy from hydrogen sulfide gas dissolved in the vent water. There have now been many expeditions to ocean vents with intensive study of the life, often including raising samples of clams, tube worms, or crabs up to the surface, wa mile or two above. Both weights away. PILOT ( echoing ): Both weights away. ALDA: Surprisingly, biologists have had some success in keeping deep-ocean animals alive in special labs onboard ship. In this system, the intrepid researchers remove the foul-smelling worms from their shell-like tubes. Plastic replacement tubes are then used, not without some difficulty. The plastic tubes can then be fitted into pressure cylinders, which are pumped up to simulate conditions at depth. The tube worms have what's called a symbiotic relationship with the sulfur-eating bacteria. In fact, the entire contents of the worm are just bacteria. Although it's still not clear exactly how these symbiotic relationships work, there's no doubt that sulfur-loving bacteria are at the base of the entire food chain at the deep ocean vents. Some animals, like crabs, eat the bacteria directly. Others, like the tube worms and giant clams, shelter them in their bodies. Still others, like vent fish, are predators, feeding on everything else.

				Into the Deep, Part 2 Alan Alda joins explorer Bob Ballard for a look at the technologies that have opened up the farthest reaches of the ocean.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: In 1979, Ballard made yet another historic discovery, in an area called the East Pacific Rise, off Baja California. They called them "black smokers"-- chimneys spewing out clouds of mineral-rich water, so hot that it must have come from deep in the earth's crust. It explained why the sea is so rich in minerals. BALLARD: The sea water, which is under pressure, goes right down into those cracks, goes down to the magma chamber. The magma chamber is hot-- 1,400 degrees... 1,200 to 1,400 degrees centigrade. And so it heats up the water, and then the water begins to interact with the magma chamber, and it changes its chemistry. Now, does the water turn to steam? No, it can't, because of pressure. It turns into superhot water. Superhot water, which means it stays... Liquid. Liquid, but it's really... Really hot. And it's now full of chemicals that it didn't have before. And it's those chemicals that are coming out of the black smokers that are responsible for the chemistry of the world's oceans. In fact, we now realize that the entire volume of the world's oceans is going inside the earth and out, every six million to eight million years. "Every six to eight million years." The entire volume. All the oceans in the world-- they all go down... Through this system. Under the floor of the ocean. Under the mountain ridge... into the mountain range, and come up in the form of black smokers. And it takes eight or ten million years... For the whole ballgame. That's a lot of water. Well, of course, yeah. And that's caused the chemistry of the world's oceans. And we didn't know that. ALDA: Ballard almost didn't live to tell the world about black smokers. It all began when they moved in to take a measurement. BALLARD: The first time we saw one, we're coming up on it, we're inching up and... and it's high, so we had to come up high. So we're now neutrally buoyant, and there's an updraft and it's pulling us towards it, okay? And we're trying to find out what the temperature is, and so we take our mechanical arm out, we stick it in there. And we look at the... and it pegs off scale. ( imitates popping ) And the pilot says, "That's hot." ( both chuckle ) And then he removes the equipment... the temperature, and it's melted. And then he says, "I just want to let you guys know that the probe's made out of the same material as the porthole." And we were, like, three feet away. And moving toward it. And moving toward it. So, like, what-- everybody go like that? Absolutely! Fortunately, the sub has a reverse. And we... we actually bumped by it, we bumped it and knocked it over. And when we came up, the side of the submarine was melted. The syntactic foam was melted. When you came up this close to it, had anybody ever seen a black smoker before? Never, never. So this... you were... you almost discovered it and disappeared with your own discovery. Yeah, yeah, no, it could've been a bad day. Could've been a while before anybody knew that there was a black smoker down there. Yeah, well, what would happen is if it hit your porthole at that high temperature, it would have shattered and imploded. Takes about a quarter of a second... to just... ( imitates implosion ). Because there's so much pressure. So much as to go off like a bomb. ALDA: In spite of the spectacular scientific advances that have been made with the use of small manned submersibles like Alvin, Ballard says we don't need subs like this anymore. He came to that conclusion right here on the Galapagos Rift. BALLARD: The turning moment for me was in a... in a submarine just like this one, when we found these unique life-forms. And we were down on the bottom of the Galapagos Rift. It was 1979, okay. And biologists had never seen these life-forms ever before, and we got them in the submarine, and a scientist by the name of Holger Jannish, who just couldn't wait to see these creatures. He knew he was going to be famous, just to be the first to see them biologically. And so we got down there and they were right outside the window. And I was sitting over here and I had brought down a new prototype camera system-- a digital camera system. And I was looking at the animals, and I looked up from my porthole and I looked at Holger, and he had his back to the window. I said, "Holger, what are you doing?" He said, "Well, I'm looking at the monitor." That's amazing. I said, "Let me see if I got this right..." We came all the way down here... We came all the way down here, and you turn your back to the window, and I went ( snaps fingers ). ALDA: The result of that insight is inside these blue shipping containers, on display at the Mystic Aquarium. It's the portable control room, which Ballard developed to run subs remotely. BALLARD: So this is where the pilot would sit, but see, remember, the pilot in the submarine was dominating the view. Yeah. Now the pilots sitting here and we get the view. So imagine these being multiple camera systems on the vehicle, multiple windows. So all of a sudden instead of a puny window that only one person could look out of, everyone gets to look out of many, many panoramic-view windows, okay? And talk about it together. And more importantly, it stays down 24 hours a day. ALDA: "What's the point of taking people down if they can't go outside when they get there?" says Ballard. Everything can be controlled from the surface, even collecting samples, so long as the communication link is good. Argo, a towed camera sled with a fiber optic link, was Ballard's first remote vehicle. After nine days, 24 hours a day, Argo found the Titanic, and that was thanks to an ingenious search strategy Ballard invented. ALDA: When a ship sinks, does it leave a trail of debris in the process of sinking? It can do that. The Titanic did that. Why does that happen? What's going on there? Okay, lets take the Titanic, because I looked for the debris trail. Everyone else looked for the Titanic. They didn't find it. Well, clearly it wasn't a good idea. because the Titanic was in a very complicated... badlands of the Dakotas, canyons and valleys, and you could hide a thousand Titanics in this rugged terrain, okay? So here's the Titanic up at the surface, okay? It goes vertical, then it snaps in half. Yeah. What's it now? Big salt shaker. What's coming out of it? Everything. Take this room, dump it. Okay, so lets take this room and throw it out the window, okay? Well, lets' say I took a heavy object, a stone. The stone's going to go ( "stone" zings ). But let's say my paper... I throw the paper. How long is it going to take the paper to sink? Longer than the stone? Yeah, it's going to take forever for the paper to sink. You know, this thing's going to... if it even sinks at all. So what happens is, there's a current running-- remember, that there's... there's rivers in the ocean. The Labrador current that brought the icebergs down, so that's a huge body of water. So an object will fall straight through it if it's heavy, but a lighter object will be carried by it. It may take it hours and hours and hours. Well, it's traveling miles before it finally falls through the upper current layer. And then it falls down. So you get a debris trail. Mmm. So, look for the debris trail. ALDA: In late summer of 1985, Ballard managed to get 11 days of sea time on the Woods Hole research ship, Knorr. You can see Argo's portable control room on the stern here. Argo was towed back and forth through the area where Ballard figured Titanic's debris trail should be. For nine tedious days, video of empty sea floor came back to the control room. Then... WOMAN: We're over something. MAN: Looking good. You can see it... MAN 2: Whoa! ( crew exclaiming and laughing ) MAN: What is it? MAN 2: I don't know, but it's manmade! MAN: More stuff coming. That is big. MAN: Boiler! I got boilers. MAN 2: Yes, yes. Fantastic! All right! ( crew exclaiming and cheering ) ( laughing ) God damn! MAN: Let's break out the champagne. ALDA: With only two days' search time left, Argo's cameras had picked up Titanic's ghostly shape-- 12,000 feet beneath the spot in the North Atlantic where she'd hit the iceberg that fatal night in 1912. Ballard's strategy had been exactly right. I knew that current was north to south, because that's where the icebergs come from. So I ran east to west. ALDA: Hmm. And I knew... I said, well, where do you start? Well, what's the lightest of all the debris that came out of the Titanic? Well, wouldn't it have been paper? The lifeboats. Oh, I see, yeah. They didn't sink at all. Yeah. So, if I know where they picked up the lifeboats the Carpathia... Yeah. it's got to be north. So I started my search underneath where they picked up the lifeboats with the Carpathia and then I ran my lines like that. And on the ninth line, picked up the debris trail, followed it home. It led me right to the Titanic. ALDA: The following year, Ballard returned to the Titanic but in the Alvin. He'd wanted to use a new remote, steerable vehicle called Jason, but it wasn't ready. So, he approached the Titanic using what he now regarded as outmoded technology, although it surely must have been a thrilling experience to really be there. Landing on the deck of the ship, Ballard deployed from Alvin a brand new remote vehicle called Jason Junior. And it was Jason Junior that shot those haunting pictures that we all saw, some from deep inside the wreck. It was the last Alvin expedition Ballard would conduct. Although he would make some dives in US Navy deep-dive subs, from now on most of his efforts would be concentrated on remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs. That's probably just as well, since his interest was turning increasingly to wrecks, and wreck diving is dangerous. BALLARD: When you go to a wreck, it's a mess. Uh, the Lusitania was the scariest dive. What, some of it can fall on you or what? It was full of fishnets. Oh, oh. So you can just... Go right into them all. You can't see it. And get stuck. We did! You did-- you got stuck? Yeah, the submarine got stuck in it. How did you get out of that? Well, it was sort of humorous in reflection. We had a little submarine and it had three people in it. And they went and they... You can't see the monofilament. It's like monofilament nets. Yeah, yeah. It's like a web. And the sub went into it and it sucked it up into its stern prop and it just ate up the net into the stern prop. So now it's tied to the ship. And it went around and around so fast, it fused it. It melted it and fused it by just spinning the prop there, trying to get out. And so now... then they... I wasn't on that particular dive. I was up on the surface talking to them. And then they dropped their weights. But what happened is, they went like that because they didn't know how they were trapped until they dropped their weights. Instead of going up, they rotated and now they're vertical. A submarine's not designed to be vertical. All the equipment, everything, all the people came-- like a big tube-- came roaring down that tube. And then the guys called up and said, "You know, we got a problem. We're stuck." And then it turned out the pilot's father was another pilot. And so... very moving. I mean, here's a father talking to his son saying, "Well, what's up?" You know, "What's going on?" They said, "Well, we're trapped." "Well, how do you think...?" "Well, clearly we're stuck on the nets or something or rope. I don't know, it appears to be in the prop." Well, they had a procedure where they could uncouple the propeller... shroud and drop it. And so we're all listening. You know, you got the underwater sound and everyone's tense... The tension and the... "Oh my God, these people are going to die." And they had a little rhyme that they'd memorized on how to turn the screw. And you hear this voice from the bottom of the ocean: "Righty tighty, lefty loosey" as he's turning it... Had a little jingle to teach him how to turn the screw. He'd memorized it. "Righty tighty"-- he didn't want to do that. "Lefty loosey." And he was turning it to the left and they dropped the prop and they came up. ALDA: Jason-- Ballard's first fully capable remotely operated vehicle-- was launched in 1989 after five years of development at Woods Hole. There was skepticism about what ROVs could achieve. But over the next ten years using Jason, Argo and a series of other vehicles, Ballard opened up a new field of deep-water archaeology, in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. As usual, Ballard's imagination was hard at work. BALLARD: If you were on a Phoenician ship and you were carrying 2,000 amphorae of a fine wine for the pharaoh of Egypt, what would you do along the way? You'd drink the wine... You got it! and throw the jugs overboard. Absolutely! And what if you did that for thousands and thousands and thousands of years? What would you find? A lot of these jugs. A trail. Yeah. So what I do is I say, okay, here's... here's an ancient seaport. Let's say it's Carthage. I'm going to drive along here until I pick up the trail and I'm going to follow it and that's exactly what I did. Now, how do you find it, visually? Yeah, just go along and look for empties. That's exactly what I did. And there were the empties. Yeah! That's... so... And they weren't broken either. They were throwing... They didn't throw 'em over because they'd broken. They threw 'em over because they drank 'em. ALDA: Finding shipwrecks 2,000 o3,000 years old in deep water has forced a reappraisal of how ancient sailors navigated. It was commonly believed that they hugged the coastline. But these discoveries have shown they took direct routes in open water. They were better sailors and navigators than we had supposed but inevitably some ships were lost. There are many whole ships, whole cargoes in these deep, cold waters. Ballard believes these discoveries are the first glimpse of a deep-sea archaeological treasure trove. BALLARD: Shipwrecks are time capsules. They're pure moments in time. Everything on that shipwreck went down that moment, and particularly in the deep sea, it's preserved. It's in a high state of preservation. So imagine that probably everything humans have done has caused them to go out onto the sea with their commerce, with their technology and then they lose it. And they lose it in the deep sea which puts it in sort of a warehouse. I think there's more history in the deep sea than all the museums of the world combined. We think there's maybe one million time capsules. A million ships that have sunk. In the deep sea. And you can find them no matter how deep they are. Absolutely. The deeper the better: the more preserved they are, the further they are from land to be buried. And just think what the historians are going to write when the generation of explorers that are in elementary school right now find those time capsules. And here we are in the Amazon, trying out some,Gl-,f lcacao-- chocolate-- the way it comes down here. ALDA: Ballard has extended the idea of remote exploration to education. The Titanic discovery had prompted an enormous response. Suddenly thousands of kids wanted to be ocean explorers. Why not mount a whole series of remote explorations, he thought, and beam them live into museums and classrooms? We're going to go ahead and take another question. How would our earth be affected if the Amazon River were to dry up? If the Amazon River were to dry up, we'd be in deep trouble. There's a type of insect... ALDA: "Telepresence" he calls it. and it looks a lot like a giant plant hopper... ALDA: So far, the Jason Project has conducted 13 expeditions, to the ocean floor, to shipwrecks and to forests around the world, involving thousands of students. Both of them are moving. One little part of a body... So, you guys ready to go? ALDA: Here's Ballard's latest use of telepresence. Alan, why don't you sit right down there in the copilot's seat. All right, so here we are-- the next step. Now, where are we; what is this? This is a live shot, coming in from Monterey Bay. This is like the ultimate webcam. Absolutely, but even better. The aquarium's on our left. Cannery row is on our right. We're going to zoom in on these rocks, and we're going to look at some seals-- looks like harbor seals-- and a cormorant. See the cormorant sitting there? Oh, yeah. So that's a live feed. There's one right down there, and there's one up there. So watch. We're going to back up. Bing! So that's the Aquarium. That's the Monterey Bay Aquarium right there. Hello. All right, that's their observational platform. We'll pan back. ALDA: So far, it's maybe a bit better than a webcam but don't go away. And I can move forward... ALDA: The real point of the system is out in the bay between these two white markers, underwater. So we're now going to jump underwater and there we are. ALDA: Now we're seeing live, high-quality pictures sent on a data link across the continent, from Monterey, California to Mystic, Connecticut. And we can control the camera, too. Oh, hello, guy! ALDA: Whoa. Look at that. What is that? BALLARD: That's a fish! I know it's a fish! ( laughing ): I know. "Get the biologist." I'm a geologist. And now I'll zoom back out because I'm going to give it to you. Oh, all right. Can I see your driver's license? All right, just... get out of the way. All right, that's up and back. Right, okay. Oh, wait, what's that moving around? ALDA: Telepresence, I found, does have its limits. BALLARD: Do it slowly because there's a little time delay. Watch! You're at the end of the line! Stop! Oh! Oh, I'm going to crash! You did! I did? ( laughing ) I thought it was a fish! No, no. That's our... that's the end of the line. ALDA: At the heart of the trans- continental telepresence system is another remotely operated vehicle. Thrust reverse. ALDA: It had been installed just the week before I tried it out, after a couple of years of work. MAN ( over radio ): Clamp one off. ALDA: Monterey Bay's a marine sanctuary, so it's hard to get permission to do anything here. But for Ballard, that's the attraction. This is the first of two remote vehicles to be installed in different parts of the Monterey sanctuary. Then the plan is for systems to go into marine sanctuaries in the Florida Keys and California's Channel Islands. Eventually, visitors to museums and aquariums across the country and around the world will be able to experience a wide variety of underwater environments by telepresence. It's the sort of crazy, ambitious idea that's typical of Bob Ballard's imagination. It was born of his lifelong obsession with ocean exploration but grew out of that crucial insight he had 8,000 feet down on the Galapagos Rift, when his biologist colleague chose the pictures on the monitor over the view out the window. Zoom back out. Zoom back out, you got it. And come around again. ALDA: And it is extraordinary. You can feel you're there, as you steer the camera and vehicle through the kelp and rocks. ALDA: You know what's interesting about that surging, I see this movement and it's out of my control, which makes it very different from a computer experience. Very different from a... from a virtual experience. ALDA: We did have a little help from our underwater cameraman in shooting some of these scenes but most of them could have been shot by remote control, and that's the point. With telepresence, the potential is there. It's up to you to do the rest. Ballard's not content with inspiring a couple of revolutions in marine science and archaeology, and then wiring up the country's marine sanctuaries. Now he's off and running with a new crazy idea. If 70% of the globe is covered in water, it's time we started living out there, he says. Here's a marine habitation you tow into place, then tip up and anchor. There's no budget in America-- zero, zip-- for colonizing the world's oceans, nothing. They're not even thinking about it. You're actively at work on this? I mean, you've designed... Yeah, we're designing it. See, also you can use heat exchangers, so that you can take advantage of the thermocline to have nice air conditioning. You can have this... solar panels, where this thing... You're just moving cold air up, or you're creating electricity or what? Yeah, no, it's cold, it's cold, cold air. It's down there, it's freezing down there, okay? You're just circulating the air. You've got vanes that you can control so your solar panel follows the sun throughout the day. You can helo out to it. I want to put it in a marine sanctuary, and have rangers living on it. ALDA: I have to admit, I was skeptical about the ocean colonization idea, but when I said so, Bob Ballard answered with the confidence of experience. All my life, I've had these ideas and people say, "You're nuts," till I do them. Then you know what they say? "You know, actually, that wasn't a bad idea, but it's the new one you have that's nuts," and then I go on with the new one and I do it, and then they go, "Well, actually, it wasn't such a bad idea, but it's the next one." This is the one they think I'm nuts on... right now. ALDA: Ballard's one of the most celebrated explorers of his generation. With his list of achievements, you could forgive him if he were to indulge in a little self-congratulation, but 30 years of underwater surprises have taught him not to be so sure. I just think we have this great arrogance, you know, that we know everything, and every generation laughs at the next one. Well, get ready to be laughed at by your grandchildren. I mean, I have no idea what's ahead of us, but I know it'll be very surprising and very fascinating.

				Hidden Depths A remote sub dives to the unexplored middle depths of the ocean off Monterey, California, revealing a spectacular variety of new life forms.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: AS THE RESEARCH VESSEL POINT LOBOS HEADS OUT TO SEA. OPERATED BY THE MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM RESEARCH INSTITUTE ITS DESTINATION IS THE EDGE OF THE LAST GREAT UNEXPLORED REGION ON EARTH. JUST TEN MILES OUT, THE OCEAN FLOOR PLUNGES INTO A CANYON BIGGER THAN THE GRAND CANYON POISING THE POINT LOBOS OVER WATER AS DEEP AS ALMOST ANY IN THE WORLD'S OCEANS. BELOW THE TOP FEW HUNDRED FEET THESE DEPTHS WERE UNTIL RECENTLY ALMOST ENTIRELY UNKNOWN THOUGH BY VOLUME THEY MAKE UP MORE THAN 90% OF THE EARTH'S LIVING SPACE. ON BOARD THE POINT LOBOS IS ONE OF THE FIRST REGULAR VISITORS TO THESE HIDDEN DEPTHS, THE SUBMARINE VENTANA. WHAT IS ALL THIS STUFF HERE? WELL, WE'VE GOT A VARIETY OF TOOLS THAT WE USE AT DEPTH. THESE ARE SAMPLERS THAT WE USE TO COLLECT THE MORE FRAGILE AND DELICATE ANIMALS. DOWN HERE IS THE BIG EYE. UP HERE ALONG THIS MIDDLE BAR ARE FOUR METAL HALOGEN LIGHTS. THE DEPTHS WE'LL BE WORKING AT TODAY ARE VERY DARK. LESS THAN 1/100th OF A PERCENT OF THE SUNLIGHT WHICH REACHES THE SURFACE PENETRATES AS DEEP AS WE'LL BE WORKING TODAY. IF YOU WERE DOWN THERE WITHOUT A LIGHT WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE? WOULD IT BE LIKE BEING IN A ROOM THAT JUST HAS A TINY CRACK SOMEWHERE UNDER A DOOR, OR...? EVEN LESS THAN THAT. ABOUT THE ONLY THING YOU CAN SEE IS THAT LOOKING UP TOWARDS THE SURFACE IS LESS DARK THAN LOOKING DOWN. Alda: BRUCE ROBISON HAS BEEN USING THE VENTANA TO EXPLORE THE DARKNESS BELOW FOR SOME SIX YEARS NOW. THE SUBMARINE ISN'T PILOTED. BRUCE AND HIS CREW OPERATE IT FROM THE SURFACE WHERE THE OCEAN SWELL IS MAKING LIFE DISTINCTLY UNCOMFORTABLE FOR ME AND OUR CAMERA CREW. UNFORTUNATELY, GOING BELOW ONLY MAKES THINGS WORSE. THE CONTROL ROOM IS SMALL, DARK, HOT AND CONSTANTLY PITCHING. AS I MUNCH SALTINES TO SETTLE MY STOMACH THE PILOT TAKES THE VENTANA ON A DIVE THAT WILL PENETRATE A HALF MILE INTO THE DARKNESS. THE VIEW FROM VENTANA'S CAMERA IS LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF STAR WARS... Alda: SO WE'RE JUST TRAVELING THROUGH SPACE HERE. IT LOOKS LIKE WE'RE... OOP! WHAT... WHAT WENT BY? Alda: COMPLETE WITH ALIENS. OH... PERALIA, PERALIA. WHAT'S THAT? WHAT'S THAT? THESE ARE GREAT, BIG, BROWN-COLORED MEDUSAE. OH, THAT'S GORGEOUS. Alda: IN A SENSE, THE CREATURES DOWN HERE ARE LIKE ALIENS... LOOK AT THIS GUY. Alda: ADAPTED TO AN ENVIRONMENT QUITE UNLIKE THE ONE THE REST OF US INHABIT. BUT THIS HAS THIS BIG PLATE AT THE END OF IT. Alda: THIS CREATURE IS CALLED A SIPHONOPHORE. THIS IS THE PROPULSIVE END AND THERE ARE SWIMMING BELTS ON EITHER SIDE THAT ALLOW THE ANIMAL TO PULL ITSELF THROUGH THE WATER. Alda: IN FACT, THE SIPHONOPHORE MAY NOT BE A SINGLE ANIMAL AT ALL BUT AN ASSEMBLY OF MANY. UNTIL IT WAS SEEN HERE IN ITS HABITAT NO ONE KNEW MUCH ABOUT IT. YOU COULDN'T HAVE EVER BROUGHT THIS UP IN A NET, COULD YOU? NO, WE WOULD HAVE HAD ONLY BITS AND PIECES. WE WOULDN'T HAVE KNOWN HOW MANY SIPHONOPHORES WERE THERE WHETHER IT WAS ONE OR 100. THESE ANIMALS GET TO BE EXTRAORDINARILY LARGE. WE HAVE MEASURED THEM UP TO 120 FEET LONG. THAT'S A VERY BIG SURPRISE. Alda: AND IT MAKES IT ONE OF THE LONGEST CREATURES ON EARTH. CAPTURING SIPHONOPHORES AND THE DEEP'S OTHER GELATINOUS CREATURES IN ONE PIECE IS A JOB FOR ONE OF VENTANA'S SPECIALIZED COLLECTION DEVICES. YOU'RE GOING TO PUT HIM UP THE VACUUM CLEANER THERE? THAT'S RIGHT, WE'RE GOING TO DRAW THIS SIPHONOPHORE INTO THE SUCTION SAMPLER SO THAT WE CAN LOOK AT ITS STOMACH CONTENT. YOU CAN GET A BIG GUY LIKE THAT INTO ONE OF YOUR CONTAINERS? SURE. AND HE WON'T BREAK? IT WILL BE, UM... WHAT'S THE POLITE TERM? WADDED UP. OKAY, WE'RE GOING TO GIVE IT SOME... THIS IS WHY I DON'T BELIEVE IN FLYING SAUCERS COMING DOWN AND TAKING SAMPLES OF HUMANITY. I DON'T WANT TO BE "WADDED UP" BY ONE OF THEM. Alda: THE SIPHONOPHORE IS GENTLY SUCKED ABOARD IN ONE PIECE ACCOMPANIED BY SOME OF THE DUSTLIKE PARTICLES THAT ARE EVERYWHERE DOWN HERE. WHAT'S ALL THIS SNOWLIKE STUFF WE'RE SEEING AROUND THE ANIMAL? YOU CALLED IT BY THE RIGHT NAME. WE REFER TO IT AS MARINE SNOW. IT'S SORT OF ALL OF THE... ALL OF THE JUNK AND DETRITUS AND DUST OF THE UPPER LAYER OF THE OCEAN. SO THAT'S STUFF FALLING OFF OF ANIMALS UP ABOVE AND IT PASSES THROUGH THIS REGION AND CONTINUES ON ITS WAY ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM? THAT'S RIGHT. AND ANIMALS ARE FEEDING ON IT ALL THE TIME? YES, CERTAINLY BACTERIA FEED ON IT WHILE IT DESCENDS BUT THERE ARE OTHER ANIMALS, FILTER FEEDERS THAT OCCUR IN MIDWATER AND THEY PROCESS THESE PARTICLES BUT EVENTUALLY, THEY ALL REACH THE SEA FLOOR. Alda: SINCE BRUCE ROBISON AND HIS COLLEAGUES BEGAN THEIR DEEP WATER EXPLORATIONS THEY'VE IDENTIFIED DOZENS OF NEW SPECIES. CREATURES DOWN HERE RANGE FROM THE GRUESOME FANGTOOTH... TO THE ANGELIC-LOOKING RIBBONFISH. SOME 2,100 FEET DOWN THE VENTANA PASSES THROUGH A LAYER WHERE OXYGEN LEVELS ARE VERY LOW. AMONG THE CREATURES ADAPTED TO HANGING OUT HERE IS THE SPLENDIDLY NAMED VAMPYROTEUTHIS INFERNALIS A DISTANT COUSIN TO OCTOPUS AND SQUID. IT GLARES AT US BALEFULLY THROUGH A HUGE BLUE EYE. OH, BOY, TIME OUT! THIS IS A PARALEPIDID A VERY, VERY BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FISH THAT WE DON'T SEE ALL THAT OFTEN. ITS NOSE IS UP. IT'S KEEPING ITSELF ALMOST VERTICALLY IN THE WATER COLUMN. IT'S LOOKING UP, TRYING TO SEE ITS PREY SILHOUETTED AGAINST THE SURFACE. VERY SOON IT'S GOING TO TAKE OFF AND IT'LL BE GONE JUST LIKE IT VAPORIZED. THERE HE GOES, HE'S HISTORY. Alda: TO EVADE SHADOW-STALKERS LIKE THE PARALEPIDID POTENTIAL PREY ARE OFTEN TRANSPARENT. OR LIKE THIS LITTLE FISH THEY GENERATE THEIR OWN INTERNAL LIGHT. WHEN VIEWED FROM BELOW THIS MAKES THEM LESS VISIBLE AGAINST THE LIGHTER SURFACE. BIOLUMINESCENCE IS USED A LOT DOWN HERE. THE OTHERWISE-BLACK ANGLER FISH HAS A LUMINOUS BEARD TO ATTRACT PREY. BUT WHY SO MANY ANIMALS GLOW IN THE DARK IS STILL A MYSTERY. THIS IS A RED-BELLIED TOMACHTARID. IT'S A TYPE OF POLECHITE WORM THAT LIVES DOWN HERE. THIS ANIMAL HAS BIOLUMINESCENT ORGANS AT THE ENDS OF ALL ITS LEGS. WHAT A GOOD SHOT THAT IS! IT'S LIKE HAVING GLOWING TOES. Alda: THERE ARE SO MANY QUESTIONS DOWN HERE. THIS CATCHER'S-MITT-SHAPED CREATURE SEEMS TO PROPEL ITSELF ALONG WITH SHIMMERING HAIRS ALONG ITS EDGE BUT OTHERWISE IS UTTERLY MYSTERIOUS. HOW DOES THIS ANIMAL REPRODUCE? GOOD QUESTION. I DON'T KNOW. WELL, YOU KNOW, WHAT'S WONDERFUL IS HOW MUCH THERE IS TO LEARN DOWN HERE. OH, SURE. IT'S A WHOLE OTHER UNIVERSE. THAT'S PART OF WHAT MAKES IT SO EXCITING BECAUSE EACH DIVE CAN, AND OFTEN DOES BRING US SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING UNEXPECTED. Alda: UNFORTUNATELY, MY OWN CURIOSITY HAD BEGUN TO LOSE ITS BATTLE FOR ATTENTION WITH MY STOMACH. I THINK I HAVE TO GO UP AND GET SOME AIR. OKAY. IT'S NOT THAT THIS ISN'T FASCINATING. BUT I THINK STAYING IN ONE PIECE WILL BE MORE FASCINATING. ( laughs ) CERTAINLY MORE ENJOYABLE. Alda: COMING UP INTO THE AIR AND SEEING THE OCEAN AGAIN FROM A MORE FAMILIAR PERSPECTIVE IT WAS HARD TO BELIEVE SO MUCH LIFE LAY BELOW ITS SURFACE. EVEN IN THE BLACK DEPTHS OF AN OCEAN CANYON NATURE COMES UP WITH A TRULY FANTASTIC VARIETY OF CREATURES AND THEY ALL COME ABOUT IN THE SAME WAY. CHANGES IN ORGANISMS ARE CONSTANTLY TESTED AGAINST THE ENVIRONMENT AND AGAINST PREDATORS. JUST UP THE CALIFORNIA COAST FROM HERE THERE'S ONE SCIENTIST WHO HAS HAD TO DEVELOP HIS OWN UNIQUE WAY OF OBSERVING THIS NATURAL BATTLEGROUND. LOW TIDE AT PILLAR POINT A SCENIC SPOT ON CALIFORNIA'S COASTAL HIGHWAY.

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				Shark Trackers Overcoming his fears, Alan places a radio transmitter on a 13-foot tiger shark, and learns that these creatures need to swim to breathe.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: Alda: THE BALMY WATERS OF HAWAII. TOURISTS BY THE TENS OF THOUSANDS SPLASH IN THESE WAVES EVERY YEAR WHILE JUST BELOW THEM GLIDE HUNDREDS, PERHAPS THOUSANDS OF THE DEADLIEST KILLERS IN THE OCEAN. EVERY NOW AND THEN, SHARK AND HUMAN MEET. THIS MORNING, A B. Y.U. STUDENT WAS ATTACKED BY A SHARK WHILE SURFING. Alda: AS PREDICTABLE AS THE BREATHLESS MEDIA COVERAGE ARE CALLS FOR SHARK-CONTROL PROGRAMS THAT WOULD LITERALLY FISH THE KILLERS OUT OF HAWAII'S COASTAL WATERS. WHICH IS WHY THIS UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII RESEARCH VESSEL REGULARLY SETS OUT FROM HONOLULU HARBOR. Man: YOU CAN ACTUALLY DICTATE THE SIZE OF SHARK YOU CATCH BY THE SIZE OF THE BAITS YOU USE. SO A GOOD BIG TUNA HEAD, NICE AND BLOODY, JUST WHAT WE NEED. Alda: KIM HOLLAND AND A TEAM OF GRADUATE STUDENTS ARE BAITING LINES TO CATCH TIGER SHARKS-- THE SPECIES THAT POSES THE GREATEST THREAT TO HAWAII'S HUMANS. Holland: THAT'S A TASTY MORSEL. Alda: BUT THE TEAM ISN'T FISHING FOR SHARKS IN ORDER TO CONTROL THEM. THEY'RE ON A RESEARCH MISSION TO FIND OUT IF TIGER SHARKS CAN BE CONTROLLED AND WHAT THE CONSEQUENCES OF KILLING THEM MIGHT BE. THE BAITED HOOKS ARE LEFT OUT OVERNIGHT. WHEN MORNING COMES THE RESEARCH CREW GETS AN EXTRA HAND FOR THE DAY. Holland: OKAY, ALAN, DO IT. OH, MAN, YOU'VE DONE THIS BEFORE. Alda: AS WE HEADED FOR THE FIRST LINE OF HOOKS I ASKED A QUESTION I'VE ALWAYS WANTED THE ANSWER TO. Alda: IS THERE ANY EVIDENCE AT ALL THAT THERE'S SUCH A THING AS A KILLER SHARK A SHARK THAT GOES AFTER HUMANS? NO... IN TERMS OF THE TIGER SHARKS AND AS FAR AS I KNOW WITH OTHER SPECIES OF SHARK THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF THAT WHATSOEVER. SHARKS EVOLVED IN THE OCEAN, MAN DID NOT. IF THEY'D HAVE EVOLVED EATING MAN THEY WOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN VERY FAR BECAUSE UNTIL THE TOURIST INDUSTRY HIT THERE WASN'T VERY MANY PEOPLE IN THE WATER. YOU CAN'T MAKE A LIVING EATING SOMETHING WHICH IS NOT IN YOUR REALM. WHAT ABOUT IF A SHARK... BITES A HUMAN? WHICH DOESN'T HAPPEN VERY OFTEN. HOW OFTEN DOES IT HAPPEN? IN HAWAII, IT ONLY HAPPENS MAYBE TWICE A YEAR AND WHEN YOU THINK OF HOW MANY PEOPLE THERE ARE IN THE WATER ALL YEAR ROUND AND HOW MANY SHARKS THERE ARE... AND HOW MANY SHARKS ARE THERE IN THE WATER. THERE'S A LOT OF SHARKS BECAUSE WE CATCH SHARKS ALL THE TIME. WITH ALL OF THOSE SHARKS THERE ARE ONLY ONE OR TWO BITES A YEAR. NOW, HOW MANY OF THOSE BITES ARE FATAL? IN HAWAII IN THE LAST 30 YEARS ONLY THREE ATTACKS HAVE BEEN FATAL. Alda: ALL THAT DIDN'T SOUND SO BAD. AND THE FIRST SHARK WE HAULED IN LOOKED REASSURINGLY HARMLESS ESPECIALLY WHEN KIM ROLLED IT ONTO ITS BACK. Holland: IF YOU TURN IT OVER LIKE THIS THESE FISH GO INTO WHAT WE KNOW AS TONIC IMMOBILITY. SO EVEN IF THIS FISH WASN'T VERY TIRED IT WOULD BASICALLY GO TO SLEEP IN THIS POSITION. ON THE NOSE. Alda: IT WAS A FIVE-FOOT-LONG SANDBAR SHARK-- NOT A SPECIES MUCH GIVEN TO BITING HUMANS. WHAT CARL IS DOING VERY CAREFULLY NOW IS TAKING THAT HOOK OUT AND THEN WE'RE GOING TO LET HER GO. Alda: IS THERE ANY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THESE SMALLER SHARKS AND THE TIGER SHARKS? ONE THING WE DO KNOW ABOUT TIGER SHARKS IS ONE OF THEIR MAIN FOODS IS SMALLER SHARKS. SO IF YOU KILL THE LARGE SHARKS THE NUMBER OF MEDIUM AND SMALL SHARKS WILL PROBABLY INCREASE. THEIR FOOD IS FREQUENTLY THE COMMERCIALLY IMPORTANT FISHES. SO BY AFFECTING THE TOP PREDATOR YOU MAY END UP PERTURBING THE ECOSYSTEM SUCH THAT THE COMMERCIALLY VALUABLE FISH WILL DECREASE IN NUMBERS. Alda: SO TRYING TO RID HAWAIIAN WATERS OF TIGER SHARKS COULD REDUCE THE POPULATIONS OF FISH HAWAII AND ITS TOURISTS LIKE TO EAT. IT WAS BEGINNING TO SOUND AS IF TIGER SHARKS DON'T DESERVE THEIR REPUTATION. OF COURSE, I'D YET TO MEET ONE. Holland: OKAY... WE GOT A TIGER SHARK. GOOD. ( laughs ) AND IT'S ALIVE, AND IT'S A MEDIUM-SIZE ONE. HERE IT COMES RIGHT NOW IN THE WATER BEHIND US. WELL, THAT'S A BIG ONE. HOW LONG DO YOU THINK HE IS? THAT'S ABOUT A 13-FOOT-LONG SHARK. 13 FEET... AND WOULD YOU SAY HE'S TIRED? HE'S JUST THE WAY WE LIKE HIM. HE'S STILL OBVIOUSLY VERY HEALTHY BUT VERY TIRED SO WE CAN WORK WITH HIM, PUT A TRANSMITTER ON HIM AND LET HIM GO. HE'S SAFE, WE'RE SAFE, WE GET WHAT WE NEED. THIS IS JUST THE WAY WE LIKE THEM. LET ME ASK YOU A SERIOUS QUESTION HERE. WHEN THE SHARK HAS THAT HOOK IN ITS MOUTH IS IT JUST AS ABLE TO BITE AS WITHOUT THE HOOK? NO. AND THE OTHER THING TO REALIZE IS THAT SHARKS DON'T USE THEIR MOUTHS FOR DEFENSE OR FOR AGGRESSION. THEIR MOUTHS ARE FOR FEEDING. SO IT'S NOT LIKE A DOG THAT IS CORNERED. THESE ANIMALS DON'T THINK ABOUT TAKING THEIR VENGEANCE OUT OR BEING SO FRIGHTENED THEY COME AND BITE YOU. ALL THIS SHARK WANTS TO DO IS GET THAT HOOK OUT OF HIS MOUTH AND GO ABOUT ITS BUSINESS. Alda: AND IT WAS FINALLY TIME TO GO ABOUT OUR BUSINESS WHICH WAS TO TAG THE TIGER SHARK WITH A RADIO TRANSMITTER SO THAT WE COULD TRACK IT. KILLING THE TIGER SHARKS AROUND HAWAII'S BEACHES WOULD CONTROL THE THREAT THEY POSE ONLY IF THEY DON'T TRAVEL VERY FAR. AND UNTIL THIS RESEARCH PROJECT NO ONE HAS KNOWN HOW FAR TIGER SHARKS ROAM. IT WAS TIME TO MEET THE TIGER FACE-TO-FACE. Alda: THAT'S A GIGANTIC HEAD ON THIS SHARK. YES, LOOKS LIKE A BIG TADPOLE. IT'S DOING WHAT? IT'S BITING THE BOAT. IT'S BITING THE BOAT? THAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE WHAT YOU SAID BEFORE ABOUT NOT BITING THINGS THAT AREN'T FOOD. THAT'S THE GREAT THING ABOUT SCIENCE IS IT'S A WORLD OF DISCOVERY. Alda: LIKE THE LITTLE SANDBAR SHARK THIS ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO GO INTO A TRANCE WHEN BELLY UP. YOU HAD HER OVER ON HER BELLY. HOW LONG DO YOU HAVE TO KEEP HER ON HER BELLY FOR THIS EFFECT TO TAKE PLACE? IT VARIES, BUT USUALLY JUST THREE OR FOUR MINUTES AND SHE'LL GO QUIET. OH, I THOUGHT IT WAS A COUPLE OF SECONDS. NO, WELL, IT DEPENDS... SOMETIMES IT CAN BE. THERE SHE'S GOING NOW. OKAY? SEE THERE, SHE'S... SHE'S GONE NOW. AS LONG AS WE CAN KEEP HER BELLY UP, SHE'LL BE ALL RIGHT. HERE, RUB HER TUMMY. DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE IF YOU RUB HER TUMMY? DOES THAT HELP HER QUIET DOWN? I DON'T KNOW, BUT YOU KNOW IT'S A VERY, VERY COMMON PHENOMENON IN ALL VERTEBRATES THAT... OH, GEE. OH, BOY, THAT'S WHY I'M... NOW I'M PLAYING THE PART OF RICHARD DREYFUSS. WHAT, IS HE BUSY TODAY? IF YOU'D LIKE TO, AFTER BRAD MAKES THIS... Alda: AFTER THEY'D MADE THE SHARK REALLY MAD BY STICKING A KNIFE IN HER SKIN, I GOT THE PRIVILEGE OF IMPLANTING THE RADIO TRANSMITTER. YOU'RE WELCOME TO PUT IT ON. HERE'S THE TRANSMITTER. WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS? WE PUT IT RIGHT IN THAT INCISION ON THE BACK OF THE SHARK. RIGHT THERE, THAT'S IT. RIGHT IN THAT HOLE-- PUSH. BEAUTIFUL. GIVE IT A KNOCK, ONE MORE KNOCK. THERE YOU GO, A LITTLE BIT MORE. PERFECT. THERE IT IS, RIGHT THERE. THERE'S THE TRANSMITTER IN PLACE AND WE CAN FOLLOW HER WHEREVER SHE GOES. BECAUSE IT'S A DEPTH- SENSITIVE TRANSMITTER WE NOT ONLY KNOW WHERE SHE'S GOING SIDEWAYS BUT HOW DEEP SHE IS WHETHER SHE'S NEAR THE SURFACE, NEAR THE BOTTOM. THAT'S PERFECT, YOU SHOULD DO THIS FOR A LIVING. NO, I SHOULDN'T EVEN DO THIS FOR A LIVING. Alda: THE SHARK AND I WEREN'T UNHAPPY TO SEE EACH OTHER GO. NOW CAME THE EASY PART. KIM LOWERED A DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA BELOW THE BOAT. Holland: OKAY, IF YOU JUST WAG THE NOSE WE SHOULD START PICKING UP THE SIGNAL. THERE IT IS. THAT'S OUR FISH-- THAT'S THE TRANSMITTER. AND IT'S AT THE SURFACE BECAUSE IT'S VERY STEADY, ONCE PER SECOND. IF IT WAS DEEPER, IT WOULD BE FASTER. SO OUR FISH IS NOW DEAD AHEAD OF US AT THE SURFACE. OKAY, THIS FISH IS DOING ABOUT A 100-DEGREE COURSE RIGHT NOW WHICH WILL TAKE US RIGHT OFF THE TIP OF DIAMOND HEAD WHICH IS A VERY FAMILIAR THEME FOR US. THREE OR FOUR OF THE PREVIOUS SHARKS WE TRACKED HAVE COME ALONG EXACTLY THIS PATH-- CUT OFF THE TIP OF DIAMOND HEAD AND THEN STRIKE OUT INTO BLUE WATER BETWEEN HERE AND THE NEXT ISLAND OF MOLOKAI. Alda: TYPICALLY, KIM AND HIS TEAM STAY ON THE TRAIL OF A SHARK FOR AS LONG AS THE BATTERIES IN ITS TRANSMITTER LAST-- ABOUT 48 HOURS. THEY'VE TRACKED ABOUT A DOZEN SHARKS SO FAR AND EVERY ONE HAS WANDERED FAR AWAY FROM WHERE IT WAS CAUGHT. THIS WAS A BIG SURPRISE AND BAD NEWS FOR ADVOCATES OF SHARK CONTROL. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THERE WAS A REALLY BAD ATTACK HERE BY A SHARK AND PEOPLE WENT OUT IN BOATS AND KILLED ALL THE TIGER SHARKS THEY COULD? WHAT EFFECT WOULD THAT HAVE? IT PROBABLY WOULDN'T HAVE ANY EFFECT ON THE NUMBER OF SHARK ATTACKS ON PEOPLE THE REASON BEING THAT WE'RE SHOWING THAT THESE FISH MOVE MUCH GREATER DISTANCES THAN WE ANTICIPATED AND THAT MEANS IF YOU TAKE OUT SOME SHARKS FROM ONE BEACH THEY COULD VERY EASILY BE INFILLED BY OTHER SHARKS COMING FROM 30, 40, 50 MILES AWAY. SO AT THIS POINT, IT LOOKS AS THOUGH IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO HAVE A SURGICAL STRIKE. OKAY, LOOK, LOOK A LOT OF PEOPLE DON'T CARE IF THERE ARE FEWER SHARKS. I MEAN, I... I THINK SOME... SOME OF US THINK OF THEM LIKE RATS. IF THERE WERE A FEW LESS RATS, IT WOULDN'T... IT WOULDN'T HURT. WHAT... WHAT... WHAT PLACE IN OUR LIVES DO THEY HOLD? WHY SHOULD I CARE IF THE TIGER SHARK DISAPPEARS OR NOT? THE PROLIFERATION OF RATS IS A MAN-MADE PHENOMENON. THEY LIVE IN TOWNS AND CITIES THAT WE'VE CREATED. TIGER SHARKS LIVE IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHICH IS STILL ESSENTIALLY UNCHANGED AND AS SUCH, THEY'RE IN BALANCE WITH THEIR ENVIRONMENT AND THE BALANCE BETWEEN THEM AND THE FOOD THAT THEY EAT AND THE FOOD THAT THEIR FOOD EATS IS STILL PRETTY MUCH THE WAY WE THINK IT EVOLVED OVER EVOLUTION. AND SO BY PERTURBING THE SYSTEM BY TAKING OUT THE BIG SHARKS YOU WILL ACTUALLY HAVE AN EFFECT ALL THE WAY DOWN THROUGH THE FOOD CHAIN. Alda: THE TIGER SHARK IS JUST ONE OF 19 SHARK SPECIES THAT LIVE AROUND HAWAII. ALL HAVE THEIR MYSTERIES BUT NONE IS STRANGER THAN THIS ONE-- THE HAMMERHEAD SHARK. A DAY AFTER WRESTLING TIGER SHARKS I JOINED KIM AND HIS STUDENT CHRIS LOWE IN OAHU'S PEACEFUL KANEOHE BAY, FISHING FOR BABY HAMMERHEADS. THAT'S A LITTLE GUY. THAT'S THE MOST COMMON TOP-LEVEL PREDATOR IN THE BAY. THERE'S THOUSANDS OF THOSE PUPS OF THIS SIZE IN THIS BAY. WE'RE GOING TO DROP IT IN THE TANK AND WE CAN JUST RUN A COUPLE OF HUNDRED YARDS BACK TO THE LAB AND WE'VE GOT OUR FISH. HOW BIG DO THEY GET TO BE? AN ADULT SCALLOPED HAMMERHEAD WOULD BE ABOUT 14 FEET AS AN ADULT. 14 FEET, SO THESE GUYS ARE REALLY LITTLE. THEY'RE YOUNG, HUH? THESE ARE NEONATAL PUPS. THEY'VE ONLY BEEN BORN MAYBE... THE BIGGEST ONE MAYBE THREE OR FOUR OR FIVE WEEKS AGO AND THE SMALLEST ONES MAYBE A FEW DAYS AGO. Alda: OKAY, NOW, LOOK-- THIS IS THE MOST INTERESTING- LOOKING FISH I'VE EVER SEEN. WHY DO THEY HAVE A HEAD LIKE THAT? WHY IS IT SHAPED LIKE THAT? PROBABLY FOR SEVERAL REASONS. ONE IS THAT THEY HAVE AN EYE ON EACH END OF THE HEAD SO THAT IT HELPS THEM WITH BINOCULAR VISION. THEY ALSO HAVE A NOSTRIL ON EACH SIDE OF THE HEAD. YEAH. SO THAT PROBABLY HELPS THEM TO ORIENT TO SMELLS IN THE WATER. THEY ALSO HAVE AN ARRAY OF ELECTRORECEPTORS ALL THE WAY... SEE THOSE SHADOWS THERE? THOSE ARE ELECTRORECEPTORS. THEY CAN DETECT THE ELECTRICAL CURRENTS EMANATING FROM SMALL PREY THAT THEY FEED ON THAT MIGHT BE BURIED JUST UNDER THE SAND. Alda: THE HAMMERHEAD CERTAINLY APPEARS TO USE ITS HEAD LIKE A METAL DETECTOR WHEN SEARCHING FOR PREY. BUT CHRIS LOWE WONDERED IF THE HEAD'S WINGLIKE SHAPE ALSO GIVES IT A LIFT, LITERALLY, WHEN IT COMES TO SWIMMING. SO WE CAN LOOK AT THIS BY PLACING THE SHARK IN MY SWIM TUNNEL OR MY TREADMILL FOR FISH. Alda: WATER FLOWS THROUGH THE TANK FROM LEFT TO RIGHT. Lowe: SO WHAT HAPPENS IS, I CAN CHANGE THE VELOCITY AT WHICH THE WATER MOVES THROUGH THE LOOP. AND ONCE THE SHARKS ARE CONDITIONED THEY'LL SWIM IN PLACE. THIS SHARK ALWAYS HAS TO KEEP SWIMMING? EXACTLY... I MEAN, AS AN OBLIGATE SWIMMER MEANING THAT FROM THE TIME IT'S BORN TO THE TIME IT DIES THIS SHARK HAS TO SWIM IN ORDER TO RESPIRE... DAY AND NIGHT? DAY AND NIGHT, CONSTANTLY. OTHERWISE IT'LL SUFFOCATE. Alda: IF YOU HAVE TO SWIM TO BREATHE IT PAYS TO BE AS EFFICIENT A SWIMMER AS POSSIBLE AND FOR THE FIRST TIME, CHRIS'S SHARK TREADMILL HAS ALLOWED HIM TO COMPARE THE SWIMMING EFFICIENCY OF HAMMERHEADS TO THAT OF SHARKS WITH MORE CONVENTIONAL FRONT ENDS. HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO SHOW THAT THE HEAD DOES GIVE THE FISH AN ADVANTAGE? THESE SHARKS, COMPARED WITH OTHER SPECIES ARE VERY EFFICIENT SWIMMERS AND IF YOU LOOK AT, FOR EXAMPLE, THE TAIL COMPARE THE TAIL WITH THE HAMMERHEAD WITH ANOTHER SPECIES OF SHARK THE TAILS ARE FAIRLY SIMILAR. SO IF THE TAILS ARE SIMILAR HOW CAN THE HAMMERHEAD BE MORE EFFICIENT? WELL, THE ONLY THING I CAN THINK OF IS THEIR WING-SHAPED HEAD. Alda: A COUPLE OF DAYS WITH KIM HOLLAND AND THE STUDENTS WAS AN EXHILARATING IF SCARY REMINDER OF HOW MUCH THERE IS STILL TO LEARN ABOUT THE CREATURES OF THE DEEP-- EVEN SUCH CELEBRITIES AS SHARKS. Alda: YOU KNOW, WHEN WE WERE OUT IN THE OCEAN THERE I FELT LIKE WE WERE CHASING MOBY DICK A LITTLE BIT AND I WAS A LITTLE WORRIED, FIRST OF ALL THAT HE WAS GOING TO COME UP AND SMASH OUR BOAT APART THE WAY HE DID IN THE BOOK. BUT YOU'RE CHASING SOMETHING, LIKE AHAB. WHAT ARE YOU CHASING? I'M CHASING AN UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THE PARTS FIT TOGETHER EVEN WHEN IT'S A BIG, UGLY PART LIKE A TIGER SHARK-- WHICH AFTER A WHILE AREN'T SO UGLY. BUT I HAVE A FEELING OF REAL URGENCY ABOUT HOW FAST OUR MARINE RESOURCES CAN BE FRITTERED AWAY AND I AND MY STUDENTS ARE TRYING TO GET THE KIND OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION THAT WILL ALLOW US TO USE THE MARINE RESOURCES WITHOUT SQUANDERING THEM SO THAT THEY'RE GOING TO BE THERE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION. Alda: EARLY-MORNING FOG SHROUDS THE HARBOR OF MOSS LANDING 75 MILES SOUTH OF SAN FRANCISCO

				The Sea Within the Sea Threatened giant tuna and whales are tracked in the world’s first international marine park, the Ligurian Sea between France and Italy.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: IT'S THE VILLAGE OF STINTINO'S. ANNUAL SAGRA. THE SAGRA, OR CELEBRATION, IS FOR THE ARRIVAL OF THE TUNA. CELEBRATIONS LIKE THIS HAVE BEEN HELD AROUND THE MEDITERRANEAN FOR AS LONG AS PEOPLE CAN REMEMBER. IN JUNE, WHEN THE GIANT BLUEFIN ARRIVE OFF THE COAST TO SPAWN CELEBRATING THE BOUNTY OF THE SEA BRINGS THE WHOLE VILLAGE TOGETHER. BUT LIKE FISHERIES ALL OVER THE WORLD IN RECENT YEARS TUNA CATCHES HAVE BEEN DROPPING ALARMINGLY. SO NOW THERE'S AN URGENT NEED TO UNDERSTAND AND PROTECT THE REGION'S MARINE LIFE NOT LEAST BECAUSE IN SO MANY PLACES IT'S NOT JUST MARINE LIFE THAT'S THREATENED, IT'S COMMUNITY LIFE. THE FOCUS IS ON AN AREA JUST NORTH OF SARDINIA-- THE LIGURIAN SEA. AS OF 1999, IT HAS CONTAINED THE WORLD'S FIRST INTERNATIONAL MARINE RESERVE. THE WATERS ARE THE MOST PRODUCTIVE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN ATTRACTING IN SUMMER LARGE NUMBERS OF DOLPHIN, TUNA AND WHALES, COMING IN TO FEED. IT'S AUGUST IN THE LIGURIAN SEA AND WE'VE JOINED AN ITALIAN GOVERNMENT RESEARCH TEAM LOOKING FOR SOME OF THE AREA'S MOST ELUSIVE INHABITANTS-- FIN WHALES. THE MEDITERRANEAN HAS A LOT OF FIN WHALES ABOUT 4,000 IT'S BELIEVED. WE KNOW THEY CONCENTRATE HERE IN SUMMER, BUT NOT MUCH ELSE. ( blowing ) Man: TWO! SO, WE GOT THEM AT THREE O'CLOCK. Alda: TWO AMERICAN WHALE SOUND EXPERTS ARE VISITING THE TEAM. WHEN YOU SEE WHALES YOU GO, "DID I ACTUALLY SEE SOMETHING? " WOW, YEAH... BOY, THEY'RE MOVING. RAPIDO! Man: THE PROBLEM IS THAT THE WHALES ARE TOO FAST FOR US. WHEN THEY SPEED UP THEY GO FASTER THAN TEN KNOTS. Alda: JUST AHEAD OF THE BOAT, THE WHALES DIVE. Borsani: THEY USUALLY STAY DOWN FOR ABOUT TEN MINUTES. SO IT'S SEVEN MINUTES THEY HAVE BEEN DOWN NOW. Man: ONE O'CLOCK. Clark: OH... LOOK AT THAT. FANTASTIC... HOLY COW. ( blows ) Alda: THESE 100-FOOT GIANTS ARE FOUND WORLDWIDE BUT THEY WERE NEVER HUNTED IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SO THE POPULATION SHOULD BE HEALTHY. OUR WHALE SWIMS UNDER THE BOAT AT 18 METERS, 50 FEET DEPTH. BEAUTIFUL, LOOK AT HIM. 18 METERS, HUH? YUP. Borsani: SHE PASSED UNDERNEATH US. AND NOW, THE SECOND ONE IS HERE TO THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BOAT AT ABOUT TEN METERS. Alda: IT'S A RARE AND LUCKY ENCOUNTER SO CHRIS AND FABRIZIO TRY LISTENING FOR SOUNDS. FIN WHALES HAVE NEVER BEEN RECORDED IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. BUT, IF YOU LISTEN EVERY NOW AND THEN YOU HEAR THAT-- JUST A LITTLE BIT OF MODULATION IN THE TONE. YEAH, IT'S TOO SHORT. YEAH, IT'S ONLY ABOUT A SECOND LONG. Alda: THEY WEREN'T QUITE SURE WHAT THEY WERE HEARING AND WITHIN 45 MINUTES THE WHALES HAD VANISHED. Clark: IN THE LIFE OF A WHALE OR IN THE DAY OF A WHALE, 45 MINUTES IS NOTHING. YOU REALLY NEED TO LISTEN OVER MUCH, MUCH LONGER PERIODS. ( blowing ) Alda: CHRIS CLARK AND TOM CALUPCA HAVE BROUGHT ONBOARD UNDERWATER SOUND RECORDERS THEY DESIGNED TO BE LEFT BEHIND TO RUN CONTINUOUSLY FOR WEEKS. THE NIGHT BEFORE DEPLOYING THE RECORDERS FABRIZIO HAD TO COORDINATE THINGS WITH THE LOCAL FISHERMEN. ( speaking Italian ) Borsani: THIS FISHERMAN JUST TOLD US WHERE THEY TRAWL ON THE BOTTOM AT 500 METERS SO THAT WE CAN CHOOSE A LOCATION THAT WE'RE GOING TO TELL THEM WHERE WE ARE GOING TO PLACE TO POP-UPS. Alda: THEY'RE CALLED POP-UPS BECAUSE THE RECORDERS WILL FLOAT UP FROM THE SEA FLOOR ON COMMAND. THE TEAM IS PUTTING OUT TWO POP-UPS AND IT'S THE FIRST TIME THEY'VE TRIED. Clark: WE'VE GOT A PROBLEM. ( yelling in Italian ) LET IT GO! Alda: THE POP-UP DROPS ABRUPTLY INTO THE WATER BUT NOTHING SEEMS TO BREAK AND A FEW MINUTES LATER A SOLID ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATIONS LINK IS ESTABLISHED WITH IT. ( electronic beeping ) ( sonar-like beeping ) Man: THE THREE LONG BEEPS THAT MEANS THE POP-UP RECOGNIZED-- UNDERSTOOD-- THE MESSAGE OKAY. Alda: FINALLY THE POP-UP IS RELEASED TO SINK GENTLY TO THE BOTTOM, 1,500 FEET BELOW. WE'RE WITH ANOTHER ITALIAN TEAM THAT RECENTLY MADE A SURPRISING DISCOVERY ABOUT MEDITERRANEAN FIN WHALES. TINY SKIN SAMPLES WERE COLLECTED AND ANALYZED. THEY SHOWED GENETICALLY THAT MEDITERRANEAN FINS NEVER LEAVE-- THIS IS WHERE THEY SPEND THEIR LIVES. Borsani: NO GENES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN WHALES HAVE BEEN FOUND IN THE ATLANTIC AND VICE VERSA WHICH SPEAKS LOUDLY FOR A RESIDENT POPULATION. Alda: IF FIN WHALES ARE RESIDENT HERE THAT MEANS THEY'RE ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE TO THE SEA'S CROWDING AND POLLUTION. IT'S ESSENTIAL WE LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE WHALES SO WE CAN SAFEGUARD THEIR FUTURE. IT'S FALL, AND THE TEAM IS HEADING OUT TO COLLECT THE POP-UPS. WITH WINTER COMING IT'S THOUGHT THE WHALES WILL ALREADY HAVE LEFT. TOM WILL DIAL UP THE POP-UP ON THE SEA FLOOR TELLING IT TO RELEASE ITS BALLAST WEIGHTS. THERE IT IS! THE BUOY'S AT THE SURFACE. IT'S RIGHT OVER THERE JUST OFF THE BOAT, ABOUT 50 METERS AWAY. WE'RE IN A GOOD SPOT. Alda: IT'S A LITTLE LIKE A SPACECRAFT SPLASHDOWN. AND, IN TRUTH, THE POP-UP HAS JUST RETURNED FROM A LARGELY UNEXPLORED PLACE. 9:09 AND 30 SECONDS... NOW. WELCOME HOME! Alda: THE POP-UPS BROUGHT ANOTHER SURPRISE-- CLEAR RECORDINGS OF LOTS OF WHALES IN THE LIGURIAN SEA RIGHT INTO WINTER. SCIENTISTS HADN'T KNOWN THEY STAYED. ( whales calling with clicks ) ( people yelling ) Alda: THESE ARE SCENES OF A REAL BLUEFIN TUNA MATTANZA, OR "KILLING" SHOT IN SICILY IN THE 1940s. THERE'S NO BETTER EVIDENCE OF THE TREMENDOUS ABUNDANCE THE MEDITERRANEAN YIELDED. BUT CATCHES LIKE THIS HAVEN'T BEEN SEEN IN DECADES. WE'RE BACK IN SARDINIA FOR THE 1999 MATTANZA NEAR THE VILLAGE OF CARLOFORTE. WE'RE NOT HERE TO CATCH TUNA, BUT TO TAG AND RELEASE THEM. THE TAGS ARE SATELLITE TRANSMITTERS THAT WILL DROP OFF IN A FEW WEEKS AND SIGNAL THEIR POSITIONS. THE QUESTION IS THE SAME AS WITH THE WHALES: ARE THE TUNA MEDITERRANEAN FISH, OR ATLANTIC FISH, OR BOTH? IT'S PRETTY ROUGH ABOVE, BUT TRANQUIL BELOW. THERE ARE ENOUGH FISH IN THE NET FOR A FEW TAGS. IN TWO YEARS SO FAR, TEN TAGS HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY TRACKED. THEY SEEM TO SHOW THAT THERE ARE DISTINCT GROUPS OF MEDITERRANEAN AND ATLANTIC TUNA. WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THESE POPULATIONS SOON TO WORK OUT HOW TO REGULATE THE CATCH BEFORE RELENTLESS FISHING PRESSURE OVERTAKES THE SPECIES.

				Shell Game Evolutionary biologist Gary Vermeij, blind since childhood, uses his highly developed sense of touch to understand how change comes to marine shells.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: ( barking ) IT'S A FAVORITE SPOT, TOO, FOR BIOLOGIST GARY VERMEIJ WHEN HE'S OUT SEARCHING FOR INSIGHTS INTO ONE OF NATURE'S LONGEST-RUNNING ARMS RACES. GARY SEARCHES, OR AS HE PUTS IT, "SEES" WITH HIS HANDS AND FINGERS. LOOK AT THIS, THIS IS A... PISASTER? OH, WOW, THAT IS A BIG PISASTER. AND HE IS ACTUALLY... WELL, HE'S VERY TIGHTLY ATTACHED. Alda: BLIND SINCE THE AGE OF THREE IT'S THROUGH TOUCH THAT HE SEES THINGS MOST OF US WITH SIGHT WOULD MISS. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? AHA! WHAT HAVE YOU GOT THERE? LOOKS LIKE A TEGULA! YES, INDEED. ABSOLUTELY, HE HAD A TEGULA-- TEGULA FUNEBRALIS-- A SNAIL. AND HE HAD THIS SNAIL SITTING RIGHT LIKE THIS AND HIS MOUTH WAS OVER THE OPENING OF THE SNAIL AND HE WAS CLEARLY DIGESTING IT. WHAT THEY DO IS THEY HAVE THIS STOMACH THAT THEY CAN EXTRUDE THROUGH THE OPENING OF THE SHELL INTO THE... BASICALLY INTO THE SNAIL AND DIGEST IT EXTERNALLY. IT'S KIND OF A SLOW, MISERABLE WAY TO GO BUT THAT'S WHAT THEY DO. ALL RIGHT, NOW, YOU JUST DO YOUR THING HERE-- FIND ANOTHER TEGULA. Alda: IT WAS NO CONTEST BETWEEN THE STARFISH AND THE SNAIL BUT GARY IS FASCINATED BY HOW MOLLUSKS LIKE THE SNAIL HAVE EVOLVED DEFENSES AGAINST THEIR PREDATORS' WEAPONS LEADING HIM OCCASIONALLY TO CONFRONT THOSE WEAPONS HIMSELF. Assistant: YOU KNOW, THEY HAVE SOME PRETTY GOOD-SIZED CLAWS. I'VE GOT A HOLD OF ITS CLAW NOW. CAREFUL, YOU'RE READY? HE'S REALLY STRUGGLING AGAINST ME, TOO. YES, I'M AFRAID OF GETTING BITTEN OR SOMETHING BUT IT DOESN'T HAPPEN VERY OFTEN. IN ANY CASE, I THINK IT'S WORTH THE EFFORT BECAUSE YOU'LL ALWAYS FIND SOMETHING INTERESTING. Alda: TO GARY, NO SHELL IS WITHOUT INTEREST EVEN ONE THAT'S BEEN ALMOST ENTIRELY DEMOLISHED. OH, A COLISALO ASIMILIS TEGULA. THIS IS A LETHALLY BROKEN TEGULA FUNEBRALIS. I DON'T KNOW WHO KILLED IT OR WHAT KILLED IT-- COULD HAVE BEEN A CRAB-- AND IT'S BEEN PRETTY BADLY MASHED. DEFINITELY A FATAL WOUND. Alda: BUT IT'S SHELLS THAT HAVE SURVIVED THE ATTACKS OF THEIR PREDATORS THAT GARY FINDS MOST INTRIGUING BECAUSE IN THEIR SCARS HE SEES THEIR LIFE STORIES. Vermeij: I IMAGINE A CRAB OR SOMETHING GOT AT THIS SHELL BROKE THE LIP BACK ABOUT 90 DEGREES. THE ANIMAL SURVIVED AND REPAIRED THE DAMAGE AND IS NOW BACK TO NORMAL. BUT THIS ANIMAL HAD A RATHER EVENTFUL LIFE. Alda: THE DAILY SKIRMISHES ALONG THE SEASHORE THAT GARY READS IN THE SHELLS HE FINDS ARE THE LATEST IN A CONFRONTATION THAT'S LASTED HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF YEARS. BACK IN HIS OFFICE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IN DAVIS GARY USES HIS BRAILLE TYPEWRITER TO CATALOGUE THE THOUSANDS OF SHELLS HE'S COLLECTED IN FIELD TRIPS AROUND THE WORLD. HE KEEPS ABREAST OF WHAT'S HAPPENING IN EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY WITH BRAILLE TRANSCRIPTIONS INCLUDING THE FIELD'S LEADING JOURNAL OF WHICH HE IS THE EDITOR. GARY VERMEIJ HAS NEVER LET HIS BLINDNESS STAND IN HIS WAY. YOU MUST HAVE HAD A VERY STRONG UPBRINGING. I HAD AN EXCEEDINGLY STRONG UPBRINGING. MY PARENTS WERE... WHAT I CONSIDER TO BE QUINTESSENTIALLY LEVEL-HEADED DUTCHMEN WHO WOULDN'T... THEY NEVER HEARD OF FAILURE. THEY NEVER HEARD OF GIVING UP. Alda: ON OUR WAY TO HIS OFFICE, WE STOPPED AT A SCULPTURE GARDEN. ACTUALLY THIS ONE LOOKS A LITTLE LIKE A CRAB CLAW. BUT... BUT THE CLAWS ARE UP HIGH HERE. THAT PART IS NICE AND SMOOTH BUT DID YOU FEEL THIS? THIS IS UGLY, IT'S ROUGH. YEAH, YOU SEE, I DON'T, I DON'T FOCUS ON THAT BECAUSE I'M LOOKING AT THE WHOLE SHAPE. PEOPLE LOOK AT THIS AND DON'T FEEL IT. IF THEY HAD TO FEEL IT, THEY'D SAY "UGH, IT'S JUST A ROCK. " YEAH, SEE WHEN I... NOW IT'S NICE AND WARM BECAUSE IT'S IN THE HOT SUN. THAT'S SOMETHING YOU GET THAT YOU DON'T GET IF YOU'RE JUST LOOKING AT IT. YOU GET CHANGES IN TEMPERATURE IN THE VARIOUS SIDES OF THIS. THE IDEA THAT YOU MAY SEE THINGS THAT WE DON'T LIKE THIS TEXTURE AND THE TEMPERATURE-- THINGS THAT I WOULD NEVER HAVE THOUGHT OF AS PART OF THE ENJOYMENT OF A SCULPTURE-- IS VERY INTERESTING BECAUSE, DO YOU SUPPOSE YOU SEE THINGS THEREFORE IN SHELLS THAT OTHER PEOPLE DON'T SEE? I'M NOT SURE I SEE THINGS THAT OTHERS DON'T SEE. I MAY EMPHASIZE SOME THINGS MORE THAN OTHER PEOPLE WOULD BUT I THINK I ESSENTIALLY SEE THE SAME THINGS. Alda: WE BEGAN OUR TOUR OF GARY'S LAB WITH A DEMONSTRATION OF WHAT SHELLS ARE UP AGAINST. HOW STRONG ARE THOSE CLAWS? OH, I'LL SHOW YOU HERE. Alda: THIS IS ED PEARSON, ONE OF GARY'S GRADUATE STUDENTS. HERE, JUST GRAB ONTO MY PENCIL HERE... AND JUST GIVE IT A LITTLE SHAKE. SHE'S REALLY CLAMPING DOWN. I CAN SEE HOW SHE CAN BREAK A SHELL WITH THAT STRENGTH. I'VE RUINED A FEW PENCILS THIS WAY, TOO. ( laughter ) Alda: THE CRAB'S CLAWS MADE SHORT WORK OF THE SNAIL ED GAVE IT. BUT THEN I GOT TO SERVE UP A DIFFERENT TIDBIT. YOO-HOO-- LUNCH. Alda: IT WAS POTENTIALLY AS TASTY, BUT IN A TRICKIER PACKAGE. AND THIS TIME, DESPITE SEVERAL MINUTES OF PROBING FOR A WEAK SPOT THE CRAB GAVE UP AND THE SHELL SURVIVED UNSCATHED. Alda: THAT'S A PTERADACTYL. Alda: GARY'S PASSION IS TO LEARN HOW THESE SURVIVORS EVOLVED. DO YOUR SHELLS GO BACK THAT FAR? A COUPLE OF THEM. MOST OF THE ONES I WORK ON ARE SINCE THE AGE OF THE DINOSAURS. LET ME SHOW YOU A... VOLEMA THAT HAS A TRULY HORRID SCAR ON IT. LET'S SEE IF I CAN FIND IT HERE... Alda: HIS FAVORITE FOSSILS ARE SURVIVORS WHO LIVED TO REPAIR THEIR BATTLE WOUNDS. YES, THIS IS A REALLY DREADFUL... IT'S GOT, IT HAS SUSTAINED THIS ATTACK RIGHT HERE WHICH ISN'T SO BAD AND BACK HERE, WHEN IT WAS MUCH YOUNGER. LOOK AT THIS, THIS IS TERRIBLE. OH, YEAH, BIG, UH, CRACK, LIKE. NOW, THIS IS ALL SCARRED. IT'S NOT A PRETTY SHELL YET THIS IS VALUABLE TO YOU AND YOUR WORK MUCH MORE THAN A PRETTY SHELL? YES, WELL, IT TELLS YOU A LOT. THIS IS AN ANIMAL THAT RECORDS-- THAT CHRONICLES ITS OWN HISTORY VERY NICELY. Alda: THE HISTORY GARY SEES CHRONICLED IN HIS FOSSIL SHELLS IS OF REPAIRED DAMAGE BECOMING MORE FREQUENT OVER EVOLUTIONARY TIME SUGGESTING MORE SHELLS ARE SURVIVING THE ATTACKS OF THEIR PREDATORS AS THEIR ARMOR BECOMES MORE SOPHISTICATED. MEANWHILE, OF COURSE THEIR PREDATORS WERE EVOLVING EVER MORE FEARSOME SHELLING CRUSHING WEAPONS OF THEIR OWN. THIS HAPPENS TO BE A BOXFUL OF ONE SET OF STOMACH CONTENTS OF A FISH. HOW DID THIS GET BROKEN? DID THE FISH CHEW ON IT? YEAH, THE FISH HAS A JAW... THIS IS IT, AND OF COURSE THESE ARE UPPER AND LOWER AND THEY CRUSH. SO THEY CRUSH IT BETWEEN THOSE TWO ROUGH PLATES. AND IT GOES... Both: CRUNCH. Alda: BUT SOME SHELLS CAME UP WITH AN INGENIOUS SOLUTION. IF IT HAS LONG SPINES... IT MAKES THE SHELL LARGER. NOW, THIS IS A TRULY UNUSUAL EXAMPLE. THAT'S PRETTY SPINY. YEAH, IT'S PRETTY SPINY. WELL, THESE SPINES ACTUALLY MAKE THE SHELL BIGGER THAN IT REALLY IS AND SO IT'S HARDER TO PUT INTO THE JAWS. OH, IT'S NOT JUST THE SPINE... I THOUGHT THE SPINE WOULD ACT LIKE A KIND OF SPEAR OR A PIKE OR SOMETHING. NO, IT MAKES IT BIGGER. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO GROW BIG IT JUST PUTS OUT SPINES. THAT'S RIGHT, THAT'S RIGHT. Alda: SPINES AREN'T THE ONLY DEFENSE MOLLUSKS HAVE EVOLVED. OTHERS GREW LONGER GIVING THE SOFT ANIMAL INSIDE ROOM FOR RETREAT. SOME SHELLS EVOLVED BUTTRESSING TO STRENGTHEN THE VULNERABLE OPENING WHILE OTHERS CLOSED TIGHTLY... OR LIKE THIS COWRIE HAVE A SMALL OPENING IN A SLIPPERY SURFACE. ALL THESE ADAPTATIONS ARE IN RESPONSE TO PREDATORS THAT HAVE ALSO BEEN EVOLVING. Vermeij: SO FOR ANIMALS WITH SKELETONS LIKE MOLLUSKS THE WORLD HAS CHANGED A LOT. YOU HAVE TO MEET HIGHER STANDARDS THAN ONE MIGHT HAVE HAD TO MEET HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO. YOU'RE NOT NECESSARILY BETTER OFF TODAY BUT IT'S KIND OF LIKE HUMAN BEINGS-- WE HAVE TO PUT UP WITH HEAVIER WEAPONRY WITH GUNS WHEREAS, YOU KNOW, IN THE 1200s, OR WHATEVER WE ONLY HAD TO PUT UP WITH ARROWS. THESE CAUGHT MY EYE, THESE ARE INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL. OH, YES, WONDERFUL FOSSILS. THIS INCREDIBLE BEAUTY WAS DEVELOPED THROUGH AN ARMS RACE APPARENTLY-- THROUGH CONFLICT. FOR EVERY ORGANISM THAT LIVES AN AWFUL LOT HAVE DIED AND AN AWFUL LOT HAVE SUFFERED. YEAH, I THINK ABOUT THE SO-CALLED BALANCE OF NATURE IN A DIFFERENT WAY NOW THAT YOU SAY THAT BECAUSE IT... I GUESS NATURE LOOKS LIKE IT'S IN BALANCE AND EVERYTHING SEEMS COMFORTABLE UNLESS YOU HAPPEN TO BE ONE OF THE THINGS GETTING PUSHED OFF THE SCALE TO BRING IT INTO BALANCE. THAT'S RIGHT. WE HAVE TO REMEMBER THAT THE WORLD WE'RE LOOKING AT IS FOR THE MOST PART A WORLD OF SURVIVORS AND OF THE SUCCESSFUL. AND FROM THAT KIND OF SURVIVING OF CONFLICT YOU GET THESE BEAUTIFUL SHELLS. YES. Alda: ONE OF MY MOST MEMORABLE ENCOUNTERS WITH A CREATURE OF THE DEEP CAME LAST YEAR AT A FISH MARKET ON THE BAY OF NAPLES IN ITALY. CAN YOU EAT OCTOPUS? Alda:

				Tuna in the Tank Alan visits the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the only facility in the world to house and exhibit pelagic fish like tuna and sunfish.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: THIS IS THE WORLD'S LARGEST WINDOW INTO LIFE IN THE OPEN OCEAN-- THE 13-INCH-THICK, 54-FEET-LONG ACRYLIC WINDOW OF THE NEW OUTER BAY EXHIBIT AT CALIFORNIA'S MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM. INSIDE THE MILLION-GALLON TANK ARE YELLOWTAIL AND SKIPJACK TUNA-- FISH RARELY KEPT SUCCESSFULLY IN CAPTIVITY-- ALONG WITH OTHER OCEANGOING SPECIES LIKE THE EERIE OCEAN SUNFISH, OR MOLA. BUT FOR FISH USED TO THE WIDE-OPEN OCEAN EVEN A GIANT TANK ISN'T ENOUGH TO GUARANTEE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS-- AS THE AQUARIUM STAFF SOON DISCOVERED WHEN IT CAME TO FEEDING THEIR TUNA. Alda: WHY DO YOU FEED THEM SQUID? IS THIS WHAT THEY EAT IN THE WILD? NO, NOT NECESSARILY. BUT WHAT HAPPENED WAS WHEN WE FED WHAT THEY FED IN THE WILD AND WE FED THEM EVERY DAY, THEY GOT TOO FAT. HOW DID YOU KNOW THEY WERE FAT? BECAUSE THEIR BELTS NEEDED TO BE OPENED A NOTCH? YEAH, KIND OF LIKE US, YOU KNOW. THEY HAD TO SWITCH THEIR BELTS. CAN YOU TELL BY LOOKING AT A FISH THAT IT'S FAT? NO, THEY WOULD ACTUALLY DIE BECAUSE THEY WERE FAT. AND WHEN WE NECROPSIED THEM, WHEN WE OPENED THEM UP WE'D GET IN THERE AND OPEN UP AND IN THE WHITE MUSCLE ITSELF THERE WAS ACTUALLY, AFTER ABOUT FIVE MINUTES THERE WAS POOLS OF FAT, FLUID FAT. AND SO THEY WERE LITERALLY JUST GETTING OVERFED ON FAT. AND THIS IS FROM BEING FED WHAT THEY NORMALLY EAT IN THE WILD. SO WHAT, DON'T THEY GET ENOUGH EXERCISE IN THE TANK? NOT AS MUCH, YOU KNOW. AND BESIDES, THEY DON'T HAVE TO... A TUNA, REMEMBER, IN THE WILD GOES FROM LONG DISTANCES BETWEEN FOOD AND SO ALL OF A SUDDEN NOW THEY'RE GOING TO GO... INSTEAD OF HAVING TO WORK FOR THEIR FOOD AND SWIM ALL AROUND THEY'RE BEING FED, EVERY OTHER DAY. Alda: AND AS I WAS ABOUT TO DISCOVER IT'S NOT JUST WHEN AND WHAT YOU FEED THE TUNA, BUT ALSO HOW. SO WHAT'S THE IDEA? HOW DO WE DO THIS? SO THE IDEA IS, WE'RE GOING TO TAKE THE FOOD-- WE DON'T WANT IT IN A CONCENTRATED POINT WHEN WE THROW IT IN THE WATER; OTHERWISE THE TUNA WILL ALL COLLIDE. SO WE WANT TO LAY A NICE STRIP DOWN THIS WAY, ACROSS THE FRONT THIS WAY AND JUST KEEP IT GOING. KEEP IT AWAY FROM THE WINDOW BECAUSE THE TUNA WILL ACTUALLY HEAD THAT WAY AT ABOUT 40 MILES AN HOUR SOMETIMES... Alda: AND THEY'LL BANG THEIR NOSE ON THE GLASS. OH, I GOT IT ALL OVER MY FACE! I GOT SQUID JUICE ON MY FACE. Alda: DURING THE TUNAS' FEEDING FRENZY THE LONE MOLA IN THE TANK SEEMED TO JUST HANG AROUND, WAITING. WHAT HE WAS WAITING FOR WAS... Alda: WHAT'S THIS? THIS IS A TARGET THAT WE'VE DEVELOPED HERE BECAUSE THE TUNA SWIM AROUND SO QUICKLY AND YOU SAW DURING THE FEEDING THAT THERE'S NO WAY THE MOLA'S GOING TO GET ENOUGH TO EAT. IF I THREW FOOD IN RIGHT NOW THE MOLA WOULDN'T EVEN KNOW THE FOOD WAS IN THE WATER BEFORE THE TUNA GULPED IT UP. SO HE SEES YOU ACT LIKE THE TOOTH FAIRY HERE. RIGHT. DO YOU SEE HIM OUT THERE? YES, I CAN SEE HIM RIGHT THERE. OH, YEAH, YEAH. HERE HE COMES. Alda: IN THE OPEN OCEAN, MOLA CAN GROW UP TO TEN FEET LONG. THIS ONE IS JUST A BABY, AND EATS LIKE ONE, TOO. THAT'S A VERY STRANGE EXPERIENCE. ( laughing ) HE REALLY JUST SUCKS IT RIGHT OUT OF YOUR HAND. YEAH, HE'S A GREAT... GREAT ANIMAL, GREAT ANIMAL. LOOK, HE'S GETTING HIS PICTURE TAKEN BY THE OTHER CAMERA. HE REALLY IS INTO THAT. WHAT IS... HE... ? HE'S PROBABLY FAIRLY ANGRY. DID YOU SEE THE BUBBLES COME OUT OF HIS MOUTH? YEAH. HE WAS SPITTING AT THE CAMERA. REALLY. ISN'T HE USED TO CAMERAS IN THERE? NO, HE'S NOT USED TO CAMERAS. I BELIEVE THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT THIS ONE'S BEEN FILMED UNDERWATER. Alda: IT'S NOT ONLY UNDERWATER CAMERAS THAT CAN UPSET A MOLA-- SO TOO CAN ANOTHER MOLA. Alda: HE'S GOT A CHIN LIKE A GUY WHO NEEDS A SHAVE-- A LITTLE STUBBLE. Alda: IN THE FIRST DAYS OF THE TANK THERE WERE SEVERAL MOLAS HERE-- AND THEY SPENT MOST OF THEIR TIME BUMPING THEIR FACES AGAINST THE WALLS. IT SEEMS THEY COULDN'T STAND THE SIGHT OF EACH OTHER. Alda: BUMPING INTO THE WALLS-- THAT'S A SIGN OF... WHAT? A SIGN OF STRESS, PROBABLY FRUSTRATION THAT THEY COULDN'T GET AWAY FROM ONE OF THEIR OTHERS. IT WASN'T ENOUGH THAT THEY GOT AT OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE TANK; THEY ACTUALLY TRIED TO GET OUT OF THE TANK TO GET AWAY FROM EACH OTHER? EVEN THOUGH THIS SEEMS LIKE A VERY LARGE TANK AT A MILLION GALLONS, IT'S VERY SMALL COMPARED TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN ITSELF. Alda: THE CURE FOR THE MOLAS' MISERY TURNED OUT TO BE SIMPLE: THE UNHAPPY ONES WERE RELEASED. THIS ONE ARRIVED ALONE, AND SHOWED NO SIGNS OF WALL-BUMPING. SO HE'S REMAINED ALONE EVER SINCE-- APPARENTLY HAPPY TO BE THE ONLY MOLA IN HIS MILLION-GALLON WORLD. BUT IT'S THE TUNA HERE THAT ARE THE GIANT TANK'S MAIN ATTRACTION AND LEARNING HOW TO KEEP TUNA HAPPY AND HEALTHY IN CAPTIVITY HAS ALREADY HAD A MAJOR SPIN-OFF, ONE THAT MAY HELP SAVE ONE OF THE OCEAN'S MOST ENDANGERED SPECIES. ON THE BEACH OUTSIDE THE AQUARIUM I'M TALKING WITH TUNA EXPERT HEIDI DEWAR ABOUT THE WORLD'S MOST VALUABLE FISH, THE GIANT BLUEFIN TUNA HIGHLY PRIZED IN JAPAN FOR SUSHI AND SASHIMI. Dewar: RECENTLY I HEARD THAT ONE FISH-- I DON'T KNOW HOW BIG IT WAS-- BUT ONE INDIVIDUAL FISH WENT FOR $90,000. THERE ARE TWO SEPARATE STOCKS-- ONE IN THE EAST AND ONE IN THE WEST... Alda: NEXT DOOR TO THE AQUARIUM IS THE TUNA RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION CENTER. INSIDE ARE TANKS WHERE YELLOWTAIL TUNA ARE PLAYING A KEY ROLE IN HELPING UNDERSTAND, AND PERHAPS ULTIMATELY SAVE THEIR BLUEFIN COUSINS. Man: OKAY, HE'S GOING TO COME BACK IN THIS CORNER. THIS IS HIM RIGHT HERE? Alda: WE'RE TRYING TO CORRAL A YELLOWTAIL TUNA THAT HAS A TRACKING TAG IMPLANTED IN ITS BELLY. CATCHING AND HANDLING LIVE TUNA WITHOUT HARMING THEM TAKES A LOT OF PRACTICE. Woman: SO IF YOU GUYS CAN BRING THE SLING IN... Alda: A TUNA'S SKIN IS VERY DELICATE, SO IT HAS TO BE GENTLY GUIDED INTO THIS SORT OF UNDERWATER STRETCHER. IT ALSO TAKES PRACTICE TO DO THE SURGERY NECESSARY TO QUICKLY AND SAFELY IMPLANT THE TAGS. THIS FISH IS HAVING SOME STITCHES REMOVED. THE RESEARCHERS' ABILITY TO PERFECT THEIR SKILLS ON THESE CAPTIVE YELLOWTAIL TUNA WAS CRITICAL TO CARRYING OUT AN AMBITIOUS PROJECT TO TAG BLUEFIN TUNA IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN LAST WINTER. IN A PROJECT CALLED "TAG A GIANT" SPORTS FISHERMEN JOINED THE TUNA RESEARCHERS IN CATCHING BLUEFINS OFF CAPE HATTERAS. BLUEFIN FISHING IS REGULATED BY AN INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION THAT SETS SEASONS AND QUOTAS; BUT THE FACT IS, THESE RULES ARE BASED ONLY ON A VAGUE UNDERSTANDING OF HOW MANY BLUEFIN TUNA STILL LIVE IN THE ATLANTIC, AND HOW FAR THE FISH CAN TRAVEL. THE TAGS HEIDI AND HER COLLEAGUES IMPLANTED RECORD AMONG OTHER MEASUREMENTS, WHERE THE TUNA GO AND HOW DEEP THEY SWIM. WE PUT OUT 160 TAGS OFF OF CAPE HATTERAS AND WE'LL BE HAPPY IF WE GET SEVEN TO TEN OF THOSE BACK. AND THE ONLY WAY YOU'LL GET THEM BACK IS IF THE FISH IS CAUGHT BY A FISHING COMPANY? EXACTLY... THE FISH THAT HAVE THESE INSIDE HAVE THESE GREEN EXTERNAL TAGS ON THE OUTSIDE WHICH, GREEN FOR MONEY. SO IF A FISHERMAN SEES THOSE THEN THEY KNOW THAT THIS TAG IS INSIDE AND THEY'LL GET A THOUSAND-DOLLAR REWARD WHICH IS PRETTY... USUALLY THEY GET A HAT. THAT'S KIND OF A GAMBLE. IT'S A SCIENTIFIC GAMBLE YOU'RE TAKING. IT IS. AND THE REASON THAT WE'RE... THE NEXT STEP IS TO ACTUALLY MARRY THIS DATA-STORAGE TECHNOLOGY WITH SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY NOW, WHAT'S THIS? THIS IS A DIFFERENT KIND OF...? THIS IS A POP-UP SATELLITE TAG, ACTUALLY AND WE PUT 37 OF THESE OUT ON BLUEFIN TUNA AT CAPE HATTERAS. AND WHAT THIS WILL DO IS, WE CAN ATTACH IT TO THE FISH EXTERNALLY AGAIN USING TECHNIQUES THAT WE TEST HERE FIRST TO MAKE SURE IT'S NOT GOING TO IMPACT THE FISH AND THEN AT A PREDETERMINED TIME WHEN WE PROGRAM IT TO COME OFF THIS PIECE OF 3/16 STAINLESS ON THE END WILL CORRODE AWAY AND THE TAG WILL COME TO THE SURFACE AND TALK TO... IT JUST FLOATS UP... AND WHAT DOES IT TALK TO? IT TALKS TO THE NOAA WEATHER SATELLITES AND SAYS, "HERE I AM. " Alda: 35 OF THE 37 POP-UP TAGS DID AS THEY WERE MEANT TO-- EACH SIGNALING TO THE SATELLITES WHERE ITS TUNA WAS WHEN THE TAG DETACHED. AND SO FAR, TWO OF THE IMPLANTED TAGS HAVE BEEN RECOVERED FROM BLUEFIN TUNA CAUGHT OFF NEW ENGLAND. THE HOPE IS THAT WHEN AND IF MORE TAGS ARE RETURNED-- PERHAPS FROM AS FAR AWAY AS THE MEDITERRANEAN-- THEIR INFORMATION MIGHT HELP FORMULATE MORE SCIENTIFICALLY BASED BLUEFIN TUNA FISHING QUOTAS. MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM THE TUNA IN THE OUTER BAY EXHIBIT LOUNGE IN LUXURY ON THEIR LOW-FAT DIET, UNWITTING PARTICIPANTS IN AN AMBITIOUS ATTEMPT TO PROTECT THEIR ENDANGERED RELATIVES WHO ARE STILL AT LARGE. Alda: NO ANIMAL MORE SYMBOLIZES THE PLIGHT OF THE WORLD'S ENDANGERED SPECIES THAN THE GIANT PANDA.