Original subtitles

ROBERT BALLARD: I've dedicated my life to exploring the unknown.

I've been places no one else has ever gone.

I've seen life no human eye has ever seen.

It's my passion.

I found the Titanic.

God damn!

I've survived crushing depths

and a rogue wave.

But even after 50 years at sea,

I'm as fascinated with the deep as I was on my very first expedition.

You want to know my most important discovery?

Well, it's the one I'm about to make.

I'm Dr. Robert Ballard.

Come with me into the alien deep.

Terrain coming in.

[radio chatter]

NARRATOR: Deep beneath the Pacific Ocean...

BALLARD: Yeah, you got terrain 40 meters on either side.

NARRATOR: Dr. Robert Ballard is venturing into a world

few people get to see...

BALLARD: We're out in la-la land.

NARRATOR: ...to an active, undersea volcano,

where new land and ocean are being born.

BALLARD: People want me to tell you, "Well, what are you gonna find?"

Whatever.

"Well, that's just not good enough."

What do you mean that's not good enough?

"Look, you don't know what you're gonna find?"

If 1 did, I wouldn't be going!

NARRATOR: What Ballard does know is that he's about to enter

one of the most lethal places on Earth.

BALLARD: If I have a problem in my submarine and if it fails,

it goes off like a bomb.

NARRATOR: It's not just sub failures Ballard has to worry about.

His quest will take him down into the crushing abyss,

to the explosive volcanic source of Hawaii's next island.

The volcano Ballard is seeking lies deep in the Pacific.

But he begins his journey far above,

on the shoulders of its older sister.

BALLARD: Wow!

Here we are...

on top of the world!

This is it.

You're standing on the tallest mountain on Earth.

It's not Mt. Everest.

It's Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii.

NARRATOR: Mauna Kea rose up out of the ocean

to form the highest peak on Hawaii's Big Island.

It stands 4,000 feet taller than Everest.

Loihi, the new volcano

that will one day form the next Hawaiian island,

lies at its feet.

BALLARD: The base of the mountain is down there,

over 19,000 feet beneath the sea,

rising up above sea level to where I am standing right now,

another 14,000 feet,

for a total distance of 33,000 feet.

And our journey begins here and it ends there.

What I'm standing on is a huge active volcano.

But its base is deep beneath the sea,

so that's where I want to go.

NARRATOR: As Ballard explores the summit,

his dive team on Oahu is preparing

for the dangerous, underwater part of the mission.

The Hawaii Undersea Research Lab has two of only a handful

of deep diving submersibles in the world.

The subs were built in the '70s, during the Cold War.

But they've recently been refitted

and equipped to film in HD.

Usually, the subs dive solo,

so one is always available to assist in an emergency.

This time, both will be in the water together.

If something goes wrong,

the nearest rescue vehicles would never get to them in time.

BALLARD: We're pretty much going to outer space.

And in a way, it's more dangerous than outer space.

If you get a leak in a space suit,

you can always take a piece of tape and seal it.

But a leak in a submarine under the great pressures of the abyss

is a whole different ball game.

Any of the housings protecting our cameras or lights fail,

they go off like a bomb,

causing an instant implosion that sends off a shock wave,

damaging everything around it.

MAN ON RADIO: Pisces 5, Pisces 4 coming out now.

NARRATOR: Even a pinprick leak would be a disaster.

TERRY KERBY: So, every time we do a dive,

every system is being tested by this tremendous pressure

that's trying to get into any little weak spot on the subs.

NARRATOR: The sub is a framework of components,

flotation and fiberglass panels-

all bolted to a seven-foot steel sphere.

The steel is an inch thick,

but pierced by 28 holes for cables.

If any one of them fail, they'd create a 3,000-pound-per-square-inch water jet.

Water at that pressure is so destructive,

it's used to slice through metal.

At depth, it would carve a sub to pieces.

MAN ON RADIO: Surface, tracking, range 300 meters.

KERBY: Tracking, surface, roger. 300 meters.

MAN ON RADIO: Pisces 5, tracking, sounding 402 meters.

BALLARD: Each year after their annual overhaul,

the subs must be recertified.

The pilots take them down on their first dive of the season.

As far as I'm concerned,

it's the most dangerous dive of the year.

MAN ON RADIO: Off the lift line, on tow.

KERBY: Roger, off the lift, on tow.

MAN ON RADIO: Swimmers away, clear to dive.

KERBY: Roger, off tow, swimmers away,

clear to dive, we're diving now.

NARRATOR: This year, the subs' first dive has three goals-

pressure-test the hulls to 1,000 feet...

...assess the sonar navigation systems

by relocating the wreck

of a World War I Japanese midget sub...

...and practice the delicate maneuvering

and communications required on a two-sub dive.

MAN ON RADIO: Clear to dive.

KERBY: Roger, stand, off tow, swimmers away,

clear to dive, Pisces 5 is standing by.

NARRATOR: This midget sub led the Japanese attack

on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

The two-man vessel was sunk by a single gunshot

from the USS Ward,

an hour before the main air attack began.

The strike by the Ward was only confirmed in 2002,

when this same Pisces team discovered the wreck.

The shell hole can still be seen just below the conning tower.

This fatal shot was the first fired by an American

in the second World War...

A stark reminder of just how devastating

even the smallest puncture can be.

Still safely at the top of Mauna Kea,

Ballard won't be facing enemy fire on his dives.

But he will have other, more deadly dangers to contend with.

He's dropping into a cauldron of fire,

to witness the volcanic processes that shaped Hawaii.

BALLARD: We're standing on a hotspot.

Some people call them the thunderheads of the mantle.

They're storms inside the Earth,

and the plates, the great crustal plates of the planet

are moving over the top of those storms,

and they literally, like a welder's torch,

burn their way up through the plate and make an island.

NARRATOR: The hotspot created the Hawaiian Islands one by one

as the Earth's surface slowly rotated over it.

The activity is relentless.

BALLARD: Just as we arrived on the Big Island,

a crater to the south of Mauna Kea erupted.

At night, it lit up the entire sky.

But you know, the same thing's happening underwater,

but it's making a new island!

NARRATOR: That future island is Loihi.

It's just as active,

and that's where Ballard is heading.

He'll venture from the summit of Mauna Kea to the ocean,

meet his dive team,

then plunge into the flooded heart of a living volcano.

By starting his journey to the undersea crater of Loihi

at the top of Mauna Kea,

Dr. Robert Ballard gets a chance to witness

how volcanic islands evolve.

BALLARD: Well, of course, the first part's easy.

I'm driving down 14,000 feet to sea level,

but because I'm an oceanographer and a geologist,

I'm looking for signs of the ocean's presence.

But up here, well, there's virtually nothing.

It's like going to Mars.

Even the ocean can't terra-form this terrain.

There's nothing but rocks.

As we go down, though, we'll pick up more moisture,

the temperature will rise,

and you'll see a complete series of transitional habitats.

NARRATOR: As Ballard heads down the mountain,

his dive teams return to the surface

after their first successful test dive.

MAN ON RADIO: Pisces 4 chase boat, lift your basket.

MAN ON RADIO: Roger, basket coming up.

NARRATOR: Next, they'll transit over to the Big Island

for test dive number two-

a deeper dive on the underwater slopes of Mauna Kea herself.

MAN ON RADIO: Roger, Pisces 4 secure on deck.

BALLARD: So suddenly, we've arrived in Africal

I'm almost looking for a wildebeest.

Look at the grassland all around now.

Hawaii has a tremendous number of ecosystems

both above the ocean and below the ocean.

If you really want to see a maximum array of habitats,

this is the place to come.

It's almost like a mini planet.

And as we go further down the hill,

we are gonna pass into the clouds.

What really sets our planet apart-

72% of it is covered by the sea.

And that moist water is what feeds the diversity of life

on our planet.

Were it not for the ocean, we'd look like Mars.

NARRATOR: Far down the same mountain,

Bob's dive teams are about to explore

Mauna Kea's underwater landscape.

Their second test dive will be to coral beds at 2,000 feet.

Most life in Hawaii, above or below water,

flourishes near the ocean's surface.

Away from sea level, the terrain becomes more barren.

Yet even here in the near darkness,

there is life.

The subs move in on a garden of gold corals.

These are some of longest-living creatures on Earth-

many almost 5,000 years old.

The pressure here is 70 times that of land.

For the Pisces subs,

that's like having 70 more subs stacked on top of them.

Even a Navy nuclear attack sub would likely crumple at these depths.

But the hulls hold,

and the pilots can check off another important safety dive.

That'll be the last one

before they bring Ballard down to 3,000 feet,

and into the Loihi volcano.

Despite their immense power,

the geologist in Ballard loves volcanoes

and the primeval way they destroy and create.

BALLARD: In Hawaii, the roads come and they go.

Oh, it's beautiful over here.

The Hawaiian Islands were created by the movement

of the Pacific Plate over the hotspot.

İt popped out islands.

And the Hawaiian story,

their ancient story told the same story.

Pretty cool.

[man chanting in Hawaiian]

NARRATOR: The Hawaiian creation myth

is borne of fire, lightning, volcanoes, and ocean.

And it bonds the native Hawaiians to the sea.

Even their surfing has mythical underpinnings.

It's more than a sport

to people like surfer and traditional board shaper

Tom Pohaku Stone.

TOM POHAKU STONE: Everybody misses the true origins

and essence of surfing today.

Surfing was a really important part

of our cultural way of life.

The reason is because we stayed in tune with the ocean,

we developed ourselves physically and spiritually

to connect with the ocean.

[man chanting]

NARRATOR: The ancient Hawaiian rituals

also connected them with the land.

In his study of native Hawaiian history,

Tom discovered that his people actually rode the volcanoes-

bodysurfing over steep lava slides

carved into the mountains.

STONE: It's just another wave to ride.

We recreate that sense of molten lava flowing.

And we get on top of it and we ride it.

We're paying honor to Pele, our goddess of the volcanoes.

So we ride, you know, that lava to the ocean.

And we understand that the ocean is giving way

to the growth of the land.

We understood that islands were actually always being created

along this arc.

We're just on a canoe.

The land is nothing but a canoe, you know, that we ride.

NARRATOR: The next emerging canoe, Loihi,

is still bubbling and simmering under the waves.

For Ballard, that's a risky, but irresistible, opportunity,

to witness the volcanic birth of new land from deep ocean.

With all the testing complete,

Ballard's dive teams make their final transit

from the foot of Mauna Kea

to the submersible deployment point above Loihi.

MAN ON RADIO: Okay, there goes the monster cam.

MAN: Roger. Ready for sonar, too. Push all the way down and release...

NARRATOR: Loihi lies south of Mauna Kea

and is growing as we speak.

Ballard's eager to get down there.

To him, 3,000 feet of darkness,

bone-crushing pressure, and seismic uncertainty

are risks worth taking.

He's surprised how few others share his enthusiasm.

BALLARD: For me, the idea of getting down there

is just pure excitement.

But what baffles me is why we, as a race,

are so reluctant to explore our own planet.

You know, we've been taught that salvation lies in the heavens

and that when we die we're going to go to heaven,

and that down is evil, it's the devil.

And I think people are fundamentally afraid

of the deep ocean.

İt's dark, it's foreboding, it is an alien deep.

NARRATOR: Even those who aren't afraid

find it difficult to go down.

Some, like Hawaiian spearfisher Kimi Werner,

have learned to conquer the ocean for brief periods.

Kimi can hold her breath for almost five minutes

as she stalks her prey.

She can't use scuba because the bubbles scare away the fish.

Kimi lies still in the water,

fighting her body's impulse to breathe,

until the fish come within reach.

BALLARD: Well, this is really a modern version of hunter-gathering.

Their only technology is a mask, a snorkel,

fins, and a speargun.

They're hunting wild animals in the upper layers of the ocean.

Something that humans have been doing

ever since they could hold their breath and have a sharp stick.

Ah, we were successful.

We'll be eating tonight, huh?

KIMI WERNER: Not bad. Can you take my fish?

BALLARD: Yeah, I'll take these two.

WERNER: Thanks.

BALLARD: There we go.

NARRATOR: Scuba can get us further for longer.

But it, too, has its limitations.

We can get to depths of 250 feet and more

with special gas mixes and high-tech equipment.

But dive times get shorter the deeper you go...

...which is why most of Mauna Kea's underwater slopes

are still unexplored.

BALLARD: If we truly want to explore the oceans-

and I say we have to-

we need to approach it like the Hawaiians.

They're so totally connected to the sea.

STONE: People have so removed themselves

from our natural environment.

But as native peoples,

we're still very much connected to that natural environment.

We rely on the rhythms of the planet itself.

I mean, how can you disconnect?

There's no separation between heaven and Earth,

heaven and the seas, and land and the seas.

We're all one spirit connected.

It's amazing.

NARRATOR: The native people sailed to Hawaii at least 1,000 years ago.

They made an open ocean journey of 2,500 miles

from as far away as Tahiti.

In terms of human achievement,

that's a feat comparable to the moon landing.

The ancients were master navigators,

sailors who survived in the open ocean by reading the stars,

and constantly observing the changing patterns of wind,

sea creatures and weather.

STONE: We utilize the ocean to move us,

and we utilize that energy of the ocean to go places.

We always remember the highway of the sea.

We knew the motion of the water.

We knew the motion of the currents, everything.

Whether, you know, we're leaving the island,

going between the islands,

or we're gonna go thousands of miles away,

it didn't matter.

Because the ocean is all one and the same,

because we're part of it and we're one and the same.

[chanting]

NARRATOR: That incredible connection to the water

allowed the first people of Hawaii

to make mighty voyages across the ocean.

Ballard thinks we need the same perspective

as we descend into the depths.

And that descent is finally ready to happen.

With all the safety checks completed,

it's time to take the subs 3,000 feet down,

into the mouth of Loihi.

Ballard is about to make a rare and perilous voyage

into the heart of our unknown planet.

For Dr. Robert Ballard, the final descent begins

with a four-hour rock-and-roll boat ride.

He's heading to the expedition command center, the K-0-K.

More than a half mile beneath her bow

lurks the volcanic summit of Loihi.

Ballard's plan is to make the first ever two-sub dive,

right into Loihi's most active crater.

It's an area tormented by earthquakes,

landslides and eruptions.

At last, it's game time.

BALLARD: How's it going? Nice to see you.

MAX CREMER: Max Cremer.

BALLARD: Nice to see you. How are you?

KERBY: Ready to do some geology?

BALLARD: Yeah, I'm ready.

KERBY: Alright. Good.

BALLARD: You've done two-sub operations,

but not in this type?

KERBY: Right, we've done lots of dives

in the pit with a single sub,

and we've done lots of two-sub dives,

but we've never taken two subs into the pit

in this really tight, unstable terrain.

So it's gonna be a little challenging today.

BALLARD: Well, we'll keep our eyes on the sonar.

NARRATOR: The team's main target is Pele's Pit,

a 2,000-foot-wide crater on Loihi's peak.

It formed in 1996,

after the biggest swarm of earthquakes

ever recorded in Hawaii.

Loihi grows in fits and starts,

and was hit by over 100 earthquakes as recently as 2005.

Ballard hopes to scour the pit for vent sites-

areas where hot, nutrient-rich water

rises from magma-filled chambers.

A veteran of more than 100 dives,

Ballard knows all the risks.

Volcanic activity, sub failures, falling rocks-

he's lived through them all.

BALLARD: I remember we were sampling on a wall,

trying to pull a rock out.

And then we realized that it was the little rock holding the big rock!

NARRATOR: After the dive briefing,

it's straight to breakfast, but no liquids.

BALLARD: Each night, hours before I make a dive, I stop drinking.

I dehydrate my body

because I am going to be living inside a cold seven-foot sphere

that doesn't have a bathroom.

MAN ON RADIO: Diving range, 200 meters.

MAN ON RADIO: Copy, surface. Roger, range 200 meters.

BALLARD: There's always a level of risk

anytime a human being gets in a submersible and goes anywhere.

But then you add the added risk of two-vehicle operations-

that adds another level of risk,

then you go inside an active volcano

that's been collapsing-

another level of risk.

Where there's hot hydrothermal vents-

another level of risk.

MAN ON RADIO: Pisces 5 to surface, you are off tow, swimmers away.

MAN ON RADIO: Roger, coming up.

Release tow.

BALLARD: Here we go.

Now they're gonna let us go, and we're gonna flood our tanks.

NARRATOR: Ironically, the most unpleasant part of the dive

is the first few feet.

BALLARD: When you first get in, it's hot.

And this is where you're gonna rock and roll the most, so...

MAN ON RADIO: Pisces 4, tracking, you called?

BALLARD: You want to get through your pre-dive

and dive as fast as possible.

Off to the office.

KERBY: Well, if we're doing a drop on Loihi to about a mile,

it takes about an hour to get down,

a little over an hour.

And we have descent weights that weight the sub.

So we descend on our own weight.

BALLARD: You can't power down, you'd use up all your energy,

so you free fall.

CREMER: K-O-K, Pisces 4 is passing 100 meters, over.

MAN ON RADIO: Break, you're about 230 meters

west of the dive position.

Request you motor east for four minutes, over.

BALLARD: So you feel the hull, it's not cold yet.

CREMER: Roger, east, four minutes.

BALLARD: Then it'll start to sweat.

I can remember with Novice, it would sweat up by the hatch,

and they would think the hatch was leaking.

So now we enter the world of eternal darkness.

Now we enter the world where most of our planet is located.

İt's a place I've gotten to know.

NARRATOR: There's little to do but try to get comfortable

as the sub drifts down

into one of the most hostile places on planet Earth.

Over 3,000 feet down in the darkness of the abyss,

Dr. Robert Ballard finally sets eyes

on the barren outer flanks of Loihi.

BALLARD: The eagle has landed.

MAN: K-O-K, Pisces 4 is on the bottom.

Depth, 1, 1,4, 4...

NARRATOR: The slopes are covered in pillow lava,

which oozes out of the earth like toothpaste.

Outside, the pressure is 100 times that of land.

All systems seem to be functioning,

and the twin subs begin their coordinated maneuvers.

BALLARD: When you have two subs in the water at the same time,

it's critical to know where they are at all times.

Your visibility is limited,

and the last thing you want to have happen

is to run into one another.

KERBY: If we ever got out of view of each other,

and one sub is back and we couldn't see each other,

there is a danger that we could connect and become entangled,

or that one sub could damage the other one's thrusters

or some components.

NARRATOR: Once in formation,

the two subs creep up the slope toward the crater mouth.

Ridges provide a highway to the summit.

BALLARD: Is it dangerous?

Yes.

Anytime you dive in a deep submersible, it's dangerous,

particularly when two subs are working close to one another,

and even more so when they're working in tight quarters

inside an active volcano.

NARRATOR: There's a tight, 90-yard gap

through which the subs can drop into the crater.

But if they even brush the rubble-strewn sides,

they could start an avalanche.

KERBY: Just the thruster blast hitting can start a landslide.

And we've had that go where it just starts this landslide

and big silt clouds up,

and you hear it just going and going and going, like a river.

NARRATOR: Suddenly, Pisces 4 loses sonar contact with the walls.

BALLARD: Yeah, we've lost all terrain. So we're...

NARRATOR: Then, the two subs lose visual contact with each other.

KERBY: And the lead sub is trying to gauge the distance

from the walls, to try and shoot the gap between the gateway,

and the second sub loses contact,

then it would be really hard for us to re-establish contact.

BALLARD: Moments like this are always tense.

You can't see him, he can't see you.

You look at your sonar, and he's just a few feet away.

NARRATOR: And that's exactly what happens.

By sheer luck, Pisces 5 suddenly reappears.

BALLARD: And he's in front of us, so he's running the gauntlet.

He's running the gauntlet.

We're just following.

He's trailblazing.

He's doing all the work.

NARRATOR: Crisis averted,

the subs finally get a view of the crater's edge.

It's strewn with broken boulders-

evidence of recent violent eruptions.

BALLARD: Yeah, I look at this and I imagine what would it be like

if this volcano suddenly begins to erupt.

And it's happened before.

MAN: So, where we at now?

BALLARD: We're dropping in.

We're going over the edge of the crater.

We're dropping down.

[sonar beeping]

NARRATOR: Even with their sonar,

this is stumbling in the darkness.

The water is clear,

but their visibility is limited by the range of the lights.

Once the tight entrance is behind them,

the subs aim for the steep opposite wall,

where Ballard hopes to find the active hydrothermal vents.

BALLARD: Clear all around us.

We're out in la-la land now.

Sonar clean.

It's starting to get nippy.

NARRATOR: As the subs inch across the open crater,

there's just time to grab some food.

BALLARD: Even a squashed peanut butter and jelly sandwich

tastes good.

M&M's?

NARRATOR: But all too soon,

the opposite side of the crater looms, dead ahead.

BALLARD: There's a big wall, there it is.

Just came screaming in.

Whoa, you might want to back up!

We're inching along this vertical wall

looking for hot water coming out of the volcano.

And just under these lava flows is molten magma

that's 1,200 degrees centigrade.

NARRATOR: The subs are right up against the unstable rock.

[thump]

BALLARD: We're washing it, we're cleaning it.

We're writing our name.

NARRATOR: As the subs hug the contours of the wall,

a large overhanging rock blocks their path.

BALLARD: Looks like this is a big spire right in front of us.

NARRATOR: This is the kind of teetering rock

the crews have been worried about.

KERBY: I think my biggest fear in the pit

is having one of those large boulders roll over onto the sub

and pin the sub on the bottom,

and being stuck inside with this weight coming down

with no way that the second sub could do anything about it.

NARRATOR: The subs head up, away from the rock.

KERBY: Yeah, you can pull away a little bit from it

and then pivot to the right.

NARRATOR: Their new route takes them to a sharp cliff

of fragmented, frozen lava.

Ballard, ever the geologist, is impressed.

BALLARD: That's cool. That is pretty cool.

NARRATOR: Just above the wall, the landscape suddenly changes.

Ballard the hunter starts to sniff his prey.

MAN ON RADIO: Actually I'm just a little above you on your port side,

I'm gonna move around behind you, over.

BALLARD: I thought I saw shimmering water.

NARRATOR: The rocks are covered in orange bacteria.

And swirling plumes are a smoking gun.

BALLARD: You see that one right in front of you?

MAN: Yeah, I do see that one.

BALLARD: Yeah, that looks like shimmering water's coming out of there.

NARRATOR: Shimmering water means hot water.

Just under the crust, it's being heated by red-hot magma.

Ballard is witnessing both the birth of new land

and the volcano recharging the ocean from below

with vital, nutrient-rich water.

It's seawater that has seeped down through the ocean floor,

been superheated and infused with salts, minerals and metals

in the volcano's magma chamber,

then pumped back up through the vents.

BALLARD: You know, these hot vents are why the ocean has the chemistry it has.

Imagine, all the water in the world's ocean

goes inside the earth and out every 6 to 8 million years.

And I'm also convinced this is where life began on our planet.

And there's thousands of them in the ocean,

thousands and thousands of magma chambers,

so there's a lot of action going on.

And that sort of is the energy source for the game.

That's the game.

NARRATOR: The game is ultimately life.

Volcanoes create new land,

but they also provide the oceans with the chemicals

that all living things require.

And they've been doing it for millions of years.

Ballard has shone a light inside Loihi...

...revealing the hidden processes that keep our planet so vital.

But he still has one last unusual assignment

before the expedition can close out.

It's sunset on the K-O-K.

Subs are stowed, teams resting.

But their work is not quite done.

They're heading south to Loihi's deepest point.

Ballard's seen the volcano's geology.

He's now after the life that inhabits it.

But it's further down than even the Pisces subs can go.

BALLARD: Isn't it amazing?

People are flying around every day at 19,000 feet,

and only a handful of people

have ever been to that depth beneath the sea.

NARRATOR: Ballard can't get to the bottom of Loihi himself,

but he does have a probe that can-

a specially designed National Geographic DeepCam,

with two bright Sunspheres that can survive at any depth.

The DeepCam will be dropping into an utterly unseen world.

Dark...

freezing...

and as unfamiliar to humans as outer space.

BALLARD: Well, we're gonna see an eerie alien world.

Almost moonscape.

But, unlike the moon, it's alive.

NARRATOR: On the surface,

there's nothing to do but wait while the DeepCam dives.

Waiting is not something Ballard enjoys,

though he's gotten better at it during his many years at sea.

BALLARD: It's the only place I have patience.

I don't have it on land.

But here I know I can't arm-wrestie it to the ground.

MAN: Try to free that line from the mirrors if you can.

NARRATOR: When the probe finally returns,

it brings with it the first fantastic images

from this dark, mysterious world.

MAN: There we go, there's a number of...

NARRATOR: It takes a few hours

before the strange creatures of the deep

begin to sniff out the bait that's attached to the camera.

BALLARD: I've never seen that guy. That's cool.

NARRATOR: This is a cusk eel, a creature rarely seen on video.

Today is the first time one has been filmed seeking food.

Its eyes are of no use,

but it likely relies on its huge nostrils

to guide it to food that has fallen from the surface.

Joining it are two shrimp and a cutthroat eel,

the ultimate alien scavenger.

MAN: You can see this animal twisting about,

trying to rip off a chunk of the bait.

And when it does so,

of course, it kicks up all these little crustaceans called amphipods.

There's clouds of these things in the water.

BALLARD: Yeah, they were feeding on it.

MAN: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Then something large looms into view.

BALLARD: Here comes some good-sized bruiser.

Now, give me the dimension on that.

What's this?

NARRATOR: It's a shark, and a rare one.

Over eight feet long, it's known as a false catshark.

When it's not coming in for a free lunch,

it hovers near the bottom of the abyss,

feeding on eels and other fish.

İt's the top predator here,

in a huge world of thinly spread food resources.

BALLARD: I mean, these are the creatures that seldom get seen

because you don't have the time to sit and wait.

Total darkness is a constant.

Near freezing temperatures.

And you get the same habitat.

So this is probably the biggest habitat on the planet.

MAN: Right, it's a huge reservoir of life,

of biomass on the planet.

BALLARD: It definitely demonstrates you don't want to be buried at sea.

That's for sure.

What really intrigues me is that at the top of Mauna Kea

there's nothing but rocks.

And down here it also looks barren.

But even in this dark, alien world,

there's way more life.

NARRATOR: Ballard's epic journey to Loihi

has cast a tiny light on the fundamental relationship

between volcanoes and oceans

that makes life on Earth possible.

But it's still just a fleeting glimpse

into a vast, unknown habitat

that we have yet to truly explore.

BALLARD: This is the deep as we need to know it in the future.

We need to be as familiar with the Mauna Keas

that lie beneath the sea as we are with the Everests on land.

It's critically important that we understand the processes

going on inside the deep ocean

if we ever, ever hope to manage, conserve,

and at times, use its resources.

Everything that makes us human,

makes daily life possible on this planet,

is linked to the alien deep.

NARRATOR: For Ballard, this is the next frontier,

a magical, resource-rich world just waiting to be unveiled.